CONTENTS:

PHILLY AREA ACTION:

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL ACTION:

COMMENTARY:

===========

 

PHILLY AREA ACTION:

 

Free tax preparation for Philadelphia residents

 

            http://www.phillyfreetaxes.org/index.html

More info, including locations, is available at the url above.

____________________________________________________________________

 

 

PINK Philly: book discussion of Naomi Wolf’s book, The End of America.

 

The url below is a little talk from the author about her book, which is available at House of Our Own, 3920 Spruce Street and many other bookstores around the city.  We will be gathering on January 6, 2008 at a members home in West Philly, 3 PM for our monthly gathering and 4 PM for a delicious potluck and discussion of this frightening and important book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc

      Its hard to read something like this on our own, so we decided to support folks in getting through it and processing the information.  Maybe even leading to some action in response.

Please email or call if you want to attend and we’ll give you the address.

            .. Peace, Z for CodePINK Philly, 215-474-4081, phillycodepink@gmail.com

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Buy local and handmade gifts amongst the good company at Tatooed Mom’s.

Sunday the 16th,  1:00-6:00Pm

http://www.travelingwares.com

Location:  530 South St., Philadelphia

 

Holiday Crafts at the Highpoint Café

Thursday the 20th,  5:00-7:00pm: 

Support local artists while enjoying the best coffee and most delicious baked goods around!  Location:  602 Carpenter Lane, Philadelphia, 19119 (Mt Airy)

===============================

 

ONGOING EVENTS (Daily/Weekly):

 

Contact members of Congress

a. Capitol Switchboard is 1-800-828-0498 or 1-866-340-9281 to call anyone in Congress.

b. Use the following excellent link:  http://www.capwiz.com/ncec/home _____

 

Mondays:

5-6 PM - Newtown Peace Vigil  at the corner of the Newtown By- Pass,route 332, and the Newtown-           Richboro Road. For more information, call Sister Jean at 215-968-2262.

 

6:00-9:00 p.m.   Weekly ACT UP Meeting  St. Luke's Church, 330 S. 13th St., Philadelphia, PA.

                            For info, email actupphilly@critpath.org

 

5:00-7:00 p.m.   Radio Show: "Labor to Neighbor" with hosts Janet  Ryder, Pat Eiding & Pete                         Matthews 900 AM WURD--215-634-8065.

 

Tuesdays:

6-7 PM - Doylestown Peace Vigil  at the intersection of State and  Main in Doylestown.

                 All are welcome to join  and we have signs to use if  you wish.

 

7:00-9:00 p.m.   Organizing Meeting ,  Toviah Thrift Shop Chestnut 

            St. (between 42nd & 43rd)

                             Call (215) 382-7251, box 1 for info  

            Sponsored by Neighbors Against McPenntrification

 

Wednesdays:

4:30-5:30 p.m. Peace Vigil  Federal Building, 601 Market St., Philadelphia, PA

                         Sponsored by House of Grace Catholic Worker

                         For info, email brandywine@juno.com .

 

5:00 p.m.     Vigil for Peace Outside Unitarian Society of  Germantown, 6511 Lincoln Dr.,                         Philadelphia, PA.  For info, see http://www.northwestpeacecoalition.org.

 

7:00 p.m.   Peace Vigil Germantown Ave. & Bethlehem Pike, Chestnut  Hill, Philadelphia, PA

                    For info, see http:// www.northwestpeacecoalition.org.

 

Thursdays:

6-7 PM - Levittown Vigil for Peace and Remembrance.

                 Meet/park at 1631 Edgely Road in Levittown and walk  to corner of Rt. 13 and                Edgely. Sponsored by PA Action. Call Robin at 267-240-9819 

 

Fridays:

NOON: Grandparents (Bubbies & Zaydes) for Peace in the Middle East

                 Plan to join us any Friday on S 15th Street above  Locust.

                 Vigil and witness for justice and peace in Palestine/ Israel.

 

4:30 p.m.   Anti-war leafleting and picket Market & 11th Sts.,  Philadelphia, PA.

                   For info, email pawf@critpath.org

 

5:00 p.m.   Vigil--Women in Black

                    Swarthmore Train Station, Park Ave. & Chester  Rd., Swarthmore, PA

                     For info, email wibswarthmore@hotmail.com.

 

5-5:30 PM - Phoenixville Peace Vigil at corner of Bridge and Main 

      in downtown Phoenixville.

