In just under two weeks’ time, more than 100 governments, including all major NATO allies, will gather in Dublin, Ireland to negotiate a global treaty banning cluster bombs on May 19^th.  This is the first major arms control/humanitarian law treaty in a decade.

 

ACTION ALERT – strategic grain reserves – from Family Farm Defenders (FFD)  jepeck@wisc.edu

Below is the letter to Congress originally circulated by NFFC (lisa@nffc.net) about the need to reestablish U.S. grain reserves as part of the Farm Bill. FFD has already signed onto it. Other cosigners are welcome. 

While the House leadership was sharply critical of recent reports by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, it now appears ready to give President Bush an additional $172 billion in war funding. Here's what we know about what they plan to bring up for a vote: 1) On top of the $102 billion requested by the Bush administration, the Democratic Party leadership is proposing to offer an unsolicited, additional $70 billion to cover the first quarter war funding for FY2009. In other words, this will be a whopping $172 billion! 2) This funding will cover the rest of this fiscal year, which runs to Sept. 30th, and go well into the next fiscal and calendar years. This means this would be the last supplemental appropriation voted on before the November elections. If passed, this funding will also carry over into the next presidency and the new Congress. 3) There is speculation that the House version of the funding bill will be "clean" and not have any other items attached to it. If this happens there would be a straight up-or-down vote before it moves to the Senate where additional spending is likely to be added. 4) According to the Democratic leadership, this unconscionable allocation of $172 billion is an attempt to avoid a presidential veto. However, President Bush has promised to veto any war funding bill that exceeds $108 billion dollars. It appears that the decision to vote on such a massive allocation of new funds now is based on the desire to remove the funding issue from the electoral calendar, allowing Congress to shirk accountability for continuing to fund the occupation and failing to end it. As the country heads into the elections, we believe that every senator and representative should stand up and be counted on the question of this war and how they intend to stop it. What the House leadership is doing is outrageous! Their proposed funding will ensure the Bush administration's ability to continue to execute the war and occupation in Iraq without any congressional challenge, not even a debate. Before it's too late, we urge you to place two critical phone calls:

WISCONSIN DEMOCRACY CAMPAIGN E-LERT

In this update:
1. Special interest spending soars in Supreme Court race
2. WDC touches raw nerve with big donor report

A handful of special interest groups spent a record $4.8 million to influence the outcome of the recent state Supreme Court election, the Democracy Campaign estimates. Interest group spending was up 55% over the $3.1 million groups spent on last year's high court election.

Leading the way among the special interest spenders was Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, which backed winning candidate Michael Gableman. Other big spenders include the Greater Wisconsin Committee, which backed incumbent Louis Butler, and the pro-Gableman Club for Growth and Coalition for America's Families. Next on the list was the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state's largest teachers union that supported Butler in the race, and the National Rifle Association's Political Victory Fund which backed Gableman.

WISCONSIN DEMOCRACY CAMPAIGN E-LERT

In this update:
1. Two donors violate $10,000 contribution limit
2. Fear and loathing of Wisconsin's court elections

As the Democracy Campaign combed through reports covering campaign activity in 2007, we found two wealthy contributors who went over the $10,000 annual limit on donations to state political candidates and committees. Both were repeat offenders. To see who, go here.

 

From WNPJ member - Sam Romano at sromano@charter.net....

 Last week, we alerted you that US debt to the United Nations is on the rise again, with outstanding American dues payments totaling almost $2.8 billion as of February 1, 2008.

The next day, the House held two hearings to examine this important issue. Several lawmakers, as well as Assistant Secretary of State Kristen Silverberg, expressed concern about the ability of the United States to meet its UN financial obligations. For a summary of the hearings, click here.

The growing US arrears to the United Nations threaten the effectiveness and financial stability of the organization and tarnish America’s standing within the international community. How can the United States promote global cooperation and responsible participation within the international community when we fail to meet our most basic membership obligation to the world’s only universal diplomatic forum?

Within the next two weeks, Congress is expected to begin its work on an FY2008 supplemental spending request from the President that provides a critical opportunity to start paying off our damaging UN debt.

You can help the United States set the right example of responsible international diplomacy by urging your legislators to support the payment of our UN financial obligations.

WISCONSIN DEMOCRACY CAMPAIGN E-LERT

The people of Wisconsin want elections for state Supreme Court. But state citizens don't want high court elections run the way they currently are. A clear majority wants reform. That's according to the latest polling done by the St. Norbert College Survey Center.

