To say we started this blog with purely altruistic intentions would be a lie. Indeed, we did hope to make some money through advertising. However, we also hoped that perhaps we could make at least a small difference toward the positive in this sick, tortured world of ours. We pointed out many injustices that exist in our society. We attempted to move people toward a higher state of awareness. We gave people a heads-up on the evils that surround them, and we offered you food for thought. We also gave you bubble gum news. I’m afraid it now appears we are going down in flames.

The saddest thing is that New in News’s short life will probably not be remembered. After all, how long is anything remembered in this ADD-riddled society. A new blog will no doubt take its place in cyberspace, its only aim being to hawk some inane shit, not unlike monkeys flinging fecal matter. To give future bloggers the benefit of the doubt, however, perhaps someone will come along who will likewise seek to enlighten and inform. More than likely though, you can bet your ass that whomever takes our place in cyberspace willl have but one god, and that god is the almighty dollar. These are the people who are part of the problem, not the solution.

So to you, the public, this contributor bids you farewell with a very heavy heart. I refuse to play this game any longer. If the problem with this blog is an unfortunate glitch or a technical hiccup, so be it. There’s not much to be done about that. However, to the person or persons who may have sabotaged this blog, I will meet you in hell motherfucker! That’s a promise.

Hearing scheduled for July 27. Your letter must be received before July 14.

Leonard Peltier, Native American leader, Ojibwa-Sioux of Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota, has been unjustly imprisoned for 34 years in U.S. federal prison, a victim of FBI political persecution. His upcoming parole hearing is Monday, July 27. We urge you to write letters of support for Leonard’s parole to the Bureau of Prisons.

Leonard Peltier - one of many U.S. political prisoners

Act Today! Letters should be received by the BOP before July 14. Add your voice to help free Leonard Peltier!

The FBI has persecuted Peltier ever since a 1975 FBI armed raid on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, in which two of their agents were killed.

The FBI raid was the culmination of three years of a murderous U.S. government war on the residents of Pine Ridge, in which over 60 traditional members and American Indian Movement activists were murdered. Leonard Peltier was among the young AIM members who came to Pine Ridge to protect elder residents who had pleaded for AIM’s protection.

On June 26, 1975, using the theft of a pair of boots as a pretext, the FBI agents raided a reservation ranch of the Jumping Bull family, racing onto the land in an unmarked car. A shoot-out ensued. One Native man, Joe Stuntz, and the two FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, were killed.

As dozens of FBI encircled the ranch in the hours that followed, several AIM members, including Peltier, escaped. Two AIM members, Bob Robideau and Darrell “Dino” Butler, were arrested and tried in Rapid City, Iowa, for the killing of the FBI agents. They were acquitted by an all-white jury, which agreed that their actions were in self-defense.

Because Peltier had successfully escaped to Canada and did not face trial with Robideau and Butler, the FBI waged an all-out campaign so that someone would pay for the FBI deaths. The FBI fabricated a false claim to secure Peltier’s extradition from Canada. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.

During Leonard’s trial, numerous irregularities were committed by the prosecution and FBI, including falsification of evidence, forced testimony later recanted by witnesses, deliberate withholding of tens of thousands of pages of FBI documents, and more.

Since his conviction in 1977, numerous appeals for a new trial for Peltier have been denied on technical grounds, despite overwhelming evidence of massive FBI misconduct in the prosecution. Peltier has many supporters in the United States and around the world, including hundreds of U.S., European and Latin American parliamentarians, Nelson Mandela, Rigoberta Menchú, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Jesse Jackson, and the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights.
Take action now!

