Documentary films in Santa Barbara:

#1. Steve Sherrill (at sfsherrill@earthlink.net) shows films on a regular TV in a fairly small coffee house [Muddy Waters Coffee House, 508 E. Haley St.] every Tuesday evening at 7:00 PM. There is a schedule of the films at Muddy Waters (966-9328) or one can request a schedule via e-mail at sfsherrill@earthlink.net that seats about 30-40 people. Most of the PR is word of mouth, some posted notices, e-mail, hand-outs, and some notices in the free sections of the newspapers.

November, 4, "Afghan Women" by local film maker Renee Bergan. Description: Plight of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

November, 11, "Who’s Counting". Pro-ducer: Kent Martin Description: The path of Marilyn Waring from local politics in New Zealand to the challenges of econom-ics on the poor women of the world.

November, 11, "Diet for a New America" by John Robbins Description: How the way we eat effects not only our own health but the health of the environment.

2. Lane Anderson from Veterans For Peace has initiated Films and Discussions on Mondays 5pm to 7:30 pm at the Veter-ans Building 112 W Cabrillo:

Monday, November 3rd in IDC 107 from 12:30 to 3pm we will show Dr. Strangelove, the classic satire of war and politics.

Thursday, November 13th, in BC237 from 12:30 to 2pm we will show Voices of Veter-ans and Depleted Uranium, followed by a discussion with Dr. Albert Holtz, an expert on radiation exposure and battlefield ura-nium. Contact Lane Anderson, phone 564-2698.

3. Films and Discussions at Art’s Party at Friendship Man-(on the corner of El Colegio and Los Carneros in Isla Vista) every first and third Sundays 8pm... political, cultural and sustainability films. Sponsored HopeDance Media. Call Art at 968-1965 for details go to hopedance.org and download a flyer for the new film(s).

Hope Rises from the Ashes of My Lai, Vietnam

HopeDance Media presents Mike Boehm Madison Quakers, Inc. with a slide show and discussion about a series of cur-rent peace and reconciliation projects in Vietnam, plus a short video. The event will at the Unitarian Universalist Fellow-ship (232 Foothill Blvd, SLO) on Friday, November 14, at 7pm, and is free and open the public. [He will also be in Santa Barbara on November 13th Thursday, 7pm. Hosted by Chapter 54 of VFP. Contact Dottie at dottiedelia@cox.net.]

The slide show covers the various projects the Madison Quakers have in My Lai, such as the My Lai Loan Fund (based the Grameen Bank concept), the series primary schools they are building in My Lai, the My Lai Peace Park and the Art Penpals project which is the exchange of art work between the children of My Lai and Madison. Other projects include loan funds in 12 other villages, the Vietnamese-American Peace Park north of Ha Noi and the Sisters Meeting Sisters project. SMS plans to bring the women of Viet Nam and Salvador together to discuss the prob-lems facing women as a result of the devastation of war.

Also to be shown is a documentary film produced by renowned Vietnamese film-maker Tran Van Thuy. "The Sound of the Violin in My Lai" was produced for the 30th anniversary of the massacre and was inspired in part by these projects in My Lai.

Vietnam veteran Mike Boehm has been working in My Lai and elsewhere in Vietnam since 1992. Boehm has traveled to Vietnam 12 times to facilitate these proj-ects. A veteran who served in Cu Chi, Vietnam, working in intelligence from 1968 to 1969, Boehm first returned to Vietnam to help build a medical clinic. While there he began to come to terms with his own experiences there and

to understand the tremendous capacity of people-to-people projects for building peace and reconciliation between our two societ-ies. Boehm’s work in Vietnam has included providing loans to nearly 2,000 women in 13 different communities, including My Lai. In addition, he has helped facilitate art exchanges between the children of My Lai and Madison, Wisconsin, Peace Parks in Bac Giang and most recently My Lai, site of the infamous 1968 tragedy. He is currently helping facilitate an exchange between women’s organizations in Vietnam and El Salvador.

Madison Quakers, Inc,. is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation created to support this work in Vietnam. In the last 9 years, Madison Quakers has raised more than $350,000 to further this work. Projects funded by the Madison Quakers include the My Lai Peace Park, My Lai Loan Fund, new primary schools for My Lai, ethnic minority community development projects and most recently the Sisters Meeting Sisters Project.

For more information on the work of Madison Quakers, Inc, a copy of the quarterly newsletter "Winds of Peace" or to donate to help support this work, go to the web site <www.mylaipeacepark.org> or write Mike Boehm, 2312 E. Johnson St, Madison, WI 53704.

Cosponsors are the People’s Video Project, The Social Justice Committee of the Unitar-ian Universalist Fellowship and the central Coast Friends. He will also be resenting the night before (Nov 13) in Santa barbara. Please contact Wes at lakinroe@solcom.com.

Recall Schwarzenegger

Good Afternoon, Ladies,

We really do not need a reason, so sup-port a "Recall Schwarzenegger" campaign. Line up someone, like Meryl Streep, to ride against him, and make it look like it’s our only chance to replace the health care system with affordable Viagra for ac-tive AARPers, the seniors who make the

difference. The Republicans are not just tacticians, they are strategists, the ultimate neuralcorporate controllers. They know how to bring a product to market, position it, overcome objections, and eliminate competition. Of course, controlling the popular media is controlling the mass. OK. Anger is the latest Fall Fashion. Wear it with pride and we’ll direct you where to vent it in the "Moaning News" and the "Even the News".

For entertainment, ask a Patriot Flag Waver, PFL for a definition of "Liberal." The first response will be, "A person who wants to spend someone else’s money." Sincerely inquire further. Well, if we accept ridicule, we can accept the ridiculous. Why would anyone think, when it’s so much easier to judge? Ridicule is the latest style in American social custom. It’s simpler than reason.

