• Network groups, organizations, and individuals to stop the repression caused by "never ending wars" at home and abroad, by the US corporate military state
• Support organizations having common ground
• Educate and activate the general public

• East Timor & Indonesia Networks (ETAN)
  
• Delco Waging Peace
  
• Granny Peace Brigade - Philadelphia
• Otherjones - A blog by Deena Stryker
  
• Media Tank  
• Philly Against War
• Northeast Philly for Peace & Justice
  
• Philadelphia Veterans For Peace
• Wounds of War
• Northwest Greens
• Progressive Democracy of South Jersey (PDSJ)
• UFPJ-Delaware Valley Network
• UPenn - FASWI
• Delaware Valley Veterans for America

National Organizations

• United For Peace & Justice (UFPJ)
• World Can't Wait
• ACLU's Blog of Rights

Progressive Democrats of America - Conference Calls of the End Wars & Occupations IOT

Sep2013
Aug 2013
Jul 2013
Apr 2013
Mar 2013
Feb 2013
Jan 2013
Dec 2012
Nov 2012
Oct 2012
Sep 2012
Aug 2012
Jul 2012
Jun 2012
May 2012
Apr 2012
Mar 2012
Feb 2012
Jan 2012
Dec 2011
Nov 2011

"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.

Upcoming Events

Gay Pride Parade - Vets For Peace and FUMCOG contingents

May Day 2014

Pennsylvania's Gvernor Tom Corbett arrages to meet with students of one of the schools that he's been defunding, but cancels when students, parents and teachers make it clear that they were goingto protest his visit. We all assembled anyway.

Anti-drones protest

Syria strike protest

Protest at Horsham Air Base about proposed Drone Command Center

Last (?) Protest on behalf of Pfc. Bradley Manning

The 2013 Philly Gay Pride Parade

Demonstration on behalf of Bradley Manning, whose court-martial begins next Monday.

---

 

May Day 2013

---

Protesting drones at Horsham Air Base

---

Vigil for Sandy Hook Elementary School
Visual essay on event and on the gun control issue

---

Occupy message to Veterans
Convergence in Philly
Official NatGat promo video
National Gathering Facebook page
Live-blog of National Gathering

---

Rally at the School Board to defeat the Knudsen Plan

---

May Day Rally
Also, same problems that apply to privatized schools apply to prisons as well.

---

DecarceratePA march & rally
PhillyIMC story

---

The "Final Friday" vigil concludes

---

Occupation of Dilworth Plaza, Philadelphia

---

Protesting War in Libya

---

Declare Peace & protest of interception of Boat to Gaza

---

Mt Airy Day 2011

---

Philadelphia's Take Back The Night annual march and testimony

---

UNAC opposed to the wars abroad

---

Noting the beginning of the 8th year of the Iraq War. Also, protest of how Pfc. Bradley Manning is being treated.

---

Two protests in support of the citizens, workers and unions of Wisconsin.
MSB Plaza     Love Park

---

In support of the Egyptian people against their dictator Hosni Mubarak. Update on situation. Videos of another protest shortly afterwards.

---

Veteran-Led Civil Resistance to U.S. Wars
Announcement    \ Flyers    Photos   Huffington Post

---

March & Rally to End the Wars

---

Protesting Islamophobia at Temple U.

---

One Nation Rally Washington DC Oct 2010

---

Protesting FBI intimidation of peace activists. Brandywine piece on PhillyIMC. Pieces on PhillyAgainstWar blog 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5.

---

Fundraiser for US Ship to Gaza

---

Philadelphia's second annual Gay Pride Parade

---

Info, articles, etc.

One of the problems with Israel today is that "Operation Cast Lead" (that was conducted right before Obama took office) provoked an extensive report that laid serious blame on Israel for human rights violations. The Obama Administration ignored it and refused to enforce it. The current war is very largely a "chickens coming home to roost" problem.

Delaying action on global warming costs the US $150 billion a year. The price will go up every year we continue to delay.

