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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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"If corporations are people, why can't we put them in jail?"
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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This drawing has come to symbolize the California prison hunger strike and the solidarity it has generated. It was contributed by Rashid Johnson, a prisoner in Red Onion Prison, Virginia.
California Prison Hunger Strike Resumes as Sides Dig In
"The new protocols seek to isolate inmates participating in the strike from those in the general population and potentially subject them to disciplinary measures, while prisoners identified as strike leaders could potentially be denied contact with visitors and even lawyers. In addition, two lawyers who had helped mediate talks were temporarily barred from state prisons last week because 'their presence in the institution/facility presents a security threat.' But Ms. Weills said other prisoners told her that those four did so because they could no longer endure conditions at the administrative housing unit where they had been moved. 'We're freezing,' Ronald Yandell, one of the strike leaders, said to Ms. Weills this week. 'The air-conditioner is blowing. It's like arctic air coming through, blowing at top speed. It's torture. They're trying to break us.'"
By IAN LOVETT
October 7, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/08/us/hunger-strike-resumes-in-california-prisons.html?ref=us
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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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Troy Davis is part of the 99%
Please join us for a vigil for Troy Davis at 8 PM at Occupy Oakland at Oscar Grant Plaza (Frank Ogawa Plaza) at 14th and Broadway in downtown Oakland.
8 PM Friday, October 14
We will gather to honor Troy's memory and to continue the struggle against the death penalty. Bring candles and pictures of Troy.
Please forward this email.
Campaign to End the Death Penalty
california@nodeathpenalty.org
www.nodeathpenalty.org
510-589-6820
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*Fightback Tour!*
*No to FBI Repression,Islamophobia and War! Civil Liberties for All!*
[Part of the Oct. 15-22, 2011 antiwar week of solidarity and in defense of civil liberties; marking the 10th year of the U.S. war against the people of Afghanistan]
Saturday, October 15, 7PM
518 Valencia Street (near 16th St.) SF
(Wheelchair accessible)
*Bring the Troops, Mercenaries, War Contractors Home Now! Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya!*
*Please click for flyer & tour schedule:*
http://nepajac.org/unactour.pdf
*$10 sliding scale. No one turned away.*
*Featuring:*
*Stephen Downs*, Legal Counsel, Project Salam (Support and Legal Advocacy for Muslims); Leading national spokesman against government-promoted Islamophobia and repression against the Islamic-American communities
*Jess Sundin,* Chicago Grand Jury subpoena victim and solidarity/antiwar activist facing, along with 23 others, felony charges of conspiracy to aid and abet terrorism; Committee to Stop FBI Repression
*Richard Brown,* San Francisco 8; Former Black Panther free after 40 years of struggle
*Michael Thurman,** *Organizer, Bradley Manning Support Network
*Andrew Philipps,* General Manager, KPFA
*Omar Shakir,* Co-Chair, National Lawyers Guild Chapter. Stanford Univ.; Past Pres. Stanford Muslim Students Awareness Network; Co-chair, Students for Palestinian Equal Rights/Stanford; Pres., Iraqi Refugee Assistance Program
*Other tour speakers participating in some of the tour meetings: Zahra Billoo,* Executive Director, CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) *• Hatem Bazian*, Palestinian-Amer. UC Berkeley Professor of Near Eastern Studies • *Jeff Mackler,* Lynne Stewart Defense Comm. and Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
*Tour co-sponsors:** United National Antiwar Coalition • National Lawyers Guild SF Bay Area Chapter • Committee to Stop FBI Repression • Project Salam • San Jose Peace and Justice Center • Mill Valley Seniors for Peace • Marin Peace and Justice Coalition • South Bay Committee Against Political Repression • Green Party of Alameda County • Oakland Education Association Peace and Justice Caucus • Peninsula Peace and Justice Center • Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists • International Action Center • International Socialist Organization • Middle East Children's Alliance • BAYAN/USA • Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal • Lynne Stewart Defense Committee • Committees of Correspondence for Socialism and Democracy • Code Pink San Francisco • Socialist Viewpoint • Solidarity • Sacramento Area Peace Action • Socialist Action • Project Censored: Media Democracy in Action • Santa Rosa Peace and Justice Center • Sacramento Valley Chapter Women's International League for Peace and Freedom • Veterans for Peace Chapter 162 East Bay • Afghans for Peace • California Peace and Freedom Party • Michel Shehadeh, Case of the Los Angeles 8 • Cindy Sheehan, Peace activist • Courage to Resist • Muslim Peace Coalition/USA • Samina Sundas, Founding Executive, American Muslim Voice • Bay Area Committee To Stop Political Repression • Courage to Resist*
* **All meetings wheelchair accessible. All meetings co-sponsored by United National Antiwar Committee (UNAC), 510-268-9429 jmackler@lmi.net
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
UNAC Conference.
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
Oct. 15-22, 2011 antiwar week of solidarity and in defense of civil liberties...
Marking the 10th year of the U.S. war against the people of Afghanistan...
Bring the Troops Home Now! Civil Liberties for all!
Fightback Tour!
No to FBI Repression, Government Islamophobia and War
Civil Liberties for All!
Featuring:
Stephen Downs, Albany, NY civil liberties attorney; Legal Counsel, Project Salam (Support and Legal Advocacy for Muslims); Leading national spokesman against government-promoted Islamophobia and repression against the Islamic-American communities
Jess Sundin, Chicago Grand Jury subpoena victim and solidarity/antiwar activist facing, along with 23 others, felony charges of conspiracy to aid and abet terrorism. Twin Cities antiwar activist; Leader, Committee to Stop FBI Repression
Other tour speakers participating in some of the meetings listed below include:
• Zahra Billoo, Executive Director, CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations)
• Hatem Bazian, Palestinian-American UC Berkeley Professor of Near Eastern Studies
• Carlos Villarreal, Exec. Dir., National Lawyers Guild
• Rep., United National Antiwar Coalition
• Michael Thurman, Bradley Manning Support Network
• Laura Herrera, Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
• Jeff Mackler, Lynne Stewart Defense Committee and Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
• Rep., Immigrant rights community
October 15-22 Initial Tour Schedule
Sat., October 15, 2:30 - 4 PM, 1182 Market Street (near 8th Street) Suite 203, San Francisco, Sponsor: SF Gray Panthers, reception/meeting, donations accepted 415-552-8800, graypanthers-sf@sbcglobal.net
Sat., October 15, 7 PM, 518 Valencia St. (near 16th St.), San Francisco, Main sponsor: Northern California UNAC 510-268-9429. $10 sliding scale. No one turned away.
Sun., October 16, Oakland Reception/lunch/meeting at the home of Jeff Mackler... with KPFA friends, 1-4 PM, $20/no one turned away. RSVP: 510-268-9429
Monday, October 17, 7-9 PM, The Redwoods Auditorium, 40 Camino Alto, Mill Valley, CA, Sponsor, Mill Valley Seniors for Peace; Marin Peace and Justice Coalition warrenut@aol.com 415-389-9040 Free
Tuesday, Oct 18, 7pm, 909 12th St, Sacramento. Free/donation requested. Sponsors: Sacramento Valley Chapter, Women's International League for Peace & Freedom, 916-369-5510 & Sacramento Area Peace Action,
Wednesday, October 19, Campus meeting to be announced.
Thursday, October 20, 7:30 PM Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar Street at Bonita, Berkeley, Free/donation requested.
Friday, October 21, 7:00 PM, Sonoma State University, Warren Auditorium (Tentative location) in Ives Hall (Directions to Warren Auditorium: At the Main Entrance to the University, turn left off of E. Cotati Avenue onto Sequoia Drive. Take the first right at the Information Booth onto Redwood Drive. Turn left into parking lot E. Ives Hall is the building on the North side of the parking lot.. Parking free after 5:00 pm), 707-874-2695 Sponsor: Project Censored: Media Democracy in Action and Santa Rosa Peace and Justice Center
Saturday, October 22, 2- 4 PM, San Jose Peace and Justice Center, 48 S. Seventh Street (between San Fernando and Santa Clara Streets), San Jose, Sponsors: San Jose Peace and Justice Center and San Jose Committee to Stop FBI Repression. Donations accepted. 408-373-0817
Tour co-sponsors: United National Antiwar Coalition • National Lawyers Guild SF Bay Area Chapter Committee to Stop FBI Repression • Project Salam • San Jose Peace and Justice Center • Mill Valley Seniors for Peace • Marin Peace and Justice Center • South Bay Committee to Stop Political Repression • Green Party of Alameda County • Oakland Education Association Peace and Justice Caucus • Peninsula Peace and Justice Center • Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists • International Action Center • International Socialist Organization • BAYAN/USA • Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal • Lynne Stewart Defense Committee • Code Pink San Francisco • Socialist Viewpoint • Solidarity • Sacramento Area Peace Action • Socialist Action • Project Censored: Media Democracy in Action • Santa Rosa Peace and Justice Center • Sacramento Valley Chapter Women's International League for Peace and Freedom • Veterans for Peace Chapter 162 East Bay • Afghans for Peace • California Peace and Freedom Party • Michel Shehadeh, Case of the Los Angeles 8 • Cindy Sheehan, Peace activist • Courage to Resist • Muslim Peace Coalition/USA • Samina Sundas, Founding Executive, American Muslim Voice • Bay Area Committee To Stop Political Repression
All meetings wheelchair accessible. All meetings co-sponsored by United National Antiwar Committee (UNAC), 510-268-9429 jmackler@lmi.net
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Please share this announcement widely
MoveOn.org East Bay Council, Alameda Labor Council, San Francisco Labor Council,
New Priorities Campaign, U.S. Labor Against the War and Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15
1PM Rally at Laney College
2:30 PM March to Federal Building & Frank Ogawa Plaza
Urge you to Rally & March for:
Jobs not Cuts !!!
Education not Incarceration
Work not War
Clean Energy not Climate Change
Social Security not Bank Bailouts
Main St. not Wall St.
Prosperity not Austerity
Hands Off Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid!
End the Wars! Invest in Our Communities!
BRING ALL THE TROOPS AND WAR DOLLARS HOME!
We want an economy that supports the rights of all people to jobs at decent pay in safe workplaces, affordable healthcare for all, decent affordable housing, quality education in modern schools, a secure retirement, and a clean sustainable environment. We oppose cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other social programs. The rich, corporations, Wall St. banks and financial speculators should pay to fix the crisis that their irresponsibility and greed created. We have made our sacrifices. Now they should make theirs.
Make your voices heard!
www.jobs-not-cuts.org
For more information and to register endorsements, write to:
MoveOnEastBay@gmail.com
NewPrioritiesCampaign@gmail.com
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The Call for the 16th National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation
Saturday, October 22,2011
12:00 NOON
3rd Street and Palou
San Francisco
(Endorse this call, forward to others. Return endorsements to oct22bayarea@gmail.com or call 510 206-0742)
Across the U.S., Black, Latino, and poor neighborhoods are treated like occupied territory by increasingly militarized armies of law enforcement. People are criminalized and brutalized for their perceived status - socioeconomic, immigration, mental health, and/or racial, gender, or sexual identity. People living in our communities, especially youth, are routinely stopped, harassed, beaten, and even killed.
--In Chicago, the home of the first Black president, police have shot 44 people so far this year, mostly youth of color, including 13-year-old Jimmell Cannon, who was shot eight times.
--NYPD continues to stop hundreds of thousands of youth of color every year for the most minimal suspicion, fewer than 10 percent of which result in arrest, and far fewer in charges or conviction.
--Police nationwide continue to kill with very little consequence. Twelve Miami cops shot at 22-year-old Raymond Herisse 100 times, then threatened those who recorded the incident, destroying their cellphones. A Tucson SWAT team shot at 26-year-old Iraq War veteran Jose Guerena over 70 times, claiming that he fired at them and then leaving him to bleed to death in his home. Both their allegations of gunfire and drug-dealing were later revealed to be false. In New York and New Jersey, at least 27 people have been killed by police since October 22 of last year, while at least 35 people have been killed by law enforcement in Washington State in the last 12 months. The killing of 22-year old Oscar Grant in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2009 resulted in a rare conviction for the officer who shot him; however, he was freed after mere months in prison, while people protesting the outrageous verdict were met with police violence and mass arrests. In the weeks following that cop's release, SF cops killed Charles Hill, a 45-year-old homeless man, on a subway platform and 19-year old Kenneth Harding after he supposedly failed to pay a $2 train fare, then left him dying on the pavement in front of dozens of outraged witnesses.
--Police routinely abuse the mentally ill and disabled. Fullerton, CA cops beat to death homeless and mentally ill 27-year-old Kelly Thomas, described by many in the community as "a gentle, childlike soul." In Fresno, CA, 28-year-old Raul Rosas, Jr. died after being tasered by police. His girlfriend said "I didn't call the Fresno County Sheriff to kill him. I called because he needed help with his mental illness." Raul went into cardiac arrest and was denied access to three medical ambulances that showed up to assist.
--Recently enacted anti-immigrant laws have given police in the states of Arizona, Georgia, and Alabama sweeping powers to stop people "suspected" of being undocumented on no other basis than appearance. The hostility and racism stoked by these policies have already culminated in violence, as seen in the killing of 15-year-old Sergio Adrián Hernández Güereka by a border patrol agent and the beating death of 42-year-old Anastasio Hernández Rojas at the hands of La Migra. More than one million have been deported under the Obama administration.
--Racially targeted mass incarceration exacerbates the criminalization and marginalization of Black people, playing the same role as the Jim Crow laws that sprang from the Virginia slave codes of 1705. In 1954, 90,000 Black people were incarcerated. Now, over 900,000 Black people are imprisoned, a tenfold increase, while the total U.S. Black population has merely doubled in the same period. The U.S. also has the highest incarceration rate worldwide, with 2.4 million people in prison.
--Law enforcement continues to harass and sexually assault people, most especially women and the transgendered. According to the website InjusticeEverywhere.com, sexual misconduct was the second most common complaint (following excessive force) against police in 2010, involving 618 cops.
--Young schoolchildren are increasingly labeled and treated as criminals by school security and local police. Eight-year-old Aidan Elliot was peppersprayed and handcuffed by Colorado police, and ten-year-old Sofia Bautista was removed from her elementary school, then taken to a NYPD precinct, handcuffed, and interrogated for hours, while police nationwide continue to use tasers on students as young as six.
Meanwhile, repression against those who take action against injustices continues to escalate. Over a dozen activists with Food Not Bombs have been arrested in Orlando for feeding the homeless in public parks. The killings of Oscar Grant, Kenneth Harding, Kelly Thomas, Raymond Herisse, and John T. Williams in Seattle were all caught on video. Now, as if in retaliation against the subsequent public outrage, police in cities and towns nationwide have attacked and arrested people merely for recording their activity, while in Illinois, Maryland, and Massachusetts, video-recording the police is now explicitly illegal. Cops haven't stopped killing and brutalizing people--they're just making it a crime to record them while they do. Repression against progressive and antiwar activism has intensified: simultaneous FBI raids on activists from numerous antiwar and international solidarity organizations in three U.S. cities took place on September 24, 2010. Twenty-three activists now face serious jail time for refusing to participate in the ensuing grand jury witch hunts that clearly intend to discourage and intimidate would-be dissenters.
These vicious attacks are not going down without opposition. Whether standing up to police violence when it happens, as we saw in the video of Kenneth Harding's shooting, or organizing inspiring prison strikes in Georgia and California, people are uniting to fight back. Determined outcry from people nationwide against the shooting of unarmed men crossing the Danziger Bridge in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina has finally brought convictions of the guilty cops and exposed the sort of extensive cover-ups that are routine with police shootings. More and more crimes against the people are being revealed, as we have seen with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives' Operation Fast and Furious, which intentionally provided weapons to Mexican drug cartels, and the overturning of over 4,000 convictions of youth in Pennsylvania after it was found that juvenile judge Mark Ciavarella received kickbacks from private for-profit detention centers.
Once we have seen the man behind the curtain, how can we pretend he is not there? One thing we know from years of experience is that when this system has to answer to organized people, it can't easily get away with all the things it's used to doing. Resistance matters.