Maybe Schwarzenegger will make a Meltdown Movie produced by Dick Cheney, directed by Donald Rumsfeld, and staring Apocalypse Schwarzenegger himself. Oops, I meant Arnold. I am rid of ridicule, unless I write. Right, sure you are, Je. Yikes! I’m one of them!

—Je Je <je@ah-ha.org> >>

Arnold to Settle Energy Lawsuits for Pennies on the Dollar?

go to http://www.yuricareport.com/  

This project resulted from the need to draw people’s attention to the Schwartzenegger/Ken Lay connection and all that this means. Realizing that a website called investigatearnoldschwartzenegger.com wouldn’t get any hits, we decided to act outrageously and ask for a RECALL of the GOVERNATOR.

Today, Oc-tober 11, the SF Chronicle reports that Arnie is hot to trot to "deregulate" energy. That worked before, right? Worked for Enron, but not for us.

As you may have no-ticed, the first action item on the site asks people to contact their legislators to pester them into holding an investigation into the Enron link. No petitions are available for downloading...we need to gather a core of sincere persons committed to truth and democracy before launching a TOTAL RECALL petition drive. So sign on to the listserv if you are interested in being a part of this. In the meantime, to make yourself feel just a bit less depressed, you may go to http://www.petitiononline.com/schwarze/

petition.html and sign an online petition to totally recall Arnie. Then, join the recall-governator listserv and help to grow aware-ness of the problems we must face now.

I am not convinced that letting Schwartzenegger fall of his own weight is the right option. Everyone thought that Reagan, when elected governor of Cali-fornia, and then Bush, would fail because of their pro-corporate and anti-working people views. People thought that the aver-age voter would think they were so awful once they started pressing their agendas that we need not worry. The opposite hap-pened. They had money and power behind them that allowed them to purchase the kind of messages they wished to send to the American people. They used classic tactics of division to fan the flames of racial hate, never submerged far below the surface.

I remember being optimistic about so-cial progress, thinking that we would never see the dark days before the 1960s again. wasn’t particularly political then, but I was proud to be an American. Now I am frightened for my grandchildren’s futures, and embarrassed first to be an American, and now embarrassed to be a Californian, to boot!

The shrubernator is coming to see the governator next week. They will make kissy kissy on one another, and Arnie will ask George for Federal funds to help California survive this budget crisis. The vigorish will be privatizing yet more government services. I can’t bear to see this internal structural adjustment continue. Civil soci-ety will falter without public sector unions.

I was accused of being just like the Republicans. I can think of no way in which this campaign resembles what they did. Primarily, there won’t be some mil-lionaire former car thief footing the bill! Secondarily, this campaign seeks to raise consciousness about a GOVERNATOR who supports corporate interests over the interests of the people of California.

The only way to foster awareness of the bad deal Californians made into corporate media is to act now, and to act boldly, in my opinion. I am of course concerned about destabilizing the state, but its none too stable now. We are in serious danger. This was a very clever setup on the Democrats and they bit. Now kids won’t have books, and the Republicans figured out how to blame Gray Davis for that, and not the politics of monopoly capital. Corporate media takes about six months to start whimpering about bad back room deals. Arnie could do a lot of damage in the time it takes for people to become aware and outraged.

I started this project because I don’t believe that we can wait for a "right time." Arnie can do a lot of harm in the remain-ing term. He has already begun. As for candidates, we haven’t ever lacked for those. It would do us a world of good to begin a search now for someone whom we can unite behind early on, and pour all of our energies into her/his candidacy. The strategy worked for Prop. 54 and this sort of long-term planning can work again.

Deb(deb@debocracy.org)

VotingFraud?

Wondering about Diebold and the poten-tial votefraud in this country? Take a look at this very clever and good animation:

http://www.toostupidtobepresident.com/shockwave/votingmachines.htm

For detailed articles about this go to http://www.opednews.com/voting.htm

Here are three more articles on the voting machine problems and possible election fraud.

The first two are included below. The longest one, a very informative interview with three straight-talking computer scien-tists, is at http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/102003A.shtml . It includes comments on disagreements within the progressive com-munity

about this issue. I did not include it in this email only because it is very long — over 70K. If you are interested in this issue — and I hope you are — I urge you to go to that URL and read the interview.

No further com-ments are needed here. If you want to take action on Rep. Holt’s bill "Voter Con-fidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003" (H.R. 2239), you can write your Representative and Senator.

You’ll find a list of the current co-spon-sors of the bill at the end of this message. If your Rep isn’t listed (and even if he or she is) you might want to contact them. THERE IS NOT YET A COMPARABLE BILL IN THE SENATE.

If you want to read the bill, go to

<http://www.theorator.com/bills108/issues/campaigns.html>

<<High speed, low tech, paper ballot based, hand evaluated elections in Canada.

"Canada managed to count, by hand, 17 million votes in four hours. Surely the USA could do as well when one side has no motive to stall the process." — http://mindprod.com/election.html

David L. Dill (elections@chicory.stanford.edu) http://www.verifiedvoting.org

For previous newsletters, see http://

www.verifiedvoting.org/newsletters.htm

FCC shuts down Liberation Radio

by James Sullivan, San Francisco Chronicle

www.sfgate.com/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/10/16/BAG6F2CD8L1.DTL

Federal marshals and representatives of the Federal Communications Commission raided a residence on a quiet block in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood Wednes-day, confiscating equipment used to operate an unlicensed, low-power FM radio station.

Volunteers at San Francisco Liberation Radio, which has been on the air for 10 years, said the agents removed an antenna from the roof and seized computers, tape and CD players, turntables, a mixing board and other equipment. "We were a little surprised," said Charlotte Hatch, who along with her husband, Jim Hatch, has provided space in their building for the station for the past year. "We thought we might have another warning or so." In July, FCC inves-tigators showed up at the station’s doorstep, asking to inspect the equipment. When they were turned away, the agents warned of a potential $17,000 fine.

