Is anyone interested in becoming active with MAD (Mother's against the draft) ?
You should consider renaming it MADR ;)
Quote from: Lloyd Danforth on August 01, 2005, 10:39 AM NHFT
You should consider renaming it MADR ;)
You have a point, however I didn't name them... :)
Mom Protesting Iraq War Meets Bush Aides
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer 54 minutes ago
CRAWFORD, Texas - The angry mother of a fallen U.S. soldier staged a protest near
President Bush's ranch Saturday, demanding an accounting from Bush of how he has conducted the war in
Iraq.
Supported by more than 50 demonstrators who chanted, "W. killed her son!" Cindy Sheehan told reporters: "I want to ask the president, 'Why did you kill my son? What did my son die for?'" Sheehan, 48, didn't get to see Bush, but did talk about 45 minutes with national security adviser Steve Hadley and deputy White House chief of staff Joe Hagin, who went out to hear her concerns.
Appreciative of their attention, yet undaunted, Sheehan said she planned to continue her roadside vigil, except for a few breaks, until she gets to talk to Bush. Her son, Casey, 24, was killed in Sadr City, Iraq, on April 4, 2004. He was an Army specialist, a Humvee mechanic.
"They (the advisers) said we are in Iraq because they believed
Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, that the world's a better place with Saddam gone and that we're making the world a safer place with what we're doing over there," Sheehan said in a telephone interview after the meeting.
"They were very respectful. They were nice men. I told them Iraq was not a threat to the United States and that now people are dead for nothing. I told them I wouldn't leave until I talked to
George Bush."
She said Hagin told her, "I want to assure you that he (Bush) really does care."
"And I said if he does care, why doesn't he come out and talk to me."
Sheehan arrived in Crawford aboard a bus painted red, white and blue and emblazoned with the words, "Impeachment Tour." Sheehan, from Vacaville, Calif., had been attending a Veterans for Peace convention in Dallas.
The bus, trailed by about 20 cars of protesters and reporters, drove at about 15 mph toward Bush's ranch. After several miles, they parked the vehicles and began to march, in stifling heat, farther down the narrow country road.
Flanked by miles of pasture, Sheehan spoke with reporters while clutching two photographs, one of her son in uniform, and the other, a baby picture, when he was seven months old.
She said she decided to come to Crawford a few days ago after Bush said that fallen U.S. troops had died for a noble cause and that the mission must be completed.
"I want to ask the president, `Why did you kill my son? What did my son die for?" she said, her voice cracking with emotion. "Last week, you said my son died for a noble cause' and I want to ask him what that noble cause is?"
White House spokesman Trent Duffy said response that Bush also wants the troops to return home safely.
"Many of the hundreds of families the president has met with know their loved one died for a noble cause and that the best way to honor their sacrifice is to complete the mission," Duffy said.
"It is a message the president has heard time and again from those he has met with and comforted. Like all Americans, he wants the troops home as soon as possible."
The group marched about a half-mile before local law enforcement officials stopped them at a bend in the road, still four to five miles from the ranch's entrance. Capt. Kenneth Vanek of the McLennan County Sheriff's Office said the group was stopped because some marchers ignored instructions to walk in the ditch beside the road, not on the road.
"If they won't cooperate, we won't," Vanek said.
Walk in the ditch besides the road ? wtf?
Less chance of setting off an IED in the ditch ;D
What's an IED?
Improvised Explosive Device. What "insurgents" in Iraq are using to blow up things.
From the Sentinel today...some news that's a little positive:
Army struggles with recruiting, here, elsewhere
Schools not so quick to open doors
Nika Carlson
Sentinel Staff
The U.S. Army is struggling for soldiers.
Summer is considered a high season for recruitment, but as the season progresses it seems less and less likely that the Army will meet its goals.
In the Monadnock Region, fewer students have been signing up, guidance counselors said, and one school is tightening recruiters? access to students.
Nationwide, the Army is about 7,800 recruits short of its goal for the summer, and 33,000 shy of its September goal of 80,000 recruits for the year, the Associated Press reported.
The Navy, Air Force and Marines are meeting goals, but the Army Reserves and National Guard are also below target, according to the Associated Press.