 

5-6 PM - Honk for Peace on Final Friday (every month) at Broad and Cherry/in front of the Recruiters Office.

                Stand with signs and conviction until the war is finally over- remembering the  American soldiers have who 

          have died in Iraq  and scores of Iraqis whose names  will never be known. Take your stand, lend your support, bring a sign.

                Celeste Zappala, Gold Star Families Speak Out

 

9:30 PM - Bill Moyers Journal on PBS.

          Veteran journalist Bill Moyers returns to PBS with  a weekly public affairs series.

10:30PM - David Brancachio's NOW, on PBS

 

Saturdays:

10-11 AM - Sellersville Peace Vigil at Main St. and Temple Ave.

                     sponsored by Upper Bucks Coalition for Peace Action.

                     Call Angela at 215-257-1300 for more information.

 

10:00 a.m. to noon - "Talking Union" weekly call-in radio show, 1340 AM

 

11AM-Noon - Bryn Mawr Honk to Impeach Rally will be held at the 

            Lancaster Ave and Bryn Mawr Ave. intersection

                         by Ludington Library. Sponsored by Main Line Citizens for Impeachment.

            Call Jane Dugdale at 610-527-4170.

 

Noon-1:00 p.m.   Peace Vigil Rte. 38 & Cherry Hill Mall Dr., Cherry  Hill, NJ

                         For info, email  greatercamdenunitycoalition@yahoo.com

 

1:00-2:00 p.m.   Protest at Ferber Furs 1708 Walnut St.,  Philadelphia, PA

                            For info, email phillyar@yahoogroups.com.

 

7:30 p.m.   Books Through Bars Packing Cafe The A Space, 4722 Baltimore Ave., Philadelphia, PA

                     Help pack books to send to prisoners.   Email  info@booksthroughbars.org

 

M-F:

8 a.m., noon, 7 p.m., midnight, TV program "Democracy Now"

                 with Amy Goodman DUTV Ch. 54 on WYBE (Channel 20 or 35 in some areas;                              3,48,62,99 in others.

                 You can also listen daily on the internet at   http://www.democracynow.org/

 

================================

 

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL ACTION:

 

Philly & Cambridge:

 

The Refuser Solidarity Network has learned that Breaking the Silence will bring its photo exhibition to the U.S. for the first time in early 2008.

 

* In February, the exhibition will premiere in Philadelphia, at a venue in West Philadelphia called:the Rotunda ( http://www.therotunda.org/foundation.html).

* In March, the exhibition will travel to Cambridge, MA, where it will be shown at Harvard's Center for Government and International Studies ( http://cgis.fas.harvard.edu/). The exhibition consists of over 100 photographs, and several video testimonies. To maximize its impact, several members of Breaking the Silence will be present in Philadelphia and Cambridge, to explain, challenge, and engage the public on the content and meaning of the exhibit.

The power of the exhibition will speak powerfully to both the Jewish and non-Jewish public, and about much more than simply the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

________________________________________________

 

 

URGENT PETITION to END THE HEALTH CRISIS IN GAZA

Appeal - Appeal - Appeal

 

We have a very series shortage of diesel in the ministry of Health

the majority of the 11 hospitals of MOH do suffer from a shortage of fuel, the same is for the 52 primary health care clinics and vehicles.

I am not speaking now about the consequences but they are catastrophic and include the transportation defect which will not enable the employees of the Ministry to go to their hospitals.

      Please. We urge you to help us by applying any sort of pressure that could let the Israelis change their mind about this fatal action that would threaten the lives of thousands of civilians in the already under siege Gaza.

      Dr Medhat Abbas, General Director of Crisis Management Unit, Ministry of Health, Gaza.

      Contact: mabbas@gov.ps

 

The United Nations, The World Health Organisation and Physicians for

Human Rights have condemned Israel for this situation, but Israeli

government is still continue to its policy and Palestinian patients

are slowly dying in front of the world.

      All the victims of this humanitarian crisis are innocent civilians, and

many of them are children.

      Please sign this petition to call the United Nations and the Israeli

government to allow the Palestinian patients having treatment outside of Gaza:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-gaza

________________________________________________________

 

Urge your representative to sign the DeFazio/Welch letter calling on President Bush to seek a      'direct, unconditional, and comprehensive' dialogue with Iran.

