PRAWN
Philadelphia Regional Anti-War Network
PRAWN Philadelphia Regional Anti-War Network |
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| PRAWN Blog Associated website: Economic Effects of the Iraq War Marlene Santoyo's Political Allies Newsletter |
Brief history of PRAWN
PA Laws Relevant to Protests How to keep in touch with local media |
Mibbet
Chat
Widget or Pidgin download (Multi- platform, no-cost) Monique's cards - inspiring messages! Set 1 Set 2 (More of this series after the Inaugural) |
Cool YouTube! Prosecute, prosecute! Hilarious YouTube! Pampered Chef cooking supplies and treats. |
Support Community Media at the Lava Zone |
PRAWN Flyer (PDF) Updated 20Feb2010 PhillyIMC flyer (PDF) Updated 29Jan2011 Information sheet on Austerity |
Event Flyers: |
| Next meeting: TBD from 6:30 to 9:00 pm
Place: Friends
Center,
1501
Cherry
St.
Agenda: Contacting us: Sign up for our RiseUp unmoderated discussion/events list serve. It also has archives sokk you can also check up on discussions. Non-members can post to this list, but those posts will be moderated. Or sign up for our Yahoo events-only list serve. This is also unmoderated, so we depend on discretion being used when posting. Webmaster & miscellaneous questions. Our view of the current war in Iraq:
It's time to withdraw. The war was a crime against humanity to begin with and the alternative is to go through what happened in Vietnam in 1975, a panicked helicopter exodus from the rooftops. PRAWN's mission is to:
Local Resource Organizations
National Organizations Marlene
Santoyo's
Political
Allies Newsletter
30 May 11 19 May 11 18 Apr 11 28 Mar 11 6 Mar 11 16 Feb 11 29 Dec 10 5 Dec 10 4 Dec 10 30 Nov 10 16 Nov 10 11 Nov 10 16 Oct 10 17 Sep 10 11 Aug 10 12 Jul 10 6 Jul 10 5 May 10 21 Apr 10 14 Apr 10 30 Mar 10 27 Mar 10 11 Mar 10 19 Jan 10 10 Jan 10 30 Nov 09 13 Oct 09 3 Oct 09 17 Sep 09 6 Aug 09 7 Jul 09 10 Jun 09 31 May 09 13 May 09 29 Apr 09 9 Mar 09 28 Feb 09 14 Jan 09 6 Jan 09 26 Oct 08 16 Sep 08 15 Aug 08 31 Jul 08 13 Jul 08 20 Apr 08 23 Mar 08 15 Mar 08 6 Mar 08 28 Feb 08 18 Jan 08 9 Jan 08 17 Dec 07 15 Nov 07 5 Sep 07 30 Aug 07 15 Aug 07 2 Aug 07 24 Jun 07 24 Apr 07 20 Apr 07 15 Apr 07 12 Apr 07 21 Mar 07 16 Mar 07 21 Feb 07 16 Jan 07 8 Jan 07 28 Dec 06 13 Dec 06 8 Dec 06 28 Nov 06 17 Nov 06 10 Nov 06 24 Oct 06 13 Oct 06 7 Oct 06 29 Sep 06 19 Sep 06 13 Sep 06 23 Aug 06 11 Aug 06 1 Aug 06 26 Jul 06 7 Jul 06 2 Jul 06 20 Jun 06 6 Jun 06 1 Jun 06 23 May 06 13 May 06 2 May 06 "Political Allies Newsletter" email listserve which is sent out a few times a month. There are actions you may want to support & local, national & international articles, most of which are not printed in the Phila Inquirer or NY Times. Topic titles are listed. You may read any portion, file away for another time or delete any or all. To subscribe, if in the Philadelphia area: send a blank message to this address. To subscribe If OUTSIDE the Philadelphia area then send a blank message to this address. Webspace provided by 1&1 Internet Webmaster: Rich Gardner |
Upcoming Events
NATIONAL CONFERENCE United National Antiwar Coalition Say No! To the NATO / G8 Wars & Poverty Agenda A Conference to Challenge the Wars of the 1% on the 99% at Home and Abroad March 23-25,
2012 Stamford Hilton Hotel, CT
Donate to send
an occupier or student to this conference! Donate
to
help
build
the
NATO/G8
permitted
protest! Send donations to: UNACpeace@gmail.com or to use a credit card, go here: https://nationalpeaceconference.org/Donate.html
A timeline of right-wing violence and violent statementsstarting in
June 2008.