This news comes on the heels of a spate of reports about unethical and illegal tactics by Army recruiters pressured to find more people willing to serve.
In May, CBS News broadcast reports of recruiters encouraging young people to lie to their parents and forge drug tests, even threatening them with jail time.
This year, the Army has confirmed 320 cases of so-called ?recruitment improprieties? in 2004, up from 199 in 1999.
Though Army officials haven?t returned repeated phone calls from The Sentinel for information on local goals and practices, evidence from local school officials shows that national recruitment trends are playing out in the Monadnock Region.
At Fall Mountain Regional High School in Langdon, Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, or JROTC, is a signature program, but military recruiters themselves are less welcome than they used to be.
Where recruiters once had only to check in with school guidance counselors before a visit, now they have to go through Principal Thomas E. Ferenc.
?I don?t want the kids to be alone with recruiters,? he said. ?I would ask that someone else be present, hopefully the student?s parents, or at least that the kid know they have that option.?
The change was prompted in part by his concern over national recruitment scandals, but also a ?bad experience? at Fall Mountain.
?We had an incident here with an overzealous recruiter,? Ferenc said.
The recruiter was pressuring a student who?d already signed up but was having second thoughts, leading him to believe he couldn?t withdraw from his obligation as he had a legal right to do, Ferenc said, ?calling him names, belittling and berating him about changing his mind, as young people are wont to do.?
The young man ended up staying with the military. Ferenc changed the school?s policy soon thereafter.
?By no means, one person doesn?t spoil the bunch, but I?m in charge of these children here and I?m going to think twice about how they?re recruited,? he said.
Even before the change, the number of Fall Mountain graduates entering the military was down by half, said guidance counselor Lisa A. Ranauro.
Three of 142 graduates enlisted, compared to six or seven last year, she said.
?I suspect that it?s in part due to the war and the fact that it?s a lot more dangerous,? she said. ?Their lives are at risk, and they don?t feel that the benefit at this time is worth the risk.?
At Keene High School, enlistment was cut in half as well, down to five out of 389 graduates choosing the military, compared to 10 of 352 in 2004.
Enlistment of Keene High graduates has hovered around 10 since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said Cynthia J. Day, director of guidance and counseling at the school.
?Military recruiters are actively seeking students,? she said.
Their job was made easier in 2002, when the military gained access to students? personal information through a small provision of the federal No Child Left Behind education-reform law, prompting outrage from parents, privacy advocates and schools, and numerous debates among Keene?s school board members.
Keene High had to change its privacy policy, which had forbidden the school to give out student information, or risk losing federal money.
?Recruiters are in the building fairly regularly,? Day said, mostly to speak to students they?ve already made contact with, but they also visit several times a year in an effort to tempt untapped graduates, she said.
At Hinsdale High School, enlistment actually increased last year to five out of 62 graduates, up from an average of one or two in previous years, counselor Drew Arsenault said.
Arsenault doesn?t credit recruiters with the increase.
The kids in the ?very small community? of Hinsdale who are interested already know they want be soldiers, he said.
?Most of the time kids know if the want to do it by 10th grade,? he said.
In general, however, school officials agreed that things have been different since both the war on terror and the war in Iraq began.
?The stakes are really high,? Ferenc said. ?Everyone needs to be mindful of options and on the up and up ... (The military) is a wonderful vehicle for young people to find themselves in. I just want to make sure the games are being played by the rules.?
Nika Carlson can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1439, or ncarlson@keenesentinel.com.
So they can stop you from walking down a road? :o
If he doesn't like visitors at the ranch.....maybe he should quit his high profile job.
Russell posted in liberty ladies!?! :o :o :o
Quote from: katdillon on August 11, 2005, 03:47 PM NHFT
Russell posted in liberty ladies!?!? ?:o? :o? :o
oops :-[
I heard they were threating to arrest this poor women today if she did not leave.
The good news is about 100 people have shown up to stand by her side.
Jerks.
Here's some info about efforts to fight the new system where U.S. high schools let the military know about your cannon fodder teenaged children:
Protect our children by helping them "Opt Out"!
Opt your child out of the list high schools give military recruiters and the Pentagon's illegal JAMRS database.
Repeal No Child Left Behind's Military Recruiting Provision
Become a citizen co-sponsor of the Student Privacy Protection Act
How can I make a difference in my school district?
