VA-Charlottesville

September 3rd in Charlottesville VA

davidswanson — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 01:22:50 -0400

David Swanson discussing and signing his new book "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union."

September 3, 2009

6:30 p.m.

Barnes and Noble at Barack's Road Shopping Center

1035 Emmet St Suite A
Charlottesville, VA 22903
(434) 984-0461

Healthcare Rally in Charlottesville VA

davidswanson — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:38:11 -0400

We need you! Health Care Reform rally, Monday August 24th, Charlottesvlle, VA at the Downtown Mall, 12 pm to 2 pm.

Join us at the pavilion near City Hall with three demands:

-Vote Yes on the Weiner amendment for single-payer healthcare.
-Keep the Kucinich amendment for states' right to single-payer in the bill.
-Include a strong immediate public option.

Who: YOU and hundreds of community organizers, grassroots activists, and local politicians will gather to demand REAL health care reform. . .now!
What: Highway to Health Care RV Tour Stop: A Rally in Charlottesville, VA
When: Monday, August 24th, 2009, 12 pm - 2 pm
Where: Downtown Mall, Across from City Hall, at the Pavillion (605 E. Main Street)
Why: Americans need comprehensive health care reform. . .now! Therefore AFSCME's been driving an RV cross country, creating dozens of rallies for comprehensive health care reform
How: We intend to pull off this last minute rally with a little help from our friends like you (call Sian Lewis if you have suggestions! 202-365-9122).
Contact: Sian Lewis, 202-365-9122, slewis@afscme.org

Cookout for Healthcare with Cindy Sheehan

davidswanson — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:30:04 -0400

Charlottesville, VA
Saturday, July 18, 2009, at noon

Cindy Sheehan, one of the best known peace and justice activists in the United States, will be joined by other speakers in support of public healthcare at a cookout open to the public and the media. Please join Cindy for lunch at noon on Saturday, July, 18, 2009, rain or shine, at 707 Gillespie Ave, Charlottesville, VA, 22902. Cindy will talk about her new book and the need for an expanded public healthcare system.

RSVP: http://afterdowningstreet.org/cindyevent

Also at noon on Saturday, elsewhere in Charlottesville, others have announced plans to hold an anti-healthcare rally that they misleadingly call a rally for "Patients First." Participants include Kay Coles James, the disgraced director of the United States Office of Personnel Management known for hiring unqualified government employees based on their attendance of a fourth-rate, right-wing university; Del. Ben Cline, whose opinions are paid for by his campaign funders, including Medical Facilities of America, US Tobacco, Va. Hospital & Healthcare Assn., Medco Health Solutions, and Va. Independent Insurance Agents; Tito Munoz, a small business owner who helped John McCain lose Virginia; former city councilman and aspiring Rush Limbaugh, Rob Schilling; and Ben Marchi, a former employee of ethically reprimanded and indicted congressman Tom Delay. Marchi says:

"Health care legislation being pushed by the liberals in Congress will threaten the sacred relationship between doctor and patient and strip away patients' rights to choose a plan that best suits them."

Yet, Americans consistently tell pollsters that they want public health coverage: http://tr.im/sENL

Other nations that have public health coverage (government spending on private or public healthcare) provide their people with better care. The U.S. system is ranked 37th by the World Health Organization. The United States is 24th in life expectancy and 29th in reducing infant mortality. Infants who do not survive the US system do not get a chance to possess patients' rights.

A single-payer system, which would go further than the compromise that has Marchi so upset, would cover everyone at all times with no exceptions, allow completely free choice of doctors, invest in preventive care, allow patients and doctors to make their own decisions free of insurance company restrictions, reduce the 30 percent waste in the current system to the 3 percent overhead in Medicare, and create a net gain of 2.6 million jobs, $317 billion in business revenue, and $100 billion in wages. See: http://tr.im/sETE

House Resolution 676, backed by 86 congress members, would accomplish these things and meet every one of Congressman Tom Perriello's goals for healthcare as listed on his website: http://tr.im/sEUO

Cindy Sheehan said: "Health care is a basic human right and the only way to get obscene profits out of the way of patient health is single-payer, as many nations around the world do. We challenge both Democrats and Republicans to put people before insurance companies, big-pharma, and HMO's."

