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Updated: 4 hours 56 min ago

Mumia Abu-Jamal faces new execution threat

November 5, 2009 - 7:46pm
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Big Stone II Coal Plant Finally Dead

November 5, 2009 - 12:55am
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The FBI Comes Calling, And The Struggle Continues.......

November 3, 2009 - 8:33pm


When the door bell rang, I opened the door, and before agent Rick Rooney from the Buffalo,NY Office (cell phone:716-481-9998 and desk phone: 716-551-3925) could flip his wallet open —- to show me his official identification (the way they do on t.v.) —- I said "FBI, right?" I had been expecting them —- because less than an hour earlier —- I had received a phone call from someone at an address where I haven't lived for over ten (10) years, informing me that "the FBI is looking for you." My half-joking response was —- "they are not looking for me as hard as I am looking for them." Since they had left their names at my former address, my plan was to go to the State Street Federal Building and ask for them by name, but as I stated previously, before I could do so, the door bell rang.

When I opened the door and saw two clean-cut, white men dressed in white shirts and ties (with concealed side-arms) —- I figured who else could this possibly be —- except the FBI. Agent Rooney was accompanied by Agent Leonard Opanashuk from the Rochester, NY Office (phone: 546-2220, ext. 127). Oh, with regard to the concealed side-arms, at one point agent Opanashuk's jacket slipped open, and I was able to get a peek. It appeared that his weapon was hanging from a shoulder holster (like on t.v.). In hind sight, I had wondered if he intentionally displayed the weapon as some sort of intimidation tactic, but that's probably not the case. I was probably just paranoid. If it is the case, it didn't work. I also didn't think about the fact (until later) that as we (me and the FBI Agents) stood in the doorway to my dining room, chit-chatting (as a backdrop) —- a nicely-framed painting of Malcolm X (one of Malcolm's most radical images), hung on the dining room wall. I wondered later, what they thought of the painting. Also,
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Brutal Attack on Phuong Ho by The San Jose Police Stirs Distrust and Resentment

November 2, 2009 - 5:00pm
Raj Jayadev, writes:,"On Oct. 24, the San Jose Mercury News released the video of a San Jose State math major getting beaten and tased by the San Jose Police Department in his home on Sept. 3, 2009. Police were called to the scene after 20-year-old Phuong Ho allegedly wielded a knife during an altercation with his roommate. All the viewer can hear, in between groaning cries of pain and calls for mercy, are the cracking sounds of the batons as they meet 20-year-old Phuong Ho’s head and body, and the torturous zapping of a Taser gun. It is, in a word, disturbing."

"Ho, who through his attorney has filed a civil rights complaint with the FBI, is also facing misdemeanor charges of exhibiting a weapon and resisting arrest. He was not armed when police arrived, and became the recipient of the beat down when he bent down to get the glasses that fell off of his head.

"As a member of a local community group that has been calling on police accountability in San Jose for years now, I have been receiving multiple emails with the subject line, “San Jose’s Rodney King.” They don’t mean the person. They mean the moment. The comparison is natural since both incidents contain the same basic patterns: unarmed men of color excessively beaten without cause by numerous police officers -- and it is all caught on video. Read more

Vietnamese Community Association Responds to Police Beating of San Jose State Student

Raj Jayadev: "What Would Have Happened If Dr. Gates Was Arrested in San Jose?"

SiLiCoN vAlLeY dE-bUg
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Protest in Solidarity with Honduras

November 1, 2009 - 6:30pm
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Advocates for Universal Health Care Target MVP Insurance

October 31, 2009 - 5:33pm
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Harris County commissioners court approves 287g agreement

October 30, 2009 - 7:13pm
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Polar Bear Disrupts Business-As-Usual

October 29, 2009 - 1:20pm

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world turned out for last Saturday's International Day of Climate Action organized by http://350.org. In Seattle, Climate SOS co-founder Duff Badgley joined One Earth activists to protest cap-and-trade bills on National Climate Action Day at the Seattle Federal Building. Wearing a polar bear costume, he risked arrest three times while holding an SOS banner along 2nd Avenue declaring:

CAP-AND-TRADE = “TEMPLE OF DOOM”

The police escorted Badgley to the curb before surrounding him on the sidewalk and taking his anti-Cap-And-Trade the banner from him. Although police officers threatened to arrest Badgley, he was not arrested during the action.

