Columbia MFSO activist Wade Fulmer forwarded this news about Jim Goodenow’s “Yellow Rose” bus. Jim was on his way to South Carolina.

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Many of you may remember Jim Goodenow and his bus, the Yellow Rose, who was here in Oklahoma last year as part of his one man impeachment tour. In recent months, Jim has been providing transportation to Iraq Veterans Against the War for their various tours and other activities. Last night, Jim escaped a fire of suspicious origins that destroyed the bus. Luckily Jim is all right, this message was passed on by Bill Perry, a vet and anti war activist. I will pass on any further news of this incident.

Jeri

The bus was destroyed by fire around 9:30 pm, Friday night, 1/11/08

This bus, often mired in controversy since the IVAW “Dirty South” tour that left Philly in June, and had Active Duty BBQ’s at Ft Meade, Ft Jackson, Camp Lejeune, Ft Benning, and other Southern Military Posts (including an IVAW benefit by Tom Morello, of Rage Against the Machine, and AudioSlave, in Virginia) as well as backdrop for many a Demonstration, and Ft Drum, NY, organizing parties, has finally died.

Jim Goodnow pulled into a South Jersey Truck Stop, to catch a 3 or 4 hour nap. Jim saw, in retrospect, some suspicious activity outside the bus, and about 20 minutes later, the entire engine compartment, and back of the bus was engulfed in flames.
   
Stay tuned…

Be Well, RAISE HELL !
Bill Perry
Delaware Valley Veterans For America
Disabled American Veteran, VVAW, VFP, VFW, VVA

South Carolina’s system causes particular concern

A group of state-based civic organizations has urged presidential candidates to call for paper ballots in all 2008 primary elections.

In a letter sent to the major Democratic and Republican candidates last week, the groups Georgians for Verified Voting, Iowans for Voting Integrity, the North Carolina Coalition for Verified Voting, and the South Carolina Progressive Network offered evidence of the unreliability of paperless electronic voting systems, and expressed special concern about the paperless machines to be used statewide in South Carolina’s presidential primaries on Jan. 19 and Jan. 26.

“Many of the world’s best computer scientists have concluded that paperless e-voting systems are vulnerable to error and fraud,” said Brett Bursey, director of the South Carolina Progressive Network. Last year, a task force that included Howard Schmidt, former chief security officer of Microsoft, called strongly for voter-verified paper records of each vote cast. 

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Today, attorneys for SC Progressive Network Director Brett Bursey filed a writ of coram nobis, usually translated as “the error before us,” in Federal District Court in Columbia, SC. A coram nobis petition applies to persons who have already been convicted and have served their sentence. Such motions cannot be used to address issues of law previously ruled upon by the court but only to address errors of fact that were not known at time of trial or were knowingly withheld during and after trial from judges and defendants by prosecutors, and which might have altered the verdict were they presented at the trial.

The writ argues that the government withheld evidence of White House involvement in segregating peaceful protestors from from supporters of President Bush at presidential rallies. Bursey was arrested at a Bush rally in Columbia in October 2002 for refusing to be segregated from the general public.

“I said at the time of my arrest that the Secret Service was being used as an armed political advance team by the president,” Bursey said. He filed discovery motions and subpoenas during his trial for any White House directives to the Secret Service, but the government successfully moved to deny his efforts, calling them a “fishing expedintion.”

A recently discovered Presidential Advance Manual instructs the Secret Service to do what Bursey alleged they did to him. “There are several ways the advance person can prepare a site to minimize demonstrators. First, as always, work with the Secret Service and have them ask the local police department to designate a protest area where demonstrators can be placed, preferable not in view of the event site or the motorcade route.” (pg. 32, Presidential Advance Manual, see below).

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By Wade Fulmer, Columbia

War veterans and other victims bombed, maimed, or mentally disabled may be able to tell you where he or she and fellow soldiers were on a Christmas Day, what they were doing, or what they were remembering about their last time at home with family.  Often, they may not remember details of their destructive traumas, may not want to return to where one was, or may only numbly exist while still in the politicians’ war that bleeds them and their families. They were, are, so far away, and if they return they yet dwell in that war place of interventionist hell. Soldiers seek to serve by noble duty, to move one more day closer to home, and to return to family. In faith and horror they live to survive one day at a time, to come home, and to bring their fellow soldiers home, at least alive if not well.

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Dear Friends,

We wanted to let you know how the Obama campaign treats people concerned about his position on GNEP and nuclear issues…

At the big Obama-Oprah rally here in Columbia, South Carolina on Sunday, a few of us decided to hold up signs at the entrance to the venue (university football stadium) against Obama’s support of research into GNEP. You may have noticed at the Democratic debate two weeks ago in Las Vegas that he said he supported nuclear power and that Argonne lab in Illinois was conducting promising research on how to manage nuclear waste (uh, GNEP that is). If GNEP goes forward, South Carolina (Savannah River Site & the old Barnwell reprocessing plant) is perhaps the main site being considered to receive the nation’s spent nuclear fuel.

When we arrived at the stadium entrance with a few posterboard signs the Obama people were all over us, trying to kick us off the property. They said we could go to the “free speech” area that was several blocks away. Hm…sure sounds like a tactic of a certain president who could care less about free speech. We didn’t leave and they got the police to come, who forced us off the property and to the sidewalk across the street (where people entering the stadium could still see us). The stadium, they said, was rented by the Obama campaign and it was not a public area any more. Hunh?! One of us returned to the stadium property with a sign and a police officer pursued her and shoved her in the back, making sure to be out of camera range.

So, we wanted to let you know about these tactics of the Obama campaign to stifle free speech. Is the campaign really about the change it claims? The reaction was shocking and unanticipated by us. If anyone has heard of his campaign applying this tactic at others sites please let us know. And, if anyone has heard him say more about GNEP and reprocessing please pass it on. And, how much money is he taking from the nuclear industry (while claiming to take no money from special interests)?? And Oprah, is she also pro-GNEP and anti-free speech? Say it ain’t so!

Regards,

Tom Clements
Leslie Minerd
Elaine Cooper
(now headed to the Obama offcie to talk about this.,..if you don’t hear from us again send a search team…)