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Arctic Ice Cap May Completely Melt Away This Summer

common_terry — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:51:05 GMT

And all the trees may burn. And we still drive oil wars. And more children starve. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080627/iceless_north_080627/20080627?hub=CTVNewsAt11 Jun. 27 2008 - For the first time in modern history, the North Pole may be iceless this summer. Scientists say it's an even bet that sea ice in the region will completely disappear in the next few months, perhaps as soon as August. Ice at the North Pole quickly and significantly melted away last year, and that may be causing further melting this summer. Scientists say the disappearance of long-term and thicker ice formed over the years has disappeared. Now, most of the ice that's left is seasonal ice, which melts away much more quickly during warm weather. "This year there is a lot of young ice. There's always some, but this year there's a lot," Andy Mahoney, a researcher at the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center, told CTV.ca. Satellite observations indicate the ice remaining at the poles is melting faster than last year's rate, which was already a record year for Arctic ice loss. Scientists say whether or not the ice melts completely, this year's northern melt is yet another example of the impact that global warming is having on the planet's environment. "There were some people who were saying last year was a rogue year. If the same thing happens again a lot more people are going to be persuaded about the consequences of global warming," Mahoney said. "A lot of people think it's a very small change in temperature. This shows that the change in sea ice is quite a dramatic consequence." As the ice melts, interest in the region is intensifying. Canada and other nations that border the Arctic -- including Russia and the U.S. -- are scrambling to lay claims to vast parts of the area, which may someday allow new resource development and shipping lanes. "If the North Pole melts, then you don't have to worry about the Northwest Passage. It will still be significant, but going on top of the globe would be politically easier," Mahoney said. A UN panel is supposed to decide on control of the Arctic by 2020. Last year, Canada's Conservative government announced plans to acquire up to eight Arctic patrol ships and to build an army base in Resolute Bay and a naval station in Nanisivik. Under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Arctic countries have 10 years after ratification to prove their claims under the largely uncharted polar ice pack. All countries with claims to the Arctic have ratified the treaty, with the exception of the United States. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd0cOULgx7M At least the jellyfish are thriving! http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080621-9999-1n21jelly.html Purple-striped jellyfish are a sign of summer, as regular a visitor to San Diego as tourists from Iowa. In recent years, though, local sightings have risen dramatically, and exotic jellyfish species such as the black sea nettle have appeared in greater numbers. The inevitable result: Beach-goers stung by the hundreds, in the water and on the sand, San Diegan and Iowan alike – more than 200 per day for a while last year.

Save Oaks, Save Life.

common_terry — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:52:00 GMT

BREAK THE SIEGE AT GAZA GROVE Before the first fence went up around UC Berkeley's Memorial Oak Grove, the UC police have been trying to make life hard for the tree sitters. Their goal is to drive the people who live in this beautiful grove out, so they can spend a Billion Dollars on a new gym and then gutting and retrofitting the old stadium. Spending a Million Dollars to remove the tree sitters seems a small price to the rich men who profit from such projects. To most people, the tactics used by the extractors seems extreme. Cherry-pickers running into lines, and extractors cutting lines, on which sitters lives hang, stunned everyone who watched the events. It is hard to believe UC Berkeley would risk life to prevent so-called misdemeanors. But when we take into account UC Berkeley winning the account to build the new nuclear weapons for the USA, the British Petroleum Bio-Tech Fuels project, and the plans to pulverize the radioactive Bevatron, it does not seem out of line. For those who remember the free speech movement, People's Park, and James Rector shot dead, the tactics are typical. Now the final stage, to slowly malnourish the remaining tree-sitters. The UC will now try to ethnically cleanse the grove by making it harder and harder for the tree sitters to live, without actually having them literally drop dead from starvation. Of course, in a world where 20,000 children starve to death, and 10,000 die from dehydration every day on earth, why not starve out a bunch of dirty tree-huggers? Without hunger, capitalism would not survive. Hungry children work for pennies picking our cotton and sewing our clothes. We all eat food and drink tea grown in nations with starvation. We pay taxes used to send Marines to enforce the world order where a few have billions, while billions live in squalor. Where is the outrage? The tree sitters are life savers. They are saving our lives. It is time for the people of Berkeley to save them. -- see this video: UC Police Violence Against the Berkeley Tree-Sit http://youtube.com/watch?v=OlCca7vOTW8

we need eyes on the tree sit sunday 2pm

common_terry — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 00:18:55 GMT

if anyone wants to see some hard core activists, come visit the oak grove at 2pm sunday. piedmont ave UC berkeley just north of bancroft many long time ground support people have been arrested in the past 24 hours. this aspect of the roundups of the ground support people is getting almost no press. my friend cricket says all 10 tree sitters have had close calls with death during all the attacks. see the press videos at : http://saveoaks.com/SaveOaks/Main.html earth is melting and the media flies helicopters. http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/06/20/18509514.php Protecting nature from special interests: The Berkeley Memorial Oak Grove tree-sit protest is one scene in a world of transformation. The entire corrupt exploitative system of money, power, ego and self-interest is laid bare by the Berkeley Memorial Oak Grove tree-sit protest against the alignment of many other destructive profit-oriented industries including the sports industry, the construction industry, the automobile industry, the security industry, the chain link fence industry, the diesel generator and floodlight industries. All of these industries are shamefully participating in the destruction of more nature, more living beings, to the personal benefit of themselves as industries and as individuals involved in these kinds of practices. So what we end up with is a ubiquitous and oppressive urban landscape, the results of decades of mindless obsession with certain object fetishes in our lifestyles, determined largely by the big ticket industries, cars, entertainment, ego manipulation industries. This pyramid scheme is ruining our lives. Steering wheel slavery is ubiquitous. Air and noise pollution is ubiquitous. The land area used by the auto and sports industries relative to land area for growing healthy organic food for our community is indicative of the disproportionate values. Our urban designers and businesses profiting from construction and maintenance of this design have deeply skewed our quality of life. The healthy ecological city seems like a distant dream, when so many people are still bound by the patterns encouraged by shamefully skewed special interests such as the oil industry, the car industry, the entertainment industry, the food preparation, packaging, and distribution industries. The real estate industry and municipal planners that have systematically destroyed arable land with parking for private automobiles that must drive distances to centralized imported food distribution centers. Put yourself in each other's shoes. Throughout the entire cast of characters. The trees. The people from all walks of life. The other creatures that live among trees. The other plants. Fungi. Look at the delusions of success and realities of pollution and low quality of life in modern industrialized humans. Because corporate media has artificially inflated our egos, we are stuck driving around in circles, looking for food and entertainment, looking for parking spaces, filling the tank, holding on to a 'steering wheel'. Is a steering wheel really freedom? Is a football really freedom? Or are these things as mesmerizing as a baby's brightly-colored plastic toy, one who doesn't see the intention of the corporate lifestyle makers. Grow food. Ego inflation is ultimately a form of slavery. Clear the crumbling concrete artifacts of egos of past years. Dismantle your corporate mentalities that mislead you into destructive competition. Many people are participating in this self-destructive system because they simply follow their own role, prescribed by the system through their entire life. Others will see their way into other perspectives and realize a new way to see and communicate. Competitive sports and capitalism's profit motive both act hand in hand to further the destruction of quality of life and nature. The motive is not health or beauty at the system level, the environmental level, and so that level we all experience further degradation in our lifestyle and our filtering out the pollution has to increase. We're wasting resources and quality of life at the altar of ego. The oak grove was a nice place to play music and enjoy trees with other people, except for the noise and air pollution of the stream of traffic burning by. The special interests only want to increase the traffic because it's a way of getting more people to spend more money. The deep pockets of the criminal finance system that let's the almighty millions of dollars flow to the right people at the right time to get more people enslaved to the transportation/construction/entertainment businesses. The corporate media, the university, including 'university' spokespeople, and other pyramid scheme coalitions of profit-motivated organizations, often saturate the media with minor scatological accusations to avoid the bigger issues of corporate special interest exploitation and destruction of Berkeley natural habitat. Many issues still to be resolved. Many people still wallowing in their corporate-defined roles, like sheep. ----- Web links: Hot Topics: http://SaveOaks.com http://www.LifeAfterTheOilCrash.net/BreakingNews.html http://EcoCityBuilders.org http://postcarbon.org - The mission of Post Carbon Institute is to assist communities in the effort to Relocalize and adapt to an energy constrained world. http://FreePublicTransit.org http://CultureChange.org News: http://www.commondreams.org/ Understand the biased nature of advertising-based news web sites. Government spending, military waste: http://usaspending.gov Information: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change http://www.ipcc.ch/

