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Julia Butterfly Is At It Again...South Central LA Tree Sit

Julia Butterfly Hill, Joan Baez, Darryl Hannah and John Quigley on the Scene in South Central LA.

As many of you have already heard…she’s at it again! Julia is sitting in a tree along with fellow treesitter, John Quigley and folk singer and activist superstar Joan Baez.

Read on for more info here or at www.circleoflife.org, but NOW what you can do is:

1. Go to the FARM NOW for tonight's vigil. For address and info see: www.southcentralfarmers.com. We have heard that tomorrow morning the LA Sheriff's Department will enter the farm and need community support tonight. Please forward this info to anyone you know in Los Angeles.

2. Call Mayor Villaraigosa and tell him that you want the City of Los Angeles to buy the farm back from the developer and give it in perpetuity to the South Central Farmers. (213) 978-0600

3. Make a donation to the South Central Farmers (http://www.southcentralfarmers.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=114&Itemid=32) to help buy back the farm.

Julia is asking for every person to give at least $1 towards this historic farm. Together we can make the difference. Donate NOW at www.southcentralfarmers.com.

Here's the story:

Just about one week ago, Julia walked into the Circle of Life office and told us that while she hoped it did not come down to the need for her to do direct action to save the South Central Farm in Los Angeles—she would be up in a tree soon if there was a need. On Tuesday, May 23 Julia stationed herself in the “community watchtower”- a 3 story high walnut tree on the 14 acre South Central Farm. She joins in solidarity with 350 poor working class families who use the farm to grow organic food for themselves and their community.

Fourteen years ago, this spot was a wasteland- and in the wake of the 1992 LA uprising then-Mayor Bradley and Doris Block of the L.A. Regional Food Bank made a handshake deal to allow it to be used for a community farm. Today, after thousands and thousands of hours of sweat and labor, the South Central Farm is the largest urban farm in the nation. The 350 families who use the farming plots are low‑income and depend heavily upon the food they grow to feed themselves. In addition to growing food for themselves, the people involved with the community garden hold Farmers' Markets, festivals and other cultural events for the public at large.

In a backroom deal in 1996, the 14 acre farm was offered to a developer at a discount, but the deal was never approved by the City Council. In 2002, the developers sued the City and a settlement was reached giving the farm to the developers for a significantly below-market price. To repurchase the farm, the developer is insisting on over $16 million (they paid just over $5 million for it four years ago) and $6 million has already been raised by the South Central Farmers. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has the ability to pay the rest of selling price from the City budget, or further challenge the original sale. However, he has done neither.

The message below, an open letter from Robert Redford about the awful consequences if Congress passes the Bush-Cheney energy bill from http://www.savebiogems.org

Dear Friend,

Over the next few weeks, President Bush and his congressional allies will try once again to ram their disastrous energy bill through the U.S. Senate. They
fell only two votes short in November and they've vowed to make passage of the bill their top priority now that Congress has returned from recess. This bill may be the worst piece of legislation you and I will see in our lifetimes. It would pick your pocket, despoil your natural heritage, endanger your family's health and smother your hope for a more secure energy future.

We ignore this bill at our own peril. Let me tell you our simple plan for thwarting this shameless attack on our environment and pocketbooks. If millions of Americans each took one minute to protest this bill, it would cause every senator who is tempted to vote for it to think twice about doing so.

You can make this happen within the next few hours by doing two things:

First, go to http://www.savebiogems.org/ takeaction.asp and send your two senators an email or fax, telling them to vote against this pro-polluter energy bill.

Then, forward my email to at least four of your friends, family members or colleagues.

I am emailing this message to 500,000 BioGems Defenders and other NRDC activists. If each one forwards this message to just four more people, we will generate a national tidal wave of opposition before this day is over. And that won't be a moment too soon. This disgraceful bill would pick our pockets to hand out billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to the oil, coal and nuclear industries. That's their long-awaited reward for making big-time contributions to the Bush-Cheney campaign. They profit while the rest of us
pay the price -- in tax dollars and environmental degradation.

This bill gives the energy giants a free pass to drill their way through our last wild places, burn more dirty coal, build a new generation of risky nuclear power plants and dramatically increase air pollution that would sicken the vulnerable -- especially children and seniors -- for decades to come. It would establish oil and gas development as the dominant use of our federal public lands, open national parks to the construction of electricity transmission lines, exempt polluters from core provisions of our clean
air and water laws and waive liability for the producers of the toxic gasoline additive MTBE -- even though it has contaminated at least 1,500 public water supplies in all
50 American states. You'd be hard-pressed to come up with a more backward-looking, wasteful and self-defeating energy "plan" than this one. At a time when the federal
deficit is soaring and we're going to war in the Persian Gulf oilfields, the White House wants to stick us with the tab for prolonging our destructive dependence on
fossil fuels, foreign oil and dangerous nuclear technology. This is not a national energy policy. This is corporate welfare, pure and simple. Estimates of the bill's corporate tax breaks range from $23 billion to well over $100 billion with loan guarantees included. No surprise there.

