Teenagers and birth control: Not the Bush way

According to the Journal Pediatrics

Teenagers need access to birth control and emergency contraception, not the abstinence-only approach to sex education favored by religious groups and President Bush, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics' updated policy on teen pregnancy.
"Even though there is great enthusiasm in some circles for abstinence-only interventions, the evidence does not support abstinence-only interventions as the best way to keep young people from unintended pregnancy," said Jonathan D. Klein, chairman of the academy committee that wrote the new recommendations.
 

G8 boondoggle II

Protest at Gleneagles train station

Stephania Milan writes

On Wednesday, July 6, the first day of the G8 summit, another Live 8 concert organised by Irish rock legend Bob Geldof will take place in Edinburgh's Murrayfield Stadium to "signal the end of the long walk to justice." It will be preceded by a march.

On the same day, activists from the Dissent! network and other groups will march on the golf resort at Gleneagles, Scotland to blockade the G8 summit. An entire week of a variety of protests is already under way, targeting issues affected by G8 policies, such as global war, restrictive immigration and nuclear weapons. The two main items on the G8 agenda are promoting development in Africa and fighting global climate change.

(for full article)

 

G8's "End poverty in Africa" boondoggle

Guardian columnist George Monbiot writes:

The G8 leaders and the business interests their summit promotes can absorb our demands for aid, debt, even slightly fairer terms of trade, and lose nothing. They can wear our colours, speak our language, claim to support our aims, and discover in our agitation not new constraints but new opportunities for manufacturing consent. Justice, this consensus says, can be achieved without confronting power (for full column)

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July 14: Book Party "War Made Easy"

July 14
6:30 pm
Brecht Forum
RECEPTION - BOOK PARTY - FORUM
Co-sponsor: FAIR
War Made Easy
How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death
Dahr Jamail & Norman Solomon

Join us to welcome media critic and author Norman Solomon and his latest book which examines 50 years of press-corps complicity in promoting military endeavors. From Vietnam to Panama to Iraq, he reveals a consistent strategy of distorting facts, demonizing the enemy and labeling dissent as "unpatriotic."
Just back from a trip to Iran, possibly the next U.S. military target, Solomon will give us the critical tools we need to separate real news from propaganda--and help prevent the next repeat performance.
Speaking with him will be Dahr Jamail, one of the few independent US journalists reporting from Iraq. Weary of the overall failure of the US media to accurately report on the realities of the war in Iraq for the Iraqi people and US soldiers, Jamail went to Iraq to report on the war himself. Recently returned from the Middle East, Jamail will give us the crucial stories we aren�t receiving from the news media.

Proceeds to benefit FAIR,
RSVP (212) 633-6700 ext 318
Suggested donation: $6/$10/$15
Brecht Forum 451 West Street, New York, NY 10014

After the demo, some of the participants continued to protest on the corner of 34th & 6th outside Macy's
Photo by:Dan Cohen/contestedterrain.blogspot.com

Shut Down Guantanamo demo July 4, 2005
Photo by:Dan Cohen/contestedterrain.blogspot.com

That's the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution that they are waving at Shut Down Guantanamo demo July 4, 2005
Photo by:Dan Cohen/contestedterrain.blogspot.com

All ages protest Guantanamo July 4, 2005
Photo by:Dan Cohen/contestedterrain.blogspot.com

Shut Down Guantanamo demo July 4, 2005
Photo by:Dan Cohen/contestedterrain.blogspot.com

Shut Down Guantanamo ("Gitmo") demo July 4, 2005
Photo by:Dan Cohen/contestedterrain.blogspot.com

Shut Down Guantanamo demo July 4, 2005
Photo by:Dan Cohen/contestedterrain.blogspot.com

Echoes of Vietnam in Iraq Shut Down Guantanamo July 4, 2005
Photo by:Dan Cohen/contestedterrain.blogspot.com

Shut Down Guantanamo demo July 4, 2005
Photo by:Dan Cohen/contestedterrain.blogspot.com

Shut Down Guantanamo demo July 4, 2005
Photo by:Dan Cohen/contestedterrain.blogspot.com

Green Dragon at Shut Down Guantanamo demo July 4, 2005
Photo by:Dan Cohen/contestedterrain.blogspot.com

Playwright Eve Ensler at Shut Down Guantanamo demo July 4, 2005
Photo by:Dan Cohen/contestedterrain.blogspot.com

Shut Down Guantanamo July 4, 2005
Photo by:Dan Cohen/contestedterrain.blogspot.com

Code Pink at the Shut Down Guantanamo demo July 4, 2005
Photo by:Dan Cohen/contestedterrain.blogspot.com

Shut Down Guantanamo July 4, 2005
Photo by:Dan Cohen/contestedterrain.blogspot.com

Shut Down Guantanamo July 4, 2005
Photo by:Dan Cohen/contestedterrain.blogspot.com

Shut Down Guantanamo
July 4th
34th&6th

Photo by:Dan Cohen/contestedterrain.blogspot.com

"Shut Down Guantanamo" demo 7/4/05

Here are some photos from today's (July 4) action to "Shut Down Guantanamo."

