Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Honk for Peace, Honk-Honk for Justice!
By Victor Kittila / Patriot
My court date is 1:00 PM, Wednesday, July 26th, 2006
43rd District Court
305 East Nine Mile Road
Ferndale, MI 48220-1796
My arrest was ordered by Michael Kitchen (Police Chief)
The arresting officer was Jason Collett
Magistrate: Mead
I believe I am being charged with "disorderly conduct" and "disturbing the peace" (I hope the irony isn't lost.)
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=687
Parking lot of 43rd District Court, Ferndale, MI
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=&daddr=305+E+9+Mile+Rd,+Ferndale,+MI+48220&ie=UTF8&ll=42.460795,-83.131356&spn=0.014532,0.04313&om=1
Arraignment in Ferndale
By Victor Kittila, Patriot
I will wear my BlueNovember Peace shirt. I will, no doubt, be asked to remove it before entering the court. I will. If people come wearing slogans on their shirts, pants, or underpants, please be prepared to remove them before entering the court. Also, you cannot enter the courtroom naked. Plan ahead.
I've ordered 100 "HONK" buttons and I will make small "HONK" signs of various flavors. No buttons or signs will be allowed in the courtroom. I hope there will be songs of freedom...
This is just an arraignment. Nothing will be resolved at this point except my plea which will be Not Guilty. It will be over quickly once it comes before a judge. All that will happen will be the possible setting of a court date. It will be months away.
At last Monday's vigil, at least one driver, Joe Plambeck, 27, of Ferndale, was issued a $110 ticket for honking to show support. He may not be alone.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=693
Raging Grannies Will be There Singing
By Granny Nancy Goedert, Patriot
We Raging Grannies will be there singing. Our songs are sung to familiar tunes, so we will pass out song sheets and perhaps others will join us.
The police action against the motorist is exactly what I would expect of a bully. They are going overboard with this. It makes me feel so sad.
Nancy
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=694
Have Your Website Honk-Honk for Peace
Please steal the above images. Post them on your website and link them to this page. Together, we can all get the internets honking for peace and honk-honking for justice.
To have your web page honk-honk for peace, you just need to paste some HTML code into your page. We recommend putting the code at the bottom of your web page, just above the closing tag. This will ensure that it won’t interfere with the layout of the page.
Click here to view the code to paste into your page.
HONK-HONK!
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=692
Peace activist arrested after Ferndale protest
Signs that urged honking cited
By Gina Damron / Detroit Free Press
"Ferndale Cops Say: Don't Honk if You Want Bush Out."
That message, scrawled in permanent marker on a piece of poster board, got antiwar activist Victor Kittila arrested in Ferndale -- a move some say violated his First Amendment rights. But police say he was breaking the law.
Either way, he says that next Monday, he'll be back.
The Eastpointe resident is one of a handful of activists who meet for an hour weekly on Mondays at Woodward and 9 Mile to peacefully protest the war in Iraq. They had always carried signs urging motorists to "Honk for Peace."
But about three weeks ago, after receiving several complaints from motorists, Ferndale police asked the activists to stop encouraging drivers to honk their horns, which state laws say should be used only for necessary situations.
So, Kittila, 55, changed his message from "Honk if You Want Bush Out" to "Ferndale Cops Say: Don't Honk if You Want Bush Out."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7461
Iraq war protester says arrest won't keep him silent
Police say signs caused honking that was not necessary
By Christy Strawser / Macomb Daily
FERNDALE, MI -- In front of his wife and their 13-year-old daughter, war protester Victor Kittila, 55, was handcuffed and threatened with a Taser if he resisted in any way.
It wasn't his best day.
But Kittila, of Eastpointe, said his brush with the law will not stop him from protesting the Iraq war at Nine Mile and Woodward, the same place local peace groups have been stationed for four years. They started the weekly vigil when the United States sent troops into Afghanistan.
