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January 1st 2012 March and Speak-Out in memory
of Oscar Grant and all victims of police terror
*********OGC REPORT*********
On Sunday, November 27, 2011 the Occupy Oakland General Assembly approved by 99% the proposal below for a January 1st 2012 March and Speak-Out in memory of Oscar Grant and all victims of police terror. The working group will have its first meeting on Wednesday November 30th at 8:00 p.m. at San Francisco Pizza, 1500 Broadway, Oakland. *Please join us!!!*
PROPOSAL * The Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality and State Repression, Bring the Ruckus, and the Raider Nation Collective propose that the Occupy Oakland General Assembly support, participate in, and help to organize a march and Speak Out on January 1, 2012 from Oscar Grant Plaza to the Fruitvale BART station to memorialize and protest the BART Police murder of fellow worker Oscar Grant and all victims of police violence and state terrorism.
By approving this proposal, the assembly will be mandated to form a working group set with the task of mobilizing a broad section of working class people from East, West, and North Oakland by the way of hand-to-hand flyering, canvassing neighborhoods, and having conversations that prioritize the struggles against police brutality, police profiling, and imprisonment.
We are also asking this Assembly to stand up, through this proposed Speak Out, against the Oakland Police Department's daily violent, repression of working class, low-income of communities of color through curfews, gang injunctions and loitering laws, in addition to outright murder by police.
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FYI:
Nuclear Detonation Timeline "1945-1998"
The 2053 nuclear tests and explosions that took place between 1945 and 1998 are plotted visually and audibly on a world map.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9lquok4Pdk&feature=share&mid=5408
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Lifting the Veil
Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean? It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not avowed, autocrats. We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee. --HELEN KELLER
Suggested slogan for the 2012 elections:
DON'T VOTE FOR THE ONE PERCENT!
Keep Wall Street Occupied (Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JlxbKtBkGM
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In honor of the 75th Anniversary of the 44-Day Flint Michigan sit-down strike at GM that began December 30, 1936:
According to Michael Moore, (Although he has done some good things, this clip isn't one of them) in this clip from his film, "Capitalism a Love Story," it was Roosevelt who saved the day!):
"After a bloody battle one evening, the Governor of Michigan, with the support of the President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt, sent in the National Guard. But the guns and the soldiers weren't used on the workers; they were pointed at the police and the hired goons warning them to leave these workers alone. For Mr. Roosevelt believed that the men inside had a right to a redress of their grievances." -Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story' - Flint Sit-Down Strike http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8x1_q9wg58
But those cannons were not aimed at the goons and cops! They were aimed straight at the factory filled with strikers! Watch what REALLY happened and how the strike was really won!
'With babies & banners' -- 75 years since the 44-day Flint sit-down strike
http://links.org.au/node/2681
--Inspiring
Union Maid
By Woody Guthrie
(Song sung by Pete Seeger also at this site: http://www.actionext.com/names_w/woody_guthrie_lyrics/union_maid.html )
Lyrics:
There once was a union maid, she never was afraid
Of goons and ginks and company finks and the deputy sheriffs who made the raid.
She went to the union hall when a meeting it was called,
And when the Legion boys come 'round
She always stood her ground.
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union, I'm sticking to the union.
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union 'til the day I die.
This union maid was wise to the tricks of company spies,
She couldn't be fooled by a company stool, she'd always organize the guys.
She always got her way when she struck for better pay.
She'd show her card to the National Guard
And this is what she'd say
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union, I'm sticking to the union.
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union 'til the day I die.
You gals who want to be free, just take a tip from me;
Get you a man who's a union man and join the ladies' auxiliary.
Married life ain't hard when you got a union card,
A union man has a happy life when he's got a union wife.
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union, I'm sticking to the union.
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union 'til the day I die.
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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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SOLIDARITY MARCH/RALLY IN SUPPORT OF EGYPTIAN WOMEN IN STRUGGLE
Dec. 30, 3pm, Oscar Grant Plaza, Oakland (near 12 St. BART)
Let's have a strong CodePink solidarity contingent!
tahmina_mahrzad@yahoo.com
Dear friends,
My name is Shimaa and I'm an Egyptian activist from Cairo.
Since the second half of October I came to the U.S to speak about the revolution from a different perspective and learn about Occupy movement. Since I'm no longer in Tahrir I feel obligated to do something here.
A week ago we made a proposal to the GA of Occupy Oakland to sign a statement of solidarity to support actions in the Bay area related to the Egyptian revolution and the struggle of the Egyptian revolutionary women.
The first action I'm organizing will be on Friday December the 30th. We will have a woman rally and march in solidarity with the Egyptian women and to denounce the following:
* The violation of human rights and the targeting of female protesters by the Egyptian military.
* The continuous support of the U.S government to SCAF that receives over than 1.3 billion $ as a form of military foreign aid.
The revolutionary women and girls struggling with the revolution and the systemic assaulting by the military in Egypt need the support and a solidarity message from their fellow American activists of occupy and other people especially women struggling in the U.S will be such a powerful initiative.
These are some related articles about 2 women who have been assaulted by the U.S packed military council in March and December:
http://www.roundtree7.com/2011/12/solidarity-from-oakland-to-samira-to-the-women-of-egypt/
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/22/world/africa/egypt-woman-attacked/
The rally will start at 3 pm at Occupy Oakland, we will need speakers so If any of you want to speak or send a solidarity message to the women struggling in Egypt you are more than welcome.
Bring signs and print pictures, these are some high quality samples that you can use:
http://rowanelshimi.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/dsc_3058.jpg
http://washingtonexaminer.com/files/d5d072b77fe3d91c010f6a70670050f1_0.jpg
http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/wp-content/uploads/EgyptRevolution_highres.jpg
Join us to defend the global revolution.
Say no to torture and military trials for Egyptians.
Say no to the U.S military Aid to SCAF from the tax money of the 99%!
*********************************************
Location:
Frank Ogawa Plaza (Oscar Grant Plaza). 14th st exit from the 12th st/City Center Bart. Oakland, California
Event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/238734672863455/
My pages in English:
https://www.facebook.com/Shimaa.Tahrir
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupywallstreet-and-Egyptian-revolutionaries-United-for-change/312499518766801
Twitter: @Agenda_kid
I will see you there :)
In solidarity,
Shimaa from Tahrir square
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January 1st 2012 March and Speak-Out in memory
of Oscar Grant and all victims of police terror
*********OGC REPORT*********
On Sunday, November 27, 2011 the Occupy Oakland General Assembly approved by 99% the proposal below for a January 1st 2012 March and Speak-Out in memory of Oscar Grant and all victims of police terror. The working group will have its first meeting on Wednesday November 30th at 8:00 p.m. at San Francisco Pizza, 1500 Broadway, Oakland. *Please join us!!!*
PROPOSAL * The Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality and State Repression, Bring the Ruckus, and the Raider Nation Collective propose that the Occupy Oakland General Assembly support, participate in, and help to organize a march and Speak Out on January 1, 2012 from Oscar Grant Plaza to the Fruitvale BART station to memorialize and protest the BART Police murder of fellow worker Oscar Grant and all victims of police violence and state terrorism.
By approving this proposal, the assembly will be mandated to form a working group set with the task of mobilizing a broad section of working class people from East, West, and North Oakland by the way of hand-to-hand flyering, canvassing neighborhoods, and having conversations that prioritize the struggles against police brutality, police profiling, and imprisonment.
We are also asking this Assembly to stand up, through this proposed Speak Out, against the Oakland Police Department's daily violent, repression of working class, low-income of communities of color through curfews, gang injunctions and loitering laws, in addition to outright murder by police.
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International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5
"Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up"
Wednesday January 4, 2012
Roxie Theater
3117 16th St
(one block from the 16th and Mission BART station)
Two showing
6:30 pm and 8:00 pm
FILMMAKER IN PERSON!
This film chronicles half a century of hostile US-Cuba relations by telling the story of "the Cuban Five": intelligence agents sent to penetrate Cuban exile terrorist groups in Miami who are now serving long prison sentences.
WILL THE REAL TERRORIST PLEASE STAND UP highlights decades of assassinations and sabotage at first backed - then ignored - by the very government that launched a "War on Terror".
From the Bay of Pigs to multiple attempts on Fidel Castro's life, a question is raised: what did Cuba do to deserve such hostile treatment? Directed by Saul Landau. Cinematography by Haskell Wexler. 2011. Digital. 65 mins. Original Music -- The Cuban Cowboys, Greg and Camilo Landau.
Read review by Lawrence Wilkerson (Colonel, US Army, Ret.)
http://www.thehavananote.com/node/890
International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5
For more information visit :
www.thecuban5.org
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SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 7:30pm
Palestinian human rights activist OMAR BARGHOUTI
Speaking on
"Occupy Wall Street not Palestine! BDS and the Global Struggle for Justice & Freedom in Palestine"
First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway
Booksigning of Barghouti's book, Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights follows the program
Presented by the Middle East Children's Alliance & CODEPINK
Benefit for MECA's Maia Project: Clean Water for Children in Gaza. Wheelchair accessible, ASL interpreted.
Event includes Special Guests!
Buy Your Tickets Now! http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/216036
Tickets $10, no one turned away for lack of funds -For info: 510-548-0542, www.mecaforpeace.org
Cosponsored by: KPFA, Al-Awda, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, US Palestinian Community Network, Northern California Friends of Sabeel, Global Exchange, US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, Bay Area Women in Black, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
--
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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It's Time to "Occupy the Dream:" African-American Faith Community Joins Forces with Occupy Wall Street - First Day of Action on MLK Day, Jan 16 at Federal Reserve Banks
December 15, 2011 in Chicago, DC, Direct Action, Discrimination, Federal Reserve, Liberty Park, Los Angeles, Memphis, Minnesota, OccupyTogether, Philadelphia, Richmond, San Francisco, Seattle, St Louis, Video
Members of the African-American faith community have joined forces with Occupy Wall Street to launch a new campaign for economic justice inspired by the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. Faithful to its philosophical origin, the "Occupy the Dream" coalition has called for a National Day of Action on Martin Luther King Day - Monday, January 16, 2012 - when they will "Occupy the Federal Reserve," in multiple cities nationwide, focusing attention on the gross injustice visited upon the 99% by the financial elite. This will be the first of many actions leading up to a mass gathering in Washington D.C., to be held April 4 - 7, when millions will unite in celebration of the life and legacy of Dr King.
In support of this effort, StudioOccupy.org has created this inspiring video:
http://studiooccupy.org/#!/media/oici4d
The Occupy the Dream coalition was launched by a contemporary of Dr. King - Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. - and Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant of the Empowerment Temple Church, in partnership with Occupy Wall Street organizers. The following statement in support of the Occupy the Dream coalition was prepared by over 30 Occupy Wall Street organizers and read at the National Press Club in Washington, DC:
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for social and economic justice with a deep moral commitment to non-violent civil disobedience. His legacy inspires many of us on the front lines of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Nearly fifty years since hundreds of thousands of people marched with Dr. King and filled the nation's capital, the dream that inspired our nation remains unfulfilled. As shocking as it is to believe, there is a more severe inequality of wealth in the United States today than there was back then. More Americans are living in poverty today than when Dr. King organized the Poor People's Campaign.
While the rich have grown richer, tens of millions of Americans have been exploited and left behind. In a time of great wealth and technological advancement, American families are desperately struggling to get by and to make ends meet.
Our political, economic, and legal systems have become wholly corrupted through a system of political bribery. Through campaign finance, lobbying, and the revolving door between Washington and Wall Street, our wealth has been consolidated into the hands of the few at the expense and suffering of the many.
Many of our brothers and sisters lead lives dominated by fear. Fear of losing a home. Fear of losing a job. Fear of losing medical coverage. Fear of losing the ability to provide food for our families. And for far too many, these fears have already become a reality.
The Occupy Wall Street movement is about people coming together to say "enough is enough." Our families have endured economic oppression for too long. The Occupy Wall Street movement draws its strength from people of all different walks of life, with opinions across the political spectrum, coming together to find common ground and unite against the global financial interests that have bought control of our government.
Dr. King's vision of economic justice is an edifying example of what we intend to achieve. The Occupy movement has become a powerful force by occupying communities throughout the country. The time has now come for us to embody the spirit of Dr. King and for us to "Occupy the Dream."
We are proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with the African-American Faith community in this campaign for economic fairness and justice. We are all in this fight together. We all want a healthy and secure future for our families. In the absence of a government that will defend and represent us, we are now taking it upon ourselves to stand up and defend our own families.
It is a great honor today to join with the spirit of Dr. King, to join with heroes of the civil rights movement, luminaries of the faith community, pioneers in music and all of you in attendance.
It is a great honor today to announce the birth of the "Occupy the Dream" movement.
Social Media Accounts
Twitter: @OccupyDreamOWS
Facebook: Occupy the Dream
For more information visit OccupyDream.org.
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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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Busby: Fukushima 'criminal event' calls for investigation
Uploaded by RussiaToday on Dec 27, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F0uFAWV7uc&feature=player_embedded%23!
