Justdon'tletyourfeetstop

National Call in Day to Eliminate Cocaine Disparity

2009-12-02T09:56:00.003-05:00

From the Sentencing Project:
For the first time, crack cocaine sentencing reform legislation received a favorable vote in Congress when the House Judiciary Committee in July approved the Fairness in Cocaine Sentencing Act of 2009, H.R. 3245. To move the bill forward we need a vote on the bill by the entire House of Representatives.

Now is the time for advocates to contact their Representative to ask for support and co-sponsorship of H.R. 3245. Call the U.S. Capitol at (202) 224-3121 and ask to speak to your Representative right now.

The prospects for sentencing reform are the best advocates have seen since Congress passed this controversial law 23 years ago. Change cannot happen, however, without your support and continued pressure on members of Congress. Please use these talking points to tell your Representative to take action.

Talking Points:

Please support and co-sponsor H.R. 3245, the Fairness in Cocaine Sentencing Act of 2009. This legislation will:

* Restore federal law enforcement priorities. When Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 and 1988, the intended targets of mandatory minimums were "serious" and "major" traffickers. In practice, the law failed to live up to its promise. Mandatory penalties for crack cocaine offenses have been applied most often to individuals who are low-level participants in the drug trade, who comprise more than 60% of federal crack defendants.

* Save federal tax dollars and ease prison overcrowding. The Federal Bureau of Prisons estimates it costs $25,895 a year to house each prisoner. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, eliminating the sentencing disparity between powder and crack cocaine would reduce the prison population by over 13,000 in 10 years.

* Counter the perception of unfairness in the criminal justice system. African Americans account for 81.8% of defendants sentenced to federal prison for crack cocaine offenses. Crack cocaine sentences average 37 months longer than sentences for powder cocaine. This disparity has contributed to a damaging perception of race-based unfairness in our criminal justice system.

* Treat two forms of the same drug the same. Crack cocaine is pharmacologically the same as powder cocaine. Myths about crack cocaine, that have been dispelled since the sentencing law was passed 23 years ago, contributed to these out of proportion penalties.

Support Prisoner Families this Holiday Season!

2009-11-24T16:45:00.001-05:00

From Thousand Kites:
Dear Friend,

Join the tenth annual CALLS FROM HOME holiday radio broadcast for
prisoners and their families.

The United States has 2.4 million people behind bars. Thousand Kites
wants you to lend your voice to a powerful grassroots radio broadcast
that reaches into our nation's prison and tells those inside they
are not forgotten.

Learn more at www.callsfromhome.org

We are asking you to call our toll-free line 877-518-0606 and speak
directly to those behind bars this holiday season. An answering
machine will record your message. Read a poem, sing a song, or just
speak directly from you heart. Speak to someone you know or to
everyone---make it uplifting.

We are making a special call to poets to support our project this year.
Poets click here.

CALLS FROM HOME will broadcast on over 200 radio stations across the
country and will be available for download on our website December 8th.
Call anytime (now through December 7) at 877-518-0606 and record your message.

Listen to calls here.

Learn how you can help blog, distribute, broadcast, or support this project.

CALLS FROM HOME is a project of Thousand Kites/WMMT-FM/Appalshop Campaign Center
and a national network of grassroots organizations working for criminal justice reform.

So call right now at 877-518-0606.

peace,
Thousand Kites Team
thousandkitesproject@gmail.com
www.thousandkites.org

Call Pres. Obama: End the War!

2009-11-23T16:49:00.000-05:00

Call President Obama, Your Senators, and Member of Congress to Stop the Escalation and End the War in Afghanistan

An ad-hoc coalition of national peace advocacy organizations is calling on people from every corner of the country to inundate the White House on Monday (November 23rd) with phone calls against military escalation in Afghanistan.

The Obama Administration is on the verge of a major strategic decision regarding troop levels and US policy in Afghanistan. Ralph Nader recently lamented how Obama was possibly "insulating himself" - not unlike his predecessor - from expert and cautious advice as he considers this, his most perilous, foreign policy decision.

After eight years of war and occupation in Afghanistan it is now up to those Americans who have long counciled for peace and reconciliation to speak out louder than they ever have before. We take Obama's hesitation to commit more troops as a welcome sign, and see this not as presidential 'dithering', but as an opportunity.

Obama may not ever make the speech that Tom Engelhardt recently fantasized about, nor speak the truth that Howard Zinn so eloquently provides , but the peace movement must find its ground with this new President (and this Congress) to end the assault on the Afghan people, bring our troops home, and help bring peace to a region that has far too long known only war.

On Monday (11/23), take time from your day to call the White House - 202-456-1111 - and give President Obama the advise he so desperately needs. Tell him, We, the people of this nation, will not sit idly by and watch him turn our hope into a quagmire or our dreams of peace into the continued nightmare visited upon the nation of Afghanistan. When you're done, call your Senators and House members and relate to them the same.

If there is to be an escalation, let it be ours.
The groups supporting this Call-In Day include: Just Foreign Policy, United for Peace and Justice, the American Friends Service Committee, Peace Action, CodePink, Voters for Peace, Pax Christi, CommonDreams.org, Historians Against War, and the Institute for Policy Studies.

Don't Ask Don't Tell on Veteran's Day

2009-11-11T12:04:00.004-05:00

Thanks Schuyzoo for sending this my way.

Dan Choi's powerful story as told in a Moth performance can be accessed here.

On this veteran's day I have a lot of questions and a lot of hope that we can do things better NOW. The way we're treating our soldiers and our veterans is unacceptable. Policies that invisibilize and silence, like DADT and the denial of the prevalence of rape in the military (for a great DN! segment on the troubles female servicemembers face click here), perpetuate cycles that MUST be broken. Statistics telling about how we have failed our veterans are overwhelming and prevalent in the news - for example, over 2000 veterans died from a lack of health care last year, and new studies are showing that soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq are disproportionately suffering from unemployment. And of course, the violence at Fort Hood recently is disturbing evidence of how broken our military is. I'm not sure what would make it all better, but I know that increased transparency, support and training for soldiers and veterans would be a start. Maybe also downsizing our military? (GASP!) I don't know -- more ideas?

Is Blackface Back Again?

2009-11-03T15:59:00.002-05:00

Or should I ask, did it ever really leave? Racewire recently published an article on the resurgence of Blackface in the media, including on ANTM (vomit!) but also in W and Vogue magazines.

Obviously Halloween is quite the perfect time for racist costumes and blackface (Racewire also did an article on that) and my sister, who goes to Northwestern University, shared an open letter from one student to the NU community in the DailyNorthwestern. They wrote in response to some students wearing blackface and attempts to give them some historical grounding in her explanation of why blackface is racist and unacceptable. Let me repeat.. THEY HAD TO EXPLAIN THAT BLACKFACE IS RACIST AND UNACCEPTABLE. How folks don't figure things like that out for themselves... Anyway here's an excerpt:

Northwestern community: It is time we realize the significance of our actions. It is time every person becomes conscious of the effects his or her behavior has on an entire community of people. I am writing about the incessant and continuous racialized demonstrations of authority and dominance presented by the entire NU community and our society at large.

The most recent incident, the cause for this letter, was on the night of Oct. 31, Halloween, when certain white members of the NU community dressed up as black people. In an attempt to resemble a black person, someone painted his entire body black.

If you do not know the history of these actions, all you need to know is one word to understand the disgusting behavior this person embodied — that word is blackface. Blackface has, surprisingly enough, been on this campus before. Two years ago, a very similar incident occurred, pointing to the lack of insight of the people in the NU community to make a conscious movement toward combating race problems.

The full article is here. What upset me the most are the comments in response to the piece - but that's becoming a trend with on-line journalism, as well.

This reminds me of this one time when my friend Ruby was invited to a ridiculously racist costume party and the party-thrower just couldn't figure out what he was doing wrong..

Support the Goldstone Report! From Jewish Voices for Peace

2009-10-30T21:01:00.001-04:00

www.SupportGoldstone.org

CLICK HERE to tell the Israeli government, the media, US Congress and Richard Goldstone:
I SUPPORT THE GOLDSTONE REPORT

Dear Friend,

Frankly, I've had enough of the lies and distortions surrounding the UN Goldstone Report. I've had enough of the maneuvering by Israel, the US, and other countries in order to dismiss the report and its authors and bury it altogether.

If you are as dismayed as I am, sign at SupportGoldstone.org, and we'll let key Israeli officials, members of Congress, and Goldstone himself know how many of you support the report.

What we need, instead of the smear campaigns, is discussion of the report's substance: the use of phosphorus that literally burned people alive (I saw the terrible impact with my own eyes on a recent trip to Gaza); or the use of metal darts called flechettes that twist when they enter the body; or the long term impacts of contaminated land and water.

Early next week the report heads to the floor of the US Congress and the UN General Assembly, and we're expecting continued pressure to have this important document roundly dismissed.

The continued attacks on the Goldstone Report prevent accountability for the civilian victims before, during and after the attack on Gaza -- both Palestinians and Israelis -- and shred the rule of law.

That's why we are asking you to say: I support the Goldstone Report. Once you sign, we'll tell you how to easily and quickly lobby Congress and your UN Ambassador in the next few days.

The truth is that the Goldstone Report is a well-researched, fair-minded report. It accuses both Israel and Hamas of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the attack on Gaza, and it calls on Israel and Hamas to conduct credible, independent investigations or face the International Criminal Court.

I support the Goldstone Report.

Israel decided not to cooperate with the investigation and now claims that the report and its results are biased. Worse yet, Israel claims that the report negates its right to defend its population, when in reality, all the report does is insist that such a defense take place within the bounds of international law.

The United States and other countries are repeating the same lines, and have exerted great diplomatic pressure to kill the report.

The US Congress is getting ready to pass a resolution next week calling on President Obama to do everything he can to bury the Goldstone Report. The UN General Assembly will vote on it. Israel might launch its own investigation, if it is pressured enough to do so. And if it does, our task will be to ensure that the investigation is comprehensive, impartial, and aimed towards addressing, punishing and preventing future human rights abused - and not at changing the laws of war such that another blatant assault on civilian life and property as the Gaza war will ever become acceptable under international law.

Please join us in supporting the Goldstone Report now.

Thanks,

Cecilie Surasky
Jewish Voice for Peace

NYC No Longer a Sanctuary City

2009-10-30T09:48:00.003-04:00

This week The Huffington Post reported:

Last year about 360,000 people were deported from the United States, nearly 100,000 deportations resulting from past criminal convictions, mostly for low-level non-violent convictions. It's a mockery of justice that someone can be punished twice for the same crime.

New York City, which claims to be a "sanctuary city," is supposed to encourage its residents to report crimes and seek social services without fear of deportation.
As the Huff Post put it,

Allowing ICE into its jails is a violation of this policy. Schiro must urgently implement the demands of Immigration Out of Rikers, a city wide coalition pushing to kick ICE out of the facility. A key first step would be to refuse ICE access to the two-thirds of Rikers detainees who are pre-trial. Letting immigration agents into city jails means that many families end up being needlessly ripped apart.

The inadequacy of our immigration system and the perpetual violence against immigrants in our country feels overwhelming to me. I'm excited to see the emergence of a coalition that seems to be asserting itself effectively! I couldn't find a website for them but I found this awesome article on Make the Road's website.

Racewire Reports on Whitening Hollywood

2009-10-28T13:28:00.003-04:00

One of the things I love most about Racewire is their pop commentary - they have had hilarious analyses of Harry Potter, Disney princess movies, and other films. Most recently they posted a link to the top five most unintentionally racist films and then yesterday they released that a recent SAG report AG looked at casting reports from 2007-2008 and found that the number of people of color hired for film and television roles has dropped to 27.5% of total roles cast in 2008.

Blacks were the largest nonwhite group cast, according to SAG, but also lost the most roles in 2008, dropping from 14.8% to 13.3%. Latino roles decreased slightly, losing most in the lead role category. A Latino starred in 7.2% of features in 2007. Only 3.4% were the main characters in 2008. American Indians, despite their romance with the silver screen, had the fewest jobs, at 0.3% in both years.

For the full article click here.

I wonder what this says about our society - is Hollywood reflecting the increased tensions surrounding race in the US? Or where is this coming from... I wish I knew more about the process of what films and shows are made and why. It seems to me that this trend has been a long time coming because it takes a while to make a movie. But I'm not sure what it means although it's a disturbing trend and is also going to be increasingly misrepresentative of our society as it exists in reality, since we are quickly headed to a demographically majority-minority population. Any ideas for the implications?

EVENTS! NoCal, Phila, NY

2009-10-22T13:37:00.003-04:00

Today is October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. For information about nation-wide events go to their website. For those of you in and around NY:
Calling all New Yorkers!
4:30 p.m. Washington Square Park -- Rally and March (assemble west of fountain)
6:30 p.m. Voices Against Police Brutality -- music and art protesting police brutality
at Gay and Lesbian Community Center, 208 West 13th Street
(7th Avenue and 13th St.)

Also coming up in Philly on Oct. 29: The University Community Collaborative of Philadelphia Presents "Survival and Success": Youth Identity in the Context of Urban Violence

And NYU Law is sponsoring a DO SOMETHING SOCIAL ACTION BOOTCAMP on Saturday, November 7th: Do Something is hosting a Social Action Boot Camp for 100+ amazing young people who are rocking their causes as activists or have started their own community action projects. The goal of the Boot Camp is to offer a platform for young world-changers
(25 and under) to learn, think big and share their passion for social
change with other like-minded peers. During the day, we offer 16
different sessions on topics ranging from "Recruiting and Managing
Volunteers" and "Public Relations" to "Building a Website" and
"Measuring Your Impact".

If you are in Northern California or want an excuse for a visit, consider going to the Engaging The Other conference in San Francisco (San Mateo to be precise) November 12-15. To register click here - to read more about it go to Tikkun's blog post about it!

Fighting the Crack/Coke Disparity

2009-10-20T10:29:00.002-04:00

Congress is considering a bill that would close the crack/cocaine disparity (for some good links talking about the disparity read this Racewire article) by reducing penalties for crack cocaine. If passed the bill, dubbed the Fair Sentencing Act, will increase the amount of crack (to 500 grams) that would get you 5 years in prison to the same amount as is required now for selling powder cocaine. Obama has said in the past that he is committed to equalizing prison sentences for crack and coke but has been silent thus far on the Fair Sentencing Act.

It is worth noting that many conservatives want the punishment for cocaine to be increased rather than see a reduction in crack sentencing, but that lawmakers are citing economic reasons for avoiding that route - prisons are now being seen as an economic liability even if they are still considered necessary.

Along those lines -- I'm all about reducing or eliminating the disparity but in the Washington Post article about the bill they also mention that it would "stiffen penalties for large-scale drug traffickers and violent criminals." I'm just curious how this expansion of the prison system managed to finagle its way into the bill. Do the lawmakers who are purportedly about reducing or eliminating racist laws not understand the implications of ANY expansion of the PIC? Do they think that these "stiffened penalties" are going to equally affect all people? I'm just baffled at the lack of basic sense... who are we fighting here? Who are we protecting?

Bottled Water Injustice

2009-10-16T10:44:00.002-04:00

I've become one of those weirdos who gets really upset when I see people doing something I consider irresponsible - drinking bottled water. I have so far held back on my ranting, but especially now that I live in NYC where tap water is so clean my tolerance is low and dipping.

The Irish Times reported on Penn Teller's mockumentary about bottled water consumption in the US. In it, a fancy restaurant serves different kinds of water including one called L’eau Du Robinet (French for “tap water”) and another one with a spider in it, purportedly straight from the Amazon - haven't you heard of the healing powers of spiders? The water was all served from the tap and no one knew the difference - in fact they paid a whole lot of money for that water. That also reminds me of the Minnie Driver film where she's a waitress at a dive-y restaurant and this mean woman who is with the man she loves is being bitchy asking for bottled water and Minnie (sassy lady that she is) fills a bottle with tap water and seals it and the woman doesn't even notice, obviously.

Anyway, the politics of bottled water upset me more. The article reports:

Last year, BBC television’s Panorama current affairs programme investigated the high environmental cost of our strange love affair with bottled water. Fiji Water is indeed sourced in Fiji, then shipped more than 10,000 miles to Europe and beyond.

Meanwhile, one in three Fijians doesn’t have access to safe drinking water, and illnesses and deaths from typhus and other waterborne diseases are common on the island. The extraction of huge amounts of water for export is draining the island’s aquifers, putting even more pressure on supplies for the islanders.

Globally, as we ship billions of bottles of water from exotic-sounding locales to assuage our new-found thirst for water as a lifestyle accessory, 3,000 children die each day as a direct result of drinking contaminated water.

Globally, bottled water requires the production of about 300 billion plastic bottles a year, of which maybe one in five is recycled. Transportation, packaging, distribution and dealing with the waste generates tens of millions of tonnes of carbon emissions – and for what exactly? About 40 per cent of all bottled water sold is simply municipal tap water put into plastic bottles by corporations such Pepsi (Aquafina) and Coca-Cola (Dasani) and then sold back to the public in plastic containers.

WE CAN DO BETTER! If you want filtered water, buy a Brita! I get it, tap water sometimes isn't safe. But get a Klean Kanteen or a Sigg or something - is it that hard?? OK I'm realizing this is me ranting -- to all my regular commenters (haha) feel free to share an alternate view.

Immigration Sensations

2009-10-13T12:48:00.004-04:00

As it gets colder outside and people everywhere start worrying about making it through the winter, I shudder to think about what this year will bring for many families across the country. We are truly at a frightening time and the latest anti-immigrant hysteria has me feeling really pessimistic.

Despite the fact that many cities across the country are rejecting 287(g) (perhaps in response to the Hispanic Caucus' and around 520 other groups' call for immigration justice) and the UN report detailing how migrant workers give far more to the countries they move to than they take, we can't seem to make substantial changes.

Obama's new immigration plan which has been called "ambitious" primarily addresses the most grievous wrongs like the incredible neglect and abuse immigrants suffer in detention facilities. (For a link to the actual report click here.) What about real change? What about conversations regarding naturalization and legalization of undocumented workers?

I guess I should be happy that Obama is planning on making detention centers gentler and that the administration is aware of how broken the system is. Forgive me for not jumping up and down. I guess I just need to see substantial changes in the fundamental attitudes of Americans to get me going -- report after report and study after study show that the us citizens (especially us middle-class citizens - see here) end up benefiting substantially from immigration, so clearly these fears are not based on fact but rather symbolic definitions of value and humanity. I just don't know how to change those! Thoughts?

14th National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation

2009-10-13T11:57:00.001-04:00

Oct. 22, 2009
14th National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation

4:30pm Rally and March at Washington Square Park (gather at west side of the fountain)
Subway: A/B/C/D/E/F/V to West 4th, N/R/W to 8th St, 6 to Astor, 1 to Christopher; Bus: M1/2/3/5/6/8
Voices Against Police Brutality
music * poetry * art * film * resistance
6:30pm at the LGBT Community Center
208 West 13th Street (btw Seventh and Eighth Aves)
Subway: 1/2/3 to 14th St & 7th Ave, A/C/E/L to 14th St & 8th Ave, F/V to 14th St & 6th Ave; Bus: M5/6/7/9/14/20

If you can be a legal observer, please call Susan Howard at (212) 679-6018

WHITOPIA

2009-10-07T11:31:00.002-04:00

I just blatantly pulled this from Racewire (original post here) hoping maybe someone would read this that didn't see it there. I promise I'll do a 'real' post soon. I can't make it to this event but if you can, IT SOUNDS AWESOME.

Demos, the Applied Research Center, and The Nation Institute are proud to host the New York City book launch of Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey Into the Heart of White America, featuring author Rich Benjamin and Nation columnist Eric Alterman.

Between 2007 and 2009, Rich Benjamin, a Senior Fellow at Demos, packed his bags and embarked on a 26,909-mile journey throughout the heart of white America—some of the fastest-growing and whitest locales in the nation. Benjamin calls these enclaves “Whitopias.” To learn what makes Whitopias tick, and why and how they are growing, Benjamin lived in three of them for several months apiece.

In his book, Benjamin reveals the qualities that make a Whitopia, and explores the urgent social and political implications of this startling phenomenon. The glow of the historic 2008 election, argues Benjamin, should not obscure the racial and economic segregation still vexing America. Obama’s presidency, moreover, raises the stakes in a struggle between two versions of America: one that is broadly comfortable with diversity yet residentially segregated (“ObamaNation”) and one that does not mind a “little ethnic food, some Asian math whizzes, or a few Mariachi dancers—as long as these trends do not overwhelm the white dominant culture” (“Whitopia”).

The housing, social, lifestyle, and demographic trends Benjamin reveals are here for the long haul. Americans now have the chance to learn about and address these developments. What will we do next?

Please join us for an exciting and timely conversation featuring Rich Benjamin and prominent journalist Eric Alterman. The discussion will be followed by a wine and cheese reception.

Event info:
Date: Thursday, October 8th
Time: 6-8 pm
Place: Demos, 220 Fifth Ave., 5th Floor, New York 10001

RSVP: contact Jinny Khanduja at jkhanduja@demos.org or 212.389.1399.

Tikkun Interview with Richard Goldstone

2009-10-04T12:56:00.002-04:00

If any of you have been following the latest UN report on the Gaza war and the outrageous crimes against humanity that Israel committed in Palestine, then I want to hear your thoughts!

For me, the report is not really what is surprising or interesting - the Goldstone element is what really fascinates me. Jewish South African former Supreme Court Judge Richard Goldstone is a self-professed Zionist and a political moderate who has been recently vilified by the Jewish mainstream media and political establishment (both in Israel and in the US) for overseeing and supporting the findings of the report. Goldstone actually refused to oversee the investigation unless Palestinian actions were also scrutinized but he stands by the results of the investigation and good for him! What I find so fascinating is how he is being marginalized because he is questioning the status quo and actually daring to dash the Israel-as-utopia myth (see Uri Avnery's opinions, published by Tikkun here).

If this becomes a trend I see the pro-Israel argument/lobby seriously entrenching itself further and alienating its current powerful base. I can't help but hope that it gets bad so it can get better... Maybe if many current Israel supporters see how extreme Israel's actions are and the extremism of many supporters of Israel can be they more mainstream and moderate folk will mobilize to insist on human rights and some form of justice in the region... Pipe dreams? Let me keep dreaming. Otherwise this entire debacle is just too disgusting and horrifying for words.

Tikkun did a pretty good interview with Goldstone that you can find here.

For the Democracy Now report on the UN Investigation click here.

David Foster Wallace Spitting Truth

2009-10-01T14:16:00.002-04:00

David Foster Wallace committed suicide on Sept 12 this year... but Asher sent me this really interesting commencement address he gave in '05 to Kenyon College graduating seniors. One excerpt in particular gave me pause, not just because it talks about suicide but because of how he re-conceptualizes the act of thinking:

Probably the most dangerous thing about college education, at least in my own case, is that it enables my tendency to over-intellectualize stuff, to get lost in abstract arguments inside my head instead of simply paying attention to what's going on right in front of me. Paying attention to what's going on inside me. As I'm sure you guys know by now, it is extremely difficult to stay alert and attentive instead of getting hypnotized by the constant monologue inside your own head. Twenty years after my own graduation, I have come gradually to understand that the liberal-arts cliché about "teaching you how to think" is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: "Learning how to think" really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed. Think of the old cliché about "the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master." This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth. It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in the head. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger. And I submit that this is what the real, no-bull- value of your liberal-arts education is supposed to be about: How to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default-setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone, day in and day out.

I don't know about the alone part but this really resonated with me in a way that spoke to the potential for re-conceptualizing activism as well. Wallace talks about how we automatically center ourselves partly as a function of how we look at the world - with ourselves at the center and everything literally going on around us - and partly as the product of how our society places value on the individual. It is important to de-center yourself in a way that is not necessarily how we're socialized. Wallace's point is that we need to be more conscious of others and their needs around us.. I would extend that to say that in an activist model we need to look at the collective as the way both to true unity/solidarity and to power. Can we learn to value the individual and not ignore needs of each member of a group while simultaneously drawing on the energy of a unified group as a vehicle to confront structural oppression/inequity?

Reflections for a New Year

2009-09-23T19:47:00.002-04:00

This post is going to be a little different from my normal post something I find interesting and sometimes comment on it MO.

I want to write out some thoughts -- bear with me here, I know this might be rambling, but at this point in the Jewish calendar we are commanded to reflect, repent, and make amends. I always liked that we're required to make up with people, repay debts, apologize and fix relationships, and I love the idea of taking communal responsibility for sins - we chant a list of transgressions in unison, taking responsibility even if we, individually, may or may not have committed a particular act. But I also always found this Holy time to speak to internal reflection and a commitment to really challenging ourselves on a personal level to DO BETTER. Just do better! Care more! Make goals that are attainable and relevant and thoughtful! And then keep to them!

So my immediate resolutions for self-care this year were going to be: take my multivitamins, be more conscious of myself and my impact on those around me, and breathe more (as Eliza says, BREATHING IS GOOD!). But after a session last night with Rabbi David Rosenn, the Exec Director and Founder of AVODAH, I started thinking about what it means to reflect... how we tend to think of reflection as something to do once in a while instead of regularly, or something to do in free time rather than something we psychically need in order to survive. Rabbi Rosenn talked about how if we don't DEAL with challenges and dissonance through reflection we will accommodate those challenges into our existing frameworks and not actually learn or grow at all. Rather we need to deal with our discomfort and address it... And not just once a year.

I want this new year to culminate in a year's experience, not one day's experience 365 times.

I want to make a time for reflection, a set time, a purposeful time, and not to think of reflection time as a refuge from other times but rather to conceive of reflection as an ongoing dialogue and interaction between my consciousness and my (inter)active life. I hope that I make time to keep the theme of figuring out a way to forge/create/find common ground central to my existence. I need to find our humanity! At the MR 60th celebration the other night Rev Wright talked about putting the PEOPLE at the center.. if we keep the people at the center the world will look different. That seems so basic but is just ... not realized. I want this year to be a year of working towards putting the people at the center.

CT Action Event!

2009-09-22T23:36:00.001-04:00

Thank you Lex!

You are invited to attend an Alliance Connecticut meeting

Friday, September 25, 2009

1:00pm – 3:00pm

Johnson Stewart Community Center

127 Martin Street, Hartford, CT 06120.

Please join us at the Alliance Connecticut meeting. Together we can create a stronger, safer and healthier Connecticut.

Drug Policies impinge on everyone in Connecticut from our children to our seniors. Resources are taken away from education, transportation, housing, treatment, prescription drug support and other areas to fund a public safety platform that ruins our communities and the lives of so many families. It’s time to do something new! It time for a holistic strategy for Connecticut!

Topic of discussion: Overdose Prevention-

What the law is now. What changes need to made.

This is a planning meeting to develop strategies around Overdose Prevention

Snacks will be provided. Please RSVP by September 21, 2009 with name(s) and contact information to LaResse Harvey laresseabwf@gmail.com or call 860-270-9585.

Basta!

2009-09-18T13:40:00.001-04:00

This week, the CNN anchor broadcast his radio show from the conference of anti-immigrant hate group FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Founded by a white nationalist, FAIR was linked earlier this year to vigilantes in Arizona who brutally murdered 9-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father in their home.

The appearance at FAIR is just the latest example of Dobbs using his status as a CNN anchor to spread fear about Latinos and immigrants. It’s time we said ¡Basta! Enough is enough. Please join us in demanding that CNN drop Dobbs from its network:

BastaDobbs.com/Action

Dobbs’ network, CNN, calls itself “The Most Trusted Name in News.” But Dobbs has shown that the only thing he can be trusted to do is to spread dangerous, false myths about immigrants, to give airtime to extremists, and to use dehumanizing and disrespectful language towards our community.

For example, Dobbs has blamed Latino immigrants for an alleged leprosy epidemic that was widely debunked, and has insinuated high crime rates by Latinos falsely claiming “illegal aliens” make up a third of the prison population. Dobbs also regularly hosts extremist guests like FAIR, the Minutemen, and Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who he called “a model for the whole country.”

