CONTENTS:
Philly Area Action:
National and International Action:
==================================
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!!
____________________________________________
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
_______________________________________________________________________
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
______________________________________________
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.
=====================
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.
___________________________________________________________________________
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
___________________________________________________
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."
_____________________________________________
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
___________________________________________
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
===
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