           

* Call the Capitol switchboard today, Toll-free 1-888-796-7578 *

_______________________________________________________

 

 

Vote for Dennis Kucinich in the Independent Primary.com

 

Vote for Dennis Kucinich in the IndependentPrimary.com Poll. The results of this poll will be watched by independent voters around the country, but particularly by those who will be voting in the nation's first primary in New Hampshire on Jan. 8, 2008 ... now voters all across the nation can affect the New Hampshire Primary.

Vote now at:

http://www.independentprimary.com

 

 

IMPEACH: In less than 24 hours, 40,000 people have signed

 

Rep. Robert Wexler, who with Reps. Luis Gutierrez and Tammy Baldwin, is calling for immediate hearings on Dennis Kucinich's long-blocked Cheney Impeachment bill (H Res 799), are trying to get 50,000 signatures on a petition posted yesterday at a new site:

http://www.wexlerwantshearings.com

      I'm asking readers of ThisCantBeHappening.net to please go to the site and sign on right away, and beyond that, to notify everyone on your mailing list to do the same, and to send word to their friends.

      We can do this. In fact, we should be able to put 500,000 names on that list by Monday!

Please do this, and don't put it off.

Thanks! Dave Lindorff

______________________________________________________________

 

 

. UNKNOWN ARMED GROUP IN OAXACA ABDUCTED HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER  

                  Posted by: "Guy Montag" morknme6@yahoo.com morknme6

 

 An unknown armed group in Oaxaca, Mexico, abducted a woman human rights defender. She was brutally interrogated and threatened with being abducted again if she does not stop her activities.  

      Nancy Mota Figueroa, a leader of a women's organisation in Oaxaca and an activist with the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca, APPO), was temporarily abducted by unknown armed individuals on 2 December. She was questioned about other APPO activists, threatened with death and rape and was told that she could be abducted again. Amnesty International is gravely concerned for her safety.

      According to Nancy Mota, she was walking in a street in Oaxaca when a white SUV vehicle with tinted windows and without number plates stopped next to her. Two men who had their faces covered, got out of the vehicle, forced her in and then blindfolded her. The blindfold was impregnated with a liquid that irritated her eyes.

       According to her testimony, while the vehicle was circulating Oaxaca's streets, the two men questioned her about what she knew about other APPO activists, some of whom are currently in detention.

      They forced her head between her knees, then pulled her hair and pointed two guns at her head. She heard them pull the trigger and say they would shoot her. They told her to stop her activism or they may abduct her again and rape her. She was also hit in the stomach. She was held for one hour and then freed in an empty lot near the city centre with the warning that she could be abducted again. The abductors also reportedly downloaded all the telephone numbers saved on her cellular phone.

      Nancy Mota filed a complaint with the Oaxaca State Attorney General's office (Procuraduría General del Estado de Oaxaca) and has spoken out about her abduction in a press conference.

 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Political and social conflict erupted in Oaxaca in June 2006 following a teachers' strike which developed into a broad social movement lead by the APPO which called for the resignation of the governor. During the protests municipal, state, and federal authorities were responsible for serious human rights violations, such as arbitrary and incommunicado detention, torture and other ill- treatment. Some protesters were also responsible for some criminal offences. Supporters of the opposition movement have been repeatedly detained and harassed, with fabricated criminal charges against them (See UA 92/07,  AMR 41/017/2007,  19 April 2007, and report Oaxaca:

Clamour for justice, AMR 41/031/2007, 31 July 2007).Those responsible have not been brought to justice, despite numerous complaints at state and federal level.

 

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Using your own words, please create a personal appeal and send ASAP

- expressing concern at reports that Nancy Mota Figueroa, a women's rights, social and political activist, was abducted and threatened in Oaxaca on 2 December by unknown armed individuals;

- expressing concern that other social and political activists in Oaxaca, especially those active with the APPO, may be at risk of similar treatment;

- calling on the authorities to ensure a full, prompt and impartial investigation into the abduction, ill-treatment and threats to Nancy Mota, with those responsible brought to justice;

- urging the authorities to ensure that she receives protection, in accordance with her wishes.

