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A chief backer of such films as DARFUR NOW and SAND AND SORROW is the GENOCIDE INTERVENTION NETWORK, who urge us “Never Again,” invoking the myth of western indifference to the tragedy of Rwanda. Through films like SAND AND SORROW they criticize American passivity in the face of their call to intervene. Actor George Clooney asks viewers to dial the GIN’s 1-800-GENOCIDE hotline for talking points to urge congress to action. He calls Darfur “the 21st Century’s first genocide.”
 
Despite the predominant focus on Darfur, the website features a map of other “areas of concern.” Notice anything missing? Palestine? Iraq? In fact the map would appear to exclude concern for the victimization of Muslims in Indonesia, Ceylon and the Philippines too.

Dear John,
I’m sorry to have let you down in your efforts to negotiate a settlement with the city on the Saint Patrick’s Day affair. I have always valued your advice and I remain hopeful that the city will consider a reconciliation over this matter.

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Black Fire is good music. Defeated Nations, Native American- Sacred Spirit.

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On October 31, the occasion of its 90th anniversary, Aussie descendants of the original Anzac forces reenacted the 1917 storming of Beersheba, a key battle in the WWI struggle against the Turks in Palestine. Of all the historic campaigns in recent or near-recent memory, why Beersheba?
 
And why not Beersheba 1948?

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Alternet today published The Black Agenda Report’s commentary calling the ‘Save Darfur’ a US interventionist PR scam. Ten Reasons to Suspect “Save Darfur” is a PR Scam ‘Humanitarian intervention’ is getting to be a more and more difficult sale for the government to make.

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Here is the language for a press release about the dismissal of criminal charges against the remaining SPD7-5. Pick and choose to taste:
 
I’m very happy that the city has decided to drop the charges. It confirms, despite their statement to suggest the opposite, that they did not have cause to arrest us, and should not have interfered with our rights as citizens to freedom of expression unmolested by the city.

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The Cure for AIDS
1. If you are gay/str8/lesbian/trans/bi and have tested for HIv and been told you are positive for the antibodies to HIv, (using Western Blot type test which register as much as 70% false positives) or been told due to a low T-cell count or high viral load count with PCR test, you are at risk for AIDS, and that HIv is the cause … you need to first thing, look your doctor or AIDS org. counselor in the eye and say: I’m not taking the AZT, HAART, Protease Inhibitors, chemo poison drugs that are the main regimen for treatment and that will destroy my immune system and internal organs (depending on dosage and length of time on the meds). Nor will I be a guinea pig for any new untested drugs or vaccines. Nor will I take any drugs for HIv because HIv is not cytotoxic nor can it destroy my T-cells. Over 60 known diseases cross react with the unreliable Elisa or Western Blot type HIv tests giving false positives. Don’t believe the HIv=AIDS “death sentence”. Sources: Help For HIV and Living Without HIV Drugs.

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This courtesy of Portland Indymedia, via CSAction via ThomasMC

The city has decided to drop the charges against myself and Elizabeth, which would be, roughly, about time. This is a pleasant development, made even more so by the arrogance of their official statement, a slap in the face with a policeman’s black glove to anyone who might suggest they had behaved badly. Though the City attorney’s Office is seeking a dismissal, they want us to know a “review found ample and sufficient evidence … to continue with the prosecution.”
 
Have I recounted yet my take on the first trial?

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All sorts of new toys for the police to torture and abuse people with are now coming into use to supplement the taser. The puke ray is perhaps going to be too messy and not torturous enough for our delicate and fastidious ‘peace officers’ to prefer though.

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A film directed by Brian De Palma about the US military in action and based on a real event is drawing the fire of the American Right Wing. They say it maligns ‘the troops’ and want to try to limit the distribution and showing of the film. They call it treasonous. Aren’t you just totally sick of these whiny bastards like O’Realy trying to censor others while running off their own loud mouths all the time?

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Joseph Kennedy, patriarch of what is often described as America’s royal family, built his fortune by bootlegging whiskey during the Prohibition and rose to power by mob control of the unions.
 
Ill-gotten gains are credited by some for the fate of Joseph’s offspring: the “Kennedy Curse.” Son JFK, elected president, shot; son Bobbie, declaring candidacy, shot; son Ted suffers a car-crash which derails his political aspirations; son of eldest son dies in a 1999 plane crash.

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The Labour Party of Britain has changed nothing at all from Tony Blair under PM Gordon Brown, just as the Democratic Party has changed nothing 7 years into the Bush presidency. Both still are corporate creations masquerading as popular parties of the common folk.

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Zogby says that is there was an election today, that Hillary Clinton would lose to any and all of the top 5 Republican contenders for president. Does Zogby (like many pollsters) have a hidden agenda that he is using his crafted poll results to promote, or is Hillary the Hoss that unpopular for real?

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This note was sent to the Bookman after Veterans Day. Enclosed was a clipping about the death of the pilot of the Enola Gay, who would not be memorialized with a headstone for fear of attracting protesters. The sender expected us to try to crash the parade apparently, confusing the Bookman and cohorts for the Phelps Family funeral hecklers.

It turns out that the Air Force Academy here in Colorado Springs was not chosen to bring ‘PEACE’ to the Middle East, nor was the Army Academy at West Point. The site for The Cheney Empire to force more of a mess on the Middle East is to be the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Welcome, Palestinians! It’s a festive occasion this week!

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Once when I was twelve or so, my sisters and I bought my mother a birthday present. We found it at Spencer’s, a store full of black lights and glow-in-the-dark posters, lava lamps, hanging beads. To our young minds Spencer’s held every groovy thing the 70s had to offer and we could not wait to present our gift to Mom.

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What colors do you suppose the US and Israel have in mind for a destabilized Darfur/Sudan?

John Howard, Australia’s political dinosaur, is finally dead due to the effects of Global Warming. He lost the election for Australian Prime Minister, and the reason why is that…

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At the demonstration last week to mark UFPJ’s Iraq Moratorium we marched from City Hall to the IVAW guard tower installation in Acacia Park. On the way we chanted a call: “WHOSE WAR?!” with the response: “BUSH’S WAR!” It was not the time to quibble between protesters, but should it really not have been “YOUR war?”

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I hadn’t yet seen HDTV, or watched a football game in high definition I guess. Over Thanksgiving I had the chance, and got a closeup of the Sports Center-esque after-party where guys in chip covered Barca-loungers watch suits at a conference table lend a business air to their giddy analysis. What made this so different in Hi Def? Maybe you knew it already. Each of these dapper jock-industry everymen wears a flag pin!

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I read yesterday’s post and decided that I’d had too much turkey, too much tryptophan actually, to have sufficient mental clarity to properly opine on the divine. Today I possess mental acuity thanks, in part, to the fact I have yet to break my overnight fast. The turkey omelet must wait while I wax philosophic for a spell.

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I was obsessed with Bernadette Soubirous when I was a Catholic schoolgirl. You’ll recall, or perhaps you won’t, that the Mother of God appeared to Bernadette at Lourdes in 1858. Or so Bernadette claimed.

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