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COURAGE TO RESIST EMERGENCY ACTION
Rally and March for Accused Wikileaker Bradley Manning!
Tuesday, November 22, 5pm
Market & Powell Streets, San Francisco
The trial has been set for the prosecution of the most influential whistle blower of our generation! Join us in taking action against this injustice! We all know it is governments and corporations that should be on trial!
Today the United States Army scheduled an Article 32 pretrial hearing for PFC Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence specialist accused of releasing classified material to WikiLeaks. The pretrial hearing will commence on Friday, December 16th at Fort Meade, Maryland. This will be PFC Manning's first appearance before a court and the first time he will face his accusers after 17 months in confinement. Supporters will vigil and rally at the Fort Meade Main Gate, on Friday, December 16th, and the following day, Saturday, December 17th--Bradley's 24th birthday. More information about Fort Meade support events.
Bradley Manning, is an openly gay, US Army intelligence analyst is facing life in prison. He is accused of sharing the following with WikiLeaks: a video of the killing of civilians by a US helicopter in Iraq, the Guantanamo Files, the Afghan War Diary, the Iraq War Logs and revealing US diplomatic cables. In short, he's been charged with telling us the truth about controversial wars, foreign policies and corporate and government corruption and tyranny.
Solidarity with hero Bradley Manning! www.bradleymanning.org
http://www.couragetoresist.org/donate
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Army sets pre-trial hearing date for Bradley. Vigils and rallies planned at Fort Meade MD, worldwide.
Protest his Pretrial Hearing Saturday, Dec 17th (Bradley's B-Day) at 12pm at Fort Meade, MD outside Washington D.C.! (Solidarity actions taking place around the world.)
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/army-schedules-dec-16-pretrial-hearing-for-pfc-bradley-manning
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March in Solidarity with the Egyptian Revolution!
Civilian Rule Now! Stop US Military Aid to Egypt!
Gather at Justin Herman Plaza, Embarcadero BART
Tues., Nov. 22nd at 5:30pm.
The march is also in solidarity with the action to defend the accused wikileaker Bradley Manning at Powell and Market at 5pm. Visit www.bradleymanning.org for more info.
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Occupy Oakland Calls for TOTAL WEST COAST PORT SHUTDOWN ON 12/12
Posted 21 hours ago on Nov. 19, 2011, 8:35 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
http://occupywallst.org/article/occupy-oakland-calls-total-west-coast-port-shutdow/
Proposal for a Coordinated West Coast Port Shutdown, Passed With Unanimous Consensus by vote of the Occupy Oakland General Assembly 11/18/2012:
In response to coordinated attacks on the occupations and attacks on workers across the nation:
Occupy Oakland calls for the blockade and disruption of the economic apparatus of the 1% with a coordinated shutdown of ports on the entire West Coast on December 12th. The 1% has disrupted the lives of longshoremen and port truckers and the workers who create their wealth, just as coordinated nationwide police attacks have turned our cities into battlegrounds in an effort to disrupt our Occupy movement.
We call on each West Coast occupation to organize a mass mobilization to shut down its local port. Our eyes are on the continued union-busting and attacks on organized labor, in particular the rupture of Longshoremen jurisdiction in Longview Washington by the EGT. Already, Occupy Los Angeles has passed a resolution to carry out a port action on the Port Of Los Angeles on December 12th, to shut down SSA terminals, which are owned by Goldman Sachs.
Occupy Oakland expands this call to the entire West Coast, and calls for continuing solidarity with the Longshoremen in Longview Washington in their ongoing struggle against the EGT. The EGT is an international grain exporter led by Bunge LTD, a company constituted of 1% bankers whose practices have ruined the lives of the working class all over the world, from Argentina to the West Coast of the US. During the November 2nd General Strike, tens of thousands shutdown the Port Of Oakland as a warning shot to EGT to stop its attacks on Longview. Since the EGT has disregarded this message, and continues to attack the Longshoremen at Longview, we will now shut down ports along the entire West Coast.
Participating occupations are asked to ensure that during the port shutdowns the local arbitrator rules in favor of longshoremen not crossing community picket lines in order to avoid recriminations against them. Should there be any retaliation against any workers as a result of their honoring pickets or supporting our port actions, additional solidarity actions should be prepared. In the event of police repression of any of the mobilizations, shutdown actions may be extended to multiple days.
In Solidarity and Struggle,
Occupy Oakland
-In Oakland: the West Coast Port Shutdown Coordinating Committee will meet on General Assembly days at 5pm before the GA to organize the local shutdown, and to network with other occupations.
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Suggested slogan for the 2012 elections:
DON'T VOTE FOR THE ONE PERCENT!
http://community.nytimes.com/comments/cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/protesters-and-officers-clash-near-wall-street/?permid=567#comment567
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We Are the 99 Percent
We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.
Brought to you by the people who occupy wall street. Why will YOU occupy?
OccupyWallSt.org
Occupytogether.org
wearethe99percentuk.tumblr.com
http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
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Drop All Charges on the 'Occupy Wall Street' Arrestees!
Stop Police Attacks & Arrests! Support 'Occupy Wall Street'!
SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION AT http://bailoutpeople.org/dropchargesonoccupywallstarrestees.shtml to send email messages to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, NYC City Council, NYPD, the NY Congressional Delegation, Congressional Leaders, the NY Legislature, President Obama, Attorney General Holder, members of the media YOU WANT ALL CHARGES DROPPED ON THE 'OCCUPY WALL STREET ARRESTEES!
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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.
C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
D. ARTICLES IN FULL
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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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FREE BRADLEY MANNING! SUPPORT GI RESISTANCE!
MAILING / PIZZA PARTY
Wednesday, November 30th ~ 5 pm to 10 pm
55 Santa Clara Ave, Oakland CA
Dear Friend,
We would love your help with sending out our tri-annual newsletter and fund appeal Wednesday evening, November 30th. If you're in the Bay Area, please drop by for the evening, or just a few spare minutes! This is a great way to learn more about our work in support of GI resisters.
Newsletter highlights will include updates on the growing international campaign to free alleged WikiLeaks whistle-blower Bradley Manning, Army objector Daniel Birmingham, solidarity with the Occupy Movement, and much more.
GI Resistance Pizza / Mailing Party Wednesday, November 30th, 5 pm to 10 pm at 55 Santa Clara Ave, Suite 126, Oakland CA 94610 (One block north of 580 at Harrison--behind the Budget Inn). We can also use help earlier in the day Wednesday as well. Call us for more info at 510-488-3559, or courage@riseup.net
Sincerely,
Jeff Paterson
Courage to Resist project director
Bradley Manning Support Network steering committee member
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Art as Organizing
Political Art From the 1930s to Today
A Community Discussion
at the Eric Quezada Center for Culture and Politics in San Francisco November 30
Art as Organizing
Political Art From the 1930s to Today
Eric Quezada Center for Culture & Politics
518 Valencia Street @ 16th Street, San Francisco
Wednesday, 6:30-9:30,
November 30, 2011
Artists and activists will come together for a discussion on the use of art for political organizing. As the numbers of people living in poverty continues to swell, this evening will explore the past, present and future uses of art for social justice. Art Hazelwood will present images and themes from the new book Hobos to Street People: Artists' Responses to Homelessness from the New Deal to the Present.
A community discussion will be kicked off by speakers Western Regional Advocacy Project organizer, Paul Boden, photographer, Francisco Dominguez, Coalition on Homelessness civil rights organizer, Bob Offer-Westort, Roaddawgz Homeless Youth Creative Drop-in Center director, Machiko Saito
The evening includes an exhibition of political art posters, prints, and photographs by local activist artists.
$5 at the door to benefit Center for Political Education - no one turned away for lack of funds. The event is wheelchair accessible and offers childcare during the event.
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December 2 "Stop the Cuts" Day of Action
November 19 Organizers' Report on December 2 "Stop the Cuts" Day of Action
Two dozen very experienced organizers met on Saturday, November 19, 1pm-3pm at Local 2 offices in San Francisco. I would say another very collaborative & productive meeting.
Holiday schedule for our LAST Coalition meeting will be
Sunday, November 27, Local 2 offices, 1pm-3pm.
1. Assembly at Federal Building -2pm, Friday, December 2. In addition to core group of CARA; Independent Living Resource Center-SF; SinglePayer Now! & Senior Action Network, assignments were made to discuss further participation of ILWU Drill Team (Connie), Veterans (Frank), USLAW & New Priorities (Charlie?). Richard will contact Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE). We will have a IATSE sound truck (Hene) with speakers and entertainment (Pat W. & David) but are still looking for vans or minibus to transport seniors and disabled desiring to participate in the rest of the dayĆ¢€(tm)s activities. Charlie is contacting Brass Liberation to march with us from the Federal Building.
2. At 3pm we begin marching down Market Street to our first 15-minute stop at the Westfield Mall on 5th & Market which is in a labor dispute with SEIU 87 janitors; then to another 15-minute stop at the Wells Fargo on Montgomery & Market; then down Montgomery to Bush & Battery for another 15-minute stop at the Verizon store. Conny will meet with the core groups organizing this segment which are SF Labor Council, Jobs with Justice, CWA and SEIU 87. Additional assignments were made to contact wide variety of student groups (Alan, Don, Charlie), Occupy CAL (Ramon), AFT 2121 (Conny), Causa Justa & Central Legal (Alan) & SF State Teachers & students (Ann).
3. At 5pm approximately, we will arrive at the Hyatt and spend around one hour picketing with Local 2 (exact time yet to be decided by Local 2). We then will gather for the concert/rally around the Teamster Flat-Bed Long Haul truck (Rudy) near the foot of Market Street. Occupy SF activists (Alan, Rudy & Connie) will be among the featured speakers but there will be plenty of musicians and spoken word artists (Pat W). No additional artists are being solicited except Alan is contacting "Angry Retired Teachers", SF Living Wage is looking for talent that particularly appeals to youth and all are encouraged to think of a Major celebrity they personally can contact to spice the program up a bit.
Leaflets: A new version discussed at the meeting will be ready this week in mass quantities. Call Amber at the SF Labor Council 415-440-4809. We will email the leaflet and a photo copy suitable for posting on FaceBook pages which we very strongly urge all to do.
Security: Our leaflets will note that December 2 is a Peaceful & Family-Friendly Event. Looking for 25 volunteers for any section of the day's activities and also some experienced folks to take leadership of a safety team. David is contacting SEIU 1021, Conny is contacting Rudy, IBT856 and Alan & Richard each pledged three volunteers. For now, additional volunteers can reply to Carl at local1781@yahoo.com
Permits, Sound: Being handled by Amber, SF Labor Council.
Speakers: Contact Conny Ford if you have suggestions ope3conny@sbcglobal.net
These are public minutes, distribute as you feel necessary.
Fraternally submitted,
Carl Finamore
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Howard Petrick's "Rambo" - anti-VietNam activist tells his story-Marsh Berkeleyu-Oct 20-Dec 10
Directed by Mark Kenward and developed with David Ford, the show plays on Thursday and Friday at 7:00 pm and Saturday at 8:30 pm from October 20 to December 10, 2011 (press opening November 4, no performance on Thanksgiving Day) at The Cabaret at The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way, near Shattuck. The public may visit www.themarsh.org or call 415-282-3055.
The Little Guy Takes on the Pentagon
in Howard Petrick's "Rambo: The Missing Years"
The Hilarious and True Story of the Private Who Protested the Viet Nam War - While Still in the Army!
"Howard's show is proof you can fight bureaucracy and win. How he does so is told with aplomb and a certain sense of mischievousness." - Vancouver Fringe
"The potency of the show...springs from Petrick's first-hand account of his anti-Vietnam activism from within the army...this comes with an intriguing authenticity."- Winnipeg Free Press
"Petrick delivers...For 60 minutes he has you laughing through the fear." - Winnipeg Uptown
The Vancouver Sun calls San Francisco's Howard Petrick, "a guy who really knows how to get up the nose of the war machine." Petrick's Rambo: The Missing Years is an hilarious - and true - account of the misadventures of a Vietnam-era draftee who frustrates the military brass by asserting his right to organize his fellow GIs against the war. Petrick's Rambo - not to be confused in the least with the Sylvester Stallone action figure - plays at The Marsh-Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way in Berkeley.
The story begins as Petrick reports for the draft and refuses to fill out the forms, befuddling the military bureaucracy for the first of many times to come. Yet, during his time of service he maintains an unblemished military record, breaks no rules, and continues to carry out his military duties.
Directed by Mark Kenward and developed with David Ford.
A twenty-year-old anti-war activist in 1966 when he was drafted into the Army, Pvt. Petrick was a model soldier except when the subject of Vietnam came up. At that point, he missed no opportunity to make his opinions known to his fellow GIs and anyone else who would listen. His activities helped ignite an antiwar movement in the barracks and led to a confrontation with the brass. Calls from the Pentagon! Threats of treason! By the time it was all over, Petrick, who never backed down, had become something of a celebrity. He even had a song written about him and was the subject of an article in the New York Times. From the ass-scratching first cook to the frustrated Military Intelligence officer, Petrick brings over twenty characters to life in this autobiographical solo piece.
"If Westmoreland can give a political partisan speech to the Press Club in New York City supporting the war, then I should be able to speak in uniform opposing the war." - Howard Petrick quoted in the Texas Observer in 1967.
It's a comedy that keeps hope alive. Here are more kudos for the show:
"Petrick made headlines as a GI for his outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War, and he's turned his experiences into a deftly crafted solo show." - Georgia Straight (Vancouver)
His "aw shucks" attitude had me right there with him every step of the way, rooting for my new hero. Please don't miss this true tale. - Jenny Revue (Winnipeg)
"His ear for dialogue...is superb." - Georgia Straight (Vancouver)
"It's an engaging tale, often funny...Petrick's writing is strong...valuable as a piece of history in a time when for much of the population, Vietnam is just a vague, long-ago event." - Fresno Bee
"This is an important piece of history - from the common man's point of view." - Victoria Fringe
"A must see!" - The Plank (Vancouver)
Howard Petrick has studied solo performance with David Ford, Ann Randolph, James Donlon, Mark Kenward and Leonard Pitt. He has performed at FronteraFest, The Marsh, Words First, City Solo, San Francisco Theater Festival, Solo Sundays, Tell it on Tuesday, the Fresno Rogue Festival and Fringe Festivals in Boulder, Chicago, Winnipeg, Victoria and Vancouver. For more information, visit www.howardpetrick.com
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Youth Together: RALLY & MARCH NOV. 30
STOP CORPORATIONS STEAL OUR FUTURE!
They make billions, pay little or no tax at all, buy and run our government, and get bailed out at our expense.
Date: Wednesday, Nov. 30th
Time: 4pm
Gather at the steps of City Hall in Oakland and march to Chevron Gas Station on Castro Street
Chevron as the largest corporation in California:
Made $18 billion in profits in 2009 and paid no federal tax. In fact, it received $19 million in benefits;
Pays no tax on drilling oil in California;
Enjoys millions from its under-assessed properties under Prop. 13;
Spent nearly $7 million on lobbying this year;
Contributed almost $1 million to California state politicians during 2009-2010 session;
Has $13 billion in cash on hand, etc.
Money for schools and our future!
JOIN KIDS COUNT! CAMPAIGN
For more information please contact us at 510-645-9209 ext.316 or visit www.youthtogether.net -- facebook.com/kidscountca
Please check the attachment for the flier in PDF File.
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Friday, December 2 - Day of Action in SF
To Stop the Cuts!Proposed by the SuperCommittee & Congress
Because the 1% Got Bailed Out & the 99% Got Sold Out
Because a Phony Deficit Crisis Transfers More Wealth to the 1%!
Because We Oppose Cutting Social Benefits already Paid For by the 99%!
Because We Should Tax the 1%!
Because We Should Fund Jobs instead of Wars!
Because We Should Pay for Schools instead of Prisons!
Expand Social Security!
No Cuts to Medicaid!
Medicare for All!
2pm - Occupy the Federal Building (7th & Mission St.-Civic Center Bart/Muni).Assemble at the SF Federal Building where hundreds of us will peacefully deliver our strong message to government representatives of No Cuts to Medicaid; Expand Social Security and Medicare for All while a rally is held outside in the Federal Building Plaza. We will then march to the Financial District.
3:30pm - Occupy Wall Street West- route to be announced soon. We will march to several symbols of financial gluttony before heading to the Occupy SF area at the foot of Market St.
5pm into the night - Celebrate & Defend Occupy SF - We call upon Bay Area labor and community activists to join us for a rally/concert in Justin Herman Plaza that will support Occupy SF and express solidarity with Hotel Workers Local 2 boycott activity across the street at the Hyatt Hotel, a notorious symbol of corporate greed.
Contact Conny Ford, SF Labor Council Vice President at 415-647-7776
Endorsers forming -San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO; Single Payer Now; CARA; Independent Living Resource Center; Jobs with Justice....
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Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality and State Repression and Berkeley Copwatch present a community forum and video showing:
Silencing The Witnesses:
Government Attacks on the Right To Observe
Saturday, December 3, 2011, 2:00 p.m.
Humanist Hall, 390 27th Street (between Broadway & Telegraph)
Oakland, California 94612
Recent protests have drawn incredibly violent responses from police agencies. Tear gas, flash bang grenades, bean bag rounds and overwhelming force has been documented by civilian journalists across the country at Occupy protests.
Meanwhile, on a daily basis, people who attempt to document police abuse are increasingly being targeted for their efforts to bring human rights violations to light. In response to new legislation and outright assaults, activists are waging a national struggle to keep copwatching safe and legal. Join us for an update of where the right to record stands, how the government is suppressing evidence of brutality and how we can defend our first amendment rights right here in the Bay Area.
· Video Updates will include footage from civilian monitors
· Wheelchair accessible
· There is a $5-$10 suggested donation
· Refreshments will be provided
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MECA and Joining Hands' 9th Annual Palestinian Bazaar
One Day Only: Sunday, December 4th
10 AM - 4PM
Live Oak Park
1301 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley
Beautiful Hand-Crafted Gifts
Bring your friends! Grab a bite of delicious Arabic food and coffee --
Benefits Palestinian craftspeople
Come shop at this popular annual sale of beautifully crafted items:
Olive wood, First Cold Press Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, Pure Olive Oil Soap, Beautiful Scarves & Shawls (new styles!), Traditional Embroidery, Hand-blown Glassware from Hebron, Colorful Hand woven rugs, Ceramics from Jerusalem & Gaza, Cookbooks, Children's books, Calendars, Honey, Jewelry, Children's clothing, Dolls from Gaza, food items and more! New this year-Palestinian Dead Sea Products.
This is a great opportunity to buy something quite special -- and also support cooperative unions and crafts people living under Israeli Occupation.
Please join us in celebrating the heritage, artistry, and creativity of the Palestinian people!
EVENT WEBSITE: http://www.mecaforpeace.org/events/berkeley-ca-meca-and-joining-hands-9th-annual-palestinian-bazaar
--
Leena Al-Arian
Program and Communications Coordinator
Middle East Children's Alliance
1101 8th Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
510-548-0542
www.mecaforpeace.org
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CALL FOR AN EMERGENCY INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Against the wars of occupation; Against the interference in the internal affairs of countries; In defense of the integrity and sovereignty of nations
Algiers, Algeria -- December 3-5, 2011
Ever since the invasion of Afghanistan by NATO troops in 2001, under the pretext of the "War on Terror," and of Iraq in 2003, in the name of a so-called "struggle for democracy," imperialist governments, under the leadership of the U.S. government, have implemented a strategy based on international wars of occupation and plunder. This strategy has also included widespread interference in the internal affairs of nations, the astronomic growth of war budgets, the assault on democratic rights, and the massive cuts in social spending -- particularly in Europe and the United States.
Today, the governments of the imperialist powers -- specifically the U.S., French, British and Italian governments -- have opened a new front in the war; this time in the Maghreb region of Northern Africa. (*)
A new step has been taken with the further implementation of the U.S. government's Greater Middle East Plan, which was first announced by George W. Bush in 2003 at the time of the launching of the war of occupation and looting of Iraq. It's a plan that aims to dismantle nations along ethnic, religious and communitarian lines -- from Pakistan to Mauritania.
At the very moment when the Tunisian and Egyptian workers and peoples are struggling to exercise their full sovereignty by means of democracy, Libya is descending into chaos after a foreign military intervention under the aegis of NATO -- an intervention that threatens its territorial integrity.
By this means, all the countries of the Maghreb region are now facing threats to their integrity. But this is not all: The implications for the SAHEL countries (parts of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Tunisia, Ethiopia and Eritrea) and, more generally, for sub-Saharan Africa are incalculable. This is because the conflict has gone way beyond the Libyan borders in terms of the movement of weapons -- including heavy weapons massively distributed among Libyan civilians and armed terrorist groups who have openly displayed them in the aftermath of the foreign military intervention.
