Michigan Senators Split on Roberts Confirmation

Michigan’s Senatorial delegation split on voting to confirm Judge John Roberts as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. In a 78 to 22 vote, Carl Levin voted to confirm Roberts while Debbie Stabenow voted against it. Several Democrats in the Senate, including Stabenow, were frustrated by Roberts’ unwillingness to answer questions about his views and judicial philosophy. Stabenow argued that the combination of Roberts’ refusal to answer questions and his legal record “compelled” her to vote against him. Levin, while acknowledging that some documents relating to Roberts’ legal views were withheld during the nomination process, argued that Roberts was not an “ideologue” and that his views, while conservative, were open to legal arguments and would not prevent him from ruling fairly.

A number of progressive groups opposed Roberts, citing his positions on civil rights, and reproductive rights.

Tags: courts, michigan

City Governments Making Calls for US Withdrawal from Iraq

This month city governments in Chicago, Illinois and Cambridge, Massachusetts passed resolutions demanding that the United States withdraw from Iraq. In Chicago, a resolution calling for “an orderly and rapid withdrawal of United States military personnel from Iraq” passed by a 29 to 9 vote while a similarly worded resolution in Cambridge passed by a unanimous 9 to 0 vote. Both resolutions will be sent to the states’ congressional delegation and President George W. Bush.

Thus far, only three other cities—Evanston, IL, San Francisco, CA, and Gary, IN—have passed resolutions against the war. Nevertheless, the passage of antiwar resolutions by city governments may be a tactic worth exploring for antiwar activists around the country. A more extensive effort to get municipalities to pass resolutions condemning the USA PATRIOT Act has resulted in 395 resolutions against the legislation with 280 efforts currently underway. The resolutions, including one passed in Grand Rapids, have been a valuable tool in educating communities about the impacts of the USA PATRIOT Act and keeping attention focused on the legislation. Moreover with the costs and deaths attributable to the Iraq war continuing to rise, many city governments would be willing to take action on the subject.

Tags: antiwar, national

Eleven Ozone Action Days this Year in West Michigan

This summer there were eleven ozone action days in West Michigan, only slightly exceeding the yearly average of 10.45 ozone action days per year since the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality started declaring them. Ozone action days are declared when ground-level ozone reaches “excessive” levels, resulting in the smog that is created by nitrogen oxides (NOs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) mixing with sunlight. Ozone pollution is caused primarily by the burning of fuel and emissions from motor vehicles and industry.

The emissions that cause ozone action days have also been blamed for global warming. Moreover, in a year that saw increased hurricane activity that is likely connected to an increase in the world’s temperature, a significant decrease in Arctic Sea ice, and studies showing that sea life is being harmed by CO2 emissions, the ozone action days are indicative of a pattern of climate change due to global warming from human activity.

Tags: environment, grand rapids

Students at 40 Schools, GVSU, Launch Sweat Free Campus Campaign

Yesterday, student groups affiliated with United Students against Sweatshops (USAS) at 40 schools, including Grand Valley State University (GVSU), held a series of coordinated actions to announce USAS’s new “sweat-free campus” campaign. Students at GVSU hosted a “sweatshop fashion show” and delivered a letter to President Mark Murray’s personal assistant in advance of a meeting that they will have with the administration in the future. Students at other schools held a variety of actions including a mock sweatshop at University of Michigan and a march at Colombia.

USAS launched the “sweat-free” campaign in response to the continuing production of university apparel in sweatshops. While 144 universities (including GVSU) signed on to the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) over the past five years in order to provide basic codes of conduct for suppliers, students contend that the code needs to be strengthened. Students are demanding that universities source apparel from “sweat-free” factories that allow workers to organize and pay workers a living wage. If universities agree to the demands a list of “sweat-free” factories would be provided to universities by the WRC and universities would be expected to gradually shift towards having 100% of university licensed apparel produced in “sweat-free” factories.

Later that night at GVSU, Amnesty International and Students against Sweatshops GVSU (SAS-GVSU), hosted Jim Keady and Leslie Kretzu of Educating for Justice who gave a lecture titled “Behind the Swoosh” on Nike’s use of sweatshops. Following the lecture SAS-GVSU gave a brief presentation on the new campaign and explained how people can get involved.

