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Joe Motil for Columbus City Council: Who can really take Ashley Wnek seriously?

Joe Motil, Independent write-in candidate for the unexpired term race for Columbus City Council, commented on a recent Columbus Dispatch article entitled, “Columbus council candidate decides to campaign after all.”  Ms. Ashley Wnek, who is technically also a candidate for the Columbus City Council unexpired term race claimed that, “I am working to let people know they have an alternative to my opponent, who is currently the subject of an ethics investigation.” 

Of Course, It is an Intifada: This is What You Must Know

When my book ‘Searching Jenin’ was published soon after the Israeli massacre in the Jenin refugee camp in 2002, I was quizzed repeatedly by the media and many readers for conferring the word ‘massacre’ on what Israel has depicted as a legitimate battle against camp-based ‘terrorists’. 

 

The interrogative questions were aimed at relocating the narrative from a discussion regarding possible war crimes into a technical dispute over the application of language. For them, the evidence of Israel’s violations of human rights mattered little.  

 

This kind of reductionism has often served as the prelude to any discussion concerning the so-called Arab-Israeli conflict: events are depicted and defined using polarizing terminology that pay little heed to facts and contexts, and focus primarily on perceptions and interpretations.  

 

An International Conscience

“The Pentagon said on Saturday that it would make ‘condolence payments’ to the survivors of the American airstrike earlier this month on a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in Kunduz, Afghanistan, as well as to the next of kin of those who died in the attack.”

Such a small piece of news, reported a few days ago by the NewYork Times. I’m not sure if anything could make me feel more ashamed of being an American.

Turns out the basic payout for a dead civilian in one of our war zones is . . . brace yourself . . . $2,500. That’s the sum we’ve been quietly doling out for quite a few years now. Conscience money. It’s remarkably cheap, considering that the bombs that took them out may have cost, oh, half a million dollars each.

If we valued human life, we would never go to war. Everybody knows this. It’s the biggest open secret out there, buried under endless public relations blather and — since the bombing of the hospital in Kunduz on Oct. 3, and the killing of 22 staff members and patients — a sort of international legalese.

Fundraiser to change Columbus City Council representation

Flier for event
Bob Fitrakis, Suzanne Patzer & the host committee  Invite you join us for an evening in support of Represent Columbus’s effort to bring Council Districts to Columbus.    Wednesday October 21 @ 5:30 PM General Admission: $20-online  $25-at the door   Home of Bob Fitrakis & Suzanne Patzer  1021 E. Broad Street Columbus, OH 43205   Sponsorships available: $500 Host | $250 Supporter | $100 Activist   **Your support is vital to our movement. Every dollar raised goes towards gathering 10,000 signatures before Nov. 10th** In order to make this campaign a success we need to raise $1,000/day which will pay for 20 canvassers collecting 600 signatures a day.    RSVP: Please RSVP here: https://www.representcolumb.us/events/bob-fitrakis-event-for-represent-columbus/   About Represent Columbus: We are a citizen  based group of concerned residents who want to reform city council to represent all of our needs. ---

Free Press 45th Anniversary Celebration and Awards Dinner

Awards dinner logo

Buy tickets: http://bit.ly/1g5qVWX
Monday, October 19, 2015
5:30-9pm
Florentine Restaurant
907 W Broad St, Columbus, OH 43222
Free parking
Come in west side back door to party room area (ground floor)
Handicap accessible
$15 per person, $25 couple, $10 or negotiable, low income
Buffet dinner and awards ceremony
Vegetarian options

Honoring with the Free Press "Libby" Award for Lifetime Achievement in Community Activism:
Chuck Lynd
Julie Weatherington-Rice
Pranav Jani
Kenny Schweickart

DSCO Debs-Thomas-Harrington Award winner:
Fadhel Kaboub

Bill Moss Award for Outstanding African American Activist winner:
Torin Jacobs

Contact: 614-253-2571 or colsfreepress@gmail.com

FirstEnergy Wants a Bailout for Nuclear and Coal – SAY NO!

