Pet Store Protest: December 23 - Noon

Date: Saturday, December 23rd, 2006
Time: 12:00 noon to 1:30 p.m.
Place: The Meadows Mall at the Northeast entrance on Valley View.

For more info about pet store cruelties go to http://www.stoppuppymills.org.

If you have any more questions, please contact P.A.C.T.A. (People Against Cruelty To Animals) at 756-9344. Thanks for all you do to help the animals.

Greetings from Illinois! We held a 2 day Peaceful demonstration in front of a newly opened pet store in our community. Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th. The owner of the store (his 6th in a chain of stores) has filed suit against my husband, another citizen and myself. His charges are laughable at best. Our lawyers are excited and say that this is the best Christmas Gift animal welfare advocates (and doggies of course!) could ever ask for! We're getting lots of press! If the owner seriously continues with his silly suit, we can file for full discovery and get any and ALL documnents of his and ALL of his puppy mill suppliers. We are also looking into legislation (city and statewide) to put tougher laws into place for the 'breeders' that supply puppies to stores. It's all very exciting and I Hope I Hope I Hope it will all be beneficial for the dogs when everything is said and done. Merry Christmas!

No wonder your meetings are all white. Quit going for the easy wins, end HUMAN cruelty!

http://eatthestate.org/11-06/CoddlingCriminals.htm

Coddling Criminals
by Lansing Scott

Think that Democrats taking both houses of Congress means getting accountability for Bush and his underlings guilty of impeachable offenses and war crimes? Think again ... One problem with the Dems' "non-offensive offensive" is that a recent Newsweek national poll showed 53 percent of Americans thought impeachment should be on the agenda ... Democratic leadership, in its infinite wisdom, has apparently decided it's most important not to offend that minority of voters who still cling to the basic righteousness of the Bush crusade. Maybe some of them can still be convinced to vote for a Democrat in 2008 if the Dems show they are willing to "let bygones be bygones."

WTF?! ... Why not just issue every administration official a "Get Out of Jail Free" card?

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http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1222-04.htm

Published on Friday, December 22, 2006 by OneWorld
Richest 2 Percent Own Half the World's Wealth
by Aaron Glantz

The richest 2 percent of adults in the world own more than half the world's wealth, according to a new study released by the Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University.

The study's authors say their work is the most comprehensive study of personal wealth ever undertaken. They found the richest 1 percent of adults owned 40 percent of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10 percent of adults accounted for 85 percent of the world's total.

In contrast, the assets of half of the world's adult population account for barely 1 percent of global wealth ... "This is a reminder that most people do not live the way middle class Americans live," David Rauchman of the Washington, DC-based Center for Global Development told OneWorld.

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http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1224-26.htm

Published on Sunday, December 24, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
Is Racism Real?
by John Robbins

- Young black males make up 6 percent of the U.S. population, and 50 percent of the prison inmates. ·

- Three out of every four (76 percent) African American 18-year-olds living in urban areas can anticipate being arrested and jailed before age 36. ·

- In Massachusetts, blacks and Hispanics make up 9 percent of the state's population, but 83 percent of imprisoned drug offenders. ·

- African-American teens are more than ten times as likely to be incarcerated in California Youth Authority facilities as white or Asian youth. ·

- Danville, Virginia, regularly executes more people than any county in the country outside of Texas, but has never once since its incorporation in 1890 executed a white person.

- In 1865, shortly after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves, blacks owned 0.5 percent of the nation's net wealth. Today, more than 40 years after the civil rights legislation of the 1960's became law, despite the wealth of a handful of black athletes and entertainers such as Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Bill Cosby and Oprah Winfrey, the percentage of the nation's net worth owned by blacks totals just 1 percent. ·

- Today, the median annual family income for whites is approximately $47,000, while for African-Americans it's $26,000. ·

- Black-owned small businesses are more than three times as likely as white-owned firms to have loan applications turned down, despite the same creditworthiness. ·

- Hispanics are rejected for home mortgages twice as often as whites, regardless of income. ·

- The poverty rate for Hispanics is 2.5 times greater than than for whites. ·

- Less than half the households on U.S. Indian reservations have phone service.

