[discuss-dan] actions + info. 2-01-01

["getmelissa@uswest.net" <getmelissa@uswest.net>]

message 1:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Clark2119@aol.com


This is worth the reading.  It's short
and to the point!

Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions
in this election year.  

Our Senators/Congressmen do not pay into Social
Security, and, therefore they do not collect from
it.  Social Security benefits were not suitable
for them.  They felt they should have a special
plan.  Many years ago they voted in their benefit
plan.  In more recent years, no congressperson
has felt the need to change it.  After all, it is
a great plan.  For all practical purposes their
plan works like this:  When they retire, no
matter how long they have been in office, they
continue to draw their same pay until they die,
except it may be increased from time to time by
the cost of living adjustments.

For example, former Senator Bradley and his
wife may be expected to draw $7,900,000.00 over
an average life span, with Mrs. Bradley drawing
$275,000.00 during the last year of her life. 
Their cost for this excellent plan is "0", nada,
zilch.

This little perk they voted in for themselves is
free to them.  You and I pick up the tab for this
plan. 

Retirement plan funds come directly from the
General Funds.  Our tax dollars at work!  Social
Security, which you and I pay into every payday
for our own retirement, with an equal amount
matched by our employer, we can expect to get an
average of $1,000.00 per month.  Or, we would
have to collect our benefits for 68 years and 1
month to equal the Bradley's benefits.   

Imagine for a moment that you could structure a
retirement plan so desirable, a retirement plan
that worked so well, that Railroad Employees,
Postal Workers, and others who were not in the
plan would clamor to be included.  This is how
good Social Security could be, if only one small
change was made. 

That change would be to jerk the Golden Fleece
Retirement Plan out from under the Senators/
Congressmen.  Put them into the Social Security
plan with the rest of us..  Watch how fast they
fix it!  If enough people receive this, maybe a
seed will be planted, and maybe good changes will
evolve.
------------------------------------------------
message 2:

From: Deborah Richards <richards@radcliffe.edu>

A co-worker sent this to me.  I really like the idea!  Keep Bush aware
that we're out there and watching! - Debbie

President's Day is coming up on February 19. What needs to be done: make
a donation, however small, to a pro choice, pro-gay, or pro-liberal
[progressive] agenda organization, and have a card sent to Bush letting
him know that a donation has been made in his name to Planned
Parenthood,
People For the American Way, NARAL, Lambda Legal Defense Fund, etc. to
help him celebrate President's Day.

Pass this along...
-------------------------------------------------------
message 3:

TO: ACLU Action Network
FR: Jared Feuer, Internet Organizer
DT: January 31, 2001

Oppose Taxpayer-Funded Religious Discrimination

President Bush this week proposed sweeping changes in the way
pervasively religious organizations can use taxpayer money to provide
social services.

His new initiative, which includes a White House Office of Faith-Based
and Community Initiatives, would in fact create government-funded
discrimination in employment and services, as well as result in a
dangerous loosening of licensing and standards for providers of social
services.

Provided that they use their own funds, religious organizations are
exempt from many civil rights laws and courts have allowed them to
discriminate on the basis of their religious beliefs and teachings about
race, religion, sexual orientation, gender and pregnancy status.  But
that
equation must change once religious organizations begin to use tax
dollars.  Under the Bush initiative, for example, a Catholic church
receiving tax dollars for literacy programs could fire a teacher for
getting pregnant outside of marriage, or an Orthodox Jewish synagogue
that used public funds to operate a food bank could refuse to provide
food to non-Jews.

TAKE ACTION! Stop the Bush administration from transforming the helping
hand of government into a chokehold of discrimination!  You can read
more about this and other concerns with the Bush proposal and send a
FREE FAX to Congress and the President from our action alert at:

http://www.aclu.org/action/charchoice107.html

----------------------------------------------------------
message 4:

From: nacc <cmtc@igc.org>

To individuals--the Nonviolent Action Community of Cascadia has created
a new grant program to help radical groups do their work. We are seeking
grant applications from grassroots groups for activist organizing and
education on issues of peace, social justice and community empowerment.
High priority is given to groups that fall outside of mainstream funding
sources because they are considered to be too "radical."  We will accept
applications from groups working on local, regional, national, and/or
international issues, and have no restrictions on content focus.

So if you work with such a group (locally or national/international)
please help us spread the word by forwarding this to them, or call NACC
and we can send them the basic information.

For more information, call, write or email NACC. Thank you!
NACC, 4554 12th Ave NE, Seattle WA 98105
(206)547-0952, email cmtc@igc.org

[for organizations, please consider this grant for yourself, and help
spread the word also! If you publish a newsletter, give us a call if you
would place a small ad about the grants in your publication. Thanks]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
message 5:

Tuesday January 30, 3:02 pm Eastern Time

PROTESTERS GLOBALIZE THEIR FIGHT AT "ANTI-DAVOS" MEET

By Shasta Darlington

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, Jan 30 (Reuters) - While corporate chieftains and
central bankers head home from the Davos economic summit, the 16,000
anti-globalization activists who held a rival World Social Forum in
Brazil said they had laid the foundation for a powerful anti-capitalist
movement.

At the first ever ``anti-Davos'' forum, the same union workers,
environmentalists, farmers and protesters who disrupted high-level talks
from Seattle to Prague in recent years proved they were united in their
proposals to combat globalization.

