• 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

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
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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.

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Upcoming Events

A timeline of right-wing violence and violent statements

WikiLeaks - The Afghan War Diary

Speaker Pelosi explains meaning of chart. A look at various predictions. Republican arguments demonstrate that they don't have a clue as to what they're talking about. Paul Krugman says the stimulus isn't big enough. The current economy is now doing exactly what was predicted many months back. Krugman warns (Oct) "It ain't over yet." Whew! (Nov) Looks to be finally bottoming out. Very interesting view  Woo hoo!!! Looks like good news at last! Unfortunately, the planned departure of Christina Romer (Aug) from the group of President Obama's economic advisors removes one of the strongest voices for more spending to get the economy moving again. Employment is slowly improving, but it's just keeping pace with population now. Excellent run-down on what the "crisis" is Washington DC means. Remember, we're following the Republican/Tea Party plan (Aug 11) for economic growth! The establishment media says thee current economic conflict is between "liberals" and "moderates." Of course, if you look at who the "liberals" are, that's pretty much all of the responsible players in economics and finance.

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Source: Yglesia.thinkprogress

Explanation of chart - 11,300 years of climate change

BBC discusses CHILE: THE OTHER 9/11

Former Seceretary of State Condoleezza Rice claims Bush made America safer

RICE: The world was most dangerous in 2001, when we didn’t have a net to deal with terrorism. I think in that sense we made it a safer place from the time that we were in office.

Did Bush launch the Iraq War knowing full well there were no WMD there? Of course he did.

Study of Iraqi demographics 

five years after the US invasion

Juan Cole comments (near end of post)

Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) did a study of the Iraq War (60 page PDF), concluding that it is a “major debacle,” a “classic case of failure,” and a conflict that may not be winnable."  Update:  Contains lots of points of agreement with Bush Administration (i.e., that Saddam Hussein attempted to assassinate the elder George Bush, among many others) but these can be seen as tactical agreements, made so that other points have more credibility (i.e., "This is not a DFH screed!").

Review of Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld's memoir. Quite sad, really, to behold the absolutely massive insurbordination that Bush put up with and Rumsfelds' seriously pathetic incompetence. He sent in a force that was adequate for defeating Saddam Hussein's army, but that was woefully
Of course, the really sad part is to compare Rumsfelds performance of his duties with the absolutely slobbering, devoted man-love shown to Rumsfeld by the Washington DC press corps. inadequate for occupying Iraq.

May Day 2013

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Protesting drones at Horsham Air Base

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

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

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Rally at the School Board to defeat the Knudsen Plan

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

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DecarceratePA march & rally
PhillyIMC story

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The "Final Friday" vigil concludes

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Occupation of Dilworth Plaza, Philadelphia

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Protesting War in Libya

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Declare Peace & protest of interception of Boat to Gaza

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Mt Airy Day 2011

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Philadelphia's Take Back The Night annual march and testimony

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UNAC opposed to the wars abroad

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

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

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

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

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March & Rally to End the Wars

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Protesting Islamophobia at Temple U.

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One Nation Rally Washington DC Oct 2010

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

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Fundraiser for US Ship to Gaza

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Philadelphia's second annual Gay Pride Parade

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Info, articles, etc.

A high school senior vs her school. The school's principal comes off very poorly.

Excellent, excellent review of IRS "scandal." It's actually pretty important, but not for the reasons people say it is.

Heh! Comment on Adam Kokesh: "When Medea Benjamin calls you a publicity hound, well…"

Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. How is Moscow going to demonstrate that it's just as advanced as the West is with stuff like this happening?

ABC News severely FAILS. They claim that they reviewed actual emails concerning Benghazi. Actually, they reviewed one person's verbal summaries, which turned out to be wildly inaccurate.

Banks are able to borrow money at a MUCH lower rate than students are for their education. That's not right. Students are at least as important as banks.

Very interesting that the WaPo columnist Jennifer Rubin (Writing in the Inky on 13 May) seems to see late-term abortions as being something that only involves the baby. The women who agree to have them are seen as, I guess, plastic, unliving, life-sized dolls, with no lives of their own to consider.

Yeah, what happened to the AP was terrible and we certainly shouldn't have any sympathy for the Obama Administration, but should we pity the AP, which has been quiet and/complicit in the kicking aside of privacy protections for well over a decade?

One of the problems with some of the Obama Administration's responses, notably in the Shirley Sherrod case, to scandals is that Obama and his people sometimes fold their hand much too quickly. That appears to be the case in the IRS case with the agency looking for "Tea Party" or "Patriot" in group names. .

Pennsylvania's 180 charter schools routinely ignore the state's Right-To-Know Law even though as publicly funded institutions they are bound to comply with it, the chief of the state's Office of Open Records told a Senate committee on Monday.

See, this is a perfect example of why I get most of my news from the blogs and have so little use for traditional news sources. Newsperson Chris Jansing reads out a short letter from Senator Rubio, completely leaving out any context. The context is that Rubio is asking for the resignation of an empty office, an office not filled because the Senate filibusters everything.