Badgley was the 2008 Green Party of Washington State candidate for governor. His Climate Manifesto called for outlawing carbon trading. In March, Badgley made a citizen's arrest of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels during this year's Seattle Greenfest, accusing Seattle's self-appointed "Green" mayor of biofuels crimes against humanity and biofuels crimes against the planet. Six weeks after the direct action, the city of Seattle stopped using a million gallons a year of biofuels for city vehicles.

“We’re ready to risk prison to salvage our Earth,” he said. “But we’re always peaceful.”

The purpose of the annual planetary day of action is to inspire everyone in the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis as well as to create a new sense of urgency and of possibility for change.

The 350 campaign uses the number 350 because it is the parts per million that scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. In December, world leaders will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark to craft a new global treaty on cutting emissions. The problem is, the treaty currently on the table doesn't meet the severity of the climate crisis—it doesn't pass the 350 test.

Badgley is critical of some of the 350 campaign founders. "Bill McKibben organized the International Day of Climate Action on Saturday," Badgley said,"He gave people around the world hope in our struggle with the Climate Crisis. But it was false hope. McKibben refused to publicly oppose cap-and-trade." Badgley believes that when McKibben said that he supported cap-and-trade as "the best we can get", he was caving into political pressure.

If this is true, he is not alone. World leaders have been ignoring the science surrounding global warming. Warming is increasing because of the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Many of the activities we do every day, such as turning on the lights, cooking food, or heating our homes, rely on energy sources like coal and oil that emit carbon dioxide --the most common greeenhouse gas -- as well as other heat-trapping gases. The release of these gases trigger global warming which, in turn, destabilizes the delicate balance that makes life on this planet possible. Just a few degrees in temperature can completely change the world as we know it, and threaten the lives of millions of people around the world.

“If we are going to have a Livable Planet,” Badgley told Seattle Indymedia, “Business as usual must stop in every sector---government, industry, personal."

Badgley believes that street theatre and direct action work better than panel discussions.

"Polite conversations in panel conference rooms," Badgley said, " Will never challenge the status quo. Frederick Douglas told us, 'Power concedes nothing without a demand.' I have a stake. I have a personal stake with my children and grandchildren that there is a Livable Planet to support them. Right now that Livable Planet is looking very jeopardized. "

Click here if you are unable to play the video above.

 

Despite the interference by the Seattle police, Badgley brought the issue of global warming to people in the downtown area. "The time is now to show senators Cantwell and Murray, and all federal lawmakers, we are in climate emergency" he said "Emergency response is demanded—or we will doom ourselves."

"The people who support cap-and-trade have caved to political expediency", he added, "They are denying the climate reality that ecosystems are in collapse and we are all of us in mortal peril from our climate crisis. They choose to accept narrow limits of what is politically possible. This goes for Obama. It goes for Sustainable Ballard. It goes for[Governor] Chris Gregoire."

Washington Senator Maria Cantwell is promoting a cap-and-trade bill that permits 450-700ppm of atmospheric CO2 as a target for climate stability. She calls carbon trading “toxic” but is willing to risk a climate catastrophe by permitting 450ppm of atmospheric CO2.

The world’s pre-eminent climate scientist, Jim Hansen, has called cap-and-trade the “Temple of Doom”. Hansen has personally endorsed the Climate SOS campaign against it."Cap-and-trade perpetuates business-as-usual,” Badgley said. The current plans for the treaty are much too weak to get the planet back into the safety zone. Rich countries such as the U.S. aren't willing to compromise much, and many poor countries want the flexibility to grow.