The Dobbs threat to Latinos is real. Here is how Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center described it to us:

How dangerous is Lou Dobbs? The rise in hate crimes against Latinos coincides almost exactly with the time Dobbs has been propagating false conspiracy theories about Latinos on the air. He’s not urging people to go hurt and kill - but that is the effect of what he does.

To fight back against Dobbs, Presente.org is launching a new campaign, working with dozens of leading Latino organizations and our allies in cities across the country — from Los Angeles to Phoenix to Orlando. We are joining together to demand that CNN no longer allow Dobbs to spew hate thinly disguised as “news.”

Please join us in saying “¡basta!” and ask your friends and family to do the same. It only takes a moment:

BastaDobbs.com/Action

Thank you and Adelante!
The Presente.org team

2009-09-17T15:17:00.003-04:00

Bagram has been seriously and totally messed up for years, despite US denials of foul play. Numerous reports and documentaries talk about the horrors that go on there. I was so excited last week when the NYTimes recently reported on the Obama administration's plans to implement new (read: any) rights for detainees at Bagram:

The new Pentagon guidelines would assign a United States military official to each of the roughly 600 detainees at the American-run prison at the Bagram Air Base north of Kabul. These officials would not be lawyers but could for the first time gather witnesses and evidence, including classified material, on behalf of the detainees to challenge their detention in proceedings before a military-appointed review board.

Some of the detainees have already been held at Bagram for as long as six years. And unlike the prisoners at the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba, these detainees have had no access to lawyers, no right to hear the allegations against them and only rudimentary reviews of their status as “enemy combatants,” military officials said.

An article from Al-Jazeera English quoted Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at City University of New York and attorney for a Bagram detainee, who said the move is just "window dressing".

"The whole thing was meant to pull the wool over the eyes of the judicial system,'' he told The Associated Press.

"These changes don't come anywhere near an adequate substitute for a real review."

Whatever I was still pumped about even the beginnings of a change until yesterday I read this in an ACLU press release:

The Obama administration has filed a brief with a federal appeals court in Washington arguing that the approximately 600 detainees in U.S. custody at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan are not entitled to have their cases heard in U.S. courts. Some of the detainees at Bagram have been held for up to six years with no meaningful opportunity to challenge their detention, and there are some prisoners there who are unconnected to the war in Afghanistan but who have been sent there from locations around the world.

WHY OBAMA WHY. I don't understand the madness. Is there any way to stop dehumanizing people? I am interested specifically in how the law systematically dehumanizes people and deprives them of their rights - I've been thinking about that a lot at my job at the NY Legal Assistance Group and as I'm studying for the LSATs. The law doesn't seem to account for humanity, and indeed seems to try to mask legal rights in obscure language and self-referential textual codes that prevent anyone from understanding a) how few rights they actually have and b) what those rights that they do have are. Is there a way to be a radical lawyer? Is there a way to redistribute information and access? Is it worthwhile or meaningful if it's to a system that is deeply flawed??

It's been a while

2009-09-11T18:23:00.002-04:00

I lost internet access when I moved to NYC but now I'm back and better than ever.

I think that this article slamming Apple is a really interesting expose. Consumer responsibility may be something that I think about when I buy my food or clothing, but electronics are not an area that I usually consider, especially when I think about ipods or other dominant products. But it's also interesting to think about how widely consumed products like ipods can be influenced by the collective voice of the consumers -- perhaps we have more power to protest since ipods are so dominant?? Thoughts? Does that make any sense to anyone but me?

Why Not to Buy a New Computer for College

by Deena Guzder

The beginning of the academic year once meant new clothes, shoes, and notebooks. These days, it increasingly means new computers, iPods, and mobile phones. One company, Apple, is giving away a "free" iPod to every student, faculty, and staff who buys a MacBook. The word "free" is terribly deceptive. The human cost of mineral extraction in the high-tech industry remains intolerable. A report released earlier this year by Global Witness delineates how multinational companies are pillaging natural resources and fueling holocaust in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The organization warns that corporations, politicians, military, and militia groups in the Congo have plundered the country's natural wealth and used it to enrich themselves to the detriment of the local population. The research team conducting the report says it found evidence that the mineral trade is far more pervasive and lucrative than previously suspected. Global Witness, which is the same nongovernmental organization that brought worldwide attention to the blood diamond industry, also documented life-threatening labor conditions in the Congo's natural resource sector.

Charter School Controversy - and Re-education programs in MI and MO

2009-08-27T00:03:00.002-04:00

W has been putting out some fascinating stuff about education and youth that I see as so completely connected.

First of all, they did a great piece on the controversy surrounding charter schools, which have been a hallmark of Obama's education reform program. Articles in both the Boston Globe (here) and the Hartford Courant (here) outline conflicting sentiments in the communities most affected by charter school expansion. A major critique is that not all charter schools are actually better! The Courant article cites evidence from Philadelphia where a study showed that charter school students actually did not perform better than regular public school students. Also, the Globe article points out that in Boston (which has one quarter of the country's charter schools) non-English speakers are remarkably underserved; they make up less than 4% of charter school students despite being one fifth of all public school students.

From RaceWire:

Education historian Diane Ravitch says the question isn't regular versus charter schools, but an issue of social priorities:

We can't solve our problems by handing them off to businesses and community groups. Some schools will claim success by excluding the students who are hardest to educate; others will claim success by drilling children endlessly on test-taking skills.

What should we do? We must strengthen — not abandon — public education....

We evade our responsibility to improve public education by privatizing public schools. In doing so, we undermine the egalitarian promise of public education, thus guaranteeing that many children will continue to be left behind.

Even a charter school with a social mission of promoting economic and racial equity still runs up against the limits posed by selectivity and exclusion. The rush to expand this model across the country may renew, and redefine, the question of separate but equal.

I find this really interesting especially after talking to a friend of mine's older brother who is about to start teaching math in a new Philly charter school - I guess I'll have to ask him about what his experience is like, but he described a really energetic, young group of teachers that will have the ability to work with a smaller group of students than your average public Philadelphia high school. Clearly both benefits and drawbacks.

RaceWire also recently had a really interesting article about re-education programs in MI and MO about the history of racism and anti-indigenous sentiment, respectively. They say:

The new curriculum is designed to inform youth about the history of racial discrimination as well as to provide an understanding of the continued relevance of social movements today.

Um, not to get overly enthusiastic here but.. HELL. YES. It's absurd that students aren't learning about this already and while we'll see how it plays out I can't help but be excited that state governments are finally recognizing the importance of history in modern day struggles and tensions... and recognizing the need to be talking about this in our classrooms with our youth.

That is, of course, if our youth even get to the classroom. In New York, it seems that increasing numbers of children are being locked up in juvenile detention centers for mental health issues and other needs. "In New York State, 54 percent of children in the general population are Caucasian, 20 percent are Latino, 18 percent are African-American, and 6 percent are Asian. In contrast, of the girls admitted to the Lansing and Tryon facilities over the last three years, 54 percent are non-Hispanic African-American, 19 percent are classified as Hispanic, 23 percent are non-Hispanic White, and none is Asian. 10 girls, or 3 percent of the total, are Native American.... Since 1995, African-American boys and girls have consistently accounted for close to 60 percent of children taken into [Office of Children and Family Services] custody." Obviously this filters directly into New York's expansive prison system, and from the sound of these "juvenile centers" it seems as if these children are not socialized for any other kind of life. From RaceWire:

The Department of Justice’s extensive investigation of four of New York’s juvenile detention facilities sheds chilling light on a system plagued by unaccountability and abuse. The new report, released today, documents the routine use of excessive force by staff, which has traumatized and even broken the bones of children while authorities looked the other way. “Anything from sneaking an extra cookie to initiating a fistfight may result in a full prone restraint with handcuffs,” the investigators found.

So who are these kids? In 2006, Human Rights Watch profiled two of the detention centers investigated by the Justice Department, Tryon and Lansing, where teenage girls were detained for both violent and nonviolent infractions. Often, they were refugees of the foster care system, arrested after spending most of their lives cycling through the homes of strangers. Many began their path to “delinquency” in school, where “zero tolerance” security tactics were used to keep disobedient kids in line. Drugs and mental health problems drove many children into detention, after poverty and isolation from the healthcare system had kept them shut out of early treatment programs.

As the Times reported earlier this month, juvenile detention has become a makeshift "asylum" for children whose mental health needs have been neglected in their communities, due to poverty and social disinvestment.

If you can stomach the full article it can be accessed here.

Psych Relief Finally On Its Way for Vets

2009-08-26T19:31:00.004-04:00

The NYTimes reported today that (finally!) regulations may be changing for veterans in need of psychiatric care. Thus far, soldiers and former soldiers have had to "prove" their need for such care through documentation of their experiences in combat, which is (needless to say) ridiculous and with a marked LACK of understanding about what exactly mental illness is. For the full article read here. One fascinating report indicates that as many as 20% of soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq suffer from PTSD.

The problems surrounding soldiers and their psychological states are myriad. This article on what happens to soldiers gone AWOL, from TomDispatch a while back (now linked through Common Dreams), talks about the conditions under which AWOL soldiers are imprisoned. Military industrial complex and prison industrial complex collapse and become one. Almost poetic. Mostly just frustrating and upsetting. It makes me wonder if everyone doesn't see these connections, too, and why the masses aren't demanding CHANGE right now!!!!! Or if they are, how the dominant patriarchy manages to keep it stifled and hidden...I know that millions of Americans are affected by these situations far more than I am, in my little bubble of privilege... AH

In related news, all of the Hawaiian female inmates in a Kentucky prison are being removed from the Otter Creek Correctional Center after widespread documentation of serious sexual abuse. Kentucky is one of the only states in which sex between a prison guard and an inmate is a misdemeanor rather than a felony, and at least five correctional officers (including one chaplain) has been proven, at this point, to have had sex with the women at Otter Creek. (For the full NYTimes article read here.)

Interestingly, the discourse in the NYTimes article and how officials are explaining this absurd abuse of power is how problematic private, for-profit prisons are and how they lack transparency... as if government run prisons are these oases of justice and rehabilitation. And while the article explains WHY Hawaiian women are in Kentucky prisons (lack of adequate funding and beds in HI, for example) they don't really even begin to talk about the tensions that can emerge and how the rape of Hawaiian imprisoned women fits into a history of violence and repression (sexual and otherwise) against indigenous women in the Americas. I guess that would be expecting too much from the NYTimes... but it's disturbing in the implication that your average privileged Times reader is not encouraged to examine this as anything more than a glitch in the system rather than an example of what the system requires.

(Note: While the article doesn't specify that the women are indigenous Hawaiians, I have to assume that some of the victims are, considering the disproportionate numbers of native Hawaiians who are locked up in the U.S. today.)

Making Money Change!

2009-08-26T00:06:00.001-04:00

We are thrilled to announce that registration is open for the 2009 Making Money Make Change retreat - and that our keynote speaker will be Adrienne Maree Brown!!!

Making Money Make Change 2009: Community Alternatives For Economic Transformation
November 12-15, 2009
Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, Falls Village, CT

Please help spread the word about the Making Money Make Chage (MMMC) 2009 gathering by forwarding this to your email networks. You can help young people with wealth move from isolation to community, from inaction to action, and help increase their giving of money, time and energy toward social justice.

To register for this year's MMMC, go to http://www.makingmoneymakechange.org

What is MMMC?

Making Money Make Change (MMMC) is a national, multiracial gathering for young people with wealth (ages 18-35) who believe in social change. MMMC is a confidential space to explore issues related to wealth, privilege, philanthropy, and participation in grassroots movements for justice and equality. Through workshops, discussions, and community-building activities participants support, challenge, and inspire each other to align their resources with their values and work for personal and societal transformation. While the majority of participants are young people with wealth, social movement leaders and nonprofit practitioners from other class backgrounds are invited to speak, facilitate sessions, and participate in the entire retreat. MMMC is co-sponsored by four national social change organizations: Tides Foundation, Funding Exchange, Third Wave Foundation, and Resource Generation.

Generally, MMMC participants feel like they have or will have access to more resources than they need. “Wealth” is self-defined by those who participate, and the amount of wealth people have access to varies greatly. Young people with wealth are racially diverse and their money comes from many sources including inheritances, earnings, lottery winnings and legal settlements. Some people who are involved have access to philanthropic resources (for example, as board members of family foundations), but may not have access to personal wealth.

2009 Theme: Community Alternatives For Economic Transformation

Our 12th annual retreat brings us together at a moment framed by financial crisis. How are communities responding? How are people working together to create alternatives to unjust and unsustainable economic arrangements? What are the roles of cross-class movements in working towards social, racial, environmental and economic justice?

Keynote: Adrienne Maree Brown

Adrienne Maree Brown is the executive director of The Ruckus Society, which brings nonviolent direct action training and action support to communities impacted by economic, environmental and social oppression. She sits on the boards of Allied Media Projects and the Center for Media Justice (and just stepped down from the boards of Wiretap Magazine and the Brower Center), and is a participant in Somatics and Social Justice. Adrienne facilitates the development of organizations throughout the movement (most recently Young Women’s Empowerment Project, New Orleans Parents Organizing Network, ColorofChange.org and Detroit Summer). A co-founder of the League of Pissed Off/Young Voters and graduate of the Art of Leadership and Art of Change yearlong trainings, Adrienne is obsessed with learning and developing models for action, community strength, movement building and transformation.

Location:

The retreat will take place at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Falls Village, Connecticut, accessible by a 25-minute shuttle ride from Metro North Railroad-Wassaic and a two and a half hour drive from New York City. The retreat center sits on 450 rural acres in northwestern CT, is environmentally friendly and serves food from local organic growers when possible including food grown on their organic farm. The retreat center is wheelchair accessible. For more about the Retreat Center, see their Web site at http://www.isabellafreedman.org/

If you have questions about MMMC, please e-mail Stephanie Yang, Retreat Director, at sydconsulting@gmail.com

Thank you,

The Making Money Make Change Planning Committee
Anthony Colón
Theo Yang Copley
Elokin
Eliot Estrin
Elspeth Gilmore
Nikki Morse
Matt Osborn
Naomi Sobel
Monica Simpson
stephanie yang

Canada Tar Sands Pipeline Plan to Go Forward

2009-08-24T18:57:00.003-04:00

I know I'm a couple days behind on this but the analysis is what interests me even more than how disgusting this plan to pipe more oil in from the tar sands of Canada is. For a full article on the plan read here. Basically, the US State Department has OK'ed a multibillion dollar pipeline that will carry crude oil from Canadian oil sands (in Hardisty, Alberta) to refineries in the continental US (in Superior, Wisconsin). The pipeline will be 1,000 miles long and will "advance the strategic interests of the United States." That is to say, getting oil from Canada, a staunch ally, is better than getting it from some unstable Middle Eastern country or something like that. The environmental implications are formidable, however:

"The State Department has rubber-stamped a project that will mean more air, water and global warming pollution, particularly in the communities near refineries that will process this dirty oil," said Earthjustice attorney Sarah Burt. "The project's environmental review fails to show how construction of the Alberta Clipper is in the national interest. We will go to court to make sure that all the impacts of this pipeline are considered."

The environmental and native groups point out that "Tar sands development in Alberta is creating an environmental catastrophe, with toxic tailings ponds so large they can be seen from space and plans to strip away the forests and peat lands in an area the size of Florida."

"In addition," they argue, "greenhouse gas emissions from tar sands production are three times that of conventional crude oil and it contains 11 times more sulfur and nickel, six times more nitrogen and five times more lead than conventional oil. These toxins are released into the U.S. air and water when the crude oil is processed into fuels by refineries."

The coalition says this decision contradicts President Obama's promise to cut global warming and America's addiction to oil while investing in a clean energy future.

"The tar sands pipeline connects U.S. refiners and consumers with the dirtiest, most carbon-intensive crude oil on earth," said Kevin Reuther, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy's legal director.

Native Canadian groups have come out in firm opposition to the exploitation of the tar sands as well. Members of the Cree aboriginal people are joining Climate Camp protests in London to bring attention to corporate Britain's involvement in the tar sands of Canada. Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, from Fort Chipewyan, a centre of Alberta's tar sands schemes, said: "British companies such as BP and Royal Bank of Scotland in partnership with dozens of other companies are driving this project, which is having such devastating effects on our environment and communities. Read more here.

Also, a group of tribal members have gathered nearly 700 signatures on a petition to hold a referendum on the Leech Lake tribal council's agreement to allow the line through tribal land.

"We are saddened by the news that the Presidential Permit was signed today," said Marty Cobenais of the nonprofit Indigenous Environmental Network, based in Bemidji, Minnesota.

"The voices and rights of the Leech Lake Band members are not being listened to by the Obama Administration. According to the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe Constitution they are allowed to hold a referendum vote and allow the members to decide to accept the agreement with Enbridge or not.

"If they vote against the agreement, the pipeline route would have to go around the boundaries of the Leech Lake Reservation, which would require a new Environmental Impact Study, plus other permits including a new Presidential Permit," said Cobenais.

The project was approved before all the federal regulations are completed, he said. "The Bureau of Indian Affairs is still waiting to receive a completed application from Enbridge Energy and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe to begin their approval process for allotment lands affected by these pipelines."

I wonder what will happen...

Re-Enactment of Vietnam War in PA? Really???

2009-08-23T23:20:00.002-04:00

Steven Low reports on an event almost too ridiculously offensive to possibly be true: a re-enactment of the Vietnam War taking place in Boalsburg, PA:

Attention all Asians: Avoid Pennsylvania.

Last month, white men in Boalsburg, PA—military enthusiasts—orchestrated a public display of “hide and seek” or what Vietnamese people during the 60s and 70s may have observed: the indiscriminate mass murder of their people and the raping of girls. I guess in the age of political correctness we should say, the Vietnam War.

Alpha Company, as they call themselves, which is comprised mostly of men who never served in the Vietnam War, actors reenacted a scene from the Vietnam War: a patrol into Viet Cong, controlled territory. Why? To celebrate the bravery of Vietnam vets.

Vets like John McCain who displayed his courage by dropping bombs on men, women and children from 30,000 feet in the air. You’re a real bad ass, John. Push them buttons on people you can’t see.

The show comes courtesy of the Pennsylvania Military Museum.

For the full Racewire article read here, for the AP article read here.

All I have to say? WOW.

An Interesting Argument for Boycotting Israel

2009-08-22T23:39:00.001-04:00

by Neve Gordon
Original article here.

Israeli newspapers this summer are filled with angry articles about the push for an international boycott of Israel. Films have been withdrawn from Israeli film festivals, Leonard Cohen is under fire around the world for his decision to perform in Tel Aviv, and Oxfam has severed ties with a celebrity spokesperson, a British actress who also endorses cosmetics produced in the occupied territories. Clearly, the campaign to use the kind of tactics that helped put an end to the practice of apartheid in South Africa is gaining many followers around the world.

Not surprisingly, many Israelis -- even peaceniks -- aren't signing on. A global boycott can't help but contain echoes of anti-Semitism. It also brings up questions of a double standard (why not boycott China for its egregious violations of human rights?) and the seemingly contradictory position of approving a boycott of one's own nation.

It is indeed not a simple matter for me as an Israeli citizen to call on foreign governments, regional authorities, international social movements, faith-based organizations, unions and citizens to suspend cooperation with Israel. But today, as I watch my two boys playing in the yard, I am convinced that it is the only way that Israel can be saved from itself.

I say this because Israel has reached a historic crossroads, and times of crisis call for dramatic measures. I say this as a Jew who has chosen to raise his children in Israel, who has been a member of the Israeli peace camp for almost 30 years and who is deeply anxious about the country's future.

The most accurate way to describe Israel today is as an apartheid state. For more than 42 years, Israel has controlled the land between the Jordan Valley and the Mediterranean Sea. Within this region about 6 million Jews and close to 5 million Palestinians reside. Out of this population, 3.5 million Palestinians and almost half a million Jews live in the areas Israel occupied in 1967, and yet while these two groups live in the same area, they are subjected to totally different legal systems. The Palestinians are stateless and lack many of the most basic human rights. By sharp contrast, all Jews -- whether they live in the occupied territories or in Israel -- are citizens of the state of Israel.

The question that keeps me up at night, both as a parent and as a citizen, is how to ensure that my two children as well as the children of my Palestinian neighbors do not grow up in an apartheid regime.

There are only two moral ways of achieving this goal.

The first is the one-state solution: offering citizenship to all Palestinians and thus establishing a bi-national democracy within the entire area controlled by Israel. Given the demographics, this would amount to the demise of Israel as a Jewish state; for most Israeli Jews, it is anathema.

The second means of ending our apartheid is through the two-state solution, which entails Israel's withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders (with possible one-for-one land swaps), the division of Jerusalem, and a recognition of the Palestinian right of return with the stipulation that only a limited number of the 4.5 million Palestinian refugees would be allowed to return to Israel, while the rest can return to the new Palestinian state.

Geographically, the one-state solution appears much more feasible because Jews and Palestinians are already totally enmeshed; indeed, "on the ground," the one-state solution (in an apartheid manifestation) is a reality.

Ideologically, the two-state solution is more realistic because fewer than 1% of Jews and only a minority of Palestinians support binationalism.

For now, despite the concrete difficulties, it makes more sense to alter the geographic realities than the ideological ones. If at some future date the two peoples decide to share a state, they can do so, but currently this is not something they want.

So if the two-state solution is the way to stop the apartheid state, then how does one achieve this goal?

I am convinced that outside pressure is the only answer. Over the last three decades, Jewish settlers in the occupied territories have dramatically increased their numbers. The myth of the united Jerusalem has led to the creation of an apartheid city where Palestinians aren't citizens and lack basic services. The Israeli peace camp has gradually dwindled so that today it is almost nonexistent, and Israeli politics are moving more and more to the extreme right.

It is therefore clear to me that the only way to counter the apartheid trend in Israel is through massive international pressure. The words and condemnations from the Obama administration and the European Union have yielded no results, not even a settlement freeze, let alone a decision to withdraw from the occupied territories.

I consequently have decided to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that was launched by Palestinian activists in July 2005 and has since garnered widespread support around the globe. The objective is to ensure that Israel respects its obligations under international law and that Palestinians are granted the right to self-determination.

In Bilbao, Spain, in 2008, a coalition of organizations from all over the world formulated the 10-point Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign meant to pressure Israel in a "gradual, sustainable manner that is sensitive to context and capacity." For example, the effort begins with sanctions on and divestment from Israeli firms operating in the occupied territories, followed by actions against those that help sustain and reinforce the occupation in a visible manner. Along similar lines, artists who come to Israel in order to draw attention to the occupation are welcome, while those who just want to perform are not.

Nothing else has worked. Putting massive international pressure on Israel is the only way to guarantee that the next generation of Israelis and Palestinians -- my two boys included -- does not grow up in an apartheid regime.

This article orginally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
Neve Gordon is the author of "Israel's Occupation" and teaches politics at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, Israel.

Hunger and Poverty

2009-08-17T22:11:00.002-04:00

The UN reported that its goal of halving the number of people living in poverty by 2015 is unlikely to be reached due to several factors including the economic climate and, more dramatically, the predicted continued rates of population growth. (Read more here.) The world population is expected to reach 7 billion at some point in 2011.

Meanwhile, a separate UN report says that due to population growth in Asia, specifically, the continent is at risk for a major hunger crisis and the resulting social upheaval. Hundred of billions of dollars needs to be invested in infrastructure, especially in irrigation systems:

India, China, Pakistan and other large countries avoided famines in the 1970s and 1980s only because they built giant state-sponsored irrigation systems and introduced better seeds and fertilisers. But the extra 1.5 billion people expected to live on the continent by 2050 will double Asia's demand for food, says the report from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Bank-funded International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

A combination of very little new land left for cultivation, an increasingly unpredictable climate and water supplies stretched to the limit means the only realistic option to feed people in the future will be better management of existing water supplies, according to the report.

For the full article see here.

SO LETS GO DO THAT!!! I'd be surprised if it happens though, for some reason or another.. call me cynical.

Some Good News Re: Mother Earth

2009-08-14T23:53:00.002-04:00

Finally! An Obama action I can get pumped up over! Our president is taking action to protect millions (up to 58 million!) of acres of forest! Read a press release from the Wilderness Society about it here.

Also the horrendous and exploitative conglomerate Nestle is getting feedback on its destructive practices where it hurts - in the wallet! Food and Water Watch reported a 2.4 percent dip in sales of Nestle products - the company's water products (including Poland Springs, Deer Park, Arrowhead, etc.) dropped 3.7 percent, which is unprecedented! GO RESPONSIBLE CONSUMERS GO!

And the UN is considering legislating water as a human right, which would have considerable legal repercussions, especially in countries where water supplies are drained and the natural ability to produce clean water is stymied (think Fiji). Apparently PepsiCo and Connecticut Water have already adopted "fair water" practices that can set good examples for other corporations. (For the full article read here.)

Free Shifa!

2009-08-14T19:47:00.003-04:00

Thanks Cris, for sending me this petition:

TO THE PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA AND ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES

We are writing to you because the Obama Administration has pledged to end torture, uphold human rights, and restore the integrity of the Constitution in the U.S. justice system. As people who share your willingness to work for real and long-lasting change, we urge you to investigate the case of Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, Shifa, to determine if there is any basis to continue to hold him other than misplaced and arbitrary discrimination based in racial and religious profiling.

On 17 April 2006, Shifa a citizen of the United States by birth, was kidnapped a few days after his wedding from Bangladesh by government agencies under the direction of the Bush administration. He was kept in an undisclosed location for 4 days before FBI authorities blindfolded and extradited him to the U.S. He was stripped of his clothes and severely abused by U.S. federal authorities.

More recently, at the federal prison in Atlanta, Georgia, Shifa was subjected to physical violence and attacked by an inmate and traumatized from psychological torture at the prison. Since then, his health has deteriorated markedly, with loss of weight, and he has developed some new, possibly life- threatening health problems. No attempt has been made by the prison staff to address these medical problems, and his deteriorating health may become a serious crisis if he does not receive adequate health care immediately.

He has been living in a cell for three years that is approximately 8 feet by 12 feet. He is in that cell for at least 23 hours per day. Many days he remains in the cell for 24 hours. He can not have normal pens or pencils. He cannot make phone calls to his family, except on rare occasions. Shifa has been convicted of no crime. Yet, he has served three years in the most onerous prison conditions that this country has to offer.

His pretrial punishment is not limited to the isolation cell. When he meets with counsel he is shackled. His hands are cuffed. His waste is encircled with chains. He can barely write. His lawyers are required to turn the pages of documents for him to read. He is not permitted to hand his lawyers any paper. His lawyers are not permitted to hand him any paper to take back to his cell.

Shifa is a gentle, compassionate, and peaceful spirit in the community. He worked with several non-profit organizations that work to end violence in the South Asian community in Atlanta. While the previous government’s case relies substantially on innuendo and “guilt by association,” Shifa’s First Amendment rights to free speech and practice his Muslim faith, his Fifth Amendment right to due process of law, and his Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment have been violated viciously.

We believe Shifa is innocent of any crime, and has been detained by the Bush administration solely because of his faith and belief in Islam. We believe that the case against him lacks merit and warrants review. The prolonged 3-year inhumane detention in solitary confinement without a trial is a violation of his Constitutional rights and is excessive punishment to secure a guilty plea for a young man who has yet to be proven guilty of even the most minor offense.

We believe the U.S. Department of Justice, under the Bush administration, succumbed to post-9/11 illegal injunctions and set aside the United States Constitution and a long legal tradition of due process and respect for our constitutional rights to target primarily against people of color, immigrants, and other South Asians, Arabs and Muslims.

Shifa, like all people of the world, deserves his freedom and constitutional rights. Shifa has been stripped of his constitutional rights because he is a strong, religious and spiritual Muslim American. We grieve for each American who has been treated in this way, for each life that has been harmed, injured and tortured under the Bush administration. We urge the Honorable President to stay true to his promise of restoring the integrity of our Constitution by reviewing the merits of Shifa's case, releasing him from prison, and returning him to his family.

