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Help free Pussy Riot

Will three courageous women of Pussy Riot remain in prison for years? We can help answer that question with solidarity.
Please click here to sign the RootsAction.org petition to free Pussy Riot

For the “crime” of performing a song against Russia’s president Vladimir Putin in a Moscow church, three women in the Pussy Riot band -- Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova -- have each been sentenced to two years in prison.

But a court hearing in early September could reduce their sentences. There’s no time to lose.

"We emphasize that we advocate for non-violence and hold a grudge against no one," the three women wrote in a recent letter. They added that "our laughter is, in a sense, laughter through the tears, and our sarcasm is a reaction to the lawlessness."

After a trial that sometimes was no more logical than the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, these women should be free, not locked up in prison!

Get Ready for a Catastrophic War: Israel Likely to Strike Iran Before November Elections

More Washington insiders are coming to the conclusion that Israel’s leaders are planning to attack Iran before the U.S. election in November in the expectation that American forces will be drawn in. There is widespread recognition that, without U.S. military involvement, an Israeli attack would be highly risky and, at best, only marginally successful.

At this point, to dissuade Israeli leaders from mounting such an attack might require a public statement by President Barack Obama warning Israel not to count on U.S. forces — not even for the “clean-up.” Though Obama has done pretty much everything short of making such a public statement, he clearly wants to avoid a confrontation with Israel in the weeks before the election.

However, Obama’s silence regarding a public warning speaks volumes to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The recent pilgrimages to Israel by very senior U.S. officials — including the Secretaries of State and Defense carrying identical “PLEASE DON’T BOMB IRAN JUST YET” banners — has met stony faces and stone walls.

Four ways the Ohio GOP is already stealing the 2012 election

The Ohio Republican Party has moved four ways to steal America's 2012 election. The Buckeye State is almost certain to emerge as a decider in this year's presidential election, and the GOP is moving fast to ensure victory, no matter what it takes.  

The strategy reflects much of what was done by the Republicans in 2000 and 2004 to steal those presidential elections for George W. Bush, as we report in the newly published WILL THE GOP STEAL AMERICA'S 2012 ELECTION? (now at www.harveywasserman.ning.com and at www.freepress.org).

If they get away with it, the Ohio GOP could make it virtually impossible for Barack Obama to carry Ohio this November. In the years since Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004, the Democratic Party has made little headway in reforming our electoral system to make such thefts impossible:

Entrepreneur in empire state saves world economy

No joke. A little innovative thinking and economic calculation, and someone has come up with a model in Niagara Falls that could restore the U.S. economy and every economy influenced by it, not to mention the natural environment and what's left of our miserable souls.

The Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station has long been an economic drain (military spending produces fewer jobs than energy or education or infrastructure spending or even tax cuts), an environmental disaster (with the ground poisoned, what can replace this airport?), and a symbol of corruption (with the military trying to get rid of it, Congress members have insisted on keeping the base around as a make-work jobs program protected from charges of Socialism purely by its connection to war).

More costs of war: Suicides and mental trauma of military family members

Seven months ago, in December, 2011, Brian Arredondo, age 24, hanged himself in a shed in his mother’s backyard. Brian was the brother of US Marine Corps Lance Corporal Alexander Arredondo, who was killed in Iraq in 2004. For seven years Brian had had difficulties dealing with the death of his brother.

Brian, like so many military brothers, sisters, spouses, children and parents, fell into the depths of depression following the death of his brother.

These difficulties in coping with his brother’s death played out in Brian in his depression, dropping out of school, using alcohol and drugs, being in and out of drug rehab facilities, in continuing incidents with police for disorderly conduct and finally in suicide.

After the death of their son Alex in Iraq, Brian’s father Carlos Arredondo and his stepmother Melida travelled the country reminding the public of those dying in America’s wars on Iraq and Afghanistan-Americans, Iraqis and Afghans. Brian had joined them at Veterans for Peace events and at Occupy Boston. The Arredondos are now embarked on a mission to better understand the suicides that are occurring in military families.

Beyond Money

“Everyone loved him.” The hole was too deep; these words couldn’t fill it. But there they remain, floating on the regret, vibrant with the possibility of a different kind of world. We’ve always been in the process of building that world, but the process has lacked a central cohesion . . . a god, if you will, to bless it and keep it.

Antonis Perris, an unemployed musician from Athens, found himself at age 60 living in a world where the love of his community didn’t matter and probably wasn’t even noticeable: He had lost his means to earn a living. Until Europe’s economic crisis hit, he had sustained himself and his elderly mother performing at local taverns. He had done well. Then business dried up. Finally, he reached a point where he saw no way to keep on living. The brief story of his death last May — one more “economic suicide” — was reported recently in the Washington Post:

“The next morning, Perris took the hand of his ailing 90-year-old mother. They climbed to the roof of their apartment building and leapt to their death.”

Fractivist Bill Baker ponders progress and looks ahead

Baker said he and others working with Frack-Free Ohio have made inroads particularly with Muskingum County Conservancy District.

“We’ve managed to get them to halt the sales of water until an impact study can be done. The impact study will be finished towards the end of the year. So that’s an issue that’s coming up as far as water sales go.”

But he said private subcontracted haulers are taking water from easily accessible sources.

“They may be public or they may be just available and no one’s watching them. At this time, it’s not fully determined what the legalities are, which puts us in a really bad position at the grassroots level as far as pushing for some new laws and pushing for some oversight.”

He said laws and regulations are only as good as the persons willing to uphold them.

“We have plenty of laws. It just seems like we’re not always protected. Muskingum Watershed has a meeting this Friday at Pleasant Hill. We’ll be attending that, making our thoughts known there, inside and outside. We’re trying to cater to all folks with a rally and also testimony inside the board meeting.”

Love is the key ingredient for successful social movements, not religion, per se.

Some folk, such as Nathan Schneider, suggest there will be No Revolution Without Religion, but I humbly suggest success does not require religion, per se, whether organized or not. Instead it may be a matter of basing social movements on love. Who was it that said justice is the public face of love ?

But first some acknowledgement of how it's understandable folk think religion itself is required. Yes, religion can involve love and its manifestations: justice, fairness and compassion.

During Occupy DC, activist Bruce Wright reminded me the Bible says a lot more about social justice than it does about the roles of women or homosexuality or other issues that religious conservatives focus on. He is currently camping out in 'Romneyville' with the People's Economic Human Rights Campaign in Tampa as that city hosts the Republican National Convention.

And of course, social movements could no doubt use a type of Christianity more in tune with Liberation Theology and the type of faith found in the Abolition and Black Civil Rights movements.

August is National Sandwich Month

Teach our children well

It doesn’t take a high school graduate to realize there aren’t enough jobs in the United States. But it does take a high school graduate to do most of what jobs there are.

The stalemates that exist between the political right and center – vouchers vs. public education; teacher unions vs. you’re fired; evolution science vs. snakes and apples; etc – create a unique opening for progressives to offer some real ideas that might actually gain traction in a national dialogue currently mired in politicalculus.

To this end I offer three progressive proposals – seeking thoughtful response from both progressives and the political community at large. What do you think about…

TEACHER ASSISTANT CORPS

My first plan for reforming public education is a national teacher assistant corps. This would be federally-funded but supplemented with state, local, private and corporate contributions as well.

Beginning with the most at-risk districts and eventually fanning out to every public school in America, I propose placing a teacher’s assistant in every class, every classroom, every day.

Why?

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