Ah, okay. The heart of the Israeli complaint concerning SecState Kerry is: "...his attempts to bring Qatar and Turkey — two countries viewed by Israel as strong Hamas supporters — into the cease-fire negotiations." Erm, sorry, but if your position is that you'll only negotiate with people you already agree with, your diplomacy is a FAIL!

Good! Sen McCain not sure Republicans have votes to impeach the President. My recommendation is that they give up the whole impeachment project and start working on actually helping the American people with other, far more serious, problems (Global warming, crumbling infrastructure, massive unemployment, etc., etc.) Speaker Boehner considers impeachment talk to be a scam by Democrats.

Hilarious LTE in today's Inky:

I am used to George Parry making up his own facts to use in attacking Democrats, but his latest article saved me time in looking for the lies (“What the government knew or not,” July 27). I stopped reading six words into the article, when Parry stated, “In December 2008, the Obama administration . . .” Of course, President Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009.

You know the lawsuit against the president is fatally weak when they accuse him of ridiculous things. 1. The Clean Air Act gives the President the authority to fight global warming, 2. Thank Heavens the Constitution does not require legislative or judicial approval for prisoner swaps, 3. A shameless lie.

Bwah-hah-hah!!! Love it, love it love it!!! Satanists release ALL women from having to comply with "informed consent" laws! Just print out their letter and say "I'm exempt" when the doctor tries to inform you as to how terrible abortion is.

Very depressing, but excellent analysis of the Halbig case (The claim is that the ACA improperly provides subsidies to states on the Federal marketplace)

The Affordable Care Act is working pretty much as intended, and real people are benefiting, so Republicans are obliged to try and impose unnecessary suffering on their constituents so that they’ll demand repeal.

Mark Levin rails and spits and pounds his fist on the table concerning Jon Stewart changing his name (Actually, Stewart's father changed it because he was exposed to anti-Semitic feelings). Interesting commentary on Jon Stewart vs. Mark Levin by Cenk Uygur.

Wow! Sen. Lindsey Graham is normally just full to the brim of awful, terrible, no-good ideas, but ending Israeli accountability for possible human rights violations in Gaza is a whopper of a stinker of an absolutely awful idea! That would guarantee that the US would be seen as unfairly protecting Israel at the expense of any dedication to human rights.

A restaurant got awful reviews for the slowness of their service. Problem was, customers are spending too much time on their smartphones and not enough time eating. Herewith, some suggestions: 1. Don't pull out any devices until AFTER you've ordered. 2. Use your device as you would a paper magazine Either have reading material pre-loaded so you don't have to worry about whether there's wifi or if you're with someone, don't pull it out at all. Entertain yourselves by talking with each other. 3. Go ahead and take a photo of your dinner, but save the photo-cropping and email writing until you get to a coffee shop after dinner or home.

Sen. Rand Paul claims to be Senate's and Congresses #1 supporter of civil rights. Sounds real good, until you look at the details of his actual actions and positions.

I was exchanging messages just the other day with a right-winger who claimed that cutting taxes was always a good thing. We never did get to states, but I'm sure he had some canned, ready response to this too.

California raised taxes 30% on the rich and their economy has the 5th highest job growth and first budget surplus in a decade. By contrast, Kansas slashed taxes on the rich and their economy is tanking. 

Good! People reacting properly to rocker Ted Nugent's toxic rhetoric.

Wow. Hmm. Women get themselves photographed topless to support the IDF. Y'know, normally I'm in favor of these kinds of photos, but I have to agree, these are in pretty poor taste.

Hmm, no, I can't support Rep. Paul Ryan's poverty reduction scheme of setting poor people up with a "life coach" to advise them. When I seriously lacked money a few decades back, I talked with someone about it and he agreed. 

I needed money.

Period.

He could recommend the sacrifice of some small expenditures, but he had no super-clever advice that I hadn't already thought of.

