Burma: 400, 000 Members, 400,000 Dollars

400, 000 Members, 400,000 Dollars

Facebook Group: Support The Monks' Protest In Burma (400,000 Members in 15 days)

I was already an avid fan of Facebook. After seeing how fast this Facebook group has grown, I have fallen in love with the site all over again. There is no better way to organize.

Now the question I am asking is will we put our money where our mouth is? Will each member donate a dollar each? That will make a huge difference. I know from my own experience when we did this thing for Nepal in April 2006.

First, money is needed. Second, in our effort to raise and coordinate the expenditure of the money we will take our organization and coordination to a whole new level. It is like adding mild radiation to the blood stream to detect where the blood goes. The book keeping has to have an element of transparency. Ultimately there has to be near total transparency within a limited group of people.

This will help us measure how well we are coordinating with those on the ground in Thailand or not. This will mean we are not spending all our time talking to the converted.

Money, Message, Organization

Those are the three ingredients. And money is a big one. We could raise a million just like that. And we must.

What Will The Money Do?

First, it will force all Burmese diaspora organizations to coordinate with each other. And it will force all Burmese organizations in Thailand to coordinate with each other. And once we establish the mechanism of not only raising money, but also spending it with accountability, we are going to be able to raise big sums, online, like after the tsunami. Ordinary people everywhere will happily give. We are going past governments and we are going directly to the masses.

As to what the money will be spent on, we will let the Burmese groups in Thailand to discuss and decide. They will know best. I would think they will spend money on cameras, computers, medicine, phones, food. Let them tell us.

We will need to set up a command center in Thailand. We will need to set up safe houses in Rangoon.

Burma: Time For Nonviolent Guerilla Warfare
Burma: Time For Hyper Action
The World Is Failing Burma
Burma: Than Shwe Is Going To The Hague
Britain Is Betraying Burma
Burma: Time For All Out Sanctions By All Powers
Burma: Momentum Is Key To Victory
In Solidarity With The Burmese People





In The News

China calls for dialogue to resolve Myanmar tensions - Xinhua Forbes, NY
China joins in strong statement to Myanmar Los Angeles Times, CA China joined Western powers for the first time to deplore Myanmar's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations and call for political dialogue in a statement issued Thursday by the U.N. Security Council. ....... to free all political prisoners and protesters soon and prepare for a "genuine dialogue" with main opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. ....... In an interview aired Thursday on PBS' "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the U.N. would continue to use its "moral voice" to pursue change in Myanmar. "We have been mobilizing all possible political influences of leaders in the region and in the world," he said. ........ "The Security Council strongly deplores the use of violence against peaceful demonstrations in Myanmar," said the statement read by council President Leslie Kojo Christian of Ghana after Western nations and China haggled for six days over the text. ...... United States, Britain and France, which initiated the statement
Myanmar Rejects UN Call for Negotiations The Associated Press
UN Security Council deplores Myanmar crackdown Euronews.net, France
Myanmar issue should be resolved by itself China Daily, China "China is ready to continue to actively promote the proper settlement of the Myanmar issue together with the international community," Liu added. He said the UN Security Council's adoption of the presidential statement was aimed at supporting the mediation efforts of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his special adviser Ibrahim Gambari, and provide constructive help to all concerned parties of Myanmar to realize reconciliation and promote democracy and development in Myanmar through dialogue.
15-Body UN Security Council Adopts Presidential Statement On Myanmar AHN
Group appeals for arms embargo on Myanmar regime Taipei Times, Taiwan
Myanmar Lashes Out at West for Protests The Associated Press described protesters, who continue to be hunted by the military across the country, as "stooges of foreign countries putting on a play written by their foreign masters." ...... singled out "big powers" and radio stations — the British Broadcasting Corp., Voice of America and Radio Free Asia — as being behind the demonstrations. ........ Troops crushed the protests on Sept. 26-27 with gunfire, beatings and mass arrests. ....... Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said. "The international community should help in a constructive way to help Myanmar to realize stability, reconciliation, democracy and development." ......... Reports from Myanmar indicate the crackdown on dissidents is continuing underneath a seemingly calm surface. ....... security officers had been threatening dissidents' relatives and neighbors ..... Human Rights Watch urged the U.N. Security Council to impose an arms embargo on the country. India, China, Russia, and other nations supply Myanmar with weapons that the military uses to commit human rights abuses and to bolster its power ....... A delegation of Myanmar's air force, meanwhile, is visiting Russia, one of Myanmar's main arms suppliers
US talks tough on Myanmar as UN dithers Canada.com, Canada
Dissidents: Myanmar Detainees Beaten The Associated Press guards at Myanmar's detention centers have beaten protesters rounded up from last month's crushed pro-democracy demonstrations and refused lifesaving medical care for some, resulting in their deaths. ........ dissident Democratic Voice of Burma, a Norway-based shortwave radio station and Web site run by dissident journalists, said it based its report on the beatings on interviews with at least a dozen released detainees. ....... "They beat everyone, including women and girls" ...... Monks were targeted and they were not only beaten but also verbally abused by security officers. ........ "I heard people shouting and crying from the interrogation room, and then I saw an army medical surgeon carrying people away," the woman said. ........ a video of an unidentified man who said "dozens" of detainees died. Another man was quoted as saying he saw two people die from severe beatings at Yangon City Hall. One boy died when authorities failed to give him medical treatment for a gunshot wound, and then even denied him water to drink ........ up to 6,000 people were seized ..... around 100 former inmates, has put out a report describing homosexual rape, electric shocks to the genitals, partial suffocation by water, burning of flesh with hot wax and other abuse. ...... The embattled junta lashed out at Western powers and foreign media Thursday, accusing them of fomenting last month's protests. ........ Both Suu Kyi's political party and the military have taken some conciliatory steps. .... the official press stressed the regime was bent on following its own timetable to a so-called "roadmap to democracy," which includes the new constitution and referendum to be followed by elections at an unspecified date.
UN Security Council Stumbles on Myanmar Conflict NewsMax.com, FL

