Vote Green

2010-01-19T20:20:00.000-08:00

Wonder if DC has noticed the Chicago-styled "aroma" in the air?! Particularly when Rahm is the room.

TADS must end if Democracy is to survive

2010-01-19T20:13:00.000-08:00

In the good ol' US of A, we face TADS every day - Typical American Double Standard.

It's the zero accountability for the privileged, zero tolerance for everyone else approach that is the hallmark of US legislation. Hit those who are least able to defend themselves the hardest. Police are above the law (and blue wall of silence otherwise), Congress has better health care, pension and benefits than everyone else, and those with money/power get away with whatever they want, whenever they want.

If the US is to restore some semblence of the democracy it claims to be exporting all over the rest of the world, we must restore integrity and values at home, starting with one set of laws for everyone, and fairness in their application.

No more TADS is a step forward.

Nobody in power wants to ask the WHY questions - and all the more reason that we must.

2010-01-19T20:09:00.000-08:00

Nobody in power wants to ask the WHY questions - and all the more reason that we must.

It's the shoot first, the spend/expand govt. first, the get more power first "opportunities," that are seized upon and implemented by those in power, without ever asking the WHY question (or asking Americans if that's what we want them to do, but that's another issue).

Posted: 01.11.2009

Take 9/11 for example. The World Trade Center Towers (and a few others for suspect reasons) were destroyed by extremists. Leaving the many unanswered questions aside (ie thermite and WTC 7 collapse), presuming it was extremists as we are told, nobody in government bothered to ask the WHY questions. Why are there such extremists? Why did the extremists do this to the US? (And, why is everyone so afraid to re-open the investigation, particularly since everything else from the Bush-Cheney regime consisted of lies and deceptions...)

Nope. Doesn’t matter to the people in power. Ramp up the military, let the bombs fly, clamp down on people in the US, destroy the Constitution. All “opportunities” seized upon by the fearless leaders of the “free” world, intent on scaring everyone else. Heck, they’re fearless because they know what they’re doing and what’s going on.

Take the “drug” war (and that America has a greater percentage of its population in prison than other nations). Nobody asks the WHY questions – why is there such a demand for drugs, why is there such crime? why are there gangs? Sure there are college professors that write papers on this, but the powerful people in control of our “free” world don’t want to know. All they want is the “opportunity” to expand their police forces, buy newer and more lethal toys for their boys in blue, lobby state and federal congresses for ever-more oppressive laws (that, btw are a convenient source of revenue/extortion), and expanded govt.

Take Gaza/Israel for example. Ask the Why questions, and get some insights.

Take cancer for example. Nobody asks why is there more cancer now than ever before? Well, the answer would be counter-productive to BigPharma’s goal of making profits dealing with symptoms. And since there’s no compassion, concern or even integrity in big business, the WHY questions are actively suppressed.

Anyway, the point is that the public would benefit by bringing the discussion back to WHY something is happening. The answers to the WHY questions would help return focus to the people, and return control to the people, for the benefit of the people, in the US.

SO… what do y’all think about this?

Can this be a rally cry of the Green Party that asks the unasked questions of the usual suspects in Congress and the White House. The otherwise overlooked and glossed over questions, that take politicians into deep, uncomfortable water.

Maybe, just maybe asking the questions will shift the attention of the otherwise docile American public to some real, meaningful discussions. It’s easy, too, and everyone can do it! Perhaps, if people on the street start asking their elected officials the WHY questions, those elected officials will start squirming, uncomfortably, and perhaps, start changing the course, finding their consciences and refocusing on addressing problems, rather than the typical reactionary political response that addresses convenient, money-making symptoms (but never comes close to dealing with the underlying problem).

Why does America have the highest percentage of its population incarcerated?

Why do extremists (the supposedly ultra-religious as well as the OK City types) resort to violence?

Why is America’s healthcare system falling in quality, compared to other similar countries?

Why has crime been rising precipitously, despite larger-than-ever law enforcement depts and more oppressive laws than ever?

Why are gangs so prevalent in urban (and spreading to adjacent) areas?

Why do the Dem/Repub politicians insist upon doing corporate America’s bidding, while ignoring what most people in the US would want them to do?

Why are there so many immigrants crossing the border to get into the US?

et al.

Our liberty depends upon the single chance of men being virtuous enough to make laws to punish themselves... struck out on that one!

2010-01-19T19:57:00.000-08:00

Obama's stance confirms: the Constitution has failed

Without the vigilence of people holding their elected official accountable, and each branch of government checking and balancing the others, the Constitution and the American democratic experiment have both failed.

Posted: 01.14.2009

As Patrick Henry asked, “For where, Sir, is the responsibility? Where is the responsibility, that leading principle in the British government?”

He was speaking of the British Constitution, under which malfeasance in office had cost the heads of some of “the most saucy geniuses that ever were.”

And now, the whole lot of America’s politicians see themseleves as “the most saucy of geniuses,” and smarter than the citizens over whom they preside.

Under the US Constitution, however, Patrick Henry argued, “the preservation of our liberty depends upon the single chance of men being virtuous enough to make laws to punish themselves.”

Well, we have struck out on both counts: there are no virtuous men (or women) in office, nor are there the laws to punish themselves. The people of America are counting upon the benevolence of politicians, putting their hope in a benevolent dictator, rather than fighting harder than ever to defend the Constitution and their meager civil rights.

The American experiment has taken on a life of its own and broken free of the constraints of the Constitution, with saucy geniuses making decisions for the people and ever more strongly legislating against the people, without the responsibility that Patrick Henry warned us about centuries ago.

Amazing how timely and current his dated words yet remain. Hardly amazing that the new benevolent dicator is letting the last one have a pass on all his malfeasances and assorted Constitutional transgressions.

Zero tolerance for people, zero accountability for Bush-Cheney?!

2010-01-19T19:53:00.000-08:00

Zero tolerance for people, zero accountability for Bush-Cheney?!

Will Obama issue another get out jail free card?

The dangerous precedent set by the Bush-Cheney regime cannot be left to stand. The unalienable rights of the Constitution need to be re-established, for they were wrongly "balanced" away from Americans. It is folly for anyone in America to accept the current conditions and grave damage perpetrated by the most dangerous and destructive regime ever. The Constitution and democracy require accountability. At a minimum, the new govt is obligated to give the Bush-Cheney regime its day in court for the blatant and acknowledged Constitutional and human rights violations. To give the outgoing regime a get out of jail free card as was given to ATT/Verizon, would be precariously dangerous to America's future.

_____________

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090202/holtzman?rel=hp_picks

(excerpted)

Reforms

The most pressing reform involves the War Crimes Act of 1996, which would be a more effective tool for prosecuting detainee mistreatment than the Anti-Torture Act. The president and other top officials were concerned about prosecution under that act, which makes cruel and inhuman treatment of detainees a federal crime. Like the anti-torture statute, it carries the death penalty when death results from the mistreatment, which means there is no statute of limitations. Administration officials might think they can avoid criminal liability under the Anti-Torture Act by claiming the mistreatment isn’t torture (as in President Bush’s oft-repeated claim that we “don’t do torture”); but they know that they can’t avoid liability under the War Crimes Act, because “harsh” interrogation techniques—waterboarding, stress positions, threatening dogs, exposure to temperature extremes—are all clearly cruel and inhuman. They can’t get around the War Crimes Act with definitional tricks.

Following White House counsel Alberto Gonzales’s advice in January 2002 about how to “reduce the likelihood of prosecution” under the War Crimes Act, President Bush opted out of the Geneva Conventions for members of Al Qaeda. Administration officials apparently thought this would enable them to avoid liability for mistreating those prisoners, because the War Crimes Act was intended to enforce the Geneva Conventions. But then the Supreme Court ruled in summer 2006 that the Geneva Conventions applied to Al Qaeda detainees, and the administration realized that something had to be done to prevent criminal liability under the act. So it quietly inserted a provision into the Military Commissions Act in October 2006 that made the War Crimes Act retroactively inoperative—meaning that past violations could not be prosecuted.

Retroactively nullifying the War Crimes Act was one of the Bush administration’s most cynical acts with respect to the rule of law. In essence, it issued a blanket pardon to anyone who had violated the War Crimes Act, including the president and vice president. There was no examination of the facts of any particular case. The violations, whether egregious or minor, were swept under the rug. No one was ever to be called to account. The crimes were made to disappear—poof. This maneuver may be the worst embodiment of the doctrine of impunity for high-level government officials in our history. It cannot be allowed to stand.

Fortunately, the retroactive nullification can be undone and the original law resurrected. Once the War Crimes Act is restored, a special prosecutor should determine whether and how to prosecute under the act. But even if no prosecutions are brought against President Bush and his team, by restoring the original law, we put an end to the horrific situation in which a criminal statute is decriminalized after crimes are committed to protect people in the highest offices.

A second reform is limiting the president’s pardon power. This must be done by constitutional amendment. One of the ways a president can execute illegal schemes is to assure subordinates that they will not face criminal liability. To prevent this kind of high-level conspiracy, the amendment should prohibit a president from pardoning anyone he or she appointed to office, or the vice president. Prohibitions against self-pardoning or pardoning in return for a bribe should also be clearly spelled out in the amendment.

A third reform would re-enact legislation creating a special prosecutor for crimes committed by high-level government officials. The original law was allowed to expire after the sorry excesses of special prosecutor Kenneth Starr. A new statute, devised to prevent such excesses, would permit prosecution of officials when the Justice Department cannot or will not investigate—as happened repeatedly during the Bush era. (The appointment of Patrick Fitzgerald in the Valerie Plame leak case was fortuitous; the attorney general was incapacitated, so the power to appoint a special prosecutor fell to a nonpolitical professional prosecutor.) The problem extends beyond the Bush administration: no attorney general can be expected to investigate the president who appointed him or her.

Sooner or later, America will confront the abuses of the Bush presidency head-on. The only question is whether we will wait for years—as Chile did with respect to bringing Gen. Augusto Pinochet to justice—or do it now, sending a clear signal that our country is back on track and firmly embraces the rule of law.

“¡Que se vayan todos!”

2010-01-19T19:41:00.000-08:00

When will people in the US of A have the courage to fire all the sellouts in Congress? And remind those in office, that they are civil servants, owing a special and trusted duty to uphold and defend the Constitution, among other very important obligations for our benefit - they need to be reminded that they work for us, We the People.

"[I]f we don’t have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years — and nearly everyone has taken Mr. Obama’s remarks to mean that we won’t — this means that those who hold power are indeed above the law because they don’t face any consequences if they abuse their power."

- Paul Krugman 1/16/2009

___________________________________

January 16, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
Forgive and Forget?
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Last Sunday President-elect Barack Obama was asked whether he would seek an investigation of possible crimes by the Bush administration. “I don’t believe that anybody is above the law,” he responded, but “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”

I’m sorry, but if we don’t have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years — and nearly everyone has taken Mr. Obama’s remarks to mean that we won’t — this means that those who hold power are indeed above the law because they don’t face any consequences if they abuse their power.

Let’s be clear what we’re talking about here. It’s not just torture and illegal wiretapping, whose perpetrators claim, however implausibly, that they were patriots acting to defend the nation’s security. The fact is that the Bush administration’s abuses extended from environmental policy to voting rights. And most of the abuses involved using the power of government to reward political friends and punish political enemies.

At the Justice Department, for example, political appointees illegally reserved nonpolitical positions for “right-thinking Americans” — their term, not mine — and there’s strong evidence that officials used their positions both to undermine the protection of minority voting rights and to persecute Democratic politicians.

The hiring process at Justice echoed the hiring process during the occupation of Iraq — an occupation whose success was supposedly essential to national security — in which applicants were judged by their politics, their personal loyalty to President Bush and, according to some reports, by their views on Roe v. Wade, rather than by their ability to do the job.

Speaking of Iraq, let’s also not forget that country’s failed reconstruction: the Bush administration handed billions of dollars in no-bid contracts to politically connected companies, companies that then failed to deliver. And why should they have bothered to do their jobs? Any government official who tried to enforce accountability on, say, Halliburton quickly found his or her career derailed.

There’s much, much more. By my count, at least six important government agencies experienced major scandals over the past eight years — in most cases, scandals that were never properly investigated. And then there was the biggest scandal of all: Does anyone seriously doubt that the Bush administration deliberately misled the nation into invading Iraq?

Why, then, shouldn’t we have an official inquiry into abuses during the Bush years?

One answer you hear is that pursuing the truth would be divisive, that it would exacerbate partisanship. But if partisanship is so terrible, shouldn’t there be some penalty for the Bush administration’s politicization of every aspect of government?

Alternatively, we’re told that we don’t have to dwell on past abuses, because we won’t repeat them. But no important figure in the Bush administration, or among that administration’s political allies, has expressed remorse for breaking the law. What makes anyone think that they or their political heirs won’t do it all over again, given the chance?

In fact, we’ve already seen this movie. During the Reagan years, the Iran-contra conspirators violated the Constitution in the name of national security. But the first President Bush pardoned the major malefactors, and when the White House finally changed hands the political and media establishment gave Bill Clinton the same advice it’s giving Mr. Obama: let sleeping scandals lie. Sure enough, the second Bush administration picked up right where the Iran-contra conspirators left off — which isn’t too surprising when you bear in mind that Mr. Bush actually hired some of those conspirators.

Now, it’s true that a serious investigation of Bush-era abuses would make Washington an uncomfortable place, both for those who abused power and those who acted as their enablers or apologists. And these people have a lot of friends. But the price of protecting their comfort would be high: If we whitewash the abuses of the past eight years, we’ll guarantee that they will happen again.

Meanwhile, about Mr. Obama: while it’s probably in his short-term political interests to forgive and forget, next week he’s going to swear to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” That’s not a conditional oath to be honored only when it’s convenient.

And to protect and defend the Constitution, a president must do more than obey the Constitution himself; he must hold those who violate the Constitution accountable. So Mr. Obama should reconsider his apparent decision to let the previous administration get away with crime. Consequences aside, that’s not a decision he has the right to make.

Business as usual, even at American Cancer Society

2010-01-19T19:36:00.000-08:00

Selling out to big pharma...

http://world-wire.com/news/0912280002.html

Reckless Indifference Of The American Cancer Society To Cancer Prevention

CHICAGO, IL, December 28, 2009 --/WORLD-WIRE/-- Early this month, top Republican Senator Charles E. Grassley sent letters to the American Cancer Society (ACS), besides the American Medical Association (AMA) and 31 other medical advocacy groups, asking them to provide detailed information on tax-deductible funds that they have received from drug and device makers. Such funds have encouraged these organizations to lobby on behalf of a wide range of industries and strongly influence public policy, says Dr. Samuel S. Epstein, Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition.

Senator Grassley also invited involvement of "whistleblowers interested in establishing communication regarding wrongdoing or misuse of public dollars."

However, this wrongdoing still remains unrecognized by policy makers, let alone by the public, says Dr. Epstein. As a result, he warns, "the incidence of a wide range of avoidable cancers has continued to escalate."

Meanwhile, well-documented scientific information on their well-documented causes remains undisclosed or ignored by the ACS, as published by Dr. Epstein in his 2005 book, Cancer Gate: How To Win The Losing Cancer War.
1971 The ACS refused to testify at Congressional hearings requiring FDA to ban the intramuscular injection of diethylstilbestrol, a synthetic estrogenic hormone, to fatten cattle, despite unequivocal evidence of its carcinogenicity, and the cancer risks of eating hormonal meat. Not surprisingly, U.S. meat is banned by other nations worldwide.

1977 The ACS opposed regulating black or dark brown hair dyes, based on paraphenylenediamine in spite of clear evidence of its risks of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, besides other cancers.

1978 Tony Mazzocchi, then senior international union labor representative, protested that "Occupational safety standards have received no support from the ACS." This has resulted in the increasing incidence of a wide range of avoidable cancers.

