"The Bush administration has decided to renounce formally any
involvement in a treaty setting up an international criminal court
and is expected to declare that the signing of the document by the
Clinton administration is no longer valid, government officials said
today...a decisive rejection by the Bush White House of the concept
of a permanent tribunal designed to prosecute individuals for
genocide, crimes against humanity and other war crimes...In
addition, other officials said, the United States will
simultaneously assert that it will not be bound by the Vienna
Convention on the Law of Treaties, a 1969 pact that outlines the
obligations of nations to obey other international treaties...Harold
Hongju Koh, a Yale law professor... said the retraction of the
signature on the treaty would be a profound error. 'The result is
that the administration is losing a major opportunity to shape the
court so it could be useful to the United States,' Mr. Koh said.
Corporate Reform's THIS WEEK’S ACTION ITEMTo subscribe to "Corporate Reform" email ldrutman@citizenworks.org On Wednesday, the House is scheduled to vote on H.R. 3763, the Republican version of accounting reform. This is a bill that even the Wall Street Journal says will leave accounting reform entirely up to the Securities and Exchange Commission. “Don’t look for a major overhaul of the accounting industry soon,” the Journal reports, “Congress’s first legislative response to the auditing end of the Enron Corp. debacle punts much of the overhaul effort – including the makeup and authority of a new industry-oversight board – to just where the accounting industry would like it: the Securities and Exchange Commission.” As this week’s action item, call up your elected Congressman or Congresswoman and tell him or her to vote against H.R. 3763. Say you want real accounting reform, not merely cosmetic changes that leave most of the power in the hands of the Securities and Exchange Commission. To contact your representative, visit http://www.house.gov/writerep -------------------- MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee will be marking up S. 2010 the Corporate and Criminal Fraud and Accountability Act of 2002, introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). This is a KEY piece of legislation. It will create new criminal felony charges to punish corporate executives for perpetuating fraud and vastly improve protection for corporate whistleblowers. But only if it makes it out of committee. Please let members of the Senate Judiciary Committee know that you support S. 2010 as a solid step toward making corporations more accountable. For a complete list of Judiciary Committee members, visit http://judiciary.senate.gov/members.cfm Visit Working Assets’ website and sign a petition to tell
President Bush to donate his $550,000 share of Enron's ill-gotten
gains to funds, such as the Enron Employee Transition Fund and REACH,
that benefit the company's employees who lost their retirement savings
and provide relief to low-income consumers in California, who can't
afford to pay for their basic energy needs. Working Assets is also calling for Kenneth Lay to donate the
millions he made in selling Enron stock to funds that repair some of
the damage he wrought. Join the AFL-CIO’s fax campaign asking Enron and corporate
creditors Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of New
York to support full severance packages for laid-off Enron workers. Sign an electronic petition calling for the Justice Department to
appoint a special prosecutor on Enron at Call your congressman in support of House Resolution 333, which calls for a special prosecutor on Enron. Adbusters Announces 'TV Turn-off Week': April 22-28. Turn-off the Idiot Box NOW!
"7 days of TV freedom can be a surprising challenge. More than
a few people have reported to us that they find the weaning process
torturous. We want to hear how you fare. Keep a TV Turnoff diary.
Write a short story about your trials. Paint pictures. Hell, push
the bounds of irony and make a documentary. However you choose to do
it, chronicle your experiences outside the box. If you plan events
over the week, make sure to send us pictures at campaigns@adbusters.org
or at Adbusters TV Turnoff, 1243 W 7th Ave, Vancouver BC, V6H 1B7,
Canada." As Howard Beale famously declared in 'Network':
"Turn it off! Turn it all off!" Shut down the box with its
insidious political propaganda and conformist messages that fill its
news, commercials AND entertainment programs. Switch off the boob
tube that tells us to dwell on shallow things, and to feel afraid,
empty and wanting to buy, buy, buy. "We're as Mad as
Hell and We're Not Going to Take It Anymore!"
