October 15th Solidarity in the Kulin Nations

Whenua Fenua Enua Vanua:

October 15th Solidarity in the Kulin Nations

The October 15th defendants will be appearing in the High court on May 15th where they will once again have to plead guilty or not guilty. The court case has been moved to the high court as the police are charging several of the defendants with "participating in an organised criminal group". The police are doing this in an attempt to salvage some credibility after the original terrorism charges were not allowed to go forward. This will also be exactly one and half years since the state's 'terror' raids and invasion of the defendant's homes and the community of Ruatoki in 2007. The October 15th Solidarity Group in Tamaki-Makaurau are calling for a morning solidarity picket. This is will the only time (as far as we know) when all the defendants will be up in Auckland this year.

Remember the state terrorism and support Tino Tangatiratanga and Te Mana Motuhake o Tuhoe! Show your solidarity Please bring banners, placards and flags.

The struggle continues! Ka whawhai tonu matou!

October 15th solidarity in the Kulin Nations

Friday May 15th

1pm

NZ Setter Consulate

350 Collins Street

Melbourne

Occupied Aboriginal Australia

Justice for Juarez & Atenco - Mexico | Latin American Solidarity Network

Latin American Solidarity Network

STOP THE FEMICIDE(The murder of women)IN CIUDAD JUAREZ

The murders of women in City Juarez, Chihuahua, continue.
They are already more than 470 women that have been murdered and more than 600
disappeared women since 1993, thousand have been wounded.

Freedom for Atenco
"Launch International Campaign Freedom for the Political Prisoners in Atenco"

"Mexico Open Forum", Thursday May 14, 7:00 PM.
Uniting Church, 251 High Street, Northcote

Presenting the Documentary,"Femicide(The murder of women)in Juarez,"
&
Key note Speakers Colm McNaughton;
Award winning radio documentary producer will discuss his upcoming
project in and about the city of Juarez in Mexico

UPDATE: JUÁREZ, MEXICO FEMICIDES TRIAL IN CHILE May 2009

Mexico Has Until June To Comply With Court Orders

On April 29 the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights in Santiago ruled that the State of México is responsible for the hundreds of femicides that have taken place in Juárez, Mexico over the past 15 years. The court will next review the statements and documents provided by the state of México between June 1 and November 2009 and will make its final verdict in November. Three mothers testified in Chile against the state of Mexico for their daughters' murders.

Reparations to the families are expected but conviction of Mexican authorities responsible for the violation of human rights surrounding the cases of femicide has not yet been specified.

Between 1993 and 2008 there were 447 registered cases of femicides in and around Juárez that are marked by signs of rape and extreme torture. Apart from the 447 registered cases, there are an estimated 70 young women still missing.

The State of México is accused for failing to confront the femicide phenomenon and in so doing, violating the right to life of its victims. Although only three mothers of the victims came to testify in Santiago, the court signaled that the three cases represent all of the femicides that have taken place in México to date.

The three mothers of the murdered women who testified were Irma Monreal, mother of Esmeralda Herrera, 14, Josefina González, mother of Claudia Ivette Conzález Banda, 20, and Benita Monárrez, mother of Laura Berenice Remos Monárrez, 17. On Tuesday, April 28, the mother’s gave their stories.

Their daughters were found dead in October 2001 along with the bodies of five other women and girls in a zone known as “Campo Algondonero” in Juarez.

The women had been tortured, raped and mutilated.
“I have faith and trust in the judges of this court,” said Monárrez. “I have faith that we will find justice.”

In the two day process of the case titled “González and others: Campo Algondero vs. México,” the court cited the state of México for failure to provide means of protection to the victims of femicide; failure to identify and prevent the leader of the gender violence that left hundreds of girls and women murdered; authorities’ failure to respond to the disappearance of the victims; failure to conduct investigations of the assassinations of the victims; failure of adequate reparations to the
families; and failure to deliver justice.

The court has given México until June 1 to submit documents requested by the court and to submit its defense statement. The documents sought include the complete reports of the investigations.

Judge Margarette May Macaulay asked the state why the officers were instructed not to go to the victim’s families with information regarding their cases, and requested that the state submit complete copies of the training protocol of the officers who were assigned to the cases. Although the court asked the state of Mexico many questions, the State did not have to answer immediately, but may submit their statements later in writing.

The prosecution demanded the truth, justice, and reparation for failing to prevent the gender motivated assassinations. The Inter-American Commission also declared that the negligence and failure to investigate the cases stem from a discriminatory attitude towards women.

The mothers testifying in Santiago expressed fear of retaliation for their declarations. Monárrez sought asylum in the United States since 2006 to escape harassment by the authorities. “Myself and the other mothers have always said that (behind the assassinations) there is a powerful subject that nobody wants to investigate, or that it is the authorities themselves because they have not found the person responsible,” said Josefina González, mother of Claudia.

Patricia González, the general attorney of Justice of the State of Chihuahua, recognized that there were “irregularities” in the first phase of investigation (between 2001 and 2004), but insisted the current government administration has conducted thorough and objective investigations.

González assured that the case of “Campo Algodonero” will be resolved soon. She said the murderer of Esmeralda and Laura has been identified and that she is confident that the coming months of investigation will procure results. “The only thing we have left to do is to give the orders to apprehend and detain them (the murderers),” she said.

The families of the victims expressed doubt that Mexico’s state will detain the true murderer, noting that the state has “invented” numerous false suspects in the last eight years. Víctor García Uribe and Gustavo González Meza were arrested as suspects and both claim they were tortured to admit guilt to the killings. Meza died in prison, and the state claims he died from the flu. None of the suspects arrested have been proven guilty.

Claudia’s mother commented that the City of Juárez continues to violate human rights because more girls continued to disappear after 2001.

