Protesters arrested near Bush's Ranch

CRAWFORD, Texas (Nov. 23) - A dozen war protesters including Daniel Ellsberg were arrested Wednesday for setting up camp near President Bush's ranch in defiance of new local bans on roadside camping and parking.

About four hours after the group pitched six tents and huddled in sleeping bags and blankets, McLennan County sheriff's deputies arrested them for criminal trespassing. Many in the group held up signs, including one that said "Give me liberty or give me a ditch."

A dozen or so other demonstrators left the public right of way after deputies warned them they would be arrested.

The protest was set to coincide with Bush's Thanksgiving ranch visit.

The arrests were made by more than two dozen deputies who calmly approached the demonstrators in their tents and asked if they wanted to walk out on their own or be carried. Two chose to be carried. They were to be taken to jail for booking.

Ellsberg, the former Defense Department official who leaked the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam war, estimated it was his 70th arrest for various protests since the 1970s.

"Those of us who finally saw through the Vietnam war saw through this war, and all the actions that were necessary to end the Vietnam war will be necessary here," Ellsberg said Wednesday before his arrest. "I think the American people will get us out of this (war)."

Ellsberg became famous for his release of the secret documents, which indicated the government had deceived the public about whether the Vietnam war could be won and the extent of casualties.

Also arrested Wednesday was Ann Wright, who resigned her post as a senior diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Mongolia in 2003 in protest of the war with Iraq.

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan wasn't among the protesters Wednesday because of a family emergency in California, but she planned to be at the camp later in the week.

"We are proud to be here," Dede Miller, Sheehan's sister, said hours before her arrest as she huddled in a blanket at the campsite. "This is just so important. What we did in August really moved us forward, and this is just a continuation of it."

In August, hundreds of demonstrators camped off the road during a 26-day protest led by Sheehan, whose 24-year-old soldier son Casey was killed in Iraq last year. But a month later, county commissioners banned camping in any county ditch and parking within 7 miles of the ranch, citing safety and traffic congestion issues.

Earlier this week, three demonstrators filed a federal lawsuit against McLennan County over the two local bans.

During the last several weeks of their summer protest, the activists had camped on a private one-acre lot that a sympathetic landowner let them use. That land is about a mile from Bush's ranch.

Original Source of Article

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I have the biggest respect for the anti-war protesters and always will. I feel as if they see this war for what it really is, Bush's vietnam. Maybe not the same extent as Vietnam, but all the same game, the same government corruption, the same propaganda, just a different "enemy".

That's what the World Can't Wait Campaign is doing, protesting not only the war but the Bush administration and its lies and broken promises. Look at Katrina and its horrible response, look at the attack on women's rights and LGBT individuals, look at the condonment of tortue, look at the denial of scientific research and the dogmatic response involved in critical decisions involving people's well beings and identities. There has been a lot the Bush administration that has done that cannot be generalized in a few paragraphs, and the destruction of American lives over a lost cause, all these deaths are in vain. The thousands of innocent Iraqi women, men, and children.

We need our troops out now, we need a real force of people to say that this has to stop, the lies, the deceit, the hatred, prejudice, bigotry, it has to stop. And thats what the World Cant Wait Campaign is about. Go to www.worldcantwait.net for more information and local contact information for the Greensboro, NC chapter or whatever chapter is closet to you.

Denial of benefits

County Refuses Lesbian Cop's Dying Wish
by John Curran, Associated Press

(Toms River, New Jersey) A cancer-stricken law enforcement officer who wants her same-sex partner to get her death benefits got an enthusiastic show of support Wednesday, with more than 100 gay rights advocates turning out to denounce Ocean County officials for not agreeing to it.

Carrying placards and handmade signs, members of Garden State Equality and other groups staged a rally outside the county Board of Chosen Freeholders' office, accusing the panel of homophobia and hypocrisy in failing to extend benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian employees.