Big energy companies cooked up this raid on the federal treasury during hundreds of secret meetings with Vice President Cheney's energy task force and their allies on Capitol Hill. It's one thing to gouge taxpayers. But to claim this rip-off is in the national interest, as the White House would have us believe, is a slap in the face to every working American.

Poll after poll shows that the vast majority of voters -- of both parties -- understand that we simply must reduce our out-of-control appetite for fossil fuels if we ever are to secure energy independence. That means turning American rooftops into the Persian Gulf of solar energy. It means producing cars that get 40 miles per gallon. It means constructing efficient buildings that use half the energy of the average American office without sacrificing comfort.

Making this transformation to a super-efficient, low-pollution economy would save consumers upwards of a trillion dollars, spare our last wild places from destruction, improve our health, slow global warming and reduce our dependence on undemocratic regimes overseas. It's a no-brainer to anyone living outside the White House.

But unless millions of Americans speak out right now, the enactment of the president's energy bill will doom us to an apocalyptic future of blighted wilderness, poisonous air pollution, devastating climate change and endless wars over fossil fuels. Please make your voice heard. Go to http://www.savebiogems.org/takeaction.asp and tell your senators to obey the will of the American people, *not* the dictates of giant energy corporations! Call on Congress to create a sustainable and affordable energy path. And please be sure to forward this message to at least four other people.

Believe me, millions of Americans are just waiting for a simple way to stop this madness and lend their support to a sane and hopeful energy future.
Sincerely yours,
Robert Redford
Board of Trustees
Natural Resources Defense Council
. . .
BioGems: Saving Endangered Wild Places
A project of the Natural Resources Defense Council
http://www.savebiogems.org

Take Action!
Congress Is Playing Games with Your Right to Choose!
Anti-choice leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives are days away from voting on the “Unborn Victims of Violence Act,” which is intended to weaken the legal basis of Roe v. Wade , bringing the anti-choice movement one step closer to ending a woman’s right to choose. 
The anti-choice crowd is exploiting real human tragedies for their own political gain. The women's community has long worked to end violence against women, and supports legislation that does so without compromising the right to choose. However, instead of passing consensus legislation to prevent and punish such crimes to the full extent of the law, this bill's sponsors are using them to advance their own far-right agenda. 
Please take action today! Send your representative an email asking him or her to oppose this deceptive and dangerous bill. Visit http://prochoiceaction.org

Dear MoveOn member,

We've asked you to call your Senators, write your local newspaper, and visit your Congressman. Today, we're asking you to party.

With your help, on Sunday, December 7th, we'll hold thousands of house parties across the country to screen the new documentary Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War. The documentary clearly describes, in the words of experts and former intelligence officials, how President Bush and his administration manipulated evidence to take our country to war. We've been to a few screenings, and it's a perfect centerpiece for a gathering. At 56 minutes, it's short yet substantial, and it brings up a lot of questions that make for good discussion.

The parties will be brought together through a huge cross-country conference call. At 5:30p PST / 8:30p EST, party attendees will be able to dial in to a call featuring director Robert Greenwald, the MoveOn team, and guests from parties all over the country. You'll also be able to submit questions for Mr. Greenwald and the team online.

This'll be fun, but it's also strategic. Coming together, we'll strengthen the MoveOn community. This is also a great way to get the word out - you can invite friends and co-workers who aren't yet part of MoveOn.

Can you host a party on December 7th? Sign up now at: http://action.moveon.org/meet/parties.html

As a host, you have the option of just inviting your friends and colleagues, or allowing MoveOn members in your area to attend -- our software makes it easy to do either. We'll also provide you with a simple step-by-step guide to putting on a party.

(Since the MoveOn.org Voter Fund is a partisan, 527 organization, we need to remind everyone that 501(c)3 non-profit organizations, such as schools, libraries, and many clubs, should not support parties with staff time or resources. This could be viewed as an in-kind contribution to the Voter Fund, which could be against the law. Of course, members and leaders of those organizations can attend as individuals.) If you've already ordered a copy of Uncovered, we'll make sure you receive it well before December 7th. If you haven't yet ordered a copy, you can get one now for $15 (including shipping) through the movie's distributors: https://secure.ctsg.com/truth_uncovered/contribute/DVD_Store.asp

Here's a little more about Uncovered:

MoveOn.org doesn't usually sponsor documentary films, but this movie is a really important one. It's built around interviews with over 20 intelligence and military experts, many of whom are speaking out for the first time. True to the MoveOn ethic, director Robert Greenwald lets the facts speak for themselves. And the results are pretty shocking.

Uncovered combines expert interviews with extensive research to go behind the walls of government. Interviewees include:

* Joe Wilson, the former Ambassador to Iraq who exposed that the famous "16 words" in Bush's State of the Union address about uranium in Niger were false. In retaliation, senior White House officials appear to have blown the cover of Wilson's wife, an undercover CIA agent.
* John Dean, White House lawyer for President Nixon during the Watergate scandal.
* Rand Beers, former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for combating terrorism.
* David Albright, a physicist, nuclear weapons expert, and former weapons inspector with the IAEA Action team.
* Rt. Hon. Clare Short, the British Member of Parliament who recently resigned her position as Tony Blair's secretary for international development because Blair did not support a UN coalition to rebuild Iraq.