By Maria Grusauskas
from Santiago Times - http://www.santiagotimes.cl

American Renaissance's Incessant Obsession over Interracial Relationships

Is this something bigots got rile up over?

Why is that even an issue among some race-obsessed people at American Renaissance website when there are greater social problems such as unemployment, the recession, police brutality, racism, sexism, classism, the wars around the world, and famine?

Tell that to a group of race obsessed people in and around St. Louis metro area and beyond regarding the cover of a multiracial couple kissing by St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

On the cover of today’s Go! magazine, a regular section of Friday’s Post-Dispatch, there is a photo of a couple kissing to go along with the story “The 7 Best Places To Smooch”. The story hasn’t generated a ton of buzz, but the photo has. Why? Because the man is black and the woman is white. The reader comments at the end of the online version clearly showed us that at least some folks out there are not comfortable with interracial relationships.

Of course, American Renaissance readers always have something snide to say about race mixing, especially racial mixing between Blacks and Whites, in this day and time. The posts concerning Black and White mixing always generate the most comments because many of the readers, deep down, want to keep their race and ethnicity "pure" by not dating and marrying Blacks and Multiracial Blacks. I know there are some who don't approve of Whites marrying Latinos and Asians, but that doesn't generate as much hate, no, not even close to the animus against peoples of African descent. Here are some of their gems:

"Just because people don’t support mixing of the races (there are many blacks and browns and yellows that also don’t like mixing) doesn’t make them racist. Educated? Hardly. She doesn’t even know what the word “racist” means. The mere mention of redneck as a response to some folks not liking or accepting interracial dating and/or miscegenation is typical of an ignoramus. Be advised that many highly-educated whites do not like interracial dating or miscegenation anymore than our like-minded kin in the trailer parks. She’s not only ignorant, she is totally and irrevocably brainwashed."

"As a white woman, I don’t have much to say about this magazine cover except “gross”. I can’t even imagine…wait a minute…I don’t even WANT to imagine."

"The level of disgusting immorality in the media knows no bounds. In a few years they’ll be two men kissing on the cover and a decade from now it’ll be a woman and some farm animal. What will be even more disgusting is that people will still post in the comments sections to get with the times, redneck trailer trash, etc. if other people are nauseated by it."
Posted by John

"Even though I haven’t lived in St. Louis in the past 45 years,I still follow the daily news.
The crimes committed by blacks against whites has increased and the violent nature of these crimes would cause most whites with any sense of civility to distrust ANY relationship with blacks, especially black males. Most white women wind up abused or worse,read Nicole Simpson, as a prime example. If people wish to express their outrage, it’s part of of constitutional freedoms. The PC police would like to silence you!"
Posted by Anonymous

This one is from an affluent woman named "Lauren":

"What frightens me most about the photo, and other images like it, is that it sets white women up as targets. Targets for rape, targets for ‘boyfriends’ who turn out to be enslaving pimps: or maybe they will just be targets for sweet-talking, girlfriend-impregnating highschool jocks, who will turn out to be the kind of worthless husbands who leech off their wives, before finally deserting their families (the usual pattern, it seems, when white women marry black men…you know, like the ‘fathers’ of Halle Berry and Barak Obama).
I would like to address the assertions of certain posters, that ‘racists’ are people who live in trailers, smoke meth, and are ‘ignorant’. Instead of generalizing about others, I will offer myself as an example of the ‘racists’ who post here.
My mother was a Debutante, my father was a member of the best fraternity at his college, and our immediate ancestors typically inhabited archetypal Mississippi mansions with third-floor ballrooms. The men were educated in New York or Europe, and the women sere sent to ‘finishing schools’. Our more distant ancestors were Norman Engilsh aristocrats and Swiss Huguenots. Beyond that, we have documented lines of descent from signers of the Magna Carta, Holy Roman Emperors, Senators of pre-Imperial Rome, and the kings of Judea. The likelihood of such an ancestry’s producing stupid descendants is rather low. It happens, but seldom.
The Kennedy/Johnson ‘Great Society’, following the Civil War, the Boll Wevil, and the Cotton Panics, succeeded in wiping out most of our ‘family money’. However, my parents’ generation, and my own, have recovered our standing to some extent.
While my house is smaller than I would like (Marble House, in Newport, is what I’d prefer.), it is within the wealthiest city, and the wealthiest county in our state. I have never inhabited a trailer, nor has any member of my family. I take that back: one uncle did rent an Airstream for a semester, while he was in Pre-Med.
No one smokes crack in our house. No one smokes ANYTHING in our house. Nor do they consume alcohol or eat meat. We are vegetarians, and mostly buy Organic. We have no domestic servants, and maintain the grounds of our home ourselves. We wash our own cars, iron our own clothing, and put an atypically high percentage of our income into investments. We have no pets. Our social life is limited. Our workdays are long. And we long ago severed our religious affiliations, having wearied of hearing ‘one-worlder’ garbage coming from the pulpits.
When I was a toddler, I went to the most progressive nursery school in the university town where my parents then lived (my Stepfather had taught Chemical Engineering, before opening his first factory). Later, I went to the best of three private schools in our town, and have eight years of college. My husband is in one of the top two professions. Our children have, or are getting, professional degrees.
I prefer to think of myself as a ‘realist’, rather than as a ‘racist’. But I became a racist/realist as a result of having grown up in an extremely diverse community. I got to observe the differences from close range. I experienced my first persecution for being a white Protestant while in private school, from a marginally-white, non-protestant Principal, who went out of his way to promote students of his own religion/ethnicity, and to discredit Protestant and Jewish students.
I doubt this will dislodge certain individuals’ preconceptions regarding ‘racists’. But it was worth a try"

