PNN - 3/3/13
7:10 - Meredith Ockman VP of State Now
07:10:00 PM - Dr. Maureen McKenna
1st VP. Democratic Women's Club of Florida
07:31:00 PM - Seeta Bejui
Author
08:00 PM - Lisa Murano
Director of Advocacy
08:30 - 9:00 PM - Tangerine Bolen
====================================
1. SEA SHEPHARD BRANDED PIRATES by US Court
A US federal court has branded the conservationist group Sea Shepherd as pirates, and ordered them to cease their operations at sea, opening the door for Japanese whalers to pursue legal action in the United States against the activists.
Chief judge Alex Kozinski wrote in an 18-page opinion that “you don’t need a peg leg or an eye patch” to be classified as pirates.
"When you ram ships, hurl glass containers of acid, drag metal-reinforced ropes in the water to damage propellers and rudders, launch smoke bombs and flares with hooks, and point high-powered lasers at other ships, you are, without a doubt, a pirate," he said, adding that the group’s actions were the “very embodiment of piracy.”
But Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson says Kozinski's belief that he is a "pirate" is one-sided and irrelevant.
"That's an opinion, it's certainly not a judgment," he told AAP. "He didn't mention anything in there about the fact that the Japanese have destroyed one of our ships (the Ady Gil in 2010), they've thrown concussion grenades at us, hit us with water cannons and laser beams."
Watson added that contrary to Kozinski's claims, Sea Shepherd has not rammed a single Japanese whaling vessel.
"The judge obviously has not seen the evidence or the facts; he's just making an opinion based on his own personal prejudices," he said.
Earlier, Japanese whalers from the Institute of Cetacean Research filed legal action in the US to stop the Sea Shepherd’s anti-whaling activism. But District Judge Richard Jones sided with the activists, leading to a ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which reversed the original decision and criticized Jones.
The ruling will allow Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research to pursue legal action in the US against the Sea Shepherd’s activism. Even though whaling is illegal in Australian waters, the Sea Shepherd activists have no right to initiate a standoff, Kozinski said: “It is for Australia, not Sea Shepherd, to police Australia's court orders.”
The US ruling also criticized Jones, stating that he was “off base” when arguing that the protesters' tactics were nonviolent because they did not target people, just ships and equipment: “The district judge's numerous, serious and obvious errors identified in our opinion raise doubts as to whether he will be perceived as impartial in presiding over this high-profile case.”
The case will now be transferred to another judge.
For the past few weeks, the activists’ ships have been in a standoff with Japanese whaling vessels in the Southern Ocean. Sea Shepherd activists have also blockaded the Japanese ships from refueling at the Sun Laurel tanker ship.
Both sides have accused each other of damaging vessels during the standoff. The activists also claimed that the Japanese whalers have been using water cannons and stun grenades against them, and that Japan has deployed a military icebreaker to threaten them.
Japan has denied the reports; Australia is currently taking legal action against the country for its whaling activities.
Sea Shepherd vessels are known for chasing down Japanese whalers to disrupt their annual hunt and prevent the mammals from being killed. They set sail from Australia, and try to block or attack Japanese whaling vessels.
Whaling for commercial purposes has been banned for the past 25 years, but Japan still sends ships on annual hunts. Tokyo has argued that such hunts are for scientific research only, which is permitted by an international treaty, but several media reports have indicated that the Japanese hunts have no scientific value.
2. Washington, D.C. - Congressman Patrick E. Murphy (D-Jupiter) made the following statement applauding the passage of the bipartisan "Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act." Following an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 78-22 in the Senate two weeks ago, Rep. Murphy voted in favor of the legislation, which the House passed today by a vote of 286-138.
"For the past 19 years since this legislation was first passed, it has saved lives and shaped the way we as a society have responded to domestic violence and to the abuse of the most vulnerable among us. In Florida in 2011 alone, there were over 111,000 domestic violence offenses reported and over 68,000 arrests made related to domestic violence crimes. This legislation is critical to protecting women from abuse and reducing incidents of domestic violence and I was proud to see its reauthorization receive such broad bipartisan support.
"Protecting women from violence is not a partisan issue and it was beyond disappointing to see this crucial legislation fall victim to partisan gridlock in the 112th Congress, causing it to expire over 500 days ago. I am proud to be a part of the 113th Congress which today made it known that we will put partisanship aside and the American people first in righting the wrong of allowing critical legislation such as VAWA to expire due to political gamesmanship in the last Congress."
The "Violence Against Women Act" was first passed in 1994, and has been renewed with strong bipartisan support every Congress, up until the 112th. Thanks to this legislation, every state has enacted laws to make stalking a crime and strengthened criminal rape statutes. Since it became law, the annual incidence of domestic violence has dropped more than 50 percent – and reporting of domestic violence has increased as much as 51 percent. Prior to its passage, Rep. Murphy was a proud cosponsor of the "Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act," and signed onto a letter urging House Leadership to take up the bipartisan, Senate-passed bill to reauthorize this important legislation. Nationally, three out of every ten women and one out of every ten men experience stalking, physical violence, or rape by a partner. In Florida in 2011, there were 192 deaths relating to domestic violence which accounted for over 19 percent of all homicides that year in the state.
3. warrantless wiretapping program
In 'Disturbing Decision' Supreme Court Rejects Challenge of Dragnet Surveillance of Americans
In 5-4 decision, Court rules plaintiffs cannot prove they have suffered from warrantless wiretapping program
- Andrea Germanos, staff writer
In what the ACLU has described as a "disturbing decision," the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a challenge brought by human rights groups, journalists and others against the federal government's warrantless wiretapping program.
(Photo: Rose Trinh / flickr) The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 the groups challenged allow the National Security Agency to conduct widespread surveillance of Americans' international phone calls and emails.
But in the 5-4 decision on Tuesday, the Court rejected the challenge. Justice Alito, who wrote the majority opinion, says that the plaintiffs lack standing:
because they cannot demonstrate that the future injury they purportedly fear is certainly impending and because they cannot manufacture standing by incurring costs in anticipation of non-imminent harm.
Wired's David Kravets writes that the decision
was a clear victory for the President Barack Obama administration, which like its predecessor, argued that government wiretapping laws cannot be challenged in court. What’s more, the outcome marks the first time the Supreme Court decided any case touching on the eavesdropping program that was secretly employed in the wake of 9/11 by the President George W. Bush administration, and eventually codified into law twice by Congress.
"It's a disturbing decision," ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said in a statement following the decision, and adds:
The FISA Amendments Act is a sweeping surveillance statute with far-reaching implications for Americans' privacy. This ruling insulates the statute from meaningful judicial review and leaves Americans' privacy rights to the mercy of the political branches.
Justice Alito's opinion for the court seems to be based on the theory that the FISA Court may one day, in some as-yet unimagined case, subject the law to constitutional review, but that day may never come. And if it does, the proceeding will take place in a court that meets in secret, doesn't ordinarily publish its decisions, and has limited authority to consider constitutional arguments. This theory is foreign to the Constitution and inconsistent with fundamental democratic values.
4. Occupy the SEC Sues Federal Reserve, SEC, CFTC, OCC, FDIC and U.S. Treasury Over Volcker Rule Delays
Now, similar to the early court battles for women’s rights, Occupy Wall Street has tossed aside its encampments and bullhorns and donned its legal garb and pro hac vices. Occupy Wall Street’s brain trust, Occupy the SEC, just filed a federal lawsuit that encapsulates the crony capitalist state that passes today for democracy.
The organization is suing every federal regulator that resides in the pocket of Wall Street – which means they are suing every federal regulator of Wall Street. And, spunky group that they are, they’re naming individuals too. Here’s the rundown: Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Martin Gruenberg, Chairman of the FDIC, Elisse Walter, Chair of the SEC, Gary Gensler, Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Thomas Curry, Comptroller of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Mary Miller, Under Secretary for Domestic Finance at the Treasury, Neal Wolin, Acting Secretary of the Treasury.
Occupy the SEC is serving a valiant public service in bringing this lawsuit. It explains to the court that one of the most critical components of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act that was supposed to reform Wall Street has yet to be enacted by the regulators and this is in violation of law. The key component is the Volcker Rule, named after former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, that would prohibit most forms of trading for the house on Wall Street, known officially as proprietary trading.
The lawsuit informs the court that Dodd-Frank required that regulators adopt rules relating to this section “within nine months after the completion of a study by FSOC [Financial Stabilization Oversight Council] relating to the Volcker Rule. The FSOC completed that study in January 2011.” The complaint proceeds to explain that the legislative language “is unequivocal in setting this mandatory deadline, which the Defendants and the agencies under their control have missed.”
http://bit.ly/YK1lKQ
Occupy the SEC (OSEC) has filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of New York against six federal agencies, over those agencies’ delay in promulgating a Final Rulemaking in connection with the “Volcker Rule” (Section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010).
