OUR LIBERATION IS THE EARTH'S LIBERATION

GREEN LEFT INFOASIS:- There are plenty of good reasons we should be doing away with capitalism: its brutal class oppression, its undemocraticness, its enrichment of the few at the expense of the many, its constant drive toward war and empire, just to name a few. But one extremely urgent reason, which is related to all those other reasons, is its inherent tendency toward environmental degradation. With animals, plant life, oceans, forests, and the very ecological basis of human survival threatened, we have to act now to reverse the course we're on.

What we need to be doing, as a society, is halting growth, reigning in production and redirecting it toward meeting need and ecological sustainability. But look at our current predicament. The exact opposite is occurring. Politicians and corporate elites are scrambling to find a way to actually stimulate more growth to 'save the economy'. That's the wall we're up against. Capitalism must grow or die. Slowing of growth and slumps make the system unhealthy and could mean a crisis of global proportions like the one we're currently experiencing. Obviously, infinite growth on a planet of finite resources is completely unsustainable.

Through our labor, we interact with and transform nature. But under capitalism, our labor is controlled and directed by a capitalist. The things we produce are the property of the capitalist to be sent to market. The goal of the capitalist is to create profit and every capitalist has to constantly be striving to expand markets and profits. If they cannot or will not, they'll go under and be replaced by a capitalist who will. By eliminating the capitalist and the dictatorship of profit from the equation, it will be possible to take our economic lives into our own hands and re-orient the way we interact with nature. By liberating ourselves from wage slavery, we'll be in a position to also liberate the Earth from the grip of capital.

We desperately have to make need, quality of life, and ecology the priorities of society. But capitalism looks at human labor and nature and sees how much money they can be converted into. It will not guarantee success, but only by doing away with capitalism and moving to a classless economic democracy controlled by the associated producers do we have a chance of dealing with ecological crises in a humane and sustainable way.

GLI is one of my favourites in the blogsphere. It's been on my sidebar nearly as long as I've been blogging. Please do yourself a favour and check it out!

ANOTHER BANK SCAM: PREYING ON THE UNEMPLOYED

GLH reports on how 30 states have signed deals with several major US banks (also being bailed out) to distribute unemployement benefits on debit cards, rather than by check. Fees apply for this "benefit," too. Vermont has not entered any official discussions with banks, but is reviewing unemployment debit card programs. Now's a good time to complain about this scam to the governor and your state legislators.

THE END OF ALONE

The Internet and social network sites (c.f. Facebook) are just tools and don't replace the one-on-one real time interactions with real people, which I prefer.

Even in the hustle of my current life in Burlington, Vermont, I may be lonely (who, me?!?), but I am never frightened by being alone. As a student at The Mountain School I discovered the joys of reflection and meditation - whether among my friends at daily silent morning meetings or feeding the pigs! I continue to practice that transcending discipline in meditation, doing yoga in my house, walking a dog in my neighborhood, kayaking out on the lake, biking on the trail along the waterfront to the causeway, or hiking in Lamoille County up from the Mountain Road to Sterling Pond and Spruce Peak. Do I make sense?

Neil Swidely in The Boston Globe Magazine:

I'm sitting in a pew near the back of St. Anne's Church in Fall River, a soaring structure of Vermont blue marble that could rival a lesser European cathedral. It was built in the late 1800s, when the southeastern Massachusetts mill city's French Canadian community was big enough to warrant a church able to seat 2,000. On this blustery afternoon, the crowd is more like a tenth of that. The priest is talking, but the lousy PA system makes it hard to hear what he's saying. So I'm doing what I've done before in this situation: trying to keep my young daughters occupied by whispering for them to study their surroundings -- the exquisitely carved red-oak woodwork near the high ceiling, the enormous pipe organ in the rear balcony, the colorful stained-glass windows on every wall. With its combination of architectural grandeur and crumbling-plaster fatigue, the place is like Venice in the unforgiving light of morning, rather than the soft-lit romanticism of night. It's honest and beautiful.

Then I hear an odd chirping. My eyes follow my ears to a pew to my left and behind me, where a guy with slicked black hair and dark glasses is sitting. He's chewing gum and wearing one of those Bluetooth cellphone attachments in his ear.

Hey, man, I'm bored, too. But, c'mon, take that infernal thing out of your ear. Say a prayer. Collect your thoughts. Or just do what my 4-year-old is doing and stare at the ceiling.

Did I mention it was Christmas Day Mass?

Not long ago, I was sitting in the "quiet study" section of my local public library when a middle-aged woman wearing an annoyed expression plopped down in the green upholstered chair next to my table, her teenage daughter in tow. She flipped open her cellphone and dialed her daughter's therapist. After giving the therapist's secretary her full name and slowly spelling her daughter's -- loud enough for every soul in that wing of the library to hear -- she said, "We have an appointment for next week, but I want to know if he has any availability before that. She is really not doing well."

I looked up from my laptop, incredulous that a mother could be so blase about violating her daughter's privacy, not to mention library decorum -- and convinced that the therapist and the daughter must have no time to discuss anything besides mother issues.

Now, I know what you're going to say. There have always been boors blabbing in places where they should be quiet, blithely ignoring the shushes from librarians or the stares from fellow elevator passengers while behaving as though they're the only ones whose problems matter. Bad manners are bad manners, irrespective of technology, right?

Yes, only technology has vastly expanded this bad behavior, eroding much of society's stigma against it, and making it everybody's problem. But here's the real point: It is dulling our very capacity to ever be alone, or alone in our thoughts.

What's fueling this? Neil Swidely goes on to explain,

"We've gone from an American ethic that championed the lone guy on a horseback to an ethic of managing multiple data streams," says Dalton Conley, a sociology professor at New York University and author of the new book Elsewhere, U.S.A.: How We Got From the Company Man, Family Dinners, and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, BlackBerry Moms, and Economic Anxiety. "It's very hard for people to unplug and be alone -- and be with the one data stream of their mind."

What's fueling this? Conley says it's anxiety borne out of a deep-seated fear that we're being left out of something, somewhere, and that we may lose out on advancement in our work, social, or family lives if we truly check out. "The anxiety of being alone drives this behavior to constantly respond and Twitter and text, but the very act of doing it creates the anxiety."

This is particularly true among young people, mainly because they don't know life when it wasn't like this.

H/T to The Lead for alerting me to the Globe essay.

TWO STORMS

nrc.nl international editorial: Perfect storm in the Dutch economy.

While the common folk grapple with the economic problems, a vacationing Dutch royal family is stuck in Lech am Arlberg, Austria. Due to heavy snowfall Lech has become unreachable since the town has been hit by a severe winter storm. I don't think the royal vacationers need to worry about lack of food, beverage or a nice hot sauna.