Host or attend a back-to-school Event or School Board outing
Dear Friends,
Buried deep within the No Child Left Behind Act is a provision that requires public high schools to hand over the private contact information of students to military recruiters. If a school does not comply, it risks losing vital federal education funds. As if that weren't bad enough, the Pentagon has now built an illegal database of 30 million 16-25 year olds as another recruitment tool.
Protect our children by helping them "Opt Out"!
Working Assets has helped create the Leave My Child Alone coalition to make it easy to protect children from unwanted military recruiting by getting their names off both Pentagon and high school recruiting lists. To opt your child out, go to:
www.leavemychildalone.org/optout
Most parents don't even know about the need to opt out. Please forward this email to parents, grandparents, and teachers you know. Tell them to visit LeaveMyChildAlone.org for more information and all the forms needed to opt out.
Repeal No Child Left Behind's Military Recruiting Provision
The Student Privacy Protection Act of 2005 amends section 9528 of No Child Left Behind to prohibit military recruiters from contacting students unless these minors and their parents specifically "opt in" and consent to receive such communications. Click here to become a Citizen Co-Sponsor of the Student Privacy Protection Act.
www.leavemychildalone.org/HR551
Want to tell the Pentagon that their database is a violation of privacy? To send a letter telling them to shut down their illegal database, go to: www.leavemychildalone.org/act
How can I make a difference in my school district?
From September 7 to 30, Leave My Child Alone coalition partners will be mounting a nationwide Back-to-School campaign complete with events in all 50 states plus D.C.
You can join up with other concerned parents, teachers, grandparents, veterans and members of your local community by attending or organizing school board meeting outings to advocate for opt out policies and pass model school board resolutions. To find out about events near you or to find out how you can organize an event yourself, go to:
www.leavemychildalone.org/eventcenter
Do you know school principals, parent group officers, school board members or other people in a position to change school policy on military opt-out procedures? Tell them to visit LeaveMyChildAlone.org for organizing resources or simply email Catherine (cgeanuracos@workingassets.com) to find out how we can help them make a difference in their district.
Thank you for helping to build a better world.
Catherine Geanuracos
Campaign Organizer
Leave My Child Alone Coalition/ Working Assets
PLEASE SEND QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS TO: leavemychildalone@workingassets.com.
www.leavemychildalone.org
It helps if you don't put your kids in the public schools in the first place :(
PRESS ADVISORY FOR: Contact: Jim C. Perry
Wednesday, August 17, 2005 603-689-3165
*** Press Event Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. ***
Americans in Nashua to President Bush:
Meet with Mother Whose Son Was Killed In Iraq
Candlelight vigil in front of Nashua City Hall
Nashua, NH ? Local friends, family members of fallen soldiers, and other concerned citizens will hold a vigil in Nashua in support of Cindy Sheehan, the mother camped out in Texas demanding that President Bush explain why he sent her son Casey to die in Iraq.
Similar vigils will take place in more than 900 locations across the country on the same day at the same time.
Local Vigil Details:
?
Who: Friends, military families, and citizens in Nashua speak out at event sponsored by New England Libertarians for Peace and MoveOn.org
?
Where: Nashua City Hall, Nashua, NH
?
When:? Wednesday, August 17, 2005, 7:30 PM
Debbie Hopper, founder of Mothers Against the Draft, spoke last weekend at our Libertarian Party of Illinois Convention ... and she was great!
Her passion and knowledge on the subject were inspiring. Any time a speaker can reach people using both emotional AND intellectual arguments, you've got a winner.
Her appearance garnered her several more invitations to speak at upcoming Libertarian gatherings here in Illinois (Debbie hails from Missouri so the travel time is practical)
I would be happy to ask Debbie where other members of the MAD Advisory Board reside (any close to NH?) in case they might be available for speaking engagements ... or Jenn, as NH's MAD State Rep, maybe you already have something in the works. Let me know if I can help!
Jan
Nice flyer:
http://www.afsc.org/youthmil/Military-Recruitment/Enlist.PDF
Mining for kids: Children can?t ?opt out? of Pentagon recruitment database
Vermont Guardian/Kathryn Casa | January 18 2006
Parents cannot remove their children?s names from a Pentagon database that includes highly personal information used to attract military recruits, the Vermont Guardian has learned.