No, sorry, I appreciate that PETA wants to help, but blackmailing people into going vegan?!??! Nope, sorry, can't support that.

To someone such as myself, who follows liberal Keynesian economists, this is a very odd obsession as yes, it takes the GOP away from actual, real-world problems and focuses them on imaginary, non-existent ones. No, inflation is not a serious concern. When consumer demand is as slack as it is, the "too much money chasing too few goods" phenomenon doesn't apply.

Yeah, well, so much for the idea of Governor Cuomo ever being a national politician.

Completely unsurprising (No connection between CEO pay and company financial success) and yes, they mention the Walmart example that I found so infuriating when I first heard about it.

Hillary Clinton's been getting a number of negative comments in the media over her money-making. But, yes, it's very, very interesting how another (male, Republican) presidential candidate ALSO collected millions in speaking fees, but very unlike the situation with Clinton, the Beltway press corps yawned at that. Hmm, wonder why that is?

I weigh in the subject of Gaza. Israel's counter-guerrilla strategy seems poorly designed.

Infuriating!!! An appeals court rules against the ACA. An apparent victory for the right wing looks very, very morally shaky.

Very interesting. Liberals and conservatives are switching places on Israel. Reagan and the younger George Bush were critical of Israel, now the constituencies of the Democratic Party are getting sour on same while Republican politicians and constituencies are getting pro-Israel.

Boston is a low-lying city without many hills. Map of where the waterfront would be after five and seven and a half feet of sea level rise. NOT good!

Things are looking good for the Christian left. We may just drive out the notion that Christians are all anti-evolutionists, anti-contraception, etc.

I don't regard the Islamic State (IS) hardcore religious fundamentalists as thugs. Barbarians would be a better term. And no, I'm not enthused about going back into Iraq to fight them, better to build up our wind and solar fuel sources and just have done with the whole area.

Good news! Progress on Iranian nuclear weapons.

Ron Fournier generally gets little love from liberals because he's of the "both-sides-do-it" school, but this is a good piece. My own feeling on taxation is that taxes should be based on how many square feet of factories, office space and retail outlets are in whichever country. If you've just got a mailbox in the Cayman islands, that shouldn't entitle you to pay taxes there. And sigh, the same guy proves he really shouldn't be listened to on the subject of the ACA.

Very serious consequences for downing the Malaysian plane that was overflyng Ukraine. AIDS research has taken a serious hit.

A look at how the other side of the Israel-Gaza fight sees things. 

Well, Rep. Louis Gohmert says something stupid, again. Yeah, I know, that's not news. What I found interesting though, was this statement: "You want to talk about a war on women? This administration will not defend the women of America from criminal aliens!" 
Hmm, why is it that right-wingers are constantly trying to prove that the "War on Women" is something that it's not? Could it be that the phrase resonates with people and that people believe that it represents something real?

President Obama is getting lots and lots of advice from the opposition party. Problem is, it's all pretty vague and useless.

Chilling tale of voter suppression in Georgia.

Good to hear that Speaker Boehner's lawsuit against President Obama is very unpopular.

Todd Aiken comes back and tries toexplain his "legitimate rape" comment. It does not go well.

So Citigroup settles for its role in the financial crisis that started off in late 2007 with the collapse of the housing bubble and went on to wipe out a huge portion of our economy. How much is $7 billion to them? Here's a quote from their site: "Our Hedge and Private Equity Servicing business also surpassed $500 billion in alternative assets..." So the settlement is little more than a mild inconvenience to them.

Detroit's water “crisis.” Well, the crisis is real enough, but it's entirely deliberate, the result of conscious, deliberate action, applied with malice and forethought.

"Pension smoothing" is a budgetary gimmick. It's not as good as plain ol deficit spending. Speaker Boehner opposes it for an extension of unemployment benefits but supports using it to support the Highway Trust Fund. Both higher taxes and deficits are of course really awful and terrible and compleely off the table, not to be used under any circumstances. So the question is, why does Boehner hate the unemployed?