Summaries of this issue:
http:/charlottesvillepeace.org/node/1939
http://charlottesvillepeace.org/node/1854

Video of recent forum in Charlottesville:
http://charlottesvillepeace.org/node/1882

Join us at noon on Saturday, July 18, 2009, at 707 Gillespie Ave, Charlottesville, Va. Kids are welcome! There is no charge, but it is appreciated if you bring something to eat or drink. Please go to this page and post a comment that you are coming and how many are coming with you. And if you are able to bring something to eat or drink and know what it will be, please post that:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/cindyevent

Cookout With Cindy Sheehan

davidswanson — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:46:17 -0400

Cookout With Cindy Sheehan
Charlottesville, VA
Saturday, July 18, 2009

Cindy Sheehan is deservedly the best known peace activist in the United States. Having lost her own son in Iraq, she has worked for the past five years to save others -- and she's not about to let up in her efforts to end our foreign wars and create justice around the world and here at home. More about Cindy:
http://www.cindysheehanssoapbox.com

Please join Cindy for lunch at noon on Saturday, July, 18, 2009, rain or shine, at 707 Gillespie Ave, Charlottesville, VA, 22902. Cindy will talk about her new book.

There is no charge, but it is appreciated if you bring something to eat or drink. Please go to this page and post a comment that you are coming and how many are coming with you. And if you are able to bring something to eat or drink and know what it will be, please post that:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/cindyevent

Please forward to friends who might want to come.

DON'T FORGET to go and post a comment that you are coming:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/cindyevent

Italy to Declare Independence from U.S. Military

davidswanson — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:34:29 -0400

By David Swanson

Do they have a fourth of July in Italy? That's not a trick question. This July 4th, Italians plan to gather in Vicenza to take nonviolent action aimed at freeing Italy from U.S. occupation and opposing the proposed construction of an enormous new U.S. military base in a town already swarming with U.S. troops stationed at existing bases. For years now, a major campaign organized by local residents has resisted the construction of the new base. The history of this campaign is chronicled in English here and here. A local referendum voted 95 percent against the base. A leader of the opposition to the base has been elected to the local government. An Italian prime minister has been temporarily thrown out of power. Local activists and members of parliament have visited Washington to oppose the base, and testified before the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs on April 23, 2009. The European media has been unable to avoid the story.

Last month, participants broke into the fenced off construction site to plant flags and banners: (video). Last week, U.S. soldiers jogging through Vicenza were greeted with signs asking them to go home: (video). I used to live in Vicenza in the late 1980s and was enthusiastically welcomed as an American and a friend. The military presence was already pervasive, but since then it has grown tremendously, while Italians' opinions of the purposes served by the U.S. military have plummeted. The U.S. Army is not liberating Italy from Nazism, but sending soldiers off to fight aggressive wars in the Middle East, and bringing them back disturbed, suicidal, and prone to drinking and causing trouble. In April, Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez visited Venice (Venezia in Italian, and not far from Vicenza), where she told Italians that they would just have to accept the new base, and that the United States needs it in order to more easily attack Africa.

This week the "No Dal Molin" campaign (named for the Dal Molin site of the proposed base) sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama that quoted his victory speech from November 4, 2008, in Chicago: "a government of the people, by the people, and for the people . . . I will listen to you, especially when we disagree." The letter noted that Obama will soon be in Italy for a G8 summit and invited him to visit Vicenza, which has hosted U.S. military installations since 1955. The letter read, in part:

"For three years, women and men, young and old, wealthy and ordinary people have been working together to defend the city and the future of our land for future generations. We, like you, started in neighborhoods and built a community working for change. This has nothing to do with anti-Americanism, which is how our movement is often painted. Our concerns are based on facts, and we would therefore like to ask you a few questions:
"In the United States would it be possible to build a military base one mile from the center of a UNESCO World Heritage site? This is what is happening in Vicenza.
"In the United States would it be possible to do this without consulting the local population and going against the will of local residents, who during a recent referendum voted 95 percent opposed?
"In the United States would it be possible to build a military base above one of the most important ground water sources on the continent (the one in Vicenza is considered one of the most important here in Europe), vital for the population, placing it at serious risk of contamination and in violation of existing legislation? This is what is happening in Vicenza.
"Vicenza, a city that has always had a strong vocation for peace, is destined to become the home of the most important US base in Europe, a command center for Africom as well as an integral part of preventive war designed and pursued by the Bush administration, which has thus far proved a failure. With which rights do you impose this upon us?
"If the words written in the Declaration of Independence of the United States have real value and if you, like us, believe in values such as democracy, respect, legality, and transparency, then you should know that these values are being denied in Vicenza."