1978 Cong. Paul Rogers censured ACS for its failure to support the Clean Air Act in order to protect interests of the automobile industry

1982 The ACS adopted restrictive cancer policies, rejecting evidence based on standard rodent tests, which are widely accepted by governmental agencies worldwide and also by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

1984 The ACS created the industry-funded October National Breast Cancer Awareness Month to falsely assure women that "early (mammography) detection results in a cure nearly 100 percent of the time." Responding to question, ACS admitted: "Mammography today is a lucrative [and] highly competitive business." Also, the Awareness Month ignores substantial information on avoidable causes of breast cancer.

1992 The ACS supported the Chlorine Institute in defending the continued use of carcinogenic chlorinated pesticides, despite their environmental persistence and carcinogenicity.

1993 Anticipating the Public Broadcast Service (PBS) Frontline special "In Our Children's Food," the ACS trivialized pesticides as a cause of childhood cancer and charged PBS with "junk science." The ACS went further by questioning, "Can we afford the PBS?"

1994 The ACS published a highly flawed study designed to trivialize cancer risks from the use of dark hair dyes.

1998 The ACS allocated $330,000, under 1 percent of its then $680 million budget, to claimed research on environmental cancer.

1999 The ACS trivialized risks of breast, colon and prostate cancers from consumption of rBGH genetically modified milk. Not surprisingly, U.S. milk is banned by other nations worldwide.

2002 The ACS announced its active participation in the "Look Good...Feel Better Program," launched in 1989 by the Cosmetic Toiletry and Fragrance Association, to "help women cancer patients restore their appearance and self-image during chemotherapy and radiation treatment." This program was partnered by a wide range of leading cosmetics industries, which failed to disclose information on the carcinogenic, and other toxic ingredients in their products donated to unsuspecting women.

2002 The ACS reassured the nation that carcinogenicity exposures from dietary pesticides, "toxic waste in dump sites, "ionizing radiation from "closely controlled" nuclear power plants, and non-ionizing radiation, are all "at such low levels that cancer risks are negligible." ACS indifference to cancer prevention became embedded in national cancer policy, following the appointment of Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, ACS Past President-Elect, as National Cancer Institute (NCI) Director.

2005 The ACS indifference to cancer prevention other than smoking, remains unchanged, despite the escalating incidence of cancer, and its $ billion budget.
"Some of the more startling realities in the failure to prevent cancers are illustrated by their soaring increases from 1975 to 2005, when the latest NCI epidemiological data are available," Dr. Epstein emphasizes.

These include:
Malignant melanoma of the skin in adults has increased by 168 percent due to the use of sunscreens in childhood that fail to block long wave ultraviolet light;

Thyroid cancer has increased by 124 percent due in large part to ionizing radiation;

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma has increased 76 percent due mostly to phenoxy herbicides; and phenylenediamine hair dyes;

Testicular cancer has increased by 49 percent due to pesticides; hormonal ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products; and estrogen residues in meat;

Childhood leukemia has increased by 55 percent due to ionizing radiation; domestic pesticides; nitrite preservatives in meats, particularly hot dogs; and parental exposures to occupational carcinogens;

Ovary cancer (mortality) for women over the age of 65 has increased by 47 percent in African American women and 13 percent in Caucasian women due to genital use of talc powder;

Breast cancer has increased 17 percent due to a wide range of factors. These include: birth control pills; estrogen replacement therapy; toxic hormonal ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products; diagnostic radiation; and routine premenopausal mammography, with a cumulative breast dose exposure of up to about five rads over ten years.
MAJOR CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Public Relations
1998-2000: PR for the ACS was handled by Shandwick International, whose major clients included R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings.

2000-2002: PR for the ACS was handled by Edelman Public Relations, whose major clients included Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company, and the Altria Group, the parent company of Philip Morris, Kraft, and fast food and soft drink beverage companies.
All these companies were promptly dismissed once this information was revealed by the Cancer Prevention Coalition.

INDUSTRY FUNDING
ACS has received contributions in excess of $100,000 from a wide range of "Excalibur Donors," many of whom continue to manufacture carcinogenic products, Dr. Epstein points out.
These include:
Petrochemical companies (DuPont; BP; and Pennzoil)

Industrial waste companies (BFI Waste Systems)

Junk food companies (Wendy's International; McDonalds's; Unilever/Best Foods; and Coca-Cola)

Big Pharma (AstraZenceca; Bristol Myers Squibb; GlaxoSmithKline; Merck & Company; and Novartis)

Biotech companies (Amgen; and Genentech)

Cosmetic companies (Christian Dior; Avon; Revlon; Elizabeth Arden; and Estee Lauder)

Auto companies (Nissan; General Motors)
Nevertheless, as reported in the December 8, 2009 New York Times, the ACS responded that it "holds itself to the highest standards of transparency and public accountability, and we look forward to working with Senator Grassley to provide the information he requested."

THE CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY
As the nation's leading charity watch dog, the Chronicle has warned against the transfer of money from the public purse to private hands, says Dr. Epstein, who points out that the Chronicle also warned that "The ACS is more interested in accumulating wealth than in saving lives."

A copy of this release has been sent to Senator Charles E. Grassley, of Iowa. This news release has also been sent to: staff members of relevant Congressional committees; senior officials in all regulatory agencies; and senior officials in all 50 state health departments.

Samuel S. Epstein, M.D. is professor emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health; Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition; and a former President of the Rachel Carson Trust. His awards include the 1989 Right Livelihood Award and the 2005 Albert Schweitzer Golden Grand Medal for International Contributions to Cancer Prevention. Dr. Epstein has authored 20 scientific articles and 15 books on cancer prevention, including the groundbreaking The Politics of Cancer (1979), and most recently Toxic Beauty (2009, Benbella Books) about carcinogens in cosmetics and personal care products.

CONTACT:
Samuel S. Epstein, MD
Professor emeritus Environmental & Occupational Medicine
University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health
Chairman, Cancer Prevention Coalition
Chicago, Illinois 60612
Tel. 312-996-2297
Email: epstein@uic.edu
Web: www.preventcancer.com

One year later... Am I being impatient? Or just short-sighted?

2010-01-19T19:29:00.000-08:00

Op/Ed – Where’s the real hope? Not the ex-junior senator from Illinois, I’m talking about democracy and the Constitution.

Wth all the activism by so many well-intentioned people, why is America still staying the same old course... bigger, more oppressive and unresponsive govt. and fewer civil rights than ever.

I read a lot of blogs, books and really poignant op/eds about how bad things are, about how there’s no integrity in govt, how the Dems and Repubs cover up each other’s “transgressions” (ie no impeachment or war crimes trials for Bush-Cheney), and what could/should be done to change things. Sam Smith wrote some great books on the problems and solutions. Sheldon Wolin’s Democracy Inc. explains everything.

Recently, I received a power point about the saga of the electric cars of the last decade, on lease and crushed by the car manufacturers after their test run.

I receive emails daily from lots of organizations asking for money (well, actually, it’s more like begging, pleading and saying anything to get a buck out of me), while claiming to save the world and do great deeds.

And yet, the US is worse off than ever before – economically, Constitutionally, culturally (!), healthcare, and virtually all other ways. Maybe I’m not quite seeing the same US that the Wall Street and rich enough to be republicans see. Maybe I’m missing something, some hidden gem, some great wealth that lower and middle class Americans are hiding away in shoeboxes under their beds.

And yet, gasoline cars are still be produced, car-makers are resisting efforts to change (though Toyota is making an electric car next year) there’s not much change, pick ‘em up trucks and big Cadillacs are still king of the road. Coal and nuclear are big business as usual. Solar is resisted, high speed rail is deemed infeasible and Amtrak plans tabled for decades.

Corporate marketing is a blitzkrieg-like assault on Americans, shaping their desires, wants and “needs” into a false American materialistic dream, created to coincide with corporate America’s largest profit margins.

Nonetheless, with the Green Party presenting its TKV to the world, and advocating for true representation, by the people, for the people, and so many truly noble people in this world sacrificing so much to make it a better place, why is it not improving?

And, with all the activism and do-gooding organizations around, why are my few remaining civil rights shrinking faster than my 401(k)? And I’ve already written off all the money I contribute each paycheck so social security – I know that’s been spent a few times over. Why is the govt. growing/expanding/spending faster than the Fed can print/make dollars? And the military eating away at more than 50% of the US budget, while peace is actively opposed, as if we were on a crusade from the middle ages, charged by some king with the mission to convert or kill.

And this leads me to ask, Why are Americans so gosh darned compliant and docile? Is it the education system here? Is it more and more oppressive legislation that threatens harsher and ever-more severe punishments?

Seems to me that among the general public (present company exlcuded) there’s more concern about the Monday night football game, than about the Constitution or truly representative/responsive govt that is here to serve people. Cold blooded shootings of Americans by runaway and unaccountable police occur all too frequently, yet people in America just go about their business, like it’s OK. Cold blooded gutting of the Constitution has similarly occured, regularly, with equal apathy from the general public.

When will people in America unite and “go Greece” on their govt and say enough is enough, you guys screwed up, you’re all fired?

I don’t see it happening, and wonder, is it really worth continuing the fight? Making the personal sacrifices? Or is it just more hot air that doesn’t ever seem to materialize? Kind of like fighting city hall.

What’s the point, when you look at all the hard work put in by very smart, eloquent and moving people in recent history – and yet, we’re worse off, with a more oppressive govt than ever, with fewer civil rights and less of a democracy than ever before.

If these great minds could not avert the past 40 years of damage, crowned off by the Bush-Cheney regime fait accompli, then can anyone? What real hope does America have now?

Citizen Action Day - replace Columbus day

2010-01-19T19:20:00.000-08:00

CITIZEN ACTION DAY!

Replaces Columbus Day with a day off for the non-governmental employees only. All governmental agencies/offices* and schools will be open for business as usual (*except those recognized for their patriotism, see #3 below).

Suggested activities:

1. Honor the civil servants. Stop by your local post office, police dept., fire dept., town hall, and thank all governmental employees for working for the taxpayers. If they’re doing a good job, thank them, if not, offer constructive criticism. In closing, remind them again (because some often forget who pays their nice salary, benefits & pension) that they are civil servants and that they work for the people, and for the benefit of taxpaying people in America.

2. Meet with your locally elected politicians and other such beaurocrats, and thank them for representing the people in America that made their jobs possible. These people need constant and vigorous reminders that they work for the people, since they forget this fact about 30 seconds after being sworn into office. Thank them for representing you on issues that are important to you, and/or offer constructive criticism. For example, ask them to renounce corporate donations and close the door to lobbyists. As an added health benefit, they will sleep better at night having shaken the guilt arising from the conflict of interest that is created when they do what their biggest donors want, instead of what is in the best interests of the people in their district.

3. Honor the whistleblowers. These people are the real, true patriots in America, with the spirit of 1776 flowing strongly through their veins. The bravest and most courageous of civil servants are the whistleblowers, that risked their jobs, almost certain retaliation, incredible hostility and stress and possibly their lives, to blow the whistle on and expose governmental waste, self-dealing and corruption. These very special men and woman deserve a day off from civil service, and to be recognized for their service to their country and Constitution. They chose the less travelled path, and followed in the footsteps of the founding fathers, and rejected the old “just doing my job” or turning a blind eye excuse, (as made infamous by countless nazi prison guards).

4. Public gatherings. People can organize gatherings to show support for specific issues in public squares in their communities. For example, a group could gather in the town square to support peace initiatives, or to show support for their elected town officials who deserve recognition, or have speeches to explain a proposition on the upcoming election, feature new sustainable energy technologies, support your local economy, et al. People can exercise their First Amendment right in a construction way to send a message to the government that should be working for and representing them.

50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World

2010-01-19T19:15:00.000-08:00

50 [Potential Green Party] Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World

50 Visionaries that are changing the world, each focusing on a unique area that Wall Street, politicians and most people overlook.

Posted: 02.16.2009

http://www.utne.com/2008-11-13/50-Visionaries-Who-Are-Changing-Your-World.aspx

(LOTS of video interviews and images at original posting site.)

50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World
November 30, 2008

“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”
—Audre Lorde, writer and activist

“The dreamers are the saviors of the world.”
—James Allen, writer

“Only he who can see the invisible can do the impossible.”
—Frank Gaines, mayor, Berkeley, California, 1939–1943

“Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.”
—Howard Aiken, computing pioneer

The People’s Artist
Favianna Rodriguez, political artist, activist

She’s going to make you shout. Favianna Rodriguez’s political poster art packs revolutionary punch, fused with crackling colors and don’t-mess-with-us mojo. “Gentrification = Predatory Development” thunders a billboard in her Oakland, California, hometown. “We Say Hell No!”

In an image-saturated world, Rodriguez’s fearless, frank work is impossible to ignore. “I use art to transform global politics,” Rodriguez says.

As the daughter of immigrants and a woman of color who grew up without many role models in the art world, Rodriguez gives voice to the global community, and, stepping outside of the artist’s traditional frame, she’s building infrastructure for next-generation women. Collaborating, educating, organizing, writing books, public speaking, everything—she says—becomes part of the artist’s work. Celebrating the work of other bold souls is also essential to Rodriguez’s vision. She recently coedited Reproduce & Revolt (Soft Skull, 2008), a collection of stunning revolutionary political graphics designed by global artists—all of which are licensed under Creative Commons, free to reproduce.

“Favi is doing something that is extremely unusual right now—declarative political art,” says Soft Skull editorial director Richard Nash. “The dominant trend in political art has been ironic, subversive, which can be marvelous except for the slightly creepy feeling one can get that the only viewers who get it are the ones who already possess the framing techniques needed to deconstruct it. The ones who get it, already got it.

“Favi’s doing the is-what-it-is thing: gorgeous, direct political statements.”

See Favianna Rodriguez talk about what inspires her:

Girl Talk
Susan Nussbaum, founder, the Empowered Fe Fes

Every few weeks, the Empowered Fe Fes, a group of girls with disabilities in Chicago, get together to chat about dating, jobs, their parents, teachers . . . whatever they want. They’ve also produced a series of videos tackling sex, bullying, and living with disabilities. “Both as girls and as girls with disabilities, they are extremely overprotected and given very few challenges,” says Susan Nussbaum, the group’s founder. Because their schools and their families often don’t give them space to grow into independent adults, setting their meetings’ agendas and working on various projects “is probably the only chance they have to learn how to make decisions.” Like the young people who show up to challenge one another, Nussbaum’s project raises the bar for those who are working to empower our youth.

Watch a clip of the first Fe Fes video, “Beyond Disability,” which they produced with Beyondmedia Education:

Watch a clip of “Doin’ It: Sex, Disability, and Videotape,” also produced with Beyondmedia Education:

The Visionaries’ Visionary
Bill Drayton, founder, Ashoka

“When we started, social entrepreneurship was so new that we had to invent the phrase social entrepreneur,” says Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka, a community of more than 2,000 of the world’s foremost movers and shakers named after a renowned Indian leader. They’re the innovators—driving solutions for society’s pressing issues—who are building progressive movements around green jobs, media reform, and homeless rights. In building this network, Drayton envisions an atmosphere that inspires all citizens to create change. “After all,” he says, “what is the most powerful force in the world? A big pattern-change idea.” And that is what we need more of right now.

Image by Yusuke Abe.

Watch a clip of Drayton discussing social entreprenuers:

Pacifism’s Fighting Chance
Mel Duncan, cofounder and executive director, Nonviolent Peaceforce

In an age when unarmed civilians are apt to get caught in the crosshairs of conflict, Mel Duncan has a radical idea about who should stave off war’s “collateral damage”: other unarmed civilians.

Duncan’s Nonviolent Peaceforce, founded in 2002, dispatches international teams of trained, unarmed peacekeepers to conflict zones where civil society has been caught in the cross fire. Unlike the blue-helmeted U.N. troops, these peacekeepers are immersed in local society to make connections and build trust. Their lack of weapons helps, too. “Peacekeeping isn’t always most effective when it’s done at the end of a gun,” says Duncan.

Sometimes simply being a presence can provide protection, as it did last year when peacekeepers accompanied Guatemalan advocates who were investigating threats and fatal attacks against human rights workers.

Often, serving as a conduit of nonpartisan information is key. On the volatile Philippine island of Mindanao, for example, the group’s carefully tended communications lines recently helped peacekeepers negotiate the evacuation of hundreds of civilians pinned between government and rebel forces.

