Dec. 1, 2007

WASHINGTON — This is the season for feasting and good cheer. But President Bush, like Ebenezer Scrooge, is waging a mean crusade to force more than half a million poor women, infants and children off the WIC nutrition program.

Despite considerable skepticism about the Israeli-Palestinian conference convened by President Bush in Annapolis, Md., Nov. 27, Jewish and Palestinian American peace advocates say it offers an opportunity for peace, if peace supporters keep the pressure on.

NEW YORK — A thousand striking writers and their backers rallied in Washington Square Park here Nov. 27 to kick off the fourth week of a strike by the Writers Guild of America against an array of U.S. media conglomerates.

It was “the first time the case of Luis Posada has been heard before Congress,” said Jose Pertierra, the Washington lawyer representing Venezuela in its request for Posada’s extradition. He was referring to the hearing Nov. 15 called by Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.), chair of a House foreign affairs subcommittee.

PITTSBURGH — “The collapse of MSHA began when Bush appointed David Lauriski in 2001,” says mine safety expert Jack Spadaro. “That set in motion all the processes and disasters in coal mining making headlines now.”

OAKLAND, Calif. — Over 400 residents here came together Nov. 17 to project their vision of economic development — a vision featuring well-paying jobs, affordable housing, a healthy and safe environment, and steps to overcome the severe income and employment gaps especially affecting working-class families of color.

CLEVELAND — A spirited crowd of Working America, Jobs with Justice and local unions’ members picketed the federal building here Nov. 19 to protest a new raft of anti-labor decisions by the National Labor Relations Board.

ASHTABULA, Ohio — Health Care for All was the topic at the Town Hall meeting here Nov. 10 at People’s Missionary Baptist Church. The meeting, endorsed by the NAACP and the Ashtabula AFL-CIO and Retiree Council, featured an impressive panel of public officials and community leaders who presented strong arguments for repairing our broken health care system

If your Oreo didn’t have the sugary white middle, wouldn’t you notice? If, over time, your car tire middles collapsed, you would notice. So why for so long has our country’s middle been allowed to disappear without notice or correction?

CLEVELAND — Anna Baltzer, author of “Witness in Palestine: Journal of a Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories,” spoke on Nov. 19 at the Middle East Peace Forum here, a “culturally diverse group” committed to promote a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. Also speaking were Hannah Mermelstein and Alison Weir.