This time, they brought a search warrant and more than a dozen federal marshals......

Giant Steps at the Ojai Foundation

Building on nearly a quarter-century of inspiring and innovative programs, the Ojai Foundation begins its new season this month with an expanded mission, a new organizational format and a historic addition to its unique collection of structures.

For 24 years the nonprofit organiza-tion’s 40-acre hilltop retreat center in the Upper Ojai Valley has offered communica-tion programs to individuals, couples, youth groups and organizations using the Council method of compassionate speaking and deep listening, along with a steady stream of the world’s great teachers in many realms of spirituality, psychology, science and the arts.

In recent years, as personal alienation has grown within our culture and true communication seems to be losing ground to the mere consumption of information, the Ojai Foundation (TOF) has experi-enced a sharply rising number of requests for Council training from schools, com-

munities, businesses, and other organiza-tions. In response, a subsidiary organization called the Center for Council Training was created several years ago to start and sup-port Council programs around the world. Facilitators trained in Ojai are now provid-ing new forums for deeper human under-standing in numerous public and private schools in the Los Angeles area, Colorado, Hawaii, Washington State, New England, Europe and Israel, as well as in Ojai. About 5,000 students will be involved in Council programs in their schools and weekend ses-sions on-site this season, which runs from late September through mid-July.

To acknowledge that this worldwide outreach of the Center for Council Train-ing and the Foundation’s traditional on-site programs support each other synergistically, the board of directors this year decided to honor both missions by renaming the re-treat center the Center for Living Council.

In another major step on the Foun-dation’s long commitment to the path of environmentally sustainable building and lifestyle practices, the Ojai Foundation has completed Ventura County’s first legally permitted straw bale building. Partially funded by a grant from the Ventura County Solid Waste Management Department, the 600-square-foot Gateway Building serves both as a welcoming station for people who visit the peaceful and beautifully land-scaped Center for Living Council and as a living demonstration exhibit for "green building" materials and techniques.

Another new structure in the early stages of construction is the 1,200-square-foot Council House, which will have the capacity for gatherings of as many as 80 people and is envisioned as a resource for the entire Ojai Valley and Ventura County community, as well as a meeting space for the many regularly scheduled trainings and gatherings on the Land.

Highlights of the coming season in-clude a men’s weekend, a mother-daughter weekend, a New Year’s renewal program and programs exploring the personal-growth potential of rhythm and theater, along with numerous Council trainings and youth retreats.

For more information, please visit http://ojaifoundation.org, e-mail contact@ojaifoundation.org or call (805) 646-8343.

Sign Apple Pie! The San Luis Obispo Bill of Rights Defense Committee (SLO-BORDC)

The San Luis Obispo Bill of Rights Defense Committee (SLO-BORDC will be holding a kick-off event on November 10th for the Apple Pie Resolution to Defend the Bill of Rights in San Luis Obispo County [see their ad in this issue]. This event will be the beginning of an intense signature-gathering campaign to help our County Board of Supervisors decide they should say "YES!" to Apple Pie. It’s called the Apple Pie Resolution because that’s how Ameri-

can it is! During the American Revolution, soldiers ate the delicious edible crusted pies of the Pennsylvania Dutch. Previously, pies were called "coffins," with crusts meant only to contain the filling. After the war, the soldiers of the Continental Army re-turned to their homes in the thirteen colo-nies with freedom and news of a new kind of pie. Today we are still fighting for those freedoms, and still enjoying Apple Pie.

The Apple Pie Resolution Kick-Off on November 10th will be at 7pm at the SLO Library on the corner of Osos and Palm. The resolution will be explained and, of course, delicious apple pie will be served.

Dr. Phil Fetzer, Political Science Chair at Cal Poly will discuss how the USA Patriot and Homeland Security Acts affect American citizens. Brian Reynolds, Library Director for San Luis Obispo City-County Library, will talk about how the local library system is responding to the PATRI-OT Act by taking measures to assure the privacy of library patrons. SLO-BORDC hopes that everyone in the county will hear of and remember the Apple Pie Resolu-tion, and that someone from every town will champion it. If you are interested in helping gather signatures, visit the website at www.slo-bordc.org or call Mike Zelina (924-1393) or Teresa Campbell (927-0714) for information and signature sheets. You can sign the resolution online at www.slo-bordc.org or look for the SIGN APPLE PIE HERE signs around town.

What is Ecotherapy?

Have you ever won-dered why your psycho-therapist asks you about your relationship with your family, friends, job and even community but seldom says a word about your connection with Mother Earth?

The Santa-Bar-bara-based Interna-tional Association for Ecotherapy (IAP) is concerned about how clueless most of the world’s psychothera-pists are about this most basic of all human relationships. At a time of planet-wide environmental crisis, it seems both geous and irresponsible that so few mental health clinicians connect the epidemics of mental distress in industrial societies to the devastating impact of our suicidal outra-destruction of our own habitat and homicidal elimination of whole species that used to share the earth with us.

Many therapy clients also don’t realize that the grief and fear they struggle with may be natural responses to the death of so many living beings and the ongoing distress of earth, air and ocean life all around us. Because we’re not being told about the mental health symptoms caused by the way we live and the destruction we’re causing, we remain mystified about why we feel so much pain.

Our therapists may encourage us to talk about our childhoods or take Prozac; our HMO may recommend 6 sessions of cognitive therapy. But do any of these remedies get to the root of the problem? Perhaps it isn’t we who are dysfunctional. Perhaps it’s our way of life!