This is not to mention the devastating effects on the economies of these countries, especially when combined with the massive return of hundreds of thousands of migrants who had been working in Libya, as well as more than one million Libyan refugees, mostly in Tunisia.
In reality, through the foreign military intervention in Libya, the U.S., French, British and Italian imperialists seek to terrorize all the peoples of the region and the world.
No political party genuinely committed to the sovereignty of nations and to democracy can condone, under whatever pretext whatsoever, the imperialist war of occupation and plunder in Libya. No labor organization faithful to the traditions of the international labor movement can condone such a war. That is why we the undersigned reject another war on our African continent -- a continent that is already bloodied and torn apart by so-called ethnic conflicts, which are really nothing but the result of foreign plunder of the continent's natural resources, the repayment of foreign debt, and the various manipulations that result therewith.
We reject any foreign military presence in any form whatsoever in our region of the Maghreb, elsewhere across Northern Africa, and, more generally, on our continent of Africa.
We reject any and all attacks upon sovereign nations.
We reject the foreign looting of the riches and resources of the peoples of the Maghreb and of Africa as a whole. Taking control over these resources -- including through the installation of foreign military bases, starting with AFRICOM (United States Africa Command) -- is the real objective of the war of occupation in Libya, under the auspices of NATO. This is what's really at stake.
We denounce the imperialist designs of the governments that are racing to grab the reconstruction deals for the infrastructure of Libya, destroyed by NATO air strikes - another stake of the war.
We deny the imperialist governments, NATO and the mongers of war and chaos the right to decide the fate of the peoples of the Maghreb, sub-Saharan Africa and all peoples of the world.
We affirm that because there can be no popular sovereignty without national sovereignty, from the standpoint of democracy it is up to sovereign peoples -- and up to them alone -- to define their present and their future without external interference and foreign military intervention.
We call upon organizations and parties around the world and in our own country that oppose the imperialist wars to join us in supporting and participating in an Emergency International Conference in Algiers on December 3-5, 2011, against the wars of occupation, against the interference in the internal affairs of countries, and in defense of the integrity and sovereignty of nations. (**)
signed/
A. Sidi Said
General Secretary
General Union of Algerian Workers (UGTA)
Louisa Hanoune
General Secretary
Workers Party of Algeria (PT)
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(*) The five countries that make up the Maghreb region are Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania.
(**) For more information about the conference or how you can get involved, please contact the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples in Paris at
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UNAC Conference: March 23-25, 2012
The United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) conference originally scheduled for November, 11-13, 2011, has been rescheduled for March 23-25, 2012, in order to tie in to organizing efforts for building massive protests at the NATO/G-8 Summits in Chicago, May 15-22, and to have sufficient time to generate an action program for the next stage of building a mass movement for social change.
Organizations are invited to endorse this conference by clicking here:
http://www.jotform.com/form/12685942513
Donations are needed for bringing international speakers and to subsidize attendance of students and low income participants. Contributions will be accepted at www.UNACpeace.org.
For the initial conference flyer, click here:
http://nepajac.org/conferenceflyer.pdf
Click here to donate to UNAC:
https://nationalpeaceconference.org/Donate.html
Click here for the Facebook UNAC group:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_157059221012587&ap=1
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NATO/G8 protests in Chicago.
United National Antiwar Committee
UNACpeace@gmain.com or UNAC at P.O. Box 123, Delmar, NY 12054
518-227-6947
www.UNACpeace.org
UNAC, along with other organizations and activists, has formed a coalition to help organize protests in Chicago during the week of May 15 - 22 while NATO and G8 are holding their summit meetings. The new coalition was formed at a meeting of 163 people representing 73 different organization in Chicago on August 28 and is called Coalition Against NATO/G8 War and Poverty Agenda (CANGATE). For a report on the Chicago meeting, click here: http://nepajac.org/chicagoreport.htm
To add your email to the new CANGATE listserve, send an email to: cangate-subscribe@lists.riseup.net.
To have your organization endorse the NATO/G8 protest, please click here:
https://www.nationalpeaceconference.org/NATO_G8_protest_support.html
Click here to hear audio of the August 28 meeting:
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/54145
Click here for the talk by Marilyn Levin, UNAC co-coordinator at the August 28 meeting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1tHQ7ilDJ8&NR=1
Click here for Pat Hunts welcome to the meeting and Joe Iosbaker's remarks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoNGcnBGGfI
NATO and the G8 Represent the 1%.
In May, they will meet in Chicago. Their agenda is war on poor nations, war on the poor and working people - war on the 99%.
We are demanding the right to march on their summit, to say:
Jobs, Healthcare, Education, Pensions, Housing and the Environment, Not War!
No to NATO/G-8 Warmakers!
No to War and Austerity!
NATO's military expenditures come at the expense of funding for education, housing and jobs programs; and the G8 continues to advance an agenda of 'austerity' that includes bailouts, tax write-offs and tax holidays for big corporations and banks at the expense of the rest of us.
During the May 2012 G8 and NATO summits in Chicago, many thousands of people will want to exercise their right to protest against NATO's wars and against the G8 agenda to only serve the richest one percent of society. We need permits to ensure that all who want to raise their voices will be able to march.
Chicago's Mayor Rahm Emanuel has stonewalled repeated attempts by community organizers to meet with the city to discuss reasonable accommodations of protesters' rights. They have finally agreed to meet with us, but we need support: from the Occupy movement, the anti-war movement, and all movements for justice.
Our demands are simple:
That the City publicly commit to provide protest organizers with permits that meet the court- sanctioned standard for such protests -- that we be "within sight and sound" of the summits; and
That representatives of the City, including Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, refrain from making threats against protesters.
The protest movement, Occupy Wall Street (OWS), has the support of a majority of the American people. This is because people are suffering from the economic crisis brought about by Wall Street and big banks. As the OWS movement describes it, the "99%" see extreme economic inequality, where millions are unemployed without significant help while bankers in trouble get bailed out.
In Chicago and around the country, the Occupy movement is being met with repression: hundreds have been arrested, beaten, tear gassed, spied on, and refused their right to protest.
The Chicago Police Department and the Mayor have already acknowledged that they are coming down hard on the Occupy movement here to send a message to those who would protest against NATO and the G8.
We need a response that is loud and clear: we have the right to march against the generals and the bankers. We have the right to demand an end to wars, military occupations, and attacks on working people and the poor.
How you can help:
1) Sign the petition to the City of Chicago at www.CANG8.org You can also make a contribution there.
2) Write a statement supporting the right to march and send it to us atcangate2012@gmail.com.
3) To endorse the protests, go to https://nationalpeaceconference.org/NATO_G8_protest_support.html or write to cangate2012@gmail.com
4) Print out and distribute copies of this statement, attached along with a list of supporters of our demands for permits.
4) And then march inChicago on May 15th and May 19th. Publicizethe protests. Join us!
Formore info: www.CANG8.org or email us at cangate2012@gmail.com
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B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.:
[Some of these videos are embeded on the BAUAW website:
http://bauaw.blogspot.com/ or bauaw.org ...bw]
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Mic Check Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0Jmqo1yQag
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UC Davis Police Violence Adds Fuel to Fire
By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News
19 November 11
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/275-42/8485-uc-davis-police-violence-adds-fuel-to-fire
UC Davis Protestors Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4&feature=player_embedded
Police PEPPER SPRAY UC Davis STUDENT PROTESTERS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuWEx6Cfn-I&feature=player_embedded
Police pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmJmmnMkuEM&feature=player_embedded
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Officers Put on Leave After Pepper Spraying Protesters
By BRIAN STELTER
November 20, 2011, 2:58 pm
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/officers-put-on-leave-after-pepper-spraying-protesters/?scp=1&sq=Officers%20Put%20On%20Leave%20After%20Pepper&st=cse
UC Davis Chancellor Katehi walks to her car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CZ0t9ez_EGI#!
Occupy Seattle - 84 Year Old Woman Dorli Rainey Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTIyE_JlJzw&feature=related
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THE BEST VIDEO ON "OCCUPY THE WORLD"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S880UldxB1o
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Occupy With Aloha -- Makana -- The Story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-M07v8N_eU&feature=channel_video_title
My guitar tech shot this with a camera phone during my performance for the World Leaders Dinner at APEC, which was hosted by the First Family.
He had to be extremely discreet as Secret Service had warned those on site that any phones used to capture photography or video would be confiscated. Since he has a guitar tuner app on the phone we were able to justify having it out, but grabbing video was not easy. We were under constant surveillance. Personally I like to have video of every performance. It's my art and my right.
About an hour into my set of generally ambient guitar music and Hawaiian tunes, I felt inspired to share some songs that resonated with the significance of the occasion.
I sang a few verses from "Kaulana Na Pua" (a famous Hawaiian protest song in honor of the anniversary of our Queen's passing), then segued into Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower", Sting's "Fragile", and finally my newest song "We Are The Many".
My goal was not to disturb the guests in an offensive fashion but rather to subliminally fill their ears and the entire dinner atmosphere with a message that might be more effectively received in a subconscious manner. I sweetly sang lines like "You enforce your monopolies with guns/ While sacrificing our daughters and sons/ But certain things belong to everyone/ Your thievery has left the people none". The event protocol was such that everyone there kept their expressions quite muffled. Now and then I would get strange, befuddled stares from heads of state. It was a very quiet room with no waiters; only myself, the sound techs, and the leaders of almost half the world's population.
If I had chosen to disrupt the dinner and force my message I would have been stopped short. I instead chose to deliver an extremely potent message in a polite manner for a prolonged interval.
I dedicate this action to those who would speak truth to power but were not allowed the opportunity.
Me ka ha'aha'a,
Makana
We Are The Many -- Makana -- The Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq3BYw4xjxE&feature=relmfu
We Are The Many
Lyrics and Music by Makana
Makana Music LLC (c) 2011
Download song for free here:
http://makanamusic.com/?slide=we-are-the-many
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Rafeef Ziadah - 'Shades of anger', London, 12.11.11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2vFJE93LTI
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News: Massive anti-nuclear demonstration in Fukuoka Nov. 12, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq_xKEWuj1I&feature=player_embedded
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Capt Ray Lewis Joins OWS Protest,Gives Message to NYPD and Slams The Greed 1% from Zuccotti Park
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ocdnl4XlTOU#!
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Shot by police with rubber bullet at Occupy Oakland
antiprocon 62 videos Subscribe Alert iconSubscribed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0pX9LeE-g8&feature=player_embedded
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Copwatch@Occupy Oakland: Beware of Police Infiltrators and Provocateurs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrvMzqopHH0
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Occupy Oakland 11-2 Strike: Police Tear Gas, Black Bloc, War in the Streets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tu_D8SFYck&feature=player_embedded
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Quebec police admitted that, in 2007, thugs carrying rocks to a peaceful protest were actually undercover Quebec police officers:
POLICE STATE Criminal Cops EXPOSED As Agent Provocateurs @ SPP Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoiisMMCFT0&feature=player_embedded
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quebec police admit going undercover at montebello protests
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfzUOx53Rg&feature=player_embedded
G20: Epic Undercover Police Fail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrJ7aU-n1L8&feature=player_embedded
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WHAT HAPPENED IN OAKLAND TUESDAY NIGHT, OCTOBER 25:
Occupy Oakland Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlPs-REyl-0&feature=player_embedded
Cops make mass arrests at occupy Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R27kD2_7PwU&feature=player_embedded
Raw Video: Protesters Clash With Oakland Police
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpO-lJr2BQY&feature=player_embedded
Occupy Oakland - Flashbangs USED on protesters OPD LIES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqNOPZLw03Q&feature=player_embedded
KTVU TV Video of Police violence
http://www.ktvu.com/video/29587714/index.html
Marine Vet wounded, tear gas & flash-bang grenades thrown in downtown Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMUgPTCgwcQ&feature=player_embedded
Tear Gas billowing through 14th & Broadway in Downtown Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU4Y0pwJtWE&feature=player_embedded
Arrests at Occupy Atlanta -- This is what a police state looks like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YStWz6jbeZA&feature=player_embedded
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Marine Vet at #OccupyWallStreet Tells Sean Hannity to "F**k Off"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aaTGsGdp4c&feature=player_embedded
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Labor Beat: Chicago - War Protest March to Obama's 2012 HQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTkOincM93s
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Labor Beat: Hey You Billionaire, Pay Your Fair Share
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY8isD33f-I
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Voices of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA48gmfGB6U&feature=youtu.be
Voices of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjKZpOk7TyM&feature=related
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#Occupy St. Louis: Bank of America refuses to let customers close accounts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KtI85Zc6Oik
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ALL COLORS (Occupy LA)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Zh6hDQC8I
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#Occupy Wall Street In Washington Square: Mohammed Ezzeldin, former occupier of Egypt's Tahrir Square Speaks at Washington Square!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziodsFWEb5Y&feature=player_embedded
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#OccupyTheHood, Occupy Wall Street
By adele pham
http://vimeo.com/30146870
@OccupyTheHood, Occupy Wall Street from adele pham on Vimeo.
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#Occupy Wall Street Protesters Marching
[Thousands of NYU Students march to OWS...bw]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWJpzx9IqU4
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AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka Supporting Occupy Wall Street
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soV79czwzoo&feature=player_embedded
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Live arrest at brooklyn bridge #occupywallstreet by We are Change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yULSI-31Pto&feature=player_embedded
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PEACEFUL FEMALE PROTESTERS PENNED IN THE STREET AND MACED!- #OccupyWallStreet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moD2JnGTToA
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Police Raid on Occpy Boston 10 11 11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5G9agQjM60&noredirect=1
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Occupy Boston protesters arrested
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/occupy-boston-protesters-arrested/2011/10/11/gIQAsCzWdL_video.html
Boston police have arrested 129 people during Tuesday's Occupy Boston demonstrations. The early morning arrests were mostly for trespassing. (Oct. 11) (/The Associated Press)
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Video of Boston PD attacking veterans at OWS protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s3zFca5znU&feature=relmfu
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Occupy Frankfurt Germany
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmxQP2eMdMU&feature=player_embedded
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Occupy Rome - La manifestazione di Roma October 15th OccupyTogether
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25CWyNnJVOI&feature=player_embedded
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FREE THE CUBAN FIVE!
http://www.thecuban5.org/wordpress/index.php
Free Them
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmS4kHC_OlY&feature=player_embedded
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The Preacher and the Slave - Joe Hill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca_MEJmuzMM
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Visualizing a Trillion: Just How Big That Number Is?
"1 million seconds is about 11.5 days, 1 billion seconds is about 32 years while a trillion seconds is equal to 32,000 years."
Digital Inspiration
http://www.labnol.org/internet/visualize-numbers-how-big-is-trillion-dollars/7814/
How Much Is $1 Trillion?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPfY0q-rEdY&feature=player_embedded
Courtesy the credit crisis and big bailout packages, the figure "trillion" has suddenly become part of our everyday conversations. One trillion dollars, or 1 followed by 12 zeros, is lots of money but have you ever tried visualizing how big that number actually is?
For people who can visualize one million dollars, the comparison made on CNN should give you an idea about a trillion - "if you start spending a million dollars every single day since Jesus was born, you still wouldn't have spend a trillion dollars".
Another mathematician puts it like this: "1 million seconds is about 11.5 days, 1 billion seconds is about 32 years while a trillion seconds is equal to 32,000 years".
Now if the above comparisons weren't really helpful, check another illustration that compares the built of an average human being against a stack of $100 currency notes bundles.
A bundle of $100 notes is equivalent to $10,000 and that can easily fit in your pocket. 1 million dollars will probably fit inside a standard shopping bag while a billion dollars would occupy a small room of your house.
With this background in mind, 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000) is 1000 times bigger than 1 billion and would therefore take up an entire football field - the man is still standing in the bottom-left corner. (See visuals -- including a video -- at website:
http://www.labnol.org/internet/visualize-numbers-how-big-is-trillion-dollars/7814/
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One World One Revolution -- MUST SEE VIDEO -- Powerful and beautiful...bw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE3R1BQrYCw&feature=player_embedded
"When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." Thomas Jefferson
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Japan: angry Fukushima citizens confront government (video)
Posted by Xeni Jardin on Monday, Jul 25th at 11:36am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVuGwc9dlhQ&feature=player_embedded
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Licensed to Kill Video
http://nirs.org/multimedia/video/l2k.htm
Gundersen Gives Testimony to NRC ACRS from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.
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FREE BRADLEY MANNING
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/national-call-in-for-bradley
I received the following reply from the White House November 18, 2011 regarding the Bradley Manning petition I signed:
"Why We Can't Comment on Bradley Manning
"Thank you for signing the petition 'Free PFC Bradley Manning, the accused WikiLeaks whistleblower.' We appreciate your participation in the We the People platform on WhiteHouse.gov.
The We the People Terms of Participation explain that 'the White House may decline to address certain procurement, law enforcement, adjudicatory, or similar matters properly within the jurisdiction of federal departments or agencies, federal courts, or state and local government.' The military justice system is charged with enforcing the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Accordingly, the White House declines to comment on the specific case raised in this petition...
"This email was sent to giobon@comcast.net
Manage Subscriptions for giobon@comcast.net
Sign Up for Updates from the White House
Unsubscribe giobon@comcast.net | Privacy Policy
Please do not reply to this email. Contact the White House
"The White House • 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW • Washington, DC 20500 • 202-456-1111"
That's funny! I guess Obama didn't get this memo. Here's what Obama said about Bradley:
BRADLEY MANNING "BROKE THE LAW" SAYS OBAMA!
"He broke the law!" says Obama about Bradley Manning who has yet to even be charged, let alone, gone to trial and found guilty. How horrendous is it for the President to declare someone guilty before going to trial or being charged with a crime! Justice in the U.S.A.!
Obama on FREE BRADLEY MANNING protest... San Francisco, CA. April 21, 2011-Presidential remarks on interrupt/interaction/performance art happening at fundraiser. Logan Price queries Barack after org. FRESH JUICE PARTY political action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfmtUpd4id0&feature=youtu.be
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Max Romeo - Socialism Is Love
http://youtu.be/eTvUs4rY4to
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Cuba: The Accidental Eden
http://video.pbs.org/video/1598230084/
Watch the full episode. See more Nature.
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Labor Beat: Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists Against FBI Raids and Grand Jury Investigation of antiwar and social justice activists.
"If trouble is not at your door. It's on it's way, or it just left."
"Investigate the Billionaires...Full investigation into Wall Street..." Jesse Sharkey, Vice President, Chicago Teachers Union
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSNUSIGZCMQ
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Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGqE726OAo&feature=player_embedded
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Coal Ash: One Valley's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded
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C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
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It's time to tell the White House that "We the People" support PFC Bradley Manning's freedom and the UN's investigation into alleged torture in Quantico, VA
On September 22nd, the White House launched a new petition website called "We the People." According to the White House blog, if a petition reaches 5,000 signatures in 30 days, "it will be reviewed by policy experts and you'll receive an official response."
Act now! Sign our petition to the White House: LINK
This is our chance to make sure the people in power know that the public still care about the fate of PFC Bradley Manning, and that we won't let this issue go away until PFC Manning is recognized as the whistleblower he is. It is also an opportunity for us to educate fellow Americans who may not have heard of PFC Manning yet, by boosting our petition to the top of the WhiteHouse.gov site.
The same day the White House launched the petition website, it also unveiled an Open Government Action Plan calling to "Strengthen and Expand Whistleblower Protection for Government Personnel." We consider this ironic given the fact that in April of 2011 the UN Chief Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, was forced to issue a rare reprimand to the U.S. for repeatedly denying his request to meet with alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower PFC Manning in an official, unmonitored visit to investigation allegations of his torture in the military brig of Quantico, VA.
We submitted the petition to the "We the People" website earlier this week, and we have already gathered over 1,000 signatures. We are relying on your help so that we can reach the 5,000 mark, and then some.
Signing the petition requires a quick and simple registration process. (Should you encounter technical trouble, please check out the link at the bottom of this e-mail.)
Click here to sign the petition now!
Already signed the petition? You can promote it to your friends on facebook and twitter! Copy and paste the following text: Tell the Obama Administration to let UN investigate torture of alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower PFC Bradley Manning! http://wh.gov/40y
We petition the obama administration to:
Free PFC Bradley Manning, the accused WikiLeaks whistleblower.
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/free-pfc-bradley-manning-accused-wikileaks-whistleblower/kX1GJKsD?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl
Using the information PFC Bradley Manning allegedly revealed, media outlets have published thousands of stories, detailing countless attempts by governments around the world -- including our own -- to illegally conceal evidence of human rights abuses.
According to the President, "employees with the courage to report wrongdoing are a government's best defense against waste, fraud and abuse."