***

“This is very funny. I usually find from personal experience that most white women that marry black men are usually low class. I don’t often see middle class or upper class white women married to black men.”
Not anymore. I see more and more black-white couples where they both look well groomed and from good upbringings. It’s mostly white women with black boyfriends. It goes to show just how impressionable females really are. They believe whatever they are shown because they have a need to be seen as nice conformists. It’s a virtue that turns into a vice when the role models are selfish and destructive. First it was Sex & the City, now they all want to make little miniature Obamas, just like they saw on TV and magazine covers. "

***


"There is most definitely something to be learned from these types of relationships and why it seems, celebrity black man generally gravitate towards nordic blonde women. Seal, Tiger Woods, OJ Simpson (of course, we know how that one turned out). James Earl Jones (although I’ll bet his wife was quite beautiful when she was younger), Clarence Thomas, to name just a few.
Of course, there isn’t an iota of attraciveness in Seal. And I say that because when I look at Denzel Washington, I can honestly say that, although I wouldn’t date or marry him, he is attractive for a black man.
On the reverse, you have attractive black women who gravitate towards white guys. However, not as many as black men. Halle Berry comes to mind. Here is an attractive mixed race woman, who was married to TWO black men and had no children by either one. She then meets some attractive white model and bingo, becomes pregnant and has a daughter.
While I’m not a psychologist and couldn’t even begin to explain these relationships, it reminds me of something my mother used to say when I was younger. That black people wanted to be white so bad they could taste it. Why else would they straighten their hair and lighten their skin. They may say they hate whitey and yell it at the top of their lungs but I think that black men and black women who marry whites feel like it the closest they will ever get to actually being white. Of course, on the other hand, my husband says it’s just a way to mutt up our race."

The following comments are by several affluent WM regarding Black women/White men intermarriage:

"I heard group of young, good looking, White males last week in a upscale restaurant discussing Michelle Obama, Anglea Bassett, Halle Berry, Vanessa Williams, Beverly Johnson and some other Black women they personally knew.
They were going on and on about how they would have no problem dating or marrying these women. Some of them were apparently involved with Black women. I was digusted to hear such talkand ate my food as fast as I could so I could not have to hear such comments from obviously prideless White men.
We White often conrtibute to our demise."
by Pragmatic Race Man

"Pragmatic Race Man:
I live in a area where there is a visible amount of White male/Black female relationships. The majority of them are upper income couples.
It does make you wonder why this is happening"
***

"That will not happen anytime soon. African blacks almost literally worship their half-breed mongrels and know their simian like features do not fare well in international beauty contests.
One could only imagine the glee of this half-breed’s mother marrying a white male.
A white spouse is the ultimate status symbol in Africa, meaning less uglier children and the ability to live abroad, and ironically, in the nicer parts of their native country. "

***
"Looks like some white genes died in one of her parents.
Given this woman’s last name, it appears that it was a white male who has wiped out his family line and devolved back to Africa via miscegenation."

***

"Here’s one White man who instinctively recoils when he sees a White man with a Black woman. He could have created Whites and he chose to create Blacks. Sickening.
Posted by Anonymous "
***

Last week I was at a local pizza joint having lunch. There were a group of White males discussing Michelle Obama and Black women in general. They went on and on about how they found some Black women exotic, vibrant sensual etc… A few of them are apparently are dating Black women and the like.It was sickening.
So yes, this sort of miscegenation is happening and perhaps it has been taking place for awhile.
***

19 — Samuel wrote at 8:02 PM on March 13:
All you have to do is look at the number of blogs that talk about how good looking Michelle Obama is. In fact , one White columnist Jack Cafferty wrote a column on his blog talking about how hwe had a crush on her, Robin Givens, Vanessa Williams Kerry Washington, Halle Berry etc…
The number of White men who responded expressing similar sentiments (one oeven told him to get in line and wait his turn) was disgusting. We are through as a nation.

These mofos are so bothered by White men dating/marrying Black and multiracial Black women. Too bad! It's going to happen whether you like it or not. Yes, contrary to some, plenty of bigots out there who are very much threatened by White men dating/marrying Black women and having multiracial children as well. These people are not run of the mill types one finds at Stormfront. They are middle to upper class, well-educated, well-heeled intellectual types. They are far more dangerous, for they are the ones who are running things in American society.
I hope Evia and her Something New followers read the above posts from such so-called gentlemen.

Black British Woman Facing Execution in Laos | Black Women in Europe Blog™

Black British Woman Facing Execution in Laos | Black Women in Europe Blog™: "I encourage you to read their posts as combined they provide extensive details and insight. Here are the bare bones:

1. Miss Samantha Orobator, 20, from London was arrested last August at Wattay airport in Laos.
2. Prosecutors claim she had 680 grams (1.3lb or 21 oz) of heroin in her luggage.
3. According to the legal campaign group Reprieve she has not met a lawyer since she was arrested 9 months ago but it is believed that she denies the drugs were hers.
4. The death penalty is mandatory for possession of over 500 grams of heroin in Laos.
5. Miss Orobator became pregnant in prison.
6. There is a clause in Laosion law which prohibits the execution of a pregnant woman.
7. Miss Orobator was allowed to see a British government official on Tuesday but refused the chance to speak to a lawyer.
8. The Laotian government will provide Miss Orobator with legal counsel, and the justice ministry is compiling a list of lawyers from which she will be able to choose."

The Post-Racial Blog: Black Bloggers urge Congressional U.S. Taser Torture Hearings

The Post-Racial Blog:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- Tuesday April 28, 2009
Black bloggers call for "Congressional Taser Torture Hearings"


CONTACT:
Wayne Hicks, Electronic Village, blog@elecvillage.com
LN Rock, African American Political Pundit, AfricanAmericanPoliticalPundit@gmail.com
Eddie Griffin, Eddie Griffin-BASG, eddiegriffin_basg@yahoo.com

A group of bloggers called the afrospear, a 2 year old coalition of black bloggers from across America (and around the world) held a day of Blogging for Justice standing up against pre-trial capital punishment by electrocution event on Friday. More Here

The Afrospear also established a p etition to Congress calling on Senator leader Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and members of the Congressional Black Caucus to speak out and organize public hearings on the systemic human rights violations occurring with Federal funding against black, Latino, Native American and other Americans.

