Activism Newsletter

Drone Warfare is Illegal, Immoral, and Creates New Enemies

2013-05-21T12:56:00.004-07:00

According to the Joint co-ordinator in the
Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases-Colne, Lancashire

_________________________________________________________________________________

Targeted Killings in the Drone War

– Illegal and Unconstitutional

by Ivan Eland, April 17, 2013

In response to the 9/11 attacks, the congressionally approved Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), stated,

That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

Thus, this resolution was intended to authorize U.S. attacks on al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban. At the very least, going after Islamist fighters primarily attacking the Pakistani government started getting the United States into murky constitutional ground.

In a republic, at that point, there should have been a debate about how wide the Bush administration’s “war on terror” should have reached. And the Bush administration probably would have won it; the 9/11-enraged American public probably would have imprudently yelled, “kill ‘em all, let God sort ‘em out.” Of course, it has hard to have that debate when the president reached a clandestine deal to start a secret war that skirted the required constitutional checks and balances, which attempt to restrain executive war-making power in the American constitutional system.

The Bush administration also covertly launched congressionally unauthorized and thus more clearly unconstitutional wars in Yemen, Somalia, and perhaps in other countries against Islamist groups that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. President Obama has expanded all of these targeted assassination wars without getting the required constitutional approval and has even begun to kill Americans in these places.

In addition to the critical constitutional erosion in expanding targeted killings outside al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban, practical ill effects abound. Going after other militant groups has further destabilized Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan, a country with nuclear weapons. Drone attacks are very unpopular in the targeted countries and have made the United States new enemies, who have attempted blowback terrorist attacks on American soil. The goal of U.S. foreign policy should be to make the republic safer, not to become an end in itself that increases the danger.
________________________________________________________________________________
• Between 2,562 and 3,325 people have been killed in Pakistan
from coalition drone attacks between
June 2004 and mid-September 2012
– between 474 and 881 were civilians, including 176+ children.

Current Science Indicates Fluoridation is dangerous. An incontestable fact.

2013-05-20T22:27:00.002-07:00

Fluoridation is UNDEFENDABLE IN OPEN PUBLIC DEBATE.
Here is the science.

The proponents of water fluoridation refuse to defend this practice in open debate because they know that they would lose that debate. A vast majority of the health officials around the US and in other countries who promote water fluoridation do so based upon someone else’s advice and not based upon a first hand familiarity with the scientific literature. This second hand information produces second rate confidence when they are challenged to defend their position. Their position has more to do with faith than it does with reason.

HEALTH EFFECTS DATABASE

FAN's comprehensive catalog of fluoride research, including detailed summaries and exhaustive references for over 80 aspects of fluoride toxicity. A gold mine of information for anyone interested in the science.

SELECT A TOPIC: :

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I. INTRODUCTION:

The Health Database sets forth the scientific basis for FAN’s concerns regarding the safety and effectiveness of ingested fluorides. The database is the product of over 10 years of research by FAN’s research team, led by attorney-at-law Michael Connett. In 2012, Connett conducted an exhaustive review of recent scientific findings, including research that, up to now, has only been available in Chinese and Russian. The current database reflects the findings of this new review.

II. FAN’S HEALTH SUMMARIES:

Arthritis	Gastrointestinal Effects
Bone Fracture	Fluoride Hypersensitivity
Brain Effects	Kidney Disease
Cancer	Male Fertility
Cardiovascular Disease	Pineal Gland
Dental Fluorosis	Skeletal Fluorosis
Diabetes	Tooth Decay
Endocrine Disruption	Thyroid Disease

III. FIGURES

IV. ANALYSIS & DOCUMENTATION:

Acute Toxicity:

Threshold Doses
	Minimum Lethal Dose (5 mg/kg)
	Minimum Dose that Produces Acute Toxicity (0.1-0.3 mg/kg)
Causes of Acute Toxicity
	Fluoride toothpastes
	Fluoride gels
	Water fluoridation accidents

Bone

Arthritis
	Fluoride & Arthritis
	Fluoride & Osteoarthritis
	Fluoride & Rheumatoid Arthritis
	Fluoride & Repetitive Stress
Bone Density
	Fluoride’s differential effect on bone density (trabecular vs. cortical bone)
	Epidemiology: Fluoride in water & bone density
	The “Iowa Fluoride Study”
	Relationship between fluoride, bone density, and bone strength
Bone Mineralization
	Fluoride increases osteoid content of bone
	Fluoride & osteomalacia
	Fluoride & rickets
	Fluoride exposure increases calcium requirement
Bone Fluorosis
	The Misdiagnosis Problem
	Skeletal fluorosis & individual variability
	Factors which increase risk for skeletal fluorosis
	Exposure pathways linked to skeletal fluorosis
	Estimated threshold doses for skeletal fluorosis
	Skeletal fluorosis in India & China
	Skeletal fluorosis in the U.S.
	“Pre-skeletal” fluorosis
	X-ray diagnosis of skeletal fluorosis
	Variability in radiographic variability of skeletal fluorosis
	Fluorosis & Spondylosis/Spondylitis
	Fluorosis & DISH (Diffuse Idiopathic Skeletal Hyperostosis)
	Fluorosis & Spinal Stenosis
	Fluorosis & Secondary Hyperparathyroidism
	Fluorosis & Osteopetrosis
Bone Fracture
	Mechanisms by which fluoride can reduce bone strength
	Clinical Trials / Fracture Rates
	Animal Studies / Bone Strength
	In vitro studies / Bone Strength
	Epidemiology: Fluoride in Water & Bone Fracture
	Fluoride reduces bone strength prior to onset of skeletal fluorosis
	Skeletal fluorosis & Bone fracture
Bone Cells
	Fluoride & osteoblasts
	Fluoride & osteocytes
	Fluoride & osteoclasts

Brain

Human Studies
	Fluoride & IQ: 33 Studies
	Fluoride’s neurobehavioral effects
	Fluoride’s effect on fetal brain
Animal Studies
	Fluoride’s effect on learning/memory
	Fluoride’s effect on brain cells/tissue

Cancer

Mutagenicity
	In vitro studies
	In vivo studies
	Indiana’s Oral Health Research Institute’s Studies
NTP’s Bioassay (1990)
	Overview of NTP Bioassay
	Liver cancer (hepatocholangiocarcinoma) findings
Human Epidemiological Studies
	Fluoride & Osteosarcoma: A Timeline
	A critique of Gelberg’s study on fluoride/osteosarcoma in New York
	Fluoride & Bladder/Lung Cancer
	Biological plausibility of fluoride/osteosarcoma link

Cardiovascular system

	Fluoride & Cardiovascular Disease: An Overview
	Fluoride, Blood Pressure & Hypertension
	Fluoride & Arterial Calcification
	Fluoride & Arteriosclerosis
	Fluoride & Electrocardiogram Abnormalities
	Fluoride & Myocardial Damage

Endocrine Function

Glucose Metabolism
	Fluoride & Impaired Glucose Metabolism
	Fluoride & Insulin
	Fluoride Sensitivity Among Diabetics
	National Research Council’s Summary (2006)
Pineal Gland
	Luke (2001): Fluoride accumulation in human pineal gland
	Luke (1997): Fluoride’s effect on pineal function in gerbils
Thyroid Gland
	Fluoride Aggravates Iodine Deficiency
	Fluoride Aggravates Iodine Excess
	Fluoride & Goitre
	Fluoride & Thyroid Hormones
	NRC’s (2006) Review of Fluoride/Thyroid
Parathyroid Gland
	Fluorosis & Secondary Hyperparathyroidism

Gastrointestinal

Acute Toxicity
	Gastric symptoms: Early sign of acute fluoride toxicity
Clinical Trials
	Fluoride-induced damage to gastric mucosa
	Gastric symptoms: common side effect
Fluorosis patients
	Gastric symptoms: common side effect

Kidney

Fluoride’s Effect on Kidney Patients
	Kidney patients at increased risk of fluoride poisoning
	Health authorities are ignoring the risk
	Similarities between skeletal fluorosis & renal osteodystrophy
	Fluoridation, dialysis, & osteomalacia
Fluoride’s Effect on Kidney
	Kidneys are exposed to high concentrations of fluoride
	Fluoride as a cause of kidney disease in humans
	Fluoride as a cause of kidney disease in animals
	Fluoride & Kidney Stones

Reproductive System

Male Fertility
	Human studies
	Animal studies
	In vitro studies
	The Sprando/Collins Anomaly

Teeth

Caries (Syntheses)
	Fluoride’s Topical vs. Systemic effect
	Tooth decay trends in F vs. NF countries
	Tooth decay rates in F vs. NF communities
	Fluoridation & “baby bottle tooth decay”
	Water fluoridation, tooth decay, & poverty
	Studies on tooth decay rates after fluoridation was stopped
Caries (Specific Studies)
	The “Iowa Fluoride Study” (1990s-Present Day)
	Armfield & Spencer (2004)
	National Institute of Dental Research (1986-87)
Dental Fluorosis
	Dental fluorosis rates in the U.S.: 1950-2004
	Racial disparities in dental fluorosis rates
	Dental fluorosis: The “Cosmetic Factor”
	Severe Fluorosis: Perception & Psychological Impact
	“Mild” Fluorosis: Perception & Psychological Impact
	Moderate/Severe Fluorosis: Impact on Tooth Quality
	Dental Fluorosis’s impact on enamel (“Hypo-mineralization”)
	Dental fluorosis impacts dentin in addition to enamel
	Mechanisms by which fluoride causes dental fluorosis
	Diagnostic criteria for dental fluorosis: Dean Index
	Diagnostic criteria for dental fluorosis: TF Index
	Diagnostic criteria for dental fluorosis: TSIF Index
	Community Fluorosis Index (CFI)

Vulnerable Populations

Age groups:
	Infants
Racial/Ethnic groups
	African Americans
Populations with the Following Conditions:
	Diabetes
	Kidney Disease
	Nutrient Deficiencies
	Polydipsia
Individuals with Fluoride Sensitivity
	Topical Fluorides
	Systemic Fluorides

V. COMMENTARIES

Commentaries

ActiveResource.org, ActivismResource.org,

2013-05-18T23:59:00.000-07:00

Activism

AlterNet / By Kevin Zeese, Margaret Flowers

186 COMMENTS

Popular Resistance Is Percolating Across the Country -- Inspiring Activism That the Corporate Media Always Ignores

The fight against plutocracy, concentrated wealth and corporatism is decentralized, creative and growing.