Occupy the SEC blog
http://occupythesec.nycga.net/2013/02/27/occupy-the-sec-sues-federal-reserve-sec-cftc-occ-fdic-and-u-s-treasury-over-volcker-rule-delays/
Occupy the SEC, an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement that focuses on matters before government regulatory agencies, is suing the federal government in an attempt to speed up the process and get the Volcker Rule in place. The two plaintiffs in the case claim that their deposits are at risk, so long as banks are allowed to engage in risky gambling with federally backed funds:
Plaintiffs suffer the risk of irreparable injury to their deposits by reason of [the government's] non-action. The Plaintiffs’ bank accounts are subject to potential dissipation or liquidation resulting from bank losses occasioned by excessively risky trading activities by those banks. The Volcker Rule would institute structural safeguards insulating depository accounts from banks’ proprietary trading activities, thereby protecting Plaintiffs’ bank accounts. Defendants’ unjustified delay in finalizing the Volcker Rule puts Plaintiffs’ bank accounts at continued risk of financial loss.
https://www.facebook.com/Gilded.Age
5. Fukushima Breached
Steven Starr – Director of the Clinical Laboratory Science Program at the University of Missouri/Senior Scientist at Physicians for Social Responsibility – said:
The Japanese basically lied about what happened with the reactors for months. They said they were trying to prevent a meltdown, when in fact they knew within the first couple of days Reactors 1, 2, and 3 at Fukushima Daiichi had melted down, and they actually melted through the steel containment vessels.
So there was a worst case scenario that they were trying to hide, they even knew that at that time enormous amounts of radiation were released over Japan and some of it even went over Tokyo [...]
The melted core cracked the containment vessel, there really is no containment. So as soon as they pump the water in it leaks out again.
Asahi Shimbum notes that the location of Fukushima melted fuel is unknown. It could be ‘scattered’ in piping, vessels … “we’ve yet to identify all hotspots” around plant.
While the Japanese government tried to cover up the lack of containment with “mission accomplished” type announcements of “cold shutdown“, the loss of containment has been known for years.
For example, AP wrote in December 2011:
The nuclear fuel moved as it melted, so its condition and locations are little known.
AP noted a couple of days later:
The complex still faces numerous concerns, triggering criticism that the announcement of “cold shutdown conditions” is based on a political decision rather than science. Nobody knows exactly where and how the melted fuel ended up in each reactor ….
We noted last year:
If the reactors are “cold”, it may be because most of the hot radioactive fuel has leaked out.
***
The New York Times pointed out last month:
A former nuclear engineer with three decades of experience at a major engineering firm … who has worked at all three nuclear power complexes operated by Tokyo Electric [said] “If the fuel is still inside the reactor core, that’s one thing” …. But if the fuel has been dispersed more widely, then we are far from any stable shutdown.”
Indeed, if the center of the reactors are in fact relatively “cold”, it may be because most of the hot radioactive fuel has leaked out of the containment vessels and escaped into areas where it can do damage to the environment.
After drilling a hole in the containment vessel of Fukushima reactor 2, Tepco cannot find the fuel. As AP notes:
The steam-blurred photos taken by remote control Thursday found none of the reactor’s melted fuel ….
The photos also showed inner wall of the container heavily deteriorated after 10 months of exposure to high temperature and humidity, Matsumoto said.
TEPCO workers inserted the endoscope — an industrial version of the kind of endoscope doctors use — through a hole in the beaker-shaped container at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant’s No. 2 reactor ….
New video of the inside of the torus room in Fukushima reactor 1 shows piles of sediment:
As nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen pointed out last year:
Tokyo Electric ran a probe into the basement of Unit 1. This is not inside the containment, this is outside the containment. On the top of the water surface they found lethal radiation, 1000 rem an hour.
But then they put the probe down into the water and what’s even worse is the bottom, the sediment on the bottom, was thousand of times hotter than that. And what that indicates is that fuel, nuclear fuel, has left the containment, as particles, and settled out on the bottom outside the containment. So, I think that’s a pretty clear indication that the containment was breached. It just makes decommissioning these plants… it was going too be hard already, but this information makes it worse.
Loss of containment of nuclear fuel also exists within the spent fuel pools at Fukushima.
For example, Chris Harris, former licensed Senior Reactor Operator and engineer says of new video released by Tepco showing extensive damage and debris in Fukushima spent fuel pool 3:
6, Kyodo: High concentration of Fukushima radioactive substances found in land animals — Frog with 6,700 Bq/kg outside evacuation zone
High concentration of radioactive cesium found in land animals
TOKYO, March 2, Kyodo
A high concentration of radioactive cesium has been found in a range of land animals and insects in areas around the site of the Fukushima nuclear plant accident, providing a clue to a mechanism of radioactivity accumulation in the food chain, a study showed Saturday.
According to a survey by the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and Hokkaido University, over 6,700 becquerels per kilogram of cesium 137 was detected in a frog captured in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, some 40 kilometers west of the crippled nuclear plant.
The finding suggests animals positioned relatively high in the food chain tend to accumulate more radioactive materials, the research team said.
7.Fukushima cleanup workers break silence: Ordered to dump ‘debris’ into river — Gov’t “appeared not to believe him”
Asahi Shimbun, March 1, 2013: CROOKED CLEANUP: Workers break silence to allege boss ordered corner-cutting [...] Three laborers involved in radioactive cleanup around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant have alleged that a supervisor told them to dump debris in a river [...] At a news conference in the Diet building on Feb. 28, the men said a foreman ordered them to discard fallen branches and leaves into a river in an upland forest in Tamura, Fukushima Prefecture, in November 2012. [...] this is the first time that decontamination workers have publicly come forward. [...] The third man, in his 40s, said he related what had happened to officials at the Environment Ministry. He spoke to them for more than an hour, he said, but they appeared not to believe him. [...]
8. Hanford Tanks are Leaking
OLYMPIA –As most of official Olympia repeatedly hit the “refresh” button Thursday morning on their computers to catch the state Supremes’ decision on tax supermajorities as soon as possible, a handful of legislators got a briefing on something with the potential for far more impact to the state.
Jane Hedges of the state Department of Ecology explained the intricacies of nuclear waste tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, doing her best to calm the uproar over recent news that six of the supposedly stable tanks are, in fact, leaking.
Trying to explain most things at Hanford to laypersons can be a Herculean task. . .
To read the rest of this item, or to comment, go inside the blog.
…once you get past the standard line that there’s tons of really bad stuff down there from all those nukes we made for the Cold War but, thankfully, haven’t had to use. So Hedges brought it down to a level that even legislators and reporters could understand.
First of all, the tanks are big. The largest are the size of a basketball court with a 75-foot wall around it. Inside the tanks are a “stew of different materials” that form a radioactive sludge, from which the liquid was supposed to have been pumped out years ago.
The sludge is about the consistency of peanut butter, Hedges said, but sometimes the interstitial liquid raises to the top. The what? Think organic peanut butter, she said. When it sits too long, it gets that oil layer on the top.
Of the 177 tanks, 149 only have a single wall, or shell, and 67 of those were “suspected leakers”, but the rest were thought to be secure. Thought to be is a relative term, because in a container that big, a drop of even a fraction of an inch can represent many gallons of waste. You can’t just drop a giant dipstick into the tank.
As Hedges explained, there’s no easy way to get an extremely accurate measurement because lowering cameras or instruments into the tanks isn’t practical. The stuff inside melts the instruments, and eats rubber and plastic. The methods they do have showed some minor fluctuations that could have been anomalies until further testing showed that six supposedly secure tanks are leaking as much as 1,000 gallons of radioactive liquid a year.
Getting the liquid out of the tanks is a problem. First, there’s no good place to put it right now, because the more secure double-shelled tanks are also pretty full. Second, there’s the danger of triggering evaporation of the liquid, which would cause a tank to heat up and create a deflagration.
“In our common words, a ‘Boom,’” Hedges said. Hanford was responsible for making things that could create the world’s biggest booms, but a boom in a tank is to be greatly avoided.
As chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, got to ask the question that most people’s minds were forming: Is there a safety threat?
“There is no threat to anyone at this time,” Hedges said. The leaking tanks are between 200 and 300 feet above groundwater, at least five miles from the Columbia River. They’re leaking below ground, so there’s no immediate danger to workers or the nearby communities, and a system to pump contaminated water out and clean it.
Long-term, though, the state needs the feds to get the radioactive waste into a more permanent solution, she said.
9. The Japanese Lied and are Lying
Steven Starr, Director of the Clinical Laboratory Science Program at the University of Missouri/Senior Scientist at Physicians for Social Responsibility: The Japanese basically lied about what happened with the reactors for months. They said they were trying to prevent a meltdown, when in fact they knew within the first couple of days Reactors 1, 2, and 3 at Fukushima Daiichi had melted down, and they actually melted through the steel containment vessels.
So there was a worst case scenario that they were trying to hide, they even knew that at that time enormous amounts of radiation were released over Japan and some of it even went over Tokyo [...]
The melted core cracked the containment vessel, there really is no containment. So as soon as they pump the water in it leaks out again.
EVENTS - PNN
Broward/Palm Beach Coalition to Support the Balancing Act
CONGRESS WILL REGULARLY BE FACING CHOICES: SUPPORT PROGRAMS THAT HELP PEOPLE vs THE GOLIATH MILITARY. TAX THE WEALTHY or FURTHER SUBSIDIZE THEM.
