By Juan Cole - February 8, 2009

America's war in Afghanistan has nearly collapsed because of logistical problems...The Taliban can accomplish...breathtaking operations against NATO in Pakistan in large part because Pakistani police and military forces are unwilling to risk much to help distant foreign America beat up their cousins.

By Walter Ewing - February 4, 2009

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Phoenix, Arizona, seems to have an appetite for publicity so insatiable that it overrides both rationality and morality. His latest stunt...comes today, when he will order “approximately 200 illegal aliens to be chained and marched” from the Durango Jail to a segregated area of his “Tent City” incarceration complex. Lest one be fooled into believing that this is a legitimate law-enforcement operation, Arpaio’s press release includes details on the parade route and where “interested media” should park to cover this spectacle of degradation.

By Max Blumenthal - AlterNet

...[H]atred was plentiful at the rally [New York Governor David] Paterson addressed. Right in front of the stage, a man held a banner reading, “Islam Is A Death Cult.” Rally attendees described the people of Gaza...as a “cancer,” called for Israel to “wipe them all out,” insisting, “They are forcing us to kill their children in order to defend our own children.” A young woman told me, “Those who die are suffering God’s wrath.”

Award winning documentary film on the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The film depicts life in occupied Palestine under Israeli military rule.

By GEORGE CICCARIELLO-MAHER - January 9-11, 2009

...[I]n the early hours of this year...the reality of the persistence of racism in Oakland became devastatingly clear, sparking a powerful response the likes of which this city hasn’t seen in years. But luckily, the condescending voices of moderation...seem [to] have little traction with those who have seen enough police murder.

By Sean Maher - Oakland Tribune

A [Bay Area Rapid Transit] police officer struggling to handcuff a 22-year-old man stood up over the facedown Hayward resident and fired a single shot into his back while a handful of officers watched, a video taken by a train passenger apparently shows...The attorney for the family of Oscar Grant III, fatally shot by an unidentified BART officer early New Year's Day, said Sunday he plans to file a $25 million lawsuit against the department and asked prosecutors to consider filing murder charges against the officer.

A free four-part video series has been created by the non-profit Turtle Island Project (TIP) in Munising, Michigan on the third annual "Cowboys and Angels" concert that benefited the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society (WBCWS) in Mission, South Dakota – the world's oldest Native American domestic violence shelter...WBCWS battles domestic violence, sexual assault and an alarming increase in teen suicides on the Lakota Rosebud Sioux Reservation...A wide variety of social problems are among the causes for the Rosebud suicides and family violence including poverty, depression, no jobs, and substance abuse Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard performed original songs and seasonal music during the free concert on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008 at the Falling Rock Cafe and Bookstore in Munising, Michigan.

"The real crime of the Palestinians are not the rockets, not the suicide bombers, but resistance itself: whether peaceful or violent. Non-violent protests have also evoked brutal and even murderous responses from the Israeli army. The Palestinian's very existence denies the legitimacy of the Zionist claim of Palestine having been 'a land without a people.' That they don’t agree to being exiled forever, to being denied their human, civil and political rights, that they don’t agree to disappear—that is the real crime of the Palestinians."

--Statement from Dr. Gabor Mate, an anti-Zionist Jew who spoke at a rally in Vancouver on Jan. 3, 2009 to protest the latest Israeli assault in Gaza

By HANNAH MERMELSTEIN - December 25, 2008

When settlers attack, Palestinians get punished /sent home/ re routed. It is as though the settlers are a natural phenomenon. They could place a sign in the road saying, "Caution: Settlers Ahead" and it would seem as natural to the soldiers as a sign saying "Caution: Storm Conditions Ahead" or "Caution: Road Curves Ahead." It is as though the condition of settler attacks is unpreventable.

By Roee Nahmias - December 15, 2008

"America and Israel are attempting to obliterate the Palestinian issue in all of its parts," Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said during a televised interview with the organization's Al-Manar network on Monday...He said the Palestinian refugee issue was not receiving a hearing in the US, Israel, and the Arab states, and called on the "brothers in Egypt" to open the Rafah crossing indefinitely.

Those advocating this radical journalist's execution show a disturbing lack of concern about the undeniable problems of racism (and all documented police/DA/judicial misconduct) throughout this case. At the most fundamental level, the [Fraternal Order of Police]-led 'Fry Mumia' campaign's lack of concern is racist....The FOP appeals to a racist lynch-mob mentality that has long infected the US, so calling this a 'legal lynching' is no exaggeration.

This new DVD video focuses on the March 27, 2008 denial of a new guilt-phase trial for Mumia, the DA's continued attempt to execute him, and the response of Mumia and his international support network.

Fri, 31 Oct 2008

On Oct. 31, 2008 hundreds of youth, families, and organizers converged in front of [the] I.C.E. building to protest the raids against undocumented people and their families.

J. Patrick O'Connor is the author of the new book The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal. During O'Connor's SF Bay Area book tour this October, he was a guest on The 'Other Voices' television show, produced by the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center.

Links to stories and video by Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, SD on the tragic suicide epidemic involving Lakota youth and young adults