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Updated: 14 hours 4 min ago
Twelve Arrested by Homeland Security in Pelosi's Office
Single Payer health care plan advocates took direct action to get answers from Nancy Pelosi on November 3rd. Fifteen people occupied her San Francisco office, demanding to talk with the Speaker of the House, who was in DC at the time. Dan Bernal, Pelosi's District Director, refused to put Speaker Pelosi on the phone with the demonstrators to address the fact that key elements of Congress' final health care reform bill are missing. The demonstrators said Pelosi broke her promise to include the Kucinich amendment, that would allow states to enact their own single payer plans, in Congress' final health care bill.
"We deserve to know why she has turned her back on working people nationwide," said a spokesperson for CSEA (California School Employees' Association) whose members buoyed the protest. Two CSEA representatives were arrested along with ten others when they refused to leave the building after three hours of occupying Pelosi's office. Also participating in the protest both inside and outside the building were members of CARA (California Alliance of Retired Americans), the San Francisco Gray Panthers, and other groups advocating direct action to achieve a single payer health care plan.
About 100 demonstrators chanted loudly in front of the building. Meanwhile, protesters inside Pelosi's office lifted their cell phones to hear the supporters on the outside, and joined in the chants. That was cause enough for Pelosi's District Director to have those remaining in the office arrested. According to Dan Hodges, Chair of Health Care for All-California, chanting and singing was extended to mean that the demonstrators had disobeyed police officers. Hodges said, "Because Bernal was too cowardly to file an official complaint, an elaborate charade was worked out by Bernal, building management and the Federal Protection Service," and the branch of US Homeland Security made the arrests.
Photos | Breaking Report
"We deserve to know why she has turned her back on working people nationwide," said a spokesperson for CSEA (California School Employees' Association) whose members buoyed the protest. Two CSEA representatives were arrested along with ten others when they refused to leave the building after three hours of occupying Pelosi's office. Also participating in the protest both inside and outside the building were members of CARA (California Alliance of Retired Americans), the San Francisco Gray Panthers, and other groups advocating direct action to achieve a single payer health care plan.
About 100 demonstrators chanted loudly in front of the building. Meanwhile, protesters inside Pelosi's office lifted their cell phones to hear the supporters on the outside, and joined in the chants. That was cause enough for Pelosi's District Director to have those remaining in the office arrested. According to Dan Hodges, Chair of Health Care for All-California, chanting and singing was extended to mean that the demonstrators had disobeyed police officers. Hodges said, "Because Bernal was too cowardly to file an official complaint, an elaborate charade was worked out by Bernal, building management and the Federal Protection Service," and the branch of US Homeland Security made the arrests.
Photos | Breaking Report
The FBI Comes Calling, And The Struggle Continues.......
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,
Brutal Attack on Phuong Ho by The San Jose Police Stirs Distrust and Resentment
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
"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
Polar Bear Disrupts Business-As-Usual
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."
International Day of Climate Action
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")
Fresno State Students Walkout, Take Over 4th Floor of Library
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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