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Impeachment and Bush Record Workshops in Atlanta

Impeachment and Bush Record Workshops in Atlanta

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Impeachment Workshop, June 28th

This workshop will focus on Bush’s impeachable offenses and bring out the full array of crimes committed by the Bush administration. Speakers will also address the need to build a movement across the country on the grounds of impeachment as the vehicle to force the Bush administration from office.

Thursday, June 28, 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Inman Park United Methodist Church
DOT-ADA Community Room
Marta Stop- Inman Park
1 block from the station on Edgewood Dr.

Speakers:

Dennis Loo, co-editor of the book “Impeach the President: A Case Against Bush and Cheney”, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Cal Poly Pomona, and member of the World Can’t Wait Steering Committee.

Prachi Noor, member of the World Can’t Wait Steering Committee and involved since its launch in July 2005. She has been at the forefront of the movement to stop the repression of immigrant communities.

David Swanson, co-founder of the AfterDowningStreet.org coalition, a writer and activist, and the Washington Director of Democrats.com.

Mathew Cardinale, editor of Atlanta Progressive News

Crimes Against Humanity–The Bush Record, June 29th

You thought you knew. But you can’t really know until you see the full scale and scope of all the crimes brought together. It is far worse than you could even imagine. This is the documentation that activists in all fields need.

Join the session “Crimes Against Humanity–The Bush Record” at the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta, Friday, June 29, at 10:30 am.

Location: Second Floor meeting room of the Central Library. The Library is at the corner of William St. NW and Forsyth St. NW.

Participants in the Atlanta panel include: Dennis Brutus, South African poet and former prisoner with Nelson Mandela on Robben Island, Ann Wright, former US diplomat and retired US Army Colonel, Larry Everest, author of Oil, Power & Empire: Iraq and the U.S. Global Agenda, Clark Kissinger, convener of the Commission, together with short video excerpts on the evidence.

The hearings of the International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity, held in the winter of 2005-2006, is where the U.S. public first heard, brought together in one place, the stunning evidence of crimes against committed by the Bush Administration.

These hearings are where we first heard together: * Gen. Janis Karpinski describe how the orders for torture at Abu Ghraib came right from the top. * Journalist Jeremy Scahill expose the deployment of armed mercenaries in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and the ethnic cleansing that followed. * Dr. Alan Berkman detail the genocidal implications of the Bush administration’s “abstinence only” policy as the cure for AIDS in Africa. * Daphne Wysham document the censorship of government scientists trying to warn of global warming. * United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter explain exactly how the Bush administration in fact that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The printed verdict of the Commission and two different DVD programs based on the hearings will be available at the session.

Our mandate from the beginning has been to change the very terms of debate in society by forcefully raising the proof of crimes against humanity. You can help make this important material available to the thousands coming to the U.S. Social Forum by contributing to the Commission.

Help put the DVDs of the Bush Crimes Commission into the hands of activists from all over the country. Make a tax-deductible contribution to support the work of Bush Crimes Commission. Other contributions can be made out to NION SOC Inc., and mailed to NION, 305 West Broadway, #199, New York, NY 10013.

Bush Administration Pronounced Guilty of War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity

Bush Administration Pronounced Guilty of War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity

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The Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration released its final verdict on Wednesday, September 13, 2006. Guilty.

11:00 AM, Press Conference, Camp Democracy (Constitution & 14)
12:00 Noon, Delivery of Verdict to the White House

Full text of the verdict in PDF.

An unprecedented Commission of Inquiry has found the President of the United States and his administration guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The five-member panel of jurists unanimously found the administration’s actions “shock the conscience of humanity” in five areas – wars of aggression, illegal detention and torture, suppression of science and catastrophic policies on global warming, potentially genocidal abstinence-only policies imposed on HIV/AIDS prevention programs in the Third World, and the abandonment of New Orleans before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina.

THE VERDICT

In their summary, the Commission jurists found that: “Each of these constitutes a shocking crime in itself, and taken together the full horrors are all the more unconscionable. It is also clear that this is an administration that demonstrates an utter disregard for truth and flagrantly lies about the reasons for its actions.

“In arriving at this decision the jurists were particularly alarmed by the degree to which the Bush Administration’s actions in all five indictments were informed by the extreme right. …. although the specific conduct differs among the indictments, the result is the same: human life was debased and devalued by gratuitous acts of violence, torture, narrow self interest, indifference, and disregard.”

In arriving at their verdict, the Commission’s panel of jurists examined a wealth of evidence with care and rigor. Consistent standards were employed, with well-established international law referenced where applicable.

The panel of jurists consisted of Adjoa A. Aiyetoro, William H. Bowen School of Law, Little Rock; former executive director, National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL). Dennis Brutus, former prisoner, Robben Island (South Africa), poet, professor emeritus, University of Pittsburgh. Abdeen Jabara, former president, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Ajamu Sankofa, former executive director, Physicians for Social Responsibility-NY. Ann Wright, former US diplomat and retired US Army Reserve Colonel.

THE HEARINGS

The Commission’s year-long investigation included five days of public hearings in October 2005 and January 2006 in New York City. The 45 expert and first-hand witnesses included former commander of Abu Ghraib prison Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray, former UN official Denis Halliday, former UN arms inspector Scott Ritter, Guantanamo prisoners’ lawyer Barbara Olshansky, and Katrina survivors.

The verdict’s release comes with war crimes again on front pages following President Bush’s defense of secret prisons, rendition, and practices constituting torture under existing law, his demand that the War Crimes Act be fundamentally weakened, and his threats against Iran.

