News and Music for the New Year

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A selection of music in the context of current news to bring in the new year. First story looks at coal as an energy source from the point of view of the recent TVA's major coal combustion waste spill near Harriman in Tennessee. Also a call to participate in the Powershift event scheduled in Washington DC from February 27 to March 2, 2009 to protest the ongoing use of coal as a dominant energy source in the U.S. and around the world.

Also reviewed is the current bombardment of Gaza by Israel, supposedly in response to rockets launched from Gaza by Hamas. Over 200 Palestinians killed, over 600 wounded. One Israeli dead and several, according to New York Times report, "lightly" wounded.

Copy and paste these links into your browser to view video

- on coal spill:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_-EL5Jrrmk

- on Gaza:
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/12/27/multimedia/1194836610699/israel-attacks-targets-across-gaza.html

http://video.nytimes.com/video/playlist/breaking-news/1194811622186/index.html#1194836394876

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/12/27/von.ramattan.attack.cnn

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israel Occupation has issued an action alert with these suggestions:
* Contact the White House to protest the attacks and demand an immediate cease-fire. Call 202-456-1111 or send an email to comments@whitehouse.gov.
* Contact the State Department at 202-647-6575.
* Contact your Representative and Senators in Congress at 202-224-3121.
* Contact your local media by phoning into a talk show or writing a letter to the editor.
* Organize a local protest or vigil.
* Sign an open letter to President-Elect Obama calling for a new U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine at www.upfj.org

Calls from Home

Listen to or download, "Calls from Home"

Raising Sand shares Thousand Kites radio special bringing the voices of families across the nation to the airwaves as they send greetings directly to their incarcerated loved ones. The program shares the intimate power of families speaking straight to their loved ones behind bars. Recorded December 9 when Thousand Kites opened its toll-free line for seven hours of recording.

Thanks to Thousand Kites producers Nick Szuberla and Julia Taylor of WMMT-FM.

Remembering Peter Camayo, 1939 - 2008

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Peter Miguel Camejo was born December 31, 1939 and died on Saturday September 13, 2008 in his home with his family at his side.

Peter Camejo was relentless in calling out financial and political elites for engineering the decades long course of ever increasing concentration of wealth and power our country suffers from today. His promoted the idea of a brokerage firm being the financial "wing" of the next great social movement and his vision included the day when environmental and economic justice takes precedence over corporate greed.

This selection of voices from Peter Camayo's memorial -- held at International House in Berkeley, CA on November 23 -- includes Peter's wife, Morella, his brother Tony, Ralph Nader, Matt Gonzalez, Donna Warren and Leslie Evans who describes Peter's autobiography finished just before his death.