 

APPEALS TO:

Minister of Interior:

Francisco Javier Ramirez Acuña

Secretario de Gobernación

Bucareli No. 99, Edificio Cobián

1er piso, Col. Juárez, Del. Cuauhtémoc

Mexico D.F. 06600, MEXICO

Fax: 011 5255 5093 3414

Email:   secretario@segob.gob.mx

Salutation: Señor Secretario/Dear Minister

 

Gobernador del Estado de Oaxaca

Carretera Oaxaca-Puerto Ángel, Km. 9.5

Santa María Coyotepec

Oaxaca C.P. 71254, Oaxaca, MEXICO

Fax: 011 52951 502 0530 (if a voice answers, ask "me da tono de fax, por favor")

E-mail: gobernador@oaxaca.gob.mx

Salutation: Señor Gobernador / Dear Governor

 

State Attorney General of Oaxaca:

Lic. Evencio Nicolás Martínez Ramírez

Procurador General de Justicia del Estado de Oaxaca

Avenida Luis Echeverría s/n, Col. La Experimental

San Antonio de la Cal, Oaxaca C.P. 71236

Oaxaca, MEXICO

Fax: 011 5295 1511 5519

Salutation: Dear Prosecutor/Estimado Procurador

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Critically-Acclaimed documentary, JIMMY CARTER MAN FROM PLAINS, an important new film by Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme 

 

Winner of the The Human Rights Film Network Award for Best Feature Film, JIMMY CARTER MAN FROM PLAINS is now showing at theatres across the country.  It's a revealing portrait of former President and Nobel Peace Laureate Jimmy Carter and his campaign to create public dialogue on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. As Carter faces the media furor surrounding his book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, it becomes clear how divisive and emotional the subject is, and how important the need for dialogue has become.

__________________________________________

 

 

CODEPINK is launching a new campaign: www.dontbuybushswar.org.

 

It is now up to us to stop the funding of this war.  To stand together in tax resistance and civil disobedience, two inspiring moments of US history.

      This is an invitation to join a tea party for our times, a refusal to personally fund war and to share this call with your communities.  There are many ways to participate (http://www.codepink4peace.org//article.php?id=3768).

 

=================================

 

PIN NUMBER REVERSAL (GOOD TO KNOW)

 

If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from

an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your Pin # in reverse.

      For example if your pin number is 1234 then you would put in 4321. The ATM recognizes

that your pin number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine.

       The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber,

the police will be immediately dispatched to help you.

      This information was recently broadcasted on TV and it states that it is seldom used

because people don't know it exists. .. Pass this along .

==========

 

COMMENTARY:

 

Harriet Harvey writes: REPUBLICAN VALUES:

 

1. A Senator's tapping foot in a men's room is an Abomination, but a Senator buying prostitutes is perfectly acceptable.

 

2. Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him to make war on Iran, a bad guy when Bush's Daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.

 

3. Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade with Communist China and Viet Nam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

 

4. The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority should be enforcing U.N. Resolutions against Iran.

 

5. Less expensive Canadian drugs are not safe and must be kept out of our country, but Chinese toys and foodstuff don't require any regulating.

 

6. The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches and slash veterans' benefits and combat pay.

 

7. If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.

 

8. A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our longtime allies and then demand their cooperation and money.

 

9. Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy, but providing health care to all Americans is socialism. HMO's and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.

 

10. Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but Creationism should be taught in schools.

 

11. A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense, but a president lying to enlist support for a war in which many thousands die is solid defense policy.

 

12. Among Pro-lifers, "Life" is defined as the time between conception and birth. After that, you are on your own!

 

13. The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is none of our business.

 

14. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.

 

15. The US Government should limit itself to the enforcement those powers named in the Constitution, which include (a) banning gay marriages, (b) censoring the Internet and (c) passing laws for a brain-dead person.

_____________________________________

 

* Now and Forever By Bob Herbert, New York Times Op-Ed Contributor

The New York Times - December 4, 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/opinion/04herbert.html

      Most of the time we pretend it's not there: The staggering financial cost of the war in Iraq, which continues to soar, unchecked, like a rocket headed toward the moon and beyond.Early last year, the Nobel-Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz estimated that the "true" cost of the war would ultimately exceed $1 trillion, and maybe even $2 trillion.Incredibly, that estimate may have been low.

 

* Medea's Blog from Pakistan, Day 2

For all Medea¹s  (Benjamin's) writing and Pakistan updates, please visit our Pakistan page

at: http://www.codepinkalert.org/article.php?list=type&type=335

 

* Christmas ornament

If you're ready for a brief break from all the critical issues, small and large, that are consuming your attention, please take a look at this absurd, ironic, hilarious, and deeply disturbing post sent around by New Profile's Diana Dolev. As with so many things these days, it's hard to know whether to laugh, cry, or vomit - so take your choice.    all the best, RK

p.s. Diana's original post emphasized that thsi is a real ad, from a real group, not a joke. That doesn't seem to have come across in this forward, so I'm repeating it for you ...

