----- Forwarded Message ---- From: The MALDEFian <press@maldef.org> To: PETER LOPEZ <peter.lopez51@yahoo.com> Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 9:11:03 AM Subject: MALDEF's Thomas A. Saenz to Speak at Netroots Nation Conference
August 14, 2009 – MALDEF's incoming President and General Counsel Thomas A. Saenz will speak at the fourth annual gathering of the Netroots (formerly known as the YearlyKos Convention) which is being held August 13–16 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, PA. Netroots Nation 2009 was kicked off last night by former President Bill Clinton and includes panels led by national and international experts; a progressive film screening series; practical training sessions and workshops; and the most concentrated gathering of progressive bloggers to date.
Today, Tom will be moderating a panel on Justice Sotomayor's appointment, which includes notable speakers such as Rep. Jerry Nadler (D- NY) and Nan Aron (Alliance for Justice). The event will be streamed live, and can be viewed on the MALDEF website. The panel will commence at 3:00pm ET (12:00pm PT).
MALDEF is committed to using new technology to advance and promote the civil rights of over 45 million Latino Americans. Join us on our Facebook page, or follow us on Twitter to get the latest on where you can help in the battle for equality and justice.
It is insane to applaud and mourn over U.S. soldiers who die in combat in
a war zone they should not even be involved in and are in as a direct result
of their own personal choices, their own personal decisions, their own karma!
Between here and death we must decide where we stand in relation to the
unjust wars being waged by the Amerikan killing machine. These U.S. soldiers
volunteered to JOIN ~ None of them were drafted!
When we support them in any way we are supporting the killing insanity that
spawns more killing insanity and that makes us partakers of that insanity. The blood is on all our hands if we condone such bad behavior with evil intent, though our fingers may not pull the trigger. Not having a job does not justify
joining a mercenary army, picking up a gun and fighting in the wrong war!
What alternatives do a defending force of insurgents who are in the country
of their birth have against armed foreign aggressors than to fight back by any
means necessary!
The biggest mistake any insurgency can make is the harming and killing of the
civilian population whether via collateral damage or plain poor military training. Arbitrary suicide bombers who harm, injure or bring about the death of any
innocent civilians will have their own karmic hell to endure in the afterlife.
If you mourn over the death of soldiers who are out to kill my family you are
mouning over a meaningless death and insulitng my family. Anyone who
bursts into my sanctuary will fall a fool's death and never be found! And
the street dogs around here are always hungry!!!!!
We need to drop any naive liberal ideas about supporting those who are objectively 'ENEMY SOLDIERS'! We should know who are our true FRIENDS and who are our ENEMIES!
Nobody forces Amerikan soldiers to go fight and die in foreign wars that are condemned by all compassion humane beings. The 'killer for hire' mercenary mentality will come home to roost in our own backyards causing local havoc in our own local communities, adding to the social costs of returning veterans who will suffer from an array of psycho-social problems, such as, PTSD and bi-polar disorders and some will end up packing up our prisons even more than they are now!
Yes, arbitrary violence against the innocents is dead wrong, suicide bombers are
already insane and those who fail to condemn such actions condone them by their
own apathy. What about the armed fools who fight in unjust wars and die?!?!
Certainly an oppressed people who are being attacked have the sacred right to
defense themselves with all the weapons at their disposal. I do not want to hurt
anyone's feeble feelings or stab anyone's sensitivities, but we should not be so stupid as to mourn over those who die in an unjust war participating in killing
native insurgents who are out defending their own lives, their own native lands and their own natural resources in a land that we should not even be in as foreign invaders in a foreign land!!
What are progressive activists going to do IF and WHEN the U.S. Imperialist Soldiers are sent to Latin America to fight against indigenous peoples who are fighting for the
liberation of their lands?!?!?
Wake up! There are wars going on and these wars will take many forms and have many manifestations. Know which side you are on and dare not get caught in the
crrossfire wondering which side you are on when bullets are flying and IEDs are going off by remote control!!!!!
