Agriprocessors, the largest kosher slaughterhouse, has gotten into trouble in the last several years with both PETA and with progressive Jews for inhumane (and arguably anti-halakhic) treatment of cows to be slaughtered. Now they are in trouble with the Feds as well. The Orthodox world, which cares deeply about its kosher meat, is keeping tabs on this story. Best source to date is at FailedMessiah.com

It's not overkill to say that stories about the raid are flying around the Jewish world. The raid should be embarrassing for the Chabad/Hasidic community which runs the plant, and hopefully will lead the entire Orthodox community to look more closely at the work being done by progressive religious social justice advocates in tying traditional Jewish law to contemporary concerns. A positive response to farm factory meat is happening among Jewish organizations like Heksher Tzedek, a program of the Conservative movement to make sure food is not only technically kosher but is prepared in a way that follows Jewish ethics.

"It is imperative that we recognize the horrific acts carried out against the Armenian people as genocide and I will continue to stand with the Armenian American community in calling for the Government of Turkey to acknowledge it as such." - Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)

WASHINGTON, DC - Democratic Presidential Candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) pledged to continue his efforts to press Turkey to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, in a strongly worded statement submitted yesterday to the Congressional Record marking the 93rd Anniversary of this crime against humanity, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

The statement by the Senator, who has been endorsed in the Democratic primaries by the ANCA, was one of 30 remarks by Senators and Representatives including those by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden (D-DE), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) offered remarks at the April 23rd Armenian Genocide observance on Capitol Hill.

"Armenian Americans value Senator Obama's consistent and principled leadership in pressuring Turkey to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide and to end its shameful campaign to deny this crime against humanity," said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. "He remains clearly the best positioned to bring about real change, real action, and real hope for an end to the cycle of genocide."

In a statement issued to the Armenian American community on January 19, 2008, Sen. Obama had noted "America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully...

"It is imperative that we recognize the horrific acts carried out against the Armenian people as genocide and I will continue to stand with the Armenian American community in calling for the Government of Turkey to acknowledge it as such." - Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)



WASHINGTON, DC - Democratic Presidential Candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) pledged to continue his efforts to press Turkey to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, in a strongly worded statement submitted yesterday to the Congressional Record marking the 93rd Anniversary of this crime against humanity, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).



The statement by the Senator, who has been endorsed in the Democratic primaries by the ANCA, was one of 30 remarks by Senators and Representatives including those by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden (D-DE), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) offered remarks at the April 23rd Armenian Genocide observance on Capitol Hill.



"Armenian Americans value Senator Obama's consistent and principled leadership in pressuring Turkey to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide and to end its shameful campaign to deny this crime against humanity," said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. "He remains clearly the best positioned to bring about real change, real action, and real hope for an end to the cycle of genocide."



In a statement issued to the Armenian American community on January 19, 2008, Sen. Obama had noted "America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully...

Here is the official press release put out by AIM www.aimovement.org about today's protest:

Press Release

Sheriff Ray Westindorf, Sheriff of Charles Mix County in South Dakota and the SD Highway Patrol has initiated a police occupation of Indian Land on the Yankton Reservation. An out of state Hog Farm Corporation has set up shop on the Reservation against the wishes of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, local farmers and community members. The Hog Farm is surrounded by Reservation land and the only access road is under the jurisdiction of the US Bureau of Indian Affairs.

On April 15th Yankton Sioux Tribal Members began a peaceful protest against the Hog Farm and were met immediately with illegal law enforcement presence and arrest. To date twenty-two people have been arrested on trumped up charges and there has been a total over reaction of law enforcement numbering up to 52 SD Highway Patrol Cars with 22 more Highway Patrol cars waiting in reserve. Some patrol cars from as far away as the state of Iowa. The Highway Patrol has set up snipers with rifles on top of two command posts they have established near the scene. The State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction on Indian land and the highway leading to the Hog Farm is Indian Land where Tribal members and others have been arrested while peacefully protesting. This amount of law enforcement presence is unprecedented for a peaceful protest and violates the legal Jurisdiction of the Yankton Sioux Tribe.

Sheriff...

To the shame of Jews everywhere, the American Jewish Committee has refused to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Fortunately, the old saying, two Jews, three opinions, holds true, and San Francisco Jews refuse to diminish the Armenian tragedy.

Why is naming the Armenian tragedy even an issue? As Mitchell Plitnick writes in a forthcoming article in Zeek (www.zeek.net), an effort has been made by right-wing Jews to coopt the words "holocaust," "genocide" and "shoah" to refer only to Hitler's pre-meditated and cold-blooded destruction of six million Jews during World War II. Yet reserving the use of these words for one atrocity has the effect of minimizing other atrocities and suggesting that no group could be as victimized as the Jews.

It is true that Hitler's genocide stands alone in the Nazi's use of science and technology to methodically kill an entire population. What frightens most about that genocide was that modernity, which so many believed would take us away from tribal warfare, could be used to conduct war more effectively than ever. Hitler's SS also astonishes us with their coldbloodedness.

That said, whether millions of people are killed by a complex system of railroads, camps, and gas chambers or by being forced to march for 18 hours a day, seven days a week, without food, water, or shelter, the effect is the same: they die. When such deaths are carried out in a way that is methodical, pre-meditated and aimed at wiping out an entire ethnicity or religion, we call it...