features archive

"The Daily Grind" comic strip has been appearing every weekday on pdx indymedia since Jan. 28. The artist is based in Texas, and has created it especially for posting to indymedia sites. The artist is seeking feedback on this new comic strip!

One reader comments: "you keep on rockin it, jackrabbit! just like aaron mcgruder of the "boondocks" cartoon, who straight up calls condoleezza rice a murderer. having the guts to tell it like it is, while the corporate whores spew the lies of their masters like good little doggies. we may be right, we may be wrong, but at the very least at the end of the day i look in the mirror and know that i am nobody's lapdog."

"Daily Grind" comics, through today's: [ 1/28 | 1/29 | 1/30 | 2/2 | 2/3 | 2/4 | 2/5 | 2/6 | 2/9 | 2/10 | 2/11 | 2/12 | 2/13 ]

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A man named Kevin Cooper has been given a date to die: On Feb. 10, 2004, the State of California plans to kill him, by pumping him full of poison. Cooper, convicted back in 1984 of the slaying of 3 members of the Ryen clan, and a visiting family friend, was also charged with stabbing an 8-year old boy, but luckily the child survived. Why lucky? Well, apart from the obvious reason (his sheer survival), Joshua Ryen saw who attacked him, and upon recovery told police that it was 3 white or Latino men who slew his family, his friend, and tried to kill him. When young Josh saw TV news accounts of the attacks, he turned to a cop who was present, and exclaimed, when the picture of Kevin Cooper flashed across the screen, "That wasn't the guy who did it. It was 3 Mexicans."

But, San Bernardino officials didn't care; what does it matter that the lone surviving victim cleared their suspect? It meant nothing. They had their man -- and on the 10th of February, they wanna kill him. Kevin Cooper, now a man of 45 years, has spent the last 19 years of his life on California's Death Row, for a series of brutal crimes -- that he did not commit. Cooper turned his cell into a school room; studying writing, politics and African-American history. He has grown into a vibrant, talented and educated individual -- yet California still wants to extinguish his light.

ot only was the only living eyewitness ignored; but shortly after the murders, a local woman came forward to tell police that she thought her boyfriend was involved in the grisly killings. Why? When he came home the night of the slayings, she said, he was wearing a pair of overalls, drenched in blood. The woman turned them over to the cops. Before the day was over, the overalls were pitched into the station's dumpster. Did it matter that the man was wearing a t-shirt the color and brand of the t-shirt found in the scene -- it also, bloody? No. Did it matter that he owned a hatchet, like a weapon used in the Ryen home, and it was conveniently missing from the couple's home. Police and prosecutors told jurors that a bloody shoe- print found at the scene conclusively proved Cooper's guilt. Were the jurors told that Deputy William Baird had a pair of prison shoes in his (crime) lab, which were Cooper's size? What they also didn't know was that the Deputy, post-trial, was fired for stealing five pounds of heroin from the evidence locker--five pounds--both to use and to sell--to drug dealers! [READ MORE...]

[ Plea Letter to Governor Schwarzenegger ] | [ Other Related Articles ]

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On the surface, it is said that we gathered to support Leonard's freedom and denounce his incarceration; but there was more to the gathering in the larger sense. A political prisoner, especially an indigenous one, is merely a symptom of a society locked in a military/oil/prison/auto-industrial-complex/police state; and indigenous people have been experiencing this imperialistic intrusion and invasion since "pre-history." We recognize the broken promises of the United 'Snakes' of America, and yesterday's movement was not a reactionary response, but instead a proactive networking and gathering: a solid stance of indigenous sovereignty that has never and will never fully be conquered, a force of strong family that is evolving while retaining the teachings of the distant past.

The group walked to the Courthouse in Tacoma, where a PA system was awaiting powerful speakers. Offerings were given and the ceremony opened with the Aztec dancers, the traditional bursting into the present.

Finally, you'll see a picture of people swarming around the Tacoma Dome. This was not the Peltier group! There was a huge public send-off for military youngsters getting hauled away to Iraq. On my way to the Peltier Rally, I took a wrong turn on my bike and saw the massive amounts of people going to the worship the altar of death that the Peltier folks are working to decolonize.

[Pictures of the March] | [AUDIO FILE: Speaker From The Leonard Peltier Rally In Tacoma

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Howard Dean's ability to raise money using the internet completely failed to bring those who wrote checks to the polls in Vancouver, Washington yesterday. I spent two hours in the Laborer's Hall on Andreson, wandering, listening and watching.

The average age of voters was 50. About 2% minorities. These are not the representative demographics of the community. Dean pulled maybe 5% in most precincts, but as the voting rolled out many quickly shifted to Kerry. From all appearances, Kerry's supporters were more affluent, more established, smarter, and better able to wrangle loose votes in the room.