The IAP hopes to raise consciousness among both therapists and their patients about the importance of healing our rela-tionship with the sacred earth before it is too late. Ecopsychologists and ecotherapists recommend many new and ancient meth-ods of addressing such common difficulties as depression, anxiety and stress, including reconnection with nature and one’s own body, animal-assisted therapy, voluntary simplicity, detaching from unnatural indus-trial time schedules, horticultural therapy, wilderness retreats, changing home or work environments, environmental activism, earth-centered spiritual practices, recov-ery from compulsive consumer-ism, and dream therapy focusing on collective dreams about nature.

To get the Associ-ation’s free monthly e-newsletter, contact the group’s founder Linda Buzzell-Saltzman, M.A., M.F.T. at lbuzzell@aol.com  

Cancun

"Come WTO and thrilled invited to be able share this experience them. I little since never pro-outside of and have heard of the brutality

Protesting the WTO at by Lynn Levine When my son and his partner said, with us to Cancun to protest the meetings," I said "yes" immediately was to be and to with However, was a scared I have been to a test the U.S. and have heard of the brutality the

of the Mexican Federal Police. But having read so much about the poverty and losses small family farmers are experiencing as a result of WTO trade policies, I just couldn’t pass up this great opportunity to raise my voice against another glaring example of the rich and powerful overriding the poor and powerless.

The days in Cancun were filled with learning and action. Forums were held with speakers from many Southern countries telling how the WTO trade policies have adversely effected the ability of working people to make a living. I was blown away with all this first-hand information, none of which I have heard from the media in the U.S. that I depend on for global news!

The protest marches were peaceful but spirited — thousands of Mexican farmers with amazing banners, a large contingent of Korean farmers, the "Infernal Noise Brigade" (a marching band from Se-attle, WA, providing the many delicious noises of protest marches), and a great horn orchestra from Chiapas, plus hundreds of people from all over the U.S. and Canada voicing their protests against existing and proposed WTO policies.

The marches were well organized considering the thousands of people involved, and while there certainly was an air of defiance and protest, everyone was respectful and peaceful. For me it was inspi-rational; it gave me a feeling of hope that the powerless were beginning to be heard. We marched in 110-degree heat with high humidity, and while I was exhausted a lot of the time, the fact that I was so much in solidarity with so many different people — young, old, yellow, white, black — ener-gized me to keep going!

My energy soon gave away to sadness. During the second protest march, a Korean farm leader stabbed himself. He made a choice to kill himself to protest the WTO in its killing of small family farmers around the globe — 3.5 million farmers in Korea are struggling and losing due to trade poli-cies. We went to the hospital for a vigil, press conferences, and a rally, and it was announced that he had died from too much blood loss. The Korean farmers and trade unionists sat in the street mostly silent, and some of us gringos cried. Then the chant went up — TODOS SOMOS LEE (his name), meaning "We are all Lee."

A few days later, the Korean farmers led the last protest march. The estimated number of people was about 5,000. It was a different mood — the memory of Mr. Lee sitting atop the fences that separated all of us from the Mexican Federal Police, and stabbing himself was still fresh. There was a clear determination to march to that fence and pull it down. There was tear gas and tension. A long rope was attached to the fence, and as many who wanted to pulled, and finally the fence was toppled.

The Federal Police were 3 to 4 deep, with a hundred backups nearby. The Koreans did not lead a march and confront the Police, but the toppling of the fence was a symbolic and peaceful victory in memory of Mr. Lee’s courage and sacrifice.

It was an awsome learning experience for me and gives me hope that free trade will also become FAIR TRADE for all the people of the world. I urge everyone reading this to learn more about and take action on these issues, which are effect-ing small farmers and working people in this country, just as in the countries of the Cancun protesters. For more in-formation see www.publiccitizen.org.; www.globalexchange.org; www.asje.org; www.marchtomiami.org and attend the showing the film on November 11 called "Cancun and the WTO Collapse" in SLO, 7pm at the SLO Library (go to hopedance.org for details and the pdf flyer).

What Does 87 Billion Dollars look like?

We’ve all heard about the $87 billion that Bush is asking for without any oversight, no accountability, no itemized breakdowns, to continue his engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s hard to picture such a sum....so here’s a website that makes it abundantly clear. It helps to commodify this incredible sum of funding.....maybe every lawmaker needs to see this website to help them stand against another carte blanche for the war makers. Go to http://www.crunchweb.net/87billion/  

What Can $87 Billion Buy?

The http://www.centerforamericanprogress.org/ Center for American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational institute based in Washington, D.C.

On September 7th, President Bush asked Congress for an additional $87 billion for the war in Iraq, acknowledging that the engagement in Iraq is going to cost many hundreds of billions of dollars. This was a surprise considering that prior to the war, the administration dismissed such estimates, and even fired its top economic adviser, Lawrence Lindsey, for suggesting those estimates were correct. To get some perspective, here are some real-life com-parisons about what $87 billion means.

