People rallying at the stateouse wearing pink shirts

The young woman hands me a hot pink tee shirt and a clipboard. “Please sign your support for funding Planned Parenthood.” She smiles broadly and continues, “I’m testifying tomorrow!” Chelsea Golferman was referring to the Ohio House of Representatives hearings which began Tuesday, October 20 for House Bill 294 to defund Planned Parenthood. In spite of the House panel limiting individual testimony to 90 seconds, women are signing up to testify that Wednesday.
  “I first went to Planned Parenthood because I couldn’t afford to go to a private practice,” Golferman says. “I kept going because I got good health care. And I’ve never had an abortion.” You hear that a lot from women and families who use Planned Parenthood as a healthcare resource.  

  Demonstrators gathered on the steps of the Ohio Statehouse on that warm autumn evening to make clear the importance of Planned Parenthood in Ohio. It was a good turnout; several hundred people, young, old, women and men, mostly white that evening though Planned Parenthood is a mainstay for diverse and ethnic communities.    

Serving legal documents on high visibility persons who have been involved in international criminal acts is very difficult. However, the temptation of large honoraria for speeches in the United States tripped up a former Israeli Prime Minister who has been accused of war crimes for his involvement in the murders of ten passengers (nine were killed immediately and a seriously wounded passenger died after being in a coma for several years) on the Mavi Marmara in the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla.

In a telephone press conference on October 21, the international legal team that filed the lawsuit against former Israeli Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak described how “legal process service” or official notification of a legal claim filed against him was done. The legal team knew Barak would be in Southern California giving three talks as a part of the Distinguished Speaker Series of Southern California and hired a commercial “certified process server” to deliver the court documents to Barak.

hat is “Benghazi,” Washington’s long-running kabuki circus, really about?

Is it about dead diplomats and CIA mercenaries? Foreign service security? Terrorist attacks and Islamaphobic movies? Emails and Sidney Blumenthal? Whether Hillary Clinton cares, or whether she spends the night alone? Does the Benghazi committee, or anyone else, really know what “Benghazi” is about?

 We all need to thank Phil Shenon for bringing attention to the CIA’s latest position in their continuing stonewalling of the truth in regard to the JFK assassination. The new limited hang-out that Shenon helps test float in his October 6, 2015, Politico piece, “Yes, the CIA Director was Part of the JFK Assassination Cover-Up,” is acknowledgment that DCI John McCone participated in a “benign-coverup” by withholding crucially important information from the Warren Commission. Once again, we can benefit from what is normally gleaned from a limited hangout: 1) it will fill in some blanks; 2) point the way to further avenues of investigation; 3) illustrate the continued lying while admitting to past lying; 4) illuminate the real issues by its misdirection; and 5) ultimately contribute to the long unravelling leading to the eventual revelation of truth. In this case, Shenon’s latest spin on the CIA’s new limited hangout does all this and more. I say “his spin” deliberately because Mr. Shenon’s latest article in Politico1 doesn’t even accurately represent his cited CIA source.

Bridge

New map shows most states would be corridors for high-risk, high-level radioactive waste shipments

Expert Tele-Briefing 2 pm (Eastern), Tues., Oct. 27 (See end of press release for call-in details)

Washington, D.C. – Thousands to tens of thousands of high-level radioactive waste shipments would cross through 45 states and the District of Columbia, if plans for the country’s first nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada move forward. Today, Beyond Nuclear, in coalition with NIRS and dozens of grassroots groups nationwide, released maps of the likely routes radioactive waste shipments would use. The groups want residents in these corridor communities across the country to weigh in with Congress about the dangers.

Photo of Rick Kirk

Just who in the heck is Rick Kirk?
  If Issue 3 indeed becomes law, and you reside in Franklin County and a marijuana user, Kirk is going to be growing your legal green, selling you your legal green, and taking your monetary green.
  Kirk is one of the 20 primary investors aligned with ResponsibleOhio, the “AstroTurf” effort behind Issue 3. The Columbus-based strategy group has said it will spend at least $20 million to get the investor-backed constitutional amendment passed.
  After getting injured while trying to make the Dallas Cowboys, Kirk embarked on a career in construction and eventually founded Hallmark Campus Communities, now headquartered in the Empire Building at 150 E. Broad Street. He’s the company’s CEO and also ResponsibleOhio’s lead investor for the Franklin County potentially massive indoor grow site planned for Grove City on Seeds Road (of all places), and just off I-71.

If you're into quaint, you can visit a historic village, restore some antique furniture, or for far less trouble pick up a mainstream analysis of the U.S. military from 40 years ago or so.

I just happened to read a 1973 book called Military Force and American Society, edited by Bruce M. Russett and Alfred Stepan -- both of whom have presumably updated their views somewhat, or -- more likely -- veered off into other interests. The problems and trends described in their book have been worsening ever since, while interest in them has been lessening. You could write a similar book now, with the numbers all larger and the analysis more definitive, but who would buy it?

 

Only a non-patriot or someone with a bit of respect for the Bill of Rights would have opposed the Patriot Act.

Only a child-hater or someone with a bit of respect for public education would have opposed the No Child Left Behind Act.

And only a genocide-supporter or someone who's fed up with endless aggressive foreign wars would oppose the forthcoming Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act from Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD).

Names can be deceiving, even when supporters of bills and of those bills' names have the best of intentions. Who wouldn't like to prevent genocide and atrocities, after all? I'm of the opinion that I support many measures that would help to do just that.

President Barack Obama has vetoed a military authorization bill. Why would he do such a thing?

Was it because dumping $612 billion into a criminal enterprise just finally struck him as too grotesque?

Nope.

Was it because he grew ashamed of holding the record for highest average annual military spending since World War II, not even counting Der Homeland Security Department or military spending by the State Department, the Energy Department, the Veterans Administration, interest on debt, etc.?

Nope. That would be crazy in a world where pretense is everything and the media has got everyone believing that military spending has gone down.

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