Tree Sitters Statement

common_terry — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:51:51 GMT

http://saveoaks.com/SaveOaks/Main.html On the morning on June 17th as the raid began on there lofty protest, the tree-sitters issued a statement, here is an excerpt. "Without the community's support, this tree sit could not have made it so far and now your love, rage and solidarity are needed more than ever, As The court date approaches, we remain steadfast and strong regardless of what the judge rules. Who owns the trees, the air we breathe, the water we drink? Are these elements of life all for sale or do they belong to all of us? Do whatever you can to save the Oak Grove, no matter what the 'Court' says. Come to the Grove! Bring your friends and help us stop any attempt to extract tree sitters and tear down our Trees!” Love The Tree Sitters ---- http://www.mercurynews.com/alamedacounty/ci_9640847 ... Here at the birthplace of campus protest, where Mario Savio launched the Free Speech Movement in 1964, a dozen activists sit in trees, mostly coast live oaks, marked for the chain saw. They took to the trees in December 2006 to prevent the proposed $125 million facility, which would be built next to Memorial Stadium. The long-peaceful protest grew ugly in the last two days as the university started sending arborists to cut ropes, destroy traverse lines and dismantle platforms. "They tried to intimidate us with wrecking balls as close to my platform as they could. They could have easily knocked me off," said a tree-sitter known as Dumpster Muffin. "My platform started to shake," she said. "I was frightened. They're monsters, inhumane." Protesters retaliated by throwing urine and feces, even biting, to thwart eviction attempts. The university says that on Wednesday a woman refused to get off a rope line, then grappled with and bit the arm of an arborist. Pulled into a cherry picker, she was arrested in connection with the incident. Then a new protester climbed a telephone pole and disappeared into the branches - restoring the ranks. In a 129-page ruling on Wednesday, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller ruled that the athletic center, with certain exceptions, is in compliance with environmental and earthquake zoning laws. UC Berkeley attorney Charles Olson said the university said that the exceptions are "very minor technical issues" and that the project can move forward. By the end of next week, the university says it will have made the changes and will be ready to move ahead with the project. But an attorney for the tree-sitters and the California Oak Foundation disputed UC's claim of victory, calling the project dead because it won't be able to comply. On Thursday, quiet descended as both sides plotted their next move. But the tree-sitters continued their vigil. As of last week, the university had already racked up $375,000 in bills for fencing and extra police alone. "At the present time, there is no way to remove them in a safe fashion," said Dan Mogulof, UC Berkeley's executive director of public affairs. Forty police officers wearing hard hats stood in the grove area, securing the sidewalk adjacent to the grove to block supplies from reaching the tree-sitters. ... ------- -note: Dan Mogulofs tree name is Dan Mega-Liar. Happy Juneteenth. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1815936,00.html?imw=Y

Rev Jeremiah Wright is Right

common_terry — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:59:00 GMT

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-wright-transcripts-webmar29,0,5774556.story Many observers argue that Wright's sermons convey a more complex message than simple sound bites can express. ... SEPT. 16, 2001 ... "I heard Ambassador [Edward] Peck on an interview yesterday, did anybody else see him or hear him? He was on Fox News. This is a white man, and he was upsetting the Fox News commentators to no end. Did you see him, John? A white man. He pointed out, an ambassador, that what Malcolm X said when he got silenced by Elijah Muhammad was in fact true, that America's chickens are coming home to roost. "We took this country by terror away from the Sioux, the Apache, the Iroquois, the Comanche, the Arapaho, the Navajo. Terrorism. We took Africans from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism. We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel; we bombed the black civilian community of Panama, with stealth bombers, and killed unarmed teenagers and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hard-working fathers. We've bombed [Moammar] Gadhafi's home and killed his child. "Blessed are they who bash your children's heads against the rocks. We bombed Iraq; we killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to pay back an attack on our embassy. Killed hundreds of hard-working people, mothers and fathers who left home to go that day, not knowing that they would never get back home. "We've bombed Hiroshima, we've bombed Nagasaki, we've nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye. Kids playing in the playground, mothers picking up children after school, civilians not soldiers, people just trying to make it day by day. "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant. Because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards. "America's chickens are coming home to roost. Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred and terrorism begets terrorism. A white ambassador said that, y'all, not a black militant. Not a reverend who preaches about racism. An ambassador whose eyes are wide open and who's trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised. The ambassador said the people that we have wounded don't have the military capability we have but they do have individuals who are willing to die, to take thousands with them, and we need to come to grips with that. Let me stop my faith footnote right there. And ask you to think about this for the next few weeks if God grants us that. Turn back to your neighbor and say: 'Footnote is over.' "Come on back to my question to the Lord. What should our response be right now in light of such an unthinkable act? . . . This is a time of self-examination. The Lord said to me: 'How is our relationship doing, Jeremiah?... ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Why is Wright wrong? Can someone explain it to me. I can understand the point of view that God Forgive America, would sound more Christian than "God Damn America". ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Poll Does God Bless America for the multiple Genocides that made America Rich? Yes, wealth is a blessing. 5% 4 votes No, God Damn America. 34% 25 votes No, God Forgive America. 45% 33 votes No, but can we keep all the cash and dominate the world still with a half trillion dollar or so defense budget please? 8% 6 votes Not Sure. 5% 4 votes | 73 votes