ANALYSIS-Nobel is sweet revenge for Gore, blow to Bush Reuters
Gore Wins the Nobel. But Will He Run? TIME picking up an Oscar and an Emmy ...... the leaders of the Draft Gore movement have been clinging to a single fervid dream: that Gore would win the Nobel Peace Prize and use it to catapult himself to an eleventh-hour bid for the presidency. ....... "probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted" to combat climate change ....... he's staying out of the race ....... she has extended her lead nationally, edged ahead in Iowa, and taken on an aura of invincibility that has brought the Democratic power structure into line behind her ........ a hard-won happiness. Gore is happier these days because he is living the kind of life he always wanted to lead. He's happier these days because he is free from the excruciating requirements of electoral politics, the glad-handing and the money-grubbing ........ 90% of Democrats, 80% of independents, 60% of Republicans — now say they favor "immediate action" to confront the climate crisis.
Where Are Burma's Monks? Rangoon's normally bustling Shwedagon pagoda, almost deserted except for a few soldiers patrolling ........ mostly locked and empty, while wooden barricades and bales of rusted barbed wire that police used to seal off Shwedagon ...... mostly silent monasteries ...... When the military and police moved to crush the demonstrators, they first went after the monks. ...... Under cover of darkness ... doors of monasteries were kicked in ...... The New Light of Myanmar, raids on 18 monasteries netted the authorities some 513 monks, one novice, 167 men and 30 women. The monks were summarily defrocked and interrogated ..... One man who helped shelter a young monk who had suffered a deep gash on the head while escaping from a monastery raid told me the monk had later fled for the provinces. He believes the attack on the clergy of this devoted Buddhist nation and the imprisonment of monks will come back to haunt the junta. ........ the generals are waging a propaganda war to win back Burmese hearts and minds. ........ The New Light of Myanmar assured readers that the military was only targeting "bogus" monks ........ But many, even some members of Burma's own oppressive security forces, remain unconvinced. On Monday evening, a 26-year-old member of the plainclothes security apparatus knelt to pay a final homage to the Buddha at Shwedagon before fleeing for the Thai border. The officer had taken part in the nighttime roundup of monks, and it still weighed heavily on his conscience. "I have had enough. I have to leave," he said as he rose from his knees and started his journey to the border. ......... police are still trying to put names to faces on video footage of those who took part in the demonstrations ..... For just a moment I could see the frightened faces of the prisoners inside: Dozens of young teenagers, boys and girls wearing brightly-colored T-shirts, packed cheek-to-cheek, their outstretched arms and hands grasping at the world passing by outside.
Gore and UN Panel Win Peace Prize for Climate Work New York Times
Turkey Threatens Repercussions for US ABC News
Obama, trailing Clinton, hopes to move US campaign into high gear AFP "I'm waiting for the knock out," complained civil rights leader and former Democratic presidential candidate Jesse Jackson. ....... has been panned as "cranky," "cool," "reserved," and "less exuberant" ...... "Truly Kennedyesque moment ... never been so inspired" by a presidential candidate, said Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler. ...... dismissed opinion surveys because they fail to convey Obama's true image, because they are conducted by old-fashioned land lines when young people only use cell phones. ........ "I'm happy if the Clintons want to do victory laps in October; I'll take ours in January and February"
