The need for universal health care was a major theme at a Town Hall Meeting attended by more than 60 individuals today at the Westminster Presbyterian Church. Cong. Mike McNulty told the group that he is co-sponsor of HR676, which would create a single payer universal health care system. “A national single payer system would save at least $200 billion annually by eliminating the high overhead and profits of the private, investor-owned insurance industry and reducing spending for marketing and other satellite services,” noted Mark Dunlea, Associate Director of Hunger Action Network

The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly opposes Washington’s Cold War sanctions against Cuba, but the Bush administration is indifferent. Indeed, the White Hose is organizing to bring about regime change in Havana.

Unseen America a photography exhibition that celebrates the stories of working people. unseenamerica gives cameras and photography lessons to members and friends of labor unions. The workers document many aspects of their lives resulting in a beautiful group portrait of real life in America . The reception for this exhibition will be on December 4 th in Troy.

Local labor, faith and community organizations are sponsoring a town hall meeting on health care reform and universal health care on Saturday December 10th at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 85 Chestnut St., Albany from 11:00 AM to 1 PM. The forum will be an opportunity for local residents to testify about problems with the health care system and the need for comprehensive reform. A single payer health care system will be discussed, though the forum will also hear about other approaches.

Health care advocates are urging that the State Senate take action on the proposal to create a Legislative Commission on Health Care Coverage (A6575) when it meets in Albany on Tuesday. "The current health care system in New York State provides increasingly expensive health care to an ever smaller number of New York residents,” added Dr. Paul Sorum, Chair of Physicians for a National Health Program. “It wastes tremendous amounts of physicians' and patients' time and money in dealing with the morass of paperwork and regulations imposed by the current multiplicity of insurers and insurance plans. Whether you ask patients, doctors, other health care providers, large and small employers, employees, taxpayers, or elected officials, they agree that our health care system is very sick and even on the verge of collapse. As soon as possible the Legislature needs to set up a Commission to study how best to achieve universal access for all New Yorkers to comprehensive, high quality, cost-effective health care."

The Hunger Action Network of New York State and the FOCUS Churches of Albany called today for state and federal officials to provide an additional $100 million in funding to assist low and moderate income families with their fuel bills this year. The groups also said it was time to renew the public’s commitment to end hunger. A recent federal report found that hunger had increased for the fifth year in a row. While the state’s 3,000 food pantries and soup kitchens now feed close to a million New Yorkers a week, they were relatively rare in our communities just 25 years ago. As the shocking pictures from New Orleans following Katrina reminded us, we have become too complacent about hunger and poverty in our midst.

Louis Freeh, the former FBI Director, writes: "Recent revelations from the military intelligence operation code-named "Able Danger" have cast light on a missed opportunity that could have potentially prevented 9/11. Specifically, Able Danger concluded in February 2000 that military experts had identified Mohamed Atta by name (and maybe by photograph) as an al Qaeda agent operating in the U.S. Subsequently, military officers assigned to Able Danger were prevented from sharing this critical information with FBI agents, even though appointments had been made to do so. Why?" The final 9/11 Commission report, released on July 22, 2004, concluded that "American intelligence agencies were unaware of Mr. Atta until the day of the attacks." This now looks to be embarrassingly wrong.

Now, a year removed from the mania of the Bush-Kerry presidential election, it seems that hip hop's venture into national politics has, at a minimum, begun to affect the way voting blocs are imagined. While white voters are largely defined by their lifestyle during campaigns -- the so-called "soccer moms" and "NASCAR dads" -- minority voters are usually defined by their race. They are viewed by candidates as two monolithic groupings: the black vote and the Latino vote. But in 2004, the hip hop vote emerged, both as a testament to the impact of popular culture on politics and an assertion of self-identification.

Diane Wilson, author of "An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas" appears in Troy on Monday, November 14 at 7 PM for a talk and booksigning at The Sanctuary for Independent Media, 3361 6th Avenue in Troy. By donation, to benefit the Hudson Mohawk Independent Media Center. (She will also be speaking Monday at noon on the RPI campus in DCC 337, at an event co-sponsored by the Department of Science & Technology Studies and the Arts Department.)

The latest critical confirmation of key indicators that the election of 2004 was stolen comes in an extremely powerful, penetrating report from the Government Accountability Office that has gotten virtually no mainstream media coverage. The GAO findings are particularly damning when set in the context of an election run in Ohio by a Secretary of State simultaneously working as co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign. Far from what election theft skeptics have long asserted, the GAO findings confirm that the electronic network on which 800,000 Ohio votes were cast was vulnerable enough to allow a a tiny handful of operatives -- or less -- to turn the whole vote count using personal computers operating on relatively simple software.

One Day before NY’s Last Election Using Lever Machines
Citizens to Rally in Support of Paper Ballots and Optical Scanners
Rally to be held at the State Capitol in Albany Nov. 7, 2005, 12 Noon
This Election Day may be the last time that New Yorkers vote on mechanical lever machines. What will we replace them with? New York State citizens, legislators, and technical experts call for paper ballots and optical scanners rather than untested, unauditable, problem prone electronic voting machines (DREs).

Alice Green, the Green Party candidate for Mayor in Albany, said today that she supported requiring the city's cable franchise agreement with Times Warner to support the establishment of a community media center where local residents can produce and air their own television shows. Green said the franchise agreement should also do more to assist the city and schools in developing cutting edge use of communication technology, including the establishment of Institutional Networks (I-Nets) and dedicated cable channels.