THE VIOLENCE OF THE COPS, THE COURTS, THE FBI, LA MIGRA, AND HOMELAND SECURITY IS INTENSIFYING. OUR RESISTANCE MUST INTENSIFY AS WELL! Every year, thousands of people nationwide express their outrage, creativity, and resistance in response to the crimes of this system. People speak out and perform, they march in the streets, and more. The October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation embraces and encourages any and all such expressions of people's righteous outrage.
As said by the mother of Gil Barber, gunned down by a deputy in High Point, NC in 2001, "October 22nd is our day." ORGANIZE against these injustices! BREAK DOWN the barriers between communities that these crimes seek to strengthen! MOBILIZE people of all communities in the most visible way...and on October 22, 2011, WEAR BLACK! FIGHT BACK!
JOIN US if there is already an October 22nd event in your area. CREATE one if you are in an area where there is currently no group organizing. For listings of activities in your area, check the websitewww.october22.org.
To start building for an event in your area, email info@october22.org
TO ENDORSE THIS CALL, SIGN BELOW AND MAIL TO: October 22, P.O. Box 2627, New York, NY 10009, along with your tax-deductible donation to the national organizing effort. Suggested donation $15.00 (paid to "IFCO/October 22")
Name: ___________________________________________
Email: ____________________________________________
Organization: __________________________________________________________* (note if for identification purposes only)
Signature: __________________________________________________________
You may also make this endorsement directly on the website www.october22.org
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MEDICARE IN THE CROSS-HAIRS
SOCIAL SECURITY NEXT?
SAN FRANCISCO LABOR COUNCIL TEACH-IN
MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2011, 7:30-9PM
Plumbers Union Hall, 1621 Market St., S.F.
(5 blocks from Civic Center BART station)
For more information call Carl, San Francisco Labor Council Education Project
415-829-3816
CUTTING MEDICARE-MEDICAID IS THE POLITICIANS CONSENSUS #1 BUDGET TARGET
• President Obama has just proposed a $248 billion cut in Medicare as a starter & another $72 billion in Medicaid cuts.
• Obama indicated September 19 he will support cutting more than $320 Billion if Republicans agree with him on taxes.
• Vice-President Joe Biden last June offered Republicans to cut $400-$500 billion in Medicare-Medicaid
• Republicans last April proposed to raise out-of-pocket costs for Medicare for seniors by $7,000 per year
• The 'Supercommittee' of 12 in Congress said last week they want to cut even more than Obama has proposed. They will report 'how much' more on November 19.
• Congress will vote on how much more in Medicare-Medicaid cuts before December 23.
How Much Will Your Medicare Be Cut?
How Much More Will You Have to Pay?
Come Hear the Facts
Open Discussion to Follow
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For Immediate Release
Howard Petrick's "Rambo" - anti-VietNam activist tells his story-Marsh Berkeleyu-Oct 20-Dec 10
The Little Guy Takes on the Pentagon in Howard Petrick's "Rambo: The Missing Years" at The Marsh-Berkeley, Oct 20-Dec 10
The Hilarious and True Story of the Private Who Protested the Viet Nam War - While Still in the Army!
"Howard's show is proof you can fight bureaucracy and win. How he does so is told with aplomb and a certain sense of mischievousness." - Vancouver Fringe
"The potency of the show...springs from Petrick's first-hand account of his anti-Vietnam activism from within the army...this comes with an intriguing authenticity."- Winnipeg Free Press
"Petrick delivers...For 60 minutes he has you laughing through the fear." - Winnipeg Uptown
San Francisco. September 26, 2011. The Vancouver Sun calls San Francisco's Howard Petrick, "a guy who really knows how to get up the nose of the war machine." Petrick's Rambo: The Missing Years is an hilarious - and true - account of the misadventures of a Vietnam-era draftee who frustrates the military brass by asserting his right to organize his fellow GIs against the war. Petrick's Rambo - not to be confused in the least with the Sylvester Stallone action figure - plays at The Marsh-Berkeley, 2120 Alston Way in Berkeley, October 20 through December 10.
The story begins as Petrick (aka 'Hanoi Howie") reports for the draft and refuses to fill out the forms, befuddling the military bureaucracy for the first of many times to come. Yet, during his time of service he maintains an unblemished military record, breaks no rules, and continues to carry out his military duties.
Directed by Mark Kenward and developed with David Ford, the show plays on Thursday and Friday at 7:00 pm and Saturday at 8:30 pm from October 20 to December 10, 2011 (press opening November 4, no performance on Thanksgiving Day) at The Cabaret at The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way, near Shattuck. The public may visit www.themarsh.org or call 415-282-3055.
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International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5
La Colmenita, the National Children's Theater of Cuba, US tour 2011
Whether you are 7 or 70, Abracadabra will move you...Come and enjoy!
ABRACADABRA is not a play. It is an act of Justice and Life, written mainly by children who share the dream of freedom. A teacher invites her students to walk the road to the essences, through five very true stories of heroism and virtue.
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
Wednesday October 26, 7pm
East Bay Center for the Performing Arts
339 11th Street, Richmond, CA 94801-3105
Suggested donation at the door $10, Children Free
http://eastbaycenter.org/Events/EventsbyDate/tabid/261/Default.aspx
Thursday October 27, 1pm
Esperanza Elementary School, Oakland
Private Presentation
Friday October 28, 7:30pm & Saturday October 29, 2pm
Fort Mason Center, Cowell Theater
Entrance at intersection of Marina Blvd. and Buchanan St., San Francisco, CA 94123
Tickets $20, Students & Seniors $15, Children Free
www.fortmason.org/events/events-details?id=2026
Tickets on line: http://lacolmenita.eventbrite.com
For more information about performances in your area, please visit:
www.lacolmenitacuba.com
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Here is the official statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression on the 1-year anniversary of the raids.
Build the Movement Against Political Repression
One year since the September 24 FBI Raids and Grand Jury Subpoenas
Statement of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, 9-22-2011
Please come to the Committee to Stop FBI Repression one-day Conference in Chicago on November 5, 2011.
http://www.stopfbi.net/national-conference-2011
The Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR) is asking you to build the movement against political repression on the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 24, 2010 FBI raids on anti-war and international solidarity activists. We need your continued solidarity as we build movements for peace, justice and equality.
The storm of political repression continues to expand and threaten. It is likely to intensify and churn into a destructive force with indictments, trials, and attempts to imprison anti-war activists. The last we knew, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald was preparing multiple indictments as he and Attorney General Eric Holder attempt to criminalize the targeted activists and the movements to which we dedicate our lives.
It is one year since the FBI raided two homes in Chicago and five homes plus the Anti-War Committee office in Minneapolis, eventually handing out 23 subpoenas. The anti-war activists' homes were turned upside down and notebooks, cell phones, artwork, computers, passports and personal belongings were all carted off by the FBI. Anyone who has ever been robbed knows the feelings - shock and anger.
The man responsible for this assault on activists and their families, on free speech and the right to organize, is U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago. Fitzgerald has an ugly record of getting powerful Republicans like Dick Cheney and Karl Rove off the hook, while mercilessly pursuing an agenda to scare America into silence and submission with the phony 'war on terror.' Fitzgerald is attempting to criminalize anti-war activists with accusations of 'material support for terrorism,' involving groups in Palestine and Colombia.
First the U.S. government targeted Arabs and Muslims, violating their civil rights and liberties and spying on them. Then they came for the anti-war and international solidarity activists. We refuse to be criminalized. We continue to speak out and organize. We say, "Opposing U.S. war and occupation is not a crime!" We are currently building a united front with groups and movements to defeat Fitzgerald's reactionary, fear mongering assault on anti-war activism and to restore civil liberties taken away by the undemocratic USA PATRIOT Act.
Many people know the developments in the case, but for those who do not, we invite you to read a timeline at stopfbi.net. We think the repression centers on this: During the lead up to the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota, a federal law enforcement officer, using the phony name of "Karen Sullivan" got involved and joined the Anti-War Committee and Freedom Road Socialist Organization in Minneapolis. She lied to everyone she met and helped the FBI to disrupt many activities in the anti-war, international solidarity and labor movements in Minnesota - and also other states and even over in Palestine. It is outrageous.
In fact, many of those being investigated travelled to Colombia or Palestine to learn firsthand about U.S. government funding for war and oppression. There was no money given to any groups that the U.S. government lists as terrorist organizations. However, we met people who are a lot like most Americans - students, community organizers, religious leaders, trade unionists, women's group leaders and activists much like ourselves. Many of the U.S. activists wrote about their trips, did educational events, or helped organized protests against U.S. militarism and war. In a increasingly repressive period, this is enough to make one a suspect in Fitzgerald's office.
This struggle is far from one-sided however. The response to the FBI raids and the pushback from the movement is tremendous. Minneapolis and Chicago immediately organized a number of press conferences and rallies with hundreds of people. Over the first two weeks after the raids, 60 cities protested outside FBI offices, from New York to Kalamazoo, from traveled to the Bay Area. The National Lawyers Guild convention was in New Orleans the day of the FBI raids and they immediately issued a solidarity statement and got to work on the case. Solidarity poured in from anti-war, civil rights, religious and faith groups, students and unions. Groups and committees began working to obtain letters of support from members of Congress. The solidarity was overwhelming. It was great!
It is possible that U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald thought he was picking on an isolated group of activists. Instead, those raided proved to have many friends and allies from decades of work for social justice and peace. Over the months, all the targeted activists refused to appear at the grand jury dates set by U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald's office. In November 2010, a large crew of us travelled to New York City to found the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, after the United National Antiwar Committee meeting.
In December 2010, U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald's office called in three of the Minnesota women and threatened them. We prepared a campaign in case they were jailed for refusing to speak. The FBI also delivered subpoenas to nine more Arab-American and Palestine solidarity activists in December. Their grand jury date was on Jan. 25, 2011, and we organized protests in over 70 American cities, plus a few overseas. The movement was building and expanding, so we organized conferences with over 800 participants in the Midwest, the South, and on the East and West Coasts. While we were organizing a pushback, the FBI was making new plans.
On May 17, 2011, at 5:00 a.m., the Los Angeles, California Sheriff, under the direction of the FBI, busted down the front door of Chicano leader Carlos Montes, storming in with automatic weapons drawn and shouting. The early morning raid was supposedly about weapons and permits, but they seized decades of notes and writings about the Chicano, immigrant rights, education rights and anti-war movements. The FBI attempted to question Carlos Montes while he was handcuffed and in the back of a L.A. sheriff squad car. Montes is going to another preliminary court date on Sept. 29, prepared to face six felony charges, carrying up to three years in prison for each, knowing he is extraordinarily targeted by the FBI. We will walk every step of the way with Carlos Montes, and more. Montes was with us at the Republican National Convention protests; his name was included on the search warrant for the Anti-War Committee office in Minneapolis, and the FBI attempted to question him about this case. We ask you to support Carlos Montes and to organize speaking events with him and local protests on his important court dates, Sept. 29 being the next one.
The same week the FBI raided Carlos Montes in May 2011, the CSFR came back with a big revelation - we released a set of documents, the FBI game plan, which the FBI mistakenly left behind in a file drawer at one of the homes. The FBI documents are on the CSFR website and are fascinating to read. Fitzgerald and company developed 102 questions that come right from a McCarthy witch-hunt trial of the 1950s. It is like turning back the clock five decades.
The whole intention of the raids is clear: They want to paint activists as 'terrorists' and shut down the organizing. They came at a time when the rich and powerful are frightened of not just the masses of people overseas, but of the people in their own country. With a failing U.S. war in Afghanistan, a U.S. occupation of Iraq predicted to last decades, a new war for oil and domination in Libya, a failing immigration policy that breaks up families and produces super-profits for big business, and now a long and deep economic crisis that is pushing large segments of working people into poverty, the highest levels of the U.S. government are turning to political repression.
The only hope for the future is in building stronger, consistent and determined movements. In a principled act of solidarity, the 23 subpoenaed activists refuse to testify before the grand jury. This sets an example for others.
In addition, the outpouring of support and mobilization into the streets from the anti-war, international solidarity, civil rights, labor and immigrant rights movements means that not one of the 24 has spent a single day in jail. That is a victory.
We ask you to stand with us, to stay vigilant and to hold steady as we proceed to organize against wars abroad and injustice at home and as we defend Carlos Montes from the FBI charade in Los Angeles.
Committee to Stop FBI Repression - www.stopfbi.net
follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend
Copyright (c) 2011 Committee to Stop FBI Repression, All rights reserved.
Thanks for your ongoing interest in the fight against FBI repression of anti-war and international solidarity activists!
Our mailing address is:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
PO Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414
Add us to your address book
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White House Petition for Leonard Peltier - October 22 deadline
http://tinyurl.com/3qq4muc
A petition in favor of granting clemency to Leonard Peltier is now on the We the People portion of the White House Web site. We have 30 days (until October 22) to get 5,000 signatures in order for our petition to be reviewed by the White House. This petition may only allow US signatories.
Sign the petition here:
http://tinyurl.com/3qq4muc
Due to heavy site traffic, you may have trouble accessing the petition. Keep trying until you succeed. Try during off-peak hours.
Email our petition to your friends, family and others who care about this issue.
Facebook: Post our petition to your Facebook wall to let folks know about it. Here's a sample message you can cut and paste into your Facebook status: Petition for Leonard Peltier on the White House site, We the People. Will you sign it?
Twitter: Tweet about your petition. Here's a sample tweet you can use: Leonard Peltier petition on the White House site, We the People. Will you sign it?
Let's do it!
Launched into cyberspace by the
Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
PO Box 7488, Fargo, ND 58106
www.whoisleonardpeltier.info
The Petition:
we petition the obama administration to:
grant clemency to Native American activist Leonard Peltier without delay.
10th Circuit Court of Appeals: "...Much of the government's behavior... and its prosecution of Leonard Peltier is to be condemned. The government withheld evidence. It intimidated witnesses. These facts are not disputed."
While others were acquitted on grounds of self defense, Peltier was convicted in connection with the 1975 shooting deaths of two FBI agents. Evidence shows that prosecutors knowingly presented false statements to a Canadian court to extradite Peltier and manufactured the murder weapon (the gun and shell casings entered into evidence didn't match; this fact was hidden from the jury). The number of constitutional violations in this case is simply staggering.
It's time to right this wrong. Mr. President, you can and must free Leonard Peltier.
Created: Sep 22, 2011
Issues: Civil Rights and Liberties, Human Rights
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/grant-clemency-native-american-activist-leonard-peltier-without-delay/LLWBZq1S
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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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Harry Belafonte: Herman Cain is a "bad apple"
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/10/11/harry-belafonte-and-herman-cain-trade-verbal-jabs/?KEYWORDS=cain
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A Familiar Figure Begs on the Street, but Not for Himself
97-year-old "Professor Irwin Corey" collects money for medical aid for children in Cuba.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/10/11/nyregion/100000001099057/hes-97-and-famous-spare-some-change.html
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Great videos of #Occupy Wall Street from all over the place:
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Tom Morello (The Nightwatchman) - This Land Is Your Land @OccupyLA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1ImQ7Ylvdo&feature=player_embedded#!
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#Occupy St. Louis: Bank of America refuses to let customers close accounts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KtI85Zc6Oik
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ALL COLORS (Occupy LA)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Zh6hDQC8I
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600+ Protesters March on Bank of America - #Occupy Austin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS1JOJ3joOA&feature=player_embedded
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Scenes From #Occupy Las Vegas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=olatH3pSvlk
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Could Occupy Wall Street be infiltrated by political groups?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D983q4xOnZg
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Make Revolution, Not Reform: A Warning to the 'Occupy' Movement
andrewgavinmarshall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oneVFYeMHjU#!
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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
[This truly is an amazing thing to see -- no microphones allowed by NYPD yet the crowd is completely engaged with the speakers. The speeches have to be short because the words are repeated and passed along to those furthest away since they can't hear them. Mohammed's speech is great and there's no doubt that the crowd thinks so, too...Bonnie Weinstein]
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#OccupyTheHood, Occupy Wall Street
By adele pham
http://vimeo.com/30146870
@OccupyTheHood, Occupy Wall Street from adele pham on Vimeo.
