Dear Mr. Abrams,
So let me get this straight, your argument is that because the greatest military power in the world, using high tech weapons systems, depleted uranium in their bombs, chemical weapons, cluster bombs and who knows what other horrors is fighting a bunch of rag tag individuals who are using the only weapons available to them - primitive fighting techniques, we should just throw out all the humanitarian rules and get primitive too. Is that right? Of course being the civilized man that you are - safe and secure in your ivory tower in the United States, you note that Abu Ghraib was an outrage. Mighty big of you. But it is illogical to argue that the Geneva conventions be thrown out at the same time you say that Abu Ghraib was an outrage because Abu Ghraib occurred as a result of throwing out the Geneva conventions. The problem with getting primitive is that on the battlefield, there is no control over the degree of inhumanity and savagery that our guys will inflict on the people of Iraq. If we dismantle the conventions for national warfare it reduces our men to rag tag individuals capable of inhumanity equal to or perhaps greater than the 'terrorists' or Iraqis since it seems our position is that they are one and the same. || More.

Columbus, GA (Monday, November, 22)– Over 16,000 people from across the Americas—including actors Martin Sheen and Susan Sarandon—gathered this weekend outside the gates of Ft. Benning, Georgia in the most diverse demonstration yet of opposition to the School of the Americas (SOA), a combat-training school for Latin American soldiers. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refuge by graduates of the SOA, renamed in 2001 the Western Hempishere Institute for Security Cooperation or WHINSEC. The gathering culminated on Sunday with a solemn funeral procession to the gates of Fort Benning. Fifteen people were arrested in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience, many negotiating a 10-foot-high barbed-wire fence to enter the base. They took this action despite knowing they likely face 3-6 months in federal prison. Read more here, at SOAWatch dot org or at Atlanta Indymedia.

The implementation of computerized systems with modems and votes without audit trails took the issue of vote tampering and vote fraud out of the domain of local news and it became what should have been national news and a serious national issue. For the last several years, computer experts and concerned citizens have been sounding the alarms on these systems. For the most part, the alarms fell on deaf ears. It should have come as no surprise to the national media, politicians and election officials that these people would be all over the Internet gathering the ‘local’ stories for the purpose of shining a bright light on the issue of ‘ether votes’ and to force it as a topic for national debate.

Immediately following the election, when the exits poll results were inconsistent with reported outcome, historical voter patterns for turnout were inconsistent with the outcome and irregularities were beginning to be reported on the internet, the national media began an almost desperate campaign of Deny, Divert, Diffuse and Dismiss. Read more.

The Arctic and Antarctic are experiencing severe climate change. The Arctic ice cap is melting at an unprecedented rate due to human induced global warming, according to a new study conducted by 300 scientists and elders from native communities in the arctic, released 8 November. Over the last 30 years the ice cap has shrunk 15-20 per cent. In 2003 the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, the largest in the Arctic, broke into two pieces. With the build up of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, the trend is set to accelerate with forecasts that by the summer of 2070 there maybe no ice at all.

In Antarctica, while the interior of the continent is cooling, disappearing sea ice and warmer temperatures around the Antarctic peninsula are causing an 80 percent drop in the numbers of Antarctic Krill. This is causing the food chain to crash affecting fish, penguins, sea birds, whales and other animals, as well as commercial Fisheries. The breakup of the Larsen B ice shelf in 2002 has also released several glaciers, increasing their speed up to eight fold, and dumping their loads into the Weddell Sea contributing to rising sea level.

[Melbourne IMC: Climate Change Features | Perth IMC: Warming in Antarctica | WWF: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment | Climate Solutions]

Read more.

Boise, ID October 30, 2004 — Billionaires for Bush, the political action committee advocating for the interests of the fabulously wealthy, rallied in support of the economic and war policies of President George W. Bush yesterday afternoon in Boise. Sporting their most impressive evening wear, the Billionaires for Bush gathered at the Statehouse steps at 3:00 pm to thank President Bush for invading Iraq, and continuing to grow the national economy by granting contracts to several American powerhouse companies including Halliburton, and Washington Group International.

"The war in Iraq has provided over 70 American companies and individuals, like us, with over $8 billion in contracts," informed Ilene Faright, co-chair of Billionaires for Bush. "It’s been an extremely profitable time to own such companies like Halliburton and the Bechtel Group. We can’t thank our President enough for contributing to our pockets—er, I mean economic growth in America."

More.

Radio Free Moscow signed on October 12th in Moscow, Idaho, pumping out 100 watts of community driven radio on 92.5 on the FM dial. Our call letters are KRFP. We're currenly programming locall- produced shows as well as grassroots, non-corporate syndicated news programs. We've already aired local candidates' forums, recorded local concerts from East City Park and the Cold Lab, and broadcast live music from our studio. We are a Pacifica affiliate, broadcasting the daily investigative news magazine Flashpoints and other great news programs. One of the shows we relay is the Houston Indymedia Show, and we relay other Indymedia audio as well. We'll soon be organizing a local news department, sending our 4 portable recorders to all corners of the community and beyond. Local call-in shows are coming soon, as well. Our full schedule (under construction) is online here . Webstreaming is in our future, but we need more money first. We've spent most of our money starting the station, and it costs about $800 a month to keep the doors open. Feel free to contribute for a robust community radio future via the website.