A thinkpiece on the strategy used by Hamas in Gaza.

A look at the failed records of Tea Party Governors. Special looks at Sam Brownback of Kansas and Rick Scott of Florida.

DKos strongly condemned Maureen Dowd for her column today. Dowd criticized Chelsea Clinton. Granted, out of the $900K Clinton makes, if she were paid exclusively for her talent, she'd make 1/10th of that or less. But y'know, it' not like the sons and daughters of celebrities and business tycoons don't get privileges in any event. Pretty sad to pick on Chelsea for something that's done all over the place.

Update: Media Matters tells us that Clinton gives most of her money to charity. I didn't know that.

I agree with this evaluation of Meet The Press and especially agree that replacing David Gregory with Joe Scarborough will turn a terrible situation into a catastrophic one.

“Why, then, if Gazans want to live in peace do they continue their equally counterproductive rocket attacks on Israel?” Gaza is suffering a dire shortage of fuel and an increasingly miserable population. Gaza by the numbers. A description of the “roof tap” technique. Film of same.

Heh! Ann Coulter has a Frankenstein-meets-his-monster moment as she criticizes a Tea Party kinda guy.

Digby has the latest update on the Benghazi news. As we always thought, Benghazi was a tragedy, but as US troops could not have gotten to the scene any faster than they did, it wasn't a scandal.

Pretty hard to read this and to conclude that Rep. Paul Ryan is anything but a hard-core, utterly devoted Randian. Heh! Took Rep. Paul Ryan FIVE times, but he FINALLY had a non-wealthy person speak on his hearings on poverty. She was lectured by another Congressman about how her receiving public assistance made her "dependent." She had no idea what the Congressman was talking about.

The health situation in Gaza was not great before the Israeli bombardment began. An animated introduction to the Israeli-Palestinian relationship.

It's really wonderful that Bill Cassidy loves and supports and stands behind his single, pregnant teenage daughter. Kudos to him. But what would REALLY help his daughter and many millions of young people like her would be to drop this whole "abstinence-only" nonsense. It didn't work for Bristol Palin, hasn't worked for anyone else, drop it already!

A look at how opponents of the ACA/Obamacare have to keep revising their predictions of disaster. Reminds me of how Germans knew they were losing World War II: "Our 'glorious victories' kept occurring closer and closer to home."

Bwah-hah-hah! Spending on anti-ACA ads may have actually INCREASED enrollment in the program! Very interestingly, predictions that the program would soon be canceled increased the urgency of "Get good medical care while you can!"

Heh! Families who lost children in the Sandy Hook massacre wanted to meet with Governor Christie, who begged off with a BS excuse. I like the way Joe Scarborugh words it: "I think it’s kind of chicken 'something,' which I won’t say on the air. It’s chicken, we’ll say 'salad,' for Chris Christie to not meet with these families for at least five to 10 minutes."

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) launched "Operation Protective Edge" on July 7th in response to militants firing rockets from Gaza.

Sarah Palin demands that Obama be impeached. As I said on Speaker Boehner's impeachment threats, President Obama is more enthusiastic about such talk than any of the Republicans are.

Chris Christie has hard time defending his position on the 10-round limit for guns (He's against it) because, well, his position is pretty shameful and hard to defend.

Having been a History major back in college, I agree, it's very distressing to see the media reach for utterly inappropriate analogies. No, there is no "Obama's Katrina." Did Reagan have a "Bay of Pigs"? Did Carter have a "Grenada"? Did Clinton have a "Vietnam"? Of course not. All of these events were unique to certain presidencies.

In response to the poll that claims Obama is the “Worst President” since FDR, here are some charts that prove the claim is "less than meets the eye."

Wow! What an amazing, astonishing, totally unpredictable surprise! [/snark]. In other amazing, totally unforeseeable news, an elder white guy thinks the Hobby Lobby decision is completely insignificant.