May 17, 2013 |

Every week we are inspired by the many people throughout the country who are doing excellent work to challenge the power structure and put forward a new path for the country. The popular resistance to plutocracy, concentrated wealth and corporatism is decentralized, creative and growing.
One growing series of protests has been the “Moral Monday” demonstrations in North Carolina. They do not have ‘one demand’ but rather are challenging the systemic corruption, undermining of democracy and misdirection of a state government that puts human needs second to corporate profits – which they have dubbed ‘Robin Hood in Reverse.’  This week 49 of 200 protesters inside the capitol were arrested singing, chanting and echoing many of the same concerns that demonstrators have for the past three Mondays. Last week there were 30 arrests, the week before 17. Among those arrested was an 83 year old retired minister, Vernon Tyson, who was merely a spectator, but he gave a great interview cheering on the protests after his release. And, a group of historians were among those arrested who put these protests in the context of US history.
Another courageous protest involved seven undocumented immigrants who blocked the Broadview Detention Center where immigrants are being incarcerated. They blocked the doors to the detention facility, linking arms together using pipes, chains, and locks. They were protesting the record-high deportations under President Obama, and the lack of leadership from Illinois representatives to call for a suspension of deportations. On the West coast, the always creative Backbone Campaign supported allied faith communities with a giant banner lift over the private for-profit immigration detention center asking “Who Would Jesus Deport?” and an inflatable lady liberty exposing the unjust policies that break up families.
There was a recent victory for Seattle teachers and students that resulted from their citywide protests against standardized testing. The school district announced that testing in the high schools would not occur next year. The teachers said they will keep protesting until the tests are banned from lower grades as well.
We hope the Chicago teachers, who won a major battle with Mayor Rahm Emanuel earlier this year when they went out on strike, have great success this weekend when three days of marches are held against the mass school closings in Chicago. The teachers union has developed a great organizing strategy that unites teachers with students, parents and communities. This battle is one of many across the country to stop the thinly veiled corporatization of education.
In another education protest, the students @FreeCooperUnion continue to occupy the office of the president after one week. They are painting the walls black until he agrees to step down, and are highlighting his $750,000 annual salary. They are protesting a plan to begin to charge tuition at the university; this plan will not affect these students, but future students who attend Cooper Union.
The heart of the conflict faced in the United States is the inequity of an unfair economy supported by a corrupt two party system. This week there was a very creative protest in New York City against the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim of Mexico. He’s made his billions with the help of government allowing a monopoly on phone service resulting in Slim gouging the public. Now he gives a small percentage of that wealth back in philanthropy and people applaud him. But, the protesters were very effective, laughing out loud whenever he spoke. They responded when someone asked “Why is everyone laughing?” with “Because Slim’s philanthropy is a joke!” and followed with mocking kazoos.
In contrast to the world’s wealthiest was the Poor People’s Campaign which marched from Baltimore to Washington, DC ending at Freedom Plaza. The march occurred on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s campaign and raised issues of poverty, police violence, unfair economy and non-responsive government.  Another march was announced in Pennsylvania from Philadelphia to Harrisburg from May 25 to June 3 to stop spending on prison construction and instead invest in building communities. Also, from Philadelphia the ‘Operation Green Jobs’ March from Philadelphia to Washington, DC will begin on May 18 and is organized by the Poor People’s Economic and Human Rights Campaign.
A campaign that is growing every week is the fast food worker strikes. The largest fast food walk out was held in Detroit last week, even the scabs walked out, and this week the strikes spread to their fifth city, Milwaukee, WI. It is great to see these workers, who no doubt saw themselves as powerless, standing up and demanding fairness. If you eat at fast food restaurants, this would be a good time to stop, and let them know why – you support the workers who are demanding a living wage.
US Empire and imperialism continue to cause protest. Obama’s Asia Pivot, moving 60% of the US Navy to the Asian Pacific is causing a lot of distress. On Jeju Island people are fighting for their survival against a massive Navy base. Jeju is the “Peace Island” that was harshly abused during the US occupation of South Korea after World War II before the Korean War. And, South Koreans, who regularly protest against the US military, are protesting the US war games that are practicing dropping nuclear bombs on North Korea and invading it.
Protests are mounting in the United States against the abusive Guantanamo Bay prison where more than 100 of the 166 prisoners at Guantanamo are participating in a hunger strike and two-dozen are being brutally force fed. These prisoners have been held without trial for over 10 years, and even though 88 have been approved to leave, they remain. The Green Shadow Cabinet came out with a statement describing how Obama could close the prison (and why Congress is not an excuse) and what you can do on the 100th day of the hunger strike this Friday. Show solidarity with these prisoners who are being abused by the US government.
Diane Wilson, a shrimper from the Gulf Coast who works with CODE PINK and Veterans for Peace, is on her 15th day of an open-ended solidarity hunger strike in Washington, DC. She explains why she is taking the extreme step of a hunger strike to support the Guantanamo prisoners. And S. Brian Willson is joining Diane in hunger strike.
Another protest related to US Empire occurred in Oak Ridge, TN where Transform Now Plowshares activists protested nuclear weapons by cutting through four chain-link fences and spray-painting biblical messages of nonviolence on a building that warehouses an estimated 400 tons of highly enriched uranium, the radioactive material used to fuel nuclear weaponry. This week an 83 year old nun, Sister Megan Rice, and two other activists were found guilty of damaging government property. As the jury left the courtroom the people in the courtroom sang to them “Love, love, love, love. People, we are made for love.” Sentencing is several months away and they face a potential 30 years in prison.
Environmental protests are boiling up throughout the United States. When President Obama came to New York for a fundraiser (where he raised $3 million), protesters greeted him with signs calling for him to “End the War on Mother Earth” and opposing the KXL pipeline.
Protesters from the Appalachian Mountains came to the EPA in Washington DC to protest polluted water caused by Mountaintop removal for coal. The protesters displayed the dirty, opaque water in jars in front of the EPA. And Climate Justice activists from CoalIsStupid.org blocked a freighter delivering coal in Boston with two men on a lobster boat on May 15th.
But more and more Americans are realizing that while we protest the extraction of oil, gas, uranium and coal, the reality is that the root of the problem is in the American Way of Life (AWOL). One activist from Portland made the point that the Tar Sands starts in our driveways and we need to change the AWOL in order to truly combat it. We agree that our strategy has two prongs: protest and build i.e. Stop the Machine and Create a New World.
In addition to how much energy we each use, we need to look at where our food comes from. An Occupy group in Berkeley, Occupy the Farm, made that point this week when they took over University of California land to grow farm for the community locally.
Another area where we are seeing continued growth in the movement is in thinking through how we do our work and in developing strategy to achieve our goals. We published a live streamer “Code of Ethics” developed by people who work in the citizen’s media. Note the high ethics and cooperative approach they take to getting the media out.
Many are thinking about strategy to make the movement more effective. Gar Alperovitz, a political economist who has been writing about alternatives to big finance capitalism in the United States has a new book out focused on strategy, “What then Must We Do,” and we published a review of the book by Sam Pizzigati of Inequality.org entitled:  A Promising Path for Pummeling Plutocracy.
Upcoming actions:
May 17th, Support the Guantanamo hunger strikers on the 100th Day of their hunger strike with phone calls and tweets to the White House and protests in DC, NY, Chicago and other cities.
May 18th, ‘Operation Green Jobs’ March from Philadelphia to Washington, DC organized by the Poor People’s Economic and Human Rights Campaign.
May 18th to 23rd the Home Defenders League Week of Action against the banks and foreclosures in Washington, DC.
May 18th to 20th there is a weekend of protests against the closure of schools in Chicago.
May 22nd Stop the Frack Attack People’s Forum in Washington, DC.
May 25th Protests against Monsanto everywhere
May 25th to June 3rd   March from Philadelphia to Harrisburg against prison spending.
June 1st,  Get on the Bus For Bradley Court Martial Trial  with buses leaving from Baltimore, MD, Washington DC, New York City and Willimantic, CT.
June 14th to 16th Trade Justice Action Camp in Bellingham, WA by the Backbone Campaign
June 24th to 29th is the beginning of “Fearless Summer” that starts “an epic summer of actions.”
You can order or print OccuCards to bring with you to these actions. There are cards for all of the issues being protested above and new cards are being created.
And watch for the transformation of October2011/Occupy Washington DC into Popular Resistance, daily news and resources for effective activism, coming in June. Sign up here if you want to be notified of the launch.

2013-05-17T11:56:00.000-07:00

Hey folks,

We need to keep our water clean!

I am excited to tell you that George Alejos, colleague of Henry Rodriguez, President of LULAC ZAPATISTA, in San Antonio, Texas, has made a fantastic, very short PSA for Portlanders, warning them about their own lack of positive results or health benefits after eleven (11) years of fluoridation there.

LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens, is the largest, oldest Hispanic Civil Rights Organization in America. Founded in 1929, this group, now with 135,000 members across the country, has helped fight injustice and discrimination, and promote education and opportunity on behalf of Hispanic Americans and others for decades. In July, 2011, LULAC National Council unanimously passed a resolution opposing fluoridation, calling it: "forced medication."

Remember, May 17th is the LAST DAY to MAIL in ballots. After that, drop them at a Multnomah County Library or the Elections Office, for safety.

Saludos,
Jen Davis
Mom, environmentalist, urban farmer, beekeeper, Slow Foods advocate.
Healthy Food, Dental Access and Dental Hygiene Products and Information are NEEDED
Not mass-medication of our drinking water without regard to age, weight or health-history.
Portland, Oregon

(1) EPA Union Description of Hydrofluosolicic Acid, the Fluoridation Chemicals to be used in our Water Supply: (2)
91% of Americans ingesting artificially fluoridated water are consuming silicofluorides. This is a class of fluoridation chemicals that includes hydrofluosilicic acid and its salt form, sodium fluorosilicate. These chemicals are collected from the pollution scrubbers of the phosphate fertilizer industry. The scrubber liquors contain contaminants such as arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, and radioactive particles, are legally regulated as toxic waste, and are prohibited from direct dispersal into the environment. Upon being sold (unrefined) to municipalities as fluoridating agents, these same substances are then considered a "product", allowing them to be dispensed through fluoridated municipal water systems to the very same ecosystems to which they could not be released directly. Sodium fluoride, used in the remaining municipalities, is also an industrial waste product that contains hazardous contaminants.
http://nteu280.org/Issues/Fluoride/flouridestatement.htm

Also-
Fluoride is an EPA listed "substantially documented developmental neurotoxin."
http://www.epa.gov/ncct/toxcast/files/summit/48P%20Mundy%20TDAS.pdf

Also-
“Fluoride seems to fit in with lead, mercury, and other poisons that cause chemical brain drain,” Grandjean says. “The effect of each toxicant may seem small, but the combined damage on a population scale can be serious, especially because the brain power of the next generation is crucial to all of us.” - Dr. Philippe Grandjean, Harvard School of Public Health
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/fluoride-childrens-health-grandjean-choi/

(2) The Portland Water Bureau said it will add 1.1 million pounds a year of the fluoridation chemical fluorosilicic acid (FSA) to our drinking water if fluoridation is approved.
City of Portland Water Bureau, Cost to Implement Fluoridation, June 8, 2012. On file; “Fluoride
group secures second vote on Portland City Council for $5 million project,” Oregonian, Aug. 16, 2012 (confirming use of Fluorosilicic acid). (oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/08/fluoride_group_secures_second.html)
.
Remember, May 17th is the LAST DAY to MAIL in ballots. After that, drop them at a Multnomah County Library or the Elections Office, for safety.

Saludos,
Jen Davis
Mom, environmentalist, urban farmer, beekeeper, Slow Foods advocate.
Healthy Food, Dental Access and Dental Hygiene Products and Information are NEEDED
Not mass-medication of our drinking water without regard to age, weight or health-history.
Portland, Oregon

Mayday 2013 in Portland, Douglas Yarrow Pictures...

2013-05-08T16:12:00.000-07:00

We Are Oregon

May Day Photos by Doug Yarrow with some great shots of the float and WAO folks!

May Day Rally and March 2013, Portland, Oregon

picasaweb.google.com

Photos by douglas yarrow, Apr 28, 2013

http://activismnewsletterat.blogspot.com/

WHY I CHANGED MY MIND ABOUT WATER FLUORIDATION

2013-05-06T21:56:00.002-07:00

WHY I CHANGED MY MIND ABOUT WATER FLUORIDATION

Based on new research, a former fluoridation proponent changes his opinion about the alleged safety and benefits of water fluoridation

by JOHN COLQUHOUN, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 41, 1, Autumn 1997

Former Advocate
To explain how I came to change my opinion about water fluoridation, I must go back to when I was an ardent advocate of the procedure. I now realize that I had learned, in my training in dentistry, only one side of the scientific controversy over fluoridation. I had been taught, and believed, that there was really no scientific case against fluoridation, and that only misinformed lay people and a few crackpot professionals were foolish enough to oppose it. I recall how, after I had been elected to a local government in Auckland (New Zealand's largest city, where I practised dentistry for many years and where I eventually became the Principal Dental Officer) I had fiercely — and, I now regret, rather arrogantly — poured scorn on another Council member (a lay person who had heard and accepted the case against fluoridation) and persuaded the Mayor and majority of my fellow councillors to agree to fluoridation of our water supply.

...http://www.fluoridation.com/colquhoun.htm

There is much more evidence that tooth mottling is not the only harm caused by fluoridated water. Polish researchers, using a new computerized method of X-ray diagnosis, reported that boys with dental fluorosis also exhibit bone structure disturbances [64]. Even more chilling is the evidence from China that children with dental fluorosis have on average lower intelligence scores [65, 66]. This finding is supported by a recently published animal experiment in America, which showed that fluoride also accumulated in certain areas of the brain, affecting behavior and the ability to learn [67].

Endorsements Not Universal Concerning the oft-repeated observation that fluoridation has enjoyed overwhelming scientific endorsement, one should remember that even strongly supported theories have eventually been revised or replaced. From the outset, distinguished and reputable scientists opposed fluoridation, in spite of considerable intimidation and pressure [68, 69]. Most of the world has rejected fluoridation. Only America where it originated, and countries under strong American influence persist in the practice. Denmark banned fluoridation when its National Agency for Environmental Protection, after consulting the widest possible range of scientific sources, pointed out that the long-term effects of low fluoride intakes on certain groups in the population (for example, persons with reduced kidney function), were insufficiently known [70]. Sweden also rejected fluoridation on the recommendation of a special Fluoride Commission, which included among its reasons that: "The combined and long-term environmental effects of fluoride are insufficiently known" [71]. Holland banned fluoridation after a group of medical practitioners presented evidence that it caused reversible neuromuscular and gastrointestinal harm to some individuals in the population [72].
Environmental scientists, as well as many others, tend to doubt fluoridation. In the United States, scientists employed by the Environmental Protection Agency have publicly disavowed support for their employer's pro-fluoridation policies [73]. The orthodox medical establishment, rather weak or even ignorant on environmental issues, persist in their support, as do most dentists, who tend to be almost fanatical about the subject. In English- speaking countries, unfortunately, the medical profession and its allied pharmaceutical lobby (the people who sell fluoride) seem to have more political influence than environmentalists.