A newly released report on the Fukushima nuclear crisis says it was down to the plant's operators being ill-prepared and not responding properly to the earthquake and tsunami disaster. A major government inquiry said some engineers abandoned the plant as the trouble started and other staff delayed reporting significant radiation leaks. Professor Christopher Busby, scientific secretary to the European Committee on Radiation Risks, says health damage after contamination will be more serious than Japan announced.
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HALLELUJAH CORPORATIONS (revised edition).mov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws0WSNRpy3g
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ONE OF THE GREATEST POSTS ON YOUTUBE SO FAR!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8C-qIgbP9o&feature=share&mid=552
Charlie Chaplin final speech in "The Great Dictator"
I'm sorry but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible; Jew, Gentile, black men, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each others' happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men's souls; has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge as made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in man; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all.
Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say "Do not despair." The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you; who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder! Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men---machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have a love of humanity in your hearts! You don't hate! Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural.
Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it's written "the kingdom of God is within man", not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power.
Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill their promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.
Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!
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ILWU Local 10 Longshore Workers Speak-Out At Oakland Port Shutdown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JUpBpZYwms
Uploaded by laborvideo on Dec 13, 2011
ILWU Local 10 longshore workers speak out during a blockade of the Port of Oakland called for by Occupy Oakland. Anthony Levieges and Clarence Thomas rank and file members of the union. The action took place on December 12, 2011 and the interview took place at Pier 30 on the Oakland docks.
For more information on the ILWU Local 21 Longview EGT struggle go to
http://www.facebook.com/groups/256313837734192/
For further info on the action and the press conferernce go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz3fE-Vhrw8&feature=youtu.be
Production of Labor Video Project www.laborvideo.org
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Lifting the Veil
"Our democracy is but a name...We choose between Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee" --Helen Keller, 1911
"It is naive to expect the initiative for reform of the state to issue from the political process that serves theinterests of political capitalism. This structure can only be reduced if citizens withdraw and direct their energies and civic commitment to finding new life forms...The old citizenship must be replaced by a fuller and wider notion of being whose politicalness will be expressed not in one or two modes of actibity--voting or protesting--but in many." --Sheldon Wolin
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/lifting-the-veil/
This film explores the historical role of the Democratic Party as the graveyard of social movements, the massive influence of corporate finance in elections, the absurd disparities of wealth in the United States, the continuity and escalation of neocon policies under Obama, the insufficiency of mere voting as a path to reform, and differing conceptions of democracy itself.
Lifting the Veil is the long overdue film that powerfully, definitively, and finally exposes the deadly 21st century hypocrisy of U.S. internal and external policies, even as it imbues the viewer with a sense of urgency and an actualized hope to bring about real systemic change while there is yet time for humanity and this planet.
Noble is brilliantly pioneering the new film-making - incisive analysis, compelling sound and footage, fearless and independent reporting, and the aggregation of the best information out there into powerful, educational and free online feature films - all on a shoestring budget.
Viewer discretion advised - Video contains images depicting the reality and horror of war.
Lifting the Veil from S DN on Vimeo.
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Frida Kahlo Diego Rivera y Trotsky Video Original
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45Z0keLaGhQ
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Toronto Emergency Public Warning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iiGTGwQ9HM&feature=player_embedded
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Tom Morello Occupy LA
Uploaded by sandrineora on Dec 3, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChicrlyeKhg&feature=player_embedded
The Nightwatchman, Tom Morello, comes to lift the spirits of Occupy LA the evening after the raid on November 29, 2011.
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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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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
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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Shot by police with rubber bullet at Occupy Oakland
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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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 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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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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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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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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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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Urgent Appeal to Occupy and All Social Justice Movements: Mobilize to Defend the Egyptian Revolution
Endorse the statement here:
http://www.defendegyptianrevolution.org/2011/12/19/defend-the-egyptian-revolution/
In recent days, protesters demanding civilian rule in Egypt have again been murdered, maimed and tortured by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the Interior Security Forces (ISF).
The conspiracy, being brutally implemented in Egypt, is part of a global conspiracy to suffocate mass movements for socio-economic justice and is being done with direct assistance of the American government and the private interests which direct that government. We have word from friends in Egypt that SCAF, ISF and their hired thugs - armed by ongoing shipments of $1.3 billion in weapons from the U.S. government - plan to execute one by one all the leaders of the revolution, and as many activists as they can.
Accordingly, we need to ensure that people and organizers in the US and internationally are involved in closely monitoring the events unraveling in Egypt. By keeping track of the atrocities committed by SCAF and ISF, keeping track of those detained, tortured or targeted, and continuously contacting officials in Egypt and the US to demand accountability, cessation of the atrocities and justice, we can add pressure on SCAF, ISF and the forces they represent. In this way we may be able to play a role in helping save the lives of our Egyptian brothers and sisters.
Evidence of the conspiracy to execute the leaders and participants of Egyptian freedom movement, includes in very small part the following:
* Sheikh Emad of Al Azhar was killed by a bullet entering his right side from short range. This was seen at first hand by witnesses known to members of our coalition. Sheikh Emad was one of a small number of Azhar Imams issuing decrees in support of the revolution. His murder was no accident.
* Sally Tooma, Mona Seif, Ahdaf Soueif, and Sanaa Seif, all female friends and relatives of imprisoned blogger and activist Alaa abd El Fattah, and all known internationally for their political and/or literary work, were detained, and beaten in the Cabinet building.
* A woman protesting against General Tantawi, head of SCAF, was detained and then tortured by having the letter "T" in English carved into her scalp with knives.
* Detainees are being tortured while in courtroom holding pens. Two men (Mohammad Muhiy Hussein is one of them) were killed in those pens.These are only a small number of the horror stories we are hearing. And we continue to receive reports from Cairo about a massive army presence in Tahrir Square and the constant sound of gunshots.These are only a small number of the horror stories we are hearing. And we continue to receive reports from Cairo about a massive army presence in Tahrir Square and the constant sound of gunshots.
In every way, Egypt's fight is our fight. Just like us, Egyptians are the 99%, fighting for social, political and economic justice.
The same 1% that arms the Egyptian dictatorship commits systematic violence in this country against the Occupy movement; antiwar and solidarity activists; and Arabs, Muslims, and other communities of color.
As the US Palestinian Community Network recently observed, "the same US-made tear gas rains down on us in the streets of Oakland, Cairo and Bil`in."
Because of Egypt's key strategic location, the fate of its revolution echoes across the world. Its success will bring us all closer to achieving economic and social justice. But its defeat would be a major blow to social justice movements everywhere, including Occupy.
In short, Egypt is key to the continued success of the Arab Revolution, and movements she has inspired.
For all these reasons, we ask Occupy and all U.S. social justice activists to join us in mobilizing to defend our Egyptian brothers and sisters by immediately organizing mass convergences on Egyptian embassies, missions, consulates, and at U.S. government offices, to demand:
* Cancel all US aid and shipment of military and police materiel to Egypt!
* Stop the murders, tortures and detentions!
* Release all detainees and political prisoners!
* Immediate end to military rule in Egypt!
Please endorse and circulate this appeal widely. Please send statements with these demands to the bodies listed below. By endorsing, your organization commits to making these phone calls and following up continuously for the next week.
www.defendegyptianrevolution.org and defendegyptianrevolution@gmail.com
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Tarek Mehanna - another victim of the U.S. War to Terrorize Everyone. He was targeted because he would not spy on his Muslim community for the FBI. Under the new NDAA indefinite military detention provision, Tarek is someone who likely would never come to a trial, although an American citizen. His sentencing is on April 12. There will be an appeal. Another right we may kiss goodbye. We should not accept the verdict and continue to fight for his release, just as we do for hero Bradley Manning, and all the many others unjustly persecuted by our government until it is the war criminals on trial, prosecuted by the people, and not the other way around.
Marilyn Levin
Official defense website: http://freetarek.com/
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Free Tarek
Date: Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 3:41 PM
Subject: [Tarek Mehanna Support] Today's verdict
All who have followed Tarek's trial with a belief in the possibility of justice through the court system will be shocked to learn that today the jury found him guilty on all seven counts of the indictment. In the six weeks that the prosecution used to present its case, it presented no evidence linking Tarek to an illegal action. Instead, it amassed a large and repetitive collection of videos, e-mails, translated documents, recorded telephone conversations and informant testimony aimed at demonstrating Tarek's political beliefs. The core belief under scrutiny was one that neither Tarek nor his defense team ever denied: Muslims have a right to defend their countries when invaded.
The prosecution relied upon coercion, prejudice, and ignorance to present their case; the defense relied upon truth, reason and responsibility. The government relied upon mounds of "evidence" showing that Tarek held political beliefs supporting the right to armed resistance against invading force; they mentioned Al-Qaeda and its leadership as often as possible while pointing at Tarek. It is clear they coerced Tarek's former friends and pressured them to lie, and many of them admitted to such. There is a long list of ways this trial proceeded unjustly, to which we will devote an entire post. The government's cynical calculation is that American juries, psychologically conditioned by a constant stream of propaganda in the "war on terrorism," will convict on the mere suggestion of terrorism, without regard for the law. Unfortunately, this strategy has proved successful in case after case.
Tarek's case will continue under appeal. We urge supporters to write to Tarek, stay informed, and continue supporting Tarek in his fight for justice. Sentencing will be April 12th, 2012. We will be sending out more information soon.
A beacon of hope and strength throughout this ordeal has been Tarek's strength and the amount of support he has received. Tarek has remained strong from day one, and even today he walked in with his head held high, stood unwavering as the verdict was read to him, and left the courtroom just as unbowed as ever. His body may be in prison now, but certainly this is a man whose spirit can never be caged. His strength must be an inspiration to us all, even in the face of grave circumstances. Before he left the courtroom, he turned to the crowd of supporters that was there for him, paused, and said, "Thank you, so much." We thank you too. Your support means the world to him.
You are here: Home » ACLU | "Mehanna verdict compromises First Amendment, undermines national security" by Christopher Ott
ACLU | "Mehanna verdict compromises First Amendment, undermines national security" by Christopher Ott
Mehanna verdict compromises First Amendment, undermines national security
Submitted by Online Coordinator on Tue, 12/20/2011 - 14:31 First Amendment National Security
Decision today threatens writers and journalists, academic researchers, translators, and even ordinary web surfers.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
CONTACT:
Christopher Ott, Communications Director, 617-482-3170 x322, cott@aclum.org
BOSTON - The following statement on the conviction today of Tarek Mehanna may be attributed to American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts executive director Carol Rose:
"The ACLU of Massachusetts is gravely concerned that today's verdict against Tarek Mehanna undermines the First Amendment and threatens national security.
"Under the government's theory of the case, ordinary people-including writers and journalists, academic researchers, translators, and even ordinary web surfers-could be prosecuted for researching or translating controversial and unpopular ideas. If the verdict is not overturned on appeal, the First Amendment will be seriously compromised.
"The government's prosecution does not make us safer. Speech about even the most unpopular ideas serves as a safety valve for the expression of dissent while government suppression of speech only drives ideas underground, where they cannot be openly debated or refuted.
"The ACLU believes that we can remain both safe and free, and, indeed, that our safety and our freedom go hand in hand."
The ACLU of Massachusetts has condemned the use of conspiracy and material support charges where the charges are based largely on First Amendment-protected expression.
In Mr. Mehanna's case, the charges against him have been based on allegations of such activity, such as watching videos about "jihad", discussing views about suicide bombings, translating texts available on the Internet, and looking for information about the 9/11 attackers. Historically, government prosecutors have used conspiracy charges as a vehicle for the suppression of unpopular ideas, contrary to the dictates of the First Amendment and fundamental American values.
After the ACLU of Massachusetts submitted a memorandum of law in support of Mehanna's motion to dismiss the parts of the indictment against him that were based on protected expression, U.S. District Court Judge George O'Toole denied permission for the memorandum to be filed with the court. A copy of the memorandum is available here.
For more information, go to: http://aclum.org/usa_v_mehanna
via Mehanna verdict compromises First Amendment, undermines national security | ACLU of Massachusetts.
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MUMIA HAS BEEN TRANSFERRED TO SCI MAHANOY!
From: info@freemumia.com
December 14, 2011
Greetings all,
Just verified with Superintendent John Kerestes that Mumia Abu-Jamal is being held in Administrative Custody at SCI Mahanoy, Frackville, PA until he is cleared to enter general population within a few days.
We need phone calls to the institution to let them know that the WORLD is watching Mumia's movements and ask general questions so that they know that nothing they are doing is happening under cover of darkness.
Please also send cards and letters to Mumia at the new address so that he begins receiving mail immediately and it is known to all of the people there that we are with him!
PHONE NUMBER: 570-773-2158
MAILING ADDRESS:
Mumia Abu-Jamal, #AM8335
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Road
Frackville, PA 17932
CURRENT VISITORS on Mumia's list will allegedly be OK'd to visit once their names are entered into the computer at Frackville. NEW VISITORS will have to receive the pertinent forms directly from Mumia.