OfficeMax Reports Suspicious Copying Customers to FBI --Boycott OfficeMax!!
"Laura Hershey of Denver, Colorado, went to
her local OfficeMax to do some copying on March 9, and she was
astonished to see a 'Notice to Our Customers' that read: 'During
this time of heightened security awareness, we will report
suspicious or questionable requests for printing or document
reproduction to law enforcement authorities.' 'This policy does
not make anyone more secure,' Hershey wrote. 'On the contrary,
it is likely to intimidate people who may hold controversial
political or religious opinions, and suppress their right to
disseminate those opinions through flyers, newsletters, etc...
Hershey said, the policy invades people's privacy and
'suppresses their right to free expression.' [According to
OfficeMax, the policy] 'is a direct result of the events of
Sept. 11. We are cooperating with the authorities in every way
we can.' Baisden says the company has already turned in a few
customers to the authorities." So reports Matthew
Rothschild in The Progressive.
http://www.progressive.org/webex/wxmc031302.html
Tests of Nuclear Dry Casks Reveal Tunnel Fires or Terrorist Attacks Could Trigger 'Mobile Chernobyl'
Bush's spokespeople in the nuke industry, like
Jack Edlow of Edlow International (which is in the business of
transporting nuclear wastes) are currently on the "expert
opinion" circuit, hoping to convince Americans that
transporting nuclear wastes to Yucca mountain, even through
urban areas and tunnels, is safe. But a report by Radioactive
Waste Management Associates begs to differ! A study by RWMA
after the Baltimore tunnel fire last July concludes that if
the train involved had been carrying casks of spent nuclear
fuel, the casks would have failed in the intense heat,
exposing tens of thousands of people to acute radiation and
costing billions in cleanup. Another series of tests at
Aberdeen Proving ground showed the casks are vulnerable to the
sort of weaponry a well-armed terrorist might use. And 60
million Americans will have spent-fuel laden trains passing
within one mile of their homes if Bush gets his way. Read the
whole RWMA report at http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2001/
...demdailynews, 2/26/02
Bush Is Considering Resumption of Nuclear Testing - Send Letters That This is Not an Option!
From Greenpeace: "The Bush Administration is
considering an expedited plan to resume nuclear weapons testing. A
return to testing nuclear weapons would not only defy U.S.
obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but
experts say it could bring about a new nuclear arms race and
destroy the fragile nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation
agreements negotiated in the last decade. Please send a
letter to your Congressional members encouraging them to support
an effort that is underway, led by Representative Markey from
Massachusetts, to let President [sic] Bush know that a resumption
of nuclear testing is not an option. Encourage your Congressional
members to tell President [sic] Bush that at this crucial time in
world history, our nation needs a leader who will work diligently
to help eliminate, not encourage, the threat of nuclear
weapons."
(demdailynews)1/31/02
Rep. John Conyers Demands Special Prosecutor!
According to a story buried deep inside the NY
Times, "Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the
ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, formally asked
the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate
Enron, arguing the case 'represents one of the largest corporate
frauds in the nation's history' and citing the large campaign
donations Enron has provided to President Bush over the years and
the large number of senior administration officials who worked for
or invested in the company." This explosive news is going
unreported in Washington, because a Special Prosecutor who fully
investigated the massive Enron scandal would bring down the entire
Bush administration - and the Republican Party. Now it is up
to YOU ... to bring this issue before the American people by
picking up the phones and call C-SPAN and every talk show in the
country More...
Members of Congress Ignoring E-MailE-mail may be easy to use and increasingly
ubiquitous. But experts say that sending an e-mail may be an
ineffective way to get a message across to members of Congress, the New
York Times reported Dec. 13. Letter of protest of Nobel nomination of Bush & BlairCould the following email be genuine?