From: SunMt <elfie@sunmt..org> To: SunMt Ballis <elfie@sunmt.org> Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 4:06:27 PM Subject: [NetworkAztlan_News] Justin died for the racketeers
"I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket." -- Major General Smedley Darling Butler - (1881-1940) Major General, U.S. Marine Corps
Clutching the flag from her husband's casket, Nicole Coleman,22, weeps at the grave of Army Spc. Justin Dean Coleman on Monday during the funeral for the 21-year-old Hernando Beach man. He was killed July 24 in a firefight with insurgents.Spec. Justin D.. Coleman
Hometown: Spring Hill, FL
Age: 21 years old
Died: July 24, 2009 in Operation Enduring Freedom.
Incident: Killed when enemy forces attacked his unit using small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fires.
Hundreds says goodbye as Army Spc. Justin Dean Coleman is laid to rest at Florida National Cemetery
By John Frank, St. Petersburg Times Staff Writer In Print: Tuesday, August 4, 2009
BUSHNELL — As the doors of the hearse opened, revealing the flag-draped casket, a warm August wind caused the American flags at Florida National Cemetery to stand at attention.
A bagpiper heralded the arrival with Amazing Grace, and military pallbearers wheeled Army Spc. Justin Dean Coleman's casket along the crushed seashell sidewalk, the family trailing behind..
More than 200 mourners placed hands to hearts or stiff salutes to sweaty brows.
A prayer. Three volleys. Taps. And a folded flag for Spc. Coleman's young widow, his mother and his father.
Spc. Coleman, a 21-year-old from Hernando Beach, died in a firefight with insurgents July 24 in a remote, mountainous region of Afghanistan near the Pakistan border.
In a brief memorial service Monday morning at Downing Funeral Home in Spring Hill, a standing-room-only crowd remembered Spc. Coleman as a teacher, a hard worker, a rival, a best friend, a hero and a brother.
A friend read a letter written by Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Alex M. Murphy, who recalled how he and Coleman trained during their senior year in high school before leaving for boot camp.
"It was always an adventure with Justin," Murphy wrote from Camp Pendleton, Calif., where he is stationed. "Sometimes I wish I could have been there with Justin in Afghanistan."
Spc. Coleman enlisted in June 2007, shortly after graduating from Nature Coast Technical High School, largely against his family's wishes, and deployed to Afghanistan in January.
Email our D.C. employees for single payer system. Obama here & Congress below
IRAQ: Wounded Total (to 7/31/09): 53,367 Killed in Action, July,2009: 15 Wounded, July,2009: 93 And remember: 9-11 was an inside job: http://www.sunmt.org/9-11archives.html
KILLED IN ACTION (IRAQ): PFC Tavarus D. Setzler, 23, U.S. Army, Jacksonville, Florida (hostile fire--IED attack) PFC Christopher A. Bartklewicz, 25, U.S. Army, Dunfermline, Illinois (hostile fire-small arms fire) SPC Christopher T. Fox, 21, U.S. Army, Memphis, Tennessee (hostile fire--small arms fire) PFC Jamel A. Bryant, 22, U.S. Army, Belleville, Illinois (non-hostile--vehicle accident) SSG Ronald Phillips, Jr.,33, U.S. Army, Conway, South Carolina (hostile fire--IED attack) CAPT Michael J. Meddera, 25, U.S. Army, Elyria, Ohio (hostile fire--suicide bomber) 1ST LT Thomas J. Brown, 26, U.S. Army, Shelton, Virginia (hostile fire--small arms fire) SSG Mathew J. Taylor, 25, U.S. Army, Charleston, South Carolina (hostile fire--small arms fire) CWO Corry A. Edwards, 38, U.S. Army, Kennedale, Texas (non-hostile-helicopter crash) SGT Daniel M. Eshbaugh, 43, U.S. Army, Norman, Oklahoma (non-hostile-helicopter crash) SGT Anthony L. Mason, 37, U.S. Army, Springtown, Texas (non-hostile--helicopter crash) 1ST SGT Julio C. Ordonez, 54, U.S. Army, San Antonio, Texas (non-hostile--helicopter crash) Please redistribute these casualty reports to your Congress members, your friends, family, and e-mail list. Additional e-mail recipients welcome. numbers mostly from Jim Landis of Mariposa mailto:landis@yosemite.net
* Harper raises Buy American provisions (Updates with details on fighting drug trade, Honduras)
By Steve Holland and Patricia Zengerle
GUADALAJARA, Mexico, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada vowed on Monday to fight the spread of the H1N1 swine flu and combat drug gangs but differed on trade disputes at their "three amigos" summit.