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#Occupy Wall Street Protesters Marching
[Thousands of NYU Students march to OWS...bw]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWJpzx9IqU4
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AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka Supporting Occupy Wall Street
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soV79czwzoo&feature=player_embedded
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Live arrest at brooklyn bridge #occupywallstreet by We are Change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yULSI-31Pto&feature=player_embedded
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#Occupy Wall Street Begins To Go National!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDnFbIwZUWQ
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OCCUPY-WALL-STREET-PROTESTERS-ARRESTS( Sept 20, 2011) Spread This Video Please.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyvbI6Eq-qA
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PEACEFUL FEMALE PROTESTORS PENNED IN THE STREET AND MACED!- #OccupyWallStreet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moD2JnGTToA
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UNEDITED - COP KNEE ON THROAT 9/24/2011 #OCCUPYWALLSTREET
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rbXfelyIoM&NR=1
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9/24/2011 COPS KETTLING AT UNION SQUARE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJaQvh80L-g&NR=1
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Empire State Rebellion: An Idea Whose Time Has Come - OpESR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCIlfV1pCZY&feature=player_embedded
Post to Twitter Post to Facebook Post to Reddit Post to Digg Post to StumbleUpon
The video below is dedicated to all the people currently Occupying Wall Street.
See you there again on September 24th at noon, and the day after, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that...
Video Transcript:
Mainstream media in the United States is the most efficient
weapon of mass oppression.
The propaganda system is so extensive.
People are very confused.
They don't really grasp what is happening.
On a very basic and profound level
they understand that global banks have robbed the country.
They get that, but there is so much divide and conquer rhetoric -
it goes from the mainstream media
and it filters all the way down
into independent media.
So it's a matter of finding that place
where you can overcome the divide and conquer propaganda.
And where we can find that place
is on Wall Street and breaking up the banks.
How would a million people clogging lower Manhattan's financial district
play out in the global media?
If we came down there and said:
"We're not leaving until we have commitments
to break up the banks
and end the campaign finance racket."
Let's just go over some statistics here:
· 59 Million people without health care
· 52 Million in poverty
· 44 Million on food stamps
· 30 Million in need of work
· 7 Million foreclosed on
· 5 Million homes over 60 days late on mortgage payments
· $1 Trillion in student debt
We have the highest, most severe inequality of wealth we have ever had,
unlimited campaign spending,
budget cuts for the poor,
tax breaks for the rich -
this is the ultimate recipe for revolution.
America has 239 million people living paycheck to paycheck right now.
Food prices are going up, oil is going up, everything is going up -
these people aren't going to be able to make ends meet.
It's the same everywhere, it's global policies,
whether its Ireland, United States, Egypt, Greece.
People are going to fight back because
the economic central planners have become so arrogant.
Economic central planners, who control the global economy
through the IMF, World Bank and Federal Reserve,
are committed to sentencing tens of millions of people
to a slow death through economic policy.
Obviously, those people, as time goes by,
they are going to fight back,
because they are fighting to survive.
This is a global rebellion.
People don't seem to get the fact that we live in a global economy
and there is a Neo-Liberal centrally planned aristocracy
which runs the global economy,
and we are in the midst of a
worldwide economic war right now.
It is a straight up economic war
with genocidal economic policies,
which of course are going to lead to mass rebellion.
Decentralized global rebellion.
Decentralized resistance.
Decentralized revolutionaries.
We had you on the show a few months ago,
and you called for a revolution.
The revolution is happening right now.
Tells us about A99 Operation Empire State Rebellion.
The revolution is happening right now.
#OccupyWallStreet
Editor's Note: This music video was created on March 16th by Anon and posted to our social network. It was also posted on Max Keiser's website. It features clips from a Max Keiser interview with David DeGraw.
DO SOMETHING: @OccupyWallStNYC | #OccupyWallStreet | #OpESR
Have Fun and Get Something Done on Wall Steet This Weekend (MAP)
YOUR STREET: @OccupyChicago | @OccupyCleveland | @OccupyDallas
@OccupyFDSF | @OccupySTL | @OccupyHouston | VIDEO: Livestream
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Protesters pepper sprayed at the National Air & Space Museum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc9OSFLnyUI&feature=youtu.be
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Police Raid on Occpy Boston 10 11 11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5G9agQjM60&noredirect=1
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Occupy Boston protesters arrested
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/occupy-boston-protesters-arrested/2011/10/11/gIQAsCzWdL_video.html
Boston police have arrested 129 people during Tuesday's Occupy Boston demonstrations. The early morning arrests were mostly for trespassing. (Oct. 11) (/The Associated Press)
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Video of Boston PD attacking veterans at OWS protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s3zFca5znU&feature=relmfu
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AlphaDog Proto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSbZrQp-HOk&feature=player_embedded
The AlphaDog Proto is a lab prototype for the Legged Squad Support System, a robot being developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from DARPA and the US Marine Corps. When fully developed the system will carry 400 lbs of payload on 20-mile missions in rough terrain. The first version of the complete robot will be completed in 2012. This video shows early results from the control development process. In this video the robot is powered remotely. AlphaDog is designed to be over 10x quieter than BigDog. For more information visit us at www.BostonDynamics.com.
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Children's Art from Palestine--Censored!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_8mHw2-aZQ&feature=youtu.be
You can see the whole exhibit in a new space located just around the corner from MOCHA (Museum of Children's Art) at 917 Washington Street. For more information please call Middle East Children's Alliance at (510) 548-0542 or email at meca@mecaforpeace.org.
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Judge Mathis Weighs in on the execution of Troy Davis
[And he does a great job and he has a huge audience. ...bw]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogBdP6INHlE
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Bill Maher, Michael Moore Defend Tony Bennett for Saying That U.S. Foreign Policy Helped Cause 9/11
By Lauren Kelley | Sourced from AlterNet
Posted at September 24, 2011, 7:44 am
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/670832/bill_maher%2C_michael_moore_defend_tony_bennett_for_saying_that_u.s._foreign_policy_helped_cause_9_11/#paragraph2
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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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Troy Davis, Racism, The Death Penalty & Labor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEues_-KoZU&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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What is the true cost of the Afghanistan war?
Narrated by Tony Benn. Music by Brian Eno
Mass Demonstration October 8, Noon, Trafalgar Square, London
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0Bkg8zgoYQ&feature=youtu.be
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LOWKEY OBAMA NATION (BANIDO DA TV)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRFywomdJTM&feature=related
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Labor Beat: THE PEOPLE'S PUTT PUTT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FkYBneJpds
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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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Very reminiscent of Obama...bw
Pat Paulsen 1968
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oiQhhdz8ys
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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
The video above documents what I am told is a meeting between Fukushima residents and government officials from Tokyo, said to have taken place on 19 July 2011. The citizens are demanding their government evacuate people from a broader area around the Fukushima nuclear plant, because of ever-increasing fears about the still-spreading radiation. They are demanding that their government provide financial and logistical support to get out. In the video above, you can see that some participants actually brought samples of their children's urine to the meeting, and they demanded that the government test it for radioactivity.
When asked by one person at the meeting about citizens' right to live a healthy and radioactive-free life, Local Nuclear Emergency Response Team Director Akira Satoh replies "I don't know if they have that right."
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Let's torture the truth out of suicide bombers says new CIA chief Petraeus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sm02UbKNCKQ
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Kim Ives & Dan Coughlin on WikiLeaks Cables that Reveal "Secret History" of U.S. Bullying in Haiti
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL0Dk21dC-M
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Operation Empire State Rebellion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJvBlQcaaaU&feature=player_embedded#at=10
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20 Facts About U.S. Inequality that Everyone Should Know
Click an image to learn more about a fact!
http://www.stanford.edu/group/scspi/cgi-bin/facts.php
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Licensed to Kill Video
http://nirs.org/multimedia/video/l2k.htm
Gundersen Gives Testimony to NRC ACRS from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.
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Tier Systems Cripple Middle Class Dreams for Young Workers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09pQW6TW8m4&feature=youtu.be
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Union Town by Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ZT71DxLuM&feature=player_embedded
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BRADLEY MANNING "BROKE THE LAW" SAYS OBAMA!
"He broke the law!" says Obama about Bradley Manning who has yet to even be charged, let alone, gone to trial and found guilty. How horrendous is it for the President to declare someone guilty before going to trial or being charged with a crime! Justice in the U.S.A.!
Obama on FREE BRADLEY MANNING protest... San Francisco, CA. April 21, 2011-Presidential remarks on interrupt/interaction/performance art happening at fundraiser. Logan Price queries Barack after org. FRESH JUICE PARTY political action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfmtUpd4id0&feature=youtu.be
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Max Romeo - Socialism Is Love
http://youtu.be/eTvUs4rY4to
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Cuba: The Accidental Eden
http://video.pbs.org/video/1598230084/
[This is a stunningly beautiful portrait of the Cuban natural environment as it is today. ...bw]
Watch the full episode. See more Nature.
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The Kill Team
How U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan murdered innocent civilians and mutilated their corpses - and how their officers failed to stop them. Plus: An exclusive look at the war crime photos censored by the Pentagon
Rolling Stone
March 27, 3011
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-kill-team-20110327
Afghans respond to "Kill Team"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3guxWIorhdA
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WikiLeaks Mirrors
Wikileaks is currently under heavy attack.
In order to make it impossible to ever fully remove Wikileaks from the Internet, you will find below a list of mirrors of Wikileaks website and CableGate pages.
Go to
http://wikileaks.ch/Mirrors.html
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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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Domestic Espionage Alert - Houston PD to use surveillance drone in America!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpstrc15Ogg
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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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Flashmob: Cape Town Opera say NO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wElyrFOnKPk
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"Don't F*** With Our Activists" - Mobilizing Against FBI Raid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyG3dIUGQvQ
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C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
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It's time to tell the White House that "We the People" support PFC Bradley Manning's freedom and the UN's investigation into alleged torture in Quantico, VA
On September 22nd, the White House launched a new petition website called "We the People." According to the White House blog, if a petition reaches 5,000 signatures in 30 days, "it will be reviewed by policy experts and you'll receive an official response."
Act now! Sign our petition to the White House: LINK
This is our chance to make sure the people in power know that the public still care about the fate of PFC Bradley Manning, and that we won't let this issue go away until PFC Manning is recognized as the whistleblower he is. It is also an opportunity for us to educate fellow Americans who may not have heard of PFC Manning yet, by boosting our petition to the top of the WhiteHouse.gov site.
The same day the White House launched the petition website, it also unveiled an Open Government Action Plan calling to "Strengthen and Expand Whistleblower Protection for Government Personnel." We consider this ironic given the fact that in April of 2011 the UN Chief Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, was forced to issue a rare reprimand to the U.S. for repeatedly denying his request to meet with alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower PFC Manning in an official, unmonitored visit to investigation allegations of his torture in the military brig of Quantico, VA.
We submitted the petition to the "We the People" website earlier this week, and we have already gathered over 1,000 signatures. We are relying on your help so that we can reach the 5,000 mark, and then some.
Signing the petition requires a quick and simple registration process. (Should you encounter technical trouble, please check out the link at the bottom of this e-mail.)
Click here to sign the petition now!
Already signed the petition? You can promote it to your friends on facebook and twitter! Copy and paste the following text: Tell the Obama Administration to let UN investigate torture of alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower PFC Bradley Manning! http://wh.gov/40y
We petition the obama administration to:
Free PFC Bradley Manning, the accused WikiLeaks whistleblower.
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/free-pfc-bradley-manning-accused-wikileaks-whistleblower/kX1GJKsD?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl
Using the information PFC Bradley Manning allegedly revealed, media outlets have published thousands of stories, detailing countless attempts by governments around the world -- including our own -- to illegally conceal evidence of human rights abuses.
According to the President, "employees with the courage to report wrongdoing are a government's best defense against waste, fraud and abuse."
It appears that PFC Manning acted on his conscience, at great personal risk, to answer the President's call.
However, he has been subjected to extreme confinement conditions that US legal scholars have said may amount to torture.
Therefore, we also ask the Obama administration to stop blocking the UN's chief torture investigator, Juan Mendez, from conducting an official visit with PFC Manning.
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Pelican Bay Hunger Strike Resumes
By Erin Sherbert
September 26 2011
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2011/09/pelican_bay_hunger_strike_resumes.php
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Cristian Fernandez is only 12 years old. And if Florida prosecutor Angela Corey has her way, he'll never leave jail again.
Cristian hasn't had an easy life. He's the same age now as his mother was when he was born. He's a survivor of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. In 2010, Cristian watched his stepfather commit suicide to avoid being charged with abusing Cristian.
Last January, Cristian was wrestling with his 2-year-old brother, David, and accidentally broke David's leg. Despite this, their mother left Cristian with his brother again in March. While the two boys were alone, Cristian allegedly pushed his brother against a bookcase, and David sustained a head injury. After their mother returned home, she waited six hours before taking David to the hospital. David eventually died.
Now Cristian is being charged with first degree murder -- as an adult. He's the youngest person in the history of his Florida county to receive this charge, and his next hearing is scheduled for tomorrow.
Melissa Higgins works with kids who get caught up in the criminal justice system in her home state of New Hampshire. When she read about Cristian's case, she was appalled -- so she started a petition on Change.org asking Florida State's Attorney Angela Corey to try Cristian as a child. Please sign Melissa's petition immediately before Cristian's hearing tomorrow.
As part of his prosecution, Cristian has been examined by two different forensic psychiatrists -- each of whom concluded that he was "emotionally underdeveloped but essentially reformable despite a tough life."
Cristian has already been through more than most of us can imagine -- and now the rest of his life is in the hands of a Florida prosecutor who wants to make sure Cristian never leaves jail.
The purpose of the juvenile justice system is to reform kids who haven't gotten a fair shake. If Cristian is sent to adult prison, it will be more than a tragedy for him -- it will also be a signal to other prosecutors that kids' lives are acceptable collateral in the quest to be seen as "tough on crime."
Cristian's next hearing is in just 24 hours. State's Attorney Angela Corey needs to know that her actions are being watched -- please sign the petition asking her not to try Cristian as an adult:
http://www.change.org/petitions/reverse-decision-to-try-12-yo-cristian-fernandez-as-an-adult
Thanks for being a change-maker,
- Michael and the Change.org team
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Your help is needed to defend free speech rights
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org/
info@AnswerCoalition.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-265-1948
Boston: 857-334-5084 | New York City: 212-694-8720 | Chicago: 773-463-0311
San Francisco: 415-821-6545| Los Angeles: 213-251-1025 | Albuquerque: 505-268-2488
We are writing to urge you to send an email letter today that can make a big difference in the outcome of a free speech fight that is vital to all grassroots movements that support social justice and peace.
It will just take a moment of your time but it will make a big difference.
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=326
All across the country people and organizations engaged in producing and disseminating leaflets and posters - the classic method of grassroots outreach used by those without institutional power and corporate money - are being faced with bankrupting fines.
This has been happening with ferocity in the nation's capital ever since the ANSWER Coalition was fined over $50,000 in the span of a few weeks for posters advertising the Sept. 15, 2007, protest against the Iraq war.
Attorneys for the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) filed a major lawsuit in August 2007 against the unconstitutional postering regulations in Washington, D.C.
"The District has employed an illegal system that creates a hierarchy of speech, favoring the speech of politicians and punishing grassroots outreach," Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Executive Director of the PCJF, stated in explaining a basic tenet of the lawsuit. "It's time for that system to end, and it will."
The hard-fought four-year-long lawsuit filed by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund against Washington, D.C.'s unconstitutional postering regulations has succeeded in achieving a number of important victories, including the issuance of new regulations after the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia warned just last month of an impending declaration of unconstitutionality against the District.
In July 2011 the federal District Court issued a preliminary opinion regarding one aspect of our lawsuit and suggested that the D.C. government "revise the regulations to include a single, across-the-board durational restriction that applies equally to all viewpoints and subject matters."