They remain en famille at their chalet/hotel, untouched by the "perfect" storm at home.





© Dutch Photo Press, Patrick van Katwijk

LEAKY PIPE BURIED

Not front page news.

Buried inside (p. 4B) today's Vermont section of the print edition of the Freeps:-VERNON — Engineers at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant are still trying to stop a pipe from leaking slightly radioactive water.

Vermont Yankee spokesman Rob Williams says there have been several attempts to fix the gasket in the 4-inch pipe in the reactor’s clean-out system, but all have failed.

The company announced last month that the leak had been discovered. At one point, it leaked about 3,600 gallons of water a day. The water isn’t released into the environment.

Williams says engineers will attempt this week to reinstall a sealant.

Neil Sheehan of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says the pipe now leaks about one-tenth of a gallon a minute.

Sheehan says one option would be to shut down the plant and install a new valve.

SHE'S RIGHT CELEBRATES....

O frabjous day! Charity's blog is three-years old today. Galumph on over and wish SR many more candles.

IN CALIFORNIA THEY DREAM OF TASERS: ANOTHER CITIZEN DIES

On Sunday, I wrote about the taser death in Lakewood, Calif which happened late Saturday night. Today RickB (Ten Percent) made an apt comment on my post:

Pepper spray and Taser! This is lazy violent police work, if someone honestly thinks deputies are doing everything right when a naked man dies during arrest then you have internalised the police state and are a submissive herd animal sleepwalking into slavery.

Here's an UPDATE on the Lakewood death from a local watchdog group.

It never ends. Also in California, on Friday there was another taser death, "the sixth to occur after the use of Tasers by San Jose police since 2004." Thanks to Chris Floyd, who comments

The Taser has simply added another deadly refinement to the fun and games. Whereas in the old days the San Jose police probably would have been content with just clubbing a prisoner with batons, now they can whip out a handy-dandy ray-gun and shoot him full of electricity as well. Sure, sometimes the suckers die -- but because the ray-gun is not, ostensibly, a lethal weapon, the deaths can always be written off as an unintended consequence caused by an unknown pre-existing condition or something.

Of course, you can sometimes get a "pre-existing condition" from, say, being clubbed into bloody goo by batons -- or, as in a recent case of my personal knowledge, being handcuffed from behind and having your face slammed repeatedly into a concrete floor by a five or six deputies for the heinous crime of "sass." But it's best not to delve too deeply into these matters. After all, the Taserers and clubbers are only trying to keep us safe from terrorists -- sorry, from criminals. And as our entire bipartisan political class has taught us -- and keeps teaching us every day -- brutality, torture and murder should never be prosecuted if they are committed by government officials in the name of "security."

CANADA ISSUES RESTRICTIONS ON TASER USE

From WaPo/AP (12 February 2009): TORONTO -- Canada's federal police will no longer use stun guns against suspects who are merely resisting arrest or refusing to cooperate _ saying the guns can cause death.

THE DAYS OF TWO-PLY ARE OVER

ASSOCIATED PRESS:-- Inmates at the Des Moines County jail in Burlington may have to begin paying for toilet paper. The county is facing a more than $1.7 million deficit in this year's budget and the Board of Supervisors gave department heads the option of cutting costs or facing the possibility of unpaid furloughs or layoffs.

OUR 'LIVE FREE OR DIE' NEIGHBORS TO THE EAST

Executions have been taking place since the human species has been placed on earth. The use of a firing squad has been commonly used in times of war. Now, a bill has been introduced in the New Hampshire legislature to restore executions by firing squad. The sponsor of the bill argues that this form of execution is humane. I don't know where this legislator's moral compass has gone, but no form of capital punishment is humane!

ANOTHER DEATH BY TASER

PRESS-TELEGRAM Long Beach, CA:-- A man running naked on a quiet Lakewood street died after sheriff's deputies shocked him with a Taser gun, authorities said Sunday.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Art Spencer said Lakewood deputies responded to a disturbance call in the 5700 block of Silva Street at 10:15 p.m. Saturday.

Spencer said deputies found a "very large" man running naked in the street and acting irrationally.

Deputies tied to calm the man but he remained belligerent, Spencer said. When he advanced at them in a threatening manner, Spencer said deputies used pepper spray and at least one Taser stun gun to subdue him.

Shortly after the man was handcuffed, deputies realized he was not breathing and began to administer CPR, Spencer said. The man, whose identify has not been released, was pronounced dead at a hospital.

PHILIP RIZK RELEASED

"My four days of imprisonment are nothing compared to the months and years of siege on Gaza, which is nothing else than forced imprisonment. The Gaza Strip is a different form of concentration camp."

Philip Rizk 4 days Egypt imprisonment from philip rizk on Vimeo.


philip rizk Gaza Siege from philip rizk on Vimeo.

You can now read Philip Rizk's blog.

"[M]y interrogators stole all my old email addresses and blogs, my domain name..."

WEAPONS PROGRAMS REBRANDED AS JOBS PROGRAMS

The military have been kicking this around even under Bush. As you'll see on the Real News Network clip above, Barney Frank has been raising holy hell about it for quite some time. However, with the failing economy, will our Dear Leader and his supporters in congress cave in?

Then, there's this from BBC News: US army 'wants more immigrants'.

PETER PAUL & MARY - SAN FRANCISCO BAY BLUES

There's a surprise towards the end...it'll make you smile, and Lord knows, we need a lot more of that now.

GAZA HACKERS BRING DOWN KADIMA WEBSITE

http://www.kadima.co.il/.

Update: It's a hoax, apparently. The real Kadima website is at kadima dot org dot il

BURLINGTON MAYORAL ELECTION INTEGRITY AT STAKE

On the face of it, the recent Burlington Free Press story is a non-story, but certainly a last-ditch effort at dirty politics in an otherwise uneventful campaign. Tempers escalated in the Burlington mayoral campaign this week when a Bob Kiss surrogate - the city's Chief Administrative Officer Leopold - accused Democratic candidate Andy Montroll of a conflict of interest in his role as a member of the city council's finance committee. Mr Montroll was pissed - rightly so; meanwhile Mayor Kiss stood idly by and said it was a "misunderstanding." A few have judged the merits of the Briggs story, but the damage has been done. Voters will decide anyway on March 3rd in the Instant Run-off Voting mayoral city election.

Sadly. however, there is a bigger problem than the hijinks of a political campaign.