At the center of the dispute is Lt. Laurel Hester, 49, a 23-year investigator for the Ocean County Prosecutor's office who is fighting lung cancer. Hester wants the county to pass a resolution as provided for by New Jersey's 18-month-old Domestic Partners Act, which gives counties and cities the power to extend pension and health care benefits to the gay partners of employees if they so choose.

Hester, of Point Pleasant, fears that without her $13,000 death benefit, partner Stacie Andree, 30, will be forced to sell the house they now share after Hester dies.

The county has yet to act on the request. Donna Flynn, a spokeswoman for the freeholder board, had no immediate comment on the controversy Wednesday.

More than 100 agencies in the state have adopted domestic partnership benefit resolutions, including Bergen and Hudson counties.

"Ocean County Freeholders Where's Your Humanity?" read a sign hung from a recreational vehicle parked outside the Board's office.

"Shame on you, Ocean County," read a hand-lettered sign carried by Nancy McNeil, 62, of Toms River, who attended in a wheelchair. "My sign says it all," she said. "Who are the freeholders to pass moral judgment on a woman who put her life on the line for them?"

The rally, organized by Garden State Equality, featured its chairman, Steven Goldstein, who spoke through a bullhorn and introduced a series of speakers who support Hester's cause.

Among them was a seven-person contingent from the Gay Officers Action League of New York, which is made up of gay law enforcement officers.

"Straight or gay, we do the job. We put our lives on the line," said its president, George Farrugia. "Lieutenant Hester, we're here for you."

So were other supporters of gay marriage and domestic partner benefits.

"This is a moral issue," said Suzannah Porter, president of the National Organization for Women's New Jersey chapter. "It's about time that people who talk family values start valuing families."

Weakened by her sickness, Hester sat in a wheelchair at the center of the rally, a blanket over her lap as she spoke into a bullhorn held by Andree, who stood over her.

"As of this point, my prognosis is not very good," she said. "I don't know how much time I have left." But she said the battle over benefits - not just for her partner, but for others - had given her resolve.

"This issue has given me cause to fight and to stick around long enough to see this injustice rectified," Hester said.

Original Source of Article

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Hopefully this will make America realize that marriage isn't the only LGBT issue that needs to be discussed. Domestic partnership for LGBT couples is needed, and this is a prime example of why.

40 million Now with HIV/AIDS

40 Million Now With HIV/AIDS
by The Associated Press



(London) The global HIV epidemic continues to expand, with more than 40 million people now estimated to have the AIDS virus, but in some countries prevention efforts are finally starting to pay off, the United Nations says.

AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized in 1981, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in history. An estimated 3.1 million people died from the virus last year and another 4.9 million people became infected, according to a U.N. update published Monday.

The deaths and new infection estimates were in line with those from last year, when the total number of people living with the virus was estimated at 39.4 million.

However, for the first time there is solid evidence that increased efforts to combat the disease over the last five years have led to fewer new infections in some places, said UNAIDS chief Peter Piot.

Previously improvements had been seen in places such as Senegal, Uganda and Thailand, but those were rare exceptions.

"Now we have Kenya, several of the Caribbean countries and Zimbabwe with a decline," Piot said, adding that Zimbabwe is the first place in Southern Africa, the hardest-hit area, to show improvement.

These are all countries that have invested heavily in safe-sex campaigns and other prevention programs, with the result that prevalence of HIV among the young has declined.

"People are starting later with their first sexual intercourse, they are having fewer partners, there's more condom use," Piot said.

The epidemic also appears to be tapering off in other countries. "We see similar trends in countries in East Africa, but the evidence was not good enough to put in the report," he said.

The most dramatic drops in prevalence have been among pregnant women in urban Kenya, where in some areas the proportion of pregnant women infected plummeted from approximately 28 percent in 1999 to 9 percent in 2003.

In the Caribbean, declines are evident in Barbados, the Bahamas and Bermuda, Piot said.

In Zimbabwe HIV prevalence among pregnant women in the capital Harare has decreased from 35 percent in 1999 to 21 percent in 2004.

"I absolutely believe we are on a roll," added Dr. Jim Kim, HIV chief at the World Health Organization. "Everyone is sort of jumping on the bandwagon. I think there's been a fundamental change, even in the past one year, in all the efforts in HIV."