**REFERENCES**
1. Colquhoun, J. The influence of social rank and fluoridation on dental treatment requirements. N.Z. Dental J. 73:146-148, 1977. 2. Brooking, T.W.H. A History of Dentistry in New Zealand. Dunedin: New Zealand Dental Assn., 1980. 214-215. 3. Hollis, M.J., and Hunter, P.B. Official Instructions: Dental health statistics, Form II children. School Dental Serv. Gaz. 41 (3):19, 1980. 4. Colquhoun, J. New evidence on fluoridation. Soc. Sci. Med. 19:1239-1246, 1984. 5. Colquhoun, J. Influence of social class and fluoridation on child dental health. Comm. Dent. Oral Epidemiol. 13:37-41, 1985. 6. Colquhoun, J. Child dental health differences in New Zealand. Comm. Health Studies 11:85-90, 1987. 7. Yiamouyiannis, J.A. Water fluoridation and tooth decay: Results from the 1986-1987 national survey of U.S. schoolchildren. Fluoride 23:55-67, 1990. 8. Brunelle, J.A, and Carlos, J.P. Recent trends in dental caries in U. S. children and the effect of water fluoridation. J. of Dental Res. 69 (Special Issue):723-728, 1990. 9. Hildebolt, C.F.; Elvin-Lewis, M.; Molnar, S.; et al. Caries prevalences among geochemical regions of Missouri. Am. J. of Phys. Anthro. 78:79-92, 1989. 10. Jones, T., Steelink, C., and Sierka, J. Analysis of the causes of tooth decay in children in Tucson, Arizona. Paper presented at Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, San Francisco, USA, February 1994. Abstract in Fluoride 27 (4):238, 1994. 11. Steelink, C. Letter. Chem. Eng. News 27 July 1992:2-3. 12. Diesendorf, M. A re-examination of Australian fluoridation trials. Search 17:256-261, 1986. 13. Diesendorf, M. Have the benefits of water fluoridation been overestimated? Int. Clin. Nutr. Rev. 10:292-303, 1990. 14. Diesendorf, M. The mystery of declining tooth decay. Nature 322:125-129, 1986. 15. Gray, A.S. Fluoridation: Time for a new base line? J. Can. Dental Assn. 53:763-765, 1987. 16. Ziegelbecker, R.C., and Ziegelbecker, R. WHO data on dental caries and natural water fluoride levels. Fluoride 26:263-266, 1993. 17. Teotia, S.P.S., and Teotia, M. Dental caries: a disorder of high fluoride and low dietary calcium interactions (30 years of personal research). Fluoride 27:59-66, 1994 18. Colquhoun, J. Fluorides and the decline in tooth decay in New Zealand. Fluoride 26:125-134, 1993. 19. Hamilton, V., and Birkbeck, J.A. The Home Style Survey of New Zealand's Changing Diet. Palmerston North: Quality Bakers, 1985. 20. Herod, E.L. The effect of cheese on dental caries: A review of the literature. Austral. Dental J. 36 (2):120-125, 1991. 21. Price, W.A. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, New York: Heuber, 1939. 22. Smith, G. Tooth decay in the developing world: could a vaccine help prevent cavities? Persp. Biol. Med. 31:440-453, 1988. 23. Treasure, E.T., and Dever, J.G. The prevalence of caries in 5-year-old children living in fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities in New Zealand. N.Z. Dental J. 88:9-13, 1992. 24. Ludwig, T.G. The Hastings fluoridation project. N.Z. Dental J. 54:165-172, 1958; 55:176-179, 1959; 58:22-24, 1962 (co-author EIF Pearce); 59:298-301, 1963; 61:175-179, 1965; 67:155-160, 1971. 25. Department of Health files on fluoridation in National Archives, Wellington, New Zealand. Copies in possession of author and described in: Colquhoun, J. Education and Fluoridation in New Zealand: An historical study (PhD dissertation, University of Auckland). Ann Arbor MI: University Microfilms International, 1987. 26. Ludwig, T.G. Recent marine soils and resistance to dental caries. Austral. Dental J. 8:109-113, 1963. 27. Colquhoun, J., and Mann, R. The Hastings fluoridation experiment: Science or swindle? Ecologist 16 (6):243-248, 1986; 17 (2):125-126, 1987. 28. Colquhoun, J. Flawed foundation: A re-examination of the scientific basis for a dental benefit from fluoridation. Comm.Health Studies 14:288-296, 1990. 29. Klerer, M. The fluoridation experiment. Contemp. Issues 7:119-143, 1956. 30. Sutton, P.R.N. Fluoridation: Errors and Omissions in Experimental Trials. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1960. 31. Diesendorf, M.; Colquhoun, J.; Spittle, B.J. et al. New evidence on fluoridation. Austral. N.Z. J. of Pub. Health 21:187-190, 1997. 32. J. Dental Res. 69 (Special Issue):606-613, 742-750, 556-557, 1990. 33. Colquhoun, J. Disfiguring dental fluorosis in Auckland, New Zealand. Fluoride 17:234-242, 1984. 34. Cutress, T.W.; Suckling, G.W.; Pearce, E.I.F.; and Ball, M.E. Defects in tooth enamel in children in fluoridated and non-fluoridated water areas of the Auckland Region. N.Z. Dental J. 81:12-19, 1985. 35. Colquhoun, J. Disfiguring or "white and strong"? Fluoride 23:104-111, 1990. 36. Aasenden, R., and Peebles, T.C. Effects of fluoride supplementation from birth on human deciduous and permanent teeth. Arch. Oral Biol. 19:321-326, 1974. 37. Jacobsen, S.J.; Goldberg, J.; Miles, T.P.; et al. Regional variation in the incidence of hip fracture among white women aged 65 years and older. JAMA 264:500-502, 1990. 38. Cooper, C.; Wickham, C.A.C.; Barker, D.J.R.; and Jacobsen, S.J. Letter. JAMA 266:513-514, 1991. 39. Jacobsen, S.J.; Goldberg, J.; Cooper, C.; and Lockwood, S. A. The association between water fluoridation and hip fracture among white women and men aged 65 years and older. A national ecologic study. Ann. Epidemiol. 2:617-626, 1992.	40. Sowers, M.F.R.; Clark, M.K.; Jannausch, M.L.; and Wallace, R.B. A prospective study of bone mineral content and fracture in communities with differential fluoride exposure. Am. J. Epidemiol. 133:649-660, 1991. 41. Jacqmin-Gadda, H.; Commenges, D.; and Dartigues, J.-F. Fluorine concentration in drinking water and fractures in the elderly. JAMA 273:775-776, 1995. 42. Danielson, C.; Lyon, J.L.; Egger, M.; and Goodenough, G.K. Hip fractures and fluoridation in Utah's elderly population. JAMA 268:746-748, 1992. 43. Keller, C. Fluorides in drinking water. Paper presented at Workshop on Drinking Water Fluoride Influence on Hip Fractures and Bone Health. Bethesda MD, 10 April 1991. 44. May, D.S., and Wilson, M.G. Hip fractures in relation to water fluoridation: an ecologic analysis. Paper presented at Workshop on Drinking Water Fluoride Influence on Hip Fractures and Bone Health. Bethesda MD, April 10, 1991. 45. Cauley, J.A.; Murphy, P.A., Riley, T.; and Black, D. Public health bonus of water fluoridation: Does fluoridation prevent osteoporosis and its related fractures? Am. J. Epidemiol. 134:768, 1991. Abstract. 46. Jacobsen, S.J.; O'Fallon, W.M.; and Melton III, I.J. Hip fracture incidence before and after fluoridation of the public water supply, Rochester, Minnesota. Am. J. Pub. Health 83:743-745, 1993. 47. Suarez-Almazor, M.E.; Flowerdew, G.; Saunders, L.D.; et al. The fluoridation of drinking water and hip fracture hospitalization rates in 2 Canadian communities. Am. J. Pub. Health 83:689-693, 1993. 48. Riggs, B.L.; Hodgson, S.F.; O'Fallon, W.M.; et al. Effect of fluoride treatment on the fracture rate in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. New Engl. J. Med. 322:802-809, 1990. 49. Kleerekoper, M.; Peterson, E.; Philips, E.; et al. Continuous sodium fluoride therapy does not reduce vertebral fracture rate in postmenopausal osteoporosis. J. Bone Mineral Res. 4(Suppl 1):S376, 1989. Abstract. 50. Hedlund, L.R.; and Gallagher, J.C. Increased incidence of hip fracture in osteoporotic women treated with sodium fluoride. J. Bone Mineral Res. 4:223-225, 1989. 51. Lindsay, R. Fluoride and bone - quantity versus quality. New Engl. J. Med. 322:844-845, 1990. 52. Melton, L.J. Fluoride in the prevention of osteoporosis and fractures. J. Bone Mineral Res. 5 (Suppl 1):S163-S167, 1990. 53. Fluorides and Human Health. Geneva: World Health Organization, 1970. 37-41. 54. Fluorine and Fluorides. Geneva: World Health Organization, 1984. 152-153. 55. Alhava, E.M.; Olkkomen, H.; Kauranen, P.; and Kari, T. The effect of drinking water fluoridation on the fluoride content, strength and mineral density of human bone. Acta Ortho. Scan. 51:413-420, 1980. 56. Arnala, I.; Alhava, E.M.; and Kauranen, E.M. Effects of fluoride on bone in Finland. histomorphometry of cadaver bone from low and high fluoride areas. Acta Ortho. Scan. 56:161-166, 1985. 57. Maurer, J.K.; Cheng, M.C.; Boysen, B.G.; and Anderson, R.L. Two-year carcinogenicity study of sodium fluoride in rats. J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 82:1118-1126, 1990. 58. Kanwar, K. C.; Parminderjit, S.V.; and Kalla, N.R. In vitro inhibition of testosterone synthesis in the presence of fluoride ions. IRCS Med. Sci. 11:813-814, 1983. 59. Hoover, R.N.; Devesa, S.; Cantor, K.; and Fraumeni, J., J.F. Time trends for bone and joint cancers and osteosarcomas in the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program, National Cancer Institute. In: Review of Fluoride: Benefits and Risks, Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Fluoride of the Committee to Coordinate Environmental Health and Related Programs. US Public Health Service, 1991. F1-F7. 60. Cohn, P.D. A brief report on the association of drinking water fluoridation and the incidence of osteosarcoma among young males. N.J. Depart. of Health, 8 Nov. 1992. 61. Gelberg, K.H.; Fitzgerald, E.F.; Hwang, S.; and Dubrow, R. Fluoride exposure and childhood osteosarcoma: a case-control study. Am. J. Pub. Health 85:1678-1683, 1995. 62. Lee, J. R. Review of report by K.H. Gelberg et al. Fluoride 29:237-240, 1996. 63. Yiamouyiannis, J.A. Fluoridation and cancer. Fluoride 26:83-96, 1993. 64. Chlebna-Sokol, D., and Czerwinski, E. Bone structure assessment on radiographs of distal radial metaphysis in children with dental fluorosis. Fluoride 26:37-44, 1993. 65. Li, X.S.; Zhi, J.L.; and Gao, R.O. Effect of fluoride exposure on intelligence of children. Fluoride 28:189-192, 1995. 66. Zhao, L.B.; Liang, G.H.; Zhang, D.N.; and Wu, X.R. Effect of a high fluoride water supply on children's intelligence. Fluoride 29:190-192, 1996. 67. Mullenix, P.J.; Denbesten, P.K.; Schunior, A.; and Kernan, W.J. Neurotoxicity of sodium fluoride in rats. Neurotoxicoxicol. Teratol. 17 169-177, 1995. (Cf. Editorial: Neurotoxicity of Fluoride. Fluoride 29:57-58, 1996). 68. Martin, B. Scientific Knowledge in Controversy: The Social Dynamics of the Fluoridation Debate. Albany, NY: University of New York Press, 1991. 69. Waldbott, G.L.; Burgstahler, A.W.; and McKinney, H. L. Fluoridation: The Great Dilemma. Lawrence KS: Coronado Press, 1978. Ch. 18. 70. Nyt fra miljÃ¸styrelsen (Newsletter of National Agency of Environmental Protection, Denmark). Special issue (in English), February, 1977. 71. Fluor i karies-fÃ¶rebyggande syfte (Report of Swedish Fluoride Commission). SOU, Stockholm: Statens Offentliga Utredningar, 1981. English-language summary 21-30. 72. Grimbergen, G.W. A double blind test for determination of intolerance to fluoridated water (preliminary report). Fluoride 7:146-152, 1974. 73. Hirzy, W. Press releases. Fluoride 26:279-281, 1993; Fluoride 30:258-259, 1997.

FIG. 1. -- 50-year decline in tooth decay of 5-year-olds. SOURCE. -- Compiled from Health Department records of 5-year-olds'
tooth decay 1930-1990, fluoridation, and fluoride toothpaste sales.

Fig. 2. - Left: results of South Island dental survey of samples of 5-year-olds from selected areas. See[23].
Right: Results for all 5-year-olds in all nonfluoridated, fluoridated, and defluoridated areas. (School Dental Service records). Fig. 3. - Examples of dental fluorosis in 8- and 9-year old children who grew up in fluoridated Auckland, New Zealand. at teeth.htm

Reprinted from PERSPECTIVES IN BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE, published by the University of Chicago Press, copyright © 1997 by the University of Chicago. All rights reserved. Permission grant #46850 to Health Action Network Society, June 10, 1998. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair use provisions of US and international copyright law and agreement, and it may be archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that this entire notice, including copyright information, is carried and provided that the University of Chicago Press is notified and no fee is charged for access. Archiving, redistribution or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires both the consent of the author(s) and the University of Chicago Press.

When Will President Obama put an end to this Disgrace! http://activismnewsletterat.blogspot.com/

2013-05-06T11:00:00.001-07:00

Gitmo is still up and running... American Imperialism is on full display. We must stand in solidarity with hunger strikers and all political prisoners. http://activismnewsletterat.blogspot.com/

"Twice a day, the 23 most weak are taken into a room. Their wrists, arms, stomach, legs and head are strapped to a chair and repeated attempts are made to force a tube down their noses into their stomachs. It is an ugly procedure as they gag and wretch, blood dripping from their nostrils.

'They won’t let us live in peace and now they won’t let us die in peace,'
said detainee, Fayiz Al-Kandari, a Kuwaiti held for 11 years without charge."

Inside Guantánamo:
An unprecedented rebellion leaves a notorious detention centre in crisis

www.independent.co.uk

Emaciated and frail, more than 100 men lie on concrete floors of freezing, solitary cells in Guantánamo, silently starving themselves to death.

