CONTENTS:

Philly Area Action:

National and International Action:

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Philly Area Action:

 

March and Rally for Peace  

 

Saturday, October 17, 2009T ime: 11:00 am - 2:00 pm

 Philadelphia's City Hall. 15th and Market Streets   

       The March and Rally to end the U.S. Occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, www.oct17.phillyagainstwar.org, will be part of a national mobilization for peace taking place around the country.

      Please join us because there is no reason for the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, and because there have been too many deaths at U.S. hands, and because the peace movement has the only exit strategy -- U.S. Troops Home Now!!

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Friday, October 16, 2009 at 7:30 pm

University of Pennsylvania campus, Houston Hall 3417 Spruce Street, Philadelphia

 “New Strategies for an Old Conflict: Israel/Palestine 2010″ with Jeff Halper

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From: ALLEN L BARTLETT [mailto:allen.jerrie@worldnet.att.net] : Middle East Symposium at Villanova

 

An outline of the interesting program which will take place on the afternoon and early evening of Wednesday, Nov. 18, at the Connolly Center at Villanova.  It is sponsored by the same group which brought the Sabeel conference in April 2008. On this we are working in close collaboration with the Villanova Center for Arab and Islamic Studies.

 

                  ISRAEL AND PALESTINE: A SYMPOSIUM ON THE OBSTACLES TO PEACE

 

DATE:    November 18,  2009 --1:30 PM  -   9:00 PM

PLACE:  Villanova University -- Connolly Center – The Cinema

 

1:30  WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS:

       Bishop Allen Bartlett/ Professor Shams Inati/ Tony Medwid

     

1: 45 PRESENTATION:   “LIFE IN OCCUPIED PALESTINE:  EYE-WITNESS STORIES & PHOTOS”

      Anna Baltzer – Author of “Witness in Palestine:  Journal of a Jewish-American Woman In the Occupied Territories

 

2:45  PANEL 1:  SETTLEMENTS , VIOLENCE AND SECURITY

                  Moderator:  Professor Sayed Omran (Villanova)

      1)  Geoffrey Aronson  (Foundation for Middle East Peace)

         2)  Daoud Nassar  (Tent of Nations)  Work with Israeli and Palestinian youth.

3:45  Break.

4:00 PANEL 2:  JERUSALEM AND  REFUGEES

                  Moderator:  Prof.  Hasan Shahpari (Villanova)

      1)   Prof. Nasser Aruri (Vermont) (invited)

       2)  Susan Abulhawa  (Playgrounds for Palestine; author)

 

5:00 PRESENTATION:   EXPERIENCING PALESTINE:  “YOU ARE      WELCOME!”

      Rev. Sunny Hallanan and son Payne McMillan, 16,

      speak to their summer experience in Palestine. 

      Professor Naziha Mustafa (Villanova; frequent visitor)        (invited)

 

6-7:15 SUPPER—purchase at Connolly Center Cafeteria

 

7:30  ADDRESS:   “WHAT CAN CHURCHES DO FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE?”                                 

      Speaker:  Ambassador Warren Clark

      Executive Director, Churches for Middle East Peace

      Questions and Answers

CLOSING   9:00 pm

            SUGGESTED  DONATION:  $15 (students free)

                  Sponsored by Ecumenical Working Group for Middle East Peace

                  Co-Sponsors: Villanova Center for Arab and Islamic Studies

Office of Justice and Peace of the Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of Villanova

Villanova Center for Peace and Justice Education

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Make Sure Your Vote Counts on November 3rd:

 

Whether you vote in Pennsylvania or New Jersey the Committee of Seventy has all the information you need.

 

Pennsylvania Voter Registration Deadline: The deadline to register to vote is Today, Monday, October 5th. Voter registration forms, including change of address applications, must be post marked by 5pm. Click here to register to vote.  

 

New Jersey Election: If you live in New Jersey be sure to register to vote by October 14th. New Jersey has an exciting election on November 3rd, including a contested Governor's race. Click here for New Jersey election information.

 

Philadelphia Races: On November 3rd Philadelphians will elect two key positions in City Government: District Attorney and City Controller. City and statewide Judges are also up for election. Click here for all you need to know about November's Races.

 

Absentee and Alternative Ballots: Pennsylvania voters who are not able to be at their polling place on Election Day should apply for an absentee or alternative ballot. While the deadline to apply is October 27th, we recommend voters do this ASAP. Click here for more information on absentee and alternative ballots

 

Volunteer on Election Day: Seventy volunteers are trained on election laws and work throughout the Philadelphia region on Election Day helping voters in the field or staffing the 866-OUR-VOTE voter protection hotline. Click here for more information or sign up to volunteer. It's fun!


For more information about volunteering or other programs contact Leah Pillsbury, Director of Civic Programs, at lpillsbury@seventy.org or reply to this email.