JOIN TOGETHER TO PROMOTE AND SUPPORT THE FORMER.
East Delray Beach
Monday 04 Mar , 06:00 PM
The MoveOn Council of South Palm Beach/North Broward is hosting the Broward/Palm Beach Coalition for the Balancing Act.
On February 5 Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and others introduced HR505, the Balancing Act, to replace the entire sequester with revenue increases and specific reductions in the Pentagon budget.
Occupy Fort Lauderdale Labor Outreach group, South Florida Jobs with Justice and War vs Human Needs of South Florida have endorsed this legislation amd are are forming a Broward/Palm Beach Coalition for the Balancing Act. Ed Wujciak, of the Progressive Democrats of America and War vs Human Needs of South Florida, will present a tutorial on this proposed legislation and next steps will be planned. ALL SYMPATHIZERS ARE WELCOME.
Gizzi’s Coffee Shop
2275 S Federal Hwy #380
Delray Beach
(one traffic light south of Linton)
Feed your belly as you feed your mind. Great food and drinks will be available for purchase; please do not bring food from outside. The wise hungry get there at 5:45 to get your order in.
Thursday, March 7, 7 p.m. Toward a Broward/Palm Beach Coalition for the Balancing Act
On February 5 Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and others introduced HR505, the Balancing Act, to replace the entire sequester with revenue increases and specific reductions in the Pentagon budget.
South Florida Jobs with Justice, War vs Human Needs of South Florida and the Occupy Ft Lauderdale Labor Outreach group have endorsed this legislation. We are seeking to form a Broward/Palm Beach Coalition for the Balancing Act. Ed Wujciak, of the Progressive Democrats of America and War vs Human Needs of South Florida, will present a tutorial on this proposed legislation and next steps will be planned. ALL SYMPATHIZERS ARE WELCOME
PLEASE rsvp to warvhumanneeds@gmail.com,
954-531-1928
to get parking instructions.
1271 South Cypress Road, Pompano Beach
Saturday March 2, 10 a.m. Deerfield Progressive Forum
Professor Leonard Barry, FAU Climate Change Initiative. Climate Change in Florida
Activities Center adjacent to LeClub at Deerfield Century Village East.
Enter Century Village through the West Gate at West Drive (off Powerline between SW 10th St. and Hillsboro Blvd.). Tell the gatekeeper that you are attending the Forum.
Take an immediate left after the gate and then another immediate left. Follow the road around until you come to a "T," then turn left into the parking lot. $5 donation requested.
954-428-1598 www.deerfieldprogressiveforum.org
Saturday March 2, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. South Florida Climate Action Partners
Gaining Traction: a workshop to support the Regional Climate Change
Action Plan
Keynote speaker: James Murley, Exec. Director, South Florida Planning Council
Several of the Policy Advisory Committee members of the SE Florida Regional Climate Compact will also be on hand to explain this plan to build climate resiliency for our region over the next 5 years
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Boca Raton
2601 St Andrews Blvd, Boca Raton
Adults $20; students $10 (includes breakfast and lunch)
Child care available @ $25
Registration: 561-531-0886; www.SFLClimateActionPartners.org
AWAKE Palm Beach County coalition meeting Sunday!
The Florida Legislative session begins Tuesday, and we need to be ready to push for or against
pending legislation as well as finalize plans for our FREE THE VOTE, AWAKE THE STATE Rally!
Sunday, March 3rd, 2013 at 3:00 pm
SEIU FPSU Office: 2112 S. Congress Ave, Palm Springs, 33406
AWAKE Palm Beach County is part of the AWAKE THE STATE movement.
We are a coalition of diverse community organizers and activists coming together
to build coalition and collaborate on important progressive issues.
Please bring action ideas and activist friends!
Monday, March 4, 6 p.m.
Broward/Palm Beach Coalition to Support the the Balancing Act
The MoveOn Council of South Palm Beach/North Broward is hosting the Broward/Palm Beach Coalition for the Balancing Act.
On February 5 Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and others introduced HR505, the Balancing Act, to replace the entire sequester with revenue increases and specific reductions in the Pentagon budget.
Occupy Fort Lauderdale Labor Outreach group, South Florida Jobs with Justice, and War vs Human Needs of South Florida have endorsed this legislation, and are forming a Broward/Palm Beach Coalition for the Balancing Act. Ed Wujciak, of the Progressive Democrats of America and War vs Human Needs of South Florida, will present a tutorial on this proposed legislation and next steps will be planned.
ALL SYMPATHIZERS ARE WELCOME. warvhumanneeds@gmail.com 954-531-1928
Gizzi’s Coffee Shop
2275 S Federal Hwy #380
East Delray Beach
(one traffic light south of Linton)
Feed your belly as you feed your mind. Great food and drinks will be available for purchase; please do not bring food from outside. The wise hungry get there at 5:45 p.m. to get your order in.
Tuesday, March 5, 4 p.m. Click on the link: Broward County Free The Vote Rally
Floridians shouldn't have to wait on line for hours to vote. No eligible voter should have to take the time to go to the polls on only to find they can't cast a regular ballot because self-serving politicians enacted cumbersome rules to protect their own seats.
We must establish a minimum of 14 early voting days, with 12 hours to vote each day. Floridians who move to a different county should once again be able to update their address on Election Day and cast a regular ballot. Additionally, any proposed amendment to Florida's constitution should be limited to 75 words to ensure reasonably sized ballots. There's a lot more to do, but this would be a good start.
Let's make this a priority on the first day of legislative session, March 5th.
Join a Free The Vote, Awake The State rally.
299 East Broward Boulevard
Fort Lauderdale
Tuesday, March 5, 5 p.m. Click on the link: Palm Beach County Free The Vote Rally
Floridians shouldn't have to wait on line for hours to vote. No eligible voter should have to take the time to go to the polls on only to find they can't cast a regular ballot because self-serving politicians enacted cumbersome rules to protect their own seats.
We must establish a minimum of 14 early voting days, with 12 hours to vote each day. Floridians who move to a different county should once again be able to update their address on Election Day and cast a regular ballot. Additionally, any proposed amendment to Florida's constitution should be limited to 75 words to ensure reasonably sized ballots. There's a lot more to do, but this would be a good start.
Let's make this a priority on the first day of legislative session, March 5th.
Join a Free The Vote, Awake The State rally.
Supervisor of Elections Office
240 South Military Trail
West Palm Beach, FL
Thursday, March 7, 7 p.m. Broward/Palm Beach Coalition to Support the the Balancing Act
On February 5 Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and others introduced HR505, the Balancing Act, to replace the entire sequester with revenue increases and specific reductions in the Pentagon budget.
South Florida Jobs with Justice, War vs. Human Needs of South Florida, and the Occupy Fort Lauderdale Labor Outreach group have endorsed this legislation, and are forming a Broward/Palm Beach Coalition for the Balancing Act. Ed Wujciak, of the Progressive Democrats of America and War vs Human Needs of South Florida, will present a tutorial on this proposed legislation and next steps will be planned.
ALL SYMPATHIZERS ARE WELCOME
RSVP to warvhumanneeds@gmail.com 954-531-1928 to get parking instructions.
1271 South Cypress Road
Pompano Beach, FL
Saturday March 9, 10 a.m. Deerfield Progressive Forum
Kitty Oliver, Author and Oral Historian. Race and Ethnic Relations in Story and Song
Activities Center adjacent to LeClub at Deerfield Century Village East. Enter Century Village through the West Gate at West Drive (off Powerline between SW 10th St. and Hillsboro Blvd.). Tell the gatekeeper that you are attending the Forum. Take an immediate left after the gate and then another immediate left. Follow the road around until you come to a "T," then turn left into the parking lot. $5 donation requested.
954-428-1598 www.deerfieldprogressiveforum.org
Sunday, March 10, 1-3 p.m. The Case Against The War on Drugs and Racist Mass Incarceration
Reading and discussion of, and action upon, the issues posed by Michelle Alexander in her book,
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Unitarian Universalist Church of Ft Lauderdale
3970 NW 21st Avenue
Oakland Park 33309
Join the eleven to twenty people from diverse environments, few of whom knew more than a few of the others, who have had three stimulating meetings and have resolved to meet three more times over the next six weeks to discuss Alexander’s analysis of the rebirth of a U.S. caste system whose population consists primarily of African-American men whose lives have been constrained by their contacts with the criminal justice system and who therefore face life-long discrimination in housing, employment, and civic participation. Alexander graphically depicts how this criminal justice system, based on a hyper-inflated War on Drugs, functions as a means of social control of this population following the dismantling of Jim Crow in the 1960s.
Alexander challenges the civil rights community and all of us to place the challenge of mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in America.
At the March session, Chapters 5 and 6 will be discussed.
The Broward library system has numerous copies, and the book is available at all physical and on-line bookstores. The discussions are free. Those interested are invited to contact Bob Bender, bob@benderworld.com 954-531-1928.
Future sessions are Sundays, March 24 and April 7, each session from 1 to 3 p.m. at UUCFL.