In summary, we ask that you:
* Ensure that Shifa gets the medical care he needs.
* Ensure that Shifa is able to freely practice his religion whether he is in prison or not.
* Review merits of Shifa's case and release him from prison.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned
The Free Shifa Campaign
freeshifa@gmail.com
Atlanta, GA

To sign the petition click here, for more on Shifa's situation click here.

Also, Democracy Now did an exclusive on another Islamophobic ongoing incident, the case of Youssef Megahed, who was acquitted by a jury of his peers on criminal charges only to be immediately rearrested for the same charges by ICE. For that report watch or listen here.

This is clearly a growing trend. Cris also sent me this link to an article about seven Muslims being arrested by the FBI in North Carolina and their struggle against blatant discrimination and racism.

It is unsurprising that in this climate of fear in the US, especially with our waging wars on predominantly Muslim countries, anti-Muslim sentiment should be emerging. When every day we're told that the terrorists are out to get us, no wonder cops call someone with a Koran "a Taliban" (see Megahed story).

Obviously this is inexcusable on an institutional and personal level, however, and the only way I can see around it is total abolition, de-militarization, and concrete steps towards humanizing those around us. Recently the DoD refused to even give a list of names of the people it has imprisoned at the imfamous Bagram prison in Afghanistan! Names are the first step towards humanizing people and showing that their lives are valued... hiding who they are interning is despicable. (For the press release from the ACLU read here.)

Responsible Drinking Takes on a Whole New Meaning

2009-08-12T22:00:00.003-04:00

In the past when I've heard people talk about drinking responsibly they usually mean don't drink and drive, or don't drink and have sex, or don't drink too much -- but apparently responsibility re: what you drink has a whole additional set of social implications. In this blog post about the union-busting practices of beer corporations, Ben Dangl makes a convincing argument against the major beer brands. Also, I suppose buying/drinking local products is just always a good rule of thumb. But it will never cease to amaze me how the decisions we make in our consumption have repercussions on a global scale. I was reading today about the Israeli cosmetic company AHAVA (a word meaning love in Hebrew) and its practices of exploiting land in the Occupied Territories to make its luxury Dead Sea Salt products. (For the article click here.) Anyway, I'll keep it to beer today:

Why We Should All Boycott Union Busting Beer Corporations

Aug 10, 2009 By Ben Dangl

When Obama sat down for a beer in the White House Rose Garden with Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley, they all turned their backs on the smaller, craft brewers of the country. Obama chose Bud Light, Gates asked for Red Stripe, and Crowley drank Blue Moon.

One of the major craft brewers based where I live in Vermont is Magic Hat, a brewery with a delicious array of brews. That brewery issued a press release following the "Beer Summit" explaining, "Craft Brewers the country over are chagrined by the President's choice to consume a beer owned by a company based outside of America's borders. Bud Light, owned by Belgium-based AB InBev, and Blue Moon, owned by London-based SAB MillerCoors, together control 94% of the beer market in the United States. However, the United States boasts over 1,500 craft brewers, the majority being made up of small Main Street Businesses that employ less than 50 people."

This encounter at the Rose Garden provides a perfect time to reflect on why we should all boycott the beer monopolies of the world.

One reason to boycott large breweries is the union busting, right wing culture that dominates some of the biggest breweries in America. Yuengling, America's oldest brewery, and Coors, America's biggest brewery, both offer insights into the ugly political and labor practices of this multi-billion dollar industry.

In 2007 Yuengling owner Dick Yuengling told his workers, "the writing was on the wall" and that if they didn't get rid of the union he would close the brewery and open up shop in a location in the southern US where labor was cheaper. Faced with the choice of looking for work in an area with few jobs, the workers decided to kick the union out.

At the time, Patrick Eiding, then-president of the AFL-CIO union in Philadelphia said of Mr. Yuengling, "If he doesn't want union people, then I would say union people shouldn't drink his beer."

Municipal worker Don Long said he would follow along with the boycott, explaining that Yuengling "doesn't care for his workers -- he just cares about how much money he can make."

I've joined in a boycott against this beer, and have convinced some of my friends to do so as well. But it's really Coors Brewing Company that takes the cake for supporting conservative causes and busting unions.

Over the years the Coors family has contributed handsomely to plenty of conservative projects and organizations. Reading about their family's philanthropy is like reading a history of the right wing in America.

Joseph Coors was an advisor to Ronald Reagan, provided the founding grant to the infamous Heritage Foundation as well as the right wing Free Congress Foundation, which asks the following question on its website: "Will America return to the culture that made it great, our traditional, Judeo-Christian, Western culture?" If not, the US will, revert to "no less than a third world country."

Joseph Coors really put his money where his right wing heart was when he donated a $65,000 plane to the Contras in the covert US war against the Nicaraguan Sandinistas in the 1980s. It's high time to raise a glass of non-Coors beer in solidarity with the Sandinistas. But here's another reason to boycott America's most successful brewing company; their union busting.

In 1977, in Colorado, home to the company's brewery, Coors hired scabs to replace workers on strike at the plant. Jeff Coors, the president of the family company at the time, told the Los Angeles Times that he wouldn't back down because agreeing to union demands was like "inviting the Russians in to take over America."

But the family's repression of workers' rights didn't stop there. Annika Carlson writing about the Coors' legacy at Campus Progress, says, "Until 1986, prospective Coors employees were sometimes required to take lie detector tests, answering questions about their sexual orientation, communist leanings, and how often they changed their underwear."

In 2004, when Peter Coors, the chairman of the Coors Brewing Company ran for Senate as a Republican from Colorado, local union leaders were quick to criticize the company's poor labor relations. Steve Adams, the president of the Colorado AFL-CIO at the time, told USA Today, "Peter Coors is a Republican, and there are very few Republicans who support workers' rights. The Coors company track record is not friendly to workers' rights." To this day, many of Denver's 23,000 Food and Commercial Workers union still boycott Coors beer due to the company's crackdowns on labor rights in the 1970s.

You can show that drinking is a very political act by turning your back on the big breweries. Or, as Carlson says about Coors, "When cracking open a cold one, remember to toast the things that make the Coors family great: union-busting, lie-detecting, Heritage-funding, double-talking and, of course, its beer."

Benjamin Dangl is the author of The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia (AK Press). He is the editor of TowardFreedom.com, a progressive perspective on world events, and UpsideDownWorld.org, a website covering activism and politics in Latin America. Contact: Bendangl(at)gmail(dot)com

The Use of Tasers

2009-08-11T22:42:00.003-04:00

Salon Blogger Digby wrote today about tasers and their (mis)use by American police. While acknowledging that it is better for police to be armed with tasers than with real guns, Digby brings up important examples of the blatant violations of civil liberty through the use of tasers that police have perpetrated:

Last week there were three taser episodes that made the rounds on the internet. (There may have been more, but these were the three most discussed.) The first was of a drunken, belligerent man at a baseball game who after 41 seconds of discussion was tasered while sitting in his seat. Indeed, the video shows that the taser threw him down onto the cement steps where he rolled down several. Since this scene must have happened literally thousands of times over the years, you have to wonder what they must have done in the past. Somehow I doubt they pulled out a gun and shot them.

The second incident was this sad tale of a man who allegedly refused to come out of a store restroom. Police blew pepper spray under the door, kicked it open and instantly tasered the man. It was only afterward that they discovered he was deaf. Police tried to book the man anyway, but the magistrate refused to accept the charges.

It was the third incident, however, that should get civil libertarians' serious attention. It featured an Idaho man on a bicycle who happened to ride past a police stop in progress on the side of the road. He had nothing to do with the stop, but was pulled over by the police and told to produce his ID. He said, correctly, that he had no legal obligation to produce ID and the police insisted he must. The situation escalated and he demanded that they call a supervisor to the scene when the police said they were going to arrest him. He ended up being tasered seven times -- you can hear him moaning in pain on the tape at the end. (In an especially creepy moment, the police try to confiscate the tape of the incident.)

Now, many people will say that he should have just showed his ID, that it's stupid to confront police, that like Henry Louis Gates you get what you deserve if you mouth off to the cops. And on a pragmatic level this is certainly true (although I would reiterate what I wrote here about a free people not being required to view the police in the same way they view a criminal street gang, which is to say in fear.) But the fact remains that there is no law against riding a bicycle without ID, and there is no law against mouthing off to the police. Certainly, there can be no rationale behind using a weapon designed to replace deadly force seven times against someone under these circumstances.

These are just three incidents that happened last week. There's nothing special about them. They happen every day. Even this horrific scene, which is so shockingly authoritarian (excuse the pun) that it makes you feel sick, is not unusual:

A former Southern Virginia University and Brigham Young University adjunct professor of political philosophy and jurisprudence, Dr. Lowery entered the Utah Third District courtroom alone on November 22, 2004, to make oral argument before Judge Anthony Quinn. Two Salt Lake County Deputy Sheriffs sat at the back of the courtroom, one on each side of the door. Other deputies were in the foyer of the courtroom. No members of the public were present.

Dr. Lowery suffered from major depression, bipolar disorder, paranoia disorder, delusional disorder, and psychotic disorder. Judge Quinn granted one of Dr. Lowery's motions made under the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title II, which allowed for reasonable modifications of court rules, policies, or practices in order to accommodate Dr. Lowery's multiple mental disabilities.

Near the end of his oral argument, the traumatic content of the argument moved Dr. Lowery into moderate mania, and he characterized a previous crabbed ruling by Quinn as "bullshit."

Impatient for the speech to end, Judge Quinn took that as an opportunity to order the bailiffs to take the professor into custody and cool him off.

The plaintiff's state of agitation was caused by his mental disabilities. The deputy sheriffs' approach only caused the situation to escalate. As five or more Salt Lake County deputy sheriffs/bailiffs seized Lowery from behind, he shouted, "I am cooled off; I deserve to be heard. I deserve to be heard, your Honor, and you are violating my access to due process at this very moment. I am not violent and --"

Judge Quinn interrupted him with ordering the bailiffs to take Dr. Lowery to a holding cell. A split second later -- unclear whether following the judge's orders or acting on his own accord, a bailiff sent 50,000 volts of incapacitating electricity into the lower back of the unsuspecting professor. As the courtroom video shows, nothing in Dr. Lowery's behavior suggests that the bailiffs had any reasonable motive to believe they or the judge were in physical danger.

Yet the taser gun fired more than once.

The repeated electric shocks blew Dr. Lowery over the podium, and he landed face down on the floor, with two bailiffs on his back. The electric blasts caused Dr. Lowery's bowels to empty twice. He screamed, "Help me!" while he complied with a bailiff's order to stay on his belly, neither capable nor willing to offer resistance. Then, suddenly, he went unconscious.

Remembering they were still on camera, the bailiffs shouted at Dr. Lowery to not resist again (though his resistance was only instinctive) and threatened him with more electrocution. When they realized that he could no longer hear them, they dragged the man across the floor, put him in a chair, and massaged his heart. One bailiff called for paramedics. [...]

Since no one but the victim and the abusers were in the courtroom, this crime remained unknown to the public until recently.

Also, some people do actually die from being tasered. Anyway, the evidence that Digby presents is a compelling case against the police being armed with taser guns. Honestly, for me it is evidence that police shouldn't be armed! They so more often than not end up abusing the power of their weapons against innocent or harmless civilians... Anyway, for the full post (which I found on Commondreams) read here.

Wealth for the Common Good Speaks Up

2009-08-10T21:32:00.001-04:00

This is what's up:

Upper-income earners who actually want to pay higher taxes have launched a public campaign calling for an immediate rollback of the tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush.

The group, which calls itself Wealth for the Common Good, believes that people who have taxable income of more than $235,000 a year should support restoring their top federal income tax rate to 39.6 percent from 35 percent - and now, not in 2011, when the higher rate is scheduled to return anyway.

From their Web site:

"Our country is facing the worst economic challenge since the Great Depression and an urgent need to make a long overdue investment in bringing jobs and stability back to our communities. This investment should be paid for, in part, by repealing the Bush-era tax cuts our country cannot afford.

"Those of us with taxable incomes over $235,000 benefited from the upside of the economy during the last decade and profited for eight years from a 2001 tax cut. Now is the time to give back.

"We would see a minimal tax increase - from 35 (percent) to 39.6 (percent), a rate still far lower than the one under President (Ronald) Reagan - but the increased revenue would raise an estimated $43 billion per year."

The group's founders include Chuck Collins, who inherited some of the Oscar Mayer meat fortune and who has long been involved in agitating on income-inequality issues.

He may be best known for co-writing the 2003 book "Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes" with Bill Gates Sr. The book made the case for retaining the federal estate tax.

This month, Wealth for the Common Good sent its request, including a petition with more than 1,000 signatures, to President Obama and to House and Senate leaders.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/09/BU9S1915CD.DTL#ixzz0NppZ5jUi

Why Our Criminal Justice System OBVIOUSLY Has Nothing to do with Justice

2009-08-09T22:46:00.002-04:00

The irony and counter-intuitiveness of our prison industrial complex and criminal processing system is overwhelming now, more than ever. And now, more than ever, I am convinced that the only way we will ever escape the demons we are creating and learn to look each other in the eye and treat each other like HUMAN BEINGS is complete and total prison abolition. A new start, a new way of understanding ourselves, understanding the word 'community' and understanding how to love and respect one another.

Today, hundreds of California inmates rioted (for ELEVEN HOURS) in the Reception Center West at the California Institution for Men in Chino. No one was killed but hundreds were wounded and those wounded were disproportionately Black and Latino. Guess what our government is gonna do? CHARGE THEM WITH ADDITIONAL CRIMES... lengthen their sentences. Yea, that makes sense... how??? Read the full NYTimes article here (Of course, it isn't easy getting out either with unemployment being what it is - the latest on unemployment from Racewire here.)

Another article that made me cry was about a sixteen-year-old mentally ill boy named Donald, who has been locked up for two years because of a breaking-and-entering charge despite his diagnosis of several serious mental health disorders. They put him in juvie because they thought he'd get the best treatment there, but have KEPT him there because of violence he has inflicted on himself, on animals, and his attempt to fight a guard. Can anyone not understand that these are clear indications that a violent padded cell is SO CLEARLY not working for this ill PERSON?!? Sorry for the caps but it is just so obvious... and frustrating. And disappointing. And typical. The NYTimes reports:

As cash-starved states slash mental health programs in communities and schools, they are increasingly relying on the juvenile corrections system to handle a generation of young offenders with psychiatric disorders. About two-thirds of the nation’s juvenile inmates — who numbered 92,854 in 2006, down from 107,000 in 1999 — have at least one mental illness, according to surveys of youth prisons, and are more in need of therapy than punishment.

“We’re seeing more and more mentally ill kids who couldn’t find community programs that were intensive enough to treat them,” said Joseph Penn, a child psychiatrist at the Texas Youth Commission. “Jails and juvenile justice facilities are the new asylums.”

At least 32 states cut their community mental health programs by an average of 5 percent this year and plan to double those budget reductions by 2010, according to a recent survey of state mental health offices.

Juvenile prisons have been the caretaker of last resort for troubled children since the 1980s, but mental health experts say the system is in crisis, facing a soaring number of inmates reliant on multiple — and powerful — psychotropic drugs and a shortage of therapists.

In California’s state system, one of the most violent and poorly managed juvenile systems in the country, according to federal investigators, three dozen youth offenders seriously injured themselves or attempted suicide in the last year — a sign, state juvenile justice experts say, of neglect and poor safety protocols.

In Ohio, where Gov. Ted Strickland, a former prison psychologist, approved a 34 percent reduction in community-based mental health services to reduce a budget deficit, Thomas J. Stickrath, the director of the Department of Youth Services, said continuing cuts would swell his youth offender population.

“I’m hearing from a lot of judges saying, ‘I’m sorry I’m sending so-and-so to you, but at least I know that he’ll get the treatment he can’t get in his community,’ ” Mr. Stickrath said.

But youths are often subjected to neglect and violence in juvenile prisons, and studies show that mental illnesses can become worse there.

This trap that we're put into - this epistemological resignation, leads us to think that more legislation and more criminalization are the only way. Racewire recently did a great writeup of how hate crime legislation does not effectively counter hate crimes at all and rather contributes to the expansion of the prison and police systems. We need something else. And we need it now.

Backlash

2009-08-07T22:47:00.002-04:00

New American Media reports that more undocumented Chinese immigrants are entering the US through Mexico, Obama vows to "reform" the immigrant detention complex in the US (NYTimes article here) and RaceWire did a compelling piece on two permanent residents, Elliot Granade and Alexander Alli, caught up in the immigrant detention system in Pennsylvania for committing non-violent crimes. Racewire reports:

On any given day—DHS detains more than one thousand noncitizens in jails across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, particularly in the Middle District of Pennsylvania.... many are lawful permanent residents who are detained for months, if not years, while the immigration courts and federal courts resolve their cases. Yet they never receive a custody hearing to determine whether their prolonged detention is even necessary. Indeed, many choose to abandon their meritorious cases because they cannot endure the prospect of being locked up indefinitely.

We are struggling so hard with this, we are violating constitutional and basic human rights daily, and yet still no one seems capable of looking below the surface at what is causing the situation in the first place! About taking responsibility for the monster we have created through, for example, imperialist attitudes and policies in the region. That's just for starters... oh I could go on.

Sustainable Prisons? (From Liza Bean)

2009-08-06T16:44:00.002-04:00

Thanks Liz for showing me this:

You probably don’t use the words “sustainability” and “prison” in the same sentence very often. The housing and feeding of inmates requires huge amounts of water and energy, though, and generates tons of waste. The Sustainable Prisons Project, a partnership between the Washington State Department of Corrections and the Evergreen State College, works to make prisons more efficient… and perhaps even reduce recidivism rates by providing “green collar” training to inmates.

Started in 2004 as a simple project to use dwindling water resources at the Cedar Creek Corrections Center more efficiently, the project now involves food production, recycling, composting, and even beekeeping. Plans for the project include not only building on progress at Cedar Creek, but also expanding the program to three other facilities. The program is even working with national organizations like the Nature Conservancy to protect and restore endangered prairie perennials.

DOC officials see the project as a true win-win: not only can the system save money, but also address mental health challenges and recidivism among inmates by providing them with meaningful work that engages them in issues which extend beyond the prison walls.

Is it time to start using “sustainability” and “prison” in the same sentence more often? Is this a sensible investment in both resource efficiency and prisoner rehabilitation? Let us know what you think…

For the original post and photos see http://www.sundancechannel.com/sunfiltered/2009/08/prison-life-sustainable-prisons-project/.

A New Modified Super-Corn?

2009-08-06T16:37:00.003-04:00

Next spring, farmers in Canada will be able to sow one of the most complicated genetically engineered plants ever designed, a futuristic type of corn containing eight foreign genes.

With so much crammed into one seed, the modified corn will be able to confer multiple benefits, such as resistance to corn borers and rootworms, two caterpillar-like pests that infest the valuable grain crop, as well as withstanding applications of glyphosate, a weed killer better known by its commercial name, Roundup.

But a controversy has arisen over the new seeds, which were approved for use last month by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency: Health Canada hasn't assessed their safety.

The health agency said in response to questions from The Globe and Mail that it didn't have to do so, because it is relying on the two companies making the seeds, agriculture giants Monsanto Co. and Dow AgroSciences LLC, to flag any safety concerns. But the companies haven't tested the seeds either, because they say they aren't required to.

The companies have checked the safety of each of the eight genes one at a time in individual corn plants, but haven't done so when they combined the foreign matter together in one seed, says Trish Jordan, a spokesperson for Monsanto Canada Inc.

"Every single one of the traits has been tested singly, and it has gone through the complete rigorous regulatory review process," Ms. Jordan said.

When the eight traits were subsequently combined into one seed through conventional breeding techniques, there was no trigger for an additional safety assessment, she said.

But the companies', and Health Canada's, position is disputed by opponents of genetically modified foods and consumer safety advocates, who say guidelines from the UN's food standards commission, Codex Alimentarius, recommend such testing, even when the novel traits are introduced through normal plant breeding.

Michael Hansen, senior scientist at Consumers Union, a U.S. advocacy group, says he's worried that combining a large number of foreign genes could lead to the creation of allergens or other deleterious substances in food that don't occur when only one gene is involved.

The government's decision to leave the safety testing to the companies is like "putting the fox in charge of the hen house," Mr. Hansen said.

For the full article read here.

Honestly, anything that Dow and Monsanto do scares the crap out of me. For some reasons why read this. Or go see FoodInc or just google Monsanto and Dow. Seriously insane stuff.

CA To Reduce Prison Population!

2009-08-05T18:17:00.002-04:00

California, one of the most formidable prison systems in the world, has been ordered by a federal court to reduce its inmate population of 150,000 by 40,000 — roughly 27 percent — within two years.

Obviously Schwartzenegger et al are protesting and saying they will appeal but the decision is noteworthy! A step towards recognition that closing prisons and releasing human beings from their cages does not mean chaos and mayhem! A step toward abolition, at least in my (optimistic) book.

Read more in the SF Chronicle or the NYTimes.

What the Tel Aviv Killings Might Say

2009-08-05T09:43:00.002-04:00

I thought that Chernus raised some really important points in this article, and his questions certainly don't have easy answers. What do you think?

Tel Aviv Murder Reflects Israeli Fears

by Ira Chernus

Why is the murder of gays in Israel different from all other anti-gay violence? That's the question I asked myself after a gunman killed two and injured fifteen at a gay youth center in Tel Aviv. As the father of a young gay man, I was horrified. As a Jew, I was appalled.

But as an activist for Jewish-Palestinian peace, I was perplexed. I wondered whether homophobia in Israel might somehow be connected to Israel's many years of conflict with its Arab neighbors, its 42 years as an occupying power, and all the violence that Israel has perpetrated as well as endured over those years.

Israel is not an especially virulent hotbed of anti-gay prejudice. Israeli police don't attack gay pride marchers on orders of the government, as police in some other countries do. The orthodox Judaism that is the source of most Israeli homophobia is no more reactionary than the conservative brands of religion that feed homophobia in other nations.

In fact, religious reactionaries in Israel probably get less public respect than they do in the United States. And in Israel it's just one religious faction stirring up prejudice against gays, while in the U.S. we have a whole interfaith coalition doing that odious job.

Nevertheless Israel is a unique case, because its political culture has revolved for so long around fear of, and enmity toward, Arabs, especially Palestinians. In the past, out-of-the-blue shootings like the one last week in Tel Aviv have always been motivated by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israeli peace activists have long warned that the moral callousness bred by the occupation and its violence would come home to roost in Jewish Israeli life. Might this attack be evidence that they were right? We can't know for sure until the murderer is identified. Even then, it will hardly be plausible to claim that Israel's policies of domination and violence caused the Tel Aviv murderer to act. Nor do those policies in any way directly cause homophobia in Israel.

The connection is more subtle. It's about what happens when fear becomes the foundation of public life. Israeli political culture is pervaded by insecurity about the nation's very existence. That insecurity is hardly realistic. Israel has by far the strongest military in its region and still enjoys strong backing from the world's only superpower. The fear that an independent Palestine could destroy Israel is about as realistic as the fear that equal rights for gays would destroy the Israeli -- or American -- family as we know it.

But when insecurity takes hold of a society, reality checks have little effect. That's why many Israelis can make the most absurd claims about Palestinians, just as many homophobes make absurd claims about gays and lesbians, or anyone who doesn't fit their rigid gender stereotypes.

Stereotyping is a huge part of the problem in both cases. Israelis too often make sweeping claims about "the Palestinians," as if the millions of Palestinians were all part of a Borg-like monolith (and, unfortunately, too many Palestinians are equally prone to stereotype "the Israeli"). Similarly, anti-gay forces around the world promote sweeping, often ludicrous, generalizations about homosexuals.

There's a close link between the stereotyping and the fear. Why do insecure people resort to stereotypes? And why are those people often so conservative, even reactionary, in their politics? Lots of studies have been devoted to those questions.

A few years ago, a team of psychologists looked at all the studies done over a half-century and found that they generally point to the same conclusions.

Virtually all of the motives that lead people to be conservative "originate in psychological attempts to manage uncertainty and fear. These, in turn, are inherently related to the two core aspects of conservative thought-resistance to change and the endorsement of inequality. The management of uncertainty is served by resistance to change insofar as change (by its very nature) upsets existing realities and is fraught with insecurity. Fear may be both a cause and a consequence of endorsing inequality; it breeds and justifies competition, dominance struggles, and sometimes, violent strife."

In other words, conservatives want to live in a world where the differences between people are fixed, clear-cut, and organized into simplistic hierarchies of better and worse, because they think that will keep them safe. So they want their world organized by the most basic hierarchy of all: "We are better than them."

Who the "we" and "them" are is a secondary matter. It could be straights versus gays, or Israelis versus Palestinians, or Jews versus Arabs, or any other convenient pair of opposites. Any dichotomy will do, as long as it can make life seem simple, unchangeable, and therefore secure.

Stereotyping is a key to this psychological strategy. It turns complicated three-dimensional people into simplistic two-dimensional images, and that makes the world seem more manageable. When the stereotypes of "them" are negative (as they almost always are) they justify the belief in inequality and the superiority of "our kind of people," which is essential to conservatism.

As the psychologists noted, this claim of superiority breeds and justifies competition, domination, and sometimes violence. It's easy to imagine that the Tel Aviv killer felt fully justified. There's plenty of evidence that Israeli Jews dominating and doing violence against Palestinians -- most of it, though not all, on the orders of the state -- often feel fully justified. After all, "the Palestinians want to destroy Israel"; that's the stereotype on which most Israeli policy is based.

Beneath that stereotype lies an irrational fear so deep that columnist Doron Rosenblum in Israel's leading newspaper, Ha'aretz, calls it paranoia. In fact Rosenblum writes of "at least two outstanding traits of Israeliness: aggressiveness and paranoia," and adds what all the psychological studies confirm: Those two traits "reflect two sides of the same coin."

To repeat, none of this suggests that Israel's policies of domination and violence caused the Tel Aviv murder or Israeli homophobia. But the murder can serve as a mirror, in which Israelis, American Jews, and all of us can see what happens when irrational fears of change and difference take over, whether in an individual mind or a whole society.

We here in the U.S. have plenty of irrational fears of our own to deal with. And we have plenty of groups actively preying on those fears to advance their agendas, including anti-gay-rights groups and Jewish groups supporting right-wing Israeli policies.

On the Jewish side, the latest case in point is a letter circulating in the U.S. Senate, calling on President Obama to "press Arab leaders to consider dramatic gestures toward Israel" to advance the peace process.

The letter, initiated by Senators Evan Bayh and James Risch and signed so far by five others, is the top item on the "Take Action" page of the website of AIPAC (the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee). It has all the hallmarks of previous Congressional letters that have been written in AIPAC's office. It's no stretch of the imagination that this letter, too, was written by the premier American-Jewish fear-mongering lobby.

As the Jewish peace group Brit Tzedek v'Shalom tells its members: "There is nothing wrong with calling on all parties in the Middle East to step up to the plate. This is, in fact, President Obama's approach. ... The problem with the Bayh-Risch letter is what is intentionally left out: the need for a complete Israeli settlement freeze to help move the peace process forward."

In fact, the letter makes it sound like Israel has already taken major steps in the service of peace while Arabs have done nothing. Read the Arab League's peace plan, now waiting seven years for a response from Israel, alongside reports of Israeli plans to expand settlements and block peace initiatives, to see how misleading this view is. Once again, fear and the conservatism it breeds can crowd out reality, even at the highest levels of government.

The ultimate tragedy of every right-wing strategy, whether anti-gay, anti-Palestinian, or anti-whatever, is that it's doomed to fail. Trying to prevent change, conservatives only engender conflict that is bound to lead to more change. Trying to control others, conservatives only insure that the world will grow even further out of their control. The idea of staying safe by preventing change and complexity is always an illusion.

But it's an illusion that dies hard. And while it is slowly dying, its victims -- in Tel Aviv, the Occupied Territories, and all over the globe -- are dying too.
Ira Chernus is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Read more of his writing on Israel, Palestine, and American Jews at http://chernus.wordpress.com.