Anti-Hunger Protests in Haiti

common_terry — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:53:41 GMT

NOTE: Anti-Hunger Riots are happening in many nations. Hungry people work cheap making our stuff. Wall Street profits. Timeline Haiti : http://timelines.ws/countries/HAITI.HTML 2004 Mar 1, Jean-Bertrand Aristide from the Central African Republic said in a telephone interview that he was "forced to leave" Haiti by U.S. military forces. (AP, 3/1/04)(SFC, 3/02/04, p.A1) VIDEO: http://www.zcommunications.org/zvideo/2644 http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/17337 ' April 26, 2008 By Jeb Sprague Source: Upside Down World Demonstrations that started in Le Cayes on Thursday, April 3rd, against soaring food prices spread across Haiti to Petit-Goagve, Gonaïves, Aquin and, by April 7, to the capital, Port-au-Prince. Anger over rising prices has been building for many months with basic food stuffs increasingly out of reach for the poor. Tires were set ablaze in the streets and thrown together to form barricades that paralyzed traffic for days. Numerous businesses were vandalized and looted, especially those selling food, as crowds vented their anger at the perceived indifference to their plight by the nation's elite, including the René Préval /Jacques Edouard Alexis administration. Broken glass on the streets near targeted buildings and cars became a common sight. Hunger now termed "Klorox" and "Battery Acid" by Haiti's poor, likens hunger to a chemical acid eating away at empty stomachs. These new slang terms to describe the mounting hunger have come into usage over the last few months. Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis resigned April 12, a move that was partly the work of sixteen senators who claimed they were responding to the huge demonstrations. Alexis appears to have sealed his fate by saying in a speech that many of the protesters were merely gangsters and drug dealers. ImageSome early reports in Haitian media outlets, owned by some of the small elite families in the country, also took this line, but it quickly became clear that the demonstrations were a massive outpouring of anger and that it would be unwise to dismiss as just criminal activity. Alexis correctly pointed out that Haiti is not the only country in the world that has been hit hard by rising food prices. One Haitian media outlet, Agence Haitienne de Presse, in an editorial criticized the senators who helped remove Alexis, explaining that Alexis was used as a convenient scapegoat for deep seated problems. The online alternative news outlet HIP (Haiti Information Project) noted that many of the senators opposed to Alexis were part of the elite political opposition to Haiti's former president Aristide, and that "...the censure of Alexis' government also signals the end of a tenuous political compromise between those who supported Aristide's ouster in 2004 and co-opted renegades of his Lavalas movement. Preval's Lespwa party base was built upon the Lavalas movement who saw him as a means to end repression following Aristide's ouster. Alexis' government was representative of a temporary truce between supporters of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the opposition that worked with the international community to remove him from office." They fear that with Alexis out a more reactionary replacement will further polarize political disputes between Haiti's rich and poor. One woman interviewed, Jacqueline, a street vendor whose commercial activities are considered illegal by the state, explained her situation in buying power. She said that Haitians like herself typically earn 75 gourdes (roughly $2 USD) per day, but an individual serving of rice now costs upwards of 150 gourdes. Similarly an individual serving of corn or wheat is 135 gourdes, while a box of eggs has risen to 175 gourdes. AT THE GATES OF THE NATIONAL PALACE On April 7 large crowds demonstrated outside the National Palace, including men and women of all ages, demanding that the Prime Minister reduce the price of basic food stuffs. The national police alongside MINUSTAH (U.N. mission stationed in Haiti) dispersed the crowd. Some protesters pelted the troops and police with rocks, and a large palace gate was brought toppling down. ImagePolice and soldiers tried in vain to put down the massive protests and protect private property that was being destroyed just blocks away from the palace. MINUSTAH set up defensive ramparts around the National Palace. Undeterred, some demonstrators continued to throw stones that cracked loudly against the armor of UN personnel carriers. In response, UN soldiers shot lachrymose bombs (gas to scatter the protesters) and fired guns at point blank range. Some deaths and many wounded were reported to have occurred in the melee. Richardson, a demonstrator from Carrefour, said that he would rather be killed in the street by a MINUSTAH bullet than die passively of hunger in his house. Some people shouted "We have our national police, we don't need MINUSTAH". Others stated that the powers behind the U.N. were part of the coup that ousted former President Jean Betrand Aristide in 2004. Protestors said that their situation has deteriorated horrendously since the 2004 coup d'etat and that the former Aristide administration, even under a near total aid embargo, had placed subsidized food banks in Haiti's poorest slums. Among protestors widespread support was apparent for Fanmi Lavalas, the political movement led by the exiled president. ImageIn March, before the latest "food protests", student activists appeared to have made some ground in reversing the ruinous policies that have decimated Haitian agriculture since 1986. At the time, in a response to the student protesters Haiti's Minister of Agriculture, Francois Severin, said he would adopt eleven specific recommendations that the students had put forward to revive Haiti's agricultural sector. But in a recent address Severin said that now the government will not be able to implement those recommendations. Under pressure from transnational financial institutions such as the IMF and World Bank, Haitian agriculture has been liberalized. Rural incomes and production has plummeted. Haiti's food supply has been made vulnerable to international price fluctuations as cheap, highly subsidized imports of rice and other staples put Haitian farmers out of work. RELIEF FOR NOW, MORE PROBLEMS ON THE HORIZON Debt relief for Haiti continues to be a subject for debate despite the country's predicament. The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the Jubilee Act, a bill which guarantees debt relief and additional benefits of debt relief for 67 impoverished countries. The legislation now moves to the U.S. Senate, where this Thursday there will be a hearing on the Jub Act. Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center of Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), based in Washington D.C., said that Haiti's short term problems with spiraling food prices result largely from US policy. "A big part of the story is biofuels. Land is being taken out of food production and used to grow crops for biofuels," he commented. ImageDespite being the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti lags behind many countries in the Americas in obtaining debt relief through a program run by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. A hard-hitting paper published in December by CEPR argues that the IMF and World Bank should disregard the rules of their HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Country) program: "Haiti's debt should be cancelled without further delay," said CEPR By April 14, demonstrations had slowed but it is widely agreed that the problem of mounting food prices will continue to plague the island nation. The Preval government appears to have realized it has no choice but to subsidize and negotiate price breaks for food for the poor, even though it has only put in place short term measures to offset the growing gap. The government of Venezuela, viewed increasingly as a close friend and ally to Haiti, sent hundreds of tons in food stocks which were distributed in short order. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in recent days has also been vocal in calling for increased food aid to Haiti to avert a crisis; UNOPS is busy meanwhile increasing its distribution of donated food. '

Student Arrested at UC Berkeley for Giving a Tree-Sitter a Bottle of Water.

common_terry — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:25:04 GMT

"april 1st...court date, no joke". video: - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AZB396-_CU - "tangled up in a situation with all these troublemakers". - dailycal.org/article/100706/student_reflects_on_arrest_at_wheeler_hall_tree-si - Student Reflects on Arrest At Wheeler Hall Tree-Sit Choice Wasn't a Matter Of Supporting the Protester-It Was About Human Decency Jessica Schley Last Thursday I gave water to a young man sitting in a tree on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. I was arrested for it. It took only a moment to make the decision to throw him water, and I was told by another student that I would likely be arrested, but I acted because I doubted the existence of a law in which a person could legally be denied water, a basic human need. I was cited for PC 148a(1), which is disobeying the orders of a police officer. I didn't do it because I knew the man, or think his cause is just. He calls himself "Fresh," and he is advocating, among other things, the democratization of the UC Regents. Before Thursday, I hardly knew a movement such as his existed. The whole point of being arrested is that it is supposed to be humiliating, but when you know what principles you stand for, and you know what you are getting yourself into, the process is not shameful; it is enlightening. I held up a peace sign with my cuffed hands while I was being led to the cop car. People were chanting. The car would not start; the battery was dead! "That's the fleet for you," an officer said under his breath. The crowd began to jeer and taunt. They brought in another car, and finally drove me away. I talked with the police officer on the way to the jail. He asked me why I "had to go getting myself tangled up in a situation with all these troublemakers". I was silent. "You don't know, do you?" "Sir, I know exactly why I did it." It turns out that cop actually sympathizes with the protesters: "The world is going in the wrong direction, and you can't get change fast enough through the bureaucratic way. Sometimes you got to break the law to get people's attention." And cops have got to do their part, and arrest you. When we got to the station, a booking cop said "Oh! What a relief, a tree- sitter! So glad not to be dealing with those Code Pink people anymore." She had misidentified me. I am not "a regular," but at least the tree people have a reputation here at the station for being compliant and polite, and I followed suit. The iron hand of the law was light on me. I'd never been in trouble before and I am a student, so they let me go before the night was out. I filled a special role in a grand play on Thursday. Just the way my handcuffed arms behind my back fit into the molding of the squad car seat, my actions fit into the molding of the events that unfolded. Many objective observers have come before me, many others will come after, and my story is not special or unique. I did not do anything particularly criminal; in fact, the police act of denying water to a person is questionably legal, so my choice was to comply with human rights and not with the alleged order of the officer. Fresh's cause is not mine, and mine is not his. But for a fleeting moment, our purposes, our basic human needs -his for water and mine for human decency-coincided. Jessica Schley is a UC Berkeley student. Reply to opinion@dailycal.org.