SEE ALSO: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ethan-nadelmann/obama-mass-incarceration_b_2669817.html
SEE ALSO: Prison and the Poverty Trap
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/science/long-prison-terms-eyed-as-contributing-to-poverty.xml?f=19
Monday March 11, 7:30-9 p.m. Public Lecture
Harry Targ, Professor of Political Science, Purdue University. The Empire in Disarray: Global Challenges to United States Power From Harry Truman to Barack Obama
The United States emerged from World War II as the "hegemonic" power in the international system. By virtue of its economic, political, and military strength, it fashioned a world based upon institutions which maximized opportunities for trade, investment, financial speculation, and economic development while maintaining military superiority. Over the subsequent sixty years, and responses to an increasingly resistant world, U.S. capacity to shape international relations has declined. The United States emerged from World War II as the "hegemonic" power in the international system. By virtue of its economic, political, and military strength it fashioned a world based upon institutions which maximized opportunities for trade, investment, financial speculation, and economic development while maintaining military superiority. Over the subsequent 60 years, and responses to an increasingly resistant world, U.S. capacity to shape international relations has declined.
This presentation will briefly describe the "golden age" of United States power and the increasing resistance to it. It will concentrate on how the foreign policy of Barack Obama has responded to a more complicated world during his first term which can be characterized as wavering between an effort to restore U.S. hegemony versus "pragmatically" adjusting to the 21st century world of diversified power and influence. The current debate about drone warfare reflects this contradiction. Finally, the presentation will suggest ways in which the peace movement might encourage a more pragmatic foreign policy in the future.
Harry Targ received his Ph. D from Northwestern University in 1967 and has been teaching and writing at Purdue University ever since. His teaching and research interests include international political economy, foreign policy, Central America and the Caribbean, labor and politics, and U.S. and global social movements. He has published 12 books on foreign policy, Cuba and Central America, the impacts of plant closings, and collections of essays on international political economy, culture and politics, and American politics. His most recent book, Diary of a Heartland Radical, Changemaker, 2011, consists of a collection of over 100 blog essays from www.heartlandradical.blogspot.com.
He has been an activist in peace and justice organizations, the labor movement, and the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism for many years.
Vizcaya Clubhouse
15150 Michelangelo Blvd
Delray Beach
Tell the gatekeeper that you're going to the Clubhouse program.
Monday March 11, Tuesday March 12, Wednesday March 13 Florida Atlantic University, Peace Studies Program
Public Lectures: Claude AnShin Thomas, Vietnam War veteran, Buddhist monk, international speaker, teacher, writer, and non-violent advocate.
Monday March 11, 4-5:30 p.m. FAU Jupiter, AD 119 (Auditorium)
At Hell's Gate: A Soldier's Journey from War to Peace
Tuesday, March 12, 7-9 p.m. FAU Boca, AL 189
The Roots of War, The Seeds of Peace
Public Lecture: Dr. Brian Shoup, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Mississippi State University.
Wednesday, March 13, 6:30-8 p. m. FAU Boca Raton, PA 101
Democratization and State-Building in Post-Conflict Societies
FAU’s Peace Studies Program, established in 1999 within the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, has brought together students, faculty, and community members to explore pathways to peace and the process of peace-building. As an interdisciplinary program, Peace Studies draws from a broad range of fields: anthropology, literary studies, political science, communication, history, ethics, social work and more to offer an undergraduate certificate designed to complement a traditional major in any field. The FAU Peace Studies Program sponsors speakers specializing in peace-studies-related issues, free and open to the public thanks to the generosity of the Chastain-Johnson Fund and the Schmidt Family Foundation.
www.fau.edu/peacestudies
Facebook (Peace Studies and Peace Studies Student Association [PSSA])
Prof. Doug McGetchin, Director of FAU Peace Studies dmcgetch@fau.edu or 561-799-8226
ADA (Americans with Disability Act) Statement: If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate fully, please contact Prof. McGetchin by email (above), phone (above) or TTY Relay station 18009558770. Please make your needs known as soon as possible to allow time for effective accommodations, preferably by four business days prior to the event.
Tuesday March 12, 7-9 p.m. Lecture, Discussion, Raised Voices
Harry Targ, Professor of Political Science, Purdue University.The Influence of Marxist Ideas on the Performance and Politics of Paul Robeson, Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger
Professor Targ has teaching and research interests in U.S. and international political economy, U.S. foreign policy, organized labor and class struggle, plant closings and unemployment, and U.S. foreign policy in Central America. He has authored International Relations in a World of Imperialism and Class Struggle; Strategy of an Empire in Decline: Cold War II; and co-authored Plant Closings: International Context and Social Costs. His book, Cuba and the United States: A New World Order? was published in 1992. A co-edited volume, Marxism Today, was published in 1996. Also, he has co-authored children's books on Guatemala and Honduras. More recently he has published Challenging Late Capitalism, Neoliberal Globalization and Militarism; and Diary of a Heartland Radical.
Then, join PinkSlip and Solidarity Singers in singing a couple of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger songs that Targ references in his lecture.
HOSTED BY BOB & PATTY BENDER AND JOAN FRIEDENBERG & MARK SCHNEIDER
At the home of Joan Friedenberg and Mark Schneider
5165 Palazzo Place
Boynton Beach
In Tuscany Bay, off Military between Woolbright and Flavor Pict
RSVP (required for gate) by Sunday March 10th 561-752-0946
Light refreshments will be served.
Saturday March 16, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. All Peoples’ Diversity Day
Fourth Annual Diversity Festival, free of charge!
In 2060 European Americans will not be dominant in our society. It’s no longer just a nice thing to connect with people who are different; it’s a necessity if we are going to live in peace and harmony.
Why an arts festival? The arts touch people’s hearts. Starting at 11 am, dazzling performances of dance, music and social theater spanning the globe will commence on the stage at 15-minute intervals. Over forty interactive, merchandise and food booths will provide wonderful things to see and do for the whole family.
To sign-up for free 9:30 to 11:00 am kid’s craft workshop call 561 495-9818.
Pompey Park (indoors)
1101 NW 2nd Street & NW 10th Avenue
Delray Beach
Saturday March 16, 10 a.m. Deerfield Progressive Forum
Lynn Appleton, Professor of Sociology, FAU. Reagan-esque Revolution
Activities Center adjacent to LeClub at Deerfield Century Village East. Enter Century Village through the West Gate at West Drive (off Powerline between SW 10th St. and Hillsboro Blvd.). Tell the gatekeeper that you are attending the Forum. Take an immediate left after the gate and then another immediate left. Follow the road around until you come to a "T," then turn left into the parking lot. $5 donation requested.
954-428-1598 www.deerfieldprogressiveforum.org
Saturday March 16, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Workshop on Economic Justice
Dr. Edith Rasell, Ph.D. economist, Minister for Economic Justice of the UCC Justice and Ministries Office in Cleveland.
The morning program will focus on the state of the economy today and the structures which promote the serious and unjust gaps in wealth, as well as what is required to address these issues.
In the afternoon, Dr. Rasell will help us explore these economic problems from a faith perspective and what it means to be an economic justice church.
Dr. Rasell was formerly with the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank in Washington D.C.
A continental breakfast & sign in begin at 9:30 am. You are invited to come for part or all of the day. The cost, including breakfast & lunch, is $10.
For more info and to register, contact Carol Lewis at 561-346-4161 or clewismft@aol.com.
First Congregational Church
1415 North K Street
Lake Worth, FL
Saturday March 16, 4 p.m. Occupy Ft Lauderdale Labor Outreach
Protect Gains for Workers: Combat Impending Efforts to Squash Local Living Wage and
Wage Theft/Recovery Ordinances
What are the current efforts in Tallahassee to preempt counties retroactively from enacting these important ordinances, which benefit both working people and our local economies?
Mobilize and Fight Back!
Unitarian Universalist Church of Ft Lauderdale
3970 NW 21st Avenue
Oakland Park 33309
Sunday March 17, 12 noon to 3 p.m. MoveOn Council of South Palm Beach/North Broward
Films for Thought 2013: American Autumn: an Occudoc (2012)
Gizzi’s Coffee Shop
2275 S Federal Hwy #380
Delray Beach
Join us one Sunday of every month for an update on local MoveOn activities followed by a viewing and informal discussion of a thought-provoking film. Feed your belly as you feed your mind. Great food and drinks will be available for purchase; please do not bring food from outside.
Monday, March 18, 7-9 p.m. Florida Atlantic University, Peace Studies Program
Public Lecture: Dr. Doug McAdam, Department of Sociology, Stanford University. Race, Politics, the Media and the Burning of Black Churches, 1996-2001
FAU Boca, AL 189
FAU’s Peace Studies Program, established in 1999 within the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, has brought together students, faculty, and community members to explore pathways to peace and the process of peace-building. As an interdisciplinary program, Peace Studies draws from a broad range of fields: anthropology, literary studies, political science, communication, history, ethics, social work and more to offer an undergraduate certificate designed to complement a traditional major in any field. The FAU Peace Studies Program sponsors speakers specializing in peace-studies-related issues, free and open to the public thanks to the generosity of the Chastain-Johnson Fund and the Schmidt Family Foundation.
www.fau.edu/peacestudies
Facebook (Peace Studies and Peace Studies Student Association [PSSA])
Prof. Doug McGetchin, Director of FAU Peace Studies dmcgetch@fau.edu or 561-799-8226
ADA (Americans with Disability Act) Statement: If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate fully, please contact Prof. McGetchin by email (above), phone (above) or TTY Relay station 18009558770. Please make your needs known as soon as possible to allow time for effective accommodations, preferably by four business days prior to the event.