But this battle is not finished. The new regulations still contain dissent-crushing "strict liability" provisions (explained below) and remain unconstitutionally vague and ambiguous. Plus the District has never withdrawn the tens of thousands of dollars of fines against ANSWER.
The District of Columbia is required by law to open the new rules to public comment, which it has done with an extremely short comment period that is now open. We need people to send a comment today to the government of Washington, D.C. It just takes a minute using our online Submit a Comment tool, which will send your comment by email.
Send a letter today in support of the right to produce and disseminate leaflets and posters in Washington, D.C. We have included a sample comment but we encourage people to use or add your own language.
An Opportunity for You to Make a Difference
In response to our lawsuit, the District of Columbia has now issued "Emergency Regulations" replacing the current system which the city now admits are a "threat to the public welfare," after the court issued a preliminary opinion that agreed with a basic argument of the lawsuit.
This is an important moment and we need you and others who believe in Free Speech to weigh in during the short 15-day public comment period in response to the proposed Emergency Regulations for postering. Submit an online Comment now that makes one or more of three vital points:
Drop the $70,000 fines that have been applied to the ANSWER Coalition for anti-war posters during the past four years.
End "Strict Liability" fines and penalities. Strict Liability constitutes something of a death penalty for Free Speech activities such as producing leaflets and posters. It means that an organization referenced on posted signs can be held "strictly liable" for any materials alleged to be improperly posted, even if the group never even posted a single sign or poster. The D.C. government is even going further than that - it just levied fines against a disabled Vietnam veteran who didn't put up a single poster but was fined $450 because three posted signs were seen referencing a Veterans for Peace demonstration last December, and the District's enforcement agents researched that his name was on the permit application for the peace demonstration at the White House. Any group or person that leaves literature at a bookstore, or distributes literature, or posts .pdf fliers on the Internet, can be fined tens of thousands of dollars simply for having done nothing more than making political literature available.
Insist that any new regulations be clear, unambiguous and fair. The District's new "Emergency" Regulations are still inadequate because they are vague and ambiguous. Vaguely worded regulations in the hands of vindictive authority can and will be used to punish, penalize and fine grassroots organizations that seek to redress grievances while allowing the powerful and moneyed interests to do as they please. The District's postering regulations must be clear and unambiguous if they are to be fair, uniform and constitutional.
Take two minutes right now, click through to our online comment submission tool.
Thank you for your continued support. After you send your comment today to the District of Columbia please send this email to your friends and encourage them to take action as well. Click here to send your comment to the District.
Sincerely,
ANSWER Coalition
www.AnswerCoalition.org
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International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5
TAKE ACTION: New Punishment Against Rene Gonzalez
On Oct 7, René González, one of the Cuban 5 Patriots will be released from the US prison in Marianna Florida after serving out his 15 year sentence. Rene's crime was defending the security of the Cuban people against terrorist attacks.
The US government is now trying to stop his immediate return to his homeland, and his family, after he serves out the last day of this unjust sentence. And now, in the most cynical and mean spirited fashion, the US court that sentenced him in 2001 is extending his punishment by making him remain in the United States.
Because Rene was born in the US he will now have to spend an additional 3 years of probation here. Seven months ago his lawyer presented a motion asking the court to modify the conditions of his probation so that after he finished his sentence he be allowed to return to Cuba to reunite with his wife and his family for humanitarian reasons.
On March 25, the prosecutor Caroline Heck Miller asked the judge to deny the motion. On September 16 Judge Joan Lenard rejected the defense motion, alleging among other reasons, that the Court needs time to evaluate the behavior of the condemned person after he is freed to verify that he is not a danger to the United States.
We have to remember that this is the same prosecutor that rejected an attempt to try Posada Carriles as a criminal, and this is the same judge that included in the conditions of his release a special point that while Rene is under supervised release that," the accused is prohibited from associating with or visiting specific places where individuals or groups such as terrorists are known to be or frequent"
By writing this Judge Lenard made the shameful recognition that terrorists groups do exist and enjoy impunity in Miami. Furthermore she is offering them protection from Rene from bothering or denouncing them upon his release.
It was not enough for the US government to make Rene fulfill the complete sentence to the last day; It was not enough to try and blackmail his family by telling them he would not go to trial if he collaborated against his 4 brothers; it was not enough to pressure Rene with what could happen to his family if he did not cooperate with the government, including the detention and deportation of his wife Olga Salanueva; and it was not enough to deny Olga visas to visit her husband repeatedly all these years.
Why does the US government want to continue punishing René and his family?
The prejudice of the Miami community against the Five was denounced by three judges of the Eleventh Circuit of the Atlanta Court of Appeals on August 27, 2005, where it was recognized who the terrorists were, what organizations they belonged to and where they reside. To mandate that Rene Gonzalez stay another 3 years of supervised "freedom" in Florida, where a nest of international terrorists reside and who publicly make their hatred of Cuba and the Cuban 5 known, is to put the life of Rene in serious risk.
Today we are making a call to friends from all over the world to denounce this new punishment and to demand the US government allow René Gonzalez to return to Cuba to reunite with his wife and his family as soon as he get out of prison.
Contact now President Barack Obama and US Attorney General Eric Holder demanding the immediate return of René Gonzalez to his homeland and his family
TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE WHITE HOUSE
Write a letter to President Obama
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20500
EE.UU.
Make a phone call and leave a message for President Barack Obama: 202-456-1111
Send an e-mail message to President Barack Obama
HTTP://WWW.WHITEHOUSE.GOV/CONTACT
TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Write a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder
US Attorney General Eric Holder
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Make a phone call and leave a message for US Attorney General Eric Holder: 202-514-2000
Or call the public commentary line: 202-353-1555
Send an e-mail message to US Attorney General Eric Holder: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5
International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5
To learn more about the Cuban 5 visit:
www.thecuban5.org
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Say No to Police Repression of NATO/G8 Protests
http://www.stopfbi.net/get-involved/nato-g8-police-repression
The CSFR Signs Letter to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel
The CSFR is working with the United National Antiwar Committee and many other anti-war groups to organize mass rallies and protests on May 15 and May 19, 2012. We will protest the powerful and wealthy war-makers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Group of 8. Mobilize your groups, unions, and houses of worship. Bring your children, friends, and community. Demand jobs, healthcare, housing and education, not war!
Office of the Mayor
City of Chicago
To: Mayor Rahm Emanuel
We, the undersigned, demand that your administration grant us permits for protests on May 15 and 19, 2012, including appropriate rally gathering locations and march routes to the venue for the NATO/G8 summit taking place that week. We come to you because your administration has already spoken to us through Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. He has threatened mass arrests and violence against protestors.
[Read the full text of the letter here: http://www.stopfbi.net/get-involved/nato-g8-police-repression/full-text]
For the 10s of thousands of people from Chicago, around the country and across the world who will gather here to protest against NATO and the G8, we demand that the City of Chicago:
1. Grant us permits to rally and march to the NATO/G8 summit
2. Guarantee our civil liberties
3. Guarantee us there will be no spying, infiltration of organizations or other attacks by the FBI or partner law enforcement agencies.
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Supporter of Leak Suspect Is Called Before Grand Jury
By SCOTT SHANE
June 15, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/us/politics/16brfs-Washington.html?ref=world
A supporter of Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, who is accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of documents to WikiLeaks, was called before a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., on Wednesday, but he said he declined to answer any questions. The supporter, David M. House, a freelance computer scientist, said he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, because he believes the Justice Department is "creating a climate of fear around WikiLeaks and the Bradley Manning support network." The grand jury inquiry is separate from the military prosecution of Private Manning and is believed to be exploring whether the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, or others in the group violated the law by acquiring and publishing military and State Department documents.
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Justice for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace: Decades of isolation in Louisiana state prisons must end
Take Action -- Sign Petition Here:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/justice-for-albert-woodfox-and-herman-wallace
For nearly four decades, 64-year-old Albert Woodfox and 69-year-old Herman Wallace have been held in solitary confinement, mostly in the Louisiana State Penitentiary (known as Angola prison). Throughout their prolonged incarceration in Closed Cell Restriction (CCR) Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace have endured very restrictive conditions including 23 hour cellular confinement. They have limited access to books, newspapers and TV and throughout the years of imprisonment they have been deprived of opportunities for mental stimulation and access to work and education. Social interaction has been restricted to occasional visits from friends and family and limited telephone calls.
Louisiana prison authorities have over the course of 39 years failed to provide a meaningful review of the men's continued isolation as they continue to rubberstamp the original decision to confine the men in CCR. Decades of solitary confinement have had a clear psychological effect on the men. Lawyers report that they are both suffering from serious health problems caused or exacerbated by their years of close confinement.
After being held together in the same prison for nearly 40 years, the men are now held in seperate institutions where they continue to be subjected to conditions that can only be described as cruel, inhuman and degrading.
Take action now to demand that Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace be immediately removed from solitary confinement
Sign our petition which will be sent to the Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, calling on him to:
* take immediate steps to remove Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace from close confinement
* ensure that their treatment complies with the USA's obligations under international standards and the US Constitution.
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WITNESS GAZA
http://www.witnessgaza.com/
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Stop Coal Companies From Erasing Labor Union History
http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-coal-companies-from-erasing-labor-union-history
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One year after Bradley's detainment, we need your support more than ever.
Dear Friends,
One year ago, on May 26, 2010, the U.S. government quietly arrested a humble young American intelligence analyst in Iraq and imprisoned him in a military camp in Kuwait. Over the coming weeks, the facts of the arrest and charges against this shy soldier would come to light. And across the world, people like you and I would step forward to help defend him.
Bradley Manning, now 23 years old, has never been to court but has already served a year in prison- including 10 months in conditions of confinement that were clear violation of the international conventions against torture. Bradley has been informally charged with releasing to the world documents that have revealed corruption by world leaders, widespread civilian deaths at the hands of U.S. forces, the true face of Guantanamo, an unvarnished view of the U.S.'s imperialistic foreign negotiations, and the murder of two employees of Reuters News Agency by American soldiers. These documents released by WikiLeaks have spurred democratic revolutions across the Arab world and have changed the face of journalism forever.
For his act of courage, Bradley Manning now faces life in prison-or even death.
But you can help save him-and we've already seen our collective power. Working together with concerned citizens around the world, the Bradley Manning Support Network has helped raise worldwide awareness about Manning's torturous confinement conditions. Through the collective actions of well over a half million people and scores of organizations, we successfully pressured the U.S. government to end the tortuous conditions of pre-trial confinement that Bradley was subjected to at the Marine Base at Quantico, Virginia. Today, Bradley is being treated humanely at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. T hanks to your support, Bradley is given leeway to interact with other pre-trial prisoners, read books, write letters, and even has a window in his cell.
Of course we didn't mount this campaign to just improve Bradley's conditions in jail. Our goal is to ensure that he can receive a fair and open trial. Our goal is to win Bradley's freedom so that he can be reunited with his family and fulfill his dream of going to college. Today, to commemorate Bradley's one year anniversary in prison, will you join me in making a donation to help support Bradley's defense?
http://bradleymanning.org/donate
We'll be facing incredible challenges in the coming months, and your tax-deductible donation today will help pay for Bradley's civilian legal counsel and the growing international grassroots campaign on his behalf. The U.S. government has already spent a year building its case against Bradley, and is now calling its witnesses to Virginia to testify before a grand jury.
What happens to Bradley may ripple through history - he is already considered by many to be the single most important person of his generation. Please show your commitment to Bradley and your support for whistle-blowers and the truth by making a donation today.
With your help, I hope we will come to remember May 26th as a day to commemorate all those who risk their lives and freedom to promote informed democracy - and as the birth of a movement that successfully defended one courageous whistle-blower against the full fury of the U.S. government.
Donate now: bradleymanning.org/donate
In solidarity,
Jeff Paterson and Loraine Reitman,
On behalf of the Bradley Manning Support Network Steering Committee
www.bradleymanning.org
P.S. After you have donated, please help us by forwarding this email to your closest friends. Ask them to stand with you to support Bradley Manning, and the rights of all whistleblowers.
View the new 90 second "I am Bradley Manning" video:
I am Bradley Manning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-P3OXML00s
Courage to Resist
484 Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland, CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org
"A Fort Leavenworth mailing address has been released for Bradley Manning:
Bradley Manning 89289
830 Sabalu Road
Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027
The receptionist at the military barracks confirmed that if someone sends Bradley Manning a letter to that address, it will be delivered to him."
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/update-42811
This is also a Facebook event
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=207100509321891#!/event.php?eid=207100509321891
Courage to Resist needs your support
Please donate today:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
"Soldiers sworn oath is to defend and support the Constitution. Bradley Manning has been defending and supporting our Constitution."
-Dan Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistle-blower
Jeff Paterson
Project Director, Courage to Resist
First US military service member to refuse to 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) Hunger strikes will continue until prisoners' demands respected
Jillian Kestler-D'Amours
The Electronic Intifada
Haifa
October 10, 2011
http://electronicintifada.net/content/hunger-strikes-will-continue-until-prisoners-demands-respected/10470#.TpRj0OtAvIY.email
2) States Adding Drug Test as Hurdle for Welfare
By A. G. SULZBERGER
October 10, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/us/states-adding-drug-test-as-hurdle-for-welfare.html?hp
3) At One College, a Fight Over Required Drug Tests
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
October 10, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/us/at-linn-state-technical-a-fight-over-required-drug-tests.html?ref=us
4) New Tool for Police, the Video Camera, and New Legal Issues to Go With It
By ERICA GOODE
October 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/us/police-using-body-mounted-video-cameras.html?ref=us
5) Hedge Fund Assets Back Above 2006 Levels: Data
"Funds that manage more than $1 billon grew their assets $150 billion to $1.85 trillion during the six months through June and the top 345 firms now manage some 82 percent of industry assets, the data shows. ...Assets rose in the United States, which is still the largest center for hedge fund managers and sits on close to three quarters of total assets, as well as in Europe."
By REUTERS
October 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/10/11/business/business-us-financial-hedgefunds-assets.html?src=busln
6) US court turns down Philly DA in cop-killing case
AP
Tue, Oct 11, 2011
http://news.yahoo.com/us-court-turns-down-philly-da-cop-killing-142151283.html
7) Justifying the Killing of an American
New York Times Editorial
October 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/opinion/justifying-the-killing-of-an-american.html?hp
8) A Year Out of the Dark in Chile, but Still Trapped
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
October 12, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/world/americas/chiles-rescued-miners-face-major-struggles-a-year-later.html?hp
9) Response of the Police Is Expanding With Protests
By KIRK JOHNSON
October 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/us/police-response-expands-with-protests.html?ref=us
10) Fingerprinting Those Seeking Food Stamps Is Denounced
By KATE TAYLOR
October 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/nyregion/christine-c-quinn-urges-city-to-drop-rule-on-fingerprinting-food-stamp-seekers.html?ref=us
11) A Familiar Figure Begs on the Street, but Not for Himself
By COREY KILGANNON
October 11, 2011, 7:00 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/a-familiar-figure-begs-on-the-street-but-not-for-himself/?ref=nyregion
12) In Seeking Rate Increases in New York, Health Insurers Fight to Keep Secrets
By NINA BERNSTEIN
October 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/nyregion/health-insurers-ask-to-keep-rate-increase-data-secret.html?ref=nyregion
13) Single Occupy Wall Street protester takes on 161st St. to rally against failing welfare system
BY Daniel Beekman
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Wednesday, October 12th 2011, 4:00 AM
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/occupy_wall_street/2011/10/12/2011-10-12_occupy_161st_st_protesters_outreach_at_welfare_line.html
14) Police Attack Occupy Boston, Arresting 141 Peaceful Protesters
What Happened to Me in the Police Raid and Arrest 141 of Peaceful Protestors
From: Brian K
To: Occupy Boston!
Sent: Wed, Oct 12, 2011 6:37 am
15) A News Story Is Growing With 'Occupy' Protests
By BRIAN STELTER
October 12, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/us/occupy-wall-street-protests-a-growing-news-story.html?hp
16) Dear Occupy Wall Street: Read Jeffrey Sachs!