It appears that PFC Manning acted on his conscience, at great personal risk, to answer the President's call.
However, he has been subjected to extreme confinement conditions that US legal scholars have said may amount to torture.
Therefore, we also ask the Obama administration to stop blocking the UN's chief torture investigator, Juan Mendez, from conducting an official visit with PFC Manning.
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Cristian Fernandez is only 12 years old. And if Florida prosecutor Angela Corey has her way, he'll never leave jail again.
Cristian hasn't had an easy life. He's the same age now as his mother was when he was born. He's a survivor of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. In 2010, Cristian watched his stepfather commit suicide to avoid being charged with abusing Cristian.
Last January, Cristian was wrestling with his 2-year-old brother, David, and accidentally broke David's leg. Despite this, their mother left Cristian with his brother again in March. While the two boys were alone, Cristian allegedly pushed his brother against a bookcase, and David sustained a head injury. After their mother returned home, she waited six hours before taking David to the hospital. David eventually died.
Now Cristian is being charged with first degree murder -- as an adult. He's the youngest person in the history of his Florida county to receive this charge, and his next hearing is scheduled for tomorrow.
Melissa Higgins works with kids who get caught up in the criminal justice system in her home state of New Hampshire. When she read about Cristian's case, she was appalled -- so she started a petition on Change.org asking Florida State's Attorney Angela Corey to try Cristian as a child. Please sign Melissa's petition immediately before Cristian's hearing tomorrow.
As part of his prosecution, Cristian has been examined by two different forensic psychiatrists -- each of whom concluded that he was "emotionally underdeveloped but essentially reformable despite a tough life."
Cristian has already been through more than most of us can imagine -- and now the rest of his life is in the hands of a Florida prosecutor who wants to make sure Cristian never leaves jail.
The purpose of the juvenile justice system is to reform kids who haven't gotten a fair shake. If Cristian is sent to adult prison, it will be more than a tragedy for him -- it will also be a signal to other prosecutors that kids' lives are acceptable collateral in the quest to be seen as "tough on crime."
Cristian's next hearing is in just 24 hours. State's Attorney Angela Corey needs to know that her actions are being watched -- please sign the petition asking her not to try Cristian as an adult:
http://www.change.org/petitions/reverse-decision-to-try-12-yo-cristian-fernandez-as-an-adult
Thanks for being a change-maker,
- Michael and the Change.org team
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International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5
TAKE ACTION: New Punishment Against Rene Gonzalez
On Oct 7, RenƩ GonzƔlez, one of the Cuban 5 Patriots will be released from the US prison in Marianna Florida after serving out his 15 year sentence. Rene's crime was defending the security of the Cuban people against terrorist attacks.
The US government is now trying to stop his immediate return to his homeland, and his family, after he serves out the last day of this unjust sentence. And now, in the most cynical and mean spirited fashion, the US court that sentenced him in 2001 is extending his punishment by making him remain in the United States.
Because Rene was born in the US he will now have to spend an additional 3 years of probation here. Seven months ago his lawyer presented a motion asking the court to modify the conditions of his probation so that after he finished his sentence he be allowed to return to Cuba to reunite with his wife and his family for humanitarian reasons.
On March 25, the prosecutor Caroline Heck Miller asked the judge to deny the motion. On September 16 Judge Joan Lenard rejected the defense motion, alleging among other reasons, that the Court needs time to evaluate the behavior of the condemned person after he is freed to verify that he is not a danger to the United States.
We have to remember that this is the same prosecutor that rejected an attempt to try Posada Carriles as a criminal, and this is the same judge that included in the conditions of his release a special point that while Rene is under supervised release that," the accused is prohibited from associating with or visiting specific places where individuals or groups such as terrorists are known to be or frequent"
By writing this Judge Lenard made the shameful recognition that terrorists groups do exist and enjoy impunity in Miami. Furthermore she is offering them protection from Rene from bothering or denouncing them upon his release.
It was not enough for the US government to make Rene fulfill the complete sentence to the last day; It was not enough to try and blackmail his family by telling them he would not go to trial if he collaborated against his 4 brothers; it was not enough to pressure Rene with what could happen to his family if he did not cooperate with the government, including the detention and deportation of his wife Olga Salanueva; and it was not enough to deny Olga visas to visit her husband repeatedly all these years.
Why does the US government want to continue punishing RenƩ and his family?
The prejudice of the Miami community against the Five was denounced by three judges of the Eleventh Circuit of the Atlanta Court of Appeals on August 27, 2005, where it was recognized who the terrorists were, what organizations they belonged to and where they reside. To mandate that Rene Gonzalez stay another 3 years of supervised "freedom" in Florida, where a nest of international terrorists reside and who publicly make their hatred of Cuba and the Cuban 5 known, is to put the life of Rene in serious risk.
Today we are making a call to friends from all over the world to denounce this new punishment and to demand the US government allow RenƩ Gonzalez to return to Cuba to reunite with his wife and his family as soon as he get out of prison.
Contact now President Barack Obama and US Attorney General Eric Holder demanding the immediate return of RenƩ Gonzalez to his homeland and his family
TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE WHITE HOUSE
Write a letter to President Obama
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20500
EE.UU.
Make a phone call and leave a message for President Barack Obama: 202-456-1111
Send an e-mail message to President Barack Obama
HTTP://WWW.WHITEHOUSE.GOV/CONTACT
TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Write a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder
US Attorney General Eric Holder
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Make a phone call and leave a message for US Attorney General Eric Holder: 202-514-2000
Or call the public commentary line: 202-353-1555
Send an e-mail message to US Attorney General Eric Holder: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5
International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5
To learn more about the Cuban 5 visit:
www.thecuban5.org
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Say No to Police Repression of NATO/G8 Protests
http://www.stopfbi.net/get-involved/nato-g8-police-repression
The CSFR Signs Letter to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel
The CSFR is working with the United National Antiwar Committee and many other anti-war groups to organize mass rallies and protests on May 15 and May 19, 2012. We will protest the powerful and wealthy war-makers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Group of 8. Mobilize your groups, unions, and houses of worship. Bring your children, friends, and community. Demand jobs, healthcare, housing and education, not war!
Office of the Mayor
City of Chicago
To: Mayor Rahm Emanuel
We, the undersigned, demand that your administration grant us permits for protests on May 15 and 19, 2012, including appropriate rally gathering locations and march routes to the venue for the NATO/G8 summit taking place that week. We come to you because your administration has already spoken to us through Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. He has threatened mass arrests and violence against protestors.
[Read the full text of the letter here: http://www.stopfbi.net/get-involved/nato-g8-police-repression/full-text]
For the 10s of thousands of people from Chicago, around the country and across the world who will gather here to protest against NATO and the G8, we demand that the City of Chicago:
1. Grant us permits to rally and march to the NATO/G8 summit
2. Guarantee our civil liberties
3. Guarantee us there will be no spying, infiltration of organizations or other attacks by the FBI or partner law enforcement agencies.
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Supporter of Leak Suspect Is Called Before Grand Jury
By SCOTT SHANE
June 15, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/us/politics/16brfs-Washington.html?ref=world
A supporter of Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, who is accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of documents to WikiLeaks, was called before a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., on Wednesday, but he said he declined to answer any questions. The supporter, David M. House, a freelance computer scientist, said he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, because he believes the Justice Department is "creating a climate of fear around WikiLeaks and the Bradley Manning support network." The grand jury inquiry is separate from the military prosecution of Private Manning and is believed to be exploring whether the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, or others in the group violated the law by acquiring and publishing military and State Department documents.
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Justice for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace: Decades of isolation in Louisiana state prisons must end
Take Action -- Sign Petition Here:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/justice-for-albert-woodfox-and-herman-wallace
For nearly four decades, 64-year-old Albert Woodfox and 69-year-old Herman Wallace have been held in solitary confinement, mostly in the Louisiana State Penitentiary (known as Angola prison). Throughout their prolonged incarceration in Closed Cell Restriction (CCR) Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace have endured very restrictive conditions including 23 hour cellular confinement. They have limited access to books, newspapers and TV and throughout the years of imprisonment they have been deprived of opportunities for mental stimulation and access to work and education. Social interaction has been restricted to occasional visits from friends and family and limited telephone calls.
Louisiana prison authorities have over the course of 39 years failed to provide a meaningful review of the men's continued isolation as they continue to rubberstamp the original decision to confine the men in CCR. Decades of solitary confinement have had a clear psychological effect on the men. Lawyers report that they are both suffering from serious health problems caused or exacerbated by their years of close confinement.
After being held together in the same prison for nearly 40 years, the men are now held in seperate institutions where they continue to be subjected to conditions that can only be described as cruel, inhuman and degrading.
Take action now to demand that Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace be immediately removed from solitary confinement
Sign our petition which will be sent to the Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, calling on him to:
-- take immediate steps to remove Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace from close confinement
-- ensure that their treatment complies with the USA's obligations under international standards and the US Constitution.
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WITNESS GAZA
http://www.witnessgaza.com/
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One year after Bradley's detainment, we need your support more than ever.
Dear Friends,
One year ago, on May 26, 2010, the U.S. government quietly arrested a humble young American intelligence analyst in Iraq and imprisoned him in a military camp in Kuwait. Over the coming weeks, the facts of the arrest and charges against this shy soldier would come to light. And across the world, people like you and I would step forward to help defend him.
Bradley Manning, now 23 years old, has never been to court but has already served a year in prison- including 10 months in conditions of confinement that were clear violation of the international conventions against torture. Bradley has been informally charged with releasing to the world documents that have revealed corruption by world leaders, widespread civilian deaths at the hands of U.S. forces, the true face of Guantanamo, an unvarnished view of the U.S.'s imperialistic foreign negotiations, and the murder of two employees of Reuters News Agency by American soldiers. These documents released by WikiLeaks have spurred democratic revolutions across the Arab world and have changed the face of journalism forever.
For his act of courage, Bradley Manning now faces life in prison-or even death.
But you can help save him-and we've already seen our collective power. Working together with concerned citizens around the world, the Bradley Manning Support Network has helped raise worldwide awareness about Manning's torturous confinement conditions. Through the collective actions of well over a half million people and scores of organizations, we successfully pressured the U.S. government to end the tortuous conditions of pre-trial confinement that Bradley was subjected to at the Marine Base at Quantico, Virginia. Today, Bradley is being treated humanely at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. T hanks to your support, Bradley is given leeway to interact with other pre-trial prisoners, read books, write letters, and even has a window in his cell.
Of course we didn't mount this campaign to just improve Bradley's conditions in jail. Our goal is to ensure that he can receive a fair and open trial. Our goal is to win Bradley's freedom so that he can be reunited with his family and fulfill his dream of going to college. Today, to commemorate Bradley's one year anniversary in prison, will you join me in making a donation to help support Bradley's defense?
http://bradleymanning.org/donate
We'll be facing incredible challenges in the coming months, and your tax-deductible donation today will help pay for Bradley's civilian legal counsel and the growing international grassroots campaign on his behalf. The U.S. government has already spent a year building its case against Bradley, and is now calling its witnesses to Virginia to testify before a grand jury.
What happens to Bradley may ripple through history - he is already considered by many to be the single most important person of his generation. Please show your commitment to Bradley and your support for whistle-blowers and the truth by making a donation today.
With your help, I hope we will come to remember May 26th as a day to commemorate all those who risk their lives and freedom to promote informed democracy - and as the birth of a movement that successfully defended one courageous whistle-blower against the full fury of the U.S. government.
Donate now: bradleymanning.org/donate
In solidarity,
Jeff Paterson and Loraine Reitman,
On behalf of the Bradley Manning Support Network Steering Committee
www.bradleymanning.org
P.S. After you have donated, please help us by forwarding this email to your closest friends. Ask them to stand with you to support Bradley Manning, and the rights of all whistleblowers.
View the new 90 second "I am Bradley Manning" video:
I am Bradley Manning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-P3OXML00s
Courage to Resist
484 Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland, CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org
"A Fort Leavenworth mailing address has been released for Bradley Manning:
Bradley Manning 89289
830 Sabalu Road
Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027
The receptionist at the military barracks confirmed that if someone sends Bradley Manning a letter to that address, it will be delivered to him."
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/update-42811
This is also a Facebook event
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=207100509321891#!/event.php?eid=207100509321891
Courage to Resist needs your support
Please donate today:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
"Soldiers sworn oath is to defend and support the Constitution. Bradley Manning has been defending and supporting our Constitution."
-Dan Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistle-blower
Jeff Paterson
Project Director, Courage to Resist
First US military service member to refuse to ļ¬ght in Iraq
Please donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
P.S. I'm asking that you consider a contribution of $50 or more, or possibly becoming a sustainer at $15 a month. Of course, now is also a perfect time to make a end of year tax-deductible donation. Thanks again for your support!
Please click here to forward this to a friend who might
also be interested in supporting GI resisters.
http://ymlp.com/forward.php?id=lS3tR&e=bonnieweinstein@yahoo.com
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Drop the Charges Against Carlos Montes, Stop the FBI Attack on the Chicano and Immigrant Rights Movement, and Stop FBI Repression of Anti-War Activists NOW!Call Off the Expanding Grand Jury Witchhunt and FBI Repression of Anti-War Activists NOW!
Cancel the Subpoenas! Cancel the Grand Juries!
Condemn the FBI Raids and Harassment of Chicano, Immigrant Rights, Anti-War and International Solidarity Activists!
STOP THE FBI CAMPAIGN OF REPRESSION AGAINST CHICANO, IMMIGRANT RIGHTS, ANTI-WAR AND INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY ACTIVISTS NOW!
Initiated by the Committee to Stop FBI Repression stopfbi.net stopfbi@gmail.com
http://iacenter.org/stopfbi/
Contact the Committee to Stop FBI Repression
at stopfbi.net
stopfbi@gmail.com
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
NATIONAL CALL-IN DAY -- ANY DAY
to Fitzgerald, Holder and Obama
The Grand Jury is still on its witch hunt and the FBI is still
harassing activists. This must stop.
Please make these calls:
1. Call U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald at 312-353-5300 . Then dial 0
(zero) for operator and ask to leave a message with the Duty Clerk.
2. Call U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder 202-353-1555
3. Call President Obama at 202-456-1111
FFI: Visit www.StopFBI.net or email info@StopFBI.net or call
612-379-3585 .
Copyright (c) 2011 Committee to Stop FBI Repression, All rights
reserved.
Our mailing address is:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
PO Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55415
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
P.O. Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414
Please make a donation today at stopfbi.net (PayPal) on the right side of your screen. Also you can write to:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
P.O. Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414
This is a critical time for us to stand together, defend free speech, and defend those who help to organize for peace and justice, both at home and abroad!
Thank you for your generosity! Tom Burke
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Mumia Wins Decision Against Re-Imposition Of Death Sentence, But...
The Battle Is Still On To
FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610
www.laboractionmumia.org
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Call for EMERGENCY RESPONSE Action if Assange Indicted,
Dear Friends:
We write in haste, trying to reach as many of you as possible although the holiday break has begun.......This plan for an urgent "The Day After" demonstration is one we hope you and many, many more organizations will take up as your own, and mobilize for. World Can't Wait asks you to do all you can to spread it through list serves, Facebook, twitter, holiday gatherings.
Our proposal is very very simple, and you can use the following announcement to mobilize - or write your own....
ANY DAY NOW . . . IN THE EVENT THAT THE U.S. INDICTS JULIAN ASSANGE
An emergency public demonstration THE DAY AFTER any U.S. criminal indictment is announced against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Spread the word and call people to come out, across the whole range of movements and groups: anti-war, human rights, freedom of information/freedom of the press, peace, anti-torture, environmental, students and youth, radicals and revolutionaries, religious, civil liberties, teachers and educators, journalists, anti-imperialists, anti-censorship, anti-police state......
At the Federal Building in San Francisco, we'll form ourselves into a human chain "surrounding" the government that meets the Wikileaked truth with repression and wants to imprison and silence leakers, whistleblowers and truthtellers - when, in fact, these people are heroes. We'll say:
HANDS OFF WIKILEAKS! FREE JULIAN ASSANGE! FREE BRADLEY MANNING!
Join the HUMAN CHAIN AROUND THE FEDERAL BUILDING!
New Federal Building, 7th and Mission, San Francisco (nearest BART: Civic Center)
4:00-6:00 PM on The Day FOLLOWING U.S. indictment of Assange
Bring all your friends - signs and banners - bullhorns.
Those who dare at great risk to themselves to put the truth in the hands of the people - and others who might at this moment be thinking about doing more of this themselves -- need to see how much they are supported, and that despite harsh repression from the government and total spin by the mainstream media, the people do want the truth told.
Brad Manning's Christmas Eve statement was just released by his lawyer: "Pvt. Bradley Manning, the lone soldier who stands accused of stealing millions of pages secret US government documents and handing them over to secrets outlet WikiLeaks, wants his supporters to know that they've meant a lot to him. 'I greatly appreciate everyone's support and well wishes during this time,' he said in a Christmas Eve statement released by his lawyer...." Read more here:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/mannings-message-christmas-eve-i-gr/
Demonstrations defending Wikileaks and Assange, and Brad Manning, have already been flowering around the world. Make it happen here too.
Especially here . . .
To join into this action plan, or with questions, contact World Can't Wait or whichever organization or listserve you received this message from.
World Can't Wait, SF Bay
415-864-5153
sf@worldcantwait.org
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DEFEND LYNNE STEWART!
http://lynnestewart.org/
Write to Lynne Stewart at:
Lynne Stewart #53504 - 054
Unit 2N
Federal Medical Center, Carswell
P.O. Box 27137
Fort Worth, TEXAS 76127
Visiting Lynne:
Visiting is very liberal but first she has to get people on her visiting list; wait til she or the lawyers let you know. The visits are FRI, SAT, SUN AND MON for 4 hours and on weekends 8 to 3. Bring clear plastic change purse with lots of change to buy from the machines. Brief Kiss upon arrival and departure, no touching or holding during visit (!!) On visiting forms it may be required that you knew me before I came to prison. Not a problem for most of you.
Commissary Money:
Commissary Money is always welcome It is how Lynne pay for the phone and for email. Also for a lot that prison doesn't supply in terms of food and "sundries" (pens!) (A very big list that includes Raisins, Salad Dressing, ankle sox, mozzarella (definitely not from Antonys--more like a white cheddar, Sanitas Corn Chips but no Salsa, etc. To add money, you do this by using Western Union and a credit card by phone or you can send a USPO money order or Business or Govt Check. The negotiable instruments (PAPER!) need to be sent to Federal Bureau of Prisons, 53504-054, Lynne Stewart, PO Box 474701, Des Moines Iowa 50947-001 (Payable to Lynne Stewart, 53504-054) They hold the mo or checks for 15 days. Western Union costs $10 but is within 2 hours. If you mail, your return address must be on the envelope. Unnecessarily complicated? Of course, it's the BOP !)
The address of her Defense Committee is:
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
1070 Dean Street
Brooklyn, New York 11216
For further information:
718-789-0558 or 917-853-9759
Please make a generous contribution to her defense.
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KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT! FREE KEVIN COOPER!
Reasonable doubts about executing Kevin Cooper
Chronicle Editorial
Monday, December 13, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/13/EDG81GP0I7.DTL
Death penalty -- Kevin Cooper is Innocent! Help save his life from San Quentin's death row!
http://www.savekevincooper.org/
http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/essays_content.html?ID=255
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
17 December 2010
Click here to take action online:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=15084
To learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa25910.pdf
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Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
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D. ARTICLES IN FULL (Unless otherwise noted)
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1) Oakland Occupy Takes New Site...
By Chris Kinder
November 20, 2011
Via Email
2) UC Davis Police Violence Adds Fuel to Fire
By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News
19 November 11
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/275-42/8485-uc-davis-police-violence-adds-fuel-to-fire
UC Davis Protestors Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4&feature=player_embedded
Police PEPPER SPRAY UC Davis STUDENT PROTESTERS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuWEx6Cfn-I&feature=player_embedded
Police pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmJmmnMkuEM&feature=player_embedded
3) Officers Put on Leave After Pepper Spraying Protesters
By BRIAN STELTER
November 20, 2011, 2:58 pm
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/officers-put-on-leave-after-pepper-spraying-protesters/?scp=1&sq=Officers%20Put%20On%20Leave%20After%20Pepper&st=cse
UC Davis Chancellor Katehi walks to her car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CZ0t9ez_EGI#!