WikiLeaks - The Afghan War DiaryThis is an extraordinary secret compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010. The reports describe the majority of lethal military actions involving the United States military. They include the number of persons internally stated to be killed, wounded, or detained during each action, together with the precise geographical location of each event, and the military units involved and major weapon systems used. Britain's The Guardian reports on
400,000 documents released concerning Iraq Huffington Post summarizes Wikileaks undergoes very serious battle for its corporate existence after revealing diplomatic secrets. 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 Just
look
at
what
the U.S.
Government
and
its
friends are willing
to do and capable of doing to someone who challenges or defies them --
all without any charges being filed or a shred of legal
authority. They've blocked access to their assets, tried to
remove them from the Internet, bullied most everyone out of doing any
business with them, froze the funds marked for Assange's legal defense
at exactly the time that they prepare a strange international arrest
warrant to be executed, repeatedly threatened him with murder, had
their Australian vassals openly threaten to revoke his passport, and
declared them "Terrorists" even though -- unlike the authorities who
are doing all of these things -- neither Assange nor WikiLeaks ever
engaged in violence, advocated violence, or caused the slaughter of
civilians.
The consquences of Bush Administration economic policies and of the Obama Administration's faiilure to reverse those policies  |
Info,
articles, etc.
In a dial-poll (People twist their dials as they approve or disapprove of parts of a speech while listening to it), Republicans, Democrats and Independents all very strongly approve of the part of the SOTU where President Obama speaks of wealthy people like himself and others paying "our fair share of taxes." Take a bow, OWS!!! Did the House of Representatives pass 30 jobs bills? Uh, no, actually, they did nothing of the kind. Politifact becomes ever more irrelevant by calling a completely true statement in the SOTU "Mostly True." Is a president justified in taking credit for economic recovery? Yes, governors and mayors play a role, but from a lengthy tradition on the part of both Republican and Democratic presidents doing just that, I'd say yes. After the State of the Union speech, former G.W. Bush Budget Director Mitch Daniels gives the Republican rebuttal, proving that he has no better grasp of economics than he did in his former job (Rachel Maddow looks at his career as Governor of Indiana and no, there's no sign that he's improved there, either). Fox News, of course, loved Daniels' speech. And yes, the Tea Party is completely irrelevant as a political force. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney's popularity craters as Newt Gingrich's rises strongly. Romney just doesn't wear well with voters. Gingrich, OTOH, knows how to throw that red meat with great skill. Bwah-hah-hah!!! Wisconsinites get a million signatures in just two months to initiate a recall of Governor Scott Walker! What did they need to get up to in order to initiate a recall? 540,208 or a little over half of what they actually got. Sounds to me like his opponent might as well start picking out new drapes for the Governor's office. Uh, Mah, Gawd! Texas Governor Rick Perry claims Turkey's government is a group of terrorists! Turkey is less than amused. Gotta say, I'm completely baffled by the idea of replacing Joe Biden with Hillary Clinton. I just have a really hard time imagining that that will win Obama as much as a single extra vote. The ol' "dead voter" myth just won't die. Problem is that spectacular, salacious accusations usually turn out to have boring, pedestrian realities that conflict with those accusations. Rick Santorum wonders why he isn't doing better in the polls. It just might be because of answers like this. Nevertheless, over 150 social conservatives decided to endorse Santorum anyway. Hoo boy! The New York Times Public Editor seriously steps in it! He actually has to wonder whether reporters should call out a candidate for teling lies. His primary example is nowhere near as problematic as he makes it out to be. The case of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is an open-and-shut case. Thomas is guity and should be tossed off the court. Amazingly, the records of the meetings of the Federal Reserve Board shows people that, in 2006, were apparently unaware that America had an $8 trillion housing bubble. Many of these people are still at the Board!!! Fire 'em all! The heat on Mitt Romney for being a carbon copy of Wall Street's Gordon Gekko gets hotter and hotter! BTW, whatever happened to the Tea Party? The 2012 presidential line-up is almost an exact doppelganger of 2008s. So, former Pennsylvania Republican Senator Rick Santorum is now considered a credible candidate to displace Mitt Romney. Santorum does not believe that there is any right to birth control, feels that in the case of a handicapped child, that "family, friends, neighbors and the church could help, and that caring for someone would knit them closer." Um, yeah, except that American society is nowhere near that closely-knit and he himself has a fortune and that taking care of someone with health problems isn't a problem for him. Oh, and the Vatican likes him (Which to me, of course, is a major reason not to like him). Oh, man-n-n-n, I sure hope this isn't what it appears to be. This