There's a new energy, Kim said, and much of that comes from the recent availability of HIV treatment in the developing world.

About 1 million HIV patients in the developing world now are on treatment. While that is just a small fraction of the people needing treatment, the availability of drugs has meant that people see a point to getting tested for the virus, which is crucial for prevention efforts. About 300,000 deaths were avoided last year because of treatment, the report said.

"As much as possible, we've got to get that energy into prevention as well," Kim said.

So far this year the world has spent slightly more than $8 billion on tackling HIV in the developing world. That was a big increase from the $6 billion spent last year but was still far short of the need.

UNAIDS estimates that $9 billion will be spent next year but say $15 billion will be needed.

The epidemics continue to intensify in southern Africa. Growing epidemics are under way in Eastern Europe and in Central and East Asia. Five years ago, one in 10 new infections were in Asia. Today the number is one in four or five.

China, Papua New Guinea and Vietnam are facing significant increases. There are also alarming signs that Pakistan and Indonesia could be on the verge of serious epidemics, the report said.

Intravenous drug use and commercial sex are fueling the epidemic in Asia, where few countries are doing enough to inform people about the danger of such behavior, the report warned.

Worldwide, less than one in five people at risk of becoming infected with HIV has access to basic prevention services. Of people living with HIV only one in 10 has been tested and knows that he or she is infected.

Original Source of Article

Germany on Eve of First Woman Chancellor

BERLIN, Nov. 21 - Two months after one of the strangest elections in this country's modern history, Germany's parliament seemed certain on Tuesday to elect Angela Merkel, the leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Party, as the country's first woman chancellor.

Mrs. Merkel will immediately take power, name a cabinet and start governing - after weeks of intense negotiations - in the "grand coalition" with her chief rivals, the Social Democratic Party of the outgoing chancellor, Gerhard Schröder.

But it is not only that Mrs. Merkel is a woman, or even that she will be the first chancellor from the former East Germany, that promises to make Tuesday a moment to remember in this country's history.

In what now seems a swift and unexpected change, Mrs. Merkel's arrival in power signals a shift to a new political generation, one that did not go through the usual rites of passage to power in Germany.

By an odd coincidence, the Social Democrats elected a new leader last week who, like Mrs. Merkel, is also from the former East Germany. The choice of Matthias Platzeck, coupled with Mrs. Merkel's ascendancy, has led to much comment that, after holding them in something close to contempt for the first decade after reunification, the western power brokers here have turned to easterners to guide them out of Germany's economic crisis.

Although the emergence of both Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Platzeck probably does not constitute a broad trend, analysts believe that they do represent some of the qualities of the generation now taking over in German politics.

They seem to be viewed by commentators and analysts as a potentially more pragmatic, less ideologically driven group than those who have governed Germany for the last half century or so. Perhaps most significantly, the new leaders are one step further removed from the earlier leadership's preoccupation with German history and the limitations that history placed on their freedom of action.

Gone, in other words, is the generation, represented by former chancellors like Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Kohl, that brought West Germany safely through the Cold War and into the era of reunification. Gone, too, are the more recent politicians, like Mr. Schröder himself and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, whose political foundation grew from the 1960's student protests and who have dominated German politics for the last seven years.

What takes their place is not entirely clear - in part because the newcomers are outsiders and have less of a track record than is the norm at that level of German politics. It is far from certain that the coalition government Mrs. Merkel brings into power will last long enough to make much of an impact. But what is certain is that, at a moment that everybody deems critical, the top leaders of both parties are very different from their predecessors.

"It's an important symbol that the easterners have come to power," Uwe Andersen, a political science professor at Ruhr University in Bochum, said. "They have a more pragmatic way of doing things, and they are used to big changes in life, and therefore, I think, they are not so reluctant to face up to new challenges."

Another specialist on German politics, Claus Leggewie of Giessen University, predicts that the new leaders, in partial rebellion against the generation that came before, will be more conservative, more focused on business and on concrete problems. He also expects them to continue to move beyond the moral preoccupations of the German past.

