Screening of "Arna's Children,†at 6 PM followed by a discussion
free admission
Andrew Bacevich discusses the president’s comparison of Iraq to Vietnam. Andrew J. Bacevich is professor of international relations at Boston University. A graduate of the U. S. Military Academy, he received his Ph. D. in American Diplomatic History from Princeton University. Before joining the faculty of Boston University in 1998, he taught at West Point and at Johns Hopkins University.
New Jersey’s Free Trading, Outsourcing, Warmongering, and Go To Guy for Israel, Senator Frank Lautenberg Faces Senate Challenger Rep. Rob Andrews
Andrew H. Dral
When the decision is to help the middle class by keeping jobs in America or to help corporate America reduce domestic expenses, you can count on New Jersey’s (NJ) Senator Frank Lautenberg to side with corporate interests. Senator Lautenberg voted for the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 – S1637. A tax giveaway to corporations, lowering the corporate tax rate on repatriated funds to 5.25% from 35%. Corporations have received a free ride on taxes, in 1995 corporations paid $157 billion (B) in taxes, compared to $132B in 2003 corporate taxes paid. In his annual report, Warren Buffett said corporate taxes are at their lowest level, since 1934, at 7.4% of all federal tax receipts, down from 32% of tax receipts in 1952.
This bill, the Jobs Creation Act, should have been called the CEO Bonus Earnings Act or Mergers and Acquisitions Funding Act. This extraordinary gain on 2005 earnings helped CEOs across the nation make their bonus targets. In addition, a good portion of the funds from the roughly $500B repatriated pretax profits or $149B in tax savings would go to destroy jobs through Wall Street driven mergers and acquisitions, so through this bill Mr. Lautenberg exacerbated NJ’s job losses. Corporations are now incentivized to wait for the next repatriation tax holiday.
Over the past twelve months ending in March 2008 overall workers‘ wages rose 3.1%, while inflation rose 4%. Wages for working people have gone no where since the 1990s, rising only 32%, barely keeping pace with inflation, while chief executive officer (CEO) pay rose 535% over the same period. In 2006 CEO pay averaged 364 times the average workers‘ pay, down from 525 times in 2000, a record year, compared to 42 times in 1980 and 25 times in 1960.
Scott Ritter won't let us forget Iraq, Iran and the Constitution.
Scott Ritter was one of UNSCOM's most senior weapons inspectors in Iraq between 1991 and 1998. Prior to working with UNSCOM, he served for eight years in the Army and Marine Corps. In the Marine Corps, he served as an intelligence officer, conducted arms inspections in the former Soviet Union. He provided analysis of Iraq's missile capacity to General Schwarzkopf in the 1991 Gulf War.
Seymour Hersh has observed: "The important thing to know about Scott Ritter is that he was right."
Submitted by Dan Bacher on Thu, 05/15/2008 - 8:41pm
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Thursday, May 15, 2008
Contact: Cres Vellucci, Veterans for Peace 916/996-9170
ATTN: Daybook/Assignment Desk
No Memorial Day display on Capitol Mall?
Vets, others file protest, hold news
briefing Friday to chastise City
SACRAMENTO – Veterans, members of the ACLU and others will hold a major
news conference here Friday to criticize the City of Sacramento for
refusing to allow 120,000 white and red flags – remembering those who have
died in the Iraq War – to temporarily occupy otherwise empty city land
over the Memorial Day weekend.
The news conference will be held FRIDAY, at 10 a.m., at 9th & Capitol, on
the grassy street median – the potential site for the flags. Examples of
the flag will be "planted" there, permit or not.
This month marks 60 years of Palestinians being forced from their homes and land by mostly European colonists who formed the state of Israel. This Sunday, May 11, State Senator Darryl Steinberg will be emceeing the Zionists' celebration of this disaster ("Salute to Israel") on the west steps of the State Capitol. Across the street, you can join a demonstration calling for an end to Israeli apartheid, occupation, and human rights abuses against the Palestinians. In the evening there will be a performance of Hikayat Al Nakba, a play on the dispossession and resilience of the Palestinian people.