Group member Eddie Griffin, of the blog, Eddie Griffin-BASG, said, "While there continues to be considerable media and congressional attention to torture in Guantanamo, there is comparatively little attention to the mounting evidence of human rights violations in the streets of America by a number of police departments across America, including torture and killings of black children, women and men through-out the United States through the use and abuse of Tasers."

LN Rock, a 2008 DNC Convention Blogger, who publishes the blogs, African American Political Pundit and Tasered While Black said, "We want Congress to stand up with us against the police pre-trial electrocution of black children, women and men - by taser. He went on to say, "We believe that few Americans support spending our tax dollars on torture, which violates our moral, religious and legal traditions. Most Americans expect an American policing policy that ensures the rights of all individuals regardless of race, greed, color, national origin, sex, disability or political or religious affiliation."

Wayne Hicks, publisher of the blog, Electronic Village, said, "We believe most Americans would favor Congressional hearings as to whether our own U.S. police, policing policies and actions violate Federal and International laws prohibiting human rights violators. Evidence of widespread police abuse of tasers is more than enough to warrant our concern and justify a congressional inquiry." He went on to say, " We propose that Congress undertake serious oversight into the extent to which our taxes are funding human rights violations and torture by tasing, and provide an alternative roadmap to the restoration of our democratic values. We want Congress to make sure that police pre-trial electrocution of black children, women and men by taser stops."

The bloggers are asking for:

1. The U.S. Attorney General and the Justice Department to aggressively fulfill its most basic mandate of enforcing the law. Torture by tasing is a crime, and the Justice Department is the right place to initiate an independent top-to-bottom investigation of the torturing of black children men, women and children by local police jurisdictions throughout the United States. It's important that the general public understand the 'use of force continuum' used by law enforcement officials, and how it is abused by many in the law enforcement community. (See the use-of-force-continuum provided by the blog Electronic Village) Note: Although there is a Justice Department Review of TASER-related Deaths the on-the-spot pre-trial electrocutions continues.

2. Congress should investigate whether US police tasing policies violate Federal or international civil and human right laws, including the U.N. Convention against Torture, and international covenants against cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of citizens even in cases of so-called "state emergencies".

3. Congress should require the effective regulation of Taser use and require police/citizen review panels by Federal, state and local police and security agencies, including strict adherence to international human rights standards, or act to defund all such Federal, State and local police and security agencies who violate taser use regulations that would be established by Congress. No Federal stimulus dollars should be used to purchase tasers.

The bloggers point out UN's Committee against Torture has declared that Taser use can constitute a form of torture, while USA: Amnesty International has an on-going concern about the use of tasers on American citizens. With all the conversation about the Bush torture memos and torture in the United States, we the undersigned bring up the issue of torture of black Americans at the hands of police in the United States. We urge you to stand up against the police pre-trial electrocution of black children, women and men by taser.

Here is a sampling of what black bloggers are saying about the tasing of so many blacks in the United States.

“A day of blogging for Justice ... What bloggers are saying and thinking:

Asabagna - Afrospear Think Tank - http://afrospear.wordpress.com/2009/04/24/a-day-of-blogging-for-justice-standing-up-against-the-pre-trial-electrocution/

Wayne Hicks - Electronic Village - http://tinyurl.com/chedrx

Shawn Williams, Dallas South Blog.com - http://tinyurl.com/cx6h97

Nate, Nateo Blog - http://nateo.blogspot.com/2009/04/call-for-stopping-pre-trial.html

Antoinette - Antoinette's Point of View - http://aapov.blogspot.com/

Cherie S. - http://memoirofcherieamour.blogspot.com/
Mr. E-D - Excited-delirium.com

LN Rock, African American Opinion - http://africanamericanopinion.ning.com

Francis Holland - Francis L. Holland Blog - http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2009/04/police-pre-trail-execution-pigs-on.html

Kathy - Daily Kos Blogger - Do White People Care About Tasing? http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/4/24/724113/-Do-White-People-Care-About-Tasing

Zhana - Ancestral Energies - http://ancestralenergies.blogspot.com/2009/04/no-to-pre-trial-electrocutions.html

The Kid - Pirate satellite: A Day of Blogging for Justice - http://kid-kidfunkadelic.blogspot.com/

Wayne Bennett, The Field Negro, Major side bar and link highlighting the importance of this day.

