The NCEL National Clean Election Lawsuit:

On November 4, 2007, we reported that WTP was spearheading a lawsuit against all 50 states to block machine and computerized vote counting in the 2008 primaries and general election and beyond, and to require paper ballots, hand marked and hand counted.

The states have been summoned by the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York to respond to the Complaint that was filed on November 1 by three registered voters from each state.

Thus far, three states have responded. As expected, they have filed motions to dismiss for “lack of jurisdiction.” We expect other states to do the same.

Before the early 1900’s there were no Political Party Primaries. Before 2000, the Party Primaries did not begin before the month of March. By 2004 the Party Primaries were getting underway in February. This year, in conjunction with the Political Parties, the states are scheduling the Party Primaries and Party Caucuses to begin in the first week of January! Click here for the latest calendar of Primaries and Caucuses.

It is common knowledge that unless a candidate for President of the United States of America finishes among the top three or four in the early primaries and caucuses, that candidate will have a very difficult time raising any more money to pay to get his or her message out to the People in the remaining states, especially in all of those states that Primary on “super Tuesday.”

The Political Parties appear to be moving up the dates of the early Primaries in order to impede the opportunity for early success by candidates who are not among the Party favorites, especially any “upstart” with an appealing message whose campaign is gaining momentum and money.

For this reason, the NCEL Plaintiffs are planning to file a motion asking the Court to expedite the proceedings and to delay the presidential Primaries pending resolution of the critical constitutional issues raised in the lawsuit..

To bring much needed attention about the NCEL lawsuit to the general public, the Foundation is running a full-page color ad in the upcoming edition of the Washington Times National Weekly Edition. The ad will be the "centerfold" of the edition.

We thank the Times for helping us with a discount so we can distribute this important message across our nation. We encourage all our supporters to consider subscribing to the Time's National Weekly Edition.

Chicago H.S. Students Face Expulsion Following Antiwar Sit-In

Berwyn, IL - November 2, 2007. Over 70 students participated in a sit-in against the Iraq War on All Saint’s Day, Thursday, November 1st. It began third hour when dozens of students gathered quietly in the lunchroom at Morton West High School and refused to leave. The administrators and police became involved immediately and locked down the school for a half hour after class ended. Students report that they were promised that there would be no charges besides cutting classes if they took their protest outside so as not to disturb the school day. The students complied, and were led to a corner outside the cafeteria where they sang songs and held signs while classes resumed.

Despite a police line set up between the protestors and the student body, many other students joined the demonstration. Organizers say they chose November first because it is the Christian holy day called the feast of All Saints and a national day of peace. They wrote a letter and delivered it to Superintendent, Dr. Ben Nowakowski who was present at the time, stating the reason for their protest.

Deans, counselors and even the Superintendent tried to change the minds of a few, mainly those students with higher GPA scores to abandon the protest. The school called the homes of many of the protestors. Those whose parents arrived before the end of school and took their students home, or left before the protest ended at the final bell, received 3-5 days suspension. All others, an estimated 37 received 10 days suspension and expulsion papers. Parents report that Nowakowski stated those who are seventeen will also face police charges.

Sign the “In Defense of the Morton West Antiwar Students petition”

http://www.petitiononline.com/mortonw/
Parents who are frantically trying to spare their child’s expulsion flooded the school yesterday to file appeals on the matter. So far, Superintendent Nowakowski has held firm on the punishments. They are expected to find out the results of the appeals on Tuesday. Parents and students report and the school’s videotape shown to some of the parents confirms that the students were non-violent in their action and there was no damage to property.

The protest came on the heels of a recent incident on October 15th, when a student reported hearing that another student had a gun on campus. The story of the eyewitness was deemed unreliable and the school was not locked down. Later that week (October 19), the Berwyn police, acting on a tip arrested one of the youths originally questioned for gun possession and he allegedly confessed to carrying an unloaded semi-automatic handgun that day. All these issues, plus the expected announcement of whether uniforms will be established in the school should make the next Board of Education meeting on Wednesday at 7:00pm at the Morton East campus very well-attended.