            From: Diana Dolev [mailto:didolev@netvision.net.il]

Dear friends, You may wish to comment on the Xmas decorations in the ad in the link:

http://www.misspoppy.com/catalog/xcart/customer/product.php?productid=16346

 

* Israeli UK ambassador: Iran must stop enrichment or face 'military confrontation'

      [Signs continue to accumulate that Iran hawks, intent on aggression against the Islamic Republic, are refusing to accept the U.S. NIE that declared on Dec. 3 that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons and are intent on discrediting it.  --  The *Sunday Telegraph* reported Sunday that "British spy chiefs . . . believe the CIA has been hoodwinked by Tehran," and doubt that Iran has stopped work on nuclear weapons.[1]  -- "The timing of the CIA report has also provoked fury in the British Government, where officials believe it has undermined efforts to impose tough new sanctions on Iran and made an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities more likely," Tim Shipman, Philip Sherwell, and Carolynne Wheeler wrote.  --  An unnamed "senior British official" was said to deliver "a withering assessment of U.S. intelligence-gathering abilities in the Middle East" and said British intelligence "shared the concerns of Israeli defense chiefs that Iran was still pursuing nuclear weapons."  -- On Friday, the *Telegraph* published a piece in which Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador to Great Britain, formerly senior adviser on Iran to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, issued what sounded like an ultimatum to Iran regarding its uranium enrichment program (to which, the paper neglects to point out, Iran has a right as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Israel has refused to sign):  "This is a global threat and it requires a global response.  It should be made clear that if Iran does not co-operate then military confrontation is inevitable.  It is either co-operation or confrontation." --  The *Jerusalem Post* featured an article on Prosor's statements on Sunday.

 

* Refugees Caught Between Deportation And Death Threats By Ali al-Fadhily

http://www.countercurrents.org/fadhily071207.htm

      Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis driven out of their country by violence are now faced with detention abroad, or a homecoming to death threats.More than two million Iraqis, in a population of about 25 million, have taken refuge in many countries. Only a few have won official status as refugees. Most refugees in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and many other countries stay on as illegal residents, facing threats of deportation and imprisonment

 

* Put Option On America - Part 1 By Rand Clifford

http://www.countercurrents.org/clifford071207.htm

      9-11 embedded American rule by fear. The great mass of American people are being cowed, controlled and ruined by a tiny minority of hyper-wealthy corporatists that, unless Americans brave their way from this blackout of truth, decency, empathy and courage, will take America the rest of the way down. Until the truth of 9-11 is widely revealed, and the perpetrators are brought to justice, playing CorpoGov’s rigged election games and believing CorpoMedia spews anything but propaganda and misdirection while omitting everything Americans need to know would seem to well fit most definitions of insanity

 

* Why US Is The Only 'Superpower' By N. Raghuram

http://www.countercurrents.org/raghuram071207.htm

      In a controversial book, John Perkins narrates a real life tale. His personal journey from the member of international community of highly paid professionals who are employed to cheat poor countries around the globe to maintain US monopoly. Eventually he calls himself as a former economic hit man and deconstructs international intrigue and corruption, the sinister mechanics of imperial manipulations and control

 

* Who Is Feeding The Tigers? The Genesis Of A Suicide Bomber By Rohini Hensman

http://www.countercurrents.org/hensman071207.htm

      The two biggest parties need to listen to the former service chiefs, and make a joint effort to end human rights violations and implement democratic political reforms that address the legitimate grievances of minorities. Once this is done, the LTTE leadership will lose its source of willing recruits, and the war can be ended. Unless Mahinda Rajapaksa follows their advice, he will face increasing popular anger and hatred as the war drags on, the death toll mounts, and living standards plummet

===

 

But we have no right to do what we are doing. Just as no one would conceive of killing the residents of an entire neighborhood, to harass and incarcerate it because of a few criminals living there, there is no justification for abusing an entire people in the name of our security. The question of whether ending the occupation would threaten or strengthen Israel’s security is irrelevant. There are not, and cannot be, any preconditions for restoring justice.   – Gideon Levy, Israeli journalist for Haaretz

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/14/5844/