http://field-negro.blogspot.com/

Purple Zoe - UltraVioletUnderground - http://purplezoe.blogspot.com/2009/04/day-of-blogging-for-justice-ban-pre.html
April Davis - Around Harlem.com http://blog-aroundharlem.com/2009/04/24/blogging-for-justice-standing-up-against-the-use-of-police-tasers/
PaJoyner - PlezWorld - http://pajoyner.blogspot.com/2009/04/day-of-blogging-for-justice-death-by.html
Yobachi - Black Perspective.net - http://www.blackperspective.net/index.php/act-against-police-taser-abuse/
Ms. Lady Deborah - From my Brown Eyed View - http://msladydeborah.blogspot.com/2009/04/day-of-blogging-for-justicestanding-up.html
Eddie Griffin BASG - http://eddiegriffinbasg.blogspot.com/2009/04/gravest-injustice.html
Rev. Sequoyah Kofi bin-Tomas, Intelligent Aboriginal News Service (IANS) - The Angry Indian - Inteligentaindigena Novajoservo: When "Non-Lethal" Weapons Kill
Wayne Hicks - Villager, OxDown. Firedoglake - http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/4927
Wayne Hicks - Villager - Electronic Village-.. http://tinyurl.com/59jet6 - Use of Force Continuum
SjP - Sojourners Place - http://sojournersplace.blogspot.com/2009/04/blogging-for-justice-stop-taser.html
LN Rock - Post Racial Blog - http://postracial.blogspot.com/2009/04/tasering-and-toturing-black-americans.html
The SuperSpade - http://www.thesuperspade.com/taser-torture/
Anyway I Have To - http://underovr.blogspot.com/2009/04/day-of-blogging-for-justice-standing-up.html
Vanessa Byers- On The Black Hand Side - http://www.blackhandside.net/2009/04/day-of-blogging-for-justice.html
It All Goes Here - http://nateo.blogspot.com/2009/04/call-for-stopping-pre-trial.html
Independent Bloggers Alliance - http://independentbloggersalliance.blogspot.com/2009/04/day-of-blogging-for-justice-standing-up.html
Rover's Morning Glory - http://www.roverradio.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Black-kids-women-and-children-are-being-tasered-to-death-while-black....html&Itemid=382
Assata Shukur Forum - http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/open-forum/37831-4-24-blog-against-pre-trial-electrocution.html
RiPPa - The Intersection between Maddness and Reality - http://rippdemup.blogspot.com/2009/04/day-of-blogging-for-justice-end-taser.html
Lola - Whatever Lola Wants - http://lolagetslife.blogspot.com/2009/04/day-of-blogging-for-justice-standing-up.html
African American Political Pundit Report - http://aappreport.blogspot.com/2009/04/day-of-blogging-for-justice-standing-up.html
African American Political Pundit Blog - http://aapoliticalpundit.blogspot.com/2009/04/blacks-tasers-and-torture-sign-online.html
Electrocuted While Black - http://electrocutedwhileblack.blogspot.com/2009/04/at-least-five-seventeen-year-olds.html
Scotty - Black Talk Radio - http://blacktalkradio.ning.com/profiles/blogs/a-day-of-blogging-for-justice?xgs=1
Proud Black Blogger - http://proudblackvoter.blogspot.com/2009/04/congressional-black-caucus-needs.html
Carmen D. - Black Voices - http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2009/04/27/lets-put-a-stop-to-taser-madness/
Chicago Cop Watch - http://chicagocopwatch.org/2009/04/at-least-five-seventeen-year-olds-suffer-police-pretrial-capital-punishment-by-electrocution-this-year/

Here is a link to the Afrospear Petition to request Congressional hearings on the Taser torture of Americans: http://www.petition2congress.com/2/1822/taser-torture-in-america-call-congressional-hearings/

Expert Panel Highlights Serious Public Health Threats from Industrial Animal Agriculture

SAVE THE SACRED SITES ALLIANCE

http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=37968

Contact: Ralph Loglisci, 202.223.2996

Washington, DC - 04/11/2008 - The same techniques that have increased the productivity of modern animal agriculture are also contributing to a number of growing public health concerns, a panel of experts told Congress today.

Members of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production (PCIFAP) enumerated the hazards to human health associated with today’s large-scale industrial farm animal production (IFAP). These hazards include exposure to harmful contaminants, the spread of infectious diseases, and a growing resistance to the antibiotics commonly used to treat those diseases.

Commissioners explained that some of the dominant practices used in IFAP facilities set the stage for these threats to emerge. In IFAP systems, large numbers of animals are raised together, usually in confinement buildings, increasing human exposure to dangerous pathogens from animals or the large quantity of animal wastes generated in such conditions. Animal waste, which harbors a number of pathogens and chemical contaminants, is usually left untreated, often sprayed on fields as fertilizer, raising the potential for contamination of air, water, and soils. In one recent example, farm animal run-off from IFAP facilities was among the suspected causes of a 2006 E. coli outbreak in which six people died and more than 250 were sickened.

There are numerous known “zoonotic” diseases -- infectious diseases that can be transmitted between humans and animals. Due to the large numbers of animals housed in close quarters in typical IFAP facilities, there are many opportunities for animals to be infected by several strains of pathogens, leading to increased chance for a strain to emerge that can infect and spread in humans.

Another concern stems from the use of large quantities of antimicrobials in animal feeds used in IFAP facilities. While intended to produce ideal market weights and consistency among livestock and poultry, these drugs have been found to spur the mutation of many forms of bacteria and other pathogens into forms that are increasingly resistant to once-reliable antimicrobial and antibiotic drugs. Humans are increasingly exposed to a number of these resistant strains for which commonly used antibiotics are no longer effective.

Several recent and high profile recalls involving E. coli O157:H7, as well as Salmonella enteritidis serve as graphic reminders of the risk of food borne illnesses – risk that are greatly amplified by the scale and methods common to IFAP. All areas of meat, poultry, egg, and dairy production can potentially contribute to zoonotic disease and food contamination, with dire consequences if they do reach human hosts. A 1999 report estimated that E. coli O157:H7 infections caused approximately 73,000 illnesses, leading to over 2,000 hospitalizations and 60 deaths each year in the United States. Animal manure, especially from cattle, is the primary source of these bacteria, and major routes of human infection include consumption of food and water contaminated with animal wastes.

IFAP facilities also cause occupational health impacts. Workers and operators are exposed to toxic dust and gases that may result in temporary, and in some cases chronic, respiratory irritation, including bronchitis, non-allergic asthma-like syndrome, mucous membrane irritation, and non-infectious sinusitis. In addition to dust, other irritants, such as gases, are generated inside the building from decomposition of animal urine and feces. A 1997 study of chronic (non-IFAP or IFAP) occupational exposures to hydrogen sulfide, a byproduct of some animal waste processing methods, found that such exposures might lead to neuropsychiatric abnormalities including impaired balance, hearing, memory, mood, intellectual function, and visual field performance.