Sun. May 5th, AMA Vigil for Kendra,murdered by PDX Police

2013-05-01T14:41:00.000-07:00

Albina Ministerial Alliance to Hold Vigil for Kendra James

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Sunday, May 5 marks the tenth anniversary
of when Portland police murdered Kendra James

from material by Bruce Poinsette Of The Skanner News

May 01, 2013

Sunday, May 5 is the tenth anniversary of the killing of Kendra James. The 21-year-old, unarmed black woman was shot and killed, despite by Officer Scott McCollister during a traffic stop.

The Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform will lead a memorial vigil at the Greater Faith Baptist Church at 931 N. Skidmore. This site is yards away from where the shooting occurred.

According to a statement from the Alliance, “James' death was a touchstone for many in Portland who saw the shooting of an unarmed African American woman as a symptom of a Police Bureau needing major reforms.”
...
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/policeaccountability
Make a difference!
http://activismnewsletterat.blogspot.com/

On Dec. 17 of 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint against the city, based on an 18-month investigation of the police bureau. The City and justice officials filed a settlement agreement at the same time.

As of Feb. 20, the Alliance, DOJ, City of Portland, Portland Police Bureau, and the Portland Police Association have been in mediation talks to try and resolve their differences on police reforms.

The justice department concluded Portland police engaged in a ‘pattern or practice’ of violating the civil rights of people with mental illness or those thought to have mental illness.

The settlement required changes to police use of force and Taser policies, along with stepped up crisis intervention, training, supervision, accountability and discipline procedures. The settlement will cost $3.5 million to implement, according to City estimates.

Portland Police Association opposes the settlement on the grounds that it undermines the union’s collective bargaining rights. The judge granted the association the right to be a legal party with a right to intervene in some of the reforms, based on an earlier Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals court ruling that recognized settlements like these may affect collective bargaining agreements. But the judge did not grant the Albina Ministerial Alliance rights as a legal party representing the victims. Thus the Police Union, those who committed the crimes, remain in control.

The Albina Ministerial Alliance wants more public input and Bureau accountability, on the grounds that the settlement fails to address concerns about racially-biased policing, and does not include adequate oversight to ensure the agreement is implemented and works, .

Sunday’s vigil begins at 5 p.m. and members of James’ family will be in attendance.

For more information, go to
http://www.thePortlandAlliance.org/AMAPortal

False Flags and other blather... bordering on truth...

2013-04-28T21:10:00.000-07:00

“Officials say” journalism

Yet again, the American media misleads by uncritically printing unverified, false claims from the U.S. military

By Glenn Greenwald

"It’s common for false claims to be made in war, either due to a desire to mislead or the proverbial “fog of war.” It’s perfectly appropriate for media outlets to include in their articles the claims of government and military officials. And there may be good reasons why the U.S. military wants to downplay the success of Taliban attacks.
It's so funny how anti-fluoridationists use tactics like bullying and threats, and then others come in to validate them by saying it is no big deal, further belittling the victim. How very Tea Party
But none of those caveats undermines the primary point worth making: the overwhelming reliance by American media outlets on the claims of government and media officials invariably produces propagandistic and false journalism and subverts the intended function of a free press. It’s one thing merely to include the claims of “officials” in news accounts. But that is not what this reporting is."

"This “officials say” form of American journalism converts government claims into journalistic fact. In that regard, it’s not merely redundant, though it is that: who needs a media outlet to re-print government press releases, when one can just go read those press releases on one’s own? It’s worse than redundant: it launders government claims as verified fact, as though they’ve been checked and confirmed by an independent media arbiter. That’s why government officials love to “leak” falsehoods to reporters while hiding behind the shield of anonymity, rather than just themselves dissemintaing those falsehoods: not only does that practice shield them from accountability, but it masquerades their lies as “reporting.”"

http://tinyurl.com/73ekwr7

"This week it was revealed for the first time that the CIA has a secret airbase in Saudi Arabia from which it has been launching drone strikes for targeted killings in Yemen for at least the past two years. The news media is reporting, and reiterating for emphasis, that they knew about this secret drone base in Saudi Arabia, but did not disclose it because of an “informal arrangement among several news organizations” not to publish it at the request of senior US officials.

In other words, the Obama administration didn’t want them to report it, so the news media meekly obeyed their masters, and didn’t report it."

http://tinyurl.com/bfgl65h

"Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly tells viewers that, according to a September 23 CNN-Gallup poll, "66 percent of Americans support going into Iraq, even without UN mandates." In fact, the poll to which O'Reilly is referring shows that only 37 percent supports a war in Iraq without a U.N. mandate."

"Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly defends American media coverage of the upcoming war: "Everywhere else in the world lies. If you see the foreign coverage, it's just a bunch of propaganda.""

"Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly tries to bet one of his guests that U.S. victory in Iraq would be swift: "I will bet you the best dinner in the gaslight district of San Diego that military action will not last more than a week. Are you willing to take that wager?""

"Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly again promises his viewers that the U.S. will effortlessly win the impending war in Iraq: "Our military machine will crush Iraq in a matter of days and there's no question it will... Once the United States and Britain unleash, it's maybe hours. They're going to fold like that.""

"February 26, 2003 — "Once the war against Saddam begins, we expect every American to support our military, and if they can't do that, to shut up. Americans, and indeed our allies, who actively work against our military once the war is underway will be considered enemies of the state by me. Just fair warning to you, Barbra Streisand, and others who see the world as you do." (Bill O'Reilly, Fox News Channel)"

"A false chemical weapons discovery is widely reported in the media. Fox News Channel posts a headline that reads, "HUGE CHEMICAL WEAPONS FACTORY FOUND IN SO IRAQ.... REPORTS: 30 IRAQIS SURRENDER AT CHEM WEAPONS PLANT.... COAL TROOPS HOLDING IRAQI IN CHARGE OF CHEM WEAPONS." ABC's John McWethy promotes "one important new discovery: U.S. officials say, up the road from Nasarijah, in a town called Najaf, they believe that they have captured a chemical weapons plant and perhaps more important, the commanding general of that facility. One U.S. official said he is a potential 'gold mine' about the weapons Saddam Hussein says he doesn't have."

The next day, a Fox correspondent in Qatar quietly issues an update to the chemical weapons story: The "chemical weapons facility discovered by coalition forces did not appear to be an active chemical weapons facility." U.S. officials admit that morning that the site contains no chemicals at all and had been abandoned long ago."

http://tinyurl.com/b72pv78

"MSNBC cancels host for being "anti-war", "anti-Bush" (2/25/2003): After having a program on MSNBC for less than a year, host Phil Donahue's show is cancelled. The initial reason given is low ratings; however, a leaked internal memo reveals that MSNBC felt Donahue would be a "difficult public face" in a time of war, going on to say that "he seems to delight in presenting guests who are anti-war, anti-Bush, and skeptical of the administration's motives.""

"MSNBC host Chris Matthews: "We're all neocons now."
(4/9/2003): After a statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled (an event staged for the networks), Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's "Hardball", says: "We're all neocons now.""

"MSNBC host Chris Matthews: Women like this war (5/1/2003): "We’re proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who’s physical. They want a guy who’s president. Women like a guy who’s president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It’s simple. We’re not like the Brits.""

"MSNBC host Chris Matthews: George W. Bush "won [Iraq] war" (5/1-4/2003): Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's "Hardball", says President Bush "deserves everything he's doing tonight in terms of his leadership. He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics. Do you think he is defining the office of the presidency, at least for this time, as basically that of commander in chief?""

"MSNBC host Ed Schultz advocates support for Obama's 2011 bombing campaign in Libya (3/23/2011): MSNBC's Ed Schultz, host of "The Ed Show", writes an opinion piece on the Huffington Post supporting US involvement in Libya. He writes that the "president of the United States, Barack Obama, deserves the benefit of the doubt and our support in his decision to use military force in Libya.""

"MSNBC President tells Cenk Uygur that channel is part of "establishment" and host should "act like it"
(April 2011): From the New York Times: "[...] in late June the channel’s president, Phil Griffin, decided to try out Mr. Sharpton, and offered Mr. Uygur a new contract that included a weekend show, but not a higher-profile weekday show.Mr. Uygur, who by most accounts was well liked within MSNBC, said in an interview that he turned down the new contract because he felt Mr. Griffin had been the recipient of political pressure. In April, he said, Mr. Griffin “called me into his office and said that he’d been talking to people in Washington, and that they did not like my tone.” He said he guessed Mr. Griffin was referring to White House officials, though he had no evidence for the assertion. He also said that Mr. Griffin said the channel was part of the “establishment,” and “that you need to act like it.”""

"CNN guest suggests dealing with 9/11 by killing people, even if some are not "directly involved" (9/11/2001): After the 9/11 attacks, major news networks, including CNN, largely turn their coverage on to themes surrounding retaliation. Says former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger: "There is only one way to begin to deal with people like this, and that is you have to kill some of them even if they are not immediately directly involved.""

"CNN Chairman orders correspondents to balance reporting from Taliban POV with reminders that Taliban harbor 9/11 terrorists (10/31/2001): CNN chairman Walter Isaacson orders his staff to balance CNN coverage of US-led civilian devastation in Afghan cities with reminders that the Taliban harbor those who attacked the United States on 9/11. In an internal memo to CNN correspondents, Isaacson writes: "As we get good reports from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, we must redouble our efforts to make sure we do not seem to be simply reporting from their vantage or perspective. We must talk about how the Taliban are using civilian shields and how the Taliban have harbored the terrorists responsible for killing close to 5,000 innocent people.""

"CNN anchor cuts broadcast of press conference with Iraqi Information Minister because US government "would disagree" with content (3/26/2003): "All right, we’re going to interrupt this press briefing right now because, of course, the U.S. government would disagree with most of what he is saying." —CNN anchor Carol Costello"

"CNN and FOX misrepresent toppling of Saddam statue (4/9/2003): CNN covers the toppling of a Saddam Hussein statue in central Baghdad, Iraq. It is portrayed as a spontaneous event started by "liberated" Iraqis overjoyed with the U.S. presence in their country. It is later revealed to be entirely the work of a Marine colonel who decided to take down the statue. As reported by the Los Angeles Times: "[It] was a quick-thinking Army psychological operations team that made it appear to be a spontaneous Iraqi undertaking.""

"CNN: Why report civilian deaths in Iraq? (4/15/2004): CNN anchor Daryn Kagan interviews Al-Jazeera's editor-in-chief, Ahmed Al-Sheik, and uses the opportunity to badger Al-Sheik about whether civilian deaths in Iraq are really "the story" in Fallujah. "Isn't the story, though, bigger than just the simple numbers, with all due respect to the Iraqi civilians who have lost their lives-- the story bigger than just the numbers of people who were killed or the fact that they might have been killed by the U.S. military, that the insurgents, the people trying to cause problems within Fallujah, are mixing in among the civilians, making it actually possibly that even more civilians would be killed, that the story is what the Iraqi insurgents are doing, in addition to the response from the U.S. military?""

"CNN briefly banned from Iran over "mistranslation" of Iranian leader (1/2006): CNN is briefly banned from Iran after "mistranslating" Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying Iran has the right to use nuclear "weapons" rather than nuclear "technology"."

"CNN's Anderson Cooper interned with CIA (9/6/2006): It is revealed that CNN's Anderson Cooper "spent his summers interning" at the Central Intelligence Agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia, "in a program for students interested in intelligence work", as reported by Rawstory."

"CNN's weekend host advises President Obama on foreign policy (5/13/2011): CNN's Fareed Zakaria, host of the weekend show Fareed Zakaria GPS, admits on CNN that he has been advising President Obama on foreign policy matters."

"CNN journalist urges Americans to stop being 'nosy' (6/2012): LZ Granderson, a regular CNN columnist and contributor, writes: "Though to be fair, it’s not entirely our fault. Between the 24/7 news cycle, social media and reality TV, we have been spoon fed other people’s private business for so long we now assume it’s a given to know everything. And if there are people who choose not to disclose, they must be hiding something. Being told that something’s “none of your business” is slowly being characterized as rude, and if such a statement is coming from the government, it seems incriminating. Times have changed. Yet, not everything is our business. And in the political arena, there are things that should be and need to be kept quiet. . . . You see, freedom isn’t entirely free. It also isn’t squeaky clean. And sometimes the federal government deems it necessary to get its hands a little dirty in the hopes of achieving something we generally accept as good for the country. . . . And maybe it’s better for us not to be so nosy, not to know everything because, to paraphrase the famous line from the movie “A Few Good Men,” many of us won’t be able to handle the truth.""

http://tinyurl.com/8plrh7w

How U.S. news networks discredit movements:
http://tinyurl.com/asrz5ut

The failure of U.S. news media:
http://youtu.be/vVtHA1BpKJw

Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism
http://youtu.be/lFDwdRXCg3I

In Portland, Oregon, cops get away with murder.

2013-04-28T14:13:00.002-07:00

From a 2005 Portland Alliance

About Us - Subscribe - Contact & Submission info

Front Page ; Issues ; 2005; August

The Kendra James trial: Was justice served?

Was justice served by the recent trial in federal court of the man who killed Kendra James? A closer look at the proceedings raises serious questions about how much the facts decided the decision to exonerate Scott McCollister.

By Diane Lane Woodcock

It’s hardly news that Officer Scott McCollister recently managed to convince a jury of eight in a federal courtroom that he did not use excessive or unreasonable force when he shot 21-year-old Kendra James during a traffic stop over two years ago.

It’s not new information, but unless you attended all six days of the wrongful death and civil rights trial brought by James’ family, you may not be aware of certain items that came up — some of them troubling.