This month marks 60 years of Palestinians being forced from their homes and land by mostly European colonists who formed the state of Israel. This Sunday, May 11, State Senator Darryl Steinberg will be emceeing the Zionists' celebration of this disaster ("Salute to Israel") on the west steps of the State Capitol. Across the street, you can join a demonstration calling for an end to Israeli apartheid, occupation, and human rights abuses against the Palestinians. In the evening there will be a performance of Hikayat Al Nakba, a play on the dispossession and resilience of the Palestinian people.
Former President Jimmy Carter, predictably, is being denounced for meeting with the exiled leader of Hamas in Syria on April 18, 2008.
Carter's critics are wrong. Talking to Hamas, which won the January 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, is a necessary part of creating peace. As Carter himself said, "There's no doubt in anyone's mind that, if Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors, that Hamas will have to be included in the process."
Please sign our petition -- co-sponsored by "A Just Foreign Policy" -- to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain asking them to support former President Carter and support talks with Hamas:
I support peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Jimmy Carter speaks for me when he says that resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict requires talking to Hamas. As he says, "If Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors, the Palestinians, Hamas will have to be included in the process." 64% of Israelis have said they support talks with Hamas.
Please support including talks with Hamas in efforts to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
al Nakba (the Catastrophe): Palestinians in the 60th year of Dispossession.
Wednesday, Apr 9, 2008, 7pm
SEIU-UHW Hall, 1911 F St. Sac.
Ziad Abbas, journalist and co-director of the Ibdaa Cultural and Community Center in Bethlehem, will share oral histories he has done with al Nakba survivors and his work with the youth of Palestine.
MNF-Iraq is reporting the deaths Three Coalition Force Soldiers and an interpreter in a roadside bombing in an eastern Diyala province on Monday, March 10th. One other soldier were wounded in the attack.
Security incidents:
Baghdad:
#1: One Iraqi soldier was wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near his patrol in western Baghdad's Mansour district, police said.
#2: A car bomb went off near the building of al-Mahmoudiya local council, south of Baghdad, on Tuesday, leaving an unidentified number of civilians killed or wounded, a security source said. "A car bomb went off near a local council building in the district of al-Mahmoudiya, leaving unidentified number of civilian casualties," the source, who declined to have his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.
#3: Around 4:30 a.m. gunmen attacked the juveniles’ prison in Tobchi neighborhood in west Baghdad injuring three policemen, three prisoners and releasing five prisoners.
#4: Around 8:05 a.m. an IED exploded on the airport street in west Baghdad. No casualties were reported.
#5: A member of the local council of Yousifiyah town was killed and eight other members were injured when an IED exploded inside the building of Yousifiyah town local council south of Baghdad around 1:00 p.m.
#6: Gunmen also sprayed another bus with machine gunfire shortly after it hit a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad. One person was killed and four others were wounded, police said. The bomb was apparently targeting a nearby police patrol.
A Real Road to Peace: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine
Talk by Joel Kovel
Wednesday, Feb 13, 7pm
SEIU-UHW Hall, 1911 F St, Sacramento.
Professor of Social Studies at Bard College, Kovel is the son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, spent 24 years working as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, ran for Congress as a Green Party candidate, and has written ten books on racism, nuclear proliferation, the environment and other issues.
All Things Considered, January 23, 2008 · Tens of thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip poured over the border into Egypt on Wednesday after militants toppled huge stretches of the seven-mile-long barricade in the divided border town of Rafah. They swarmed into Egyptian towns to buy supplies that have become scarce or too costly after months of a tight Israeli blockade of the Hamas-controlled area.
The jubilant Gazans came by foot, taxi, bus and donkey cart to cross the destroyed border fence and visit relatives or stock up on consumer goods and food before returning to Gaza.
Boys and men loaded the carts with big boxes of cheese, olive oil, jugs of cooking oil, cartons of cigarettes, new tires and 100-pound bags of Egyptian cement.