IPPN Demonstrations for Peace and Justice April 20 - DC
Dear Friends,
As the bombing in Afghanistan goes on and
the Bush Administration manufactures an "axis of evil" and
brazenly prepares to go to war against Iraq, a broad coalition of
organizations is coming together for a major demonstration in
Washington, D.C. on April 20th. It is time to stand up against this
destructive foreign policy and the degradation of our civil
liberties. We are demanding, Stop the War, at Home and Abroad!
We urge your organization to endorse this
action and get involved in the mobilization.
This call to action was initiated by the
National Youth and Student Peace Coalition, joined by the National
Coalition for Peace and Justice,
the 9-11 Emergency National Network and
NYC Labor Against the War. Forty-five organizations have since
endorsed, and the list continues to grow.
We are united in support of these
demands:
-A U.S. foreign policy based upon social
and economic justice, not military and corporate oppression
-An end to racial profiling and military recruitment targeting youth of color and working class youth -Government funding for programs to benefit the economic victims of the 9-11 attacks and the recession -An end to the degrading and secret imprisonment of immigrants -Full disclosure of military contracts with universities -Increased funding for non-military-based financial aid for education
We have also joined forces and are
coordinating with the coalition of sixty organizations organizing
activities on April 19-22 in D.C. calling for the closing of the
School of the Americas and an end to U.S. support of the war in
Colombia.
Washington, D.C. is the place to be the
third weekend in April!
To endorse the April 20th demonstration
write to aprilmobilization@nyspc.org
. For more information please go to our website, www.a20stopthewar.org
.
To find out more about the Colombia
Mobilization/School of the Americas activities go to www.soaw.org/colombiamobilization.org
.
We hope to hear from you soon! All out
for peace and justice April 20th!
The April 20th Mobilization Committee
[This message sent using the IPPN
Announce e-mail list. You can join this low-traffic email
group on alternative politics by sending a blank email to: ippn-announce-subscribe@topica.com
You can unsubscribe by writing ippn-announce-unsubscribe@topica.com
To participate in a more active
discussion of independent and third party politics, please send a
blank email to: ippn-discuss-subscribe@topica.com
Thanks! And please visit www.ippn.org
for information on the on-going work of the Pro-Democracy Campaign
and other ippn activities.
WAR IS NO EXCUSE TO SURRENDER HARD-WON CIVIL RIGHTS It's Time To Do More Than Complain
by JEFF MILCHEN
At a celebration last Fourth of July, I picked up a pocket copy of
the U.S. Constitution imprinted with the slogan, "Revolution
bought us our freedom, but the Constitution let us keep it."
At first it seemed like a nice patriotic sentiment, but recent
events have awakened me to the recognition that it is a dangerous
falsehood. After all, the 15th Amendment formally enfranchised
blacks, but that didn't go far on election days -- it would be
nearly a century until the promise was fulfilled. Without our
awareness and vigilant defense of freedoms, the Constitution is no
more than discolored paper.
Many of my friends have expressed dismay over Americans' failure to
counter assaults on our Bill of Rights by Attorney General John
Ashcroft and the Bush administration. They shouldn't be surprised.
Our freedoms have been under bipartisan attack for years, with
little citizen resistance.
It's easy to blame our recent compliance on reaction to Sept. 11 or
sparse media coverage of government critics. Both play a role, but
the ease with which Americans have ceded liberty in the name of
safety represents a more deeply-rooted problem -- a national
ignorance of our own civil rights history. Perhaps we do not
aggressively defend our own Constitutional rights because we don't
appreciate their origin and importance.
Supporting this theory is an annual poll that gauges citizen
knowledge and attitudes toward the First Amendment, commissioned by
Vanderbilt University's Freedom Forum. In 2001, 29 percent of
respondents agreed strongly with the statement "The First
Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees," while
another 10 percent simply agreed, suggesting that almost four in 10
people believe we enjoy too much freedom of expression. That number
rose dramatically from previous years.
But this is just a passing reaction to Sept. 11; we're still
freedom-loving people, right? Sorry: the poll was taken last April.