DIRECTIONS TO THE PRISON are available at http://www.cheapjailcalls.com/correctional-facility-directory/state-prison-directory/item/sci-mahanoy
PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD!!!
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HANDS OFF IRAN PETITION
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/hands-off-iran/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=system&utm_campaign=Send%2Bto%2BFriend
The Petition
To President Obama and Secretary Clinton:
At no time since the Iranian people rose up against the hated U.S-installed Shah has a U.S./Israeli military attack against Iran seemed more possible. Following three decades of unrelenting hostility, the last few months have seen a steady escalation of charges, threats, sanctions and actual preparations for an attack.
We, the undersigned demand No War, No Sanctions, no Internal Interference in Iran.
(For a complete analysis of the prospects of war, click here)
http://nepajac.org/unaciran.htm
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"A Child's View from Gaza: Palestinian Children's Art and the Fight Against Censorship" book
https://www.mecaforpeace.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=25
A Child's View from GazaA collection of drawings by children in the Gaza Strip, art that was censored by a museum in Oakland, California.
With a special forward by Alice Walker, this beautiful, full-color 80-page book from Pacific View Press features drawings by children like Asil, a ten-year-old girl from Rafah refugee camp, who drew a picture of herself in jail, with Arabic phrases in the spaces between the bars: "I have a right to live in peace," "I have a right to live this life," and "I have a right to play."
For international or bulk orders, please email: meca@mecaforpeace.org, or call: 510-548-0542
A Child's View from Gaza: Palestinian Children's Art and the Fight Against Censorship [ISBN: 978-1-881896-35-7]
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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
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
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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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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
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WITNESS GAZA
http://www.witnessgaza.com/
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Write to Bradley
http://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 fight 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) Iraq Combat Veteran Dan Choi Forcibly Ousted, Barred from Bradley Manning Hearing at Ft. Meade
DemocracyNow! Broadcast Interview
December 21, 2011
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/12/21/iraq_combat_veteran_dan_choi_forcibly
2) Fiscal Crisis Takes Toll on Health of Greeks
By SUZANNE DALEY
December 26, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/world/europe/greeks-reeling-from-health-care-cutbacks.html?ref=world
3) Japan Panel Cites Failure in Tsunami
By HIROKO TABUCHI
December 26, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/world/asia/report-condemns-japans-response-to-nuclear-accident.html?ref=world
4) Rare but Grudging Judicial About-Face in Bias Case
By ADAM LIPTAK
December 26, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/us/tyson-discrimination-verdict-restored-by-appeals-court.html?ref=us
5) Japan Recommends Temporary State Control for Tokyo Electric
"The order came after Tokyo Electric Power requested ¥689.4 billion, or $8.8 billion, in government aid to help pay for its response to the nuclear accident at its Fukushima site." [I.e., Japanese tax-payers will foot the bill...bw]
By HIROKO TABUCHI
December 27, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/business/global/japan-recommends-temporary-state-control-for-tokyo-electric.html?adxnnl=1&ref=business&adxnnlx=1325008804-gCzfYdFyNH5uUzTo1OESfw
6) Justice and Prosecutorial Misconduct
New York Times Editorial
December 28, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/opinion/justice-and-prosecutorial-misconduct.html?hp
7) Weapons Sales to Iraq Move Ahead Despite U.S. Worries
"The program to arm the military is being led by the United States Embassy here, which through its Office of Security Cooperation serves as a broker between the Iraqi government and defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Among the big-ticket items being sold to Iraq are F-16 fighter jets, M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks, cannons and armored personnel carriers. The Iraqis have also received body armor, helmets, ammunition trailers and sport utility vehicles, which critics say can be used by domestic security services to help Mr. Maliki consolidate power. ...Lt. Gen. Robert L. Caslen, the head of the American Embassy office that is selling the weapons, said he was optimistic that Mr. Maliki and the other Iraqi politicians would work together and that the United States would not end up selling weapons to an authoritarian government."
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and ERIC SCHMITT
December 28, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/world/middleeast/us-military-sales-to-iraq-raise-concerns.html?hp
8) With $30 Billion Arms Deal, U.S. Bolsters Saudi Ties
By MARK LANDLER
December 29, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/world/middleeast/with-30-billion-arms-deal-united-states-bolsters-ties-to-saudi-arabia.html?ref=world
9) 14 Muslim Leaders Plan Boycott of Breakfast With Mayor
By KATE TAYLOR
December 28, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/nyregion/14-muslim-leaders-plan-boycott-of-bloomberg-interfaith-breakfast.html?ref=nyregion
10) Weekly US Oil and Gas Rig Count Down by 1
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 29, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/12/29/business/AP-US-Rig-Count.html?src=busln
11) The Port Shutdown Controversy: Corporate Profit vs. the Right to Protest
Ignoring history of port-related discord not wise
"Businessmen, politicians and even union officials have expressed outrage about the 'damage' done by port 'disruptions.' Yet when maritime employers shut down all West Coast ports for two weeks in 2002 by locking out longshore workers in the midst of contract negotiations, you could hardly see any complaints in the media or from politicians about the employers' 'disruption' of the port."
By Jack Heyman
December 30, 2011
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/30/EDQN1MI9VV.DTL
12) Tax Benefits From Options as Windfall for Businesses
"Thanks to a quirk in tax law, companies can claim a tax deduction in future years that is much bigger than the value of the stock options when they were granted to executives. This tax break will deprive the federal government of tens of billions of dollars in revenue over the next decade. And it is one of the many obscure provisions buried in the tax code that together enable most American companies to pay far less than the top corporate tax rate of 35 percent - in some cases, virtually nothing even in very profitable years."
By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI
December 29, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/business/tax-breaks-from-options-a-windfall-for-businesses.html?hp
13) Deadliest Year on Record for Elephants
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 29, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/world/africa/deadliest-year-on-record-for-elephants.html?ref=world
14) Factory Jobs Gain, but Wages Retreat
"'The trade-off is absolutely worth it; the alternatives are $15 an hour or zero dollars an hour,' Mayor Fischer said. ...'They were making $22 an hour and they are now making $15 an hour,' Ms. Thomas said, referring to a concessionary United Automobile Workers agreement. 'They were totally upset. But the alternative offered by the company was cut the wage scale or close the plant.'"
[Remember: "General Electric Paid No Federal Taxes in 2010" By JAKE TAPPER (@jaketapper), THE WHITE HOUSE, March 25, 2011, http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/general-electric-paid-federal-taxes-2010/story?id=13224558 "In fact, GE got a $3.2 billion tax benefit." ...FYI, from Bonnie Weinstein]
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
December 29, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/business/us-manufacturing-gains-jobs-as-wages-retreat.html?ref=us
15) California: Homeless Campers Evicted
[Right out of John Steinbeck...bw]
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 29, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/us/california-homeless-campers-evicted-in-sacramento.html?ref=us
16) Pelican Bay State Prison, Short Corridor Update/Statement - **PLEASE SHARE AND PUBLISH*
(December 2011)
From: kendracastaneda55@gmail.com
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1) Iraq Combat Veteran Dan Choi Forcibly Ousted, Barred from Bradley Manning Hearing at Ft. Meade
DemocracyNow! Broadcast Interview
December 21, 2011
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/12/21/iraq_combat_veteran_dan_choi_forcibly
Former U.S. Army Lt. Dan Choi attended the pretrial military hearing for accused Army whistleblower Private Bradley Manning this weekend but was barred from returning on Monday. Military security handcuffed Choi, pinned him to the ground and ripped off his rank. The military says Choi was heckling, but Choi maintains he never disrupted the proceedings. He is an Iraq War combat veteran, supporter of Manning, and an openly gay servicemember who was discharged in 2010 under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. "What Bradley Manning did, as a gay American, as a soldier, a good soldier-in fact, the only soldier in his entire chain of command who did the right thing, and suffers the consequences unjustly-there's no choice but for patriotic Americans to sit there and support Bradley Manning in the dignity and full honor of the uniform of service," Choi says. [includes rush transcript]
Filed under Bradley Manning, Wikileaks, LGBT, civil rights
NERMEEN SHAIKH: We're joined here in the studio by former Lieutenant Dan Choi, who attended the trial this weekend but was barred from returning on Monday. Lieutenant Choi is an Iraq combat veteran and supporter of Bradley Manning. He's also an openly gay servicemember who was discharged in 2010 under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Welcome, Lieutenant.
LT. DAN CHOI: It's great to be with you, and it's great to be with you in the uniform of my country.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Can you explain, Dan, what happened on Monday at the trial?
LT. DAN CHOI: I went to the main gate with Dan Ellsberg, and we were stopped for about 10 minutes, delayed from entering the base. They knew that we were going there for trial. I had been there the few days beforehand, in full uniform. This is the uniform that I was wearing. And I was accosted as to why I'm wearing the uniform if I was discharged, that I'm not allowed to wear the uniform. And I argued with them, said, "Take a look at the Army Regulation 670-1, as well as Schacht v. The United States, 1970. I have the right to wear this uniform." And he said, "I'm not trying to fight you." And I said, "Well, I will pick a fight with you, because I know the law, and it's my right to be there to support Bradley Manning." He let us in-
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Why did they say that you can't wear the uniform? What kind of law were they invoking?
LT. DAN CHOI: I think-well, the real reason, I think, is they're angry that anybody who's a combat veteran of the Iraq War, who served in our military, who's proud of their service, would dare sit in support of Bradley Manning. And it was a way for the military public affairs office to control the message and the images that go out to the public. I think that's the real reason. And so, as I've noticed throughout many times, throughout not only this ordeal and this event, but throughout my military service and watching the military now from the outside, they do find other ways to punish those who they disagree with.
AMY GOODMAN: So, on Monday, exactly what happened when you tried to go in? They handcuffed you?
LT. DAN CHOI: When I tried to go in, they said that I was heckling the hearing, which was impossible because I wasn't in the hearing that morning. The past two days I was absolutely quiet and peaceful, adding to the decorum and the dignity of the event. But they said that I was heckling, and so they ejected me. They said, "Get out of here."
AMY GOODMAN: Get out of the base.
LT. DAN CHOI: Yes. Major Sides and a U.S. marshal named John, they said that I was disruptive, at which point they handcuffed me, and then they high-tackled me to the ground, pinned me down. And I have a picture of-and actually x-rays that I took the night of-that show that I was bruised in my left leg. I was given this because of my wrist sprain.
AMY GOODMAN: You're wearing a wrist brace.
LT. DAN CHOI: Yes. I was-I'm actually supposed to wear it on both, but it's really the right wrist that was damaged the most. And this is my rank, that doesn't go back on anymore. So-
AMY GOODMAN: Because?
LT. DAN CHOI: Because they assaulted me. And when they ripped off the rank, it was-I don't know if it was intentional. I wasn't watching everything.
AMY GOODMAN: They ripped the rank off your shoulder?
LT. DAN CHOI: As they were throwing me to the ground, and I was handcuffed, at which point they said I was assaulting them. I was yelling, "I have a right to be here. There's no charge. There's no reason why you should be assaulting me and using excessive force. There's no reason why you should be invidiously prior restraining me. There's no reason. I know my rights. This is an open trial." And they said, "You're assaulting us, and we're kicking you out." So then they said, "You're not allowed to go back for the entire duration of the pretrial."
NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, I just want to turn to the statement that the military issued, the statement which defended its decision for handcuffing Lieutenant Dan Choi and ejecting him from Fort Meade, where Bradley Manning's pretrial hearing was taking place. The statement said, quote, "Mr. Choi violated the terms of the hearing by being disruptive, and calling out ranks and names of individuals in uniform supporting the procedures. The security detail directed him to refrain from such conduct. When he continued his disruptive behavior, he was asked to leave, which he refused. During the process of escorting him from the facility, Mr. Choi was combative, which required the security personnel to restrain him for his own safety, and the safety of the escorts. Mr. Choi was escorted off the installation and advised he could not return to Fort Meade for the rest of the day." Dan, can you...
LT. DAN CHOI: We've heard some of that same language before used on Bradley Manning, that for his own safety, we have to strip him naked for months and have him sleep in the cold without any covering, while being watched and humiliated. We've heard the same arguments used and recycled again. And looking at the military now, the way that they treat me-I've been through a lot in the military, being discharged under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the oppression of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." But I'll tell you, sitting in that trial over all this entire ordeal this weekend, America has not seen a lower moment.
And when you talk about the reason why there's a trial, to begin with, whether the American people have a right to the truth, you see the public affairs state-run media organization telling the American people absolute misleading half-truths about what happened. I wasn't in the hearing. I wasn't heckling anybody. I've never heckled anybody. I'm a public speaker. I find it very difficult when people do heckle. But I have been adding to the decorum of the trial, and I don't see why they did that to me. So they're finding ways to spin, spin, spin, and that's exactly what this show trial is all about.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about why, Lieutenant Dan Choi, you've chosen to stand up for Bradley Manning? When did his case come to your attention?