The Coalition of Imokalee Workers is coming to a theatre near you! The Group leading the boycott on Taco Hell will be in Boise on Tusday, October 26th at 7pm at the SPEC in the Boise State Student Union. On October 26th at 7pm there will be Migrant Farmworkers from the state of Florida, along with students from the Student Farmworker Alliance! Come join us for an evening of information about the conditions faced by farmworkers in Florida, and what we can do in Idaho to stand in solidarity with them! The event is free.

From the open publishing newswire: "In a press release, entitled “Do We Really Need the United Nations” by Mike Simpson, he calls the United Nations “corrupt, secretive, and virtually useless elitists incapable of fulfilling the body’s mission.” He insists the U.N. has failed in Africa and across the globe, then he challenges one to point out what major accomplishments the U.N. has been successful at. "Mike Simpson calls himself a “simple man from Blackfoot, Idaho” and that description is the only bit of truth in the entire press release, he is simple with regards to his mind...." Read more on peace, war, Simpson and the U.N.

Simpson on healthcare: "The final conclusion which must be made is that Rep. Mike Simpson has been in Washington D.C. for three long terms now, and absolutely no strides have been made with regards to the surging numbers of Idahoans without health insurance. Wrong turn after wrong turn, Simpson has claimed to have been our advocate, but when over 80% of the uninsured in Idaho are working families, we must change leadership." More on Simpson and Health Care.

| Click here for challenger Lin Whitworth's homepage | Click here for Rep. Simpson's webpage | Click here to find out where the candidates are getting their money.

'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.' More.

While students and faculty were away over the summer, Boise State President Kustra reportedly signed a deal with Taco Bell to sell the name of our Pavilion to the fast food giant, despite a nationwide boycott against the company. In Florida, where Taco Bell gets tons of tomatoes, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has documented several cases of tomato pickers working as slaves. [ See here, here, here, here or here.]

So concerned student groups will be hosting an event called BOOT THE BELL, to encourage people join in forcing Taco Bell to treat tomato pickers humanely, or get off Boise State University. Boot the Bell will be held at 7pm on Otcober 26, in the Student Union Special Events Center. It is free and open to all. Read more.

BOISE, ID (Friday, Oct. 8) – Community leaders from local organizations held a media conference outside the FBI’s Idaho office building, calling for an end to racial profiling of Boise Muslims. They gathered to condemn the intrusion into the religious life of American Muslims under a government program of “volunteer interviews,” which has gone on since late 2001.

People who are not under any form of suspicion have been “interviewed” and asked personal questions about themselves and others. Investigators from the FBI and Boise’s Criminal Intelligence Unit had established a regular presence at the mosque, which generated an environment of fear and intimidation in a place where people gather to worship.

Those present urged the community to join them as they speak out against racial and religious profiling by the FBI and bring these unwarranted actions under the spotlight of public concern. They have already recruited more than 50 volunteers to be witnesses during further FBI interrogations. They have also planned a rally in support of the human rights of their Muslim neighbors on Thursday, October 14, 5:30 pm, at the Anne Frank Memorial in Boise. Read more or take action here.

The FBI took the hard drives of Global IMC servers in the USA and the UK. It appears that a court order was issued to Rackspace (Indymedia's service provider with offices in the US and in London) to physically remove the hard drives from Global Indymedia servers (backup servers are now in place). Rackspace was given no time to defend against the order before it was acted upon and turned over the hard drives, both in the US and the UK. The servers hosted numerous local IMCs, including UK Indymedia, Belgium, African imcs, Palestine, UK, Germany, Brasil, Italy, Uruguay, Poland, Belgrade, Portugal and others.

During the Republican Convention, the ISP of the NYC IMC was informed that it was the subject of a Secret Service / FBI investigation into an article submitted to its Open Newswire identifying delegates at the RNC. While the FBI has made it clear to members of the press that the investigation is ongoing, there is not necessarily a connection between events in NYC and the FBI's seizure of the Rackspace servers. Currently, much of the speculation about the reasons for the FBI's move centers around photographs posted to the IMC-Nantes website.

The FBI's latest anti-free-press actions began at the beginning of October when they visited Indymedia's ISP demanding the removal of identifying information from photographs of undercover police officers that was posted on the Nantes Indymedia website. When asked what the US government was doing requesting the removal of information from a French-run website that contained information about Swiss police actions, the FBI stated that this was a "courtesy" to the Swiss government. The FBI agents stated that no laws had been broken, and no crimes had been committed. However, because no identifying information was posted on the website in question, it was unclear what actions the FBI was requesting.

Read more.

Today (October 5), the Boise Community Radio Project (BCRP) announced the official launch of their new website: radioboise.org. The non-profit volunteer group is organized to establish the Treasure Valley’s only commercial-free, locally programmed radio station. They also unveiled their new public awareness effort entitled: “Locally Grown Radio for Boise and Beyond.”