In a preface to the printed verdict, historian Howard Zinn writes: “The Bush Administration has been following a course, which can only now be described as a series of crimes against humanity. . . . What could be a higher crime than sending the young people of the country into a war against a small country on the other side of the world, which is no danger to the United States, and in fact a war which is condemned by people all over the world and a war which results in, not only the loss of American lives and the crippling of young Americans, but results in the loss of huge numbers of people in Iraq? These are high crimes.”

Support the REAL Act for Realistic Sex Education

Support the REAL Act for Realistic Sex Education

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Young people should be taught their values at home – and the facts at school.

If you’re serious about reducing abortion rates, you’ll support education on birth control and the realities of pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases. All our kids deserve every chance to make informed decisions about their behavior.

Empowering young people to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancy is the right thing to do.

I urge you to contact your congressional representatives to ask them to co-sponsor Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s and Rep. Barbara Lee’s Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act (S.368/HR.2553).

(W)e’ll be working harder than ever to make sure young people get honest, age-appropriate sex education that will equip them with the facts they need to protect themselves from unintended pregnancy and STDs. But we need your help.

Anti-choice politicians in Congress continue to spend our tax dollars on unproven, ideological “abstinence-only” programs that hurt, rather than help, teenagers. Our kids deserve better – and so do taxpayers.

Honest, realistic sex education is the best way to reduce the spread of STDs and prevent teen pregnancy. The Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act would set up the first-ever federal sex education program. Click here to take action to support the REAL Act.

Many federally funded “abstinence-only” programs actually censor lifesaving information that would help teens protect themselves. Many of these programs include blatantly false and inaccurate information, and some programs have been shown to actually increase the likelihood that young people will have unprotected sex and get pregnant. That’s why we need the REAL Act.

(NARAL/Pro Choice action)

NION – Bush Crimes Against Humanity

NION – Bush Crimes Against Humanity

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No election, whether fair or fraudulent, can legitimize criminal wars on foreign countries, torture, the wholesale violation of human rights, and the end of science and reason.

Not in Our Name has announced that they will be sponsoring an International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration.

As the charter for the commission states, “When the possibility of far-reaching war crimes and crimes against humanity exists, people of conscience have a solemn responsibility to inquire into the nature and scope of these acts and to determine if they do in fact rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

The commission will meet in New York in October and will consider evidence on four specific issues:

  1. Wars of Aggression, with particular reference to the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
  2. Torture and Indefinite Detention, with particular reference to the abandonment of international standards concerning the treatment of prisoners of war and the use of torture.
  3. Destruction of the Global Environment, with particular reference to systematic policies contributing to the catastrophic effects of global warming.
  4. Attacks on Global Public Health and Reproductive Rights, with particular reference to the genocidal effects of forcing international agencies to promote “abstinence only” in the midst of a global AIDS epidemic.
Abstinence-Only Education Teaches Blatant Lies

Abstinence-Only Education Teaches Blatant Lies

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This NOW press release is only one of many on Waxman’s report, but I want to do my part to get this out there. Read the complete report at http://www.democrats.reform.house.gov/Documents/20041201102153-50247.pdf

Just as a side note – does anyone stop to think of the basic fact that abortions in the USA increased during Bush, decreased during Clinton, increased during Bush II?

A report released on Dec. 1 by Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., found that abstinence-only education programs supported by George W. Bush, and carried out with federal funding by a variety of right-wing organizations, contain outrageously false information about reproductive health issues.

Rep. Waxman’s report examines the scientific and medical accuracy of the most popular abstinence-only curricula used by grantees of the largest federal abstinence initiative, SPRANS (Special Programs of Regional and National Significance Community-Based Abstinence Education). Through SPRANS, the Department of Health and Human Services provides grants to community organizations that teach abstinence-only curricula to youth. These curricula are not reviewed for accuracy by the federal government, nor are grantees required to have any expertise in the area.

The report finds that over 80 percent of the abstinence-only curricula, used by over two-thirds of SPRANS grantees in 2003, contain false, misleading or distorted information. This information distorts data about the effectiveness of contraceptives, misrepresents the risks associated with abortion, blurs religion and science, treats stereotypes about girls and boys as scientific fact, and contains basic scientific errors.

Among these inaccuracies are reports that a pregnancy occurs one out of every seven times that couples use condoms. One curriculum states that 5 to 10 percent of women who have legal abortions will become sterile. Many of the curricula present as scientific fact the religious view that life begins at conception — one calls a 43-day-old fetus a “thinking person” and another describes a fetus as “snuggling into the soft nest in the lining of the mother’s uterus.” Some of the curricula erroneously state that touching another person’s genitals “can result in pregnancy,” and others claim that the HIV virus can be spread through contact with another person’s sweat or tears.

Perhaps the most disturbing information being disseminated through these programs is the reinforcement of gender stereotypes about differences between women and men. One curriculum instructs, “Women gauge their happiness and judge their success by their relationships. Men’s happiness and success hinge on their accomplishments.” Another lists “Financial Support” as one of the “5 Major Needs of Women,” and “Domestic Support” as one of the “5 Major Needs of Men.” This same curriculum encourages girls to show their admiration of boys by “regard[ing] him with wonder, delight, and approval.”

Under the Bush administration, federal funding for such programs has grown rapidly. In fiscal year 2005, the federal government will spend $170 million on abstinence-only education. This is twice the amount spent on such programs in fiscal year 2001.

Unlike comprehensive sex education, abstinence-only programs have not been shown to decrease rates of teen pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. In fact, a recent study found that youth who pledge abstinence are significantly less likely to make informed choices about precautions when they do have sex. This $170 million would be better used for accurate sex education and family planning information that includes abstinence among the options.