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http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1222-30.htm

Published on Friday, December 22, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
5 Years of Infamy: Close Guantanamo!
by Ret. Col. Ann Wright

On January 11, 2007, the first detainees from Afghanistan arrived at the prison in the US Naval Base, Guantanamo, Cuba. In the succeeding five years, Guantanamo has symbolized to the world the Bush administration?s abandonment of international and domestic law and the development of a policy of inhumane treatment and the use of torture in military and CIA operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and in an unknown number of secret prisons.

Over 775 detainees have been held in Guantanamo since January 11, 2002. After five years, no Guantanamo detainee has been convicted of a criminal offense. According to an American Forces Information Service News article dated October 17, 2006, ?Bush Says Military Commissions Act Will Bring Justice?, the majority of the detainees held in Guantanamo will not face military commissions. ?Only detainees who will be charged with law-of war violations and other grave offenses, about 75 detainees, officials estimated, will be subject to the commissions.?

So what has happened to the other 700 detainees during these five years, those that will not be prosecuted by military commissions?

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http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/16283747.htm

AP: Pentagon wants $99.7B more for wars
ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon wants the White House to seek an additional $99.7 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to information provided to The Associated Press.

The military's request, if embraced by President Bush and approved by Congress, would boost this year's budget for those wars to about $170 billion.

Military planners assembled the proposal at a time when Bush is developing new strategies for Iraq, such as sending thousands of more U.S. troops there, although it was put together before the president said the troop surge was under consideration.

Overall, the war in Iraq has cost about $350 billion. Combined with the conflict in Afghanistan and operations against terrorism elsewhere, the cost has topped $500 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

The additional funds, if approved, would push this year's cost of the war in Iraq to about $50 billion over last year's record. In September, Congress approved an initial $70 billion for the current budget year, which began Oct. 1.

A description of the Pentagon request was provided by a person familiar with the proposal who asked for anonymity because the person was not authorized to release the information.

The cost of the war has risen dramatically as the security situation has deteriorated and more equipment is destroyed or worn out in harsh conditions. The Army, which has borne the brunt of the fighting, would receive about half of the request, a reflection of the wear and tear that the war has had on soldiers and their equipment.

An additional $9.8 billion is being sought for training and equipping Iraq's and Afghanistan's security forces.

The administration's request for more Iraq money will be submitted along with Bush's budget in February for the 2008 budget year, which starts next Oct. 1. The White House can add or subtract from the Pentagon request as it sees fit, and the total could grow if money is added for reconstruction costs.

In a memo several weeks ago, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England encouraged the services to include in their budget requests projects connected to the broader fight against terrorism, as opposed to costs strictly limited to Iraq and Afghanistan. Critics have said that could be interpreted to cover almost anything.

The budget request includes:

_$41.5 billion to cover the costs of ongoing military operations.

_$26.7 billion for replacing and repairing equipment damaged or destroyed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

_$10 billion for body armor and other equipment to protect U.S. troops from attack.

_$2.5 billion to combat roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices.

_$2.7 billion for intelligence activities.

Whatever request emerges from the Bush administration will go to a new Congress controlled by Democrats highly critical of the Iraq war and Bush's handling of it.

Even so, there is much sentiment among Democrats to protect troops and much fear about being portrayed as unsympathetic to men and women in uniform. These factors probably would overwhelm any efforts by anti-war Democrats to use the debate over the Iraq money to take on Bush's conduct of the war.

Democrats have promised, however, to give the upcoming request greater scrutiny than Republicans did when considering Bush's previous requests.

"Democrats are committed to ensuring out troops have all that they need, but we're going to return oversight to spending on the war," said Jim Manley, spokesman for incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "Our troops must have everything they need, but Halliburton shouldn't get everything it wants."

Halliburton Co. is a Texas-based oil services conglomerate once led by Vice President Dick Cheney. Bush administration officials have come under fire since the beginning of the war in Iraq for awarding more than $10 billion to the company and its subsidiaries in 2003 and 2004, some of it in no-bid contracts. There have been allegations of fraud, poor work, overpricing and other abuse, which the company has denied.

Democrats such as incoming Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad of North Dakota have grown increasingly critical of the fact that Iraq spending is kept on a set of books separate from the rest of government operations.

The Vietnam War cost an inflation-adjusted $121 billion at its height in 1968, according to the Congressional Research Service. The overall tally for Vietnam is $663 billion, adjusted for inflation, and Iraq costs are rapidly catching up.