Healthcare Shortfalls

2009-08-03T19:12:00.002-04:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 31, 2009
2:03 PM

CONTACT: National Organization for Women (NOW)
Mai Shiozaki, 202-628-8669, ext. 116; cell 202-641-1906
NOW Outraged at House Vote on Abortion Coverage -- Women's Rights Traded Away
WASHINGTON - July 31 - NOW is outraged to learn that the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed an amendment excluding abortion services from the "essential" health benefits package as defined by the government. Under this amendment, subsidies used to help pay insurance premiums for low-income people could not be used for abortion services. The New York Times reports that "insurers must use money from private sources to pay for any abortions."

"Reproductive health care is a fundamental right. Any health care plan that does not cover the full range of reproductive services, including abortion, discriminates against women," said NOW President Terry O'Neill. "Once again, our representatives are giving in to the right wing by trading away women's rights. Well, I have a message for them, our reproductive rights are not theirs to give away."

O'Neill noted that a majority of voters support coverage for abortion services, with only about a quarter opposed to using tax dollars to pay for abortion. In addition, a recent study found that most people in the U.S. with employer-based insurance currently have coverage for abortion. "Don't low-income people deserve the same level of coverage as other people in this country?" asked O'Neill. "Our lawmakers should be ashamed of themselves for perpetuating class-based and gender-based biases as they attempt to 'reform' our broken health care system."
###
The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the largest organization of feminist activists in the United States. NOW has 500,000 contributing members and 550 chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Also, the Black Agenda Report's Bruce Dixon wrote a scathing piece on Top Ten Ways To Tell Your President & His Party Aren't Fighting For Health Care For Everybody. Number 4 hits especially hard:
#

The president and his party have received more money from private insurers and the for-profit health care industry than even Republicans, with the president alone taking $19 million in the 2008 election cycle alone, more than all his Repubican, Democratic and independent rivals combined.

Democratic senator Max Bacaus got $1.1 million in 2008. Democratic senators Harkin, Landreau and Rockerfeller each got over half a million, and Senator Durbin got just under half a million. Other Democratic senators got a little less. Four Democrats in the House, Rangel, Dinglell, Udall and Hoyer got over half a million apiece in 2008, with other Democrats not far behind.

Is there any wonder that the insurance companies, like the drug companies are also running “bipartisan health care reform” commercials using the president's exact language?

But all are worth reading and really worrysomep.

Correction

2009-08-03T18:34:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I said two families but that was misleading. 50 Palestinians were evicted.

From Democracy Now:
Israel Evicts 50 Palestinians from Home in East Jerusalem

Israeli police have evicted more than fifty Palestinians, including nineteen children, from their homes in East Jerusalem after an Israeli court ruled their homes were owned by Jewish settlers. The court’s ruling was based on nineteenth century documents. The eviction has been widely condemned by the international community, including the United Nations and the Obama administration. The British consulate said it was “appalled” by the court’s decision. In a statement, the consulate said, “These actions are incompatible with the Israeli professed desire for peace. We urge Israel not to allow the extremists to set the agenda.”

Hatem Abdel Qader, a leader of Fatah in Jerusalem: “For sure, the battle in Sheikh Jarrah has not ended. There are confiscation orders for twenty-eight houses. Three of them have already been carried out. There is a battle to save the other houses. We will be firm in this battle on a political, social and legal level. There is an Israeli project in Sheikh Jarrah which aims to remove this neighborhood and connect it with Shepherd Hotel and the Mufti neighborhood and to locate a huge settlement close to the Old City of Jerusalem in order to make the Old City of Jerusalem Jewish.”

Home is Where You're Forced From

2009-08-02T20:21:00.002-04:00

Israel evicts two Palestinian families from their East Jerusalem homes after they lost a legal battle to stay. This is a clear signal that the Israeli government is going to support the gradual but forceful Jewish takeover of the Arab quarter. For the full NYTimes article see here.

Also, American families continue to be forced from their homes due to foreclosure and the ever-worsening housing crisis. In this article from the Guardian, Dean Baker suggests an alternative:

There is an easier route. In recognition of the extraordinary situation created by the housing bubble and its collapse, Congress could approve a temporary change to the rules governing the foreclosure process. This change would give homeowners facing foreclosure the right to stay in their homes, paying the market rent for a substantial period of time (eg seven to 10 years).

This change would have two effects. First, it would immediately give housing security to the millions of families facing foreclosure. If they like the house, the neighbourhood, the schools for their kids, they would have the option to remain there for a substantial period of time.

Also by keeping homes occupied, this rule change can help prevent the blight of foreclosures that has depressed property values in many areas. Vacant homes are often not maintained and can become havens for drug use and crime.

The other effect of a right-to-rent rule would be that it would give lenders substantially more incentive to modify a mortgage. Under the rule, the lender could still carry through with the foreclosure process and take possession of the house. The lender would also be free to resell the property, but the former homeowner would still have the option to remain as a tenant, paying the market rent for the period specified in the law.

Senate Stops Funding Abstinence Only Programs!

2009-07-31T14:02:00.002-04:00

OR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 30, 2009
4:38 PM

CONTACT: ACLU

Rachel Myers, (202) 675-2312; media@dcaclu.org

Senate Committee Votes to End Funding for Failed Abstinence-Only Programs
Bill Puts Teens' Health Above Politics and Ideology, Says ACLU
WASHINGTON - July 30 - The Senate Appropriations Committee today voted to end funding for failed abstinence-only-until-marriage programs and to put resources into programs that can help teens make healthy and responsible decisions about sexuality.

"After more than a decade, Congress has finally begun to put teenagers' health above politics and ideology. By removing funding from abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, the Senate Appropriations Committee showed its willingness to put an end to a sorry chapter in our public health policymaking," said Michael Macleod-Ball, acting Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "The Committee's actions represent a looming victory for young people, parents and advocates of science-based approaches."

Today's vote comes on the heels of an equally significant vote in the House of Representatives. Last week, under the leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Rep. David Obey (D-WI), that chamber approved a spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services that also eliminated funding for current abstinence-only programs. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate Appropriations Committee instead supported the president's proposal for a teen pregnancy prevention initiative to fund evidence-based programs shown to positively affect teen behavior.

"Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa and Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii should be commended for moving the Senate in this new direction. We are pleased that the Committee has joined President Obama in rejecting ideologically based abstinence-only programs that censor information, promote gender stereotypes, marginalize gay and lesbian youth and jeopardize the well-being of young people," said Vania Leveille, ACLU Legislative Counsel. "The federal government has an obligation to support programs that provide accurate, age-appropriate information that can protect teenagers' health and ability to achieve in school and beyond."

The spending measure next goes to the Senate floor, where misguided efforts to reinsert funding for abstinence-only programs are possible. A vote by the full Senate is not expected until the fall.

###
The ACLU conserves America's original civic values working in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in the United States by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

The Continuing Disenfranchisement of Millions

2009-07-27T21:59:00.002-04:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 27, 2009
1:10 PM

CONTACT: US Senator Russ Feingold
Zach Lowe (202) 224-8657
Feingold, Conyers Continue Effort to Restore Voting Rights for Millions of Americans

WASHINGTON - July 27 - U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) are continuing their effort to restore voting rights for million of Americans. Feingold and Conyers reintroduced the Democracy Restoration Act, legislation that would reinstate the right to vote in federal elections for millions of Americans with a conviction in their past who are out of prison, living in the community. In America today, more than five million citizens are unable to vote due a felony conviction, nearly three-quarters of whom are no longer in prison. Feingold and Conyers' bill would allow these Americans to exercise their right to vote if they are no longer incarcerated.

"Voting helps to build a sense of civic responsibility and commitment to community; denying this fundamental right does nothing to help people with a conviction in their past become better citizens," Senator Feingold said. "The expansion of voting rights to the poor, women, minorities and young people is one of the greatest stories in our country's history. We should continue this legacy by expanding the right to vote to those who have fully paid their debt to society."

"There is a growing nationwide movement to restore voting rights to people who are out of prison, living in the community. Those calling for change include law enforcement officers, religious leaders and elections officials," said Erika Wood, Director of the Right to Vote Project at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. "The Democracy Restoration Act will eliminate the last blanket barrier to the franchise in our country."

Feingold and Conyers' bill builds on a growing enfranchisement movement. In the last decade, 20 states have reformed their laws to expand the franchise or ease voting rights restoration procedures. Most recently, the state of Washington enacted a law easing the restoration of voting rights for people who are no longer in custody. According to the Brennan Center for Justice and the Sentencing Project, 5.3 million American citizens are not allowed to vote because of a felony conviction. Nearly four million people of them are no longer, or never were, in prison, and approximately two million have completed their entire sentence, including probation and parole.

An electronic copy of this press release is available here: http://feingold.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=316228

The New Face of the "Delinquent"

2009-07-27T19:44:00.001-04:00

From Racewire:

Zoot suit riots, West Side Story, Bloods and Crips—America has long had a fascination with the deviant teen. While the dramatic narrative has always been threaded with race and class struggle, the gender dimension of youth “delinquency” is often pushed into the backdrop.

According to the Government Accountability Office’s recent report on programs dealing with “girls’ delinquency,” girls and boys are on surprisingly divergent trajectories in their dealings with law enforcement:

from 1995 through 2005, delinquency caseloads for girls in juvenile justice courts nationwide increased 15 percent while boys’ caseloads decreased by 12 percent. Also, from 1995 through 2005, the number of girls’ cases nationwide involving detention increased 49 percent compared to a 7 percent increase for boys. More recently, in 2007, 29 percent of juvenile arrests—about 641,000 arrests—involved girls, who accounted for 17 percent of juvenile violent crime arrests and 35 percent of juvenile property crime arrests.

Moreover, the GAO found, there’s a severe lack of research on what programs are effective at reducing or preventing delinquency among girls.

According to a 2001 American Bar Association report, “multiple stressors” drive young women into criminal justice involvement, including physical and sexual abuse, separation from parents, mental health issues, and problems in school. One study found that girls are disproportionately incarcerated for nonviolent “status” offenses, like prostitution or running away—that is, “criminal” behavior that might in fact be a desperate response to abuse, poverty or other problems not within their control. In addition to often entering the system in a very vulnerable state, girls are routinely subjected to abuse while incarcerated. And, reflecting general racial patterns in the criminal justice system:

African American girls make up nearly half of all those in secure detention and Latinas constitute 13%. Although whites constitute 65% of the population of at-risk girls, they account for only 34% of girls in secure detention. Seven of every 10 cases involving white girls are dismissed, compared with 3 of every 10 cases for African American girls.

Yet the public dialogue on women of color and juvenile justice is prone to many blindspots, due to stereotypes and distorted perceptions about gender dynamics. In a Justice Department paper on female gang involvement, researchers wrote:

Autonomy and male dominance, which are ongoing issues for all female gangs, tend to vary with ethnicity. For example, gender expectations in each ethnic group might suggest that African American and white female gang members would be more autonomous and Latinas more subordinate to males. They usually are, but not always. In other words, there is no universal ethnic continuum. Indeed, some factors related to female autonomy and male dominance affect gang members regardless of ethnicity. Male unemployment and the incarceration of the many males who are convicted of illegal economic activities remove males from both Latino and African American households. As a result, women must rely on their own resources to support themselves and their children.

The juvenile justice system pits society's belief in law and order with its compassion for young people in tough circumstances, and that tension amplifies every underlying inequality. The lack of knowledge about girls caught up in the system not only deprives them of critical support and interventions; it also reveals how little we understand about the interplay of gender, race and culture in our homes and neighborhoods.

Some Irony from Bill Maher

2009-07-26T21:39:00.002-04:00

From the Huffington Post. Original article here.

New Rule: Not Everything in America Has to Make a Profit

How about this for a New Rule: Not everything in America has to make a profit. It used to be that there were some services and institutions so vital to our nation that they were exempt from market pressures. Some things we just didn't do for money. The United States always defined capitalism, but it didn't used to define us. But now it's becoming all that we are.

Did you know, for example, that there was a time when being called a "war profiteer" was a bad thing? But now our war zones are dominated by private contractors and mercenaries who work for corporations. There are more private contractors in Iraq than American troops, and we pay them generous salaries to do jobs the troops used to do for themselves -- like laundry. War is not supposed to turn a profit, but our wars have become boondoggles for weapons manufacturers and connected civilian contractors.

Prisons used to be a non-profit business, too. And for good reason -- who the hell wants to own a prison? By definition you're going to have trouble with the tenants. But now prisons are big business. A company called the Corrections Corporation of America is on the New York Stock Exchange, which is convenient since that's where all the real crime is happening anyway. The CCA and similar corporations actually lobby Congress for stiffer sentencing laws so they can lock more people up and make more money. That's why America has the world;s largest prison population -- because actually rehabilitating people would have a negative impact on the bottom line.

Television news is another area that used to be roped off from the profit motive. When Walter Cronkite died last week, it was odd to see news anchor after news anchor talking about how much better the news coverage was back in Cronkite's day. I thought, "Gee, if only you were in a position to do something about it."

But maybe they aren't. Because unlike in Cronkite's day, today's news has to make a profit like all the other divisions in a media conglomerate. That's why it wasn't surprising to see the CBS Evening News broadcast live from the Staples Center for two nights this month, just in case Michael Jackson came back to life and sold Iran nuclear weapons. In Uncle Walter's time, the news division was a loss leader. Making money was the job of The Beverly Hillbillies. And now that we have reporters moving to Alaska to hang out with the Palin family, the news is The Beverly Hillbillies.

And finally, there's health care. It wasn't that long ago that when a kid broke his leg playing stickball, his parents took him to the local Catholic hospital, the nun put a thermometer in his mouth, the doctor slapped some plaster on his ankle and you were done. The bill was $1.50, plus you got to keep the thermometer.

But like everything else that's good and noble in life, some Wall Street wizard decided that hospitals could be big business, so now they're run by some bean counters in a corporate plaza in Charlotte. In the U.S. today, three giant for-profit conglomerates own close to 600 hospitals and other health care facilities. They're not hospitals anymore; they're Jiffy Lubes with bedpans. America's largest hospital chain, HCA, was founded by the family of Bill Frist, who perfectly represents the Republican attitude toward health care: it's not a right, it's a racket. The more people who get sick and need medicine, the higher their profit margins. Which is why they're always pushing the Jell-O.

Because medicine is now for-profit we have things like "recision," where insurance companies hire people to figure out ways to deny you coverage when you get sick, even though you've been paying into your plan for years.

When did the profit motive become the only reason to do anything? When did that become the new patriotism? Ask not what you could do for your country, ask what's in it for Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

If conservatives get to call universal health care "socialized medicine," I get to call private health care "soulless vampires making money off human pain." The problem with President Obama's health care plan isn't socialism, it's capitalism.

And if medicine is for profit, and war, and the news, and the penal system, my question is: what's wrong with firemen? Why don't they charge? They must be commies. Oh my God! That explains the red trucks!

Go Chi-Town, GO!

2009-07-25T00:05:00.000-04:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 23, 2009
10:28 AM

CONTACT: Farm Sanctuary
Tricia Barry, 607-583-2225 ext. 233, tricia@farmsanctuary.org
Farm Sanctuary Applauds City of Chicago for Passing Nation’s First Ever Green Food Resolution
America’s “Second City” Beats New York to the Punch to Become First City to Pass Healthy Food and Climate Legislation
Historic Passage Marks First Victory in Leading Farm Animal Protection Organization’s Campaign to Introduce Ecologically Sustainable Food Resolutions in Cities Nationwide

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. - July 23 - Farm Sanctuary, the nation's leading farm animal protection organization, today thanked the City of Chicago for passing the nation's first ever Green Food Resolution, urging that sustainable plant-based food be made readily available to all the city's residents, and signaling a milestone first victory in Farm Sanctuary's campaign to introduce Green Food Resolutions in cities across the U.S.

The precedent-setting vote took place Tuesday after Alderman Margaret Laurino of the 39th Ward, presented the groundbreaking resolution before the City Council's Committee on Energy, Environmental Protection and Public Utilities. After testimony in favor of the proposal from Liz Mills, the Executive Director of Irving Park Carlson Ministries, a local ministries group that provides food for low-income residents, the committee unanimously voted to pass the resolution.

"We applaud Alderman Laurino and the City of Chicago for being the first city in the nation to address head on the impact our food choices have on the numerous health and environmental problems plaguing our nation," said Gene Baur, president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary. "By promoting access to healthy, plant-based food, Chicago has proven they are second to none in protecting the health of their citizens, the environment and the billions of animals raised for food in deplorable conditions on factory farms each year."

In light of increased public interest in eating more local and sustainable plant-based foods, Farm Sanctuary has launched a campaign to introduce similar Green Food Resolutions in cities throughout the U.S. Through Farm Sanctuary's Advocacy Campaign Team (ACT), advocates are reaching out to their local city governments to introduce resolutions similar to the one passed in Chicago, and seeking wide support for the expansion of farmers markets, community supported agriculture (CSA) programs, community gardens and other venues that provide healthful plant-based foods.

On June 30, New York City Council Member Bill de Blasio introduced a similar groundbreaking resolution for New York City calling for a citywide FoodprintNYC initiative to reduce the city's climate foodprint, which is a more significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions than all transportation systems combined, and create greater access to local, fresh, healthy plant-based food, especially in low-income communities, as well as city-run institutions. So far, 11 City Council members have signed on as co-sponsors.

Earlier this year, President Obama showed support of local gardens to promote healthy food by announcing the establishment of an edible garden on the South Lawn of the White House. In addition, the new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced his intention to create community gardens at every USDA facility around the world, starting with the "People's Garden," located on the grounds of the USDA.

Farm Sanctuary is the nation's leading farm animal protection organization. Since incorporating in 1986, Farm Sanctuary has worked to expose and stop cruel practices of the "food animal" industry through research and investigations, legal and institutional reforms, public awareness projects, youth education, and direct rescue and refuge efforts. Farm Sanctuary shelters in Watkins Glen, N.Y., and Orland, Calif., provide lifelong care for hundreds of rescued animals, who have become ambassadors for farm animals everywhere by educating visitors about the realities of factory farming.

Right to Know Case

2009-07-24T18:32:00.001-04:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 23, 2009
2:56 PM

CONTACT: Earthjustice
Kathleen Sutcliffe, Earthjustice, (202) 667-4500, ext 235
Judge Rejects Industry Legal Filings in Toxics Right-To-Know Case
Household cleaner giants violated court procedure, case postponed until October

NEW YORK - July 23 - A New York State Supreme Court judge today rejected legal briefs filed by household cleaning giants Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Church and Dwight and Reckitt-Benckiser in a right-to-know case filed by environmental and public health advocates.

Oral arguments in the case were scheduled to begin today. But during a pre-hearing conference, Justice Richard Braun stated that lawyers for industry had violated court procedure, filing a motion-to-dismiss brief that exceeded the maximum page limit. Justice Braun tossed the brief and rescheduled oral arguments in the case for October 15.

The manufacturing giants are refusing to follow a New York state law requiring them to disclose the chemical ingredients in their products and the health risks they pose. Independent studies show a link between many chemicals commonly found in cleaning products and health effects ranging from nerve damage to hormone disruption. With mounting concern about the potential hazards of chemicals in these products, advocates are defending consumers' right to know and asking companies to follow the law.

Ingredient disclosure requirements are virtually non-existent in the United States. The exception is a long-forgotten New York state law which requires household and commercial cleaner companies selling their products in New York to file semi-annual reports with the state listing the chemicals contained in their products and describing any company research on these chemicals' health and environmental effects.

The first-of-its-kind lawsuit could have national implications and comes as momentum builds nationally and internationally for toxics chemical reform. On the domestic front, advocates are awaiting Congressional re-introduction of the Kid Safe Chemical Act which would force the chemical industry to prove the safety of a chemical before approving it for use in products. And internationally, companies are preparing to comply with similar European regulations (known as REACH) already taking effect.

The nonprofit public interest law firm Earthjustice brought the court case on behalf of a coalition of state and national groups, including Women's Voices for the Earth, Clean New York, Environmental Advocates of New York, New York Public Interest Research Group, Riverkeeper, Sierra Club, and American Lung Association in New York.

See if the manufacturers of your favorite cleaning products have complied with the law

Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. We bring about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations, coalitions and communities.

No Exit: The Expanding Use of Life Sentences in America (From the Sentencing Project)

2009-07-23T07:24:00.002-04:00

Dear Friend,

A new report released by The Sentencing Project finds a record 140,610 individuals are now serving life sentences in state and federal prisons, 6,807 of whom were juveniles at the time of the crime. In addition, 29% of persons serving a life sentence (41,095) have no possibility of parole, and 1,755 were juveniles at the time of the crime.

No Exit: The Expanding Use of Life Sentences in America represents the first nationwide collection of life sentence data documenting race, ethnicity and gender. The report's findings reveal overwhelming racial and ethnic disparities in the allocation of life sentences: 66% of all persons sentenced to life are non-white, and 77% of juveniles serving life sentences are non-white.

Other findings in the report include:

* In five states - Alabama, California, Massachusetts, Nevada, and New York -at least 1 in 6 prisoners is serving a life sentence.
* Five states - California, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, and Pennsylvania - each have more than 3,000 people serving life without parole. Pennsylvania leads the nation with 345 juveniles serving sentences of life without parole.
* In six states - Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota - and the federal government, all life sentences are imposed without the possibility of parole.
* The dramatic growth in life sentences is not primarily a result of higher crime rates, but of policy changes that have imposed harsher punishments and restricted parole consideration.

The authors of the report, Ashley Nellis, Ph.D., research analyst and Ryan S. King, policy analyst of The Sentencing Project, state that persons serving life sentences "include those who present a serious threat to public safety, but also include those for whom the length of sentence is questionable." One such case documented is that of Ali Foroutan, currently serving a sentence of 25 years to life for possession of 0.03 grams of methamphetamine under California's "three strikes" law.

The Sentencing Project calls for the elimination of sentences of life without parole, and restoring discretion to parole boards to determine suitability for release. The report also recommends that individuals serving parole-eligible life sentences be properly prepared for reentry back into the community.

-The Sentencing Project

For the NYTimes article on the report read here. Some highlights include:

Two-thirds of prisoners serving life sentences are Latino or black, the report found. In New York State, for example, 16.3 percent of prisoners serving life terms are white.

California’s prison system, the nation’s largest with 170,000 inmates, also had the highest number of prisoners with life sentences, 34,164, or triple the number in 1992, the report found.
In four other states — Alabama, Massachusetts, Nevada and New York — at least one in six prisoners are serving life terms, according to the report.

Seven prison systems — Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and the federal penitentiary system — do not offer the possibility of parole to prisoners serving life terms.
That policy also extends to juveniles in Illinois, Louisiana and Pennsylvania. A total of 6,807 juveniles were serving life terms in 2008, 1,755 without the possibility of parole. California again led the nation in the number of juveniles serving life terms, with 2,623.
“The expansion of life sentences suggests that we’re rapidly losing faith in the rehabilitation model,” said Ashley Nellis, the report’s main author.
Despite all of this information about the horrors of the death penalty, Senator Jeff Sessions decided to dishonor Matthew Shepherd's life and death by tacking on an amendment to the Matthew Shepherd Hate Crimes Prevention Act that could make some perpetrators of hate crimes punishable by death. The ACLU has come out in opposition to the proposed amendment. (Read their statement here)
Read the amendment here.

(Racewire article on it here
and Washington Blade article on it here.)

Support Leonard Peltier! And Navajo Nation Victory

2009-07-22T16:29:00.003-04:00

Call to action from Racewire:
Leonard Peltier, a member of the American Indian Movement, was wrongfully convicted in 1977 of killing two FBI agents in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. He is an artist, poet, writer, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and activist. After serving more than 30 years in jail, he will go before the U.S. Parole Board on Tuesday, July 28, 2009.

Leonard is now more than 60 years old and is struggling with various medical issues that clearly indicate he does not pose any threat to society. Releasing him is not just a humanitarian issue, it’s true justice.

You can show your support for Leonard’s parole by signing the parole petition here.

Find out more about Leonard Peltier and other actions in support of his parole here.

Also, Commondreams reports that historic legislation took place this week when the Navajo Nation Council voted to create the Navajo Green Economy Commission:

Reportedly the first green jobs bill among the First Nations, the Navajo Nation Green Economy Commission will create the infrastructure to qualify for federal money already earmarked for green job development, and focus on small-scale, community developments for a more sustainable and green economy.

The vote on Tuesday took place after a remarkable 14 month green march by green jobs advocates, after the original bill was tabled last spring. According to the Navajo Green Jobs Coaltion, supporters from across the reservation gathered in front of the Navajo Nation Education Building and peacefully marched a quarter of a mile in green "Green Jobs" shirts to the Navajo Nation Council Chambers in Window Rock, AZ. Supporters greeted Council Delegates while filling up the front row seats of the council chambers. Multi-generational supporters sat in to encourage and ensure that their community representatives pass the legislation.

With a reservation unemployment rate at 44 percent, and the median family income at $11,885, the green jobs initiative couldn't have come at a more timely moment.

"A green economy is not a new concept to Navajo. There are many green business opportunities that fit perfectly with our culture. We must once again hearken to such processes to truly build our own economy that puts high value on our tradition - old and modern economic pursuits. In this way, we will build a vibrant economy for the future generations while honoring our great ancestors. Today's decision is a critical first step towards making this dream a reality," said Tony Skrelunas, the former Executive Director of the Navajo Nation's Division of Economic Development and a member of the Coalition.

"The passing of this legislation is monumental because it is a catalyst for economic development on the Navajo Nation with Navajo traditional values & community at it's core," says David Johns of the Dine' Haatali Association Vice-President (Navajo Medicine Men Association).

Read the full article here. Read more about Navajo Green Jobs here.

CEPR Statement on the Increase of the Minimum Wage

2009-07-21T16:37:00.001-04:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 20, 2009
4:09 PM
CONTACT: Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)
Alan Barber, (202) 293-5380 x 115

CEPR Statement on the Increase of the Minimum Wage
WASHINGTON - July 20 - Congress did not foresee the current economic crisis when it scheduled three annual minimum wage increases starting in 2007. But for struggling working-class families and the economy as a whole, the increase could not come at a better time.

When the federal minimum wage rises by 70 cents to $7.25 an hour on July 24th, it will raise the pay of the lowest-paid workers and boost the economy. The economic boost comes because workers who benefit from the increase will spend it in their local communities. According to an estimate by the Economic Policy Institute, the modest 70-cent increase will generate $5.5 billion in consumer spending over the next year - providing a boost to the economy without any increase in government spending.

Moreover, because they're more likely to be struggling to make ends meet, low-wage workers are even more likely to spend an increase in their pay than better-paid workers, making the minimum wage increase a fairly efficient form of economic stimulus.

When President Franklin Roosevelt proposed the first federal minimum wage law in 1937, he noted that "one-third of the population" were "ill-nourished, ill-clad, and ill-housed" and argued that America should be able insure to "all our able-bodied working men and women a fair day's pay for a fair day's work."

More than 70 years later, the federal minimum wage and regular increases in it, serve the same basic values of economic fairness and decency. Nearly all of the benefits of the current minimum wage increase will go to working-class families, typically headed by workers with high school degrees and some post-secondary education or training, but no college degree. Most of these families live above the stingy federal poverty line-but they don't live very far above it, and they struggle on a daily basis to meet mortgage or rent payments, put food on the table, gas in their cars, and pay for child care and doctor's visits.

The minimum wage increase has these broad benefits because it helps both the more than 2.2 million workers currently earning it and a significant portion of the roughly 7.8 million workers with wages just above it. This happens in part because businesses often are concerned to insure that more senior workers earn at least a $1 or more above just-hired workers who are paid the minimum.

Another historical continuity is the role that the minimum wage has played in ensuring that women and young people are paid fairly. Before the federal minimum wage was enacted, several states had minimum wage protections that applied only to women and young people (including, at that time, children). In 1923 and 1936, the Supreme Court struck down state laws of this sort, but then reversed course in 1937-the so-called "switch in time that saved nine" because FDR had threatened to add members to the Court if it continued to strike down New Deal legislation-to uphold Washington State's law.