"I'll be back there," said Kittila, who joined protesters about a year-and-a-half ago. "I'm not sure if we'll have the 'Honk if you want Bush out' sign -- I may come up with something worse. If we put up images of bodies blown up in the war on large posters, I don't think they would enjoy that, either."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7495
Hundreds turn out to support war protester
By Christy Strawser / Daily Tribune
FERNDALE, MI -- If police hoped to quiet Monday afternoons at Nine Mile and Woodward by arresting war protester Victor Kittila last week and charging him with disorderly conduct -- they failed.
Several hundred people clustered there Monday and filled every side of the intersection holding signs and banners protesting George W. Bush and the Iraq War.
Before the arrest, 20-30 protesters usually showed up.
"We're in support of fighting that arrest," said Phyllis Livermore of Birmingham. "It was outrageous."
Many said it was their first time at the anti-war event, which started four years ago and happens around 4:45-5:45 p.m. every Monday.
"In a way, this was a good thing," Livermore said. "This many people are never here."
Last Monday Kittila, 55, was arrested in front of his wife and their 13-year-old daughter and threatened with a Taser if he resisted. Police Chief Michael Kitchen said he was arrested for holding a sign that inspired drivers to honk their horns.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7535
Group calls for peace
Activists protest Iraq war, fighting in Middle East
By Danielle Quisenberry / Port Huron Times-Herald
PORT HURON, MI -- The simple symbols printed on their T-shirts and signs summed up the reason for their protest.
They want peace.
A group of about 40 people, wearing and holding peace symbols, gathered Thursday at the corner of Sanborn Street and Pine Grove Avenue in Port Huron.
They "demand peace" by calling for an end to the Iraq war and fighting in the Middle East.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7598
Accused troops: We were under orders to kill
Soldiers say officers commanded them to ‘kill all military age males’ in Iraq
Associated Press
EL PASO, Texas - Four U.S. soldiers accused of murdering suspected insurgents during a raid in Iraq said they were under orders to “kill all military age males,” according to sworn statements obtained by The Associated Press.
The soldiers first took some of the men into custody because they were using two women and a toddler as human shields. They shot three of the men after the women and child were safe and say the men attacked them.
“The ROE (rule of engagement) was to kill all military age males on Objective Murray,” Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard told investigators, referring to the target by its code name.
That target, an island on a canal in the northern Salhuddin province, was believed to be an al-Qaida training camp. The soldiers said officers in their chain of command gave them the order and explained that special forces had tried before to target the island and had come under fire from insurgents.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7597
An Update from Michael Moore (and an invitation to his film festival)
Friends,
Just a quick note to let you know how things are going.
Back in February, I asked if people would send me letters describing their experiences with our health care system. I received over 19,000 of them. It was truly overwhelming as we literally took a month and read them all. To read about the misery people are put through on a daily basis by our profit-based system was both moving and revolting. That's all I will say right now.
We've spent the better part of this year shooting our next movie, "Sicko." As we've done with our other films, we don't discuss them while we are making them. If people ask, we tell them "Sicko" is "a comedy about 45 million people with no health care in the richest country on earth."
But like my other movies, what we start with (General Motors, guns, 9/11) is not always what we end with. Along the way, we discover new roads to go down, roads that often surprise us and lead us to new ideas -- and challenge us to reconsider the ones we began with. That, I can say with certainty, is happening now as we shoot "Sicko." I don't think the country needs a movie that tells you that HMOs and the pharmaceutical companies suck. Everybody knows that. I'd like to show you some things you don't know. So stay tuned for where this movie has led me. I think you might enjoy it.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=196
Traverse City Film Festival 2
http://www.traversecityfilmfest.org/
The New Zealand Herald
Typhoon Kaemi hits China, 700,000 evacuated
5.20pm Wednesday July 26, 2006
Typhoon Kaemi has struck China's southeast coast, sparking the evacuation of more than 700,000 people in an area still reeling from a tropical storm that claimed 600 lives.
The typhoon, which earlier passed over Taiwan, causing widespread disruption but little damage, has hit mainland China's Fujian province.
Kaemi also brushed past the Philippines, triggering heavy rain which caused floods around the capital, Manila.
With the storm packing winds of up to 120 kilometres per hour as it approached China, authorities evacuated more than 643,000 people from Fujian province, and another 80,000 from neighboring Zhejiang.