Bush goes to Africa as World Hunger gets Worse

common_terry — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 07:01:13 GMT

guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/26/food.unitednations ' The United Nations warned yesterday that it no longer has enough money to keep global malnutrition at bay this year in the face of a dramatic upward surge in world commodity prices, which have created a "new face of hunger". "We will have a problem in coming months," said Josette Sheeran, the head of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP). "We will have a significant gap if commodity prices remain this high, and we will need an extra half billion dollars just to meet existing assessed needs." With voluntary contributions from the world's wealthy nations, the WFP feeds 73 million people in 78 countries, less than a 10th of the total number of the world's undernourished. Its agreed budget for 2008 was $2.9bn (£1.5bn). But with annual food price increases around the world of up to 40% and dramatic hikes in fuel costs, that budget is no longer enough even to maintain current food deliveries. The shortfall is all the more worrying as it comes at a time when populations, many in urban areas, who had thought themselves secure in their food supply are now unable to afford basic foodstuffs. Afghanistan has recently added an extra 2.5 million people to the number it says are at risk of malnutrition "This is the new face of hunger," Sheeran said. "There is food on shelves but people are priced out of the market. There is vulnerability in urban areas we have not seen before. There are food riots in countries where we have not seen them before." WFP officials say the extraordinary increases in the global price of basic foods were caused by a "perfect storm" of factors: a rise in demand for animal feed from increasingly prosperous populations in India and China, the use of more land and agricultural produce for biofuels, and climate change. The impact has been felt around the world. Food riots have broken out in Morocco, Yemen, Mexico, Guinea, Mauritania, Senegal and Uzbekistan. Pakistan has reintroduced rationing for the first time in two decades. Russia has frozen the price of milk, bread, eggs and cooking oil for six months. Thailand is also planning a freeze on food staples. After protests around Indonesia, Jakarta has increased public food subsidies. India has banned the export of rice except the high-quality basmati variety. "For us, the main concern is for the poorest countries and the net food buyers," said Frederic Mousseau, a humanitarian policy adviser at Oxfam. "For the poorest populations, 50%-80% of income goes on food purchases. We are concerned now about an immediate increase in malnutrition in these countries, and the landless, the farmworkers there, all those who are living on the edge." Much of the blame has been put on the transfer of land and grains to the production of biofuel. But its impact has been outweighed by the sharp growth in demand from a new middle class in China and India for meat and other foods, which were previously viewed as luxuries. "The fundamental cause is high income growth," said Joachim von Braun, the head of the International Food Policy Research Institute. "I estimate this is half the story. The biofuels is another 30%. Then there are weather-induced erratic changes which caused irritation in world food markets. These things have eaten into world levels of grain storage. "The lower the reserves, the more nervous the markets become, and the increased volatility is particularly detrimental to the poor who have small assets." The impact of climate change will amplify that already dangerous volatility. Record flooding in west Africa, a prolonged drought in Australia and unusually severe snowstorms in China have all had an impact on food production. "The climate change factor is so far small but it is bound to get bigger," Von Braun said. "That is the long-term worry and the markets are trying to internalise it." ...' ==================================== Hillary Clinton from the Wall Street journal on Bush and Africa. online.wsj.com/article/SB120397059037691421.html '... I have been to Africa and have seen how disease —HIV, AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria — undermine progress across an entire continent. I pushed our government to start battling the global AIDS epidemic because this affects our security too. I'm very hopeful that we will make progress in Africa dealing with the multiplicity of challenges that the continent faces. It was my great honor to go to Africa in the mid 1990s as a precursor to my husband's trip and I applaud President Bush and Mrs. Bush for going back. We need a consistent coherent strategy in dealing with Africa and that is something that I will promote. ...' ================================== we do feel their pain. -t

We are One

common_terry — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:25:50 GMT

http://www.one.org/ Join the ONE Campaign to raise public awareness about the issues of global poverty, hunger, disease and efforts to fight such problems in developing countries. Hunger is Terror. Issues MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGs) The Millennium Development Goals set a framework for how the world could see the end of extreme poverty. In September, 2000, The United States joined with 188 nations to affirm a set of international development goals in the United Nations Millennium Declaration. The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) reflect an understanding of the devastation caused by global hunger and poverty and aim for a world that is free of such suffering. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest by 2015. Our leaders committed to these goals and it is up to us, as Americans and ONE supporters, to make sure that America keeps its promises to the world’s most vulnerable people. HIV/AIDS, TUBERCULOSIS, and MALARIA More than 38 million people around the world are infected by HIV/AIDS, 25 million in Africa alone. Left untreated, AIDS leads to an early death for people in their most productive years who are needed to raise crops and families, teach school and care for the sick. For more information about global AIDS click here. MORE AND BETTER AID International assistance saves lives, directly helping and empowering individuals to help themselves. Increasing international assistance by an amount equal to just ONE percent of the U.S. budget will: * Reduce by half the number of people in the world who suffer from hunger. * Provide free access to primary education for 77 million out-of-school children. * Provide access to clean water to 450 million people and basic sanitation to 700 million people. * Prevent 5.4 million young children from dying of poverty-related illnesses each year. * Save 16,000 lives a day by fighting HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. EDUCATION FOR ALL Parents in Malawi know just as well as parents in Missouri that education is crucial to their children's future. But around the world, 77 million children do not go to grade school because their parents cannot afford fees, books or uniforms for all their children. For more information about getting children into school click here. CLEAN WATER & SANITATION ONE person in seven has no access to clean water for drinking, cooking or washing. In addition to spreading disease, this has multiple negative effects -- girls growing up in villages without water are far less likely to attend school because they're too busy spending hours walking to and from the nearest water source. For more information about clean water click here. TRADE JUSTICE As much as people in poor countries appreciate development assistance, no one wants to rely on a handout -- they want to trade their way out of poverty -- but international rules make it difficult. A fair trade system would give people in poor countries the chance to earn their way out of poverty by participating in the world economy. For more information about trade rules click here. DEBT CANCELLATION Every year Sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest region of the world, spends $14.5 billion dollars repaying debts to the world's richest countries and international institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Though we've made efforts to relieve them of these unpayable debts, many poor countries still spend more each year on debt than on health care or education. For more information about debt cancellation click here. MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH Health systems in poor countries around the world are rapidly deteriorating, and in some cases, have failed entirely. Young children and pregnant women bear the brunt of these inadequate health systems. Every year, 10 million children die before their fifth birthday, nearly all of them from preventable causes. Each year, more than 500,000 mothers die from complications during child birth. There are affordable technologies and interventions in existence that would prevent nearly all of these deaths. CORRUPTION While corruption is harmful to all governments, losing resources to corrupt leaders is particularly devastating in poor countries where every dollar lost results in one less child in school or one less well dug to provide clean water. Approaches like America's Millennium Challenge which direct assistance to honest governments are the most effective, as is channeling assistance through private (and faith-based) relief and development agencies. For more information about fighting corruption in the poorest countries click here. FOOD Around the world, ONE person in seven goes to bed hungry each night. We need to address hunger not just by giving food, but helping farmers in poor countries grow better crops and helping countries build farm-to-market roads so farmers can supply distant cities. For more information about hunger click here. ORPHANS 18 million children have already lost one or both parents to AIDS, 12 million of them are in Africa alone. Unless more is done, there will be 25 million of these children around the world by 2010. We have the opportunity to help. For more information about orphans, click here. HOUSING The world is experiencing a global housing crisis. Nearly 1 billion people live in substandard housing without clean water or adequate sanitation, including more than 14 million refugees and internally displaced people living in tents or other temporary shelters. An increasing number of these people are urban slum dwellers, and every week more than a million people are born in, or move to cities in the developing world. If no serious action is taken, the United Nations reports that the number of slum dwellers worldwide will rise over the next 30 years to nearly 2 billion. For more information about housing conditions around the world, click here. ONE Voice. ONE Vote. Add your signature to the ONE Declaration.