Photo by:Dan Cohen/contestedterrain.blogspot.com

Frieda Zames, Disabled in Action, Dies

By Mitchell Cohen, for the No Spray Coalition

We...mourn the loss of another stalwart activist involved with fighting against pesticides, as well as many other issues -- Frieda Zames, founder of Disabled in Action.
Frieda had recently been having breathing problems, and reportedly passed away in her sleep.
Frieda and her sister Doris Fleischer, co-wrote the only book available, surveying the whole history of the disabled civil rights movement. "FROM CHARITY TO CONFRONTATION, A HISTORY OF THE DISABLED RIGHTS MOVEMENT" from Temple University Press.
Frieda had to sue the New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJIT in Newark, for gender discrimination in the 60's, to win her full professorship and tenure in mathematics. A polio survivor, she had been President and Vice Presdent of Disabled in Action of Metropolitan New York, many times over the past three decades.
Frieda (and Bryna Eil) also brought Disabled in Action as a co-plaintiff
with the No Spray Coalition into the lawsuit against NYC to stop pesticide spraying, which she argued was especially detrimental to immune compromised people and those in wheelchairs. She told me (Mitchel) how the wheels of the chairs kick up the pesticides into the faces and lungs.
I saw Frieda at every protest and political activity I attended. She was a valiant beacon here in NYC ... To say that "she will be missed" is an understatement without parallel.

(photo: Phil Bennett)

 

Can Rove still fix the Bush robot?

David Rossie wrote this in the Binghampton (N.Y.) Press & Sun Bulletin:

Karl Rove's got to be worried at this point. He's running out of captive audience ideas for Bush's pep rallies disguised as policy speeches.
The Abraham Lincoln victory strut, with his boy tricked out in that made-to-order flight suit, was a big hit, at least until reality caught up with the braggadocio -- "Mission Accomplished," and "end of major combat."

(for full story)
 

Independence Day 2005

US soldiers dead: 1746
US soldiers dead since "Mission Accomplished": 1609
US soldiers wounded: 13,190
Iraqi civilians killed: 22,787
I received this from Chelsea Neighbors Against the War. I thought it was worth reprinting:

INDEPENDENCE WEEKEND
On a weekend in which we are supposed to celebrate this country's independence, we continue to wage war in Iraq. As the majority of the American people want the war to end and the troops to be returned safely, George W. Bush spoke to the nation this week defending his immoral and illegal war. According to a Zogby poll 42% of the people who watched his speech felt that if he had lied about his reasons to go to war he should be impeached. Among President Bush's fellow Republicans, a full one-in-four (25%) indicate they would favor impeaching the President under these circumstances.
It also came to light this past week that the California National Guard had set up a new unit to deal with terrorism. One of the first projects of the new guard unit was to spy on women's peace groups that held a small Mother's Day rally in Sacramento calling for CA Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to bring the state's national guard troops home from Iraq.
This was also a week that the Bush administration had to admit that it badly underestimated the cost of health care for returning Iraq veterans causing the need for emergency funding of $1.5 billion, which passed the Senate unanimously. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld also stated that the war could go on for another 12 years.
Bring the troops home now.
Chelsea Neighbors United to End the War
P.O. Box 821, JAF Station, New York, NY 10116-0821
Email: ChelseaNeighborsUnited@yahoo.com
212-726-1385
Join Chelsea Stands Up Against the War every Tuesday from 6-7pm at 8th Avenue and 24th Street (rain or shine)

Chelsea Neighbors United To End The War
P.O. Box 821
JAF Station
New York, NY 10116-0821
212-726-1385

join our listerv: ChelseaNeighborsUnited-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com
 

July 29: reading: lesbian cowboy erotica

Friday, July 29th 7PM Free
Reading: "Rode Hard, Put Away Wet"
BLUESTOCKINGS
172 Allen Street @ Stanton (1 block south of Houston)
212.777.6028
You will not be turned away from an event
at Bluestockings for lack of $

A collection of lesbian cowboy erotica, hard-riding stories of leather, lust, passion and kink, "Rode Hard, Put Away Wet" give us strong silent types tall in the saddle and rodeo queens who sure know how to use all that rope. Please join editors Sacchi Green and Rakelle Valencia and contributors Crystal Barela, Chuck Fellows, Skian McGuire, Val Murphy, and Jake Rich.
And remember, when the big balls in cowtown, we'll all go down!