The U.S. has been producing more CO2 than any other country, and it leads the industrialized world in per capita emissions. Perhaps because of this, the U.S. has blocked meaningful international action for many years. It now seems ready to back cap-and-trade, a plan that permits rich nations to buy carbon credits rather than developing carbon-neutral industries. Many, like Hansen, think cap-and-trade is worse than nothing because it locks world governments into a failed strategy, losing the opportunity -- and incentive -- to develop alternatives. Hansen says, “I’d rather climate talks fail than we agree to a bad deal”.

According to Badgley, the current cap-and-trade bills will:

  • Doom the world to upward spiraling carbon emissions because trading and offsets will gut the cap, permitting the worst polluters keep polluting.
  • Ignore the science on global warming and result a hideous fate because 450ppm is doom for our Livable Planet.
  • Sell or give away rights to our biosphere to our worst polluters, the people who are fast ruining our Earth.
  • Destroy our natural forests by converting them to vast biofuel farms and tree plantations.
  • Block the conversion to a clean energy economy because it discourages meaningful structural changes.
  • Reward dirty industries like coal and petrol and permits them to keep them dirty, in what Hansen calls “subterfuge allowing business-as-usual to continue”.
  • Invite Enron-style corruption because cap-and-trade is the scheme of choice for polluters and Wall Street executives ready to game the system and bring climate chaos.

Eventually, Badgley was ready to hang up his polar bear suit. “Fatigue got to me,” Badgley said. “After two-and-half hours in the bear costume standing on concrete, I took my head off. That was it for today.”

With or without the polar bear costume, Duff Bagdley continues to campaign against global warming and for a Livable Planet. "The climate news is relentlessly terrifying. But I refuse to be paralyzed by it," he said, "I refuse to be crippled by the obscene inaction and corrupt actions of our politicians from Obama on down. I choose to give hope and be active against the greatest threat human civilization has ever faced -- our Climate Crisis."

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International Day of Climate Action

October 27, 2009 - 10:00pm
On October 24th, thousands of rallies and actions were planned around the world to draw attention to the environmental crises caused by humans. The global action was organized by 350.org, and the actions, which will be presented at the UN Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen in December of 2009. Several events took place in Southern California, many of them pictured at 350.0rg.

Also, in Los Angeles, a large banner was seen being held up over the 134 Freeway near the San Rafael exit, and on Tuesday October 27 a banner was still hanging over the Ventura Freeway in the San Fernando Valley.

In Eagle Rock, the 350 demonstration and public outreach had a turnout of at least 40 people. Some were from the community, many belonged to the Converging Storms Action Network, and others were with the Northeast LA Radical Neighbors (NELA-RAD), which hosted the event.

Story and photos: International Day of Climate Action in Eagle Rock (part 1) | (Photo set 2) by R of the Northeast LA Radical Neighbors ("bad-asses who care")

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Navy's New Sonar System Suspected in Blue Whale Deaths

October 26, 2009 - 8:50am
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Fresno State Students Walkout, Take Over 4th Floor of Library

October 24, 2009 - 8:46pm
On October 21st, Fresno State saw one of its largest mobilizations since the 1960s. The student walkout was in protest against the recent fee increase of 32% (fees go up almost every year typically by around 10%), class furloughs (pay more get less), over-crowded classrooms, faculty layoffs, staff layoffs, a corrupt administration, a corrupt Associated Students, Inc., which refuses to represent the students, and the entire California State University (CSU) system. The CSU master plan from the 60s promised free education to all, but the university is now run like a for-profit corporation.

A rally was attended by 300 students and faculty who spoke and expressed their shared rage. This was followed by a march of well over 600 students chanting things like "no cuts! no fees! education should be free!" and "hey! hey! ho! ho! [university president] Welty's gotta go!". This march went down Shaw from Maple to Cedar and around the Shaw/Cedar intersection several times before rallying in front of the school.