Duncan’s peacekeepers go only where they’ve been invited by civil society groups, and where extensive analysis determines that their presence and limited resources can be effective. For now, they have 40 peacekeepers in Sri Lanka and 16 in the Philippines.

“No one can make anyone else’s peace for them,” says Duncan. “We help create the space where local people can do their work and stay alive.”

Addicted to Faith
Patricia Watkins, Pentecostal minister, cofounder of the United Congress of Community and Religious Organizations

“Drug addicts don’t want to be drug addicts,” says Patricia Watkins. She knows. She’s been there, as a young addict in Chicago’s notorious Cabrini Green projects. Finding faith lifted Watkins out of addiction and drove her to fight the drug dealers plaguing her South Side neighborhood and push for state legislation geared toward healing, not punishing, low-level drug offenders. Now, through the United Congress of Community and Religious Organizations, the Pentecostal preacher harnesses the collective power of a coalition of multiethnic, multifaith groups to tackle issues—health care, education, housing—that affect them all. “If we win alone,” Watkins says, “we’ve actually lost.”

Racial Justice Gets Real
Rinku Sen, executive director, Applied Research Center

Racial-justice activists, listen up. Rinku Sen is recharging a deadlocked debate. In The Accidental American (Berrett-Koehler, 2008), Sen takes on immigration policy through the story of Fekkak Mamdouh, who has been organizing immigrant restaurant workers in New York City amid post-9/11 racism.

Weaving policy analysis with compelling stories “helps explain structural racism to people in a way they can understand,” says Sen, executive director of the Applied Research Center and publisher of ColorLines, Utne Reader’s 2007 magazine of the year. The ARC helps people battle for racial justice in their communities, and Sen’s approach—informed by her dual background in organizing and journalism—may be the best way to help people understand the continued importance of that fight.

Watch Rinku Sen explain how she became an “Accidental American,” and check out dozens of other immigration stories at the book’s website.

Caution: Apocalypse Ahead
Derrick Jensen, author, environmentalist

“We’re going to watch the end of the world on television until the TVs go out.” Who’s this cheery fellow? It’s Derrick Jensen, the green thinker and writer who’s out to tell us not what we want to hear but what we need to hear. Call him an anarcho-primitivist, a bomb thrower, or a person without hope—a stance he celebrated in the classic essay “Beyond Hope”—but don’t call him weak-kneed. “I don’t feel particularly courageous,” he says. “If you asked any 7-year-olds how to stop global warming, they’d give you a pretty straightforward answer. I’m just writing what a lot of people are thinking, but don’t say aloud.”

Read interviews with Derrick Jensen in Counterpunch, No Compromise, and the Chelsea Green Bookstore.

Conference Callers
Organizers of the Allied Media Conference

Now this is what a “conference” is supposed to look like: 800 concerned citizens and activists, most of them young and denim-clad, many of them people of color, queer, or both, gathered in Detroit on a crisp June day to create and critique media. There are no tote bags, no swag, no cocktail parties. Just tables full of radical literature, free hip-hop concerts, and late-night bowling.

And you can forget about expense accounts and self-serving corporate sponsors. These people spend months raising funds to finance their trips from all over the globe, and conference organizers are squeaking by on their annual budget of $100,000, all of which makes the 2008 conference (the 10th annual) hum with a singularly engaged, productive energy. “It really makes the event user-owned,” says Mike Medow, one of the conference’s five organizers. “Everyone made a personal sacrifice or a personal investment to be here, and everyone has a deep stake in its success.”

What’s more, what goes on at the hundreds of sessions and workshops doesn’t go the way of yet another stodgy PowerPoint presentation. Participants and presenters take what they hear and learn about taking back the media to heart—and back home. The radical parenting caucus, the lunchtime meeting for women of color with disabilities, the Youth Media Lab: no matter the specific subject area, it’s all about using the tools of journalism to strengthen and expand a grassroots push for democracy.

Save the date! The Allied Media Conference is back in Detroit July 16-19, 2009. In the meantime, watch a quick recap of the 10th AMC, created by conference co-organizer Diana Nucera, and check out other videos at the AMC website:

Bright Green Bronx—and Beyond
Majora Carter, founder, Sustainable South Bronx and Majora Carter Group

First Majora Carter took on her neighborhood. Now she’s set her sights on the world. As the founder of Sustainable South Bronx, Carter greened her community by connecting what folks cared about—their kids’ health—to the pollution ravaging their air and water. This year, she left to create the Majora Carter Group. The consulting firm will help other municipalities take advantage of the tactics she honed in the South Bronx: training people who need work to shepherd in new green technologies, transforming polluted sites into lush community spaces, and generally ensuring that everyone has a stake in the clean energy economy.

Read more about Carter’s work and the efforts of a new generation of environmental justice activists in Utne Reader’s March-April issue.

Media Warriors
David S. Bennahum, president and CEO, Center for Independent Media
Robert McChesney, cofounder, Free Press

Anyone who’s seen the news has witnessed what media scholar Robert McChesney calls the “absolutely deplorable coverage of politics in the United States.” Over the past decade, McChesney has written exhaustively about the need for media reform, and in 2002 he cofounded Free Press. The group, which is the largest of its kind, battles conglomeration and corporate bias, and it celebrates and defends local, community-owned newspapers, indie magazines, small-scale websites, and citizen bloggers. Its greatest victory to date: successfully pressuring Congress and the FCC to keep the Internet neutral.

Political forces are still conspiring to restrict what is now a free and open Internet, however, just as Big Media conspires to distract us. Which is why we’re in need of creative solutions, says McChesney, “so we can actually have the information we need to govern our lives. Right now we’re not getting it.”

While McChesney battles in the corridors of power, David S. Bennahum, who founded the Center for Independent Media, is overseeing independent, local news websites in five states that endeavor to sift fact from fiction and deliver unbiased reportage. Bennahum says independent media will continue to play a critical role in shaping our democracy, especially as the mainstream stubbornly clings to its old ways and parrots party propaganda instead of going deep for the truth. For an example of this ethic in action, check out the center’s dogged coverage, via the Minnesota Independent (www.minnesotaindependent.com), detailing police reaction and overreaction to protesters at the Republican National Convention.

Bennahum aims to expand into more states, deepen the scope of the center’s sites, and, as media continue to branch out digitally, reset the standard for online reportage.

Heartbreaking Works of Staggering Humanitarianism
Dave Eggers, author, publisher

After the runaway success of his Pulitzer-nominated memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, literary wunderkind Dave Eggers could have settled into a comfortable career cranking out similarly self-referential fare, holding court at book signings and authors’ roundtables, perhaps doling out a few graduation speeches every spring.

Instead he took a more dynamic path. He founded the small indie publishing empire McSweeney’s, which produces the Believer magazine, and started two nonprofit enterprises with a humanitarian bent: 826 Valencia, a writing and tutoring laboratory for young people ages 6 to 18, now located in seven cities, and Voice of Witness, a series of books that use oral history to tell the stories of the abused, oppressed, and impoverished. Eggers himself provided the template with What Is the What (McSweeney’s, 2006), his gripping fictionalization of Sudanese “lost boy” Valentino Achak Deng’s story.

English professor Jim Dawes, author of That the World May Know: Bearing Witness to Atrocity (Harvard, 2007), says that an author like Eggers can do good in ways that no international human rights convention can. “Human rights work depends on storytelling, but all too often we only have a chance for sound bites,” says Dawes. “So when you have somebody who can get these stories out, and get them out in a way that people will listen to them—it’s not just going to be upsetting, it’s also going to be beautiful—then it can literally change the world.”

Visit the website of the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation, which works to provide educational opportunities for Sudanese people both in southern Sudan and in the United States. The site also contains reviews of What Is the What, an excerpt from the book, and an interview with Dave Eggers and Valentino Achak Deng.

Image of Dave Eggers (left) and Valentino Achak Deng by Drew Alitzer above.

Read Dave Eggers’ exclusive interview with Utne Reader.

Inspiration of Church and State
Bishop Kevin Dowling
Constance Howard, Illinois state representative

Two facts should end any debate: HIV causes global suffering; HIV is preventable. Instead, the fight against HIV/AIDS is too often mired in party politics, extremist religion, and ignorance. Visionary mavericks like Bishop Kevin Dowling of South Africa and Illinois state representative Constance Howard see only one thing: people in need.

Bishop Dowling shook the Catholic world in 2001 when he went on the record to disagree with the Vatican’s position against using condoms to prevent HIV. “Our pro-life stance cannot be restricted to the beginning and end of life,” Dowling says, describing the shack settlements of Rustenburg, South Africa, where women often are forced into survival sex and nearly half test positive for HIV. His reading of the papal position—that condoms are permissible when lives are at risk—honors the institution even as it defies a doctrine.

“I honestly believe the stance I have taken is in accordance with the Jesus I know and the gospel I believe in and am trying to live,” Dowling says.

In Illinois, Representative Constance Howard has co-drafted a revolution: In 2006 the African American HIV/AIDS Response Act transformed social services within the state corrections system. Inmates now receive free voluntary HIV testing, counseling, and medical services, as well as referrals when they are released.

“It’s one thing to stand on the outside and scream and yell and complain,” says Regan Hofmann, editor in chief of POZ, the magazine about life, health, and HIV. “To effect real change you have to at least be involved with the system. There’s a place for the activist, but ultimately the people who make the greatest change can be and often have to be inside.”

Image of Constance Howard above.

More than Marriage
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, queer activist

We’ve heard just two sides of the gay-marriage debate—conservative talk-radio homophobes versus attractive same-sex couples—because the voices of queer people who are against marriage are consistently drowned out. This perspective is most raucously and frequently espoused by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, an outspoken critic of what she calls “gay assimilationists” who cast marriage—with its “1950s model of white-picket-fence ‘we’re just like you’ normalcy”—as the GLBT issue.

Sycamore, who writes for the San Francisco Bay Guardian and blogs at nobodypasses.blogspot.com, argues that the GLBT movement’s focus on gay marriage distracts from more pressing issues: Rather than fight for marriage, which helps secure access to benefits like housing and health care, queers should band together to fight for universal access to these basic needs—“I do” (or don’t) be damned.

“What I think is so sad about the gay-marriage assimilationist agenda is that our dreams have become so limited,” Sycamore says. “And gay marriage is not a dream—the end of marriage is a dream.”

Sycamore is also a prolific anthologizer, bringing together radical views on queer identities in books like That’s Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation (Soft Skull, 2008). These perspectives are rarely if ever engaged by marriage advocates. “It’s really easy for gay-marriage proponents to argue with foaming-at-the-mouth Christian fundamentalists,” she says, “but it’s very scary for them to argue with anti-marriage queers and actually have a conversation.”

Read Mattilda’s anti-marriage essays for AlterNet and the Stranger, and see more of her writings and anthologies at her website, mattildabernsteinsycamore.com.

Image by Jeffery Walls.

Growing the Grass Roots
Timolynn Sams, executive director, Neighborhoods Partnership Network
Brahm Ahmadi, cofounder, People’s Grocery

The mendacious politician who belittles the role of community organizers should hoof it to People’s Grocery in West Oakland, California, where Brahm Ahmadi leads the crusade for food justice.

What started as a few people dissatisfied with their lack of access to fresh produce is now a model for how to integrate a sustainable local food system into an inner-city community. Ahmadi stresses the need to “build a set of choices first, and then enable individuals to make those choices for themselves.” He’ll soon take on a new role as CEO of the first community retail market when it rolls out over the next two years.

Elsewhere, another solution-oriented movement is making headway under the direction of native New Orleanian Timolynn Sams. After Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on her city, Sams wrote to the Neighborhoods Partnership Network, asking to be involved with the organization through AmeriCorps. Instead, they put her in charge.

Once leaders truly empathize with citizens, they can leverage the people’s frustrations and make change, says Sams, who faces the same struggles with overcrowded schools and power outages as do the people she serves.

She describes New Orleans as a “laboratory for the entire country.” While the challenges of natural disasters and institutional bungling are universal, what makes Louisiana special is its citizenry’s uncanny resilience and generations of community ties, which have linked to form an unbreakable bond.

Sams knows there will always be another storm but remains upbeat about the soul of her city. As for the rest of the country? She admits to being “a little concerned.”

Image of Brahm Ahmadi above.

You can read Brahm’s blog and watch videos of People’s Grocery projects here. The following was a promotional spot from last year:

The Urban Angle
Nikos Salingaros, urban theorist/mathematician

When Nikos Salingaros looks at the United States’ mesh of cities and suburbs, he sees a geometry problem: The scale accommodates cars, not people. “It makes humans into a new race of inhumans,” says Salingaros, a mathematics professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. His uniquely scientific perspective allows the architectural gadfly to tap the latest laboratory findings to explain how our current urban trajectory is not only aesthetically challenged but also unhealthy. He calls for retrofitting the suburbs with mixed-use zoning, pedestrian byways, and public spaces—small interventions that let people move about, interact with nature and neighbors, and stay human.

Watch and listen to Salingaros’ lecture on the fallacy of tall buildings:

The Other Green Guide
Tzeporah Berman, environmental activist

At the 2007 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bali, veteran Canadian activist Tzeporah Berman was horrified to see her country stalling negotiations toward stricter environmental regulations. As cofounder of ForestEthics, Berman has helped protect over 65 million acres of land through innovative partnerships with corporations. In Bali, she keyed in on an alarming disconnect between Canadians enthusiastically adopting greener lifestyles and a government bent on protecting oil industry interests—and knew she needed to mobilize. Her new campaign, PowerUp Canada, blends hard information, civic appeals, and a virtual gathering space to push citizens from lifestyle changes to legislative demands. In the fight against climate change, Berman has developed a model for next-stage community activation.

We spoke to Tzeporah Berman for our May-June 2007 article “Protest is Dead. Long Live Protest.” Watch her speech at Evergreen’s 2008 Earth Day Vancouver Celebration below:

All the City’s a Stage
John Muller, executive director, DreamCity Theatre Group

People need to be taking responsibility for the safety and conditions of their communities, says John Muller, who cofounded the nonprofit theater group DreamCity to bring arts back to the District of Columbia via youth-led theater. Muller’s plays use real-life events, candid language, and interviews with community figures to spotlight the need for change from within the community—and in turn, he teaches life skills and capitalizes on his cohorts’ potential. Following The 70 (about a city bus), and Southside (based on the aftermath of a 2004 school shooting), Muller envisions building an “underground railroad” of young writers, funders, and event planners to spark a new reality theater movement in Washington, D.C.

See John and one of his actors talk about the play Southside:

The Activist’s Evangelist
Adrienne Maree Brown, executive director, Ruckus Society

Adrienne Maree Brown is the dynamic, take-no-prisoners force behind the Ruckus Society—a group that is arming socially oppressed communities with tools for effective nonviolent organizing. She also has cofounded the League of Pissed Off/Young Voters, sits on at least four boards, and facilitates a handful of other developing programs. All of this, and she just turned 30.

“Adrienne is a visionary because she understands things on the grandest of scales, but she’s attentive to the details of how we translate understandings into action and power,” says Jenny Lee, co-organizer of the Allied Media Conference (see p. 39). “She cultivates power in herself, in the communities where she spends time, and in all the people around her.”

Whether she’s speaking and singing during the opening plenary of a conference or leading workshops for eighth-graders in Detroit, Brown captivates audiences with her call for freedom and direct action—mobilizing folks with the sort of fiery, fearless passion from which generational leaders are born. “She puts her energy out there, with total faith in people’s greatest potential, and people feed that energy back to her,” Lee says. “I’ve seen that in the years that I’ve worked with her through Detroit Summer and Allied Media Projects.”

Brown insists that we need organizations working together, and that people need to take a cue from Ruckus and put their words into action. With Brown leading the discussion in a style all her own, there’s no telling what will happen.

