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Sunday, December 21, 2003

Making a difference during the holiday season

Michael Moore has posted letters from American soldiers in Iraq on his website; they're definitely worth your time. In his most recent email dispatch, Moore offers up five ways we can help brighten the holidays for our troops overseas and their families back home:

1. Many families of soldiers are hurting financially, especially those families of reservists and National Guard who are gone from the full-time jobs ("just one weekend a month and we'll pay for your college education!"). You can help them by contacting the Armed Forces Emergency Relief Funds at http://www.afrtrust.org/ (ignore the rah-rah military stuff and remember that this is money that will help out these families who are living in near-poverty). Each branch has their own relief fund, and the money goes to help the soldiers and families with paying for food and rent, medical and dental expenses, personal needs when pay is delayed, and funeral expenses. You can find more ways to support the troops, from buying groceries for their families to donating your airline miles so they can get home for a visit, by going here.

2. Thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed by our bombs and indiscriminate shooting. We must help protect them and their survivors. You can do so by supporting the Quakers' drive to provide infant care kits to Iraqi hospitalsâ€”find out more here: http://www.afsc.org/iraq/relief/default.shtm. You can also help the people of Iraq by supporting the Iraqi Red Crescent Societyâ€”hereâ€™s how to contact them: http://www.ifrc.org/address/iq.asp, or you can make an online donation through the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies by going here: http://www.ifrc.org/HELPNOW/donate/donate_iraq.asp.

3. With 130,000 American men and women currently in Iraq, every community in this country has either sent someone to fight in this war or is home to family members of someone fighting in this war. Organize care packages through your local community groups, activist groups, and churches and send them to these young men and women. The military no longer accepts packages addressed to â€œAny Soldier,â€� so youâ€™ll have to get their names first. Figure out who you can help from your area, and send them books, CDs, games, footballs, gloves, blanketsâ€”anything that may make their extended (and extended and extendedâ€¦) stay in Iraq a little brighter and more comfortable. You can also sponsor care packages to American troops through the USO: http://www.usocares.org/.

4. Want to send a soldier a free book or movie? Iâ€™ll start by making mine available for free to any soldier serving in Iraq. Just send me their name and address in Iraq (or, if they have already left Iraq, where they are now) and the first thousand emails I get at soldiers@michaelmoore.com will receive a free copy of "Dude..." or a free â€œBowlingâ€¦â€� DVD.

5. Finally, we all have to redouble our efforts to end this war and bring the troops home. That's the best gift we could give them -- get them out of harm's way ASAP and insist that the U.S. go back to the UN and have them take over the rebuilding of Iraq (with the US and Britain funding it, because, well, we have to pay for our mess). Get involved with your local peace groupâ€”you can find one near where you live by visiting United for Peace, at: http://www.unitedforpeace.org and the Vietnam Veterans Against War: http://www.vvaw.org/contact/. A large demonstration is being planned for March 20, check here for more details: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=2136. To get a â€œBring Them Home Nowâ€� bumper sticker or a poster for your yard, go here: http://bringthemhomenow.org/yellowribbon_graphics/index.html. Also, back only anti-war candidates for Congress and President (Kucinich, Dean, Clark, Sharpton).

posted by Jenny at 7:16 AM |

Blogs...
The Lefty Directory
The Agonist Alas, a Blog Arms and the Man Back in Iraq 2.0 The Bitter Shack of
Resentment BlogLeft Body & Soul Corrente Counterspin Central The Daily Outrage Daniel Drezner Deborama Eschaton Kieran Healy Late Night Thoughts Long story; short pier Lying Media Bastards Magpie Matthew Yglesias Nathan Newman Oligopoly Watch Open Source Politics Pen-Elayne The RANT The ReachM High Cowboy Network Noose RuminateThis Rush Limbaughtomy Serenity The Seth Bulletin shock & awe Skippy the Bush Kangaroo South Knox Bubba Stoutdem TalkLeft Ted Barlow Tom Tomorrow veiled4allah Vegan Blog Wampum Where is Raed? wil wheaton

"Progressive" Media Adbusters AlterNet* BuzzFlash CommonDreams* CSPAN Cursor.org* Democracy Now! GNN MediaChannel.org MotherJones The Nation National Public Radio Truthout Utne The Village Voice Working for Change* ZNet

Global Presses Al-Ahram Weekly Al-Jazeera BBC World Desk The Economist Environment News Service* Financial Times The Guardian* Ha'aretz The Independent Inter Press Service* London Times Le Monde diplomatique Pravda Reuters Spiegel Tageszeitung World Desk @ cd World Press Review