Global Warming is Worse than Al Gore Says

common_terry — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 17:24:32 GMT

bbc video , global dimming: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=39520879762623193&q=global+dimming&total=84&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0 ========================= http://www.alternet.org/environment/64735?page=entire -- Ice Caps Melting Fast: Say Goodbye to the Big Apple? By Paul Brown, AlterNet. Posted October 10, 2007. The talk of sea level rise should not be in centuries, it should be decades or perhaps even single years. And coastal regions like New York and Florida are in the front line for devastation. -- It is hard to shock journalists and at the same time leave them in awe of the power of nature. A group returning from a helicopter trip flying over, then landing on, the Greenland ice cap at the time of maximum ice melt last month were shaken. One shrugged and said:"It is too late already." What they were all talking about was the moulins, not one moulin but hundreds, possibly thousands. "Moulin" is a word I had only just become familiar with. It is the name for a giant hole in a glacier through which millions of gallons of melt water cascade through to the rock below. The water has the effect of lubricating the glaciers so they move at three times the rate that they did previously. Some of these moulins in Greenland are so big that they run on the scale of Niagra Falls. The scientists who accompanied these journalists on the trip were almost as alarmed. That is pretty significant because they are world experts on ice and Greenland in particular. We were visiting Ilulissat, Greenland, once a stronghold of Innuit hunters but now with so little ice that the dog sleds are in danger of falling through even in the depth of winter. But it is not the lack of sea ice that worries scientists and should be of serious concern to the inhabitants of coastal zones across the world. Cities like New York and states like Florida are in the front line. Scientists know this already, but just to give you some idea of the problem, the Greenland ice cap is melting at such a fast rate it is triggering earthquakes as pieces of ice several cubic kilometres in size break up. Scientists say the acceleration of melting and subsequent speeding up of giant glaciers could be catastrophic in terms of sea level rise and make previous predictions published this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) far too low. The glacier at Ilulissat, which it is believed spawned the iceberg which sank the Titantic, is now flowing three times faster into the sea than it was 10 years ago. Robert Correll, chairman of the Artic Climate Impact Assessment, from Washington told me:"We have seen a massive acceleration of the speed with which these glaciers are moving into the sea. The ice is moving at 2 metres an hour on a front five kilometres long and 1,500 metres deep. "That means that this one glacier puts enough fresh water into the sea in one day to provide drinking water for a city the size New York or London for a year." Professor Correll, who is also director of the global change programme at the Heinz Centre in Washington said the estimates of sea level rise in the IPCC report in February had been "conservative" and based on data two years old. The range of rise this century had been predicted to be 20 to 60 centimetres, but would be the upper end of this range at a minimum and some now believed it could be two metres. This would have catastrophic effects for European and US coastlines. He said newly invented ice penetrating radar showed that the melt water was pouring through to the bottom of the glacier creating a melt water lake 500 metres deep causing the glacier "to float on land. "These melt water rivers are lubricating the glacier, like applying oil to a surface and causing it to slide into the sea. It is causing a massive acceleration which could be catastrophic." The glacier is now moving at 15 kilometres a year into the sea although in periodic surges it moves even faster. He has seen a surge, which he had measured as moving five kilometres in 90 minutes - an extraordinary event. If all of Greenland melts, something we were previously assured would take thousands of years, but now could be hundreds, then sea level round the world would rise seven metres. That is without any contribution from the Antarctic, the glaciers of Alaska, the Rockies, the Himalayas, or the ocean water expanding as it warms. So the talk of sea level rise should not be in centuries, it should be decades or perhaps even single years. For 10,000 years, during all of human civilisation sea level remained stable leading us to believe that coastlines remained roughly in the same place. A century ago the sea began to rise one millimetre a year, 20 years ago it had reached two millimetres and this century it has risen to 3 millimetres. This annual rise may not seem much but add hurricane storm surges and high tides and we are soon saying good bye to a lot of coastal settlements -- like the Big Apple. Switch forward a week from the helicopter ride to George W. Bush's meeting of 16 of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters in Washington last month and what do we hear. We hear lots of rhetoric about how, along with terrorism, climate change is the biggest threat to the earth -- although the catastrophic sea level rise facing our major coastal cities does not rate a mention. But instead of decisive political action (as with terrorism) we get suggestions from the President of voluntary cuts in emissions, down to the government of each country, and then next summer another conference to discuss where we have got to -- which on past form will be nowhere at all. It did not sound like the much needed change of heart from the President, but just another delaying tactic to tide him over until his term of office ends. Although it may sound like it, the commentators in Europe are not singling out America for criticism, although it has to be said as often as possible that the US is the world's most profligate nation when it comes to fossil fuel consumption, AND has rejected the only legally binding international agreement that could do something about it. But Europeans are not doing enough either. We need convincing that our own leaders have enough political will to reach the tiny Kyoto targets that are the minimum first step to tackling this problem. The public hears the latest scientists' warnings that an 80% cut in greenhouse gas emissions is needed if we are to stave off catastrophic climate change, yet wait in vain for the policies needed to achieve them. In my book, protestors wearing George Bush masks are pictured "fiddling while the earth burns." Maybe he is just the lead violinist of the orchestra. copyright Paul Brown 2007 Digg! See more stories tagged with: environment, sea ice, ice melt, ice caps, global warming, climate change, sea levels Paul Brown was the environment correspondent for The Guardian newspaper for 16 years and has worked in newspaper journalism for more than 40 years. He has written extensively about climate change, population, biodiversity, pollution, energy, desertification, and ocean management, and is the author of several books on the environment. www.globalwarningbook.com -- bbc video , global dimming: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=39520879762623193&q=global+dimming&total=84&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Oak Grove : Police Arrest 21 Students for Free Speech on Campus

common_terry — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 21:11:46 GMT

21 Students Arrested in Oaks Protest. Friday Sept 14: Thirty seven UC Berkeley students joined with 1964 Free Speech Movement leader Michael Rossman to speak out against the UC Berkeley administration's fencing in of tree-sit protesters at the Memorial Oak Grove and in support of preservation for the grove. Wearing yellow shirts that read "Free Speech" on one side and "Free Trees" on the other students scaled the fence and delivered food and water to the tree-sitters, 21 students were arrested in the protest. One student, Francisco Ramos (Astro-Physics graduate studies) remains in police custody. http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_6903803 http://www.bayareanewsgroup.com/multimedia/iba/2007/tree0914/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5AO2jL8LMM - the students were dancing when they were arrested for free speech. _________________________________________________________________ New York Times Coverage of the Memorial Oak Grove http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/education/13trees.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1189940688-Xt2OD40rCtFbaADz/faCyA