Much greater concern to Burlington voters is this: the choice for the next mayor of Burlington may be decided for them before they've even had a opportunity to vote. There are serious technical, procedural and ethical questions about how the city will handle the mayoral IRV election. Voters will have two ballots, one is IRV for mayor and the other is for referendum items and other candidate races. After voting, each will be deposited by voters in separate voting machines. Normally, at the start and end of voting, election officials are required to sign off on a print out from the voting tabulator machine, at the beginning to show that the machine's "memory card" is at "zero," and at the end to show the number of votes cast. That will happen with the non-mayoral ballots, but won't be possible with the IRV ballots. And that's the big deal about this election. A important step in accounting for the integrity of the election will not happen, as described by Owen Mulligan, Ward Clerk for Ward 6, in an email he sent to two reporters at Seven Days newspaper [my emphasis in bold]:--

Subject: Mayoral Election Concerns

Ken and Shay,

I'm writing to you because as an election official in Ward 6 I have a concern about the way this election will be handled. Last time we had an IRV election, I was not a Ward Clerk but I believe the issue was probably the same then and for some reason no one brought it up or maybe they did...I don't know.

Anyway, my intention here with this email is just to let you know what my concern is and then if you feel it warrants further investigation or reporting, then so be it.

I will try to explain, but this is not easy to do non-verbally so hopefully you will get the point I'm trying to make:

At the polls and before we open them for voting, we always check each tabulator machine to make sure there are no ballots in the ballot box..that is for the actual ballot box that holds the paper ballots and also the electronic ballot box being the "memory card" that is sealed into the tabulator machine.

To check the memory card to make sure there are no electronic votes on the card we do an opening print out which will have all the races and all the candidates being at zero showing there are no votes cast. We then as election officials sign off on this print out from the machine if all races are pre-set at zero votes. This is an important print out..all the elected officials must sign off on it. We do this for every election and for every tabulator machine that is used.

My concern is, and I do not feel comfortable as an election official running the election this way, is that on the IRV machine I have been informed that we will not be able to do a print out or even an end of night print out from the machine at the polls. So essentially a huge step in the process of election integrity has been removed and centralized at City Hall. The way it is now, I'm supposed to turn on the machine and have people vote without ever being able to get a print out letting me know that the races are pre-set to zero votes on the memory card.

City Hall does a check on each memory card before they are sealed just like every election before they are delivered to each polling location, the difference this time is we are not able to do that print out at each polling location and check the "electrnoc ballot box" to make sure the races are pre-set at zero. There is nothing for us to sign off on and we are supposed to blindly trust the memeory card that City Hall has provided us. I do not feel this is responsible and it does not sit well with me. I'm going to have a bad taste in my mouth for the whole election day. I just can't ignore the fact that a whole step has been removed because the machines do not have the technology to do a print out for IRV programming.

If either of you feel like dicussing this or feel that it warrents any attention please let me know. I think the voters deserve to know and steps should be taken to make sure the next time we have an IRV election that print outs will be possible. At this point in time and esp. with all the issues Burlington has had with elections, we should not be removing steps in the process of election integrity.

I absolutely support IRV, but I do not support the way the city is running the IRV election. The technology to do print outs is somehting that should have been checked into before we ever made a transition to IRV or if that technology is available then why don't we have it?.

Owen Mulligan
Ward 6 Clerk

Owen tells me that Shay Totten responded in a disinterested email that he would not pursue Owen's concerns in a 7D story; Ken Picard has at yet not replied.

Something is indeed rotten at Election Central, 139 Church Street, Burlington, Vermont. Burlington voters should be enraged as I am that the integrity of our City Election 2009 is at stake.

WORLD PRESS 2008 AWARD GOES TO US FORECLOSURE PHOTO

RNW reports from Amsterdam

The international World Press Photo jury has selected a photo by US photographer Anthony Suau as photo of the year 2008. It shows an armed police officer searching a deserted home in the state of Ohio.

Pistol drawn, the officer was searching the house to make sure the residents had moved out, after they had been evicted having failed to keep up with their mortgage payments.

The black and white photograph was part of TIME magazine's Tough Times in Cleveland report on the effects of the credit crunch.

Dutchman Roger Cremers clinched the first prize in the Art and Entertainment category. His winning entry in colour features two visitors to the Auschwitz Nazi death camp. Dressed in the same track suits, the two men are seen from the back taking photographs of a monument on the site.

HELP STOP BUDGET CUTS TO HOUSING AND CONSERVATION!

Please speak up for the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board, which is threatened with a draconian 70% funding cut! This essential program helps hundreds of our farms stay in business, provides thousands of Vermonters get and keep decent housing and conserves thousands of acres of land.

If you know the value of affordable housing, farms, or land conservation in our state, your voice can make a difference.

If...
- you or someone you know have struggled to find a home you can afford
- you're an employer who sees how housing costs hurt your staff
- you value Vermont's working landscapes, open spaces and commitment to agriculture and locally grown food.

... you can help by coming to Montpelier on February 26 (we can arrange for transportation), contacting your legislators, or writing Letters to the Editor. Free advocacy training is available next Wed., Feb. 18, 6:30 to 8 p.m.

To sign up or for more information, contact Julia Curry at Champlain Housing Trust, 861-7378 or julia@champlainhousingtrust.org.

WHEN YOU CATCH CODE..

NYT ScienceTimes

Blowing your nose to alleviate stuffiness may be second nature, but some people argue it does no good, reversing the flow of mucus into the sinuses and slowing the drainage.

Counterintuitive, perhaps, but research shows it to be true.

HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE BECOMES THE FIRST U.S. COLLEGE TO DIVEST FROM ISRAELI OCCUPATION

Via PULSE-- Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, has become the first of any college or university in the U.S. to divest from companies on the grounds of their involvement in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

This landmark move is a direct result of a two-year intensive campaign by the campus group, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The group pressured Hampshire College’s Board of Trustees to divest from six specific companies due to human rights concerns in occupied Palestine. Over 800 students, professors, and alumni have signed SJP’s “institutional statement” calling for the divestment.

POT QUOTES & FACTS

Teach this stuff in schools and you'll get arrested or fired!

"If the words 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' don't include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn't worth the hemp it was written on." - Terence McKenna

In 1916, the U.S. Government Dept. of Agriculture predicted that by the 1940s all paper would come from hemp and that no more trees need to be cut down.

"Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp, and playing my Hohner harmonica." - Abraham Lincoln (from a letter written by Lincoln during his presidency to the head of the Hohner Harmonica Company in Germany)

For thousands of years, 90% of all ships' sails and rope were made from hemp. The word 'canvas' is Dutch for cannabis.

Hemp fuel is non-toxic, biodegradable and does not contribute to sulfur dioxide air poisoning.... more facts.

For info closer to home: Vermont Alliance for Intelligent Drug Laws

NOBLESSE OBLIGE

Her Majesty The Queen of Australia will make a private donation to a fundraising appeal helping the victims of Australia's worst-ever wildfires that may kill more than 200 people, Buckingham Palace said. All well and good; it's called Noblesse Oblige PR.

