Mourning Marla, Organizing to keep her Flame Alive

CIVIC Worldwide
I heard the news this weekend. Marla Ruzika, the courageous woman who took it upon herself to meet one on one with victims of the war in Iraq and hold them and say we are sorry and get them money to help rebuild their lives...she is gone. I will never forget the time I spent with her, the house parties we did together and working on her website, and I will never stop organizing to help create change in this world. Like many other warrior women before her, she was a beacon of light. She will not be forgotten. May she rest in peace.

Some of us give money, some of us give time, but Marla gave the ultimate sacrifice. I hope we can each give a little more in her memory because she gave so much while she was alive that it will take everyone giving a little more to make up for her loss. When will the violence end?

No Pepper Spray on Nonviolent Protesters

No Pepper Spray on Nonviolent Protesters

This may be a strange way to do this, but I am hoping that this important case gets some wider exposure than just northern cali, so I wrote a letter to one of my new favorite radio people, Randi Rhodes, who I listen to as often as I can on Air America Radio. SO for context I will explain that Randi was goin' off earlier this week about the problem with the media not letting the real news out in this country, and about how Americans need to start taking responsibility for it by looking outside US media sources to stay informed and take action to organize against all of this.

HI Randi,
I heard you talk on Monday about the need for us all to "look it up!" regarding where we get our news. I couldn't agree more and often visit the Guardian and the Independant for my news, as well as flashpoints.net, democracy now! and guns and butter on kpfa and community radio station news programs around the country whenever I am out of town.

I am inspired by your challenge that we should all have the courage behind our convictions to actually get and stay informed and organize as unions and such. A group of young people I know are a great example. They are known now as the "pepper spray 8" and they were tortured for having courage behind their convictions, not at guantanamo or abu grahb, but in California, in 1997. Their lawsuit against the officers involved started this week in San Francisco.

As young people in Humboldt County, they could have believed what the local media and even their own teachers in school told them...that it is okay to cut every last old-growth tree, even while ecosystems are collapsing around us, species are going extinct each day, and people's lives and homes are being threatened directly by mud slides and floods caused by irresponsible logging. But they didn't. They looked it up. They went out and studied forestry and law for themselves and they take timber companies to court, lobby congress and when that does not work, they do civil disobedience. They became so effective, that the cops in Humboldt got desperate and decided to try torture in 1997. The Humboldt County Sheriffs started applying pepper spray directly into the eyes of several young activists who were sitting passively on the floor, locked together by metal bars. This is a tactic routinely used to call attention to the issue when all else has failed. They were threatening no one, and had fully expected to be arrested if they refused to unlock, the typical penalty for such actions. But they did not expect to get tortured.

You see, people who get their news from FOX are quick to say, well, if these kids could unlock and they don't, shouldn't the cops be allowed to do whatever they want? I mean why do these protesters have to be so extreme? But ironically, the US news media will only cover the efforts of activists if there is some conflict or controversy, so by getting arrested, they get on the news. Now, if FOX and others would simply report the ACTUAL NEWS:

- that a Texas company MAXXAM came in and took over a small family-owned timber company Pacific Lumber Company (PALCO)
- MAXXAM ran PALCO, and the community around it into the ground, along with the job market and the natural environment, and then sold the least economically valuable timber to the taxpayers at such a ridiculous price that they made more money than if they had logged it (Headwaters Forest)...

well, I think you get my point--when it gets this bad, we have to do something. And when our kids stand up to the man, they shouldn't be tortured. period.

If we allow this to go unchallenged, where will it end? How can we allow this when there is a history of FBI violating the civil rights of activists (like Judi Bari who won a 4 million dollar settlement against the FBI and the Oakland Police) and using laws like the PATRIOT Act to round up immigrants who have done nothing wrong and have nothing to do with terrorism. The writing is on the wall.

You can see photos online from the video of young protesters brutally tortured with pepper spray by Humbold Sheriffs, who, like the officers in abu grahb, saw fit to record their sadistic adventures. See for yourself at http://www.nopepperspray.org/photos.htm.

The "Pepper Spray 8" are suing the cops again this week, for the third time, to put an end to torture of peaceful activists and protect our civil rights. The first two attempts ended in hung juries, but this time they have the same legal team that won Judi Bari's lawsuit against the FBI, and I believe they will win this time. Let's just hope there are at least eight level-headed Americans who "look it up" every once in a while, and that they are the jurors chosen yesterday to decide the fate of protest and chemical weapons in these times.