4) OWS/Occupy Oakland: More comments from Chris Kinder and others:
November 21, 2011
VIA Email
5) Egypt Clashes Enter 3rd Day as Military Faces Pressure
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and LIAM STACK
November 21, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/world/middleeast/facing-calls-to-give-up-power-egypts-military-battles-crowds.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1321894936-+j+V17jF4Ktp5j+2J/XVcQ
6) Protest Puts Coverage in Spotlight
By BRIAN STELTER
November 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/business/media/occupy-wall-street-puts-the-coverage-in-the-spotlight.html?hp
7) Drugs Used for Psychotics Go to Youths in Foster Care
By BENEDICT CAREY
November 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/health/research/study-finds-foster-children-often-given-antipsychosis-drugs.html?ref=us
8) A Country of Inmates
"With just a little more than 4 percent of the world's population, the United States accounts for a quarter of the planet's prisoners and has more inmates than the leading 35 European countries combined. ... More than 60 percent of the United States' prisoners are black or Hispanic, though these groups comprise less than 30 percent of the population. ... Today, there are 140,000 convicts in California's state prisons, who cost about $50,000 each per year. The state pays more on prisons than it does on higher education."
By ALBERT R. HUNT | BLOOMBERG NEWS
November 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/us/21iht-letter21.html?ref=us
9) Protesters Arrested at Bank-Account Closing Will Sue City
By COLIN MOYNIHAN
November 21, 2011, 11:50 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/protesters-arrested-at-bank-account-closing-will-sue-city/?ref=nyregion
Close Your Bank Account and Get Arrested!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXArH_TywFA&feature=player_embedded
New Video From Inside the Citibank Incident w NYPD Arrests Occupy Wallstreet 10_15_2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXArH_TywFA&feature=player_embedded
10) Loudly Protesting Park Eviction, if Not Outside Mayor's Window as Planned
By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN and COLIN MOYNIHAN
November 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/nyregion/plans-of-drum-protest-at-michael-bloombergs-home-are-dashed.html?ref=nyregion
11) For the Rich, Cargo Vans on Steroids
By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY
November 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/nyregion/rich-new-yorkers-are-driving-custom-designed-cargo-vans.html?ref=nyregion
12) Taking First-Class Coddling Above and Beyond
"The gap between first class and coach has never been so wide."
By JAD MOUAWAD
November 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/business/taking-first-class-coddling-above-and-beyond.html?ref=business
13) We Are the One Per Cent
Average wealth of the top 1 percent was almost $14 million in 2009, according to a 2011 report from the Economic Policy Institute.
-Washingtonpost.com.
"Shit is fucked up and bullshit."
-Sign seen at the Occupy Wall Street protest in lower Manhattan.
by John Kenney
November 28, 2011
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2011/11/28/111128sh_shouts_kenney?printable=true
14) Egypt Military Pledges Faster Handover to Civilian Rule
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and ALAN COWELL
November 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/world/middleeast/egypts-cabinet-offers-to-quit-as-activists-urge-wider-protests.html?_r=1&hp
15) As Layoffs Rise, Stock Buybacks Consume Cash
"The principle behind buybacks is simple. With fewer shares in circulation, earnings per share can rise smartly even if the company's underlying growth is lackluster. In many cases, like that of the medical device maker Zimmer Holdings, executives are able to meet goals for profit growth and earn bigger bonuses despite poor stock performance. ...In addition, executives, who are often large shareholders, stand to benefit from even a small, short-term jump in stock prices.
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ
November 21, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/business/rash-to-some-stock-buybacks-are-on-the-rise.html?hp
16) Kansas Abortion Prosecution Loses Some Steam, but Fire Is Still Hot
By A. G. SULZBERGER
November 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/us/kansas-abortion-prosecution-loses-some-steam-but-fire-is-still-hot.html?ref=us
17) California's Campus Movements Dig In Their Heels
By JENNIFER MEDINA
November 21, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/us/police-officers-involved-in-pepper-spraying-placed-on-leave.html?ref=us
18) Hearing Set in Leak Case
By SCOTT SHANE
November 21, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/us/hearing-set-in-leak-case.html?ref=us
19) After an Eviction, Digging Through a Surplus of Donations
By MATT FLEGENHEIMER
November 22, 2011
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/ows-storage/?ref=nyregion
20) News Organizations Complain About Treatment During Protests
By BRIAN STELTER
November 21, 2011, 7:25 pm
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/news-organizations-complain-about-treatment-during-protests/
21) UC Davis English Department Calls for Disbanding UCPD
Monday, November 21, 2011
http://reclaimuc.blogspot.com/2011/11/uc-davis-english-department-recommends.html
22) Radioactive cesium blankets 8% of Japan's land area
By HIROSHI ISHIZUKA / Staff Writer
November 21, 2011
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201111210014
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1) Oakland Occupy Takes New Site...
By Chris Kinder
November 20, 2011
Via Email
OAKLAND, late night, Saturday 19 November 2011 -- It seemed so easy, maybe too easy. Oakland Occupy protestors marched to a new site at 19th and Telegraph, tore down a fence and began setting up tents for a new encampment tonight. Police quickly melted away as the fence came down, leaving the occupiers to rock away to hip hop blasted from a sound truck, as they settled in for the night despite a cold snap and a maddening drizzle.
Earlier on this same day at UC Davis, police brutally and repeatedly pepper-sprayed non-resisting protestors in an action captured on mainstream TV. Even the Chancellor of the university was forced to demand an "investigation." And we say to the Chancellor: Resign Now!
Flyers handed out at the rally and march announced the next big action, a shutdown of the Port of Oakland, set for December 12th, 2011, in solidarity with longshore workers in Longview, WA. Longshore workers there face a union-bsting drive by a huge conglomerate grain exporter called EGT. The Oakland Occupy, which has already experienced the solidarity of longshore workers, is committed to the kind of support that was shown on November 2nd, when Middle Harbor Road was filled with 30,000 or more to shut down the port on the day of the "general strike."
Today's Scene In Oakland Seemed Almost Bizarre...
The scene in Oakland seemed almost bizarre as we marched up Telegraph Avenue, perhaps 5,000 strong, and arrived at the city-owned vacant lot (with a small city park at one end) which was the new target of the occupiers. As we approached, there were maybe 50 cops or so surrounding this large, fenced-in lot. They were standing a few feet apart like sentries, in regular uniforms, not riot gear, and facing this huge crowd. What were they thinking?
The march wrapped around the park like a snake closing in on its prey, and then the fence started to come down, first at one spot, and then another, the latter right in front of me. I looked up and noticed the cops had disappeared. Soon, the lot was filled with dancing, celebrating occupiers. Then, just across the street, there were the cops, huddling in doorways, trying to stay out of the rain.
Only this morning, Mayor Jean Quan had issued a statement in which she said in no uncertain terms that, "...overnight lodging in any park or other public space will not be allowed." News reports indicated that the police had a plan to prevent any new occupy. But then tonight, news reports said that "city administrators" had instructed the police to avoid confrontations with protestors! Hello?
OK, so I went and figured. Jean Quan is trying to have it both ways, siding with the left, which she once was a part of, and doing her job as mayor of a city, which requires that she crackdown on leftists. This can go on only so long. We'll expect a new attack on Quan from the right, and a new attack on the Oakland Occupy encampment, sometime this coming week.
The Occupies... How Long Can They Last?
As for the occupies? They can go on for only so long as well. How long can a movement that has no power to physically defy the capitalist state power continue trying to reestablish the commons of olde? Attacks on the local occupies are coordinated all the way up to Obama's Justice Department. The occupy movement has got to move forward if it is to survive.
One way to move forward is to go into mass anti-eviction defense, and mass anti-foreclosure defense: put families back in their homes now, with mass action! If the sheriff's department comes to throw the tenants or homeowners out, mobilize again to put them back in! This is the pattern established in the great Depression of the 1930s by young communists. This Occupy movement today has the Ć©lan and the numbers to replicate this. But does it have the will, and the organization? That remains to be seen.
The march today was spectacular. From 14th and Broadway at 3 PM, down to Grand Avenue next to the Grand Lake Theater and the Lakeshore Elementary School, we marched, in the streets the whole way, 5,000 + strong. The march stopped opposite Lakeshore Elementary, which is one of the schools slated to by shut down at the end of this year. We held a teacher & parent-led rally for 40 minutes. Students held a "musical chairs" skit, in which schools slated to be cancelled were removed one by one, when the music stopped. Following this, we marched back to downtown, and on to the new Occupy at 19th and Telegraph.
The "music" is stopping now as the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) bureaucracy caves in to the demands of debts to the big banks. The OUSD board twiddled their thumbs and consulted their watches as hundreds of teachers, students and community members testified against school closures, in a recent hearing.
The great spirit of marches such as today's can't last, unfortunately. The movement needs to transform into a revolutionary struggle with a program to overthrow capitalism. This will involve demands such as: Free public education for all! Free Health Care for All! End the Imperialist Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan! Jobs For Alll with a Shorter Workweek At No Loss In Pay! Expropriate the Banks and Financial Institutions! No Compensation! How to accomplish this? This is an ongoing discussion.
-- Comradely greetings, Chris K
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2) UC Davis Police Violence Adds Fuel to Fire
By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News
19 November 11
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/275-42/8485-uc-davis-police-violence-adds-fuel-to-fire
UC Davis Protestors Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4&feature=player_embedded
Police PEPPER SPRAY UC Davis STUDENT PROTESTERS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuWEx6Cfn-I&feature=player_embedded
Police pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmJmmnMkuEM&feature=player_embedded
In response to the crackdown on Occupy Wall Street and the pepper-spraying of an 89-year-old woman in Seattle I wrote, "Fanning the Flames of the Revolution." Quite simply, I argued that each violent crackdown by the police against non-violent protesters does little more than "fan the flames" of Occupy protests and, in many cases, adds fuel to the fire of the Occupy movement.
It happened again on Friday afternoon.
This time the scene of the crime was the University of California, Davis. Police once again sprayed fuel on the fire in the form of pepper spray, and lots of it. The target? Students sitting peacefully with arms interlocked on the University's quad. Some were positioned across a pedestrian walkway. It is wide enough for small utility vehicles, but is clearly not a roadway open to traffic.
The students had gathered around an area that had earlier housed their tents. What an ominous threat to the community! Beware of students protesting in the quad instead of throwing a kegger party in a dorm!
The police had already removed the tents. All that remained of Occupy Davis was a banner hanging from a tree that read "Save Public Education." How dare they call for such a radical agenda on a campus in the California University system? The students sitting across the campus walkway chanted the subversive line: "Don't shoot students." How is this a threat to riot-clad police?
Perhaps the really subversive, supposedly "threatening," act was in the simple interlocking of their arms.
Last week The San Francisco Chronicle quoted UC Berkley Police Capt. Margo Bennett:
"The individuals who linked arms and actively resisted, that in itself is an act of violence. I understand that many students may not think that, but linking arms in a human chain when ordered to step aside is not a nonviolent protest."
In fact, Captain Bennett thought that it was okay to use batons to push back the Berkeley crowd, so we shouldn't be surprised that the UC Davis police took it one step further and used pepper-spray to pry apart those threatening arms.
In Berkeley and in Davis, the goal was to break up Occupy encampments. In Berkeley, the police were trying to get to tents. In Davis, the tents were already gone. In both cases one wonders what exactly is so threatening about students camping on the quad? What is so "violent" about sitting with arms joined together?
Wait ... they might just learn something! But it's a lesson plan not approved by the Board of Regents.
Apparently, it would be better to force them back into their frat houses and sorority houses so they can get drunk before returning to their corporate-funded classrooms on Monday morning. We can't have them learning about the effects of corporate greed all weekend, out in the open air of the campus commons. That must be why they moved in at 5pm on a Friday afternoon. What would the town pubs do if the students were camping on the quad instead of doing shots 'til they passed out?
All kidding aside, the scary thing is some of my sarcasm is probably not far from the truth. But the real effect of Friday's police action at UC Davis is that this coming Monday at noon the students will be back, likely in much larger numbers. The pepper-spray fired by the police on Friday further fanned the flames of the revolution. When will they learn the relationship between cause and effect?
Watch the end of this video if you have any doubts about the outcome.
Scott Galindez is the Political Director of Reader Supported News, and the co-founder of Truthout.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
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3) Officers Put on Leave After Pepper Spraying Protesters
By BRIAN STELTER
November 20, 2011, 2:58 pm
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/officers-put-on-leave-after-pepper-spraying-protesters/?scp=1&sq=Officers%20Put%20On%20Leave%20After%20Pepper&st=cse
UC Davis Chancellor Katehi walks to her car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CZ0t9ez_EGI#!
The University of California, Davis, said on Sunday that two police officers had been placed on administrative leave after using pepper spray on seated protesters in a widely recorded encounter on Friday afternoon.
Reflecting widespread anger over the police behavior, the university chancellor, Linda P.B. Katehi, said Sunday that she would insist that the investigation be completed in 30 days. A day earlier, she had said it would take 90 days.
Meanwhile, students and others affiliated with the Occupy U.C. Davis movement planned for a Monday-afternoon protest on campus. AFacebook page for the protest asked attendees to call for Ms. Katehi's resignation and to "show solidarity and support to the students who were beaten and sprayed by U.C. Davis police in riot gear."
The Facebook page also promoted a way for sympathizers to donate tents and pizza for the rally. The Amazon.com page set up for donations indicated that more than 70 tents had already been donated by Sunday morning.
The use of pepper spray came after students and other protesters set up tents on campus, an occupation tactic that has been used in cities and towns across the country. As police officers took down the tents, some protesters linked arms and refused to stand up from a sidewalk on the campus quad, even when police officers tried to pick them up to arrest them.
In one of the many YouTube videos of the spraying, bystanders chant, "Don't shoot students" before an officer shakes a red pepper spray canister and sprays a line of the protesters with orange-tinted pepper spray. The protesters' faces and clothes are quickly covered in the pepper spray. Some protesters are heard screaming and crying as they are arrested. One bystander is heard screaming: "These are children. These are children."
Eleven protesters were treated after being pepper-sprayed. Two were sent to the hospital. Ten protesters were arrested, cited and released on misdemeanor charges of unlawful assembly and failure to disperse, according to the university.
After the episode, a police official suggested that the police officers felt threatened and encircled by the protesters. The videos, however, do not show evidence of threats.
The University said Sunday in a statement that two police officers had been "suspended," but the university later clarified that the officers had been placed on administrative leave with pay pending the investigation, a common procedure in cases like this one.
The university did not identify the two officers, but they were well known to students on the campus. The home and cellphone numbers for one officer was widely distributed on the Web, and that officer's voicemail box was full by midday Saturday.
The university said that it had been flooded with comments, as well.
Reached by telephone on Sunday, Mitchel Benson, the associate vice chancellor for university communications, said, "We've been inundated with people sending messages." He added, "It literally brought down our servers."
In her statement on Sunday, Ms. Katehi said: "I spoke with students this weekend, and I feel their outrage. I have also heard from an overwhelming number of students, faculty, staff and alumni from around the country. I am deeply saddened that this happened on our campus, and as chancellor, I take full responsibility for the incident. However, I pledge to take the actions needed to ensure that this does not happen again."
She also said: "These past few days our campus has been confronted with serious questions, which will challenge us for many months and years to come. We have created great universities which are challenged in their capacity to accommodate our human needs of expression, anger, frustration and even civil disobedience together with the need to feel safe. We need to find a way to change that while at the same time remaining true to our mission of teaching, research and service. We need to think hard and together on how to accomplish this."
Ms. Katehi held a news conference on Saturday afternoon where she resisted calls for her resignation. Students and other protesters gathered outside the news conference location, and for a time afterward she did not come out of the building. The protesters decided to clear a pathway for her to exit; they sat down and watched in silence as she walked to her car.
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4) OWS/Occupy Oakland: More comments from Chris Kinder and others:
November 21, 2011
VIA Email
Dear All,
Unfortunately, the new Oakland Occupy is already gone, as you no doubt know from the news/internet. It was closed down with no arrests, no reports of injuries and no outside cops, because the participants wanted to save their tents and other stuff and clear out without getting arrested.
To deal with Mitchel's questions first, the site was 5 blocks north of downtown, and located amidst some upscale condos, and not near a lot of businesses. Many of the condo neighbors were against the occupation, while voicing support for the general goals of OWS. You know the drill: "We like what they stand for, but we don't like their tactics."
As to why was the site fenced off? It was owned by the City's Oakland Redevelopment Agency. So it was a public/private thing, you know sort of like Zuccoti Park (except it was a lot, not a park). Maybe it was slated to be sold to a developer. Jean Quan said it was city "development" land. I don't think it was toxic, as it was a residential not industrial area, but I don't know for sure. It was a totally flat, almost grassless expanse of vacant land (the small park at one end was separate). So, why was it fenced off? I guess because it was, on somebody's part, at some level, some version of ..."mine, mine, mine."
Why did the cops let the people trash the fence and go in? Because there were thousands (not just hundreds as the news reported) of people there all around the park, and the cops were relatively few in number. The cops had orders not to create a confrontation, and so they were not in riot gear. I think an order to these cops at that time to stop the protestors from entering the lot, had it come, could have been met with a mutiny. But at 7 AM the next morning? New situation. Cops were in riot gear, and occupiers were few in number. And so it goes.
And to Meg,
I'm glad to hear that students are questioning property, and the rule thereof, as a result of Occupy Wall Street. I think OWS has changed the conversation, and it is educating people about capitalism. It has banished "apathy" and fired up resistance. It's a game-changer in terms of the culture, and intellectual history.
And I know my comment about the inability of the movement to "reestablish the commons of olde," was a bit flip. It was late, and I was trying to do an instant report on events.
I think the whole point about the commons is actually very important and relevant. Capitalism came in by seizing the common lands of poor people in mainly agricultural societies, and capitalism is going out in its last stages by ... (in part) seizing the lands of poor people in mainly agricultural areas. The methods are different--"free trade" laws, GMO crops, etc--but the effect is the same.
Furthermore, the commons is really very fundamental to human evolution, and what's fundamental to human evolution is fundamental today. Homo Sapiens evolved as a group, a "commons." We ate together, slept together, healed each other, developed language together, developed art together, gathered together, hunted together, planted together, educated each other and generally took care of each other. Although we also fought with each other, for a hundred thousand years and more, we survived in groups.
How does this translate today? Housing, health care, nutritional food, useful jobs, cultural life and education are all human rights. That's the real commons. ALL these things are denied and destroyed by the capitalist system.
The fifteenth-sixteenth century common lands are gone; now we have capitalism, and capitalism is the enemy which must be overthrown. But the principle that humans survive as a group, and now need to unite as a world-wide group, lives on. The commons can only be reestablished by revolution: the working people need to establish a "commons" of the world. The species is one, and so must be the society.
About the occupies. Like the Tahrir Square occupations last February, and like the Tahrir Square events today, this sort of protest is only the beginning. Egyptians are finding that when they overthrew Mubarak, they didn't complete their revolution. In fact, as most of the people knew, the military was the real government all along, from Nasser, trough Sadat and Mubarak. Now, they are in the square and in the streets again.
And so we must see that this occupy movement, electrifying as it has been to the world, is just a beginning. It has raised consciousness about capitalism, and it has mobilized thousands. But it's like a shark: keep moving--and fast--or die. This movement must evolve. It must morph into something that's not just about tents in a park. It must develop a revolutionary theory and practice.
Of course this is not a "communist" movement... yet. If anything, it's anarchist. I'm sure you will appreciate the following story. A march through Oakland that I participated in was led by young anarchists, each carrying placards representing revolutionary books. It was the "wall of books." This was just before the take-down of the first encampment at Oscar Grant (Frank Ogawa) Plaza. The books on the placards included Franz Fanon's Wretched of the Earth, Alex Haley's Roots, and Silvia Federichi's Caliban and the Witch.
The anarchists (like the communists) are comprised of a hundred flowers, not all of which are blooming. Some are too pacifist, and some are provocateurs. This movement must confront the ideas of revolution. It must study politics.
So far, direct action, combined with resistance to co-optation, has kept the movement together, and kept it "honest." But in order to move forward, that's not enough. It must find its place in revolutionary history. It must find its place in the struggle not just to expose capitalism, not just to try to reform capitalism (impossible), but to overthrow capitalism.
Love and revolution, Chris K
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froim Meg Feeley:
Chris Kinder asked:
"How long can a movement that has no power to physically defy the capitalist state power continue trying to reestablish the commons of olde?"
I want to note here that, from the demand, "Whose streets? Our Streets?" to re-vivifying the commons issue (with, notably, far less than 'tragic' results) Occupiers have changed the conversation. In my community college composition classrooms (3 of them this semester), by far, the place the conversation starts is: "Privately owned public space." Students want to know what that 'means'; why developers enter into deals with the City to cede land to the use of the public. The most common rejoinder is "They are not paying rent." The conversation centers on the very idea of property. Does it exist? If not, much of the power of rule-making diminishes, paving the way for a different understanding of power. This has been what we've been talking about in my classrooms, with a decided interest among students. So I would submit that holding out the commonplace of property --public, private and otherwise -- to public view and discourse is quite a valuable contribution.