After the march, a group of students took a list of demands to President Welty's office on the 4th floor of the library -- during the rally there were many references to Welty's tower where he could look down on his subjects and maintain inaccessibility. The students were initially met by campus police who blocked the elevator saying they had to make sure it was okay to come up, so the delegation instead took the stairs. Once the small group made it up, it was met in the hallway by campus police who said President Welty was not there. As this dialogue was going on, students just kept coming out of the elevators, and by the end the students had moved forward nearly 30 feet and 80 students were clogging the hallway leading to the administrators' offices. Welty's assistant explained that the president was at a meeting. The students responded "fine, we'll wait" and all sat down.

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Chamber of Commerce Takes Aim at Yes Men

October 23, 2009 - 8:32pm
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Seth Williams and a Kafkaesque Deportation

October 22, 2009 - 10:01pm
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Oct. 22: National Day of Protest Against Police Brutality

October 22, 2009 - 4:49pm
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Open Newswire

Nov. 20-22 Mass Mobilization to Close the SOA
11 hours 27 min ago
Anonymous

November 20-22, 2009: Vigil and Nonviolent Direct ActionConverge on Fort Benning, Georgia
Join the Mass Mobilization to Close the School of the Americas and to Change U.S. Foreign Policy

In less than 2 weeks, thousands will converge on Fort Benning, Georgia to say no to military coups, military violence and the training of repressive forces at the School of the Americas. Join union workers, students, religious communities and grassroots activists from across the Americas from November 20-22, 2009 at the gates of Fort Benning to commemorate the martyrs and to take a stand for justice. It is up to us to change oppressive U.S. foreign policy since we can only hope for as much as we are willing to work for.
Click here to visit the new November Vigil Rideboard. (see links to transportation, hotel & other logistical information on the bottom of this posting.)

Speakers and MusiciansAmong the many featured performers on the stage at the gates of Fort Benning and in the Columbus Convention Center will be the Indigo Girls, the Hip Hop groups Rebel Diaz and Kuumba Lynx, Emma's Revolution, Candy Garcia, the lead vocalist of the Salvadoran folk band Grupo Musical Horizontes and many more.

The high-profile line up of speakers includes Bernardo Vivas of the Cacraica Community for Self-Determination, Life, and Dignity (CAVIDA) from Colombia, South Bronx community organizers and immigrant rights activists Victor Toro and Nieves Aires, Catholic Worker and Plowshares activist Liz McAllister, Bertha Oliva, the coordinator of the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras and others who are active in the resistance against the SOA graduate-led military coup.

Anti-Militarization Convergence: Panels, Workshops, Film Screening and Benefit Concerts

The Shortwave Report 11/06/09 Listen Globally
1 day 8 hours ago
Anonymous

 Dear Radio Friend,
The latest Shortwave Report (November 6) is up at the website
http://www.outfarpress.com/outfa... in both broadcast quality (13.3MB) and quickdownload or streaming form (4.9MB) (28:59)
(NEW! If you have access to Audioport.org there is a higher quality version posted up there {26.7MB} http://www.audioport.org/index.p...)

War Criminals and their agent control 344 Members of Congress.
1 day 23 hours ago
Anonymous

War Criminals and their agent control 344 Members of Congress.

The War Criminals [Israeli government] have ordered that Congress vote against Goldstone’s report on their War Crimes in Gaza.

344 obeyed.

The names of the 344 Members of Congress who take their orders from War Criminals are listed below.

If one of them is your representative – report him or her to the local FBI as a victim of blackmail by the AIPAC and/or a receiver of corrupt monies from AIPAC.

Names of corrupted Congress Members:

Zhibin Gu: Chinese multinationals vs global financial crisis: finance, trade, politics and management
3 days 1 hour ago
Anonymous

Get onground knowledge and analysis from business and investment guide book: China’s Global Reach
Borderless Business, National Competition, Politics, and Globalization (book excerpts)

by George Zhibin Gu

Afterword
China, United States and Global Development
by Andre Gunder Frank

Part III

China’s New International Experiences

SUMMARY

(1). China, India and many other later developers have rather limited strengths to compete in a highly competitive world market dominated by a few well-developed nations today. Their best strengths come from a low-paid labor as well as hard work. Even so, they are able to provide massive low-priced goods and services. It turns out that this price gap is nothing less than survival.

