For almost 60 years, the School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC) has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in tactics that are used to wage war against their own people. Courses taught at the school include counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. Among those targeted by SOA/ WHINSEC graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders and others who work for human rights.

Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared," massacred and forced to become refugees by those trained at the SOA/ WHINSEC. During the November 1999 Vigil, over 4000 activists disobeyed military authorities, processed onto the grounds of Ft Benning, GA -home of the SOA- and overwhelmed the authorities in a solemn funeral procession.

More than 15,000 thousand of us will again gather in front of the gates of Ft Benning over the weekend of November 18th-20th, 2005. This year will you be among those who cross the line onto Ft Benning?

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Mark of Shovelware sez:

"Why, when, say, the levees fail again in New Orleans, do some people feel the need to POST A NOTE TO THAT EFFECT? Is it the Cokie Roberts effect—the chattering class's presumption that it must have something, anything to say about everything? (Joan Didion famously said that she left New York because she didn't have an opinion about everything.) The newswire chatters, and out comes the late-breaking news, and the Jarvises of the bloviosphere labor mightily to bring forth a quip about Commander in Chief, or Hurricane Katrina, or the International Freedom Center at Ground Zero, or why it's "appalling" that transit officials are suing over the copyright of subway maps (oh, the humanity...)"

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Group Lists 13 'Most Corrupt' in Congress

A watchdog group, naming what it calls "the 13 most corrupt members of Congress," is calling for ethics investigations of some of the most prominent leaders on Capitol Hill in a report to be released Monday.

Its report, titled "Beyond DeLay: The 13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress," is based on news articles and other documents, the watchdog group said. It made the report available to the Los Angeles Times.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington "was compelled to research and release a report on these corrupt members because the ethics committees in both the House and Senate are completely inert," Sloan said. "The report calls for the House and Senate to act to investigate and take appropriate action against them for these violations of the rules."

The watchdog group has been outspoken in criticizing House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) for what Sloan calls his ethical lapses.

"Nonetheless, we recognize that Rep. DeLay is not the only member of Congress whose behavior merits scrutiny," the report says. "There are a significant number of other members who have engaged in similarly egregious conduct, thus the name of the report: 'Beyond DeLay.' "

When your name is part of the title of an investigative report on sleeze, it's time for appropriate action to be taken.

The 13 members of Congress recommended for investigation by the watchdog group are:

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No Direction Home: Bob Dylan On TV in the US tonight and tomorrow night - (PBS)

For the first time, The Bob Dylan Archives has made available rare treasures from its film, tape and stills collection, including footage from Murray Lerner's film Festival documenting performances at the 1963, 1964 and 1965 Newport Folk Festivals, previously unreleased outtakes from D.A. Pennebaker's famed 1967 documentary Don't Look Back, and interviews with Allen Ginsberg, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Maria Muldaur, and many others. In anticipation of the film, members of Dylan's worldwide community of fans also contributed rarities from their own collections.

With this rare footage from his archives and from fans, count me in.

Bob Dylan

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9/26/05-Edited To Add--DO NOT MISS
Being a Dylan fan enables me to hear one of his songs and recall the specific year it came out, what album it was on, the chords it's played in, and where you first sang it or learned to play it on the guitar.

Having watched, read, and listened to most anything Bob Dylan's ever done, Part 1 of this PBS special had much I'd never seen before. What immediately struck my husband and I first was the depth and candor in which Dylan spoke as if it were just him and you chatting one on one.

When word prophet Allen Ginsberg returned from India to hear Hard Rain for the first time, he wept. It was the time of passing the torch from one generation of poets and bohemians to the new era of songwriters and protest singers. In that context I remembered myself in teenage years discovering who I was, and seeking guidance from the poets that were prophets, and the singers who were worshipped.

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Kate Bush's new album AERIAL will be released on November 7th. Kate's new single KING OF THE MOUNTAIN is out on October 24th. The single will get it's world premiere on BBC Radio 2 on Wed 21st Sept between 9.30am and 10.30am. [via]

She said: "I'm so pleased with everyone's work on this record. There are some lovely performances and I hope you will all feel it's been worth the wait.
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