Pilgrimage to pray for shriveled soul of Safeway CEO Steven Burd

A bus caravan left Los Angeles today headed for the home of Safeway CEO Steven Burd. You know Steven, the poor man only made 15 million last year, yet he wants to break the union because giving workers decent healthcare is just SO expensive.

Well, he’s a fundamentalist evangelical, so some clergy in L.A. decided to visit his home to pray for him, as he appears to have lost his way and no longer practices what he professes to believe. Speakers at the rally before boarding the bus included representatives from Jewish, Muslim, and Christian faiths. 

Burd is also, get ready for this, a champion of animal rights. Too bad he doesn’t feel the same about humans!

And he’s got the local police going way out of their way to run interference for him.

As religious leaders and striking grocery workers plan a peaceful march near the gated Alamo home of Safeway’s CEO on Wednesday, Contra Costa sheriff’s deputies have taken unusual steps to protect Steve Burd and his neighbors — even sending plainclothes deputies to monitor a weekend labor protest in San Francisco.

The two sheriff’s deputies — who also paid a visit to a union hall in Martinez last week — alarmed union officials and clergy members when they identified themselves as county homeland security officers.

Sheriff’s Capt. Scott Parsons, who oversees the homeland security unit, said Monday that the deputies misspoke. The demonstration does not raise national security concerns, he said.

Then why were your officers there and identifying themselves as such? To intimidate and scare peaceful protestors away? And why are you going to such unusual measures to protect Steven Burd?

PS I posted more photos on LA IndyMedia. 

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MyDoom virus

My inbox this morning had at least thirty emails containing this new MyDoom virus. In case you haven’t heard, do NOT open the file attachment on these emails. This is a nasty, extremely fast-spreading virus, and mail servers everywhere are getting so clogged they are either very slow or completey dead. Symantec has full details.

If the attachments are opened, they can infect computers.

They can also hijack computers for “denial-of-service attacks” against individual Web sites, or install spy-ware programs that steal passwords or other private information.

Interestingly, the virus appears aimed at SCO Linux.

MyDoom Virus Could be ‘Linux War’ Weapon

A fast-spreading mass-mailing virus has emerged as an unlikely weapon in the ongoing ‘Linux War’ between the SCO Group and the open-source community.

Anti-virus experts have increased the threat level on the MyDoom virus, which is spreading like wildfire through e-mail in-boxes worldwide and is programmed to launch a massive distributed denial-of-service (DDos) attack against the SCO home page.

“This one is pretty bad. It’s widespread and it only looks to be increasing,” said Chris Belthoff, a senior security analyst at Sophos, Inc. “This takes the Linux Wars to a new intensity. It appears that the author of MyDoom may have taken the war of words from the courtrooms and Internet message boards to a new level . . . If we ever get our hands on MyDoom’s creator our guess is that he will be an open source sympathizer.”

Belthoff told internetnews.com the worm was also capable of squirming through the popular Kazaa peer-to-peer network, making it a bigger threat to succeed in an attack against the SCO site.

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Open letter to US anti-war movement

The open letter from Arab-American & Muslim community to the U.S. anti-war movement, has now been endorsed by well over 200 organizations and coalitions, up from 142 just days ago. It has circulated worldwide, gaining wide support all over the Middle East. Virtually every Arab and Muslim anti-war group has endorsed it. They hope and, indeed, anticipate that US anti-war organizations will endorse it too.

We are firm on these principles for the March 20th mobilization and beyond as we call on all communities and organizations to mobilize and stand in force under the following unifying five slogans:

1. End all colonial occupations from Iraq to Palestine to everywhere!
2. Bring the troops home NOW!
3. No to internationalizing colonial occupations!
4. Stop the attacks on civil liberties!
5. Money for jobs, education, and healthcare not for war!

The buzz in LA is building for March 20, as it is elsewhere too. Let’s make March 20 huge!

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Free bumper sticker!

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Returning to sanity?

Federal judge strikes down part of Patriot Act

A federal judge in Los Angeles has struck down as too vague part of the Patriot Act that bars providing “expert advice and assistance” to foreign terrorist groups — marking the first time a court has declared part of the law unconstitutional.

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Unintended consequences

From Baghdad Burning: an Iraqi woman details why women’s rights are going backwards now in Iraq.

Shari’a and Family Law…

On Wednesday our darling Iraqi Puppet Council decided that secular Iraqi family law would no longer be secular- it is now going to be according to Islamic Shari’a. Shari’a is Islamic law, whether from the Quran or quotes of the Prophet or interpretations of modern Islamic law by clerics and people who have dedicated their lives to studying Islam.

The news has barely been covered by Western or even Arab media and Iraqi media certainly aren’t covering it. It is too much to ask of Al-Iraqiya to debate or cover a topic like this one- it would obviously conflict with the Egyptian soap operas and songs. This latest decision is going to be catastrophic for females- we’re going backwards.

During the sanctions and all the instability, we used to hear fantastic stories about certain Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar, to name a few. We heard about their luxurious lifestyles- the high monthly wages, the elegant cars, sprawling homes and malls… and while I always wanted to visit, I never once remember yearning to live there or even feeling envy.

When I analyzed my feelings, it always led back to the fact that I cherished the rights I had as an Iraqi Muslim woman. During the hard times, it was always a comfort that I could drive, learn, work for equal pay, dress the way I wanted and practice Islam according to my values and beliefs, without worrying whether I was too devout or not devout enough.

That’s right, under Saddam, Iraqi women went to college, became doctors and engineers, had full rights, etc. Now, thanks to the lunacies of Bush, all that may go away. And have you heard him say anything about trying to stop this from happening? I didn’t think so.

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