Community members now have an easy way to become more familiar with BCRP’s goals and progress as well as to offer ideas, volunteer time and make tax-deductible contributions. The site also features a variety of links enabling viewers to listen on-line to other community radio stations, register to vote and become more familiar with general issues of media democracy. In the next several months, BCRP also plans to seek proposals to generate programming content that can be streamed on the website.

Abrams cited the group’s presence at the Hyde Park Street Fair and recent local concerts as additional ways that BCRP will continue to reach out to the community. “These public events expand on the goals of the website and engage the community on a very personal level. People get extremely excited about the idea of having their own radio station. The response has really been tremendous.”

BCRP aims to cultivate a stronger "sense of place" in the area by providing an unprecedented diversity of high quality music and issues-oriented programs to inform, energize and educate listeners. BCRP’s programming principles will be designed to inspire creative discussion and enhance social, cultural and environmental awareness by providing music, entertainment, and community affairs programming to underserved communities within the Treasure Valley.

More info here or at radioboise.org. If you would like to help make community radio a reality in the Treasure Valley, click here.

Private Fuel Storage (PFS) wants to site a “temporary” above ground nuclear waste dump for over 40,000 metric tons of high-level nuclear waste on the ancestral and Reservation land of the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians. The Reservation is located about 45 miles South-west of Salt Lake City, Utah.

This proposed project continues to enflame controversy within the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes, and between various governmental and citizen non-governmental entities.

This issue is at critical stage. At the request of Margene Bullcreek, a Goshute activist, and Corbin Harney, Western Shoshone Spiritual Leader, Nuclear Activist and founder of The Shundahai Network, and the Shundahai Network Board, and staff have begun preparation for 3 days of events in Skull Valley October 8-10th 2004. The purpose of these events is to educate, to demonstrate opposition to this project and to give concerned interests an opportunity to offer public testimony on this issue.

Please join us at the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation to support Margene Bullcreek and all those who oppose the Private Fuel Storage nuclear waste dump site on the Goshute Reservation. We will hear presentations by Indigenous speakers, including Corbin Harney, Margene Bullcreek and other groups working on these issues. Read more here. || Meanwhile Idaho.Indymedia has received reports of recent unexplained mushroom clouds in the Beehive State.

On Friday, September 24th, 2004, Boise will be treated to a multi-media sensory experience shaped by local women. This local arts collective is presenting to the public their project which is a celebration of those who dare to step outside the confines of mass media, unrealistic fashion culture, and the very shells that bind them.

The Idaho Peace Coalition is sponsoring two appearances by John Dear to mark the Oct. 2 birthday of Mahatma Gandhi: Living Peace, a workshop at St Marks Church, 7960 Northview, Boise, from 9:00 am – 2:30 pm. Lunch will be provided during the workshop and the suggested fee is $15.

The Road to Peace: Exploring Nonviolence on the Birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, a talk at the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 23rd and Woodlawn, Boise, at 7:30 pm. The suggested donation for the evening talk is $5 and childcare will be provided. Click here for more info. Don't forget the IPC will be discussing Dear's book on Sept 23 at the Boise Public Library.

A program that promotes urban space renewal through citizen-led public art, permaculture, community building, transformative space, and ecological design. This program, Village Lives, is the topic of community activist Mark Lakeman’s presentation on September 22nd at 7:00 PM at the Sandpoint Public Library. Lakeman will also be in Spokane on he 21st and 22nd of September. Read more about Lakeman's presentation here.

The Idaho Peace Coalition is sponsoring a 2-hour workshop for people interested in learning about election-related volunteering on Saturday, September 11 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon at St. Mark's Church, 7960 Northview, Boise. With just weeks to go before the general election on November 2, this workshop will cover the basics of why, how and when volunteers are needed and provide tips on how to avoid burnout. Newcomers to election season volunteering are especially encouraged to attend. “The Idaho Peace Coalition firmly believes that democracy will only work if everyone plays an active role, so come and learn how to get involved,” said workshop leader Kerry Cooke. This is a free, nonpartisan workshop not sponsored by or affiliated with any party or candidate. More info.

There is current discussion in the Laramie Wyoming area to start a Liberal Think Tank. The goal of this is to use exactly the same methods employed by conservatives to get into power. The current goal for initiating this is to also remedy many of the damaging effects of conservative think tanks. The first step is simply to start a letter writing campaign. Despite it's initial simplicity, it's overall goal is much more complex. We want communicate, by phone, mail, or blog, about refining core arguments that refute conservatives. We then draft letters, send them to newspapers across the country (already you can see the immense networking involved), and then make a push to change the way stories are made. Read more.

If you're an anti-war activist, a 9-11 truth activist, or simply a thorn in the side of the ruling elite, you may have been a target of non-lethal weaponry and/or assigned harassment, without even knowing it. How can I make this claim? Well, I don't have signed confessions or "60 Minutes style" leaked documents, but I'm a good observer and compiler of anecdotal evidence, and I believe I've been the target of such dirty tactics since November 2001. Please read on before you label me paranoid, won't you?