See Brown work her magic at the 2008 National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis:

Greening the Rez
Enei Begaye, executive director, Black Mesa Water Coalition

In 2005 Enei Begaye’s Black Mesa Water Coalition and other groups bested Peabody Energy, the coal giant that was draining the Navajo and Hopi reservations’ drinking water to power Southern California’s urban buzz. The coal mine at Black Mesa, which stretches across northeastern Arizona near the Four Corners region, was shuttered. With it went tribal jobs and revenues. “It was a victory,” says 30-year-old Begaye, “but it was bittersweet.” So the youthful coalition suited up for a new challenge: fostering sustainable Native economies by developing community-based green businesses and weaning tribal governments from dependence on mineral mining. The new path, says Begaye, is paved by tradition: “We’ve been using wind and the sun for generations.”

See Evil, Show Evil
Eric Reeves, Darfur activist
Roy Gutman, foreign editor, McClatchy Washington Bureau

Atrocities easily pass unseen. If people notice, it’s because someone made a ruckus loud enough to pierce media static and social malaise.

For years, Eric Reeves and Roy Gutman have been noisemakers.

Since 1999, Reeves, a Smith College English professor, has been a one-man information clearinghouse on the bloodletting in Sudan. A keen observer of the decade’s long north-south war, he was the first to call the slaughter that began five years ago in the country’s west by its rightful name: genocide. Through his website (www.sudanreeves.org) and op-eds in newspapers including the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, he’s been an unrelenting advocate for intervention.

Gutman won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of crimes against humanity in Bosnia, but he thought he could have sounded the alarm more effectively. So he and other journalists created the Crimes of War Project to school their colleagues and the public on the laws of war. Their recently updated book, Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know, is an urgent plea for resurrecting international law. So is the investigation Gutman, now foreign editor for McClatchy newspapers, presided over this year detailing government abuse and incompetence through the stories of 66 former Guantánamo detainees.

While such work tempts despair, the men’s commitment to truth-telling remains unshaken.

In mid-September, the 58-year-old Reeves was preparing for a risky stem-cell transplant to combat his worsening leukemia and getting ready to move into a sterile Boston apartment to protect his eviscerated immune system. “I’ll still have a computer. I’ll still have Internet access. I’ll still have a cell phone,” he said. “I may be limited, but I will not be silent.”

Image of Roy Gutman above.

Radio Free Oregon
Ramón Ramírez, president, Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United

Ramón Ramírez knew that Spanish-language radio stations were instrumental in reaching and mobilizing Latino immigrants. So when his union bought its own low-power FM station in Oregon two years ago, they opted to broadcast in Spanish. Because 70 percent of the state’s farmworkers are indigenous, the station also hosts programs in Mixteco, Triqui, and Purépecha, three languages native to Mexico.

Organizers-turned-deejays make listeners aware of their rights regarding wages, pesticides, and working conditions, empowering thousands of immigrant laborers to have a voice in the community. Coming soon to KPCN’s airwaves: radionovelas, which will use time-tested storytelling techniques to educate women about sexual harassment.

Math Geek to the Rescue
Richard Muller, physicist, teacher

If you hate physics, University of California–Berkeley professor Richard Muller has a message: It’s not your fault. It’s taught badly. Which is a civic shame, Muller contends, because basic physics is easy to grasp and is essential knowledge for everyone, especially folks who decide public policy. Ignorance of physics enables shortsighted resolutions on everything from airport security to climate change—and keeps citizens oblivious to the folly. No more! Muller’s revolution started with a course, Physics for Future Presidents, which became a textbook, now adapted for casual, civic-minded readers. Grounding the essentials in current affairs, Muller has done more than make physics user-friendly; he has also illuminated its undeniable necessity for modern citizens.

Watch one of Richard Muller’s lectures:

Mother Knows Best
Robina Suwol, founder, California Safe Schools

On his way to kindergarten 10 years ago, Nicholas Suwol turned to blow a kiss to his mother at the moment when a man in a hazmat suit sprayed the schoolyard’s hedges. “It tastes terrible,” Nicholas wheezed as his mother, Robina, watched from the car. The exposure triggered a debilitating asthma attack, and Suwol phoned the school’s administrators to ask what made their garden so lush. “They said, ‘Wow, thank you!’ and told me about Princep,” Syngenta’s brand name for the toxic herbicide simazine. Suwol still remembers the terror in Nicholas’ eyes when he asked whether it would happen again. “I promised it wouldn’t,” Suwol says. “That’s been the driving force in my work.”

Suwol, a native of Portland, Oregon, was raising sons Nicholas, now 15, and Brandon, 20, on an actor’s salary when she founded California Safe Schools in 1998. She wooed parents, school officials, and teachers into influential coalitions, never filing nor fielding a lawsuit, never stalling in court. In the first year she persuaded the Los Angeles Unified School District’s famously sclerotic bureaucracy to ban all pesticides without demonstrated safety records. Eight years later, California extended that same rule to schools statewide.

“Tell the truth,” Suwol advises aspiring world-changers. “People often halt their dreams because they don’t have the right dress or degree. But if you’re honest and dedicated, help comes.”

Image by Cathy Blaivas.

Architects of Memory
Russ Kick, editor, TheMemoryHole.org
Trevor Paglen, artist, author, experimental geographer

“I don’t foresee a day when there is true government transparency,” says Russ Kick, editor of TheMemoryHole.org. “It’s just not in the nature of government.” So, in lieu of the end of secrecy, Kick tenaciously ticks off small victories, such as finding an IRS guide to prosecuting money laundering, buried in the Federal Depository Library, and using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to unearth photographs of U.S. military prisons.

Since 2002 Kick has preserved hundreds of cultural artifacts, including that five-minute clip of President Bush reading to schoolchildren on 9/11 after an aide whispered to him that the nation was under siege. Kick edits a series of anthologies for Disinformation, a radical media organization. In November, look for an updated edition of 2001’s You Are Being Lied To, called (appropriately) You Are Still Being Lied To. The best you hope for, Kick says, is that an inspired citizen files an FOIA request of his or her own.

It’s a make-of-this-what-you-will approach to probing the edges of government secrecy that artist, writer, and experimental geographer Trevor Paglen would find familiar. Whether he’s dealing in satellite imagery, military patches representing classified projects, or first-person testimonies, Paglen transforms his material into unforgettable, unforgiving art. Missing Persons, for example, is an installation of signatures (culled from records, aircraft registrations, and corporate filings) of people who don’t exist, identities the CIA created to obscure its extraordinary rendition program, which Paglen and coauthor A.C. Thompson exposed in Torture Taxi (Melville House, 2006).

If Kick is a modest archivist, Paglen is a coy enabler, consciously constructing a “visual vocabulary” for the unseen parts of the world. “But I’m not necessarily interested in telling you how to use that vocabulary,” he says. Make of it what you will.

Read “The X Styles,” an article we published in May-June 2008 about Trevor Paglen’s book I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed By Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World.

Image of Russ Kick (left) and Trevor Paglen (right).

The Climate Kid
Billy Parish, environmental activist

In 2002 Billy Parish became a media darling after dropping out of Yale and devoting himself to building a massive youth environmental movement. This was no whimsical ambition. Six years later, Parish is positioned to collate an even bigger awakening: a shift to green jobs. In 2007 social entrepreneur network Ashoka (see p. 37) named him a fellow, which Parish says has given him flexibility to “take a step back” and strategize for national groups on the green economy forefront, like Green for All and Focus the Nation. Change is coming, says Parish: “A lot of historical factors have come together to make an opportunity to create a massive social movement.”

Watch Billy Parish speak at the Garrison Institute’s April 2008 event Satyagraha: Gandhi’s “truth force” in the age of climate change:

Catch That Idea
Saul Griffith, inventor

What’s it like to be inside the brain of Saul Griffith, inventor extraordinaire, where ideas are surely whizzing about like neutrinos? Well, for one thing, there’s a physics simulator in there. That’s right: Griffith says that one of the first things he does in assessing each of his many brainstorms is to “run it through the physics simulator in my mind.” Among the innovations that have passed the test: inexpensive eyeglass lenses based on a process inspired by water drops and a “smart” rope that senses its load.

One of the coolest things about Griffith, who won a MacArthur Foundation “genius” fellowship in 2007, is that he wants to help you be an inventor, too. In his Making Trouble column for Make magazine, he writes about the creative process for do-it-yourselfers of all ages. In the HowToons comic strips that he produces with illustrator Nick Dragotta, he teaches kids how to make things like the Infamous Marshmallow Shooter. And on the Instructables website that he helped develop (“the world’s biggest show-and-tell”), he encourages other people to share their dreams.

Climate change and renewable energy are the subjects most often spinning around in Griffith’s hyperactive head lately, which is why he is promoting “energy literacy” through wattzon.org and working on the Makani Power startup, which involves giant wing-shaped kites that harvest wind energy at high altitudes.

Read a 2007 profile of Saul Griffith from the San Francisco Chronicle; watch him give a presentation on everyday inventions at the 2006 TED Conference, and read a sample of his Making Trouble column (pdf).

Listen to Utne Reader’s podcast interview with Saul Griffith.

Mr. Mushroom
Paul Stamets, mycologist

Mushrooms, to many people, are simply a pizza topping choice. To Paul Stamets, they and all their fungal brethren are “the puppeteers of nature,” “Earth’s natural Internet,” and a wondrous and powerful tool that we can use to repair and renew our world. Stamets has deployed mushrooms to clean up toxins, restore soil, and combat pests; he hopes one day to use them to cure tuberculosis, revive entire ecosystems, and even seed other planets for life. His vision: a global network of “mycorestoration centers” that tap into the power of the vast mycelial web under our feet.

Image by Dusty Yao-Stamets

Soul Catchers
Edward Tick, psychotherapist, director of Soldier’s Heart
Nsombi Lambright, executive director, American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi

Society writes off damaged goods, people whose scarred lives set them apart. Edward Tick and Nsombi Lambright bring discarded citizens back into the fold.

For three decades Tick has served those who, after serving their country in military uniform, have returned home with wounds of war—some that fester on the surface, many that lurk beneath.

His holistic approach to posttraumatic stress disorder taps the rituals of warrior cultures from ancient times to the present. A Native American war dance, for example, becomes movement therapy, a healing reenactment of a soldier’s experience. “Rituals create a large and a strong time-honored container for material that is bigger than we humans can tolerate,” the psychotherapist explains.

Through his Soldier’s Heart center in upstate New York, Tick also reaches out to families, communities, and the military to help them honor and aid their loved ones, neighbors, and comrades. Copies of his 2005 book, War and the Soul, circulate among military chaplains.

Nsombi Lambright’s focus is on those who have served their time in prison.

As executive director of the ACLU of Mississippi, Lambright battles the state’s labyrinthine laws, which ban 10 types of felons from voting, to reopen former prisoners’ path to citizenship. The longtime voting rights activist works in coalition with the state’s NAACP on voter education and registration drives, reaching out to those who misunderstand the law or just never thought their vote could matter.

It’s an empirically clear-headed approach, says Lambright: Studies show a correlation between voting and reduced recidivism. But it’s also the right thing to do. “Part of what we value as Americans is based on redemption and people getting a second chance,” she says.

Image of Ed Tick above.

Brave New Feminists
brownfemipower, blogger, writer
Jessica Hoffmann, writer, coeditor of Make/shift

These two women, whose writings consistently challenge the aims and issues of feminism, are the addled movement’s best hope. Their personal-and-political essays light up the blogosphere, forcing discussions about why issues that aren’t typically considered “feminist”—immigration, incarceration, police brutality—ought to be. For this they are often (sometimes nastily) criticized, but for those who haven’t lost hope in the social-justice promise of feminism, their work is transformational.

“What is your feminism for, and why does it matter?” At a time when feminism carries more connotation than meaning, few are willing to engage in this dialogue. It’s a question Jessica Hoffmann put forth in “An Open Letter to White Feminists,” published in the third issue of Make/shift, a magazine that she cofounded last year. The “feminisms” espoused in Make/shift are radical and varied, eagerly taking up the critiques of capitalism, environmental racism, health care, and war that are considered out of bounds for mainstream feminism.

Brownfemipower, whose inimitable blog is the anchor of the pulsing women-of-color blogosphere, began posting three years ago. She writes emotionally and radiantly about gender violence, immigration raids, public housing demolition in New Orleans, sexuality (a recent post on this topic included a video of Aerosmith’s “Crying”), and other “out of bounds” issues, morphing feminism back into a force for social change—for everyone—rather than an “exclusive networking club.”

“Feminists can’t seem to figure out why their movement isn’t growing,” she wrote in June. “Could the fact that feminism uses universities as its major site of recruitment rather than jails, halfway houses, day care centers, churches, restaurants, the streets, mommy blog communities . . . have something to do with it?”

Image of Jessica Hoffman above.

Order Outside the Court
Steve Binder, public defender

From his front-row seat, the justice system just wasn’t working for homeless people. To solve the underreported problem, Steve Binder, a San Diego public defender, worked with city officials to move homeless people charged with misdemeanor offenses away from the courthouse and toward community involvement. To make it happen, Binder took the “courtroom” to the homeless and set up shop—a foldout table, a podium, and two flags—in local shelters to adjudicate petty theft cases, DUIs, and public nuisance offenses. Instead of jail time and fines, judges now sentence people to literacy classes, job training, and chemical-dependency meetings. Binder’s program resolved 3,700 cases this year and has inspired more than 35 similar courts across the country. “People on the street want to live their lives more fully and lawfully,” he says. “They need an opportunity to do so.”

Building Codes Be Damned
Michael Reynolds, architect

Whether you consider him a visionary or “a thumb up the butt of reality,” as one admirer calls him in the documentary Garbage Warrior, architect Michael Reynolds is out to shake up the status quo. Reynolds has advanced green building with his Earthships: sustainable, off-the-grid dwellings with curvaceous, fanciful forms. He’s also helped other designer-builders innovate by pressing lawmakers in his home state of New Mexico to allow “experimental” or off-code architecture. Traveling the globe with a desert-rat crew to spread the Earthship gospel, Reynolds dreams of massively reducing CO2 emissions from buildings the world over. “Architects and lawyers and legislators,” he says, “have the world in their hands.”

Image by Kirsten Jacobsen / www.earthship.com

Empowerment Zones
Alexie Torres-Fleming, founder and executive director, Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice

Alexie Torres-Fleming grew up in a neighborhood on fire. Buildings burned as owners cashed in on insurance payments and hightailed it out of town. “Planned shrinkage” ruled the policy agenda. The South Bronx was abandoned, demoralized.

Torres-Fleming fled to corporate Manhattan, but something pulled her back. “I understood public policy happened to me as a child, and I felt that the legacy of this community had been one of powerlessness,” she says.

She opened Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice (YPMJ) in 1994 to train young people to drive policies, not bear the brunt of them. The group’s holistic approach goes beyond after-school tutoring or providing a place to shoot hoops. “Youth organizers in training” work on campaigns focused on issues ranging from environmental justice to immigration reform. They also work on themselves through meditation, discussion groups, and the center’s mental health services. The idea is to connect personal growth to community service.

A thriving example is the resurrection of the Bronx River. Along with a coalition of groups, YMPJ has cleaned up polluted industrial sites and warded off developers to create waterfront parks. Her work has earned Torres-Fleming widespread accolades, including one of this year’s prestigious Jane Jacobs Medals, which honor visionary urban activists.

“This community now has a generation of people who believe they have power,” Torres-Fleming says. “That’s the lasting legacy.”

Breaking the Chains
Kevin Bales, abolitionist
Paul Wright, prison journalist

Slaves and prisoners aren’t just society’s outcasts. They’re often forgotten—invisible in the shadow of their keepers. Kevin Bales and Paul Wright have chosen to fight for these invisible men and women by holding their stories up to the light.

Bales, cofounder of the U.S.-based antislavery group Free the Slaves, was living in London in the 1990s when he picked up an Anti-Slavery International leaflet. Jolted by the fact that there are more slaves now than at any point in human history, he dug more deeply into the issue and began researching his book Disposable People (University of California, 1999). Meeting slaves face-to-face turned his curiosity into a calling. “It broke my heart,” he says. “I couldn’t just walk away.” Free the Slaves not only raises awareness about modern slavery, it also works in policy circles and on the ground to literally break the shackles—and give escapees the support they need to stay out of the trade.

