Did you notice that when one Town Hall questioner asked how peace with Russia could be achieved, McCain responded, first about the need to support innocent Georgia -then, with Ukraine, get them into NATO; similarly with other former members and allies of the USSR. Discussions with Russia only to demand they allow 'democratic' regimes to surround them. Obama added more of the same. Naive me, I thought they would also talk about nuclear disarmament, bi-lateral dismantling of military presence in the area, etc. It's worth a try to demand they actually discuss world peace in this next debate. Here's how: Ed
From: "AlterNet" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 6:13 AM Subject: Just one question for peace. Dear Ed, On October 15, the candidates will face each other in the last presidential debate. Questions are pouring in from all over the country to moderator Bob Schieffer. And despite its incredible importance, thus far there has been very little discussion about how to achieve peace. PeaceAction West is mobilizing citizens to ensure that there be one fundamental question about the human and economic costs of war, and how to achieve lasting peace. Join Peace Action West in sending the strongest message possible that you want peace to be on the debate agenda. http://www.alternet.org/peaceactionwest_action_100908 Don Hazen Executive Editor, AlterNet.org ************************* Just one question for peace ************************* Dear Friend, I don't think we're asking too much: just one question. Just one question of many in the last presidential debate should be about peace. Please help us make it happen: http://www.alternet.org/peaceactionwest_action_100908 On October 15, John McCain and Barack Obama will face each other and our country in the last presidential debate. Debate moderator Bob Schieffer is hearing from many people about what kind of questions should be asked at the debate. With so many questions pouring in, it will be challenging to select those questions which are most important to citizens. We have a chance to impact his selection. That's why Peace Action West is focusing all of our efforts on one key question. If thousands of people all ask Schieffer to ask this one question, it will be impossible to ignore. Will you help? Click here: http://www.alternet.org/peaceactionwest_action_100908 There are, of course, many critical questions about peace that we could ask. We've narrowed it down to just this one to better the chance that it will be asked: "The Iraq and Afghanistan wars, at a cost of $5,000 per second, fuel our growing debt and feed the economic crisis. Even subtracting war funding, Pentagon spending is breaking records. Will rebuilding the economy require a tough look at military spending? What would you change?" Here's why this question matters so much to achieving a more peaceful world. The outsized military budget means that critical investments in health care, education and other domestic priorities have been shelved. Meanwhile we are borrowing money from foreign companies to pay for these wars, and future generations will inherit that debt. We can't afford to continue compromising our economic security to support out of control military spending. We only have a short time to ask Bob Schieffer to put our question into the debate. He needs to hear from us today, loud, strong, and many. Please take just a moment right now to request that just this one question be included, and then tell your friends and family who also care about peace to do the same: http://www.alternet.org/peaceactionwest_action_100908 Thank you for your action today. Sincerely, Rebecca Griffin, Political Director Peace Action West www.peaceactionwest.org *** From: Larry Gross, C.E.S. Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 10:01 AM Subject: Outraged Illinois Sheriff Refuses to Evict Renters from Foreclosed Homes CNN 10/9/08 Illinois sheriff scolds banks for evictions of 'innocent' renters CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- An outraged sheriff in Illinois who refuses to evict "innocent" renters from foreclosed homes criticized mortgage companies Thursday and said the law should protect victims of the mortgage meltdown. Cook County, Illinois, Sheriff Thomas J. Dart says too many renters are being evicted for landlords' problems. Sheriff Thomas J. Dart said earlier he is suspending foreclosure evictions in Cook County, which includes the city of Chicago. The county had been on track to reach a record number of evictions, many because of mortgage foreclosures. Many good tenants are suffering because building owners have fallen behind on their mortgage payments, he said Thursday on CNN's "American Morning." "These poor people are seeing everything they own put out on the street. ... They've paid their bills, paid them on time. Here we are with a battering ram at the front door going to throw them out. It's gotten insane," he said. Mortgage companies are supposed to identify a building's occupants before asking for an eviction, but sheriff's deputies routinely find that the mortgage companies have not done so, Dart said. "This is an example where the banking industry has not done any of the work they should do. It's a piece of paper to them," Dart said. "These mortgage companies ... don't care who's in the building," Dart said Wednesday. "They simply want their money and don't care who gets hurt along the way. "On top of it all, they want taxpayers to fund their investigative work for them. We're not going to do their jobs for them anymore. We're just not going to evict innocent tenants. It stops today." Dart said he wants the courts or the state Legislature to establish protections for those most harmed by the mortgage crisis. In 1999, Cook County had 12,935 mortgage foreclosure cases; in 2006, 18,916 cases were filed, and last year, 32,269 were filed. This year's total is expected to exceed 43,000.. "The people we're interacting with are, many times, oblivious