The following may be used this as a sample letter that can be sent to the United States Parole Commission to express your support for parole for Leonard Peltier. Justice is long overdue:

United States Parole Commission
5550 Friendship Boulevard, Suite 420
Chevy Chase, MD 20815-7286

Sincerely,

Write to Leonard

You can also write a letter directly to Leonard to express your support for his case. Letters should be addressed to:

Leonard Peltier
Reg. 89637-132
USP LEWISBURG
U.S. PENITENTIARY
P.O. BOX 1000
LEWISBURG, PA 17837

DARK ANGEL

Seemed to rumble out of nowhere
On a dark and foggy night
A big-block ’55 Chevy
Just looking for a fight

On its front fenders Gothic letters
Dark Angel is what it said
And we heard him coming miles away
Those glasspacks woke the dead

This uninvited stranger
Was followed by a hearse
And though we never spoke it
We knew it was a curse

Like a ghost from misty nightmares
Dark Angel never lost a race
With smoky blacked out windows
No one ever saw his face

This Chevy had no license plates
And we never got his name
But sure as hell I’ll tell you
He was master of his game

So many poor slobs lost their pinks
The poor souls stood no chance
With a hellish shift to second
It was over in a glance

So we summoned our best hero
Drove a hemi of great fame
Tony was our champion
The whole state knew his name

We were sure we’d get our pinks back
Good ole’ Tony would settle scores
But on that fateful Friday night
Dark Angel blew off his doors

Dark Angel ran his last race
In the summer of ’69.
In a ball of white-hot fire
He was still first across the line

Now they never found a body
Not even bone or ash
His proxy pulled up in that hearse
Grabbed the pink slips, keys, and cash

Better pray you never see that Chevy
Comin’ fast up on your rear
‘Cause I’ll tell you one thing brother
The chill of death is near

Now as the legend tells it
In the mist and dark of night
The Angel’s out there cruising
Still looking for a fight

c. D.L. Lucchesi 2009

1. Tasting things in dreams.
2. Putting your hand in a cool flowing stream.
3. Falling asleep with a new friend.
4. Being blown away by a song by an artist from whom you’d never expect such a thing.
5. Turning around because you felt someone staring and found it was a very old and smiling woman.
6. Being liberated from a fear.
7. Rain on a very hot day.
8. A small child telling you, “I love you.”
9. Dancing.
10. Someone touching your hand gently when you’re crying.
11. Finding out you really are loved.
12. The simple darshan of being with a good person.

by Roy Waidler

http://redeyeguy.mosaicglobe.com

reprinted with permission

I can honestly say I’ve never taken the death of a celebrity, any celebrity, as hard as I’m taking the death of Michael Jackson. Because I understand now. I understand why he did what he did, why he was the way he was. He never learned what most of us never learn: you can’t run away from yourself, no matter how hard you try, no matter how famous you are, no matter how rich you are. In fact, when one is in the superstar stratosphere, and Michael certainly was, they have a lot farther to fall. And none of it was his fault. I believe I know exactly where to place blame, but will refrain from doing so. Michael is at peace now, that’s all that matters. Safe home to Neverland Michael.

What is going on here? No more. No more for a long, long time, please!!

Yet again, we here at New in News extend our sincere condolences to Billy Mays’s family and friends.

Farrah was initially dismissed as an actress for her role as Jill Munroe on Charlie’s Angels, considered one of the “jiggle” series in the late 70s on ABC. But she transformed her career and some popular perceptions in 1984 with The Burning Bed, a television movie about a battered wife, that brought her the first of three Emmy nominations. She further established herself as an actress in the play and later feature film Extremities, about a rape victim who takes revenge on her attacker.

Robert Duvall cast Fawcett as his wife in his 1997 independent film The Apostle, about a Texas Pentecostal preacher who escapes to Louisiana after accidentally killing his wife’s lover. Again, she won praise.

“That woman’s work has been very underrated,” Duvall told Texas Monthly, citing her Emmy-nominated performance in Small Sacrifices, a 1989 TV movie in which her character kills her children. “That woman knows how to act.”

Farrah Fawcett is survived by her longtime partner, Ryan O’Neal, as well as son Redmond, 24.

We offer our sincere condolences to Ms. Fawcett’s family and friends.