Paul Wright began publishing Prison Legal News in 1990 when he was serving a 25-year sentence for murder and grew “angry and disappointed” at the lack of decent criminal justice coverage in the corporate media. At first, the paper focused on Washington state, where Wright was doing time, but as its audience and reputation grew, it went nationwide. PLN is no longer just a news source but is also a publisher of practical self-help books and a champion of free speech and human rights. Meanwhile, the U.S. prison system has grown from 1 million prisoners to 2.3 million. “We’ve been chronicling its rise,” Wright says. “Hopefully we’ll be here to chronicle its demise.”

Image of Kevin Bales above.

Read two collections of slave narratives from To Plead Our Own Cause by Kevin Bales and Zoe Trodd. The narratives accompanied the July-August 2008 Utne Reader story “People for Sale,” about the modern slave trade.

Read articles about Prison Legal News and interviews with Paul Wright.

The Young, the Old, and the Climate
Harry Moody, intergenerational advocate

Blaming baby boomers and seniors for climate change and other environmental woes is wrong, says Harry Moody. “Everyone is responsible for why we have problems,” says the chief academic officer for AARP, who’s mounting an effort to bring generations together to fight climate change. Apart from acting as a voice for green issues at AARP, he speaks often on the subject and is writing a book on it. Moody believes that many of society’s biggest problems, from funding Social Security to global warming, can be tackled with an intergenerational approach. “If we get our act together as a species,” he says, “we can do this.”

Hip-Hop the Vote
The Reverend Lennox Yearwood, citizen activist, community organizer

If you want to get out the vote, just tune in to the Reverend Lennox Yearwood and the Hip Hop Caucus. They’re addressing a need that no one else has even bothered to notice.

Launched last summer, the Respect My Vote campaign targets the non-voting, non-college community. It’s not a goal that gets funding, but the caucus, which Yearwood founded in 2004 to mobilize the hip-hop generation, is undeterred. Working with young Katrina survivors, “we began to see that people weren’t engaged in the process, particularly people who weren’t in college or who were poor,” says Yearwood. The problem crystallized in statistics: In the 2004 election, voters age 18 to 24 had the lowest turnout—and those who showed were disproportionately college educated.

“You can’t just go to a college campus and say ‘vote,’ ” Yearwood insists. “We have to go into the barber shops, into the ’hoods, into the byways and the alleyways, from Los Angeles to Minnesota, from Denver to D.C.”

The push is built on a vision of a new kind of politics in which people don’t feel disenfranchised. “We need a human congress,” says Yearwood, “a congress that puts humanity first, that can look at issues and evaluate things that hurt people from feeling human, particularly people of color who are so disenfranchised. If you start to see life through their eyes, you can’t stop fighting for justice.”

Watch Yearwood in the Brave New Films video project War on Greed:

Let’s Get Organized
Seth Green, founder, Americans for Informed Democracy
Lawrence Lessig, professor of law, Stanford University

Seth Green and Lawrence Lessig both harness the multitudinous power of the people to make better public policy.

Green, 28, founded the youth network Americans for Informed Democracy (AID) after being in London shortly after 9/11 and finding a warm welcome in the city’s Pakistani community. “They expressed grief when they heard my American accent,” he says. “The world I got to see was very different from what many people were seeing.” He formed AID in part to improve U.S.-Islamic relations by fostering dialogue on college campuses, and the group now works to get students talking about global issues from health and the environment to peace and security. Green, who is involved in a host of organizations, including Citizens for Global Solutions and Thinking Beyond Borders, is also a blogger and media commentator. “Young people want to be a part of the next great generation,” he says.

Lessig, a Stanford law professor, attained fame as a champion of “free culture,” promoting the freedom to share and modify creative works and starting Creative Commons as a 2.0 alternative to copyright law. Eventually Lessig’s fight to reform copyright ran into a wall called Congress, and the special interest money that controls it. He began what the Nation called “the second act of his career,” forming the group Change Congress to clean up corruption in politics with measures such as eliminating lobbyist and PAC money and establishing publicly funded campaigns. Like a true geek, he’s gone meta.

“We’re not going to be able to solve any of the critical public policy problems that we face—from really important issues like global warming to somewhat esoteric issues like copyright—until we solve this more fundamental problem,” he says.

Image of Seth Green above.

Read Seth Green’s interview with the BBC.

Read Lawrence Lessig’s exclusive interview with Utne Reader.

Fun Manager
Joan Almon, cofounder and chair, U.S. Alliance for Childhood

Tree forts and make-believe cities have been on the endangered activities list, but they’re making a comeback thanks to Joan Almon, who has long advocated for restoring “play” to children’s lives and believes it’s essential to their social development and well-being. “Today the child’s urge to play is often overrun by the adult’s urge to organize the child’s time and direct it, or influence it,” Almon says. The Alliance for Childhood is embarking on a campaign to reform kindergarten education to include self-directed play that breeds creativity and is introducing the profession of “playworkers,” or professionals trained in fostering imaginative interactions.

What’s the Big Idea?
Dacher Keltner, psychologist
Nick Bostrom, philosopher

Human beings are faced with so many short-term problems—how to raise our kids, how to save the environment—that big-picture questions get lost in the rush. What is our potential, as individuals and as a species? What are we capable of? What should we be capable of? Psychologist Dacher Keltner and philosopher Nick Bostrom are unaffiliated but like-minded in their pursuit of questions like these.

Keltner maps the physiology of kindness at the Greater Good Science Center in Berkeley, California, exploring the ways we are wired to feel compassion, love, empathy, and gratitude. “We are very cynical about the better inclinations of human beings,” Keltner says of the dim view that posits human beings as inherently selfish, individualistic, and competitive. “But that is half the story.” As Keltner writes in Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life (Norton, January 2009), studying positive emotions like gratitude, amusement, awe, and embarrassment reveals a more optimistic picture of human nature.

Bostrom goes even further, investigating what lies beyond our biological makeup. “The smartest thing we could do would be to try to make ourselves smarter and wiser,” says the futuristic thinker, who studies human enhancement technologies and other “macro-questions” at the Future of Humanity Institute in Oxford, England.

High-minded inquiries often spiral into passionate, ethical debates that can stall scientific inquiry into everyday things such as improved concentration, better sleep, and increased resistance to pain. What’s unique about Bostrom’s more gentle approach, says nano-ethicist Patrick Lin, is that rather than advocating for one “accurate” vision of our future, Bostrom is deeply rational: “He’s not a rabid advocate, he just really wants to figure out what is right.”

Image of Dacher Keltner above.

Read two of Dacher Keltner’s essays here and here (PDF), and keep an eye out for his book, Born to Be Good, in January. The book describes the evolution of emotions such as awe, embarrassment, and compassion, and examines how these emotions can foster goodness and happiness.

Watch Nick Bostrom talk about humanity’s biggest problems—death, for one—below, and get acquainted with his work at nickbostrom.com.

You Can Go Home Again
Sandra White Hawk, cofounder and director, First Nations Repatriation Institute

Establishing an identity is impossible for those who are isolated from their culture and their past. A Sicangu Lakota, Sandra White Hawk aims to “reclaim our people, give them the names they want to carry, and put their feet on the ground their ancestors walked on.” Those people are American Indian adoptees, like White Hawk, who suffered historic grief propagated by a broken child welfare system that allowed children to be adopted outside of their culture. Now she’s reimagining Native advocacy through forums in several states, where tribes, adult adoptees and families, and community members come together for a spiritual song ceremony and “air out that truth” that foments healing and reconciliation.

Local Star Tribune reporter Curt Brown wrote about a healing ceremony White Hawk organized in Minnesota. There’s also a great slideshow of the event.

This Land Ain’t Your Land
Ariel Luckey, performance activist

In the 19th century, U.S. forces displaced American Indian populations, often violently, before white homesteaders moved in to claim “free” land. “If you look at who owns land in this country, the pattern that’s here today was established in the 1860s,” says Oakland-based hip-hop artist and activist Ariel Luckey. To get people seeing the roots of that privilege, he created Free Land, a candid solo show about coming to terms with homesteading in his family’s history. With dance and song, Free Land cuts to the heart of inherited privilege with more resonance than 10,000 self-conscious liberal arts students could ever muster—and in doing so, opens the door for genuine national introspection.

Image by Maryam Roberts

Watch excerpts Luckey performing Free Land:

Contributors: Keith Goetzman, Julie Hanus, Judith Lewis, Hannah Lobel, Danielle Maestretti, and Elizabeth Ryan

Where's the audacity of honesty and integrity?! Elected office is not a license to lie.

2010-01-19T19:12:00.000-08:00

Where's the audacity of honesty?! Elected office is not a license to lie.

Are the Democrats' lies that hard to miss? The only change I see from Obama is the redefining of the definitions of words he used pre-election, to mean something completely different post-election.

- - -

Op/Ed, random thoughts on Obama’s change of the English language (more than anything else). Otherwise, it’s business as usual for Barack “Wall Street” Obama, making YOUR tax money freely available for those who have the most!

It’s not that difficult for most people. They say only what they know and believe to be true, without the sales pitch embellishments or outright misrepresentations.

Most Democrats and Republicans in elected office, however, suffer from an ailment that hits hard. They lose perspective of reality.

Obama is a classic example – his polished prose, delivered better than the best ‘motivational’ speaker ever – every speech is just a pep rally. No substance, just buzzwords.

What Obama and the Democrats are doing is completely different. Why can’t they just say what they mean, and mean what they say. Be honest, for once. Start a new trend in government, rather than following the slick talking approach of Wall Street and most of the business world.

It’s not about marketing, Mr. Prez. It’s about representing people, respecting the Constitution, and serving the people in America. Not your ego, not your career, or second term, not your party.

Is it just me, or are the Democrats’ lies that hard to miss? The only change I see from Obama is he redefining of the definitions of words he used pre-election, to mean something completely different post-election. Take for example Obama’s change of the word “withdrawal” to mean increased 30,000 – 50,000 US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanstan.

So where’s the Peace? Where’s the ending of the war? Why are you so afraid to say what you mean and mean what you say Mr. O? Why don’t you trust the people in the US, is the real question.
- - -

The Art of Politics:

definition: The ability of Democrats and Republicans to speak without commitment, to make promises that can motivate people to action without ever being enforced. This technique has been perfected by Pres. Barack Obama.

One year ago... and the new War President impresses the Pentagon

2010-01-19T19:08:00.000-08:00

REPOSTED FROM AntiWar.org
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articlei...

(more links within article at original post)

The Silence of the Liberals
As Obama launches “war on terrorism” II

by Justin Raimondo
February 27, 2009

I see that the Pentagon has reversed its old policy of refusing to allow photographs of those flag-draped coffins as our dead soldiers return from the battlefield. One wonders, however, how much interest there will be in taking and publishing such photos now that President Barack Obama is in office. One also wonders how long it will take the media to acknowledge the new quagmire we’re sinking into if and when the numbers of casualties start increasing – as they are sure to do.

After all, Obama’s war ( http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-02-17-afghanistan-forces_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip ) is going to be taking place on a much larger, more difficult canvas than that of his predecessor’s, which was confined in large part to Iraq. All of Afghanistan will soon be teeming with newly-arrived US soldiers, sent there – direct from Iraq – to fulfill the President’s pledge to start fighting the “right war” ( http://tinyurl.com/dllodx ) in the right way, a “smart” way ( http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/576449 ). Oh, these guys (and gals) are the Best and the Brightest, alright, aren’t they?

The smarty-pants tone ( http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29289533) and style of this administration is already beginning to grate on my nerves, as they pander to their base on the symbolic issues – like the coffin question – in hopes no one will notice as they backtrack on more important matters. So far, it doesn’t seem to be working out all that well.

Glenn Greenwald ( http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/... ) isn’t cutting them any slack on the torture brouhaha – he’s already pointed out that they’ll still be torturing people, albeit not with their own hands in some instances, and that if Guantanamo is closed, Bagram – where similar activities are known to take place – is going to be open for “business.”

Most of the Obama-zoids are happy, however, because, after all, Keith Olbermann assures them we’ve entered the new millennium, the Dear Leader is in the White House, and all’s right with the world. But is it?

Not by a long shot. Has anyone noticed Obama’s vaunted 16-month withdrawal-from-Iraq plan has already stretched into 19 months – and the “residual force” he kept talking about during the campaign, as if it were a mere afterthought, turns out to be 50,000 strong?

Originally, none of those “residuals” were supposed to be combat troops – yet now we are told “some would still be serving in combat as they conducted counterterrorism missions.” You have to go all the way to the very end of this New York Times report before you discover that, according to Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell, “A limited number of those that remain will conduct combat operations against terrorists, assisting Iraqi security forces.”

In short: we aren’t leaving.

I don’t care what the status of forces agreement says: that document has more loopholes than the bank bailout bill’s provisions for paying back the American taxpayers. Those 50,000 “residual” occupiers will simply pull back into their permanent bases, which are even now being constructed throughout Iraq, to be called on when our sock-puppets find themselves unable to tamp down the growing spirit of rebellion.

What kind of a “withdrawal” is this? It is one so burdened with contingencies, conditional footnotes, and amendatory clauses, that it falls beneath its own weight and collapses into a fair approximation of the status quo.

Antiwar voters who cast their ballots for Obama have succeeded in rolling the stone all the way up a rather steep hill, only to see it fall down the other side – and we are right back where we started. The next hill is called Afghanistan, and beyond that is yet another: Pakistan.

Not even Bush tried to fight a two-front war: Obama, however, is leaping into Afghanistan with alarming speed. Sending those 17,000 troops was one of the first acts of his administration, announced well before any of the economic measures. The economy may be crumbling, but the empire cannot be allowed to go the same way – that’s the lunatic mentality of our rulers, whose priorities reflect a Washington mindset still stuck in the glory days of American hegemony.

Under Obama, the military budget will rise by 4 percent, and this isn’t counting the costs of Iraq and Afghanistan. As Cato Institute research fellow Benjamin H. Friedman puts it: “Many Americans believe that Barack Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress will lower defense spending and restrain the militaristic foreign policy it underwrites. The coming years should destroy that myth.”

Yes, but myths die hard. It will take a couple of shiploads of flag-draped coffins – and perhaps a couple of alarming incidents in Afghanistan and environs – to wake up Obama’s liberal supporters to what they’re presently enabling with their silent complicity. In the meantime, the creaking wheels of empire are turning as we gather our forces for another even more perilous mission that will take us straight into the fabled graveyard of would-be world-conquerors otherwise known as Afghanistan. Why? How? To what purpose? A thousand questions raise themselves up, like the first crocuses of spring – but the Obama administration isn’t answering, because no one of any importance is asking. Just little old me – and, maybe you. And maybe Rachel Maddow, now and then: and that’s pretty much it. Surely the alleged “antiwar movement” isn’t interested – they’re too busy hailing Obama’s election.

The President’s budget requests for Iraq and Afghanistan total $75 billion through the fall, and $130 billion for next year. That means we’ll be spending nearly $11 billion per month for at least the next year and a half.

This bothers exactly no one in Washington, and especially not in the White House or the Democratic caucus chamber: after all, these people believe that government spending – any sort of spending – is what will fix our ailing economy right now. So why not increase the mis-named “defense” budget, anyway – don’t you want an economic recovery, or are you, like Rush Limbaugh, hoping the President will fail?

Yes, you know we’ve entered a new era when I start citing Limbaugh favorably, and yet that’s the sad part about all this: it is now left to Limbaugh and his talk radio confreres to point out the backsliding and howling hypocrisy in this administration’s policies, both foreign and domestic, because the liberals – with a few exceptions – have been struck dumb by their “victory.”

The Great hOpe - one year later... Mission Accomplished! (status quo maintained)

2010-01-19T19:04:00.000-08:00

With barely a ripple, hardly noticeable, except for the more eloquent BS, the status quo has been maintained at the White House and Congress. Mission Accomplished for military-industrical-Wall Street masters, the people hardly blinked.