Bwah-hah-hah!!! 39% of people who think Benghazi is biggest scandal ever have no idea where it is!

The IRS handles a potential scandal very poorly, obscuring some important issues.

Quick check on right-wing media. Hmm, yup, still crazy!

Very sad to see how "60 Minutes" is now the plaything of billionaires like Pete Peterson (Major pro-austerity guy). It was once a good news show

Very interesting piece on the charge that Obama is a "tyrant."

More plans for Philadelphia casionos despite the fact that the first one was not a big success.

IRS does its job and is forced to apologize for that.

General Efrain Rios Montt of Guatamala was found guilty of the genocide of 1700 Indians.

Very cool news! A school that used stimulus money and now runs on wind power.

Senator Inhofe (R-OK)is convinced that Beghazi is the worst scandal ever and will surely bring Obama down.

So, amid accusations that Syria has been using chemical weapons, it appears that the Syrian rebels have actually been doing just that! Digby has sound advice for the situation: "Do as little as possible."

Right in the first sentence, Politico loses all credibility: "It's never been easy for House Republicans to raise the debt limit." No, actually, it was quite easy and routine right up until 2010. 

An examination of Fareed Zakaria and austerity. He acknowledges that it's failed, but isn't quite ready to embrace Keynesianism.

Uh. Mah. Gawd! Not ONLY was this guy an economist for G.W. Bush (As if that doesn't totally destroy your credibility all by itself) but he approvingly cites Reinhart & Rogoff!!!! Hang it up, guy! You've lost any semblance of credibility.

And yes, Larry Summers is, as usual, completely clueless.

Democrats could do far better than to make President Andrew Jackson a hero of theirs.

Mitt Romney shows us that he's a very privileged person who never had to worry about money a day in his life. Yeah, it's great that Ann Romney was "just" a housewife, that was a solid and positive choice for her to make, but she was able to make it because she and Mitt were wealthy from Day 1 of their marriage.

When the budget-cutter gets confronted about the real-world effects of his budget-cutting, he does the ol' soft-shoe shuffle and says "Who, me?"

According to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, he's not part of the Establishment, he's a rebel.

"Whistleblower" in Benghazi case appears highly unlikely to be anything of the sort.

Heh! Would-be GOP presidential candidate covers up embarrassing figure in background of photo. Newsmagazine denies trying to avoid embarrassment.

Fox News defends billboard that Native Americans are rightfully upset about.

Congratulations to Ed Markey for winning the MA Democratic primary to replace John Kerry. Republicans are out for blood on this one, this is going to be a really serious fight with LOTS of money being spent!

Ugh! Obama taps a lobbyist to run the FCC when what we really need is someone who will defend fairness and equality for broadband Internet.

Lou Dobbs says the Reinhart-Rogoff spreadsheet error is just a small mistake. No Lou, 'fraid not.

I disagree with the President's statement that we can have both economic growth and deficit reduction at the same time, but I did like his statement on the sequester and Congress's short-term, blinkered view on fixing JUST flight delays.

*Sigh*, more stupidity! The CIA has been delivering bags of cash to Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai.

Will I ever take down the appeal to help the people who were caught by Hurricane Sandy? Doesn't look like it as help is, and for the foreseeable future, will continue to be needed.

Hmm, well, it took a dozen years and we hear this after she's retired, but Supreme Court Justice O'Connor  now regrets her vote to put Bush into the Oval Office.

Good grief! A high school in Georgia, in 2013!!!!, finally has an integrated prom!

Hee, hee, hee!!! Bush tries to arrange to go to Europe, but faces arrest for human rights violations if he does.

And yes, people are still trying to salvage Reinhart-Rogoff from the trashcan of history and economic theory.

Unfortunately, the sequestration strategy proved to be a political error as media has largely ignored the problems that sequestration has caused. Republicans have been able to take piecemeal action, dealing with one small problem at a time.

I agree with both Putin and Obama, Tsarnaev doesn't need to be charged as an "enemy combatant" as there's no evidence that he and his brother were working with anybody. 

Good! Senator Kelly Ayotte's (R-NH) anti-people, pro-NRA vote is causing her big electoral problems.

A comparison of the Iraq War's "Curveball" and today's anti-deficit fearmongering.

Another woman's life sacrificed to anti-abortion fervor.

Another Bangladeshi factory putting out Walmart clothing collapses, killing 100.

House Republicans ignore Democratic opposition and put out highly selective and partisan report that blames Secretary of State Clinton for Benghazi. Report denounced as "Total Bullshit!"

Excellent review of George W. Bush's terms. heated, partisan language, but good examination of both sides to story.

The Boston Marathon bombers, the Tsarnaevs, apparently worked alone. they weren't part of any larger groups.  Oh, and according to Rush Limbaugh, Tsarnaev's education was the problem. Russia doesn't like Chechnya very much and unsurprisingly says "'Bout time y'all woke up to the Chechen threat!"