Obama lacks the emotion, drama of '04 Toronto Star One cable news channel marked the anniversary with Clinton yesterday by asking her about health care, taxes, small business and social security. .......... appearance on national news shows. ..... Clinton was the polarizer, the tired face of a political dynasty, the woman reluctant to take a bold stance or break new ground. ..... is winning support from Democrats across the nation by playing the role of policy geek, a member of a political establishment who plays in a different league and looks presidential. ......... the party "dated Dean, married (John) Kerry.'' .... Obama has never again approached the emotion, the drama and the heartfelt call for unity of his historic speech to the Democratic convention in Boston in 2004 that launched him in the American consciousness. ..... "I think her judgment was flawed on this (Iraq) issue,'' Obama said on CNN yesterday. "I do think that Senator Clinton has tried to massage the past a little bit, suggesting it was a vote for inspectors.'' ....... no newspaper headline on Oct. 12, 2002 read "Congress Authorizes Diplomacy.''
Clinton, Obama tangle on Iraq and Iran USA Today Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are ramping up a conflict over who has better judgment on Iraq and Iran. ...... "prevent history from repeating itself." The visual at that point is a headline that says "Bush: Headed for war with Iran?" ..... Clinton, who has criticized Obama for saying he'd meet with Iranian leaders with no preconditions, said today in New Hampshire that she'd do the same thing herself.
Rivals rip into Clinton over Iran vote Los Angeles Times a recent vote that they say could bring the nation closer to war with Iran. ....... a resolution that labeled the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, a government-sponsored military organization, a terrorist group. ...... "Hillary Clinton may try and argue all sides to justify her vote, but the truth is her vote has helped open the door for George Bush and Dick Cheney to go to war with Iran" ....... called the Iran measure "dangerous" and "reckless." ...... Last week, Clinton signed on as cosponsor of legislation that would bar U.S. spending on military operations against Iran without explicit congressional approval.
Clinton Says She'd Negotiate With Iran The Associated Press Hillary Rodham Clinton called Barack Obama naive when he said he'd meet with the leaders of Iran without precondition. But her comments Thursday on the issue prompted him to question whether she's changed her mind. ....... Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea. ...... said twice that she, too, would negotiate with Iran "with no conditions." ....... "I would engage in negotiations with Iran, with no conditions, because we don't really understand how Iran works. We think we do, from the outside, but I think that is misleading" ......... Obama's campaign wondered whether Clinton had changed her mind. ...... Obama will restore our place in the world by basing foreign policy decisions on consistent principles and not political calculation.
Civil Rights Pioneer Endorses Clinton Washington Post "I have looked at all the candidates, and I believe that Hillary Clinton is the best prepared to lead this country at a time when we are in desperate need of strong leadership" ...... chairman of the activist group Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the early 1960s ...... best known for his role leading protestors across the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma ..... went on to become an icon of so-called "Bloody Sunday." ....... When Lewis led a pilgrimage back to the site earlier this year, Sen. Barack Obama attended and spoke at his annual church service. Not to be outdone, Clinton and her husband - who has close ties with Lewis -- scheduled an appearance in Selma to match. All of them marched across the bridge together in something of a media circus. ..... "Barack Obama has great admiration for John Lewis and understands his long relationship with Bill Clinton. He looks forward to his support when Barack Obama is the nominee."