LT. DAN CHOI: Well, Bradley Manning and I actually served in the same unit, the 10th Mountain Division. This is my combat patch. And we're not at the same time in the same unit, but I deployed with some of his same supervisors. So, to sit there in trial and to see Master Sergeant Adkins essentially plead the Fifth and see some of the other commanders worried more about their rank and status and privilege and what happens to their pension after they get discharge or a demotion, you sit there in disgust, because you realize that the oath that Bradley Manning, Master Sergeant Adkins and everybody up and down the chain of command, including President Barack Obama, took, did not say that "I promise to gain a certain rank or a certain stature." They said, "I promise to defend the Constitution." And when you see our Constitution under attack-and to quote Barack Obama, "the rule of law," a nation of laws, under attack, habeas corpus and the right to a fair trial-what ever happened to "innocent before proven guilty"? Just because you're in the military doesn't mean that you give up what it means to be American. And so, when I stand for Bradley Manning, I don't stand for him because we share the identity as gay Americans, but I support him because he's a good soldier. We are trained in the Geneva and Hague Conventions, the rules of law, the law of land warfare, as well as the United States Code on war crimes. It is an ethical responsibility, and therefore a dereliction of duty, when you see a war crime, to stay silent.
One thing about the gay community-I know you brought this up to Ed, and we've been talking about this quite a bit with gay groups-I'm a little bit shocked and disappointed that a lot of the gay groups have not spoken up for Bradley Manning. One thing about the gay community, our community is the only community in the entire world that bases its membership, the price of admission, on integrity and telling the truth about ourselves, essentially declassifying something that people deserve to know, that's important to our soul, our community, exactly who we are. And when we hide that, that's what damages not only the safety, but the reputation and the security, of our entire society. So, when we think about that, the gay community, no race, no nationality and no religion stipulates that you must have integrity for membership. What Bradley Manning did, as a gay American, as a soldier, a good soldier-in fact, the only soldier in his entire chain of command who did the right thing, and suffers the consequences, unjustly-there's no choice but for patriotic Americans to sit there and support Bradley Manning in the dignity and full honor of the uniform of service.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: What do you think the effect was, though, of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on Bradley Manning while he served in the military?
LT. DAN CHOI: Well, the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, and the current ban on transgender servicemembers and transgender service, is absolutely oppressive at its core.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: There's a ban, an outright ban?
LT. DAN CHOI: Yes. And so, that's why-I know in the past interviews we've said "queers in the military," and that's actually not true, because people with certain gender identities or gender expressions are not allowed in the military yet, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repealed based on sexual orientation only. So, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" forced me, as well as 14,000 others, out of the military. And having to hide the truth of who you are upsets you and disrupts you at your core, because it goes against everything that you've learned. The very first day at West Point, we learned the Honor Code: "You will not lie. You will not tolerate liars." How simple is that? But for gay people, they said, "But you must lie. You must deceive. When people ask you about a girlfriend, you must say, 'I'm just a confirmed bachelor,' or, you know, 'I have a girlfriend,' and pronoun switch." That lying, that enforced lying, goes against all of the codes and the conduct creeds that we learned in the military.
AMY GOODMAN: Now that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has been lifted, will you reapply to the military?
LT. DAN CHOI: You know, it gets harder and harder every time the-every time I go through this. And I have to admit that it's been a roller coaster, and I've been asked many times-by you, you know, in some of the interviews we've had. And I don't hate America. I think America is still worth protecting and fighting for. But I do feel that it is our responsibility as soldiers and as veterans to speak up against unjust wars. And I do believe that we need moral soldiers to join the military. And this is a message to all of the gay activists, the queer activists out there who disagree with the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." I think we do need people of all sexual orientations, if there was a just war, to protect our country. That's what equality means. Equality doesn't mean that we prevent, as a community, some of our members from joining certain professions. I was trained to protect our country, if need be. And there are such things as just wars. We just haven't been on the right side of them recently.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: You don't count Iraq as a just war then?
LT. DAN CHOI: No, I don't. I think it was an illegal war, and I am ashamed of what happened. Furthermore, as we move forward as a country-you know, it's very interesting that the Bradley Manning trial only started-the pretrial circus, show, theater, only started after the withdrawal of troops. It's very interesting why he was held for a year and a half without charges-still, actually, without formal charges. And it makes me wonder where we're going as a country to heal from the Iraq War and "Collateral Murder" and all of the videos that Bradley Manning did the righteous and moral and fulfilling his duty to prevent future war crimes. We realize that when we're thinking-
AMY GOODMAN: If in fact he did what the military says he did.
LT. DAN CHOI: If in fact he did. But if he did, he is a hero, absolutely. And he deserves a medal, not incarceration. So I will tell you this. When we move forward as a country, talking about a just peace or a transcendent peace, we have to realize that without truth there cannot be justice. And without justice, there cannot be peace.
AMY GOODMAN: Former Lieutenant Dan Choi, Iraq combat veteran, supporter of Private Bradley Manning, also an openly gay servicemember who was discharged in 2010 under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Bradley Manning has been in prison for the last year and a half. He is undergoing a military pretrial hearing right now at Fort Meade, Maryland, where Lieutenant Dan Choi was just ejected from.
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2) Fiscal Crisis Takes Toll on Health of Greeks
By SUZANNE DALEY
December 26, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/world/europe/greeks-reeling-from-health-care-cutbacks.html?ref=world
PERAMA, Greece - The free clinic here opened about a year ago to serve illegal immigrants. But these days, it is mostly caring for Greeks like Vassiliki Ragamb, who was sitting in the waiting room hoping to get insulin for her young diabetic son.
Four days earlier, she had run out of insulin and, without insurance and unable to pay for more, she had gone from drugstore to drugstore, pleading for at least enough for a few days. It took her three hours to find a pharmacist who was willing to help.
"I tried a lot of them," she said, gazing at the floor.
Greece used to have an extensive public health care system that pretty much ensured that everybody was covered for everything. But in the last two years, the nation's creditors have pushed hard for dramatic cost savings to cut back the deficit. These measures are taking a brutal toll on the system and on the country's growing numbers of poor and unemployed who cannot afford the new fees and co-payments instituted at public hospitals as part of the far-reaching austerity drive.
At public hospitals, doctors report shortages of all kinds of supplies, from toilet paper to catheters to syringes. Computerized equipment has gone unrepaired and is no longer in use. Nurses are handling four times the patients they should, and wait times for operations - even cancer surgeries - have grown longer.
Access to drugs has also been affected, as some drug manufacturers, owed tens of millions of dollars, are no longer willing to supply Greek hospitals. At the same time pharmacists, afraid that the government might not reimburse them, are asking for cash payments, even from those with insurance.
Many experts say that Greece's public health system was bloated and corrupt and in dire need of reform. But they say also that the cuts have been so deep and have come so fast, that they have hit like a tsunami.
In just two years, the government has cut spending on health care to $17 billion from $19.5 billion - a 13 percent decrease. And under its agreement with its creditors, Greece must find even more health care savings next year - as much as $915 million, government officials said.
At the same time, public health facilities have seen a 25 to 30 percent increase in patients because so many Greeks can no longer afford to visit private clinics.
Dr. Olatz Ugarte, an anesthesiologist at the Saint Savvas Cancer Hospital in Athens, said that breast cancer patients often have to wait three months now to have tumors removed. "Waiting that long can be life or death for these patients," she said.
In a recent letter to the medical journal The Lancet, a team of English researchers warned that a "Greek tragedy" could be in the making, pointing to rising suicide and H.I.V. rates and deterioration of services at hospitals under financial pressure. "In an effort to finance debts," the researchers said, "ordinary people are paying the ultimate price: losing access to care and preventive services, facing higher risks of H.I.V. and sexually transmitted diseases, and in the worst case losing their lives."
At the Perama clinic, which is run by the international nonprofit Doctors of the World, doctors say they are seeing many families that cannot afford bus fare, let alone the new $6.50 fee at public clinics.
Technically, those Greeks who cannot pay are entitled to free care. But the bureaucracy can be overwhelming. Ms. Ragamb, a former hairdresser whose unemployment benefits and health insurance ran out six months ago, said she was still waiting to get the right papers.
The story did not surprise Dr. Liana Mailli, the pediatrician who was seeing Ms. Ragamb's son, Elias. The 3-year-old got a diagnosis of diabetes only a few months ago, after he fell into a coma. Dr. Mailli has heard of such bureaucratic troubles from many patients. Even more often, she said, parents have fallen behind in paying their health insurance contributions, or their employers do not pay and so they are no longer covered.
One development that Dr. Mailli said she found particularly disturbing was that a growing number of children had not had their basic vaccinations.
If nothing is done, she said, polio, diphtheria and whooping cough could all return to Greece. "This is such a serious thing," she said. "But these vaccines are expensive."
At the start of its debt crisis, Greece was spending about 6 percent of its G.D.P. on health care - about average for Europe. But the system was far from efficient. It includes many small hospitals and a reliance on expensive brand name drugs.
Moreover, there was widespread corruption. Experts say doctors often had lucrative deals with drug manufacturers that led them to vastly overprescribe, and many expected cash payments on the side for timely and attentive care.
Since the debt crisis began in 2009, the government has frozen hiring, cut salaries and focused on tracking prescriptions and new procurement procedures. About 20 doctors have been arrested for corruption.
But little has gone smoothly.
Government officials acknowledge some problems, but say that the system was simply unsustainable. In the next year, they say, adjustments can be made.
"We have had two years of emphasis on the financial, now we will pass to evaluation," said Nikos Polyzos, the secretary general of the Health Ministry.
But many doctors say the new emphasis on cutting costs has gone too far. In addition to shortages, they say that the supplies they do have are of poor quality. They complain that bugs have been found in new syringes imported from China, sutures fall apart and generic drugs do not seem to do the job. And the hiring freeze has caused such a shortage of nurses, some doctors said, that procedures frequently have to be postponed.
"The whole system is a mess right now," said Dr. Elias Sioras, a cardiologist and a union activist at the Evangelismos Hospital in Athens. "In a six-hour shift, I am seeing 40 patients, which is ridiculous. It makes my work more difficult, but it is also much worse for the patients. And a lot of things that were covered, especially tests, are not covered anymore and the patients don't have the money to pay."
Dr. Sioras said that 11,000 patients used to have bypass surgery in public hospitals each year, but that number fell to 9,000 last year. "The way I see it, at least 2,000 people needed a bypass and didn't get it," he said. "I have no idea where they are. They could be dead."
Some experts, including Lykourgos Liaropoulos, a health economist at the University of Athens who helped the government design many of its cost-saving measures, say the hospitals were probably performing too many bypass procedures.
But even he questioned the virtual hiring freeze on nurses. "It's one of the areas where the troika got it wrong," he said, referring to the nickname that has been given to Greece's three creditors, the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank.
Access to drugs has also become a problem for many patients. Some pharmaceutical companies - owed millions, or unhappy with the new, lower rates the government plans to pay - have stopped supplying the hospitals. These include the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, which makes cancer drugs not available elsewhere.
And many pharmacists now demand cash payments from patients, unwilling to take the risk of waiting for reimbursements.
The president of the Athens pharmacists' association, Konstantinos Lourantos, said few pharmacists could afford to wait for reimbursements, especially for cancer drugs, which can cost 5,000 euros, or $6,500, a month.
He said he told one client to see if any hospital pharmacies had the drug on hand. But the man later told him he had gone to six hospitals without success. "I have no idea what happened to him," Mr. Lourantos said.
Dimitris Bounias and Nikolas Leontopoulos contributed reporting.
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3) Japan Panel Cites Failure in Tsunami
By HIROKO TABUCHI
December 26, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/world/asia/report-condemns-japans-response-to-nuclear-accident.html?ref=world
TOKYO - From inspectors' abandoning of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant as it succumbed to disaster to a delay in disclosing radiation leaks, Japan's response to the nuclear accident caused by the March tsunami fell tragically short, a government-appointed investigative panel said on Monday.
The failures, which the panel said worsened the extent of the disaster, were outlined in a 500-page interim report detailing Japan's response to the calamitous events that unfolded at the Fukushima plant after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out all of the site's power.
Three of the plant's six reactors overheated and their fuel melted down, and hydrogen explosions blew the tops off three reactor buildings, leading to a major leak of radiation at levels not seen since Chernobyl in 1986.
The panel attacked the use of the term "soteigai," or "unforeseen," that plant and government officials used both to describe the unprecedented scale of the disaster and to explain why they were unable to stop it. Running a nuclear power plant inherently required officials to foresee the unforeseen, said the panel's chairman, Yotaro Hatamura, a professor emeritus in engineering at the University of Tokyo.
"There was a lot of talk of soteigai, but that only bred perceptions among the public that officials were shirking their responsibilities," Mr. Hatamura said.
According to the report, a final version of which is due by mid-2012, the authorities grossly underestimated the risks tsunamis posed to the plant. The charges echoed previous criticism made by nuclear critics and acknowledged by the operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power.