Fujian is still trying to cope with the impact of Bilis, which struck mainland China on July 14, killing at least 43 people in the province.
The Xinhua news agency says Zhejiang, which did not suffer too badly from Bilis, is preparing for a much tougher time with Kaemi.
Neighboring Guangdong province to the south, where 106 people were killed in Bilis, is also making preparations for strong winds and heavy rain, even though it is not expected to be directly hit by Kaemi.
According to the latest government figures, Bilis killed at least 612 people in southern, eastern and central China, with 208 still missing.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10393135
Abuse hurled at teacher-murder accused [audio report]
UPDATED 11.25am Tuesday July 25, 2006
By Juliet Rowan and Anne Beston
Abuse was shouted at a 23-year old man when he appeared in court in Tokoroa today charged with the murder of teacher Lois Dear.
Around 200 people gathered at the town's district court before the hearing, Newstalk ZB reported.
When the man appeared, wearing a white boiler suit, he was shouted at and the abuse was repeated inside court.
The crowd lined fences along the courtyard from Tokoroa Police Station to the court house as the accused was escorted there and back by police officers.
Other police officers stood in front of the crowd, to prevent them getting to the accused.
"You'll never make sentencing," one onlooker shouted.
The court house was packed and 20 or 30 people were forced to remain outside.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10392843
Goff says trade talks impasse will cost
1.00pm Tuesday July 25, 2006
The suspension of the World Trade Organisation's Doha Round is a tragedy that means lost potential for New Zealand, Trade Minister Phil Goff said today.
Talks by six major trading countries to save the Doha Round collapsed yesterday after ministers from the G6 group - Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, the European Union and the United States - failed to make a breakthrough.
They had been trying to reach a deal on how to boost trade in farm and industrial goods or risk seeing the round fail.
But the last-ditch negotiations failed to make progress in the key area of farm subsidies, known as domestic support, where the United States has been under pressure to make further concessions.
The US has been blamed by some for the impasse.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10392896
Safety-net plan for children praised by ministers
1.00pm Tuesday July 25, 2006
A proposal for a child "safety-net" from Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro has been welcomed by ministers.
They met Ms Kiro yesterday to discuss her plan, and Social Development Minister David Benson-Pope said he and his colleagues were keen to follow up on its suggestions.
He said Ms Kiro's plan was for an integrated framework to track children's health, safety and education from birth to adulthood.
It involved welfare, health and education agencies working together to "cement the cracks" so that no child needing help was left without support.
"A lot of it we're doing now. She describes it as a 10-year vision to make sure that every single child has what they need, and that sits pretty comfortably with the policy of the party that I'm part of," Mr Benson-Pope said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10392875
Annan to press for an international force for Lebanon
Tuesday July 25, 2006
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he would press for a truce in the Middle East crisis as well as the deployment of an international force in south Lebanon at a Rome ministerial meeting this week.
He said yesterday that short-term measures were needed to halt the violence followed by a package that would include giving the Beirut government power over Hizbollah, releasing two abducted Israeli soldiers and settling Lebanon's borders.
"What is important is that we leave Rome with a concrete strategy as to how we are going to deal with this, and we do not walk away empty-handed and once again dash the hopes of those who are caught in this conflict," Annan told reporters.
The secretary-general, accompanied by Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, left yesterday for the conference on Wednesday, called by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10392924
UN deaths put pressure on Rome talks for ceasefire
Wednesday July 26, 2006
By Alistair Lyon
BEIRUT - Israel's killing of four UN observers piled pressure on an international conference in Rome on Wednesday to end a 15-day-old Middle East conflict, as Hizbollah vowed not to accept any "humiliating" truce terms.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan demanded Israel investigate the "apparently deliberate targeting" of a UN post in southern Lebanon where an Israeli air strike killed the four UN military observers on Tuesday.
Israel, waging a military offensive in Lebanon against Hizbollah guerrillas, announced it would hold a probe and expressed regret at the deaths but said it was shocked Annan had suggested the observers may have been deliberately targeted.
A Chinese national was among the four observers killed, China's official Xinhua news agency reported. It said the other three were from Finland, Austria and Canada.