"The irony of the political generation of '68 is that they created a kind of normal Germany," he said. "They had an alarmist approach to German history and society." Despite that, he said, Germany under their rule has become more like other countries, able to pursue its self-interest more or less unapologetically.

Mrs. Merkel takes power with Germany's economy having stagnated for five years, unemployment at postwar highs, and no consensus across the nation on what to do about it.

Indeed, as the price she had to pay for coming to power, Mrs. Merkel had to give the rival S.P.D. half of the seats in the cabinet, and to jettison, at least for now, many of the elements of the platform that she campaigned on.

In exchange for agreement from the S.P.D. to retain a 3 percent increase in German sales taxes, a central part of her original program, Mrs. Merkel accepted an income tax increase to be imposed on the wealthy, even as her proposals to reform the labor market and health insurance system have been put on hold.

The rest of the article can be found at Original Source of Article

Cheney Again Defends Bush's Iraq Policy

WASHINGTON (Nov. 21) - Vice President Dick Cheney charged Monday that some Senate Democrats were "dishonest and reprehensible" for suggesting that President Bush lied to the nation about going to war in Iraq and said he strongly disagrees with a battle-tested congressman who advocates a pullout.

Cheney backed away from earlier administration characterizations of Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., as a coward and instead called him "a good man, a Marine, a patriot."

Murtha, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, roiled the nation's capital last week when he proposed that all of the almost 160,000 U.S. forces in Iraq be withdrawn over six months. Murtha has been one of the biggest Pentagon boosters in Washington.

Cheney said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute that there is no problem debating whether the United States and its allies should have gone to war in Iraq, but he questioned the statements of some critics.

"What is not legitimate, and what I will again say is dishonest and reprehensible, is the suggestion by some U.S. senators that the president of the United States or any member of his administration purposely misled the American people on prewar intelligence," Cheney said.

Cheney again said that "withdrawal would be a victory for terrorists" and an "invitation to further violence."

"It is a dangerous illusion that another retreat by the civilized world would satisfy the appetite of terrorists .. We will not retreat in the face of adversity."

The debate over Iraq policy turned more bitter after Murtha called for Bush to remove troops from Iraq within six months. Republicans called Murtha's position one of abandonment and surrender and suggested that the decorated Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War and like-minded politicians were acting cowardly.

On Sunday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, disagreeing with Murtha, said he is not budging from the Bush administration's position that senior commanders know best.

Rest of the article and its original source
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So yet again our wonderful government and Dick himself is trying to justify that this war is still worth fighting for. But I am going to ask the question, is it real worth fighting for? What are we fighting for? Bush and his administration would tell you freedom, but freedom isn't really the reason we are over there now is it?

I do think we should pull out of Iraq, we are serving no real purpose there except to make more of a hotbed of terrorism. George W. Bush and his administration has created more terrorism than he has combating. It is time to take out our troops before we lose more American lives, cost the American people more billions of dollars to fund it, and injuring thosands of innocent Iraqis . I support the troops, but not the reason why they are in there. Hopefully our government can make sense of the damage they have causes through "Operation Iraqi Freedom", and pull our troops out before we cause even more damage than thought.

Police block LGBT march

Riot Police Block Polish Gay Pride March
by Malcolm Thornberry, 365Gay.com European Bureau Chief

Posted: November 20, 2005 11:00 am ET

(Warsaw) Heavily armed riot police arrested more than 65 gays and lesbians who refused to disband when they attempted to hold a gay pride march in the city of Poznan on Saturday.

Last week, Poznan's city administrator refused to issue a parade permit saying that the march would “be a serious danger to social order and property.” Organizers of the parade said that the city government had bowed to pressure from the ruling Law and Justice Party and from the League of Polish Families and Poznan's Roman Catholic Archbishop.

LGBT civil rights group the Campaign Against Homophobia decided to go ahead with the march anyway.

As the LGBT march was coming to an end police took up positions blocking the street. On the sidewalks dozens of members of an ultra-right youth group hurled insults at the marchers.