(Cover image:Rhonda Oxley;Cover design:Shane Luitjens/Torquere Creative)
 

July 24: On politics of sports

Sunday, July 24th 7PM Free
Reading Dave Zirin "What's My Name, Fool?"
BLUESTOCKINGS
172 Allen Street @ Stanton (1 block south of Houston)
212.777.6028
You will not be turned away from an event
at Bluestockings for lack of $

In his book "What's My Name, Fool?: Sports and Resistance in the United States" sports writer Dave Zirin illustrates how sports express the worst - and at times the most creative, exciting, and political - features of our society.
Drawing on original interviews and the histories of a range of athletes, such as former heavyweight champ George Foreman, Olympic athlete John Carlos, NBA player and anti-death penalty activist Etan Thomas, antiwar women's college hoopster Toni Smith, ball player Jackie Robinson and tennis star Billie Jean King, the book recounts the social impact of those who charted new paths through their athletic abilities and their outspoken views.
Dave Zirin is the regular sports commentator for Air America's "So What Else is News?".

 

July 10: Code Pink benefit

July, 10 2005
CODEPINK BENEFIT
ARLENE'S GROCERY
95 Stanton Street
$7

L.E.S.'s most FORMIDABLE FEMMES join together in a benefit for CODEPINK against Bush's Stinkin' Oil War. (Yeah, there's a war going on, remember?) For seven trite dollars you can not only do your part and help this organization, but you will also have the once in a lifetime sxperience of seeing NYC's MOST NOTORIOUS WOMEN share the same stage:

LADY UNLUCK @ 11:00,
GROUNDED @ 10:30,
ICU @10:00,
SHE WOLVES @ 9:30,
DEVIL KIT @ 9:00,
COURTNEY LEE ADAMS JR @ 8:30,
STARK @ 8:00.

Get there early to catch the lovely Lani Ford kick off this momentous evening. The one & only Karen Curious has graciously donated her night for the cause so treat her well behind that bar!!!
Bring extra $$ cause you're gonna want to buy the commemorative shirt also.

 

The I-word is taking hold

A wall in Cambridge, MA

NYT columnist Bob Herbert used the I-word last Thursday in a column about the administration handling of the war in Iraq, "Dangerous Incompetence."

The incompetence at the highest levels of government in Washington has undermined the U.S. troops who have fought honorably and bravely in Iraq, which is why the troops are now stuck in a murderous quagmire. If a Democratic administration had conducted a war this incompetently, the Republicans in Congress would be dusting off their impeachment manuals.

(photo: Sooz/flickr)
 

July 25: The Freedom Follies are back!

The Freedom Follies are back!
Monday, July 25
at the
Cherry Lane Theater - NYC

To celebrate the second anniversary of THAW's ongoing pro-peace cabaret, July's Follies features the winners of our inaugural Playwriting Contest!
The chosen short plays come from across the United States and will become available to their entire THAW community as part of a developing e-activist toolkit:

GOLD STAR MOTHER
by Alina Trowbridge, San Francisco CA
NEXT
by Jewel Seehaus-Fisher, Highland Park NJ
PATRIOT GAME
by David Valdes Greenwood, Boston MA
TRUTH JUSTICE AND
by Michael Burgan, Chicago IL
THE SHORTEST DAY
by Phil Stockton, Oakland CA

Due to the special nature of this Follies, there is no Call for Participants. Regular Follies format will resume in August. However, as always, the Follies are free of charge!
 

July 18: "Hands off Juanita Young"

Juanita Young , mother of Malcolm Ferguson who was killed by NYPD March 1, 2000

HANDS OFF JUANITA YOUNG!
Trial Begins JULY 18TH!

Stand with the courageous activist on the first date of her trial

9 am-OCTOBER 22 COALITION & JUSTICE COMMITTEE PRESS CONFERENCE
(in front of the Bronx DA's office (across the street from the Bronx Criminal Courthouse)
ARGUMENTS BEGIN AT 10:00am
Bronx Supreme Court - Part 60 (4th floor - Judge Barrett's chambers)
851 Grand Concourse (off 161st Street), Bronx
(4/D to 161st Street)
Sign up to a shift to be in the courtroom to support Juanita during her trial (or call Justice Committee at 212-614-5343)


 

July 16:World Youth Festival fundraiser

World Youth Festival Fundraiser: "Re: re-act, re-spond, re-evalute, revolution"
July 16

Sputnik Bar and Gallery
262 Taffe Pl
Brooklyn NY
718-398-6666
[on Pratt campus: 2 blocks from G to Classon; C, S to Franklin; B38, B48 or B61 bus]

To come together in collective action, to build alliances, cross boundaries and to challenge the limitations of culture, age, and sexuality. "For Peace and Solidarity We struggle against Imperialism and War"

A multimedia event. A moment of creativity that will draw you in.
Poetry, music, dance, and imagery. The experience will make itself a part of you.