- - -

Some cases where Obama’s policies are like Bush’s

By The Associated Press – 7 hours ago
February 28, 2009

Some cases in which actions by the Obama administration have tracked policies of former President George W. Bush:
WHITE HOUSE RECORDS

The Obama administration sided with Bush in trying to kill a lawsuit that seeks to recover what could be millions of missing White House e-mails from the Bush years, reasoning that plenty had already been spent and done to recover the messages.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government, the private group that sued, called it “an incredibly cynical and narrow view” of the government’s legal obligations. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs countered that the administration still was pursuing “a greater amount of transparency than Washington has seen.”
ENEMY COMBATANTS

The administration filed a legal brief that echoed Bush in maintaining that detainees in Afghanistan have no constitutional rights and arguing that enemy combatants held at Bagram Airfield cannot use U.S. courts to challenge their detention.

The brief said that if the Bagram detainees got access to U.S. courts, it would allow all foreigners captured by the United States in conflicts worldwide to do the same. Human rights lawyer Tina Monshipour Foster said she had “expected better” from the Obama administration. A Justice Department spokesman said the ruling spoke for itself.
STATE SECRETS

Even as Obama officials promised a thorough review of its use of state secrets protections, government lawyers continued to invoke the state secrets law in a federal appeals court in San Francisco. That case involves a suit over the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program, in which U.S. operatives seized foreign suspects and handed them over to other countries for questioning.

Some former prisoners subjected to the process contend they were tortured. Proving that in court has been difficult, as evidence they have sought to corroborate their claims has been protected by the president’s state secrets privilege.
MORE STATE SECRETS

The Obama Justice Department also asserted the state secrets privilege in a lawsuit brought by the Oregon chapter of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation.

The only U.S. chapter of a defunct Islamic charity based in Saudi Arabia, Al-Haramain sued after the government accidentally turned over documents that the group says showed evidence of the wiretapping.

Government lawyers asked an appeals court to prevent a lower court judge from releasing any information in the case which they said would harm national security. The administration wants the information to remain secret while it continues to fight the matter before the appeals court. But the appeals court in San Francisco ruled Friday against the government’s request for an emergency stay.
STATE SECRETS III

The Obama administration is supporting Bush’s use of the state secrets privilege in a third case, this one involving suits against telecommunications companies by people and organizations alleging that the companies violated wiretapping and privacy laws.

The Bush administration had invoked the state secrets privilege to keep a judge from reviewing government documents laying out the program under which the companies allowed the government to eavesdrop on their customers without a court’s permission after the Sept. 11 attacks.
IMMIGRATION

As a candidate, Barack Obama promised an immigration policy that would shift emphasis away from workplace raids and place greater focus on employers who hire illegal immigrants and overall immigration reform. Some immigration advocates were hopeful Obama would sign an executive order that would freeze immigration raids, but that hasn’t happened.

On Tuesday, federal agents raided an engine plant in Bellingham, Wash., and rounded up 28 illegal immigrants, leading one immigrants’ advocacy group to declare: “On immigration, we need change we can believe in.”

It turns out that the raid took even Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano by surprise. She ordered a review of the action, and said work-site enforcement needs to be focused on the employers, not the workers.

Congress is acting treasonously by failing to prosecute Bush-Cheney regime

2010-01-19T18:59:00.000-08:00

Congress is acting treasonously by failing to prosecute Bush-Cheney regime

The Constitution created three branches of government to check and balance each other. The Supreme Court is worthless, since it's stacked with right-wingers that have mostly rubber-stamped the White House (and the wishes of Wall Street). The Congress is the last resort of the American people, and it's not looking good for American people.
- - -

Although the rich and powerful have always been above the laws that applied to most Americans, this double-standard is no longer tolerable or acceptable. This double standard is not only undemocratic, it is contrary to all reasons why the brave patriots stood up to the King and drafted the Declaration of Independence.

It’s time to apply laws equally to all people, and the best way is to show American people that there is only one set of laws, is by prosecuting fully the Bush-Cheney executive branch, comprised of the rich and powerful folks that have disreagarded the law.

Such a prosecution would restore a bit of integrity to the government, confirm that the checks and balances are still there, sort of, and reaffirm that nobody is above the laws. Not even the rich enough and powerful enough to be elected to public office.

As Theodore Roosevelt said on May 17, 1918:

“The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else. “

Here’s the most important part, that bears repeating and emphasis:
” To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

So far, the Congress has failed to check or balance the Executive Branch. Neither has the pro-busines, conservative-loaded Supreme Court that has for the most part rubber-stamped the Executive Branch and “balanced” the Constitution away little by little. One could argue that such a bi-partisan, rubber stamp operation is treasonous and unconstitutional, and no longer serving the people of the United States, as commanded by the Declaration of Independence. Maybe you could do something about this extreme top heavy shift of power, that no longer represents American peoples’ interests?

It’s long past the time that America moved from the Bush-Cheney “zero accountability” standard, reminiscent of the King of England from whom America sought independence, to a “ZERO TOLERANCE” for human rights violations standard. We consider ourselves a civilized and educated nation, yet, the actions of the Bush-Cheney regime (which President Obama is staying the course), are a throw-back to the medieval times.

The fullest and most detailed investigation possible of torture and criminality by these officials is a necessity to reestablish the rule of law and the Constitution, and to secure justice for the victims and survivors of torture and war crimes, as well as to prevent future government officials from engaging in similar actions.

However, an investigatory committee alone is not enough. This is not an exercise in white-washing and coverups, like the 9/11 Commission provided. In order to ensure that those responsible for creating the program of torture and for running roughshod over the Constitution are held accountable, criminal prosecutions are necessary.

The US-Mengeles and other architects of the torture program deserve their Nuremburg trials too. No commission of inquiry should prevent prosecutions from going forward, nor should such anti-Americans be given the slightest protection or immunity by virtue of their wealth or power.

This commission must not become a mechanism to forestall or prevent criminal prosecutions or set a precedent for a subsequent administration white-washing its predecessor’s transgressions.

Those responsible for crafting the programs that violated the law and the Constitution must be held fully accountable. It’s the only way of confirming that there’s only one set of laws for everyone.

Cut military/Pentagon funding by 75% NOW

2010-01-19T18:53:00.000-08:00

Visit http://www.afsc.org/cost to tell Congress how you want your tax dollars spent

The invasion and conquest of Iraq and Afghanistan have taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of people (including thousands of US military personnel). This Bush-Cheney boondoggle is STILL costing over $720 Million dollars each day - dollars that could be spent in much more constructive ways. AND, We the People, never received a straight, truthful answer about WHY the invasion and occupation of Iraq happened - all reasons provided by the Bush-Cheney regime have been proven to be fabricated lies.

This fiasco has gone on far too long, and drained too much of our, We the People's, money. It is time to DE-FUND the war and RE-FUND human needs in the U.S.. Get more details about our Cost of War campaign and sign the petition at http://www.afsc.org/cost

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnq6cD5jk1Q

Biking coming to a town near you! Ditch the car, stop paying the man for gas & insurance

2009-01-11T18:53:00.000-08:00

Biking coming to a town near you! Ditch the car, stop paying the man for gas & insurance
ENSURING BICYCLING IS INTEGRATED INTO NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION, CLIMATE, ENERGY AND HEALTH POLICY INITIATIVES - US Conference of Mayors adopts pro-biking resolutions... now it's time to implement! Let's see some 100% bike-only routes in and out of urban areas.
Posted: 08.11.2008

By: The U.S. Conference of Mayors
Source: USMayors.org
http://www.usmayors.org/resolutions/76th_conference/chhs_04.asp

Published: 06.24.2008

The U.S. Conference of Mayors
76th Annual Meeting
June 20-24, 2008
Miami

2008 ADOPTED RESOLUTIONS
ENSURING BICYCLING IS INTEGRATED INTO NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION, CLIMATE, ENERGY AND HEALTH POLICY INITIATIVES

WHEREAS, bicycling can provide multiple and cross-cutting benefits in U.S. policy initiatives that seek to address transportation needs, limit climate change and energy consumption and improve public health; and

WHEREAS, we now live in a nation with 300 million people, and that number is expected to grow to 365 million by 2030 and to 420 million by 2050 with the vast majority of that growth occurring in congested urban areas where there are significant limitations on accommodating increased motor vehicle travel; and

WHEREAS, since 1980, the number of miles Americans drive has grown three times faster than the U.S. population; and

WHEREAS, a national transportation system that invests in and is conducive to bicycling reduces traffic congestion in our most heavily congested urban areas while promoting an overall improved quality of life that is valuable for the Nation; As example: More than 200 cities throughout the U.S., representing more than 35 million people have committed to implementing bicycle friendly action plans to make their communities more bicycle friendly; and

WHEREAS, the greatest potential for increased bicycle usage is in our major urban areas where 40 percent of trips are two miles or less and 28 percent are less than one mile; and

WHEREAS, surveys show that a majority of people want to ride more but are dissuaded by concern over traffic danger and other barriers, and case studies have shown that when those barriers to bicycling are removed, people start riding; and

WHEREAS, a national network of interconnected urban and rural bikeways can provide valuable community benefits, including low or no-cost recreation and alternative transportation options for people of all ages and abilities; and

WHEREAS, the transportation sector contributes one-third of the greenhouse gas emissions in the United States and passenger automobiles and light trucks alone contribute 21 percent; and

WHEREAS, Ten percent of global oil production goes solely toward fueling America’s cars and trucks and the U.S. could save 462 millions of gallons of gasoline a year by increasing cycling from one percent to one and a half percent of all trips; and

WHEREAS, bicycle commuters annually save on average $1, 825 in auto-related costs, reduce their carbon emissions by 128 pounds, conserve 145 gallons of gasoline, and avoid 50 hours of grid locked traffic; and

WHEREAS, over 800 of our Nation’s Mayors have signed onto the Climate Protection Agreement of the United States Conference of Mayors urging the Federal Government to enact policies and programs to meet or exceed a greenhouse gas emission reduction target of a seven percent reduction from 1990 levels by 2012;and

WHEREAS, two years ago the Conference of Mayors unanimously endorsed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, whereby a key component is to implement climate-friendly land-use policies and invest in public transportation and bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure; and

WHEREAS, the Center for Disease Control estimates that if all physically inactive Americans became active, we would save $77 billion in annual medical costs; and

WHEREAS, the United States is challenged by an obesity epidemic in which 65 percent of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese, and 13 percent of children and adolescents are overweight, due in large part to a lack of regular activity; and

WHEREAS, the percentage of U.S. children who walk or bike to school has dropped by 70 percent since 1969 such that only 15 percent of students were walking or biking to school in 2001 while the rate of childhood obesity has tripled in recent years;and

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors believes that achieving increased levels of bicycling is in the national interest; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors encourages the development and implementation of a coordinated national bicycling strategy aimed to increase safe bicycle use as a mode of transportation; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors encourages the development of federal transportation, environmental and public health policies that recognize increased and safe bicycle usage for transportation is in the national interest and that we further urge Congress in the next federal transportation reauthorization to establish policies and funding mechanisms that will aim to Reduce the number of motor vehicle miles traveled (VMT); and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors encourages improving safety conditions for bicyclists and Collect transportation and safety data needed to monitor progress; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors encourages providing incentives for state and local governments to adopt and implement Complete Street policies designed to accommodate all users; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that even absent federal incentives, Governors and state-level leadership should embrace Complete Streets policies that acknowledge the contributions of bicycles as a means to reduce vehicle miles by integrating bicycle use into standard street design; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors calls on all Mayors that sign onto the Climate Protection Agreement to develop and implement action plans to incorporate bicycling programs and policies as a key component in reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors encourages every mayor to strive to make their city a Bicycle Friendly Community.

No excuses now: Huge solar power breakthrough

2009-01-11T18:50:00.000-08:00

Solar Power Breakthrough Stores Energy for Later Use
Daniel Nocera has developed a simple method to split water molecules and produce oxygen gas, a discovery that paves the way for large-scale use of solar power.
Posted: 08.06.2008

Solar Power Breakthrough Stores Energy for Later Use

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, August 2, 2008 (ENS) – Within 10 years, homeowners could power their homes in daylight with solar photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen from water to power a household fuel cell. If the new process developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology finds acceptance in the marketplace, electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.

“This is the nirvana of what we’ve been talking about for years,” said MIT’s Daniel Nocera, senior author of a paper describing the simple, inexpensive, and efficient process for storing solar energy in the July 31 issue of the journal “Science.”

“Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon,” Nocera said.

Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is expensive and inefficient. But Nocera and his team of researchers have hit upon an elegant solution.

Daniel Nocera has developed a simple method to split water molecules and produce oxygen gas, a discovery that paves the way for large-scale use of solar power. (Photo by Donna Coveney courtesy MIT)
(continued at source)

Article continues here:

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2008/2008-08-02-01.asp

2009-01-11T18:47:00.000-08:00

Big Oil's best quarter... Cheney's energy "task force" Mission Accomplished! (?)
Odd, how Big Oil has done so well, actually, record-setting, call-Guiness Book of Records, well, when the rest of us seem to be working harder for less. Hmmm, wonder if there's any connection with Dick Cheney's super-secret energy "task force" meetings that were the top, #1 priority of the Bush-Cheney admin in May 2001, before they saw opportunity in the 9/11 events. Mission accomplished! (?) Posted: 08.02.2008

Here’s the “Top Stories” from Yahoo Finance. What’s wrong with this picture?

Top Stories

- Stocks pull back after another decline in jobs- AP
- Wall Street retreated again Friday after readings on jobs and manufacturing – the first reports for the third quarter - indicated that businesses and workers still face a tough economy.
- GM posts $15.5B 2Q loss, 3rd-worst in its history- AP
- US auto sales slump to 16-year low in July- AP
- Jobless rate climbs as 51,000 jobs vanish- AP
- Big Oil’s biggest quarter ever: $51.5B in all- AP

So, how’s your bottom line?

" In the late spring of 2001, Vice President Cheney held a series of top secret meetings with the representatives of Exxon-Mobil, Conoco, Shell and BP America for what was later called the Energy Task-force. Their job, ostensibly, was to map out America’s Energy future. Since late 2001 several public interest groups, including the very conservative Judicial Watch, sued to have the proceedings of those meetings opened to public scrutiny. In March 2002, the Commerce Department turned over a few documents from the Task-force meetings to Judicial Watch, among which was the map of Iraq’s Oil Fields, dated March 2001 (above) and a list of the existing “Foreign Suitors” for Iraq Oil. " (continues)

source for above quote:
http://jtaplin.wordpress.com/2008/02/14/its-all-about-oil-alan-greenspan/

More info on the Cheney agenda for boosting big oil’s bottom line (including maps of divying up Iraq) can be found here:

http://www.nrdc.org/air/energy/taskforce/tfinx.asp

http://www.judicialwatch.org/printer_iraqi-oilfield-pr.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Task_Force

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/about_hal/energytf.html

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20040702.html

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/2003/0718taskforce.htm

Obama caves in to big business - yet again, gee, what a surprise!

2009-01-11T18:43:00.000-08:00

Obama wants some of Exxon's record-setting profits, caves on off-shore drilling
Obama edges farther right, right next to McCain - trying to entice McCain for VP?! Bi-partisan sellout to corporate big oil interests. So much for sustainability, environmental consciousness. It's all about the votes and donations with Sen. Obama - he's more interested in his own future, than America's.
Posted: 08.02.2008

Obama Signals Support for Wider Offshore Drilling
Oil Search Would Be Part of ‘Comprehensive Energy Policy’ Aimed at Lower Gas Prices

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 2, 2008; A04

ORLANDO, Aug. 1—Sen. Barack Obama suggested on Friday that he could accept an expansion of offshore oil drilling as long as it was part of a broader package of measures that would free the logjam of energy bills in Congress.

Read full article here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080103199_pf.html

Pssst, Sen. Obama, here's a sure-fire strategy to WIN BIG

2009-01-11T18:41:00.000-08:00

Pssst, Sen. Obama, here's a sure-fire strategy to WIN BIG
Onion-esque, truth is stranger than fiction. McCain and Obama swear bi-partisan blood oaths to appoint the other as his VP. They're both so desperate for votes, this is their win-win solution. Added bonus: Wall Street gets its much needed boost of confidence. Just like George, you too can have your very own Mission Accomplished!!
Posted: 07.28.2008

Dear Sen. Obama:

Since you’re even more flexible on the issues than Sen. Nancy Pelosi, you should work with John McCain, and demonstrate your very successful and prominant bi-partisanship. I’m sure you can sell it, I know you’re a real charmer – issues, smissues, they really don’t matter – as long as you’ve got those buzzwords, and I know you do!

