Ben Heine has just read and signed the petition: Have deviantArt staff un-Ban the artist Ben Heine.

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Hi, I signed the petition "Have deviantArt staff un-Ban the artist Ben Heine.". I'm asking you to sign this petition to help us reach our goal of 20,000 signatures. Thank you for your support, Ben

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Read: What Is DeviantArt Afraid Of? by Ben Heine

Link: http://www.pacbi.org

PSCABI-Gaza, Occupied Palestine

"Gaza today has become the test of our indispensable morality and common humanity."

Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee

The Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI) calls upon freedom-loving students all over the world to stand in solidarity with us by boycotting Israeli academic institutions for their complicity in perpetuating Israel's illegal military occupation and apartheid system. We note the historic action taken by thousands of courageous students of British and American universities in occupying their campuses in a show of solidarity with the brutally oppressed Palestinian people in Gaza. We also deeply appreciate the decision by Hampshire College to divest from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation. Such pressure on Israel is the most likely to contribute to ending its denial of our rights, including the right to education.

In this regard, we fully endorse the call for boycott issued by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, PACBI, in 2004.[i]

We emphasize our endorsement of the BDS call issued by more than 170 Palestinian civil society organizations in July 2005.[ii]

We also support the Call from Gaza issued by a group of civil society organizations in the second week of the Gaza Massacre (Gaza 2009).[iii]

Our goal, as students, is to play a role in promoting the global BDS movement which has gained an unprecedented momentum as a result of the latest genocidal war launched by Israel against the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip. We address our fellow students to take whatever step possible, however small, to stand up for justice, international law and the inalienable rights of the indigenous people of Palestine by applying effective and sustainable pressure on Israel, particularly in the form of BDS, to help put an end to its colonial and racist regime over the Palestinians.

We strongly urge our fellow university students all over the world to:

1. Support all the efforts aimed at boycotting Israeli academic institutions;
2. Pressure university administrations to divest from Israel and from companies directly or indirectly supporting the Israeli occupation and apartheid policies;
3. Promote student union resolutions condemning Israeli violations of international law and human rights and endorsing BDS in any form;
4. Support the Palestinian student movement directly.

To break the medieval and barbaric Israeli siege of Gaza, people of conscience need to move with a sense of urgency and purpose. Israel must be compelled to pay a heavy price for its war crimes and crimes against humanity through the intensification of the boycott against it and against institutions and corporations complicit in its crimes. As in the anti-apartheid struggle in solidarity with the black majority in South Africa, students concerned about justice and sustainable peace have a moral duty to support our boycott efforts.

The Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI)

Endorsed by:

Progressive Student Union Bloc; Fateh Youth Organization; the Progressive Student Labor Front; Islamic Bloc; Islamic League of Palestinian Students; Student Unity Bloc; Students Affairs (University of Palestine).

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[i] http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=869

[ii] http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/52

[iii] http://www.odsg.org/co/index.php/component/content/article/1100-a-call-from-gaza.html

Link: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/illegal-war-is-not-good-policy

By: Johnny Canuck

On May 13, the University of Calgary plans to open their new School of Public Policy with an opening gala at which the guest of honour is Condoleezza Rice. Rice has emerged as a central figure in the developing US torture and war crimes scandal. "This is your baby. Go do it," Rice is reported to have said authorizing waterboarding by CIA.

Regrettably there has been little protest from the academic community in Canada, or the national student organizations who have been aware of Rice’s invitation since early March. The Director of the School of Public Policy, Jack Mintz told the Calgary Herald on March 11, that: "She’s a good example of what a school of public policy can achieve."

Please assist those at the University of Calgary who oppose this outrageous sanctioning of torture and war crimes by the school. Write to both Director Mintz and University President Harvey P Weingarten, asking that they cancel Rice’s visit:

University of Calgary President Harvey Weingarten: Email: president@ucalgary.ca

University of Calgary Director of Public Policy, Jack Mintz: Email: policystudies@ucalgary.ca

cc: Canadian Peace Alliance: cpa@web.ca

Petition: ’Illegal War is Not Good Policy’: http://thepetitionsite.com/1/illegal-war-is-not-good-policy

Please see:
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20656

http://www.greenwood.com/books/printFlyer.aspx?sku=C36499

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gqaw5UnHA4

Please forward widely

From: Charles Brucks

Palestinian victims of Israeli terrorism.

Hi: This was sent by a longtime Middle East activist Bill Thomson of the University of Michigan. He said that there is a concerted effort to make one of the first orders of business in the new Congress a resolution supporting israel. Please be in touch with your Congressional representatives to try to head this off. What a ghastly way that would be to start this new Congress. Thanks. Peace. Richard Walton, RI.

In <7.0.1.0.2.20090105134259.02ae21e8@umich.edu>, on 01/05/09 at 01:43 PM,

Bill Thomson said:

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY

I have just received the following:

"A concerted effort is under way requesting that members of Congress issue statements supporting Israel's right to "defend its citizens against terrorism" by continuing its military action in Gaza. It is likely that legislation in this vein will emerge shortly after Congress convenes on January 6."