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National and International Action:

 

IWPS RECRUITMENT FOR LONG TERM VOLUNTEERS

 

The International Womens Peace Service in Palestine (IWPS-Palestine) is a

team of women human rights workers, who provide international accompaniment

to Palestinian civilians, document and non-violently intervene in human

rights abuses and support acts of non-violent resistance to end the illegal

Israeli occupation and building of the apartheid wall.

 

IWPS-Palestine is currently inviting applicants from women who would like to

join our team of longer term volunteers. Successful applicants will be

invited to a training and serve a minimum of one 3 month term in Palestine

and support our on-going work outside. Preference will be given to women

able to commit to further terms in Palestine (1-3 months). Deadline for

application 15.10.09. Please fill out the attached application form and send

it to iwpstraining@

yahoo.com<http://uk.mc274.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=iwpstraining@yahoo.com>

 

For more information about IWPS, our activities and volunteer requirements

see the attached info-pack and our webpage at www.iwps-pal.

org<http://www.iwps-pal.org/>

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Tell Your Senator to Vote Against Amendments that Will Obstruct Our Ability to Fight Global Warming.

 

The underhanded tricks of Dirty Coal and Big Oil never cease to amaze.

Senators in the pockets of Big Coal and Big Oil are using every trick in the book to hold back progress on more jobs, less pollution and greater security. Now they are attempting to add amendments to an upcoming appropriations bill that will restrict our ability to fight global warming.

      Contact your Senators today and demand they put a stop to these obstructionist ploys- tell them the free pass for coal and oil companies to spew global warming pollution needs to stop and it needs to stop now.

 

Can you believe these three proposed amendments?

 

-Senator Murkowski wants to add an amendment that will strip all funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to fight global warming.

 

-Senator Vitter's amendment proposes to gag the President's well-respected climate change advisor Carol Browner.

 

-A third amendment aims to obstruct EPA's ability to complete the Renewable Fuel Standards rule and hinder their ability to ensure ethanol fuel blends will not endanger air quality and public health.

 

Tell your Senators 1-800-828-0498 -to oppose these amendments, which amount to nothing more than cynical ploys to bail out polluters and restrict the President's ability to create more jobs, less pollution and greater security for all Americans.

 

Thanks for all that you do to protect the environment.

Sarah Hodgdon, Director of Conservation, Sierra Club

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CODEPINK Announces:

Our official support of the Palestinian Unified Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions

 

We wanted to share with you the statement (http://www.stolenbeauty.org/article.php?id=5104) that CODEPINK released this week announcing our official support of the Palestinian Unified Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. (http://bdsmovement.net/?q=node/52)

 

Thank you for being a part of our work towards a just peace for Palestinians and Israelis. It is a conflict with a long history and there is a long struggle ahead, but as Grace Paley said, "The only recognizable feature of hope is action."

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Stop Glenn Beck!

 

I wish some of the things Glenn Beck says about Obama were true, like that he’s a socialist, that his healthcare reform non-plan will lead us to single payer, etc., but Beck is a hate-monger and a fomenter of violence.  And we saw just recently where that lead for Dr. Tiller. 

Peace

Z

I signed ColorOfChange.org's petition to stop Glenn Beck's lies and distortions, and so far, 62 major companies have stopped their ads from running on his show. These companies have decided they don't want to be associated with Beck's race-baiting.

But Beck is only stepping up his fear-mongering, so we can't stop now. We have to make sure advertisers keep leaving, and stay away from his show.

Will you take a stand and be counted, and invite your friends and family to do the same? It takes just a moment: http://www.colorofchange.org/beck/hold/?id=2131-124377

This summer, Beck said:

This president has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a deep-seated hatred for white people... this guy is, I believe, a racist.

 "Beck: Obama has 'exposed himself as a guy' with 'a deep seated hatred for white people'"

http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907280008

"Glenn Beck: Obama agenda driven by 'reparations' and desire to 'settle old racial scores'"

http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907230040

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Get Off Obama's Back ...second thoughts from Michael Moore Saturday, October 10, 2009 4:53 PM

 

Get Off Obama's Back ...second thoughts from Michael Moore Saturday, October 10th, 2009 Friends, Last night my wife asked me if I thought I was a little too hard on Obama in my letter yesterday congratulating him on his Nobel Prize. "No, I don't think so," I replied. I thought it was important to remind him he's now conducting the two wars he's inherited. "Yeah," she said, "but to tell him, 'Now earn it!'? Give the guy a break -- this is a great day for him and for all of us."

I went back and re-read what I had written. And I listened for far too long yesterday to the right wing hate machine who did what they could to crap all over Barack's big day. Did I -- and others on the left -- do the same?

We are weary, weary of war. The trillions that will have gone to these two wars have helped to bankrupt us as a nation -- financially and morally. To think of all the good we could have done with all that money! Two months of the War in Iraq would pay for all the wells that need to be dug in the Third World for drinking water! Obama is moving too slow for most of us -- but he needs to know we are with him and we stand beside him as he attempts to turn eight years of sheer madness around. Who could do that in nine months? Superman? Thor? Mitch McConnell?