By John Horgan
October 11, 2011
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2011/10/11/dear-occupy-wall-street-read-jeffrey-sachs/?WT_mc_id=SA_WR_20111013
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1) Hunger strikes will continue until prisoners' demands respected
Jillian Kestler-D'Amours
The Electronic Intifada
Haifa
October 10, 2011
http://electronicintifada.net/content/hunger-strikes-will-continue-until-prisoners-demands-respected/10470#.TpRj0OtAvIY.email
HAIFA (IPS) - Sitting in the shade of a small lemon tree in the German Colony area of Haifa, eight Palestinian activists have been on hunger strike since last weekend in solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners who have been going without food for nearly two weeks in protest against poor prison conditions and a lack of basic rights.
"I decided to participate in the hunger strike in order to support the political prisoners, the freedom fighters, imprisoned in the Israeli dungeons. As a Palestinian, I know for sure that those fighters, those men and women, have fought in order to defend my rights," Muhannad Abu Ghosh, a Haifa resident and one of the hunger strikers, said.
"This hunger strike declared in Haifa is breaking through the borders which were put by the Israeli occupation throughout the years," Abu Ghosh added.
More than 100 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails began an open-ended hunger strike on 27 September. Their demands include stopping Israel's use of solitary confinement, including that of Ahmad Saadat, general secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), rectifying the arbitrary nature of denying family visits, and ending the routine humiliation of detainees during prison transfer.
Thousands of Palestinian prisoners are now said to be participating in acts of civil disobedience, including the hunger strike, in various Israeli-controlled prisons.
"I think that one of the main goals of our strike is to encourage the political prisoners, the political heroes, in continuing with their strike, (and) to fight for their basic and essential right to live peacefully," Nizar Jubran, a 22-year-old student and another hunger striker in Haifa said.
"They already know that we have started the strike here and I think that it encouraged them, when they are all alone in the prison and they can't see anyone. It will inspire them and will encourage them to continue their strike and fight for their rights."
Netanyahu denies right to education
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced last June that he was imposing harsher conditions on Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including ending their access to university education and books, due to the fact that captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was still being held by Hamas in Gaza.
More severe restrictions following Netanyahu's announcement included intensifying prisoner searches and placing Palestinian political leaders in solitary confinement, among others.
More than 5,200 Palestinian prisoners and security detainees were held in Israeli prisons at the end of August 2011, according to statistics provided by the Israeli Prison Service. It is estimated that Israel has detained over 700,000 Palestinians - 20 percent of the total Palestinian population of the occupied West Bank and Gaza - since the Israeli occupation began in 1967.
According to Sahar Francis, director of Addameer, a Palestinian prisoners support organization based in Ramallah, the Israeli prison authorities have worsened their treatment of Palestinian prisoners since their hunger strike began.
"In Ofer prison, three of the prisoners on the hunger strike were beaten and attacked by soldiers on their way from the detention facility to the court. They told the lawyers as well that, for the last couple of days, because they are on a hunger strike, every night the prison guards take them and force them to walk all over the prison in order to tire them. This is to put pressure on them so they will stop their strike," Francis said.
While initially led by prisoners affiliated with the PFLP, the hunger strike has extended to prisoners from other Palestinian political factions, including Hamas and Fatah.
Prisoners' demands are basic
"The other political groups will support the hunger strike three days a week, and if they feel that there's no positive reaction from the Israeli authorities, they will join the strike [full-time]. All the prisoners believe at this point that their demands are not very high and it's very basic rights that they are demanding," Francis said.
Demonstrations have been held in the West Bank, Gaza and in Israel in support of the prisoners' hunger strike, while activists from around the world staged protests, sit-ins and day-long hunger strikes in London, Edinburgh and Brussels, among other cities on 7 October.
According to Francis, this international support is important in order to raise awareness of the plight of Palestinian prisoners and the political context within which they are being denied their rights.
"It's related to the political discourse and the issue of the exchange with Gilad Shalit that failed. When comparing with what the Israeli political leaders are saying in their speeches on the issue of the prisoners, it's very clear that they are acting as a kind of revenge," Francis said.
"Now they're reacting in a very tough way to this strike. The Israeli authorities are not hearing what the prisoners want. They are not open to dialogue or discussion. But I don't think the prisoners will stop the strike without having achieved an agreement and succeeding to guarantee that they will get these rights back."
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2) States Adding Drug Test as Hurdle for Welfare
By A. G. SULZBERGER
October 10, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/us/states-adding-drug-test-as-hurdle-for-welfare.html?hp
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - As more Americans turn to government programs for refuge from a merciless economy, a growing number are encountering a new price of admission to the social safety net: a urine sample.
Policy makers in three dozen states this year proposed drug testing for people receiving benefits like welfare, unemployment assistance, job training, food stamps and public housing. Such laws, which proponents say ensure that tax dollars are not being misused and critics say reinforce stereotypes about the poor, have passed in states including Arizona, Indiana and Missouri.
In Florida, people receiving cash assistance through welfare have had to pay for their own drug tests since July, and enrollment has shrunk to its lowest levels since the start of the recession.
The law, the most far-reaching in the nation, provoked a lawsuit last month from the American Civil Liberties Union, arguing that the requirement represents an unreasonable search and seizure.
The flood of proposals across the country, enabled by the strength of Republicans in many statehouses and driven by a desire to cut government spending, recall the politics of the '80s and '90s, when higher rates of drug abuse and references to "welfare queens" led to policies aimed at ensuring that public benefits were not spent to support addiction.
Supporters of the policies note that public assistance is meant to be transitional and that drug tests are increasingly common requirements for getting jobs.
"Working people today work very hard to make ends meet, and it just doesn't seem fair to them that their tax dollars go to support illegal things," said Ellen Brandom, a Republican state representative in Missouri.
The last three years, she sponsored legislation requiring testing of welfare recipients, and her bill was signed by Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, in July.
Advocates for the poor say the testing policies single out and vilify victims of the recession, disputing the idea that people on public assistance are more likely to use drugs. They also warn that to the extent that testing programs were successful in blocking some people from receiving benefits, the inability to get money for basic needs would aggravate drug addictions and increase demand for treatment.
At Operation Breakthrough, which provides day care services to low-income women here in Kansas City, Nicole, 22, who asked to be identified only by her first name, began to cry as she described trying to provide for her three children on a monthly welfare check of $342, plus $642 in food stamps.
Her electricity was cut off that morning, she said, which meant she could be evicted from her subsidized housing. The struggle to make ends meet while pursuing a health care degree was so consuming that the idea of taking drugs seemed ridiculous, she added.
Kimberley Davis, the director of social services for Operation Breakthrough, said the legislation sent a bad message. "All this does is perpetuate the stereotype that low-income people are lazy, shiftless drug addicts and if all they did was pick themselves up from the bootstraps then the country wouldn't be in the mess it's in," Ms. Davis said.
Many states have already established ways to prevent people with known drug problems from receiving benefits - about 20 states prohibit unemployment payments for anyone who lost a job because of drug use, and more than a dozen states refuse welfare payments to anyone convicted of a drug felony.
But, as tight state budgets have raised concern about government spending and fostered an impatience with aid to the poor, these efforts have gone further. Some point to federal statistics showing that unemployed adults are about twice as likely as employed adults to have used drugs in the previous month.
This year, 36 states considered drug testing for recipients of cash assistance from the major welfare program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures; 12 states proposed it for unemployment insurance; and some also considered making it a requirement for food stamps, home heating assistance and other programs.
At the same time, a number of cities, including Chicago and Flint, Mich., considered drug testing public housing residents. There have also been proposals in Congress for nationwide testing of welfare recipients.
To date, most of the proposals have failed to win support because of concerns about legality, stemming from a decade-old federal court ruling. That ruling struck down a Michigan law that mandated testing for all welfare recipients as a violation of the constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure.
Money has also been an issue - the sides dispute whether the savings in unpaid benefits will eclipse the spending on administration, including the cost of testing.
"It really speaks to how the politics of the moment are dominating the policy conversation in the virtual absence of any evidence," said Harold Pollack, a professor at the University of Chicago whose research has indicated that people on welfare used drugs at rates similar to the general population.
In Arizona, under a 2009 program reauthorized this year, applicants are tested if they answer yes to a question about recent drug use. Only 16 out of 64,000 answered yes; 931 did not submit the form. The state estimated the savings on benefits had totaled $116,000.
The law in Florida, where the average recipient receives $253 a month for less than five months, is more expansive. It requires applicants to pay for their own drug tests, which the state says costs up to $40, and the state will reimburse those who pass. People who fail the test are disqualified for one year - six months if they receive treatment - and are reported to the Florida abuse hot line. Payments to children can continue through another person, like a grandparent.
Since July, 7,030 passed, 32 failed and 1,597 did not provide results, according to the state. The state said it does not track what drugs caused failures, but elsewhere the vast majority of cases involved marijuana.
Both sides have seized on the early results. Opponents argue that they suggest the number of drug users among people who receive public benefits is lower than the general population, and proponents say that it suggests that drug users are being deterred from taking the test.
A decline in the number of applicants appears to have accelerated since the testing started, according to a spokesman for the Florida Department of Children and Families.
State leaders have defended the program as "nothing more than an additional eligibility criteria," noting that applicants are free to decline benefits if they do not want to be tested.
"To me it's real simple: money is going to go to the benefit of children, not to a parent using drugs," said Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican who campaigned on the proposal.
Arthenia L. Joyner, a Democratic leader in the State Senate who introduced a bill to repeal the law, said that now was not the right time for such policies.
"There are millions of people seeking aid from the state for the first time because they have lost their jobs and they still have children to feed and bills to pay," she said. "These people now are having to suffer the indignity of having to undergo a drug test."
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3) At One College, a Fight Over Required Drug Tests
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
October 10, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/us/at-linn-state-technical-a-fight-over-required-drug-tests.html?ref=us
Linn State Technical College in Linn, Mo., informed students this semester that they would be required to submit to a urine test that would be checked for illegal drugs as a condition of studying at the college. Almost immediately, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups sued on behalf of several dissenting Linn State students and have won a temporary injunction. The A.C.L.U. says Linn State is the first public college in the country to require all adult students to submit to mandatory drug tests. Linn State officials however, say the policy is legal and was developed in the interest of their 1,200 students.
The tests, which require a $50 fee per student, would be used to determine the presence of the following, according to the university: cocaine; amphetamines and methamphetamines; marijuana; opiates; PCP; benzodiazepines; barbiturates; methadone; methaqualone; propoxyphene; and oxycodone. A hearing on the case is scheduled for Oct. 25. Kent Brown, the college's lawyer, discusses.
QUESTION Why did Linn State decide drug testing was necessary?
ANSWER There are several reasons that culminated in the decision. It was a progression, I would say. Several of the programs have been drug tested previously, either because there's a federal or state law or regulation that requires it. The school has advisory councils that are made up of businesses that would be potential businesses to hire our graduates that support the program with their expertise, and those advisory councils have been surveyed and the majority of their comments is that drug testing is pretty well becoming the norm in their industries so there was that vector also that was moving toward drug testing. And the third thing that I would identify: the college has been moving toward its mission, which is preparing students for profitable employment and a lifetime of learning. And there was a feeling that the college wasn't properly stepping up to prepare the students for getting jobs in industries where drug testing was becoming the norm and an unavoidable barrier to getting and keeping the good jobs in the industry. There was an educational motivation as well. And that, and other miscellaneous things, I think motivated the adoption of the policy.
Q. How many students had been tested prior to the injunction?
A. About 540. It was all of the incoming freshmen and any student who had not been involved for a semester.
Q. Did any students refuse to take the test?
A. No. People showed up and took the test and no one objected.
Q. Would they have been expelled otherwise?
A. That's not accurate. They would be administratively withdrawn if they refused to participate in the drug screening program. The drug screening program is more than just a drug test. There are several ways where students can actually avoid giving a test and continue going to school. They, for example, can petition the president of the college and if they have a valid reason why they should not be required to participate - that's one reason to be excused from the test. The program applies to all students. Any concerns that they had would be answered. They would talk to school counselors, and if they just flat-out refused to participate in this, I guess, ultimately, if they did this they would be administratively withdrawn or they could withdraw themselves.
Q. What would be a valid excuse for opting out of a test?
A. The policy does give some valid examples, and I would certainly not speak for Dr. Claycomb, the president of the college, and the board. But for example, I would assume, you know, if someone had an extraordinarily confidential blood problem that would be disclosed or would be shown by this testing - and I don't think anything would - if that's a possibility, that would be a good reason for them to be excluded.
Q. Is there precedent for this?
A. There is certainly precedent for drug testing, which is a much more punitive screen then what we're doing. The industries that we train students for, for example, I believe there's a federal regulation that over-the-road truckers are randomly drug tested. So our students who are applying for a commercial driver's license have to do drug testing under the federal regulation or they can't get their license. There is precedent in the industries that the students will be applying to work in. And I think a lot of notoriety has arisen from the fact that there's a perception we are testing an entire student body. Well, the student body at Linn State is very different from, for example, the University of Missouri or Harvard or some place like that. We are a technical college. We do heavy equipment operations. The vast majority of our training programs deal with either high-voltage electricity or heavy equipment operations, for dangerous, caustic chemicals or combinations of the above. All of these things are things we need to guard against for the safety of the students.
Q. What would the punishment be if someone tested positive?
A. We don't view it as a punishment, but the response would be, well, they'd of course have appeal rights if they think something was wrong with the test, But assuming everyone agreed, they'd have to meet with a counselor and then they can participate in an online program designed to avoid drug abuse and dependence. There are options for education. And they would retest, and originally, it would have been about 45 days later. So there's no adverse action from a positive initial test. It would not be until a second or even a third bad test that they would seriously be considered to be forced out of the college.
Q. Did graduates have problems with failed drug tests at their jobs? Is that the reason for this?
A. I probably need to answer that this way: I can't give you specific examples, but it would not surprise me at all if some students encountered difficulties with drug tests after they graduated. The members of our advisory councils for various programs were some of the initiators of this idea and I doubt they would have brought it up if it hadn't been a problem. We don't have any statistics once they graduate.
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4) New Tool for Police, the Video Camera, and New Legal Issues to Go With It
By ERICA GOODE
October 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/us/police-using-body-mounted-video-cameras.html?ref=us
When a man was fatally shot by a police officer on a street in Oakland, Calif., late last month, the shooting was captured by a video camera.
But the video was not taken by an alert pedestrian with an iPhone. It was recorded by a device clipped onto the police officer's chest.
The Oakland Police Department is one of hundreds of law enforcement agencies that are trying out the body-mounted video cameras, using them to document arrests, traffic stops and even more significant encounters, like officer-involved shootings.
The cameras, legal experts say, are the latest addition in a world where everyone is increasingly watching everyone else.
The police already record illegal left turns and ignored stop signs using cameras mounted on the dashboards of cruisers - evidence displayed vividly on video screens in courtrooms, sometimes to the chagrin of drivers who have just insisted they did no such thing.
Surveillance cameras watch for shoplifters and potential terrorists. And ever since a bystander recorded Los Angeles police officers beating Rodney King in 1991, video has been used by witnesses or suspects to record what they believe to be misconduct or inappropriate behavior by the police - a practice that has proliferated with the advent of smart phones.
The ubiquity of video in police encounters - some of it promptly uploaded onto YouTube - is creating new frontiers for judges and lawmakers, who must sort out the issues raised by the new technologies.
Courts in several states are considering cases where citizens who videotaped the police have been charged with violating wiretapping or eavesdropping statutes, prosecution that civil rights lawyers say violates First Amendment rights.
If body cameras are widely adopted by police departments - Vievu, the Seattle-based firm that sold Oakland its cameras, has supplied them to more than 1,100 police agencies across the country, according to Heidi Traverso, a company spokeswoman - privacy questions are likely to be added to the legal stew.
"If a police officer is taking a picture of every interaction, one of the things that he may find is me, naked as a jay bird, when my wife calls to complain," said Franklin E. Zimring, a professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley. "Let's assume that it's either against the law or not, but I sure don't want it on YouTube. The potential for a sort of permanent embarrassment is a looming presence when everything is filmed."