(2). Gaining competitive advantages through low-pricing tags has been common throughout history. One example is the British competitiveness following the industrial revolution. For long, the British dominated the world commerce through their massively produced, highly competitive textile, steel, and consumer products, among others. China, India and other underdeveloped nations could not compete at all. This naturally changed the world production map in favor to Europe.

By early 20th century, the center of economic gravity moved to the US, as the nation was able to produce the biggest, cheapest volume of products and hence gained world economic leadership. For example, Ford was able to produce the cheapest cars in biggest volume. Through such mass production, the US has become the biggest economic power over some 100 years.

Again, Japan Inc. suddenly rolled its products all over the globe, which began in 1960s. In fact, made-in-Japan products had a low pricing advantage. For example, in 1970s, all the US TV manufacturers went bankrupt, even if the Japanese TV makers had no technological advantage over their US counterparts back then.

Reject Corporate Options for Health Care
3 days 3 hours ago
Anonymous

Fourteen Reasons to Reject Corporate Options for Health Care

If a Critical Mass of the public actually knew what the Health Care Brouhaha involved, Liberals and Conservatives would unite in opposing current and planned policies. Imagine....

1) Private insurers are businesses that must grow. Their inclusion in any national program guarantees endless cuts in service, and endless hikes in costs to the public.

2) Private insurers, being businesses, have motive and duty to provide as little service as possible at the highest price possible. This is an adversarial situation with the public.

3) A significant chunk of what was ostensibly customers’ health care money goes to contributions to political candidates that many may not care to support. Mandatory purchase of private insurance would have our government---our sworn and paid representatives---compelling citizens to provide revenues to candidates preferred by private insurers. There is no Public Interest health-related justification for mandating this part of an insurance policy.

4) Significant revenues supplied by insurance customers go to lobbying for legislation that favors the private insurance interests rather than the interests of the public. Again, no health-related public interest exists in this part of an insurance policy.

5) Large percent of the cost of a policy goes to other non-health-related things such as advertising, CEO bonuses, corporate jets, business conventions, and corporate headquarters upkeep. No health-related justification exists for mandating that citizens pay for that along with the actual health benefits.

Venezuela: The error of being Lusbi Portillo
3 days 18 hours ago
Anonymous


* The latest demonstration of political criminalization of autonomous social movements by the Venezuelan government is exposed by Rafael Uzcategui, a member of the anarchist collective El Libertario.

As this text is written, Lusbi Portillo, professor at Zulia University (in Maracaibo) and environmental activist in solidarity with the indigenous movement is in hiding to protect his life and physical integrity. During the events of October 13 in the Sierra de Perijá two yukpas were killed and five more wounded in a conflict arising from the demarcation of indigenous land. The regional police announced that an arrest warrant against the professor for “drug possession” was imminent. This is not the first time the professor is criminalized for his active solidarity with the demands of the original peoples, but because the way the events are evolving – an investigation of the events has been decreed “national security” by the authorities – he decided to take preventive measures by going into hiding.

The environmental activist increased his activities in the indigenous struggle as a reaction to the government’s announcement, by the President of the Republic on November 13 2003 to triple coal exploitation in the Zulia region to 36 million metric tons per year. Lusbi Portillo’s first “error”, from the point of view of the immobilizing polarization that controls the nation’s political scene, was to uphold his values and demands in spite of the official discourse that promised to satisfy them some time in the future. Regardless of his expectations and personal sympathies, Portillo did not sell out nor agreed to lower his priorities, preserving his autonomous social character, thus keeping his ability to organize for the solution to the problems in spite of the electoral situation.

