Governor Taft's rally

At the Ohio Statehouse, Gov. Bob (Serial Murderer) Taft gathered his people in a Nazi Germany-style rally to promote fascism and world dominance by the U.S. While young Columbus, Ohio children sang "God Bless America," a "Shock and Revulsion" campaign of bombing Baghdad, inspired by the Hitler's Blitzkrieg, killed innocent Iraqi children. While mindless nationalists spouted "Support our Troops" they failed to add "in this unholy, illegal, immoral war in which they may be killed." While they gathered together items for "care packages" for the military, George W., Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tommy Franks and the others in the U.S. military junta clapped their hands together in glee -- for if the U.S. citizens will take it upon themselves to support the troops and send them supplies, the government can lower the soldiers' wages even more and benefits even further, allowing the military to spend more money violating international law and experimenting with new toys by starting more preventative attacks around the world.

"This war has been a great success so far," the Resident Evil One was quoted as saying, while Cheney signed on the

This War Is Illegal

A nation that prides itself on its adherence to the "rule of law" has violated that commitment in launching a patently illegal war.[1]

Under fundamental international law, military force is permissible only in self-defense or when authorized by the U.N. Security Council.

The administration does not attempt to argue that self-defense applies. Iraq poses no imminent threat.

The Bush team's new doctrine of "preventive war" simply has no legitimacy under international law. Nazi leaders offered the same defense at the Nuremberg Tribunal.[2]

Rejecting the claim, the Tribunal found the Nazis guilty of the crime of aggression. As the Tribunal said, "To initiate a war of aggression, however, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."

"Shock and Awe" - Kucinich Responds

Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (DOH), who leads opposition in the House to the war in Iraq, issued [Fri, 21 Mar 2003] the following statement on the 'shock and awe' air campaign:

"Today is a sad day, the United States has begun its 'shock and awe' air campaign against Iraq. By all accounts this attack will rain thousands of bombs down on a heavily populated area."

"The 'shock and awe' air campaign is a horrific acceleration of the United States' unprovoked attack against Iraq. This air campaign is designed to aim the full might of the United States military apparatus at the center of a civilian population."

"Today, my thoughts and prayers are with the coalition service men and women serving in the region and with the innocent Iraqi civilians. We must end this unjustified war."

Congressman Kucinich will issue daily statements on the war in Iraq. www.kucinich.us

Message from Baghdad

Dear friends,

In Baghdad, as I write, things are relatively quiet. Today IPT delegate Wade Hudson had a chance to take a limited drive around Baghdad with a driver and a government minder. After passing by the still smoking Ministry of Foreign Affairs building, he drove to a residential neighborhood where he reports having seen a bomb crater 8 to 12 feet deep "in the middle of a wide, divided street. Traffic in one direction was blocked." He also reported passing by "many small homes in the neighborhood with all of their front windows blown out, presumably from the blast that created the crater."

A few hours ago, we spoke with Kathy Kelly at the Al Fanar hotel in downtown Baghdad. Kathy told us that they will be going around and visiting some hospitals tomorrow where there are apparently quite a lot of children. It is expected that the worst is yet to come.

Public Support Needed to Save Access to Emergency Care

Challenges facing access to emergency care in the United States today have been brewing for years, but now, several problems have come together to create a dire situation that is threatening everyone's access to emergency care. Nearly every day, news stories report the imminent closure of emergency departments from Pennsylvania to California. At the same time, the number of people seeking emergency care continues to increase dramatically.

The reasons for this crisis include decreasing federal, state, and private reimbursements; accelerating amounts of uncompensated care provided by hospitals and physicians; shortages of nurses and support staff; and soaring medical liability insurance premiums for emergency physicians and other specialists, forcing many to retire early or move to states with lower premiums.