$87b Is More Than The Combined Total Of All State Budget Deficits In The United States

The Bush administration proposed abso-lutely zero funds to help states deal with these deficits, despite the fact that their tax cuts drove down state revenues. [Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]

$87b Is Rougly The Total Of Two Years Worth Of All U.S. Unemployment Ben-efits

The U.S. spends about $50 billion a year on unemployment insurance. At least 1.1 million people have exhausted all of their unemployment benefits without finding a job, and yet Congress has refused to extend benefits. [Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]

$87b Is Enough To Pay The 3.3 Million People Who Have Lost Jobs $26,363 Each

The unemployment benefits extension passed by Congress at the beginning of this year provides zero benefits to "workers who exhausted their regular, state unemploy-ment benefits and cannot find work." All told, two thirds of unemployed workers have exhausted their benefits. [Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]

$87b Is More Than Double The Total Amount The Government Spends On Homeland Security

The U.S. spends about $36 billion on homeland security. Yet, Sen. Warren Rud-man (R-N.H.) wrote "America will fall approximately $98.4 billion short of meet-ing critical emergency responder needs" for homeland security without a funding increase. [Source: Council on Foreign Rela-tions]

$87b Is 7 Times What The Government Spends On Title For Low-Income Schools

President Bush proposed a bud-get of just $12 billion for Title I, leaving a $6.2 billion hole in what he promised to spend on Title I in his No Child Left Behind Bill. [Source: House Ap-propriations Committee]

$87b Is 87 Times The Amount The Federal Government Spends On After School Pro-grams

President Bush proposed a budget that reduces the $1 bil-lion for after-school programs to $600 million — cutting off about 475,000 children from the program. [Souce: House Ap-propriations Committee]

$87b Is About 9 Times What The Federal Government Spends On Spe-cial Education

Legislation authorizes the federal govern-ment to pay 40 percent of the cost of special education, but because of budget shortfalls, it only pays roughly 18 percent (or $9.9 billion), driving up local property taxes. [Source: House Appropriations Com-mittee]

$87b Is More Than 10 Times What The Government Spends On All Environmen-tal Protection

The Bush administration requested just $7.6 billion for the entire Environmental Protection Agency. This included a 32 percent cut to water quality grants, a 6 percent reduction in enforcement staff, and a 50 percent cut to land acquisition and conservation. [Source: Natural Resources Defense Council]

$87b Is 8 Times The Total For Pell Grants — The Major College Program In The U.S.

In 1975, when the Pell Grant program was established, it financed about 84 percent of the cost of attending a four-year public college. Today, that share is down to about 40 percent, and under Congress’Äôs cur-rent proposal to freeze Pell Grant funding at about $10 billion, it would drop to 38 percent. [Source: House Appropriations Committee]

$87b Is More Than The Total Cost Of The First 3 Years Of The Medicare Pres. Drug Proposal [Source: Congressional Budget Office]

$87b Is Enough To Give Every Man, Woman And Child In America $300

"[We] want to control spending. And I hope Congress lives up to their words. When they talk about deficits, they can join us in making sure we don’t overspend. They can join us and make sure that [they are] focused those items that are absolutely necessary to the American people." - Presi-dent Bush, Jan. 6, 2003

Mental Health Of Detainees Suffering, Aid Group Says

by Alexander Higgins Associated Press Writer Friday, October 10, 2003; www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7479-2003Oct10.html  

GENEVA — The International Red Cross said Friday many detainees held by the U.S. military in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were suffering "a worrying deterioration" in men-tal health because Washington had ignored appeals to give them legal rights.

"They have no idea about their fate and they have no means of recourse at their disposal through any legal mechanism," said Florian Westphal, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.... for more go to the website above.

Media Owners and the Democrats

The Democratic Party is a wealthy, connected organization. After all, Bill Gates’s daddy helped found the rightist Democratic Leadership Council. www.ndol.org  

To see exactly who sits on which Boards of Directors, go to www.theyrule.net and moan while you peruse the interlock-ing directorates. It’s a narrow, elite group that rules America.

Donating Your Cell Phone?

Want to donate your used cell phone to a worthy cause? Then click on the link above. To make this fund raiser even more effective and help the environment by recycling those old wireless cell phones and batteries, please forward this message to your friends. Thank you. For further information on the charity please see: www.seardf.org

In addition to donating your cell phone, The South East Asian Rural Devel-opment Fund, Inc. (SEARDF Inc.) would be grateful for year-end donation for tax purposes. All donations are tax deduct-ible and any amount, large or small, is greatly appreciated. Receipt of donations is promptly acknowledged. Dedicated to reha-bilitating land mine amputees who have lost their livelihood due to injuries sus-tained by exploding land mines, SEARDF, Inc. is trying to build an ECO-Village for approximately 300 families.

Many of these families are headed by women and a good number of child victims are included. The goal is to rehabilitate the handicapped and have them actively in-volved in the process of making the village self sufficient, sustainable and reproducible. The use of the Integrated Bio-System as a model will create a foothold for sustainable agriculture and renewable energy.

It will eventually finance the replication of the successful ECO-Village with exponential growth, raising the living standard of Cambodia’s most vulnerable, the very poor disabled. The long term goal is to expand the ECO-Village to provide enough land for housing, ECO-Farms and businesses for up to 900 families.

You may obtain more information under the web site: www.seardf.org  

SEARDF, Inc. is not seeking to redistribute wealth, but to make maximum use of the aid, using it as an "investment" to build the ECO-Village, which is based on the grass-roots concept of commu-nity development and using appropriate technology. However, recipients must "earn" the support. To improve the lives of amputees now living in misery, they are retrained to produce low-cost products that are marketable in their community and surroundings. Again earning a living, part of their earnings will be applied towards paying off the house and land they live on in the village, before they are given title, to prevent borrowing against this property before they have learned how to manage their resources, especially money.

As a newly formed charitable organi-zation our resources are very limited. We have no employees and all board members are volunteers. We believe that assisting in building the ECO-Village SEARDF Inc. provides humanitarian assistance very much needed in Cambodia. Its success will serve as a model and any assistance is greatly appreciated. Tel.: 561-585-5181. Thank you. Sincerely, Anna Guagliano, President

Index Of Our Entire Overcoming Consumerism Website

http://www.verdant.net/food.htm  

There is no act more gratifying, more basic, more liberating, than to coax food from the Earth. Time and the rhythms of nature become the ultimate template by which to live. Do it just to know that you can do it, or do it just to live or do it to save money or for whatever reason. You want to talk about an essentially useful skill-set?

A penalty fee by owning a hybrid?