Sunday March 24, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Woody Guthrie Tribute
Woody Guthrie: A Hundred Years of Song is a narrated and sing-along concert about the life of Woody Guthrie. It is being produced, along with hundreds of other concerts around the country, in celebration of Woody Guthrie's 100th Birthday. The words to all of the songs will be projected on the stage so the audience can sing along. Period and current photos illustrating the sentiments of each of the songs will be shown. Performing will be a troupe of Lake Worth's finest musicians. The concerts benefit the Lake Worth Playhouse, the Lake Worth Cultural Renaissance Foundation (LULA), the Downtown Cultural Alliance (DCA) and the Clay Glass Metal Stone Gallery.
Woody Guthrie was Arlo Guthrie's father.
$20/$25 in advance. $26/$30 at the door. www.lakeworthplayhouse.org/limited.html
561-586-6410
Mondays April 1, April 8, April 15 ACLU, Up Close and Personal
A series of three lectures with PowerPoint support on ACLU by Geoff Kashdan, Vice President of ACLU-Palm Beach County
April 1 The History of ACLU, Film and Discussion
April 8 The War Against (teaching) Evolution in Public Schools
April 15 The ACLU's Most Controversial Cases
Delray Life Long Learning Community Institute at the Delray Public Library
$45 for 3 sessions www.delraylibrary.org
Friday, April 5, Thursday April 11 Florida Atlantic University, Peace Studies Program
Public Lecture: Dr. Dennis Hanlon, Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of St. Andrews (Scotland).
Friday April 5, 4-5:30 PM, FAU Boca Raton, Room TBA
Jorge Sanjinés’ “All-Encompassing Sequence Shot”: From Revolutionary Practice to Indigenismo?
Public Lecture: Dr. David Cortright, Director of Policy Studies at University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
Thursday, April 11, 7-9 PM, FAU Boca Raton, PA 101
The Power of Nonviolence
FAU’s Peace Studies Program, established in 1999 within the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, has brought together students, faculty, and community members to explore pathways to peace and the process of peace-building. As an interdisciplinary program, Peace Studies draws from a broad range of fields: anthropology, literary studies, political science, communication, history, ethics, social work and more to offer an undergraduate certificate designed to complement a traditional major in any field. The FAU Peace Studies Program sponsors speakers specializing in peace-studies-related issues, free and open to the public thanks to the generosity of the Chastain-Johnson Fund and the Schmidt Family Foundation.
www.fau.edu/peacestudies
Facebook (Peace Studies and Peace Studies Student Association [PSSA])
Prof. Doug McGetchin, Director of FAU Peace Studies dmcgetch@fau.edu or 561-799-8226
ADA (Americans with Disability Act) Statement: If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate fully, please contact Prof. McGetchin by email (above), phone (above) or TTY Relay station 18009558770. Please make your needs known as soon as possible to allow time for effective accommodations, preferably by four business days prior to the event.
Sunday April 14, 1 p.m. Media and Politics
FAU Professor of Communications Mike Budd
Unitarian Universalist Church of Ft Lauderdale
3970 NW 21st Avenue
Oakland Park 33309
Sunday April 14, 12 noon to 3 p.m. MoveOn Council of South Palm Beach/ North Broward
Films for Thought 2013: The End of Poverty? (2008) Global poverty in the shadow of wealth.
Gizzi’s Coffee Shop
2275 S Federal Hwy #380
Delray Beach
Join us one Sunday of every month for an update on local MoveOn activities followed by a viewing and informal discussion of a thought-provoking film. Feed your belly as you feed your mind. Great food and drinks will be available for purchase; please do not bring food from outside.
Sunday April 21, 1-4 p.m. Network of Spiritual Progressives/Interfaith Justice League
Interfaith Earth Day Fair
Veterans Park, Boca Raton
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Sunday, March 03, 2013
Saturday, February 23, 2013
The Bradley Manning - Tribute 2/23/13
THOUSAND DAY TRIBUTE
(Click to Listen)
[A human action becomes genuinely important when it springs from the soil of a clear-sighted awareness of the temporality and the ephemerality of everything human. It is only this awareness that can breathe any greatness into an action.
Vaclav Havel »]
Army ‘Investigating’ Bradley Manning Support Network
Admits to 'Active Investigation'
by Jason Ditz, July 02, 2012
The military has been trying to pull out all the stops in its prosecution of Pfc. Bradley Manning for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks releases. The Bradley Manning Support Network, operators of the website Bradleymanning.org and founded in 2010 with the goal of supporting the jailed whistleblower, has apparently found itself under military scrutiny as well.
According to a US Army response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, there is “an active investigation” ongoing against the network. The details of the investigation were kept secret by the Army, which, by way of declining the FOIA request, offered to provide documents after the “undetermined completion date.”
One can only imagine that the group’s efforts to aid in Manning’s defense, as well as their high profile criticism of the secrecy surrounding the trial, had the military hoping they could find some dirt on the group.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this is the revelation that the army is doing the investigating directly against the private civilian organization. Though the army clearly has a vested interested in the prosecution of Manning, moves against antiwar groups have usually been done by the FBI under the guise of anti-terror investigations.
*******
Tom Beardshaw's Joined us from Wales
/ Multimedia Producer - the Radicalization of Bradley Manning
These are the things I can talk about which will add value:
The play (writers, director, cast, set, the location of Bradley's school),
I can certainly mention Bradley's mum attended and the impact that had on the cast and crew, the multiplatform work I personally designed and produced
(livestream with live chat and live links to backstory material on the web,
the reach of that webcast - 10,000 viewers in 72 countries),
the elements of the story (it was an imagination of Bradley's life in Wales, intercut with his life in the US and when he was in the army,
the history of Welsh Radicalism, bullying and other themes).
The play was a political fantasy of Bradley's life, exploring the writer's imagination of what he experienced, thought and felt. And the feelings about Bradley in Wales, his Welshness...
OK. An additional point - most of the themes in the play about his time in Wales were set in school, often with a history teacher who was covering the history of radicalism here - the rebecca riots, the Merthyr Uprising. We have a long history of this... the first raising of the red flag in europe, the genesis of the NHS, etc etc...
12:18 PM
It was exploring how this might have affected him.. hence the title The Radicalition of Bradley Manning
Sure - but it's an archive - we did not archive the video as there was a focus on theatre as a live experience, but the archive page is here: http://nationaltheatrewales.org/bradleymanning There is quite a lot on the web - here are some links: A group for those interested in the play as it developed http://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/group/ntw18 ; Article by the writer about why he was writing it ; http://nationaltheatrewales.org/radicalisation-bradley-manning/tim-price-why-im-writing-play-about-bradley-manning ; A review:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/regional-shows/9214915/The-Radicalisation-of-Bradley-Manning-National-Theatre-Wales-Cardiff-High-School-and-touring-review.html
Article on the future of digital in theatre -
The Bradley show is pioneering (Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2013/feb/19/clore-essays-digital-arts-network
Related Material:
Indefinite Detention Under the NDAA: the Great Attack on Civil Liberties You May Not Have Heard About
by ARIEL SCHNELLER on Feb 27, 2012 • 7:00 am3 Comments
On December 31, 2011, President Barack Obama signed the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law. Many of you may not have heard of it because the holidays aren’t exactly conducive to keeping up with current events, but the NDAA represents one of the most dramatic attacks on civil liberties in this country in many years. While the NDAA contains many routine provisions related to defense spending, there are two particular provisions that should deeply trouble any American concerned with the encroachment upon civil liberties that has been the hallmark of post-9/11 America.
Section 1021 affirms that the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) authorizes detention of anybody whom the President determines was involved in the attacks of 9/11, as well as detention of anybody who substantially supports or is a member of al-Qaeda, the Taliban or associated forces. This detention is authorized so long as the hostilities authorized by the AUMF are ongoing. Of course, because the battle against al-Qaeda may never end, Section 1021 is essentially a de facto authorization of indefinite detention.
Section 1022 states that if an individual is detained under the authority of Section 1021, that person must be held by the military. This mandate does not apply to a citizen or lawful resident of the United States. Put these sections together and a scary picture emerges in which a person accused of being a member of a terrorist group, or even of substantially supporting one, can be detained by the military as long as the United States is at war with al-Qaeda.