Neither our community nor any others are immune to the impending collapse of the health care safety net. Emergency departments at hospitals all over the U.S., including many here in southeast Michigan, are experiencing 6-7 hour delays in seeing a physician, patients lying on stretchers in the hallways,

Civil Disobedience at an American High School

Today at Noon, on March 20th 2003, 76 or more Columbus Alternative High School students stood up for what they believed in. Inspired by Anti-Flag, The Clash, Henry David Thoreau, Thomas Paine and their own beliefs they walked out. United from different social groups, different races, different everything! They called the Media, and it seemed to be a pretty good turn out. It all begun with a few Amnesty International meetings at the school and wound up making high school history. The protest was to coincide with the national International Answer Walkout at 12:00 PM. The leaders of this cause, despite strong discouragement by their principal led the walkout peacefully and silently. They knew the consequences and were willing to face them. All in the name of freedom, peace and unity. The students gathered in the school's courtyard and proceeded to the front lawn of the school, for the sake of thought that it may "disrupt" the fellow student's learning environment. They stood out there playing Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Tupac Shakur, Bob Dylan, and many other peaceful musicians' works. They carried signs, made tee shirts and put the peace sign up every

Vets To Top US Military Commanders: Remember Nuremberg

Veterans For Peace has sent an open letter to fifteen generals and admirals in the top ranks of the US Military advising them of their possible liabilities, under international law, to criminal prosecution for being part of a pre-emptive war against Iraq. Veterans For Peace, headquartered in St. Louis, MO, is an organization of men and women who have served in peacetime and in most of the wars of the last century, with 92 chapters nationwide.

OPEN LETTER TO THE NATION'S TOP MILITARY COMMANDERS
General Richard B. Myers, Chairman, USAF;
General Peter Pace, Vice Chairman, USMC
Admiral Vern Clark, Chief of Naval Operations
General Michael W. Hagee, Commandant USMC
General John P. Jumper, Chief of Staff, USAF
General Erick Shineski, Chief of Staff, USA

_________________________________________ United States Unified Combatant Commanders:
General James L. Jones, USMC, US European Command,
Admiral Thomas B. Fargo, USN, US Pacific Command,
Admiral E.P. Giambastiani, USN, US Joint Forces Command,
General James T. Hill. USA, U Southern Command,
General Tommy R. Franks, USA, US Central Command,

Columbus Alternative High School Student Protest

Today at Noon, students at Columbus Alternative High School gathered today in hopes of making a difference. We all gathered in the front lawn of our school, we had Channel 4, a news helicopter, 3 cops and a woman from the Cols. Dispatch come. The cops arrested one person, we had 76+ people turn out. When the cops came it narrowed to 26. One was arrested. We commited Civil Disobiedence. A revolutionary idea brought forth to us by the likes of Thoreau, Thomas Paine and many others. I, as a student would just like to let you guys know that we support the Free Press, and are going to continue the struggle for peace. To make a difference in the Anti-War movement.

Time to change the Israeli Government's Policies Against Palestinian Civilians

The election of  Mahmoud Abbas as new Palestinian Prime Minister with wide powers is not only a defeat for Chairman Arafat who wanted a Prime Minister with limited authority. By removing an important obstacle according to the U.S., it should also lead to Palestinian statehood and put a stop to a systematic and brutal policy of intimidation of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli government. These policies -which have increased in intensity since the last Intifada- have had a serious negative impact on Palestinians' health and quality of life, and will have serious consequences for the moral character of the State of Israel itself.

Systematic home demolitions, severe travel restrictions, curfews and blockading of towns are cruel occupation policies aimed at intimidating Palestinians and making them leave their lands. Since the start of Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands over 10,000 homes have been demolished, only 500 of which have been of people accused of security offenses.

War in springtime

AUSTIN, Texas -- Don't you hate when war starts in springtime? We are now united in desperately hoping that the war will be both easy and short.

The most depressing thing about this war is that we are going into it with the support of the majority of public opinion in exactly two countries, the United States and Israel -- and that is indeed a miserable failure of diplomacy, as Sen. Daschle put it.

In the current issue of Newsweek, Fareed Zakaria has a long and thoughtful piece on what went wrong. He reports, "I've been all over the world in the last year, and almost every country I've visited has felt humiliated by this administration." He quotes Jorge Casteneda, the recently resigned foreign minister of Mexcio: "Most officials in Latin American countries today are not anti-American types. We have studied in the United States or worked there. We like and understand America. But we find it extremely irritating to be treated with utter contempt."

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