A look at Governor Chris Christie and the New Jersey economy. Not looking good for a presidential campaign. New Jersey's economy is going to be a real drag on any campaign.

The sexual assault survivor whose case George Will referenced speaks out and very STRONGLY disputes the idea that she gained any sort of privilege from being assaulted.

June

Damn! The Hobby Lobby decision came out the wrong way. It benefits religious people of a particular sub-section of faith who also happen to own large corporations. Everybody else in America is outta luck. Objections to the Hobby Lobby decision from Supreme Court Associate Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Situation in Iraq a VERY confused mess! Oh, and Russia is sending jets to Iraq. Ayad Allawi (Former Prime Minister of Iraq) feels that US policy there is incoherent. "The valiant Iraqi army has nothing to fight for. This brave army has lost its identity and its role. It doesn’t know whether it is fighting for the country or fighting for the sect or for the person or for the party." ISIS declares a "caliphate" of parts of Iraq and Syria. The Iraqi Army tried and failed to re-take Tikrit.

Entirely predictable problems concerning charter schools. One especially not-surprising conclusion: “Charter schools as a whole fare no better than traditional schools in educating students in poverty.” This is because education is a very labor-intensive activity. When expenditures don't really matter all that much, neither does the public-private institutional difference.

No, Matt Lauer interviewed several male CEOs and no, the question of how they balance home and family life never once came up. So when he asked a female CEO how she balanced home and family life, yes, the question was deeply sexist.

Sounds to me like Philly's Police Chief needs to be fired and replaced with someone who will respect votes and properly-constituted authority.

Good heavens, what a horrible, horrible decision by the Supreme Court on buffer zones around abortion clinics! Very distressing that it was unanimous. Major practical difficulty, as I see it, with arguing with a woman who's at the door of the clinic is that it's, uh, kinda late. Their minds are usually made up and all you're doing at that point is to add a layer of harassment, annoyance and bad feelings.

Chief Justice John Roberts said: " “Petitioners wish to converse with their fellow citizens about an important subject on the public streets and sidewalks..." How well does that theory work in practice, in the real world? Wel-l-l-l...

I largely agree with all of the items on today's round-up (27Jun2014). The cell-phone privacy decision is a unreservedly good one, The abortion, buffer-zone decision and the presidential appointments decisions are both horrible ones that are blind to today's realities. More on buffer zones. Abortion clinics have suffered 4,700 instances of violence since 1995.

Army clears Bowe Bergdahl of any misconduct that he may have engaged in while a prisoner of war of the Afghan Taliban.

Speaker Boehner threatens to sue President Obama. On what charges? Wel-l-l-l, that's not so clear. Apparently, for a bunch of items that were perfectly fine when G.W. Bush did them.

UN has to intercede on behalf of Detroit citizens who were getting their water shut off.

Cool! The establishment Republican beats the Tea Party guy by a fraction of a point! The Tea Party guy was the one that wanted to send white "election observers" to black districts, y'know, just to make sure everything was legit.

Very excellent news! LONG overdue! A process for citizens to get taken off the no-fly list should have been a built-in, integral part of the list from the very beginning.

Y'know, for Fox News to not cover the capture of the guy who directed the Benghazi attack is understandable, everyone knows they're a propaganda outlet. But what's up with all the other shows? What's their excuse?

Rev. Frank Schaefer wins appeal. He performed the wedding ceremony for his gay son and lost his church position for that. He announced that his UMC clergy orders were restored at the First United Methodist Church of Germantown.

Rachel Maddow encourages Congress to speak up, clearly, about the situation in Iraq. Very good question concerning Iraq. What WAS all that money spent on?!?!!?

Oh, and ThinkProgress gives us a good list, the people the media SHOULD be interviewing about the situation in Iraq and Emptywheel reminds us about the “success” that General Petraeus had training Iraqi troops.

Excellent point! Why bother having a moderator when the guest will just say any ol' thing that pops into his head without the slightest fear of contradiction? Gregory's a useless, empty suit.