"In August 2001 Cassens, a retired construction worker from Hermiston, bought a Toyota Prius, the top-selling hybrid car in America. What he soon learned was that because of a quirk in state law, he will now be charged $30 per year to register his vehicle, twice the normal rate.

"The President says we should clean the air up," says Cassens, a lifelong Republican. "I’m trying to do the right thing, and I get stabbed in the back."

Oregon’s hybrid penalty was created in early 2001, when the Oregon Department of Transportation quietly pushed House Bill 2133 through the Legislature. Hidden in the fine print was a clause that doubled registration fees for hybrids, the ultra-efficient cars that combine the best elements of gas and electric engines. The law went into effect a year ago." Go to http://www.evworld.com/databases/shownews.cfm?pageid=news040203-08.

The Ashcroft-Rove Connection: The Ties That Blind

by Amy Goodman, Jeremy Scahill and the staff of Democracy Now!

The article begins:

There’s an old saying that you should never let a fox guard the henhouse. The same could be said of the investigation into the latest White House scandal. Attor-ney General John Ashcroft is refusing to appoint an independent prosecutor to in-vestigate who in the administration leaked the name of a CIA operative to journalists. This despite the fact that Ashcroft has long-standing ties to one of the main sus-pects: President Bush’s top political advisor Karl Rove.

"I think it’s very difficult on its surface for John Ashcroft to be taken seriously as an investigator," said James Moore, author of Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W Bush Presidential, in an interview with Democracy Now!. "In this case, there is a close relationship between someone who is a high profile suspect and the individual who is leading the investiga-tion of him. And it immediately goes to the question of credibility and validity of that particular investigation."

Rove has been accused of leaking the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, in retaliation for her husband, veteran diplo-mat Joseph Wilson, blowing the whistle on the Bush administration’s charge that Sad-dam Hussein attempted to import uranium for nuclear weapons from Niger.

Rove is best known as the driving force behind Bush’s taking of the presi-dency, but he also worked for Ashcroft over the course of two decades.

Read more at: http://www.democracynow.org/static/roveashcroft.shtml  

SIX Reasons Congress Should Investigate Bush

http://www.epic-usa.org/ Tel. 202.543.6176 - Fax 202.543.0725 Education for Peace in

Iraq Center (EPIC): 6 Reasons Congress Should Investigate Bush

Will the 2004 Election be Stolen With Electronic Voting Machines? An Inter-view with Bev Harris, Who Has Done the Groundbreaking Work on This Issue

A Special Message to BuzzFlash Readers from Bev Harris, Heroine Who Has Led the Investigation Into the Large Potential for Fraud in Electronic Voting. Her New Book is Available Free on .PDF Before Coming Out in Softcover. Go to http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/09/29_harris.html  

The National Farmers Union.

I saw John Hansen on Bill Mahrer’s show and recalled that I had seen him in a num-ber of ag films that focused on the bigger picture. I asked my friend about it and he wrote back: "Yes, the Farmer’s Union is a real farmers organization that has a very progressive political point of view. It’s not as large or politically influential as the Farm Bureau which is pretty Republican reactionary (and more insurance company than farmer’s advocate, imo). The Farmer’s Union is more like the Grange politically.

Go to http://www.nfu.org/  http://www.nationalgrange.org/  

Pentagon’s call to mercenaries

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3136428.stm  

Pentagon’s call to mercenaries by Katty Kay BBC correspondent in Pennsylvania

Jason is taking part in military training in rural Pennsylvania. But he is a merce-nary, not a government soldier, and this is America’s latest boom industry.

Once seen as shady, men like him are fast becoming mainstream.

Private companies like Northbridge Services do jobs governments can’t or won’t extend to. The Pentagon has given $300bn of contracts to companies like these over the past decade alone.

"Private armies put the skills at a higher level," says Tom Patire, President of the International Training Commission. "They also learn to use limited resources.

Governmentally, whoever hires these people doesn’t have to put up with all the costs.

"It’s a flat fee, there are no medical expenses. There’s no insurance. They hire them for a job. When the job’s over, they let them go."

The industry grew from providing bodyguards for celebrities. Now it’s more than that.

Mercenaries are training to do the kind of work the US Government can’t afford to have its own soldiers doing. And in a couple of weeks some of them will be shipping out to places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

But why are private armies in demand? It mostly boils down to overstretch. US forces in places like Iraq cannot keep up with the work.

Are mercenaries the answer? For some jobs maybe. But there is still a huge resis-tance to privatising peacekeeping.

"The big risk is one of political ac-countability," says Michael Vickers, of the Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assess-ments.

"There’s a sense that even if they’re operating under US or international com-mand, the standard that one would expect of them for political accountability - if there are accidental deaths - would likely be higher that it would be for governmental troops."

When United Nations peacekeep-ers operate in places like Bosnia, they are bound to a national military code of justice and can be held responsible for their ac-tions. Mercenaries are subject only to the laws of the marketplace.

Hiring muscle for money raises serious ethical questions.

But it’s only a matter of time be-fore the world’s next humanitarian crisis demands troops and looks for them under a

corporate flag.

Bill Denneen:

is a Biologist/Advocate/Eco-hooligan/EcoElder/GOF/SOB. He can be reached at 1040 Cielo Lane, Nipomo, CA.,93444 805-929-3647 PO#73 http://www.slonet.org/~bdenneen/ He puts out a weekly email newsletter. Check it out. "We are as rich as our ability to do without."—Thoreau

Ecological Farming Conference

From our local sustainable agriculture activist: The 24th Annual Ecological Farm-ing Conference will be held at Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove Janu-ary 21 – 24, 2004. This conference, the pre-mier gathering of the sustainable agricul-ture community on the West Coast, brings participants from across the country and world to share the latest technologies and practices, discuss the issues, and strategize for the continued success of the sustainable farming movement. For more information, visit www.eco-farm.org.