This codification of indefinite detention is chilling because it represents how quickly and drastically our nation’s discourse about civil liberties has changed in just a few years. Fewer than four years ago we elected a president who explicitly and strongly campaigned on closing Guantanamo Bay, the internationally infamous facility in which terrorist suspects were being indefinitely detained. Now that same president is signing a bill codifying some of the practices against which he had so vigorously campaigned. So long as George W. Bush was indefinitely detaining terrorism suspects Democrats could criticize it as representing the worst of the Bush regime and civil libertarians could decry it as a panicked overreaction to 9/11. And while it is true that Obama had long claimed to have the authority to indefinitely detain terrorism suspects prior to the passage of the NDAA, his position could be seen as representing only the viewpoint of one president trying to arrogate power. But now indefinite detention is not a partisan issue, nor can it be described as a panicked reaction or an overreach by a greedy branch of government. Instead, ten years after 9/11, it has been written into our laws by a bipartisan legislature that is codifying the practices of two presidencies from two different parties. Imprisonment without trial, that hallmark of tyranny which seems so anathema to a nation that values freedom and a governmental system based on checks on government and due process, has been written into the laws of this country with shockingly little outcry from the American people.
Another worrisome aspect of the NDAA is that it may authorize the indefinite detention even of American citizens captured within the United States. The bill’s language is ambiguous: Section 1021 states that “[n]othing in this section shall be construed to affect existing law or authorities relating to the detention of United States citizens…” But Section 1022 says that the requirement that the detainees be held by the military does not apply to American citizens, a confusing clarification if American citizens are not eligible to be detained under 1021 in the first place. Keep in mind that detention is authorized by a mere presidential determination that somebody has substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces. The prospect that a president could use this wide grant of discretion to detain American citizens should disturb all of us. Even if we do not fear that we ourselves will ever be detained, we should fear for what happens to democratic discourse, dissent and political action when the government is given the power to imprison people without trial based on mere allegations and with minimal process.
Even though you or I may never suffer due to the indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA, we should not tolerate a system in which there is a very strong chance that people will be incarcerated for the rest of their lives without committing any crime or posing any threat to the United States. While that may seem like an outlandish fear, our experience in Guantanamo illustrates just how fallible the Executive Branch can be in determining who needs to be confined without trial.
The American Civil Liberties of Harvard Law encourages you all to make your voice heard and demand that Congress respect the principle that everybody deserves a day in court before being imprisoned for life. We are circulating a petition demanding that Congress repeal Sections 1021 and 1022 of the NDAA. To sign it, you can go to our online survey at http://hlsorgs.com/aclu/2012/02/22/sign-the-ndaa-petition-here/.
We also invite you to “The NDAA and Indefinite Detention in American Law,” a discussion with Professors Noah Feldman and Jack Goldsmith of the prime issues surrounding the NDAA. The discussion will be co-sponsored by ACLU-HLS, the Federalist Society, and the American Constitution Society and will take place on Wednesday, February 29 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. at Ames Courtroom.
Ariel Schneller, Law ’12, is a member of the executive board of American Civil Liberties Union, Harvard Law School Chapter.
*******
Inside the Grand Jury:
DOJ Counterespionage Section: Attorney Patrick Murphy *
DOJ Counterespionage Section: Attorney Deborah Curtis *
Eastern District of Virginia: AUSA Bob Wiechering
Eastern District of Virginia: AUSA Tracy McCormick
Eastern District of Virginia: AUSA Karen Dunn
Unspecified number of Grand Jurors
Court Steganographer
David House
Directly outside the Grand Jury:
Mike Condon, FBI Agent from Washington, D.C. field office
James Farmer, Chief of Anti-Terrorism and National Security Unit at the
U.S. Attorney’s Office in D. Mass
Peter Krupp, David House’s attorney
Record begins: 4:10pm
[David House is sworn in and informed of his rights]
Patrick Murphy: Would you please state your full name for the record?
David House: My name is David House.
PM: Did you meet Bradley Manning in January 2010?
DH: On the advice of counsel, I invoke my right to remain silent under
the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. I am concerned
that this grand jury is seeking information designed to infringe or
chill my associational privacy, and that of others, guaranteed by the
First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and that it is using
information obtained without a search warrant in violation of the Fourth
Amendment to the United States Constitution. I define the preceding
statement as “invoke”, and when I say “I invoke” in the future I am
referring to this statement.
Deborah Curtis: Exhibit 1-A?
PM: Mr. House, please direct your attention to the screen behind you,
exhibit 1-A.
DC: I can’t make it bigger.
PM: Try… here, remove that bar on the side.
DC: That didn’t work.
DH: Do you guys need help?
DC: We just need to make it bigger. Can everyone see this okay?
PM: Ok… we’re going to continue.
[A still image from the Frontline PBS special is displayed on the
screen. Four figures are standing in front of the BUILDS logo, one
figure has her back turned.]
PM: Mr. House, can you identify the man on the right?
DH: I invoke.
PM: Can you identify the man standing second from right?
DH: I invoke.
PM: Ok, can you identify the person with bright-colored hair, standing
here?
DH: I invoke.
PM: Are we to believe that identifying that individual would somehow
incriminate you?
DH: On the advice of counsel, I invoke my right to remain silent under
the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. I am concerned
that this grand jury is seeking information designed to infringe or
chill my associational privacy, and that of others, guaranteed by the
First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and that it is using
information obtained without a search warrant in violation of the Fourth
Amendment to the United States Constitution.
PM: Ok, can you identify the man on the left?
PM: I would like to observe for the record that Mr. House is taking
notes.
DH: As to the previous question, I invoke.
PM: Why are you taking notes?
DH: Invoke.
Bob Wiechering: I’d like to recommend, at this point, that we take a
break and talk to your counsel.
[AUSAs and House leave the grand jury]
[Peter Krupp, House’s attorney, asserts House’s right to invoke]
[AUSAs and House return to the grand jury]
PM: What is your birthdate?
DH: March 14, 1987
PM: Where do you live?
DH: Can you restate the question?
PM: What is your address?
DH: I invoke.
PM: What is your current occupation?
DH: I invoke.
PM: Were you a senior in computer science at Boston University in
January 2010?
DH: I invoke.
PM: Isn’t it true that you told PBS Frontline that you were a senior at
Boston University in January 2010?
DH: I invoke.
PM: Do you know what a hackerspace is?
DH: I invoke.
PM: Do you know what BUILDS is, the acronym?
DH: I invoke.
Bob Wiechering: Mr. House, I notice you are taking notes. Attempting to
create your own transcript is a violation of rule 6(e) of this grand
jury. We have brought this to the attention of your counsel, and
although he feels differently on the matter, we assert that you must
stop taking notes at this time.
DH: Let me consult with my attorney.
[House leaves the grand jury room and returns one minute later]
DH: My lawyer asks that you refer all questions about notes to him.
BW: Let’s continue.
PM: Mr. House, are you involved with the Bradley Manning Support
Network?
DH: I invoke.
PM: Did you respond in the affirmative when asked by the FBI if you had
heard of known WikiLeaks associate Jacob Appelbaum?
PM: I would like to state for the record that Mr. House is not answering
the question and is instead taking notes.
DH: I invoke.
PM: Do you intend to answer any of my questions, aside from your date of
birth and your name?
DH: I invoke.
PM: Is that because of the phalanx of attorneys present here today?
Court Stenographer: I’m sorry, the what of attorneys?
PM: Phalanx… the phalanx of attorneys.
DH: As to the phalanx of attorneys, I invoke.
PM: At this time, I will let Deborah Curtis ask a few questions.
DC: Mr. House, have you ever been to the Oxford Spa restaurant in
Cambridge, MA?
DH: Allow me to consult with my attorney.
[House leaves the grand jury and returns one minute later.]
DH: As to the previous question, I invoke.
DC: You admitted to federal agents in Boston that you had met Bradley
Manning in January 2010, is that correct?
DH: I invoke.
DC: Isn’t it true that you spent the night of January 27 2010 with
Daniel Clark and Bradley Manning?
DH: Can you repeat the question?
DC: Isn’t it true that you spent the night of January 27 2010 with
Daniel Clark and Bradley Manning?
DH: One more time.
DC: Isn’t it true that you spent the night of January 27 2010 with
Daniel Clark and Bradley Manning?
PM: He’s writing it down.
DC: Are you getting this, are you writing it all down?
DH: Was the last question a question to be answered?
DC: Yes.
DH: I invoke.
DC: And the question before?
DH: I also invoke.
DC: Where did Danny Clark have breakfast on the morning of January 28,
2010?
DH: Allow me to consult with my attorney.
[House leaves the grand jury and returns one minute later.]
DH: As to the previous question, I invoke.
DC: Do you intend to answer any questions about Daniel Clark?
DH: Invoke.
DC: Do you intend to answer any questions about Bradley Manning?
DH: [Writing] Could you please repeat the question?
DC: Do you intend to answer any questions about Jacob Appelbaum?
DH: I invoke.
DC: At this time, we’d like to stop the proceedings. You are free to
leave.
*******
Jeremy Hammond
alleged stratfor hacker
A judge at Tuesday’s bail hearing, Loretta A. Preska, portrayed Jeremy as a terrorist more dangerous than murders and sexual predators, denied his bail and, before Jeremy and a gathering of his friends and family, announced the sentence he would face if found guilty: 360 months to life. It is very difficult to find the words to express the pain we feel after the court’s decision Tuesday to deny bail for Jeremy Hammond. It is an inconsolable sadness that relates those that share it to one another and solidifies our commitment to Jeremy’s cause. Jeremy, only 27 years old, has spent most of his young life contributing to charitable efforts and acting on his principles to right what he perceives as wrong. Now, due to his contributions to the Anonymous collective, Jeremy could, if found guilty, spend 30+ years in prison.