Doors open at 7pm
Guest DJs spinning soul, funk, house and survival beats.
$15 suggested donation. No one will be turned away.
Delectable delights for your tastebuds by CLovina's Creole.


Partial performers' list

Samiya Bashir-Poet
Kendra Durand "Wordizm"-Founding member of Poetic Voices
Hector Rivera-Vocals, congas
Olive Demetrius-singer/performance artist

 

July 12: Patriot Act-shun

PATRIOT ACT-SHUN!!

Do you care...
if the government taps your phone without your knowledge?
Do you care...
if the government tracks what books you read and what movies you rent?
Do you care...
if the government inspects your medical records?
If you do, join us for the Patriot Act-Shun!

*********

Tuesday, July 12 noon to 2PM,
Press Conference at 12:30PM.
NY Public Library on 5th Ave. and 41st St.

Show your support for the SAFE ACT and Civil Liberties Restoration Act, which would allow us to defend our homeland while retaining out basic civil liberties.

*********
SUPPORT THE SAFE and CLRA ACTS!
The SAFE Act is a bi-partisan bill that would place important limits on the government's surveillance powers and access to personal records.
The CLRA (Civil Liberties Restoration Act) reforms the Patriot Act, including limiting the secret seizure of records and addresses other civil liberties concerns.

RSVP to tsimone@pfaw.org and indicate if you plan to attend the rally and if you can help by volunteering at the rally or call (212)420-0440x13

 

Reminder: Close Guantanamo-July 4th action

New York City Event
Monday, July 4th, 2005 10am - Noon.
At 34th Street and 6th Ave., New York, New York
Readings from testimonials of detainees, their families, and their lawyers with Eve Ensler, Gloria Steinem, Center for Constitutional Rights, Code Pink, The Culture Project, Not in Our Name, United for Peace and Justice, and WEDO
 

How about firing George W. Bush?

I read Richard Cohen's (no relation) post-speech column in the WP and I kept saying, even until the very end, he has to conclude with a call for Bush's impeachment. But here is the conclusion:

The war Bush declared to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction is not the war being waged. The two have only one thing in common: rhetorical sleight of hand. Yet the consequences of pulling out of Iraq would be awful. The day Saigon fell I was ashamed for my country -- an ugly, disgraceful retreat. I don't want that to happen again. But unless Bush rethinks his strategy, fires some people who long ago earned dismissal, examines his own assumptions (what's the point of continuing to isolate Iran and Syria when we need them both to seal Iraq's borders?) and talks turkey to the American people, he will lose everything good he set out to do, including the example Iraq could set for the rest of the Middle East. I know Iraq is not Vietnam. But Tuesday night it sure sounded like it.

I don't get it. Didn't we once have a President who had a sign on his desk that said "the buck stops here"?
If he should fire "people who long ago earned dismissal," shouldn't we fire the man who's strategy is a disaster and who refuses to "talk turkey to the American people" (ie.lies).
Isn't it long past time to use the I-word? If the tables were turned the right-wing would have called for the President's impeachment during his first term. How long are we going to sit back and watch this mass murder of young U.S. men and women in Iraq and uncounted numbers of Iraqis and let it go on unchallenged?

Sept. 24-26, 2005: End the War on Iraq!

It's time to hold all pro-war politicians accountable for the deaths, the destruction, the lies, and the toll on our communities!

Join United for Peace and Justice in Washington, D.C. for three massive days of action against the war:
a major march, rally, and festival on Saturday, September 24;
an interfaith religious service and day of grassroots trainings on Sunday, September 25;
and a large-scale grassroots lobbying day and mass nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience on Monday, September 26.

A majority of Americans believe that this war never should have happened, but our elected representatives in Washington continue to rubber-stamp the Bush Administration's disastrous Iraq policies. They have given military recruiters nearly unrestricted access to our schools -- and the Pentagon nearly unrestricted access to our tax dollars. At a time when our vital social programs are eroding or completely decimated, an overwhelming majority in Congress recently approved Bush's request for an additional $82 billion in war funding, and there's already talk of another $50 billion appropriation this fall.