to the financial straits their landlord might be in," Dart said. "They are the innocent victims here, and they are the ones all of us must step up and find some way to protect." The Illinois Bankers Association opposed the plan, saying that Dart "was elected to uphold the law and to fulfill the legal duties of his office, which include serving eviction notices." The association said Dart could be found in contempt of court for ignoring court eviction orders. "The reality is that by ignoring the law and his legal responsibilities, he is carrying out 'vigilantism' at the highest level of an elected official," it said. "The Illinois banking industry is working hard to help troubled homeowners in many ways, but Sheriff Dart's declaration of 'martial law' should not be tolerated." Dart was undeterred Thursday. "I think the outrage on my part with them [is] that they could so cavalierly issue documents and have me throw people out of homes who have done absolutely nothing wrong," Dart said. "They played by all the rules. "I told them, 'You send an agent out, you send somebody out that gives me any type of assurance that the appropriate person is in the house, I will fulfill the order.' "When you're blindly sending me out to houses where I'm coming across innocent tenant after innocent tenant, I can't keep doing this and have a good conscience about it. - - - NEW YORK TIMES October 9, 2008 Sheriff in Chicago Ends Evictions in Foreclosures By JOHN LELAND Law enforcement officers in Chicago will no longer evict residents from foreclosed properties, Sheriff Thomas J. Dart of Cook County announced Wednesday. The department was on pace to conduct 4,700 foreclosures this year, nearly triple the number from two years ago, Sheriff Dart said. Housing advocates said that they thought the measure was the first of its kind, but that in recent years, several sheriffs and judges around the country had taken other steps to slow foreclosure proceedings, like requiring lenders to produce titles proving they owned the properties in question. In Philadelphia this year, Sheriff John D. Green temporarily suspended sales of foreclosed properties. Sheriff Dart said he took the measure because an increasing number of the residents being evicted were renters who might have been dutifully paying their rent, and might have had no knowledge that the owner was behind on the mortgage. Under a new Chicago law, renters are entitled to a 90-day grace period, starting at the time a foreclosure sale is confirmed, before they can be evicted. Sheriff Dart said the families in foreclosed properties were often not notified that they would have to leave, and were not given this grace period. Sometimes their first sign of trouble was the appearance of deputies at the door, demanding that they leave. “It started with just a couple cases like that, but they kept multiplying,” Sheriff Dart said. “Just in the past month, about a third of the people we were asked to evict were under very questionable circumstances. It got to the point that enough was enough.” Officials at the national Mortgage Bankers Association were unavailable for comment, a spokesman said. Officials at the Illinois Mortgage Bankers Association did not return calls seeking comment. On a recent case, deputies were called to evict residents at a foreclosed building on North Spaulding Avenue, and arrived to find six families who were all paying rent to the landlord. “All the time we paid every month, he never said nothing,” said Alma Aquino, who lived in one unit with her husband, their two children, and Mrs. Aquino’s mother and sister, for a rent of $850. “My husband tried to explain, but the sheriffs said we can’t talk, we need to evacuate.” The family ended up staying, and Sheriff Dart, who has supported legislation to protect residents in foreclosures, soon stopped evictions. Sheriff Dart said the evictions had taken an emotional toll on his staff. “It’s one of most gut-wrenching things we do, seeing little children put out on the street with their possessions. And the hard part is that the parent played by all the rules, and they’re being traumatized.” Nationally, only about 10 percent of residents in properties with subprime mortgages — the ones most likely to go into foreclosure — are renters, said Eric Halperin, director of the Washington office of the Center for Responsible Lending, an advocacy group. But in some cities the figure is much higher. Daniel Lindsey of the Home Ownership Preservation Project run by Legal Assistance of Chicago, estimated that half of the city’s foreclosures involved renters. “This is a big deal in the sense that it shows the pressures local governments are under when they’re forced to carry out those foreclosures and evictions,” Mr. Halperin said. “It’s another example of how the foreclosure crisis is overwhelming our institutions. Homeowners and renters can’t get the relief they’re entitled to under the law.” --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Cheryl Gelling Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 3:59 PM Subject: Fwd: More on Palin - PBS POLL ASAP Date: Thursday, October 9, 2008, 9:45 AM PBS has an online poll posted asking if Sarah Palin is qualified. It takes two seconds to do! Apparently the Republicans knew about this in advance and are flooding the voting with YES votes. I know -- it's only a poll. But it will be reported on PBS, picked up by mainstream media and can influence undecided voters in swing states. Please do two things -- takes 20 seconds. 1) Click on link and vote yourself. Here's the link: <http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html> http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html 2) Then send this to every single Obama-Biden voter you know, and urge them to vote and pass it on. The last thing we need is PBS having to say viewers think Sarah Palin is qualified. ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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