``We set the foundations for a huge movement .. the forum was a true
historic happening,'' Candido Grzybowski, one of the forum's founders,
said at a closing ceremony Tuesday that featured personal testimonies,
revolutionary songs and chants of ``The people united will never be
defeated!''

In a sign that the diverse activists are getting down to business,
organizers announced that the World Social Forum will meet every year to
coincide with the World Economic Forum next year in Porto Alegre again
and in other cities after that.

The meeting, where sandals and Che Guevara T-shirts were de rigueur,
brought activists from 120 countries and 1,000 organizations together,
helping expand networks and globalize local demands.

But Jose Bove, the French farmer who leaped to fame when he trashed a
local McDonald's, stole the show.

``If the 21st Century started in Seattle, the third millennium started
in Porto Alegre!'' Bove shouted to wild applause. ``We are going to keep
fighting with new solidarity!''

The militant nationalist and more than 1,000 poor Brazilian farmers
grabbed the spotlight last Friday when they invaded an experimental farm
owned by U.S. biotech giant Monsanto (NYSE:MON - news) and yanked up
more than 5 acres (two hectares) of GM soybean crops.

Bove, who was followed everywhere by a gaggle of fans and photographers,
made headlines again when police ordered him late Monday night to leave
the country within 24 hours or face deportation for raiding Monsanto. On
Tuesday, a judge suspended the decision until Wednesday night, giving
Bove time to take his previously scheduled flight.

At the closing ceremony, activists greeted the pipe-smoking farmer with
chants of ``Bove is my friend, if you mess with him you mess with me!''
and gave him a standing ovation.

PORTO ALEGRE VS. DAVOS

Half way across the planet, Hungarian-born financier George Soros became
the other main protagonist of the event during an unprecedented
teleconference between ``prominent personalities'' at the Davos and
Porto Alegre forums.

``Assassin! How many children have you killed with your hypocritical
smile?'' one outraged woman shouted at Soros during the televised
exchange that rarely rose above mudslinging.

In the end, activists said they had won points when Soros backed a
global tax on capital flows, known as the Tobin Tax.

>From the start, organizers recognized the diverse groups would not be
able to agree on a single, unifying proposal but Tuesday they said they
will publish a letter with some of the long-held demands of the
anti-globalization movement.

Those proposals include the Tobin Tax which countries would have to
agree to levy on all financial transactions and on the cancellation of
all
Third World debt.

And of course, the long-time protesters committed themselves to more and
bigger demonstrations starting on April 7 when regional leaders will
meet in Buenos Aires for talks on the creation of a Free Trade Area of
the
Americas.

Despite the euphoric mood, the forum was not without conflict. A group
of activists stormed a press conference to protest ``racism'' and demand
a
bigger voice for blacks and organizers struggled to keep the forum from
becoming a stumping post for Brazil's left-wing Workers Party.

*****
Copyright 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or
redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the
prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any
errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance
thereon. 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
message 5:

From: "Tom Lewiston" <lewisto@eskimo.com>


"Glad to see you have seen the light with Business Party II.  They're
both the same, they get money from the same sources, they're both
beholden to interests of the rich and powerful.  The only time Murray,
Cantwell,
Kennedy, Biden, Dodd, Leahy or any of the rest of them is when they want
our vote.  Then they tell us what we want to hear, we vote them into
office and they take their marching orders from their patrons.

Hell, look at the Mom in Tennis Shoes, she supports repeal of the
Inheritance Tax.  A tax that affects something like 2% of the population
and a population that constantly tells the rabble to go out and earn
your
own way and quit complaining about being victimized.  But when it comes
to
thier own fortune, you know, the same one they "earned" at the expense
of the rest of us, they want it protected and they don't want their
heirs to have to earn their own way and Patty Murray supports this
repeal!!!

Both parties are the same.  I really hate to quote one of the biggest
white supremacists of our time but George Wallace said "there's not a
dime's worth of difference between the two partys."  Of course, he was
talking about apartheid and I'm applying his quote to the economic ills
and the redistribution of wealth to the already wealthy.

However, given the latest election maybe Wallace's statement is more
prescient today.  Not one single democrat in the senate spoke up to
reject certification of the Florida Electoral College vote, not one. 
So, one must conclude from their silence that as a party and institution
the
democrats have become more like the republicans when it comes to race
relations.  Contrast the silence with what members of the Congressional
Black Caucus did in the House.  They got up and walked out of the
chamber in protest but that was met with silence from their colleagues
in the senate.

Moreover, where is the hue and cry from the democrats over the fact that
George II lost the popular vote by some 500,000 notwithstanding the huge
number of Black voters whose votes were thrown out, weren't allowed to
vote, were turned back at roadblocks, etc.???  Where were the democrats
when the NAACP went to Florida to collect information from those who had
been disenfranchised???  Again, silence.  Not a damn word has been
uttered by anyone in the democratic party about this.  Instead they go
along hand
in hand with their brethren.

Why aren't people in the streets demanding electoral reform and
elimination of the Electoral College and beating down the doors of power
demanding to know why Black voters were not allowed to vote and for
those who did manage to vote why so many thousands of the votes were not
counted???

Where are the democrats???  I'll tell you where they are, they're busy
writing fund raising letters to corporations and some of the rabble
getting ready for the next round of elections when they will once agains
pretend to be concerned about what we have to say.

I say, to hell with all of them and let's take to the streets!!!!

In Solidarity,

Tom Lewiston
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