Time poverty and overwork cost the U.S. billions each year and threaten the health of communities, the environment and our families. Learn how a growing number of citizens are changing the paradigm of speed in America, at the Public Forum on Sustainability’s first Forum of the season. John de Graaf will look at the national Take Back Your Time movement, which is gaining momentum as more Americans are stopping to consider the pace of their lives, on September 16th at 7:00 PM at the Sandpoint Public Library. Read more.

The Idaho Peace Coalition will host a discussion of peace activist, author and Jesuit priest John Dear’s book, Living Peace: A Spirituality of Contemplation and Action, on September 23 at 7:00 pm at the Boise Public Library. Everyone is welcome. The Idaho Peace Coalition has copies of Living Peace available for purchase and for loan. Email idahopeacecoalition@msn.com to borrow or purchase. Living Peace meditates on the contemplative life of inner peacemaking as well as the active life of public peacemaking. It features three parts: “The Depths of Peace,” a section on the inner journey toward personal peace, “The Heights of Peace,” a section about public work for world peace; and “The Horizons of Peace,” about the great themes of loving our enemies, forgiving those who have hurt us, building community, persistently seeking reconciliation, and living in hope.

have some good news to report: Democracy is not yet dead in America. Try as they might, George Bush and pals have not quite hammered into place the final nail of the Constitution's coffin. There was a march in New York City on Sunday. People, signs, puppets, banners, music, costumes, shouting, cheering, dancing - it was all there. I heard no official crowd size estimates during the day, but judging by the three hours I spent watching the proceedings on C-SPAN, here's my best guess: Lots. The First Amendment was fully on display, and it was a grand and glorious thing. The streets of the Big Apple were full of the usual suspects who appear at such events: Americans. Old ones, young ones, white ones, black ones, brown ones, gay ones, straight ones... but best of all, all patriotic ones. Read more.

An alternative media mobilisation is providing ongoing coverage of the Republican National Convention protests in New York - see: NYC Indymedia

USEFUL INFO: [ NYC IMC | Portland IMC Coverage | Grassroots Media | CounterConvention | RNC Not Welcome | RNC Watch | Transportation | Housing | Team Cascadia | No RNC! - survival ]

UPCOMING ACTIONS: [ Calendar of Events ]

AUDIO: [ A-Noise / NoRNC Sound Coalition | Critical Mass Radio Network | Portland Indymedia Webradio ]

VIDEO: [ Paper Tiger.org | Manhattan Neighborhood Network ]

REPORTS IN SPANISH: Two Puerto Rico IMC volunteers are in New York and will post Spanish reports here | More info(ES) here

Infoline phone number: (212) 400-7458

Live Call-In number: 800-939-7973

Aug. 13, 2004, Washington, DC: Independent Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader today applauded a federal court decision that found the FEC acted contrary to the Federal Elections Act by ignoring evidence that the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) is a partisan political organization. “This decision is the first step toward getting real presidential debates this Fall. A federal court, looking at all the evidence, found that the FEC has been ignoring evidence that the Commission on Presidential Debates is a partisan organization,” said Nader. “How can a partisan organization sponsor impartial debates? How can they set up fair rules to determine who should be allowed to participate? They can’t. And, they shouldn’t. The CPD should be prevented from sponsoring these debates under their partisan auspices.”

The decision was the result of a case filed by Ralph Nader, John Hagelin, Pat Buchanan, Howard Phillips, Winona LaDuke, the Natural Law Party, the Green Party, and the Constitution Party. In an 18-page decision, US District Court Judge Henry H. Kennedy, Jr. ruled that a dismissal of a complaint filed by Nader with the FEC was wrong because the FEC was incorrect in finding the CPD was non-partisan. He sent the case back to the FEC, ordering the FEC to remedy the situation.

Polls have consistently shown that voters want more voices and choices in the debates. Among other similar polls, a FOX News poll showed that, in 2000, 64% of the public wanted Ralph Nader and Patrick Buchanan included in the debates. “The media, and especially the television networks, should now look away from this two-party-dominated debate commission—funded by beer, tobacco, auto, and other corporate interests—and look toward the Citizens’ Debate Commission as a much more democratically representative institution to sponsor these debates. Otherwise, the networks will be producing ever-lower ratings while relaying parallel interviews, passed off as debates, by a very partisan and exclusionary CPD,” said Nader.

The case was Hagelin et al v. the Federal Election Commission, Civ. Act. No. 0400731 (August 12, 2004). || Read more here. || The Citizens’ Debate Commission is online at www.opendebates.org.