The single bullet fired by the 29-year-old McCollister killed the unarmed James in the early morning hours of May 5, 2003. Officer Rick Bean had pulled over the rental car in which she rode with her friends, Darnell White and Terrol White. James had an arrest warrant pending for attempted possession of a controlled substance (a misdemeanor) and was known by Bean to be a flight risk. After the police got the two men out of the car, James hopped over the backseat to the driver’s seat, and allegedly put the car in drive. McCollister claims that he had 80 percent of this body weight inside the car, trying to pull her out.

McCollister told the jury, “I drew my gun as the car shuddered.” The defense showed a video re-enactment — featuring only the car and McCollister in casual clothes — that displayed him yelling, “Get out of the fucking car!” On the stand, he claimed his left foot was inside the car with his left knee resting up against the driver’s seat as James began to lean towards and climb over to the front passenger seat. McCollister explained that the car moved forward causing him to fall backwards and, afraid he would be sucked under the car and run over, he fired one shot to prevent James from driving off.
Note that the car, as determined by forensic experts, rolled approximately 260 feet after the shot that killed James and that McCollister admitted under oath, “I never saw her driving the car,” and that he never saw her put the car in gear or step on the gas pedal. McCollister portrayed his deadly force as reasonable despite stating, "I didn't know where I was when the shot was fired," and "it was not a series of decisions with a thought process;" that she did not hit himor try to hurt him; and that he didn't know whether his bullet even hit her.

The jury must have found former cheerleader McCollister quite convincing, because the defense presented no evidence that corroborated his version of events including the testimony of his fellow officers, Bean and Reynolds, one of McCollister’s closest friends, whom he dines with every Tuesday evening, including the day after the shooting. Before the shot was fired, Reynolds stood directly to the right of McCollister in the 33-inch-wide driver’s side doorway of the car, holding a Taser, looking for a clear shot at James. Bean stood approximately two feet behind them, slightly to their right. Reynolds and Bean testified that even though they stood closely beside McCollister, they did not see him inside the car, did not see his foot in the car, nor did they see him fall.

Contrary to McCollister’s story, the other officers, two independent witnesses, Brician Williams and Meilani Carruthers, and the driver of the car, Terrol White, testified that McCollister and Reynolds “stumbled” along with the car as it started to slowly roll down the street. Reynolds testified that he recalled seeing James’ hand on the steering wheel — a recollection that escaped him during his three prior recounts, including an interview with police detectives shortly after the shooting. Bean and Reynolds testified that they perceived no deadly threat from James.

Both sides of the civil rights lawsuit hired forensic and law enforcement experts and used exhibits including diagrams of the incident, the autopsy and toxicology reports on James, and a mock-up of the car involved in the stop. The defense paid for the model car, or rather, the left front section of a car similar to the rental car. Curiously, the lawyers for the James family used the model much more than did the defense.

The lawyers for the James family used the actual rental car in a demonstration in the basement of the federal courthouse and in a test by forensic scientist Dr. Raymond Grimsbo that was videotaped and played during the trial. Dr. Grimsbo’s test clearly showed that the car could have traveled at idle speed, three miles per hour, to the location of its final resting spot — approximately 275 feet from the initial stop — during the incident. This test refuted testimony by defense witness Gaylan Warren, a forensic microscopist, and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office report on earlier tests conducted, that the car needed some acceleration to make it that far down the road — at least eight miles per hour. Obviously, the defense needed to imply that the car had been going fast, and that someone besides McCollister made it accelerate; otherwise, there would be no risk for McCollister if he was indeed losing his balance inside the car as he claimed to be.

Evidence appears to refute that claim, though. Experts for both sides performed gun residue tests which look for particles that eject whenever a gun is fired. Both sides agreed that no particles were found inside the car, on the car door, or on James’ jacket, although the bullet hole went through her jacket on the lower left backside of her abdomen. Interestingly, the test by Dan Alessio, Oregon State Police forensic scientist, resulted in a finding that the gun muzzle had to be at least 30 inches away from James at the time it was fired. Dr. Grimsbo’s test showed that McCollister’s gun barrel had to be at least four feet away from James.

The defense tried to pooh-pooh Grimsbo’s test by pointing out that he used cotton material samples rather than nylon material similar to her jacket. When asked (unfortunately, off the witness stand) why he didn’t use the same type of material, Dr. Grimsbo, who has more than 30 years experience in forensic science, stated that the type of material didn’t matter because the purpose of the test was not to see if particles burned into the jacket, but rather to determine the distance between the gun barrel and the test material at which residue particles no longer exist. Alessio and Grimsbo both used McCollister’s gun and the same type of ammo issued by the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) for the test. Grimsbo said that his results differed from Alessio’s because Alessio took small pieces from the sleeve of James’ jacket: Gun residue comes out in a cone shape pattern, and so particles in the outer radius of the cone wouldn’t show up on small pieces of fabric.

Ken Katsaris, a sworn officer from Florida whose long career has involved defensive tactics training, claimed that McCollister did exactly what he should have during the stop — that he did not place himself at peril by getting inside the car. He opined that the PPB’s findings that McCollister used poor judgment and placed himself in a risky position, resulting in the need to use deadly force, were unjustified. He claimed that Portland officers were trained to shoot as they fall and so McCollister’s shot was not at all reckless but rather good police procedure.

According to retired Portland police officer Damon Woodcock, such training does not occur either in Portland or at the police academy. Katsaris teaches a course entitled Street Survival, offered to officers as an elective that Woodcock attended twice. That course covers shooting while falling; however, the main lesson instructs officers on how to survive when they’re in a violent fight for their lives with armed subjects. The PPB emphasizes officer safety and so does not train officers as Katsaris claims.
Lawyers and experts for the James family argued that rather than taking the time to shoot James to try to stop the car — which wasn’t successful since the car kept moving — McCollister could have chosen to regain his balance or step back out of the car, if he was actually inside the car. Although the car did not stop after he shot James, he apparently managed to successfully get out of the car without falling. One of the experts for the defense explained action/reaction time and how regaining balance requires 100 percent focus. If that’s the case, why was McCollister able to focus on pulling off a shot rather than on regaining his balance? If he was truly out of balance — somehow heading backwards and downwards despite the car door directly behind him, Officer Reynolds right next to him, Officer Bean close by and the car moving slowly — how did he manage to get out okay with his attention diverted? McCollister still claims that he doesn’t know if he fell or not and that his foot might have gotten run over by the car. Does he seriously believe that he could fall and have a part of his body run over by the car and no one near him would notice?

No one attacked the part of McCollister’s theory that the car’s sudden movement would make him fall backwards into the street instead of further into the car. But it seems more likely that if he had 80 percent of his body weight in the car, as he claimed, the lurch of the car would pull the rest of his body into the car, not push it out — a theory supported by the defense when it claimed the driver’s side door closed shut with the forward momentum of the car after James was shot.

The defense flaunted the toxicology report that showed the level of cocaine James had in her system. Note that the medical report indicated James as a healthy, “well nourished,” normally developed female. McCollister’s attorney told all about her past drug usage, former arrests (no violent crimes) and troubled childhood as if that made it okay for McCollister”s use of deadly force. The defense didn’t bother to mention that James’ mother, Shirley, successfully stopped abusing drugs and there was no reason to believe that Kendra couldn’t have eventually done the same thing. Of course, demonizing people is a successful way for military and police departments to train their members to hurt and kill people.

The defense repeatedly painted the following scenario: James, leaning over the center console towards the passenger side of the car, completely out of control, crazed with drugs, with 80 percent of McCollister’s 220 pounds on top of her, somehow had enough presence of mind and control to put the car into drive and step on the gas. Equally troubling, they kept claiming that the cocaine in her system rendered her “supercharged.” However, according to experts, cocaine users merely believe they are stronger — they do not actually gain more strength. Even though the car cannot be engaged into drive unless a button is pushed on the gearshift lever simultaneously with the brake pedal being depressed, it seems possible that the car could have been accidentally knocked into gear. Right before McCollister’s shot, Reynolds deployed his Taser, hitting James in the left shoulder. Although the autopsy indicated no burn marks on her skin, one of the experts stated that she must have felt the 50,000 volts of electricity to some degree. With James’ upper body lying on her right side and her legs and feet extended towards the pedals, it may be possible that her body stiffened with the voltage, thereby depressing the brake and slamming against the gear shift button. It’s even possible that McCollister’s frantic attempts to grab at her put the car into gear.

You might think in the spirit of fair process that McCollister’s mistakes as a public employee would be presented during trial. No such luck — while the attorneys for both sides most likely had McCollister’s complaint and training records, none of that information was admissible during the trial. From a credible source, though, it appears that there may have been “some issues” during McCollister’s training period as well as a significant complaint history.

McCollister’s discipline report for this shooting indicates not only that he used poor judgment, and that PPB Chief Derrick Foxworth — assistant chief at that time — recommended firing him, but also that Reynolds tried to nudge him away from the car doorway so that he could have a clear shot at James with the Taser. The report indicates: “Officer Reynolds was shoulder to shoulder with you...equipped with a Taser and prepared to deploy it....However, your placement inside the vehicle as well as the size of the car door opening did not provide enough room for a desirable or effective Taser deployment.”
Litigation expert Donald Van Blaricom, with more than 29 years in law enforcement, including 11 years as a police chief, stated that according to PPB’s lesson plan on extracting subjects from their cars during traffic stops, an officer should never enter a vehicle because the plan instructs officers to “avoid over-physical commitment.” Van Blaricom, who testifies for both plaintiffs and defendants depending on whose “fact pattern” he agrees with, could not make sense of McCollister’s actions.

Van Blaricom also served on the PPB Chief’s Use of Force Committee. When asked his opinion about the shooting, he stated on the witness stand, “It was unnecessary, unreasonable, and shouldn’t have happened.”

|So why did the jury believe McCollister? It’s hard to say, but here’s some food for thought: Federal marshals excluded the public from the jury selection the first day of the trial by claiming that the pool of 70 potential jurors left no room for anyone else in the courtroom, which remained locked during the process. Federal civil court procedure allows for jury members to come from a wider jurisdiction, including rural areas, than in state trials. There were only three African Americans in the jury pool and none of them was selected.http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/policeaccountabilty

The City spent over $2 million defending McCollister, who suffered only 900 hours of unpaid suspension for making poor choices that took a life. McCollister is currently fighting the suspension and if he wins, will be paid for the suspended hours. According to the PPB’s discipline report, if the Bureau required him to take any training and/or counseling, he would be paid for those hours even though they would be considered part of the suspension.

Was justice served? Certainly not for the James family, first bereft of the young woman’s life and then unable to receive any compensation that would have helped provide for her five-year-old son Melvin. Certainly not for the Portland community which is left with a police officer who uses poor judgment back on the streets.

Diane Lane Woodcock is a long-time police accountability activist, steering committee member of the Alliance for Police and Community Accountability, paralegal and writer. She can be reached at dianelane@riseup.net.

And the struggle continues today, eight years later.

http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/policeaccountabilty

It is important to note that the PDX environment is defined by an out-of-control Police Bureau
which considers its officers above the law. The behavior of our local Police Department inspires
fear, apprehension, mistrust, dissention, confusion, and chaos.

Real dangers lurk in allowing officers to shoot or beat citizens to death and get away with it. Until we hold our council and mayor accountable, brutal dysfunctional interactions between officers and citizens will continue: avoidable deaths and unnecessary costs.

http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/policeaccountability

A chance to make a difference!
http://activismnewsletterat.blogspot.com/

2013-03-19T00:18:00.000-07:00

3:30-5:30 PM: Visibility Action: "US Out of Iraq"

at SW Broadway & Morrison
Tuesday, March 19!!
IRAQ 10 YEARS LATER:
Tuesday March 19, 2013
EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY,
VISIBILITY ACTION
10 YEARS SINCE THE INVASION OF IRAQ

Tuesday, March 19, 2013 3:30-5:30 PM:
Visibility Action: US Out of Iraq

And later....

7 PM: Cathy Breen,
Voices for Creative Nonviolence,
"Eyewitness 10 Years Later:
What Iraqis Are Saying"
at First Unitarian Church-Eliot Chapel 1011 SW 12th
More info: http://www.theportlandalliance.org/anybody

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

3:30-5:30 PM: Visibility Action: "US Out of Iraq"

at SW Broadway & Morrison

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY,

10 YEARS SINCE THE INVASION OF IRAQ

7 PM: Cathy Breen, Voices for Creative Nonviolence,

"Eyewitness 10 Years Later: What Iraqis Are Saying"

at First Unitarian Church-Eliot Chapel 1011 SW 12th

More info: http://www.theportlandalliance.org/anybody

When under attack, Stand Up and Fight Back!

2013-03-17T01:47:00.000-07:00

SUNDAY, MARCH 17, 2013

Rally and March: Save Our Post Office!

http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/postoffice /Sun.Mar.17 2- 3:30pm PioneerCourthouse Square:NoMoreCuts:RestoreJobs& Service! March & Rally! pic.twitter.com/zCcg1MU7nS

http://www.

Come to MRG's Justice Social Happy Hour on March 12th!

2013-03-08T16:17:00.001-08:00

more information at The Portland Alliance Portal to MRG
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/mrg

Tuesday, March 12, 2013 from 6pm until 8:00pm
Come to MRG's Justice Social Happy Hour on March 12th!

at Queen of Sheba Int'l Foods
2413 NE M L King Blvd, Portland, Oregon 97212-3730
Enjoy good conversation and a drink with other
progressive folks! http://activismnewsletterat.blogspot.com/

2013-03-03T09:58:00.000-08:00

The Big Al Portal
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/einstein

“We must be prepared to make the same heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war.”
― Albert Einstein

Religious myths and fear-mongering aside, I am ambivalent regarding fortune-telling. I am in favor of people with good hearts working to nurture the planet and seek justice.