When gay marchers refused a police order, yelled through a bullhorn, to disband the riot squad moved in. Several marchers sat down in the street in silent protest and were dragged off. Others say they attempted to disband but had nowhere to go because of the riot police at either end of the street marching toward them and a hostile crowd lining the sidewalk.

"They were dragging us around on the street," a demonstrator told the Warsaw Independent news agency.

"I was put in a police car, driven to a police station, and charged with taking part in an illegal gathering," the demonstrator said, adding he will be tried for a misdemeanor.

The Campaign against Homophobia issued statement accusing police of brutality.

A member of the Democratic Left Alliance in the Polish Parliament has filed an official complaint with the federal government accusing police of violating the Polish Constitution and the European Union's civil rights laws.

Poland is already under a warning from the EU not to try to limit the rights of gays and lesbians. (story) Last month the European Commission said that if the government continues to oppose gay rights Poland risks losing its voting rights in the EU.

That warning followed the election of Warsaw mayor Lech Kaczynski to the Polish presidency.

In June, as Wasaw mayor, Kaczynski refused to grant permission for a gay pride parade in the capital. (story) Nevertheless, more than 2,500 people ignored the order and marched anyway. (story) Opponents threw eggs and stones at the marchers, and police detained 29 people.

Original Source of Article

The right still exists, but for whom?

I recently was sent this link to a recent PBS FRONTLINE show, and it documents the pro-life movement and the attack after Roe v Wade on reproductive and abortion rights. Roe v Wade has not been overturned and nationally there is still is that right, but there are restrictions locally, especially in Mississippi and in the South and Midwest. This show documents partically to Mississippi and the 1 remaining abortion clinic left. Here is the link to watch the show online and an article about the show...

The PBS Frontline Show

But while the spotlight has been on Washington, there is an equally significant story playing out in local communities. Pro-life advocates have been successfully spearheading campaigns in states throughout the country to pass laws that regulate and limit access to abortion.

According to one abortion provider in the South, who prefers to remain anonymous: "The assault on abortion rights is very clever. It's very smart. And we are losing."

In the summer of 2005 -- more than 30 years after Roe v. Wade established that access to abortion services is a fundamental right -- a FRONTLINE documentary team spent two months traveling across the South where states have been particularly active in passing restrictions on abortion. In interviews with abortion providers and their patients, staff at a pro-life pregnancy counseling center and key legal strategists on both sides of the national debate, FRONTLINE producer Raney Aronson (The Jesus Factor) documents the success of the pro-life movement and the growing number of states with regulations limiting access to abortion.

FRONTLINE tracks how this happened over the past decade -- how it can all be traced back to a critical 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a case called Planned Parenthood v. Casey. While the Court upheld Roe v. Wade, it changed the standard by which abortion laws would be judged. It allowed states to regulate abortion so long as they did not place an "undue burden" on the women seeking the procedure.

"… [E]ver since Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992, people got the impression that abortion was safe; Roe v. Wade was safe," explains William Saletan, the author of Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War. "All the pro-choice people went home."

In the years after Casey, the pro-life movement has dramatically changed the landscape of abortion politics. In Mississippi alone, they helped pass 10 laws regulating abortion. And in the last two years, the state has passed legislation on fetal homicide prosecution, new clinic regulations, requirements to report abortion complications, rights of conscience, and a law that would prohibit the state's last abortion clinic from offering abortions beyond the first trimester.

Americans United for Life (AUL), the nation's oldest national pro-life organization, considers Mississippi an example for the nation. "Mississippi has an impressive track record," says AUL senior legal counsel Clarke Forsythe. "Our goal is to see that other states pass the type of legislation that Mississippi has passed over the past decade, and we see a lot of legislative activity."

With an ever-increasing number of state abortion regulations and a steady decline in abortion providers, the procedure, while still legal, has become daunting and expensive in Mississippi and elsewhere. Nationwide, there are now fewer abortion providers in the U.S. than at any time since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973 -- 87 percent of U.S. counties don't have one.