The minimum wage remains an essential labor market protection for women and younger workers. Despite progress in the latter half of the 20th century, full-time working women are still paid about 80 cents for every dollar a full-time working man is paid. More than half of all minimum wage workers are adult women; if teenage girls are included, then women make up fully two-thirds of all minimum wage workers. As a result, even though they apply to both men and women, increases in the minimum wage help to reduce the gender wage gap.

While significant, this month's increase in the minimum wage will still leave a full-time worker receiving it with income far below what they need to make ends meet. Of course, what it takes to "make ends meet" is subject to much debate among experts, but regular Americans have a more definite opinion. Surveys conducted by Gallup over the last several decades have asked people to name the minimum amount of money that a family of four would need to "get along in your local community." For much of the 1950s and 1960s, the typical response to this question was around $32,000 in today's dollars. In 1969, a woman working in a minimum-wage job and supporting two children earned an amount not far below this basic "get-along" standard (adjusted for family size).

Today, such a worker would be nowhere near it. In 2007, the "get-along" amount was $45,000. Even after this week's increase, a minimum wage worker will still earn less than $15,000 a year. Moreover, most will have no health insurance, no retirement plan, no paid vacation, or even sick days.

The increase in the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour is an important, albeit very modest step on a path that leads to a fair and more inclusive economy for all. Along the way, it will increase the pay and consumption spending of the most cash-strapped working families in the United States, giving the economy a small but much needed boost.

Congress was prescient in passing a minimum wage increase that would go into effect in the midst of a recession and financial muddle, when the economy needed it most. But we cannot count on this always happening. The service and clerical workers, who together make up more than 80 percent of minimum wage workers, should not have to wait for an act of Congress to get a raise. Indexing the minimum wage to half the average hourly pay of production and nonsupervisory employees will allow the minimum wage to rise in line with the pay of other workers. At the same time, it will enable the minimum wage to function as an automatic economic stabilizer, putting a floor under consumption and giving a much-needed shot to the economy.

The following experts are available for comment:

Eileen Appelbaum: CEPR Advisory Board Member
Dean Baker: Co-Director, CEPR
.###
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) was established in 1999 to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives. In order for citizens to effectively exercise their voices in a democracy, they should be informed about the problems and choices that they face. CEPR is committed to presenting issues in an accurate and understandable manner, so that the public is better prepared to choose among the various policy options.

Anti-Homelessness in Our Cities

2009-07-20T12:55:00.003-04:00

The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP) and the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) released a report last week, Homes Not Handcuffs, tracking the criminalization of homelessness as a growing trend across the country. The report focuses on specific city measures from 2007 and 2008 that have targeted homeless persons, such as laws that make it illegal to sleep, eat, or sit in public spaces. The report includes information about 273 cities.

Los Angeless is ranked the country's meanest city (for a full article on information about LA read this article from Reuters). Some examples of why are:
"L.A.'s so-called Safer City Initiative was singled out in the groups' report as the most egregious example of policies and practices nationwide that essentially punish people for failing to have a roof over their heads.

Others include making it illegal to sleep, sit or store personal belongings on sidewalks and other public spaces; prohibitions against panhandling or begging; and selective enforcement of petty offenses like jaywalking and loitering."

Across the board, though, according to their survey:

• 33% prohibit “camping” in particular public places in the city and 17% have citywide prohibitions on “camping.”
• 30% prohibit sitting/lying in certain public places.
• 47% prohibit loitering in particular public areas and 19% prohibit loitering citywide.
• 47% prohibit begging in particular public places; 49% prohibit aggressive panhandling and 23% have citywide prohibitions on begging.
The trend of criminalizing homelessness continues to grow. Based on information gathered about the 224 cities that were included in our prohibited conduct charts in both our 2006 report and this report:

• There has been a 7% increase in laws prohibiting “camping” in particular public places.
• There has been an 11% increase in laws prohibiting loitering in particular public places.
• There has been a 6% increase in laws prohibiting begging in particular public places and a 5% increase in laws prohibiting aggressive panhandling.

The resulting legal penalties compound other barriers, say the report's authors, since a criminal record makes it even harder for a homeless person to reemerge from destitution. As more formerly working- and middle-class families spiral toward homelessness, the irony of these “quality of life” ordinances grows starker.

But the criminalization of the homeless, who happen to be disproportionately people of color, isn't just an unfortunate sign of the times.

For a more detailed report from Racewire read here.

Obama/Obama administration support of Bush programs - Will this madness really continue?

2009-07-19T23:00:00.003-04:00

Obama apparently supports and is continuing Bush policies of targeted assassinations, wiretapping, torture, and military tribunals.

AWESOME.

The cool thing though, is:
Your mobile device could be your most effective weapon against police brutality. The NAACP’s “rapid response” system, unveiled at the group’s annual convention this week, retools the Copwatch concept for the Digital Age.

Through your mobile device, you can upload images and video footage of police misconduct incidents, enabling witnesses to broadcast local news about abusive cops to the NAACP’s central database and information network. Some of the documentation could be aired instantly to raise awareness and mobilize the public. The system also allows witnesses to feed background information to the organization, which could inform investigations into patterns of civil rights violations.

Announcing the launch of the program, NAACP President Benjamin Jealous said:

Research has shown that there are many barriers to reporting incidents of police misconduct, including intimidation at police departments and a lack of trust in the integrity of the system, among other reasons. This breakdown leads to an absence of public safety and a deterioration of the quality of life in many communities of color. But public safety is a civil and a human right; and so we want a more accurate count of these incidents .

Rapid Response builds on more ad-hoc forms of media activism. Earlier this year, the spontaneous cell phone video of the Oscar Grant shooting sparked national outrage and a grassroots movement. In addition to YouTube agitation, more comprehensive multimedia initiatives could take online organizing to a new level.

The Tactical Technology Collective presents some case studies of projects that fuse activism with interactive web tools. New media has enabled live tracking of violence in Kenya and the Google mapping of toxic clean-up sites. The image above comes from a mapping project documenting clashes between police and protesters in Brighton.

Powerful institutions have long wielded technology as a force of repression. Activism in the Information Age is generating new ways to bear witness to injustice, and maybe even stop it.

(From Racewire)

Let's resist!

Mistreating Our Soldiers/Vets

2009-07-16T15:21:00.003-04:00

There has been increasing coverage of our collective failure to provide for soldier and veteran needs, physical and psychological. As Obama steps up the war in Afghanistan and begins one in Pakistan, it also appears to some (or at least this article in Commondreams) that he is adopting or continuing a colonialist strategy in Iraq. It baffles my mind that as our leaders repeatedly commit soldier-power to more and more troubled regions of the world that don't want us there, they don't think it necessary to also provide for the impact of those violent situations in any way. One major oversight is how soldiers and veterans are treated. How are we surprised about the atrocities at Bagram, at Abu-Ghraib, etc etc etc on and on and on (in all armies, everywhere!) when young, un- or under-trained and un- or under-equipped men and women are put in frightening situations where they are taught to dehumanize the enemy, shoot anything that moves, and they see their friends and comrades dying around them. It is so disgraceful and honestly, every time I read one of these articles I just want to cry.

Recently, there are reports of US soldiers being exposed to extremely dangerous chemicals (remember Erin Brokovich? Yep, that same thing) in Iraq and then being told that their health complaints are the normal reactions of their bodies to being in the deserts. The AP reported (in this article I found on Commondreams) on ill, dying, and dead soldiers that were protecting workers in one specific region of the desert:

The area, as it turned out, was contaminated with hexavalent chromium, a potent, sometimes deadly chemical linked to cancer and other devastating diseases. No one disputes that, but that's where the agreement ends. Among the issues now rippling from the courthouse to Capitol Hill are whether the chemical made people sick, when KBR knew it was there and how the company responded.

The case has raised broader questions about private contractors and health risks in war zones, says Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., who plans hearings on the matter: "How should we treat exposure to potentially hazardous chemicals as a threat to our soldiers? How seriously should that threat be taken? What is the role of private contractors? What about the potential conflict between their profit motives and taking all steps necessary to protect our soldiers?"

Dozens of National Guard veterans have sued KBR and two subsidiaries, accusing them of minimizing and concealing the chemical's dangers, then downplaying nosebleeds and breathing problems as nothing more than sand allergies or a reaction to desert air.

The AP also reported yesterday that the violent actions of GIs when they get home is tied to experiences in combat. NO WAY.. really?? These young men and women are not getting the help they need, indeed they are sometimes discouraged from seeking psychological treatment, and then SHOCKER they can't readjust to society. WHY ARE WE SURPRISED? Why, the bigger question remains, are we not providing for them? How are these soldiers serving life sentences for committing murder upon their return, when the government goes unpunished?

The NYTimes published a really good piece a couple of weeks ago reporting on the shocking depth of these inadequacies. Worth reading.

Sorry for ranting. Peace.

Israeli Soldiers Come Clean

2009-07-16T11:38:00.002-04:00

An article efrom Commondreams has more information, but this letter from Jewish Voices for Peace sums it up too:

The Israeli group Breaking the Silence has just released a collection of testimonies (1) by Israeli soldiers that took part in the Gaza attack last December and January.
This is not the first report documenting the horrors inflicted on the civilian population in Gaza. Less than two weeks ago, for example, Amnesty International produced a report documenting Israel's use of battlefield weapons against the civilian population trapped in Gaza. (2)
Today Israeli soldiers corroborate charges that the military repeatedly violated international law.
You know what? You feel like a child playing around with a magnifying glass, burning up ants. Really. A 20-year-old kid should not be doing such things to people.

The soldiers testify about their use of human shields (3), their use of phosphorus over civilian populations, and about the sheer magnitude of the destruction.
Why fire phosphorus? Because it's fun. Cool.

It looked awful, like in those World War II films where nothing remained. A totally destroyed city.

The soldiers also relate efforts of the military rabbinate unit to make the attack a holy war between "the sons of darkness" and "the sons of light."

[They told us] No pity, God protects you, everything you do is sanctified.

The list goes on.

Now we have heard from both Gazans and Israeli soldiers, all telling a similar story.
Generous US aid - American tax dollars - made this possible. American-made weapons were used to attack Gazan civilians, productive factories, schools and administrative buildings.
The British government has canceled a number of weapons contracts with Israel.
Isn't it time for members of the U.S. Congress to pay attention? Demand an investigation now into the use of US tax monies to fund war crimes in Gaza.

Sydney Levy
Jewish Voice for Peace

(1) Breaking the Silence Testimonies
http://www.shovrimshtika.org/news_item_e.asp?id=30
(2) Amnesty International Gaza report
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/impunity-war-crimes-gaza-southern-israel-recipe-further-civilian-suffering-20090702
(3) Ha'aretz: Israeli soldier: "We used Gazans as human shields."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1100300.html
Original article removed from Ha'aretz, but available in full here: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/07/14/18607903.php )
(4) BBC Breaking the Silence on Gaza Abuses
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8151336.stm

Hunger and Farming

2009-07-15T12:19:00.002-04:00

Last week, Anuradha Mittal, in a Commondreams article asked the question: What will the G8 Summit do, exactly, about hunger? She points out:

With hunger framed as a crisis of demand and supply, the proposed solutions have come to primarily focus on boosting agricultural production through technological solutions like genetic engineering (GE) and chemical inputs or/and on removing supply-side constraints to ensure access to food through liberalization of agricultural trade. This framework was used, for instance, to explain the 2008 food crisis and has permeated international efforts geared towards challenging hunger without questioning the policies promoted by the same donor countries and the multilateral institutions they control, over the last three-four decades that undermined food security in the developing countries in the first place. Their faulty analysis yields an incomplete understanding of the causes of world hunger and hence, broken solutions...
Assertion that free trade will help solve hunger is however based on amnesia. Liberalization of agricultural markets has yet to deliver on the promised or expected gains in growth and stability in the developing world. In a submission to the Commission of Sustainable Development (CSD) in May 2009, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, pointed to the multilateral trading system as being "heavily skewed in favor of a small group of countries, and in urgent need of reform." (TWN, 2009) He was referring to the heavily subsidized agriculture in the rich countries which has helped them secure markets by flooding developing countries with cheap farm imports, making subsistence farming uncompetitive and financially unstable.

Meanwhile, a USA Today article from yesterday talks about young people taking responsibly food production into their own hands and buying small plots of land to start small organic farms. Not exactly the fast lane to ending world hunger, but an interesting step towards responsible consumption and production.

Obama is asserting that accessible education is the primary way to fight social ills, with his proposed education plan that would help displaced workers go to college. His goal of spending $12 million to boost the U.S. network of community colleges, combined with new loan legislation, should help provide training for workers who are out of jobs and for young people entering a difficult job market, Obama says. For the complete article in the NYTimes, read here. I don't want to be cynical but I certainly want more information...

Lastly, I am really concerned about the continued controversy over mountaintop removal in Appalachia. An article in Tricities (which I read on Commondreams) talks about the film "Coal Country" that engages with the negative effects of coal mining in Appalachia. Mari-Lynn Evans, the executive producer of the film, asks the important question:
“Why are these people [in the Appalachian region] the poorest in the United States of America when they are living on land that is the richest in the United States of America? It seems obvious from that alone that there is a problem. ... We’ve got to figure out how Appalachia is going to flourish in a future that does not involve coal.”
This, in my mind, is directly connected to world hunger and poverty. How ironic (or predictable, depending on how you look at it) that some of the geographical areas richest in resources are the most impoverished and hungry? In the U.S. that clearly follows too. I just grew up knowing, accepting, that Appalachia was poor. Never once was I taught to ask why??!? WHY is it so poor when it has so much to offer?

Food, Food, and the Environment

2009-07-14T09:52:00.003-04:00

Jonathan Owen of the Independent UK recently wrote an article saying that the worsening effects of climate change will lead to a total collapse of "civilization" as we know it. He notes that with the increased number of crises sure to come from climate change, peace will be invariably more elusive.

Ronnie Cummins at Commondreams has me convinced that food production is an essential component to making real change in this article. Organic farming and food production is definitely a priority, but interestingly enough, Cummins argues that a major obstacle to organic farming is companies like Whole Foods Market, who trick consumers into buying their expensive products which are often not organic at all but only "natural" - an evasive term that means nothing at all. Worth checking out.

Also disturbing is the fact that increasing numbers of crops are actually being destroyed in the name of food safety. The SF Chronicle published an article yesterday talking about the hysteria behind E coli scares and other food safety epidemics that are leading to the widespread destruction of crops, ponds, and other natural habitats.

We really need to get our acts together and support responsible consumption, clearly.

A New Take on the Israel-Palestine Situation

2009-07-13T16:07:00.003-04:00

In light of a Human Sciences Research Council report confirming the situation in the Occupied Territories as officially an apartheid and increasing tensions in the region, Russell Nieli has an idea. I'm still thinking about the implications but it is refreshing to hear someone with a plan - a new plan - that acknowledges some basic truths about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I found it here on Tikkun, but apparently it is the second part of a speeech he gave. The full talk can be accessed here. The Tikkun link also gives his thought process and basic premises he was working with in formulating this plan - worth checking out. I wonder whether Obama would consider such an idea or what his real vision for peace is. Michael Lerner at Tikkun writes about how Obama may be changing the message towards Israel from Bush's blank check, but he's not doing enough. He calls for some basic actions and for Obama to pack a tougher punch. I definitely agree... Obama has a responsibility to push for real change in the region. It feels to me, time and time again, that Israel is cutting off its nose to spite its face - how do these "world powers" not think that allowing basic resources and human rights to all people - giving all people a sense of security, a sense of community - will not be the most basic foundation to peace?!

Anyway here is the Nieli idea:

None of the major proposed solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian problem offers a way out of the continued bitterness, suspicion, violence, and ill-will between the two parties. To achieve a just and lasting settlement, we must find an outside-the-box alternative to the major peace proposals that have been considered so far.

After years of reflection, I have become certain that "two-state condominialism"-a solution involving a rigid political separation of two peoples within a unified, binational, settlement territory-offers the clearest vision of hope for both Palestinians and Jews.

I know there are immense problems and hurdles to be overcome to enable the realization of the condominial arrangement I describe here. But they are far less intractable, in my opinion, than those involved in the realization of a separationist scheme. The peoples, economies, natural resources, and infrastructures have become intimately intertwined in Palestine/Eretz Israel, so powerful irredentist feelings would inevitably emerge on both sides of any rigid territorial divide. A condominial arrangement would also be more easily realized than the increasingly popular "one-state solution," which I consider to be a complete non-starter politically for the Israelis, both now and in the foreseeable future.

The condominial formula I propose here would enable both peoples to realize simultaneously most of their respective national dreams. It is a win-win situation that gives both peoples powerful incentives to cooperate with one another to make the arrangement work.

Two States in a Single, Binational Settlement Community

The two-state condominial arrangement starts out with the creation of a democratic Palestinian state (composed of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem) much like that suggested in other two-state proposals with the boundaries of the Palestinian state roughly determined by the pre-1967 Green Line. The Palestinian state ("Palestine") would have most of the features of a democratic nation-state, but from the outset it would be an ethnically defined state, a state of the Palestinian people, whereby a close parallel was maintained to the definition of Israel as a state of the Jews. As part of the fundamental agreement, all current Israeli Arabs would be required to transfer their citizenship, national identity, and national voting rights-but not their residence-to the new Palestinian state. Israeli Arabs would retain their permanent right to live in Israel and they would also retain their current benefits under the Jewish welfare state (or be adequately compensated for the loss of them by another arrangement, such as a lump sum payment), but they would become citizens of-and permanent voting members of-the Palestinian state, not Israel.

Both Palestinians and Jews under the condominial proposal would be granted the right to settle anywhere within the territory of either state. Together the two states would thus form a single, binational settlement community. Palestinians would have the right to settle anywhere within Israel, just as Jews would have the right to settle anywhere within the territory of the Palestinian state. Regardless of which of the two states they live in, all Palestinians would be citizens of the Palestinian state, and all Jews would be citizens of Israel.

The states themselves, Israel and Palestine, would have the right-and, indeed, the moral obligation-to set up a dense network of support facilities to care for the economic, cultural, religious, and welfare needs of any citizens living in the territory of the neighboring state. Each state, in other words, would have extensive extra-territorial rights and obligations vis-à-vis its citizens in the neighboring state. The arrangement would be something like that which the U.S. government routinely maintains toward many of its government employees and other citizens living in foreign countries with an extensive American military and diplomatic presence (e.g. West Germany during the Cold War). The Palestinian state would have the obligation to care for its citizen population living in Israel, just as the Jewish state would have the obligation to do the same for Israeli citizens living in the Palestinian state. In any event, Palestinians moving into Israel and Jews living within the Palestinian state would have no claim to any of the welfare and other benefits provided by the territorial state wherein they reside.

As part of the fundamental agreement, the Palestinian state would be required to acknowledge the special Jewish character of the state of Israel, and Israel would be required to acknowledge the special Palestinian-Arab identity of the state of Palestine, with both states acknowledging the right of all Palestinians and all Israelis to reside anywhere within the joint settlement community formed by the combined territories of the two states.

This is just a rough sketch of what a condominial arrangement would entail. In the pages that follow, I lay out in more detail how such a solution could work, and address practical issues such as the settlement community's taxation structure and the sharing of water resources.

The Story Behind the Condominial Proposal

As a third-generation Italian American raised in the suburbs of New York City among many Jewish classmates, neighbors, and friends, I was deeply moved from an early age by what some call the "Jewish narrative"-like the Leon Uris/Otto Preminger version of Exodus. As a graduate student in Princeton's Politics Department in the 1970s, I began extensive readings about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Those readings were almost entirely in Jewish sources, but they nevertheless made me more understanding of, and more sympathetic toward, the Palestinian Arab viewpoint. This situation left me internally divided-torn between two seemingly irreconcilable narratives, each of which I knew to be of central importance to the peoples involved, both of whom have experienced more than their share of historical suffering and travail.

The result of my inner ferment was a series of proposals I made in print in the early 1990s that I originally called "two-state binationalism," but which I am now calling "two-state condominialism," a term which better captures their overall meaning and structure.

I encourage readers who finish this article to go to the Tikkun website and read my full talk to get a sense of the fatal weaknesses from which, in my view, the major competing peace proposals variously suffer.

Moving Beyond the Pessimism of Realpolitik

At its most basic, the Palestinian-Israeli dilemma can be stated very simply with two points:

1) As a final or end-game outcome, no solution to the conflict over historical Palestine will ever be acceptable to the Arab side if that solution denies to the Palestinians (especially to those who have suffered so long in Gaza and the refugee camps of the frontline states) a right of return to the land that is now Israel-a land which, in their view, was callously and unjustly taken from them by the convergent activities of British imperialists, Jewish settler-colonialists, reactionary Arab leaders and collaborators, and an American-supported Zionist army.

2) Within present political structures and under present conditions of politics and history, no Israeli government in its right mind would ever allow any sizable number of Zionist-hating Palestinians to re-enter Israel and become citizens of a democratic Jewish state.

This is the stark reality of the current situation. Thus stated, one can see why so many observers, and not just those on the fringes of the Kahanist right, believe the situation to be unsolvable. Several years ago, I was discussing this issue with Professor Robert Gilpin, who at the time was the chief international relations theorist in Princeton's Politics Department. After surveying with skepticism some of the more common proposals for peace in the Mideast, Bob turned to me and said, "You know, Russ, there just may not be a peaceful, long-term solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict." Bob's comment at the time struck me as terribly deflating and unduly pessimistic, but also, I must say, as possibly realistic given the track record of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks over the years.

Professor Gilpin is usually identified with the school of international relations associated with the term Realpolitik-a school which stresses the dominant role in the relations between nation-states of military power, economic interests, self-promoting and self-aggrandizing behavior, and national security concerns. Those in this school see themselves as hard-headed "realists" who seek to view the world as it is, not the way they might like it to be, or the way wishful thinking might conceive it to be. Such "realists" typically view their opponents as well-meaning but fuzzy-headed "liberals" or "idealists" ignorant of how the real world works.

Upon critical examination, it's true that the major proposed solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian problem appear doomed to failure. Saying this, however, does not mean that nothing will work. My alternative proposal requires a bit of creative thinking, but I have become ever more convinced that only a creative outside-the-box solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict offers any hope of long-range success.

Also, to read Michelle Chen at Racewire on the HSRC report on apartheid from June 11 click here.

Take Action for Global Labor

2009-07-11T14:12:00.001-04:00

From LabourStart

JUST ANOTHER COG IN THE MACHINE

"A union can make a big difference to people's perceptions of a job," says John Wood of the Trades Union Congress in Britain. And he's made this clever little video which has got to be seen by anyone who needs a union in their workplace but doesn't yet know that:

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

Spread the word - forward this message.

INDONESIA: NESTLE WORKERS NEED YOUR SUPPORT

Since 2007, the union at the Nescafé factory in Panjang has been struggling to negotiate two basic improvements to their contract. Nestlé refuses and has attempted to undermine the union's legitimacy by intimidating members and leaders, attempting to establish a rival organization and pressuring workers to join it. For nearly two years workers have resisted. You can support then by sending a message to Nestlé:

http://www.iuf.org/cgi-bin/campaigns/show_campaign.cgi?c=410

INDONESIA: DONATIONS NEEDED FOR LOCKED-OUT TOSHIBA WORKERS

The International Metalworkers' Federation is asking for donations in support of struggling Toshiba Indonesia union members who have been locked out of the plant with no wages or healthcare benefits since April. More than 700 workers went on strike after the company refused to recognize the collective labour agreement signed both by the union and management and fired 15 elected union leaders. For more details and to make your donation, please go here:

http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=20041&l=2

PAKISTAN: VICTORY AT UNILEVER

A settlement between the IUF and Unilever has secured the creation of new permanent positions for all the union-supported Action Committee members at the company's factory in Rahim Yar Khan:

http://www.iuf.org/cgi-bin/dbman/db.cgi?db=default&uid=default&ID=6016&view_records=1&ww=1&en=1

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING FOR HEALTH AND SAFETY

This week's Book of the Week is a tremendous resource for unions facing health and safety issues. To learn more and order your copies, go here:

http://www.labourstart.org/bookshop/?p=71

Fun Events in Phillyyyy via D. Stein

2009-07-10T17:17:00.000-04:00

AndalaLucha

Friday July 10: Defenestrator Dance Party

Please come and help us celebrate our 45th issue of printing news of rebellion and struggle by dancing your ass off at the Ninja House.

Ninja House, 4707 Hazel Ave. in West Phila

10pm till ??

with DJs Andalalucha, DJ Alex and Sweet and Aggro

$5 -$2500 at the door.

we'll bring the bar.

Saturday July 11th: Prometheus Dance Party at Cha-Cha Razzi
Here's the facebook event invite
and become a fan of Prometheus Radio Project on facebook

amc dance party flyer

Dance your liver out

Saturday, July 11, 2009
10:00pm- 2:00am

Cha-Cha’ Razzi
1918 Bancroft Street (Off Mifflin BTW 16th & 17th in South Philly) View map
DJs:
Andalalucha (Philly/NYC)
Radiorios (NYC)
Precolumbian DJ (Philly)
In Da Nile(DC)

DANCEHALL//BAILE//FUNK// BHANGRA//DISCO//HIP HOP
MIDNIGHT RAFFLE with THESE PRIZES:
*Marvelous Records gift certificate
*Mill Creek Farm T-Shirt
*Emma Luv dresses
*Burt's Bees gift basket
*Prometheus swag bag
AND MORE TBA

Beers from PHILADELPHIA BREWING COMPANY

All proceeds support the Prometheus Radio Project, West Philly's own Media Robin Hood, "freeing the airwaves from corporate control

So we can go to the Allied Media Conference and do a radio electronics workshop and also a two day live broadcast!"

CONSPIRING FOR CHANGE: the politics of protest in the post 9-11 world
A benefit for the RNC8 and the SF8

Friday July 10th at 6:30 p.m.
@ the Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St.
$8 - $800,000 suggested donation, no one turned away

Join us for an evening of inspiration and resistance! The War on Terror has entangled long histories of state violence with new forms of repression. From yesterday’s COINTELPRO to today’s PATRIOT ACT, the government has attempted to criminalize U.S. political movements in the courts, in the media, and on the streets. This event brings together longtime activists locally and from around the country to discuss the use of conspiracy and terrorism charges against contemporary organizers, to connect legacies of social justice struggles, and to chart paths of opposition.

There will also be artwork by local Puerto Rican artists Danny Torres and Ismael Avila and the first Philadelphia showing of the exhibit Voices Outside: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex, a portfolio created by artists in the Justseed’s Artist Cooperative.

THE CASES
The San Francisco 8 are the eight Black community activists – Black Panthers and others – who were arrested January 23, 2007, in California, New York, and Florida on charges related to the 1971 killing of a San Francisco police officer. Similar charges were thrown out thirty-five years ago after it was revealed that police used torture to extract confessions when some of these same men were arrested in New Orleans in 1973. The original charges against them came out of COINTELPRO, and the reopening of the case was made possible by the PATRIOT act. After more than two years, preliminary hearings in the case begin in July 2009. For more info check out www.freethesf8.org

The RNC8 are the eight activists facing conspiracy and terrorism charges for their work organizing against the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota. They were arrested before the convention even began, and charged with “conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism,” making them the first people ever charged under Minnesota's version of the PATRIOT act. They are not being charged with actually doing anything, but face the possibility of several years in prison for publicly organizing against the RNC. For more info check out www.rnc8.org

This event is being put on by the Philadelphia RNC8 support committee, and is also sponsored by the National Boricua Human Rights Network, the Philadelphia National Lawyers Guild and the Defenestrator.

For more information contact NErnc8support@riseup.net

Gotta Talk About Healthcare

2009-07-09T15:25:00.004-04:00

I know, I know - two posts in one day?! All my readers out there (chuckle, chuckle, I think I have three readers) I'm just whirling with how much there is to talk about right now in our crazy effed up world.

Healthcare and the proposed reforms in Congress and being put forth by the Obama administration is a huge topic that has direct (and immediate!) consequences for all of us, but of course is so convoluted sometimes it's hard to understand what's going on (at least for me). I found this article in Tikkun, a great leftist Jewish publication, which basically explains the difference between single-payer and public options for the new healthcare program, and makes a convincing argument for the single-payer plan. Even if you disagree, it's full of really important explanatory stuff so check it out.