The scandal is unfolding in gigantic proportions... and we can hardly keep up with the developments. Responding to a publicity and solidarity campaign by Indymedia, the Government of the Republic of Cyprus has been forced to admit that they were acting under orders from the US Government to carry out an intelligence investigation of Cyprus Indymedia and of one of its founding members, Petros Evdokas, in order to assess whether he "constitutes a threat to US interests." Police had interrogated the family of Petros Evdokas a few weeks ago and, during the affair, inadvertently blurted out that the source of this investigation was a directive by the CIA. After a series of denials and cover-ups (chronicled below) the Police Headquarters issued an official statement on Friday admitting to everything that Indymedia had accused them of, namely that directives of the CIA and the US Embassy have priority over their own mission which, believe it or not, is to protect the tiny and independent Republic from foreign intervention. This campaigns to intimidate IndyMedia is part of a global trend, including the nation- wide "pre- emptive" raids and interrogations by the FBI of radicals in Boston and across the US in order to thwart preparations to protest at the two Republocrat party conventions. || Read the full story here. Visit Cyprus Indymedia for latest developments.

From the open publishing newswire: If there's a fair chance you're going to hell, be sure to take your parka and long johns, because the only explanation for continuing surreal happenings these days is that the river Styx has glaciated. Welcome to the America of George Bush, our very own Malice from Dunderland, where up is down and right is regularly wrong. For examples of once unimaginable scenes that now commonly appear like bad dreams, read on.

Boise, ID - Jon Howard, Candidate for Trustee of the Boise School District, is hosting a fundraising event on Friday, August 6, from 6pm to 10pm. Singer/songwriter/guitarist Kris Doty will perform that evening, in a casual outdoor setting in the backyard of 720 Richmond St in southeast Boise. Admission is $3 and also includes sushi, noodles, lemonade, and iced tea.

Howard is making issues out of the increasing corporatization of schools, partially resulting in another key issue of lacking nutrition in the school lunch program. He wants to raise parents' awareness concerning military recruiters having total access not only to classrooms, but also to student records. He also wants parents to understand the ramifications of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which encourages schools to "teach to the test," at the expense of educating children how to solve problems and develop critical skills.

Kris Doty is one of the artists featured on Idaho Greentracks, the benefit CD produced by the Idaho Green Party earlier this year. Doty's unique vocal style and non-traditional delivery has made her one of Boise's favorite emerging musicians. She has been recording in the studio this summer with Allyson Wuenschel on viola, with whom she regularly performs as a duet.

Read more here.

Fifty-nine years ago people working in a warehouse carrying sacks of grain up a ladder, people walking in the street, children playing in their yards, and countless others were instantly vaporized by the nuclear blasts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The only thing to record their demise on earth was a nuclear shadow...a photographic negative left on a few of the buildings left standing near the epicenter.

You are invited to join the Idaho Peace Coalition and the Snake River Alliance as we honor those who died in those first atomic explosions. Participants will meet at the Alliance office (104 South Capitol Blvd) at 4am and disperse to paint shadows in downtown Boise and the North End. This action will be followed by leafleting between 8am and 12pm at the same sites of the shadows. If interested in any or all of these activities, contact the Idaho Peace Coalition at fabulis00@netscape.net or 424-8475, or come meet us at the Alliance office the morning of Friday, August 6th.

In addition to the shadow painting, the groups have planned a film and a congressional call-in commemorating the first nuclear attacks, and calling for an end to nuclear insanity. For more information, go to: http://www.snakeriveralliance.org

It goes without saying that a well-designed electronic voting system will be the best thing that ever happened to voting. So what constitutes a well-designed system? That has become a very contentious issue for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, the results of electronic voting must be verifiable to both the voter and the candidates who are running for office. Since we have a secret ballot, this presents a challenge - but not an insurmountable challenge. This is the crux of the issue with electronic voting. A totally electronic system does not meet the requirements of verifiability for either the voter or the candidates. It is indisputable that there has been vote fraud since the beginning of time. The greater the stakes in an election, the higher the probability that somebody will attempt to cheat to win. Verifiability and security then are the major requirements of a voting system. It is also indisputable that there is no totally secure computer system. What one man can design, another man can break. It is as simple as that. This fact, coupled with the requirements for verifiability dictate that there must be a countable, paper ballot produced as a result of electronic voting. None of the measures proposed to solve the problems of security and verifiability adequately solve the problems with electronic voting such that a paper ballot can be eliminated. Following, at this link, is a discussion of some of those measures and why they don’t meet the requirements.

Mexico City: Basque citizens Asier Arronategi (Mexican citizen via naturalization), Jon Artola, Axun Gorrotxategi, Joseba Urkijo, Felix Garcia and Ernesto Alberdi are enduring a hunger strike in their cells at the Reclusorio Norte in Mexico City. They are all facing an extradition process requested by the Spanish justice, they stand accused of operating a money laundering scheme in behalf of the armed group ETA without any solid evidence being presented by Spain to this date which means that the accusations are only backed by the persecution and harassment tactics that the Spanish State uses against Basque nationalism.

The specific case of these six Basque political refugees, all of them with well-established lives in Mexico have become a true scandal that every other day floods the front pages of the Mexican press. Just a few days ago the prestigious daily "La Jornada" informed that "the Spanish Ambassador to Mexico Cristina Barrios Almazor, gave false information on July 16th 2003 to the Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores (SRE), with the clear objective of trying to justify the provisional detention of the six Basque citizens that last Sunday marked one year since they have been imprisoned at the Reclusorio Norte in Mexico City". | Read more.