Videos on the Web

common_terry — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 06:14:24 GMT

The Trap episodes 1-3 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8372545413887273321 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7849982478877371384 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3291992041130722257 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-354061731360218518 Why We Fight The BBC presents Why We Fight by Charlotte Street, a documentary on the commerce of war, and how the military industrial complex profits so much from war, that it must create wars to continue the growth of it's business. A classic must-see film. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-354061731360218518 Racism a History - The Colour of Money: This episode examines to what extent racism is a product of 17th century economic globalisation. With the huge profits of racism fuelling the slave trade, justification for racism was emphasised by generalisations of the inferiority of non-white Europeans. This was challenged during the Age Of Enlightenment during the 18th century, as well as by slaves themselves, particularly the Black Jacobins of Haiti in the 1790's who, spurred on by the French Revolution, campaigned for their rights and defeated their French masters as well as British invaders. -i really suggest you see the start of part 4 if you cant watch it all. part 1 is great too tho and ends with the haitians agreeing to pay reperations to france for their freedom. i wonder if france will pay haiti back? haiti was devasted by the payments. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-354061731360218518 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=666048701355447870 This is the mindblowing 5-part video documentary series Evidence of Revision whose purpose is to present the publicly unavailable and even ... all » suppressed historical audio, video and film recordings largely unseen by the American and world public relating to the assassination of the Kennedy brothers, the little known classified "Black Ops" actually used to intentionally create the massive war in Viet Nam, the CIA "mind control" programs and their involvement in the RFK assassination and the Jonestown massacre and other important truths of our post-modern time. The U.S. Government's Orwellian "Office of Public Diplomacy" has been in existence in various forms and under various names since World War ONE. The union of American governance and American corporate interests began in Abraham Lincoln's day and the massaging of "public truth" began even before the Roman Empire. The more you know about "real history" versus "official history", the better equipped you are to see behind the lies of our times, even as they are told to you. Evidence of Revision sweeps "official truth" into the dustbin of history as it may be revised even as it is being written. Each part cca 100 min. long, 8 hours all together. A must see for everyone Apr 12, 2007 Part 1: The assassinations of Kennedy and Oswald as never seen before Part 2: The "Why" of it all referenced to Viet Nam and LBJ http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5335724479269105967 Part 3: LBJ, Hoover and others. What so few know even today. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2334637168204169083 Part 4: The RFK assassination as never seen before http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=679700833693499618&q=evidence+of+revision+4&total=24&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0 Part 5: The RFK assassination continued, MK ULTRA and the Jonestown massacre... all related. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8273110340777778333

iraq for sale

common_terry — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 01:13:48 GMT

short videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cJlJudDtVE&mode=related&search= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7S8TRIyDjs&mode=related&search= more pictures from early in the war: http://www.robert-fisk.com/iraqwarvictims_mar2003.htm Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker, the one who mainstreamed the Abu Gahrib story, has confirmed with insiders that Bush and the Israeli Government planned months in advance that any incident, no matter how small, would ignite a broad and punishing response by Israel in a preemptive move to start a war with Iran. Bush's Neocon advanced plan actually included Israel destroying Hezbollah's missles as pre-cursor to an attack on Iran. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5eBrfrWoTk&mode=related&search= if you have to buy gasoline , boycott chevron. http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0820-01.htm " In a 1998 speech at the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, Chevron CEO Kenneth Derr candidly remarked: "Iraq possesses huge reserves of oil and gas -- reserves I'd love Chevron to have access to." He then voiced his support for the current sanctions regime. Condoleezza Rice, perhaps the president's most influential national security adviser, was a board member of Chevron before going to work in the White House. Chevron even named one of its supertankers in her honor. " -------------- http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/08/business/08chevron.php " Chevron, the second-largest American oil company, is preparing to acknowledge that it should have known kickbacks were being paid to Saddam Hussein on oil it bought from Iraq as part of a defunct United Nations program, according to investigators. The admission is part of a settlement being negotiated with United States prosecutors and includes fines totaling $25 million to $30 million, according to the investigators, who declined to be identified because the settlement was not yet public. " ------------- " 08 Aug 2007 10:59 BST Chevron, Total In Svcs Pact On Iraq Majnoon Field Total, Chevron and Iraqi officials met in June to discuss the implementation of the agreement. The deal, however, doesn't yet involve the Iraqi government. "There is no deal for a production-sharing agreement" on Majnoon since the country's long-delayed hydrocarbons law has yet to be ratified, the person said. "But the services contract gives (Total and Chevron) a large advance," on other companies, the person added. Majnoon had a daily production capacity of around 50,000 barrels prior to the U.S.-led war in Iraq in 2003, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's statistical arm. The field has estimated total reserves in place of 12 billion barrels, "

the weird moon of saturn

common_terry — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 09:22:02 GMT

the photo is from nasa of iapetus, one of the large moons of saturn. look closely at the 8 mile high straight ridge. that is weird. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/tiff/PIA06166.tif here is a description of the photo from a standard astronomy sight. http://www.solarviews.com/eng/iapetus.htm "... On New Year's Eve 2004, Cassini flew past Saturn's intriguing moon Iapetus, capturing the four visible light images that were put together to form this global view. The scene is dominated by a dark, heavily-cratered region, called Cassini Regio, that covers nearly an entire hemisphere of Iapetus. Iapetus is 1,436 kilometers (892 miles) across. The view is centered on the moon�s equator and on roughly 90 degrees west longitude -- a location that always faces the direction of Iapetus's orbital motion around Saturn. Within Cassini Regio, and especially near the equator, dark deposits with a visual reflectivity of only about 4 percent coat nearly everything with remarkable uniformity. However, at latitudes of about 40 degrees, the surface transitions to a much brighter, icy terrain near the pole where the brightest icy materials have reflectivity over 60 percent. ... The most unique, and perhaps most remarkable feature discovered on Iapetus in Cassini images is a topographic ridge that coincides almost exactly with the geographic equator. The ridge is conspicuous in the picture as an approximately 20-kilometer wide (12 miles) band that extends from the western (left) side of the disc almost to the day/night boundary on the right. On the left horizon, the peak of the ridge reaches at least 13 kilometers (8 miles) above the surrounding terrain. Along the roughly 1,300 kilometer (800 mile) length over which it can be traced in this picture, it remains almost exactly parallel to the equator within a couple of degrees. The physical origin of the ridge has yet to be explained. It is not yet clear whether the ridge is a mountain belt that has folded upward, or an extensional crack in the surface through which material from inside Iapetus erupted onto the surface and accumulated locally, forming the ridge. ..." now if you really want to have your mind blown, go to Richard Hoagland's site. http://www.enterprisemission.com/moon1.htm he argues this yin yang moon is an ancient spaceship. and now there is the new pictures of the hexagon on saturn: http://www.happynews.com/news/3292007/cassini-images-bizarre-hexagon-saturn.htm

'These Are Sacred Sites' - www.SaveOaks.com

common_terry — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 19:44:37 GMT

The Oak Grove is on the front page at http://sfgate.com/ today the 21st. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/21/BAGDAO8BDV1.DTL The tree-sitters hoping to stop an athletic training center next to Memorial Stadium in Berkeley say the site may deserve protection as home to an American Indian burial ground. The protesters, who have been roosting in the oak grove since Dec. 2, pointed Tuesday to a UC archaeological survey from 1925 stating that human remains were removed from the area when the stadium was constructed. "I think this is a significant find and the area should be protected," said Stephan Volker, attorney for the California Oak Foundation, one of four groups suing UC over the proposed renovation of Memorial Stadium and construction of the $125 million sports training center. The center would uproot oak trees that the protesters want saved. Volker said his group's lawsuit will be amended to reflect the presence of the remains. ...