Obama Takes `Sister Souljah' Tack to Gain Ground on Clinton Bloomberg Telling an interest group what it doesn't want to hear ........ Obama, 46, has talked up tougher emissions standards in Detroit, gone to the Nasdaq Stock Market in New York to chastise Wall Street executives over tax loopholes ...... told black men in South Carolina that they need to ``stop acting like boys'' and face up to parental responsibilities. ...... In Philadelphia in July, he endorsed merit-based pay before the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' group, which opposes it. In New Hampshire, a state with a tradition of environmental activism, the Illinois senator refused on Oct. 9 to rule out new nuclear power plants. ...... a strategy to try to cut through and get noticed, and that's consistent with a candidate who is playing catch-up ....... By contrast, Clinton rejected tax increases, benefit cuts or raising the retirement age to bolster the Social Security system at a Sept. 20 debate organized by AARP, the nation's biggest senior-citizens' group. At a June 9 appearance in Detroit, she wouldn't say whether she supported a Senate bill requiring U.S. cars to meet stricter emissions standards. .......... she ``continues to methodically lock down the support of the various constituencies that make up the nominating electorate ....... Her reluctance to offend even extends to baseball: At a Sept. 26 debate, she equivocated about whether she roots for the New York Yankees or the Chicago Cubs. ......... traditional Democratic constituencies like teachers and automakers ....... it was pretty quiet, nobody clapped ...... she this month picked up the endorsement of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers. ...... likened the performer to white supremacist David Duke for asking whether violence in the black community might be reduced if blacks ``have a week and kill white people?'' ....... In his 2004 autobiography, ``My Life,'' Clinton wrote: ``After challenging white voters all across America to abandon racism, if I kept silent on Sister Souljah I might look weak or phony.''
Edwards Plans to Boost Nevada Campaign The Associated Press a tripling of its Nevada operation. It also plans to open two new offices in November, doubling its total. ....... On Wednesday, Obama's campaign announced plans to open four new campaign offices, bringing its total to seven, and said it would boost the number of his field operatives to 50. Clinton's campaign would not site specific numbers, but claims to have "several dozen" staffers. ..... large, precinct-level organization needed to win a caucus. ..... Edwards expects to receive between $10 million and $12 million in matching funds for the primary, and currently has $12 million in cash on hand
Hillary Clinton Is Endorsed By John Lewis, The Hero of Bloody Sunday Atlantic Online
Clinton Privately Weighs Social Security Tax Hike ABC News The indignation of the Edwards campaign was unleashed Thursday when a reporter for The Associated Press wrote that she had overheard Clinton, who has rejected the Edwards plan in public, privately tell a prospective voter she would consider a Social Security tax hike that resembles the approach favored by the former North Carolina senator. .......... "Voters deserve to know why she would consider one thing in private, but won't tell the American people where she stands in front of the TV cameras." ........ flip-flopping ...... Clinton's private comments to Bowman stand in contrast to a position she recently staked out during a Democratic debate sponsored by the AARP. ........ "I want to focus on the fiscal responsibility piece of this," adding, "before we do anything else, we need to get back to what was working" in the 1990s. ....... "So was that no? Was that no?" asked Edwards to which Clinton replied, "It's a no." ....... the Clinton campaign is not challenging Bowman's claim that Clinton is considering a Social Security tax hike among several "worthy ideas." ...... He says, however, that the candidate who might come closest to his views on Social Security may be Sen. Barack Obama. ........ he recently penned an op-ed in The Quad City Times, an Iowa newspaper, in which he floated the idea of completely eliminating the Social Security tax cap and imposing the 12.4 percent tax against everyone's entire income with no exemption for income between $97,500 and $200,000.