isn't looking too good, either. I really, really hate the thought that the US might go to war with Iran! The Daily Kos blogger considers the Republican debate so boring, he starts citing sports scores. Did Mitt Romney, as head of Bain Capital, create a net of 100,000 jobs (That is, jobs added minus jobs deleted)? This is far from an academic question, as Romney's whole campaign is premised on the idea that he, as a businessman, is more qualified to revive the US economy than Obama is. Problem is, the proof he offers is very dodgy, iffy and questionable. Romney appears to be more like Gordon Gekko of the 1987 movie Wall Street, who buys up companies only to then break them up and sell off the pieces. Santorum won more points than expected in Iowa, so he's now the frontrunner as far as Bill Kristol is concerned. Greatest moments of "Occupy Philly" video. Former PA Senator Rick Santorum casually singles out African-Americans as receiving "somebody else's money" when receiving government assistance. In an item that may or may not be related, FAMiLY endorses Santorum as Romney is just not extreme enough for them. 2011
Republican race for the nomination: Ron Paul may be getting underestimated, Rick Santorum goes on the attack against Paul, Michele Bachmann does not, repeat, does not read from a teleprompter (She used an iPad instead). "Austerity
Economics" ... died of natural causes brought on by prolonged
exposure to reality.
Woo-hoo! 65 Occupy encampments nationwide! Egyptian military is resisting being made subordinate to the peoples' will. Wow! This'd be cool! It looks like the transaction tax may have more than a snowball's chance in Hell of actually passing! Very sad to see Politifact toss its credibility on the bonfire by choosing as its "Lie of the Year" a charge that's either flat-out true or, at the absolute worst, arguably true. It's not just bad for Politifact, it's bad for the entire concept of fact-checking as there's no point in anybody telling the truth. Why bother when lying may give one an advantage and there's no apparent down-side to doing it? Last US troops officially leave Iraq. Social Security payroll tax cut passes. Update: Wel-l-l-l, it passed the Senate, anyway. Republicans in the House don't want the act passed, but don't want to be blamed for killing a popular measure. Nobody is on their side. Unlike with the debt-limit fight, Congressional Republicans have no leverage and everyone knows it. As a condition of keeping the Social Security payroll tax down by two percent, Republicans insist on killing the Keystone XL Pipeline. Um, okay. Sure, we can work with that! Excellent piece on Wall Street's short-term game being a long-term loser. Further problem with the Politifact website. Fact-checking is, in general, a very good thing and it should be encouraged, but "expertise" is of very limited value when a site purports to fact-check a subjective question. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) made a very largely correct statement / prediction about presidential powers and the new AUMF, but Politifact's preferred experts disagreed with him and so Politifact declared his statement "mostly false." Round-up of political events in early December. November
A bill that could spell the end of the Internet as we know it. It's an anti-piracy bill pushed by movie, TV and music companies and it would come down so hard on possible piracy that essentially any website that features user-submitted content could be shut down. Email your Senator! How very peculiar! We saw the sexaul harassment claims against Herman Cain and figured that spelled the end of him. Curiously, at the Republican debate, the claims were brought up and "the audience was not happy to hear this inquiry coming up." But then Cain admitted to a consensual affair and Republicans are tossing him under the bus. Problem: How to appeal to Roman Catholic voters. Question: Do Catholic Bishops accurately and meaningfully represent those voters? Answer: Erm, no, not really. Just because the whole group of Bishops decides abortion is a truly terrible thing doesn't mean Obama will help himself with ordinary voters by agreeing with the Bishops. Serious econmic confusion on the part of a guy who's paid to talk about economics. Another comment. Hard to see why Linda Katehi is still the Chancellor of UC Davis after the famous pepper-spraying incident. And no, I was at the Bradley Manning demonstration where several protesters were carried off by the police and pepper-spraying was not used, so no, it's not standard procedure. Round-up on the news 19 Nov 2011. Too much going on to easily summarize. The Inky writes an editorial the makes an invalid comparison between the 1990 base closing commission and Cat Food Commission II. No, the two commissions are nothing alike as there's far less consensus on cutting the Federal Budget than there ever was or ever will be on closing bases. Al Sharpton makes extremely good observations on the conflicts of interests of Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas and SCJ Elena Kagan's completely non-existent conflict of interest. Fox News cites a non-existent clause of the Constitution to bolster their case against Kagan. Poor Herman Cain just doesn't seem to understand this whole "interviewing" thing. Zucotti Park/Liberty Square where #OWS was staying cleared by New York police at 1:00am on November 15th. Police destroy personal property. Ocupiers learn which side the police are on: Behind him, a teenage girl holds
a hastily written sign saying: "NYPD, we trusted you – you were
supposed to protect us!"