On 11/17, for two hours, about a thousand Kingsborough Community College students gathered in a litte-used large space to hear fellow students (and some visitors from OWS) discuss the Occupation. Admittedly, many students were asked to attend by the faculty, and many left midway to make it to a class. The event was planned for that eventuality, and what is important to me is the attention and participation that was given by students who attended. It was organized by a political science club and a number of faculty supporters. Much of it centered on explaining the notion of participatory democracy and consensus. One prof explained how OWS is NOT communist (to which the most vocalized responses were, "who cares what they call it -- if it works better than what we've got, great!" Students from neighboring Goldstein High School came to invite KCC students to join them in an upcoming walkout.
Meg Feeley
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Great report, Chris. Thanks. Felt like I was there-- liked hearing your thoughts and reflections.
Cathryn.
Cathryn Swan cathrynbe@earthlink.net to me, Submission, Greens
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from Michel --
Thanks for this report, Chris.
Several things:
1) Is the new site as centrally located to important businesses as the old one?
2) Why was it fenced off? Are there toxic or hazardous wastes or other conditions at that site?
3) Why did the police sort of allow the people to claim that site? Were any of the "leaders" intentionally leading folks there in a behind-the-scenes agreement with the Mayor?
4) You wrote: "One way to move forward is to go into mass anti-eviction defense, and mass anti-foreclosure defense: put families back in their homes now, with mass action! If the sheriff's department comes to throw the tenants or homeowners out, mobilize again to put them back in!"
In NYC, OWS will began reclaiming and opening up evicted properties on December 6, I believe. (This was part of my proposal a month ago.) There is no contradiction between Occupation of a public space and taking other actions. In fact, the liberated zone serves as an important base enabling the taking of other actions.
Thanx again!
Mitchel
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Oakland Occupy Takes New Site...
OAKLAND, late night, Saturday 19 November 2011 -- It seemed so easy, maybe too easy. Oakland Occupy protestors marched to a new site at 19th and Telegraph, tore down a fence and began setting up tents for a new encampment tonight. Police quickly melted away as the fence came down, leaving the occupiers to rock away to hip hop blasted from a sound truck, as they settled in for the night despite a cold snap and a maddening drizzle.
Earlier on this same day at UC Davis, police brutally and repeatedly pepper-sprayed non-resisting protestors in an action captured on mainstream TV. Even the Chancellor of the university was forced to demand an "investigation." And we say to the Chancellor: Resign Now!
Flyers handed out at the rally and march announced the next big action, a shutdown of the Port of Oakland, set for December 12th, 2011, in solidarity with longshore workers in Longview, WA. Longshore workers there face a union-bsting drive by a huge conglomerate grain exporter called EGT. The Oakland Occupy, which has already experienced the solidarity of longshore workers, is committed to the kind of support that was shown on November 2nd, when Middle Harbor Road was filled with 30,000 or more to shut down the port on the day of the "general strike."
Today's Scene In Oakland Seemed Almost Bizarre...
The scene in Oakland seemed almost bizarre as we marched up Telegraph Avenue, perhaps 5,000 strong, and arrived at the city-owned vacant lot (with a small city park at one end) which was the new target of the occupiers. As we approached, there were maybe 50 cops or so surrounding this large, fenced-in lot. They were standing a few feet apart like sentries, in regular uniforms, not riot gear, and facing this huge crowd. What were they thinking?
The march wrapped around the park like a snake closing in on its prey, and then the fence started to come down, first at one spot, and then another, the latter right in front of me. I looked up and noticed the cops had disappeared. Soon, the lot was filled with dancing, celebrating occupiers. Then, just across the street, there were the cops, huddling in doorways, trying to stay out of the rain.
Only this morning, Mayor Jean Quan had issued a statement in which she said in no uncertain terms that, "...overnight lodging in any park or other public space will not be allowed." News reports indicated that the police had a plan to prevent any new occupy. But then tonight, news reports said that "city administrators" had instructed the police to avoid confrontations with protestors! Hello?
OK, so I went and figured. Jean Quan is trying to have it both ways, siding with the left, which she once was a part of, and doing her job as mayor of a city, which requires that she crackdown on leftists. This can go on only so long. We'll expect a new attack on Quan from the right, and a new attack on the Oakland Occupy encampment, sometime this coming week.
The Occupies... How Long Can They Last?
As for the occupies? They can go on for only so long as well. How long can a movement that has no power to physically defy the capitalist state power continue trying to reestablish the commons of olde? Attacks on the local occupies are coordinated all the way up to Obama's Justice Department. The occupy movement has got to move forward if it is to survive.
One way to move forward is to go into mass anti-eviction defense, and mass anti-foreclosure defense: put families back in their homes now, with mass action! If the sheriff's department comes to throw the tenants or homeowners out, mobilize again to put them back in! This is the pattern established in the great Depression of the 1930s by young communists. This Occupy movement today has the Ć©lan and the numbers to replicate this. But does it have the will, and the organization? That remains to be seen.
The march today was spectacular. From 14th and Broadway at 3 PM, down to Grand Avenue next to the Grand Lake Theater and the Lakeshore Elementary School, we marched, in the streets the whole way, 5,000 + strong. The march stopped opposite Lakeshore Elementary, which is one of the schools slated to by shut down at the end of this year. We held a teacher & parent-led rally for 40 minutes. Students held a "musical chairs" skit, in which schools slated to be cancelled were removed one by one, when the music stopped. Following this, we marched back to downtown, and on to the new Occupy at 19th and Telegraph.
The "music" is stopping now as the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) bureaucracy caves in to the demands of debts to the big banks. The OUSD board twiddled their thumbs and consulted their watches as hundreds of teachers, students and community members testified against school closures, in a recent hearing.
The great spirit of marches such as today's can't last, unfortunately. The movement needs to transform into a revolutionary struggle with a program to overthrow capitalism. This will involve demands such as: Free public education for all! Free Health Care for All! End the Imperialist Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan! Jobs For Alll with a Shorter Workweek At No Loss In Pay! Expropriate the Banks and Financial Institutions! No Compensation! How to accomplish this? This is an ongoing discussion.
-- Comradely greetings, Chris K
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5) Egypt Clashes Enter 3rd Day as Military Faces Pressure
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and LIAM STACK
November 21, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/world/middleeast/facing-calls-to-give-up-power-egypts-military-battles-crowds.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1321894936-+j+V17jF4Ktp5j+2J/XVcQ
CAIRO - Egypt's military rulers on Monday faced the most sustained and bloodiest challenge to their hold on power since the fall of Hosni Mubarak as demonstrators clashed for a third successive day with security forces around Tahrir Square after new clashes broke out across the country.
Egyptian troops had been heralded as saviors when their generals ushered out President Mubarak on Feb. 11, but on Sunday they led a new push to clear the square and the Health Ministry said Monday that at least 23 people were killed. Since Saturday, more than 1,500 people had been wounded, the ministry said.
Battles raged throughout the night, with gunfire echoing through streets choked with tear gas and illuminated by scattered fires. Three bodies wrapped in blankets were seen being carried away and witnesses said the bodies were those of protesters hit by live ammunition.
On Monday morning, the thoroughfares of downtown Cairo were littered with stones and other debris from the fighting. An apartment building near Tahrir Square was damaged by a fire sparked when a tear gas canister landed on a third-floor balcony, protesters said.
Security forces continued to rain tear gas on demonstrators who clogged a street of upscale apartments leading from Tahrir Square to the Interior Ministry. By midday, thousands of protesters remained in control of the square and its side streets.
A representative of the ruling military council, Said Abbas, visited Tahrir Square on Monday and spoke in a brief news conference, where he said that the council respected the protesters' right to peaceful demonstrations. He declared that the security forces had not initiated any violence but only defended themselves, and he insisted - despite a sweep of the square Sunday evening by hundreds of soldiers and police in riot gear - that the security forces had not entered the square.
Asked about the reports of protesters injured by gunfire from security forces, he said the victims were "thugs," not peaceful demonstrators. The representative told the crowd to consider the economic cost of shutting the central square to traffic and disrupting city life, reminding them of losses this week in the Egyptian stock market.
"There is an invisible hand in the square causing a rift between the army and the people," he said.
The violence has seemed to reinforce the revolutionary urgency that had returned to the square, and when the army moved to push out the thousands of protesters on Sunday, more than twice as many quickly flooded back.
"This is February 12!" said Abeer Mustafa, a 42-year-old wedding planner. "We have finally succeeded in reclaiming our revolution."
The crackdown, including the reported use of live ammunition by troops, elicited condemnation across the political spectrum, joined by voices who had previously taken a more restrained tone toward the military council, from the liberal former diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.
Almost all the civilian parties called for an accelerated end to military rule before drafting a constitution - either an immediate handover to some civilian unity government, a turnover to the lower house of Parliament when it is seated in April, or after a presidential election, to be scheduled as soon as possible.
But while unity reappeared in the square, where Coptic Christians once again stood guard as their Muslim compatriots bowed to pray, the political class remained deeply polarized over what sort of civilian government might succeed the military. Liberals and Islamists continued to battle each other in back-room arguments over the question of what rules the military might set for the selection of a constitutional convention, even as the street protesters demanded that the military give up such authority.
In its first official response to the crisis, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces repeated its commitment to its "road map" of the transition, including next week's elections, but it did nothing to move up or clarify its exit date, now set for some time after drafting a constitution and electing a president in perhaps 2013 or beyond. The council expressed "sorrow" over the situation. It said it had ordered an investigation and it asked the political parties to "contain the situation."
The protests were an eruption of anger that started with a peaceful march by tens of thousands of Islamists on Friday. When security forces tried to clear a small tent city that remained in the square on Saturday, a far more diverse cross section of young people and professionals turned out in support, battling the police in a war of rocks and tear gas. By Sunday, the clashes had spread to at least seven other cities, including the major population centers of Alexandria and Suez.
A makeshift field clinic that protesters had set up in a mosque near Tahrir Square treated a steady stream of hundreds of bloody patients on Sunday, registering at least one death, and doctors said they treated some wounded by live ammunition instead of the rubber bullets and birdshot that the security forces primarily used. After dark, a dead body was paraded on a stretcher through the square as battles continued around the periphery. More than 1,000 people were reported seriously injured over the past two days.
"This is the breaking point we were all waiting for," said Tarek Salama, a surgeon working in the field hospital. "Getting rid of Mubarak was just the warm-up. This is the real showdown."
With parliamentary elections set to begin in just a week, television commentators were raising alarms even before the clashes erupted that the military and security forces were not equipped to secure the polls, and many protestors said they feared that the military encouraged the strife as a pretext for postponing the election of a more legitimate body.
But a delay would be sure to set off an even bigger insurrection. The Muslim Brotherhood warned in a statement on Sunday that "we, along with our well-informed people, will not allow the cancellation or delay in the elections no matter what the price is."
For now the military-led government's attempt to beat back or squash the demonstrations only invigorate them. After trying to hold off a day of continuous attacks on the headquarters of the Interior Ministry, hundreds of soldiers and security police in riot gear stormed the square from several directions at once about 5 p.m., throwing rocks and raining down tear gas as they drove thousands of demonstrators out before them.
After less than half an hour they had retreated, having succeeded only in burning down a few tents in the square. And after another half an hour, the crowd of protesters had more than doubled, packing the square as ever more demonstrators marched in from all directions, chanting for the end of military rule and the ouster of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, or SCAF. "Say it and don't be scared: SCAF has to go!" they declared.
"There are no parties here," one young man said to his friend, watching as fighting flared on a side street. "No Muslims and no Christians."
"We are the people, and we have to rule ourselves," another young man said. "Whoever likes it stays, and who doesn't goes."
The Muslim Brotherhood, which helped lead the Islamist rally, issued a statement declaring the ruling military council responsible for allowing excessive violence against unarmed protesters, and it called for prosecution "of all those who commanded this attack."
But it also issued a pointed challenge to "politicians and intellectuals," presumably referring to Egyptian liberals. Many have urged the adoption of some sort of ground rules protecting Western-style civil liberties before a potential Islamist majority of the Parliament might dominate the constitutional convention. The military acted on those suggestions to present the liberals with a kind of devil's bargain: a declaration that would have protected individual and minority rights, but also granted the military permanent political powers and immunity from scrutiny as the guardian of "constitutional legitimacy."
"Will you respect the will of the people or will you turn against it?" the brotherhood statement read, in a direct challenge to the liberals. "Your credibility is now on the line, and we hope that you will not turn against it."
Some of Egypt's liberals, meanwhile, said they were prepared to accept the latest revisions of the military's ground rules, which pared back the military's special powers and immunities. But it also would impose a requirement of a two-thirds majority of the new Parliament to approve the 100 members of a new constitutional committee, potentially limiting the power of an Islamist majority. The brotherhood, in turn, objected to that provision as unworkable.
Most liberals or secular leaders remain divided into many competing parties and factions. For his part, Mr. ElBaradei, the Nobel-prize winning diplomat and Egyptian presidential contender who remains the best known liberal leader here, argued in a television interview on Sunday night for a new government of "national unity" that would include representatives of liberals, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the ultraconservative Islamists known as Salafis.
Citing the civilian deaths, Mr. ElBaradei called the government statements "disgraceful."
"It would have been more honorable for the cabinet to say the state has failed and to leave for others to manage the country," he said, arguing that neither the military-led cabinet nor the generals themselves were qualified. "This is not a crisis," he said. "The country is falling apart."
Mayy el Sheikh and Dina Amer contributed reporting. Alan Cowell contributed reporting form London.
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6) Protest Puts Coverage in Spotlight
By BRIAN STELTER
November 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/business/media/occupy-wall-street-puts-the-coverage-in-the-spotlight.html?hp
As police officers cleared protesters last week from Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, the birthplace of Occupy Wall Street, they made sure most reporters were kept blocks away, supposedly for their own protection.
But in almost every other respect, mainstream news media outlets have been put right in the middle by the movement.
Newspapers and television networks have been rebuked by media critics for treating the movement as if it were a political campaign or a sideshow - by many liberals for treating the protesters dismissively, and by conservatives, conversely, for taking the protesters too seriously.
The protesters themselves have also criticized the media - first for ostensibly ignoring the movement and then for marginalizing it.
Lacking a list of demands or recognized leaders, the Occupy movement has at times perplexed the nation's media outlets. Press coverage, minimal in the first days of the occupation in New York, picked up after amateur video surfaced online showing a police officer using pepper spray on protesters. On several occasions, video of confrontations with the police, often filmed by the protesters, has propelled television coverage.
In the initial coverage, "I saw almost nothing that talked about our reasons for being there, and that trend has largely continued," said Patrick Bruner, an organizer for Occupy Wall Street in New York. He said the group welcomed investigations of "our ideas, why we're here, what we're saying and talking about."
Alicia Shepard, who was until recently the ombudsman for NPR, said most news coverage of Occupy "hasn't been about the issues, it's been about who's up and who's down," likening it to the "horse race" style of coverage prevalent in political campaigns.
An analysis by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism indicates that the movement occupied 10 percent of its sample of national news coverage in the week beginning Oct. 9, then steadily represented about 5 percent through early November.
Coverage dipped markedly, to just 1 percent of the national news hole, in the week beginning Nov. 6, supporting Ms. Shepard's assertion that it had "died down" before the early morning eviction in New York last Tuesday. It has since rebounded strongly.
Throughout the protests, Occupy Wall Street has become something of an ideological litmus test, with accusations of media bias from the left and the right. Days after the protest began in New York, the liberal filmmaker Michael Moore appeared on MSNBC, asserting that the mass media had a tendency to play down left-wing protests.
Conversely, L. Brent Bozell III, the president of the conservative Media Research Center, appeared on Sean Hannity's show on Fox telling other media outlets to "put their pompoms down for a minute."
Now, any time there are misstatements of fact - on Thursday the Fox News affiliate in New York falsely reported that protesters planned to "shut down" the subways, and "CBS Evening News" reported that hundreds had turned out for an afternoon rally when in fact many thousands had - questions about bias are raised.
Even as some protesters have complained about the media, others have courted coverage, and still others have taken matters into their own hands. For more than a month, Tim Pool, a 25-year-old from Illinois, has been attending Occupy Wall Street events in New York and live-streaming them to the Internet from his cellphone. "I just wanted to see an accurate portrayal of what was happening without internal or external bias," he said.
Mr. Pool clearly sympathizes with the protesters but considers himself independent from the group. At the peak of the protests in New York on Thursday, 30,000 people were watching his shaky video feed at any given moment, according to his host site, Ustream. Mr. Pool said the police officers treated him like a protester, not a cameraman, raising questions about who qualifies as a reporter in the Internet age and what rights they should be afforded, if any.
The questions are relevant in part because 26 reporters and photographers have been arrested at protests linked to the movement, according to a count by Josh Stearns of the media advocacy group Free Press. A significant portion of those arrested were freelance workers, students and writers for alternative publications. "As journalism is changing," Mr. Stearns said, "it's going to create new friction and conflict over what we mean by the First Amendment."
Many journalists were blocked from Zuccotti Park as the eviction took place on Tuesday morning, leading to accusations of police suppression of media coverage.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said the restrictions were put in place "to prevent a situation from getting worse and to protect members of the press."
Journalism groups have filed complaints about the restrictions and arrests, resulting in renewed scrutiny of how the Police Department processes requests for press credentials. Of the 10 reporters arrested in New York on Tuesday, half had credentials. Discussing the arrests, Mr. Stearns said, "In the heat of the moment it may be very hard to tell who is and who isn't a journalist," though he said that was no excuse.
Some reporters have reported being threatened by protesters in the last two months, but for the most part the criticisms have been confined to signs and shouts, particularly when Fox News cameras are nearby.
Attesting to the opinionated tone of much television coverage, Fox hosts and guests have described the protesters as a "group of nuts and lunatics and fascists" (Karl Rove), "demonic loons" (Ann Coulter) and "a bunch of wusses" (Greg Gutfeld).
On MSNBC, meanwhile, optimism reigns in comments like "it is what working people are talking about" (Ed Schultz) and "it has the support of tens of millions of Americans" (Michael Moore).
A number of journalists have been pilloried for their perceived opinions, including the CNN host Erin Burnett, who mocked the New York occupation on her broadcast. Critics seized on the fact that she was engaged to a bank executive.
The public radio host Lisa Simeone was dismissed by one of her employers, Soundprint, after she was reported to be a leader of an Occupy camp in Washington, and a freelance journalist, Caitlin Curran, was fired by "The Takeaway" radio show after she was photographed holding her boyfriend's sign at a protest. In an essay for Gawker, Ms. Curran wondered what ethics codes she had violated since she said Occupy Wall Street lacked a single "message and focus."
The absence of broad media attention initially gave protesters a shared grievance. Since the Vietnam War, there have been many instances when protest movements have criticized the media over perceived slights, said Todd Gitlin, a professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia who helped to organize the first national antiwar protests in the 1960s.
But there is less of an "obsession" about that these days, he said, "because they're making their own media."
There is The Occupied Wall Street Journal newspaper, for instance, and the "We Are the 99 Percent" group blog.
Priscilla Grim, who has helped produce both, said she was "hoping to see a real resurgence in independent media, to not just cover the issues of Occupy, but to cover the issues that all people are dealing with."
Mr. Bruner, the Occupy Wall Street organizer, echoed that. Early on, he courted CNN, The New York Times and other news outlets by e-mailing reporters and editors with daily protest updates. But, he said, "we're fighting a system, and this media is a part of the system."
He added, "And when this media doesn't cover us in a fair light, the desire isn't to shame them, it's to create an alternative."
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7) Drugs Used for Psychotics Go to Youths in Foster Care
By BENEDICT CAREY
November 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/health/research/study-finds-foster-children-often-given-antipsychosis-drugs.html?ref=us
Foster children are being prescribed cocktails of powerful antipsychosis drugs just as frequently as some of the most mentally disabled youngsters on Medicaid, a new study suggests.
The report, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, is the first to investigate how often youngsters in foster care are given two antipsychotic drugs at once, the authors said. The drugs include Risperdal, Seroquel and Zyprexa - among other so-called major tranquilizers - which were developed for schizophrenia but are now used as all-purpose drugs for almost any psychiatric symptoms.
"The kids in foster care may come from bad homes, but they do not have the sort of complex medical issues that those in the disabled population do," said Susan dosReis, an associate professor in the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and the lead author.
The implication, Dr. dosReis and other experts said: Doctors are treating foster children's behavioral problems with the same powerful drugs given to people with schizophrenia and severe bipolar disorder. "We simply don't have evidence to support this kind of use, especially in young children," Dr. dosReis said.
In recent years, doctors and policy makers have grown concerned about high rates of overall psychiatric drug use in the foster care system, the government-financed program that provides temporary living arrangements for 400,000 to 500,000 children and adolescents. Previous studies have found that children in foster care receive psychiatric medications at about twice the rate among children outside the system.