Given that Britain ruled Palestine in the years 1920-1948 and provided arms to support Israel's December-January massacre of Gazans, I wonder if HM donated to the Gaza Appeal of the Disasters Emergency Committee; three of its 13 member agencies receive royal patronage: Help the Aged, The British Red Cross and Save the Children Fund UK.

Whenever there's a crisis, famine, tsunami, hurricane, flooding, earthquake, or other natural disaster, the Queen sends a condolence letter or a surrogate royal to show concern. But what about "tragedies" done in Her Majesty's name or supported/contributed by Her Majesty's Armed Forces?

But tell me, can you say Elizabeth is non-political?

Last April she organized a party for Israel's birthday, too, by inviting two of the community’s biggest charities the use of Windsor Castle for a special anniversary dinner: the UJIA and the JNF. 300 guests attended the celebration, the first major Jewish — “and kosher” — event to be held at Windsor Castle, in the presence of the Duke of Edinburgh.

A JNF spokesperson said dinner guests would be raising funds for both organisations, the first time they had worked together on such a scale. “We are so grateful to the Royal Family for giving us the opportunity to celebrate Israel’s anniversary, and for allowing us to stage this wonderful event in Windsor Castle.”

How's that fawning for you?

The Windsor Castle dinner was part of a series of celebrations in Britain to mark the Jewish state’s 60th anniversary.

OBAMA'S FIRST PRESSER

Well, good on Helen Thomas. I just saw the clip on Democracy Now! and noticed how Obama is condescending to Thomas on her first official question at a press conference - and she doesn't miss a beat and continues with her question about Israel's nuclear weapons. But, Obama, ever the slick politician, obfuscates and fails to answer her (or is he just clueless?).

Regarding the accolades given Obama's intelligent, mature, coherent answers (the opposite of 43's butchering of the English language), y'all might want to read Perrin today:

Comments across the libsphere echoed the same sentiments. Obama may be in the pocket of private interests, has already killed civilians in the Near East with plans for more bloodshed, is playing three-card Monte with torture and rendition, but holy jeebus, he sure do talk good! Liberals are so easily pacified. Small wonder why Obama's inner-circle doesn't give a fuck what they think. When their leash is yanked, most libs will meekly follow, whatever their disappointment in or confusion about their masters.

THIS IS WHY THE NATION MAGAZINE SUCKS....

The Real News Network interviews pseudo-leftists Katrina vanden Heuvel and Victor Navasky of The Nation. They speak nonsense. This is why I don't read that mag anymore: Vanden Heuvel co-opts with the Right and Navasky is just a has-been.

FREE PHILIP RIZK II

Philip Rizk's friend and fellow journalist, Ben White, has a Guardian CiF column today: Abducted in Egypt

Via the Facebook group for Philip:

Event: 2nd Free Philip Rizk Protest at the Egypt Embassy, Washington DC
"Make noise for Phil!"
What: Protest
Host: Support and Prayer for the Safe Release of Philip Rizk
Start Time: Friday, February 13 at 11:30am
End Time: Friday, February 13 at 1:00pm
Where: 3521 International Ct. Nw

To see more details and RSVP, follow this link.

THE LADY IN THE TUTTI FRUTTI HAT

Some people say I dress too gay!

On the anniversary of Carmen Miranda's birth. She would have been 100 years old today --

BLOSSOM DEARIE, R.I.P.

Blossom Dearie died on Saturday at age 82.

FREE PHILIP RIZK

An Egyptian-German journalist/activist, Philip Rizk, has been kidnapped by Egyptian secret police.

He previously worked on aid projects with Canon Andrew White, special envoy to the Middle East for the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Eyewitnesses said he was bundled into a white van with no licence plates, which then sped off.

The German embassy has been informed of his detention and is trying to locate him.

Lenin's Tomb has more information and news update links. Helena Cobban knows Mr Rizk and has written

I don't know how much aid the German government gives the Egyptian government. But I imagine it's a lot. Egypt is the top recipient of US aid after Israel, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Why should the governments of any democracies give aid to a government that treats nonviolent social activists like Philip or thousands of others also detained in Egypt without any hint of due process as harshly as this?

There is a Facebook group in support of Mr Rizk, which I've joined.

POTOMAC TROUBLES

From the start, we knew Emmanuel=trouble right there in Potomac City, didn't we?

ABOUT BURLINGTON'S BURGEONING MUSIC SCENE

Go:check this out!>>> BurlingtonUnderground -- a new site up and running to catch the all the events - bands, singers, venues - surrounding Burlington's flourishing and diverse music scene.

Live music is the heart and soul of Burlington, and the primary facet to our website. It is our hobby, mission, and civic responsibility to maintain that.

WHY BE AN EPISCOPALIAN?

Katherine Jefferts Schori, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church gives a modest and humourous answer to the question "why should I be an Episcopalian?"



With thanks to Peter Carey for this link.

SLAUGHTER WITH A SMILE

Dennis Perrin reviews The Liberal Defense of Murder.

Richard Seymour, who oversees Lenin's Tomb, has delivered the best indictment of liberal warmongering to date, and just in time, too, as it appears we're about to enter another period of humanitarian barbarism led by a Democratic president.

A TRAGEDY OF ANIMAL AND HUMAN PROPORTIONS

THIS is not an example of "community policing" (thanks to Lotus).

RICHARD SEYMOUR INTERVIEWED BY GEORGE GALLOWAY

Good interview of Richard Seymour Lenin's Tomb/author of The Liberal Defense of Murder by George Galloway:

MARCH 3, 2009

ST PAUL'S ICON EXHIBIT ON ARTWALK

This coming Friday, February 6, St Paul's Cathedral will be part of Burlington's monthly ArtWalk, inviting people to visit “The Light in the Darkness”: a show of icons (egg tempera with gold leaf on panels) and to meet the artist, Vermont iconographer Zachary Roesemann. The ArtWalk Reception will run from 5 to 7:30.

THE STEIN/UVM BROUHAHA

C'mon, this hockey puck has been kicked around the rink enough. We all knew that Ben Stein is a fuckwit, but UVM President Dan Fogel embarrassed himself even more in his attempt at damage control.

A CONGRESSMAN STARTS ASKING QUESTIONS & THE FED FLIPS OUT

THROWING 'GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD'

Michael Hudson:- The government’s solution, placed in its hands by the financial lobbyists, is to bail out the bankers and Wall Street while leaving the ‘real’ economy even more highly indebted. Families, businesses and government are having to spend more wage income, profits and tax revenues on debt service instead of buying goods and services. So why is the solution to this debt overhead held to be yet MORE debt? Is there not something crazy here?

