SCENES FROM
MISTI-CON
Laconia, NH
May 9th - 13th
[Pt 1]
Opening Gala Ceremony
We be a coven of Witches
John Granger
Hogwarts Professor & Author
Two Molly Weasleys
Wand Dueling & Training with Cassandra
Thursday, May 16, 2013
NY Times Guantanamo Ad / World Can't Wait
Since February, prisoners at Guantanamo have been on hunger strike. World Can't Wait has been pondering hard on what more we can do to create a political situation where Obama has to back down, release at least a few of the men at Guantanamo, and be forced into closing the prison. All of our frequent protests, petitions, call-ins, editorials and op-eds are part of what's needed.
The major missing ingredient in this moment, though, is the collective voices of artists, intellectuals, politicians, religious and cultural figures who are respected and beloved for being voices of conscience, speaking as one to demand that the torture of Guantanamo be ended. *It's time and past time, as we reach 100 days of the prisoners' hunger strike*, that we provide a way for them to speak out together, and for that message to be seen.
Dennis Loo of Cal Poly Pomona has drafted a message planned as a full page ad in /The New York Times/ http://www.worldcantwait.net/index.php/calls-to-action/8236-world-can-t-wait-to-place-new-ad-against-guantanamo-in-the-new-york-times which could serve as such a vehicle.
It has been signed by over 900 people in the past week, including John Cusack, Wallace Shawn, Junot Diaz, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, Eve Ensler, Dave Eggers, Glenn Greenwald, Paul Haggis, Bianca Jagger, Ariel Dorfman, Erica Jong, Michael Moore, Ron Kovic, Tom Morello, Mark Ruffalo, Nancy Kricorian, James Schamus, Joyce & Max Kozloff, Carl Dix, Oliver Stone, Cindy Sheehan, and Cornel West, joined by attorneys for the Guantanamo prisoners, law professors, clergy and academics.
Because we can only afford an "advocacy" rate at /The Times/, at $52,030, which runs on a stand-by basis, it's urgent that we submit the ad as soon as possible. The prisoners' hunger strike is the dynamic factor making any change possible in the administration's action to release them.
The message powerfully challenges us to look at Guantanamo as "part of larger, alarming developments" including the NDAA, targeted killing by executive order, and the prosecution of whistleblowers, "most flagrantly in the torture, slander and draconian legal charges against Bradley Manning."
It says, "It is up to people to stand up for principle and morality when their institutions and public officials refuse to do so. The fates of those who are maimed or killed by our government's policies are inextricably intertwined with our own: we must listen and respond to their cry for justice. We must demand their release now, before they lose their lives as well."
We hope you will sign on, and help fund this project so that we can go to print very quickly.
SIGN http://org.salsalabs.com/o/1170/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=13340
DONATE https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1170/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=5872
Since February, prisoners at Guantanamo have been on hunger strike. World Can't Wait has been pondering hard on what more we can do to create a political situation where Obama has to back down, release at least a few of the men at Guantanamo, and be forced into closing the prison. All of our frequent protests, petitions, call-ins, editorials and op-eds are part of what's needed.
The major missing ingredient in this moment, though, is the collective voices of artists, intellectuals, politicians, religious and cultural figures who are respected and beloved for being voices of conscience, speaking as one to demand that the torture of Guantanamo be ended. *It's time and past time, as we reach 100 days of the prisoners' hunger strike*, that we provide a way for them to speak out together, and for that message to be seen.
Dennis Loo of Cal Poly Pomona has drafted a message planned as a full page ad in /The New York Times/ http://www.worldcantwait.net/index.php/calls-to-action/8236-world-can-t-wait-to-place-new-ad-against-guantanamo-in-the-new-york-times which could serve as such a vehicle.
It has been signed by over 900 people in the past week, including John Cusack, Wallace Shawn, Junot Diaz, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, Eve Ensler, Dave Eggers, Glenn Greenwald, Paul Haggis, Bianca Jagger, Ariel Dorfman, Erica Jong, Michael Moore, Ron Kovic, Tom Morello, Mark Ruffalo, Nancy Kricorian, James Schamus, Joyce & Max Kozloff, Carl Dix, Oliver Stone, Cindy Sheehan, and Cornel West, joined by attorneys for the Guantanamo prisoners, law professors, clergy and academics.
Because we can only afford an "advocacy" rate at /The Times/, at $52,030, which runs on a stand-by basis, it's urgent that we submit the ad as soon as possible. The prisoners' hunger strike is the dynamic factor making any change possible in the administration's action to release them.
The message powerfully challenges us to look at Guantanamo as "part of larger, alarming developments" including the NDAA, targeted killing by executive order, and the prosecution of whistleblowers, "most flagrantly in the torture, slander and draconian legal charges against Bradley Manning."
It says, "It is up to people to stand up for principle and morality when their institutions and public officials refuse to do so. The fates of those who are maimed or killed by our government's policies are inextricably intertwined with our own: we must listen and respond to their cry for justice. We must demand their release now, before they lose their lives as well."
We hope you will sign on, and help fund this project so that we can go to print very quickly.
SIGN http://org.salsalabs.com/o/1170/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=13340
DONATE https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1170/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=5872
Monday, May 06, 2013
CATCHING UP ON SOME NEWS
The 1% Bug-Out
Plan: Why Third-World Billionaires are
Buying Fortresses in London, New York and Miami
Lynn Stuart
Parramore, AlterNet
Citywide Water
Monitoring System is Suspended After Agency Cuts Funding
Patrick Wall,
DNAinfo New York
The Fascinating
Ways Meditation Transforms Your Brain and Why it Makes You Feel Better
George Dvorsky
7 Chilling Facts
About Retirement in America that Should Make Obama Tremble Before Cutting
Social Security and Medicare
Lynn Stuart
Parramore, AlterNet
The Corporate
Betrayal of America – Ripping off the Public, Running off with the Profits to
Avoid Taxes
Paul Buchheit,
AlterNet
The huge
multinationals have made it clear; they don’t feel obliged to give anything
back to the people who made it all possible.
America’s Hired
Death Squads and Torture Teams are still Operating in Iraq
William Boardman,
Reader Supported News
A 15-month
investigation exploring war crimes long denied by the Pentagon lays out the
tragic truth.
Pennsylvania Court
Deals Blow to Secrecy-Obsessed Fracking Industry – Corporations Not the Same as
Persons with Privacy Rights
Steven Rosenfeld,
AlterNet
Give the People
What They Want! Taxes that Pay for Jobs,
Education, Healthcare and Science
Mattea Kramer, Tom
Dispatch
