Please distribute widely.

Narco News to hold 8th Anniversary Benefit Party to support The Fund for Authentic Journalism this Friday, April 25th, 2008 from 6 – 9PM at Waid's Haitian Lounge, 1212 Jefferson Street in Seattle, Washington.

For reservations: http://www.authenticjournalism.org

The text of the press release appears below the jump, plus a downloadable copy you can print out.

April 20, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Project Censored director Peter Phillips sent this emailed response to my June 14 essay: About that “2007 Project Censored Award to Al Giordano”: Thanks… but No Thanks!.

I will post it here (uncensored, of course!) and then, a few minutes from now, post a reply as a comment...

Dear Al Giordano,

I did read your longer piece on your website, and I certainly understand your points.  Yes, I am a paid faculty person, and I run Project Censored as an overload and get zero money for doing it...

March 9, 2007

Please Distribute Widely

For immediate release:

Contact: Al Giordano narconews@gmail.com

-    Supermodels to Take Oaxaca Protest to New York

-    Opposition to Miss Universe Pageant in Monte Alban in May 2007

-    Connor: “We models aren’t cheap props for dictators”

-    Auditions April 18 in New York City for a Protest with Poise Aimed at Donald Trump and NBC

The online newspaper Narco News – www.narconews.com - which has extensively reported from the Mexican state of Oaxaca – today announced its support for a new organization that will take Oaxaca’s pro-democracy protests to New York City in April and May. The Popular Assembly of Models for Oaxaca (APMO, in its Spanish initials), also known as “Supermodels for Oaxaca,” responded to Mexican press reports that the NY-based Miss Universe pageant is slated to hold its “regional costume” competition in May 2007 at the ancient indigenous ruins of Monte Alban overlooking Oaxaca city.

Spokesmodel and APMO director Cha-Cha Connor, author of the March 8 casting call on Narco News, wrote: “We supermodels won’t let it happen.”

Blockades Close Chiapas in Defense of Oaxaca

Thousands of Indigenous Civilians from Zapatista Communities

Successfully Stop Traffic on All Major Roads and Highways in the Highlands and Jungle Regions

By Al Giordano

The Other Journalism with the Other Campaign in Chiapas

November 20, 2006

Full Story: http://www.narconews.com/Issue43/article2363.html

Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur; 16 de octubre de 2006, 5:00 a.m. – La noche del domingo, mientras la Otra Campaña zapatista serpenteaba para el norte en el viaje de 16 horas hacia la frontera con Estados Unidos, ejidatarios de los ejidos Benito Juárez y Díaz Ordaz, los cuales se encuentran sobre esa misma ruta, programaron la toma y cierra de la mina de sal más grande del mundo, ésta coincide con la llegada del subcomandante insurgente Marcos del Ejercito Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN).

Los campesinos y ganaderos esperaban, sobre la Carretera No. 1, a la caravana de la Otra Campaña en el pueblo cercano de Vizcaíno. Invitaron a Marcos junto con las organizaciones y medios que lo acompañan, para que se unieran a la ocupación.

GUERRERO NEGRO, BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR; OCTOBER 16, 2006: On Sunday evening, as the Zapatista Other Campaign winded its way sixteen hours up Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula toward the US border, communal farmers of the Ejido Benito Juárez and the Ejido Diaz Ordaz, along that route, timed their occupation and shutdown of the largest salt mine in the world with the arrival of Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN, in its Spanish initials).

The farmers and ranchers awaited the Other Campaign caravan on Highway 1 in nearby Vizcaino, and invited Marcos and the organizations and media accompanying him to join the occupation.

As this story goes to press, Delegate Zero and the Other Campaign are camped out with the local citizenry, surrounding the pumping station – now turned off, courtesy of the direct action of the people – that made, prior to this night, the mining of seven million tons of salt per year possible...

In a Solomonic decision, the seven justices of Mexico’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (known as the Trife) cut the baby of democracy in half.

In doing so, they added more uncertainty and drama to an already tense crisis. The court’s decision to allow a recount in only half of Mexico’s 300 electoral districts could still result in an historic reversal of official tallies that gave a razor-thin advantage to National Action Party (PAN) candidate Felipe Calderón (who the Federal Elections Commission, know as IFE, claims won by .58 percent or 240,000 votes), making former Mexico City governor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) the comeback kid of this year’s cloudy election process.

Alternately, it could narrow the margin between the two candidates to an extent that makes evident the need for a full recount.

Il Consigliere Presidente dell'Istituto Federale Elettorale (IFE) del Messico, Luis Carlos Ugalde, è intervenuto su tutti canali televisivi nazionali alle 11 della notte, ora alla quale, come aveva assicurato per settimane, avrebbe dichiarato un vincitore definitivo.

Come se stesse passando per una dogana tra il passato ed il futuro, non aveva niente da dichiarare.

Non c'è ancora un vincitore nella lotta per la Presidenza in Messico: né oggi, né martedì. Il conteggio manuale dei voti comincia a partire da mercoledì, 5 luglio. Il presentatore di Televisa, Carlos Loret de Mola, pronostica che, quindi, il processo di conteggio dei voti sarà " lungo, lungo, lungo".

Andrés Manuel López Obrador dice che ha vinto con un margine di più di 500.000 voti e che l'IFE "dovrà rispettare la nostra vittoria".

Felipe Calderón, da parte sua, afferma d'aver vinto pure lui.

I media nazionali ed internazionali hanno una storia gigante da sviluppare giorno dopo giorno o per settimane.

E c'è anche… Oaxaca…

El Consejero Presidente del Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE) de México, Luis Carlos Ugalde, intervino en todos canales de televisión nacionales a las 11 de la noche, hora en la que,  según había asegurado durante semanas, declararía un ganador definitivo.

Como si estuviera pasando por un retén de la aduana entre el pasado y el futuro, no tenía nada que declarar.

No hay un ganador todavía en la lucha por la Presidencia en México: ni hoy, ni el martes. El conteo manual de votos comienza a partir del miércoles, 5 de julio. El presentador de Televisa, Carlos Loret de Mola, pronostica que, entonces, el proceso de contar los votos será “largo, largo, largo”.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador dice que ha ganado con un margen de más de 500.000 votos y que el IFE “tendrá que respetar nuestra victoria”.

Felipe Calderón, por su parte, afirma haber ganado.

Los medios nacionales e internacionales tienen una historia gigante que se desarrollará a través de varios días o semanas.

Y también está… Oaxaca…

Mexico's Federal Elections Commission (IFE) chief Luis Carlos Ugalde went on all national TV channels at 11 p.m., the hour when he had said for weeks he would declare a definitive winner.

As if passing through a customs checkpoint between the past and the future, he had nothing to declare.

No winner in the Mexican presidential contest: not tonight, not on monday, nor on Tuesday. The hand count of ballots begins on Wednesday, July 5. Televisa host Carlos Loret de Mola predicts then vote-counting will be "largo, largo, largo" ("long, long, long)."

Andrés Manuel López Obrador says he won by more than 500,000 votes and said that IFE will "have to respect our victory."

Felipe Calderón claims he won.

The national and international media have a huge story that will play out over many days if not weeks.

And then there is... Oaxaca...