People holding signs

On August 31, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) began conducting evidentiary hearings on FirstEnergy’s request for a bailout for their Davis-Besse nuclear power reactor and three Ohio coal plants.

Over 20 protesters were outside, on Broad Street in downtown Columbus, to greet them.  This is the third rally that protesters have held at the PUCO, telling them to SAY NO! to nuclear and coal bailouts.

The Ohio Consumers Counsel has estimated that ratepayers will pay an extra $3 billion in electric charges if PUCO grants this request. That’s one big bailout!  FirstEnergy claims that this request will save ratepayers $2 billion.  Are we supposed to believe that they are requesting a change that would cause them to lose $2 billion in customer payments?   

Columbus Day Demonstration at City Hall

Woman in front of signs talking into a microphone

   In keeping with a long tradition of protesting the celebration of Columbus Day, dozens of people gathered today, October 12, 2015 by the statue of Christopher Columbus at Columbus City Hall. Signs read "Columbus was a mass murderer," "Tear down this statue," "Stop Celebrating Genocide," "Abolish Columbus Day," and more. Speakers talked about how Columbus' visit to the U.S. brought oppression and death to the indigenous people and fomented racsism and homophobia. The crowd included a diverse group of people including Native American activists. A march to the OSU campus followed the rally. At the lead was a banner proclaiming today as "Indigenous People's Day." Not long ago, after many years of protest by Native Americans and supporters, the Santa Maria ship was removed from the river by City Hall, and City Council once declared the week in October that included Columbus Day "Indigenous People's Week." There was no response from City Council today except for police presence during the rally at City Hall.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Bombs Afghan Hospital

 

No, it’s not really fair to blame President Obama personally for the waves of aerial bombing that took more than an hour on October 4 to destroy a neutral hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders in Kunduz, Afghanistan, even though it appears on its face to be yet another US war crime.

But it’s totally fair to blame President Obama for giving the world another six years (so far) of President Bush’s policy of bringing chaos and devastation to whatever part of the Middle East happens to be annoying the folks who have decided these things since 2001. Not that it was all bread and roses before that, given the century-plus of unrelenting Western subjugation of the region by direct force and by establishing vicious proxy dictatorships (exhibit #1 is Iran).

Feds Seek Input On National Voting Problems

 

A revitalized federal commission on election oversight invites public input just as a major national study predicts massive problems in 2016 because of outmoded election tabulation software.

The much-embattled and belittled U.S. Election Assistance Commission wants public comments to help guide its work following appointment in January of three commissioners and renewed funding after GOP congressional critics sought to shut it down.

U.S. Election Assistance Commission logoMeanwhile, U.S. localities face a crisis in tabulating votes accurately and securely because many of them are using outdated software that can fail or even be hacked. That’s according to America’s Voting Technology Crisis, a study by the Brennan Center, which announced its findings last month at the National Press Cluband in an Atlantic Magazine article.

Die-in to protest Columbus Day holiday

Student lying on ground beneath Columbus statue

Beneath the Christopher Columbus statue in the square on Columbus State Community College campus, there was a die-in to call attention to the fact that celebrating Columbus Day is glorifying Christopher Columbus as a hero -- when in fact he was a conqueror responsible for the deaths of many indigenous people. Christopher Columbus was a slave trader and in reality is a symbol of colonialism, repression and genocide in our country. The die-in was staged so that Columbus State students would think about the real Columbus legacy and what it means to have such a statue as a icon on their campus. This was the first of three events happening today, October 12, 2015, to demonstrate against Columbus Day in Columbus, Ohio, so-named after the murderous conquistador. At 5:30pm, activists will gather for a protest by the Columbus statue outside the south side of Columbus City Hall, then march for a vigil on OSU campus at 7pm.

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