UN officials said the air strike had caused the building housing the observers to collapse and that rescue teams had been sent to retrieve the bodies from the rubble.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10393142
Israel PM vows to pursue Hizbollah war
Wednesday July 26, 2006
By Sue Pleming
JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed overnight to allow aid airlifts to Lebanon but said he was determined to pursue an offensive against Hizbollah.
After talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Olmert said both agreed resolving the crisis must include disarming Hizbollah, its removal from Israel's border and deploying an international force to ensure it cannot menace the Jewish state.
Israel believes a force of up to 20,000 peacekeepers is needed to take over southern Lebanon and that a force could be deployed within two weeks of approval by Western powers, senior Israeli officials have said.
The estimate of 20,000 would be nearly double the size of the multilateral force being discussed by European powers.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10393060
'Security zone' scheme for southern Lebanon
Wednesday July 26, 2006
By Donald Macintyre
AVIVIM - Israel will enforce a "security zone" in southern Lebanon until such time as a multinational force moves in to control the Lebanese border area, the minister directly responsible for the two-week-old military offensive said yesterday.
The remarks by the Israeli Defence Minister, Amir Peretz, appeared to set the seal on Israel's conversion to the idea of a Western-led international military deployment to keep armed Hizbollah guerrillas from threatening it, if and when the still slow-moving diplomatic efforts to broker a ceasefire finally succeed.
Beirut was heavily bombarded with new airstrikes yesterday after Israeli military aircraft killed six people in a pre-dawn raid on the southern Lebanon city of Nabatiyeh, and Israeli troops effectively sealedoff the town of Bint Jbeil, 25km further to the south, which it regards as a Hizbollah stronghold.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10393113
Bali bombers 'may be executed in August'
Wednesday July 26, 2006
DENPASAR, Indonesia - Indonesia may execute three militants sentenced to death for the 2002 Bali bombings in August, an official from the district attorney's office on the resort island has said.
The three men - Iman Samudra, Amrozi and Ali Gufron - have been on death row for more than two years after courts convicted them of playing leading roles in the October 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali that killed 202 people, including three New Zealanders.
"Last week, we sent letters to the convicts, their families and their lawyers to notify preparation for the execution," said Made Suratmaja, the head of Denpasar's district attorney office.
Suratmaja said the execution would be around the third week of next month or at the end of August.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10393058
Bush, Maliki agree on more US troops for Baghdad
1.00pm Wednesday July 26, 2006
WASHINGTON - President George W Bush and Iraq's prime minister agreed today that more US and Iraqi troops will go to Baghdad to try to slow sectarian violence, but their talks also exposed differences on the fighting in Lebanon.
"God willing, there will be no civil war in Iraq," Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said.
Bush, at a news conference with Maliki that lacked much warmth, said troops going to Baghdad would be pulled from areas in Iraq deemed relatively free of violence.
The new security plan was an acknowledgment that Maliki's attempt to pacify Baghdad had failed, with hundreds of people killed in sectarian violence every week.
It was unclear how the new plan would affect Pentagon hopes of reducing US troops in Iraq by year's end. Republicans had hoped a troop reduction would help them deflect voter anger over Iraq in November elections when they are fighting to keep control of the US Congress.
There are now 127,000 American troops in Iraq.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10393106
Somali Islamists refuse peace talks
Wednesday July 26, 2006
MOGADISHU - Somalia's Islamists said overnight they would not attend peace talks with the interim government until Ethiopian troops left their soil, and for the first time acknowledged Eritrean backing for their cause.
Somalia's interim government had earlier agreed to attend talks with the Islamists in Khartoum on August 1-2, responding to a UN drive to avoid war in the Horn of Africa country.
"We will go to Khartoum without any preconditions," said Abdirizak Adam, interim President Abdullahi Yusuf's chief of staff, after talks with a senior UN envoy in the government's base in the provincial town of Baidoa.
However, the Islamists' main leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, told foreign correspondents in Mogadishu: "As long as Ethiopia is in our country, talks with the government cannot go ahead."