Police officers argue that the pager-size devices, which are more versatile and cost far less than dashboard cameras, can provide objective evidence in situations that might otherwise depend on "he said, she said" accounts. Indeed, the videotape of the police shooting in Oakland is likely to play a critical role in the investigation by the department's Internal Affairs division. The department has not released the names of the victim or the officers involved in the shooting.
Video from the cameras has also been used in Oakland to evaluate citizen complaints about police behavior, said Officer Johnna Watson, a spokeswoman for the department, adding that in one case - she declined to provide the details - an officer's video proved that a complaint was unfounded.
Some legal experts also say that the more video evidence available, the better.
"With all its ambiguities and difficulties, the photographic brave new world is better than its predecessor," Professor Zimring said. "The kinds of mistakes you can make with it are less often and less catastrophic" than with dueling verbal renditions of what occurred.
Howard Wasserman, a First Amendment scholar at Florida International University's law school, noted that video recordings were not free from subjective interpretation.
"Film and literary theory show that it is a myth that video evidence is an unambiguous, objective, conclusive, singular and clear reproduction of reality," Professor Wasserman wrote in a 2009 paper on the implications of video recordings for civil rights litigation.
But he, too, said that a world where "all encounters can be recorded by everybody" is "not necessarily a bad state of affairs."
If nothing else, he and other legal scholars said, the adoption of the body cameras by police departments may help discourage attempts to prosecute citizens for making their own video records of police interactions, in most cases under wiretapping or eavesdropping laws that prohibit recording without consent from both parties.
In Maryland, for example, a speeding motorcyclist, Anthony Graber, was charged with illegal wiretapping last year when he used a helmet-mounted camera to record the state trooper who pulled him over, and then posted the resulting video on YouTube. A judge later threw out the charges, saying that Mr. Graber was within his rights in making the video.
In Illinois, Christopher Drew, an artist, may not be so lucky. He used a digital audio recorder to document his arrest for selling art without a permit in 2009 - a friend also videotaped the arrest and uploaded it on YouTube - and was promptly charged under the state's unusually restrictive eavesdropping law, which makes recording a police officer without consent a class 1 felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The case has not yet come to trial.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, arguing that Illinois' statute violates the First Amendment and would keep the organization's members from monitoring citizen-police interactions, filed a lawsuit in 2010 challenging the law. A district court dismissed the case. The civil liberties group is now appealing the judgment.
Professor Wasserman noted that if the police are also videotaping their actions, "to say 'we can have the cameras and nobody else can' really becomes problematic."
He pointed to a sweeping decision issued by a federal appeals court in Massachusetts in August in the case of Simon Glik, a recent law school graduate who was charged under the state's wiretapping law in 2007 after he used his cellphone to videotape three uniformed police officers he believed were using excessive force. In ruling on a civil rights lawsuit brought by Mr. Glik after the wiretapping charges were dismissed, the appeals court judges said he "was exercising his clearly established First Amendment rights in filming the officers in a public space."
David Milton, a lawyer who represented Mr. Glik, said he hoped that the federal court's ruling would influence cases in other states, like the lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.
"It's such a strong decision and it's well reasoned and the first decision that really addresses this case," Mr. Milton said. "It's only fair and right that citizens should have the right to record the police."
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5) Hedge Fund Assets Back Above 2006 Levels: Data
"Funds that manage more than $1 billon grew their assets $150 billion to $1.85 trillion during the six months through June and the top 345 firms now manage some 82 percent of industry assets, the data shows. ...Assets rose in the United States, which is still the largest center for hedge fund managers and sits on close to three quarters of total assets, as well as in Europe."
By REUTERS
October 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/10/11/business/business-us-financial-hedgefunds-assets.html?src=busln
LONDON (Reuters) - Global hedge fund assets rose 6.7 percent to $2.16 trillion in the first half of the year as investors backed the bigger, established managers to steer them through volatile markets, data showed on Tuesday.
The rise in assets means the industry is now managing more than in 2006, but less than its pre-credit crunch peak in 2007, when assets briefly topped $2.6 trillion, according to the research by HedgeFund Intelligence.
Hedge funds have been slowly rebuilding their businesses after losing around 30 percent of their assets during and after the 2007 and 2008 financial crisis.
While the trend since then has generally been upwards, the bigger managers are enjoying almost all of the recent rise in assets, according to the data.
Funds that manage more than $1 billon grew their assets $150 billion to $1.85 trillion during the six months through June and the top 345 firms now manage some 82 percent of industry assets, the data shows.
The increase in assets comes despite many hedge funds struggling to turn a profit this year, with Hedge Fund Research's HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index 4.74 percent lower in 2011.
Man Group Plc's computer-driven AHL fund has lost an estimated 1.5 percent, based on Monday's net asset value per share, while John Paulson's Advantage Plus Fund has tumbled almost 47 percent in 2011, two people who saw the numbers said.
The rise in total assets was not uniform across geographies.
Assets rose in the United States, which is still the largest center for hedge fund managers and sits on close to three quarters of total assets, as well as in Europe.
However, Asia saw its share drop 5 percent, HedgeFund Intelligence cited a survey from news and data provider AsiaHedge as showing.
Almost $100 billion is now held in hedge fund strategies only available under onshore UCITS-compliant format, wrappers which allow financial institutions to sell funds into any European Union country after approval from a single member state, HedgeFund Intelligence also said.
(Reporting by Tommy Wilkes; Editing by Laurence Fletcher and David Holmes)
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6) US court turns down Philly DA in cop-killing case
AP
Tue, Oct 11, 2011
http://news.yahoo.com/us-court-turns-down-philly-da-cop-killing-142151283.html
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a request from prosecutors who want to re-impose a death sentence on former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted of killing a white Philadelphia police officer 30 years ago.
The justices on Tuesday refused to get involved in the racially charged case. A federal appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing for Abu-Jamal after finding that the death-penalty instructions given to the jury at Abu-Jamal's 1982 trial were potentially misleading.
Courts have upheld Abu-Jamal's conviction for killing Officer Daniel Faulkner over objections that African-Americans were improperly excluded from the jury.
The federal appeals court in Philadelphia said prosecutors could agree to a life sentence for Abu-Jamal or try again to sentence him to death.
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7) Justifying the Killing of an American
New York Times Editorial
October 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/opinion/justifying-the-killing-of-an-american.html?hp
The Obama administration apparently spent months considering the legal implications of targeting Anwar al-Awlaki, the American citizen who was killed in Yemen last month after being accused of being a terrorist organizer. It prepared a detailed and cautious memorandum to justify the decision - a refreshing change from the reckless legal thinking of the Bush administration, which rationalized torture, claimed unlimited presidential powers and drove the country's fight against terrorists off the rails.
But the memo, as reported by Charlie Savage in The Times, is an insufficient foundation for a momentous decision by the government to kill one of its own citizens, no matter how dangerous a threat he was believed to be. For one thing, the administration has refused to make it public or even acknowledge its existence. It was described to Mr. Savage by anonymous officials, and the administration will not openly discuss even its most basic guidelines for choosing assassination targets.
The decision to kill Mr. Awlaki was made entirely within the executive branch. The memo was not shared with Congress, nor did any independent judge or panel of judges pass judgment. The administration set aside Mr. Awlaki's rights to due process.
President Obama said Mr. Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric, had taken "the lead role in planning and directing the efforts to murder innocent Americans." The administration said he inspired several planned terrorist attacks, including the attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Dec. 25, 2009. (Testimony in the trial of the accused bomber began on Tuesday.) Officials have said Mr. Awlaki's role went beyond inspiration into operational planning of attacks, though they have not supplied proof of that. If the White House would release the evidence it has to back up these claims, it would have a better chance of justifying the cleric's death.
The memo, prepared by two lawyers in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, said Mr. Awlaki could be killed because he was taking part in the war between the United States and Al Qaeda and posed a significant threat to Americans, but it stopped short of analyzing the quality of the evidence. It said joining an enemy force deprived him of a citizen's due process rights, citing several Supreme Court rulings that put the protection of innocent lives above the risk of possible death of a suspect.
Mr. Awlaki was not entitled to full protections - an open-court trial in absentia would have been time-wasting and impractical - but as an American, he was entitled to some. The memo said Mr. Awlaki should be captured if feasible - an important principle, even though the government did not believe it could safely put commandos in Yemen to capture him.
Due process means more than a military risk analysis. It requires unambiguous and public guidelines for how the United States will follow federal and international law in approving targeted killings, particularly of Americans. And it means taking the decision beyond the executive echo chamber. We have argued that judicial review is required, perhaps a closed-door court similar to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, before anyone, especially a citizen, is placed on an assassination list.
The Obama administration seems to know that antiterrorist operations do not escape the rule of law. Its case would be far stronger if it would say so, out loud.
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8) A Year Out of the Dark in Chile, but Still Trapped
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
October 12, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/world/americas/chiles-rescued-miners-face-major-struggles-a-year-later.html?hp
COPIAPÓ, Chile - After his dramatic rescue from a mine last year, Jimmy Sánchez traveled the world, cruising the Greek islands, visiting Britain, Israel, Los Angeles, Disney World - all paid for by people who were moved by the Chilean miners' story of courage and perseverance.
But today Mr. Sánchez, like many of the 33 miners who survived 69 days nearly a half-mile underground, is jobless and at wits' end. Twice a month, he boards a bus to Santiago, Chile's capital, traveling 11 hours each way for a short visit with a psychiatrist. He is one of nine miners receiving sick-leave pay for prolonged post-traumatic stress; a handful of others say they are seeing private therapists.
"Most of us are in the same place with emotional and psychological problems," said Mr. Sánchez, 20. "It was the fear that we would never again see our families, that we were going to die. We just can't shake those memories."
One year after their globally televised rescue, after the worldwide spotlight faded and the trips and offers have dwindled, the miners say that most of them are unemployed and that many are poorer than before.
Only a handful of them have steady jobs, they say. Just four have returned to mining. Two others, Víctor Zamora and Darío Segovia, are trying to make ends meet by selling fruits and vegetables, one from a stall, the other out of his truck.
"They made us feel like heroes," said Edison Peña, another miner, who is now in a psychiatric clinic. "In the end, we are selling peanuts. It's ironic, isn't it?"
Some miners have been paid to do interviews or give motivational speeches. But those opportunities proved fleeting for most. Now many are counting on a Hollywood movie about them - which still does not have a script - to be their economic savior.
Mr. Peña, the miner who became famous for his love of Elvis Presley and running, is coping with trauma caused not only by his time below but also by the aftermath of the rescue, when the demands of instant celebrity proved overwhelming, his doctor said, leading him to abuse drugs and alcohol.
Three miners, including Mr. Sánchez and Mr. Segovia, recently resumed psychiatric treatment after the nightmares and sleeplessness returned. Doctors said that they expected more of them to have a relapse, and that many now get by on a steady regimen of sedatives and antidepressants.
"This is very similar to how Vietnam veterans suffered," said Rodrigo Gillibrand, the psychiatrist treating the nine men on sick leave covered by labor insurance, though the mine has been closed down. "They have post-traumatic symptoms that could be chronic."
In the wake of the rescue, the miners benefited from an outpouring of sympathy and support. A Chilean mining magnate, Leonardo Farkas, gave the miners more than $15,000 each so they could rest and recuperate. He also gave free homes to two who were marrying, and he said he helped one miner find psychiatric care after the miner found his fiancée with another man.
Mr. Sánchez, like many of the 16 miners interviewed, said he wanted to return to the mines. But Dr. Gillibrand has recommended that none of them work underground again.
José Ojeda tried to go back in February. After descending more than 1,000 feet in a drilling truck, the water was cut off. An assistant went to turn it back on, leaving Mr. Ojeda alone. He suffered a panic attack.
"I started to sweat a lot, a cold sweat," he said. "I don't even remember how they took me out; I blacked out."
Potential employers in Copiapó have declined to hire the miners for fear that they were psychologically scarred by their experience, several miners said.
Some people wonder whether the miners are trying. Mr. Farkas said no miner took him up on his job offer. But their requests for money keep rolling in.
He said he "felt taken advantage of" by Claudio Yáñez, a miner for whom he bought a house worth $63,500, at least twice as much as he would usually pay for a worker's house. Mr. Farkas said that he wanted to give him a less expensive house, as he had done for his own employees, but that Mr. Yáñez used a television crew to press him to buy the costly one.
"I did plenty for the miners; now they have to do it on their own," Mr. Farkas said.
Mr. Yáñez, 35, denied taking advantage of Mr. Farkas, who he said gave him the house "from his heart."
He said he used a cash gift from Mr. Farkas to "completely furnish" the two-story home. But he has not worked since the rescue. "We are in really bad shape; we don't have work, and no one wants to hire us," he said.
Much has changed in Chile since August 2010, when the miners were trapped after a gold-and-copper mine collapsed, only to be all discovered alive 17 days later. Their inspiring struggle to survive motivated Chile's president, Sebastián Piñera, to show the world that his country was at once compassionate and capable.
After a determined effort that cost millions of dollars, workers rescued all 33 miners last Oct. 13. The popularity of Mr. Piñera's government soared. He took maximum advantage, traveling around the world with the note in which a miner had first signaled that they were alive. But this year, amid months of protests about educational and environmental policies, the president's ratings have dropped to their lowest levels since he took office.
Despite criticism by politicians and some miners that Mr. Piñera has not done enough for them, the government recently gave $500-a-month pensions to 14 miners (the oldest and those with the most serious physical problems). But they were less than half of what most earned as miners.
On Thursday, local officials in Copiapó will commemorate the rescue by unveiling a 39-foot statue donated by a Chinese foundation. The miners say that they have been better appreciated abroad than at home in Chile. "We feel a little abandoned here," said Mr. Peña, 35.
Mr. Peña became an instant celebrity upon exiting the mine. Soon he was invited to visit the grave of his hero Elvis Presley at Graceland. He appeared on "Late Show With David Letterman" while on a free trip to run the New York City marathon.
But the spotlight proved disorienting. The normally shy Mr. Peña turned to drinking and drugs. Last month, he walked into a private clinic that had offered him free care out of sympathy. These days, he spends his days painting and in numerous therapy sessions, he said.
A handful of miners continue to profit from their fame. Mario Sepúlveda, dubbed "Super Mario" after his kinetic show of emotion upon exiting the mine, started a company to give motivational speeches, prompting jealousy among some of the other survivors.
"If I am persistent and keep on working, one day I might be a millionaire," he said last week before flying to Costa Rica to give another talk.
Still, Mr. Sepúlveda, 41, is among those on sick leave for post-traumatic stress. "This has been the worst year of my life, although you would not believe it," he said.
He recently joked on Twitter that he should act in the movie about the miners. Mike Medavoy, the Hollywood producer who has worked on films like "Black Swan" and "Annie Hall," said on a visit here last month that he hoped to film in the Atacama Desert using relatives of the miners as extras.
"There is a lot of pressure now to do this right," Mr. Medavoy said at a lunch with the miners' families. "Look at what would happen if I let these people down, forget the rest of it."
While some miners are waiting for the movie to provide financial salvation, others are taking more concrete steps.
Pablo Rojas, 47, is a partner in a small mining operation with four employees. Another miner, Pedro Cortez, 26, inspired by setting up video feeds for the trapped miners to talk to their families, is studying electronics.
"Thirty-three people enter into a mine," Mr. Cortez said. "We didn't exit the mine 33 friends."
With an 8-year-old daughter to support, he sold a motorcycle he was given as a present after the rescue. A Swiss-Chilean man from Zurich who had read about Mr. Cortez's educational ambitions visited Copiapó last month and paid 70 percent of his tuition for the second semester, vowing to help him next year as well.
As a gesture of thanks, Mr. Cortez gave the man, Christian Ferrari, his last Chilean flag signed by all the miners.
"I have to get my family ahead; we can't be in the same place we were before," Mr. Cortez said. "They fought for me for 70 days. Now it's my turn to step up."
Aaron Nelsen contributed reporting from Copiapó and Santiago, Chile.