It's a powerful film, and it'll be a great centerpiece for a house party. We hope you can join us on December 7th in parties around the country. Sign up now, at:
http://action.moveon.org/meet/parties.html

Sincerely,
--Carrie, Eli, James, Joan, Noah, Peter, Wes, and Zack
The MoveOn.org Team
November 19th, 2003

P.S. If you'd like to check out the Uncovered trailer and some clips from
the movie, go to the movie's website at:
http://www.truthuncovered.com/clips/index.cfm

The President took the nation to war based on his assertion that Iraq posed an imminent threat to our country. Now the evidence that backed that assertion is falling apart. Richard Butler, the chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq in the 1990s and a supporter of the war, recently wrote, "Clearly a decision had been taken to pump up the case against Iraq." (1)

If the Bush administration distorted intelligence or knowingly used false data to support the call to war, it would be an unprecedented deception. Even if weapons are now found, it'll be difficult to justify pre-war language that indicated that the exact location of the weapons was known and that they were ready to deploy at a moment's notice. With a crisis of credibility brewing abroad and the integrity of our President and our foreign policy on the line, we need answers now.
Please ask Congress to establish an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the distortion of evidence right now, at:
http://www.moveon.org/distortion/

On March 17th, in the eve of the Iraq war, President Bush told the American people that "intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." (2) White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer said simply, "We know for a fact that there are weapons there." (3) And Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld elaborated: "We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." (4)

Now, after two months of searching by the most skilled teams in the military, not a single piece of solid evidence of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons programs in Iraq has been found. The top 87 sites identified by U.S. Central Command have turned up only vacuum cleaners, a swimming pool for Iraq's Olympic team, and a license plate factory. (5)
Officials in the CIA and other intelligence agencies have complained for months that they have been under pressure to "cook the books" on Iraq intelligence. (6) Worse, a number of the key pieces of evidence that the Bush administration has released have come unraveled:

The President's State of the Union claim that Iraq possessed an active nuclear program was based on fraudulent documents that included the forged signature of an official that weren't even in office at the time. (7)
The dossier that Prime Minister Blair and Secretary Powell relied upon in critical presentations turned out to have been partially plagiarized from a graduate student's paper from 12 years ago. (8)
The claim that Iraq could launch weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes, first made by Prime Minister Tony Blair, now appears to have been fabricated. (9)

The administration's claim that two tractor trailer trucks found in Iraq housed "mobile weapons labs" has now been disputed by numerous experts inside and outside of the military. An official British investigation has concluded that the trailer trucks were "exactly what the Iraqis said they were -- facilities for the production of hydrogen gas to fill balloons." (10)

A President may make no more important decision than whether or not to take a country to war. If Bush and his officials deceived the American public to create support for the Iraq war, they need to be held accountable. Join the call now at:
http://www.moveon.org/distortion/

Sincerely,
--Carrie, Eli, Joan, Peter, Wes, and Zack
The MoveOn Team
June 16th, 2003

Albert Einstein's Various Comments on War
He who joyfully marches to music rank and file,has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake,since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once.Heroism at command,how violently I hate all this,how despicable and ignoble war is;I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action.It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is no different than murder.

I do not know with what weapons World War 3 will be fought, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones.

Nationalism is an infantile sickness. It is the measles of the human race.

The minority, the ruling class at present, has the schools and press, usually the Church as well, under its thumb. This enables it to organize and sway the emotions of the masses, and make its tool of them.

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.

The significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.

I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.

One does not make wars less likely by formulating rules of warfare.... War cannot be humanized. It can only be abolished

Hundreds of thousands march against war in Washington, San Francisco and Cities Around the World
On Oct. 26th hundreds of thousands demonstrated against a new U.S. war on Iraq, in Emergency Actions called by the A.N.S.W.E.R. -Act Now to Stop War & End Racism- Coalition.

Protests took place in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Seattle, Fresno and other cities. more>

Stephen's Guide to the Logical Fallacies http://www.datanation.com/fallacies/

Join the People's Anti-War Referendum
You can help build the People's Anti-War Referendum in your community, campus, high school, place of worship and workplace. Join this movement: visit www.VoteNoWar.org or call (202) 332-5757.

911 Rescue workers protest against war on Iraq Read the pledge here

Antartic ozone hole splits in two Read it on CNN.com

HELP MARINE LIFE You Can Help to Stop Low Frequency Sonar from killing Whales and Other Marine Mammals

LISTEN EVERY THURSDAY MORNING AS JOHNNY BARTEE AND JEFF DAVIS BRING YOU SOME OF THE BEST POLITICAL TALK RADIO ON THE INTERNET.
USA Times: 8:30 AM PST, 10:30 AM CST, 11:30 AM EST.
Tune in at: www.crusaderadio.com