THE BALLS OF THE QUEEN

Dutch carnival is approaching... and tomorrow is the birthday of the queen...

Queen Beatrix organizes a party but she doesn't feel like serving posh canapés this year but just ordinary Dutch meatballs for a change, perhaps due to the financial crisis.

Enjoy (or not). It's hilarious, bawdy Dutch humour.

André van Duin is a Dutch comedian.

"The balls of the Queen," bound to be embraced by carnival party goers...

USA ASKED FOR DUTCH SUPPORT IN IRAQ INVASION

A former US deputy secretary of state says America did ask for military help for the Iraq invasion.

WHY DOESN'T IT HAPPEN HERE?

Over 1,000,000 strike in France, a protest over the Sarkozy's handling of the economic crisis.

IT MUST BE THOSE HARD CIDER WINTERS

To add to the North/South divide: Via Faith Central, the results of a 2008 gallup poll show that Mississippi is the most religious state; Vermont is the least.

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WELL

Playmobil Security Check Point

Read the product reviews: priceless!

"HOW DO THE WHITE MEMBERS OF YOUR CONGREGATION CLAP?"

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Obama's New Church

Daily Show Full Episodes
Daily Show Tickets

More Funny Videos
Comedians on Tour

VELCO IS NOT AN "ENVIRONMENTAL LEADER"

Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO) has made a request the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources for an "Environmental Leadership" designation. It is unclear how ANR deals with such requests, what the criteria are for such a designation, but we’ll find out when Vermonters for a Clean Environment and its allies meet next week with agency secretary, Jonathan Wood. Secretary Wood is new on the job and doesn't know VELCO's record.

VELCO's work in the last 5 years does not merit such an award.

If the State grants this designation to VELCO, it will demonstrate the emptiness of such a designation from the State of Vermont and complicity of State with corporations in Vermont's environmental degradation. (Examples of the troubling experience of the State with VELCO is indeed damning.)
It will reward unsustainable environmental practices, heavy-handed behavior by corporations bent on having their way, permit violations, disregard for the State's own stated policies of environmental protection, disregard for public participation in the permit process, and perpetuate the exploitative posture that is damaging Earth and her inhabitants.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Mere compliance with watered-down permit conditions does not constitute environmental leadership and does not merit an award. This is not about NIMBY; this is about caring for God's Creation and moving the State towards true stewardship of our natural resources.


Sylvia Wright, fellow parishioner at Burlington’s Cathedral Church of St Paul, a member of its Earth Care Ministry and a long-time environmental researcher/advocate has written me:

It is important and instructive for us in the faith community to understand how closely our state works with corporations to allow and even bless environmental damage and degradation. For this process, I ask for your prayers and indications of any support you can provide, such as letters to ANR, letters to the BFP, prayers, petitions, phone calls to me, phone calls to Secretary Jonathan Wood (241-3600: leave message with secretary). If you call, please relay the message that VELCO's environmental record does not merit the Environmental Leadership designation they are seeking.

The civil rights movement was a powerful community effort and movement to confront principalities and powers aligned to deny African-Americans their full humanity and their god-given civil rights. Dr. King spoke not only about civil rights but also about environmental degradation during his lifetime. As the larger faith community awakens to the need for a different model of living on Earth, we need to find ways to move beyond our different comfort levels and find ways to collectively advocate for Earth, God's Creation and our home, especially in the face of State and corporate complicity in environmental degradation. Such power structures have been supported by long-established public policy and attitudes treating Earth as a commodity for use and exploitation, but have gained the upper hand in Vermont during the last 20 years, and more egregiously in the last decade. Please join me in sending a strong message to the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources that we expect them not only to enforce laws and permit conditions, but to actually teach environmental care and stewardship to those who work and do business in Vermont.

(See bottom line in bold above, or formulate your own wording when you contact ANR or write LTE’s.)

CONSERVATION CAN'T WAIT

"That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics." - Aldo Leopold, 1948

Note: The Vermont Housing and Conservation Board was last fully funded in 1987!

GREEN MOUNTAIN DAILY:- Here we go again... last week the Governor proposed a budget eliminating permanently affordable housing development efforts and completely eliminating conservation investments that boost our working land economy.

The Governor proposes a 70% reduction to the Vermont Housing and Conservation Budget on top of a series of cuts over the past seven years that had already meant a more than $30 million loss.

Let's not kid ourselves. This is a direct attack on the programs that house Vermont's workforce, provide the means to save family farms, protect recreation and sensitive natural areas and stimulate the economy.

The governor warned against the drastic wholesale elimination of programs and then proceeded to do just that. He said that it was obvious that we should eliminate our conservation program during difficult economic times.

Every day it seems we are hearing about additional losses of good jobs for Vermonters. In these times we need to look what helps Vermont's economy grow!

THE SILENCING OF DISSENT II

The Independent has pulled Mark Steel's column this week. Here it is (thanks to Ten Percent):-WHERE’S MY COLUMN GONE?

Given that it takes me several months to collect together the documents needed to get my car tax, I’m amazed that anyone manages to assemble the hundreds of bits required to produce a newspaper every single day. Then something happens, such as John Updike dies, and the newspaper gets someone to write something about him, and right in the space where my own column was destined to appear. Couldn’t he have hung on for a few more hours and buggered up someone the following day? So, for anyone pining, this is what would have appeared had it not been for John Updike’s genuinely untimely death.

The BBC are right. If they broadcast that appeal for food and medicine to be sent to Gaza it WOULD be taking sides. The Israeli Defence force could legitimately say “We’ve gone to enormous lengths here to kill people, then you go and help to keep them alive. How do you square that with your remit to be neutral?”

So the BBC needs to look at other areas in which its ‘impartiality’ could be called into question. To start with they’ll have to scrap ‘Crimewatch’, which clearly takes the side of the murdered against the interests of murderers. Maybe they could get round this by having a new balanced Crimewatch, in which the police plea for witnesses to a crime, but then the presenter says “Next tonight - have you seen this man? Because Big Teddy and his gang are desperate to track him down and do him in for ringing us up earlier. So if you have any information please call us, where Nobby the Knife is ready to talk to you in complete confidence.”

It’s impossible to be entirely neutral about anything, especially with an appeal for money. Appeals are made for injured veterans of the Second World War, but I don’t suppose they’d take them off air if they got a letter to Points of View saying “Dear BBC, I’m a Nazi war criminal but I pay my license fee just like everyone else, and as such I was appalled by the biased images of the Battle of Normandy used to promote your financial appeal. There are two sides to every story you know, and I thought you had a promise to be impartial. So come on BBC, us Kommandants watch television as well!”