U.S. President Barack Obama, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper met against a backdrop of an economic downturn in each country with a U.S. rebound key to a regional improvement.
"The global recession has cost jobs and hurt families from Toronto to Toledo to Tijuana," said Obama at a joint news conference as the leaders pledged to work together to prepare for a summit of 20 leading economies in Pittsburgh next month.
Facing the possibility of a resurgence in the H1N1 virus this autumn likely to lead to more deaths, the three leaders pledged that their governments will share information and try to instruct their peoples on how to prepare.
"H1N1, as we know, will be back this winter," Calderon said. "We are getting prepared, all three countries, to face in a responsible manner this contingency and abate its impacts for our people."
The three leaders vowed to respect the North American Free Trade Agreement that unites their countries in trade, but differed on some issues.
Harper raised with Obama Canada's concerns about the "Buy American" provisions in the $787 billion U.S. economic stimulus plan that the Canadians fear could shut out Canadian companies.
Canada is the United States' largest trading partner.
Obama said it was important to keep in mind that no sweeping protectionist measures have been imposed and that the "Buy American" provisions were limited to the stimulus and have "in no way endangered the billions of dollars in trade between our two countries."
DRUG WAR
A central focus of the talks was also the fight against Mexican gangs dominating the drug trade over the U.S. border and up into Canada, often with U.S.-made weapons.
Obama and Harper rallied around Calderon in his government's drive against warring drug gangs that has raised concerns about human rights abuses as the body count soars.
Calderon said his government is doing its best to respect human rights while trying to destroy the enemy. "We know that we are destroying their criminal organization. We're hitting them hard We're hitting at the heart of the organizations."
And all three underscored their objective of seeing the peaceful resolution of what Obama said was clearly a coup against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.
Obama bristled at a reporter who repeated that some critics said the United States has not been strong enough on the issue.
"The same critics who say that the United States has not intervened enough in Honduras are the same people who say that we're always intervening and the Yankees need to get out of Latin America," Obama said. "You can't have it both ways."
Calderon, in his opening statement, indirectly raised a cross-border trucking dispute over allowing Mexican trucks to transit into the United States.
He said all three leaders believe it is essential to abide by NAFTA and to "resolve the pending topics" impeding greater regional competitiveness.
Obama had made clear to Calderon that he was working with the U.S. Congress to resolve what he considers to be legitimate safety concerns with Mexican trucks.
He said the United States, Mexico and Canada should take steps to avoid protectionism, saying "we need to expand that trade, not restrict it."
The three leaders issued a statement on joint efforts to combat climate change with an eye toward a global summit on the topic in Copenhagen in November.
"We, the leaders of North American reaffirm the urgency and necessity of taking aggressive action on climate change," they said. (Additional reporting by Mica Rosenberg, editing by Frances Kerry and Cynthia Osterman)
The White Buffalo Prophecy tells of a time when a white buffalo calf would be born, and that birth would signal a time of Great Healing for All Nations. That white buffalo calf - the first of many - was born in Janesville, Wisconsin in 1994. Her name was Miracle.
It is in the spirit of the White Bison Prophecy, that we call upon all peoples to join us in signing this petition supporting a US apology and healing for the widespread abuse of Native American children at the nearly 500 schools funded by the US government to assimilate Native American people.
There is a growing body of evidence that the trauma Native American children carried home with them from the schools is an underlying cause of the suicides and substance abuse-related deaths that are killing young Native people today in alarming numbers.
This petition will be hand delivered to Washington, D.C., following a 6,800-mile, cross-country journey by White Bison to 23 present and former Indian school sites (http://www.wellbrietyjourney.org/). The vision is to promote awareness, dialogue and forgiveness for what happened at the schools so that we can collectively heal from this tragic chapter in United States history.
This petition calls upon the President of the United States to issue a formal apology for what the US government allowed to happen to Native American children at the schools and for the intergenerational trauma that is still negatively affecting Native individuals, families & communities to this day.
White Bison, Inc., is a non-profit organization that for the last 20 years has provided culturally-relevant assistance and resources to Native American communities in healing (http://www.whitebison.org/)