Ethiopia has sent several thousands troops into Somalia, according to witnesses and regional experts, to counter expansion by the Islamists, who took Mogadishu last month, and protect the fragile interim government.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10393061
'Two governments' cause turmoil for Cook Islands
2.20pm Tuesday July 25, 2006
The Cook Islands has two political groups claiming to be the government.
The confusion follows a by-election win for the opposition Cook Islands Party, led by Sir Geoffrey Henry.
The win gave the party 12 votes in parliament - the same as the government of Jim Marurai.
The speaker - Cook Islands Party (CIP) member of parliament, Norman George - then said he intended to support a vote of no-confidence - once as an MP, and once as speaker, using his casting vote to change the government.
That led to the Queen's representative, Fred Goodwin, dissolving parliament and calling fresh elections.
Radio Australia's Bruce Hill says bizarre scenes in parliament followed, with CIP members turning up and broadcasting a session in which they claimed to have voted in their leader, Sir Geoffrey Henry, as prime minister.
Sir Geoffrey then endeavoured to see the Queen's representative so that he could be formally sworn in, but he was refused an audience.
It is believed the CIP will now go to the High Court to get the dissolution overturned.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10392916
Malaysian princess murdered by own son
1.00pm Wednesday July 26, 2006
By Justin Huggler
The horrific death of a Malaysian princess, stabbed to death by her own son as she tried to stop him attacking his father, has put the country's troubled royal family in the spotlight.
Tengku, or Princess, Puteri Kamariah, the sister of the Sultan of Pahang, was killed trying to protect her wheelchair-bound husband on Monday, it emerged yesterday.
She tried to intervene as her 21-year-old son, Tunku, or Prince, Rizal Shazan, rushed at his father with a screwdriver. In the ensuing struggle, Tunku Rizal grabbed a hunting knife and stabbed his mother in the back.
The 21-year-old died later the same day of a drug overdose.
Police said they suspected Tunku Rizal was under the influence of 'some kind of designer drugs' at the time of the attack. According to reports from Malaysia, it was syabu, a local version of crystal meth.
The case will provoke comparisons with the massacre of almost the entire royal family of Nepal in 2001, which was blamed on the drunken crown prince.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10393099
Child groups urge clarification on smacking law repeal
5.15pm Wednesday July 26, 2006
The fear of being treated as criminals for disciplining their children is stopping parents supporting the removal of section 59 from the Crimes Act, child advocates said today.
Section 59 allows parents to defend charges of assault against their children by claiming use of reasonable force.
The spokesman for umbrella group Every Child Counts, Mike Coleman, updated a group of about 100 delegates at the group's conference in Wellington on the progress made towards removing section 59.
Child advocates including representatives from Plunket, Barnardos, Save the Children and Unicef said the fear of criminalisation was preventing parents from seriously examining the arguments for repealing the section.
"People who have no desire to beat their children are a bit worried that they may get prosecuted if they smack their child," Mr Coleman said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10393136
Broadcasters see no reason to ban fast food ads
1.00pm Wednesday July 26, 2006
Banning television advertising of fast foods, sugary drinks and sweets would have little impact on curbing obesity, television broadcasters say.
The Television Broadcasters Council, representing TVNZ and CanWest TVWorks, was appearing today before Parliament's health select committee which is carrying out an inquiry into obesity.
There have been calls to ban food advertising during the hours children mainly watch television.
But council executive director Bruce Wallace argued the link between television advertising of foods, fast food outlets, beverages and sweets was "very small" compared to the influence of parents and other societal factors.
A ban on such advertising on television was unlikely to have any significant impact on obesity levels, he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10393090
Fossil exhibition to tour country
4.00pm Tuesday July 25, 2006
A major fossil exhibition is to tour New Zealand next year.
The collection will include fossils of dinosaurs, moa, marine reptiles and other sea creatures, insects, shells, plants, and even fossil vomit.
The multi-media exhibition on fossil hunting (past, present and future) is being developed by GNS Science, with sponsorship from Shell New Zealand.
Designed for audiences of all ages, it aims to tell a unique New Zealand story and will tour through museums and science centres for two years, beginning in late 2007.
The exhibition tour will coincide with the International Year of Planet Earth (2008) and the International Year of Darwin (2008).
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10392909
continued …