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9) Response of the Police Is Expanding With Protests
By KIRK JOHNSON
October 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/us/police-response-expands-with-protests.html?ref=us
DENVER - Whatever the original impulse behind "Occupy Wall Street," or the speculation of what the movement might become, this much is true: The groups of protesters, now camping or hanging out in many American cities, and the police agencies that have responsibility for public safety and order, are both shifting into new postures of action and response.
Whether that evolving chemistry will push things toward more confrontation remains unclear. But the combination - new participants, new police tactics - is clearly opening an uncertain chapter in a story that from its inception has embraced the notion of unplanned, unscripted civil action.
People like Darrel Egemo, 75, a former money manager, are part of this new ferment. Mr. Egemo came to the protests, now in their third week, on the grounds of the State Capitol here for the first time on Tuesday.
"I decided they needed one person in a necktie and sport coat," Mr. Egemo said, looking dapper as he waved a sign to motorists, reading, "Integrity sold short by greed."
Larger numbers are pushing protesters into new areas as well, raising tensions.
In Boston early Tuesday morning, about 100 protesters were arrested when the group expanded from its previous area in the center of Dewey Square in the financial district to a nearby part of the Rose Kennedy Greenway, part of the necklace of open park space through downtown.
By Tuesday morning, protesters were in sharp disagreement at their general assembly meeting whether the group should have expanded its turf, and whether it had been a collective decision.
"More people are coming, we're not shrinking," said Philip Anderson, an unemployed recent college graduate who has been acting as a spokesman. "If we grow into a place they don't want us, it may come to another standoff like last night. We hope they don't make the decision to use violence against us, but we'll have to deal with whatever happens as it comes up."
In Los Angeles, where protesters as recently as last week were dominated by young people in what seemed a tie-dye and guitar-circle subculture, a second wave of older protesters and homeless people has gravitated toward the encampment at City Hall, demonstrators said.
Elise Whitaker, 21, a freelance script editor and assistant film director, said she thought it was about technology - older protesters took longer to tune in to the gatherings, she said, which had been organized largely through Internet social networks.
"It is the youth who spend the majority of our time on Facebook and Twitter," she said. "That's why we knew about it first."
In Seattle, officials began on Monday pressuring protesters to relocate to City Hall from Westlake Park, in the busy downtown shopping district, after what had been a mostly peaceful, if statutorily illegal standoff.
The police showed up at 10 p.m. Monday and announced that the park was closed for the night, said Gabriel Bell, a volunteer legal adviser for Occupy Seattle. Anyone who stayed was at risk of being arrested, they were warned. After a fourth announcement at 11 p.m., Mr. Bell said, the protesters went across the street to avoid arrest. Many slept in doorways of nearby businesses, but the police kept their flashing lights going all night, making it difficult to sleep, protesters said.
Shifting coalitions and alliances are also complicating the internal politics of the protest movement.
In Chicago, for example, protesters from Occupy Chicago joined forces on Tuesday with members of Action Now, a group concerned with vacant lots in the city's South and West Side neighborhoods.
The combined groups piled at least a dozen garbage bags on the sidewalk in front of the Bank of America building in the Chicago Loop, along with couches and other trash that they said had been pulled from a foreclosed property. Five women, ranging in age from 56 to 80, were arrested there after they went inside the bank lobby and scattered trash.
In Washington, where disparate groups of protesters with overlapping agendas from pacifism to poverty have been demonstrating in recent days, members of a group called Veterans for Peace joined in on Tuesday, crowding the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building, which they entered a few at a time before unfurling colorful banners and an upside-down American flag.
"We want to stop the financial influence on our government and we want our people to be taken care of," said Leah Bolger, national vice president of Veterans for Peace.
In some places, the new alliances are making for some fine-point factional clarification. A spokesman for Occupy Chicago, Micah Philbrook, emphasized that his group had voted to join a week of protests organized by a coalition called Stand Up Chicago, but had not become members of that coalition in participating in Tuesday's activities, including the one at the Bank of America.
"We don't want people to think that we are being co-opted by other movements," Mr. Philbrook said. "Occupy Chicago, like all the Occupy movements, stands apart from any political parties, stands apart from any existing movement."
A sometimes tentative police response is adding its own element to the mix. In Atlanta, protesters were warned by the police on Tuesday that if, at 11 p.m., they were still in Woodruff Park, a small oasis in the heart of downtown, they would be arrested. Anyone who does not want to be arrested can simply leave the park, the police said. But protesters said they were told the same thing on Monday. Instead, dozens of police officers showed up but made no arrests.
The protesters also seem to have significant numbers of uncounted allies, silent or on the sidelines, at least for now.
Daniel Eavenson, an engineer in Chicago, said he had only been "witnessing."
"There are millions of us watching online and sending out our hope," he said.
In New York, a "Millionaire's March" of about 400 people affiliated with Occupy Wall Street wound its way through Upper East Side on Tuesday afternoon, with participants protesting outside the homes of financial titans, including JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon, the media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the industrialist David H. Koch.
The march was peaceful, if noisy, with protesters chanting, trumpeting and drumming their way along Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue under the watchful gaze of dozens of police officers and doormen like John Tima, who stood at the entry to 791 Park Avenue.
"What are they going to accomplish out of this? What's going to happen, higher taxes for rich people? O.K.," he shrugged.
Reporting was contributed by Jess Bidgood from Boston, Ian Lovett from Los Angeles, Jada F. Smith from Washington, Stacey Solie from Seattle, Dan Frosch from Denver, Steven Yaccino from Chicago, Robbie Brown from Atlanta, and Rob Harris and Cara Buckley from New York.
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10) Fingerprinting Those Seeking Food Stamps Is Denounced
By KATE TAYLOR
October 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/nyregion/christine-c-quinn-urges-city-to-drop-rule-on-fingerprinting-food-stamp-seekers.html?ref=us
Taking aim at a practice she called unnecessary, costly and punitive, the speaker of the City Council, Christine C. Quinn, is asking the Bloomberg administration to justify requiring applicants for food stamps to be electronically fingerprinted.
New York City, where 1.8 million people receive food stamps, is one of only two jurisdictions in the country that require applicants to be fingerprinted, according to Ms. Quinn's office. The other is Arizona.
California and Texas recently lifted a similar requirement; New York stopped using fingerprinting for food-stamp recipients statewide in 2007, but kept it in New York City at the Bloomberg administration's request.
Robert Doar, the commissioner of the city's Human Resources Administration, said the policy deterred fraud and prevented case duplication, catching 1,200 duplicated cases a year and saving about $4 million annually in federal benefits.
But Ms. Quinn and opponents of the practice say that there is no evidence that it prevents fraud and that cases of duplication could be found through other means. Instead, they say, it simply deters some New Yorkers from applying for food stamps.
In an interview, Ms. Quinn said that, at a time of rising poverty and budget cuts, the city should not be spending money on unnecessary enforcement measures.
"We're spending public dollars where there is no crime being committed," she said.
Joel Berg, the executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, said that electronic fingerprinting created a stigma around applying for federal aid, treating "poor people as if they're basically criminals for trying to access a program to which they're legally entitled." Since many of the city's applicants for food aid are minorities, Mr. Berg said, requiring fingerprinting here, and not in the rest of the state, also raised civil rights issues. It is "electronic stop-and-frisk," he said.
Applicants for cash assistance, like welfare, are also subject to electronic fingerprinting throughout the state, as well as in many other states, and the City Council is not questioning that practice.
The Council has estimated, based on research by the nonprofit Urban Institute, that 30,000 New Yorkers are not seeking food stamps because of the fingerprinting requirement.
"That's $55.4 million of federal money we're not getting in New York City to support people - money they would then spend at the supermarket or at the bodega," Ms. Quinn said.
Because the Council cannot lift the requirement itself, Ms. Quinn and another councilmember, Annabel Palma of the Bronx, plan to introduce a bill that they hope will pressure the Bloomberg administration to change its view.
The bill would require the administration to disclose annually how many applicants to the federal food stamp program who were not also applying for cash assistance were subject to fingerprinting; how much money the city spent on the fingerprinting; how many cases of fraud were detected; and how many applicants were referred for criminal prosecution based on information obtained by fingerprinting.
Mr. Doar said in an interview that the city spent $190,000 to fingerprint food-stamp applicants last year. He said the number of people receiving food stamps had increased by 50 percent in the past three years and argued that people were not being dissuaded from applying because of the policy. "We haven't found an alternative method that's any better," he said, adding, "We listen and learn from other states, but we also need to make our own decisions."
In a statement, Samantha Levine, a spokeswoman for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, said of the proposal: "This bill sounds as though it's asking the wrong question. The right question is how much fraud is there, and the answer is: thanks to imaging, next to none."
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11) A Familiar Figure Begs on the Street, but Not for Himself
By COREY KILGANNON
October 11, 2011, 7:00 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/a-familiar-figure-begs-on-the-street-but-not-for-himself/?ref=nyregion
He is a familiar sight, the old man who solicits change from drivers stopped at a red light on East 35th Street in Midtown Manhattan every day near Third Avenue.
After all, he has been at it for 17 years now, seven days a week. With the help of a walker, he hobbles between lanes of traffic, approaching drivers, proffering newspapers - often a free paper collected from boxes on the sidewalk nearby - and asking for change.
"Help a guy out?" he repeated on a recent Wednesday afternoon to drivers who would often hand over a dollar or some change and then zoom off.
Most drivers simply regard him as another homeless down and outer, but every so often one might squint at the jolly man's scruffy beard, scarecrow hair and zany smile and realize that - holy cow! - it's the legendary comedian Professor Irwin Corey.
Mr. Corey is now 97.
Over his eight-decade career, he has been a staple on television and in comedy clubs, nightclubs and concert halls worldwide. His film career includes working with Jackie Gleason and Woody Allen. He appeared regularly on talk shows and sitcoms and was a skilled actor who began his stage career on Broadway in 1943.
Indeed, he still performs fairly regularly - a week ago he flew to Chicago to play two nights at a local club. Street panhandling is something of a side gig for Mr. Corey, who sets upon the cars emerging from the Queens-Midtown Tunnel.
And disregard that homeless appearance. Mr. Corey lives around the corner in a cozy 1840 carriage house on East 36th Street that he estimates he could sell for $3.5 million. He returns there each afternoon and empties half a dozen pockets bulging with small change and dollar bills. On a recent day, he spread the money on his dining room table and counted it slowly: $106.19. He wrote down the amount on a carefully kept list of his daily takes and then added the money to desk drawers loaded with hundreds of rolls of coins and long rows of bundled dollar bills.
Mr. Corey said he gathers his daily take - usually about $100, though there have been $250 days - every few months and donates the money to a charity that buys medical supplies for children in Cuba.
As for the drivers he solicits, Mr. Corey said, "I don't tell them where the money's going, and I'm sure they don't care."
Mr. Corey has traveled to Cuba to donate personally, he said, pointing to the photographs on his wall of him with Fidel Castro. One is autographed by Castro, with the words "with admiration, gratitude and affection."
There are also photographs of him on the David Letterman show, and with the likes of the comedian Dick Gregory and the actor Ossie Davis.
Mr. Corey has long billed himself as "The World's Foremost Authority," a reference to his trademark style of doubletalk and long, nonsensical observations that typically start with "However ..."
He has cultivated his "Professor'' charade since the 1940s, with his trademark black tails, a string tie, high-top sneakers and scarecrow hairdo.
His home is in the exclusive enclave known as Sniffen Court, where the likes of Lenny Kravitz and Claudia Schiffer have lived. Mr. Corey said he bought the home for $175,000 in 1974. The house next door recently sold for $5 million, he said.
While on stage Mr. Corey is known for his quick wit and exchanges with hecklers, he is mild mannered in the street, usually bidding drivers farewell with a "See you later, Alligator."
Every morning, around 11, he shuffles slowly the two blocks to his spot.
Mr. Corey says he carries out this daily routine "because I want to help people." He also said that living through the Great Depression left him with a hardened work ethic.
He was born in 1914 in Brooklyn and was placed by his struggling parents in the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum. He began doing comedy to cheer the other children. In his early teens, he rode in boxcars to Los Angeles and enrolled in the prestigious Belmont High School.
Mr. Corey is vague on his financial situation, but his agent of more than 50 years, Irvin Arthur, 85, said he had plenty of money without having to scrounge change in the street.
"This is not about money," Mr. Arthur said. "For Irwin, this is an extension of his performing."
Mr. Corey became known for his left-wing advocacy and an outspokenness that he says hobbled his career as an entertainer, getting him blacklisted from television networks.
While selling papers, Mr. Corey wears a white baseball hat on which he has written various slogans, including "Uncle Sam Is a Big Bully" and "Bribery Rules Washington" and "Let's Replace Our Corrupt Government."
Mr. Corey's wife of 70 years, Fran, died in May at age 95, and Mr. Corey says that selling newspapers helped him take his mind off the loneliness.
Many of the old timers in the neighborhood know exactly who he is. At one point on Wednesday, a local resident named Roxie Cherishian, 81, walked over to say hello to Mr. Corey.
"Look at him - he's still performing out there," she said, as Mr. Corey charmed a driver. "When drivers wave him off, I want to tell them, 'Do you have any idea what a legend this man is?' "
David Woolley, 85, a retired sales executive, spends afternoons at a nearby bar and watches Mr. Corey through the windows.
"It may seem crazy to us," he said, "but if it makes him happy, let him do it."
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12) In Seeking Rate Increases in New York, Health Insurers Fight to Keep Secrets
By NINA BERNSTEIN
October 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/nyregion/health-insurers-ask-to-keep-rate-increase-data-secret.html?ref=nyregion
Major health insurance companies seeking steep premium increases in New York have submitted memos to state officials to justify the higher rates. Now they are fighting to keep the memos from the public, saying they include trade secrets that competitors could use against them.
"How these companies are setting these rates is vital for the public to know, and should not be treated like a state secret," Benjamin M. Lawsky, the state superintendent of financial services, said on Tuesday. "Transparency will promote healthy competition and enable the public to rigorously comment on proposed rates, two goals that all of us should favor."
Mr. Lawsky, whose new agency oversees the state insurance division, has ordered that the memos be made public. His decision, which will go into effect by the end of November unless the companies obtain a court injunction, ends a longstanding policy that exempted the insurance companies from public access under a "trade secret" exception.
The decision followed a battle by a consumer advocacy coalition, Health Care for All New York, which had first sought information for a policyholder in Queens who faced a 76 percent increase in his family's Emblem Health premium. (The fee was later raised by 270 percent.)
Last year, the then-State Insurance Department gained new power to reject rate increases proposed for about three million residents covered by individual and small-group policies. It has since been flooded with consumer protests over proposed premium increases, many of them double-digit percentages. The department does not control rates for customers in large-group plans.
In a typical message, an unemployed 61-year-old, informed that Aetna wanted to raise her $1,932 monthly premium as much as 19.7 percent, wrote: "I worry every day how I will keep a roof over my head in the future. My teeth are all broken and I cannot afford to get them fixed because all my $$ is going to Aetna. So actually you could say that I am neglecting my health in order to be able to pay for my insurance."
Aetna, like other carriers, has said premium increases are driven by the actual cost of health care. But consumer advocates dispute such assertions, while complaining that it is hard to challenge the increases without access to the company filings.
Mr. Lawsky's decision would add New York to a list of at least 12 states that make insurance company filings public. It fits with an Obama administration effort, part of the federal health care reform, to curb health care costs through more oversight and transparency when insurance rates are set.
The companies, notified of Mr. Lawsky's decision in late September, had 10 days to file objections. Two companies, Atlantis Health Plan and Humana, have not done so. But 10 others contended in letters last week that disclosure would provide competitors with an unfair advantage, possibly reducing competition and raising prices even higher.
"This matter is of critical importance to us," United Health/Oxford wrote Oct. 7, calling the information "proprietary." Aetna wrote that "public disclosure in this format will provide ready and easy access to comprehensive pricing, product and marketing strategies," and warned of "substantial and irreparable injury to Aetna." Another company, Independent Health, said it had spent "well over $700,000 developing the trade secret documents" and estimated that the value of keeping them confidential was much higher.
Moreover, other companies argued, the filings are too technical to be understood by consumers.