Tokyo Electric had assumed that no wave would reach more than about 20 feet. The tsunami hit at more than twice that height.
Officials of Japan's nuclear regulator present at the plant during the quake quickly left the site, and when ordered to return by the government, they proved of little help to workers racing to restore power and find water to cool temperatures at the plant, the report said.
Also, the workers left at Fukushima Daiichi had not been trained to handle multiple failures, and lacked a clear manual to follow, the report said. A communications breakdown meant that workers at the plant had no clear sense of what was happening.
In particular, an erroneous assumption that an emergency cooling system was working led to hours of delay in finding alternative ways to draw cooling water to the plant, the report said. All the while, the system was not working, and the uranium fuel rods at the cores were starting to melt.
And devastatingly, the government failed to make use of data on the radioactive plumes released from the plant to warn local towns and direct evacuations, the report said. The failure allowed entire communities to be exposed to harmful radiation, the report said.
"Authorities failed to think of the disaster response from the perspective of victims," Mr. Hatamura said.
But the interim report seems to leave ultimate responsibility for the disaster ambiguous. Even if workers had realized that the emergency cooling system was not working, they might not have been able to prevent the meltdowns.
The panel limited itself to suggesting that a quicker response might have mitigated the core damage and lessened the release of radiation into the environment.
"The aim of this panel is not to demand responsibility," Mr. Hatamura said. He also said the panel's findings should not affect debate on the safety of Japan's four dozen other nuclear reactors.
Taro Umemura contributed reporting.
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4) Rare but Grudging Judicial About-Face in Bias Case
By ADAM LIPTAK
December 26, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/us/tyson-discrimination-verdict-restored-by-appeals-court.html?ref=us
"It's a nice Christmas present, isn't it?" said U. W. Clemon, Alabama's first black federal judge.
Mr. Clemon, who stepped down from the bench in 2009 after three decades of service, was talking about an extraordinary about-face this month from the federal appeals court in Atlanta. He was home with a cold, but he sounded delighted to have played a part in persuading the court that some words still carry the sting of oppression, even in the modern South.
"The court now understands," Mr. Clemon said, "the unwillingness of black men to go back to being called 'boy.' "
Last year, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled that there were no racial overtones when a white manager at a Tyson chicken plant in Gadsden, Ala., called adult black men working there "boy."
"The usages were conversational" and "nonracial in context," the majority wrote in a 2-to-1 decision that overturned a jury verdict of about $1.4 million in an employment discrimination case brought by a black Tyson employee, John Hithon.
The decision prompted Mr. Clemon and 10 other civil rights leaders to file a brief. Among the signatories were giants of the civil rights movement like the Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, who survived beatings and bombings in Alabama and who died in October, and Andrew Young, a former mayor of Atlanta and ambassador to the United Nations.
The brief urged the court to reconsider, making the case that "boy" retains its venom. For evidence, the brief drew on personal experiences, history, literary classics like "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Native Son," and the writings of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
"Boy," the brief said, is either a proxy for or "at the very least a close cousin" of the most charged racial epithet.
On Dec. 16, more than a year after the initial decision, the appeals court reversed course. The new ruling was opaque and grudging, but Mr. Clemon said he welcomed it, particularly since it is very unusual for a federal appeals court panel simply to change its mind. "I don't recall it ever happening," said Mr. Clemon, who graduated from law school in 1968.
Judge Edward E. Carnes wrote the new decision, now for a unanimous panel. He said the court had reconsidered the evidence in the case and "we now reach a different conclusion."
Stephen B. Bright, the president of the Southern Center for Human Rights, was less magnanimous than Mr. Clemon. He said the case demonstrated "how judges manipulate facts and law to make a case come out the way they want it to."
"The new opinion flatly contradicts the first one in several places," Mr. Bright said.
The new decision followed unflattering news coverage of the earlier one and might have been prompted by the possibility of a rebuke from the full 11th Circuit.
On the other hand, the panel had dug in its heels in the face of earlier criticism in the long-running case, including from the Supreme Court.
In 2005, for instance, the appeals court said the meaning of "boy" depended on whether there was an adjective attached.
"The use of 'boy' when modified by a racial classification like 'black' or 'white' is evidence of discriminatory intent," the court said. But "the use of 'boy 'alone is not evidence of discrimination."
The Supreme Court unanimously reversed the 2005 decision the following year. "The speaker's meaning may depend on various factors including context, inflection, tone of voice, local custom and historical usage," the justices said in an unsigned opinion.
That admonition was rejected by the 11th Circuit panel last year. Then it was embraced this month, though with little enthusiasm.
"The verdict could have gone either way," Judge Carnes wrote, "and it went Hithon's way."
In the end, the new decision upheld a compensatory award to Mr. Hithon of about $365,000. But the decision struck down a $1 million award of punitive damages, saying the manager in question, who supervised 1,400 workers, was not high enough in Tyson's corporate hierarchy for his actions to be attributed to the company, which in any event had a policy against discrimination.
A Tyson spokesman did not respond to two requests for comment.
Judge Carnes thought it worthwhile to drop a footnote criticizing the civil rights leaders' brief, saying it had made a minor error in reciting the facts of the case. "Although we welcome amicus curiae briefs that are helpful, misstatements of fact are not helpful," Judge Carnes wrote, using the Latin term for friend of the court.
Judge Carnes also took a swipe at Mr. Hithon's trial lawyer, who had elicited testimony at trial about the meaning of "boy."
"You know," Anthony Ash, a black Tyson worker, testified in 2007, "being in the South, and everybody know being in the South, a white man says 'boy' to a black man, that's an offensive word."
"You might as well use the N-word if you are going to say that," Mr. Ash added.
Then the lawyer uttered the word itself. Saying it, Judge Carnes wrote, was "an improper attempt to inflame the jury."
There are classier ways to own up to mistakes. Some judges like to quote Justice Felix Frankfurter, as Judge Harry T. Edwards of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit did when he changed his mind in 1994 in a libel suit against this newspaper.
"Wisdom too often never comes," Justice Frankfurter wrote, "and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late."
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5) Japan Recommends Temporary State Control for Tokyo Electric
"The order came after Tokyo Electric Power requested ¥689.4 billion, or $8.8 billion, in government aid to help pay for its response to the nuclear accident at its Fukushima site." [I.e., Japanese tax-payers will foot the bill...bw]
By HIROKO TABUCHI
December 27, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/business/global/japan-recommends-temporary-state-control-for-tokyo-electric.html?adxnnl=1&ref=business&adxnnlx=1325008804-gCzfYdFyNH5uUzTo1OESfw
TOKYO - The Japanese government told the operator of the ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Tuesday to consider accepting temporary state control in return for a much-needed injection of public funds, in effect proposing an interim nationalization of the struggling utility.
The order came after Tokyo Electric Power requested ¥689.4 billion, or $8.8 billion, in government aid to help pay for its response to the nuclear accident at its Fukushima site. The calamity, caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, forced the evacuation of more than 100,000 people and led to a massive radiation leak.
The utility may have to pay ¥4.5 trillion in compensation payments by 2013, a government panel said in October, a sum that threatens to render the company insolvent.
The company will also most likely be forced to decommission all six nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi at a huge cost, while the future of four other reactors at a second site is also on the line after a national outcry over the disaster.
Meeting with Tokyo Electric executives Tuesday, the Japanese trade minister, Yukio Edano, urged the utility to consider options including ceding control to the government.
Tokyo Electric "should not exclude various possibilities, including temporary state control" in coming up with a comprehensive turnaround plan, promised for next spring, Mr. Edano said. He asked the utility "to work toward restoring a company in 5 to 10 years that can win back public trust."
Still, it remains unclear whether the government will force changes that experts have long called for at Tokyo Electric, also known as Tepco, like sweeping changes to management or a breakup of the monopoly the utility enjoys over electricity generation and distribution in the Tokyo area.
The details of a possible government takeover also remain murky.
A new government-backed fund may buy preferred stock in Tokyo Electric, effectively nationalizing the utility to avoid insolvency, the Yomiuri newspaper reported this month.
The government may ask banks to lend ¥1 trillion to the company, Yomiuri said.
Mr. Edano refused to comment on details, saying nothing had been decided.
Tokyo Electric has already been granted initial funding of about ¥900 billion from the government-backed fund to help compensate victims. The fund is financed with taxpayers' money, as well as from contributions from major electricity companies in Japan. In theory, Tokyo Electric would repay any money it receives.
Tokyo Electric's president, Toshio Nishizawa, said the company would seriously consider various possibilities for the company. The company wanted to ensure that it "never let such an accident happen again," he said.
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6) Justice and Prosecutorial Misconduct
New York Times Editorial
December 28, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/opinion/justice-and-prosecutorial-misconduct.html?hp
Michael Morton was exonerated by DNA evidence this month after being wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife and serving nearly 25 years in prison in Texas. In seeking to prove Mr. Morton's innocence, his lawyers found in recently unsealed court records evidence that the prosecutor in the original trial, Ken Anderson, had withheld critical evidence that may have helped Mr. Morton.
The judge reviewing the case allowed Mr. Morton's lawyers, including those from the Innocence Project, which represents prisoners seeking exoneration through DNA evidence, to gather facts about the prosecutor's conduct. The Innocence Project's report makes a compelling case that Mr. Anderson, now a state judge, disobeyed "a direct order from the trial court to produce the exculpatory police reports from the lead investigator" in the case.
Mr. Morton's lawyers have asked that the judge recommend a "court of inquiry" to investigate whether Mr. Anderson violated the law and should be charged in a criminal proceeding. While this process is an urgent matter for Mr. Morton, it is also a test of American justice - whether a prosecutor who flouts his duty under the Constitution to disclose crucial evidence to a defendant is subject to any meaningful sanction.
Prosecutors have enormous power in determining who is subjected to criminal punishment because they have broad discretion in deciding criminal charges. The Brady rule, established by the Supreme Court in 1963, is supposed to be an important check on that power. It requires prosecutors to disclose evidence favorable to the defendant. But their failure to comply is rarely discovered, and, even then, prosecutors are almost never punished.
The Supreme Court, in an outrageous decision earlier this year, further weakened the ability of wronged defendants to make prosecutors' offices liable by giving them nearly absolute immunity against civil suits. Justice Clarence Thomas justified the ruling, noting that an "attorney who violates his or her ethical obligations is subject to professional discipline, including sanctions, suspension, and disbarment." But bar associations hardly ever punish this behavior; judges seldom discipline prosecutors for such violations; and criminal sanctions are rarely imposed against prosecutors.
This is why the Morton inquiry is crucial. The Innocence Project report found that Mr. Anderson willfully failed to disclose police notes that another man committed the murder, concealed from the trial judge that he did not provide the full police report and advised his successor as prosecutor "to oppose all of Mr. Morton's postconviction motions for DNA testing." If a court confirms these findings, it must hold Mr. Anderson accountable - or it will send a message to prosecutors in Texas and elsewhere that the criminal justice system is incapable of deterring or punishing this conduct.
There are, however, a small but growing number of prosecutors' offices around the country that have systems to prevent the gross miscarriage of justice that Mr. Morton suffered. Like the New York County District Attorney's Office, they allow open records so defendants can have a copy of almost anything in the case file, and they support having courts audit their compliance with Brady.
Courts should more closely supervise prosecutors by using pretrial conferences where prosecutors must say what they are disclosing under the Brady rule and what they are withholding. Prosecutors must understand that they will be held accountable - with strong criminal sanctions - when they violate their constitutional duties.
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7) Weapons Sales to Iraq Move Ahead Despite U.S. Worries
"The program to arm the military is being led by the United States Embassy here, which through its Office of Security Cooperation serves as a broker between the Iraqi government and defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Among the big-ticket items being sold to Iraq are F-16 fighter jets, M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks, cannons and armored personnel carriers. The Iraqis have also received body armor, helmets, ammunition trailers and sport utility vehicles, which critics say can be used by domestic security services to help Mr. Maliki consolidate power. ...Lt. Gen. Robert L. Caslen, the head of the American Embassy office that is selling the weapons, said he was optimistic that Mr. Maliki and the other Iraqi politicians would work together and that the United States would not end up selling weapons to an authoritarian government."
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and ERIC SCHMITT
December 28, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/world/middleeast/us-military-sales-to-iraq-raise-concerns.html?hp
BAGHDAD - The Obama administration is moving ahead with the sale of nearly $11 billion worth of arms and training for the Iraqi military despite concerns that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is seeking to consolidate authority, create a one-party Shiite-dominated state and abandon the American-backed power-sharing government.
The military aid, including advanced fighter jets and battle tanks, is meant to help the Iraqi government protect its borders and rebuild a military that before the 1991 Persian Gulf war was one of the largest in the world; it was disbanded in 2003 after the United States invasion.
But the sales of the weapons - some of which have already been delivered - are moving ahead even though Mr. Maliki has failed to carry out an agreement that would have limited his ability to marginalize the Sunnis and turn the military into a sectarian force. While the United States is eager to beef up Iraq's military, at least in part as a hedge against Iranian influence, there are also fears that the move could backfire if the Baghdad government ultimately aligns more closely with the Shiite theocracy in Tehran than with Washington.