Appeals have been made for victims of wars in the Congo, Darfur and Bosnia, keeping people alive and thereby undermining the aims and efforts of the armies who tried to wipe them out. But if the current stance carries on, from now on if anyone feels their block of flats collapsing on them they’ll think “I hope this is an earthquake and not an invading army or we won’t get a penny via the BBC.”

Aware of the frail logic of not showing the appeal, the BBC have made some even stranger statements to justify their decision, such as claiming they couldn’t be sure the money would ‘get through’. Ah yes that must be it. If only Gaza was like the Congo or Darfur, where the Red Cross can pop along to the village cashpoint machines, draw the money out and get Janjaweed or Hutu militias to help them search for two-for-one bargains in the local Somerfields.

Luckily for the Middle-East, the American government has been less squeamish about this question of impartiality. For example in Bush’s last year he sent Israel 2.2 billion dollars worth of military aid, and there’s no record of anyone saying “This couldn’t be seen as breaching our impartiality in any way, could it?”

The problem is that when viewers are confronted with scenes of misery and destruction, they’re bound to ask what or who caused this, and if it was done deliberately. So the BBC couldn’t remain neutral. Either they allowed the appeal that would lead to those questions being asked, or they refused it, in which case they’re suggesting they shouldn’t aid the relief of civilians who’ve been bombed, starved and slaughtered, as on this occasion their plight can be justified. And it’s decided this time to be biased not towards the impoverished but towards the impoverishers.

Or maybe they’ve been under such a barrage of complaints lately they just panicked that in the middle of the appeal the presenter might say, “Oh and by the way, I shagged David Attenborough’s grandson. Anyway, back to the lack of clean water.”

QUESTIONS: DUTCH SUPPORT FOR IRAQ WAR

nrc.nl - International

News & background:-

Dutch considered military support for US invasion

'Iraq memo' opens door to possible government inquiry

Civil servants allegedly kept minister in the dark on Iraq war

Iron curtain still down on involvement in Iraq war

THE SILENCING OF DISSENT

Craig Murray:- We all need to take a step back and see what kind of society we have become; in particular the Stalinist silencing of voices of dissent - even within our universities.

I have seen my past server host pull this website and my publisher pull my book, in attempts to silence my dissenting opinions. We overcame those, but they should never have happened. Now I have been telephoned by the University of Cambridge to be told that security staff will physically prevent me from entering the University of Cambridge to give a talk there.

What have we become? I have responded thus and am now off to Cambridge.

Dear Dr Elliott,

As I told you on the telephone, I was invited some weeks ago to speak this evening in a debate on the merits of the Afghan War. I learnt this morning that plans had changed due to a student occupation of a university building over University policy towards Gaza, and as the organisers of my debate were involved in the occupation, I was requested to switch my talk to the Law Faculty. I agreed to do so.

I then heard from you that the authorities had decided to exclude non-University members from the law faculty, and should I arrive to give my talk I will not be admitted; and indeed be physically prevented from entering.

I have given this some thought, and I have decided that the threat not to admit me to the University building is unwarranted.

As you may realise, I am Rector of the University of Dundee (and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Lancaster School of Law). I am not personally intending to occupy your building for longer than it takes to give a talk, and certainly intend to cause no damage. I am not a health and safety risk.

I am invited to lecture at Universities and other prestigious institutions worldwide; normally universities are urging me to come, not seeking to turn me away! I understand that a number of people are looking forward to hearing me this evening. To threaten to exclude me is a denial of freedom of speech which I find very peculiar behaviour for the University of Cambridge.

Student occupations are hardly a new phenomenon, and normally can easily be resolved through amicable negotiation. I was quite astonished to learn that Cambridge University had responded by attempting to starve the students out. To try also to ban a guest speaker seems to me likely to inflame and prolong, rather than resolve, the dispute.

It seems to me that the easiest way out of the current difficulty of my visit is for you to extend to me an invitation to speak this evening on behalf of the Faculty.

With all best wishes,

Craig Murray

JOHN UPDIKE 1932-2009

The Boston Globe has an obituary. He wrote 27 novels, 13 short story collections, books of poetry, nonfiction and essays, at least one play. Just yesterday I'd read a book review he had written recently for the New Yorker; he had contributed to the magazine since 1954.

A two-part interview made in 1995:-

TWO GOOD READS

TWO writer/bloggers I admire have written essays recently in well-known publications in their respective countries.

Richard Seymour (Lenin's Tomb and author of the Liberal Defence of Murder), is at last on the Guardian's CiF: Obama the imperialist

I'd read Michael Colby's on his blog last week; it was featured on Counterpunch the day after the inauguration: Ready. Aim. Organize.

THIS IS THE AD THE BEEB WOULDN'T LET BRITISH TELEVISION VIEWERS WATCH

Some further background to this story.

KILLING THEM SOFTLY WITH HIS SONG

While the pimping Obamablogs were jubilant last week over the swearing-in of their modest Anti-War Leader, he celebrated his inauguration as President Killer.

DUTCH DON'T WANT BEATRIX TO ABDICATE

Next week Queen Beatrix celebrates her 71st birthday. Over the weekend there was a report on the role of the monarchy. And as in recent years, with each birthday, the question, Should Beatrix 'stay on' or abdicate?

Leidsch Dagblad (Dutch): - According to a research by a commercial marketing company called Synovate, 54% of the dutch people don't want queen Beatrix to abdicate right now.
84% think prince Willem-Alexander is ready to inherit the throne though.

The dutch people give an '8' to the queen.

84% want to maintain the monarchy, 10% are in favour of a republic.

On Saturday, KRO's In de Schaduw van het Nieuws asked (Dutch) Oranje-experts: Stay on or abdicate?, with an excellent video (Dutch).

COMMENT: I was surprised by the results of this poll. Abdication is not a dirty word in the Netherlands. It just means royal retirement. (The British example is ridiculous.) There seems no indication that Beatrix is tired or has had enough. Should she abdicate in favour of her son? Maybe if she no longer liked her 'job.' But she seems more enthusiastic than ever. On January Beatrix will become a year older, but she certainly seems 'young' to me! Zij doet 't prima toch! That said, however, most Dutch treat the queen with indifference - including most of my friends and family. And yet, thousands come out for Koninginnedag!

CBS ON ISRAEL-PALESTINE

Apartheid and Israel in the same sentence.


Watch CBS Videos Online

This report appeared on one of the most-watched Sunday evening programs and is groundbreaking for "respected" US television journalism. However, it is flawed. It portrays Livni as a moderate (she is more interested in removing Arabs from Israel then Israelis from the the West Bank). The report fails to mention the illegality of the settlements and that half a million settlers are in East Jerusalem.