Obama Returns to 2002 New York Times Last week, Senator Barack Obama’s chief strategist lamented that he had only 14 seconds of video from what his presidential campaign believes to be a moment of political gold: Mr. Obama’s 2002 speech against the Iraq war just nine days before Congress, with support from several of his primary campaign opponents, authorized the invasion. ....... crystal-clear audio of the speech .... a recently recorded version ..... “I would kill for that,” he was quoted as saying. “No one realized at the time that it would be a historic thing.” ...... “The last time Barack recorded an audio version of his written words he won a Grammy,” Mr. Burton said, “so he thought he’d give it another shot.”

Obama: Bye-Bye Mr. Nice Guy? Chicago Tribune he is opening the "next phase" of his campaign and plans to more pointedly and aggressively go after frontrunner Sen. Hillary Clinton. ...... we're going to be laying a very clear contrast between myself and Senator Clinton," the Illinois Democrat told CNN. "Not just on the past, not just on Iraq, but on moving forward." ..... said he is not concerned about his polling numbers and does not expect them to change soon. ...... "Those national polls aren't going to change too much until the early state votes take place." ...... a Clinton spokesman, said, "It's unfortunate that Senator Obama is abandoning the politics of hope and embracing the same old attack politics

Barack Obama is JFK heir, says Kennedy aide Telegraph.co.uk John F Kennedy's closest living aide has anointed Barack Obama as the heir to the assassinated president's legacy and predicted that Hillary Clinton would lose an election to a Republican. ....... 1960 when another youthful senator espousing hope and change was written off by the Establishment. ....... "Both Kennedy and Obama have fantastically winning smiles and I might say both are very relaxed in front of an audience and on television. They don't shout into a microphone, they talk. ....... "The principles, the values Obama and Kennedy are enunciating are not five-point plans for new health care programmes, which is more Hillary's style." ....... Just as the Massachusetts senator was dismissed by the party hierarchy because of his age and unconventional background, Mr Obama is also being branded an also-ran. ....... Clinton will lose a general election and in practice is not much different from President George W Bush. ........ Sorensen said that her election would be "a continuation of the Clinton-Bush 20 years" and business as usual in Washington. ........ vehemently rejected the contention, driven home relentlessly by the Clinton campaign, that Mr Obama lacked the experience to be president. ....... "He has great judgment ....... "Judgment is the single most important criterion for selecting a president. At the time of the [1962] Cuban missile crisis, Kennedy's powers of judgment were tested as no president has ever been tested. Fortunately for all of us, he really came up with the right answers. He was 45. Obama's 46 so he's an old geezer." ....... when he is at an Obama rally the message, mannerisms and atmosphere make it seem like the 1960 campaign once again. ........ "I've heard a lot of shrieks of approval, which I assume were coming from young women," he said. "I'm told the phenomenon known as leapers has returned. ....... they report leaper sightings when Obama appears." ...... the thing that most makes Mr Obama .. "on track" to become the new Kennedy is his determination to transform American politics. ......... "We've had these candidates who give those five-point programmes, who sound like they are trying to convince the New York Times board of editors. ........ "That doesn't reach the hearts of the voters. Kennedy reached the hearts of voters. And so does Obama."

Obama must rekindle the flame New Statesman, UK Obama once wrote that, in his youth, marijuana "could flatten out the landscape of my heart". ....... his past as a community organiser in poor 1980s Chicago, following the collapse of the steel industry. ..... "Camp Obama ..... I attended one over a sunny summer weekend. A hundred and fifty of us crammed into the cafeteria of the New York high school where Fame was filmed. The atmosphere was electric. ........ A homeless woman talked about her anger at the war being what attracted her to Obama. A somewhat precocious teenager said she was in it for Obama but also because she wanted to stand for office in the future. ....... The political consultant Bob Shrum (currently Gordon Brown's election adviser) points out that at this stage national polls reflect only name recognition. ......... I have slid back down to earth as Obama looks increasingly managed ...... Obama is cautious and conciliatory, a centrist at heart. He often portrays himself as a reformist, not a revolutionary, and it seems to have worked so far. ..... 24,000 hipsters turned out in New York to see him speak. When I met Obama I liked him - he said the right stuff, he was attractive, he had a firm handshake and a nice smile