International Community Foundation
Tabasco Flooding Appeal

November 5, 2007

Dear HispanicVista readers:

In an effort to respond to the needs of the over 800,000 displaced flood victims the recent flooding in the Mexican state of Tabasco, the International Community Foundation (ICF) has initiated a campaign to raise monies to provide safe drinking water and direct aid to reduce the spread of cholera and other waterborne diseases through the foundation’s International Water Emergency Relief Fund which provides immediate relief to communities and victims of natural disasters in need of safe drinking water and health and sanitation systems in Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America.

All donations made to ICF's International Water Emergency Relief Fund will go to benefit the Mexican Red Cross delegations in Tabasco to provide emergency relief to the flooding victims in those states.

Without question, the Tabasco flood is the worst natural disaster in Mexico’s recent history with its long term community based impacts paralleling the 1985 Mexico. So, ICF encourages donors to give generously to those in critical need of assistance.

Donations to the benefit Tabasco flood victims can be made to the International Community Foundation either online at http://echo.bluehornet.com/ct/2190915:1125648548:m:4:26884932:78BD31153574D5FC08E42D3AF4383780 or by mail to:

Frontline/World
Extraordinary Rendition

Tuesday, November 6, 10:00pm
CHANNEL 6 (KVIE)

The Season 7 opener examines the CIA's use of "rendition," in which suspected terrorists are interrogated in foreign countries where torture is common. Extraordinary Rendition, an investigation into one of the darkest corners of the Bush Administration's war on terror -- the CIA's controversial rendition and interrogation program.

Also: Ayurveda, a form of holistic medicine in India, is explored.
Time: Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - 10:00pm PST

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5252
Sent in from a reader, as purportedly published in the Charlotte Observer...
To The Editor:

The Senate Judiciary Committee has been unable to extract a yes or no answer from Mr. Mukasey, Bush's candidate for attorney general, about whether waterboarding does or doesn't constitute a form of torture. Why not do what the C.I.A. would do to get him to answer the question and that is, waterboard Mr. Mukasey himself so he could find out about it firsthand? Wouldn't that speed things up?

Yours truly,
Bernie Hargadon

DiFi:

The attorney general nominee's answers on torture are clear, and he will rise to the challenges of the job.

I'm going to focus on the sanctioned torture by this administration and our alleged Representatives and leave aside the other "qualifications" Mr. Mukasey is alleged to have in spades, if I get time later this week I'll get into his so-called national security qualifications. I've got a few videos for you Dianne

.

But first I think you should read the following because it calls into question his veracity and sincerity in his answers to the Judicial Committee in regard to how he'll run the Dept. of Justice ...

Yea, sure, his answers are clear in that he thinks the Fourth Amendment is merely precatory (advisory)

US Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey has written a very lawyerly letter to the Senate Judiciary committee. The letter fails to use the word “waterboarding” although the acceptance of a cast-iron prohibition on “torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” might fairly be seen to cover banning it. The letter might be enough to peel off a few votes on the torture issue.

If you read the letter with any care, however, you will see that it very carefully refuses to say that — even in the face of the FISA legislation occupying the field

Here's the Mp3 of Colonel Ann Wright's address to Sacramento City College from 12-1pm on 10/16/07.

AWright10-16-07.mp3 link here. (55:30)

AWright10-16-07.ra link here. (55:30)

So, I'm reading orcinus and run across an interesting post from Dave with some not very well known facts about the mindset of the people behind the killing of Satender Singh; he links to this article from Casey Sanchez of The Southern Poverty Law Center. I'm going to pick out a few paragraphs below which are relevant to Sacramento ...

The Latvian Connection

The Watchmen
Gay rights activists blame Singh's death on what they call "The West Coast connection" or the "U.S.-Latvia Axis of Hate," a reference to a virulent Latvian megachurch preacher who has become a central figure in the hard-line Slavic anti-gay movement in the West. And indeed, in early August, authorities announced that two Slavic men, one of whom had fled to Russia, were being charged in Singh's death, which they characterized as a hate crime.

A growing and ferocious anti-gay movement in the Sacramento Valley is centered among Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking immigrants. Many of them are members of an international extremist anti-gay movement whose adherents call themselves the Watchmen on the Walls. In Latvia, the Watchmen are popular among Christian fundamentalists and ethnic Russians, and are known for presiding over anti-gay rallies where gays and lesbians are pelted with bags of excrement. In the Western U.S., the Watchmen have a following among Russian-speaking evangelicals from the former Soviet Union. Members are increasingly active in several cities long known as gay-friendly enclaves, including Sacramento, Seattle and Portland, Ore.

