Breaking News - Cuban Five Win a New Trial!
Announcement from the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five

From ANSWER LA via the Free The Five committee.

The impossible has happened, the Cuban Five, arrested and imprisoned on bogus charges, will have a new trial. The new trial was ordered based on the refusal of the courts and government to allow a change of venue outside of the obviously biased Miami. Such appeals, I was told, practically never work. But this time, it did. Wow. A whole lot of people have worked tirelessly for years to make this happen.

Today, August 9, after more than one year of weighing the evidence, the 11th Circuit Court of a Appeals vacated the trial court’s ruling against the Cuban Five and ordered a new trial with a change of venue. This is a sensational victory for the Five, the Cuban people, and the international people’s movement that supports them! The Five will now receive a new trial in a place other than Miami. This blow to the U.S. government undeniably was made possible by the hard work and growing support of progressive, justice-loving people in the U.S. and all over the world.
The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five is holding a telephone press conference today with the Five’s attorney, Leonard Weinglass, the coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, Gloria La Riva, A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition Coordinator, Brian Becker, and other activists and legal experts to discuss this landmark victory. We will send more information as soon as we have it. In the meantime, call 323-464-1636 with questions. A.N.S.W.E.R. has been a leading supporter of the Cuban Five since the beginning of the case.
Volver�n! They will return!
National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
http://freethefive.org/

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A secret source within the country has determined the country may be making secret equipment that might be used for weapons, says an exile deeply unfriendly to the country. All of which is being used as a pretext for saber rattling and a quite possible invasion.

Iraq? No, it’s Iran this time. Let’s not forget, the justifications for the invasion of Iraq were later proven to be deliberate lies. Read these Iran stories carefully. There’s lots of anonymous sources and “could”s, “might”s,  and “maybe”s, but no actual verifiable evidence.

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Remember that couple I mentioned in my Sunday post? They were renting a back apartment in Santa Monica and were forced to move on three weeks notice when the house sold. They did find another apartment in Santa Monica, but it’s become a nightmare. There’s a leaking sewage problem. The sleazy landlord refuses to fix it. The place reeks. Which, as they’ve now learned, is why the previous tenants moved.

This for $1400 a month for a less than 700 sq. ft. apartment in a supposedly enlightened city! Property owners have rights, lots of them. Renters have few or none. My friends may have to move again. Trouble is, this move tapped them out financially. This is how people become homeless. (A brother has offered an apartment in another city to them, but had he not been there…)

Something is seriously wrong when the economic system is so avaricious. It ain’t right. In Cuba, the average rent is 2% of wages. That’s right, 2%. And you don’t get tossed in the streets or reamed by greedhead predator landlords either.

Home prices in the once friendly and affordable Santa Monica are insane. Realtor.com shows 2 bdr / 1 bath homes there start at $800,000, and lemme tell you, for that price, it will be teensy tiny and probably a fixer. A 2 bdr / 1 bath condo is $450,000 and up. It’s all quite mad. Will those buying now using risky interest-only mortgages be able to hold on when interest rates go up? It’s almost a given that many won’t.

Speculators and demand drive up prices. People get greedy. No, I won’t fix the broken sewage line, screw you. If you don’t like it, move. And so our friends may have to.

Sue, a forensic accountant, has turned down jobs in three other areas of L.A. because we can’t afford a house there, and the commute would be too hideous. And that’s for a couple who by most accounts are doing well financially.

Imagine what it’s like here in L.A. for recent immigrants and the poor, those with no money and nothing to fall back on. They are exploited and abused even more. But now such exploitation is happening to the middle class too.

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Iraq and the U.S. Anti-War Movement
Fri. Aug. 12, 7:30 pm
1800 Argyle Ave, #410, LA

Featuring
Richard Becker, West Coast Director of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Husam Abu-Sneineh, National Council of Arab Americans
Aimee Hunter, Youth & Student A.N.S.W.E.R.
Juan Jose Gutierrez, Latino Movement USA

Join us for a unique political forum on the state of the U.S. war in Iraq, including the crisis in the Middle East, the expansion to other parts of the globe, the assault on working and poor people inside the U.S. and the turning tide of public opinion against the war.

We will also discuss: what are the points of unity and controversy within the U.S. anti-war movement? What are the implications of different political tactics and demands? Find out more about the next major national anti-war mobilization on September 24 in Los Angeles and what you can do to get involved.

Polizeros will podcast it.

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