The new study focused on one of the most powerful classes of drugs, antipsychotics. It found that about 2 percent of foster children took at least one such drug, even though schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, for which the drugs are approved, are extremely rare in young children.
"It's a significant and important finding, and it should prompt states to improve the quality of care in this area," said Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University who did not contribute to the research.
In the study, mental health researchers analyzed 2003 Medicaid records of 637,924 minors from an unidentified mid-Atlantic state who were either in foster care, getting disability benefits for a diagnosis like severe autism or bipolar disorder, or in a program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. All of these programs draw on Medicaid financing. The investigators found that 16,969, or about 3 percent of the total, had received at least one prescription for an antipsychotic drug.
Yet among these, it was the foster children who most often got more than one such prescription at the same time: 9.2 percent, versus 6.8 percent among the children on disability, and just 2.5 percent of those in the needy families program.
Antipsychotic drugs, the authors said, also cause rapid weight gain and increase the risk for metabolic problems in many people, an effect that may be amplified by the use of two at once.
Doctors who treat such children are aware of the trade-offs and often prescribe lower doses of the medications as a result. And when they add a second such drug, it is often to counteract side effects of the first medication.
Still, the relatively high rates of these drug combinations in such a young and vulnerable group have prompted policy makers across the country to take notice. A consortium of 16 states, in collaboration with Rutgers University, has drawn up guidelines to improve care for foster children and others dependent on state aid.
"The psychiatrists who are treating these kids on the front lines are not doing it for money; there are very low reimbursement rates from Medicaid," said Dr. Ramesh Raghavan, a mental health services researcher at Washington University in St. Louis. "There's enormous anguish because everyone knows that this is not what we should be doing for these kids. We as a society simply haven't made the investment in psychosocial treatments, and so we are forced to rely on psychotropic drugs to carry the burden."
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8) A Country of Inmates
"With just a little more than 4 percent of the world's population, the United States accounts for a quarter of the planet's prisoners and has more inmates than the leading 35 European countries combined. ... More than 60 percent of the United States' prisoners are black or Hispanic, though these groups comprise less than 30 percent of the population. ... Today, there are 140,000 convicts in California's state prisons, who cost about $50,000 each per year. The state pays more on prisons than it does on higher education."
By ALBERT R. HUNT | BLOOMBERG NEWS
November 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/us/21iht-letter21.html?ref=us
Correction Appended
WASHINGTON - One area where the United States indisputably leads the world is incarceration.
The United States has 2.3 million people behind bars, almost one in every 100 Americans. The U.S. prison population has more than doubled over the past 15 years, and one in nine black children has a parent in jail.
Proportionally, the United States has four times as many prisoners as Israel, six times as many as Canada or China, eight times as many as Germany and 13 times as many as Japan.
With just a little more than 4 percent of the world's population, the United States accounts for a quarter of the planet's prisoners and has more inmates than the leading 35 European countries combined. Almost all the other nations with high per capita prison rates are in the developing world.
There's also a national election in the United States soon. This issue isn't on the agenda. It's almost never come up with Republican presidential candidates; one of the few exceptions was at a debate in September when the audience cheered the notion of executions in Texas.
Barack Obama, the first black president, rarely mentions this question or how it disproportionately affects minorities. More than 60 percent of the United States' prisoners are black or Hispanic, though these groups comprise less than 30 percent of the population.
"We've had a race to incarcerate that has been driven by politics, racially coded, get-tough appeals," said Michelle Alexander, a law professor at Ohio State University who wrote "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness."
The escalating cost of the criminal-justice system is an important factor in the fiscal challenges around the United States. Nowhere is that more evident than in California, which is struggling to obey a court order requiring it to reduce its overcrowded prisons by 40,000 inmates.
Today, there are 140,000 convicts in California's state prisons, who cost about $50,000 each per year. The state pays more on prisons than it does on higher education.
Yet the prisons are so crowded - as many as 54 inmates have to share one toilet - that Conrad Murray, the doctor convicted in the death of the pop star Michael Jackson, may be able to avoid most prison time.
California isn't unique. In Raleigh County, West Virginia, the county commission has worried that the cost of housing inmates at its Southern Regional Jail may imperil basic services, including education. That problem is exacerbated as the state keeps more prisoners longer at such regional facilities to alleviate its overcrowding problems.
The prison explosion hasn't been driven by an increase in crime. In fact, the crime rate, notably for violent offenses, is dropping across the United States, a phenomenon that began about 20 years ago.
The latest F.B.I. figures show that murder, rape and robberies have fallen to an almost half-century low; to be sure, they remain higher than in other major industrialized countries.
There are many theories for this decline. The most accepted is that community police work in major metropolitan areas has improved markedly, focusing on potential high-crime areas. There are countless other hypotheses, even ranging to controversial claims that more accessible abortion has reduced a number of unwanted children who were more likely to have committed crimes.
However, one other likely explanation is that more than a few would-be criminals are locked up. Scholars like James Q. Wilson have noted that the longer prison terms that are being handed down may matter more than the conviction rates.
This comes at a clear cost. For those who do ultimately get out, being an ex-con means about a 40 percent decrease in annual earnings.
Moreover, research suggests that children from homes where a father is in jail do considerably less well in life and are more prone to becoming criminals themselves.
"People ask why so many black kids are growing up without fathers," said Ms. Alexander. "A big part of the answer is mass incarceration."
It seems clear that the U.S. penal system discriminates against minorities. Some of this is socioeconomic, as poorer people, disproportionately blacks and Hispanics, may commit more crimes.
Much of the inmate explosion and racial disparities, however, grow out of the way the United States treats illegal drugs. It began several decades ago with harsher penalties for crimes involving crack cocaine, which was more widely used by blacks, than powder cocaine, which was more likely to involve whites. A larger issue is how the U.S. criminal justice system differentiates in its treatment of drug sellers - who get the book thrown at them - versus drug users, who, at most, get a slap on the wrist.
A hypothetical example: A black kid is arrested for selling cocaine to the members of a fraternity at an elite university. The seller gets sent away for 25 years. The fraternity is put on probation for a semester by the university and nothing else.
In all likelihood, the convicted seller is quickly replaced, and few of the fraternity kids change their drug-use habits. The lesson: neither the supply nor the demand has changed, and the prison population grows.
Given their budgetary difficulties, about half the states are actually reducing their prison populations. Smart selective policies are cost-effective. Many criminologists and sociologists say the proclivity to commit crimes diminishes with age; the recidivism rate for convicts over 30 is relatively low, and most every analysis suggests that parole and probation are far less expensive for taxpayers than incarceration.
Nevertheless, the politics of the crime issue cuts against any rational approach. Even if recidivism rates are low, it's the failures that attract attention. In 1988, the Democratic presidential nominee, Michael S. Dukakis, was savaged when it was revealed that one convict, Willie Horton, who was furloughed on his watch as governor of Massachusetts committed a rape while at large. Four years ago, the former governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, a Republican, was hurt in his bid for his party's nomination by reports of crimes committed by felons who were paroled during his time in office.
"One case where a parolee does something very wrong is sensationalized," Ms. Alexander said, "and many, many others are kept behind bars for a long time."
Correction: November 20, 2011
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the furloughed convict Willie Horton had committed a murder while at large.
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9) Protesters Arrested at Bank-Account Closing Will Sue City
By COLIN MOYNIHAN
November 21, 2011, 11:50 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/protesters-arrested-at-bank-account-closing-will-sue-city/?ref=nyregion
Close Your Bank Account and Get Arrested!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXArH_TywFA&feature=player_embedded
New Video From Inside the Citibank Incident w NYPD Arrests Occupy Wallstreet 10_15_2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXArH_TywFA&feature=player_embedded
Updated, 12:04 p.m. | On the afternoon of Oct. 15, Heather Carpenter walked into a Citibank branch in Greenwich Village and closed her account as a form of protest against bank fees.
The closing was part of a campaign promoted by Occupy Wall Street, and as Ms. Carpenter left police officers were arriving at the branch, where about 20 protesters had gathered inside to air grievances against Citibank.
A moment later, as she stood outside the bank at 555 LaGuardia Place with her fiancƩ, Julio Jose Jiminez-Artunduaga, police officers dragged her back inside, videotape footage shows, where she was arrested.
Close Your Bank Account and Get Arrested!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXArH_TywFA&feature=player_embedded
Mr. Jimenez-Artunduaga was dragged into the bank and arrested also, photographs and video show.
They were both charged with resisting arrest and trespassing, said their lawyer, Ronald L. Kuby. Mr. Kuby said that the Manhattan District attorney's office had announced its intention to dismiss the charges against them.
But Ms. Carpenter and her fiancƩ are fighting back. On Monday, Mr. Kuby said, they were to file a suit against the city; the chief of the department for the New York Police Department, Joseph J. Esposito; and four unnamed officers.
The suit, to be filed Monday in federal district court in Manhattan, asserts that the police falsely arrested Ms. Carpenter and Mr. Jimenez-Artunduaga and used excessive force against them in violation of their rights under the Fourth and 14th Amendments.
"The conduct of the defendant officers in restraining, arresting and imprisoning plaintiffs was totally without probable cause and was done maliciously, falsely and in bad faith," the suit states, adding: "It was the defendants who dragged them into the bank - the premises upon which they had allegedly trespassed - to arrest them."
The officers named in the suit, referred to as "police officers John Doe 1-4," participated in the arrests of Ms. Carpenter and Mr. Jimenez-Artunduaga, Mr. Kuby said. Also named is Chief Esposito, the highest-ranking uniformed officer in the Police Department, who was present during the arrests and who, the suit said, "failed to remedy the wrongs committed by the police officers."
The head spokesman for the Police Department, Paul J. Browne, said that Ms. Carpenter and Mr. Jimenez-Artunduaga had falsely claimed not to be involved in the protest.
"Both individuals were observed early on disrupting business inside the bank, and then slipping outside as arrests were underway, claiming falsely they were not engaged in the disruption," he wrote in an e-mail. "While still inside the bank, they were told to leave by bank personnel and did not. In fact, the male can be seen on a separate youtube video videotaping, and at one point going behind the bank's customer service desk to do so."
The city's Law Department said it would review Ms. Carpenter's suit after it was served with the complaint.
Both of the plaintiffs were held for about 30 hours, the complaint by Mr. Kuby said. Ms. Carpenter's wrists were injured by tight handcuffs and Mr. Jimenez-Artunduaga suffered a lacerated finger said the complaint, which included several photographs and videos.
New Video From Inside the Citibank Incident w NYPD Arrests Occupy Wallstreet 10_15_2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXArH_TywFA&feature=player_embedded
One video (see above) shows protesters milling inside the bank lobby apparently after being prevented from leaving. As protesters outside watched, the video shows, a man in a dark sweatshirt approached Ms. Carpenter and told her "You were inside." Ms. Carpenter responded "I am a customer" and held up a piece of paper. Then, the man grabbed her and, assisted by several uniformed police officers, forced her back into the bank lobby.
Another video (see above) shows Chief Esposito entering he bank lobby, where the protesters had been held by plainclothed men and announcing that those in the bank were under arrest. A moment later, as several officers forced Mr. Jimenez-Artunduaga into the bank, one protester said "They're dragging them in."
"Don't get involved in it," Chief Esposito replied. "You're a different group."
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10) Loudly Protesting Park Eviction, if Not Outside Mayor's Window as Planned
By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN and COLIN MOYNIHAN
November 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/nyregion/plans-of-drum-protest-at-michael-bloombergs-home-are-dashed.html?ref=nyregion
The sounds of snare drums, bongo drums and bucket drums, a familiar and frequent annoyance to those who live near Zuccotti Park, moved uptown on Sunday to the East Side home of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
Well, not exactly.
The intention of the Occupy Wall Street protesters was to stage a 24-hour drum circle in front of the mayor's town house on East 79th Street. But the protesters were blocked at each corner by a line of police officers and metal barricades.
The police not only kept the drummers away; they also restricted access to all except those who lived on Mr. Bloomberg's block.
Norman Siegel, a civil liberties lawyer, said that the decision to bar protesters from Mr. Bloomberg's block was contrary to the law, which allows people to walk on a block as long as they do not block entrances, exits or other pedestrians.
"In effect, the police have created a no-First Amendment zone on 79th Street," he said. "It's an example of an abuse of power by the N.Y.P.D. because that's a public street, and the fact that Michael Bloomberg lives on that street doesn't change the principles and values of the First Amendment right to protest."
The drummers then set up behind barricades on Fifth Avenue near Central Park, about half a block down from the mayor's town house. By 4:30 p.m., the crowd on Fifth Avenue, banging iron skillets and shaking rattles, had swelled to about 300.
It was unclear if the mayor was home; two spokesmen for the mayor declined to say whether he heard the drums.
Some passers-by, finding their way onto 79th Street blocked, seemed inclined not to blame the city for the closed-off street, instead focusing their irritation on the drummers. But Dana Johnson, a 33-year-old lawyer from the Upper East Side, said she supported the rights of people to hold a demonstration even if she did not agree with all of their political aims.
"This is part of democracy," she said. "Go bother your leader."
On Oct. 11, Occupy Wall Street protesters had gone on a "Millionaires March," visiting homes of Rupert Murdoch, Jamie Dimon and David H. Koch - but bypassing Mr. Bloomberg's residence. On Sunday, less than a week after the city forced protesters out of Zuccotti Park, the mayor's home was singled out by the group.
The protest was in response, participants say, to the city's move on Tuesday morning to clear the protesters' tent city at Zuccotti Park, which had been the base of the Occupy Wall Street movement for nearly two months.
While clearing the park, the Police Department arrested some 140 people in the park, and the Department of Sanitation seized tents, sleeping bags and other property.
While protesters have since been allowed in the park, they are no longer allowed to sleep overnight or set up an encampment. On Saturday, for instance, a woman was arrested for bringing a blanket into the park after being warned by private security guards, the police said.
But the protesters are still smarting over the enforcement action last week. Some of those gathered on Fifth Avenue had brought with them items that they said were badly damaged after being seized by the police at Zuccotti Park on Tuesday morning.
Sean Allingham, 30, a landscaper, showed a laptop and a Kindle e-reader that had both belonged to a library collective, of which he is a member. Both machines were bent and warped, with the cases cracked open and the innards of the machines visible. Some protesters said that hard drives had been removed from computers.
For the last few days, protesters have been retrieving the seized property from a Sanitation Department garage. So far 44 protesters have reclaimed 505 items, a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg, Stu Loeser, said in an e-mail.
Mr. Loeser characterized the property as having been "abandoned in Zuccotti Park" by the protesters.
In a letter addressed to Mr. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly on Sunday, Mr. Siegel and State Senator Eric Adams made several criticisms of the city's conduct while clearing Zuccotti Park .
The letter particularly takes issue with the decision to move into the park at about 1 a.m., a time when the city slept and few would be able to witness the conduct of the police officers.
"It's like they thought there was a life-threatening emergency here," Mr. Siegel said at a news conference. "There wasn't. It could have been handled differently."
At East 79th Street and Fifth Avenue, protesters once again took issue with the police's dictating where they could protest. Nonetheless, they felt that they were making their presence known.
"He sent the N.Y.P.D. to visit us the other day at 1 a.m., so now we are visiting him," Aaron Black, 38, said of the mayor. Mr. Black, a photographer who helped organize the event, added that he wanted to open a dialogue with the mayor. "If he's in town, he should come downstairs and talk with us."
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11) For the Rich, Cargo Vans on Steroids
By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY
November 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/nyregion/rich-new-yorkers-are-driving-custom-designed-cargo-vans.html?ref=nyregion
Steve Kantor admits that he likes to travel in style. He is an affable investment banker, concerned about flaunting his wealth, but he drives around Manhattan in what looks like a simple black delivery van.
Of course, most vans do not have chauffeurs, as Mr. Kantor's has. Or a built-in office, custom installed.
"I have two big-screen televisions; I have a couch in the back that goes into a bed," Mr. Kantor said. "I have four chairs that go back and massage you. It has a desk, a table and an intercom so you can have meetings in there if you want to."
As the economy limps along and more attention is paid to the so-called 1 percent, some of the richest New Yorkers have taken to driving around in vehicles that ooze neither wealth nor privilege. But on the inside, the vans may be as lavishly decorated as the private railroad cars owned by turn-of-the-century industrialists.
Some owners use them as mobile offices, outfitted with fine leather chairs and Persian rugs; vans may also double as a child's playroom on wheels, complete with a built-in vacuum to clean what the children dirty.
And while some owners say they are drawn to the vehicles' vanilla exteriors, their outsize profiles cannot help but draw attention: at more than 22 feet long and nearly 9 feet tall, they look like cargo vans on steroids, their high roof lines dwarfing nearly all that surrounds them on the streets of New York. And that's before the satellite dishes are raised.
They are a striking and sometimes unwelcome counterpoint to other trends seen on city streets, where tiny Smart cars dart around hybrid taxis and traffic lanes once reserved for gas-guzzlers are now for bicycles or pedestrians.
"Using your vehicle as a luxury lounge is just usurping public space for your own private use," said Michael Murphy, a spokesman for Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group that encourages New Yorkers to travel around the city more responsibly. "Streets are shared space and belong to the community."
Nonetheless, during morning spin classes at Soul Cycle, the Upper East Side studio, the parking spaces cannot accommodate the Sprinter vans, Range Rovers and Lexus GX470s that are sometimes double-parked. A modified black Mercedes van owned by Philip A. Falcone, the chief of Harbinger Capital Partners, has become a fixture on the Upper East Side, idling by the Michael Kors shop on Madison Avenue.
Jill Kargman, a writer and mother of three who lives on the Upper East Side, said that play dates adhered to a certain pecking order: those that start in one of these ultra-luxury vans are preferable because they can "just bop into a souped-up bulletproof living room on wheels," she said.
The most popular model is made by Mercedes: a stripped-down, basic version of the van, the Sprinter, starts at $41,315; Mr. Kantor's version, which Mercedes-Benz Manhattan arranged to have customized, is fitted with satellite television, a Wi-Fi network and flat-screen monitors, and sells for $189,000. Even that is not quite enough for some New Yorkers, who employ designers to install even pricier custom details that easily drive up the total cost to $500,000.
Daniel Barile, a Mercedes-Benz spokesman, said that because many buyers were going to after-market shops to decorate their van interiors, Mercedes started releasing its own version in early 2010, and sold 8,000 the first year. Mercedes has sold 13,000 this year.
And although the modified Mercedes van is popular in several large cities, Howard Becker, president of Becker Automotive Design in Oxnard, Calif., said New York, with its executives in hedge funds and finance, had become his best market.
Hyde Ryan, a designer who worked with a wealthy New York family on decorating the interior of their Mercedes Sprinter van, said that the family wanted gold-plated fittings for every button that would be pushed. The owner installed a vacuum cleaner so the chauffeur could remove every crumb and grain of sand each time the children stepped out of the van.
The vacuum option could be seen on a recent morning on Park Avenue, when Carmelo Umpierre, a 44-year-old chauffeur, idled the $425,000 van he drives for an executive based in Connecticut. It is nearly impossible to find a parking space for such a large vehicle, so Mr. Umpierre often waits for his boss in illegal spots, and moves when the police come by.
The car's owner declined to be interviewed, saying he did not want to draw attention to himself. But he allowed Mr. Umpierre to display the van's interior: the seats were upholstered with heavily scented leather and a stocked bar had individual lighting for each wine glass and Champagne flute. Mr. Umpierre said he vacuumed the interior every night and covered the custom-designed gray wool rugs with towels when it rained. He said he tried to navigate the van through side streets so gawkers could not peek in when he dropped off his boss.
"He likes to be private," Mr. Umpierre said of his employer. "He doesn't like to be dropped off in the front."
On Friday, Martin Brass, a 43-year-old former Wall Street executive turned investor, was shopping for a Mercedes Sprinter at a Manhattan dealership. Mr. Brass, whose work-related travel often finds him in New York or Hawaii, said he planned to buy a basic model and then have some after-market improvements made to the interior.
Mr. Brass did not so much want to be bathed in luxury, he said; he simply wanted to "have meetings and presentations in those vehicles."
The more luxurious accouterments, he said, were not really part of his style. "That's New York City," he said. "There are people who have endless amounts of money."
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12) Taking First-Class Coddling Above and Beyond
"The gap between first class and coach has never been so wide."
By JAD MOUAWAD
November 20, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/business/taking-first-class-coddling-above-and-beyond.html?ref=business
The gap between first class and coach has never been so wide.
Carriers on international flights are offering private suites for first-class passengers, three-star meals and personal service once found only on corporate jets. They provide massages before takeoff, whisk passengers through special customs lanes and drive them in a private limousine right to the plane. Some have bars. One airline has installed showers onboard.
