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Out on the Web

Vol. 2, No. 4--May 11, 2005

"For progressives, hope is in the states," declares Tim McFeeley, executive director of the Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA), a national policy group that works with a network of liberally-oriented state legislators. Adds Bernie Horn, the CPA's policy director: "From Jan. 1 to April 15, there have been three times more progressive bills passed in 2005 than in 2004. Some of this is a release of frustration from the 2004 election!"
http://www.stateline.org/live/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=136&languageId=1&contentId=28614

Portland becomes first city to pull out of FBI-led anti-terror team
PORTLAND -- The City Council yesterday approved a recommendation by Mayor Tom Potter to withdraw police officers from an FBI-led anti-terror task force, making this city the first in the nation to pull out of a network the federal agency has put together across the country.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/222207_fbi29.html

Montana House Condemns PATRIOT Act
Montana lawmakers overwhelmingly passed what its sponsor called the nation's most strongly worded criticism of the federal Patriot Act on Friday, uniting politicians of all stripes. Senate Joint Resolution 19, sponsored by Sen. Jim Elliott, D-Trout Creek, says that while the 2005 Legislature supports the federal government's fight against terrorism, the so-called Patriot Act of 2001 granted authorities sweeping powers that violate citizens' rights enshrined in both the U.S. and Montanan constitutions.
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/04/02/build/state/68-pat-act.inc

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passes resolution regarding treatment of detainees in Guantanamo
On the basis of an extensive review of legal and factual material from a wide range of reliable sources, the Committee concludes that the circumstances surrounding detentions by the USA at Guantánamo Bay show unlawfulness on grounds including the torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees and violations of rights relating to prisoner-of-war status, the right to judicial review of the lawfulness of detention and the right to a fair trial. The Committee also finds that the USA has engaged in the unlawful practices of secret detention and "rendition" (i.e. the removal of persons to other countries, without judicial supervision, for purposes such as interrogation or detention) and that US proposals to return or transfer detainees to other countries in reliance on "diplomatic assurances" risk violating the principle of non-refoulement.
http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc05/EDOC10497.htm

Update on Red Lake
(Article includes suggestions on how to help the Red Lake community) Since the horrors of March 21, when 16-year-old student Jeff Weise killed nine people, injured seven and took his own life, officials, parents and students have buried their friends and relatives and begun trying to come to grips with the tragedy. But events keep getting in the way of healing.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/special_packages/red_lake/11339656.htm

No Fathers
It has been 40 years since Daniel Patrick Moynihan, former U.S. senator from New York, issued a report on the African-American family in the United States. In an alarming tone, he stated that about a quarter of the children born in the African-American community were born into households that had no father. Born out of wedlock, he thought, they faced a wide range of social dysfunctions ranging from being at risk for poor school performance, prison and perpetuating the cycle of matriarchal families. It was, he thought, a prescription for disaster.

Fast-forward to 2005. Today, approximately the same percentage of white American females give birth to children under the same circumstances. A major difference is that no bells have gone off, no dire prophecies are set forward, no racism about the inherent weaknesses of the white race is discovered.
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096410845

From Hero to Homeless
For 25-year-old Herold Noel, this winter, like the war, has not been kind. When "Iraqi Freedom" began, Private First Class Herold Noel was a soldier in the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, pounding a path into Baghdad. "I fought for this country," he said. "I shed blood for this country. I watched friends die." And like so many, Herold Noel came home a hero, but he wound up homeless.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/25/eveningnews/main683247.shtml

At what cost?
To keep health coverage, more workers are cutting back on food, heat and other necessities. Still, many of them eventually will lose the battle. Many people, especially lower- and middle-class workers and the chronically ill, are beginning to spend a once-unimaginable share of their income on health coverage. In some cases, health costs have become the single biggest expense in family budgets.
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-insure4apr04,0,5132674.story

