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Time to apply South Africa remedy to Israel

The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly last week to accept the ruling of the International Court of Justice on Israel's apartheid wall and demand Israel dismantle it.

The vote was 150-6, the dissenters being the United States, Israel, Australia, and three U.S.-dependent island states.

The wall literally makes concrete the colonization of roughly 30-40 percent more of the 22 percent of Palestine that remains. Palestinians will end up with about 12-15 percent of their land, but even this will be in disjointed ghettos that will have no sovereignty.

Israel is in defiance of over 35 U.N. Security Council resolutions and countless General Assembly resolutions. Israel was also shielded from many others by U.S. vetoes or threats of veto. But this will be different.

In 1971, despite U.S. objections, the U.N. General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice to rule on South Africa's violations of international law in Namibia. An international movement to dismantle apartheid in South Africa followed the ruling. The movement succeeded

‘A green world is possible’ planned in New York City during the Republican National Convention

While Greens participate in demonstrations against Kerry during the Democratic Convention in Boston, party members are organizing the August 28 event; Green presidential candidate David Cobb will be featured.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party members are organizing a major event to coincide with the Republican National Convention and anti-Bush protests in New York City.

Titled 'A Green World Is Possible: A Festival of Non-Violence, Ecology, Democracy, Social and Economic Justice,' the rally will take place in Washington Square on Saturday, August 28.

"We believe that holding our event separate from the myriad of other anti-Republican activities will enable us to keep our message positive and ensure the safety of our membership," said Charles Shaw, co-chair of the Peace Action Committee of the Green Party of the United States. "We're committed to providing a safe environment in which our members and allies can exercise their right to speak out on important issues."

The program will feature live music and speakers, including Green presidential candidate David Cobb and running mate Pat LaMarche; New

Badnarik Doubles in Recent National Poll

A majority of Americans disapprove of the Republican and Democrat conventions

Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik completes his first national campaign poll. The survey indicates that 62% of Americans disapprove of public funding of the Democratic and Republican conventions. Badnarik polled at 3%, a large bump from polling earlier this month.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) July 27, 2004 -- Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik and his communications director Stephen Gordon appeared at a fundraiser in Columbia, MD, Thursday night. When asked about his campaign strategy by a guest at the function, Badnarik responded with his now familiar, “Television, television, and more television.”

Gordon also spoke at the event, spending his time providing details from the first national poll conducted by the campaign beginning by informing the enthusiastic crowd that Badnarik is now polling at 3%, a sharp increase from the 1% to 1.5% range reported earlier this month in surveys performed by pollsters John Zogby and Larry Jacobs.

I'll Follow Kucinich to Kerry, Sorry Ralph

If Kerry is a "flip-flopper" because he won't end the war (or the "Patriot Act" or NAFTA or private health insurance) even as he speaks against these horrors, what do we have to call Kucinich, who insists on ending these things even as he endorses Kerry? And what can we expect Dennis to say on Wednesday when he delivers a Kerry-approved speech to the Democratic National Convention? Will he speak against the war, as he told "Democracy Now"'s Amy Goodman he would?

I expect in fact that Dennis will not need to tie himself in knots or reverse any positions. Understanding this helps me to accomplish something I find extremely difficult – sympathizing with John Kerry.

A year ago I would not have lifted a finger to help Kerry's campaign. I did, however, quit my job to become Kucinich's press secretary, a position I quit in February. I was attracted to Kucinich's campaign by a platform that does not at first seem to have much overlap with Kerry's. Our biggest plank was a plan to end the occupation in 90 days. The two positions that Dennis stressed most frequently after that one were

Morrissey: You are the Quarry

The undisputed king of the 80’s indie scene is back, and he’s still pissed. It’s been seven years since we last heard from this one-time Smiths front man. If you thought age would mellow the old bloke, think again. The definition of the word Quarry in Old English means “the hunted.” Listening to You are the Quarry, it’s clear nobody is safe.