FERNANDO LUGO SE ALINEA CON ALVARO URIBE
3 days 23 hours ago
Anonymous

Contradiciendo a su propaganda, divulgada hasta el hartazgo por la prensa mediática, Fernando Lugo autorizó secretamente el ingreso de tropas norteamericanas al Paraguay. El hecho demuestra una vez más la inconsecuencia del obispo-presidente, quien llegó al poder en ancas del respaldo mediático de ultraderechas y ONGs vinculadas a la embajada norteamericana. Ver:

http://www.diariosigloxxi.com/te...

http://www.viejoblues.com/Bitaco...

http://www.aporrea.org/tiburon/a...

http://www.cubanuestra.nu/web/ar...

 

A Science of Intuition
4 days 6 hours ago
Anonymous

(Commentaries on Science, Religion, Spiritualism, Politics and The Resource Based Economy)

Many are well acquainted with “The Modern Scientific Method”, it's the dominant norm of all discovery. It is the underpinning of all Western Philosophy from the end of the days of Monarchs to the modern days of Oligarchs. Of course this wasn't always the case, before the Modern Scientific Method existed a more Associative Method of both reasoning and discovery based on religion. The Scientific Method arose as a reaction to the Associative Method, which dominated before. The Scientific Method was more flexible and fluid then the old Religious Associative Method. Since all things discovered or concluded by science were open to change and progress it certainly trumped the non-changing religious conclusions. The Modern Scientific Method had many advantages over the old associative method... of declaring truths followed by creating chains of association to go along with those truths, then they were later linked back to their starting point, ie: original declared truth. The Modern Scientific Method still differed from the original or “Ancient Scientific Method” in a few ways. In this work we will compare and contrast the Scientific Method used by The Ancients; such as The Greeks, Chinese, Indians, etc. and compare it with the Modern Scientific Method to see the differences. We will show how the Observation and Intuition were used in conjunction with each other by ancient people's. While in contrast to todays world where Modern Science simply writes off Intuition as Mysticism and lumps it together with the Associative Method expounded by Nicean, as well as other Dogmatic and Orthodox Abrahamic Faiths.

CUBANUESTRA.FERNANDO LUGO, DEL FASCISMO AL CHONGUISMO‏
4 days 22 hours ago
Anonymous

El poder tiende a corromper, el poder absoluto corrompe absolutamente.

Lord Acton, historiador inglés

 

No sin razón se ha dicho que en Paraguay, alcanzar el poder es antes que nada, empezar a asistir a reuniones donde nadie tiene opinión diferente a la de uno mismo, además de renovar guardarropa y cambiar de mujer, domicilio y vehículo. De esta manera, el mandón de turno demuestra la capacidad de pocos de hacerles creer a muchos lo poco que importan.

El obispo Fernando Lugo y sus secuaces han confirmado la regla con su alegre conducta, al punto que muchos han logrado escandalizar a los mismos inventores de la corrupción, sus antecesores colorados, quienes gobernaron con un estilo fascistoide por seis décadas al Paraguay. La realidad del “proceso de cambios” es innegable: todos los nuevos funcionarios han cambiado el tren de vida miserable por la opulencia.

La actual coyuntura recuerda aquello que con certeza expresó Abraham Lincoln: Casi todos podemos soportar la adversidad, pero si queréis probar el carácter de un hombre, dadle poder.

 

EL CHONGUISMO

 

De acuerdo al diccionario Latinoamericano, Chongo en Argentina es una palabra empleada exclusivamente en el mundillo homosexual. “Se emplea para designar a cualquier otro varón atractivo. Emplease también para indicar al joven que mantiene un alto porcentaje de relaciones heterosexuales, muy apreciado por conservar sus dotes masculinas y ejercer el rol de activo durante un contacto sexual”. Ver:

 

http://www.asihablamos.com/?word...

 

The Untold Story of the Cuban 5
6 days 8 hours ago
Anonymous

The Untold Story of the Cuban Five
Part 1: Forbidden Heroes

AdaptiveThemes