Medicare forecast has costly news for seniors, doctors
Medicare plans to charge seniors 14 percent more for premiums next year and pay doctors about 4 percent less, agency officials said yesterday. The adjustments are meant to cope with unexpected increases in Medicare's spending on physician visits and outpatient care.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002226999_medicare01.html

National Hunger Awareness Day: June 7
Welcome to National Hunger Awareness Day 2005, the grassroots movement to raise awareness about the solvable problem of hunger in America. Tuesday, June 7th, 2005 will mark this year's observance with activities taking place in happening communities around the country. This site will help you to get involved. Whether you're an individual, a member of a group, or an employee of a corporation, we welcome your participation in National Hunger Awareness Day activities. http://www.hungerday.org/content/index.php

Bankruptcy Reform Hits Women Hard
Changes could hurt single mothers, already the most vulnerable financially, experts say. And they'd lose their priority for support and alimony when fathers file.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/bankruptcyguide/P114573.asp

Executive Pay Watch
Every year, shareholders and America' s workers learn of new jaw-dropping executive compensation packages that seemingly defy rational explanation. In 2004, the average CEO of a major company received $9.84 million in total compensation, according to The New York Times.
http://www.aflcio.org/corporateamerica/paywatch/

"Intelligence and facts are being fixed around the policy."
For three years now, we in Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) have been saying that the CIA and its British counterpart, MI-6, were ordered by their countries' leaders to "fix facts" to "justify" an unprovoked war on Iraq. More often than not, we have been greeted with stares of incredulity.

It has been a hard learning-that folks tend to believe what they want to believe. As long as our evidence, however abundant and persuasive, remained circumstantial, it could not compel belief. It simply is much easier on the psyche to assent to the White House spin machine blaming the Iraq fiasco on bad intelligence than to entertain the notion that we were sold a bill of goods.

Well, you can forget circumstantial. Thanks to an unauthorized disclosure by a courageous whistleblower, the evidence now leaps from official documents-this time authentic, not forged.
http://www.tompaine.com/20050504/articles/proof_bush_fixed_the_facts.php

ST. LOUIS--On March 30, a national veterans' organization called for the removal of President George W. Bush and Vice-President Richard Cheney for crimes the group charges were committed during the invasion and occupation of Iraq. In a letter sent to each member of the US House and Senate, Veterans For Peace (VFP) stated that "...This administration's war on Iraq, in addition to being increasingly unpopular among Americans, is an unmistakable violation of our Constitution and federal law which you have sworn to uphold. In our system, the remedy for such high crimes is clear: this administration must be impeached."
http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/033005VeteransForPeace.html

May 10th is a national day of action for GI resisters.
A newly formed group, Courage-To-Resist, is organizing veterans, military families, and community activists in a campaign to support military objectors. Demonstrations to support sailor Pablo Paredes, who faces a court martial in San Diego May 11th, are in the making.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0503-25.htm

Analysts say draft might be needed: Volunteer force will hit 'breaking point' next year
WASHINGTON -- If American forces aren't pulling out of Iraq in a year, a draft will be needed to meet manpower requirements, military analysts warned yesterday. With recruitment lagging and no end in sight for U.S. forces in Iraq, the "breaking point" for the nation's all-volunteer military will be mid-2006… The U.S. military cannot deploy and sustain enough troops to succeed in countries such as Iraq while still deterring threats elsewhere...
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/218188_draft31.html

The Undoing of America: An Interview with Gore Vidal
The art of government now, the art of control as practiced by the current junta, is: Keep the people frightened. Keep everybody frightened, tell them lies--and the bigger the lie, the more they'll believe it. There's nothing the average American now believes (because he's been told it 10,000 times a day) that is true. Now how do you undo so much disinformation? Well, you have to have truth squads at work 24 hours a day every day. And we don't have them.
http://citypages.com/databank/26/1268/article13085.asp

Less is More
10 easy things (and a few harder ones) you can do to plug in to a simpler lifestyle. http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0505&article=050513

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