Cell Phone Bashing (literally)

You’ll laugh at this page. Some dudes in the U.K. dress up in huge cell phone costumes and then snag people’s phones in public and smash them! It’s outrageous. They have video clips of the action! (Requires Quicktime to view the videos). Go to http://www.phonebashing.com/

New Technique Could Lead to Widespread Use of Solar Power

Princeton University electrical engineers have invented a new organic technique for making solar cells that, when combined with other recent advances, could yield a highly efficient and economical source of renewable energy. Though not yet as

efficient as conventional solar cells, Princeton scientists are moving closer to developing cells that could be significant-ly less expensive and more versatile. These new solar cells are made from organic materials, which consist of small-carbon containing materials, as opposed to conventional silicon-based materials. These materials are ultra-thin and flexible, making it easy to apply to large surfaces - perhaps even windows. Researchers have pursued organic photovol-taic films for years, but have struggled with the problem of efficiency. The first organic cell developed in 1986 was only 1 percent efficient. In the last 15 years there has not been much development in the efficiency of these organic cells. Researchers at Princeton believe that their new organic solar cells will reach 5-10 percent efficiency, still less than conventional cells, but could allow for more widespread use of solar energy !

To read the entire article, please visit: http://www.solaraccess.com/news/story?storyid=5100  

Buy Nothing Day

Check out the newly furnished Buy Noth-ing Day site at: http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd Preparations for this year’s festivities have begun. November 28, 2003 will be huge. Planning an action? Post info on the Contacts List: http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd/toolbox/contacts.jhtml This will help folks in your area who want to get involved find out how.

Pearl Harbor and 911

Is the "Surprise Attack" on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 - which resulted in a significant loss of Americans lives - relevant to understanding the events of September 11? According to American historian and Pulitzer prize winner, John Toland, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had "prior knowledge" of the attack . . . and failed to act.

"A massive cover-up followed Pearl Harbor a few days later ... when the Chief of Staff ordered a lid put on the affair. ‘Gentlemen,’ he told half a dozen officers, ‘this goes to the grave with us.’" For more go to http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/WOO203A.html  

The Bush Administration Pushes to Expand the Patriot Act

President George W. Bush used the second anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks not only to praise the controversial USA Patriot Act but to promote further expanding federal law enforcement powers. His comments affirmed at last the Admin-istration’s quiet, longstanding ambitions to introduce a sequel to the USA Patriot Act, writes Center Executive Director Charles Lewis.

Also, read Lewis’s interview with As-sociated Press investigative reporter John Solomon, whose phone records were seized by the Justice Department in 2001. Visit http://www.public-i.org

Australian Activists Help Tibetans Convert to Organic Agriculture

From self-reliance in exile to a free Tibet!

The Tibetan Government in Exile has embarked on a journey which aims to transform agricultural lands in Tibetan Refugee Settlements in India to organic, sustainable farming systems.

In January 2003, Jonathan Halpern, an environmental/social activist fron northern NSW in Australia met Venerable Profes-sor Samdhong Rinpoche, Prime Minister of the Tibetan Government in Exile, while at the Asian Social Forum in Hyderabad. Professor Rinpoche welcomed Jonathan’s support in aiding his government on its quest to go organic.

To support this vision, a Permaculture Design Course was conducted for Tibetan Settlement heads and Agriculture Exten-sion Officers in August 2003, in South India. This course was led by permaculture teacher John Button, originally from north-ern NSW but now living in Italy.

The course was funded by the Tibetan Government in Exile and Australiaís Rainforest Information Centre. The first five days of the course were held in Auro-ville where participants were exposed to many successful experiments of sustainable agriculture and holistic living. The remain-ing 10 days of the course were held in Bylakuppe, a large Tibetan Refugee Settle-ment in the state of Karnataka. Here the course was held on an 80-acre experimental farm called the Tibetan Farm Project which has already been organic for a year.

On the journey from Auroville to Bylakuppe, the group visited the Permac-ulture Demonstration Farm in Tiruvana-malai, a project initiated by the Rainforest Information Centre over a decade ago. It had originally been planned to hold part of the course here, but this was prevented by drought conditions.

The course was an intensive 2 week programme, covering many academic and practical subjects, such as the principles of ecology, methods/limitations of design, soil, climate, water, community and economy, disaster management, creative problem solving, integrated pest/weed management, composting, seed saving and much more.

John and Jonathan remained in Bylakuppe after the course to design the Tibetan Farm Project as an education centre, permaculture demonstration farm, seed production and seed saving centre and nursery.

This course was a preliminary step in the journey of supporting the Tibetan Gov-ernment in Exile, and the Tibetan people. The project in its entirety involves the conversion to organic of some 27,000 acres of agricultural land in India which is pres-ently predominantly under the cultivation of intensive monocultures of cotton, maize, paddy and sugar cane and this will affect the lives of approximately 80,000 people.

It was stressed to the participants of the course that this project was not about putting deeper roots in exile, but rather about learning techniques of earth repair and sustainable farming that will not only benefit them in exile, but will empower them for the time that they may return to a free Tibet and be faced with the monumen-tal task of repairing the ecological damage left by the Chinese.

New Issue of Car-Free Times:

Blood, Oil & Money

Issue #32 of Carfree Times is now available at: http://www.carfree.com/cft/i032.html  

The theme of this issue is Blood, Oil & Money. We examine both the com-ing structural shortage (i.e., exhaustion of reserves) and the likelihood of violence-induced supply limitations. Shortages are then considered with respect to the carfree initiative. We must be prepared to respond to the opportuni-ties that arise when shortages occur, whether temporary or permanent.