From the open publishing newswire: One of my favorite Monty Python bits involved the "Ministry of Silly Walks." I have begun to think perhaps there should also be an "Agency of Silly Arguments"--a building appropriately equipped with an obsolete, dangerously unstable right wing--considering how many (stereo)typically daft contentions I regularly hear from those who disagree with me politically. It's not that folks on the right don't have valid points, because obviously (at times) they do, but some of the things emanating from that direction sound like they come straight from some book entitled "Really, Really Dumb Ways to Try to Make My Point--Whatever It Is." Are there just as equally dimwitted things said from the left? Yes, but this is my column, not yours--so nyeah, nyeah, nyeah, nyeah, nyeah. (That was just for example's sake.) | Read on.

The summer is heating up as the Democratic National Convention(DNC) and the Republican National Convention(RNC) approach. Activists are being harassed in New York, Boston and the Midwest, but they continue to organize. The police are doing their best to create a climate of fear in Boston, blanketing the city with surveillance cameras, preparing to arrest 2500 people, conducting random searches of passengers on public transportation and trying to make protesters gather in a "free-speech zone" (see image). The FBI is even claiming that a "domestic extremist group" is planning to attack news trucks. But local activists refuse to be cowed. Anti-DNC action kicks off July 23 with the Boston Social Forum and continues with a "unwelcoming party", direct action and the "Really Really Democratic Bazaar." [Download a PDF of Indymedia's anti-DNC paper, The Independent.]

Meanwhile, in New York, the NY Daily News ran an unsubstantiated front-page story claiming that "internet-using anarchists" are planning to cause chaos by fooling bomb-sniffing dogs at Penn Station and major organizer United for Peace and Justice has been forced to hold their August 29 rally on the West Side Highway, instead of Central Park. But Still We Rise and the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign are still holding large demonstrations on August 30, the day of direct action is still (tenatively) planned for August 31 and various speaks-out and conferences are still going ahead.

BOISE, ID – Jon Howard, 29, filed candidacy for Trustee of the Boise School District last week. He has assembled a campaign team that includes high school students and recent graduates: his Campaign Manager, Ben Groves, is a recent Boise HS graduate and his Campaign Treasurer, Hannah Young, is an incoming senior at Boise HS.

Howard is a Teacher’s Assistant and Assistant Debate Coach in the Meridian School District. He is a member of the Meridian Classified Educators Association. His experiences in the Meridian School District are a significant part of his motivation to run as trustee in his home district of Boise.

Jon says, "There are myriad issues at play for trustees and I am prepared to handle any and all of them. In my campaign I will focus on four key issues: militarization, nutrition, corporatization, and the far-reaching effects of the No Child Left Behind Act."

Read more here or here.

From the open publishing newswire: the problem with the green party and other progressive political efforts is that there is no way that they can attain any plenary political capacity until the basis of social discourse itself changes.... this seems to be out of the sites of progressives... within the green party there is a sort self congratulatory trend and illusion/delusion that they represent an emerging majority--- and that the "10 key values" reflect social trends...... of course this couldn't be further from the case........ Read more.

If we can put men on the moon, we can surely devise a presidential election system easier to understand than the theory of relativity or even Dubya’s “answers” at his last press conference. It’s time to close the old Electoral College and start a new institution: winner by direct majority vote. Read more.

Despite the Boston Police Department (BPD)'s stated commitment to protect people’s First Amendment rights during the Democratic National Convention (DNC), the BPD has, in conjunction with other law enforcement officers in New York City, started a campaign of preemptive action that could chill protest participants' lawful speech activities during the DNC. Read more.

The Idaho Peace Coalition invites you to an evening with Geov Parrish: Thursday, July 15 at 7PM at 1520 N 12th, Boise. This is a free, public event with plenty of time for questions and discussion.

Geov Parrish is a Seattle-based columnist and reporter for Seattle Weekly, In These Times and Eat the State! He writes the Straight Shot for WorkingForChange, a semi-weekdaily column that cuts through the news headlines like a hot knife through butter. Geov is also a nonviolent activist who has worked on local and national campaigns for peace and justice for over twenty years. Read some of Geov's pieces here.

On June 24, a federal appeals court rejected the Federal Communication Commission's controversial deregulations scheme to further enable monopolistic media in the United States. The Third Circuit Court ruling in "Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC" especially took issue with the FCC's rule changes which allowed for "cross-ownership" of newspapers and broadcast stations, and the concentration of broadcast ownership, in local markets. Together, these rules would have allowed one corporation to own three TV stations, 8 radio stations, and the monopoly newspaper in a single market. The court has ordered the FCC to revise the regulations or give a better justification for their necessity. In the meantime, media reform groups such as Free Press are encouraging people to demand a public hearing in their city - and take back their media! Sign the Free Press Petition | SFBay IMC Feature

Globally, public media control looks just as grim, with media moguls such as Italy's Berlusconi and Canadas's Leonard Asper owning over half of the media landscape and taking advantage of the power of censorship. Public media warriors Adbusters are taking on the global media elite with the Media Carta Manifesto. Sign the Media Carta

Reclaim the Media | Free Press | Prometheus Radio Project | Adbusters | Media Alliance | Media Reform Information Center

Complete Article.