The amenities in the back of the cabin? Sparse.
So as domestic travelers take to the skies for the holiday season, most will be in cramped cabins, their food is likely to be bland and they will have paid for it, along with any fees for slightly more legroom or checked bags.
But even as they have cut back on domestic service, including first-class accommodations, the airlines have been engaged in a global battle for top executives and the superwealthy on their international routes. Though only a privileged few can afford to pay $15,000 to fly first class from New York to Singapore or Sydney, the airlines are betting that the image of luxury they project for the front helps attract passengers to the rest of the plane. That includes a growing business-class section with offerings once solely the preserve of first class.
Though first class represents less than 5 percent of all seats flown on long-haul routes, and business class accounts for 15 percent, those seats combined to generate 40 to 50 percent of airlines' revenue, according to Peter Morris, the chief economist at Ascend, an aviation consulting firm.
As a general rule, business class is five to 10 times the price of an economy ticket, while first class is usually twice the price of business. "First class," said Brett Snyder, president of Cranky Concierge, an air travel assistance Web site, "is status."
Until the 1980s, first class was roomier than coach, but not all that fancy. The seats in the front offered more legroom but did not recline more than 40 degrees. The food was better in first class too, though even the meals in coach were better than they are now. With globalization, particularly the rise of Asia, passengers began demanding more from first class, especially with new planes that could fly much longer routes without stopping.
Airlines have expanded their focus - which had been limited to London, Paris, and New York - to emerging economic centers like Hong Kong, Shanghai and Dubai. "Obviously the first-class passenger is a very senior person in his company, coming a long way around the world, and probably doing something very important for his business," said John Slosar, the chief executive of Cathay Pacific Airways. "He requires to be able to sleep, work on his speech, perhaps take a shower upon arrival, so he can hit the ground running."
British Airways was among the first airlines to change the definition of what first class entailed by offering flat-bed seats in the 1990s on its long-haul routes.
In recent years, the airlines most aggressive in adding luxury touches to first class have come from Asia and the Middle East, among them Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines. Emirates, based in Dubai, came up with personal suites for first-class passengers in 2003 and in 2008 installed two showers on its Airbus A380 planes for them.
European airlines quickly recognized the threat. Air France, for instance, now has a dedicated first-class lounge in Paris with a spa and a restaurant catered by the chef Alain Ducasse. Immigration officers come directly into the lounge to check passports, and passengers are driven to the airplane in a limousine only seconds before the doors shut.
But American carriers were slower to react, largely because they lacked the funds to upgrade their cabins until recently. Now, they have little choice. International rivals are starting to encroach deeper into their domestic markets, beyond New York and Los Angeles. Emirates, for instance, announced it would begin service from Dubai to Dallas and Seattle early next year.
"If you don't refurbish your cabins, then all you are left with is the low-yielding traffic," Mr. Morris said. "It's just not an option." First class has also served as a lab for in-flight amenities that eventually trickled down to the rest of the plane. Individual screens are now found in the seatbacks in coach. Lie-flat seats have moved to business class.
In fact, business class has become so comfortable that, in many cases, it can rival first class itself. "People demand more from the business class than they used to," Mr. Snyder said.
That is why some airlines have concluded that the market for first-class passengers is too slim to justify the investments, especially since passengers sitting in the front seats are often upgraded from business class or got their tickets using airline miles.
"A plane is only so big," said Jim Compton, the chief revenue officer at United Continental Holdings. "And the reality is that demand for the product in all markets is not necessarily there."
After its merger with Continental last year, United Airlines kept its first-class cabin only on some international routes that used to be served by United but not on those flown by Continental. It is also installing new flat-bed seats across its fleet in business class.
Delta Air Lines and Qatar Airways, by contrast, do not have a first class, just business and coach. Others have reduced the number of seats in first class. Air France now flies planes with first-class seats to only 28 international cities, out of a network of over 250 destinations.
Lufthansa, for its part, has kept its first class on most flights but has removed half the seats to focus on a more intimate experience on board. In the new A380 aircraft, Lufthansa also installed a system that increases the humidity in the first-class cabin by 25 percent, which the airline says will help ease jetlag. It has also insulated the cabin with special soundproofing material.
"It is our premium product, and our customers were asking for more intimacy, more privacy," said JĆ¼rgen Siebenrock, Lufthansa's vice president for North and South America. "If you want to be competitive, you really need to upgrade your product."
Nothing compares with the experience of flying first class, said Geoffrey Fischer, a 33-year-old social media consultant based in Seattle. Even after his 15-hour flight on Cathay Pacific landed in Hong Kong, he did not want to get off the plane, he said. Throughout the trip, which he also wrote about on the Cranky Flier blog, he was plied with Champagne and wine. He was served caviar as an appetizer on fine bone china and with a linen tablecloth. His seat turned into a full-size bed. He was handed designer pajamas to wear while an attentive flight attendant made up his bed, complete with a pillow, duvet and sheets.
"I've never experienced such a private jet atmosphere," said Mr. Fischer, who snagged his seat using frequent flier miles. "It was the best flight I've ever been on."
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13) We Are the One Per Cent
Average wealth of the top 1 percent was almost $14 million in 2009, according to a 2011 report from the Economic Policy Institute.
-Washingtonpost.com.
"Shit is fucked up and bullshit."
-Sign seen at the Occupy Wall Street protest in lower Manhattan.
by John Kenney
November 28, 2011
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2011/11/28/111128sh_shouts_kenney?printable=true
We, too, have mobilized.
We come from near and far, by any means necessary, some on private jets, others on extremely large private jets.
But you will not find us sleeping in a park and waiting in line at a Burger King to urinate. Have you heard of Mustique? Because that's where we have mobilized. Don't bother trying to Google Earth us, though, because we have proprietary military software that prevents you from doing so.
Our numbers may be smaller than those demonstrating in New York and other cities, but we are still a movement, coalesced around a cause, sleeping two and sometimes three people to a villa.
Perhaps you are wondering what our cause is. Perhaps you're wondering why we, the richest people on the planet, have come together. Perhaps you're curious whether what we're undertaking couldn't technically be called a vacation. These are all good questions.
We're angry. We're angry at something we're calling "imagined frustration." By this we mean that, except for Congress, the White House, banks, major lobbyists, and the editorial boards of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, no one is listening to us. And we're tired of it.
You claim to know something about us. You think we are rich beyond comprehension, that we can do anything we please at any time, go anywhere we want at a moment's notice, wander the earth in a state of constant bliss, enjoying abundant and fabulous sex. Perhaps you do know us.
There are those in the more liberal press who have questioned whether the wealthiest one per cent truly understand how difficult life is for so many Americans right now, and to that we would say- Oh, look, someone just brought in lobster and a Bollinger Grande AnnƩe.
Except for money and the almost unnatural flawlessness of my skin, we are no different, you and I. I don't know who you are or what you look like or how much money you have in the bank. Nor does it matter. Because we're just men. Unless you are a woman. Or a child. Or a pony. But ponies don't read magazines, do they? Unless they're precocious ponies, like Mister Ed. And he wasn't real. But I think you get my point. And that is: we are the same, except for the coarseness of the skin on your elbows. Do you know that feeling, upon waking at 4 A.M., heart racing, your mind looking twenty, thirty years down the road, wondering how you are going to make ends meet? Worrying about what would happen if you lost your job, asking yourself how you're going to pay for your kids' college or retire? Well, I don't. But I read a story about it once and remember thinking, I'm so glad that's not me.
What do we want?
Here is our manifesto, still very much a work in progress, as it's cocktail hour and several of our protesters are out at the pool:
-All wealth should be shared equally among the wealthy.
-Eradicate poverty. (Note: Maybe a clearer way to say this would be "Eradicate the poor." Need to discuss.)
-End business as usual. (Note: Several members like the sound of this, but they don't know what it means. A suggestion has been made to add the word "hours" after "business.")
-Implement a rule whereby the public cannot look at us and must keep a distance of at least twenty feet at all times.
Yes, I have more things-more homes and cars and planes and art and underground passages and satellites and private militias and a person whose only job is to grow hair that is genetically identical to my own. But when you take off your pants and I take off my pants and we stand facing each other as naked as the day we were born, except for socks, all I would ask is that you feel my skin and tell me it's not the softest skin you've ever felt on a man. And also realize that we are the same, except for the fact that I have four submarines.
Shit is fucked up and bullshit.
We agree.
Except that we would substitute "money" for "shit," "awesome" for "fucked up," and "squash courts" for "bullshit," and add the words "cannot be used for more than ninety minutes. Please respect club rules. Thank you."
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14) Egypt Military Pledges Faster Handover to Civilian Rule
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and ALAN COWELL
November 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/world/middleeast/egypts-cabinet-offers-to-quit-as-activists-urge-wider-protests.html?_r=1&hp
CAIRO - The ruling military council agreed on Tuesday to speed up the transition to civilian rule in a deal made with Islamist groups but which seemed unlikely to satisfy the demands of liberal parties and the more than 100,000 protesters who gathered in the center of the capital to demand an immediate transfer of power.
The agreement came after the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces met with representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups in a session that was boycotted by most other political parties. The deal called for a new constitution and a presidential election no later than next June, as well as a new civilian cabinet to be led by a technocrat prime minister rather than a politician.
Under the agreement, the first round of elections for a national assembly would go ahead as scheduled on Monday, a major goal of the Brotherhood, which stands to win a large share of the seats. But it would also leave the civilian government reporting to the military - effectively a continuation of what amounts to martial law in civilian clothes - until next June.
With the police crackdown galvanizing anger at what protesters see as the military council's increasingly open play for long-term political power, it was unclear whether any credible civilian leader would take the job of prime minister if the government remained subordinate to the military.
"No one is going to accept another civilian government micromanaged" by the military commanders, said Hossam Bahgat, executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.
Referring to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces by its initials, Islam Lotfy, a onetime leader of the Muslim Brotherhood youth movement, said: "The people will not be happy if the SCAF just give them some painkillers." Mr. Lotfy was among the instigators of the revolution; he was later expelled from the Brotherhood for starting a more centrist breakaway political party with other young Brothers.
"It may be the solution will be the SCAF delegating responsibilities to a new cabinet with full authority to manage the country," he said.
Protesters in Tahrir Square in central Cairo battled with the police in nearby streets for the fourth straight day, braving an increasingly lethal crackdown in what seemed to be a leaderless expression of rage. The brutal treatment of the protesters prompted the resignation of the first civilian cabinet, which the military council accepted on Tuesday.
Each day the crowds have grown at the epicenter of Egyptian resistance - first to the former president, Hosni Mubarak, ousted in February and now to the military commanders who replaced him - and the violence has mounted as well.
Intense skirmishes continued on the main avenue leading to the Interior Ministry. Though the security forces could have reached the square from other streets and the protesters could have attacked the Interior Ministry from other directions as well, each side continued to hammer the other - protesters with rocks, the security forces with tear gas that wafted back through the square - along the same charred and pockmarked block.
Many of the protesters wore green face masks, of the type used by medics, to try to filter tear gas fired by security forces in the ebb and flow of the fighting along streets littered with debris. Both sides sought to reinforce makeshift barricades.
A reporter for Al Jazeera held up a spent tear-gas canister to a camera and said its markings said it was manufactured in the United States. But the words were not easily legible to viewers.
By midday, the crowd in Tahrir Square had swelled to many tens of thousands - far larger than at the same time on previous days.
A new banner across the center of the square declared, "This land is owned by the Egyptian people." Tents and a field clinic to treat injured protesters were being set up nearby.
The fighting on Tuesday came as criticism of the military spread beyond Egypt's borders. In a statement, Amnesty International said the ruling commanders had "been responsible for a catalog of abuses which in some cases exceeds the record of Hosni Mubarak."
The military had been seen as the linchpin of the political transition after the enforced departure of Mr. Mubarak.
It was the institution Islamists hoped would steer the country to early elections that they were poised to dominate. Liberals regarded it as a hedge against Islamist power. And the Obama administration considered it a partner that it hoped would help secure American interests.
But the violent crackdown and the resignation of the civilian cabinet were blows to the tenuous legitimacy of the ruling military council.
Reeling from the swift collapse of the military's authority, the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest Islamist group, urged protesters to show restraint or risk delaying the elections.
Many activists, though, were talking about renewed signs of divisions inside the Muslim Brotherhood.
Reopening a split that emerged at the start of the revolution in January, many of the younger members of the group were said to be coming to the square in defiance of their elders' orders to stay home in order to avoid upsetting the elections.
"Just like in January, I think the older leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood will eventually follow as well," said Mr. Bahgat of the Personal Rights Initiative.
Referring to the same quandary, Mr. Lotfy, the onetime leader of the Brotherhood youth. said young Brotherhood followers "will have to take our own decision between what the organization wants and what our conscience tells us to do."
But other Islamists, some more conservative and others more moderate, joined secular parties in calling for the protest Tuesday to demand that the military hand power to a civilian authority.
In the report by Amnesty International, drawn up before the paroxysm of violence began in Cairo and other cities on Saturday, Philip Luther, an Amnesty official, said military rulers had "continued the tradition of repressive rule" which the anti-Mubarak protests had sought to end.
"Those who have challenged or criticized the military council - like demonstrators, journalists, bloggers, striking workers - have been ruthlessly suppressed, in an attempt at silencing their voices," he said. Mr. Luther said the human rights "balance sheet" of the military rulers showed that "the aims and aspirations" of the anti-Mubarak protests had been crushed.
"The brutal and heavy-handed response to protests in the last few days bears all the hallmarks of the Mubarak era," he said.
Victoria Nuland, a spokeswoman for the State Department, called the violence "deplorable" and urged that elections take place on schedule.
The Health Ministry said at least 23 people had died in the four days of violent clashes, and several doctors treating patients at a field clinic and nearby hospital said several had been killed by live ammunition, contrary to denials by the Interior Ministry. More than 1,500 people have been seriously injured in the clashes, the Health Ministry said. Two more people died in protest at Ismailiyah on the Suez Canal on Monday, news reports said.
Though all the political leaders called for elections to begin on schedule next week, a growing number acknowledged privately that the violence was likely to force their delay - potentially adding to the unrest. And even as the political leaders unified around the demands, new divisions emerged among them over how the military might begin to hand over power.
Some liberal groups, led by the former diplomat and presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei, called for the military council to give up power immediately to a civilian "government of national rescue." Other liberals said they sought only the replacement of the current cabinet with a new civilian team with more power to make decisions independently of the council.
Mr. Hamzawy, the founder of a new liberal party and a parliamentary candidate well positioned for a seat from an upscale district of Cairo, said in another Twitter message that he still favored holding elections before picking a new national unity government that would continue to govern under the military council, but called for replacing the current prime minister, Essam Sharaf.
"I'm still convinced that elections are the way to transfer power and I changed my position along with others to demand Sharaf's dismissal after yesterday's statement," he said.
In the square, some protesters worried about who might succeed the military council and its leader, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, even as they chanted for his ouster.
"People don't want military rule, and they won't leave here until the field marshal goes too," said Omar Tareq, 18, a university student from the province of Qalyoubeya. "But I don't really know what happens if he does. Who will take hold of the country?"
David D. Kirkpatrick reported from Cairo, and Alan Cowell from London. Liam Stack, Mayy el Sheikh and Dina Amer contributed reporting from Cairo.
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15) As Layoffs Rise, Stock Buybacks Consume Cash
"The principle behind buybacks is simple. With fewer shares in circulation, earnings per share can rise smartly even if the company's underlying growth is lackluster. In many cases, like that of the medical device maker Zimmer Holdings, executives are able to meet goals for profit growth and earn bigger bonuses despite poor stock performance. ...In addition, executives, who are often large shareholders, stand to benefit from even a small, short-term jump in stock prices.
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ
November 21, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/business/rash-to-some-stock-buybacks-are-on-the-rise.html?hp
When Pfizer cut its research budget this year and laid off 1,100 employees, it was not because the company needed to save money.
In fact, the drug maker had so much cash left over, it decided to buy back an additional $5 billion worth of stock on top of the $4 billion already earmarked for repurchases in 2011 and beyond.
The moves, announced on the same day, might seem at odds with each other, but they represent an increasingly common pattern among American corporations, which are sitting on record amounts of cash but insist that growth opportunities are hard to find.
The result is that at a time when the nation is looking for ways to battle unemployment, big companies are creating fewer jobs, and critics say they are neglecting to lay the foundation for future growth by expanding into new businesses or building new plants.
What is more, share buybacks have not fulfilled their stated purpose of rewarding investors over the last decade, experts say. "It's a symptom of a deeper problem, which is a lack of investment in the long term," said William W. George, a Harvard Business School professor and former chief executive of Medtronic, a medical technology company. "If we're not investing in research, innovation and entrepreneurship, we're going to be a slow-growth country for a decade."
Liberal critics insist the trend is another example of top corporate executives raking in an inordinate share of the nation's wealth, even as their employees suffer.
"It's an extraordinarily unimaginative way to use money," said Robert Reich, a former secretary of labor under President Clinton who now teaches public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. After diving in the wake of the financial crisis, buybacks have made a remarkable comeback in recent years, with $445 billion authorized this year, the most since 2007, when repurchases peaked at $914 billion.
But spending on capital investments like new plants and infrastructure has stagnated more broadly in corporate America, confounding efforts by the Obama administration to spur economic growth. Capital expenditures by companies on the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index are expected to total $546 billion in 2011, down from $560 billion in 2008, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters Eikon.
The principle behind buybacks is simple. With fewer shares in circulation, earnings per share can rise smartly even if the company's underlying growth is lackluster. In many cases, like that of the medical device maker Zimmer Holdings, executives are able to meet goals for profit growth and earn bigger bonuses despite poor stock performance.
"It's clear there's a conflict of interest," said Charles M. Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. "Unless earnings per share are adjusted to reflect the buyback, then to base a bonus on raw earnings per share is problematic. It doesn't purely reflect performance."
In addition, executives, who are often large shareholders, stand to benefit from even a small, short-term jump in stock prices.
Earlier this month, Pfizer increased its estimate for stock repurchases this year to between $7 billion and $9 billion - essentially spending in one year nearly all of the money it set aside in February for multiyear buybacks. There has been a steady drumbeat of other companies laying off workers even as they have disclosed plans to buy back more stock. On June 23, Campbell Soup said it would buy back $1 billion in stock; five days later it announced plans to eliminate 770 jobs. Hewlett-Packard announced a $10 billion stock repurchase in July, and jettisoned 500 jobs in September after it discontinued its TouchPad and smartphone product lines.
Last month, the first layoffs began at Zimmer's plant in Statesville, N.C., which is due to shut early next year. The company made splints and tourniquets there for more than three decades. For the sewing machine operators and the rest of the 124 workers at the plant, it is bad news, but it is a different story for Zimmer's top executives.
Powered by huge stock buybacks - the company bought $500 million worth of its own shares last year, more than twice what it spent on research and development - Zimmer posted earnings growth of 10 percent a share, even though operating income and revenue grew by less than 5 percent in 2010.
That helped its senior management, including the chief executive, David C. Dvorak, collect millions in cash and stock incentive payments by meeting earnings-per-share goals. For example, 50 percent of Mr. Dvorak's $1.03 million cash bonus was tied to achieving per-share earnings of $4.28 in 2010. The company earned $4.33, but without the share repurchases the company would have made $4 to $4.10 a share.
Investors have not rewarded the strategy, however: Zimmer's shares have dropped 32 percent in the last five years, while Pfizer's are down 30 percent in the same period.
Over the last decade, in fact, companies that spent the most on repurchases had a total shareholder return of 37 percent versus 127 percent for companies that spent the least, according to research by Gregory V. Milano, chief executive of Fortuna Advisors, which consults with companies on how to raise their share price over the long term.
In the cases of Pfizer and Zimmer, analysts say the rush to buy back shares crimped development of new products, a prime reason that both companies are experiencing slow revenue growth.
Despite the looming expiration of the patent for its best-selling drug, Lipitor, Pfizer spent more than $20 billion repurchasing shares from 2005 to 2010.
"In that era, it wasn't the best use of cash," said Catherine Arnold, an analyst with Credit Suisse. "They should have been doing more to fix the company."
Matthew Dodds, an analyst with Citigroup, said, "Zimmer has shown little appetite for acquisitions or diversification, yet they don't sport a pipeline that can drive investor interest."
Nevertheless, Zimmer is on track to repurchase $1 billion worth of its shares this year, double last year's pace, and it actually borrowed money last quarter to achieve its goal.
In a statement, Zimmer said its bonus programs were "designed to pay for performance," and that overall compensation strategy was "designed to align the interests of its employees and stockholders." Zimmer is committed to research and development and the introduction of new products, the company said, adding that the factory closure in North Carolina, while difficult, "is in the best interest of the company's stockholders."