See the link below for the Superintendent’s statement on the matter:
http://www.jsmortonhs.com/news/contentview.asp?i=203515

For letters or phone calls of support, please see information below:

Dr. Ben Nowakowski, Superintendent
District 201
2423 South Austin, Cicero, IL 60804
bnowakowski@jsmorton.org
(708) 222-5702

Mr. Lucas, Principal
Morton West High School
2400 S. Home Ave.
Berwyn, IL 60402
jlucas@west.jsmorton.org
708-222-5901

Mr. Jeffry Pesek, President
Board of Education, District 201
3145 South 55th Avenue
Cicero, IL 60804
708-802-1863

For the rest of the Board Members see:
http://www.jsmortonhs.com/board/default.asp?c=4867

For parent contact:
Pam Winstead 708-749-3163, serp@comcast.net

Alma Moran 708-717-4202, qtalmita@yahoo.com

Adam Szwarek 847-587-8849, tsq9743@aol.com

Chicago Indymedia: http://chicago.indymedia.org/

Top City Workers Locked out! Event: JOIN US SATURDAY IN NYC!!!

Submitted by intexile on Tue, 10/09/2007 - 5:41am.
Five workers from Top City Produce were recently fired from their jobs. The “Gang of Five” – Osvaldo, Mario, Diego, Esau, and Carlos – have been some of the strongest and most active members of the IWW since they joined the union almost two years ago.

After one of the workers was suspended on Saturday, the other four approached the boss in an attempt to discuss the situation. On Monday morning, the boss told them all to wait outside and then never allowed them back in. They continue to be locked out.

Before joining the union, Top City workers consistently pulled 72-hour weeks with no overtime and no benefits. Conditions improved once the shop went union. Workers filed a lawsuit against Top City for wage violations and negotiated a contract with the boss. They were waiting for the boss to sign the contract when they were fired without warning on Monday.
Join SUNY ORANGE sds and Workers on Pickett Line
Start: Oct 20 2007 - 12:00pm
End: Oct 20 2007 - 4:00pmTimezone: EST
Event Details:
Top City Produce recently fired 5 IWW workers. We will be pressuring Great Wall Supermarket to urge them to stop doing business with Top City.
Location
Great Wall
67th St & Ft Hamilton Parkway
Brooklyn, NY
United States

The Washingtone Post reports on: A Prototype of a Flying Surveillance Device Still Under Developement

Flying surveillance devices at Sept. 15 Mass March and Die-in
Today's Washington Post carries a major article about the government's creation of small flying surveillance devices that look somewhat like dragonflies. As the article below discusses, there have been credible independent reports about sightings at ANSWER's recent September 15 mass March on Washington of 100,000 people. According to the article, the government has been working through many agencies to perfect this spy technology. As also mentioned below, the Partnership for Civil Justice has recently filed a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with different government agencies regarding use and deployment against the public.

Vanessa Alarcon, who was working backstage at the Lafayette Park rally, and who is quoted in today's Washington Post article, reported that the strange-looking devices were hovering above the backstage area where speakers were waiting to take the stage and organizers were holding meetings in preparation for the mass march and die-in. Others reported that they saw the devices elsewhere at the demonstration.

The government's efforts to surveille the growing movement against the war in the United States are neither new nor are they effective in preventing the antiwar movement from gaining momentum everywhere. The government fined ANSWER $40,000 for putting up antiwar posters, suppressed and arrested the speakers at a pre-march press conference, spent large amounts of money to mobilize right-wing pro-Bush supporters, and yet all of these efforts failed to stop an exceptionally powerful action from taking place on Sept. 15. The protest culminated in a die-in of thousands led by Iraq war veterans and 200 arrested by riot police.

Following September 15th, the ANSWER Coalition, along with other national and local coalitions and organizers from around the country, are mobilizing for October 27th regional actions. This will be another powerful sign that the antiwar movement is growing, not diminishing as claimed by the corporate-owned media.