Politics & Activism Congress.org DNC News U.S. House Floor Environmental Media Service Environmental Scorecard Find Your Elected Official Green Party* PollingReport.com RNC News THOMAS Today in Congress U.S. Bombing Watch* U.S. State Dept. News United States Senate U.S. Supreme Court White House News WorkingforChange* Texans For Peace Human Rights Watch FOR Center for Public Integrity openDemocracy MoveOn.org* Opensecrets.org Protest.net Amnesty International UN News Centre UN Treaty Collection
Consumer Awareness... Transnationale.org Behind the Label animalconcerns.org Corp Watch GetVegan Multinationals? MediaChannel.org Take Back the Media Sweatshop Watch Stop Gap Sweatshops! 10 To Never Buy Again Whole Foods Hurts Animals Stop ExxonMobil Boycott Shell Boycott Proctor & Gamble McSpotlight Fast Food Nation Prozac Spotlight Pharmaceuticals IMF/World Bank

Culture Stuff The Atlantic Online BlogCritics christian + feminist ctheory The Frankfurt School Mark Harden's Artchive National Geographic The New Yorker NY Review of Books PBS Religion & Ethics Pop & Politics Salon

People to Read Carol Adams Noam Chomsky Umberto Eco Barbara Ehrenreich Michel Foucault M.K. Gandhi Henry Giroux Donna Haraway Bob Harris Thom Hartmann bell hooks Arianna Huffington Molly Ivins Sut Jhally Douglas Kellner Naomi Klein George Monbiot Michael Moore Ralph Nader Greg Palast John Pilger Arundhati Roy Edward Said Howard Zinn More

...in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.

--Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Feel free to email me at JennyDC-at-AOLdotCom, but if I don't know you and you don't say otherwise, I assume that what you send is open to be quoted at this blog. :-)

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Sunday, December 21, 2003

"My own...my...precious..."

I love it when they depict Bush cronies as being seduced by the Ring of Power...check out this latest picture up at Easy Bake Coven, via skippy. It's taken from this groovy flash movie at Bushrecall.org...
posted by Jenny at 7:40 AM |

You can call me paranoid if you want, but it seems that these Bushite criticisms of Democratic candidates for raising money from "foreign anti-American activists" could be an early shadow of them depicting Democrats in general as a terrorist group...
posted by Jenny at 7:36 AM |

Making a difference during the holiday season

Michael Moore has posted letters from American soldiers in Iraq on his website; they're definitely worth your time. In his most recent email dispatch, Moore offers up five ways we can help brighten the holidays for our troops overseas and their families back home:

1. Many families of soldiers are hurting financially, especially those families of reservists and National Guard who are gone from the full-time jobs ("just one weekend a month and we'll pay for your college education!"). You can help them by contacting the Armed Forces Emergency Relief Funds at http://www.afrtrust.org/ (ignore the rah-rah military stuff and remember that this is money that will help out these families who are living in near-poverty). Each branch has their own relief fund, and the money goes to help the soldiers and families with paying for food and rent, medical and dental expenses, personal needs when pay is delayed, and funeral expenses. You can find more ways to support the troops, from buying groceries for their families to donating your airline miles so they can get home for a visit, by going here.

2. Thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed by our bombs and indiscriminate shooting. We must help protect them and their survivors. You can do so by supporting the Quakers' drive to provide infant care kits to Iraqi hospitalsâ€”find out more here: http://www.afsc.org/iraq/relief/default.shtm. You can also help the people of Iraq by supporting the Iraqi Red Crescent Societyâ€”hereâ€™s how to contact them: http://www.ifrc.org/address/iq.asp, or you can make an online donation through the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies by going here: http://www.ifrc.org/HELPNOW/donate/donate_iraq.asp.

3. With 130,000 American men and women currently in Iraq, every community in this country has either sent someone to fight in this war or is home to family members of someone fighting in this war. Organize care packages through your local community groups, activist groups, and churches and send them to these young men and women. The military no longer accepts packages addressed to â€œAny Soldier,â€� so youâ€™ll have to get their names first. Figure out who you can help from your area, and send them books, CDs, games, footballs, gloves, blanketsâ€”anything that may make their extended (and extended and extendedâ€¦) stay in Iraq a little brighter and more comfortable. You can also sponsor care packages to American troops through the USO: http://www.usocares.org/.

4. Want to send a soldier a free book or movie? Iâ€™ll start by making mine available for free to any soldier serving in Iraq. Just send me their name and address in Iraq (or, if they have already left Iraq, where they are now) and the first thousand emails I get at soldiers@michaelmoore.com will receive a free copy of "Dude..." or a free â€œBowlingâ€¦â€� DVD.