The Pentagon has spent more than $70.5 million on market research, national advertising, website development, and management of the Joint Advertising Market Research and Studies (JAMRS) database ? a storehouse of questionable legality that includes the names and personal details of more than 30 million U.S. children and young people between the ages of 16 and 23.
The database is separate from information collected from schools that receive federal education money. The No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to report the names, addresses, and phone numbers of secondary school students to recruiters, but the law also specifies that parents or guardians may write a letter to the school asking that their children?s names not be released.
However, many parents have reported being surprised that their children are contacted anyway, according to a San Francisco-based coalition called Leave My Child Alone (LMCA).
?We hear from a lot of parents who have often felt quite isolated about it all and haven?t been aware that this is happening all over the country,? said the group?s spokeswoman, Felicity Crush.
Parents must contact the Pentagon directly to ask that their children?s information not be released to recruiters, but the data is not removed from the JAMRS database, according to Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
Instead, the information is moved to a suppression file, where it is continuously updated with new data from private and government sources and still made available to recruiters, Krenke said. It?s necessary to keep the information in the suppression file so the Pentagon can make sure it?s not being released, she said.
Krenke said the database is compiled using information from state motor vehicles departments, the Selective Service, and data-mining firms that collect and organize information from private companies. In addition to names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and phone numbers, the database may include cell phone numbers, e-mail addresses, grade-point averages, ethnicity, and subjects of interest.
She said the Pentagon spends about $500,000 annually to purchase the data from private companies, and has paid more than $70 million since 2002 to Mullen Advertising ? a Massachusetts firm whose clients include General Motors, Hooked on Phonics, XM Satellite Radio, and 3Com ? to target recruiters? messages toward teens and young adults.
The Boston Business Journal reported in October that the Pentagon had spent a total of $206 million on the JAMRS program to date, and could spend another $137 million over the next two years.
Invasion of privacy?
The JAMRS program ?provides the services with contact information on millions of prospective recruits annually ? Beyond list management services, DM outreach initiatives include targeted fulfillment pieces directed at influencers,? according to the program?s password-protected website.
In real terms, what that rhetoric looks like at the other end can stack up to harassment, said Crush. ?Kids have been relentlessly harassed,? she said, ?things like persistent phone calls ? and you can?t remove your phone numbers from their list because it?s the government; people being called on numbers that have been listed as private, or for emergency only; kids under 17 called at home, night after night, and not being given a realistic picture about life in the military, particularly during a time of war.?
Her organization contends that the Pentagon?s conduct is illegal under the federal Privacy Act, which requires notification and public comment whenever new data is being compiled on individuals by any branch of government.
The Pentagon maintains it has provided that notice, posted in the Federal Register on May 23, but LMCA and other JAMRS critics point out that because new data is being collected daily, JAMRS is failing to fulfill the notification requirements of the Privacy Act.
Last fall, 100 privacy and civil rights groups sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urging him to dismantle the database. ?The Privacy Act requires that agencies publish in the federal register upon establishment or revision a notice of the existence and character of the system of records? 30 days before the publication of information, they noted. ?The maintenance of a system of records without meeting the notice requirements is a criminal violation of the Privacy Act.?
But Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU?s Technology and Liberty Project in New York, said protection offered by the Privacy Act ? the 1974 statute aimed at reducing the government?s collection of personal data on U.S. citizens ? might be overestimated. ?The federal Privacy Act is to some extent an over-hyped statute,? said Steinhardt. ?It is largely a statute that requires notice; it doesn?t give you any substantive rights.?
Questions from Congress
Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, said he had grave concerns about the legality of the database. ?I think this is absolutely wrong,? he told the Vermont Guardian. ?You have the law, and then you have an administration that says we don?t like the law so let?s find another way of doing it.?
?When my kids were in school I would have been really angry if this had happened,? said Leahy, whose youngest son enlisted in the Marines. ?I would have been absolutely ripped if they would have gone into his high school or other records to contact him this way; I know nothing that allows it.?