Jeremy was vilified and his contributions bastardized. All of this was done with absolute impunity by those prosecuting him. The court, however, underestimated the weight of Jeremy’s contributions and the passion his actions and the actions of other Anons have inspired in so many people. Most importantly, the court underestimated the Anonymous collective and the networks supporting Anons facing prosecution. There is no comfort for us so long as Anons are prosecuted. If a life sentence is what the State deems an appropriate punishment for the so called crimes that Jeremy is alleged of having committed, then it is our lives that we are willing to commit to Jeremy’s cause and to the cause of all Anons facing prosecution. We will not weary. We will not be discouraged.
We will seek the truth and find justice in unjust laws and the unjust rulings of an unjust State. Hacktivists are not criminals! Jeremy is not alleged of a crime that has not equally exposed the corruption and exploitation of the very State prosecuting him. Lady justice is blind! Where is the justice when those whom she has anointed are just as guilty as those they are prosecuting? Those prosecuting our fellow Anons call Jeremy and those like him criminal, but when Wikileaks publishes their releases it is they who are the criminals and they and their affiliates who face prosecution. The means by which the crimes of our State were exposed are, perhaps, illegal but “When injustice becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.” With this being said, we beg to argue, what right does Loretta A. Preska have to preside over Jeremy’s bail hearing while documents leaked from the very hack Jeremy is accused of having committed show that her husband, Thomas J. Kaveler, was himself a client of Strafor;
http://www.anony.ws/i/2012/11/22/Pfrp.png &
http://www.anony.ws/i/2012/11/22/uN3YF.png.
Jeremy has been demonized to such an extent that those who know him can not even recognize the person prosecutors portray him as in court while the very person responsible for securing the sanctity of his trial is herself directly associated with the crimes Jeremy is accused of having committed. The truth is great and and wants to be known. The truth is, Jeremy has done no wrong and those determined to prosecute him are guilty. The State is guilty of protecting their own interest, especially in their pursuit to prosecute those they consider dangerous to their agenda. Jeremy Hammond is and will always be a hero and his contributions to the Anonymous collective are and will always be an example for which others will follow. An example for which we, the Anonymous Solidarity Network, will continue to commemorate.
http://telecomix.org/
[Isn't it the moment of most profound doubt that gives birth to new certainties Perhaps hopelessness is the very soil that nourishes human hope perhaps one could never find sense in life without first experiencing its absurdity...
Vaclav Havel »]
(Click to Listen)
[A human action becomes genuinely important when it springs from the soil of a clear-sighted awareness of the temporality and the ephemerality of everything human. It is only this awareness that can breathe any greatness into an action.
Vaclav Havel »]
Army ‘Investigating’ Bradley Manning Support Network
Admits to 'Active Investigation'
by Jason Ditz, July 02, 2012
The military has been trying to pull out all the stops in its prosecution of Pfc. Bradley Manning for his alleged role in the WikiLeaks releases. The Bradley Manning Support Network, operators of the website Bradleymanning.org and founded in 2010 with the goal of supporting the jailed whistleblower, has apparently found itself under military scrutiny as well.
According to a US Army response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, there is “an active investigation” ongoing against the network. The details of the investigation were kept secret by the Army, which, by way of declining the FOIA request, offered to provide documents after the “undetermined completion date.”
One can only imagine that the group’s efforts to aid in Manning’s defense, as well as their high profile criticism of the secrecy surrounding the trial, had the military hoping they could find some dirt on the group.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this is the revelation that the army is doing the investigating directly against the private civilian organization. Though the army clearly has a vested interested in the prosecution of Manning, moves against antiwar groups have usually been done by the FBI under the guise of anti-terror investigations.
*******
Tom Beardshaw's Joined us from Wales
/ Multimedia Producer - the Radicalization of Bradley Manning
These are the things I can talk about which will add value:
The play (writers, director, cast, set, the location of Bradley's school),
I can certainly mention Bradley's mum attended and the impact that had on the cast and crew, the multiplatform work I personally designed and produced
(livestream with live chat and live links to backstory material on the web,
the reach of that webcast - 10,000 viewers in 72 countries),
the elements of the story (it was an imagination of Bradley's life in Wales, intercut with his life in the US and when he was in the army,
the history of Welsh Radicalism, bullying and other themes).
The play was a political fantasy of Bradley's life, exploring the writer's imagination of what he experienced, thought and felt. And the feelings about Bradley in Wales, his Welshness...
OK. An additional point - most of the themes in the play about his time in Wales were set in school, often with a history teacher who was covering the history of radicalism here - the rebecca riots, the Merthyr Uprising. We have a long history of this... the first raising of the red flag in europe, the genesis of the NHS, etc etc...
12:18 PM
It was exploring how this might have affected him.. hence the title The Radicalition of Bradley Manning
Sure - but it's an archive - we did not archive the video as there was a focus on theatre as a live experience, but the archive page is here: http://nationaltheatrewales.org/bradleymanning There is quite a lot on the web - here are some links: A group for those interested in the play as it developed http://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/group/ntw18 ; Article by the writer about why he was writing it ; http://nationaltheatrewales.org/radicalisation-bradley-manning/tim-price-why-im-writing-play-about-bradley-manning ; A review:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/regional-shows/9214915/The-Radicalisation-of-Bradley-Manning-National-Theatre-Wales-Cardiff-High-School-and-touring-review.html
Article on the future of digital in theatre -
The Bradley show is pioneering (Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2013/feb/19/clore-essays-digital-arts-network
Related Material:
Indefinite Detention Under the NDAA: the Great Attack on Civil Liberties You May Not Have Heard About
by ARIEL SCHNELLER on Feb 27, 2012 • 7:00 am3 Comments
On December 31, 2011, President Barack Obama signed the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law. Many of you may not have heard of it because the holidays aren’t exactly conducive to keeping up with current events, but the NDAA represents one of the most dramatic attacks on civil liberties in this country in many years. While the NDAA contains many routine provisions related to defense spending, there are two particular provisions that should deeply trouble any American concerned with the encroachment upon civil liberties that has been the hallmark of post-9/11 America.
Section 1021 affirms that the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) authorizes detention of anybody whom the President determines was involved in the attacks of 9/11, as well as detention of anybody who substantially supports or is a member of al-Qaeda, the Taliban or associated forces. This detention is authorized so long as the hostilities authorized by the AUMF are ongoing. Of course, because the battle against al-Qaeda may never end, Section 1021 is essentially a de facto authorization of indefinite detention.
Section 1022 states that if an individual is detained under the authority of Section 1021, that person must be held by the military. This mandate does not apply to a citizen or lawful resident of the United States. Put these sections together and a scary picture emerges in which a person accused of being a member of a terrorist group, or even of substantially supporting one, can be detained by the military as long as the United States is at war with al-Qaeda.
This codification of indefinite detention is chilling because it represents how quickly and drastically our nation’s discourse about civil liberties has changed in just a few years. Fewer than four years ago we elected a president who explicitly and strongly campaigned on closing Guantanamo Bay, the internationally infamous facility in which terrorist suspects were being indefinitely detained. Now that same president is signing a bill codifying some of the practices against which he had so vigorously campaigned. So long as George W. Bush was indefinitely detaining terrorism suspects Democrats could criticize it as representing the worst of the Bush regime and civil libertarians could decry it as a panicked overreaction to 9/11. And while it is true that Obama had long claimed to have the authority to indefinitely detain terrorism suspects prior to the passage of the NDAA, his position could be seen as representing only the viewpoint of one president trying to arrogate power. But now indefinite detention is not a partisan issue, nor can it be described as a panicked reaction or an overreach by a greedy branch of government. Instead, ten years after 9/11, it has been written into our laws by a bipartisan legislature that is codifying the practices of two presidencies from two different parties. Imprisonment without trial, that hallmark of tyranny which seems so anathema to a nation that values freedom and a governmental system based on checks on government and due process, has been written into the laws of this country with shockingly little outcry from the American people.
Another worrisome aspect of the NDAA is that it may authorize the indefinite detention even of American citizens captured within the United States. The bill’s language is ambiguous: Section 1021 states that “[n]othing in this section shall be construed to affect existing law or authorities relating to the detention of United States citizens…” But Section 1022 says that the requirement that the detainees be held by the military does not apply to American citizens, a confusing clarification if American citizens are not eligible to be detained under 1021 in the first place. Keep in mind that detention is authorized by a mere presidential determination that somebody has substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces. The prospect that a president could use this wide grant of discretion to detain American citizens should disturb all of us. Even if we do not fear that we ourselves will ever be detained, we should fear for what happens to democratic discourse, dissent and political action when the government is given the power to imprison people without trial based on mere allegations and with minimal process.
Even though you or I may never suffer due to the indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA, we should not tolerate a system in which there is a very strong chance that people will be incarcerated for the rest of their lives without committing any crime or posing any threat to the United States. While that may seem like an outlandish fear, our experience in Guantanamo illustrates just how fallible the Executive Branch can be in determining who needs to be confined without trial.
