Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
I encourage everyone to watch the video. This is a reasonable man's reaction to an illegal and immoral war. It is being punished with excessive penalty of law. While this is a form of graffiti is not a form that is to provide connections to drug networks or 'gang alliances.' This is not so malicious it deserves this severe a penalty. The punishment does not fit the crime.
Ferner Found Guilty
WTOL-11
TOLEDO -- A Lucas County jury reached a quick verdict in the vandalism case against Mike Ferner. But before the case went to the jurors, the former Toledo city councilman and mayoral candidate took the witness stand Wednesday so he could speak out against the war in Iraq.
It took the jury only 15 minutes to find Ferner guilty of vandalism and possession of criminal tools. Now he could be looking at up to two years in prison.
But Ferner says his trial was another way for him to protest in a non-violent way. "This is something that's going on right now, and it's important for people, if nothing else, to stop and realize what's happening," Ferner said.
As promised, the activist took the stand to publicly show his disapproval of the war in Iraq. He admits he used orange spray paint to leave the words "Troops Out Now!" on a Sylvania Township overpass.
Ferner said, "A response of some sort, commensurate with the harms that were being waged against those people needed to be made, and sometimes that means something more than writing a letter to your congressperson."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7592
Ferner is guilty of vandalism on Sylvania Township bridge
By Mark Reiter / Toledo Blade
Peace activist and former Toledo mayoral candidate Mike Ferner was convicted yesterday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court of defacing a state highway bridge with anti-war graffiti.
A jury took less than 20 minutes to find Ferner guilty of felony vandalism and possession of criminal tools for spray painting "Troops Out Now!" on the Central Avenue overpass on I-475/U.S. 23 in Sylvania Township on New Year's Day.
A Toledo councilman from 1989 to 1993 and unsuccessful mayoral candidate in 1993, he is looking at possible one-year prison sentences for each offense and fines up to $7,500.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7593
Poll: Lieberman Trails For First Time
Challenger Ned Lamont Takes Lead In Connecticut Democratic Primary Race
(AP) Sen. Joe Lieberman, under fire from activists in his own party, has lost ground to his challenger and is narrowly trailing him for the first time in their race for the Democratic nomination, a new poll released Thursday shows.
"This is a surge for Lamont," said Quinnipiac University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz. "It's rare to see such a big change in a race."
Businessman Ned Lamont had support from 51 percent and Lieberman from 47 percent of likely Democratic voters in the latest Quinnipiac University poll — a slight Lamont lead, given the survey's sampling error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
"He leads, but it's not a statistically significant lead," said Schwartz, adding the race is too close to call. Lieberman "has just as good of a shot right now as Lamont. He shouldn't give up and analysts shouldn't close the door on a Lieberman victory."
Lieberman had led in a Quinnipiac poll last month, 55 percent to 40 percent.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=136
National Guard vet seeks Minn. House seat
By Martiga Lohn / Associated Press
ALBERT LEA, Minn. --Tim Walz waded into the crowds lining the parade route in this industrial town of 18,000 and shouted his 20-second pitch: teacher, retired Army National Guard, ready and willing to go to Washington.
Backed by chanting supporters in yellow "Walz '06" shirts, his voice was raw as he yelled, "Give me four months to earn that vote!"
In his first bid for elected office, the Democrat is turning heads as he tries to unseat an entrenched incumbent who came to power with the wave of Newt Gingrich Republicans in 1994. He combines a coach's beefy enthusiasm with a resolute gaze that shows how this command sergeant major climbed to the top of the ranks for enlisted men.
Republican strategist Tom Horner calls Walz the Democrats' best hope to pick up a House seat in Minnesota. Still, incumbent Rep. Gil Gutknecht didn't seem overly worried as he walked the same parade route earlier this month.
"The people here in Albert Lea are very good to me. They voted for me for six times," Gutknecht said. "It will take a real strong message for them to say, 'You know, I think we better fire Gil.'"
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=134
Residents continue to push impeachment issue
By Nanci G. Hutson / News-Times
WASHINGTON, Conn. — First Selectman Dick Sears admits he's had a few sleepless nights lately.
He's been kept awake wondering how to best foster democratic debate about the war in Iraq without pitting neighbor against neighbor.
A faction of impassioned and vocal town residents are imploring Sears and his fellow selectmen, Mark Lyon and Nick Solley, to schedule a special town meeting so residents can vote on a resolution to impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
A month ago, the Board of Selectman voted 2-1 against scheduling such a meeting in Town Hall because Lyon and Solley thought it was not the proper venue. Sears disagreed.