5. Finally, we all have to redouble our efforts to end this war and bring the troops home. That's the best gift we could give them -- get them out of harm's way ASAP and insist that the U.S. go back to the UN and have them take over the rebuilding of Iraq (with the US and Britain funding it, because, well, we have to pay for our mess). Get involved with your local peace groupâ€”you can find one near where you live by visiting United for Peace, at: http://www.unitedforpeace.org and the Vietnam Veterans Against War: http://www.vvaw.org/contact/. A large demonstration is being planned for March 20, check here for more details: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=2136. To get a â€œBring Them Home Nowâ€� bumper sticker or a poster for your yard, go here: http://bringthemhomenow.org/yellowribbon_graphics/index.html. Also, back only anti-war candidates for Congress and President (Kucinich, Dean, Clark, Sharpton).
posted by Jenny at 7:16 AM |

All images subject to their respective copyrights; no infringement intended! Please contact me regarding such issues.

Blogs...
The Lefty Directory
The Agonist Alas, a Blog Arms and the Man Back in Iraq 2.0 The Bitter Shack of
Resentment BlogLeft Body & Soul Corrente Counterspin Central The Daily Outrage Daniel Drezner Deborama Eschaton Kieran Healy Late Night Thoughts Long story; short pier Lying Media Bastards Magpie Matthew Yglesias Nathan Newman Oligopoly Watch Open Source Politics Pen-Elayne The RANT The ReachM High Cowboy Network Noose RuminateThis Rush Limbaughtomy Serenity The Seth Bulletin shock & awe Skippy the Bush Kangaroo South Knox Bubba Stoutdem TalkLeft Ted Barlow Tom Tomorrow veiled4allah Vegan Blog Wampum Where is Raed? wil wheaton
The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.
-Milan Kundera

"Progressive" Media Adbusters AlterNet* BuzzFlash CommonDreams* CSPAN Cursor.org* Democracy Now! GNN MediaChannel.org MotherJones The Nation National Public Radio Truthout Utne The Village Voice Working for Change* ZNet

Recognizing the power of the erotic within our lives can give us the energy to pursue genuine change within our world, rather than merely settling for a shift of characters in the same weary drama.
-Audre Lord

Global Presses Al-Ahram Weekly Al-Jazeera BBC World Desk The Economist Environment News Service* Financial Times The Guardian* Ha'aretz The Independent Inter Press Service* London Times Le Monde diplomatique Pravda Reuters Spiegel Tageszeitung World Desk @ cd World Press Review

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
-George Santayana

"U.S. Media" Christian Science Monitor CNN IHT Los Angeles Times New York Times* Philadelphia Daily News Washington Post

Homefront Austin Chronicle Green Party of Texas SXSW Threadgill's Texans For Peace Texas Observer Texas Parks & Wildlife Victoria Advocate

Media Literacy Center for Media Literacy FAIR MediaChannel.org Take Back the Media
The basis of advertising is not what products are being sold, but what dreams are being sold. --Sut Jhally

Politics & Activism Congress.org DNC News U.S. House Floor Environmental Media Service Environmental Scorecard Find Your Elected Official Green Party* PollingReport.com RNC News THOMAS Today in Congress U.S. Bombing Watch* U.S. State Dept. News United States Senate U.S. Supreme Court White House News WorkingforChange* Texans For Peace Human Rights Watch FOR Center for Public Integrity openDemocracy MoveOn.org* Opensecrets.org Protest.net Amnesty International UN News Centre UN Treaty Collection
Consumer Awareness... Transnationale.org Behind the Label animalconcerns.org Corp Watch GetVegan Multinationals? MediaChannel.org Take Back the Media Sweatshop Watch Stop Gap Sweatshops! 10 To Never Buy Again Whole Foods Hurts Animals Stop ExxonMobil Boycott Shell Boycott Proctor & Gamble McSpotlight Fast Food Nation Prozac Spotlight Pharmaceuticals IMF/World Bank

We should admit, rather, that power produces knowledge...; that power and knowledge directly imply one another; that there is no power relation without the correlative constitution of a field of knowledge, nor any knowledge that does not presuppose and constitute at the same time power relations.
-Michel Foucault

Culture Stuff The Atlantic Online BlogCritics christian + feminist ctheory The Frankfurt School Mark Harden's Artchive National Geographic The New Yorker NY Review of Books PBS Religion & Ethics Pop & Politics Salon

People to Read Carol Adams Noam Chomsky Umberto Eco Barbara Ehrenreich Michel Foucault M.K. Gandhi Henry Giroux Donna Haraway Bob Harris Thom Hartmann bell hooks Arianna Huffington Molly Ivins Sut Jhally Douglas Kellner Naomi Klein George Monbiot Michael Moore Ralph Nader Greg Palast John Pilger Arundhati Roy Edward Said Howard Zinn More

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
-Albert Einstein

It's fun! It's funny! Mark Fiore The Tolkien Society The Osbournes izzard.com WillieNelson.com iconfactory Secret Diagrams 1 & 2

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