Ever since NPR all but silenced local voices by taking over student radio, folks in Boise have been trying to get their voices back on our publicly owned airwaves. The Boise Community Radio Project is now trying to make independent radio a reality. Support their efforts show up to an informational meeting with music and dialogue on Thursday, July 8th. 7:00 p.m. at the Empire Building on 10th and Idaho in downtown Boise. For more info bcrp@rmci.net.

What a mix of democratic soup the Idaho state convention was. Over all I claim the four day event june 17 18 19 20,as a success for progressives. The Kucinich - Dean and uncommited delegates were delivered unsettling news from the very start in delegate orientation however. Read more.

Politicians are famous for their ability to give speeches in which they talk endlessly and never say anything of substance. They’ve made it an art form. But every now and again if you listen closely, you will hear a snippet of truth come through. Not often, but on occasion. The other day was one such occasion. The House was debating the rule for the Defense Spending bill. Apparently, the House leadership slipped in a provision to raise the federal debt ceiling by another $800 billion dollars. The Democrats were opposed to the rule because of the stealth provision. They wanted to debate it straight up rather than allow another sneak attack on America’s children who will have to pay the loans back. The Republicans ignored the arguments that this provision should be in a bill. Instead, they accused the Democrats of not wanting to vote for the money necessary to support the troops. Politics as usual until one Democrat, I didn’t even catch his name, made the statement referring to the Republicans: “you will bow to anybody who will buy our paper”. Immediately after he uttered the words, he was given the hook like a bad performer on Amateur Hour. He didn’t even get to finish his statement. read more.

Crescent Valley, NV - As legislation is being pushed to compensate tribal members for Aboriginal land in an effort to seize it and open it up for mining, energy and nuclear corporations, Western Shoshone maintain their Aboriginal land claim & their sacred Yucca Mountain now being gutted for nuclear dumping, to make way for geothermal industries and the earth mutilated for gold extraction. Click here to read more and take action.

Q: What’s worse (much worse, actually) than a U.S. Attorney General tussling with U.S. Senators over a definition of torture?

A: Finding out the U.S. government has actively sought a way to commit it. Can anything be done to counter this insanity? There’d better be, for our country’s soul depends on it.

Read more.

Are you concerned about a link between oil consumption and national security? Learn what you can do right now to reduce your reliance on foreign oil. Learn about choices for sustainable living and sign up for discussion courses through the Northwest Earth Institute. More details here. Sponsored by the Idaho Peace Coalition.

The man reportedly responsible for the short-lived concrete barriers around the Idaho Statehouse following 9/11 has been acquitted on all the terrorism charges he faced. Kempthorne's suggestion that Sami Omar Al Hussayen's arrest "shows those concerns were borne out" was as wrong-headed as the original barriers.

What was all the hubbub about? Supposedly not for Sami's work promoting non-violence, peace and healing, but apparently a couple hyper-links on a website he created, in an article authored by someone else!. This ruling is a major victory for open source publishers like the Independent Media Center network, because the collectives running the network could have been attacked because "by going over such sites with a fine-tooth comb, government agents could locate links, and even links to links, that would allow them to charge support for terrorism. Those who run the sites could be arrested and detained indefinitely, effectively shutting the sites down, even though the webmasters bore no responsibility for and had no knowledge of the content of the linked sites." [Read the full article]

It’s been a long, dark, strange trip these past three-plus years, but rejoice, dear readers: Bush is toast! How can this be, you ask, and how can one be so sure? Read on, and be ye comforted: Find out why the Bushman goeth come November.

On June 7, 2004, the Moscow City Council approved an ordinance calling for repeal or amendment of the Patriot Act on a 5/1 vote. It is the 324th municipality to have passed such a resolution.

Many Muslims in Moscow were interrogated or questioned by the FBI in 2003, leaving the community intimidated and fearful. The USA Patriot Act contains many provisions allowing for surveillance and detention of individuals without probable cause. Detainees may be denied access to legal counsel and may be held indefinitely without being charged regardless of whether or not they are citizens.

Moscow is the fourth community in Idaho to pass a resolution opposing the USA Patriot Act - the others being the West Bonner Library District (Sandpoint area), Idaho County, and Boise.

Read the wording of the legislation and see how the Council voted here on the Idaho IMC Newswire. Visit the Idaho Patriots Homepage.

300 year old tradition in government: you sign treaties with the folks who rightly occupy the territory. Then you do whatever you please! And laugh all the way to the bank. The Native American Rights Fund has taken Gale Norton to court THREE times and WON each time, yet the Interior Department continues to act illegally...no different from what they're doing with Western Shoshone.

The highly controversial Western Shoshone Distribution Bill (S 618/HR 884) is on the House Suspension calendar for today, June 1, 2004, voting begins at 6:30 p.m. Only representatives present and voting count. Where does your representative stand on the issue? Will they be present on the floor and will they vote and make a statement on the record? Western Shoshone and supporters who made calls last week heard several misrepresentations from Congressional offices.