"Sometimes I do fantasize about Roe being overturned," admits the abortion clinic owner interviewed by FRONTLINE. "Because then I think that there would be this real threat, this real enemy. Many young women who take all these rights for granted would suddenly realize what they've lost and the consequences of that."

Jessica Burke to come and speak about her art

Jessica Burke, the artist of the exhibit, "Questioning the Line", will come and speak this Tuesday, November 15th, at the MRC at 7pm about her paintings and her experiences. I highly recommend it, here are 2 paintings of hers and her artist statement below.




Artist Statement
My paintings are a means of communication. They allow me to express my reaction to issues about gender and sexuality, specifically concentrating on the idea of femininity within the context of lesbian stereotypes. I paint the human figure as a vehicle for the assertion of identity. This work deals with the isolation and compartmentalization of homosexuality. The figure is solitary, dominating the picture plane. She lives within an ambiguous and intimate space devoid of culturally induced associations. She owns the space, allowing only a single object or “attribute” to share that space. This object in some way references a particular stereotype or identity. I am aware of the mysteriously narrative aspect of the work. I encourage the viewer to find a way to relate to the figure through his or her own eyes and reality. In my paintings, I attempt to express the shifting psychological moods of my sitters through color choice and nebulous unidentified background environments. I am compelled to present the individuals as contemplative ordinary people. Some of their gestures reflect a sense of displacement and rejection that I feel directly relates to the gender bias and sexuality stereotyping that still exists in our society. In other works the pose is aggressive or quietly confrontational. I feel that there is a need to confront the viewer. To assess their own prejudice based on their reaction to the image.

I think there is a basic human need to connect to the art that they see, to relate to it and give it power. One of the ways I relate to my art is through the varied influences of other painters. I find myself looking at the psychological impact of Lucian Freud, the technical expertise Paul Cadmus and the paint quality of Wayne Thiebaud. I am also drawn to some more contemporary artists like Nicole Eisenman and Catherine Opie.

Surprise, Surprise...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Texans voted overwhelmingly to add a prohibition of same-sex marriage to their constitution on Tuesday, becoming the 19th U.S. state to do so.

With about 550,000 votes counted, Proposition 2 was heading for ratification with 75.5 percent in favor.

The outcome was expected even by opponents and continued a backlash to the movement for same-sex marriage that seemed to gain momentum when a Massachusetts court legalized gay unions in 2004.

Since then, same-sex marriage has suffered a string of losses at the polls as citizens elsewhere have rejected the notion.

Texas was the only state with such a measure on the ballot. The home state of President George W. Bush already had a law barring gay marriage but proponents of the measure, mostly Republicans, sought a constitutional amendment to block a possible court challenge similar to the one in Massachusetts.

The opposition, largely Democratic, argued the amendment was unnecessary and worded so broadly that it could infringe on existing rights of homosexuals, like their ability to visit a gravely ill partner in the hospital.

Several other states have laws, but not constitutional language, defining marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Bush and some Republicans have sought an amendment to the U.S. Constitution barring same-sex marriage, but the effort has yet to gain traction.

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I am not surprised by this, just disappointed and saddended at the backlash of gay rights in America and the world in general. Gay Marriage was used as an issue in last year's election to divert attention to other issues that really mattered, the war, the economy, health care, etc. It was also a way for the Democratic Party to take a stance less than oppositional to the Republican Party's "perserving the institution of marriage" stance, and the Republican Party states they see homosexuality as unacceptable "lifestyle." It would be political suicide for any Democratic nominee or candidate to support the idea of gay marriage and to state it.

Gay rights just isn't about gay marriage, and when people think of gay rights, gay marriage is the first and sometimes only issue they think of when it comes to gay rights. The inequality faced by LGBT individuals is not just dealing with whether or not one can marry some of the same sex. There is so much more to than that, and unforuntately Americans cannot see that.

World Can't Wait Article-Front Page Carolinian News

Here is the World Can't Wait's organization in Greensboro, the article about UNCG and Greensboro's protests...



Anti-Bush Rally Rolls Around Campus