another raid

common_terry — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 03:02:40 GMT

they took the place for the sit on thursday. http://orovillemr.com/news/bayarea/ci_5225747 still we want people to come and visit whenever they can esp thursday. old article ends with a quote from me o. http://www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=22610

SAVE OAKS THURSDAY

common_terry — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 19:37:29 GMT

Dear Friends of the Oaks, See www.SAVEOAKS.com for more info. You are invited to participate in a Community Tree Sit-In this Thursday Feb 15 to make a major statement of support on behalf of the Oak Grove Tree-Sit. This is a call for volunteers to take brief 30 minute to one hour turns in a low height secure tree platform. (This is the same platform where Shirley Dean, Betty Olds, and Sylvia McLaughlin sat, safely accessible via ladder.) We're holding this event because UC administration is telling the media that the tree-sit protest is not supported by the broader community. The University Administration also announced Monday that they are considering plans to fence off the grove and evict the current tree-sitters. This is a critical moment. Your support can make a real difference. To demonstrate just how diverse our supporters are, including students, faculty members, and community members, we're asking you to please come join us for the event on Thursday. The event will be structured as follows: - Volunteer Tree-Sitters will spend a 1/2 hour to 1 hour in the tree. (WEATHER expected to be dry!) - Press conference Thurs at 9am (Please come, whether you are a tree-sit volunteer or just supporter) - a sit-in/vigil for 24 hours, from Thurs 9am to Fri at 9am. If you would like to participate, please contact Matthew at 510-841-4061 or 510-684-7233 (feel free to leave a voicemail), or respond to this email, and we can answer any questions you have and schedule you for a time to sit in the tree (which can be anytime between Thurs 9am and Fri 9am). Thanks for your continued support! For the trees, the Save the Oaks at the Stadium Coalition map: http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?searchtype=address&country=US&addtohistory=&searchtab=home&formtype=address&popflag=0&latitude=&longitude=&name=&phone=&level=&cat=&address=2245+Piedmont+Avenue&city=Berkeley&state=ca&zipcode=

Free Speech Movement Berkeley '007

common_terry — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 21:54:15 GMT

Happy Martin Luther King Day! Take Action and come by the tree sit at the Oak Grove in front of Memorial Stadium UC Berkeley on Olmsted designed Piedmont Ave. Watch Running Wolf predict the raid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUghblcaF8c Police officer in a tie explains "We are just trying to restore the area to it's natural state" http://youtube.com/watch?v=KT2qgSQwYH8&mode=related&search= Strawberry Creek used to run with falls in a canyon, but the University filled it in and built Memorial stadium over it. Will the cops tear down the stadium to restore the area to its natural state? -- hey lets see what right wing republicans on free republic have to say about the police raid on the oak grove: <blockquote>1 I would love to see somebody chop down a tree with one of these idiots in it. 2 *Look's down at his boy* "C'mon son, grab your pelletgun, we're going to the park." 3 That would have been my solution as well. I would chop away while somebody else videotaped it for upload to YouTube later. 4 Trees are a crop. </blockquote> --- I Moved out of my apartment in Oakland. I am living in the Oak Grove. After we save old growth trees in Berkeley, we will save the old growth trees in the Amazon, we will save life on earth. In a world which is quickly melting, we need every old tree we have to absorb CO2. "Public safety" demands it. I woke up in the middle of the raid. Police had already cleared the main camp site, but hadn't noticed me on the edge of the grove. I started walking straight into the middle of the grove, to look for my stuff. I was quickly ordered to the sidewalk and complied. I watched the police load piles of stuff into a big front hoe machine which dumped it into a dumpster. I asked nicely for my computer, backpack and at least my passport back. I was ignored. I asked less nicely if they are keeping my passport so i could not leave the country. I was ignored. I got more and more stressed out as I continued to watch things being dumped into the dumpster. All day I feared I was not getting my passport back. At 2pm, Officer Wade who had ignored me earlier in the day, suddenly treated me with great respect and told me I would get my things back. I went to the station later in the afternoon and my computer worked, tho the (very tough) bag was filthy. My passport and other things were undamaged as well. They still have my bright green 2 person tent. I didn't even bother asking for it as they want us to be cold. Other people have been asking for all the "evidence of lodging" to no avail. My friend Ayr asked the police for our paints back, but the police said it was evidence of community building. Gosh, I want to go to jail for community building and climbing trees! (Ive already been arrested for riding bikes with friends). We have plenty of blankets coming in but we need more tarps. We always need food and drinks. (More Organic Greens!) We always need more parents and kids climbing the easy to climb trees. We will put you on our list of tree climbers, so the police can arrest us all. (they even claim the students are trespassing!) The Oak Grove is a beautiful place. And we have the laws, (if not the law), on our side. http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html <blockquote>Bill of Rights Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. </blockquote> http://www.consrv.ca.gov/CGS/rghm/ap/index.htm <blockquote>The Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning Act's main purpose is to prevent the construction of buildings used for human occupancy on the surface trace of active faults. </blockquote> Hayward fault helicopter tour http://quake.usgs.gov/research/geology/hf_map/GE_helicopter.htm