On the eve of the G8 summit (July 8-10 in L'Aquila), the No Dal Molin organization is inviting people from all over Italy and the world to celebrate the Fourth of July in Vicenza and "declare our independence from the US military, freeing the land from the presence of a new war base." The words of these new Jeffersonians are worth quoting in the original:

"Il 4 luglio è l'anniversario in cui gli statunitensi festeggiano la propria indipendenza; quest'anno sarà anche il giorno in cui i vicentini - e tutti coloro che vogliono la pace e la difesa dei beni comuni - decreteranno la propria indipendenza dalle servitù militari."

Translation: July 4th is the holiday with which the people of the United States celebrate their own independence. This year it will also be the day on which Vicentines, and all those who support peace and defense of the common good, declare their own independence from military servitude.

And it's worth considering the use to which the words of my neighbor here in Charlottesville, Thomas Jefferson, are now being put. Jefferson borrowed from Filippo Mazzei, but it is the words of Jefferson that are now being translated back into Italian in ironic and tragic protest of what Jefferson's nation has become:

"Quando nel corso di eventi umani, sorge la necessità che un popolo sciolga i legami politici che lo hanno stretto a un altro popolo . . . un conveniente riguardo alle opinioni dell’umanità richiede che quel popolo dichiari le ragioni per cui è costretto alla secessione."

To support this effort, write to international@nodalmolin.it

Masked US soldiers jog along a Vicentine road named for "Civilian Victims of War"

Too Slow Zelikow: UVA Backs Torture

davidswanson — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:30:46 -0400

By David Swanson

If I could feel more shame over my country's torture it would be over my university's support for torture. The University of Virginia, which has long paid its employees poverty wages while increasingly becoming a major partner of the U.S. military and its "intelligence" operations, nonetheless still holds for me an image of individual honor and principle. I still imagine that UVA students and professors, staff and alumni, can be expected not to stoop to the lowest possible forms of human behavior.

I have now been bitterly disappointed. On May 13th I attended a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C. The first witness was a law professor with no ties to UVA who spoke out clearly and forthrightly on the illegality of torture.

The second witness was UVA history professor Philip Zelikow who began by agreeing with statements of Republican Senator Lindsay Graham, claiming that "Americans of both parties" had believed several years ago that we needed to torture people, and that it would be unfair now to look back and judge that decision. Zelikow called systemic government torture "a collective failure." Excuse me? I don't recall having had any say in the matter. Do you? Neither do I recall placing my highest loyalty in one of those two parties. If a fear driven poll could legalize any crime, where would we be? Certainly not anywhere that a poll of Americans would support. If polls overturned laws, nobody would have to pay taxes or go to jail for smoking pot. If polls criminalized behavior, campaign "finance" and "lobbying" would fill our prisons. But if you ask the American people whether they want laws made that way, they will tell you emphatically not. We wish Congress would obey majority opinion, but we want laws to be down on paper and available so that we know what is illegal and what isn't. And we want changes to our laws to be made deliberatively and legally.

If the American people knew that torture was illegal, would they want it made legal on the grounds that Mr. Zelikow and the people he worked with were really, really scared? Of course, not. If you set aside the Eight Amendment, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Anti-Torture Act of 1994 (enforcing a treaty signed by radical angry leftist Ronald Reagan), the War Crimes Act of 1996, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, there's no reason to think torture is illegal. Zelikow's position in his testimony seemed based on the assumption that these laws did not really exist. He said that he opposed the secret memos written by the Office of Legal Counsel purporting to authorize torture, not because they violated existing law, but because they would have rendered moot an amendment proposed by Senator John McCain (and signing-statemented away by President George W. Bush) to redundantly re-criminalize torture by the military while allowing it for the CIA. In fact, a July 2005 memo by Zelikow, cited in his testimony as evidence of his good behavior, sought the same loophole in a voluntary ban on something already absolutely illegal in every circumstance. He wrote:

"One reason to avoid any clear legal framework or definition of humane treatment is to allow maximum flexibility for interrogations and detention in the activities of other government agencies [that is, other than the military]."

Zelikow proposed that we,

"Apply Geneva standards for civilian detainees under the law of war only to detainees held in DOD facilities."

and

"Set an appropriate time period during which detainees can be held without disclosing that they are in US custody."

Zelikow had written another memo the month before in which he similarly argued that the president should choose as a matter of "policy" to apply standards similar to those required by law, but only in some circumstances, allowing exceptions for other situations. He proposed that military commissions be used only for "major criminals clearly guilty of war crimes," although in serious judicial systems clarity of guilt comes after a trial rather than before it.