Invite to Asm. Jones' Film Screening - Hunted Like Animals

As veterans of the Vietnam War attest, the Hmong people and soldiers who fought with the United States saved countless American lives. When the United States withdrew, the Hmong in Laos became targets of retaliation and human rights violations which continue to this day.

I am writing to invite you to a film screening of Rebecca Sommer's Hunted Like Animals on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007, at 7:00 p.m. at the Crest Theatre (1013 K Street) in downtown Sacramento. We hope the screening of this important documentary will raise public awareness about the plight of the Hmong in Southeast Asia.

Hunted Like Animals is an eye-opening documentary about the ongoing human rights violations of the Hmong people in the jungles of Laos. Over thirty years and two generations later, these Hmong families still live under disastrous circumstances in the country's jungles, facing frequent military attacks, starvation, and disease. In this documentary, the refugees speak for the estimated 20,000 voiceless people still trapped in the jungle. Many Hmong also fled to Thailand where they live in refugee camps and now face forced deportation back to Laos, fearful of further persecution.
Time: Friday, October 12, 2007 - 7:00pm PST

I've just recently read about Presidential Airways at wired.com and thought that'll make a nice short little blog in itself, but, since posting to this website is all voluntary and only done in our spare time, I completely forgot all about it because I just didn't have the time until I ran across the following ... and had to make time

Ever see this plane??? ... Hold that thought

So, last week I'm reading thinkprogress.org and run across the story below and of course have to read it.

Pentagon Issues Blackwater New $92 Million Contract

[Scroll down to the third paragraph. I'm going to emphasize a few things]

Presidential Airways, Inc., an aviation Worldwide Services company (d/b/a Blackwater Aviation), Moyock, N.C., is being awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) type contract for $92,000,000.00. The contractor is to provide all fixed-wing aircraft, personnel, equipment, tools, material, maintenance and supervision necessary to perform passenger, cargo and combi Short Take-Off and Landing air transportation services between locations in the Area of Responsibility of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. This contract was competitively procured and two timely offers were received. The performance period is from 1 Oct. 2007 to 30 September 2011.

Well, well, well, Presidential Airways, we meet again. Whooda thunk it? Do you know what an IDIQ contract is? IDIQ stands for Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity, which means they get their $92 million contract no matter what; they could make 1,000 flights for the DoD or they could only be obligated for one flight and they would still get the $92 million of your tax payer supported money.

Chevron's Pipeline Is the Burmese Regime's Lifeline
By Amy Goodman, King Features Syndicate
Posted on October 3, 2007, Printed on October 5, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/64310/

The image was stunning: tens of thousands of saffron-robed Buddhist monks marching through the streets of Rangoon [also known as Yangon], protesting the military dictatorship of Burma. The monks marched in front of the home of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who was seen weeping and praying quietly as they passed. She hadn't been seen for years. The democratically elected leader of Burma, Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since 2003. She is considered the Nelson Mandela of Burma, the Southeast Asian nation renamed Myanmar by the regime.

After almost two weeks of protest, the monks have disappeared. The monasteries have been emptied. One report says thousands of monks are imprisoned in the north of the country.

No one believes that this is the end of the protests, dubbed "The Saffron Revolution." Nor do they believe the official body count of 10 dead. The trickle of video, photos and oral accounts of the violence that leaked out on Burma's cellular phone and Internet lines has been largely stifled by government censorship. Still, gruesome images of murdered monks and other activists and accounts of executions make it out to the global public. At the time of this writing, several unconfirmed accounts of prisoners being burned alive have been posted to Burma-solidarity Web sites.

[Click the pic for video. WARNING! Some offensive words ... but not nearly as offensive as the neglect and abuse by the federal government. I'm pointing at you Decider Guy™]

“They wanted them poor n***ers out of there.” New Orleans two years after

Submitted by davidswanson on Thu, 2007-08-30 12:32.

By Greg Palast

"They wanted them poor n***ers out of there and they ain't had no intention to allow it to be reopened to no poor niggers, you know? And that's just the bottom line."

It wasn't a pretty statement. But I wasn't looking for pretty. I'd taken my investigative team to New Orleans to meet with Malik Rahim. Pretty isn't Malik's concern.