Also from Tikkun -- I read this Op/Ed by Michael Lerner arguing basically for the abolition of the system as it exists today and a complete overhaul. My father told me that it's not realistic, we have to work with what we have and we can't just change it overnight --- I don't buy it. I love the idea of the government subsidizing medical education (med school, nursing school, chiropractic school) and then doctors etc being paid less. It seems to me that the quality of care WOULD go up, rather just the quantity, and that it would be a step towards a more equal society in any case. I also appreciate Lerner holding us all accountable for fighting for this change, and debunking the Obama-does-no-wrong mania that seems to have spread over our country. Anyway, the Op/Ed is long but worth reading, for sure.

Racewire also reported yesterday on the "Uncharitable compromises" that the emerging health plan is making:

The hospital lobby has generously agreed to more than $150 billion in “cost savings” to help lower the cost of the health care overhaul—a buy-in from industry that, like the overtures of Wal-Mart and Big Pharma, could make the compromise legislation much easier for interested parties to swallow.

But a chunk of the savings will come at the expense of charity care—free services that hospitals provide to people too poor to afford treatment otherwise.

Bloomberg News reports:

"The deal also calls for a phasing in of $50 billion in cuts to payments the hospitals get for treating a large number of uninsured patients, starting in 2015, according to the lobbyist. The White House, without giving precise figures, said those reductions would be “more than offset” by the increasing number of people who will be insured after the overhaul."
Charity care folds into the tattered safety net serving marginal, underserved and uninsured populations, in which people of color are dramatically overrepresented. Some states have special mandates for hospitals to provide charity care, but studies show that the implementation of these policies has been spotty.

As they work to slash charity care payments, hospitals are also lobbying against tighter standards for providing these services, opposing a proposal to make them commit a certain amount to charity care as a condition of tax-exempt status.

Jonathan Cohn at TNR wonders, “Insofar as the savings come from reduced payments for charity care--payments that now flow through Medicaid--is this a case in which suburban and speciality hospitals actually do just fine but charity hospitals take a hit?”

For the complete Racewire article read here.

WHAT A MESS. That's the only thing I know for sure. I can't help but be pessimistic that our government will once again find a way to make this a giant failure that doesn't lead to real change or help the people who need it most - this seems to be a trend in Obama policies thus far. I'm also concerned that the American people seem so uninformed about what's going on... WE are the people who will this reform will impact. Congress already has GREAT coverage. So why are they making these decisions again?

A Call for Action on E-Verify from Julianne Hing at Racewire

2009-07-09T10:36:00.000-04:00

Call Your Senator Today: We Deserve More Than Flawed, Unjust E-verify
Time to pick up the phone, folks. Senator Jeff Session’s amendment to the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2010 (H.R. 2892) would make E-Verify mandatory for all federal contractors is up for a vote today. If implemented, the notoriously error-ridden system would affect 4 million people in this country.

Find your senators’ information by clicking here. Call right now and let your senators know that employer sanctions in the form of E-Verify don’t protect workers from exploitation or even accurately identify those without papers.

From the National Immigration Law Center:

The amendment would:

• Make the notoriously flawed E-verify program permanent.
• Require all federal contractors and subcontractors to use the program to verify all employees including existing employees.
• Harm U.S. workers, citizens and non-citizens alike, who are falsely denied work.

2. Tell them:
• You OPPOSE the Sessions amendment (#1371) to make E-Verify permanent and mandatory for federal contractors.
• You SUPPORT having a real debate about immigration issues and the only way for that to happen is by starting comprehensive immigration reform this year.

For more information about the problems with E-Verify, see http://www.nilc.org/immsemplymnt/ircaempverif/e-verify-facts-2009-01-29.pdf.

The Yes Men Withdraw Film from Israeli Film Festival

2009-07-08T10:58:00.002-04:00

Andy Bichlbaum & Mike Bonanno withdrew their celebrated new film from an Israeli film festival in protest of Israeli policies. Their letter was published On Common Dreams here. More info on the film here.

Dear Friends at the Jerusalem Film Festival,

We regret to say that we have taken the hard decision to withdraw our film, “The Yes Men Fix the World,” from the Jerusalem Film Festival in solidarity with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.

This decision does not come easily, as we realize that the festival opposes the policies of the State of Israel, and we have no wish to punish progressives who deplore the state-sponsored violence committed in their name.

This decision does not come easily, as we feel a strong affinity with many people in Israel, sharing with them our Jewish roots, as well as the trauma of the Holocaust, in which both our grandfathers died. Andy lived in Jerusalem for a year long ago, can still get by in Hebrew, and counts several friends there. And Mike has always wanted to connect with the roots of his culture.But despite all our feelings, we cannot abandon our mission as activists. In the 1980s, there was a call from the people of South Africa to artists and others to boycott that regime, and it helped end apartheid there. Today, there is a clear call for a boycott from Palestinian civil society. Obeying it is our only hope, as filmmakers and activists, of helping put pressure on the Israeli government to comply with international law.

It is painful to do this. But it is even more painful to hear Israeli policies described as “fascist” – not just from the ill-informed and the clueless, not just from the usual anti-semitic morons, but from well-informed Jewish activists within Israel. They know what they’re talking about, and it’s painful to think that they could be right.

As we’re sure you know and deplore, the Israeli government has recently authorized the construction of new units in an illegal West Bank outpost – one that is illegal even according to Israeli law. On Monday, nine Palestinians were injured as Israeli authorities demolished their East Jerusalem home. Tuesday, the Israeli navy stopped a ship from delivering medicine, toys, and other humanitarian relief to Gaza, and detained over twenty foreign peace activists, including a Nobel Peace laureate. Meanwhile, a UN commission was in Gaza investigating much worse abuses committed early this year.

Whatever words are applied to such actions, our film mustn’t help lend an aura of normalcy to a state that makes these decisions. For us, that’s the bottom line.

There is certainly another way to do things in Israel/Palestine, and that is what we must fight for, however feeble our means. As for our film, there is another way for it to be seen in Israel… and in Palestine, so that the people most in need of comic relief, who would never have been able to see it at the Jerusalem Film Festival anyhow, will be able to see it too. Within the next few months, we will make this happen.

To those who want to see our film, savlanut and sabir (patience)! And for all the rest of us, a little LESS patience, please.

L’shanah haba’ah beyerushalayim,

Andy and Mike,
The Yes Men
www.theyesmen.org

Upcoming Events in the Phila Area

2009-07-07T19:45:00.001-04:00

Summer 2009 Events from the Brandywine Peace Community

Friday, July 3, Noon — Independence Day eve, join with peace and anti-war activists, anti-violence and gun control advocates, justice seekers, community and earth partners, celebrating our freedom and independence, by making a declaration for justice and peace for today. "And Now, DECLARE PEACE!" Demonstration with speakers, music, and public declaration at Independence Mall, Market Street, between 5th & 6th Streets, followed by bell-tolling vigil to stop the wars and end the violence, handgun to H-Bomb.

Memory, Hope, Nonviolent Action at Lockheed Martin, and Peace...August 6 - 9, 2009, Anniversary of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki (August 6 - 9, 1945).

Thursday, August 6, Hiroshima Day —- Lockheed Martin, Mall & Goddard Boulevards, Valley Forge, PA (behind the King of Prussia Mall).
8a.m. - Noon, Vigil for Peace;
Noon - Hiroshima Day Ceremony and Nonviolent Action, including civil disobedience. Those interested in participating in the civil disobedience, call the Brandywine Peace Community by July 25 for preparation and planning information.

Sunday, August 9 — Nagasaki Day, 7:30p.m. Candlelight Peace Dedication in front of SS Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Cathedral, 18th & Benjamin Franklin Parkway, in memory of the Urakami Cathedral, ground zero of the Nagasaki bombing. Co-sponsored by Phila. Catholic Peace Fellowship.

In its 3rd decade...Join Us at the area's longest running on-going gathering for peace and justice, the Brandywine Peace Community Monthly Supper/Program, 4:30PM, 2nd Sunday of the month (except August), University Lutheran Church, 3637 Chestnut Street, Phila., PA (bring main dish, salad, or dessert to share). Programs begin at 5:30PM.

July 12 — Special showing of "The Day After Trinity: J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb (1980), the acclaimed and Oscar-nominated film documentary about Oppenheimer, the scientific head of the Manhattan Project and the first steps into the nuclear age.

First Fridays, 7 p.m., at the Peace Center of Delaware County/Springfield Friends Meetinghouse, 1001 Old Sproul Road, Springfield, Delaware County, with light refreshments and after-film discussion. Co-sponsored by the Brandywine Peace Community. For more information or directions, www.delcopeacecenter.org, or call 610.544.1818

Skip the Independence Day blockbuster and spend an evening at the Peace Center of Delaware County with "THE VISITOR".

JULY 3 — "THE VISITOR", 103 minutes, rated PG - 13 for some profanity, Directed by Thomas McCarthy ("The Station Agent" ) and starring Richard Jenkins in his Best Actor Oscar nominate role, and Hiam Abbass.

"THE VISITOR" is a simple drama, both poignant and compellingly subtle, that focuses on a lonely man in late middle age whose life changes when he is forced to face issues relating to identity, immigration, and cross-cultural communication in post-9/11 New York City

(5p.m - Cook-out at the Peace Center of Delaware County, prior to the screening of The Visitor. RSVP by calling Brandywine Peace Community, 610-544-1818.)

As the world remembers the anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, August 6 and 9, come to the Peace Center of Delaware County on August 7 to see where and how it all began.

AUGUST 7 — "FAT MAN AND LITTLE BOY" (1989), 127 minutes, directed by Roland Joffee (The Killing Fields, The Mission). Starring Paul Newman as General Leslie R. Groves and Dwight Schultz as J.Robert Oppenheimer, with John Cusak, Laura Dern, and Natasshia Richardson. Rated PG -13

"FAT MAN AND LITTLE BOY" dramatically and with precise historical detail tells the story of the Manhattan Project, which developed and built the world's first atomic bombs. In thematic narrative, the film introduces us to the project and people which developed the horror of nuclear weapons, from the inception of the Manhattan Project to the "Trinity" test blast. We are left to imagine at film's end the horror of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and the world of threatened nuclear annihilation in which we still live.

6pm, large pictorial display from Japan of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, their after-effects, and the continuing threat posed by nuclear weaponry.

Brandywine Peace Community
P.O. Box 81, Swarthmore, PA 19081
(610) 544-1818
brandywine@juno.com
www.brandywinepeace.com

SF8 - Charges dropped!

2009-07-06T22:59:00.000-04:00

"Finally, after years of unified resistance by the brothers and a the building of massive support, California State prosecutors were forced to admit that they have insufficient evidence against the San Francisco 8."

read more here

Amy Goodman: Undo the Coup!

2009-07-03T11:05:00.001-04:00

Undo the Coup
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090630_undo_the_coup/
Posted on Jun 30, 2009

By Amy Goodman

The first coup d’etat in Central America in more than a quarter-century occurred last Sunday in Honduras. Honduran soldiers roused democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya from his bed and flew him into exile in Costa Rica. The coup, led by the Honduran Gen. Romeo Vasquez, has been condemned by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, the Organization of American States and all of Honduras’ immediate national neighbors. Mass protests have erupted on the streets of Honduras, with reports that elements in the military loyal to Zelaya are rebelling against the coup.

The United States has a long history of domination in the hemisphere. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton can chart a new course, away from the dark days of military dictatorship, repression and murder. Obama indicated such a direction when he spoke in April at the Summit of the Americas: “[A]t times we sought to dictate our terms. But I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership. There is no senior partner and junior partner in our relations.”

Two who know well the history of dictated U.S. terms are Dr. Juan Almendares, a medical doctor and award-winning human rights activist in Honduras, and the American clergyman Father Roy Bourgeois, a priest who for years has fought to close the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, Ga. Both men link the coup in Honduras to the SOA.

The SOA, renamed in 2000 the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), is the U.S. military facility that trains Latin American soldiers. The SOA has trained more than 60,000 soldiers, many of whom have returned home and committed human rights abuses, torture, extrajudicial execution and massacres.

Almendares, targeted by Honduran death squads and the military, has been the victim of that training. He talked to me from Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital: “Most of this military have been trained by the School of America. ... They have been guardians of the multinational business from the United States or from other countries. ... The army in Honduras has links with very powerful people, very rich, wealthy people who keep the poverty in the country. We are occupied by your country.”

Born in Louisiana, Bourgeois became a Catholic priest in 1972. He worked in Bolivia and was forced out by the (SOA-trained) dictator Gen. Hugo Banzer. The assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the murders of four Catholic churchwomen in El Salvador in 1980 led him to protest where some of the killers were trained: Fort Benning’s SOA. After six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were murdered in El Salvador in 1989, Bourgeois founded SOA Watch and has built an international movement to close the SOA.

Honduran coup leader Vasquez attended the SOA in 1976 and 1984. Air Force Gen. Luis Javier Prince Suazo, who also participated in the coup, was trained at the SOA in 1996.

Bourgeois’ SOA Watch office is just yards from the Fort Benning gates. He has been frustrated in recent years by increased secrecy at SOA/WHINSEC. He told me: “They are trying to present the school as one of democracy and transparency, but we are not able to get the names of those trained here—for over five years. However, there was a little sign of hope when the U.S. House approved an amendment to the defense authorization bill last week that would force the school to release names and ranks of people who train here.” The amendment still has to make it through the House-Senate conference committee.

Bourgeois speaks with the same urgency that he has for decades. His voice is well known at Fort Benning, where he was first arrested more than 25 years ago when he climbed a tree at night near the barracks of Salvadoran soldiers who were training there at the time.

Bourgeois blasted a recording of the voice of Romero in his last address before he was assassinated. The archbishop was speaking directly to Salvadoran soldiers in his country: “In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cry rises to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you: Stop the repression.”

Almost 30 years later, in a country bordering Romero’s El Salvador, the U.S. has a chance to change course and support the democratic institutions of Honduras. Undo the coup.

From the Sentencing Project

2009-07-01T08:08:00.000-04:00

Last week, I participated in an historic event convened by the Congressional Black Caucus on the 25th Anniversary of the Sentencing Reform Act.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, before a standing-room-only audience of federal judges, public defenders, members of Congress and formerly incarcerated persons, eloquently and forcefully advised Congress to fix the broken system of federal mandatory minimum sentences.

Attorney General Eric Holder addressed the forum and called for reform of federal crack cocaine penalties "this year." He also detailed the priorities of a new Sentencing and Corrections Working Group charged with creating a system that:

* protects the public
* is fair to both victims and defendants
* eliminates unwarranted sentencing disparities
* reduces recidivism, and
* controls the federal prison population.

I don't have to tell you that these are principles The Sentencing Project has been advancing for more than two decades. We applaud the commitment of the Attorney General and the Obama Administration to enact these necessary reforms.

I want you to know that The Sentencing Project will be working to ensure that policymakers have the information and analysis they need about the impact of criminal justice policies, and understand that Americans are counting on them to fix the broken system of justice that has been damaging communities and families for far too long.

We can create criminal justice policies that are based on facts and evidence about what will improve public safety, and that will ensure fairness and justice for all.

You can help us continue to fight for a justice system that's worthy of each and every one of us. Please consider making a secure, online contribution to The Sentencing Project today.

Thank you for your support.

Marc Mauer
Executive Director

p.s. You can read my commentary to the Attorney General's proposals on the University of Pittsburgh School of Law's blog here.

Disturbing Reversal of Civil Rights Case

2009-06-30T14:55:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that White firefighters in New Haven had been discriminated against racially when the city decided to throw out an examination for career advancement once results came back that no Black firefighters had done well. The NYT reports that,

The new standards announced by the court will make it much harder for employers to discard the results of hiring and promotion tests once they are administered, even if they have a disproportionately negative impact on members of a given racial group

(For the full NYT article read here)

This is absurd - if you prove a test is racist you better damn well throw that out!! WHAT IS GOING ON!??! Racewire provides a far more complex analysis than I possibly can:

Sherrilyn Ifill at the Root says the majority opinion establishes a new, more stringent standard for evaluating the need for race-conscious policies in public sector employment decisions, and s to remedy discrimination in public sector employment, and in addition, the court “takes the extraordinary step of making the factual determination that there was not ‘a strong basis in evidence’ to justify the city of New Haven’s actions.” In other words, the majority is imposing its own definition of fairness over a local legal dispute:

What Justice Alito sees in New Haven’s actions is not the good faith effort of a city with a history of discrimination in firefighter hiring to address a stark and alarming racial disparity in exam results. Instead, Alito is certain that there’s something of a racial conspiracy afoot—a conspiracy by black community leaders to discriminate against whites.
On the connection between Ricci and Judge Sonia Sotomayor (who endorsed the appeals court ruling that the Supreme Court reversed) Glenn Greenwald sees "irony" in the rush to defend the whites from the supposed oppression of affirmative action policies, in contrast to the repudiation of Sonia Sotomayor's “empathy” toward far less privileged groups:

From the start, those protesting Sotomayor's decision in Ricci did so by appealing not to law, but to emotion, non-legal precepts of "fairness" and empathy -- at the very same time that those very same people mocked the notion that those considerations should play any role in judicial decision-making.

But, amid the heavy spin of conservative pundits, the case basically boils down to the value of a single test. So were the racially disparate results a product of a fundamentally flawed exam?

TAP's Adam Serwer challenges critics' accusations that the city fell prey to political correctness when it dismissed the test in light of its civil-rights law implications.

The city had reason to believe the test was flawed, not only because how it was constructed favored things less applicable to actual firefighting, it advantaged people with more resources and personal connection to the department, and there are other ways to construct the test in which not only have more relevance to the job, they actually have less of a disparate impact. If the city had arbitrarily tossed out the white firefighters' scores and promoted less qualified minority candidates, that would have been one thing. But they didn't do that, the threw out all of the results--blame should be put on the city for having created a flawed test in the first place, but it's not fair to say that the white firefighters were denied their jobs based on the kind of longstanding racial assumptions about black intelligence and diligence that still often govern hiring decisions. No one in the city believed that the white firefighters were incapable of doing their jobs correctly because they were white. …

Throwing out the tests was... the result of the city being careless in how it composed the test--unfair to those who studied for it, not just because promotions were denied, but because the test was flawed to begin with. There's no getting around the fact that Frank Ricci was wronged--but in my view, the city wronged everyone who took the test, period.
(For the full Racewire article read here)

This is so disturbing for the future - not just for public promotional exams but also for denying racial bias in other examinations. As a student, I am of course thinking about standardized entrance exams but .. my god. The implications of denying that a test is racist because it has particular results that favor a White majority is mind-boggling to me. Ruth Bader Ginsberg, in her dissenting opinion, wrote:

"Congress endeavored to promote equal opportunity in fact, and not simply in form... The damage today’s decision does to that objective is untold."

A Letter from Jewish Voices for Peace

2009-06-30T14:38:00.001-04:00

I had to post this - contact your government rep if you can!

Dear Elana,

We have just learned that a few hours ago, Israel illegally, in international waters, seized the 'Spirit of Humanity,' a boat carrying a cargo of humanitarian aid. The boat is being forcibly towed to an Israeli port.

Also seized with the boat are 21 human rights workers from 11 countries, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. The boat holds medicine, toys, and other much needed humanitarian relief for the Palestinians living in Gaza under siege. Its cargo was searched and it received a security clearance by Cypriot Port Authorities before departure.

Call your Congressperson and your Senators today. Ask them to call the Israeli Embassy and to call the U.S. State Department demanding that the boat and its occupants be released, together with their humanitarian cargo, and that they be allowed to dock in Gaza.

Ask them what crime is being committed by giving the people in Gaza medicines, toys, and pencils?

Go to Jewishvoiceforpeace.org for more information

Solidarity with the People of Honduras

2009-06-29T16:03:00.003-04:00

I can't pretend to understand the complexity of the situation in Honduras but I'm trying my best. My instinct is to support a more socialistic-oriented politician like Zelaya (actually, my instinct is not to trust any of the elite in Honduras, esp. not politicians) and I certainly can't feel pity for the interests of the powerful ruling elite who continue to exploit the nation's resources and people. The military in Honduras has a long record of oppression and torture, and also I have a lot of questions about U.S. involvement since Honduras' economy is so dependent on the United States. But at the same time... trying to end term limits is a road well-traveled and not too encouraging to me. Nonetheless, military coups are also very "been there done that" and never really harbingers of success. I don't know what will come next and I certainly don't know what will work!

All I know is that in these situations the working and poor people never fare well. I will keep the people of Honduras in my thoughts and prayers.

For the NYT report on the coup, read here.

Listening to Democracy Now's analysis is also helpful.

An Interesting Take on Protests in Iran

2009-06-28T20:48:00.003-04:00

From MRZine. Access the original here. All information is welcome, I am struggling to understand the implications of what is going on there. My biggest concern has been, thus far, about human rights and civil rights -- but Pourzal offers a whole new perspective.

Iran's Business Elite, Too, Is a "Dissident"
by Rostam Pourzal

With mass rallies for government accountability dominating the news from Iran since June 12, Western audiences are missing the underlying controversy that polarizes the country's electorate. We hear much about the boastful social conservatism of president Ahmadinejad, whose contested re-election on June 12 fueled days of bloody protests led by his moderate challengers. But the battle is also about welfare reform and private property rights in an economy that has been state-dominated since the Islamic Republic was established thirty years ago. Whether Iran's national oil revenue should now be directed away from grassroots priorities emerged as a major election issue this year. All of Ahmadinejad's three challengers promised to promote investor-friendly policies if elected.

The opposition insists that Ahmadinejad unfairly buys voter loyalty with consumer subsidies, low interest loans, and similar "handouts." The president has especially enraged the managerial class with his wildly popular monthly rallies in the provinces, where he orders funding on the spot for the infrastructure needs of common folks. A special flashpoint is the pace of a long-anticipated privatization and deregulation drive that was officially launched a year ago but was not embraced by the Ahmadinejad administration.

Among the four approved hopefuls that ran for president recently, Ahmadinejad is the least enthusiastic about the neo-liberal reforms demanded by Iran's corporate interests. Several of his advisors and cabinet ministers and even a Central Bank's director general have stepped down or been dismissed after challenging the president's "unscientific" intervention in markets. At least one of them, former economic affairs minister Davood Danesh Jafari, campaigned for a rival candidate this spring.

Not surprisingly, Iran's business journals invariably promote Ahmadinejad's challengers. They regularly deride his welfare-state initiatives as "fiscal irresponsibility" and lash out in Cold War language at his close ties to left-leaning Latin American leaders. They demanMd that Iran align itself instead with the "international community" in order to benefit from globalization.

As they clamor for "meritocracy" and "performance" to overtake affirmative action programs, it is not uncommon for Iranian business columnists to quote the Washington-based Heritage Foundation -- of Ronald Reagan lineage -- which ranks Iran almost last among nations in its Index of Economic Freedom. In a similar vein, articles that lament how Ahmadinejad has brought back the "irresponsible anti-capitalist climate" of the early years of the Revolution appear in Iran's opposition literature about as often as conservative Western media condemn the 60s' "hippie generation" for permissiveness.

Ahmadinejad's leading ballot-box rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi, is allied with Iran's most influential "free market" advocate, former president Hashemi Rafsanjani. His was the face next to Mousavi's on the candidate's billboard advertisements this campaign season. Rafsanjani is best known for his "structural adjustment" program that met popular resentment and resistance from 1989 to1997. Since he was defeated by Ahmadinejad in the presidential elections of 2004, Rafsanjani has led a public crusade against the winner's zeal for social spending, which he characterizes as Gadaparvari, or dependency promotion.

The powerful state Expediency Council, which Rafsanjani heads, led a reinterpretation of Article 44 of Iran's constitution that last June mandated a downsizing of the government in favor of private investors and contractors. The sale of state-owned industries is advancing faster than ever, and the introduction of private banking was followed late last year by the opening of the first foreign bank branch. A comprehensive intellectual property protection law is finally in effect and legal restrictions on foreign investors are being relaxed in order to circumvent UN-imposed trade sanctions. Yet Rafsanjani's powerful allies complain bitterly in public that Ahmadinejad loyalists in the bureaucracy impede progress towards the competitive economy envisioned in the new law. This year Mousavi adopted Rafsanjani's 2004 campaign pledge to institute "an economic revolution" in which improved efficiency would result from deregulation.

Mohsen Rezaie, a former top military commander who dropped out of the race in 2004 and ran against Ahmadinejad again this year, is the Expediency's Council's secretary and a confidant of Rafsanjani. Rezaie's recent campaign boldly touted him as the "Architect of a New Economy" in which Ahmadinejad's two most cherished initiatives (which Rezaie ridiculed as "Komonisti") would be abandoned. Under one of the programs, named Sahaam-e Edaalat, millions of largely low-income households have received bundled shares of profitable state-owned industries at half-price. The cost of the discounted shares is deducted over time from the small investors' dividend incomes. Ahmadinejad boasts about this as his favorite kind of privatization. Ahmadinejad's year-old Maskan-e Mehr initiative, under which hundreds of thousands of first-time home buyers are offered 99-year leases on state-owned land and affordable loans to build modest apartments, was also targeted for termination by candidate Rezaie.

The other investors' delight among Ahmadinejad's rivals is former speaker of the parliament, Mehdi Karroubi, who ran for president in 2004 and again this year. The center piece of Karroubi's economic platform this year consisted of suggested first steps towards de-nationalization of Iran's oil industry. The scheme was devised by the candidate's chief economic advisor, a self-described Milton Friedman devotee named Masoud Nili. It envisioned the formation of a non-government entity that would take control of all domestic refining and distribution of oil and make every citizen 18 years or older a shareholder. Karroubi's other top advisor, Abbas Abdi, a fervent promoter of trickle-down economics, often refers to the proposition as "empowering the people." They neglect to mention how, over time, better endowed Iranian (and eventually non-Iranian) investors could acquire large blocks of the proposed oil shares from low-income citizens and form Iranian equivalents of unaccountable Western oil giants.

Iran's state budget (including tens of billions of dollars annually for popular subsidies and services) relies far more on oil revenue than on taxation. Thus, to advocate removing oil from state control is, in the Iranian context, equivalent to the right-wing "citizen empowerment" protests this year in the US by tax day "tea party" tricksters. More generally, like the resentments that Ronald Reagan exploited and galvanized against the civil rights gains in this country, the backlash now energizing Iran's opposition candidates is in part a reaction to the attention the government showers on less fortunate Iranians.

In short, Iran's fiscal-conservative candidates are disputing the re-election of a social-conservative president. Which conservatism is worse? Should the Western progressive community side with the libertarian candidates? The answer may not be as straightforward as our mainstream media pretend it is. Instead of granting the opposition our unconditional support, we must demand that the movement shed its corporate bedfellows and isolate Ahmadinejad by championing the cause of underprivileged Iranians.

A Call for the End of Anti-Abortion Terror in Philadelphia

2009-06-28T00:43:00.002-04:00

From PhillyIMC - access the original here

Anti-abortion Terrorism Can Be Prevented
by Cyril Mychalejko | 06.20.2009

The assassination of Dr. George Tiller last month by anti-abortion extremist Scott Roeder set off a fiery debate about the potential culpability of the anti-choice movement and whether this heinous act could have been prevented.

This is an uncomfortable conversation to have. It's a conversation that will offend some people. But it is one we must continue to have in order to ensure that we create the conditions that will inhibit similar violent acts from happening in the future.

In March 2005 the The Congressional Quarterly (CQ) published an article about how the Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush refused to list right-wing domestic terrorist groups, such as the anti-abortion group Army of God, on a list of threats to our nation's security. Back in 1993 Army of God member Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon shot Dr. Tiller twice in an unsuccessful assassination attempt. The group's website currently has statements approving of the recent murder on its George Tiller "Baby Killer" link page.

“If for some reason the government no longer considers them a threat, I think they will regret that,” Mike German, a 16-year undercover agent for the FBI who spent most of his career infiltrating radical right-wing groups told CQ.