Calling all COSTCO members...let's organize

STOP COSTCO FROM SELLING WEYERHAEUSER PRODUCTS

Although Costco has a reputation of being a socially responsiblecorporation, they are currently not willing to cut their business tieswith Weyerhaeuser - the #1 destroyer of endangered forests. Among otherthings, Costco stocks Weyerhaeuser paper products. For a complete listof Weyerhaeuser's product lines checkout http://www.buygoodwood.com .Costco says that they share our concern with helping to protect endangeredforests, yet they have decided to continue to do business with the #1 destroyer of endangered forests in North America.

TAKE ACTION!
1: Tell Costco's CEO, Jim Senegal at phone: 425 213 8163 to canceltheir contract with Weyerhaeuser and implement a company-wide policy tono longer buy sell or distribute endangered forest products.
2: Cancel your membership.
3: Organize your own demonstration at a Costco store: Costco's storesare located at http://www.costco.com/Warehouse/Locator.aspx . ContactJessica for materials and advice. And don't forget to send us photos.

NEW WEYERHAEUSER WEBSITE
http://www.wakeupweyco.com

Hey, I don't usually do petitions but this one is powerful. Several hundred brave students have already signed, so please pass this along to anyone you know who is under 27.

THE "WE WON'T GO" PLEDGE--A CALL TO ACTION
Is the draft coming back? More and more signs point that way--the Steady stream of casualties from the occupation of Iraq, the "back-door draft" being used to conscript troops whose enlistments are up, the collapse of recruitment, especially into the National Guard. We in the Progressive Student Alliance, an organization of students at the University of Tennessee dedicated to the fight for social justice and peace, are determined to take a stand against this threat. We call on all those who oppose the Iraq war and the possibility of their forced participation in it to pledge themselves, publicly, to refuse to serve in the armed
forces as long as this country continues to wage war in or occupy the
sovereign nation of Iraq.

We ask that you sign our pledge at
http://www.wewontgo.org:

We, the undersigned young women and men, are eligible to serve in the U.S. armed
forces, and if the draft is re-instated we may be subject to induction. We
pledge, however, that we will not serve in the U.S. armed forces as long as U.S.
troops are occupying or waging war in Iraq."
This pledge serves two
purposes--it alerts our sisters and brothers to the danger of a reinstituted
draft and, as thousands of us sign, it puts This and future Presidential
Administrations, the Congress and the American public on notice that we won't be
fighting or dying for this war.

History of credit cards, and the housing market bubble

History of credit cards: "The first credit card was issued in 1951"

Fifty Four years. That's all it took. 54 years of people playing around with this ridiculous concept that we can all have things today that we can't really afford. A very dangerous little concept that my ultimately lead to the undoing of the world's greatest superpower. If you don't see how, you are not paying attention to how far in debt we each are as Americans and collectively as a nation and in particular, the state I live in, California.

I found this little tidbit quite interesting, but even more interesting is the recent history of credit cards. I went to Catherine Austin Fitt's teleseminar last week and she gave a little inside info on the latest scandal in the credit card game. She spoke of the fact that many of the credit card lenders made loans that are essentially illegal under common law beacause they knew at the time they were making the loans that we could never repay them. They knew this because they were involved with exporting jobs from America to other countries, and could see the impending falling dollar. They knew we wouldn't be able to repay the loans, and that is illegal under common law going way back. And, have you noticed your interest rates climbing? Some of mine are now at 33%, and if that isn't usurious what is?

Well if this has peaked your interest, I highly recommend you check out her website and teleseminar series. Tomorrow's is on the "housing market bubble" so it should be interesting. Especially in light of the fact that investing in housing and land is thought to be a safe alternative to the volitile stock market.

Coming Clean

Solari :: TeleSeminar: Getting Started With Coming Clean March 3, 2005 6 PM Pacific

I will be there. I hope you will too but if you miss it they really have a great tutorial here. It even includes steps to "kick start your personal wealth" based this "Tapeworm Economy" she has defined. In a nutshell, Catherine Austin Fitz says:
"Coming clean boils down to this:

1. Build abundant wealth locally & globally, with one proviso – do no harm

2. Shift your prayers, your money, your media, your leadership away from the tapeworm to support #1

When wonderful people take this to heart and assimilate these rinciples
into daily intentions, actions and transactions, a wonderful world is created."

I couldn't agree more.

Podcasting gives voice to amateurs / Although it's not as easy as blogging, it's still worth the effort

Podcasting gives voice to amateurs / Although it's not as easy as blogging, it's still worth the effort

This is a major breakthrough for creation of alternatives to the mainstream press. See how we have empowered individuals to fill the void left by the crumbling old paradigm? Please post comments here with links to your favorite podcasts.