?Data mining and proliferation of using databases are all concerns because it represents an administration that does not believe in checks and balances,? said Leahy. ?Can you imagine our country if a Joseph McCarthy or J. Edgar Hoover has the electronic power these guys have today??
Discomfort over the database extends to other members of Congress. Seven senators, including New York?s Hillary Rodham Clinton and Wisconsin?s Russ Feingold, both Democrats, sent a letter to Rumsfeld on June 24 asking him to ?immediately cease creation of this database.?
?This personal information, which would be obtained from schools as well as from commercial data brokers, state drivers? license records, and other sources, could then be used to formulate and execute a targeted ?marketing? campaign to identify and recruit individuals based on these personal factors,? they noted.
In his July 11 response, Undersecretary of Defense David Chu said the database was an important component in the nation?s volunteer military ? one that enables the United States to avoid a draft.
?The department collects basic information on youth in response to a congressional mandate in 1982 that noted ?it is essential that the Secretary of Defense obtain and compile directory information pertaining to students enrolled in secondary schools throughout the United States? to support recruiting for the all-volunteer force and avoid conscription,? he wrote to the senators.
Chu said the central database was designed to save the Pentagon money. ?In the past, the data were compiled by each of the services independently. In order to achieve significant cost savings, the data are now purchased by the department, housed centrally, and sent out to the services. The services use these data to provide information and marketing materials to potential recruits.?
Leahy scoffed at such reasoning. ?This is coming from a Pentagon that tells us they don?t have money to pay for body armor for our troops over in Iraq,? he said.
Chu also said the Pentagon had no intention of using the information for purposes other than targeted recruitment.
But according to the privacy group, BeNow, the direct marketing company chosen by the Pentagon to compile the data, is owned by the credit reporting company Equifax and does not have a privacy policy, ?nor has it troubled itself to enlist in a privacy seal program regarding the handling of information collected for this purpose.?
The Pentagon proposes a wide range of ?blanket routine uses? that allow an agency to disclose personal information to others without the individual?s consent or knowledge, the groups wrote in their letter to Rumsfeld. ?The list of 14 DOD ?blanket routine uses? include: disclosures to law-enforcement; state and local tax authorities; employment queries from other agencies; and disclosure of records to foreign authorities. Although individuals can opt out of recruitment solicitations, they cannot opt out of this enormous database.?
In a separate statement, the Electronic Privacy Information Center said both the Privacy Act and the DOD?s own internal regulations require the agency to collect information directly from citizens when possible.
?The main commercial vendors that sell students? data, American Student List and Student Marketing Group, were both pursued recently by consumer protection authorities for setting up front groups that tricked students into revealing their personal information,? according to the center.
What to do
The Leave My Child Alone coalition is urging the Pentagon to add an 800 number and online opt-out links to its websites. The group concedes, however, that given reports of massive security breaches at data firms, the fact that the information remains on file ?hardly grants parents peace of mind.?
One California lawmaker is sponsoring state legislation that would require high schools to include opt-out information on the emergency forms that parents must fill out annually for school records. In one California school district that implemented such a policy, the number of families choosing to opt out went from 16 percent to 63 percent, Crush said.
Meanwhile, asked what parents could do about the Pentagon database, the ACLU?s Steinhardt said, ?This is as much a political issue as anything else; it?s an issue to be decided in the Congress. A state like Vermont could take it up. It?s a perfect issue for a town meeting ? calling on your senators to pass some legislation.?
Information and action
Parents seeking to determine whether information about their children is contained in the JAMRS database system should address typewritten inquiries to:
The Department of Defense
c/o JAMRS, Direct Marketing Program Officer
Defense Human Resources Activity
4040 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 200
Arlington, VA 22203-1613
Requests should contain the child?s full name, date of birth, current address, and telephone number. Do not include a Social Security number.
To ask that your child?s name be added to the suppression files of the database, send a typewritten request to:
Joint Advertising and Marketing Research
& Studies Office (JAMRS)
Attention: Opt Out
4040 North Fairfax Drive, Ste. 200
Arlington, VA 22203-1613
Include the child?s full name, street address, date of birth, and telephone number. Do not include a Social Security number
Another reason to opt out of public schools.
You know, I told the second recruiter who called that I had a bad knee (which is perfectly true), and I never got called again.
Just saying...
Joe