 

Instead of waiting to see what the president is going to do, we all need to be pro-active and push the agenda that we want to see enacted. What keeps us from forming the same local groups we put together to get out the vote last November? C'mon! We're the majority now -- the majority by a significant margin! We call the shots -- and we need to tell this wimpy Congress to get busy and do what we say -- or else. All I ask of those who voted for Obama is to not pile on him too quickly. Yes, make your voice heard (his phone number is 202-456-1414).

 

But don't abandon the best hope we've had in our lifetime for change.

And for God's sake, don't head to bummerville if he says or does something we don't like. Do you ever see Republicans behave that way? I mean, the Right had 20 years of Republican presidents and they still couldn't get prayer in the public schools, or outlaw abortion, or initiate a flat tax or put our Social Security into the stock market.

They did a lot of damage, no doubt about that, but on the key issues that the Christian Right fought for, they came up nearly empty handed.

No wonder they've been driven crazy lately. They'll never have it as good again as they've had it since Reagan took office.

 

But -- do you ever see them looking all gloomy and defeated? No! They keep on fighting! Every day. Our side? At the first sign of wavering, we just pack up our toys and go home.

 

So, at least for this weekend, let us celebrate what people elsewhere are celebrating -- that America now has a sane and smart man in the White House, a man who truly wants a world at peace for his two daughters.

 

Many, for the past couple days (yes, myself included), have grumbled, "What has he done to earn this prize?" How 'bout this:

The simple fact that he was elected was reason enough for him to be the recipient of this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

Because on that day the murderous actions of the Bush/Cheney years were totally and thoroughly rebuked. One man -- a man who opposed the War in Iraq from the beginning -- offered to end the insanity. The world has stood by in utter horror for the past eight years as they watched the descendants of Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson light the fuse of our own self-destruction. We flipped off the nations on this planet by abandoning Kyoto and then proceeded to melt eight more years worth of the polar ice caps. We invaded two nations that didn't attack us, failed to find the real terrorists and, in effect, ignited our own wave of terror. People all over the world wondered if we had gone mad.

 

And if all that wasn't enough, the outgoing Joker presided over the worst global financial collapse since the Great Depression.

So, yeah, at precisely 11:00pm ET on November 4, 2008, Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. And the 66 million people who voted for him won it, too. By the time he took the stage at midnight ET in the Grant Park Historic Hippie Battlefield in downtown Chicago, billions of people around the globe were already breathing a huge sigh of relief. It was as if, in that instant, one man did bring the promise of peace to the world

-- and most were ready to go wherever he wanted to go to achieve that end. Never before had the election of one man made every other nation feel like they had won, too. When you've got billions of people ready, willing and able to join a cause like this, well, a prize in Oslo is the least that you deserve.

 

One other thought. The Peace Prize historically has been given to those who have worked to throw off the yoke of racial discrimination and segregation (Martin Luther King, Jr., Desmond Tutu). I think the Nobel committee, in awarding Obama the prize, was also rewarding the fact that something profound had happened in a nation that was founded on racial genocide, built on racist slavery, and held back for a hundred-plus years by vestiges of hateful bigotry (which can still be found on display at teabagger rallies and daily talk radio). The fact that this one man could cause this seismic historical event to occur -- and to do so with such grace and humility, never succumbing to the bait, but still not backing down (yes, he asked to be sworn in as "Barack Hussein

Obama"!) -- is more than reason enough he should be in Oslo to meet the King on December 10. Maybe he could take us along with him. 'Cause I also suspect the Nobel committee was tipping its hat to all of us -- we, the American people, had conquered some of our racism and did the truly unexpected. After seeing searing images of our black fellow citizens left to drown in New Orleans -- and poor whites seeing their own treated no better than the black man they had been raised to hate -- we had all seen enough. It was time for change.

 

Thank you, Barack Obama, for giving us the opportunity to redeem ourselves. Now for the tasks ahead. We need you to do all that you promised to do. We need it. The world needs it.

 

My prediction for the future? You become the first *two-time* winner of the Nobel Peace Prize! Yeah! Fred (that's Norwegian for "Peace"),

Michael Moore

MMFlint@aol.com <mailto:MMFlint%40aol.com> MichaelMoore.com

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BRAVO! ! !  As Afghan War Enters 9th Year, Rep. Barbara Lee-Lone

Lawmaker to Vote Against 2001 Authorization-Seeks to Block New Troop Surge

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/7/as_afghan_war_enters_9th_year

 

111th CONGRESS - 1st Session ; H. R. 3699

 

To prohibit any increase in the number of members of the United States Armed Forces serving in Afghanistan.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ; October 1, 2009

Ms. LEE of California (for herself, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. WATERS, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. ELLISON, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Ms. WATSON, Mr. TOWNS, Mr. CLEAVER, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Mr. COHEN, Mr. HONDA, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. STARK, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. KUCINICH, Ms. EDWARDS of Maryland, Ms. CLARKE, Mr. FILNER, and Mr. GRAYSON) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services