The Common Ills: Other Items

Monday, June 23, 2008

Other Items

Dear friends; the two things that we need help with most right now in Vancouver are housing for war resisters and your participation in our outreach and lobbying in Conservative ridings and keeping up the media visibility.
Below is a housing appeal, please pass it on freely.
Also in Vancouver we will be doing another visit to a Conservative riding, probably either Emerson's in Vancouver or Nina Grewal in Fleetwood-Port Kells. That is tentatively planned for Saturday June 28.
War Resister Housing Appeal
Do you have an extra-room or a fold-out couch in your home? Do you want to help end the war in Iraq? Would you like to see Canada, once again, become a sanctuary for American soldiers refusing to participate in an illegal war?
If you answered yes to the questions above, the War Resisters Support Campaign in Vancouver needs you!
The War Resisters Support Campaign helps American soldiers who have come to Canada seeking sanctuary. These young men and women face imprisonment in the US because they obeyed their conscience.
They turned their backs on George Bush's war.
We need volunteers to house US war resister for a few days to a few months, while we help them to get settled in and work their way through the refugee immigration process.
Right now in Vancouver we are in urgent need of housing for two war resisters.
If you can house a war resister in the lower mainland, for at least a week starting this week please contact James Leslie at jamesleslie@telus.net or (604) 736-9804

After Friday June 20, 2008 call or email Sarah Bjorknas at 778-837-1475 or vanresisters@yahoo.ca

For more info, or to volunteer housing in other parts of BC or the rest of Canada, please see our website www.resisters.ca

Dear Campaigners; As you know, on June 3, the House of Commons did a pretty important thing. The MPs voted 137-110 for the War Resisters Motion, which would make it possible for the war resisters to apply for permanent residence in Canada, and which would stop the deportation of any of them, including Corey Glass, whose deadline to "leave or be removed" is now July 10.

The CBC and Newsworld, had a 7-minute report the previous Sunday (June 1), with Terry Milewski, a prominent reporter, anchoring the story. It was a great piece, and it mentioned that the vote would take place on the following Tuesday.

Then, on Tuesday, NOTHING -- NADA -- ZERO -- ZILCH!
MEDIA COVERAGE NOW IS SUPER IMPORTANT IF WE ARE TO GET THE CONSERVATIVES TO IMPLEMENT THE WAR RESISTERS MOTION.
PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO DROP A LINE TO THE CBC AT
http://www.cbc.ca/contact/ AND LET THEM KNOW YOU WANT
MORE COVERAGE OF THE WAR RESISTERS ISSUE!
And by the way -- don't be shy about writing to your local media, or to "national" media like the Globe & Mail, which has ignored the story except for a teensy little paragraph that whispered "don't read this" the day after the vote.
The Tories would love this issue to disappear from view. Don't let them have their way.
PEACE,
LEE ZASLOFSKY

War Resisters Support Campaign
Vancouver
http://ca.geocities.com/vanresisters/
Tel: 778-837-1475
c/o 1143 E Pender St
Vancouver BC V6A

Vic passed on the above press release from the War Resisters Support Campaign and we'll pair that with another announcement from them, "Rally to Stop the Deportation of Parkdale Resident Corey Glass:"

Thursday July 3, 7:00pm
May Robinson Building,
20 West Lodge, Toronto

Corey Glass is a 25-year-old war resister from the United States Army. He lives in Parkdale. Other than leaving the Army, he has never been in trouble with the law.

In 2002 Corey joined the Indiana National Guard. He was told he would not have to fight on foreign shores. But in 2005 he was sent to Iraq. What he saw there caused him to become a conscientious objector and he came to Canada.

On May 21, 2008, he got his final order to leave Canada by July 10th, 2008. Then on June 3 Parliament passed a motion for all the war resisters to stay in Canada. However the Harper government says it will ignore the motion.

Come to support Corey and the other Parkdale War Resisters.

Endorsed by:
Peggy Nash Member of Parliament for Parkdale-High Park; Cheri DiNovo Member of Ontario Parliament, Parkdale-High Park;Gord Perks City Councillor, War 14 - Parkdale-High Park; Bruce Voogd Chair - Parkdale Housing Committee; Ram Ramchaitar Coordinator of Parkdale Breakfast Club since 1989

Meeting called by the War Resisters Support Campaign
resisters@sympatico.ca * 416.598.1222

Doors open at 6:00pm, pizza and refreshments provided.