Finally, communities surrounding IFAP facilities are also vulnerable to health hazards from air emissions and water pollution. These hazards include respiratory symptoms, disease and functional impairment, as well as neurobehavioral symptoms. Those with weaker immune systems, such as young children and the elderly, are especially vulnerable. One study showed that North Carolina residents who lived in the vicinity of intensive swine operations exhibited higher rates of tension, depression, anger, reduced vigor, fatigue, and confusion than those who did not live near the facility.

Current monitoring systems in IFAP are inadequate to protect the public from the harmful effects of contamination or disease. Animal identification and meat product labeling practices make tracing infections to the source difficult or impossible. Moreover, IFAP may be legally exempt from mandatory health monitoring, disease reporting and surveillance programs in many cases, so IFAP workers who may carry disease-causing organisms usually are not identified.

“While many features of industrial farm animal production have provided plentiful food products to consumers, there are unacceptable health risks associated with IFAP that must be confronted,” said Dr. Michael Blackwell. “The public should not have to pay for high productivity with their health.”

The Pew Commission was convened in 2005 to study the impacts of dramatic changes in animal agriculture in America over the past 40 years. The decline of the family farm and the concentration of the industry into a relative few large corporations has meant greater efficiency and lowered costs for producers. But this shift has also brought environmental, public health, and socioeconomic problems. Today’s event was part of a series of Capitol Hill issue briefings on these risks and challenges that will culminate in the public release on April 29 of a set of recommendations to address them. The PCIFAP’s two-year study encompassed site visits to production facilities across the country, consultation with industry stakeholders, public health, medical, and agriculture experts, public meetings, and peer-reviewed technical reports.

For more information visit the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production Web site.
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CDC Confirms Ties to Virus First Discovered in U.S. Pig Factories

For pictures and video see the website

http://www.hsus.org/farm/news/ournews/swine_flu_virus_origin_1998_042909.html

April 30, 2009

Crowded conditions on factory farms create breeding grounds for new viruses. ©iStockphoto

By Michael Greger, M.D.

Factory farming and long-distance live animal transport apparently led to the emergence of the ancestors of the current swine flu threat.

A preliminary analysis of the H1N1 swine flu virus isolated from human cases in California and Texas reveals that six of the eight viral gene segments arose from North American swine flu strains circulating since 1998, when a new strain was first identified on a factory farm in North Carolina.

This analysis, first released by Columbia University’s Center for Computation Biology, has now been reportedly confirmed by researchers at the University of Edinburgh, St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital and virologist Ruben Donis, chief of the molecular virology and vaccines branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Robert Webster, the director of the U.S. Collaborating Center of the World Health Organization, and considered the "godfather of flu research,"[1] is reported as saying "The triple reassortant in pigs [first discovered in the U.S. in 1998] seems to be the precursor."

Plaguing People and Pigs

The worst plague in human history was triggered by an H1N1 avian flu virus, which jumped the species barrier from birds to humans[2] and went on to kill as many as 50 to 100 million people in the 1918 flu pandemic.[3] No disease, war or famine ever killed so many people in so short a time. We then passed the virus to pigs, where it has continued to circulate, becoming one of the most common causes of respiratory disease on North American pig farms.[4]

For media interviews with Dr. Michael Greger, please contact Liz Bergstrom at ebergstrom@humanesociety.org or 301-258-1455. ©The HSUS

In August 1998, however, a barking cough resounded throughout a North Carolina pig factory in which all the thousands of breeding sows fell ill.[5] A new swine flu virus was discovered on that factory farm, a human-pig hybrid virus that had picked up three human flu genes. By the end of that year, the virus acquired two gene segments from bird flu viruses as well, becoming a never-before-described triple reassortment virus—a hybrid of a human virus, a pig virus, and a bird virus—that triggered outbreaks in Texas, Minnesota, and Iowa.[6]

Within months, the virus had spread throughout the United States. Blood samples taken from 4,382 pigs across 23 states found that 20.5% tested positive for exposure to this triple hybrid swine flu virus by early 1999, including 100% of herds tested in Illinois and Iowa, and 90% in Kansas and Oklahoma.[7] According to the current analysis, it is from this pool of viruses that the current swine flu threat derives three-quarters of its genetic material.[8]

Tracing the Origins of Today's Virus

Since the progenitor of the swine flu virus currently threatening to trigger a human pandemic has now been identified, it is critical to explore what led to its original emergence and spread. Scientists postulate that a human flu virus may have starting circulating in U.S. pig farms as early as 1995, but "by mutation or simply by obtaining a critical density, caused disease in pigs and began to spread rapidly through swine herds in North America. [emphasis added]"[9] It is therefore likely no coincidence that the virus emerged in North Carolina, the home of the nation’s largest pig production operation. North Carolina has the densest pig population in North America and reportedly boasts more than twice as many corporate pig mega-factories as any other state.[10]

The year of emergence, 1998, was the year North Carolina's pig population hit ten million, up from two million just six years earlier.[11] Concurrently, the number of pig farms was decreasing, from 15,000 in 1986 to 3,600 in 2000.[12] How can five times more animals be raised on almost five times fewer farms? By crowding about 25 times more pigs into each operation.

In the 1980s, more than 85% of all North Carolina pig farms had fewer than 100 animals. By the end of the 1990s, operations confining more than 1,000 animals controlled about 99% of the state's pig population.[13] Given that the primary route of swine flu transmission is thought to be the same as human flu—via droplets or aerosols of infected nasal secretions[14]—it's no wonder experts blame overcrowding for the emergence of new flu virus mutants.