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious - the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.” “Everything must be made as simple as possible. But not simpler.” “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity” “What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right.” “The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.” “Love is a better master than duty.” “Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” “Time is an illusion.” “I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.” “Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.” “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” “Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and it's beauty.” “If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.” “I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms.” “From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that we are here for the sake of each other - above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.” “The word 'God' is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, and religious scripture a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can (for me) change this.” “The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with joy are goodness, beauty, and truth.” “Life is a preparation for the future; and the best preparation for the future is to live as if there were none.” “It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere... Science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.” “All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.” “I am a deeply religious nonbeliever. This is a somewhat new kind of religion.” “Striving for social justice is the most valuable thing to do in life.” “To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness. In this sense I am religious.” “If tomorrow were never to come, it would not be worth living today.”

More quotes from Big Al

“Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life.”
― Albert Einstein

“My sense of god is my sense of wonder about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

“The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.”
― Albert Einstein

“The religion of the future will be cosmic religion. It will transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology.”
― Albert Einstein

“Life is sacred, that is to say, it is the supreme value, to which all other values are subordinate.”
― Albert Einstein

“Learn from Yesterday, Live for Today and Hope for Tomorrow.”
― Albert Einstein

“everyday is an oportunity to make a new happy ending.........”
― Albert Einstein

“True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness.”
― Albert Einstein

“The idea of a personal God is quite alien to me and seems even naïve.”
― Albert Einstein

“Everything that the human race has done and thought is concerned with the satisfaction of deeply felt needs and the assuagement of pain. One has to keep this constantly in mind if one wishes to understand spiritual movements and their development. Feeling and longing are the motive force behind all human endeavor and human creation, in however exalted a guise the latter may present themselves to us.”
― Albert Einstein

2013-03-01T16:39:00.003-08:00

https://sites.google.com/site/pdxactivismnews/if-you-want-peace-work-for-justice

posted a minute ago by Timothy Martin Flanagan

Come and hear an inspiring and uplifting story by Bill Dienst, M.D.,
co-editor of
“Freedom Sailors: The Maiden Voyage of the Free Gaza Movement
and How We Succeeded in Spite of Ourselves” (2012).

He will tell how forty-four intrepid passengers broke through
Israel’s illegal blockade on Gaza in August 2008.

If you want Peace, work for Justice / If you want Justice, work for Peace

http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/vfp

Endorsed by Peaceresource.org

Freedom Sailors book event - Getting to Gaza through the blockade

March 4 at 7:00pm at First Unitarian Church of Portland Oregon

http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/firstunitarianchurch

Hear how a group of ordinary people came up with a bold idea
to bring international attention to the plight of Palestinians in Gaza.
The two boats, the Free Gaza and the Liberty, sailed into port on Aug. 23, 2008.
This is a public event - so spread the word!
$5-$10 suggested donation (no one will be turned away for lack of funds); all funds raised
will do to Gaza's Ark and Palestinian Projects in Gaza
supported by http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/vfp Chapter 72 and Students United for
Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER), Endorsed by The Portland Alliance

2013-01-08T16:03:00.000-08:00

Act to Close the Internment Camp at Guantánamo on its Grim 11th Anniversary:
Obama promised to close it last year!

January 11, 2013 marks the grim eleventh anniversary of the opening of the internment camp at Guantánamo Bay, where 166 men remain deprived of their freedom, most without charge.

It is now President Obama's second term, and we demand that he finally meet his unfulfilled promise to close Guantánamo by releasing the men he will not charge and by giving fair trials to those he will. President Obama’s own administration has cleared more than half of the detained men for release, yet Guantánamo is unacceptably about to enter its twelfth year of operation.

If President Obama continues to refuse to honor the promise he made to shut down Guantánamo, then he should be held accountable. It is past time to shut down Guantánamo. It is urgent. It is ethically and legally necessary.

On January 11, 2013 demand the closure of Guantánamo and help build opposition to both this prison and to all sites of unjust U.S. detentions.

Meet us at our main rally in Washington D.C., starting at noon on the steps of the Supreme Court, moving past the Capitol, and ending at the White House. Or join demonstrations planned in other cities, including Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, Palo Alto, and London.

If you cannot join a demonstration, create an event in your own community to build pressure for the closure of Guantánamo, or participate in and share CCR’s calendar of solidarity activities in which you can participate from wherever you are. Also, use and share CCR’s advocacy tool kit to learn more about
Guantánamo and bolster our efforts to shut it down.|

What: “January 11: Day of Action Against Guantánamo.” March from the Supreme Court via the Capitol to the White House

When: Meet at noon on Supreme Court steps. March ends at 1:30pm at the White House

Where: Supreme Court, 1 First Street, NE (between East Capitol & Maryland Avenue), Washington D.C.

The Obama administration has not only failed to exercise the leadership required to close Guantánamo, but it has also extended some of the worst aspects of the Guantánamo system by continuing to use illegitimate military commissions to try some suspects, and by blocking accountability for torture.
Demand an end to Guantánamo and its system of indefinite detention without charge or fair trial. Join us in D.C. on January 11 or see CCR’s Close Guantánamo website and do your part to advocate for the closure of Guantánamo from wherever you are.

PS: If you are in Miami, be sure to attend a panel discussion including CCR’s President Emeritus Michael Ratner and Associate Legal Director Bill Quigley. The panel will be at 7:30pm at Cor Jesu Chapel, Barry University, 11300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami Shores, FL 33161.

2013-01-04T23:56:00.001-08:00

Defeat the TPP! Organize Across Borders!

2012-11-26T13:49:00.002-08:00

Join The Alliance for Democracy, Oregon Fair Trade Campaign,
Jobs with Justice, Labor Radio, Northwest Alliance for Alternative
Media and Education (NAAME) ThePortlandAlliance.org
and others.. (No fear, no compromise, and no surrender!)

An Historic Cross-Border
Organizing Rally & Summit
http://activismnewsletterat.blogspot.com/

Defeat the Trans Pacific Partnership!(TPP)

The 1% are planning to limit our governments'
power to regulate in the public interest. The TPP is
a threat to democracy, undermining national
sovereignty, workers' rights, environmental
protections and Internet freedom.
We urge you to reject this corporate takeover. We are the 99%

ORFTC has endorsed the historic Cross-Border Organizing Summit & Rally against the
Trans-Pacific Partnership taking place along
the U.S./Canada border in Blaine, Washington on Saturday, December 1. at Peace Arch Park
in Blaine, Washington
Starts with rally at 1pm and
organizing summit at 2.

More information at Community Calendar

The Blaine summit and rally’s organizing partners include the AFL-CIO, Citizens Trade Campaign, Council of Canadians, Sierra Club and over a dozen other local social justice organizations. It’s timed with a similar event along the U.S./Mexico border, and will be kicking off an exciting new tri-national campaign on the TPP just prior to Mexico and Canada’s first round of TPP negotiations, which take place from December 3 – 12 in Auckland, New Zealand.
To learn more, please contact us at (503) 736-9777 or elizabeth@oregonfairtrade.org.

Help stop the largest corporate power grab in ten years!
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is bad for working people.
On Saturday, December 1st, 2012...
at Peace Arch Park in Blaine Washington
Rally at 1pm and Organizing Summit at 2pm

Join hands with Canadian, Mexican, and American Trade Justice
Advocates from the labor, environmental, family farm, immigrant-
rights, internet freedom, occupy, peace and social justice movements
to help launch an historic new tri-national campaign to defeat the TPP.
Come Join the Rally and Summit!
more info: at OregonFairTrade.org or call 503-736-9777

Peace Arch Park / Blaine, WA

What to expect on December 1st:
Meet rock-awesome local activists.
Learn about the TPP from organizers
throughout North America.
Strategize on how to spread the word
and mobilize in your community.
Participate in a fun border action.
Make movement history!
Seize the day!
More information at ThePortlandAlliance.org/communitycalendar
and at PDX Jobs with Justice
http://www.jwjpdx.org/join-us/join-jobs-with-justice

Reasons to NOT Vote for Obama

2012-09-27T21:59:00.000-07:00

No Fear, No Compromise, and No Surrender This Fall!
Do not surrender and compromise your principles because of
fear-mongers. Courage conquers fear. Stand up and fight back!
Follow your heart, use your mind, and vote for real leadership
instead of known evils.
                                     http://activismnewsletterat.blogspot.com/

Some Reasons Why I Cannot Vote for Obama

1. Obama did not even propose the public option for nonprofit
    healthcare. He campaigned on this system, but instead he
    orchestrated putting insurance cartels in charge of our
    health care delivery system, with mandated payments according
    to rates determined by that demonstrably corrupt industry.
    A sellout, pure and simple. He took universal non-profit health
    care off the table, instead of taking the Fortune 500
    transnational insurance cartel profiteers off the table.

2. Barack appointed countless Wall Street Banksters to his top
    economic team and failed to appoint labor voices, progressives,
    and advocates for everyday people and Main Street.

3. Barry Obama bailed out Wall Street instead of Main Street:
    remember TARP? Those banks dispensed $6 billion in bonuses
    in that year to executives. This money for these criminals came
    out of your pocket. Everyday Americans are losing their homes,
    often due to outrageous medical expenses and corporate fraud.
    Where is our bail out? We got sold out.

4. This failed president did not address the mortgage crisis, leaving
     this elephant in the “room,” with one-third of home mortgages
     now underwater and no relief in sight for the people defrauded
     by banks and profiteers.

5. Barack Obama failed to veto the National Defense Authorization
    Act, and made no effort to restore habeas corpus. Instead of
    closing Gitmo, ending indiscriminate wiretapping, and banning
    "rendering," Obama endorsed government arrests and indefinite
    prison without a trial or a hearing, including the possibility of
    rendering Americans to be tortured, raped, or murdered.

6. He agreed to an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the rich, and
    on top of that, he agreed to an egregious reduction of the estate
    taxes on the rich, exempting as much as $10 million from any
    estate taxes and lowering the overall estate tax rate at a time
    when we cannot even maintain critical social needs.

7. He failed to indict and imprison any of the banksters involved
    in the Wall Street fraud related to subprime mortgages, robo-
    signing, and selling bullshit-backed mortgage securities known
    to be worthless. He flat refused to prosecute war profiteers who
    cost us trillions in resources, international credibility, and millions
    of lives. Hold them accountable!

8. He appointed Jeffrey Immelt to head his Jobs Council when GE
    has been selling us up the Yangste river and shipping jobs over-
    seas while closing plants here in the US. It is time for jobs with
    justice on American soil. We must invest in rebuilding infra-
    structure for job creation and national security.

9. President Obama is now considering and proposing to lower
    the corporate tax rate while corporations are not only at an all-
    time low-rate of actually paying taxes while getting billions in
    tax subsidies (corporate welfare) from our government and
    opening up offices on the 19th floor of one building on the
    Cayman Islands to avoid taxes altogether. The corporate elite
    should pay their fair share. Currently the average Fortune
    500 corporation pays 8.4% in taxes. (If they pay any at all.)

10. President Obama spoke in favor of PIPA and SOPA, when the
internet is the last vestige of free speech and accurate information
    for the general public.

11. There were no indictments by President Obama of all the
    contractor fraud reported by Bernie Sanders and Ron Paul in
    a Congressional Report released over a year ago. Whenever
    the rich and big corporations are caught in fraud, Eric Holder
    adopts a policy of “looking forward”, instead of holding them
    accountable. So they smile, take it to the bank, and do it again.

12. President Obama agreed to a “grand bargain” to cut over $2
    trillion in spending, including social security, medicare, medicaid,
    and other social safety-net programs merely in return for
    hypothetical “revenue increases” of $800 billion relying on
    “dynamic scoring”. And he endorsed continuing corporate
    wars of aggression and exploitation whose expense continue
    to suck us dry and prevent forming critical alliances.

13. President Obama has done nothing to level the trade treaties,
    where corporations ship labor to Cambodia (22.5 cents per hour)
    and to China, the Philippines, etc., where labor is grossly underpaid.
    This is exporting slavery to other countries. Where is the level playing
      field for Americans? We need fair trade not corporate fraud.

14. President Obama in 2009 only proposed $140 billion in infra-
    structure spending when Paul Krugman and other economists
    predicted that $1.5 trillion was needed for our economy to recover.
    Last year the president only proposed a paltry $108 billion in
    infrastructure spending. If we ended corporate wars & exploitation
    abroad, we could bring home troops and begin rebuilding America.
    These project would create jobs and all ships would rise.

15. President Obama praised the recent JOBS Act, which allows
    corporations to go public and raise capital without audited financial
    information in their public presentations for the first five years. This
    allows them to present fictitious numbers and defraud investors.
    Barack Obama is not on our side.

16. President Obama has failed to propose the return of Glass-Steagall,
    separating commercial and investment banking, which will soon
    plunge us back into another mega-bailout of Wall Street.

17. President Obama has failed to propose the break up of the big banks
    and corporations. Whatever happened to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act?
    We need responsible remediation and regulation so deep-pocket
    transnationals don't continue to call the shots and hurt most American
    taxpayers.

18. President Obama touted a $25 billion robo-signing settlement when
    a trillion dollars of our pension and retirement funds were stolen.
    Instead we should hold these thugs accountable, put profiteers in
    jail, enforce the rule of law, and demand full and complete reparations
    for those victimized.