The Democracy Campaign's director was on Joy Cardin's show on the Ideas Network of Wisconsin Public Radio for an hour this morning talking about this. If you didn't have a chance to tune in, you can listen to the discussion here.

CSWAB

Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger

E12629 Weigand’s Bay South - Merrimac, WI  53561

Phone (608) 643-3124 - Fax (608) 643-0005

Crisis in the Drylands

 

Sound economic solutions, not military ones, offer the most reliable route to peace for undeveloped nations

By Jeffrey D. Sachs

Iraq: Keep the Door Open for a Way Out

(sent to WNPJ by Marcia Halligan of Viroqua - cocoon@mwt.net) 

The Bush administration is trying to lock the U.S. into a long-term military presence in Iraq. Preventing this from happening depends on your action now.

In the next week, your representative can act to prevent the Bush administration from taking this step by cosponsoring the Protect Our Troops and Constitution Act (H.R. 5626). But you need to act fast before the House takes up a spending bill to authorize more money for the U.S. war in Iraq.

<!-- BEGIN HEADER --> <!-- END HEADER --> <!-- BEGIN WRAPPED CONTENT --> <!-- BEGIN LEFT COLUMN --> <!-- BEGIN ALERT CONTENT --> Tell Phil Woodman: Stop Union Busting!

Reliable reports indicate that Ingrid Betancourt, who was a candidate  
for President of Colombia when kidnapped by the FARC guerrillas just  
over 6 years ago, is seriously ill and being held in intolerable  
conditions by the FARC. We call upon the FARC to release Ingrid  
immediately, in accord with humanitarian principles, and we call upon  
the Uribe government to facilitate her release and to enter into a  
Humanitarian Agreement with the FARC and proceed to pursue a  
negotiated solution to the conflict in Colombia. We urge the FARC to  
release all hostages.

As a US based organization, we call upon the US government to  
indicate in the strongest terms to President Uribe the urgency for  
him to make necessary arrangements for the release of Ingrid and to  
pursue a negotiated solution to obtain the release of all other  
hostages, rather than a militaristic approach to the Colombian conflict.

PLEASE GO TO OUR WEBSITE AND SEND MESSAGES TO YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS:
SEE CSN’s ACTION CENTER : www,colombiasupport.net

President ALVARO URIBE-VELEZ :
Dr. Álvaro Uribe Vélez,
Cra. 8 No.7-26, Palacio de Nariño,
Bogotá.
Tel: (57 1) 562 93 00
Fax: (+57 1) 566.20.71
auribe@presidencia.gov.co
Or write to his web site at :   www.presidencia.gov.co

WISCONSIN DEMOCRACY CAMPAIGN E-LERT

In this update:
1. Interest groups win Supreme Court race
2. Updated campaign finance profiles for state officials now online

Challenger Michael Gableman ousted incumbent Justice Louis Butler in yesterday's state Supreme Court election, but the real winner was the special interests. Interest groups spent more than $4 million in an effort to control the state Supreme Court, outgunning the candidates by a huge margin and dictating the debate from the beginning of the campaign to the end.

WISCONSIN DEMOCRACY CAMPAIGN E-LERT

The Democracy Campaign's online database of contributors to state campaigns was updated last Friday, with more than 11,000 new records of donations added to the database. The newly added information from the latest campaign finance reports covering activity through December 31, 2007 for candidates for partisan state offices and through March 17, 2008 for current state Supreme Court candidates brings the total number of records in the database to about 470,000.

Photos of rebuilding homes in Qawawis:

Palestinians Rebuild Demolished Homes In Qawawis

28 March 2007
AT-TUWANI: Settlers steal property, knock down CPTer, chase and shoot flocks in ten-day period.
 

[Note: According to the Geneva Conventions, the International Court of Justice in the Hague, and numerous United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal.]

On 16 March 2008, three Israeli settlers arrived just outside the village of At-Tuwani began chasing in their pickup truck young Palestinian shepherds and their flocks. A settler security agent from the settlement of Ma’on ripped a bag of herbs it from the hands of an eight-months pregnant Palestinian woman.

Join us in putting a stop to harmful immigration legislation that would be punishing for immigrants, employers and good Samaritans everywhere!

Contact your Representative and urge him or her not to sign a discharge petition which would force a vote in the House of representatives on the seriously flawed Shuler-Tancredo bill (The SAVE Act, HR4088) The discharge petition seeks to bypass the congressional process to carefully examine a bill, denying the relevant committees the opportunity to review the bill’s merit, or allowing the members to offer amendments that improve the bill. Presently, the discharge petition has 150 signatures. If proponents gather 218 signatures the SAVE Act will go to the floor of the House for an up or down vote. This is no way to address the complex immigration issue.

