Daily Kos: The Wizard of Oil
The Wizard of Oil
A more update to date version of the classic Wizard of Oz. The witch is a lot more frightening than the original.
Enjooy,
Bobby
Daily Kos: The Wizard of Oil Tuesday, December 13, 2005
When will we stand up and fight? Monday, December 12, 2005
Independent Lens . THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND . The Movement | PBS
The Movement
“When you feel you have right on your side, you can do some pretty horrific things.� —former Weathermen member Brian Flanagan
Initially formed as a splinter group which believed that peaceful protests were ineffective, the Weathermen were widely criticized for their use of violence as a means of social and political change. Some accused the group of terrorism, while others accused it of giving all activists, both militant and more mainstream, a bad name.
Firefighters struggle to hose down the smoldering remains of a New York brownstone after bombing.
But for the Weathermen, violent action was nothing short of necessary in a time of crisis, a last-ditch effort to grab the country’s attention. And grab attention they did—in March 1970, just days after Bernardine Dohrn publicly announced a “declaration of war.� When an accidentally detonated bomb killed three Weathermen in the basement of a Manhattan townhouse, the group suddenly became the target of an FBI manhunt, and members were forced to go into hiding. The bomb had been intended to be set off at a dance at a local Army base.
How did the Weathermen arrive at this point? Some of the group’s former members, interviewed in THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND, cite the murder of Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in a December 1969 Chicago police raid as a turning point. What many believed to be a government-sanctioned killing in an effort to wipe out militant groups such as the Panthers was, for the Weathermen, the final straw.
In 1960, nearly 50 percent of America’s population was under 18 years of age. This surplus of youth set the stage for a widespread revolt against the status quo: against previously upheld structures of racism, sexism and classism, against the violence of the Vietnam War and America’s interventions abroad. At college campuses throughout the country, anger against “the Establishment’s� practices turned to protest, both peaceful and violent.
As the decade continued, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, an organization founded by Martin Luther King, Jr. in order to promote nonviolent protest, grew increasingly militant—as did the mostly white, middle-class “New Left,� which took cues from the civil rights movement, protested policies both home and abroad, and sparked factions like the Weathermen. By the late 1960s, activist movements had also mobilized among Asian Americans, Native Americans, Chicanos and Puerto Ricans, as well as a second wave of activism among women, gay and lesbians and the disabled.
Farewell to the Great.(CNN.com – Comedian Richard Pryor dies at 65 – Dec 10, 2005) Monday, December 12, 2005
CNN.com – Comedian Richard Pryor dies at 65 – Dec 10, 2005
Pryor was arguably the biggest name in stand-up comedy during the 1970s, earning Grammy Awards for his comedy albums.
In addition to appearances in almost 40 films, Pryor also was part of the team that created the script for the Mel Brooks comedy, “Blazing Saddles.”
He also directed himself in a semi-autobiographical film, “Jo Jo Dancer Your Life is Calling,” in the mid-1980s, a film he says refused to be written as a comedy.
But despite his achievements on the screen and on stage, Pryor is often remembered for seriously burning over half his body while freebasing cocaine — an incident he later dubbed a suicide attempt.
Even that made its way into his comedy, which his wife said was a common theme in his life — being able to turn crisis into comedy — and one that scored big with audiences at his stand-up shows.
As his disease became more and more debilitating, Pryor refused to abandon his career. He continued to do stand-up — sitting down. Many have called it remarkable that he was so determined to keep performing despite his illness.
One is director Martin Scorsese, who said Pryor’s resilience was inspiring.
“It’s a very savage kind of humor, it comes out of a great deal of pain,” Scorsese said.
Jennifer Lee Pryor said her husband inspired many people by being candid about his own strife.
“He was able to turn pain into comedy,” she said. “He let the world see it, and that was his inspiration, too.
“People said, ‘If he can do it, I can do it.’ “
When will it end? Tuesday, December 6, 2005
German sues CIA claiming torture in abduction case
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A German man sued former CIA Director George Tenet and other U.S. spy agency officials for alleged wrongful imprisonment and torture on Tuesday in a rare legal challenge to the CIA’s secret transfer of terrorism suspects to foreign countries for interrogation.
The lawsuit was lodged on behalf of Khaled el-Masri by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin amid a European uproar over the treatment of detainees in the U.S. “global war on terrorism”.
The suit, filed in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, alleges that CIA officials violated U.S. and universal human rights laws when Masri says he became an innocent victim of a practice known as extraordinary rendition.
Masri, 42, said he was abducted in Macedonia on December 31, 2003, drugged, beaten and then flown to Afghanistan, where he faced more abuse.
The legal complaint describes his treatment as “constituting prolonged arbitrary detention, torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” and alleges that the CIA released him five months later by dumping him in Albania after realizing he had done nothing wrong.
“I want to know why they did this to me and how it ever came about,” Masri said through a German interpreter in a satellite linkup from Germany. “I don’t think that I am (the) human being, the man I used to be.”
Under the Central Intelligence Agency’s “rendition” policy, terrorism suspects are captured and flown to other countries for questioning.
Rights advocates say suspects often end up being tortured in countries in the Middle East and elsewhere. Concern has also been fueled by a Washington Post report last month that the CIA operates secret prisons in eastern Europe.
President George W. Bush on Tuesday denied the United States transferred terrorism suspects to countries that used torture. Rice told reporters who accompanied her to Europe on Monday that “rendition” was a vital tool against terrorism.
NO COMMENT FROM CIA
Yeah Civil Rights Thursday, December 1, 2005
Happy Birthday Civil Rights Movement!!! Let’s keep it up.