We now know that German's words were prophetic. Rather than using federal and state law enforcement agencies to spy on or infiltrate anti-war Quakers in Florida and anti-death penalty activists in Baltimore, President Bush should have committed his resources on domestic terrorists committed to violence - not pacifists. Hopefully Republicans and conservatives who didn't learn the lesson then, and who just a few months ago scoffed at and criticized the recent Homeland Security report "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," will finally face the facts and put the public's interests over narrow ideological ones.

Now one might accuse me of using an extremist organization or individual to tar an entire movement. But more "mainstream" anti-abortion advocates such as Fox's Bill O'Reilly, who repeatedly told viewers that Tiller is running a "death mill" and compared him to a Nazi, and former Senator Rick Santorum, who writing in The Philadelphia Inquirer accused President Obama of "infanticide" and of "justifying the killing of newborn babies," use the same imagery and demagoguery as The Army of God terrorists.

While reigning in irresponsible and incendiary hate speech is one step that the "Pro-Life" movement needs to take, and calling for and supporting the monitoring and investigation of right-wing terrorists and terrorist groups, the government needs to enforce the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act.

Returning to ideologically driven policy, according to journalist Daphne Eviatar writing in The Washington Independent, "under the Bush administration, criminal enforcement of the federal law designed to protect abortion providers and clinics had declined by more than 75 percent over the last eight years."

Tiller's alleged killer, Scott Roeder, was actually videotaped vandalizing a clinic both a week and day before the murder. The FBI was informed, but Roeder was never picked up. This reveals an institutional bias that abortion providers face - something that effects local and national law enforcement agencies.

“Often local police won’t enforce the local laws against trespassing,” Cathleen Mahoney, the former federal prosecutor, told Eviatar. “It’s politically charged and local police want to stay out of it.”

I hope that Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey will make our city the gold standard when it comes to enforcing the FACE Act. They should both read these words that President Bill Clinton spoke when he signed the FACE Act into law in 1994:

“No person seeking medical care, no physician providing that care should have to endure harassments or threats or obstruction or intimidation or even murder from vigilantes who take the law into their own hands because they think they know what the law ought to be.”

Immigration news

2009-06-27T12:30:00.002-04:00

The NYT reports that a federal judge, Denny Chin, ruled that the "substandard and inhuman" conditions of immigration detention centers are a priority and Obama should address those conditions within 30 days.

Also, according to this Racewire article, the new mandate for a US passport when crossing US/Mexico and US/Canada borders is discriminatory against Mexican-Americans who are born outside of the hospital and therefore struggle to produce the many documents that serve as proof of US citizenship for those born outsie of hospitals:

The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which went into effect June 1, requires Americans passing across the Canadian and Mexican borders to have a valid U.S. passport or passport card, instead of just a valid driver’s license, as previously required.

The new policy affects many communities in the Southwest for whom border crossing is a routine occurrence, and whose economic and cultural life stretches across the official divide imposed by governments. The travel requirements especially impact Mexican Americans born on the U.S. side of the border who face difficulties producing the documents needed to obtain a passport.

Civil libertarians filed a lawsuit last year charging that the passport process was unfair and discriminatory. Essentially, the procedures were biased against Mexican Americans born outside a hospital, with the help of a midwife, by requiring “an excessive number of documents normally not required to prove their citizenship.” The government recently settled the case, pledging to revise its application review procedures.

Commemorations

2009-06-26T20:01:00.004-04:00

Before I start this post of just updates/interesting links, I want to ask anyone reading this to please hold the Iranian people and protesters in your thoughts and prayers. And I obviously must mention the passing of the King of Pop.

Also today is the 40th anniversary of Stonewall!! Democracy Now did a fantastic piece on it, the link is here.

In other interesting news, racial disparities in the treatment of Michigan and Maryland youth in schools and law enforcement are drawing national attention.

Also, the Supreme Court may be loosening the legal framework for equal education in the United States in the new Horne v Flores case. Racewire reports in more detail here.

Racewire also reported that NY Domestic Workers are organizing:

As the New York State Senate invested their considerable stock of legislative resources and wit into accomplishing such noble tasks as stealing gavels, sneaking into Capitol chambers, and going to tremendous lengths to achieve absolutely nothing during an emergency legislative session this past Tuesday, domestic workers convened at Washington Square Park to demand that legislators pass a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.

Championed as a robust national precedent to reversing the nation’s racially-charged history of excluding domestic workers from labor rights laws, the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights guarantees health care, severance pay, sick days, inclusion into the state’s collective bargaining and human rights laws, and other basic protections to New York’s domestic workers. The bill has been approved by the State Assembly but is stalled in the New York State Senate, where lawmakers are struggling to broker a power-sharing agreement in the wake of a Republican-staged coup.

Obama to ban workplace discrimination against federal trans workers!

2009-06-25T00:56:00.002-04:00

The NYT reported yesterday that along with same-sex partner benefits for federal employees, his bill would protect trans federal employees against workplace discrimination. Read the full article here.

Judge Orders Release of Guantanamo Prisoner After Seven Years, Saying Government Position "Defies Common Sense"

2009-06-23T15:12:00.002-04:00

Democracy Now reports that:

A federal judge has ordered the release of another prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay, thirty-year-old Syrian national Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak Al Janko. In the year 2000, Al Janko was tortured by al-Qaeda, who accused him of being a Western spy, and he was imprisoned by the Taliban for eighteen months. He was then captured by the United States in 2002 and spent the next seven years in Guantanamo. On Monday, District Court Judge Richard Leon rejected the government's position that Al Janko had once been a part of al-Qaeda, saying it "defies common sense." We speak with British journalist Andy Worthington, author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/23/judge_orders_release_of_guantanamo_prisoner\

When our own officials are calling our bluff you know it's bad.

Open Letter asking Congress to Freeze Aid to Israel Until Israel Freezes Settlements

2009-06-22T11:29:00.003-04:00

Forty national organizations and many state organizations sent an open letter to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs last week asking subcommittee members to freeze US Military Aid to Israel until Israel agrees to Obama's demand that they freeze all settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a precondition for peace talks. Obama's budget proposal includes $2.775 billion in military aid for Israel, an increase from last year's $2.5 billion.

I read about this on MRZine - the full article with more information can be accessed here.

I doubt anything will come of it but holding Israel accountable to US Foreign Policy goals would be unique and historic. I'll keep following this and update if anything new happens.

White Supremecists in the Army, Exploitation of Undocumented Immigrants, and Losses of Food Stamps to the Most Needy

2009-06-18T10:29:00.004-04:00

Our country is struggles galore.

One of the scariest things I've read in a long time is this article on white supremecists in the US Army. People with tattoos of swastikas and other racist symbols are being encouraged to just "give an explanation" when they enlist. And, obviously, these groups are now having increased access to and recruitment success among psychologically vulnerable men and women in the US Armed Forces with expertise and training. One person in the article pointed out that this war is particularly conducive to recruitment for racist groups. "The military is attractive to white supremacists," Millard says, "because the war itself is racist."

The author of the article, Matt Kennard, tried posing as a potential Army recruit with racist tattoos, with interesting results:

In the spring, I telephoned at random five Army recruitment centers across the country. I said I was interested in joining up and mentioned that I had a pair of "SS bolts" tattooed on my arm. A 2000 military brochure stated that SS bolts were a tattoo image that should raise suspicions. But none of the recruiters reacted negatively, and when pressed directly about the tattoo, not one said it would be an outright problem. A recruiter in Houston was typical; he said he'd never heard of SS bolts and just encouraged me to come on in.

It's in the interest of recruiters to interpret recruiting standards loosely. If they fail to meet targets, based on the number of soldiers they enlist, they may have to attend a punitive counseling session, and it could hurt any chance for promotion. When, in 2005, the Army relaxed regulations on non-extremist tattoos, such as body art covering the hands, neck and face, this cut recruiters even more slack.

In other news, three men were arrested for posing as Christian pastors and promising hundreds of undocumented immigrants that they would get them green cards for a fee of anywhere between $6,000-$10,000 per person. Without reform to our incredibly flawed system of course already-vulnerable undocumented immigrants trying to make a living are going to continue to be exploited and taken advantage of by individuals eager to make a buck. I also think it is interesting that the NYTimes focuses on this case but makes no mention of comparable exploitation going on elsewhere every day, primarily by major corporations. (read the full article here)

Also, Obama's stimulus package cut food stamps for some of the most needy, the Huffington Post reported last week. They write,

Under the economic recovery plan, laid-off workers have seen a $25 weekly bump in their unemployment checks as part of a broad expansion of benefits for the poor. But the law did not raise the income cap for food stamp eligibility, so the extra money has pushed some people over the limit.

Laid-off workers and state officials are only now realizing the quirk, a consequence of pushing a $787 billion, 400-page bill through Congress and into law in three weeks.

.

What a mess.

Not speaking English and being an immigrant doesn't make you an unfit mother!

2009-06-17T12:46:00.002-04:00

Speaking English a Requirement for Motherhood? Reunite Cirila Baltazar Cruz with her Baby
by Cindy Von Quednow
Original article (from Racewire) here)

In Pascagoula, Mississippi, in November 2008, Cirila Baltazar Cruz gave birth to a baby girl. Soon after, her daughter was taken away from her because she could not communicate with the hospital attendants.

Far away from her native Oaxaca, Mexico, she did not understand the Puerto Rican interpreter assigned to her. Cirila speaks Chatino, an indigenous Mexican language spoken by about 50,000 people. A social worker called in by hospital authorities deemed the new mother negligent and unfit to raise the baby, stating as reasons that she was an “illegal immigrant” and that she did not speak English.

To date, no one has asked the mother to provide evidence of support. She owns a home in Mexico and a store which provides both secure shelter and financial support, not counting the nurturing of a loving family of two other siblings, a grandmother, aunts, uncles and other extended family.

Baltazar Cruz is up for deportation, while her daughter is reported to be with an affluent Ocean Springs couple.

About 65 percent of Pascagoula’s 26,000 residents are white. Only 904 Pascagoulans are foreign born — about 20 of them from Latin America. Since most of the people that live in this tiny Gulf Coast town are isolated from the realities of immigrant life, it seems the authorities involved acted first and asked questions later. Now a woman has been separated from her child and can only wait to be sent back to her home country.

The Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance has started a campaign to reunite mother and child by asking people to pressure Mississippi. officials. Get more information about Cirila Baltazar Cruz, along with the addresses and phone numbers of the authorities to contact, here, and help right a wrong.

Ever wondered what hell looks like?

2009-06-17T11:57:00.003-04:00

Well, the US DOJ has the answer. (From this article in the NYT on why we shouldn't be afraid to close Guantanamo - there are plenty of draconian US prisons waiting for "most dangerous" criminals.)

Note the emphasis on CONTROL.

Beyond the gates is a 20-foot “no man’s land” between the administrative offices and the inmate housing units. A collapsible barbed wire fence runs along the outside of the strip. Razor wire swirls along the fence, which is rigged with sensors to detect attempted breaches. At night, the security strip is bathed in light and kept under constant surveillance by guards with rifles.

Beyond another set of airlock security doors is a long hallway separating the inmates’ living quarters and the dining hall from the dusty recreational fields and basketball courts at the center of the prison. The hall is interrupted by gates every several feet to control the prisoners’ movement.

“Our thing is control,” said Charles Ringwood, a prison spokesman. “The schedule is controlled. All movements are controlled. Everything has to be controlled.”

Standing above the prison yard, Guard Tower 7 forms the hub of the penitentiary. Wire fences slice the recreation yard into sections. Inmates in standard-issue khaki uniforms played a full-court basketball game in one section; in another, inmates walked in a circle. There were no free weights, which have been banned in most federal prisons.

Inmates live in six triangular housing pods arrayed around the prison yard, each holding about 250 prisoners. Inmates from different housing units rarely associate with one another. Each housing pod has two levels of cells around a common area. Inmates can use earphones to listen to televisions, which are affixed to a post. The area has payphones and a microwave for food bought at the commissary.

Inmates sleep in two-bunk cells. Random searches are conducted daily. Prisoners are counted five times each day — at 4 p.m., 10 p.m., midnight, 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. Inmates deemed to be “high security risks,” including some international terrorists, must check in with prison staff members every two hours. Those who do not may be sent to the Special Handling Unit, a set of isolation cells where inmates have little or no contact with others.

The isolation cells were full, Mr. Norwood said, with 235 inmates there for reasons including violence and disobeying commands. Some are there to be protected from other prisoners. Prisoners generally stay in isolation cells for one to six months, Mr. Norwood said.

All the horrible things I read on the NYT today

2009-06-16T14:16:00.002-04:00

All sorts of new fun laws for gun-lovers in Tennessee - now you can even carry guns in public parks! That's right, let's bring death to our playgrounds. One of my favorite parts:

The new Tennessee laws also include measures that will allow permit holders to carry guns in bars and restaurants, if they are not drinking alcohol, and to carry a loaded rifle or shotgun in their vehicles if the ammunition is in the magazine but not in the chamber, although it can be in the chamber for purposes of self-defense.

Read the full article here

A new ACLU report shows that anti-Muslim extremism in our country is actually preventing Muslims from fulfilling their spiritual duty of zakat. Discriminatory statutes have shut down nine Muslim charities to date, citing concerns that these charities were funding terrorism even without proof or due process. Read the full article here.

Sotomayer is being called discriminatory for being a part of an all-female networking club because there is no place for men in the Belizean Grove club. That is the biggest crock I've heard in a while. Meanwhile, no one is concerned that top executives of Victoria's Secret, a company that uses prison labor, or other major corporations are her co-grovers. Argh. Read full article here

Music and arts education is declining in the U.S. We're headed towards standardization and mediocratization - whooooooo. Read here.

Free the SF8 and RNC8 Events in Philly - July and August

2009-06-15T23:36:00.001-04:00

CONSPIRING FOR CHANGE: the politics of protest in the post 9-11 world
A benefit for the RNC8 and the SF8

Friday July 10th at 6:30 p.m.
@ the Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St.
$8 - $800,000 suggested donation, no one turned away

Join us for an evening of inspiration and resistance! The War on Terror has entangled long histories of state violence with new forms of repression. From yesterday’s COINTELPRO to today’s PATRIOT ACT, the government has attempted to criminalize U.S. political movements in the courts, in the media, and on the streets. This event brings together longtime activists locally and from around the country to discuss the use of conspiracy and terrorism charges against contemporary organizers, to connect legacies of social justice struggles, and to chart paths of opposition.

There will also be artwork by local Puerto Rican artists Danny Torres and Ismael Avila and the first Philadelphia showing of the exhibit Voices Outside: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex, a portfolio created by artists in the Justseed’s Artist Cooperative.

THE PANELISTS
Ramona Africa
Ramona Africa is an international spokesperson for the MOVE organization, a revolutionary back-to-nature organization whose main belief is in life. This organization has experienced violent repression at the hands of the government, with nine members– known as the MOVE 9– incarcerated for a crime they did not commit. In 1985, Philadelphia police dropped a military-grade bomb on MOVE headquarters, killing six adults and five children. Ramona, the only adult survivor of that attack, was immediately arrested on charges including “conspiracy to riot,” and served seven years in prison.

Laura Whitehorn
Laura Whitehorn, an anti-imperialist activist, served nearly 15 years in prison for militant actions against U.S. policies during the 1980s. For many years before that, she was active in a variety of radical organizations, including the Weather Underground and the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee. Released from prison in 1999, she lives in New York City with her partner, Susie Day. Whitehorn is an editor at POZ magazine, a national source of information and news about HIV, and works with other activists in the New York State Taskforce for the Release of Political Prisoners.

Luce Guillén-Givins
Luce began her political work at age 15, joining a Tucson-based immigrant and border rights group. Since then she has expanded her focus to include other issues of globalization, capitalism and empire, and found that anarchist organizing methods best suited her desire for anti-oppression struggle. In addition to organizing as part of the RNC Welcoming Committee, Luce has spent much of the past couple years working with EWOK! (Earth Warriors are OK!), a Twin Cities-based eco-prisoner support group.

Luis Sanabria
Luis Sanabria was a founding member of the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican POW and Political Prisoners and a member of the Movimiento de Liberacion Nacional (MLN), which spearheaded the campaigns for freeing two generations of Puerto Rican political prisoners. He is a founding member of the Juan A. Corretjer Centers in San Francisco and in Philadelphia, and a board member of Philadelphia's Centro Pedro Claver, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

Soffiyah Elijah
Soffiyah Elijah is a Clinical Instructor at the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School. She has had a distinguished career as an attorney and was an assistant professor of law at the City University of New York. She has represented a number of political prisoners and activists in the U.S. including Kwame Turé, Marilyn Buck, and Sundiata Acoli. Dr. Elijah has done extensive research on the U.S. criminal justice and prison systems over the past 20 years. She is currently representing Francisco Torres in the San Francisco 8 case.

Francisco Torres (Invited)
Cisco was born in Puerto Rico and raised in this country. He is a Vietnam Veteran who fought for the grievances of Black and Latino soldiers upon his return to the states. A former Black Panther, he has been a community activist since his discharge from the military in 1969. His presence at the event depends on whether he will be able to travel during the preliminary hearings, which start in July.

THE CASES
The San Francisco 8 are the eight Black community activists – Black Panthers and others – who were arrested January 23, 2007, in California, New York, and Florida on charges related to the 1971 killing of a San Francisco police officer. Similar charges were thrown out thirty-five years ago after it was revealed that police used torture to extract confessions when some of these same men were arrested in New Orleans in 1973. The original charges against them came out of COINTELPRO, and the reopening of the case was made possible by the PATRIOT act. After more than two years, preliminary hearings in the case begin in July 2009. For more info check out www.freethesf8.org

The RNC8 are the eight activists facing conspiracy and terrorism charges for their work organizing against the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota. They were arrested before the convention even began, and charged with “conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism,” making them the first people ever charged under Minnesota's version of the PATRIOT act. They are not being charged with actually doing anything, but face the possibility of several years in prison for publicly organizing against the RNC. For more info check out www.rnc8.org

This event is sponsored by Philly RNC8 Support Committee and the National Boricua Human Rights Network

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AND

Day of Resistance, Patriotic Sing Out
With Elizam Escobar: theoretician, poet, painter, and former political prisoner (1980-1999)
And Joseramon “Che” Melendez: editor, anthropologist, writer, and renowned poet

7:30 p.m. * August 1, 2009
Iglesia Episcopal Cristo y San Ambrosio
3554 N. 6th Street at Venango Street

For more information call 215-667-5296 or 267-257-3626
Sponsored by the National Boricua Human Rights Network, Centro Musical, Iglesia Cristo y San Ambrosio, Centro Pedro Claver, the Mural Arts Program and Periodico Impacto

Info on Holocaust Museum Shooting

2009-06-12T08:37:00.002-04:00

From the NYT. Complete article here. I'm having a hard time thinking about a resurgence of American anti-Semitism. The NYT (and many others) are connecting Johanna's murder with this shooting... I just wonder if this is really anti-Semitism that we should worry about or a few really sick people who never got the help they needed. I guess I'd be more worried if either of them had been working with a group rather than alone. I mean of course it is sad and horrible, but there is systemic murder and institutionalized violence going on every day - where is that in the news?

Anyway, details here:

A notebook that law enforcement officers discovered in Mr. von Brunn’s 2002 red Hyundai, which he had double-parked outside the museum’s 14th Street entrance on Wednesday, appeared to offer insight into his mind-set before the shooting.

“You want my weapons — this is how you’ll get them,” Mr. von Brunn wrote in a note he had signed, according to the arrest affidavit.

“The Holocaust is a lie,” the note read. “Obama was created by Jews. Obama does what his Jew owners tell him to do. Jews captured America’s money. Jews control the mass media.”

Mr. von Brunn’s note refers to himself in the third person by his initials, JVB, saying that he swore “to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

He lashes out at Jews and includes the name of his book, “Kill the Best Gentiles!”

The shooting was the third publicized anti-Semitic incident in the last five weeks. In early May, a Wesleyan University student of Jewish heritage was fatally shot on the Connecticut campus by a man who had written in his personal journal that he thought it was “O.K. to kill Jews.”

In mid-May, four men were arrested in the attempted bombing of two Bronx synagogues.

The F.B.I. said Mr. von Brunn — best known to law enforcement authorities for walking into the Federal Reserve System headquarters in Washington on Dec. 7, 1981, with a bag containing a revolver, a hunting knife and a sawed-off shotgun — was not under investigation at the time of Wednesday’s shooting. But the assistant F.B.I. director for the District of Columbia, Joseph Persichini Jr., said the bureau knew he had an “established Web site that expressed hatred of African-Americans and Jews.”

Mr. von Brunn’s actions were “not what this country stands for,” Mr. Persichini said, adding that it was important to send a message that the F.B.I. would stop “other Mr. von Brunns that are around here in this nation today.”

Mr. von Brunn, who lived in Lebanon, N.H., at the time of the Federal Reserve incident, told the police he wanted to take Fed board members hostage to focus attention on their responsibility for high interest rates and the nation’s economic difficulties.

Local and federal authorities in Washington said Thursday that they were focusing on Mr. von Brunn’s intentions and how he got the rifle. Because of his felony conviction in the crime at the Federal Reserve, he was prohibited by federal law from buying or possessing a gun. But Mr. von Brunn could have had the rifle, described by the authorities as “an older weapon,” since well before his conviction.

Mr. von Brunn brought a .22-caliber rifle and a .30-30 rifle when he moved into an apartment in Annapolis, Md., two years ago, according to the affidavit. The police recovered the .30-30 as well as ammunition for a .22 from his bedroom after the museum attack.

From Jewish Voices for Peace

2009-06-11T22:27:00.000-04:00

Every so often someone comes along who is so brave and so inspiring that you just can't sit by and remain silent when you learn they need your help.

We're writing to you today about one of these rare people.

His name is Ezra Nawi.

You've probably never heard of him, but because you may know our names, now you will know his name.

Ezra Nawi is one of Israel's most courageous human rights activists and without your help, he will likely go to jail in less than 30 days.

His crime? He tried to stop a military bulldozer from destroying the homes of Palestinian Bedouins in the South Hebron region. These homes and the families who live in them have been under Israeli occupation for 42 years. They still live without electricity, running water and other basic services. They are continuously harassed by Jewish settlers and the military.

Nawi's friends have launched a campaign to generate tens of thousands of letters to Israeli embassies all over the world before he is due to be sentenced in July. They've asked for your help.

His name is Ezra Nawi

His name is Ezra Nawi.

We keep saying his name because we believe that the more people know him and know his name, the harder it will be for the Israeli military to send him quietly to jail.

And Ezra Nawi is anything but quiet.

He is a Jewish Israeli of Iraqi descent who speaks fluent Arabic.

He is a gay man in his fifties and a plumber by trade.

He has dedicated his life to helping those who are trampled on. He has stood by Jewish single mothers who pitched tents in front of the Knesset while struggling for a living wage, and by Palestinians threatened with expulsion from their homes.

He is loved by those with little power, to whom he dedicates his life, and hated by the Jewish settlers, military and police.

Now that you know Ezra, you have a chance to stand up for him, and for everything that he represents. Especially now, as Israel escalates its crackdown on human rights and pro-democracy activists.

He needs you. His friends need you. Those he helps every day need you. So please send a letter to the Consulate, to the media, to your family and friends.

Take just a moment to write your letter. Do it now. And then share his name with a friend. Do it for Ezra Nawi.

Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, and Neve Gordon

Continued Evidence of London Police Brutality

2009-06-10T16:07:00.003-04:00

From the NYT. Find the full article here:

Six officers from the Metropolitan Police Service have been suspended or placed on restricted duty after being accused of mistreating suspects during a drug-related raid last November, the police said on Wednesday.

The police would not give details about what the officers, from Enfield, in north London, are alleged to have done. Using the term “waterboarding,” several British newspapers reported that the charges include dunking the suspects’ heads in buckets of water to try to extract information. If corroborated, that practice would be different from the torture technique known as waterboarding which has inspired criticism of the United States government for its use in antiterrorism investigations.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Service said he could not comment on the reports.

The allegations were brought to the attention of the police by an unidentified employee of the department. They are being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which looks at police misconduct, and could result in criminal charges.

The police called the allegations serious and said they raised “real concern.”

This is particularly interesting given the rightward turn of British politics lately when the BNP (racist extremist anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic, anti-cooperation rightist group) won its first seats in Parliament. For more on that read here. I really don't understand what's going on in England, maybe the fact that the tube is shut down for a strike is making people nutso? Haha, just kidding, but it's worth keeping an eye on news in England.

Emergency Demonstrations in the United States of Protest and Solidarity with the Amazon Indigenous Peoples of Peru

2009-06-10T09:44:00.000-04:00

Protest in front of the Consulate General of Peru in New York, NY
241 East 49th Street
between 2nd and 3rd Aves, Manhattan, NYC.

Wed, June 10
12:00 noon EST
The message is simple: stop genocide, stop violence, respect human rights, avoid useless casualties, promote dialogue and respect of Indigenous peoples rights in Peru, stop using U.S. free trade policies to destroy the lives of millions of peoples in Peru, promote democracy and equality.

Contact the government of Peru

Demand to cease the State of Emergency and martial laws that are a threat to other communities that are still protesting. Demand the end of violence against Indigenous peoples of the Amazon and Andean regions, to restore peace and to restart dialogue so that Indigenous peoples can keep their lands and the environment can be protected.

Send a Message to the President of Peru:
http://www.amazonwatch.org/peru-action-alert.php

President of the Council of Ministers of Peru, Yehude Simon Munaro
ysimon@pcm.gob.pe / Fax +51 1- 716- 87-35

President of the Congress of Peru, Javier Velásquez-Quesquén
jvelasquezq@congreso.gob.pe

Embassy of Peru in Washington, DC:
Telephone: (202) 833-9860 to 9869 Fax: (202) 659-8124
Ambassador Luis Valdivieso Montano
Emails: lvaldivieso@embassyofperu.us
mtalavera@embassyofperu.us

Consulate General of Peru in Los Angeles
Telephone: (213) 252-5910
Emails: jsanchez@embassyofperu.us
conperla@mpowercom.net

Public Ombudsman Office of Peru
centrodeatencionvirtual@defensoria.gob.pe

Peruvian Embassies in your country
http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-of/Peru

List of Peruvian Consulates in the U.S.:
http://www.consuladoperu.com/

Contact the U.S. government

Request for the Obama administration to take a stand in defense of human rights in Peru and for the government of Peru to stop using the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement FTA as a legal tool to attack the Indigenous communities.

Tell president Barack Obama, Congress members and State Secretary Hillary Clinton, that this is not the way to promote trade and progress, and that Peru must comply with the labor and environmental rights regulations included in the Peru FTA, which president Obama praised during his campaign.

Contact president Barack Obama and vicepresident Joe Biden:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Contact U.S. Senators:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Contact U.S. House Representatives:
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Contact the U.S. State Department
You can contact the U.S. Department of State in any of the following ways:

Main address:
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

Main Switchboard:
202-647-4000
TTY:1-800-877-8339 (Federal Relay Service)

Public Communication Division:
PA/PL, Rm. 2206
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20520
202-647-6575

To e-mail the U.S. Department of State, please visit the following website:
http://contact-us.state.gov/cgi-bin/state.

Contact the UN and OAS human rights organizations

UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
indigenous@ohchr.org

UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
wgeid@ohchr.org

UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom expression
freedex@ohchr.org

United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
indigenous_un@un.org

IACHR Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
cidhoea@oas.org

ACHR Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Expression
cidh-expresion@oas.org

Talking points

Few minutes of your time can make a huge difference!

Indigenous peoples rights must be respected by Peru, included in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted in 2007.

The right of consultations with Indigenous peoples is included at the ILO 169 Convention. This must be done with respect and honest intention of defending the rights of all Peruvian citizens and not only the interests of multinational corporations.

This massacre is a direct result of an abusive implementation of policies included in the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement, by Peru’s president Alan Garcia who used it as an instrument of corporate corruption and collusion in the genocide of the Indigenous peoples.

The Peruvian government is presenting this tragedy as if it was caused by the Native peoples, which is not truth. Amazonian peoples protested without violence for almost 2 months, until the Police attacked them. All the casualties are unjustified and should have never happened.