Specifically, here’s a sure-fire, win-win strategy, so you AND Sen. McCain can continue your illustrious political careers forever, at taxpayer expense, of course.

Each of you, that is Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain, should execute a mutually binding, bi-partisan of course, agreement to appoint the other (ie the “loser”) to be VP.

SO, hypothetically, the Democrats and Republicans would work together, another bi-partisan hallmark, besting even the Patriot Act, the Patriot Act ver.2, the funding of Iraq again and again, and giving AT&T, Verizon and countless others a “get out jail free” card.

I imagine your respective strategists and campaign managers would have no trouble working up a really nice, soft-shoe ad campaign. And there’d be the fluffy slogans about “delivering a better life” complete with sound-bites. They would be promoting to American voters the same choice they have now, but better: between the Obama-McCain ticket, OR, the McCain-Obama ticket…. hmmm, can’t wait to see who the great nation of “free-thinking” Americans picks.

That way, you both win, Wall Street can get that much-needed boost of confidence to avoid the withdrawal tremors and night sweats, and Americans can return to watching American Idol or any other flavor of distraction that may be on their TiVo, and sleep well, knowing the status quo will, assuredely, be maintained for another four years.

We can pull out that Mission Accomplished banner yet again, and salute corporate America, for its investment into the American political system. Maintaining a steady hand at the control of the US government is no cheap endeavor – and it’s a 24-7-365 job that employs thousands!

And don’t you worry about it, between following their favorite sports teams, keeping up with longer and greater demands and work, and their dedication to American Idol (yeah!), the vast majority of “civilians” won’t think twice about the conflicts that are presented. Anyway, you guys are pretty close on most issues, right?

Your truly,

just another unrepresented commonner

Buying of the Presidency, one convention at a time

2009-01-11T18:37:00.000-08:00

Buying of the Presidency, one convention at a time

Who’s Paying for the Dem-o-Repub Conventions? It's business as usual in both camps. Major corporations buy favors by funding the Dem&Repub conventions, pouring tens of millions of dollars into a little-known loophole in the campaign-finance system. AND the reason why they exclude third party candidates from the debates, and carefully guide the topics to shallow waters, for nice fluffy discussions. Posted: 07.24.2008

Who’s Paying for the Conventions?
Posted on Jul 23, 2008
By Amy Goodman

The election season is heating up, with back-to-back conventions approaching—the Democrats in Denver followed by the Republicans in St. Paul, Minn. The conventions have become elaborate, expensive marketing events, where the party’s “presumptive” nominee has a coronation with much fanfare, confetti and wall-to-wall media coverage. What people don’t know is the extent to which major corporations fund the conventions, pouring tens of millions of dollars into a little-known loophole in the campaign-finance system.

Stephen Weissman of the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute explains the unconventional funding:

“It’s totally prohibited to give unlimited contributions to political parties. It’s totally prohibited for a corporation or a union to just go right into its treasury and give money to political parties. Yet, under an exemption that was created by the Federal Election Commission, which essentially is made up of representatives of the two major parties, all of this money can be given if it’s given through a host committee under the pretense that it’s merely to promote the convention city.”

According to CFI’s new report, “Analysis of Convention Donors,” since the last presidential election, the corporations funding the conventions have spent more than $1.1 billion lobbying the federal government. Add to it the millions they pour into the conventions. Says Weissman: “In return for this money, the parties, through the host committees, offer access to top politicians, to the president, the future president, vice president, cabinet officials, senators, congressmen. They promise these companies who are giving that they will be able to not only get close to these people by hosting receptions, by access to VIP areas, but they’ll actually have meetings with them.”

Disclosure of what corporations are giving is not required until 60 days after each convention, which is essentially Election Day, so there is no time to challenge a candidate on particular corporate donors. Weissman reports that most of the corporations that are giving to the convention “host committees” also have serious business before the federal government. Take AT&T, for example. Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com recently pointed out that the Democratic conventioneers and registered media in attendance will receive a tote bag prominently emblazoned with the AT&T logo. It’s a perfect metaphor for a much larger gift, the one Democrats and Republicans just gave AT&T and other telecoms: retroactive immunity for spying on U.S. citizens. While Sens. Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd fought the bill, Sen. Barack Obama, until recently a staunch opponent of telecom immunity, reversed his position and supported it, reneging on a pledge to filibuster. Perfect timing.

(continued)

Continues at source:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080723_whos_paying_for_the_conventions/

Job Opportunity: Americans searching for Robin Hood

2009-01-11T18:32:00.000-08:00

Job Opportunity: Americans searching for Robin Hood
American people are in need of a Robin Hood (and some merry men and women), to oppose and break the king's and corporations' stranglehold on Americans' lives and livelihoods. All applicants with integrity, noble heart and Green ideals welcome. No application necessary, just step up and start doing the job.
Posted: 07.22.2008

Op/Ed: Was Robin Hood the first Green? He’s depicted wearing green. He represents the people – by the people, for the people – against the king. He has integrity and honor. He takes from the rich (who stole for the poor) and returns it to the poor. He helps those who are oppressed and disadvantaged.

The sudden “grassroots” support for Obama, although misplaced, to me confirms that Americans know there are some real, serious and dire problems with their country and leadership. Americans are looking for a Robin Hood, to break the stranglehold that government and Wall Street have over their lives.

However, their trust in Obama is misplaced. Look at his track record – he said he would oppose FISA legislation that included retroactive immunity, and then (a) closes debate and (b) votes in favor of legislation that contains retroactive immunity. He voted in favor of the Patriot Act, twice, and the Intel Act. He also funded time and again invasion and occupation of Iraq.

So, will the real Robin Hood please step forward?

Perhaps, just maybe, a patriotic American can step up and be America’s Robin Hood, saving the otherwise unrepresented, taxed and over-legislated people, the second class “civilians” as we’re referred to often, from oppression of the government, abusive law enforcement, America’s King George, predatory, heartless Wall Street, and it's soon to be champion, the ex-junior senator from Illinois, hizzoner Pres. Obama.

Holding my breath...

Alternative Energy is the ONLY option for the world

2009-01-11T18:28:00.001-08:00

Alternative energy will save the world and solve the supposed "terrorist" problem
By investing in American alternative energy research, development and manufacturing, America can regain its leadership role in the world, save its own economy and eliminate middle east "terrorist" concerns.
Posted: 07.15.2008

Op/Ed

The “terrorist” problem (largely created, hyped, and used by the Bush-Cheney regime to scare Americans into docile compliance) can still be solved by investing heavily in America’s alternative energy sector, including research, development and manufacturing. It will re-establish America’s leadership role in the world, create licensing and manufacturing income for American businesses, and lead the world in the area of sustainability. We may even discover new, as-yet undiscovered energy sources. Sure there are extremists in the US and abroad that are intent on destroying democracy and instituting their preferred flavor of a religiously based totalitarian regime, but they're few in number and fortunately far in between.

History confirms that new technology and innovation can be developed and implemented within decades, rather than the current administration’s century and beyond goals. Take for example electricity, telephones and automobiles, on the consumer front, and the tremendous strides in manufacturing in the early 1900’s. Or take a look at oil-tycoon T. Boone Pickens’ recent 10 year initative. Though it's an inspired and still oil-based, it shows that there's possibility even for the entrenched oil-tycoons.

I have confidence in American resourcefulness and ingenuity to reach major goals, including a new sustainable energy platform. However, this will require a strong desire and unity am Americans, and a leadership dedicated to energy independence and sustainability, long before the G8’s pathetic 50 year “goal.”

Of equal importance is the realization that when alternative energy replaces oil, the middle east will become irrelevant. Foreign control, investment and occupation will dry up, leaving the monopolistic, anti-competitive OPEC and those in the middle east (Marvin "unofficial King of Dubai” Bush) to their own devices – as the extremist/fundamentalist element there has been advocating all along. Give them what they wish – maybe it will even bring some social and human rights reform to Saudi Arabia. Or better yet, depose the king and establish some real democracy?!

I do not agree with the currently overused and abused use of the “terrorist” label being thrown about by the government, and interjected zealously by local law enforcement, at any and every chance. It’s obvious that the government and law enforcement are trying to scare people into believing them – it’s greed motivating for self-perpetuation of a broken and abusive system.

The current administration’s and law enforcement’s motives are plainly obvious – use fear mongering to scare Americans into complacency and obedience – and present a fundamental conflict of interest. They are more concerned about their control, their funding, and getting lots of new and improved gear and “toys” (i.e., methods of killing, torturing and controlling people).

Although violence committed by those who seek to send a message is completely, 100% wrong and unacceptable, it is a sign of reaching a point of human desperation. A desperation from being pushed so far, that people feel they have no options, and resort to using their most primitive thought process: the caveman violence approach. Nonetheless, when foreign occupiers are removed, the “terrorist” problem will be solved.

Obviously, the current administration, and even the current Dem-o-publican presidential candidates are more concerned about pleasing Wall Street and the Pentagon, in order to maintain the status quo, than they are about making the hard and necessary decisions. They are beholden to corporate interests, and supporting the “buggy-whip manufacturers,” because they have been their biggest donors, and unable and unwilling to make a turn and change directions dramatically, before America stays the Bush-Cheney course over the edge.

We need new direction, and hard decisions have to be made. It will be difficult for many established businesses that are unable or unwilling to change directions. The Wall Street oil speculators will lose lots of money. Oh well, that’s what happened to the buggy whip manufacturers when cars came about.

But alternative energy and sustainability is the only viable future – for the world, for the middle east, and for America’s long-term survival. We need candidates and a representative government that will take the necessary steps, and dramatically change the status quo. I do not see such candidates among either the democrats or the republicans.

The TSA Scam - they are their own proof of 100% failure

2009-01-11T18:25:00.000-08:00

The TSA scam
The fact that we are still at the "orange" threat level means TSA has been a complete failure. If it was successful, the threat level should have been reduced, and Constitutional rights restored
Posted: 06.10.2008

Fool me once, shame on me. Fool us for seven plus years, we’re all still fools.

Accountability, benchmarks, results – we all have to meet them in our daily lives. But that is not the case at the US government, and definitely not for Mr. Chertoff and his DHS. On the contrary, despite companies downsizing and families cutting expenses, the government is growing larger than ever and spending more than ever.

And it’s almost seven years since 9/11 that the Bush Administration starting riding the Homeland Security bandwagon and spending spree. Scaring Americans with creative conspiracy theories, while spending billions to monitor, search and harass Americans through its Constitution side-stepping DHS/TSA.

Ironically, the supposed “threat advisory level” is still orange: threat of immediate terrorist attack. Airports routinely remind us that “The threat advisory level has been raised to ORANGE…” Why is it still being “raised?” And why is it still orange in America.

We’ve been at the third most serious level since 2001, almost consistently. However, despite the fact that the Constitution is a non-negotiable restriction on government, we have lost significant Constitutional rights. Legislation such as the infamous (and incorrectly named) Patriot Act, was steamrolled through at the behest of the President and law enforcement – rather than American citizens – and billions of dollars spent creating ever-more invasive means of spying, tracking and harassing American citizens. And recently, under the auspices of this supposed threat level, Mr. Chertoff boldly and plainly announced in broad daylight, a new domestic spying program, targeted specifically at Americans.

Despite the dramatic loss of Constitutional rights and billions of dollars wasted, are we really more secure? Maybe slightly, but hardly in proportion to the cost or lost civil rights? Or, are grandmas and amputees just more embarrassed than ever before, while millions just waste more time than ever, without any rights or recourse, waiting and being searched at airports?

If the DHS/TSA was successful, theoretically, we would be “safer” here in America. If so, the threat advisory should have been lowered by now.

However, in seven years the supposed “threat advisory level” has never been lowered (and is currently being “raised” to orange on a regular basis at airports around America). Why doesn’t anyone (hint: elected officials) ask – after all the money wasted and civil rights arbitrarily taken away – are we at the SAME risk level?!

We’ve been cooked, like a frog placed in cold water, with the heat slowly turned up. It’s time for a change from business as usual, and return America to a true representative government, where American citizens are represented.

The usual suspects and “career” politicians from both major parties have made a mess of America. The Green Party www.gp.org is the only solution – representing people. One person at a time, we can return America to a Constitution-respecting, truly representative democracy once again.

New standard for all state/fed legislation: Presumption of Abuse

2009-01-11T18:20:00.000-08:00

Presumption of Abuse standard for legislation
The standard for legislation needs to be reversed - and all legislation should be held to a presumption of abuse standard.
Posted: 07.06.2008

Op/Ed – Presumption of Abuse? You betcha, count on it, it’s just governmental nature.

What do I mean? When boundaries are set and limits imposed, there are always those that must test and push and expand those boundaries. Well, if the government can push, expand or take advantage of its authority, history confirms that it will do so.

Hence, the US Constitution, was created to limit and restrict the government, and prevent a tyranical King George from taking over.

However, when the boundaries are actually laws enacted by State or Federal Congresses, those who cross those boundaries (i.e. those who break the law), are labeled criminals and forced to pay back their “debts to society,” which are becoming more and more severe in recent years.

So too it should be with law enforcement and other governmental agencies, when they cross boundaries, and break the law, or even overstep the default boundary: the US Constitution.

Despite Constitutional restrictions, currently, courts will uphold legislations if they can hypothetically create some permissible interpretation, even if it is remot or only theoretical. This is the wrong approach given the lack of integrity and respect for the Constitution among law enforcement.

I am writing about this topic after reading about the ACLU’s tireless efforts to defend the Constitution and the recent report from the Inspector General’s identifying widespread, illegal and unconstitutional actions by the FBI, despite extremely loose “boundaries” by virtue of the incappropriately named PATRIOT Act. This is only one of a long series of such boundary crossings by agencies of the current, and past, administrations.

Therefore, I propose to change the standard of review that all legislation has to pass, before it can be enacted. The new standard should be the “Presumption of Abuse” standard. That is, all legislation should be reviewed, and hypothetically and rigorously “tested” for different scenarios, with a PRESUMPTION that law enforcement and other governmental agencies will abuse the legislation.

Then, the legislation should be drafted in such a way that anticipates and prevents such abuses (with payment of a severe debt to society). The government’s track record confirms widespread and rampant abuses of powers at all levels, particularly with law enforcement agencies that see themselves above the law and consistently and predictably push their authority, despite the most lenient of restrictions (i.e. FISA court’s minimal threshold).

Federal and state police accountability agencies (comprised of non-police affiliate citizens from the ACLU, Amnesty International, or other human rights organizations) would be a good corrollary to this new standard, to enforce violations.

Without the often-unrecognized heroes in the ACLU and Amnesty International, the Constitution would in fact be just a piece of paper under the Bush-Cheney reign, with only historic significance, as it is close to becoming. Thank you, ACLU for defending my (remaining) Constitutional Rights.

Letter to My Dear Congressman/woman:

2009-01-11T18:18:00.000-08:00

My Dear Congressman/woman,
Why ever would anyone donate or support any of the usual suspects in Congress? Democrat or Republican, there's no difference, and even the supposedly Democrat controlled Congress is still rubber-stamping the White House's demands.
Posted: 07.09.2008

WHY ever would I contribute to a Congress that represents only only about 9% of Americans – you’re approval rating has reached an all-time low, and so it appears that your supporters are dwindling in number.

It’s not rocket science to figure it out, either – Congress does whatever the GOP/Bush-Cheney regime demands, and goes along with smiles. For example, the incorrectly named Patriot Act, then again, a second time around for the still incorrectly named Patriot Act, then the sell-out Intel Act, now immunity for big telecoms for admittedly and blatant unconstitutional conduct. There’s also the socialized and charitable contributions to the military industrial complex, bestowed with yet another well-funded year (burning through $720 million per day with no end in sight), then there’s the ongoing welfare to big oil, when Congress refused to repeal the “royalty relief” that has allowed Exxon to continuously set new larger than ever profits for three plus years straight. Mission Accomplished!! for Dick Cheney’s super-secret energy task for meetings, at the expense of America and its citizens.