Chillingly, the poll also found 23 percent of respondents disagreed
that "newspapers should be able to publish freely without
government approval of a story" and only 57 percent agreed
strongly that "newspapers should be allowed to criticize public
officials."
Disrespect for the Constitution by those in power is not a new
phenomenon with the Bush administration, but a perpetual threat to
guard against. When President Clinton alarmingly stated in 1993 that
"The United States can't be so fixed on our desire to preserve
the rights of ordinary Americans," barely a murmur was heard in
response. And majorities of both major parties supported the 1996
"anti-terrorism" act, which initiated erosions of civil
liberties accelerated by the Bush administration.
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy warns that "The
Constitution needs renewal and understanding each generation, or
it's not going to last." Key to such understanding is
recognizing that early Americans were reluctant to establish a
central government powerful enough to suppress freedom. Many fled
England to flee precisely that power. The Constitution was ratified
only because Congress promised to add guarantees of liberty -- the
Bill of Rights -- in a permanent contract between citizens and their
government.
Yet today we permit these rights to be treated as privileges that
Congress or White House officials may choose to ignore or revoke.
Our founders would be apoplectic to witness our Attorney General --
the man who lost his Senate seat to a dead man in 2000 --
contemptuously accuse civil rights defenders of aiding terrorists.
Yet no member of Congress or major newspaper has called for his
removal.
Mr. Ashcroft derided his critics as using "phantoms of lost
liberty" while he unconstitutionally holds hundreds of people
in prison without charges (the Bill of Rights makes no exceptions
for non-citizens). If we let it happen to "them" without a
fight, we will richly deserve the loss of our own freedom.
Generations of Americans in the military and social justice
movements have fought and died for rights we enjoy today, but our
Constitution still is not self-enforcing.
So how can we who value civil rights counter infringement on our
hard-won freedoms? There's no quick fix. We must rally to stop
further encroachments, but we also need to sow seeds for future
liberty by passing forgotten values to our children and reinvigorate
a culture of freedom. We should strive to engage our young people in
civics, facilitate their understanding beyond check-box memorization
of historical facts, and promote a sense of patriotism involving
loyalty to our Constitutional principles, not blind obedience to
power.
We'll need more than those who deem themselves civil rights
activists to build a critical mass of resistance, and we'll need to
reach beyond comfortable, effortless actions like e-mails and
petitions. For my part, I publicly call for John Ashcroft's
impeachment for subverting the Constitution he is charged to uphold
and urge area government and civic leaders to honor Martin Luther
King Day by joining a rally to support the Bill of Rights and rebut
its assailants.
While truly harmful laws like the "USA Patriot Act"
already have passed, we have reason for hope. Remember that serious
attacks on liberties have succeeded many times in our past --
notably during every major war. Yet each time our rights have been
curtailed, we not only have struggled successfully to reclaim those
rights, but furthered freedom.
We can and must do it again. But while we organize to restore
freedoms lost, let's strive to ensure that future generations will
have no need to repeat our defensive struggle, but instead can
progress further still toward a nation of liberty and justice for
all.
Jeff Milchen founded ReclaimDemocracy.org, a Boulder-based
non-profit organization devoted to revitalizing democracy and
revoking illegitimate power of corporations over civic society.
Visit online or call 303-402-0105. For MLK Day rally information
call 303- 444-6981. http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org
(Top)
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No Vacation for Activists - the softer side of the coup
"We are entering into the most dangerous phase of the Bush
offensive to date, as the Bushies hope to elude criticism for their
draconian programs and supplant an imagined
"compassionate" president for the actually tyrannical
resident that we have. What the Bushies say is usually the complete
opposite of what they do. We must remind the American public about
what the Bushies do, and contrast that with what they say. Now is
the time to remain vigilant, not to lapse into complacency." So
writes Michael Rectenwald in American Politics Journal.
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Whenever
Amnesty International (AI) activists learn that men, women or
children from anywhere around the world are threatened with torture
they take action. Hundreds of letters and faxes are sent in protest.