Living in an Oak Grove

common_terry — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 20:57:51 GMT

I've moved from Oakland, and into an Oak Grove. UC Berkeley want to cut down some 200 year old coastal oak trees in order to win a national championship in football. Supporters of killing these trees believe a better football team will attract better students. (congrats to MITs football team in winning a game this season against framingham state 21-14). Hopefully UCal will win before the low lands of Berkeley flood. http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2007-01-11-hansen-warming_x.htm <blockquote>MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. — The effects of global warming are being felt around the world and unless international efforts are launched within the next 10 years, species will disappear and the Earth will be a vastly less habitable planet by the end of the century, according to NASA scientist James E. Hansen. "Global warming is already starting, and there's going to be more of it. I think there is still time to deal with global warming, but we need to act soon. Humans now control global climate, for better or worse," Hansen said Tuesday at an annual gathering of meteorologists.</blockquote> -- http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-01-10-treesitters_x.htm <blockquote>BERKELEY, Calif. — On a campus where protest seems like a rite of passage — free speech, wars, apartheid, nuclear arms, laboratory animal abuse — the latest spectacle of civil disobedience has drawn an unlikely cast of sympathizers. Siding with a band of free-spirited tree sitters blocking the University of California's plans to renovate its football stadium are some decidedly establishment types: the city of Berkeley, homeowners in an adjacent, upscale neighborhood and fans of the resurgent Cal Bears worried they'll lose a free hillside view of games. Four lawsuits have been filed charging that the university did a flawed environmental impact report, but it's the tree sitters who have brought national attention to what otherwise would be a local land-use battle. They occupy six of 42 mature trees — including one towering redwood — that the university wants gone to make way for a $125 million athletic training facility next to the stadium. Most of the 42 are live oaks, a native, once-abundant species here before urbanization.</blockquote> 42! While that is an meaningful number, don't believe it. They will kill more than 42 trees. $125 million dollars could be spent to study how Humans control global climate. Why spend so much money to win at football? <blockquote>Plans call for planting three saplings around the stadium for each tree cut down. ... The sitters, most of whom aren't students, are skeptical of the replanting promise. "It's not good enough. This grove is already a whole ecosystem," says Jessica Welsh, 20. "If you kill it, you can't make another one."</blockquote> anyone think 3 saplings will absorb anywhere near the CO2 of 1 old tree? these UCal people need to study. Earth is Melting! and Jessica is a Walsh, not a Welsh! the foxes are quite wily in the grove. (i never saw a fox up close till i moved in to the grove. they are beautiful animals)! <blockquote>The Hayward earthquake fault, one of California's most dangerous, runs directly beneath the football field. The university wants to move coaches and athletes who work and train in the stadium to the new, safer facility. "We care a great deal about the natural environment," says Marie Felde, a university spokeswoman. "We believe the safety of people in the stadium overrode the trees."</blockquote> so its safe to have people train 50 feet from a fault line? the safety of the planets' future seems not to be a concern. <blockquote>Zachary Running Wolf — a Blackfoot Indian, self-described flower child and losing Berkeley mayoral candidate last November — also got a ticket and only "reclaimed" his tree this week. Welsh and he will fight their tickets.</blockquote> we have alotta tickets in our group and one person in jail. http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?issue=01-05-07&storyID=26021 <blockquote> Ariel DeHaviland, 25, was booked on suspicion of trespassing and for violating an order to leave campus and stay away for seven days, said UCPD Capt. Guillermo Beckford. Section 626.6 of the California Penal Code allows campus police, acting on the orders of the chancellor or a designated subordinate, to arrest anyone who is “committing any act likely to interfere with the peaceful conduct of the activities of the campus or facility, or has entered the campus or facility for the purpose of committing any such act.” If convicted, he could face a maxium of a $500 fine and six months in County Jail.</blockquote> Section 626.6 of the California Penal Code? Are all those 6s a sign? -- The pro-trees plan has the most famous landscape architect. http://www.cp.berkeley.edu/lhp/significance/history.html <blockquote>The Olmsted plan envisioned a picturesque park-like campus, stemming from Olmsted's belief that the natural order of landscapes serve a moral purpose in society and would be well-regarded by the Trustees. The plan included a major east-west axis aligned with the Golden Gate and campus grounds framed by the north and south forks of Strawberry Creek. Olmsted introduced adaptable tree species to 'forest' the open land. Incorporated as an essential component of the overall plan was the creation of an adjacent upscale neighborhood to support and uplift the institution of higher learning. Another integral design element was Piedmont Way, Olmsted's first landscaped boulevard that became a model for several of his residential projects around the country. </blockquote> So they want to completely alter Olmsted's design. Can you imagine people ripping up trees in Central Park NYC or the Emerald Necklace in Boston to build a gym for elite athletes?

My Uncle wrote this when he was 17.

common_terry — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 23:58:54 GMT

CHRISTMAS HOLYDAY OR HOLIDAY The other day i was downtown. The Christmas season being here, there were many colorful and elaborate displays featuring Santa Claus, gifts, etc. By chance the following incident received my attention. Two small children about ten years of age were quite excited about the coming feast. It seems one was getting the :Lionel is Sears' window"; the other a new bicycle. Perhaps this might be a none-too-joyful scene come December 26th. MR. ? has been stuck with a six hundred dollar bill for Christmas presents. Now he and the Mrs. are riding to the loan company in their '42 auto, the new model a long way off (although it wasn't last month). Is Christmas realty a time to display? Is Christmas merely a process of giving and receiving gifts? Of course not. But is this trend toward commercialism going to stop? Is it going to be dormant, sleeping eternally as a dreaded monster killed in a fairy tale? Or is it going to continue? To continue to grow and grow and grow until even the deep thinking, God-fearing person can no longer ward off its powerful influence. Only God knows the answer to that question. However in recent years there have been attempts at combating this lethargy. 'Put the Christ back into Christmas' has become the slogan of a small minority. Can a small sign on the back of a trolley compete with a huge, five story display of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer? Not that Rudolph isn't a nice fellow, but after all just whose birthday is it? It is His birthday. Can any store dare use Christ as a means of making money? Can any organization dare scorn the birth of Christ, the Master of their world. Can anybody dare change the name of Christ to X? X means the unknown. Perhaps this is the answer. Christ is unknown. Maybe the big store executive doesn't know about Christ. But maybe he just doesn't realize. Maybe he is too interested in the profits to bother. Maybe he cant break the tradition built up during the last several decades. Maybe...Maybe..Maybe..Maybe! But maybe it is ourselves. Maybe we're to blame. Has anyone at Purcell done anything in the past in opposition to this commercialism (aside from the sale of a few religious Christmas cards)? How many people in this city actively oppose the little attention given Christ during His season? I understand most stores follow the policy, "The customer is always right." So if the customers would have demanded recognition of Christ's birth rather than the usual thing we see today, then Christ would have His proper place. However, what's done is done. The people must rise against this evil now. Of course they do not have to rush downtown and burn all the big department stores to the ground. More civilized methods are called for, which I, realizing the initiative of the Purcell High student, leave to you. December 1953 by Jim O'Brien Purcelll High School of Cincinnati, Class of 1954

Activist Russians Murdered

common_terry — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 23:12:54 GMT

does anyone else follow this issue? the history of chechnya is a long sad one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T0JcfjwQLc http://www.freemediaonline.org/poisoned_russian_ex_spy_accused_putin_of_journalist_murder_112252.htm Shortly before he was poisoned by a radioactive substance polonium-210, former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko had accused President Putin of ordering the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. She had been killed by an unknown assailant in Moscow in early October. Just before his own death from poisoning in London in late November, Mr. Litvinenko accused Mr. Putin of also being responsible for ordering his murder. -- the news today: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061209/ap_on_re_eu/poisoned_spy LONDON - Russian dissidents close to Alexander Litvinenko said Saturday they were worried about coming face-to-face with Moscow investigators who plan to visit London over the ex-Soviet spy's death from radiation poisoning. Police in Germany, meanwhile, said traces of radiation were found at two Hamburg-area homes linked to a contact of the former ex-KGB officer, while police combed a London hotel at the center of the investigation into his death. A spokeswoman for Russia's Prosecutor General's office told The Associated Press about the plans to send Russian investigators to London, but said there was no concrete date. She said she was not authorized to give her name to media outlets. Some emigres were concerned that the Kremlin would use its inquiries as a "pretext to harass exiles in London," said Andrei Nekrasov, a friend of Litvinenko. ...

Seen the DRESDEN DOLLS?

common_terry — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 18:31:05 GMT

im going tonite! (THURSDAY) Thursday, October 12 & Friday, October 13 The Dresden Dolls with Vau De Vire Society- Thursday 10/12 Only plus The Red Paintings Doors at 8 p.m. Show at 9 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance / $22 at the door. 18 & over are welcome 1025 Columbus Avenue, sf http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=1025+Columbus+Avenue,+sf&ie=UTF8&z=15&ll=37.800256,-122.401814&spn=0.015327,0.043259&om=1&iwloc=A

Grapes of Wrath

common_terry — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 21:46:22 GMT

I found the book on the sidewalk last week, so i knew i had to go see the show. Then today after i woke up after sleeping 11 hours after dancing hard to Grapes of Wrath, i heard this news on the radio: A decade ago in April 1996, Israel caused international outrage with an air strike on the town of Qana in southern Lebanon. More than a hundred Lebanese civilians were killed while sheltering in a UN compound. The repercussions effectively put an end to Israel's attempt to crush Hezbollah as part of what was known as operation "Grapes of Wrath". Now history appears to be repeating itself with world anger against Israel for its killing of more than 60 civilians in the same town over the weekend. can you feel the chaos?