We needed an answer to a weird, puzzling and horrific discovery. Among the miles and miles of devastated houses, rubble still there today in New Orleans, we found dry, beautiful homes. But their residents were told by guys dressed like Ninjas wearing "Blackwater" badges: "Try to go into your home and we'll arrest you."

These aren't just any homes. They are the public housing projects of the city; the Lafitte Houses and others. But unlike the cinder block monsters in the Bronx, these public units are beautiful townhouses, with wrought-iron porches and gardens right next to the tony French Quarter.

Raised up on high ground, with floors and walls of concrete, they were some of the only houses left salvageable after the Katrina flood.

45480

For over five years, the United States has detained nearly 400 men in Guantánamo Bay without charge or trial. Conditions in this facility have declined precipitously in the last year; four men have already died of apparent suicides since its opening. It is time to close this facility and either charge or release the detainees.

To end the flagrant abuses of due process and human rights —it’s time to Tear it Down!

Habeas Corpus—an individual’s right to be heard in court—is the most basic and fundamental protection against arbitrary detention and other human rights abuses. Congress has taken it away from any non-US citizen or lawful permanent resident alien designated by the President as an "enemy combatant." For more than five years, men have languished in Guantánamo, unable to get any substantive review of their detention.

I ask you to become one of hundreds of thousands of Americans who will take the pledge to Tear it Down, to move toward ensuring that the United States reclaims our place as a moral leader for human rights worldwide, and to restore Habeas Corpus.

The U.S. has abandoned this rule of law. We have become a country that can hold people without charge, without hope and without end. I know this is not the America you believe in.

Please, sign the pledge and tear a pixel down: forward it to friends and family and have them tear a pixel down. Let’s “Tear it Down” and restore freedom and human rights today!

In solidarity,

Kevin Spidel

Tell the "leadership" what you think, especially ... ESPECIALLY ... Senate Republican "leader" Dick Ackerman, since this is his plan for budget negotiations. Contact info for Don Perata and the very disappointing Fabian Nunez (because he decided to take the Assembly into Summer recess during the budget negotiations) and Republican Assembly leader Mike Villines at the bottom

Senate Republican leader Dick Ackerman of Irvine
Sacramento office: (916) 651-4033
District office: (714) 573-1853
E-mail: senator.ackerman@sen.ca.gov

Crisis for poor as Medi-Cal funds end

Elizabeth Fernandez, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 1, 2007

In an emerging crisis for California's elderly and poor, all Medi-Cal funding will be halted this week to an estimated 500 hospitals throughout the state and 11,000 nursing homes, hospices and adult day care centers.

Medi-Cal funds have run out because of the state's monthlong budget impasse, forcing community programs and other facilities into a frantic scramble to cover their bills. Some care facilities for the aged are making plans to close.

California has nearly 6.8 million elderly, frail and chronically infirm Medi-Cal beneficiaries, and many would be forced to find help elsewhere, or make do on their own, without emergency funding from the state Legislature.

But help is unlikely because both the Senate and the Assembly would have to approve an emergency bailout, and the Assembly has gone on summer recess.

"We have not been cut off from Medi-Cal funding before so early in the fiscal year," said Lydia Missaelides, executive director of the California Association for Adult Day Services. "The magnitude of this crisis is overwhelming."

Dave Dionisi is responsible for National Awareness for Teach Peace. Dave is the author of American Hiroshima, a book about how to prevent the next 9/11 attack in the United States. Prior to working in corporate America, Dave served the country as an Army Intelligence Officer. His business and military experiences over the last 24 years are complemented by an extensive background as an international volunteer worker in Asia, Central America, Europe and Africa. He lives in Davis, CA. Learn about the small country of Liberia as it encounters the US Empire.

"Liberia is a beautiful place where elephants still roam with many of the exotic animals we see on television. The people are extremely friendly and handle adversity with tremendous grace. Workers in Liberia and many other countries around the world are exploited by multi-national corporations. This exploitation is managed by secret armies and intelligence operations."

High Cost Of Low Prices by Dave Dionisi

Last Updated: Monday, July 9, 2007 | 12:25 PM ET

CBC News

Canadians use marijuana at four times the world average, making Canada the leader of the industrialized world in cannabis consumption, a recent United Nations report found.

The 2007 World Drug Report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime says that 16.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 to 64 smoked marijuana or used another cannabis product in 2006. The world average is 3.8 per cent.