The Week in FAIL! The cartoonist only had room for the five top FAILs of the week. Many more could have been included.

The plant in West, TX that blew up was permitted to have 400 pounds of ammonium nitrate before it had to report it to the government. It had 27 tons! government had no idea. Media does its best to ignore this important story.

Very interesting piece. It views the IMFs conversion to Keynesianism from austerity with horror. It makes it clear that Keynesians are winning. The anti-globalization movement viewed the IMF as a villain, but it's clear that the IMF is coming around to the side of light and goodness.

Very interesting that both Peggy Noonan and Maureen Dowd have accused President Obama of botching the gun safety bill. Both ignore the 60-vote threshold that Obama had to cross. The overuse of the filibuster to the point where it's used routinely is an extremely undercovered story.

NY Times runs a front-page editorial on Denmark's labor/economic situation. In many way, Denmark is in a much better shape than the US is. That doesn't prevent the Times from taking a very snotty, superior attitude.

Heh! Smerconish takes a reasonable view of the Kermit Gosnell case and the commenters are furious, FURIOUS, I tell you!, that Smerconish has now gone over to the left.

Fascinating! In the IMF (A boogeyman to the left during the 1999-2001 anti-globalization movement), there's a pitched battle between the Keynesians and the pro-austerity folks. Natcherly, I'm on the side of the Keynesians. Osborne, the fellow who's been running Britain (Which has had absolutely miserable economic performance over the past several years) is pro-austerity.

Whoa! When a plant has in excess of 400 pounds of ammonium nitrate, they're supposed to report it. The place in West, TX that blew up had 270 TONS!!!!! And no, they didn't report it.

What amazes me about the "abstinence-only" crowd is that "Reefer Madness" didn't work back in the 60s and 70s, what makes them think a similar approach to sex will work now?

There's a piece in the WaPo about scholars "rushing to judgment" on the presidency of G.W. Bush. Problem with that is that most of the problems that the Bush Administration dealt with were very largely self-inflicted. No, there's no reason to re-examine the record to say that Bush was a better president than we thought in early 2009. He and his people have had plenty of time to correct the record and they've succeeded in doing no such thing.

Five days after Boston Marathon bombing, one suspect is dead and the other one is in custody. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is a 19-year old Chechen (*Sigh*, not Czech). Motive at this point is unknown.

Simpson and Bowles of the Cat Food Commission declare that Obama's Chained CPI is insufficiently damaging to people of modest means. Yep, the Rogoff-Reinhart paper was a real mess that severely damaged the credibility of the deficit scolds. Oh, and yes, the Chained CPI is an idea that the public really, really hates.

Right-wing media seriously discredits itself. Also, a tweet from a Fox Newsperson:

Abortion clinic bombers ARE terrorists. 

Gun safety bills "fail" as they get Senate majorities, but none make it up past the 60-vote margin.

Very BFD, as our Vice-President would say. A pair of economists put out an economic theory that was used to oppose stimulus measures and they finally shared the data that the theory was based on. Turns out they left out many critical numbers and made basic math errors. Krugman comments that there never was any "red line" at the 90% of GDP level.

Explosions at the Boston Marathon. And yes, let's put this in context (Yes, the piece is from July 2002, the point is that terrible things happen everywhere and all the time). And yes, Iraq suffered another horrible blow from bombs there. As of April 17, no breaks in the case, no idea who did it. Former Congressperson Barney Frank points out the value of having a competent, well-funded government. 

Former Executive Editor of NY Times makes wild, inaccurate charges.

The new Pope opposes the "Nuns on the Bus"? Okay, so it'll be at least another decade before the Roman Catholic Church repents and makes proper amends for the pedophilia scandal, then. They'll continue to be a disgraced and fallen church.

Heh! ALEC is unhappy with its public image. Gee, that couldn't be because they're an evil group that's opposed to the citizens of this country, could it?

Larry Summers was a part of the President's effort to get the ACA (Obamacare) passed. Turns out he doesn't believe that the government should be supervising health care in the first place.

I really admire this fellows' can-do spirit and enthusiasm, I really do, but it's simply not possible to get both deficit reduction AND job creation at the same time. Europe has proven decisively and without a doubt that these are mutually exclusive and contradictory goals.

Uh, no Erin Burnett (CNN), the "liberal media" did not ignore the Gosnell story.

Why, WHY is Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) on the Intelligence Committee?!??! Aren't there ANY standards for that position?!?!?

Commenting on bipartisanship, the view from a radio commenter and from a liberal blog.

All right! Republican Senator Toomey from PA does good!

Obama's Medicare plan. NOT an improvement over his Social Security plan! The context in which I see economic issues.

Young woman in Canada gets gang-raped. Despite there being photos of the act, the attackers are not prosecuted. Girl hangs herself. the hacker group Anonymous helps out.

Very good to see Democrats distancing themselves from the Chained CPI proposal.