Close the SOA - Sign the Petition to the Presidential Candidates
Given the way the primaries have been going, we are currently having more leverage with the U.S. presidential candidates than at any other time. Let's use it! Committing one or more of them to come out publicly for the closure of the School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC) is a realistic and attainable goal. Once the candidate is elected president, we can hold him or her accountable to follow through and to close the school by executive order.

Dear Citizen Action Affiliate, (this group is a member group of WNPJ)

 This brief update is to give you a brief review of some of the significant events and activities Citizen Action has been engaged in over the past few weeks.

Citizen Action Files Complaint against Supreme Court Candidate

 On March 18th Citizen Action of Wisconsin asked the Wisconsin Judicial Commission to investigate whether Supreme Court candidate Mike Gableman’s campaign violated the Code of Judicial Conduct. The Gableman campaign states information in a misleading way in an attack ad in a clear attempt to confuse the public. The Code of Judicial Conduct prohibits false misrepresentations, disregard for the facts and statements that are likely to confuse the public concerning a candidate or an opponent. Gableman’s ad also includes a shocking Willy Horton-style attack on Justice Louis Butler, the first African American member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

STOP THE IMPORT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE!

SUPPORT HR 5632—CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE NOW

On March 2, we told you about EnergySolutions’ scheme to import some 20,000 tons of radioactive waste from Italy to the U.S. EnergySolutions wants to bring this waste in through the ports of Charleston, SC and New Orleans, LA; ship it to Tennessee for various types of “processing”—including incineration and possible “recycling” into consumer and industrial goods—and then send what’s left for burial in the company’s shallow landfill in Utah.

March 25, 2008

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release

For more information contact:
Laura Olah, CSWAB (608)643-3124


WDNR CHOOSES COVER OVER CLEANUP

Despite objections from nearby residents, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) has approved capping the source of a massive groundwater contaminant plume that flows several miles beyond the plant boundary to the Wisconsin River just north of the Village of Prairie du Sac.
The March 17 approval will allow the Army to leave more than 15,000 cubic yards of contaminated subsurface soils in place at the Propellant Burning Grounds, a hazardous waste disposal area located on the west side of Badger in the rural township of Sumpter.  

WISCONSIN DEMOCRACY CAMPAIGN E-LERT

In this update:
1. Supreme Court campaign a special interest monologue
2. Truth testing the campaign advertising
3. A way out of the madness

Ideally, election campaigns are supposed to be dialogues between candidates and voters. In this year's Supreme Court race, communication has flowed only one way . . . and for the most part it hasn't come from either candidates or voters.

One lobbying group and three shadowy front groups have done almost all of the talking. By the middle of March, estimated spending by these four groups passed the $1.8 million mark. All but a tiny fraction of that total was spent between February 20 and March 16. By contrast, campaign finance reports covering activity from February 5 through March 17 shows incumbent Justice Louis Butler spent $244,710 and challenger Michael Gableman spent $114,606.

 

ACTION ALERT: Tell St Paul officials to grant permit for RNC anti-war march

On September 1, 2008, tens of thousands plan to take to the streets of St. Paul, Minnesota, to say no to the war and occupation in Iraq. The Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War, made up of more than 100 organizations from across the country, has been seeking permits for this demonstration since days after the Republicans announced they would hold their national convention in Minnesota. While we have a permit to assemble and rally at the State Capitol, the City of St. Paul continues to withhold a permit for a march on the Xcel Center, where the Convention will be held.

For months, City officials promised that the permit process would move forward at the beginning of March. On March 3rd, the Coalition finally received a formal response to our application: a "provisional" permit to begin a march at the State Capitol on September 1st, with no route, no times, and with a suggestion whatever route we are eventually granted will not be for our exclusive use for the duration of our protest. The document we received was a mostly-blank form, and was accompanied by a set of guidelines that unreasonably restrict the rights of any protesters planning actions during the 2008 Republican National Convention.

Today, attorneys from the NLG and the ACLU will file a complaint in federal court, on behalf of the Coalition. It is our hope that legal action will help us win the permit we need - one that takes a massive, anti-war march to the doors of the Republican Convention at the Xcel Center. Political pressure is no less important than legal pressure. St. Paul City officials have worked hard to create the impression that they want to work with and even welcome protesters. If they truly wanted to roll out a welcome mat, they already would have.