"Several of the exhibits to the rate application as well as the actuarial memorandum contain not only trade secrets as noted above, but esoteric actuarial pricing precepts best understood by fellow actuaries and health plan competitors," Sean M. Doolan, a lawyer representing Excellus, Empire, Connecticut General, and Capital District Physicians' Health Plan wrote to state officials. "These documents, often speaking of concepts such as morbidity and anti-selection, could cause not only confusion, but also unnecessary alarm to the layman policyholder."
Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president for health initiatives at the Community Service Society of New York and a founder of Health Care for All New York, a coalition of 100 groups working for more affordable medical care, called such concerns "patronizing" and noted that her coalition had hired its own actuaries.
"The only way the public will find out whether these outlandish price hikes are justified is if we can see the underpinnings," she said. "They would like to have us ignorant. What they are saying to us, by opposing the disclosure of why they think their rate increases are justified, is that they want to keep us uninformed consumers."
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: October 11, 2011
An earlier version of this article misstated the date of Mr. Lawsky's decision to order the release of the insurance companies' data.
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13) Single Occupy Wall Street protester takes on 161st St. to rally against failing welfare system
BY Daniel Beekman
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Wednesday, October 12th 2011, 4:00 AM
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/occupy_wall_street/2011/10/12/2011-10-12_occupy_161st_st_protesters_outreach_at_welfare_line.html
Occupy Wall Street became Occupy 161st St. Tuesday, with a lone protester from the downtown movement canvassing a welfare line in the South Bronx.
Abraham Weiss, a 26-year-old social worker, said he came from Zuccotti Park to the Melrose Job Center to protest New York's byzantine welfare system and rally support for the cause.
Every weekday morning, hundreds of single mothers and out-of-work fathers queue up outside the Melrose welfare center, forming a despondent line that stretches three full blocks, from Morris Ave. to the Grand Concourse.
Few of the activists sleeping at Zuccotti Park are food stamp recipients from the South Bronx, Weiss admits. Many poor people are too busy to protest.
But most of the men and women waiting outside the welfare center yesterday gave the Wall Street rabble-rousers two thumbs up.
"They're down there fighting for our rights," said Maria Del Valle, 51. "We wake up early and struggle just to get paid less."
"The government gave all the money to the corporations, and the corporations kept it," fumed Jasmine Fields, 31. "Now the corporations don't want to pay taxes and the middle class is getting smaller and smaller."
Weiss said he joined the Occupy Wall Street movement two weeks ago, motivated by his experience as a social worker in the South Bronx, the poorest congressional district in the country.
Not only do the top 1% of income earners control about 40% of the country's wealth, New York's welfare system is failing the poor, he says.
The process is demeaning rather than empowering, Weiss said.
"People are waiting two hours to get into the building, and then eight hours inside," he said. "Everybody recognizes there's a problem. The system isn't helping people. It's wasting their time."
People applying for housing, job programs and food stamps are frequently trapped by endless red tape, Weiss said.
On a recent morning, Deandra Barksdale said she waited three hours outside the busy Melrose center with two crying babies and her handicapped son.
"It's humiliating to stand out here like a bunch of dogs in the sun," said Barksdale, 42. "People shouldn't be treated like this, but they think it's all right because we're not rich folks."
Weiss said he handed out about 150 flyers to fellow protesters at Zuccotti Park last weekend, but none showed up to help canvass the South Bronx yesterday, so he stumped alone.
He called the effort a success, however, with some new recruits vowing to kick off Occupy The Bronx. "The way things are now, it makes me disgusted," said Keyaunee Manuel, 34. "If we can stand outside and wait, we can stand outside and protest."
With Kevin Deutsch
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14) Police Attack Occupy Boston, Arresting 141 Peaceful Protesters
What Happened to Me in the Police Raid and Arrest 141 of Peaceful Protestors
From: Brian K
To: Occupy Boston!
Sent: Wed, Oct 12, 2011 6:37 am
Police Attack Occupy Boston, Arresting 141 Peaceful Protesters
Brothers and sisters,
I want to tell to you what happened to me on Monday night into early Tuesday morning and explain what it means for the movement.
Monday afternoon, the mass march of thousands of students and workers joined by MassUniting and the Right to the City Alliance culminated in a demonstration at the park square just north of Dewey Square, across the street.
We decided in a General Assembly style mass meeting to occupy and hold this second park square, which was merely the logical and geographical dimension of the expansion of our peaceful protest movement. The director of the Rose Kennedy Greenway(RKG) told the Assembly that they respected freedom of speech, and that the North Square had recently undergone renovation of the grass and gardens that she wanted preserved. She implied that if we would respect the greens, and work to restore them later if necessary, then there wouldn't be a problem.
But the Mayor had a problem: he doesn't want our movement to grow and expand in any way shape or form. His office reportedly said that if we didn't leave by midnight, then he would arrest everyone in the square. This was apparently to happen regardless of whether we had permission from the RKG and regardless of our right to freedom of assembly and our peaceful nature.
Waiting till cover of darkness and minimum public scrutiny, the police began their attack at around 1:45am. I watched as they marched into the front line of our peaceful perimeter, which was composed of mostly-elderly war veterans from Veterans for Peace, who were all wielding white flags with a dove and olive branch on them. Some were tackled to the ground, others choke-slammed before being hog-tied with plastic and thrown in the wagon. See with your own eyes in the videos below.
I was arrested shortly thereafter (around 2am), luckily not roughed up, or thrown on the ground, or scratched in the face in the way that many others I saw were. They put me in a wagon and took eight of us to a holding station in West Roxbury. After about 6 hours, I did get half a cup of water and one phone call but they took my shoes before I re-entered the cell after booking. Then I was confined to a cold cell with no food and, now, no shoes for another 7 hours. Though it doesn't compare to conditions in Guantanamo Bay, being confined in a cold cell with no food for 13 hours seems to me to be rather cruel and inhumane treatment for peaceful protestors.
Around 3pm (I think) they took us to a the courthouse in Government Center, and offered us a plea deal to move from criminal charges of "unlawful assembly" and "trespassing" to a civil "parking-ticket-type" fine of $50. Some took the deal, others pleaded not guilty and will go to trial in a few weeks.
I got out of jail around 5pm, after a 15 hour ordeal, only to find out that Menino had ordered the square not only to be cleared of people, but cleared of all our property and possessions. Personally, I lost my tent, two sleeping bags, a large comforter and pillow, and a box of DVDs that were given to me for the purpose of creating an educational film series for Occupy Boston. They took ALL the tents and belongings, destroyed them and put them in a trash truck and hauled them away.
What does this mean?
First of all, SHAME ON THE BOSTON POLICE DEPARTMENT for their cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners.
Second of all, SHAME ON MAYOR MENINO for his violent attack on the peaceful protest and his destructive clearing of ALL of our personal property from the Northern Square.
Let us be CLEAR: the top 1% and those with all the money and power, are represented by the Mayor's office, and it is THEIR interests who the police are here to 'protect and serve'. Not ours. They want to scare us into submission, and prevent the expansion of this movement.
So our response to these attacks on freedom of speech, assembly, and political dissent should be clear and simple:
We need to DOUBLE and RE-DOUBLE our efforts to DEEPEN and BROADEN this movement.
Every campus, every community organization, every labor union, and every neighborhood needs to know what why we're here (to protest and organize alternatives to corporate domination of our lives) and how they can PARTICIPATE in changing society with us (join a committee, spread the word, donate supplies!).
Thanks for your support, as evidenced by the MASS turnout at last night's General Assembly. KEEP IT COMING.
We hope to see you in the Square!
Solidarity forever,
Brian
Videos of the police attack:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5G9agQjM60
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/occupy-boston-protesters-arrested/2011/10/11/gIQAsCzWdL_video.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s3zFca5znU&feature=relmfu
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15) A News Story Is Growing With 'Occupy' Protests
By BRIAN STELTER
October 12, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/us/occupy-wall-street-protests-a-growing-news-story.html?hp
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Splashed across the front page of the local newspaper here on Tuesday was the story of a 24-year-old Occupy protester named Keith Cuesta. He was not in New York, where some have been living in a park near Wall Street for nearly four weeks, but about 1,000 miles away in Tampa, where a small group of self-described "99 percenters" have decided to camp out in solidarity.
Mr. Cuesta told the newspaper, The St. Petersburg Times, that he had never participated in a protest before. The reporter, John Barry, said he was drawn to Mr. Cuesta because the young man had "finally found something he cared enough about to sleep on a sidewalk."
As the Occupy Wall Street message of representing 99 percent of Americans has spread across the country, news media coverage of the Occupy movement has spread, too, to the front pages of newspapers and the tops of television newscasts. Coverage of the movement last week was, for the first time, quantitatively equivalent to early coverage of the Tea Party movement in early 2009, according to data released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center.
The data confirms an anecdotal sense that the movement, which slowly gained speed last month, entered the nation's collective consciousness for the first time last week, when President Obama was asked about it at a news conference and when national television news programs were first anchored from the Wall Street protest site.
In the first full week of October, according to Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism, the protests occupied 7 percent of the nation's collective news coverage, up from 2 percent in the last week of September. Before then, the coverage was so modest as to be undetectable by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, which surveys 52 news outlets each week to produce a weekly study of news coverage.
The study released Wednesday showed that cable news and radio, which had initially ignored the protests almost entirely, started to give the protests significant coverage last week, often with a heavy dose of positive or negative opinion attached.
Some protesters have assailed news media outlets for scoffing at their leaderless nature and lack of agreed-upon goals, but some have also carefully courted attention from those outlets.
"They insist on their story being told, even as they're arguing about just what the story should be," the media critic James Rainey wrote in Wednesday's Los Angeles Times. Mr. Rainey suggested that reporters resist the urge to make instant judgments about what the protests represent: "Sometimes the most courageous story is the one that says: I haven't seen this before. I'm not sure what it means. I don't have a clue where it is going."
The protests are beginning to show up in polling data. In a Pew poll conducted from Oct. 6 to 9, 17 percent of respondents said they followed news coverage of the protests very closely last week; an additional 25 percent said they followed the coverage fairly closely. The state of the United States economy remained a much more closely followed story, as it has been for years. The poll had an overall margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Michael Dimock, an associate director of the Pew Research Center, said the polling found a generational gap in attention toward the protests. When those polled were asked which story they followed the most closely last week, 11 percent of those ages 18 to 29 cited the protests, while 3 percent of those ages 65 and older did the same.
"Even so, it's not a top story among young people," Mr. Dimock noted. The death of Steve Jobs last week was a top story.
It was the mass arrests of protesters in New York that initially led to much of the protest coverage last month. But now the grievances and experiences of protesters are getting plentiful coverage. "Protesters Fan Out" read a headline in the newspaper Florida Today on Wednesday. "Wall Street Protesters Target Fancy N.Y. Homes" read another in The Palm Beach Post.
The spike in news media coverage is significant because, among other reasons, it may lend legitimacy to the movement and spur more people to seek out protest information on Facebook and other Web sites.
On those sites, organizers are sharing information about a swarm of protests that will take place on Saturday in cities across the country. In central Florida, for instance, hundreds of people have electronically signed up on Facebook for weekend events in St. Petersburg, Tampa, Sarasota, Orlando, and other locales.
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16) Dear Occupy Wall Street: Read Jeffrey Sachs!
By John Horgan
October 11, 2011
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2011/10/11/dear-occupy-wall-street-read-jeffrey-sachs/?WT_mc_id=SA_WR_20111013
“Eat the rich, feed the hungry.” “Occupy Wall Street, Not Afghanistan.” “The Left Never Left.” “Take the Bull by the Horns.” “The Beginning Is Near.” “The Empire Has No Clothes.” “Frack Me, Frack You.” “I am a revolting citizen.” “Jesus was a Marxist.” “Auto-plants fill the Earth with Machines Designed for Death.” “I love this goddamn country, and we’re gonna take it back.” “We are the 99%.”
These were some of the signs I saw on Saturday when I visited New York City’s Zuccotti Park, the base camp of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which boasts a kitchen, clothing dispensary, health clinic, media center and lots of cool music. For weeks Occupiers have fanned out through New York City protesting—well, they are protesting many things, as the diversity of signs makes clear. But here is how a flier handed to me by a young woman at an “Information” table described the movement:
“Occupy Wall Street is an otherwise unaffiliated group of concerned citizens who have come together with the general purpose of holding Wall Street (as the drivers of an increasingly undemocratic power structure) accountable for their fiscal recklessness and criminal perversion of the democratic process. We are a bunch of people like you and me who came together and said ‘enough’! We will not remain passive as formerly democratic institutions become the means of enforcing the will of only 1-2% of the population who control the magnitude of American wealth.”
The Occupiers emphasize that they have nothing in common with the Tea Party, which as they rightly note identifies with an era “before the end of slavery, before the workers’ rights movement, before the women’s movement, before the civil rights era, and before the environmental movement.” The Occupiers are resolutely nonviolent (the same cannot be said of New York police, who have pepper-sprayed some Occupiers), and they have been inspired by the recent democratic uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab nations.
The crowd, which included people of all colors, ages and sartorial styles, gave off a strong 60s vibe—and as a peacenik who marched against the Vietnam War, I mean that as a compliment. I also sympathize with the Occupy Wall Street complaints, which have inspired similar protests elsewhere across the country and even overseas. The power of money is subverting democracy, allowing an elite few to enrich themselves while many struggle to get by with low-paying jobs or no jobs.
I have a humble suggestion for the Occupiers. They should consider reading The Price of Civilization (Random House), the latest book by Jeffrey Sachs, an economist at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, long-time consultant to the United Nations and former columnist for Scientific American. Sachs was once an unabashed believer in the benefits of capitalism. In fact, early in his career he was faulted for advocating that Poland, Bolivia and other struggling nations rapidly adopt free-market principles, an approach that critics dubbed “shock therapy.”
Over the years, Sachs has become increasingly concerned with those left behind by modern capitalism. His first two books—The End of Poverty (Penguin, 2005) and Common Wealth (Penguin, 2008)—focused on the plight of the world’s poorest people, especially the billion or so defined as “extremely poor,” living on less than two dollars a day. Sachs spelled out ways in which we can eliminate extreme poverty while also preserving the environment. In The Price of Civilization, Sachs turns his sights on his own country, the U.S., which he believes is in peril.
“The American economy,” he writes, “increasingly serves only a narrow part of the society, and America’s national politics has failed to put the country back on track through honest, open, and transparent problem-solving. Too many of America’s elites—among the superrich, the CEOs, and many of my colleagues in academia—have abandoned a commitment to social responsibility. They chase wealth and power, the rest of society be damned.”
Sachs, like many of us, feels let down by Barack Obama. “The President,” he says, “has continued down the well-trodden path of open-ended war in Afghanistan, massive military budgets, kowtowing to lobbyists, stingy foreign aid, unaffordable tax cuts, unprecedented budget deficits, and a disquieting unwillingness to address the deeper causes of America’s problems.”
Sachs fleshes out our plight with data. Compensation for CEOs, which in 1970 was 40 times the average pay of workers, was 1,000 times greater by 2000. The gap between rich and poor is greater than at any time since the late 1920s, just before the Depression. Meanwhile, the IRS allows powerful corporations to “hide their profits in offshore tax havens.” Even Google, which is supposedly so hip and progressive, engages in a “tax dodge.” According to Sachs, Google funnels billions in profits into off-shore subsidiaries, which pay lower tax rates than the U.S. corporation does. Sachs points out that Sergey Brin’s “ingenious work in creating Google’s search engine” was supported by the National Science Foundation, which means that our tax dollars helped Brin get his start.
Sachs’s book is loaded with information and anecdotes like these, as well as with proposals that would make it harder for the powerful to rig the system for their benefit. If you want to change the system—and you should, whether or not you share my admiration for the Occupy Wall Street movement—read this book by someone who knows how the system works. Or rather, doesn’t work.
Photograph of protester at the Occupy Wall Street base camp in New York City taken by Valerie Cates.
About the Author: Every week, John Horgan takes a puckish, provocative look at breaking science. A former staff writer at Scientific American, he is the author of four books, including The End of Science (Addison Wesley, 1996) and The End of War (McSweeney's Books, 2011).
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