BBC OCCUPIED OVER CRAVEN NON-BROADCAST OF GAZA AID APPEAL

Good on those Glaswegians!

CBS News

Members of a British anti-war group occupied the Glasgow offices of the BBC on Sunday, saying they would stay in the building until the national broadcaster agrees to air a charity fundraising appeal for Palestinians in the Gaza strip.

The occupation followed criticism from lawmakers and religious leaders who said the BBC's decision not to air an advertisement from the Disasters Emergency Committee - a group of charities that includes the Red Cross, Oxfam, and Save the Children - was wrong.

Lenin's Tomb has more on the sit-in (look in the comments for first hand accounts from protesters).

The ABC has criticised the BBC refusal, too.

THE OBAMA BRAND

From the Guardian

The global reach of Obama's message of renewal is making both subliminal and not so subtle appearances in controversial advertising campaigns from Washington to Jakarta. There is the new flavour of Ben 'n' Jerry's ice-cream: "Yes Pecan!" A new Hennessy Cognac with 44 (Obama is the 44th president) on the label. There is even an Indonesian advert for a form of indigestion tablets featuring a lookalike of the man himself.

Obama's formidable marketing potential was immediately apparent on the morning after the inauguration, when thousands of extra copies of newspapers were printed across the globe to meet demand for readers wishing to keep souvenir copies. Readers of the Daily Express, however, will have noticed their front page made no reference to the new President. It was taken up instead with a full-page advertisement for a Fiat 500 which, it turned out, happened to share its first birthday with the date of Obama's inauguration. "It's a big day for firsts," the slogan said. Rival newspapers contained a simply worded advertisement for Veet, the hair removal company: "Goodbye Bush."

If Fiat and Veet sought to quirkily exploit inauguration day, other companies appear committed to tapping into the longer term marketing benefits of Obama's presidency. Pepsi has unveiled a new red, white and blue logo which has an apparent resemblance to Obama's campaign motif, as part of a longer advertising campaign centred on themes of optimism and renewal.

For instance: another blatant example

BLACK NARCISSUS

I rented the film Black Narcissus a few weeks ago. It starred Deborah Kerr. Incredible pioneering cinematography. After seeing it, I had nightmares from Kathleen Byron's performance (for real!). She died last week. Check out the scary photo of her in the Indy's obit, and you'll understand why I got the creeps.

OBAMA ON GAZA

Finally, at long last Dear Leader has spoken on Gaza

Now we must extend a hand of opportunity to those who seek peace. As part of a lasting cease-fire, Gaza's border crossings should be open to allow the flow of aid and commerce, with an appropriate monitoring regime, with the international and Palestinian Authority participating.

Why not a helping hand without these conditions? What the fuck is an appropriate monitoring regime? Everyone knows that the PA is a lackey of the Israelis. Why not include all Palestinians in Gaza at the table?

Further excellent comments can be found at Left I.

NORMAN FINKELSTEIN RUSSIA TODAY INTERVIEW

(Via P U L S E)

PRESIDENT OBAMA AT NATIONAL CATHEDRAL

Episcope has a roundup of the National Inaugural Prayer Service at Washington's National Cathedral. I was just swept away by the Rev'd Sharon Watkins' sermon (which you can read here) and the music, which you can hear by watching a rebroadcast of the service.

The closing prayer spoken by the Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church

On this radiant day we give thanks to you, o God,
for the freedom to gather united in prayer.
Strengthen and sustain Barack, our President,
that in the days to come he may lead your people
with confidence and compassion.
Grant patience and perseverance to the people of this Nation.
With malice toward none, with charity for all,
may we strive to finish the work you have given us to do
that we may achieve a just and lasting peace.
In this time of new beginnings, new ventures, and new visions,
light in us the fire of justice, and the passion for forgiveness.
Give us the strength to hold fast to what is good
that we may go forth renewed and committed to make hope a reality.
Amen.

Drawn in part from Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
March 4, 1865

ARROGANCE FROM MONTPELIER

The Vermont Department of Labor's cavalier advice to unemployed Vermonters seeking departmental help to "keep trying" if no answer - hit redial, wait and try again - was brought to our attention last week.

A week later it is still the official policy of the department:

Try multiple times an hour versus once every few hours. Think of it like a radio contest and call multiple times. Hitting the "redial" button on your phone increases your chances of connecting as soon as a line becomes free

While Douglas and Obama policy makers piss on working class people, Michael Colby gives us much better advice.

GAZA TODAY

Sameh Habeeb, a Palestinian journalist in Gaza City, has a worthwhile blog:
Gaza Today Gaza Strip, the Untold Story. Check it out. He wrote yesterday

Eight international journalists will arrive in Gaza Tuesday, traveling via Egypt, with the mission to fact-find and record first-hand Israeli violations against the people of the Gaza Strip.

Secretary General of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate Na’eem At-Tubasi confirmed Sunday that delegation, including Arab, French, Norwegian and Italian reporters, is en route to Gaza. The delegation will be followed by an investigating committee from the International Journalist Federation, which will arrive next week.

I'll be following his story.

Thanks to Bob Feldman for the link.

BATTLE OF THE PRAYERS

Peter Carey asks, was it Robinson, Warren or Lowery? What do you think? A commenter writes - and I would agree with him (I heard all three) -

Lowery takes the cake for me. Robinson is classically prophetic and that is good, but Lowery upheld great theology, humor, blessing, scripture and cultural references, and calls to accountability while staying positive and celebrating. Robinson leaves me feeling negative. And don't get me started on Warren.

QUEUES

British passengers on the Titanic died in disproportionate numbers because they queued politely for lifeboats while Americans elbowed their way on, an Australian researcher believes.

IRAQ

DutchNews.nl

Monday 19 January 2009

Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende's contuing refusal to agree to a public inquiry into events surrounding Dutch support for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 is beginning to look like the petulant behaviour of a stubborn teenager.

There are a number of questions which need to be answered about the Dutch position, and continually repeating the same tired arguments is not working.

There is evidence that civil servants had their doubts about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, doubts which the government of the day - led by Balkenende himself - ignored. The Dutch also ignored the fact there was no UN mandate for action. [read the rest]

PRINCESS MARGRIET

Today HRH celebrates another birthday. My favourite Dutch royal! Gefiliciteerd!!

COURAGE IN WORD AND DEED

Daily Reading for January 19 • The Confession of St. Peter the Apostle and a national holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Gracious, loving, and compassionate God of our fathers and mothers, we give you thanks for your faithful servants in every age who have struggled against injustice and oppression and who have fought to root out the evil and sin of racism and discrimination. Through witnesses such as Harriet Tubman, Absalom Jones, and Martin Luther King, Jr., we have learned the merits of self-sacrifice, courageous action, and redemptive suffering. Grant that we in this day, following their example, may continue to resist oppression in all its forms and guises. May we resolve to remain committed to do the work to which you have called each of us and which you require of us all—to “do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly” with you, our God. Trusting in your grace and mercy, and in the power of your holy enabling and sustaining Spirit, we ask this in the name of our Liberator, your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.