We are planning for a march against the war on Iraq, and we shouldn't have to wait for a court ruling to force the City to issue a permit that takes us to the Xcel Center on September 1st. We need our supporters and fellow protesters to contact St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman. Urge him to deliver a final permit to the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War, taking us from the State Capitol to the Xcel Center on September 1, 2008. Mayor Coleman can be reached at mayor@ci.stpaul.mn.us or 651-266-8510.

Please send a copy of your message to us at info@marchonrnc.org.

Hi Friends,
The past week has been very stressful for everyone in Tuwani and the surrounding villages.  Eleven structures -- nine homes, two animal pens and one cave/grain storage/animal enclosure (similar to a large barn in usage) were destroyed by Israeli Soldiers using bulldozers in three villages around Tuwani on Wednesday.
             In addition, that morning two of us were attacked and chased by settlers as we watched the children walk to school. Recently the Army, which has been ordered to escort the children past the settlement, has begun to escort them only about half the distance, leaving them in a very vulnerable situation both on their way to school and on their way home. Settler  construction of an illegal gate barring the road they must use has made this even worse.    Our need to document this, in order to provide the village with proof of the situation as they struggle to change it, have caused us to attempt to video the escort from a more dangerous place.

<

Please share this as widely as possible! Stop the War Now banner stops traffic in Washington DC! Photo: Denice Lombard Please make the most generous donation you can today to help carry this critical work forward.

WISCONSIN DEMOCRACY CAMPAIGN E-LERT

In this update:
1. Interest groups do almost all the talking in Supreme Court race
2. High court race squarely in the gutter

One lobbying group and three shadowy front groups are doing 95% of the campaign advertising in the state Supreme Court race, according to an analysis of television ads aired through March 16.

For Immediate Release

Contact: Joy First 608 239-4327

 

THREE PEACE ACTIVISTS ARRESTED AT MADISON MILITARY RECRUITING STATIONS

COLOMBIA SUPPORT NETWORK STATEMENT ON INVASION OF ECUADOR
March 11, 2008

The Colombia Support Network (CSN) registers its total
disagreement with the Bush Administration’s support of the Uribe
Administration’s violation of Ecuadorian territory to kill members of
the FARC guerrillas located at a provisional camp nearly one mile

  REMEMBERING THE IRAQ WAR ANNIVERSARY

WISCONSIN DEMOCRACY CAMPAIGN E-LERT

In this update:
1. Popular bills running into a brick wall
2. Newsweek's 'Court Watch' series starts with Wisconsin
3. Corporate directors back disclosure of political spending

As the last scheduled floor period for regular legislative business this year winds down, the Legislature is proving incapable of dealing with many big issues like health care, climate change and the state Supreme Court's independence. But lawmakers are showing themselves to be equally incapable of solving a long list of smaller problems too.

                                   ******************Please Forward Widely***********************

Dear Friend:
As you read this, women in Iraq live in a Hell we have created.

In Central Iraq, 91.8% of women polled by Women for Women International say that violence against women is increasing. 74.5% of Iraqi women avoid leaving their homes. 63.2% have regularly not sent their children to school. 65.3% report that US security forces are only making security worse. One woman who was interviewed commented, "They gave us freedom and they took from us security…but if I have to choose, I will choose safety and security."

We cannot allow this to continue.

As we gear up to honor International Women's Day on March 8, let us remember the dire situation of our Iraqi sisters. Let us use our voices to make their voices heard.

On March 11, CODEPINK will deliver a letter to every woman Member of Congress to provide them with chilling information about the struggle of Iraqi women living under occupation, and press them to take supportive action in the next few weeks by voting to fund human needs, not warfare, in Iraq, and legislate the return of all the troops and contractors.

Please join me in adding your name to the letter here: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/424/t/4589/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=942.

Nukewatch
Luck, Wisc. 54853
Contact: 715-472-4185 
 

March 6, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
Wisc. Assembly Signals Failure of Nuclear Power With Passage AB 346

 

New Groundwater Wells Will Track Explosives

Merrimac, WI – In response to increasing concentrations of explosives in groundwater, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Army have agreed to install additional groundwater monitoring wells at the northeast corner of Badger Army Ammunition Plant in the rural township of Merrimac.

Dear Members and Friends of Madison Rafah Sister City Project – member group of WNPJ,

 

Events in Gaza are both horrifying and rapidly moving...so far as we know our friends and partners in Rafah have not suffered fatalities or serious injury, but have experienced damage to their homes and workplaces and much trauma from the carnage and death which is all around them.