Where’s the accountability, and why has Nancy Pelosi become so spineless all of sudden? Like Cynthia McKinney aptly pointed out, instead of changing Congress, Congress has changed Nancy Pelosi. She has become just another political hack, more concerned about her own well-being and career in political office.

How about doing what’s right, doing what you know is in the best interests of American citizens, instead of selling out to big business, Wall Street (oh, that’s another charity/welfare project in the works “insuring,” at taxpayer expense, the businesses that gambled on sub-prime mortgages), big oil, and Bush-Cheney loyalists in the Pentagon, Halliburton/KBR, Blackwater, McDonnell-Douglas, et al.

No way am I supporting such wanton disregard for Americans’ interests. No way am I supporting such gross neglect, recklessness and misdirection that is staying America’s course to ruin, guided by the delusional president and his puppetmaster, Cheney. No way, enough is enough already. Americans have had enough of the business as usual, by the usual suspects in Congress.

The Democrats and Republicans are just different sides of the same coin – although heads and tails look different, they’re both just the same wooden nickel – and as these parties are inextricably joined at their backs, so is the do-nothing, Bush-supporting Congress. Not only is it pathetic that Congress, and specifically the “change” talking Democrats, are going along with it all, but it is also pathetic to see how many Americans have lost their voice in government, and are neither rich enough to be Republicans, nor rich enough to hire a lobbyist to have a voice.

It is clear that Congress is beholden to Wall Street and big business, and has long ago turned a deaf ear to American citizens. It is a tragedy of monumental proportions, that has been taking place inch by inch for the last century. Perhaps soon, Americans will realize the dire straits they face, with a runaway government intent on taxing, spending and growing bigger than ever.

How about downsizing government and supersizing the Constitution for a change.

How about doing something real, for a change, instead of just talking about it and then back-dooring a watered down, worthless piece of legislation that helps only those in power at the expense of hard working Americans.

The Democrats have failed to take action, and instead just give lip service, double-speak and mumbo jumbo to appease future voters. The Democrats have failed to make the hard decisions, take the road less traveled, and stand up for American citizens, and against corporations that have lost their integrity, honor and consciences many decades ago. Until then, not a dime from me, and everyone I talk to. Actions speak louder than words, and even you, Sen. Obama, are all talk, no action.

It’s time for the change in Congress, and getting rid of the career politicians more concerned about self-preservation and the next election. It’s time to elect people who are sincerely interested in representing Americans, of giving voice to their constituents, and doing their duty to their country.

It’s time to vote Green and elect Green Party candidates to Congress!

Bush Tours Damage Caused by Presidency

2009-01-11T18:16:00.000-08:00

Bush Tours Damage Caused by Presidency
Truth is stranger than fiction, in this video from The Onion.
Posted: 07.13.2008

From The Nation:

Nine trillion dollars worth of debt. Intractable military occupations abroad. Millions without healthcare at home. A disaster has hit America and The Onion News Network’s crack team of investigative journalists are on the front lines, tracking George W. Bush’s long-overdue tour of the fifty-state disaster zone created by his Presidency.

-Will Di Novi

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080721/bushtour_video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aEURwsrUSQ

Police Accountability Desparately Needed, Nationwide

2009-01-11T18:14:00.000-08:00

Police Accountability Desparately Needed

If the police are so honest and doing such a great job, why are they so afraid of an independent review board?! If they had nothing to hide, they would welcome independent review - and the fact police depts. oppose review so strongly can only mean that they know they are not respecting peoples' Constitutional, human and civil rights.

Posted: 07.09.2008

All regular “ordinary” Americans (labeled “civilians” to those above the law) are held accountable, to ever stricter and often zero tolerance standards. It’s time to hold law enforcement accountable to the same, zero tolerance standard – zero tolerance for Constitutional violations and human rights abuses.

And, using the “tried and true” argument advanced time and again by law enforcement – if they aren’t doing anything wrong, then they shouldn’t be afraid of some oversight? If they’re honest, law abiding police, they shouldn’t have anything to fear from independent review of their “great” work, saving lives and protecting everyone. If they were doing such a great job as they claim, they should welcome the added publicity they would receive, from an independent review board denying frivolous claims.

The fact that the Fraternal Order of Police and its close-knit “brotherhood” are so strongly and vigorously opposing independent review can only mean that they are neither honest nor law abiding, and are knowingly and intentionally violating the Constitution and peoples’ human and civil rights – stuff that they know would get them in trouble if it ever got out to the general public. They are a secretive brotherhood, covering up for their fellow brothers – or they wouldn’t be so afraid of a little light being shed on what they do.

Unfortunately, the trend started by the United States’ two-term, runaway unitary Executive Branch, has trickled down to all levels of law enforcement, that are abusing people with more vigor and impunity then ever. They have been emboldened by the incorrectly named Patriot Act, the loosely thrown about “terrorist” designation, and automatic, rubber-stamp support all the way up the chain of command.

This is not the America that our Founding Fathers envisioned, and not the near-totalitarian America that we should have to put up with today. It’s time to change the status quo, and rein in all levels of the executive, including local law enforcement.

A prime example demonstrating the dire need for police accountability is the City of Chicago. With its Olympic bid, this concern is even more pressing. History has shown that police act with even greater impunity at and during Olympics, such as Mexico City, Los Angeles and Atlanta, where human and civil rights abuses were rampant and freely dispensed by local law enforcement. All Chicagoans and Americans should be concerned, particularly about the fraternal order of Chicago police.

Despite well-documented evidence of ongoing and pernicious human rights abuses, deviant police officers are neither identified by internal review procedures, nor disciplined. Such conduct cannot be justified or tolerated. The Chicago Police Department (“CPD”) has to move into the 21st century – from zero accountability to zero tolerance for human rights abuses. The only viable solution is an empowered, independent civilian review board. Accountability is the hallmark of an organization’s integrity, and without accountability there can be no meaningful change at the CPD.

The CPD has been evaluated by various organizations, and each has reached the same conclusion: the CPD’s internal review and discipline systems do not protect residents of Chicago from abusive police officers. Rather, the CPD has a policy of failing to supervise or discipline its police officers. This problem is compounded by a lack of transparency, the “blue wall of silence” when police officers refuse to testify against fellow officers and refuse to cooperate with investigations of colleagues, and zero accountability.

The CPD’s own data is difficult to believe when compared to other large cities, as revealed in the federal civil rights lawsuit, Diane Bond vs. Utreras. http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?I... During the years 2002-2004, 10,149 abuse complaints were filed, but only 124 were sustained. And in total, only 19 complaints resulted in meaningful discipline – a rate of less than 2 per 1,000 complaints. To put this in perspective, the US DOJ reported that the national sustained rate for excessive force complaints in large cities in 2002 was 8%.

In a study of data from May 2001 to May 2006, most police officers had fewer than four complaints each. However, there was a glaring problem with 662 police officers (the “repeater beaters”), that each had over 10 complaints and during this time generated 10,733 complaints. Of these 10,733 complaints against the repeater beaters, only 22 resulted in meaningful discipline, and 75% of the repeater beaters have never been subject to any discipline whatsoever.

Oddly, 86% of the repeater beaters were not identified by the CPD’s supposed “early warning system” as needing intervention. There were even officers on the force with over 50 complaints each in this five year period, yet they were never disciplined or identified by the CPD’s “early warning system.” In addition, between 2001-2005 the City of Chicago paid out over $100 millions to settle 864 lawsuits. For some odd reason, the City of Chicago is hiding and protecting these 662 repeater beaters, and preventing anyone from finding out their names. http://www.rcfp.org/newsitems/index.php...

Amnesty International’s 2005 “Stonewalled” report also confirmed that due to the lack of trust in police oversight, combined with fear of retaliation, many people simply do not make complaints about police abuse and misconduct. LGBT individuals, youth and homeless people are frequently abused, yet are among those least likely to file complaints – meaning that the data from the CPD represents only a small percentage of actual abuse by the CPD, since most is not even reported. http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?...

Long-observed patterns of abuse continue unabated, and the lack of accountability within police structures has lead to widespread distrust of the justice system, particularly in minority and LGBT communities. The infamous torture by Commander Jon Burge and his officers between 1973-1991 is now well-known. However, there have been numerous other scandals during the last fifteen years, including Miedzianowski, Auburn-Gresham, Englewood, Special Operations Section (featured on CBS’ 60-Minutes on 6/1/2008), and the Skullcap Crew that terrorized Diane Utreras, as well as the recent videotaped bar beatings by off-duty Chicago police. After each scandal, Mayor Daley and various Superintendents have responded the same way – with a public statement denouncing the “bad cops” and promising vigorous investigations. However, when public attention waned, the status quo was restored, without any meaningful reform being instituted.

As Joseph Stine, former Executive Officer of Police Training Bureau for the City of Philadelphia, said “if the Chicago Police Department investigated street crime the way that it investigate police abuse, it would never solve a case.” The CPD’s procedure for investigating abuse complaints violates every canon of professional investigation, and confirms that self-policing does not work. Impunity is allowed to prevail at the CPD, as the CPD, the Cook County State’s Attorney, and the US Attorney’s office have failed to implement a system of legal accountability despite decades of well-documented and ongoing human rights violations.

Act now, speak up and voice your support for independent civilian review panels – for large cities like Chicago, and for each state to oversee all municipal law enforcement departments.

It’s a win-win situation that only the guilty and repeater beaters would oppose. Honest police officers would have nothing to fear, nothing to be guilty about, and no reason to oppose an oversight and accountability panel.

It is time for Americans to stand up and demand independent civilian review boards for all law enforcement, particularly and most importantly in light of the expanded and unconstitutional powers granted by the Bush-Cheney administration. The boards would ideally be comprised of citizens from civil rights organizations, such as the ACLU, Amnesty International, National Lawyers Guild, American Friends Service Committee, Center for Constitutional Rights, et al. They would have power and authority to issue enforceable decisions, to make sure the police stop abusing their position of authority.

It’s time to stand up and demand zero tolerance for human and civil rights abuses by law enforcement. Enough is enough.

Additional resources

http://www.law.uchicago.edu/mandel/police/websites.html#account

A2D - Unite and support the Green Party

2009-01-11T18:10:00.000-08:00

A2D -Unite and support the Green Party

Take the pledge! Agree to Disagree on specific strategy and support the majority vote. Unify your local or state organization for greater strength and a stronger voice.

Posted: 07.17.2008

A2D – Agree to Disagree. This is the only way to fight corporate money and power. United we stand, divided we are irrelevant. OK, this may sound a bit non-local or non-grassroots, but it’s just a temporary solution. For too long, those in power have been dividing people in America, creating false disputes, kind of like sports team rivalries, completely irrelevant issues that divide Americans.

Greens all support the same Ten Key Values, and are on the same page when it comes to the Four Pillars. We all have big hopes for America returning to an egalitarian, Constitutional democracy, by the people, for the people.

However, there seem to be as many ways of implementing the Ten Key Values as there are people in the Green Party.

As a party, it would be useful at this juncture to unify as one strong force and support the majority vote on whatever strategy is at issue, no matter what issue, or how much we disagree with the specific approach.

Remember, we’re all on the same side and have similar hopes for a better US of A. As I see it, this is the only way to garner enough support for the Green Party to gain some prominance. (Unless of course, we reach a tipping point and there’s an inlux of hundreds of thousands of members.)

We can temporarily – just for a little while – agree to disagree on the precise method of addressing an issue, until the Green Party is an established party in every state and has a presence in the US Congress. Then and only then, we can reconsider whether it’s okay to start pulling the party into different directions with different strategies and see what happens.

Take the pledge, and A2D, for the benefit of the Green Party

==> A2D PLEDGE:

1. I am a member of the Green Party and fully support the Ten Key Values.

2. I will fully participate in all debates and present all information and strategy available to me on any particular issue.

3. Until the Green Party has representation in the US Congress or the White House, I pleadge and agree to fully support the majority vote decision on any candidate, strategy or position.

4. If in good conscience, I am unable or unwilling to actively, financially or vocally support the majority decision, I will remain supportively silent; however, I will still assist and provide guidance directly to organizational officers via email or written correspondence, advising them of the reasons for my supportive silence and providing constructive assistance.

5. United we stand, by the people, for the people.

Obama's double-speak early in the game

2009-01-11T18:08:00.000-08:00

Obama's double-speak

Obama's use of buzzwords to please everyone, yet his actions confirm that he caved on illegal warrantless wiretaps and that he supports the status quo.

Posted: 07.06.2008

Op/Ed: The Democrats and Republicans are two sides of the same coin – from one side the coin may look like heads, and from the other tails. However different it may look depending on which side you see, it’s still the same quarter, nothing more. These parties are inextricably linked at their backs, so would never doing anything to pull the other too far away from center.

Obama is just one of the usual suspects. His actions confirm that he is just another political hack-deal-maker, that is more concerned about pleasing his friends in Congress and big donors, rather than representing American citizens and the Constitution.

Here’s a letter I received from my good senator that confirms he continues to admirably represent ATT’s, Verizon’s, big-telecoms’ and the Bush-Cheney regime’s interests (including Operation Iraqi Liberation). The letter also reveals A LOT about how he would continue King George’s unitary executive approach when elected (and continue the gov’s corny use of acronyms for PR purposes).

Obviously, we cannot trust what he says – we need to watch what he does, to know the real Sen. Obama.

Unfortunately, his own political aspirations are guiding him, and he has long forgotten about his constituents and the Constitution.

Letter from Sen. Obama (below)

~~~~~~~

Dear __:

Thank you for contacting me concerning the President’s domestic surveillance program. I appreciate hearing from you.

Providing any President with the flexibility necessary to fight terrorism without compromising our constitutional rights can be a delicate balance. I agree that technological advances and changes in the nature of the threat our nation faces may require that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), enacted in 1978, be updated to reflect the reality of the post 9/11 world. But that does not absolve the President of the responsibility to fully brief Congress on the new security challenge and to work cooperatively with Congress to address it.

As you know, Congress has been considering the issue of domestic surveillance since last year. Just before the August recess in 2007, Congress passed hastily crafted legislation to expand the authority of the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence to conduct surveillance of suspected foreign terrorists without a warrant or real oversight, even if the targets are communicating with someone in the United States. This legislation was signed into law by the President on August 5, 2007.

As you are aware, Congress has been working on reforms to FISA. On November 15, 2007, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3773, the “Responsible Electronic Surveillance That is Overseen, Reviewed, and Effective Act of 2007” (RESTORE Act) by a vote of 227-189. The House bill did not provide retroactive immunity for private companies that may have participated in the illegal collection of personal information, nor does it provide immunity for Administration officials who may have acted illegally.

On February 12, 2008, the Senate passed S. 2248, making its own reforms to FISA. During consideration of this bill, I was proud to cosponsor several amendments, including the Dodd-Feingold amendment to strike the immunity provision, which would have enhanced privacy protections while maintaining the tools to fight terrorism. However, with the defeat of this amendment, the bill did not provide for a mechanism that would allow the American people to learn exactly what the Bush Administration did with its warrantless wiretapping program and provided for no accountability.

The House and Senate worked out a compromise, reconciling ifferences between the two versions of the bill before it can be signed into law. While I recognize that this compromise is imperfect, I will support this legislation, which provides an important tool to fight the war on terrorism and provides for an Inspectors General report so that we can finally get to the bottom of the warrantless wiretapping program and how it undermined our civil liberties. However, I am disappointed that this bill, if signed into law, will grant an unprecedented level of immunity for telecommunications companies that cooperated with the President’s warrantless wiretapping program, and I will work with my colleagues to remove this provision.

The American people understand that new threats require flexible responses to keep them safe, and that our intelligence gathering capability needs to be improved. What they do not want is for the President or the Congress to use these imperatives as a pretext for promoting policies that not only go further than necessary to meet a real threat, but also violate some of the most basic tenets of our democracy. Like most members of Congress, I continue to believe that the essential objective of conducting effective domestic surveillance in the War on Terror can be achieved without discarding our constitutionally protected civil liberties.

Thank you again for writing. Please stay in touch as this debate continues.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
United States Senator