The US Constitution-Free Zone

The American Civil Liberties Union http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifsays that border patrol has created a "constitution-free zone" over much of the United States. US Customs and Border Protection considers all land within a hundred miles of a border to be an extension of the border – and an extension of their powers. Tanya Snyder has more.

Listen to Free Speech Radio's 4 minute news segment.

ACLU highlights 'Constitution-Free Zone' 100 miles from border.

Indigenous Peoples Message to the U.S. Anti-War Movement

We call on the U.S. antiwar movement to acknowledge that the very establishment of the United States and it's expansion was built on the genocide against the First Nations/Indigenous Peoples of the continent, along with the enslavement of African peoples & exploitation of peoples from around the globe.


Iraq (and the over 130 countries that have a presence of U.S. military) is just a continuation of "Manifest Destiny" which cleared the continent for settler colonization. Thus it's not a "mistake" of U.S. policy, but is at the core of the very foundation of the U.S. from it's beginnings continuing thru to today.


Thus, we say that the antiwar mobilizations that are taking place on August 2, October 11, Dec 2008; April 2009.


1) have an indigenous person opening the events acknowledging the above history and it's continuation into the present day and how U.S. history is linked to today's war(s).


2) that there be an organized and visible collective presence of contingents focused on indigenous peoples concerns at the mobilizations along with that presence being also on the websites, press releases, media spokespeople, et. all of these groups/mobilizations.


3) that the indigenous names of cities/towns in the various indigenous languages be acknowledged by also being mentioned to remind people of the indigenous origins of this land (for example "Manatay" for what is now called Manhattan ) along with the peoples (for example: Lenape (& others)) and the original languages.

Learning Geography

Geography is not my strong point. But I do love maps- I was so excited when the MAPS exhibit was at the Field Museum! I stayed in the exhibit for about 2 hours, much to the annoyance of my younger brother, who wanted to check out the dinosaur exhibit.

My geography education was really bad. Hell, I barely remember ever getting past the Reconstruction in any of my history classes. I've been consciously trying to make myself learn more about the world outside the United States in order to be, you know, a better person. It's really sad that I can figure out a Middle Eastern map because of how many wars we've had there in my lifetime, but can't figure out the rest of Asia and Africa.

Here's what I've been using to learn:

Click and drag maps.
Name 53 countries in Africa in 10 Minutes (Thanks to oriecat!)
Click and drag map of the Middle East (Thanks happycarrot!)

...and since we're already having fun learning, why don't you give people free rice while working on your vocabulary, and learn a bit more about history?