The Peruvian media which is mostly biased and controlled by the government and corporate interests, is reporting that Police officers were kidnapped and massacred by the Indigenous peoples, but is not reporting about the abusive attack on civilians, and snipers and helicopters shooting at civilians including children. Witnesses have said that dead bodies were burned down and thrown to the rivers, and that police prevented civilians from rescuing injured protesters.

In the last 56 days, Amazonian Indigenous peoples of Peru are fighting to protect their territories, as the government of Lima has passed decrees that lease 73% of the Amazon forest and allow extractive industries corporations to take over their land, without previous consultation. The Amazonian peoples are requesting especifically for Lima to repeal those decrees.

Indigenous peoples do not oppose progress and private investment. They want to protect their land, their families and the environment, they want for corporations to respect their traditions and ways of living.

There have been years of protests since the signing of the Peru FTA by then presidents George W. Bush and Alejandro Toledo. Indigenous peoples have tried to dialogue, but the Lima government refused to listen and even prevented a national referendum in 2006.

As a way to protest and demand to be heard, the Amazon Indigenous peoples started popular strikes, oil facilities takeovers and road blockades in 8 regions of the country. This was replied by the Garcia administration by sending police and military forces to repress the protesters violently. People in Bagua responded burning down government buildings and lootings have also occurred.

Indigenous peoples value the land as a part of a our system of life, we don't own the land but we belong to it. There will not be a way for the government of Peru to impose its corporate benefiting laws because Indigenous people will defend their territories.

After the recent bloody attack, violence has slowed as today Sunday June 7. The military has taken over control of the region in conflict, but Lima has issued a warrant arrest for Alberto Pizango, the most prominent leader of the Amazon Indigenous peoples and his whereabouts are unknown at this moment.

Unfortunately, other leaders are also being prosecuted by the government and there is a possibility of future attacks of the military on other Indigenous communities. WE MUST ACT NOW!

Peru Emergency Fund

Please donate to Amazon Watch, a non profit that is working directly with the Indigenous peoples in strike. This fund will be used for medical relief for the wounded, media campaign led by indigenous organizations, and legal defense for those being charged.
http://www.amazonwatch.org/peru-protests.php

UPDATES: links to stay updated with the current situation in Peru:

[Eng] English [Esp] Spanish

Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana – AIDESEP is the leading Amazon Indigenous peoples rights organization in Peru. [Esp]
http://www.aidesep.org.pe

Coordinadora Andina de Organizaciones Indigenas - CAOI [Esp]
http://www3.minkandina.org/

Amazon Watch - a non profit working directly with Amazon peoples in strike: [Eng]
http://www.amazonwatch.org

Enlance Nacional – an independent internet news channel in Peru with correspondents in the Bagua region. [Esp]
http://enlacenacional.com/

Servindi - Indigenous news from Peru. [Esp]
http://www.servindi.org/

Facebook group "Solidarity with Peru / Solidaridad con Perú / Solidarité avec Pérou"
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=89605273186&ref=ts

Q'orianka Kilcher On-Q Initiative:
http://www.takepart.com/blog/author/qoriankakilcher/

Mp3 Interview with Indigenous leader Tupac Enrique Acosta who just returned from Peru:
http://www.7genfund.org/current_actions/calls-to-action/special-peru-crisis-news-update-interview-with-tupac-enrique/

Peruanista - a bilingual blog about Peru, written in the U.S. with translations of news coming from the emergency regions. [Esp] [Eng]
http://peruanista.blogspot.com/2009/06/alert-massacre-in-peru-police-shoots-at.html

Freshman Senators Stand Against Modified NAFTA Expansion Politics of Pushing Trade Agreements Reflected in Peru Trade Vote of New Members. [Eng]
http://www.citizenstrade.org/pdf/CTC_Senate_Peru_4.pdf

Twenty one organizations of Immigrant rights advocates, unions, civil rights and faith-based organizations signed a letter to the US Congress opposing the US-Peru FTA and warning of threats to Indigenous peoples and the Amazon forest. [Eng]
http://peruanista.blogspot.com/2007/11/urgent-please-call-congress-to-stop-us.html

Trade Deal with Peru Fails to Measure Up for Development. [Eng]
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/press_releases/archive2007/trade-deal-with-peru-fails-to-measure-up-for-development

Updates on Abya Yala North Indigenous Solidarity actions, contact Tupac Enrique Acosta, Yaotachcauh lahtokan Nahuacalli
www.tonatierra.org / email: chantlaca@tonatierra.org

June 29: National Trans Day of Action

2009-06-09T13:26:00.000-04:00

The 5th Annual NYC Trans Day of Action for Social and Economic Justice

POINTS OF UNITY

Initiated by TransJustice of the Audre Lorde Project, a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two-Spirit, Trans and Gender Non-Conforming People of Color Center for Community Organizing.

June 26, 2009

We call on Trans and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) communities and our allies from many movements to join us for the 5th Annual Trans Day of Action (TDOA) for Social and Economic Justice. As TGNC People of Color (POC) we recognize the importance of working together alongside other movements to build the world we want to see. Much has changed since last year’s TDOA, the election of a new US President has brought hope to many of our communities, however we still live in a time when people of color, immigrants, youth, elders, rural communities, people living with disabilities and poor people are disproportionately underserved, face higher levels of discrimination, heightened surveillance and experience increased violence at the hands of the state. In fact, due to the growing financial crisis conditions have worsened. As a result, it is even more critical that we unite and work together towards ending the transphobia, racism, classism, sexism, ageism, ableism, homophobia and xenophobia within our movements for justice. We call for an end to the continued single issue platform of gay marriage over TGNC justice by our movements. Let’s come together to let the world know that TGNC justice will not be undermined and together we will not be silenced! These are the points of unity, which hold together the purpose of this march:

• We demand that all people receiving public assistance (welfare) including TGNC People of Color, be treated with respect and dignity. We are in solidarity with all people living on public assistance. TGNC POC face transphobic harassment and discrimination when applying for and seeking to access public assistance/welfare. For over three years TGNC communities in NYC have called on the Human Resources Administration (HRA), the NYC agency responsible for public assistance, to address these systemic problems. After initially ignoring requests for a meeting, due to community pressure raised by TDOA, last year HRA agreed to meet. As a result, this past year TransJustice and a committee of organizations and community members including the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Housing Works, Queers for Economic Justice, and others have worked with HRA to develop a new HRA procedure to prevent transphobic discrimination including TGNC cultural competency training. To date we are currently awaiting HRA’s final approval of the procedure and anticipate a response by Trans Day of Action.

• We demand an end to the profiling, discrimination, harassment, brutality and murders that occur at the hands of the Police. Communities of color continue to face rampant police harassment and brutality. Last month two lesbians of color were brutally beaten by police officers in front of a club in Brooklyn, NY. In 2006 a Transgender woman of color was assaulted and harassed by an employee at a McDonald’s, when the police arrived they arrested and abused her. We are in solidarity with all people impacted by police violence including supporters of Iman Morales, the family of Sean Bell and the Jersey 4. Like other oppressed communities, TGNC people are targeted, profiled and brutalized by the police daily. We demand an end to the brutality and harassment and call for Justice for all people impacted by police violence. We call for an independent prosecutor for all cases of police violence ( www.peoplesjustice.org ). To improve TGNC people’s safety in interactions with the police we demand that Commissioner Ray Kelly implement changes in NYPD policies and adopt the “Proposed Policy for the Treatment of Transgender People in NYPD Custody” and the associated changes to the NYPD patrol guide, submitted to the NYPD in April 2009. ( www.ipetitions.com/petition/NYPD...

• We demand an end to the violence and harassment faced by women and LGBTSTGNC communities in the NYC public transportation system (MTA). Women and LGBTSTGNC communities face rampant violence and harassment in the NYC public transportation system. In 2005, a woman was sexually assaulted in a subway station in full view of a train conductor and a station agent. In 2006, a transgender woman was harassed by an MTA worker using anti-transgender slurs - bystanders joined in the harassment. We call on the MTA to be accountable and work proactively to end the violence and harassment that occurs in their transit system and to comply with Local Law 3 which prohibits gender identity/expression discrimination. (nyersforsafetransit.wordpress.com & newyorklawschool.typepad.com/leonar dlink/2008/02/brooklyn-court.html)

• We demand the full legalization of all immigrants. In the last year, violence towards immigrants has increased. We oppose all forms of enforcement, which target people trying to survive a deepening global economic crisis, and are in solidarity with migrant rights organizations around the world. We oppose any immigration reform proposal that includes a registration process, more militarization at the border and further criminalization of undocumented people. TGNC people deserve the right to access competent and respectful immigration services. We demand that the consulates of all countries respect and honor our identities and issue passports and other documentation that accurately reflects who we are.

• We are in solidarity with all prisoners, especially the many TGNC people behind the walls who are often invisible to our movements. We call attention to the under-reported accounts of severe violence and rape that our community faces at the hands of correction officers and other prisoners. We demand an end to the torture and discrimination TGNC prisoners face. We demand that all TGNC prisoners receive competent and respectful healthcare. We oppose the continued growth of the prison industrial complex that targets our communities, yet we recognize that TGNC people need access to services and facilities that lessen our vulnerability to violence within the present jails and prisons. We call attention to the criminal injustice system that increasingly puts POC, immigrants, TGNC and poor people behind bars - further criminalizing our communities and our lives.

• We demand that TGNC people have access to respectful and safe living spaces. Many TGNC people face discrimination from landlords and housing administrators displacing us from our homes due to gender identity or expression. A disproportionate number of TGNC people have been or are currently homeless and face discrimination when trying to access shelters and other assisted living programs. NYC law and the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) state that people will be placed in shelters according to gender identity and that discrimination based on gender identity will not be tolerated. We demand that all DHS shelter administrators continue to provide adequate Trans sensitivity trainings for all personnel and enforce clear non-discrimination policies that respect all homeless people.

• We demand that TGNC people have equal access to employment and education opportunities. We are outraged by increasing unemployment facing all communities, particularly TGNC POC. TGNC people continue to face blatant discrimination and harassment from employers due to systemic transphobia. Few TGNC people have access to opportunities for learning in a safe school environment. We demand that employers and educational institutions implement non-discrimination policies and comply with Local Law 3.

• We demand that all people, including TGNC people, have access to essential health and human services. We are in a period of ongoing budget cuts to critical services such as HIV/AIDS, youth, LGBT, etc. We call on Governor Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg to stop the budget cuts to essential health and human services and restore funding. The Piers have been a safe space for our community, particularly LGBTSTGNC youth of color for years. In solidarity with FIERCE, we demand the establishment of a 24hour LGBT youth center at the Piers. ( www.fiercenyc.org )

• We demand that children and youth under jurisdiction of the Administration of Children Services (ACS) and Private Foster Care Agencies, have the right to freedom of gender expression/identity. In 2002 it was established that NYC’s foster care system cannot discriminate against TGNC children and youth nor force them to only wear clothing associated with birth gender. ACS and private foster care agencies must be accountable for the health of people under their care including TGNC people. After organized community pressure ACS established an anti-discrimination policy for TGNC people. We demand that ACS fully implement this policy.

• We oppose all the public and hidden wars of the U.S. the continued occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the expansion of U.S. militarization. We are appalled by the ongoing attacks on the people of Palestine through the denial of equal rights inside Israel, division through the wall, economic isolation, blockades of supplies and imports, escalating militarization throughout the occupied territories, and the continued refusal of Palestinian refugees’ right of return. We support organizations intensifying efforts through boycott, divestment, and sanction strategies. We oppose escalating military activities everywhere. We demand the immediate removal of all U.S. troops from all countries under occupation and demand an end of use of U.S. dollars to cultivate and sponsor wars against people in the U.S. and abroad.

• We demand justice for the many TGNC people who have been beaten, assaulted, raped, and murdered. These incidents continue to be silenced, misclassified or blamed on TNGC people. The police and media continue to criminalize us even when we try to defend ourselves. An increase in hate crime laws will not solve the problem but will give increased power to the state to put more people in jail. Instead we call for a unified effort for all of us to address the root causes of why these incidents happen. As a society that seeks social justice we seek to find ways of preventing attacks on TGNC people by building strong and knowledgeable communities and using transformative justice to hold people accountable.

We commemorate Amanda Milan, Sakia Gunn, Ruby Ordeñana, Gwen Araujo, Erika Keels, Victoria Arellano, Lawrence King, Saneesha Stewart, Duanna Johnson, Angie Zapata, Teish Cannon, Taysia Elzy and the many others we have lost, who struggled and lived fearlessly, being true to who they were. They keep the fire of struggle burning within all of us.

On June 26, 2009, TGNC POC and allies will take to the streets of NYC once again and demand justice to let the world know, that on the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, the rebellion is not over and we will continue fighting for justice, raising our voices until we are heard. We call on all activist and organizers for justice, both local and organizations around the country to endorse this call to action and to build contingents to march in solidarity together. To endorse TDOA 2009, send an email to endorsetdoa@alp.org , for more info contact - info4tdoa@alp.org or Mya at 718-596-0342 x 23.

The CMU - a new political prison

2009-06-08T15:35:00.001-04:00

Thank you Jon Booth for sharing this!

Read the full article here on the Huffington Post:

As of May 2009, I have been at USP Marion's "Communication Management Unit," or CMU, for roughly nine months and now is a good time to address the misconceptions (and the silence) regarding this unit. I want to offer a snapshot of my day-to-day life here as well as some analysis of what the existence of CMUs in the federal prison system implies. It is my hope that this article will partially fill the void of information that exists concerning the CMU, will help dispel rumors, and will inspire you to support those of us on the inside fighting the existence of these isolation units -- in the courts and in the realm of public opinion.

It is best to start from the beginning -- or at least where my story and the CMU meet. My transfer here is no different from that of many of the men here who were living at Federal Correctional Institutions (normal prisons) prior to the genesis of the CMUs. On May 12, 2008, on my way back from a decent lunch, I was told to report to "R&D" (receiving and discharge). I was given two boxes and half an hour to pack up my meager possessions. After complying I was placed in the SHU (secure housing unit or "hole") and put on a bus the next day. There was no hearing and no information given to me or my attorneys -- only after a day was I told I was on my way to Marion, Illinois' CMU.

Hearing the term "CMU" made my knees buckle as it drummed up some memory I had of the infamous "control units" at Marion (closed in 1995 and replaced by Florence ADX: the lone Federal "Supermax" prison). Then it hit me. The lawyers, in challenging the application of the terrorist enhancement in my case, made the prescient argument that if I receive the enhancement, the Bureau of Prisons (BoP) would use that to place me in the CMU at FCI Terre Haute, Indiana (at the time just 5 months old). In fact, on the way to FCI Sandstone in August 2007, I not only saw the CMU but met one of its residents while in transit. Let me back up and offer a brief history of the Communication Management Units.

The CMU I reside in, at USP Marion, received its first prisoner in May 2008 and when I arrived, held about 17 men, the majority of whom were Muslim. Currently, the unit has 25, with a capacity of 52 cells. In April 2009, we received seven new people, all of whom were from the CMU at FCI Terre Haute. The unit is overwhelmingly Muslim with 18 men identifying as such. Most, but not all of the prison, have so-called terrorism cases. According to a BoP spokesperson, the unit "will not be limited to inmates convicted of terrorism-related cases through all of the prisoners fit that description." Others have prison disciplinary violation or allegations related to communication and the misuse of telephones etc. Here, almost everyone has a terrorism related case -- whether it is like my case (destruction of property characterized as "domestic terrorism") or conspiracy and "providing material aid" cases.

Before the Marion CMU opened, there was the original CMU, opened in December 2006 at the former death row at FCI Terre Haute. According to early articles, the unit was intended for "second tier terrorism inmates, most of them Arab Muslims and a less restrictive version of the Supermax in Florence, Colorado."

Additionally, BoP Director Harley Lappin, in a July 2008 hearing on the 2009 BoP budget request, said of the CMUs, "A lot of the more serious offenders, terrorists, were housed at ADX Florence. So, we are ramping up two communications management units that are less restrictive but will ensure that all mail and phone calls of the offenders are monitored on a daily basis."

Terre Haute's CMU has 36 men (27 of whom are Muslim) and is roughly comparable to Marion's CMU. The rest of this place focuses on the latter, in which I have resided and of which I have seen firsthand.

You may be curious about just what a CMU actually is. From my correspondence, I can tell that many correspondents do not know much about what goes on here. I hope this can clear up any misperceptions. According to the BoP,

The CMU is [sic] established to house inmates who, due to their current offense of conviction, offense conduct or other verified information, require increased monitoring of communication between inmates and persons in the community in order to protect the safety, security, and orderly operations of Bureau facilities and protect the public...The CMU is a self-contained general population housing unit.

There are, of course, alternate views to the above definition including the belief that the CMUs are Muslim units, a political prisoner unit (similar to the HSU operated by the BoP in the 80's, and a punishment unit.

...

Forward!

Where to from here, then? Does the new President and his Attorney General take issue with segregation? Will Obama view the CMU, as he did with Guantanamo Bay, as a horrible legacy of his predecessor and close it? Many people are hopeful for an outcome like that. On April 7th, 2009, Mr. Obama, while in Turkey, said, "The United States will not make war on Islam," and that he wanted to "extend the hand of friendship to the Muslim world." While that sounds wonderful, what does that look like in concrete terms? Will he actualize that opinion by closing the CMU? Or will he marry the policy of Bush and condone a secret illegal set of political units for Muslims and activists? What of the men here? Will he transfer us back to normal prisons and review the outrageous prosecutions of many of the CMU detainees? If it can be done with (former) Senator Ted Steven's case, it can be done here.

While lawsuits have been filed in both Illinois and Indiana federal courts, what is needed urgently is for these units to be dragged out into the open. I am asking for your help and advocacy in dealing with this injustice and the mindset that allows a CMU to exist. Please pursue the resource section at the end of this article and consider doing something. I apologize for the length of this piece -- it was suggested to me (by people way smarter than myself) that it would be best to start from the beginning and offer as many details as possible. I hope I gave you a clearer idea of what's going on here. Thank you for all your support and love -- your letters are a bright candle in a sea of darkness.

Juvenile Justive Hearing!

2009-06-05T14:06:00.002-04:00

To my faithful readers,

Sorry for being so bad at blogging. I'll try to get back on my game.

From the Sentencing Project:
Legislative Hearing:
"Juvenile Justice Accountability
and Improvement Act"

On June 9, the U.S. House of Representative's Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security will convene a hearing at 2:30 p.m. in the Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2141, to listen to testimony about sentences of juvenile life without parole (JLWOP). Marc Mauer, Executive Director of The Sentencing Project, submitted testimony to the Committee urging Congress to eliminate sentences of JLWOP in the states and the federal system.

"The Sentencing Project opposes sentences of juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) because they declare that young people are beyond reform. All other nations have devised strategies to hold youth accountable, promote public safety, and prioritize rehabilitation to limit recidivism without resorting to this extreme punishment," states Mauer in his written testimony. "We support legislation that acknowledges the critical differences between youth and adults and imposes age-appropriate sentences that protect public safety and gives a second chance to young people."

To read more of his testimony, click here.

The following bill will be considered: H.R. 2289, the "Juvenile Justice and Accountability Improvement Act of 2009."

Witness List

Bryan Stevenson,
Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative

Mark Osler,
Former Prosecutor and Professor of Law, Baylor Law School

Linda White,
Victim, Texas

Anita Colon,
Sister of JLWOP Inmate, Pennsylvania

Border Patrol in Training?

2009-05-15T10:37:00.001-04:00

This makes me want to cry:

The Explorers program, a coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America that began 60 years ago, is training thousands of young people in skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence — an intense ratcheting up of one of the group’s longtime missions to prepare youths for more traditional jobs as police officers and firefighters.

“This is about being a true-blooded American guy and girl,” said A. J. Lowenthal, a sheriff’s deputy here in Imperial County, whose life clock, he says, is set around the Explorers events he helps run. “It fits right in with the honor and bravery of the Boy Scouts.”

The training, which leaders say is not intended to be applied outside the simulated Explorer setting, can involve chasing down illegal border crossers as well as more dangerous situations that include facing down terrorists and taking out “active shooters,” like those who bring gunfire and death to college campuses. In a simulation here of a raid on a marijuana field, several Explorers were instructed on how to quiet an obstreperous lookout.

“Put him on his face and put a knee in his back,” a Border Patrol agent explained. “I guarantee that he’ll shut up.”

One participant, Felix Arce, 16, said he liked “the discipline of the program,” which was something he said his life was lacking. “I want to be a lawyer, and this teaches you about how crimes are committed,” he said.

Cathy Noriego, also 16, said she was attracted by the guns. The group uses compressed-air guns — known as airsoft guns, which fire tiny plastic pellets — in the training exercises, and sometimes they shoot real guns on a closed range.

“I like shooting them,” Cathy said. “I like the sound they make. It gets me excited.”

Reflections

2009-05-14T21:56:00.002-04:00

It's been a while since I've posted, and that has had a lot to do with my emotional state. I don't want to go on and on but on top of the normal chaos of graduating and feeling insecure and stressed about major transitions in my life, the shooting of Johanna Justin-Jinich has been a huge emotional trauma and violation of any personal feelings of safety I had, as well as a major loss to our community and a close friend of mine who is her boyfriend.

I will try to get back on board and keep posting. One interesting article my dad sent me is an Op/Ed from the NYTimes about how race affects media reception/attention to crimes, especially murder crimes. It's called "What Color is That Baby?" and is linked here. For a while I considered not posting it but ultimately, after learning more about Johanna, I believe she would have wanted us to honor her memory in continuing to ask the same critical questions about our humanity that we would have done anyway.

In love and peace.

Specter's switch

2009-04-29T16:38:00.001-04:00

From Racewire yesterday:

Channing Kennedy
What Does Specter’s Switch Mean for Racial Justice?

Conservative-challenges-Specter-in-Pa.jpg
For those just joining the fray: This morning Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter announced that he is officially switching parties, from Republican to Democratic. Pending the long-disputed seating of Minnesota’s Al Franken, this puts the Democrats at a 60-seat filibuster-proof Senate supermajority — filibuster-proof, that is to say, if all Democrats vote the same way. But Specter’s a bit of a loose cannon, to be polite, and an opportunist, to be blunt. In press conferences today, he all but spelled out that he decided to switch based on polling numbers indicating he’d do better in the 2010 election running as a Democrat than as a Republican. So, in terms of votes, it may not make much of a difference.

One of the most concrete ramifications of this development for the racial justice movement is around the Employee Free Choice Act, which would empower unions and help protect the economies of communities of color. Specter once supported EFCA, then flipped on it, and has devoted time today to confirming that he will not flop back to supporting it, regardless of his party alignment. He thus joins the likes of the Blue Dog Democrats and Joe Lieberman — Democrats in name who vote conservative, many of whom came out against EFCA once Specter’s renouncement of it made its passage mathematically difficult.

From his statement today:

My change in party affiliation does not mean that I will be a party-line voter any more for the Democrats that I have been for the Republicans. Unlike Senator Jeffords’ switch which changed party control, I will not be an automatic 60th vote for cloture. For example, my position on Employees Free Choice (Card Check) will not change.

On the other hand, Specter's major schism with the GOP manifested large in his vote to support the stimulus, a piece of legislation that the party fought hard to present a united front against. And just today, Specter's vote helped confirm former Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services, an appointment much contested by the Republican pro-life movement. Would Specter have voted for her anyway, given his relatively pro-choice voting record? Could be.

At the end of the day, Specter's still nearing the end of his term, and while it's accepted that part of the deal for his defection was that he'd face no primary opponent as a Democrat, he's still got to face Toomey, the hardline Republican who wanted to oust him in the Republican primary, who'll now probably grab the nomination unopposed. While Specter may well defeat Toomey, one can argue that Democrats and labor would have been better off if Specter had stayed Republican and gotten defeated by Toomey in the 2010 primary, leaving Toomey open to defeat by a more hardline, pro-EFCA Democrat. As it is, Pennsylvania labor and EFCA supporters may be backed into a corner -- forced into supporting the Democrat, even if that Democrat is anti-EFCA Specter, because there's no other option.

Police brutality in Philadelphia

2009-04-28T15:02:00.000-04:00

Protest says police killed dozens of unarmed Black men

By Betsey Piette
Philadelphia

Over 50 protesters braved stormy weather and a reign of terror on April 20 to gather outside the headquarters of the Fraternal Order of Police and take a stand against police brutality in the Black community. Rally organizers charged that in the Philadelphia area 36 unarmed Black men were killed by police between May 2008 and April 2009.

Initiated by the African American Freedom and Reconstruction League, the demonstrations denounced the bigotry, bias and racist murders that have been committed by the Philadelphia Police Department.

Leon Williams, speaking on behalf of AAFRL, said, “We have a situation where none of us are safe in Philadelphia. We need accountability. Mayor [Michael] Nutter is not doing anything. Police Commissioner [Charles] Ramsey is not doing anything. The police Internal Affairs are not doing anything. The only way things will change is when citizens stand up and be vigilant. Let’s get rid of the corrupt, abusive police and do it now.”

Several speakers denounced the FOP’s attack on Craig Washington, an African-American municipal judge who in February asked police to remove photos and flowers left in memory of a slain police officer from his courtroom in the 35th District police headquarters, which serves as an official courtroom for preliminary hearings. When the police officers denied his request to remove the items, Washington turned a picture over on his own “to avoid any appearance of bias in this courtroom.”

The FOP sought Washington’s transfer and is now conducting a campaign to vote him out of office in November. Referring to a large banner reading “Dump Judge Craig Washington” that adorned the outside of the FOP building, AAFRL spokesperson Brother Robert denounced this campaign. “The FOP is a disgrace to have the audacity to try to trash a judge for being principled,” he said. “But what do you expect from an organization which has all kinds of corrupt police, white and Black?

“Internal Affairs is like the fox guarding the hen house,” he continued. “They need to be investigated. The FOP is racist to the core. Let a police officer in Philadelphia stub his toe and the city comes to a standstill. They allow drugs and guns to flow freely into our communities. They do nothing about it.” Brother Robert continued, “The police have been given license to kill.”

Legislative Black Caucus calls for investigation

A growing number of community leaders, including state legislators, are calling for an investigation to address allegations of police misconduct and abuse. The Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus joined this call in the aftermath of an incident involving State Rep. Jewell Williams.

Williams, who is Black, was driving in his North Philadelphia neighborhood on March 28 when he observed two police officers frisking an elderly Black man. He started to intervene out of concern over how the officers were treating the man. When Williams got out of his car to ask if everything was okay, the police officer replied, “Get the f**k back in your car before I give you a bunch of tickets.”

Williams identified himself, asked to speak with the officer’s supervisor, and was subsequently handcuffed. Both officers involved in the incident, members of the Narcotics Strike Force, had been named in earlier cases of police brutality and excessive use of force.

The calls for an investigation have been sparked by other allegations of racism by officers, including a report by a Temple University student who allegedly heard one officer refer to residents in his North Philadelphia precinct as “animals.”

Speakers at the rally talked about Williams’ arrest, and noted that not even Black politicians or Black police are safe. “The FOP is organized crime,” Pam Africa of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal told the gathering. “They have organized media. They have organized courts. These are our children they are beating down, our children they are killing.

“Our children can’t stand on the corner because the police allow drugs in our neighborhoods. They know who brings drugs in and they protect them,” said Africa.

Shahrazad Ali, mother of an 8-year-old and an adult son, described her constant concern that her sons could be shot or locked up. “Mayor Nutter has given police the political right to come up against us,” Ali said, referring to Nutter’s “stop and frisk” policy, which gives police license to stop anyone on the streets at anytime. The program is allegedly designed to stem the number of murders in the city.

“Black people don’t make the guns and bullets,” Ali noted. “They come from outside our community.”

Police brutality victim Abdul Jon described being beaten by police inside City Hall with a baseball bat in 1981. He spent five days in the hospital and five months in jail before going to court, where a judge described the beating as “insignificant.” Jon said, “We’re suffering under a state of police tyranny. They’re about terrorizing us. It’s not just an issue of brutality.”

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