United States diplomats, including Ambassador James F. Jeffrey, have expressed concern about the military relationship with Iraq. Some have even said it could have political ramifications for the Obama administration if not properly managed. There is also growing concern that Mr. Maliki's apparent efforts to marginalize the country's Sunni minority could set off a civil war.
"The optics of this are terrible," said Kenneth M. Pollack, an expert on national security issues at the Brookings Institution in Washington and a critic of the administration's Iraq policy.
The program to arm the military is being led by the United States Embassy here, which through its Office of Security Cooperation serves as a broker between the Iraqi government and defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Among the big-ticket items being sold to Iraq are F-16 fighter jets, M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks, cannons and armored personnel carriers. The Iraqis have also received body armor, helmets, ammunition trailers and sport utility vehicles, which critics say can be used by domestic security services to help Mr. Maliki consolidate power.
"The purpose of these arrangements is to assist the Iraqis' ability to defend their sovereignty against foreign security threats," said Capt. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman in Washington.
But Iraqi politicians and analysts, while acknowledging that the American military withdrawal had left Iraq's borders, and airspace, vulnerable, said there were many reasons for concern.
Despite pronouncements from American and Iraqi officials that the Iraqi military is a nonsectarian force, they said, it had evolved into a hodgepodge of Shiite militias more interested in marginalizing the Sunnis than in protecting the country's sovereignty. Across the country, they said, Shiite flags - not Iraq's national flag - fluttered from tanks and military vehicles, evidence, many said, of the troops' sectarian allegiances.
"It is very risky to arm a sectarian army," said Rafe al-Essawi, the country's finance minister and a leading Sunni politician. "It is very risky with all the sacrifices we've made, with all the budget to be spent, with all the support of America - at the end of the day, the result will be a formal militia army."
Mr. Essawi said that he was concerned about how the weapons would be used if political tension led to a renewed tide of sectarian violence. Some Iraqis and analysts said they believed that the weapons could give Mr. Maliki a significant advantage in preventing several Sunni provinces from declaring autonomy from the central government.
"Washington took the decision to build up Iraq as a counterweight to Iran through close military cooperation and the sale of major weapon systems," said Joost Hiltermann, the International Crisis Group's deputy program director for the Middle East. "Maliki has shown a troubling inclination toward enhancing his control over the country's institutions without accepting any significant checks and balances."
Uncertainty over Mr. Maliki's intentions, and with that the wisdom of the weapons sale, began to emerge even before the last American combat forces withdrew 11 days ago. Mr. Maliki moved against his Sunni rivals, arresting hundreds of former Baath Party members on charges that they were involved in a coup plot. Then security forces under Mr. Maliki's control sought to arrest the country's Sunni vice president, who fled to the semiautonomous Kurdish region in the north. In addition, Mr. Maliki threatened to release damning information on other politicians.
With these actions plunging the country into a political crisis, a few days later, Mr. Maliki said the country would be turned into "rivers of blood" if the predominantly Sunni provinces sought more autonomy.
This was not a completely unforeseen turn of events. Over the summer, the Americans told high-ranking Iraqi officials that the United States did not want an ongoing military relationship with a country that marginalized its minorities and ruled by force.
The Americans warned Iraqi officials that if they wanted to continue receiving military aid, Mr. Maliki had to fulfill an agreement from 2010 that required the Sunni bloc in Parliament to have a say in who ran the Defense and Interior Ministries. But despite a pledge to do so, the ministries remain under Mr. Maliki's control, angering many Sunnis.
Corruption, too, continues to pervade the security forces. American military advisers have said that many low- and midlevel command positions in the armed forces and the police are sold, despite American efforts to emphasize training and merit, said Anthony Cordesman, an analyst at the Center for Security and International Studies in Washington.
Pentagon and State Department officials say that weapons sales agreements have conditions built in to allow American inspectors to monitor how the arms are used, to ensure that the sales terms are not violated.
"Washington still has considerable leverage in Iraq by freezing or withdrawing its security assistance packages, issuing travel advisories in more stark terms that will have a direct impact on direct foreign investment, and reassessing diplomatic relations and trade agreements," said Matthew Sherman, a former State Department official who spent more than three years in Iraq. "Now is the time to exercise some of that leverage by publicly putting Maliki on notice."
Lt. Gen. Robert L. Caslen, the head of the American Embassy office that is selling the weapons, said he was optimistic that Mr. Maliki and the other Iraqi politicians would work together and that the United States would not end up selling weapons to an authoritarian government.
"If it was a doomsday scenario, at some point I'm sure there will be plenty of guidance coming my way," he said in a recent interview.
A spokesman for the United States Embassy declined to comment, as did the National Security Council in Washington.
As the American economy continues to sputter, some analysts believe that Mr. Maliki and the Iraqis may hold the ultimate leverage over the Americans.
"I think he would like to get the weapons from the U.S.," Mr. Pollack said. "But he believes that an economically challenged American administration cannot afford to jeopardize $10 billion worth of jobs."
If the United States stops the sales, Mr. Pollack said, Mr. Maliki "would simply get his weapons elsewhere."
Michael S. Schmidt reported from Baghdad, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.
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8) With $30 Billion Arms Deal, U.S. Bolsters Saudi Ties
By MARK LANDLER
December 29, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/world/middleeast/with-30-billion-arms-deal-united-states-bolsters-ties-to-saudi-arabia.html?ref=world
HONOLULU - Fortifying one of its crucial allies in the Persian Gulf, the Obama administration announced a major weapons deal with Saudi Arabia on Thursday, saying it had agreed to sell F-15 fighter jets valued at nearly $30 billion to the Royal Saudi Air Force.
The agreement is part of a broader 10-year, $60 billion arms package for Saudi Arabia that Congress approved a year ago. But its timing is laden with significance, with tensions over Iran mounting and the United States pulling its last soldiers out of Iraq.
It could also indicate that the chill between the United States and Saudi Arabia has thawed since the two longtime allies clashed over how each handled the Arab Spring.
The administration announced the sale during a week when Iranian officials threatened to close the strategically vital Straits of Hormuz in response to indications that the United States planned to impose tough sanctions on Iranian oil exports.
Saudi Arabia has long opposed Iran's ambitions in the region - and the two countries' relationship that soured further after the United States broke up what it said was an Iranian-backed plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington.
Under the terms of the new weapons agreement, the United States will sell Saudi Arabia 84 F-15SA jets manufactured by the Boeing Corporation and upgrade 70 F-15's in the Saudi fleet with munitions and parts. Washington will also offer help with training, maintenance and logistics.
"The agreement reinforces the strong and enduring relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia, and demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a strong Saudi defense capability as a key component to regional security," said Joshua R. Earnest, the deputy press secretary, in a statement issued in Hawaii, where Mr. Obama is vacationing with his family.
With the United States withdrawing its last troops from Iraq last week, the administration has been eager to demonstrate that it will remain a presence in the Middle East and Persian Gulf. It is pushing ahead with weapons sales to Iraq, even though internal political frictions there are deepening.
The sale to Saudi Arabia may also suggest that the two countries have decided to move past their public disagreement this year when political upheavals swept the Arab world.
The Saudis were angry that President Obama withdrew support for Egypt's embattled president, Hosni Mubarak, after he faced large-scale protests in Cairo and other major cities. Mr. Mubarak was a longtime ally of Saudi Arabia and of the United States.
Later, it was the White House's turn to be upset, when Saudi tanks rolled into in neighboring Bahrain in a show of support for that kingdom's Sunni monarchy.
But Saudi Arabia and the United States continue to collaborate in areas like counterterrorism. In recent weeks, the two have worked to resolve the crisis in Yemen, where President Ali Abdullah Saleh has formally agreed to cede power in a Saudi-brokered agreement and has applied for a visa to travel to the United States for medical treatment.
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9) 14 Muslim Leaders Plan Boycott of Breakfast With Mayor
By KATE TAYLOR
December 28, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/nyregion/14-muslim-leaders-plan-boycott-of-bloomberg-interfaith-breakfast.html?ref=nyregion
A group of Muslim leaders plans to boycott Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's annual interfaith breakfast on Friday to protest what it calls the unfair surveillance of Muslims by the New York Police Department.
In a letter sent to Mr. Bloomberg on Wednesday, 14 Muslim leaders said they would not attend the breakfast because of what they described as "very disturbing revelations" about the city's treatment of Muslim New Yorkers. They were referring to a series of articles released by The Associated Press beginning in August that detailed the use of undercover officers and informants to gather and maintain information about political activity among Muslims in circumstances in which there was no indication that crimes had occurred.
The mayor and the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, strongly denied the accusations in the articles, saying the department did not target Muslims but simply followed leads.
The letter writers, who included clergy members, a professor at Fordham University School of Law and the president of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, seemed to find this response frustrating.
"We are deeply disturbed that to date we have only heard your words of strong support for these troubling policies and violations of our rights," they wrote to the mayor. "We are equally disturbed by Commissioner Kelly's denials of what we know to be true as verified by the leaked documents."
The writers requested a meeting with the mayor "at the earliest possible date" to discuss the issue of surveillance of Muslim communities.
The Police Department's chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said in an e-mail that "the N.Y.P.D. lawfully follows leads in terrorist-related investigations and does not engage in the kind of wholesale spying on communities that was falsely alleged."
Mr. Browne noted that the Central Intelligence Agency's inspector general had recently completed a report about its role in the Police Department's activities. The report concluded that no laws were broken and that there was no evidence the C.I.A. had been engaged in domestic spying.
A spokesman for the mayor, Stu Loeser, said about two dozen Muslim leaders had said they would attend the breakfast, about the same as previous years. "The mayor's office and the N.Y.P.D. maintain their strong ties with the city's Muslim communities," he wrote in an e-mail. "In fact, the police commissioner spoke at the Masjid Salaam Mosque in the Bronx this afternoon just after announcing the great year-end crime statistics with the mayor at City Hall."
One of the signatories to the letter, the director of the Arab American Association of New York, Linda Sarsour, said in an interview that whether the mayor noticed her absence from the breakfast or not, she hoped the gesture would keep the issue of police surveillance of Muslims alive. If not, she said, Muslims "will be further marginalized in the years to come."
An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the group that one of the writers of the letter to Mr. Bloomberg belongs to as the Council on Arab-American Relations. The name of the group is the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
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10) Weekly US Oil and Gas Rig Count Down by 1
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 29, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/12/29/business/AP-US-Rig-Count.html?src=busln
HOUSTON (AP) - The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. decreased by one this week to 2,007.
Houston-based drilling product provider Baker Hughes Inc. reported Thursday that 1,193 rigs were exploring for oil and 809 for natural gas. Five were listed as miscellaneous. A year ago this week Baker Hughes reported 1,694 active rigs.
Of the major oil- and gas-producing states, Pennsylvania added four rigs and Louisiana, New Mexico, North Dakota and West Virginia each added one.
Arkansas declined by four rigs, Texas lost three and Alaska and Oklahoma each dropped one. California, Colorado and Wyoming were unchanged.
The rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981. A low of 488 was recorded in 1999.
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11) The Port Shutdown Controversy: Corporate Profit vs. the Right to Protest
Ignoring history of port-related discord not wise
"Businessmen, politicians and even union officials have expressed outrage about the 'damage' done by port 'disruptions.' Yet when maritime employers shut down all West Coast ports for two weeks in 2002 by locking out longshore workers in the midst of contract negotiations, you could hardly see any complaints in the media or from politicians about the employers' 'disruption' of the port."
By Jack Heyman
December 30, 2011
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/30/EDQN1MI9VV.DTL
The San Francisco Chronicle's front-page headline "Governor to Oakland: 'Keep the port open' " could have been gleaned from the newspaper's 1934 edition when Gov. Frank Merriam vowed to bring order to the city and break the maritime strike by deploying the National Guard. It was the height of the Great Depression and workers were desperate for jobs or to share the existing jobs on the waterfront. But the union stood fast. After a general strike to protest the police killing of two strikers, the seamen and longshoremen won the union hiring hall that shared the available work equitably.
Once again, the Bay Area is at the forefront of social protest. Twice police evicted Occupy Oakland using tear gas and "less lethal" munitions, and twice supporters of the Occupy movement responded. Thousands of Occupy protesters peacefully marched to the Port of Oakland, shutting it down in protest of the depredations of what they call the 1 percent. The protesters proclaimed their solidarity with the longshore union's struggle in Longview, Wash., and with port truckers. The business community cheered the evictions, but now its members are up in arms, complaining about shutdowns at the port, the funnel for much of their profits. It's obvious which side they're on.
The Oakland Port Commission tried to stop the Dec. 12 protest with full-page ads in the Oakland Tribune, the New York Times and The Chronicle, shedding crocodile tears about the port truckers and other port workers who would be unable to work. The commissioners pose as defenders of the "99 percent," but in fact they stand in the way of the heavily exploited port truckers and port warehouse workers getting into a union with decent wages, benefits and conditions. Port workers recognize a sham when they see one and thus honored the picket lines.
