Film: 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days is not a feel-good film, but it does a beautiful job showing what it means to be unable to choose a legal abortion. Set in Romania before the fall of the Ceausescu regime in 1989, it's a literally unflinching look at what a pregnant college student and a friend go through in the course of a single day to get help that's against the law.

I saw it with friends last weekend at the Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge, where it's still playing. We kept thinking and talking about it for days.

Press Release: Ellsberg, Maddow to headline ACLU of Mass. Membership Conference

Amid 2008 election season, gathering will focus on "Reclaiming Our Civil Liberties," Saturday at Bentley College

BOSTON -- More than 300 people from Cape Cod to the Berkshires plan to attend the first annual membership conference of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, this Saturday, January 26, 2008, at Bentley College in Waltham. The conference theme is "Reclaiming Our Civil Liberties."

WHAT: ACLU Membership Conference: Reclaiming Our Civil Liberties
WHERE: Bentley College, Waltham, Massachusetts, Lindsay Hall, 1st Floor
WHEN: January 26, 2008, 12–6 pm

Speakers include Daniel Ellsberg, the writer, activist, and former U.S. military analyst who released the Pentagon Papers in 1971, and Rachel Maddow, the Air America host and frequent commentator on networks such as MSNBC, CNN, and LOGO. Ellsberg will speak on "2008 and Beyond: What will it take to end the abuse of power?" Maddow's speech is entitled "Don't Wait for November '08!"

The conference also features ten workshops:

• Moving Beyond the War on Drugs
  
• Confronting the Surveillance Society: Real ID, NSA Spying, Warrantless Wiretapping, and Fusion Centers
  
• Torture, Rendition and Guantánamo
  
• Next Steps for LGBT Rights
  
• Freedom of Speech and Association in the Post 9/11 World
  
• Racial, Ethnic & Religious Profiling in the Post 9/11 World
  
• Ensuring Reproductive Freedom
  
• Which Way Forward for the Immigrant Rights Movement?
  
• Blogging for Civil Liberties
  
• Building and Sustaining Strong Student Groups
  

"Many of us concerned about the abuses of power we've seen in our country in recent years are focused on the 2008 elections. That's important, but for our conference this year, we've chosen to focus on specific issues and what individual people can do about them," said Carol Rose, Executive Director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. "The erosion of our civil liberties has been so severe that it is unlikely that the next president and Congress alone will be able to undo the damage. We need the sustained involvement of concerned, committed citizens, and that is what the ACLU is working to develop."

News: A move to expand buffer zones at clinics

More coverage of the "buffer zone" bill in the Boston Globe, citing ACLUM's communications manager, Chris Ott: "We're strong supporters of reproductive freedom, but we're also strong supporters of freedom of expression." The Worcester Telegram cited ACLUM Legislative Counsel, Ann Lambert, in its story as well.

News: AG Boosts Barrios bill

The Somerville journal mentions ACLUM Board member Wendy Kaminer's testimony against a proposed "buffer-zone" bill. We oppose the bill because it would unduly restrict freedom of expression.

News: A Miscarriage of Justice for Dominican Immigrant

This story in the Indypendent, the newspaper of the NYC Independent Media Center, quotes ACLUM Staff Attorney Sarah Wunsch.