Tags: grand rapids, labor, national

Delay Indicted; Replacement among Most Corrupt Members of Congress

Yesterday Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was indicted on a fundraising conspiracy charge. The conspiracy is a result of allegations that DeLay setup a committee in his home state of Texas, Texans for a Republican Majority, and used the committee to take illegal corporate donations and laundered the money before passing it on to Republican candidates in the 2002 race for the Texas legislature. This effort helped Republicans win control of the Texas legislature who then passed legislation, allegedly with the assistance of DeLay, that helped Texas Republicans be elected to the United States House of Representatives.

DeLay, who earned the nickname “the Hammer,” was a key Republican legislative leader and was largely credited with unifying the Republican Party to guarantee legislative victories. To accomplish this, DeLay was an aggressive leader—frequently removing Republicans that did not vote with the Party leadership from committees, preventing those who did not meet fundraising goals from advancing in the Party, and telling lobbyists who did not identify as Republicans to move elsewhere. With the Republican administration already facing growing problems over Iraq and the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, the removal of DeLay may further restrict the Republican’s legislative agenda.

DeLay, who was required to resign from his leadership post by Republican Party rules, has been replaced by Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, who was recently named one of the 13 most corrupt members of Congress by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a progressive legal watchdog. According to CREW’s recent Beyond DeLay: The 13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress report, Blunt has repeatedly attempted to use his position to benefit his family members. Among the ethics violations detailed in the report are legislative provisions passed to benefit clients served by Blunt’s son Andrew, who lobbies on behalf of UPS, FedEx, Altria (Philip Morris) and Representative Blunt’s efforts to funnel money through a Missouri party committee into his son Matt’s campaign for governor.

Tags: government, national

Antiwar Protests in DC End with Criticism of Police Tactics at Symbolic Civil Disobedience Action

The antiwar protests in Washington DC ended on Monday with two symbolic civil disobedience actions at the White House and the Pentagon. 25 people were arrested at the Pentagon while attempting to barricade two entrances and over 400 were arrested at White House (including Cindy Sheehan) during an entirely symbolic action in which participants sat down on Pennsylvania Avenue and refused three police orders to disperse.

Despite the symbolic nature of the civil disobedience at the White House, many of those arrested were held in handcuffs for up to 10 hours. According to reports from arrestees, people were detained for over 12 hours before being charged with a crime and were released in the middle of the night. The United States Park Police’s conduct in handling arrestees led Michigan Congressperson John Conyers to write a letter to the Park Police asking for clarification about arrest policies.

Aside from the symbolic actions, there was little other civil disobedience or direct action targeting the occupation of Iraq during the weekend. While a few hundred protestors were able to harass World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegates attending the fall meetings of the World Bank and IMF, there was noticeably little participation from the hundreds of thousands people that protested the war a day earlier. This was no doubt due in part to the way the mobilization was organized as national antiwar coalitions rarely organize civil disobedience, and when they do, they generally separate such actions by holding them on different days. On September 24 there was a “black bloc,” but as has frequently been the case over the past few years, it failed to do anything of consequence.

Tags: antiwar, national

Local Media Gives Free Advertising to Starbucks

Yesterday, two local media outlets gave free advertising to Starbucks Corporation by doing stories on the opening of a new Starbucks in the Amway Hotel near the corner of Pearl and Monroe. The Starbucks opening was “covered” by both WZZM 13 and the Grand Rapids Press, although the Press gave the opening substantially more coverage. The Press advertised its story on the front page of Tuesday’s paper and printed it on the front page of the business section. For what was nothing more than free advertising, the Press article was extremely visible and lengthy at 341 words. The WZZM 13 story was very short and was nothing more than an announcement about the opening, and while still not being newsworthy, it did not feature the extensive listing of Starbucks’ menu or gushing quotes about Starbucks’ “upscale look” and mentioned briefly (although inadequately) the competition Starbucks may give local coffee shops.

Neither story mentioned that Starbucks has received widespread criticism around the country for its business practices and has been the target of numerous grassroots campaigns. Starbucks is currently the target of a national campaign for fair trade coffee in order to improve the wages paid to farmers growing the coffee it uses. Starbucks’ labor practices have also been targeted, as it is anti-union and has used prison labor to package some of its coffees. Starbucks has also been seen by many as a harbinger for gentrification, and while the placement the Grand Rapids Starbucks is not in one of the areas of Grand Rapids currently undergoing gentrification, Starbucks association with this phenomenon should have been mentioned in the article. The opening of new Starbucks locations is frequently met by grassroots opposition, as has been the case recently in Chicago and Portland.