On July 3, some 100 people from Washington and surrounding towns met in Bryan Memorial Town Hall to argue the need for public debate on whether to send a town resolution to Congress.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=133
Be It Resolved: You Can Impeach the President
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=622
After destruction of downtown Ramadi, last family packs up and leaves
By Antonio Castaneda / Associated Press
RAMADI, Iraq – “Mr. Wilson” is gone.
When U.S. tanks first rolled into this most violent of Iraqi cities, the Iraqi family man stayed put. He hung in there for three more years as neighboring shops and buildings were pounded into rubble. He stayed even after U.S. Marines, failing to recognize him as he drove home one day, opened fire and injured him in the leg.
When virtually everyone else fled the heart of downtown Ramadi, he stood his ground. He became a rare familiar face to young U.S. Marine lookouts who knew little about him by a nickname of unknown origin, inherited from past deployments: “Mr. Wilson.”
The Marines would target him in their sights as he approached their base – then ease off when they realized it was just Mr. Wilson coming home. They came to respect him as a harmless, stubborn man who wanted to stay put in a white, single-story house that unfortunately lay across the street from government offices besieged by insurgents.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7594
Honk for peace/freedom sign disturbs the peace
At the July 17th Ferndale Peace Vigil, Nancy Goedert was ticketed for a sign that said, "Police Say Don't HONK for PEACE/FREEDOM."
Nancy has yet to get a court date assigned, but it is the same charge as Victor's: Disorderly Conduct Disturbing the Peace. Although she wasn't threatened with tasers, her sign was confiscated by Ferndale police at the July 17th Peace Vigil. Her sign said, "Police say don't honk for peace / freedom".
Nancy wrote and performed a song with her singing group, the Raging Grannies at the last Ferndale Counsel meeting (July 10) critical of Victor's arrest. She is the mother of a former Ferndale mayor. Nancy Goedert turns 73 on July 20th.
Happy Birthday!
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=689
Granny ticketed in Ferndale sign flap
By Zachary Colman / Detroit Free Press
Nancy Goedert, 73, of Ferndale became the second protester in a matter of weeks to be issued a citation for demonstrating on the corner of 9 Mile and Woodward in Ferndale.
Goedert was cited Monday as she carried a sign that read "Police Say Don't Honk for Peace," mimicking Eastpointe resident Victor Kittila's sign that led to his arrest July 3.
He had been carrying a sign urging motorists to "Honk if You Want Bush Out," but Ferndale police had asked the activist to stop encouraging drivers to honk. So Kittila, 55, changed his message to "Ferndale Cops Say: Don't Honk if You Want Bush Out." Drivers honked anyway.
Goedert, a member of the social justice group Raging Grannies, was cited for being disorderly because her sign incited motorists to honk, which violates a city noise ordinance.
Goedert said Kittila's arrest motivated her to carry the sign and prompted larger crowds of protesters to turn out. About 50 people showed up Monday and 300 on July 10. The gathering is usually about 12.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7589
Grieving parents speak about the war in Iraq
By Joe Cohen / Thousand Oaks Acorn
THOUSAND OAKS, Ca. -- As dozens filed in to the Thousand Oaks Library to hear the parents of a 20-year-old Marine speak about his death in Iraq, Carlos Arredondo, the father of the soldier, was busy taping poster-sized color photos of his lost son on the front wall of the library.
There was a picture of Marine Alex Arredondo in full uniform, another of him holding a gun, another of Alex smiling next to his little brother John. And then two more posters were hung. Poster No. 4, of Alex lying in an open coffin, makeup disguising the wound from the fatal bullet that entered his temple and took his life in Iraq. Poster No. 5, a picture of his headstone.
Then his father wheeled in a coffin draped in an American flag with Alex's combat boots attached to the top. His uniform was draped on the coffin.
After being announced, the guest speakers from Massachusetts walked forward together and took the lectern.
The Global Exchange Ventura County Supporters and the Democratic Club of the Conejo Valley jointly sponsored the free lecture on July 12.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7591
Camp Casey August 16th-Sept 2nd 2006
Cindy Sheehan and Gold Star Families for Peace will be returning to Crawford Tx. President Bush has still not satisfactorily answered our question, "What Noble Cause did our loved ones die for?" One year later we are still in the quagmire that is Iraq. As of this writing 2497 of our brave and noble military men and women have died for this Noble Cause. Join us at Camp Casey and show the President that we will not accept one more death be it American or Iraqi.
http://www.gsfp.org/article.php?list=type&type=21
Bush Blocked Probe Into NSA Wiretapping
Security Clearances for Justice Department Investigators Were Denied, Gonzales Says
By Dan Eggen / Washington Post
President Bush effectively blocked a Justice Department investigation of the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program, refusing to give security clearances to attorneys who were attempting to conduct the probe, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said yesterday.