I met and observed four or five smart operatives, each working for Kerry, who basically delivered their precincts by attending the democrat planning meetings, and making 100 phone calls within their district. No one doing this for Dean. No one for Kucinich.

related: [ Kucinich Beating Clark, Edwards in Washington ]

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In a subtitle, soft-pedaling the Bush administration's recent free-fall in ratings, the LA Times-Washington Post Service said: "The President, in a rare TV interview as his ratings fall off a little, stands behind the war and the CIA director."

Meet The Press (which might be better called "find this program") aired at 6 am on Sunday morning; the article in the OREGONIAN appeared in Sunday's paper . . . which most people would not see until well after 6 am.

Obviously Bush felt that a gesture was necessary, but not necessarily an easily accessible or genuine gesture. Cosseted by the President-friendly Tim Russert of NBC, Bush used the program as a platform to launch his election-year counterattack against Democrats. After having assigned responsibility for intelligence failures to the CIA and damning George Tenet to eventual dismissal as a scapegoat, Bush followed with the inevitable faint praise for the director. Tenet -- like an abused plant made to produce hybrid fruit and then left without water -- probably saw these measly drips as far too little and too late.

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Is it irresponsible to take children to political protests? Some argue it is a good experience for children to participate, first-hand, in political organizing, marches, protests, and the making of history. I am glad my mother took me, as a child, to civil rights protests, and actions against the Vietnam War, during the 1960's and 1970's. I do not believe textbooks can convey the feeling one gets when surrounded by riot police, while trying to peacefully demonstrate. I am glad I took my son to protests of the Gulf War in the 1990's, and the Iraq War in 2003. I feel it was part of his education to see nonviolent free speech and riot police clash on his own city streets, while with his mom for safety. But could I really guarantee my son's safety anywhere that riot police were present? Some argue that children should not be taken onto the front lines of American political change. But as an activist single mother, I could not just sit home, and not protest wars, simply because I had a child. And children are supposedly our hope for the future. Thus it seems essential to include them in our political struggles, if we want the issues to live longer than us. Are certain protests acceptable for children to attend, but not others? How does one determine which protest activities are appropriate for our children? How does a politically active parent balance their own needs to protest a war, for instance, with the responsibilities of parenting?

I surveyed a group of activists on this topic, from different parts of America; from Chicago, New York City, and Seattle, as well as from Wisconsin, Maryland, California, and Colorado, and also from England and Canada. More in the group self-identified as anarcho-feminists, than the other categories cited, which included radical leftists, anarchist parent of color, anarchist, Green Party member, progressive humanist atheist, and others. Seven of the 12 people interviewed are street medics, and 10 of those surveyed are parents. And only two of those surveyed say they had parents who took them to political protests. So, basically, this article is written from the viewpoint of first-generation (except for two), politically-active, parents, and street medics. Yet even within this somewhat politically-homogenous group, the opinions on this topic of kids at protests differ.

A22 PDX "Police Pepper Spray Baby" | Other Articles by Kirsten Anderberg

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We are a group receiving grant from a concerned citizen who wishes to see justice had with this errand policeman, and we expend our own efforts towards that end.

What we do is simple! We research these errand policemen's known biographical data, ascertaining names/addresses of their next of kin, family, friends, neighbors, and extended civic circle in order to simple inform these people associated with their lives the full extent of their employment, and most especially their acts of abuse of power.

It is a powerful inducement towards individual reform when they find that their parents, spouses, children, siblings, immed- iate neighbors, fellow church members, and civic club members actually find out the type of work these people do.

Imagine this errand cops children's teacher receiving a video in the mail with note attached simply saying: "Please watch to see what Suzie XXX's father actually does for a living!"

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Early this afternoon, a worker at the Cascadia Rising Infoshop said that a man stopped by who worked for the Forest Service. His job, he said, was to go to environemntal organizations and find out what they care about in the Forest. His name is William Kay, and he has tried to find out information in the past by calling. Today when he approached the Infoshop, his story changed a few times. A bit later, someone else called to discuss Tre Arrow.

William Kay said he was in town from California, and asked if this was CFA. CFA no longer rents the space. He went on to ask if people involved with CFA come around. Then he said that he does field surveys and, when asked, said that he works for a local non-profit environmental group which the Infoshop worker wasn't familiar with. When asked exactly what he does, he said that he works for the Forest Service out of Estecada and goes around to different environmental groups asking what they care about in the Forest.

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So far I've piled a lot of complaints onto PPRC and the various rallies PPRC runs, but I've also been talking about something else. Whether I was writing about the need for more equitable distribution of power, or just pointing out how blatantly dishonest or misguided PPRC leaders were, I've always been trying to address what it means to be free.