We can add Herman Cain to the list of Republican candidates who simply don't know what they're talking about. Cain blamed his "Oops moment" on a lack of sleep, but I seem to remember as ad about a 3:00am phone call and who may or may not be ready for it. There is simply no better ending for the "Super Congress" than to toss it out with nothing accomplished. Cat Food Commission II is obviously not going to result in a comprehensive agreement at this point. Problem is, they're not simply dropping it and appear determined to "punt" and "kick the can down the road" and delegate off the hard decisions. Speaking as someone who was a history major back in college, recent pronouncements by Rick Perry and Mitt Romney are just plain painful to hear about. No, *sigh*, the relationship between the US and China in no way resembles that between the US and the Soviet Union and *no*, Iran doesn't have any insurgents for the US to support. Iranians may be unhappy with their government, but that's a long way from being willing to take up arms against it. *Sigh*, the President just doesn't appear to have clue number one about how we should deal with Cat Food Commission II. No "tough choices" are necessary, the Federal Budget is not like a family budget, the American people are not expecting, nor do they want a deal. Fox News' Andrea Tantaros spews a number of wrong, victime-blaming things about the Herman Cain sexual-harrassment case. The piece on her opposition to Cain's victimes makes a number of interesting observations about professional women trying to make it up the career ladder and mentoring. Well worth reading. I take a look at who exactly the 1% and the 99% are. A right-wing newspaper columnist asserts, correctly, that the numbers are a shorthand for a more complex reality. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) makes one wonder whether President Obama has really gotten the message of Occupy Wall Street or not. BTW, excellent piece on how the "Austerity Class" rules Washington DC. Congress set to vote on one of the worst budget ideas ever, the Balanced Budget Amendment. President Obama's views on enforcing laws against behavior of banks not looking good. Right-wing media achieves a complete and utter FAIL for their coverage of presidential candidate Herman Cain and his many accusers. Deadbeat dad (Owes his ex-wife over $100,000 in child support payments) Representative Joe Walsh (R-IL) melts down and accuses constituents of "blaming the banks" for the economy being a mess. He's completely wrong, of course, and banks take most of the blame. Elections of 2011 turn out pretty well for progressives. Lots of good news with Ohio's anti-union measure and Mississippi's "personhood" amendment. Not so hot locally, but Montgomery County got two good Commissioners. Is Israel about to attack Iran? Sure hope not, but it's very pleasant to see a blogger list many reasons as to why Obama wouldn't welcome such an attack. Cat Food Commission II appears to be in trouble. With only a few weeks to go, there's no sign that a deal can be reached. Good! The Commission needs to be disbanded anyway. Update on WaPo Social Security story - The WaPo Ombudsman takes a look at it and, unsurprisingly for this fellow, declares that the dirty hippies of the left are wrong to attack it. Very disturbingly, he concludes that well, lefty economists hate it, right-wingers love it, a Third Way guy who represents the centrists likes it, so the Ombudsman goes with him as the authority. This is a very lazy and irresponsible way to determine what the truth is. This is so incredibly sad and reveals the utter moral bankruptcy of the Family Research Council. Repesentative Joe Walsh (R-IL) owes over $100,000 in child support, but the FRC gave him a 100% "Pro Family" record as he's an anti-abortionist and wants to eliminate Planned Parenthood. Gee, why has the right-wing propaganda machine sputtered and died recently? Perhaps it's because Republicans promised to focus on the economy, but instead focused on reproductive choice and wild and crazy ideas that they didn't campaign on. Archive
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![Don't [eff] with our activists!](FBI-vs-activists.jpg)