>We may be certain that AIPAC and its allies will be pushing this hard.

Please immediately call your House member and Senators and urge them to oppose this resolution and issue a statement condemning the disproportionate Israeli actions against the citizens of Gaza.

You may contact your Representative and Senators in Congress at 202-224-3121 or find contact info for your Members of Congress at: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/officials/

Link: https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?%20&pagename=homepage&id=1149&page=UserAction&s_src=email1

Speak out against preemptive pardons and help restore the American values of justice and due process. Send a message to President Bush telling him you oppose preemptive pardons for these people and any others who may have been involved in torture.

Dick Cheney: Vice president who orchestrated the use of torture, secret prisons and detention without charge.		John Yoo: Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel authored memos that tried to provide a legal basis for the torture and abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody.		Alberto Gonzales: Former White House Counsel, chaired discussions about authorizing specific forms of torture and abuse, urged Bush not to apply Geneva Conventions to many detainees.		Condoleeza Rice: Chaired the National Security Council meetings reportedly authorizing specific forms of abuse on specific prisoners.		David Addington: Former counsel to Cheney had central role in developing the torture, abuse, and detention without charge policies.
Donald Rumsfeld: Former Secretary of Defense authorized the use of abusive interrogation methods at Guantánamo Bay Naval Base.		Geoffrey D. Miller: US General who oversaw Guantánamo Bay Naval Base when prisoners were abused and tortured there, and traveled to Iraq to oversee the "Gitmoization" of Abu Ghraib.		John Ashcroft: Reportedly participated in National Security Council meetings authorizing specific forms of abuse on specific prisoners and approved Office of Legal Counsel torture memoranda.		George Tenet: Director of the CIA oversaw the extraordinary rendition program as well as the abusive interrogation methods, including waterboarding, by CIA officials.		William Haynes: General Counsel at the Defense Department, signed off on the use of abusive interrogation methods by DoD personnel.

When asked by ABC host George Stephanopoulos if top level Bush administration officials would be prosecuted for mandating prisoner abuse, Biden said that he and Obama would be “focusing on the future,” adding “I think we should be looking forward, not backwards.”

So, the Obama administration says: "we should be looking forward not backwards", and we should close our eyes to mass murder and war crimes.

Friends, don’t for one second believe that the Bush administration should go unpunished for war crimes. They have killed over 1.44 million Iraqi men, women, and children, and grossly violated the Geneva Conventions through the use of torture and mass murder on a grand scale.

They established a network of secret CIA prisons around the world, along with 17 prison ships where untold horrors were committed in America’s name.

There are tens of thousands of Iraqi men, women, and children presently held in concentration camps by the US. They have been subjected to severe emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. Those that still cling to life desperately await freedom and justice.

The Bush administration used banned weapons such as cluster bombs and white phosphorus on civilians and they have spread over 1000 metric tons of the deadly U238-isotope, America’s nuclear waste, over Iraq and Afghanistan, causing childhood leukemia and spontaneous abortions to become commonplace, dooming the people of both countries to endless suffering and premature death.

In a world where war criminals and mass murderers are allowed to go unpunished there will surely be more wars based on lies fought for profit and there will be more war crimes committed by dictators and politicians. They are emboldened by a weak immoral fearful citizenry unwilling to hold them accountable for their crimes.

Speak out against preemptive pardons and help restore the American values of justice and due process. Send a message to President Bush telling him you oppose preemptive pardons for these people and any others who may have been involved in torture.

Link: http://ipower.ning.com/netneutrality2

Update: Bell Canada and TELUS (formerly owned by Verizon) employees officially confirm that by 2012 ISP's all over the globe will reduce Internet access to a TV-like subscription model, only offering access to a small standard amount of commercial sites and require extra fees for every other site you visit. These 'other' sites would then lose all their exposure and eventually shut down, resulting in what could be seen as the end of the Internet.

Dylan Pattyn *, who is currently writing an article for Time Magazine on the issue, has official confirmation from sources within Bell Canada and is interviewing a marketing representative from TELUS who confirms the story and states that TELUS has already started blocking all websites that aren't in the subscription package for mobile Internet access. They could not confirm whether it would happen in 2012 because both stated it may actually happen sooner (as early as 2010). Interviews with these sources, more confirmation from other sources and more in-depth information on the issue is set to be published in Time Magazine soon.

What can we do?

The reason why we're releasing this information is because we believe we can stop it. More awareness means more mainstream media shedding light on it, more political interest and more pressure on the ISP's to keep the Internet an open free space. We started this social network as a platform for Internet activism where we can join forces, share ideas and organize any form of protest that may have an impact. If we want to make a difference in this, we have to join together and stand united as one powerful voice against it.

Join the movement.

Don't let the Internet degenerate to this:

'Net Neutrality' Article url: http://ipower.ning.com/netneutrality2 Posted by Reese Leysen on October 29, 2008 at 7:30pm View Reese Leysen's blog