Intensive Crowding and Long-Distance Transport

Starting in the early 1990s, the U.S. pig industry restructured itself after Tyson's profitable chicken model of massive industrial-sized units. As a headline in the trade journal National Hog Farmer announced, "Overcrowding Pigs Pays—If It's Managed Properly."[15] The majority of U.S. pig farms now confine more than 5,000 animals each. A veterinary pathologist from the University of Minnesota stated the obvious in Science: "With a group of 5,000 animals, if a novel virus shows up it will have more opportunity to replicate and potentially spread than in a group of 100 pigs on a small farm."[16]

Dr. Robert Webster, one of the world's leading experts of flu virus evolution, blames the emergence of the 1998 virus on the "recently evolving intensive farming practice in the USA, of raising pigs and poultry in adjacent sheds with the same staff," a practice he calls "unsound."[17] North Carolina is also one of the nation's largest poultry producers, slaughtering nearly three-quarters of a billion chickens[18] and confining enough hens to produce nearly 3 billion eggs.[19]

Once the new viral mutant appeared in 1998, the rapid dissemination across the country has been blamed on long-distance live animal transport.[20] In the United States, pigs travel coast to coast. They can be bred in North Carolina, fattened in the corn belt of Iowa, and slaughtered in California.[21] While this may reduce short-term costs for the pork industry, the highly contagious nature of diseases like influenza (perhaps made further infectious by the stresses of transport) needs to be considered when calculating the true cost of long-distance live animal transport.

"A Recipe for Disaster"

The remaining two gene segments of the H1N1 swine flu virus now spreading in human populations around the world appear to come from a swine flu viral lineage circulating in Eurasia, where similar conditions may be to blame. "Influenza [in pigs] is closely correlated with pig density," said a European Commission-funded researcher studying the situation in Europe.[22] As such, Europe's rapidly intensifying pig industry has been described in Science as "a recipe for disaster."[23] Some researchers have speculated that the next pandemic could arise out of "Europe's crowded pig barns."[24] In Europe in 1993, a bird flu virus had adapted to pigs, acquiring a few human flu virus genes and infected two young Dutch children, displaying evidence of limited human-to-human transmission.[25]

The European Commission's agricultural directorate warns that the "concentration of production is giving rise to an increasing risk of disease epidemics."[26] Concern over epidemic disease is so great that Danish laws have capped the number of pigs per farm and put a ceiling on the total number of pigs allowed to be raised in the country.[27]

No such limit exists in the United States or in Mexico. The fact that the first confirmed human case of swine flu appeared in close proximity to the largest pig factory in Mexico, which slaughters nearly a million pigs a year (out of a country-wide total of 15 million), may not have been a coincidence.

Warnings Unheeded

The public health community has been warning about the risks posed by factory farms for years. More than five years ago, in 2003, the American Public Health Association, the largest and oldest association of public health professionals in the world, called for a moratorium on factory farming.[28] In 2005, the United Nations urged that "[g]overnments, local authorities and international agencies need to take a greatly increased role in combating the role of factory-farming," which, they said, combined with live animal markets, "provide ideal conditions for the [influenza] virus to spread and mutate into a more dangerous form."[29]

Last April, the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production released its final report. The prestigious, independent panel chaired by a former Kansas Governor and including a former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, former Assistant Surgeon General, and the Dean of the University of Iowa College of Public Health, concluded that industrialized animal agriculture posed "unacceptable" public health risks: "Due to the large numbers of animals housed in close quarters in typical [industrial farm animal production] facilities there are many opportunities for animals to be infected by several strains of pathogens, leading to increased chance for a strain to emerge that can infect and spread in humans."[30]

Specific to the veal crate-like metal stalls that confine breeding pigs like those on the North Carolina factory from which the first hybrid swine flu virus was discovered in North America, the Pew Commission asserted that "[p]ractices that restrict natural motion, such as sow gestation crates, induce high levels of stress in the animals and threaten their health, which in turn may threaten human health."[31] Unfortunately we don't tend to "shore up the levees" until after the disaster, but now that we know swine flu viruses can evolve to efficiently transmit human-to-human we need to follow the Pew Commission's recommendations to abolish extreme confinement practices like gestation crates as they're already doing in Europe, and to follow the advice of the American Public Health Association to declare a moratorium on factory farms.

A "Reservoir of Viruses" in the U.S.

With massive concentrations of farm animals within whom to mutate, these new swine flu viruses in North America seem to be on an evolutionary fast track, jumping and reassorting between species at an unprecedented rate.[32] This reassorting, Webster's team concludes, makes the 65 million strong U.S. pig population an "increasingly important reservoir of viruses with human pandemic potential."[33] "We used to think that the only important source of genetic change in swine influenza was in Southeast Asia," said Christopher Olsen, a molecular virologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Now, "we need to look in our own backyard for where the next pandemic may appear."[34]

Dr. Michael Greger is director of public health and animal agriculture for The Humane Society of the United States.

References

[1] Council on Foreign Relations. 2005. Session 1: Avian flu-where do we stand? Conference on the Global Threat of Pandemic Influenza, November 16. http://cfr.org/publication/9230/council_...uenza_session_1.html.

[2] Belshe RB. 2005. The origins of pandemic influenza-lessons from the 1918 virus. New England Journal of Medicine 353(21):2209-11.

[3] Johnson NPAS, Mueller J. Updating the accounts: global mortality of the 1918–1920 "Spanish" influenza pandemic. Bull Hist Med. 2002;76:105–15.

[4] Zhou NN, Senne DA, Landgraf JS, et al. 1999. Genetic reassortment of avian, swine, and human influenza A viruses in American pigs. Journal of Virology 73:8851-6. http://birdflubook.org/resources/ZHOU8851.pdf.

[5] Wuethrich B. 2003. Chasing the fickle swine flu. Science 299:1502-5. http://birdflubook.org/resources/WUETHRICH1502.pdf.