There's a big problem with my attempting to write about this subject:

I don't know anything about freedom.

I don't know what it would look like. I'd even be so bold as to say that nobody in the entire industrialized world knows what freedom is, what it feels like. We're all inhabitants of various strata inside a global spectacle-- we're the people who watch the big screen, or the little screens that are suddenly strewn everywhere, but who can't act on or change anything. [ Read more... ]

previous parts: [ 1 | 2 ] | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 ]

[ Other stories by Douglas Lain ]

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WASHINGTON - February 4 - A civil suit filed today in federal court calls for an emergency temporary restraining order against the City of Miami's unconstitutional restrictions on the right to political protest

Miami, FL - A civil lawsuit was filed today in federal court to challenge a controversial ordinance passed by Miami City Commission days prior to protests against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) meetings in November 2003. The ordinance was used to chill First Amendment activities during mass demonstrations against the FTAA. The lawsuit also attacks two other Miami ordinances regulating demonstrations on public streets and sidewalks as unconstitutional restrictions on First Amendment rights.

Attorneys working with the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) Mass Defense Committee and Miami Activist Defense (MAD) filed the lawsuit on behalf of Plaintiff Lake Worth Global Justice Group. Members of the plaintiff group were subject to unlawful searches, detentions and arrests during the FTAA protests. The defendants include the City of Miami, City Manager Joe Arriola, and Miami Police Chief John Timoney.

"Lake Worth Global Justice members were harassed and arrested by police during the FTAA protests," said Cara Jennings, a member of the plaintiff group. "We were not only stopped and detained, but we also witnessed numerous people being prevented from engaging in lawful protest activities in public spaces around Miami." [ Read more... ]

[ FTAA IMC site | pdx indy FTAA Miami coverage ]

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taken from commets of protest article
We have received word from several sources, including the Beaverton Police Department, that Fred Phelps will not be coming to Beaverton. Instead, he will be off picketing a Billy Graham event (fine by us here at Basic Rights Oregon!). There are still a few things going on, including Beaverton HS students wearing buttons and ribbons on that day, a letter of support to the Beaverton school board signed by a number of community organizations, and a Family Diversity Event on Sunday.

However, there's no cancellation announced on the website and the flier is still posted up. This might just be an announcement to throw us off. He has been known to cancel when he gets word of counter-protests. Especially since one of them got bashed in the face.

Anyway, let's go support the exhibit. Making the exhibit a success would be an enjoyable way to undermine his efforts. It sounds like a cool exhibit anyway. If he doesn't show, great! We can tease him over the media for being too scared to come to the NW and/or we can just be proud that we foiled his plans.

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I'm in the fifth grade. We have fund raisers, such as cookie sales and penny drives every now and then, but now it's just gone too far. Now they're making us run something called "the fun run" which, in my opinion, isn't fun at all. My classmates don't think so either. As soon as the rules for this were announced, everyone looked like they were sick to their stomach. For this "fun run", we have to collect pledges of money, either straight up cash, or for how many laps around the gym we run. My teacher told me today that, if we don't collect at least one pledge, that we can't go on any field trips. She said that if we don't work for that money while other kids do, it wouldn't be fair to have fun without paying for it like your classmates. I think it's just sick and wrong to use kids for money.

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Worker owned collective looking to host events-art, music (must be ac oustic because of neighbors upstairs)-we have beer, wine, coffee, great food, internet access, a zine library. If all else, just come check us out!!!

Hello to all, we are looking to host events here -perhaps once a week-and would love for people to share their talents, through music, song, dance, whatever it is that you do-we can even make the fliers! We just want to reach out to the community and let people know that we are here and very excited to be "more than just a cafe". We have a feature artist of the month that can put up his/her art for everyone to see-we already have Leah of the cafe for March but please contact us just want to come down and check us out that would be great!!You can contact us at: 503-233-1929, or just come down. We're at 614 e. burnside-between 6th and 7th on the south side of the street-

phone: 503-285-5474,

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Leonard Peltier March SATURDAY FEBRUARY 7th

PORTLAND: Please bring your VEHICLES or bodies to Holladay Park NE 15th & Multnomah (in front of Lloyd Center) 7:30am (carpool leaves @ 8am!!! So you can't be late!)

TACOMA: 12:00 NOON, MARCH FOR JUSTICE
Portland Ave. Park (on Portland Ave. between E. 24th and E. Fairbanks Ave. Take Portland Ave. exit off I-5 and head east)

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F23 Back to the Wall Call to action: Monday February 23rd, join the Cascadia Rising Eco-Defense Network and Back to the WALL in a region wide day of resistance to species extinction and forest destruction in your backyard!

