Emergency Action: Protest War Criminal Donald Rumsfeld!
Tomorrow, Thurs., August 4, 11 am
Beverly Hilton Hotel
9876 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills
(Gather in front of Robinson’s May on Wilshire)

Initiated by A.N.S.W.E.R. LA . For more information call 323-464-1636.

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will be speaking to his right-wing cronies at the Los Angeles World Affairs Council. Join the people on the streets in opposition to the Bush Administration and the U.S. war on Iraq.

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Suicide bombing is merely a tactic used by those who lack other means of delivering explosives. What happened in London occurs every time a U.S. or British warplane unloads its bombs on an Iraqi village.

But, you may say, our forces don’t deliberately target civilians. Perhaps not. But they have consistently shown themselves to be indifferent to the civilian casualties produced by their operations.

“Collateral damage” is the inevitable result of choosing to go to war. By choosing war in Iraq, we chose to kill tens of thousands of civilians.

American and British media have devoted hours to wondering what would drive a seemingly normal young Muslim to destroy himself and others. No one asked what would cause a seemingly normal young Christian or Jew to strap himself into a warplane and drop bombs on a village, knowing full well his bombs will kill civilians (and, of course, soldiers).

Peaceful protest, persuasion, demonstration, negotiation or remonstration haven’t made a dent in the single-minded U.S. and British policy. If all legitimate forms of dissent go unheeded, illegitimate forms will be turned to instead. Some people will resort to violence, which does not produce the desired result but may give vent to the inhumanity with which they have been treated for so long. Paine was right: People who are treated brutally will finally turn into brutes.

This is a war between one form of zealotry and another, one form of ignorance and another, one form of barbarism and another. More of the same will not yield solutions. The time has come to be human, and — motivated by sympathy, actuated by reason — to think and act as human beings, not unthinking brutes.

Via Lefti on the News

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Create. Share. Get noticed. That’s what Ourmedia is about.

Ourmedia is a global community and learning center where you can gain visibility for your works of personal media. We’ll host your media forever — for free.

That’s right, it’s free! Plus, it’s open source and uses Creative Commons as a licensing mechanism. Publish video, audio, podcasts, photos, mashups, whatever you want, and then share it with friends and the world.

Everything here is legal to download (Among other things, volunteers watch for copyrighted material being uploaded and delete it quickly.) The site is in alpha, which means the coding is still being developed. The sometimes slow speed will be a thing of the past soon. Members get a personal page and a blog, plus there’s lots of special interest groups forming.

OurMedia works in conjunction with the enormous and also free Internet Archive. To join OurMedia, you first need to join the Archive, then you can join OurMedia (it will ask for your Internet Archive password.)

I learned about OM at Gnomedex, where I met the founder, J.D. Lasica. Now I help out as a volunteer. This week I’m guest editor. My photo is on the home page, top right column, and you can see my Editor’s Choices here (scroll down a bit.) Most came from OM and the Archive, and give an idea of the huge amount of amazing stuff online for free and legal viewing and download.

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A senior Tory has broken ranks with his party by saying that the London suicide attacks were “totally explicable” because of the deep anger felt by many British Muslims over Iraq.

The Government found itself under pressure over the connection yesterday as Muslim leaders told Hazel Blears, the Home Office minister, of the anger felt in their community about British foreign policy. They also said that disproportionate targeting of Asians by police under stop-and-search powers threatened to stoke up resentment among Muslims.

Maybe, hopefully soon, US politicians will also openly oppose the war and the insanity and lies that led to it.

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These are the top three stories today on Rough and Tumble, a California news site.

Arnold’s reforms fizzling

3 of governor’s aides earning extra as campaign consultants

Three of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s key administration staffers are being paid as campaign consultants on the side, an arrangement that raises a new round of ethical questions for a Republican who campaigned on cleaning up Sacramento. The conduct is not illegal as long as the work is not done on state time or with taxpayer resources, but it stands in stark contrast with the policies of former Gov. Gray Davis, who barred staffers from working for taxpayers and campaign committees simultaneously.

Governor’s backers nervous, want ‘06 re-election assurances.

Y’see, they’re afraid Mr. Tough Guy Terminator may shriek like a Girly Man, and run back to Brentwood and not run for re-election in ‘06.

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A boy threw a water balloon. She threw a rock. Now the Fresno child could face four years’ incarceration

She’s eleven.

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