19. While campaigning, President Obama promised to put on his walking
    shoes for labor, but failed to even show up in Wisconsin and walk the
    picket line against Governor Walker. He NEVER walked the talk.

20. President Obama has not declared war on the Supreme Court, as
    President Roosevelt did, to oppose the corporate/rich posture of
    Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Alito, and Roberts. Why not take them on?

21. President Obama has arrested and raided more marijuana users in
    less than four years than George Bush did in eight. Why is President
    Obama proposing cuts to social security, medicare, and medicaid
    while spending more on marijuana arrests and raids, especially when
    a majority of Americans favor legalization of pot and the open sale of
    marijuana for medical use?

22. Obama endorses the murder of US prisoners. This results in innocent
    deaths and does not deter crime. This posture is in violation of
    international law and multiple treaties we have signed.

23. Obama embraces the Bush Doctrine: he claims we have a right to
    attack anyone, anywhere, anytime, for any reason, or without providing
    any reason at all. This is dangerous, short-sighted, and puts this nation
    and our troops overseas at avoidable risk.

24. Obama support offshore drilling and drilling in protected habitats.

24. Obama has not adequately addressed our failing schools. We need
    to put teachers back in charge and get untrained school boards out
    of the classroom. Professional educators should run our schools.

25. Obama has betrayed those who voted for him on every issue at
    every turn. He has governed like a right-wing hawk. He plays fast
    and loose with human lives and embraces corporatism, even when
    this posture costs trillions of dollars in profiteering and corruption
    while making us less safe. This misjudgement has crippled the nation
    and made us less effective in critical negotiations around the globe.
    Instead of a rising tide we have sinking ships. We need effective,
    principled leadership to build bridges to a more prosperous future.

26. Barack Obama has not bothered to address our economic crisis.
    He failed to provide adequate solutions for homelessness, declining
    wages, hunger, joblessness, and critical infrastructure: housing,
    parks, highways, bridges, ports, electrical grids, schools, libraries,
    research facilities, etc.

27. Obama sends drones overseas to bomb sovereign nations (an act
    of war). This aggression costs innocent lives, wastes resources,
    undermines credibility, and creates enemies. These wars of choice
    are illegal according to US law, constitutional mandate, and
    international law.

March for Justice1

2012-09-17T13:45:00.007-07:00

Portland Oregon, Day of Action, September 17th
Portland, OR: When: 9/17 from 4pm sharp
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org
PORTLAND – Members of Occupy Portland, other progressive organizations, and everyday people have planned a peaceful protest Monday, September 17th, to mark the one-year anniversary of the national liberation movement.
The protest will include a march through Southeast Portland, starting at 3:45 p.m. The planned route begins at the intersection of East Burnside and MLK and will end with a rally at St. Francis Park, located on SE 11th Avenue, near Stark Street.
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/occupyportland
This march is about celebrating the one-year mark of the national movement for the 99% and also sheds light on General Motors' exploitation of Colombian workers. This S17 March will begin at the east end of the Burnside Bridge (at the intersection with MLK) and end at St. Francis Park with one stop at a Chevy dealer along thee way. This Peaceful, noisy march begins at 4pm sharp. This is a free event, everyone is welcome, bring signs and something to make noise with for extra fun!
Contact: Paige Shell-Spurling, gmworkerpdx@gmail.com
No Fear, No Compromise, and No Surrender. Embrace the Revolution!

Forward email

2012-07-04T09:48:00.002-07:00

	About Us \| Subscribe \| Contact & Submission info \| Volunteer
Alliance Links Breaking News! Front Page A few words Arts & Culture Cartoons Community Calendar KBOO PORTAL Progressive Directory Poetry Previous Issues Locations Links Advertising Ad Rates More Shannon Amazon Author Page Facebook (Author) Facebook (Personal) FREE COMICS! New Yorker Cartoons Nihilarity on ACT-I-VATE On Exhibit One-Man Show TMCM/How to Be Happy Twitter	Waterfront Blues Festival: The Portland Alliance Portal http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/waterfrontbluesfest Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival Presented by First Tech Federal Credit Union Benefiting the Oregon Food Bank Oregon Food Bank Home Artists Schedules Entry & Passes Events Festival Info Sponsors Volunteer News Photos & Videos Contact Celebration Our 25th Anniversary! July 4th - 8th 2012 “The greatest living blues harmonica player.” – New York Daily News 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Tim "Too Slim" Langford with Duffy Bishop at the 2011 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival. Information to help you plan your festival experience Festival dates and hours Wednesday, July 4: Gates - 11 a.m. Music - noon to 10:30 p.m. Thursday, July 5: Gates - 2 p.m. Music 3 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday, July 6: Gates - 2 p.m. Music 3 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Saturday, July 7: Gates - 11 a.m. Music - noon to 10:30 p.m. Sunday, July 8: Gates - 11 a.m. Music - noon to 9 p.m. Questions: Call Oregon Food Bank at 503-383-0555. Please note that OFB will be closed Saturday and Sunday. Staff members will be working at the festival and unable to take calls. Questions about tickets or passes: Call Ticket Tomato at 503-432-9477. Helpful links General info about the festival * Festival rules * Directions to the festival * Festival site map * Performance schedule * Fireworks * Vistor info Get special access to the festival's 25th anniversary! DME Blues Cruise tickets and special festival passes still available DME Blues Cruises: Cruise the beautiful Willamette River and hear the blues in an intimate setting on the Portland Spirit on one of the 2012 festival's six DME Blues Cruises. Festival Passes: Get the best seat in the house or other special perks by purchasing a Festival Pass. Benefactor passes are already sold out, and others are going quickly. Like us on Facebook for an early-bird discount promo code for Blues Buddy and Five-Day passes. After Hours All-Stars: See some of the festival's biggest acts at After Hours All-Stars concerts at the Marriott Hotel Ballroom, across the street from the festival. Issues purchasing tickets or passes? Please contact Ticket Tomato at 1-800-820-9884. Festival vendors fight hunger The Waterfront Blues Festival is Oregon Food Bank's most powerful fundraiser. A number of festival vendors make donations to OFB to provide additional support. Dave's Killer Bread will donate a portion of its bread sales at the festival to OFB, up to $3,000. Ceramic and Glass art sales at the Empty Bowls booth benefit OFB. Empty Bowls is located on the walkway near the festival's main gate. Bridge City Massage has pledged to donate half of its proceeds to Oregon Food Bank. Bridge City offers chair and table massages at the festival for just $1 per minute. You'll find them at the Health Net Pavilion. Commemorate the festival's 25th anniversary with special festival merchandise, including T-shirts, sweatshirts, buttons and more. All proceeds from festival merchandise sales benefit Oregon Food Bank. Buy Festival Tickets DME Blues Cruises After Hours All-Stars Share Your Story Listen to Festival Artists Sign up for Blues E-News Be the first to know who's coming to the festival. Find out about new festival events and features. Sign up for your free Blues E-News. Help Fight Hunger Facebook Twitter YouTube Copyright © 1987 - 2012 Oregon Food Bank. All rights reserved. The Waterfront Blues Festival is owned and operated by Oregon Food Bank. Custom Programming by Grey Ghost Studio. Banner Art by Jamie Meyer. Silver Logic
Navigation:	Navigation: FrontPage / Activism / Interactive Calendar / Donate / Flyer / YouTube / Poster / Subscribe / Place Ad / Ad Rates / Online Ads / Advertising / Twitter / News! / Previous Issues / Blog/ Myspace / Facebook1 / Facebook2 Features: Active Community / A Few Words /Arts & Culture / Breaking News / Jobs / / Labor History / Music / NewsBytes / Progressive Directory / Cartoons / Community Calendar / Letters / Poetry / Viewpoints & Commentary Columns: Beeman, Brown, Engelhardt / Kucinich / Munk / Myers / William Reed / Schwebke / Norman Solomon / Vorpahl / Wittner Partners: AFD / AMA / Bread&Roses / CAUSA/ CLG/ Common Dreams / DIA / FSP /ISO / Jobs w\ Justice / KBOO / Labor Radio / LGBTQ / MRG / Milagro / Mosaic / Move-On / Occupy / OEA / Occupy PDX / Peace House / The 99% / Peace worker / PCASC / PPRC / Right 2 Dream Too / Street Roots / Skanner / The Nation / TruthOut / Urban League / VFP / Voz / Topics: A-F AIPAC / Civil Rights / Coal / Death Penalty / Education / Election 2012 / Fair Trade / F-29 / Environment / Foreclosure / Health / Homeless / J-Street / Middle East / Occupy Blog / Peace / Persian / Police / Post Office / STRIKE! / Tri-Met / Union / VDay / War & Peace / Women / Writing / WritingResource Coming Soon: Service Directory / Editing / Flyers / Ground View / Flying Focus / Literacy / Rashad The Portland Alliance: P.O. Box 14162 / Portland, OR 97293-0162 Phone Number: (503) 327-8377 / Fax (503) 327-8949 / Cell (for emergencies) 503-697-1670 Production office: 5926 N. Albina Ave. / Portland, Oregon / 97217-2210 (Archives on S.E. Alder.) For questions, comments, or suggestions for this site, please contact editor@theportlandalliance.org or ThePortlandAlliance@gmail.com / © 1981-2012 NAAME Northwest Alliance for Alternative Media & Education, dba The Portland Alliance: All Rights Reserved. A 501C3 Oregon Non-profit Corporation for Public Benefit

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Waterfront Blues Festival:
The Portland Alliance Portal
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/waterfrontbluesfest

“The greatest living blues harmonica player.” – New York Daily News

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Tim "Too Slim" Langford with Duffy Bishop at the 2011 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival.

Information to help you plan your festival experience

Festival dates and hours
Wednesday, July 4: Gates - 11 a.m. Music - noon to 10:30 p.m.
Thursday, July 5: Gates - 2 p.m. Music 3 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
Friday, July 6: Gates - 2 p.m. Music 3 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 7: Gates - 11 a.m. Music - noon to 10:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 8: Gates - 11 a.m. Music - noon to 9 p.m.

Questions: Call Oregon Food Bank at 503-383-0555. Please note that OFB will be closed Saturday and Sunday. Staff members will be working at the festival and unable to take calls.

Questions about tickets or passes: Call Ticket Tomato at 503-432-9477.

Helpful links

General info about the festival * Festival rules * Directions to the festival * Festival site map * Performance schedule * Fireworks * Vistor info

DME Blues Cruise tickets and special festival passes still available

DME Blues Cruises: Cruise the beautiful Willamette River and hear the blues in an intimate setting on the Portland Spirit on one of the 2012 festival's six DME Blues Cruises.

Festival Passes: Get the best seat in the house or other special perks by purchasing a Festival Pass. Benefactor passes are already sold out, and others are going quickly. Like us on Facebook for an early-bird discount promo code for Blues Buddy and Five-Day passes.

After Hours All-Stars: See some of the festival's biggest acts at After Hours All-Stars concerts at the Marriott Hotel Ballroom, across the street from the festival.

Issues purchasing tickets or passes? Please contact Ticket Tomato at 1-800-820-9884.
Festival vendors fight hunger

The Waterfront Blues Festival is Oregon Food Bank's most powerful fundraiser. A number of festival vendors make donations to OFB to provide additional support.

Dave's Killer Bread will donate a portion of its bread sales at the festival to OFB, up to $3,000.

Ceramic and Glass art sales at the Empty Bowls booth benefit OFB. Empty Bowls is located on the walkway near the festival's main gate.

Bridge City Massage has pledged to donate half of its proceeds to Oregon Food Bank. Bridge City offers chair and table massages at the festival for just $1 per minute. You'll find them at the Health Net Pavilion.

Commemorate the festival's 25th anniversary with special festival merchandise, including T-shirts, sweatshirts, buttons and more. All proceeds from festival merchandise sales benefit Oregon Food Bank.

Navigation:

Navigation: FrontPage / Activism / Interactive Calendar / Donate / Flyer / YouTube / Poster / Subscribe / Place Ad / Ad Rates / Online Ads / Advertising / Twitter / News! / Previous Issues / Blog/ Myspace / Facebook1 / Facebook2
Features: Active Community / A Few Words /Arts & Culture / Breaking News / Jobs / / Labor History / Music / NewsBytes / Progressive Directory / Cartoons / Community Calendar / Letters / Poetry / Viewpoints & Commentary
Columns: Beeman, Brown, Engelhardt / Kucinich / Munk / Myers / William Reed / Schwebke / Norman Solomon / Vorpahl / Wittner
Partners: AFD / AMA / Bread&Roses / CAUSA/ CLG/ Common Dreams / DIA / FSP /ISO / Jobs w\ Justice / KBOO / Labor Radio / LGBTQ / MRG / Milagro / Mosaic / Move-On / Occupy / OEA / Occupy PDX / Peace House / The 99% / Peace worker / PCASC / PPRC / Right 2 Dream Too / Street Roots / Skanner / The Nation / TruthOut / Urban League / VFP / Voz /
Topics: A-F AIPAC / Civil Rights / Coal / Death Penalty / Education / Election 2012 / Fair Trade / F-29 / Environment / Foreclosure / Health / Homeless / J-Street / Middle East / Occupy Blog / Peace / Persian / Police / Post Office / STRIKE! / Tri-Met / Union / VDay / War & Peace / Women / Writing / WritingResource
Coming Soon: Service Directory / Editing / Flyers / Ground View / Flying Focus / Literacy / Rashad

The Portland Alliance: P.O. Box 14162 / Portland, OR 97293-0162
Phone Number: (503) 327-8377 / Fax (503) 327-8949 / Cell (for emergencies) 503-697-1670
Production office: 5926 N. Albina Ave. / Portland, Oregon / 97217-2210 (Archives on S.E. Alder.)
For questions, comments, or suggestions for this site,
please contact editor@theportlandalliance.org or ThePortlandAlliance@gmail.com /
© 1981-2012 NAAME Northwest Alliance for Alternative Media & Education, dba The Portland Alliance: All Rights Reserved. A 501C3 Oregon Non-profit Corporation for Public Benefit

2012-05-24T11:33:00.000-07:00

Save the the US Postal Service! May 24, 2012; Portland, Oregon Action

Community Action: Occupy the Post Office

Rally and March

Thurs, May 24, 5 pm, Terry Shrunk Plaza

SW 3^rd and Madison (Portland, Oregon)

Our public postal service is under attack with the Postmaster General poised to close 500 rural post offices while reducing hours from 25% to 75% at 13,000 rural post offices. On the chopping block are a number of urban post offices, mail handling centers and Saturday delivery. This is an example of shrinking public services so that they can “be drowned in the bathtub.” Who will benefit? Privatizers and union busters.