In Portland protests will be held at the Region Six Forest Service Headquarters at 333 SW First Avenue. We will be meeting up beforehand at 7:30 a.m SHARP at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park downtown and going to the FS HQ by 8 pm from there.

Bush and Mark Rey (former timber industry lobbyist / Undersecretary of Agriculture in charge of the federal, public lands timber sale program) just released a final draft of a plan to eliminate "Survey and Manage" species protections. Survey and Manage, created as a result of the Spotted Owl controversy of the 80's and 90's, mandates that surveys be made for rare and little known species before any timber sale in western California, Oregon, or Washington takes place - a basic "look before you log" requirement.

Survey and Manage has been a lynchpin of combating timber sales under the legal system for years, and was the basis of the Straw Devil / Solo / Clark timber sale victories last summer.

While mainstream environmental groups scramble to access the damage to their legal system tactics, others are increasingly realizing that a new era of "lawless logging" is now upon us and that only massive public outcry can hope to make a difference.

We ask you to join the resistance to species extinction, environmental collapse, corporate greed. Please be there, bright and early, February 23rd!

Back to the WALL 503.649.8493 / back2thewall_pdx@yahoo.com
Cascadia Rising Eco-Defense Network 503.493.7495 / action@cascadiarising.org

[More Background | Organizer's Resources | protest information outside Portland | Donations needed following office robbery! | www.orwildlife.org/ | www.cascadiarising.org ]

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An army of U.S. veterans more than twice the size of Operation Iraqi Freedom have lost their health insurance benefits since Bush took office. As many as half a million vets are homeless. Seven VA hospitals are being closed as part of an effort to "restructure" the Department of Veterans Affairs. Meanwhile, veterans of the Iraq campaign can fall in line with over 250,000 U.S. veterans who are already waiting at least six months to see a doctor.

The organization known as Disabled American Veterans has been helping U.S. combat casualties figure out what benefits they have coming to them and how to apply for them since 1920. Lately the Bush administration has been going out of its way to make the DAV's job harder...ever since Operation Iraqi Freedom got underway, it has been easier for a terrorist to get into the United States legally than for a DAV representative to get into a military hospital to help wounded soldiers with their benefit applications. Sickeningly, the Pentagon has been severely limiting DAV access to wounded veterans and doing it on grounds of "security." Oh, yes, and protecting "privacy."..It protects the veterans' privacy by not allowing them to speak with DAV representatives "unmonitored."

Fortunately someone blinked and it wasn't the Disabled American Veterans. When he got back to the office after celebrating New Year's and opened his mail, Donald Rumsfeld found a letter informing him that he had messed with the wrong people this time.

Here's part of what DAV Washington Headquarters Executive Director David W. Gorman had to say to the Secretary of Defense:

www.rebelangel.com

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Next up: Pushing a snow-ball bearing Macaque in front of a bus proves stepping in front of bus "hazardous to human health."

A forum on animal rights, organized by students, took place Monday night at Lake Oswego High School. Most of the discussion centered on the issues of animal research, specifically the research conducted at OHSU's primate center (the Oregon National Primate Research Center). The first speakers were two representatives of OHSU, public relations rep. Jim Newman and primate researcher Dr. Judy Cameron. Cameron specialized in reproductive science and neuroscience at ONPRC.

Cameron chose to focus her presentation Monday night on one of her current research projects in order to explain the process of animal research, how a study is developed and carried out. Cameron is studying the link between exercise and brain function. She explained that she began this particular study with the knowledge that people who exercise have better brain function. More study is needed though, she claimed, because we need to know if other lifestyle factors might be involved in this phenomenon (for example many people who exercise also don't smoke). In order to explore this connection she has some of her test monkeys run on tread mills and others are forced to be sedentary. She then conducts cognitive tests on the monkeys and compares the performances of the two groups. The shocking truth revealed by these studies is that the monkeys who exercise perform better on the tests! She says these monkeys are "more alert and more engaged" than the ones denied exercise. This leads her to conclude that (as was known at the beginning of the study) that exercise is good for the brain. (While she has apparently affirmed this foregone conclusion, she failed to explain how this study can teach us something new about the effects of lifestyle on human brain function. The lifestyle of these monkeys consists of living alone in barren, 2 feet x 2 feet cages in a laboratory in completely artificial situations, and they are of course monkeys, not people.)

Related Features:
[ Animal Rights Vigil at OHSU President's Home | OHSU Bio-terror lab- Public Meeting Reports | OHSU Primate Center Expanding - Letters Needed! | Blowing the Whistle on Lab Coat Welfare ]

[ Coalition to Abolish Animal Testing | In Defense of Animals | Pdx-IMC animal rights topic page ]

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