In the report, Canada ranks fifth in the world for marijuana use, behind Ghana at 21.5 per cent, Zambia, 17.7 per cent, and Papua New Guinea and Micronesia with 29 per cent each.

Cannabis accounts for the bulk of global drug use, consumed by 160 million people.

SiCKO Spurs Audiences Into Action

By Josh Tyler: 2007-07-01 17:15:27

Long time readers of this site no doubt know that I live in Texas. As everyone knows there’s no more conservative state in the Union than here. And I don’t just live in Texas; I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. Dallas isn’t some pocket of hippy-dippy behavior. This isn’t Austin. Dallas is the sort of place where guys in cowboy hats still drive around in giant SUV’s with “W” stickers on the back windshield, global warming and Iraq be damned. It’s probably the only spot left in America where you stand a good chance of getting the crap kicked out of you for badmouthing the president.

So when I went to see Sicko for a second time this afternoon, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the audience. I wasn’t watching it downtown, where the city’s few elitist liberals congregate and drink expensive lattes. I went to a random mall in the mid-cities, where folks were likely to be just folks. As I sat down, right behind me entered an obligatory, cowboy hat wearing redneck in his 50s. He announced his presence by shouting across the theater in a thick Texas drawl to his already seated wife “you owe me fer seein this!”

Sicko started; the stereotypical Texas guy sat down behind me and never stopped talking. He talked through the entire movie… and I listened. The first ten to twenty minutes of the film he spent badmouthing Moore to his wife and snorting in disgust whenever MM went into one of his trademark monologues. But as the movie wore on his protestations became quieter, less enthusiastic. Somewhere along the way, maybe at the half way point, right before my ears, Sicko changed this man’s mind. By the forty-five minute mark, he, along with the rest of the audience were breaking into spontaneous applause. He stopped pooh-poohing the movie and started shouting out “hell yeah!” at the screen. It was as if the whole world had been flipped upside down. This is Texas, where people support the president and voting democratic is something only done by the terrorists.

Detainee ruling put into effect by Circuit Court

The D.C. Circuit Court on Wednesday, after pondering the issue for more than two months, on Wednesday refused to delay any longer putting into effect its decision that Guantanamo Bay detainees have lost all rights to pursue habeas challenges to their prolonged imprisonment. In a brief order, the panel that ruled against the detainees on Feb. 20 formally denied a request filed in April by detainees' lawyers not to issue the mandate and to hold the cases on its docket for several more months. The panel that had issued the Feb. 20 ruling, though split 2-1 then, unanimously denied the motion to hold the case, giving no explanation. It also found moot other requests by detainees' lawyers for legal relief.

Cheney criticizes the Geneva Conventions in Military Academy commencement address
05/26/2007 @ 7:33 pm | Filed by Michael Roston

Vice President Dick Cheney criticized the notion of applying the Geneva Conventions to individuals captured in the course of the war on terrorism in a Saturday commencement address at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York.
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"Capture one of these killers, and he'll be quick to demand the protections of the Geneva Convention and the Constitution of the United States," the Vice President said in the Saturday morning speech. "Yet when they wage attacks or take captives, their delicate sensibilities seem to fall away."

Cheney delivered the remarks in the context of moral and ethical lessons that the graduating cadets at West Point had learned in the course of their study.

Friday, May 18, 7pm, Film: The 4th World War, parallels fragmented resistance movements to the World Trade Organization and the plight of the people directly affected. UC Davis, Olson 202. Day Five: Justice Week - Muslim Student Association and Students For Justice in Palestine.
Time: Friday, May 18, 2007 - 8:00pm PST

WARNING: Graphic video [Click]

Take Back America
Dr. Bob Bowman & Dave Dionisi
Presented by the Teach Peace Foundation

June 8th, 7-9 pm, Marriott Courtyard Main Ballroom at 4422 Y Street in Sacramento. Free parking and peace gift.
Tickets are $15 at www.teachpeace.com and $20 at the door.


“The Best Public Speaker in the Country” (Los Angeles Times) Dr. Bob Bowman, Lt Col, USAF, ret. (101 Combat Missions as Fighter
Pilot in Vietnam) , is bringing his Patriot Tour to Sacramento! Dr. Bowman challenges us to “Take Back America” for the people. He explains why we need a government that:
Time: Friday, June 8, 2007 - 8:00pm PST