To their credit, Starbucks has attempted to make some changes to its practices by instituting a system of guidelines for growers, which some activists have seen as a positive step forward in promoting fair trade coffee.

Tags: grand rapids, media

Press Editors: PETA Protests “Nothing New”

In Sunday’s edition of the Grand Rapids Press, Editor Mike Lloyd wrote a revealing column explaining why the Press chose not to cover protests held in conjunction with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus in Grand Rapids. In the column, one of Lloyd’s regular musings about how the Press decides what stories to cover, Lloyd described circus protestors, whom he chose to identify entirely with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) (despite the fact that protests were also organized by the local group Uniting for Justice), as a “circus” that “offered nudes, not news.”

The Press dismissed PETA’s tactics as a “publicity stunt” and objected to PETA’s use of a naked woman in shackles and covered in scars, which PETA argued was similar to the treatment of animals in Ringling Brothers Circus. While many in the animal rights movement have objected to PETA’s sexism, the Press chose not to examine the reasons why PETA was protesting, instead dismissing the protestors by saying that they offered no “evidence of abuse of the animals performing here” and that PETA has not filed any complaints with health or animal control officials. However, following the death of a horse in Grand Rapids at last year’s circus, PETA did ask Kent County Animal Control to investigate the death and other animal welfare violations. This complaint was reported in the Grand Rapids Press last year. Additionally, PETA has compiled a ten-page fact sheet outlining a litany of animal abuse by Ringling including numerous deaths due to negligence, citations by the United States Department of Agriculture for failing to follow various guidelines for food storage, and a failure to provide adequate veterinary care.

Moreover, while the Press justified their coverage of the circus’ marching of elephants down Ionia Street (the Press admitted it was a “marketing gimmick”) by describing how people were calling into the Press and asking about it, they ignored protests, despite the fact that each time the circus comes to town it is met by protests. This year there were protests by a national group, PETA, as well as the local group Uniting for Justice. Furthermore, the circus met such opposition last year that an anonymous group of animal rights activists used property destruction to make their statement against the circus, suggesting a level of opposition that is significantly out of the ordinary for Grand Rapids.

Tags: grand rapids, media, protest

England Convicted for Abu Ghraib Abuse

Army Private First Class Lyndie England was convicted Monday for her role in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse. England, who gained notoriety for both photos of her abusing detainees and her comments that she thought that much of the abuse “looked funny so pictures were taken,” was convicted by a military jury of six of the seven counts against her, including one count of conspiracy, four counts of maltreating detainees, and one count of committing an indecent act. She had previously attempted to plead guilty in exchange for a sentencing cap. England now faces a maximum of nine years in prison.

The conviction comes a few days after Human Rights Watch released a new report containing firsthand accounts of the torture of Iraqi detainees. The report features observations of abuse witnessed by three members of the 82nd Airborne Division, all of whom describe how the 82nd routinely used physical and mental torture as a means of intelligence gathering as part of a systemic effort known by high-ranking officials. Moreover, the report contains disturbing allegations of soldiers beating and torturing detainees in order to relieve “frustration.”

Tags: antiwar, national

Massive Antiwar Rally held Saturday in DC

Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people converged on Washington D.C. to protest the war and occupation in Iraq and other aggressive, imperialistic U.S. endeavors such as the 2004 coup in Haiti. This event was organized by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition and United for Peace and Justice. The day began with a rally that included dozens of speakers ranging from labor organizers and politicians to mothers of soldiers in Iraq. The planned march around the White House was temporarily delayed because, due to an “electrical failure,” Amtrak cut off various routes to D.C., forcing thousands of people to seek alternate methods of transportation.

The march was massive and its members very vocal, but the atmosphere was peaceful. Participants displayed banners criticizing a wide variety of U.S. policies seen as racist, classist, imperialistic, illegal, and unjust. They also chanted slogans berating the Bush administration for leading the U.S. into the devastatingly brutal war in Iraq and other conflicts.

After the march there was a concert which featured artists representing many genres of music.

Media Mouse has also photos from the rally online.

Tags: antiwar, national, protest