Pfizer declined to make an executive available to discuss its policy. But in a statement, the company said it "remains committed to returning capital to shareholders through share buybacks and dividend payments."
As for the cut in research spending in February, Pfizer said it has "accelerated our research strategy and made important changes to concentrate our efforts to deliver the greatest medical and commercial impact."
In a conference call with analysts this month, Pfizer's chief executive, Ian C. Read, said his company would "continually look" for acquisitions that would increase revenue growth. But in deciding how to use the proceeds from recent asset sales, he said "the case to beat is share repurchase."
Financial institutions, which bought back huge amounts of stock over the last decade at share prices far higher than they are today, do not seem to have learned their lesson either. JPMorgan Chase, for example, spent $4.4 billion repurchasing shares in the third quarter even as its stock fell more than 25 percent.
Jamie Dimon, the bank's chief executive, actually apologized for the move last month, conceding: "It would have been wise to wait. We're sorry."
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16) Kansas Abortion Prosecution Loses Some Steam, but Fire Is Still Hot
By A. G. SULZBERGER
November 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/us/kansas-abortion-prosecution-loses-some-steam-but-fire-is-still-hot.html?ref=us
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - The prosecution of a Planned Parenthood affiliate here, the first such criminal case in the nation, has been treated locally as something of a proxy in the battle over abortion rights. Derided by supporters of the organization as politically motivated, the prosecution was celebrated by opponents as the capstone of increasingly aggressive actions here and elsewhere against Planned Parenthood, which provides abortions and other services at health clinics around the country.
Despite the heated rhetoric, though, much of the legal case was technical, centering on the most politically bland of allegations: faulty record keeping.
So it came as a surprise to many this month when county prosecutors here announced that after years of legal battling, they had been forced to drop nearly half the charges, including all of the felony counts, citing - of all things - faulty record keeping. The misdemeanor charges, which involve accusations of failing to fully determine viability before performing some abortions, are still pending.
The revelations that documents in the case had been destroyed years ago added a fresh dose of controversy to what has been a particularly strange chapter in the abortion fight in Kansas, a messy and tangled case that emerged out of a wide-ranging investigation into abortion providers and that has been consumed by allegations of misconduct by political leaders on both sides of the issue.
The state's vocal, and increasingly empowered, contingent of abortion opponents, including a number of Republican elected officials, wondered aloud whether a cover-up was to blame. And Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri questioned whether prosecutors were encouraging conspiracy theories as a way to blame abortion rights supporters while abandoning a losing case.
As the sides swapped accusations, the state attorney general requested an investigation into the document destruction, which is now under way.
This year had already seen escalating conflict over abortion in Kansas, the staging ground for some of the most divisive battles in the nation over the issue. Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican who strongly opposes abortion, approved a series of restrictions, most notably establishing new regulations on clinics that nearly forced two of the three abortion providers in the state to shut down before a federal judge blocked them. Another rule prohibiting Planned Parenthood from receiving federal family planning money was also blocked by a federal judge.
Peter B. Brownlie, president and chief executive of the local affiliate, praised the dismissal of the most serious charges and said the organization would prevail on the remaining ones. "There's no question that political opponents of Planned Parenthood and abortion would have been emboldened by a conviction, particularly on a felony charge," he said.
The case emerged from a long investigation by one of the state's most polarizing elected officials, Phill Kline, who had used his position as Kansas attorney general and later as Johnson County district attorney to crusade against abortion providers, earning a series of official rebukes along the way for his tactics, including a recommendation last month by a state board that he be prohibited from practicing law in the state.
Though the investigation, started in 2003, initially centered on explosive allegations that abortion providers were not reporting all cases of child rape, the charges Mr. Kline eventually filed in 2007 were far less dramatic, including that Planned Parenthood failed to maintain copies of abortion paperwork (a misdemeanor) and, fearing detection, completed the paperwork after an investigation was begun (a felony).
At issue was the fact that the copies of the "termination of pregnancy" reports filed with the state had different handwriting than those kept at the clinic. Planned Parenthood said the reports were different because the copies were made by hand rather than on a copy machine.
As the case was being prepared for trial, Steve Howe, the Johnson County prosecutor who took up the case in 2009 after defeating Mr. Kline in a Republican primary, discovered that the records that were to be used as evidence had been destroyed years earlier, the originals by the Department of Health and Environment and the only authenticated set of copies by the attorney general's office. As a result, Mr. Howe told a judge this month that there was no longer enough admissible evidence to proceed with 49 charges, including 23 felonies.
Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, which opposes abortion, was among those who noted that the governor at the time, Kathleen Sebelius, now secretary of health and human services, was a strong supporter of abortion rights and that the attorney general then, Steve Six, was her appointee. "It's beyond belief that evidence was purposely destroyed, but I believe that's what happened," Ms. Culp said.
But supporters of abortion rights disputed the allegations that the documents were intentionally, rather than routinely, destroyed, and questioned why they had not been requested and secured previously. "It's a red herring to avoid having to walk into court, present the case and lose on the merits because there was never any crime," said Pedro Irigonegaray, a lawyer for Planned Parenthood.
An official investigation is under way at the request of Derek Schmidt, the Republican attorney general who defeated Mr. Six in 2010. He wrote to the Shawnee County sheriff this month requesting an inquiry, because documents pertaining to abortion-related investigations and prosecutions had been destroyed by the attorney general's office in 2009 after Dr. George Tiller, an abortion provider who was later murdered by an abortion opponent, was acquitted of criminal charges. "Sufficient questions exist to require a full and complete investigation of this matter to determine what actually happened," Mr. Schmidt wrote.
A spokeswoman for health and human services said Ms. Sebelius "had no knowledge of the document shredding issues." Mr. Six, who had a nomination to the federal bench blocked because of opposition from abortion opponents, did not return a call for comment.
Mr. Kline, the former prosecutor who now teaches at Liberty University School of Law in Virginia, said he believed the destruction revealed pervasive corruption in state government. "How does it end?" he asked. "I don't know, but I don't expect the judicial system to get to the truth."
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17) California's Campus Movements Dig In Their Heels
By JENNIFER MEDINA
November 21, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/us/police-officers-involved-in-pepper-spraying-placed-on-leave.html?ref=us
LOS ANGELES - It has become something of an annual tradition on California college campuses, in what is perhaps the most prestigious state university system in the country: the state makes large cuts in public universities, they in turn raise tuition, and students respond with angry protests.
But this year, propelled in part by the fervor of the Occupy Wall Street movement and in part by the state of the economy and California's mountainous budget woes, the battle is sharpening. Indeed, the Occupy movement - on campuses, at least - is transforming itself into a student-led crusade against increases in tuition.
A video that showed two University of California, Davis, police officers using pepper spray on seated protesters has gone viral, with hundreds of thousands watching what might have been a relatively small encampment compared with the larger protests across the country. The video has led to demands that Chancellor Linda P. B. Katehi resign. On Monday, Ms. Katehi said she was putting the campus police chief on administrative leave as a way to rebuild trust on campus.
The attack has galvanized protesters on other campuses. Students at the Los Angeles, Berkeley, Riverside and Davis campuses said Monday that they intended to restart their encampments Monday night, in part to test whether they will be rousted or arrested in the wake of the pepper-spraying.
After years of watching the state's budget for higher education erode, they are demanding that the state and university administrators find a way to lower tuition that they say is squeezing out the middle class.
"These are institutions that we call the people's university, but all of us who are in it have just watched this thing collapse on itself being starved for resources year after year," said Lillian Taiz, the president of the California Faculty Association, the union that represents professors in the California State University system. "What keeps happening is that we are turning the university into a place where really only the wealthy can go. The students are watching their parents fall out of the middle class and watching their own ability to move into it be sabotaged."
Tuition at the University of California has nearly doubled over the last several years, and next year the system will collect more money from student tuition than from state revenues. And with the state budget situation worsening by the month, the Legislature seems likely to impose another $200 million in higher education cuts next year. Last week, the California State University Board of Trustees approved a 9 percent tuition increase, even as it cuts courses and student services.
"For the last several years, the debate has been what are we going to cut, but we need to change the conversation to who is going to pay for public education?" said Kyle Arnone, one of the protest organizers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a graduate student in sociology. "We are forcing people to consider the financing of education in a larger context."
Like many of the organizers involved in the protest, Mr. Arnone is a member of the union that represents graduate students. The union is part of a coalition of labor groups and other organizations that are pressing to close a loophole in the state's property taxes and to increase taxes on the state's wealthiest residents. Mr. Arnone said the organization hoped to pressure the regents who oversee the system's budget to sign a pledge backing the changes in the state's tax system.
Mr. Arnone said he expected dozens of students to camp at U.C.L.A. overnight Monday. At the same time, other students are planning to camp out and guard a Bruin statue, the campus mascot. The statue is often vandalized this time of year, ahead of the football game against the school's cross town rival, the University of Southern California. "We're going to make them deal with whether they'll selectively enforce their laws."
The University of California president, Mark G. Yudof, convened a conference call with the chancellors of all 10 campuses, urging them not to use police force to respond to "peaceful, lawful protests," said Daniel M. Dooley, a senior vice president for the system who participated in the call. The president also plans to create protocols to detail how the campuses should respond to the ongoing protest.
Mr. Dooley said that he did not expect Ms. Katehi to resign and that President Yudof had confidence that she could move the campus beyond the incident.
Thousands of people gathered on the Davis campus for a noon rally Monday where Chancellor Katehi spoke. Organizers of the protest there told her she should wait in line with other speakers.
"I am here to apologize. I feel horrible for what happened on Friday," she told the crowd. "I don't want to be the chancellor of the university we had on Friday."
She added: "I know you may not believe anything I am telling you today, and you don't have to. It is my responsibility to earn your trust."
Administrators in the U.C. system have long complained about the state's budget cuts and in many ways are sympathetic to the protesters' demands.
"The rapidly rising fees give us all heartburn," said Gibor Basri, the vice chancellor for equity and inclusion at Berkeley, who has met with the protesters several times. "We don't believe that higher education is a private right but a public good."
Mr. Basri added: "The problem is that the protesters aren't one group. We've got protesters who want to take the place down, and we have very responsible student leaders and everybody in between. When it gets tangled up with how the university responds, it makes things more complicated."
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: November 21, 2011
An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of the vice chancellor for equity and inclusion at the University of California, Berkeley. His name is Gibor Basri, not Gibor Bafri.
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18) Hearing Set in Leak Case
By SCOTT SHANE
November 21, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/us/hearing-set-in-leak-case.html?ref=us
Pfc. Bradley Manning, accused of providing thousands of secret documents to the antisecrecy organization WikiLeaks, will face an evidentiary hearing beginning Dec. 16, Army officials said Monday. The public hearing at Fort Meade, Md., is the military's equivalent of a grand jury and is called an Article 32 hearing. Private Manning, 23, was arrested in Kuwait. He faces a possible life sentence if convicted of three dozen charges, including "aiding the enemy," for passing secret military reports and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks.
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19) After an Eviction, Digging Through a Surplus of Donations
By MATT FLEGENHEIMER
November 22, 2011
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/ows-storage/?ref=nyregion
In a back room on the first floor of an office building on lower Broadway, with wires dangling from tent-sized holes in the ceiling and organizers folding piles of sweaters across the room, Occupy Wall Street opened its mail on Monday.
Monday's was a small load, about two dozen packages, retrieved from the post office address listed on the group's Web site. But since last week's eviction from Zuccotti Park, which thinned the protesters' reserves for staples like blankets and bandages, every parcel has counted.
"We were shipping our surplus supplies to other cities," said Justin Strekal, a member of the storage team. "We no longer know what surplus is."
As the protest's most public face, the Manhattan camp has long attracted donations at a greater clip than counterparts in other cities. Until recently, the group had tried to share the wealth: Days before the eviction, protesters from Philadelphia received a truck-full of blankets, clothing and comforters. "Hand deliveries," as protesters call them - wherein demonstrators planning to travel to other cities bring excess supplies with them - have also been made to Washington and Detroit.
Now, planned shipments to Atlanta, Boston and New Haven, Conn., have been put on hold, as the group tries to gauge which items, stacked on shelves and buried beneath piles inside a donated storage space in the United Federation of Teachers building at 52 Broadway, are worth holding onto.
Donations have come in from Oregon and China, Maine and Ohio, where a woman named Bette Snyder sends oatmeal raisin cookies every week. There have been essentials - aspirin, tampons, hats and heaps of hand-warmers - and non-essentials.
One organizer said the most memorable donation had been a third of a jar of mustard. Another cited a package of 200 eyeglass pouches, shipped from China. "Just the pouches," he marveled.
Sparro Kennedy, a protester from Mount Vernon, N.Y., said a delivery of thongs was particularly galling because "we really needed underwear."
One movement supporter from Oregon contributed laxatives, vinyl gloves and stool softener. The sender, whose package identified him only as "Spang," has become something of an urban legend among the protesters.
Many observers of the movement have also sent books: self-published tomes; a copy of "Sensible Job Interviewing: Understanding the Employer's Role and Responsibilities"; the Steve Jobs biography; and illustrated copies, in English and Spanish, of "The Communist Manifesto."
"It portrays the Communist Party in a bad light," one protester griped on Monday, leafing through the images. "But it's kind of accurate though."
Other items have simply been lost among the space's detritus, perplexing organizers when they turn up during a survey of inventory: a baby mannequin, a George Foreman grill, a board-game version of "The $25,000 Pyramid" ("based on the highly rated TV show," the box reads, beside a grinning Dick Clark).
Between shelves of over-the-counter medications and a Ben & Jerry's ice cream cart, a sign hangs on a moldering column: "Please Pardon Our Appearance," it reads. "We Are Revolting."
Steve Iskovitz, 51, from Pittsburgh, said donations had begun to dip in the days before the eviction last week. Throughout the occupation, he added, mail supply tended to drop in the absence of high-profile showdowns with the city. "Just when we're struggling," he said, "Mayor Bloomberg always helps us out."
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20) News Organizations Complain About Treatment During Protests
By BRIAN STELTER
November 21, 2011, 7:25 pm
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/news-organizations-complain-about-treatment-during-protests/
A cross-section of 13 news organizations in New York City lodged complaints on Monday about the New York Police Department's treatment of journalists covering the Occupy Wall Street movement. Separately, 10 press clubs, unions and other groups that represent journalists called for an investigation and said they had formed a coalition to monitor police behavior going forward.
Monday's actions were prompted by a rash of incidents on Nov. 15, when police officers impeded and even arrested reporters during and after the evictions of Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park, the birthplace of the two-month-old movement.
At a news conference after the park was cleared that day, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg defended the police behavior, saying that the media were kept away "to prevent a situation from getting worse and to protect members of the press."
The news organizations said in a joint letter to the Police Department that officers had clearly violated their own procedures by threatening, arresting and injuring reporters and photographers. The letter said there were "numerous inappropriate, if not unconstitutional, actions and abuses" by the police against both "credentialed and noncredentialed journalists in the last few days." It requested an immediate meeting with the city's police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, and his chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne.
The letter was written by George Freeman, vice president and assistant general counsel for The New York Times Company, and signed by representatives for The Associated Press, The New York Post, The Daily News, Thomson Reuters, Dow Jones & Company, and three local television stations, WABC, WCBS and WNBC. It was also signed by representatives for the National Press Photographers Association, New York Press Photographers Association, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the New York Press Club.
"Over the past few months we have tried to work with D.C.P.I. to improve police-press relations," the letter stated, using shorthand for the department commissioner of public information. "However, if anything, the police actions of last week have been more hostile to the press than any other event in recent memory."
Similarly, the New York Press Club and other groups that represent journalists said Monday that "what the police did on November 15th to suppress coverage of their activities was intolerable." The groups called for an investigation into the police action and said a new group, the Coalition for the First Amendment, would "monitor relations" between the police and the press.
"We are determined to use any means needed to fight such censorship in the future," the groups said.
The groups involved are the Deadline Club and its foundation, the Newspaper Guild of New York, the News Media Guild, the New York Press Club and its foundation, the Newswomen's Club of New York, the New York Press Photographers Association, the Society of Silurians, and the New York City Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Last week, individual journalism groups filed complaints about the restrictions and arrests on Nov. 15, resulting in renewed scrutiny of how the Police Department processes requests for press credentials. The New York Times reported Monday that of the 10 reporters arrested in New York that day, half had city-issued press credentials.
In a memorandum last week, Stu Loeser, the press secretary for Mr. Bloomberg, said "there's no doubt" that some of the arrested reporters "were in fact trespassing." The arrests were voided, Mr. Loeser noted.
"That they were never formally charged," Monday's letter from Mr. Freeman stated, "still does not mitigate the fact that their detention prevented them from carrying out their journalistic functions."
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21) UC Davis English Department Calls for Disbanding UCPD
Monday, November 21, 2011
http://reclaimuc.blogspot.com/2011/11/uc-davis-english-department-recommends.html
The following statement was read to a crowd of thousands during today's rally at UC Davis and posted on the front page of the UCD English Department's website:
The faculty of the UC Davis English Department supports the Board of the Davis Faculty Association in calling for Chancellor Katehi's immediate resignation and for "a policy that will end the practice of forcibly removing non-violent student, faculty, staff, and community protesters by police on the UC Davis campus."
Further, given the demonstrable threat posed by the University of California Police Department and other law enforcement agencies to the safety of students, faculty, staff, and community members on our campus and others in the UC system, we propose that such a policy include the disbanding of the UCPD and the institution of an ordinance against the presence of police forces on the UC Davis campus, unless their presence is specifically requested by a member of the campus community. This will initiate a genuine collective effort to determine how best to ensure the health and safety of the UC Davis campus community.
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22) Radioactive cesium blankets 8% of Japan's land area
By HIROSHI ISHIZUKA / Staff Writer
November 21, 2011
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201111210014
Some 8 percent of Japan's land area, or more than 30,000 square kilometers, has been contaminated with radioactive cesium from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Spanning 13 prefectures, the affected area has accumulated more than 10,000 becquerels of cesium 134 and 137 per square meter, according to the science ministry.
The ministry has released the latest version of its cesium contamination map, covering 18 prefectures.
Radioactive plumes from the Fukushima No. 1 plant reached no farther than the border between Gunma and Nagano prefectures in the west and southern Iwate Prefecture in the north.
Ministry officials said the plumes flowed mainly via four routes between March 14 and 22 after the plant was damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
The first plume headed westward from late March 14 to early March 15, when huge amounts of radioactive materials were released following a meltdown at the No. 2 reactor.
It moved clockwise over a wide area in the Kanto region. Radioactive materials fell with rain and snow, particularly in the northern parts of Tochigi and Gunma prefectures.
A branch of the plume moved southward from Gunma Prefecture, passing through western Saitama Prefecture, eastern Nagano Prefecture and western Tokyo.
It stopped in western Kanagawa Prefecture, where the Tanzawa mountain range rises up.
The second plume headed northwest in the afternoon of March 15, heavily contaminating parts of Namie and other municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture.
The third plume headed northward, apparently in the afternoon of March 20.
Areas in northern Miyagi Prefecture and southern Iwate Prefecture were probably contaminated when it rained between the late afternoon of March 20 and early March 21.
The fourth plume headed southward from the night of March 21 and early March 22.
It passed through northern Chiba Prefecture but largely skirted central Tokyo due to a pressure pattern, limiting contamination in Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture.
It is believed that the amount of radioactive materials released from the Fukushima No. 1 plant increased between March 20 and 23, but the reasons are not yet known.
In Fukushima and seven other prefectures, 11,600 square kilometers, or 3 percent of Japan's land area, have annual additional radiation levels of at least 1 millisievert, according to Environment Ministry estimates.
The government has said it will remove radioactive materials if annual additional radiation levels reach 1 millisievert or more.
The science ministry has been carrying out aerial monitoring of radioactive materials since April.
Helicopters fly at relatively low speeds, allowing monitoring of levels of radiation released from the ground at a height of 1 meter.
Cesium accumulations in soil and radiation levels are also measured separately at selected sites on the ground.
Officials estimate cesium accumulations at other locations using correlations between radiation levels 1 meter above the ground monitored from helicopters and the actual cesium accumulations at the selected sites.
Cesium 137 will have a long-term impact on the environment because it has a half-life of 30 years.
It was detected even before the Fukushima accident, apparently as a result of nuclear testing conducted by other nations.
Still, the maximum amount found in nationwide surveys since fiscal 1999 was 4,700 becquerels in Nagano Prefecture.
The science ministry's cesium contamination map excludes the effects of pre-disaster contamination.
The map will cover 22 prefectures when it is completed by the end of the year. Data for Aomori, Ishikawa, Fukui and Aichi prefectures will be added.
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