While there are those who would like to dismiss the implications of such spying, the fact is that if the government is intentionally conducting secret photographic or audio surveillance targeting people because they are engaged in public protest and First Amendment-protected activities, this would be a significant constitutional rights violation.

While we do not know that such bizarre spy technology was deployed at the September 15 demonstration, if anyone saw these "dragonflies," we'd like to hear from you.

Hillary’s Rx: Criminalize the Uninsured

By Erin Thomson
If you are one of the 47 million Americans who cannot afford the on-average $4,000 to $11,000 in annual premiums for individual or family health insurance or do not have the option of purchasing employer-based health insurance at all, don’t worry. “Universal health care” may be just around the corner. Under plans put forward by the leading Democratic presidential candidates, the solution is simple: make it illegal for Americans not to have health insurance.

“The approach of making people buy coverage, but not actually changing the health care system to make it affordable, doesn’t work. It leaves the health-care insurance companies in the middle of the health care system, continuing to waste billions of dollars,” said David Himmelstein, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and cofounder of Physicians for a National Health Program. “Criminalizing the uninsured is not really a reasonable approach to solving the health care issue.”

On Sept. 17, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton released her muchanticipated plan for “universal health care.”

Her plan, which will cost an estimated $110 billion annually, promises to rein in insurance companies by forcing them to accept all applicants who can pay premiums. However, the plan also emphasizes “personal responsibility” by requiring that all individuals purchase health insurance if they can afford it. Those who cannot afford to pay will be given government subsidies toward the purchase of private health insurance.

Clinton’s plan is nearly identical to presidential hopeful John Edwards’ plan — so much that Elizabeth Edwards accused Clinton of stealing her husband’s ideas—while Barack Obama has proposed a plan that requires employers to contribute toward health coverage for their workers and mandates that all children have insurance.

Full Story:http://www.indypendent.org/2007/10/05/hillary%e2%80%99s-rx-criminalize-the-uninsured/

idiotic people: Why America is the Laughing stock of the Worldly Play Ground

so hows this for the "Stupid American" Stereotype?PLEASE EDUCATE YOURSELF....No one will do it for you, my film that you should see this week is "Wal Mart: A High Price for a Low Cost", See it and stop shopping at a corporate Giant!
-B$- (Beyond Capitalism)

Flying Close to the Sun

Cathy Wilkerson (right) at the Left Forum
(Photo: Thomas Good / Next Left Notes)

New York, NY - October 1, 2007. Thirty-seven years after the explosion that destroyed her parents’ New York townhouse, Cathy Wilkerson for the first time tells the story of what happened, and why. Three young people died in the explosion, which made headlines around the world, and for many, marked the symbolic end of the sixties.

Wilkerson’s story is both personal and political, a thought-provoking, honest account of how a child of privilege came to be making bombs in the basement–bombs intended to take a human toll. While much has been written about this era, Flying Close to the Sun is something different–a first hand, woman’s eye view of the making, and unmaking, of the Weather Underground, a powerful movement that sought to bring an end to the Vietnam war and lost its way in a tumultuous time. Wilkerson’s journey, from non-violent protest to violent insurgency, and out the other side, is an emblematic tale, full of insight and humanity, and a valuable contribution to our understanding of a much misunderstood time.

Wilkerson will be at Bluestockings in New York City on Thursday, October 4th at 7pm. (Click on Continue Reading to access her full tour schedule…)


FLYING CLOSE TO THE SUN TOUR

*EAST COAST*

Wednesday, October 3rd: Odyssey in MA
Thursday, October 4th: 7pm Bluestockings in NY
Saturday, October 6th: Time and Space Limited in Hudson NY
Tuesday, October 9th 6pm Robin’s Books in Philadelphia, PA
Thursday, October 11th: 7pm Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA
Tuesday, October 16th: 6-7pm Busboys and Poets in Washington, DC
Wednesday, October 17th: Labyrinth/Book Culture in NYC
Wednesday, November 28th: Newton free Library, Newton, MA