Gov. Jerry Brown and Oakland City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente also have joined the fray by chastising Mayor Jean Quan for not stopping the protests. Yet both were involved in similar port protests 14 years ago.
Brown, just launching his mayoral campaign, participated in a solidarity picket line in 1997 that shut down the Oakland terminal for four days in support of 500 sacked Liverpool, England, dockworkers. And De La Fuente led the thousand-strong union protest through downtown Oakland in 1998 to demand the charges be dropped against the port protesters.
Now they're singing a different tune.
This isn't the first time Brown has called to use police power in the port. As Oakland mayor in April 2003, he called in the riot police to quash a peaceful antiwar demonstration at the port. Scores of demonstrators (and several longshoremen) were badly injured by some of the same munitions recently used on Occupy Oakland. The U.N. Human Rights Commission condemned the police action as the "most violent" repression of protests against the war. It cost the city more than $2 million. Brown promised to appoint a "blue ribbon" commission to investigate, but it never materialized. Now he admonishes Quan for not following his example.
Businessmen, politicians and even union officials have expressed outrage about the "damage" done by port "disruptions." Yet when maritime employers shut down all West Coast ports for two weeks in 2002 by locking out longshore workers in the midst of contract negotiations, you could hardly see any complaints in the media or from politicians about the employers' "disruption" of the port. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was lauded when she called on President George W. Bush to invoke the slave-labor Taft-Hartley Act, forcing longshoremen back to work under conditions favorable to the maritime companies. They knew which side they were on then, too.
And not only did ILWU protesters have the right to try to stop the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003, they were right that the war was based on the lie that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
A resolution proposed by De La Fuente, who is also an international vice president of the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, would ban port shutdowns or disruptions. It was turned down as speaker after speaker warned that this would only set off more clashes.
What will happen in 2014 when the longshore union contract expires? Will they have the right to strike and to shut down ports? And what about work stoppages over health and safety issues in one of the most dangerous industries?
A more ominous question arises now. The will of the ILWU is being tested by an international grain consortium, EGT in Longview, Wash. The company that built a new $200 million terminal has refused to abide by the port contract to hire ILWU longshore workers. If EGT is successful in breaking the contract, it will immediately affect every U.S. port. What will longshore workers do when a ship arrives to load the grain?
San Francisco longshore Local 10 is organizing a caravan of Bay Area workers and Occupy activists to travel to Longview to greet the ship upon its arrival in two weeks. If an agreement is not reached with EGT and angry longshore workers view this dispute as a threat to all their jobs, then it's possible for the first time that ports on the West, East and Gulf coasts may be shut down.
Which side are you on?
Jack Heyman, a retired Oakland longshoreman, is chairman of the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee ( www.transportworkers.org).
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12) Tax Benefits From Options as Windfall for Businesses
"Thanks to a quirk in tax law, companies can claim a tax deduction in future years that is much bigger than the value of the stock options when they were granted to executives. This tax break will deprive the federal government of tens of billions of dollars in revenue over the next decade. And it is one of the many obscure provisions buried in the tax code that together enable most American companies to pay far less than the top corporate tax rate of 35 percent - in some cases, virtually nothing even in very profitable years."
By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI
December 29, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/business/tax-breaks-from-options-a-windfall-for-businesses.html?hp
The stock market's rebound from the financial crisis three years ago has created a potential windfall for hundreds of executives who were granted unusually large packages of stock options shortly after the market collapsed.
Now, the corporations that gave those generous awards are beginning to benefit, too, in the form of tax savings.
Thanks to a quirk in tax law, companies can claim a tax deduction in future years that is much bigger than the value of the stock options when they were granted to executives. This tax break will deprive the federal government of tens of billions of dollars in revenue over the next decade. And it is one of the many obscure provisions buried in the tax code that together enable most American companies to pay far less than the top corporate tax rate of 35 percent - in some cases, virtually nothing even in very profitable years.
In Washington, where executive pay and taxes are highly charged issues, some critics in Congress have long sought to eliminate this tax benefit, saying it is bad policy to let companies claim such large deductions for stock options without having to make any cash outlay. Moreover, they say, the policy essentially forces taxpayers to subsidize executive pay, which has soared in recent decades. Those drawbacks have been magnified, they say, now that executives - and companies - are reaping inordinate benefits by taking advantage of once depressed stock prices.
A stock option entitles its owner to buy a share of company stock at a set price over a specified period. The corporate tax savings stem from the fact that executives typically cash in stock options at a much higher price than the initial value that companies report to shareholders when they are granted.
But companies are then allowed a tax deduction for that higher price.
For example, in the dark days of June 2009, Mel Karmazin, chief executive of Sirius XM Radio, was granted options to buy the company stock at 43 cents a share. At today's price of about $1.80 a share, the value of those options has risen to $165 million from the $35 million reported by the company as a compensation expense on its financial books when they were issued.
If he exercises and sells at that price, Mr. Karmazin would of course owe taxes on the $165 million as ordinary income. The company, meanwhile, would be entitled to deduct the full $165 million as compensation on its tax return, as if it had paid that amount in cash. That could reduce its federal tax bill by an estimated $57 million, at the top corporate tax rate.
SiriusXM did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Dozens of other major corporations doled out unusually large grants of stock options in late 2008 and 2009 - including Ford, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Google and Starbucks - and soon may be eligible for corresponding tax breaks.
Executive compensation experts say that barring another market collapse, the payouts to executives - and tax benefits for the companies - will run well into the billions of dollars in the coming years. Indeed, of the billions of shares worth of options issued after the crisis, only about 11 million have thus far been exercised, according to data compiled by InsiderScore, a consulting firm that compiles regulatory filings on insider stock sales.
"These options gave executives a highly leveraged bet that stock prices would rebound from their 2008 and 2009 lows, and are now rewarding them for rising tides rather than performance," said Robert J. Jackson Jr., an associate professor of law at Columbia who worked as an adviser to the office that oversaw compensation of executives at companies receiving federal bailout money. "The tax code does nothing to ensure that these rewards go only to executives who have created sustainable long-term value."
For some companies, awarding stock options can seem like a tempting bargain, since there is no cash outlay and the tax benefits can exceed the original cost.
Under standard accounting rules, companies calculate the fair market value of the options on the date they are granted and report that value as an expense, disclosed in regulatory filings. But the Internal Revenue Service allows companies to claim a tax deduction for any increase in value when those options are exercised, usually years later at a much higher price. The tax savings are listed in regulatory filings as "excess tax benefits from stock-based compensation."
For most companies, the primary advantage of using options is that options allow them to award large bonuses without actually depleting their cash, said Alan J. Straus, a New York tax lawyer and accountant. "But the tax treatment is a nice bonus," he said. "It's the only form of compensation where a company can get a deduction without having to come up with cash."
Some corporate watchdog groups, and a few members of Congress, call the corporate tax deduction an expensive loophole.
Many tax lawyers and accountants counter that the tax deduction is justifiable because the options represent a real cost to the company. And because the executives who exercise their options are taxed at high individual rates, the companies say that a change would result in an unfair form of double taxation.
Yet even those who support the existing tax policy say it was opportunistic for executives to avail themselves of big increases in stock options - which are supposed to be a performance-based reward - when a marketwide collapse meant that most companies' stock price seemed destined to go up.
The increases in the value of options granted during the financial crisis would not just cost the Treasury. Shareholder advocates and corporate governance experts say they come at the expense of other investors, too, whose stake in the company is diluted.
Well before the market downturn, hundreds of American corporations reduced their tax bills by billions of dollars a year through their shrewd use of stock options. A decade ago, companies like Cisco and Microsoft were widely criticized because their stock options created such big deductions that, in some years, they paid no federal taxes at all. When shareholders and regulators complained about the excessive use of stock options, Microsoft temporarily stopped issuing them in 2003.
From 2005 to 2008, Apple reported that the options exercised by its employees cut its federal income tax bill by more than $1.6 billion. Stock options reduced Goldman Sachs's federal income tax bill by $1.8 billion during that period, and Hewlett-Packard's by nearly $850 million, according to filings by the companies.
Companies say the tax treatment is justified because they are deducting the cost of paying an employee, just as they would if they paid a salary in cash.
Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, has tried for nearly a decade to eliminate the tax break, which affects the most commonly granted stock options. He has introduced a bill that would limit a company's tax deduction for options to the same amount declared on its financial books. His proposal would also count options toward the maximum of $1 million that companies can deduct for an executive's pay each year (outside of performance-based bonuses).
The bipartisan Joint Committee on Taxation has estimated that if the senator's proposal were enacted, it would add $25 billion to the Treasury over the next decade.
Stock options became a popular reward for top executives in the 1990s after Congress imposed the $1 million cap. They lost a little of their appeal after accounting changes in 2005 forced companies to start counting the value of the options as an expense. Scandals over the backdating of options also made some companies wary. Restricted stock and other forms of equity sometimes replaced options. Once the stock market dropped in the fall of 2008, however, there was a spike in the number of options granted by companies. According to regulatory filings compiled by Equilar, an executive compensation consulting firm, the number of options issued by companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 jumped to 2.4 billion in 2009 from 2.1 billion in 2007, though they had been on the decline since 2003.
Goldman Sachs granted 36 million stock options in December 2008, 10 times more than the previous year.
General Electric, which granted 18 million options in 2007 and 25 million options in 2008, granted 159 million in 2009 and 105 million in 2010.
Some companies say that their options awards in 2008 and 2009 were decided before it was clear the stock market would recover. Others say that because share prices had plunged, they had to issue more options to reach the target compensation for their top executives.
General Electric acknowledged that it issued far more options after the market collapse because they offered a cheaper way to pay executives than restricted stock and other forms of compensation. A G.E. spokesman, Andrew Williams, said that tax considerations did not play a role in that decision.
To be sure, some executives whose option values have skyrocketed can point to notable accomplishments. Howard Schultz, chief executive of Starbucks, was granted options valued at $12 million in November 2008 that are today worth more than $100 million. In the years since, Starbucks has laid off thousands of employees, closed hundreds of stores and retooled its business plan. The strategy reversed the company's slide in earnings. Shares of Starbucks, which traded in the $30s during much of 2008 and fell below $8 after the near collapse, closed Thursday at $46.45.
But other companies whose executives have already cashed in some options issued during the crisis have not performed particularly well compared with their peers. The oil drilling company Halliburton is one.
And some financial services companies that have seen the value of the options they issued after the market collapse rise significantly - including Goldman Sachs and Capital One Financial - were able to weather the crisis, in some part, because of the billions in federal bailout money they received.
"The reason the C.E.O.'s and corporate boards gave all those options during the crisis is because they expected the market to recover - and because the economy is cyclical, everyone knew it would recover," said Sydney Finkelstein, a professor of management at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. "And the whole game is played with other people's money - the market's money and the taxpayers' money."
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13) Deadliest Year on Record for Elephants
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 29, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/world/africa/deadliest-year-on-record-for-elephants.html?ref=world
Large seizures of elephant tusks made 2011 the worst year on record for elephants since ivory sales were banned in 1989, experts said on Thursday. Recent estimates suggest that as many as 3,000 elephants were killed by poachers, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, an advocacy group. Tom Milliken, an elephant and rhino specialist for Traffic, a wildlife trade monitoring network, said that most cases involve the smuggling of ivory from Africa into Asia, where growing wealth has fed the desire for ivory ornaments and for rhino horn that is used in traditional medicine, though scientists have proved it has no medicinal value.
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14) Factory Jobs Gain, but Wages Retreat
"'The trade-off is absolutely worth it; the alternatives are $15 an hour or zero dollars an hour,' Mayor Fischer said. ...'They were making $22 an hour and they are now making $15 an hour,' Ms. Thomas said, referring to a concessionary United Automobile Workers agreement. 'They were totally upset. But the alternative offered by the company was cut the wage scale or close the plant.'"
[Remember: "General Electric Paid No Federal Taxes in 2010" By JAKE TAPPER (@jaketapper), THE WHITE HOUSE, March 25, 2011, http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/general-electric-paid-federal-taxes-2010/story?id=13224558 "In fact, GE got a $3.2 billion tax benefit." ...FYI, from Bonnie Weinstein]
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
December 29, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/business/us-manufacturing-gains-jobs-as-wages-retreat.html?ref=us
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Manufacturers are hiring again in America, softening a long slide in factory employment. But for a new generation of blue-collar workers, even those protected by unions, the price of employment is likely to be lower wages stretching to retirement.
That is particularly true of global manufacturers like General Electric. With labor costs moving down at its appliance factories here, the company is bringing home the production of water heaters as well as some refrigerators, and expanding its work force to do so.
The wages for the new hires, however, are $10 to $15 an hour less than the pay scale for hourly employees already on staff - with the additional concession that the newcomers will not catch up for the foreseeable future. Such union-endorsed contracts are also showing up in the auto industry, at steel and tire companies, and at manufacturers of farm implements and other heavy equipment, according to Gordon Pavy, president of the Labor and Employment Relations Association and, until recently, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s director of collective bargaining.