These memos preceded the 2006 memo by Zelikow that we have not yet seen in which he supposedly takes a stronger position against torture, but he cited these memos in his testimony, and in them he supports holding underlings accountable for their crimes. However, in these memos and in his testimony, not to mention in the work of the 9-11 Commission and the Carter-Baker Election Commission, both of which he directed, he did not support prosecuting high-level officials for ordering those below them to violate the law. If Zelikow has any hard and fast principle, it is that those in power should be above the rule of law.

His second principle might be that he himself should be protected. Think about how long he refrained from even secret, internal, polite, and perversely limited opposition to our government's torture policies. Torture was underway in 2001. Zelikow wanted the military to choose not to do it, but the CIA to keep free reign, in 2005. He may have secretly gone an inch beyond such bravery in 2006. And he dared to go public in 2009, eight years after all our train stations had filled up with posters and audio recordings screaming "If you see something, say something!"

The third witness at the May 13, 2009, Senate hearing was Jeffrey Addicott, alumnus of UVA. Addicott made Zelikow look good by comparison. He had been brought in by Senator Graham to defend torture, and he did not disappoint. He argued that, even though we have tortured people to death, the techniques used did not quite rise to the level of torture. He even parroted former vice president Dick Cheney's claim that members of the U.S. military, in their training, are put through the very same techniques, even though troops who have been through the SERE training program have protested it as cruel and unusual, and even though they are made aware that they will not be killed and in fact are not killed. A UVA student who cheats on a test can be expelled. What about a UVA alumnus who does THIS?

Next up was Professor Robert Turner of the UVA School of Law. He, like Zelikow, agreed with Senator Graham's positions and even, in all seriousness, referred to the water torture as "torture lite." Absolutely disgraceful.

The final witness was an FBI interrogator (not from UVA) who gave testimony that legal techniques of interrogation had proven effective in questioning key detainee Abu Zubaydah, whereas torture had not, and that President Bush's claims to the contrary had been false. This led Senator Graham to baselessly claim that torture simply MUST have "worked" with some other prisoner, it just must have. Graham got Addicott to agree with him that "intelligence" was central to "this war," and that a police force could handle the non-intelligence part of it. Graham pointed out that other nations treat terrorism as a crime rather than a war. He and Addicott meant this as an argument around the Geneva Conventions, not realizing that they had also thereby delegitimized the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin was, like Zelikow, primarily concerned with covering his own tail, and stressed that had he or Zelikow or anyone else spoken out earlier about what they knew about torture, they would have supposedly endangered people's lives. But they clearly cost people their lives through silence. They violated the legal requirement to report felonies, even if by so doing they complied with a bogus claim of secrecy for information classified to protect a crime. There were people sitting all around me in that hearing who had risked their careers, family life, income, and liberty to right these wrongs. Justice Department whistleblower Jesselyn Radack was sitting right next to me. She'd spoken out for the rule of law and seen her career destroyed and her liberty put at risk. Medea Benjamin was to my other side. I've lost count of the number of times she's gone to jail for justice. But senators and congress members, and wahoos like Zelikow, Turner, and Addicott, are held to lower standards of sacrifice.

The University of Virginia, and the United States of America, should be ashamed.

UVA Students Show What's Wrong With Campaign Financing

davidswanson — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 09:17:28 -0400

This is a great video on the problem, but skimps on the solution, just mentioning public financing at the end. Public financing without free media is only half the solution, and such a clean money system must be made mandatory. A plan to do it can be found in my forthcoming book.

Electing Charlottesville City Council

davidswanson — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 02:09:12 -0400

By David Swanson

Thus far there are three candidates for two Democratic nominations for Charlottesville City Council. Dave Norris is currently the mayor and is running for reelection on a strong agenda and record. The teeny bit I've been able to follow, he seems more than anyone to be leading worthwhile projects. He's also in close touch with grassroots groups and advocates he should be in touch with. And he's willing to take a stand. When the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice proposed a resolution against attacking Iran, he was willing to do it, and none of the other four City Council Members was.

Julian Taliaferro opposed our resolution and the idea that a city should make such requests of a state or national government. In my limited knowledge of the city, he's out of touch. People I trust tell me to vote for the other two candidates over him. Looking back through minutes of City Council meetings it's hard to find votes that were not 5-0, or 4-1 with Taliaferro among the 4. A government body that votes unanimously so consistently is likely working out agreements away from public view, and that's a problem in itself, but of course we don't know whom to blame that on -- which is part of the problem. Taliaferro does not seem to have a website, which ought to disqualify him, but maybe he's working on it or I just haven't found it. He does have a Facebook page.