A prayer by Bishop Barbara C. Harris, quoted in Race and Prayer: Collected Voices, Many Dreams, edited by Malcolm Boyd and Chester Talton. Copyright © 2003.

Thanks to Episcopal Café's Speaking to the Soul.

ROBINSON ERASED FROM HBO INAUGURAL PROGRAM

UPDATE... via THE LEAD: Obama makes it right
------
I'm not remotely interested in all the parties, feel-good television, MSM analysis of this weeks inauguration. But I had a feeling deep down that something like this would happen.

There was that ruckus about right-wing conservative homophobe evangelist Rick Warren's invitation to say the invocation at Tuesday's presidential inauguration. So, the Obama folks invited Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire - the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church - to "do" the opening prayer at the Obama celebfest on Sunday. HBO carried it on TV, but Robinson's part was nixed, never shown live or on the later rebroadcast.
THE LEAD has what you missed:

It is hard to know what is more surprising: that HBO passed over the invocation in both the live and rebroadcast versions or that it was posted on YouTube by Sarah Pulliam of Christianity Today.

The blog, AFTERELTON got on HBO's ass to find out what really happened: a developing story; HBO says it's not responsible for the slight, but clearly a better explanation is needed.

But given that most Americans could not attend the concert, instead having to watch it on television, the decision to not broadcast the prayer is being seen by many in the GLBT community as a slight.

The exclusion of Robinson, even if unintentional, does not reflect well on the Obama administration's ability thus far to think through these sorts of nuances.

think through these sorts of nuances

You'd think with all their super marketing & planning from the campaign to victory to this week they would not have botched it, but they did indeed: purpose driven?

Meanwhile, the massacre has been paused. As people in Washington celebrate, Gazans are sorting through the rubble in search of their family members.

TRIBUTE TO PETER FREYNE

CCTV's Center for Media and Democracy has a bunch of programs featuring long-time Seven Days columnist Peter Freyne - well-known real journalist and political junkie - who died on Wednesday, January 6th.

COROLLARY

A comment at Lenin's Tomb

The signature phrase of the 1960s cult classic The Prisoner [its star, Patrick McGoohan, died yesterday in Los Angeles]- "I am not a number. I am a free man!"- could have its corollary in Gaza [as well as in Afghanistan and Iraq] with the people declaring:

"We are not non-entities. We are a free people!"

REMINDER: March in Burlington Against Attacks on Gaza this Saturday - forward widely

JOIN BREAD and PUPPET AT THE GAZA PROTEST ...

Meet Saturday, January 17th, 11:30 AM in front of City Hall to gear up for a demonstration and march beginning at noon. Help carry huge, striking Bread & Puppet banners and figures.

Arrive at noon for the march and demonstration.

Join Vermonters and people around the world to protest the occupation and bombings of Gaza, which have killed over 750 Palestinians and injured over 3100 (as of January 9) [now over 1,000 fatalities!]. Hospitals in Gaza have little to no medical supplies and they are overflowing with victims of this humanitarian crisis. Food and water are in extremely short supply due to the blockade Israel has imposed on the people of Gaza. The United States government is complicit in this brutality, supplying military aid to Israel and endorsing Israel's actions. The bombings and killings must end! End the violent blockade and occupation of Gaza immediately!

DEMANDS
- Israel must end the occupation and bombing of Gaza immediately,
- Stop the violence in the Middle East and end the embargo on Gaza
immediately
- The US government must end all military aid to Israel
- Israel must observe international law
- We demand that Senator Leahy, Senator Sanders, and Rep. Welch
denounce the occupation and bombing of Gaza

Sponsors: Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel,
International Socialist Organization, American Friends Service
Committee, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Iraq
Vets against the War, Pax Christi Burlington, Peace and Justice Center

For more information contact S'ra at sra@riseup.net or 324-3073

EYEWITNESS IN GAZA

GISHA Legal Center for Freedom of Movement

Testimony received from a parent of three children and resident of Gaza City

The situation is very hard today. I heard something from a friend that simply gives me no peace – about two families who are fighting over the identity of someone who is lying in the hospital. Since it is impossible to identify the wounded person because his face is very badly hurt, one family claims that he is their nephew and the other family says that he is their cousin. They are fighting about it because they realize that if this is not their relative, that means that their relative is dead.

I can see all of Beit Lahiya from the roof and it’s all going up in flames. There is a very big cloud over the entire northern area. Gaza is packed like a can of sardines, everything is small and crowded. People don’t understand this.

You could die anywhere in Gaza today – at home, in the street. Every place in Gaza is under attack. There is no safe place. This is what Hamas is telling people: why should you die at home? Come out and fight and at least you’ll die while defending Gaza and your home. Who can say no to such a thing?

There is no bread. I called all the bakeries in Gaza and I didn’t find even one where I could buy pitas for my children. In the end I stood in line for half an hour and got cookies. Even that was being rationed – only 1 kilo and no more. I can’t even get pitas for my children.

I’m telling you – I’m willing to come and help in Israel, in Sderot. What they are going through hurts us too but give us a chance. Just give us a chance. Don’t use our children in order to change the political reality. Do you understand that I – someone who has a respectable job and livelihood – burnt my hands while trying to heat water for my children on an open fire! My hands got burnt! Gaza is one big graveyard.

Unfuckingbelievable!

Here are other testimonies received by Israeli human rights groups.

A FATHER'S LAMENT

The father of Rachel Corrie has written a commentary on the current massacre in Gaza. On March 16, 2003, Ms Corrie was killed on the Gaza Strip by an Israeli military bulldozer while trying to prevent the destruction of a Palestinian family's home.

I know something of the loss felt by my Israeli friend Yitzhak, whose son Arik was captured and murdered by Hamas in 1994, and by my Palestinian friend Bassam whose daughter Abir was shot and killed by Israeli solders as she walked home from school in her West Bank village in 2007.

I cannot, though, know the loss felt by Anwar Khalil Ba'lousha, whose five daughters, asleep in their beds, were killed in Gaza by Israeli bombing on Dec. 28. I haven't the courage to imagine his pain.
---
The U.S. must make clear that we will not support either side when it uses violence beyond its borders. We must demand that humanitarian aid as well as press and U.N. observers be permitted to enter Gaza without delay -- and that hostilities cease so that lifesaving commodities can be distributed.