Join in a critical action to save our commons!!

Stop Closures. Stop Cuts.
Follow @ThePDXAlliance Contact us: Click Here! / New online...
The Alliance Gardening Portal ThePortlandAlliance.org/gardening

"The right to rebellion is the right to seek a higher rule"

GEORGE ELIOT

Speaking Truth to Power Since 1981!
Support Alternative Media!

Navigation: FrontPage / Activism / Interactive Calendar / Donate / Flyer / YouTube / Poster / Subscribe / Place Ad / Ad Rates /
Online Ads / Advertising / Twitter / News! / Previous Issues / Blog/ Myspace / Facebook1 / Facebook2
Features: Active Community / A Few Words /Arts & Culture / Breaking News / Jobs / / Labor History Music / NewsBytes /
Progressive Directory / Cartoons / Community Calendar / Letters / Poetry / Viewpoints & Commentary
Columns: Beeman, Brown, Engelhardt / Kucinich / Munk / Myers / William Reed / Schwebke / Norman Solomon / Vorpahl / Wittner
Partners: AFD / AMA / Bread&Roses / CAUSA/ CLG/ DIA / FSP /ISO / Jobs w\ Justice / KBOO / Labor Radio / LGBTQ / MRG / Move-On / Occupy /
OEA / Occupy PDX / Peace House / The 99% / Peace worker / PCASC / PPRC /Street Roots / Skanner / TruthOut / Urban League / VFP / Voz /
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Please Support Local media: The Asian Reporter|Kboo|The Oregon Peaceworker|Portland.Indymedia.org|The Skanner

The Portland Alliance: P.O. Box 14162 / Portland, OR 97293-0162
Phone Number: (503) 327-8377 Fax (503) 327-8949 Cell (for emergencies) 503-697-1670
Production office: 5926 N. Albina Ave. / Portland, Oregon / 97217-2210 (Archives on S.E. Alder.)
For questions, comments, or suggestions for this site, please contact editor@theportlandalliance.org or ThePortlandAlliance@gmail.com
© 1981-2012 NAAME Northwest Alliance for Alternative Media & Education, dba The Portland Alliance: All Rights Reserved.
A 501C3 Oregon Non-profit Corporation for Public Benefit

Veto the National Defense Authorization Act,

2011-12-10T15:57:00.000-08:00

NDAA VETO

Richard Johnson / National Post

NDAA VETO
Richard Johnson / National Post
Urge President Obama to Veto the National Defense Authorization Act, Scale back the US military & block legislation that makes it more difficult to close Guantánamo.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012 will authorize $662 billion dollars for US military operations at a time when the US government is waging overt and covert wars and occupations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia, and dangerously escalating sanctions and threats against Iran.

The Obama administration has expanded the use of drone strikes and has authorized the targeted killings of individuals beyond any recognized zone of armed conflict. The NDAA also reaffirms the government’s expansive power to hold individuals in indefinite military detention without charge or trial.

The sorry state of our democracy means that the Obama administration is not accountable to anti-war voices and movements seeking an end to a bloated US military and a belligerent US foreign policy that causes harm to the lives and aspirations of millions of people around the globe, and makes people in the United States neither more safe nor more free.

Yet as the NDAA arrives at Obama’s desk, we must continue to raise our voices against this state of affairs. Write and call the White House and tell the President that you oppose $662 billion dollars being spent on war making rather than peace building. Demand that he meaningfully scale back the size of the US military and uphold his promise to veto the NDAA as long as it contains provisions that would essentially prevent him from sending Guantánamo detainees home or resettling those men who need asylum in third countries.

More than half of the men currently detained at Guantánamo – 89 of the 171 – have been unanimously cleared by the CIA, FBI, NSC and Defense Department for transfer or release. Yet no one has been transferred since last January, when Congress created restrictions similar to those the NDAA would make permanent. This marks the longest period without a transfer in the prison camp’s entire 10-year history and only underscores the president’s broken promise and failure to close Guantánamo.

Write and call the White House. Tell the President to veto the NDAA and change Guantánamo from being what it has become—Obama’s forever prison.

http://www.writingresource.info/actnow.html

Tax Wars are Very Real. The Middle Class & the Poor are losing.

2011-12-10T14:41:00.000-08:00

Thank You, Elizabeth Warren!

Finally, a progressive who knows how to fight back hard against the ridiculous "class warfare" charges from the mean right wing spin machine. (http://activismnewsletterat.blogspot.com)

In one fell swoop, Elizabeth Warren, candidate for the US Senate from Massachusetts, delivered a powerful knock-out blow against this right whing rhetoric. It is time to debunk the junk and get rid of this nonsense. We should draft this woman for president and send her to Occupy the White House.

Send Elizabeth Warren a "thank you" note. Thank her for standing up for progressive values, and for showing other Democrats how to fight. Warren's point was simple: Nobody gets rich on their own. You can watch the video below, but here's the key part:

"I hear all this, you know, 'Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever,'" Warren said. "No. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own -- nobody.
"You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory -- and hire someone to protect against this -- because of the work the rest of us did.
"Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless -- keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along."¹

Progressives take note: THIS is how it is done. THIS is how you fight back
hard, and THIS is howwe can defeat the mean right wing, Fortune 500, Fox
News talking points. And THIS is why Warren has moved AHEAD and
the Occupy mobilization is winning....

Send Elizabeth Warren a "Thank-You" Note!
http://www.angelfire.com/blues/writing/actnow.html
Thank her for standing up for progressive values, and for showing other Progressives how to fight. Convince her to accept our draft as our candidate for president. It is time we were provided with a real choice for actual change.

Elizabeth Warren on Debt Crisis, Fair Taxation - YouTube
► 2:06► 2:06	www.youtube.com/watch?v=htX2usfqMEs You +1'd this publicly. Undo Sep 18, 2011 - 2 min - Uploaded by LiveSmartVideos Elizabeth Warren on the debt crisis and fair taxation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htX2usfqMEs

http://www.activismresource.org

2011-12-07T01:33:00.000-08:00

For the past 40 years, we have been
creating a corporate culture: where
the rich pay less and less for the costs
of running the nation, while the middle
class pays more (and shrinks) and the
poor are often left to fend for themselves,
suffer, or die.

In the new, post Occupy 2011 culture,
we will see responsible government,
with our civil rights restored. We will
end the use of our troops to provide
protection for corporate invasions,
occupations, and exploitations abroad.
We can use that funding to rebuild America.

We will restore the American dream and make the USA able
to complete in the global marketplace by taking
insurance companies off the table and providing
universal health care for our people. We will
force banks to repay their extortion (called a
bail out) and begin serious reforms with these
recovered resources. And we will put teachers
back in charge to repair our schools.

If some on the far right do not understand this
cultural shift, it might behoove them to wake up
and smell the coffee. December 12th, the 99%
will shut down all ports on the West Coast.
The 1% are beginning to listen.

Banks have already retreated on additional fees.
Mortgage fraud is now being investigated and
will be treated as a crime. Banking reform will be
brought before congress.

The 99% are the majority, and those who want
to continue a platform of endless war and
corporate profiteering will be forced to either
reinvest and comply with regulatory agencies
or be subject to criminal prosecution and fines.

They sold us up the river while they bailed
out the banks. But the people of this nation
are standing in solidarity with everyday people
all over the planet to say enough is enough.

It is time to end poverty and hopelessness in
America. Our people deserve universal
health care and education. And the richest
and most powerful nation on earth need not
allow itself to be blackmailed by corporate
trans-nationals. The clock has stopped ticking
and the pendulum has swung.

Welcome to the 99%. Not to worry, we are
on your side and you are one of us, even if
you do not know you are being exploited.

Activism Newsletter

Drone Warfare is Illegal, Immoral, and Creates New Enemies

Current Science Indicates Fluoridation is dangerous. An incontestable fact.

HEALTH EFFECTS DATABASE

SELECT A TOPIC: :

SHARE WITH:

Acute Toxicity:

Bone

Brain

Cancer

Cardiovascular system

Endocrine Function

Gastrointestinal

Kidney

Reproductive System

Teeth

Vulnerable Populations

ActiveResource.org, ActivismResource.org,

Popular Resistance Is Percolating Across the Country -- Inspiring Activism That the Corporate Media Always Ignores

Mayday 2013 in Portland, Douglas Yarrow Pictures...

May Day Photos by Doug Yarrow with some great shots of the float and WAO folks!

WHY I CHANGED MY MIND ABOUT WATER FLUORIDATION

WHY I CHANGED MY MIND ABOUT WATER FLUORIDATION

Based on new research, a former fluoridation proponent changes his opinion about the alleged safety and benefits of water fluoridation

by JOHN COLQUHOUN, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 41, 1, Autumn 1997

When Will President Obama put an end to this Disgrace! http://activismnewsletterat.blogspot.com/

Sun. May 5th, AMA Vigil for Kendra,murdered by PDX Police

Albina Ministerial Alliance to Hold Vigil for Kendra James

Sunday, May 5 marks the tenth anniversary of when Portland police murdered Kendra James

from material by Bruce Poinsette Of The Skanner News

May 01, 2013

False Flags and other blather... bordering on truth...

“Officials say” journalism

Yet again, the American media misleads by uncritically printing unverified, false claims from the U.S. military

In Portland, Oregon, cops get away with murder.

Front Page ; Issues ; 2005; August

The Kendra James trial: Was justice served?

And the struggle continues today, eight years later. http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/policeaccountabilty

Tuesday, March 19, 2013 3:30-5:30 PM: Visibility Action: US Out of Iraq

And later....

7 PM: Cathy Breen,Voices for Creative Nonviolence, "Eyewitness 10 Years Later:What Iraqis Are Saying"at First Unitarian Church-Eliot Chapel 1011 SW 12thMore info: http://www.theportlandalliance.org/anybody

When under attack, Stand Up and Fight Back!

SUNDAY, MARCH 17, 2013

Rally and March: Save Our Post Office!

Come to MRG's Justice Social Happy Hour on March 12th!

https://sites.google.com/site/pdxactivismnews/if-you-want-peace-work-for-justice

http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/vfp Endorsed by Peaceresource.org

Defeat the TPP! Organize Across Borders!

An Historic Cross-Border Organizing Rally & Summithttp://activismnewsletterat.blogspot.com/Defeat the Trans Pacific Partnership!(TPP)

The 1% are planning to limit our governments' power to regulate in the public interest. The TPP is a threat to democracy, undermining national sovereignty, workers' rights, environmental protections and Internet freedom. We urge you to reject this corporate takeover. We are the 99%

Peace Arch Park / Blaine, WA

Reasons to NOT Vote for Obama

March for Justice1

Celebration Our 25th Anniversary! July 4th - 8th 2012

Information to help you plan your festival experience

Get special access to the festival's 25th anniversary!

DME Blues Cruise tickets and special festival passes still available

Sign up for Blues E-News

Save the the US Postal Service! May 24, 2012; Portland, Oregon Action

Please Support Local media: The Asian Reporter|Kboo|The Oregon Peaceworker|Portland.Indymedia.org|The Skanner

Veto the National Defense Authorization Act,

NDAA VETO

Tax Wars are Very Real. The Middle Class & the Poor are losing.

Thank You, Elizabeth Warren!

Elizabeth Warren on Debt Crisis, Fair Taxation - YouTube

http://www.activismresource.org

Sunday, May 5 marks the tenth anniversary
of when Portland police murdered Kendra James

And the struggle continues today, eight years later.

http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/policeaccountabilty

Tuesday, March 19, 2013 3:30-5:30 PM:
Visibility Action: US Out of Iraq

7 PM: Cathy Breen,
Voices for Creative Nonviolence,
"Eyewitness 10 Years Later:
What Iraqis Are Saying"
at First Unitarian Church-Eliot Chapel 1011 SW 12th
More info: http://www.theportlandalliance.org/anybody

http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/vfp

Endorsed by Peaceresource.org

An Historic Cross-Border
Organizing Rally & Summit
http://activismnewsletterat.blogspot.com/

Defeat the Trans Pacific Partnership!(TPP)

The 1% are planning to limit our governments'
power to regulate in the public interest. The TPP is
a threat to democracy, undermining national
sovereignty, workers' rights, environmental
protections and Internet freedom.
We urge you to reject this corporate takeover. We are the 99%