Torturers are exposed. The torture stops. Over the years
thousands of people have been rescued.
Now we're speeding the process up. Fast
Action Stops Torture.
(FAST) Using state-of-the art
electronic technology, Amnesty International USA announces a new
rapid response tool - FAST. You can be FAST. Now, within hours
of AI's verifying that someone is at risk of torture, thousands of
cell-phones ring, e-mails are delivered at home and at work and
pagers buzz. In minutes, messages of protest speed directly to the
torturers and their leaders - wherever they are in the world.
The torture is exposed faster. The
torture stops sooner.
We need you to help stop torture around
the world! The AIUSA website [http://www.amnestyusa.org] makes it
easy for you to receive alerts and take action to stop torture.
With just a few clicks of the mouse, you'll be able to send
personalized messages to officials where someone is being tortured.
Your message could stop that torture.
It just takes a few minutes to sign up.
Please sign up to help stop torture. Visit the website and check out
FAST - isn't stopping a torturer worth those few moments of your
time?
Without you, torture will continue. With
you, we can end it. FAST.
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Promote Greg Palast's TV Expose on Your Local PBS Station
Investigative reporter Greg Palast, who exposed the Florida felon
purge scandal, has produced a documentary called "The
Calling." A number of PBS affiliates have scheduled the show,
but many are hesitating. You can get Palast's show on the air - and
have fun while you're at it - by playing the "Media
Un-Twister." http://www.legitgov.org/media_untwister/mediauntwister.html
....Tallahassee Now 4/24/01 |
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Felon Purges Are Spreading Like CancerFlorida's felon purge illegally removed thousands of voters -
mostly black - from the voter rolls. This was largely because of
"fuzzy" programming - such as an 80% match of the letters
in the last name. But this fraud-prone practice was recently adopted
by state legislatures in CO, GA, IN, KS, MT, SD, TX, VA, and WA.
Moreover, 16 other states are considering such bills. Meanwhile in
Congress, "Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.) has introduced a
bill in which certain conditions in any state would trigger
mandatory voter list purges." This is exactly the WRONG
approach, as reporter Greg Palast details in this important article.
Tell your Senators: outlaw felon purges! Bill Moyer's PBS Special 6/19/01 - played to rave reviews - watch for rerun
Bill Moyers' last special, "Trade Secrets," which
exposed the deceptions of the chemical industry, ripped open
public debate. His latest special "Earth on Edge",
coming (June 19) just as Bush faces a showdown with world leaders
over his stance on environmental issues, is likely to hit even
more nerves. Moyers' is one of the last of the "grand old
men" of journalism (in stature, Bill, not age!), who tells
the truth with style and depth. Join him on PBS as he explores the
state of five key habitats: coastal, forest, farmland, grassland,
and freshwater -- taking us to Canada, Mongolia, Africa, Brazil,
and the American plains.
http://www.pbs.org/earthonedge/
In an interview in May with the Financial Times, Treasury
Secretary Paul said he "absolutely" supports the
elimination of taxes on corporations-- and the shifting of the tax
burden to individuals." He also called for the abolition of
Social Security and Medicare, on the grounds that
"able-bodied adults should save enough on a regular basis so
that they can provide for their own retirement, and, for that
matter, health and medical needs." In fact, O'Neill believes
the U.S. should reconsider the whole purpose of taxation:
"National defense is a federal responsibility," Shlaes
paraphrases O'Neill as saying, "but all other outlays need
review." Join FAIR in writing the media to ask them why Paul
O'Neill's radical calls for eliminating corporate taxes and Social
Security were not a major news story (links included).
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Contacts:
| Visit the Independent Media Center |
|
CONTACT THE ICHETUCKNEE MOBILIZATION
ichmobile@hotmail.com
or the Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice 352-468-3295 fcpj@juno.com |
| The Association of State Green Parties |
| Global Greens 2001 Conference |