Read more and take action.

I learned of PNAC's existence shortly after a) hearing Bush's first off-key alarms about Iraq and then, b) mildly exclaiming, "WHAT THE !#*&??" I admit, I'm kind of funny this way--call it a quirk--but I've always kind of figured one should pursue mass murderers where they're located, not thousands of miles away from their actual physical locations. It was clear Saddam Hussein presented no danger to the U.S. and had no link to al-Qaida or 9/11, yet here was Bush suddenly raising the specter of an Iraqi-generated mushroom cloud over Peoria. Then someone suggested I check out PNAC.

I did, and initially thought I’d come across a bad joke perpetrated by some drunken fraternity that had run out of naked pledges to pyramidally arrange (see "Rush Limbaugh"), but to my amazement I discovered these guys were indeed serious (the Oxycontin problem is apparently a little more widespread than we thought). You see, PNAC unabashedly promotes securing American military global domination “to protect American [read: business] interests and principles.” In September 2000, it produced a 90-page blueprint for constructing the ultimate, unchallengeable U.S. war machine. Entitled "Rebuilding America's Forces,” it’s full of grandiose goodies like: "At present the United States faces no global rival. America's grand strategy should aim to preserve and extend this advantageous position as far into the future as possible." And: "Preserving the desirable strategic situation in which the United States now finds itself requires a globally preeminent military capability both today and in the future." Regarding Hussein and Iraq, PNAC says: “Indeed, the United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in [Persian] Gulf security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.” Read more.

So. All it took for the Times to apologize for its Iraq coverage in the run-up war was for their lead source on bogus WMD's to be unmasked as a long-time Iranian double-agent. In today's paper, the Times "apolgized" for much of its pre-war WMD reporting. "It is past time we turned the same light on ourselves," editors admit.

The Times claims that "some critics of our coverage during that time have focused blame on individual reporters. Our examination, however, indicates that the problem was more complicated." While it is certainly useful to spread the blame, the vast majority of the questionable Iraq-WMD stories were written or co-written by disgraced reporter Judith Miller, who inexplicably still has a job at the paper.

Since May 2003, the IMC and the Indypendent, along with other media outlets, have criticized Judith Miller's Iraq coverage. It remains to be seen what personel decisions the Times will make in light of these new admissions. In the end, some of the blame for the current Iraqi catastrophe can and should be laid at the feet of the New York Times.

Read the whole feature from NY Indymedia.

Having left Idaho a couple weeks ago to join the campaign to put Ralph Nader on the ballot in the state that provides Dubya with a home where he doesn't get stuck with a state income tax. I expected to run into Republicans enthralled with the "Failure-In-Chief" and willing to attack someone from the left. I was not welcome at Baylor University (private) in Waco, and police also kicked me off the publicly owned university of Texas, as well as off the State Capitol grounds (God forbid we have folks politickin there). The Republicans were nearly all polite, I even convinced a few of them to sign Ralph's petetion. Democrats were a much harder sell.

First of all, Democrats are scared, (wouldn't you be if Kerry was your nominee?), and that seems to be what is driving all their work. Generally, they seem to believe that if Ralph is so much as included on the ballot this year, Bush will be re-elected. Many folks told me they voted for Ralph last time, but that they couldn't sign to put him on the Texas ballot, but couldn't "risk" letting Ralph paticipate this time around. Spoon fed by Democratic propaghanda machines like MoveOn, Democrats around the state repeatedly told me "No, I don't think Ralph should have the right to run." One Democrat kindly informed me that I "ought ta be hung."

Read more or add your own commentary.

Sandpoint, May 25: Moderator Gretchen Albrecht-Hellar will provide a brief explanation of what grass media and mass media are and what makes for effective community media. Panelists from the local media will then share their goals and what is unique about what they are contributing to the community. These media representatives will answer how their paper, radio or TV station is helping facilitate community discussion and problem solving in this region. Panelists will include: David Keyes~Bonner County Daily Bee, Trish Gannon~River Journal, Kristen Mico~Cedar Post, Gary Graham~The Spokesman-Review, Yontan Gonpo~Panhandle Community Radio, Chris Bessler~Sandpoint Online, and Mary Strickley~Northland Cable,Community Access TV. Time is planned for audience participation, so come prepared to share your ideas and questions regarding our valuable community voice. || Click here for more details. || Past PFOS Forums can be heard via the Internet courtesy of Panhandle Community Radio here. "Communication is the lifeblood of democracy. To actively choose a sustainable future, citizens need to be able to communicate among themselves so that together they can bring that future into being." - Duane Elgin

Despite these evil deeds performed by Americans, we aren’t inherently evil. We are, however, inherently human. Americans’ self-righteousness regarding our false belief in our nation’s manifest destiny automatically blinds us to our deeply-flawed humanity and the terrible things of which any of us are always quite capable. And now Saddam Hussein’s infamous torture chambers and rape rooms are in use again, under the auspices of good old Uncle Sam.