Bush's decision represents an unusually direct and unprecedented White House intervention into an investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility, the internal affairs office at Justice, administration officials and legal experts said. It forced OPR to abandon its investigation of the role Justice officials played in authorizing and monitoring the controversial NSA eavesdropping effort, according to officials and government documents.
"Since its creation some 31 years ago, OPR has conducted many highly sensitive investigations involving Executive Branch programs and has obtained access to information classified at the highest levels," the office's chief lawyer, H. Marshall Jarrett, wrote in a memorandum released yesterday. "In all those years, OPR has never been prevented from initiating or pursuing an investigation."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7582
Tens of Thousands Pour Into Syria From Lebanon
Families fleeing the bombing left so quickly that some are missing children. Many people arrive at shelters with nothing but their IDs.
By Kim Murphy / Los Angeles Times
JDAIDAT YABUS, Syria — For five days, Ahmed Mestrah's family has been stuffed into his four-door sedan like beans swelling out of a pot.
The children alternately crying in the back seat and wondering when they're going to arrive. ("Arrive where?" Mestrah wonders.) His wife, Renez, sitting in the front seat, swearing and nursing a shrapnel wound carved in her arm when an Israeli missile exploded in front of their car. A poster of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah propped up in the back window, his smiling face shading the children from the searing desert sun.
Led by Mestrah's brother Nawaf in another vehicle, the foul-tempered convoy spilled safely into Syria on Tuesday, the latest in what officials estimate are more than 100,000 Lebanese and foreign nationals who have fled over the eastern border to escape attacks that have raged for nearly a week in Lebanon.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7586
U.S. Mideast Evacuation Effort Criticized
By Hamza Hendawi and Zeina Karam / Associated Press
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- A cruise ship sailed into Beirut late Tuesday, delayed by an Israeli naval blockade amid fierce criticism that the U.S. effort to evacuate 25,000 Americans fleeing Mideast fighting had lagged behind Europe's. The commander of the Fifth Fleet said the ship would begin boarding evacuees at dawn.
"We're trying to move quickly, trying to move large numbers of people as fast as we can," said Vice Adm. Patrick Walsh, the top U.S. naval officer in the Middle East. A larger commercial vessel also would be used, he said, and a Pentagon spokesman said the U.S. government was considering hiring as many as four more cruise ships to carry Americans.
Thousands of Europeans already have fled the country, which is under fierce Israeli air attack.
Earlier in the day, 320 Americans, mostly children, students and the elderly, left by military helicopter and a European ship. U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey D. Feltman told The Associated Press more than 1,000 Americans would depart Wednesday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7583
This is a beautiful site. Both in it's demands and it's design. We need to honor those that sacrificed the most by demanding the truth and requiring those that break the law the fallen defended hold them accountable.
http://www.peacetakescourage.com/page-home.htm
2556 U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ
July 21, 2006, 5:32 am
source: antiwar.com
http://www.michaelmoore.com/takeaction/deaths.php
18988 U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ
July 21, 2006, 5:32 am
source: antiwar.com
http://www.michaelmoore.com/takeaction/wounded.php
The Vietnam War lasted eleven years with a death toll of 58,239 killed in action. They had body armor. An article that puts this into perspective is:
"...But a comparative analysis of U.S. casualty statistics from Iraq tells a different story. After factoring in medical, doctrinal, and technological improvements, infantry duty in Iraq circa 2004 comes out just as intense as infantry duty in Vietnam circa 1966—and in some cases more lethal. Even discrete engagements, such as the battle of Hue City in 1968 and the battles for Fallujah in 2004, tell a similar tale: Today's grunts are patrolling a battlefield every bit as deadly as the crucible their fathers faced in Southeast Asia…."
http://www.slate.com/id/2111432/
The civilians don't have body armor. Insurgents are also civilians and these 'people's militias' face battle in a primitive environment, fighting style and armament causing disproportionate loses by militias. This also handily explains the increased civilian casualties and the increase rather than decrease of violence in an ever escalating civil war in Iraq. It is notable here that there has to be a massive movement of Hezbollah from southern Lebanon to Iraq. They are losing their 'base of operations' in Lebanon and will more than likely lose it in Syria before the borders are again settled as safe between Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Israel. The escalation in Iraq has many dynamics.
Current estimates of Iraqi Civilian Body Counts
Minimum - 39250
Maximum - 43709
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/
"The Lancet" has placed the Iraqi civilian deaths at a ratio of 100 Iraqi civilians to 1 American soldier.
continued …