Download leaflet here.

Massoud A. Derhally (Bloomberg News) reports that "2,466 stolen artifacts" were returned to Iraq from Jordan where they were discovered by officials when smugglers attempted to enter Jordan with the items. Derhally reminds that Iraq's national museum in Baghdad was looted after the start of the illegal war:

About 15,000 pieces were looted from the museum, which housed 170,000 artifacts, the Jordan Times reported today. In April, the U.S. restricted imports of art and cultural artifacts from Iraq as some museum authorities said looting continues.

For humor laugh at John Rauh defending Barack's decision to break with public financing this morning. Rauh's an idiot and no one should ever again give a damn about Americans for Campaign Reform (the group Rauh started and runs -- his wife is a New Hampshire chair for Obama, by the way). You either support public financing or you don't. You don't drop your rules and standards because one candidate makes you weak in the knees. Rauh's old, he's an idiot and he's flaunting on Democracy Now! this morning that he's a hypocrite. I believe the only thing left for him to do at this point is close shop on ACR. For more laughs, listen to the high water mark he wants to create for third party candidates to qualify for public financing.

In 2006, Rauh told NOW on PBS:

We can't guarantee with public funding of elections that we will elect those leaders. But, we have one heck of a lot better chance than we do with this private system.

Isaiah's "Wheel of Greed" last night addressed the topic, Ava and I covered it at Third in terms of Democracy Now! Goodman does ask a tough question of Rauh but the segment is a disappointment. Rauh offers multiple excuses and also puts foward the crazy notion that Barack's unknown. In 2008, more articles have been written about Barack Obama in the domestic Big Media than Iraq and broadcast and cable have covered Barack more than Iraq. That's reality. He became a media star in 2004 at the DNC convention. Other community coverage of the Barack's broken promise and stab in the back to public financing includes: "Iraq snapshot," "THIS JUST IN! DNC OR GOP? WHO CAN TELL?," "Extreme DNC Makeover!," "LAT and Barack -- liars liars pants on fire," "Barack sells out, Matthis stands firm," "Glen Ford, Kevin Zeese," "Public finance, Bill Moyers Journal," "Barack sells out, Matthis stands firm," "the liar barack" and "Public financing." You can also refer to Jay Mandle's "The Small-Donor Fallacy" (Washington Post), Leslie Wayne's "Obama's Decision Threatens Public Financing System" (New York Times) and the Times' editorial "Public Funding on the Ropes." And Marcia posted "Women hurt by 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'" yesterday.

Turning to third parties, Stan notes this on Michael Meo's campaign from Third Party Watch:

In the 3rd District, the PGP nominated Michael Meo in east-side Portland district. In fact, Joe Walsh, has endorsed Meo in the general election. Meo has tremendous credibility as an anti-war candidate, having served to years in prison as a Vietnam War draft resister. He is the chair of the mathematics department at Benson Polytechnic High School in Portland.

Lizz Winstead, a community favorite for her work on Air America's Unfiltered and, of course, also known for creating The Daily Show and returning to it to help revamp it when Jon Stewart became the program's host, is now doing Shoot the Messenger which streams live Mondays.

As with her previous work, Winstead begins her program with a humorous review of news events (entitled "Wake Up World!" on Shoot the Messenger -- Wake Up World with Hope and Davis -- parody of the morning shows and Winstead plays Hope) and then interviews with a guest. Past guests have included her Unfiltered co-hosts Chuck D and Rachel Maddow, the one and only Roseanne, Craig Unger and Ed Begley. Shoot the Messenger is NYC based but Winstead and companywill do the show from her hometown Minneaplois in the fall when the Republican Party holds their national convention there (September 2nd through 4th).

Amy Goodman is scheduled to be a guest on on July 14th's show and Bill Moyers is scheduled for the August 11th show. You can watch clips online at Shoot the Messenger as well as catch the Monday broadcasts live (begins streaming at 7:00 am EST).

Kyle notes Team Nader's "You've Got Issues:"