"Some companies want to keep work here, or bring it back from Asia," Mr. Pavy said, "but in order to do that they have to be competitive in the final prices of their products, and one way to be competitive is to lower the compensation of their American workers."
The shrunken pay scale for newcomers - $12 to $19 an hour versus $21 to $32 an hour for longtime workers - threatens to undo the middle-class status of even the best-paid blue-collar jobs still left in manufacturing. A similar contract limits the wages of new hires at a nearby Ford Motor Company stamping plant, but neither G.E.'s 2,000 hourly workers nor Ford's 2,900, nor their unions nor the mayor, Greg Fischer, have objected.
Quite the contrary, all argue that job creation must take precedence over holding the line on wages, given that the unemployment rate in this Ohio River city is above 9 percent and several thousand people apply for every unfilled, $13-an-hour factory job. "The trade-off is absolutely worth it," Mayor Fischer said, arguing that while the city is actively subsidizing G.E.'s expansion here, mainly through tax rebates, that is not enough. "You must have a globally competitive wage to create jobs," the mayor insisted.
The generational setback implicit in a "globally competitive wage" is evident at G.E.'s Appliance Park, the complex of factories where G.E. makes refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers and other household appliances. Six years into the adoption of lower wages for new hires, half of the hourly workers are paid at the reduced scale.
In an earlier era, that would have been a source of friction, perhaps protest. Now it isn't, and in an interview William Masden, 62, earning $31.78 an hour after 42 years at Appliance Park, attempted an explanation. The younger workers still get annual raises, he noted, and by the time they top out, he and his peers - the oldest baby boomers - "won't be here any longer to remind them of what they are missing."
Linda Thomas, 37, one of the first to be hired in 2005 under the new arrangement, amends that explanation. Her hourly wage, $18.19, has almost topped out, although it is nearly $14 an hour less than Mr. Masden's. But she keeps silent. Too many unemployed people, she explained, would clamor for her job and her wage if she were to protest.
"You don't want to rock the boat," Ms. Thomas said. "You take a chance on losing everything you have if you do."
Mr. Masden's final years at G.E., doing safety checks, and Ms. Thomas's willingness, however reluctant, to do equivalent work as a forklift driver at a much lower wage illustrate a big reason that General Electric decided to expand production here. A new hybrid electric water heater will be manufactured in Louisville in a factory now being renovated, rather than in China, where G.E. makes its current model. And some production of refrigerators is being repatriated, mainly from Mexico.
"We have gotten to a point where making things in America is as viable as making things any place in the world," said James P. Campbell, president and chief executive of G.E.'s appliances and lighting division, citing the drop in labor costs as a crucial reason. "They are significantly less with the competitive wage," he said, "and that is a big help."
The revival is in an early stage. By 2005, G.E.'s employment in Louisville had fallen to 2,300 hourly workers from a high of 17,000 in the 1970s. At that point, with the company insisting on concessions, Local 761 of the IUE-CWA union, representing the hourly factory workers, agreed to the lower wage scale for new hires. The union has ratified it in subsequent contracts.
Employment, in turn, has finally stopped falling and is beginning to inch up from a low of 2,000 early this year as new hires start to come aboard faster than older workers leave. But the new people are always at the lower wage scale, except for some specialists - like machinists, who earn up to $26 an hour.
"We are getting from the company an $800 million investment in Appliance Park over the next two years, and what we had to do for that investment was accept the 'competitive wage,' " said Jerry Carney, president of Local 761.
Even so, G.E.'s work force in America is slightly smaller than its work force overseas - 133,000 to 154,000. Nearly 80 percent of those in America are in manufacturing, reflecting G.E.'s origins and still its greatest strength. It has 219 factories in this country and 16 more are being built or renovated, including two in Louisville. An additional 230 G.E. plants are overseas, which helps to explain why 53 percent of the company's $150.2 billion in revenue last year - from all sources - was generated abroad, up from 35 percent a decade ago.
Mr. Carney's competitive wage - a euphemism that G.E. officials also use - is really, as both sides acknowledge, the price of halting or at least slowing this migration. It is, in effect, the lower tier of a two-tier system first introduced in the 1980s. That system limited those consigned to the lower tier to 20 percent of a company's work force. In addition, new hires eventually advanced to the higher tier. Bonuses and profit sharing eased the pain, and they still do, but for a new generation of workers, graduation to the upper tier is disappearing, and the lower tier is becoming a new hire's lifetime wage scale.
"My hope is that we will rebuild wages to their old levels over time as the economy strengthens and the demand for workers rises," said Thomas A. Kochan, a management expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "But that is by no means a certainty."
Neither the nation's unions nor the government has tracked the number of jobs downgraded to the equivalent of a lower-tier wage scale, or the number of people who, like Ms. Thomas, have gone through the experience of a downgrade: in her case, from $19 an hour at the Ford auto body stamping plant - until she was laid off in 2005 - to a starting wage at G.E. a few months later of $12 an hour.
"At the time I was very angry about the comedown," she said, "but then I asked a couple of others who had gone through the same experience how they felt and they said, 'We're thankful to have a job.' "
The decline in unit labor costs is striking. In manufacturing, the wages and benefits invested in each unit of production have fallen in eight of the past 10 years, a net decline of 13.6 percentage points, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. Productivity played a role - modern factories require fewer workers. Still, the decline is the greatest in such a short time since the statistic was first tracked in 1951.
In China, in sharp contrast, unit labor costs in manufacturing have risen in recent years, which means the gap between the United States and China, while still great, is nevertheless narrowing slightly - one reason that G.E. is making its new water heater here instead of there.
"We are at an inflection point in manufacturing in terms of relative cost structures," said Mark M. Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics. "Ten years ago, it was a no-brainer to locate in China, and now it isn't so clear whether China is the low-cost place to produce."
The downshift in wages, however, is not G.E.'s only explanation for the rise in domestic production. In interviews, G.E. executives put almost as much emphasis on "lean manufacturing." Production workers on a lean factory floor are encouraged to point out inefficiencies in assembly line routines and to participate in altering the routines.
Given the productivity gains implicit in lean practices, G.E. envisions a growing hourly work force at Appliance Park, but one that comes nowhere near its size in the 1970s.
"The trade-off is absolutely worth it; the alternatives are $15 an hour or zero dollars an hour," Mayor Fischer said.
Mr. Masden, divorced with two grown daughters, and Ms. Thomas, single and childless, reluctantly accept this view. He wonders if the next generation will ever make it into the middle class, as he did. "I never had to think about pay," he said. "I just kept putting money in my pocket."
Ms. Thomas doubts that her pay will rise above the $19 an hour she had earned at the Ford plant before her layoff. Two older sisters still employed there are similarly worried.
"They were making $22 an hour and they are now making $15 an hour," Ms. Thomas said, referring to a concessionary United Automobile Workers agreement. "They were totally upset. But the alternative offered by the company was cut the wage scale or close the plant."
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: December 29, 2011
An earlier version of this article said that General Electric's employment in America was slightly greater than that overseas.
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15) California: Homeless Campers Evicted
[Right out of John Steinbeck...bw]
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 29, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/us/california-homeless-campers-evicted-in-sacramento.html?ref=us
The Sacramento police have evicted about 150 homeless people who had set up tents along the American River. One man was arrested Wednesday after refusing orders to move. City officials said the eviction was needed to protect the environment along the river and to satisfy nearby property owners. It was not clear where the campers would go.
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16) Pelican Bay State Prison, Short Corridor Update/Statement - **PLEASE SHARE AND PUBLISH*
(December 2011)
From: kendracastaneda55@gmail.com
Everyone: I received the attached statement/update from the men at Pelican Bay Short Corridor yesterday. They wrote me saying for me to send this out to all media outlets asap, forward this email, please make this viral on the internet, send to friends, supporters, family members ASAP. Thank You! - Kendra Castaneda
A Shout-out of respect and solidarity - from the Pelican Bay Short Corridor - Collective - to all similarly situated prisoners subject to the continuing torturous conditions of confinement in these barbaric SHU & Ad/Seg units across this country and around the world.
This is our update of where things currently stand and where we're going with this struggle - for an end to draconian policies and practices - summarized in our "Formal Complaint" (and many related documents published and posted online, since early 2011)
As many of you know... beginning in early (2010), the PBSP - SHU Short Corridor Collective initiated action to educate people and bring wide spread exposure to - the (25+) years of ongoing - progressive human rights violations going unchecked here in the California Department of Corruption - via dissemination of our "Formal Complaint" to 100's of people, organizations, lawmakers, Secretary Cate, etc... wherein, we also sought support and meaningful change.
The response by CDCR - Secretary Cate was "file an inmate appeal" (collectively, we'd filed thousands); therefore, after much reconsideration and dialogue, the collective decided to take the fight to the next level via peaceful protest action - in the form of hunger strike.
With the above in mind - beginning in early (2011)... we again sought to educate people about the ongoing torture prevalent in these prison systems - solitary confinement units; and pointing out our position that - the administrative grievance process is a sham, and the court system's turned a blind eye to such blatantly illegal practices - Leaving us with no other meaningful avenue for obtaining relief, other than to put our lives on the line and thereby draw the line and force changes, via collective peaceful protest hunger strike action.
We believed this was the only - fully advantageous - way for us to expose such outrageous abuse of state power, to the world and gain the outside support needed to help force real change.
We requested support in the form of - asking people to write letters to those in power... we received more support than we ever expected - in the form of letters, rallies, and hunger strike "participants" - more than (18,000) similarly situated prisoners and some people on the outside!
All united in solidarity, with a collective awareness - that the draconian torture practices described in our "Formal Complaint" are prevalent across the land; and that - united in peaceful action, we have the power to force changes.
The hunger strike actions of (2011) achieved some success, in the form of - mainstream world wide exposure - solid, continuing outside support - some small improvements to SHU/Ad-Seg unit conditions ... and assurances of more meaningful - substantive changes to the overall policies and practices re: basis for placement and amount of time spent, in such units - a substantive review of all prisoners files, per new criteria - and more change to the actual conditions in such units.
However, this fight is far from over! Notably, the second hunger strike action was suspended in mid-October ... in response to top CDCR administrator's presentation that the substantive changes be finalized... would be provided to "the stakeholders" (this includes our attorneys), within 60 days for comment. To date, CDCR hasn't produced anything re: SHU/Ad-Seg policy changes; and PBSP's Warden has not even replied to the (2) memo's we've sent him concerning - additional program - privilege issues, per core demand #5 (see footnote #1 below)
Naturally, many people are not happy about CDCR's failure to abide by their word - again - and they are asking... "what's the next move in this struggle?"
Based on our collective discussions, our response is ... people need to remain focused, and continue to apply pressure on CDCR, via letters, emails, fax, etc... summarizing the continuing core demands - immediately! There's real power in numbers!! (see addresses to contact below, at footnote #2)
It's important for everyone to stay objective and on the same page - remember... united we win, divided we lose. And, if we don't see real substantive changes within the next 6 months... we'll have to re-evaluate our position.
Additionally, now is a good time for people to start a dialogue about changing the climate on these level IV mainlines... As it stands now, these lines are warehouses, with all the money meant for programs - rehabilitation, going into guard pockets.
It's in all of our best interests to change this in a big way, and thereby force CDCR to open these lines up and provide all of us with the programs and rehabilitative services that we all should have coming to us!!
Respect and Solidarity,
T. Ashker, A. Castellanos, Sitawa (s/n Dewberry), A. Guillen
-Dec. 2011-
Footnote#1: To date, we've received zero improvements re: core demand #5 ... while Corcoran and Tehachapi have gained on canteen and dip-pull up bars - which, is all good. This is an example of what we pointed out in our "Formal Complaint" re: disparate treatment at PBSP-SHU compared to other SHU's.
This is also a typical CDCR attempt to create discord and disruption to our unified struggle...we're certain this feeble move will fail because all of us understand what our main objective is - an end to long term torture in these isolation units! It is our fundamental right to be treated humanely... we can no longer accept state sanctioned torture - of our selves! (and, our loved ones!) and we remain unified in our resistance!!
Footnote#2: Addresses of people to write:
1. Tom Ammiano, Assemblyman, Capitol Bldg. Rm# 4005, Sacramento, CA 95814, Phone# 916-319-2013, Fax# 916-319-2113.
2. Gov. Edmund G. Brown, State Capitol, Ste #1173, Sacramento, CA 95814, Phone# 916-446-2841, Fax# 916-558-3160
3. CDCR - Secretary Matthew Cate, 1515 S. St. Ste. #330, Sacramento, CA 95811, Phone# 916-323-6001
4. Carol Strickman, Attorney at Law, 1540 Market Street, Ste. #490, San Francisco, CA 94102, Phone# 415-255-7036, Fax# 415-552-3150
All inmates writing to these people should be sent 'confidential mail' and anyone outside of prison, supporters, family members, etc... please write and also email.
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