Kristin Szakos is a newcomer, which weighs in her favor with me. She's an organizer and her husband runs the Virginia Organizing Project. She's written a good book on community organizing, and she ran the volunteer operation for Obama's campaign here successfully (she's possibly a bit too taken with Obama). She's worked with lots of groups in Charlottesville. Her website provides no positions on any issues, but I asked her about resolutions like the one we proposed on Iran, and she said that she would find such a thing appropriate especially since, as she said, our kids have to go and die in such a war. While she provides no more detailed proposals than her model (Obama) liked to, she seems sincerely committed to representing the will of the city's people, and that is the most important thing to know.

There will be a Democratic primary on May 9th according to Dave Norris's website, on a date between May 8 and June 9 according to news reports, and an unassembled caucus on a date to be determined, according to the Charlottesville Democrats' website.

To vote in a Democratic primary, in which virtually nobody votes and so your vote counts a lot, you have to be willing to commit to voting for Democrats in the general election. You do not have to be registered as a Democrat, since Virginians do not register by party. but you do have to be registered to vote.

Video of Forum on Healthcare vs. Health Insurance Companies

davidswanson — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:58:02 -0500

This public forum on solving the U.S. healthcare crisis was held in Charlottesville, Va., on February 23, 2009. Do attempt this at home by inviting these and other great speakers:

Welcome by Donna Goings, event organizer:

Intro by David Swanson, event moderator:

Donna Smith, California Nurses Association:

Dr. Susan Miller, Physicians for a National Health Program:

Lynn Hassman, American Medical Students Association, University of Virginia:

Larry Rousseau, Public Service Alliance of Canada:

Dr. Wm. Ferguson Reid, Virginia Coalition for Guaranteed Health Care:

Steve Cobble, Progressive Democrats of America:

Sarah Lanzman, event organizer:

Sam Rasoul, former Democratic nominee for Congress from Virginia's Sixth District:

SPONSORS:
Virginia Coalition for Guaranteed Health Care
Healthcare-NOW!
California Nurses Association.
Progressive Democrats of America.
Physicians for a National Health Program.
American Medical Students Association, UVA.
Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice.

Video by David Martin of Martin Images.
Sound system by Shallel.
Event organizing by Donna Goings, Sarah Lanzman, David Swanson. Thank you to Albemarle County for renting its auditorium affordably.

Virginia vs. HMOs

davidswanson — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:41:16 -0500

No More Health Insurance Companies Ever Again.
Single-Payer Healthcare Instead.
Come Find Out How We Can Make It Happen...

Healthcare in Crisis: A Public Forum on Monday, February 23rd

PERRIELLO: Congressman Tom Perriello told us on Tuesday that he was undecided about supporting single-payer healthcare. So we asked what we could do to persuade him, and he replied: "Keep doing what you're doing, pressuring me, phone calls and Emails." He also agreed to send a staff person to our forum on Monday. So, everybody needs to turn out, learn about the issue, share our experiences, and make our opinions known.

OBAMA: President Obama is rumored to be planning a major speech on healthcare for prime time on Tuesday ( http://tinyurl.com/dk4m89 ). Charlottesvillians will discuss what they want done on Monday -- always ahead of the curve.

Bring Your Doctor to Democracy Day: Some of those best able to discuss the need for healthcare reform are doctors. Please stop by or phone your own doctors' and dentists' offices and invite everyone who works there to join us Monday night. It's your turn to remind them of an appointment!

Here are the details:

An open public forum in Charlottesville, Va., on Monday, February 23rd at 6:30 p.m. in the Lane Auditorium of the Albemarle County Office Building, 401 McIntire Rd.

How can we guarantee healthcare for all?
What can you do to help?

Admission: free
Parking: free

SPEAKERS:
Donna Smith, California Nurses Association, seen in Michael Moore's "Sicko"
Steve Cobble, Progressive Democrats of America
Dr. Susan Miller, Physicians for a National Health Program
Larry Rousseau, Public Service Alliance of Canada
Lynn Hassman, American Medical Students Association, UVA
Dr. Wm. Ferguson Reid, Virginia Coalition for Guaranteed Health Care

SPONSORS:
Virginia Coalition for Guaranteed Health Care
Healthcare-NOW!
California Nurses Association
Progressive Democrats of America
Physicians for a National Health Program
American Medical Students Association, UVA
Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice

FOR MORE INFO. OR TO VOLUNTEER:
Email: donnagoings@gmail.com
Or visit: http://charlottesvillepeace.org/healthcare

We need volunteers to distribute flyers and to help on the night of the event. We need a videographer to tape the event.

FORWARD THIS ANNOUNCEMENT FAR AND WIDE.