The opening track, “America is Not the World,” is a tirade that finds Moz blasting his adopted homeland. The first words Big Mouth unleashes are, “America /Your head’s to big /Because America /Your belly’s too big.” Before he’s done, Morrissey rips the land of opportunity for never electing a black, female or gay president, and tells us where to shove our hamburgers. Thanks to this track, America now knows that, “In Estonia they say/ hey you, you big fat pig.” This rant flows over infectious textbook pop.

Producer Jerry Finn, who also helped Blink-182 and Greenday find their sound, describes You are the Quarry as, “creamy and organic.” Whatever you call it, Finn provides the quintessential 80’s style backdrop for Morrissey’s musing.

Patti Smith: Trampin’

Patti Smith is the high priestess of NY Punk. In a world where Avril Lavigne and Christina Aguilera are considered rebellious, thank god Patti can still come around and remind them they’re not. I would love to see these MTV darlings go on TRL and proclaim that, “Jesus died for someone’s sins, but not mine.” That was the opening line of Smith’s iconic 1974 release, Horses. Thirty years on, Patti is using Trampin’ as a sounding board for an American revolution of a different kind.

From the first guitar riff, you know the album is gonna rock. The opening track “Jubilee,” is a bit of a barnyard stomp with Patti in a two tone chant declaring, “We will never fade away /Doves shall multiply /Yet I see hawks circling the sky.” The band underscores Patti’s fading utopian dreams with a psychedelic jam of tight blues and swirling guitars.

In “My Blakean Year,” Patti pays homage to every Beat poet’s hero William Blake. The minimal guitar scratching and deliberate underproduction is brilliant. Patti fades out with the repeating lines, “Embrace all that you fear /For joy shall conquer all despair /In my Blakean year.”

Bobby Conn and the Glass Gypsies: The Homeland

Bobby Conn and the Glass Gypsies have written the funniest political satire album of the year. But don’t laugh at this glammed up six-piece from Chicago. The art is high; it’s just their scruples that are low. In the making of The Homeland, Bobby Conn effortlessly channels the essence of several of his heroes. It’s as if David Bowie and Freddie Mercury merged together and made the ideal anti-Bush album with Frank Zappa as the producer.

The Gypsies sophisticated Syncopation blasts the opening track, “We Come in Peace” wide open. This song mocks the right wing view of the war in Iraq. Bobby Conn playfully offers up the lines, "We are your friends, we come in peace /We brought our guns to set you free." With the band driving full force, Conn mocks the status quo with contemptuous lines like, “We have no fear of your disgust /You hate us ‘cause your jealous of success.”

Executed murderer had official accomplices

Texas inmate David Ray Harris went to his death with no excuses on June 29.   ``Sir, in honor of a true American hero: Let's roll,'' Harris said when asked if  he had a final statement. By echoing the words of a passenger before he and  others attacked the hijackers of Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, possibly   causing the jet to crash before reaching its intended target in Washington,   Harris apparently wanted to sound heroic.

But Harris was no hero. He was  a cold-blooded killer who also almost caused the execution of Randall Dale  Adams, an innocent Ohioan Harris helped frame for the first of two murders we  know Harris committed at a young age. Only because Adams had good trial  attorneys whose objections to the actions in the kangaroo court that convicted  him and an appeals attorney who exploited those objections to the hilt was  Adams' life saved by the U.S. Supreme Court three days before his scheduled  execution in 1979.

Prosecutors asked that the Ohioan's sentence be  commuted to life in prison rather than face the possibility of retrying Adams,  who had no prior record,

Candidate Kerry

I tried shouting "Kerry-Edwards" on the step out to my garden. The cat yawned, and the flowers drooped. Democrats know this in their hearts. Twit them about Kerry's dreariness, reminiscent of thin, cold chowder or Weeping Ed Muskie, and one gets the upraised hand and petulant cry, "I don't want to hear a word against Kerry!" It was as though the Democratic candidate has been entombed, pending resurrection as president, with an honor guard of the National Organization of Women, the AFL-CIO, the League of Conservation Voters, Taxpayers for Justice and the NAACP. To open the tomb prematurely to admit the oxygen of life and criticism is to commit an intolerable blasphemy against political propriety.

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