This issue includes a Fea-ture Article, "Lo-cal Knowledge, Local Solutions," by Paul Hold-sworth of Living Streets and an opinion piece, "Carfree Zones vs Carfree Days," by Lela Gary of the Air Pol-lution Coalition of Ontario. Also included are News Bits, New Books, and Hot Links.

Berkeley Goes Biodiesel California City Becomes Largest in Country to use B100 fleet wide

BERKELEY, Calif. - The City of Berkeley celebrated a milestone today as officials announced the city has transitioned to 100 percent biodiesel (B100) in its diesel vehicles. Berkeley is the first city of its size in the US to switch to pure biodiesel, a fuel made from renewable resources like fat or vegetable oil.

The City held an exhibit and cer-emony to celebrate the occasion. The exhibit featured a variety of diesel vehicles from the Departments of Public Works, Parks, Fire, Police, and Health and Human Services.

The City of Berkeley has a long his-tory of innovation and as a leader in public policy, said City Manager Weldon Rucker. The use of biodiesel fuel is yet another example.

Biodiesel works in any diesel engine with few or no modifications. It has numer-ous advantages including significantly reducing emissions produced by petro-leum- based diesel, according to the U.S. Environmental Projection Agency (EPA). It is far safer to transport, store, and use because it is not a hazardous material like petroleum products. Biodiesel also reduces dependence on foreign oil.

Berkeley now uses B100 in more than 180 of the City s diesel vehicles, represent-ing 90 percent of its fleet of 200 diesel vehicles. The remaining 10 percent are fire department vehicles that will run on B100 when accommodations are made for delivering the fuel to the more remote fire stations throughout the city.

Read the complete story.  

Readers can learn more about biodie-sel by visiting www.biodiesel.org.

Also, a local group called AGRIFUELS will be acting as an umbrella group for distrbution points from Monterey to Ventura, so people can buy biodiesel fuel at convenient spots. Check them out at http://www.agrifuels.com/  or call 805 544-4379 and ask for Jason Hoar.

Speaking of alternative fuels check out the fol-lowing:

The SLO County Air Pollution Control District is a member of the Central Coast Clean Cities Coalition,(C5), http://www.slocleanair.org/programs/c5.asp a group of local businesses, organizations and individuals who promote the use of alternative fueled vehicles (AFV) throughout SLO County. C5 has been meeting for over a year now and is taking steps to receive official designation from the Department of Energy as a "Clean City". Official designa-tion as a Clean City provides the possibility of additional state and federal funds avail-able to our region for AFVs and the needed infrastructure.

And continue the discussion of alternative fuels check this email that we received:

<<HYDROGEN FOR THE FU-TURE... "Solar powered" hydrogen... <www.ifcep.org very high tech is not my "cup of tea" but... -this particular technol-ogy was different in that it uses a solar pow-ered charge that separates hydrogen from water using a precious metal membrane; (could theoretically last forever) hydro-gen can then be used directly or stored in canisters for later use... Hydrogen canister vending machines???

ELECTRIC CAR(T)S... The solar re-charged electric vehicles (no grid -except for manufacturing)) -sort of short range commuter type super slick golf carts... A couple friends in Los Angeles are already using these... The new nickel metal hydride batteries are said to be mostly nontoxic and very recyclable.

BIO DIESEL & VEGGIE OIL... The most popular (all the kids are doin’ it) and most doable for me is the bio diesel and veggie oil powered vehicles... said to increase the life of an engine... no reduction of mileage, no reduction of power, very, very, very little pollution...

Used veggie oil can be filtered and run in a diesel engine that has been adapted with a converter, new hoses and filters... "off the shelf" technology from Germany eliminates

the old school veggie oil burning needs of two tanks and a little diesel before you can switch to veggie... $900-1200 installed.

Bio diesel is basically veggie oil with the glycerin removed... -no coverting -burns, as is, in any diesel vehicle... More expensive than diesel but no fossil fuel dependance.

ALCOHOL... The next great addition is (as usual) a revival of an old technology... Ethanol. The first internal combustion engines were said to have been designed for ethanol burning... Ford Motor Co. has off-the-assembly-line-ready-to-buy-today ethanol burning trucks. (it’s true -I saw one and talked to the dealer)

Most of the alcohol fuel sold in America is direct from farmer owned coops (mostly from corn but other "starch and sugar" products can be used).

A very renewable and sustainable fuel for America... Can be made in a fairly low tech still (like "moonshine"), no loss of power, better mileage (with pre-heating) and increased longevity of a gasoline -OR- diesel engine..!

It is rumored that ethanol production will be starting up on the Central Coast in the near future...

IMAGINE... Imagine "VW Lupos" running on old tempura oil and "VW 1-Liters" run-ning on moonshine...

Imagine democratic, home grown, non-pol-luting, affordable fuels...

Larry Santoyo

PS -I am looking for a mid 80’s to mid 90’s Mercedes turbo-diesel four-door sedan...

Anybody want to invest in a ethonol fuel station in SLO?

Contact Larry Santoyo at santoyo@earthflow.com or go to www.earthflow.com.

And this from our own local (Cambria) alternative fuels researcher and writer:

http://www.energypulse.net/centers/article/article_print.cfm?a_id=456 Where there are unacceptable levels of transmission congestion, owners and operators of the grid should find the least costly means of fixing those problems. Fortunately, there are ways to address transmission congestion, besides just building more transmission.

Building more generation closer to where electricity is needed will help solve the problem by not having to ship power across long distances. Distributed genera-tion from smaller sources like micro tur-bines, fuel cells, and solar technologies can also play a role. In fact, with the develop-ment of on-site generation technology, the grid itself may become less important over the next 20 years.

"SHORTS" was put together by Bob Banner with the help of the hopedance listservs, both local and global.