[6] Zhou NN, Senne DA, Landgraf JS, et al. 1999. Genetic reassortment of avian, swine, and human influenza A viruses in American pigs. Journal of Virology 73:8851-6. http://birdflubook.org/resources/ZHOU8851.pdf.

[7] Webby RJ, Swenson SL, Krauss SL, Gerrish PJ, Goyal SM, and Webster RG. 2000. Evolution of swine H3N2 influenza viruses in the United States. Journal of Virology 74:8243-51.

[8] Rabadan, R. 2009. Influenza A (H1N1) "swine flu": worldwide (04) [1] ProMED Digest 2009. 28 April. Volume 2009 : Number 196. http://www.promedmail.org/pls/otn/f?p=2400:1001:1580522401053605::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_
PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,77250.

[9] Webby RJ, Swenson SL, Krauss SL, Gerrish PJ, Goyal SM, and Webster RG. 2000. Evolution of swine H3N2 influenza viruses in the United States. Journal of Virology 74:8243-51.

[10] Environmental Defense. 2000. Factory hog farming: the big picture. November. http://www.edf.org/documents/2563_FactoryHogFarmingBigPicture.pdf.

[11] Duke University Center on Globalization, Governance and Competitiveness. 2006. Hog farming overview. February 23. http://www.soc.duke.edu/NC_GlobalEconomy/hog/overview.php.

[12] North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. 2001. North Carolina agriculture overview. February 23. http://ncagr.com/stats/general/livestoc.htm.

[13] Wuethrich B. 2003. Chasing the fickle swine flu. Science 299:1502-5. http://BirdFluBook.org/resources/WUETHRICH1502.pdf.

[14] Brown IH. 2000. The epidemiology and evolution of influenza viruses in pigs. Veterinary Medicine 74:29-46. http://BirdFluBook.org/resources/Brown29.pdf.

[15] 1993. Overcrowding pigs pays-if it's managed properly. National Hog Farmer, November 15.

[16] Wuethrich B. 2003. Chasing the fickle swine flu. Science 299:1502-5. http://BirdFluBook.org/resources/WUETHRICH1502.pdf.

[17] Webster RG and Hulse DJ. 2004. Microbial adaptation and change: avian influenza. Revue Scientifique et Technique 23(2):453-65.

[18] USDA. 2009. Poultry Slaughter 2008. Annual Summary. http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/PoulSlauSu/PoulSlauSu-02-25-2009.pdf

[19] USDA. 2009. Chickens and Eggs 2008 Summary. http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/ChickEgg/ChickEgg-02-26-2009.pdf

[20] Wuethrich B. 2003. Chasing the fickle swine flu. Science 299:1502-5. http://birdflubook.org/resources/WUETHRICH1502.pdf.

[21] Shields DA and Mathews KH Jr. 2003. Interstate livestock movements. USDA Economic Research Service: Electronic Outlook Report from the Economic Research Service, June. usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/reports/erssor/livestock/ldp-mbb/2003/ldp-m108-01.pdf.

[22] MacKenzie D. 1998. This little piggy fell ill. New Scientist, September 12.

[23] Ibid.

[24] Delgado C, Rosegrant M, Steinfeld H, Ehui S, and Courbois C. 1999. Livestock to 2020: the next food revolution. Food, Agriculture, and the Environment Discussion Paper 28. For the International Food Policy Research Institute, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Livestock Research Institute. http://ifpri.org/2020/dp/dp28.pdf.

[25] Webster RG, Sharp GB, and Claas CJ. 1995. Interspecies transmission of influenza viruses. Americal Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 152:525-30.

[26] MacKenzie D. 1998. This little piggy fell ill. New Scientist, September 12, p. 1818.

[27] Ibid.

[28] American Public Health Association. 2003. Precautionary moratorium on new concentrated animal feed operations. Policy number 20037. www.apha.org/advocacy/policy/policysearch/default.htm?id=1243.

[29] United Nations. 2005. UN task forces battle misconceptions of avian flu, mount Indonesian campaign. UN News Centre, October 24. un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=16342&Cr=bird&Cr1=flu

[30] Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production. 2008. Expert panel highlights serious public health threats from industrial animal agriculture. Press release issued April 11. www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=37968. Accessed August 26, 2008.

[31] Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production. 2008. Putting meat on the table: industrial farm animal production in America. Executive summary, p. 13. www.ncifap.org/_images/PCIFAPSmry.pdf. Accessed August 26, 2008.

[32] Wuethrich B. 2003. Chasing the fickle swine flu. Science 299:1502-5. http://birdflubook.org/resources/WUETHRICH1502.pdf.

[33] Webby RJ, Rossow K, Erickson G, Sims Y, and Webster R. 2004. Multiple lineages of antigenically and genetically diverse influenza A virus co-circulate in the United States swine population. Virus Research 103:67-73. http://BirdFluBook.org/resources/webby67.pdf.

[34] Wuethrich B. 2003. Chasing the fickle swine flu. Science 299:1502-5. http://BirdFluBook.org/resources/WUETHRICH1502.pdf.

Barrick and Argentine Officials Violently Assault Women at Roadblock

Barrick and Argentine Officials Violently Assault Women at Roadblock : Intercontinental Cry

On April 14, a group of Argentine government officials and employees of Barrick Gold Corporation, carried out a violent assault against Women at the Famatina mining camp in the province of La Rioja, where a road blockade has stood for the past two years.

When the officials arrived, a group of Women from the “Self-Organized (Autoconvocados) Neighbors of Famatina for Life,” gathered at site and lowered a metal bar they installed to deny the company’s passage to the mine site.

The officials and Barrick employees then began to ram their trucks against the barrier, but “without any success,” explains an April 14 media alert.

The officials then exited their vehicles and carried out a violent assault against a handful of women, who had peacefully sat down in front the vehicles - first shoving them, and then kicking and striking the women with their fists.