Free Josh Cannole!

This didn’t take long…! There’s already a website with flyers about Josh and organizers are asking people to be at the courthouse tomorrow for his arraignment and then a rally. (See story directly below for more info.)

8 am: Arraignment, 6 - 9 pm: Rally

No Comments »

A typical case of American blind justice?

More on Josh Connole’s arrest for the Hummer firebombings

I met Josh briefly a while back and those who know him say he’s a peaceful vegan and incapable of firebombing Hummers. The co-owner of his coop says Connole was there when the firebombings happened. The only “evidence” so far appears to be video surveillance tapes of a tall thin man dressed in black wearing a ski mask running through the Hummer car lot.

More than 50 investigators scoured the Pomona home of a 25-year-old environmental activist arrested in connection with the firebombing of a West Covina Hummer dealership, departing Saturday with seized items that included hair brushes, anarchist literature and lamp oil. <hair brushes???>

William Korthof, the co-owner of the house where Connole lives, offered an alibi for his friend on Saturday in a telephone interview. “I saw him between those hours at the home, so it’s clear to me that he couldn’t have been there,” said Korthof, 24. “It’s certain to me that he couldn’t have been at the dealership.”

In a phone call from his cell on Friday, Connole said he had nothing to do with the vandalism and the figure in the surveillance photos is “obviously not me.”

The Earth Liberation Front issued a statement on Saturday saying Connole’s arrest had been made “on what appears to be nonexistent grounds.”

“We believe this arrest is part of a pattern of harassment the FBI has been visiting on activists in Southern California,” the group said in an e-mail response to a Times e-mail inquiry.

First was Sherman Austin, now Josh Connnole. Austin recently was sentenced to one year in Federal prison for linking to a website that later posted an article about bomb making. Now Josh Connole has bail set at $825,000 on what seems flimsy, at best, evidence. It’s instructive that police searched Connole’s residence for anarchist literature, Sherman Austin was anarchist also. And to imply that anarchists must be bomb-throwers is the mark of a political illiterate.

No Comments »

Code Pink says HI! to Schwarzenegger

California Republicans met today in L.A. and, since Arnold was speaking, Code Pink called a protest to made sure their views got expressed! People from several immigrants rights groups were there too.

The chicken is expressing displeasure with Schwarzenegger’s refusal to debate anyone so far. Cluck cluck cluck, Arnie…

After arriving, I looked for people I knew. Said Hi to a Latino I know in an immigrants rights groups. He had a sign saying “Republicans hate Immigrants”, and had just finished speaking with a TV reporter who was upset because she was Republican and said she didn’t hate immigrants. I said, Great so now Republicans can stop bashing immigrants. He grinned… 

However I didn’t know any of the Code Pink women who were there. In a somewhat comical turn of events I was told later by a Code Pinkster that some were asking Who IS that guy, and there were mutterings perhaps I was someone from A Police Agency photographing them. She decided I must be a Good Guy after I started giving thumbs up to cars that were honking in support! 

No Comments »

The lunatics have taken over the asylum

Imagine a bomb that only kills Caucasians with red hair. Or short people. Or Arabs. Or Chinese.

Now imagine that this new bomb could be set off anywhere in the world, and that within a matter of days, weeks, or months it would kill every person on the planet who fits the bomb’s profile.

Who would imagine such a thing?

Paul Wolfowitz, for one. William Kristol for another.

I say, imagine a bomb that makes right wing lunatics resign from their governmental positions!!!

No Comments »

EFF says Stop RIAA!

They wanted 10,000 signatures in their campaign against the RIAA. They now have more than 21,000 and the numbers are still climbing! Join in!

Take a Stand Against the Madness; Stop the RIAA!

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is on a rampage, launching legal attacks against average Americans from coast to coast. Rather than working to create a rational, legal means by which its customers can take advantage of file-sharing technology and pay a fair price for the music they love, it has chosen to sue people like Brianna LaHara, a 12 year-old girl living in New York City public housing.

Brianna, and hundreds of other music fans like her, are being forced to pay thousands of dollars they do not have to settle RIAA-member lawsuits — supporting a business model that is anything but rational. This crusade is generating thousands of subpoenas and hundreds of lawsuits, but not a single penny for the artists that the RIAA claims to protect.

Copyright law shouldn’t make criminals out of 60 million Americans, and it’s time for a change. Congress is going to hold hearings; we need your help to make sure that the public’s voice is heard. Tell Congress that it’s time to stop the madness!

No Comments »

Compassionate conservatism

America set to torpedo trade talks

Fears are growing that the United States could effectively walk away from crucial trade talks in the Mexican resort of Cancun aimed at solving the deepening economic and social crisis afflicting billions of the world’s poorest people.

Why do they hate us? Oh WHY do they hate us??

No Comments »

Is this what they mean by “outreach”?

Md. GOP to Sever Ties With Latino Caucus.

“ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The Maryland Republican Party moved Saturday to sever its ties with the Maryland Hispanic Republican Caucus after the caucus chairman criticized Gov. Robert Ehrlich for not appointing Hispanics to high-level jobs.”

No Comments »