The American Civil Liberties of Harvard Law encourages you all to make your voice heard and demand that Congress respect the principle that everybody deserves a day in court before being imprisoned for life. We are circulating a petition demanding that Congress repeal Sections 1021 and 1022 of the NDAA. To sign it, you can go to our online survey at http://hlsorgs.com/aclu/2012/02/22/sign-the-ndaa-petition-here/.
We also invite you to “The NDAA and Indefinite Detention in American Law,” a discussion with Professors Noah Feldman and Jack Goldsmith of the prime issues surrounding the NDAA. The discussion will be co-sponsored by ACLU-HLS, the Federalist Society, and the American Constitution Society and will take place on Wednesday, February 29 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. at Ames Courtroom.
Ariel Schneller, Law ’12, is a member of the executive board of American Civil Liberties Union, Harvard Law School Chapter.
*******
Inside the Grand Jury:
DOJ Counterespionage Section: Attorney Patrick Murphy *
DOJ Counterespionage Section: Attorney Deborah Curtis *
Eastern District of Virginia: AUSA Bob Wiechering
Eastern District of Virginia: AUSA Tracy McCormick
Eastern District of Virginia: AUSA Karen Dunn
Unspecified number of Grand Jurors
Court Steganographer
David House
Directly outside the Grand Jury:
Mike Condon, FBI Agent from Washington, D.C. field office
James Farmer, Chief of Anti-Terrorism and National Security Unit at the
U.S. Attorney’s Office in D. Mass
Peter Krupp, David House’s attorney
Record begins: 4:10pm
[David House is sworn in and informed of his rights]
Patrick Murphy: Would you please state your full name for the record?
David House: My name is David House.
PM: Did you meet Bradley Manning in January 2010?
DH: On the advice of counsel, I invoke my right to remain silent under
the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. I am concerned
that this grand jury is seeking information designed to infringe or
chill my associational privacy, and that of others, guaranteed by the
First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and that it is using
information obtained without a search warrant in violation of the Fourth
Amendment to the United States Constitution. I define the preceding
statement as “invoke”, and when I say “I invoke” in the future I am
referring to this statement.
Deborah Curtis: Exhibit 1-A?
PM: Mr. House, please direct your attention to the screen behind you,
exhibit 1-A.
DC: I can’t make it bigger.
PM: Try… here, remove that bar on the side.
DC: That didn’t work.
DH: Do you guys need help?
DC: We just need to make it bigger. Can everyone see this okay?
PM: Ok… we’re going to continue.
[A still image from the Frontline PBS special is displayed on the
screen. Four figures are standing in front of the BUILDS logo, one
figure has her back turned.]
PM: Mr. House, can you identify the man on the right?
DH: I invoke.
PM: Can you identify the man standing second from right?
DH: I invoke.
PM: Ok, can you identify the person with bright-colored hair, standing
here?
DH: I invoke.
PM: Are we to believe that identifying that individual would somehow
incriminate you?
DH: On the advice of counsel, I invoke my right to remain silent under
the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. I am concerned
that this grand jury is seeking information designed to infringe or
chill my associational privacy, and that of others, guaranteed by the
First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and that it is using
information obtained without a search warrant in violation of the Fourth
Amendment to the United States Constitution.
PM: Ok, can you identify the man on the left?
PM: I would like to observe for the record that Mr. House is taking
notes.
DH: As to the previous question, I invoke.
PM: Why are you taking notes?
DH: Invoke.
Bob Wiechering: I’d like to recommend, at this point, that we take a
break and talk to your counsel.
[AUSAs and House leave the grand jury]
[Peter Krupp, House’s attorney, asserts House’s right to invoke]
[AUSAs and House return to the grand jury]
PM: What is your birthdate?
DH: March 14, 1987
PM: Where do you live?
DH: Can you restate the question?
PM: What is your address?
DH: I invoke.
PM: What is your current occupation?
DH: I invoke.
PM: Were you a senior in computer science at Boston University in
January 2010?
DH: I invoke.
PM: Isn’t it true that you told PBS Frontline that you were a senior at
Boston University in January 2010?
DH: I invoke.
PM: Do you know what a hackerspace is?
DH: I invoke.
PM: Do you know what BUILDS is, the acronym?
DH: I invoke.
Bob Wiechering: Mr. House, I notice you are taking notes. Attempting to
create your own transcript is a violation of rule 6(e) of this grand
jury. We have brought this to the attention of your counsel, and
although he feels differently on the matter, we assert that you must
stop taking notes at this time.
DH: Let me consult with my attorney.
[House leaves the grand jury room and returns one minute later]
DH: My lawyer asks that you refer all questions about notes to him.
BW: Let’s continue.
PM: Mr. House, are you involved with the Bradley Manning Support
Network?
DH: I invoke.
PM: Did you respond in the affirmative when asked by the FBI if you had
heard of known WikiLeaks associate Jacob Appelbaum?
PM: I would like to state for the record that Mr. House is not answering
the question and is instead taking notes.
DH: I invoke.
PM: Do you intend to answer any of my questions, aside from your date of
birth and your name?
DH: I invoke.
PM: Is that because of the phalanx of attorneys present here today?
Court Stenographer: I’m sorry, the what of attorneys?
PM: Phalanx… the phalanx of attorneys.
DH: As to the phalanx of attorneys, I invoke.
PM: At this time, I will let Deborah Curtis ask a few questions.
DC: Mr. House, have you ever been to the Oxford Spa restaurant in
Cambridge, MA?
DH: Allow me to consult with my attorney.
[House leaves the grand jury and returns one minute later.]
DH: As to the previous question, I invoke.
DC: You admitted to federal agents in Boston that you had met Bradley
Manning in January 2010, is that correct?
DH: I invoke.
DC: Isn’t it true that you spent the night of January 27 2010 with
Daniel Clark and Bradley Manning?
DH: Can you repeat the question?
DC: Isn’t it true that you spent the night of January 27 2010 with
Daniel Clark and Bradley Manning?
DH: One more time.
DC: Isn’t it true that you spent the night of January 27 2010 with
Daniel Clark and Bradley Manning?
PM: He’s writing it down.
DC: Are you getting this, are you writing it all down?
DH: Was the last question a question to be answered?
DC: Yes.
DH: I invoke.
DC: And the question before?
DH: I also invoke.
DC: Where did Danny Clark have breakfast on the morning of January 28,
2010?
DH: Allow me to consult with my attorney.
[House leaves the grand jury and returns one minute later.]
DH: As to the previous question, I invoke.
DC: Do you intend to answer any questions about Daniel Clark?
DH: Invoke.
DC: Do you intend to answer any questions about Bradley Manning?
DH: [Writing] Could you please repeat the question?
DC: Do you intend to answer any questions about Jacob Appelbaum?
DH: I invoke.
DC: At this time, we’d like to stop the proceedings. You are free to
leave.
*******
Jeremy Hammond
alleged stratfor hacker
A judge at Tuesday’s bail hearing, Loretta A. Preska, portrayed Jeremy as a terrorist more dangerous than murders and sexual predators, denied his bail and, before Jeremy and a gathering of his friends and family, announced the sentence he would face if found guilty: 360 months to life. It is very difficult to find the words to express the pain we feel after the court’s decision Tuesday to deny bail for Jeremy Hammond. It is an inconsolable sadness that relates those that share it to one another and solidifies our commitment to Jeremy’s cause. Jeremy, only 27 years old, has spent most of his young life contributing to charitable efforts and acting on his principles to right what he perceives as wrong. Now, due to his contributions to the Anonymous collective, Jeremy could, if found guilty, spend 30+ years in prison.
Jeremy was vilified and his contributions bastardized. All of this was done with absolute impunity by those prosecuting him. The court, however, underestimated the weight of Jeremy’s contributions and the passion his actions and the actions of other Anons have inspired in so many people. Most importantly, the court underestimated the Anonymous collective and the networks supporting Anons facing prosecution. There is no comfort for us so long as Anons are prosecuted. If a life sentence is what the State deems an appropriate punishment for the so called crimes that Jeremy is alleged of having committed, then it is our lives that we are willing to commit to Jeremy’s cause and to the cause of all Anons facing prosecution. We will not weary. We will not be discouraged.
We will seek the truth and find justice in unjust laws and the unjust rulings of an unjust State. Hacktivists are not criminals! Jeremy is not alleged of a crime that has not equally exposed the corruption and exploitation of the very State prosecuting him. Lady justice is blind! Where is the justice when those whom she has anointed are just as guilty as those they are prosecuting? Those prosecuting our fellow Anons call Jeremy and those like him criminal, but when Wikileaks publishes their releases it is they who are the criminals and they and their affiliates who face prosecution. The means by which the crimes of our State were exposed are, perhaps, illegal but “When injustice becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.” With this being said, we beg to argue, what right does Loretta A. Preska have to preside over Jeremy’s bail hearing while documents leaked from the very hack Jeremy is accused of having committed show that her husband, Thomas J. Kaveler, was himself a client of Strafor;
http://www.anony.ws/i/2012/11/22/Pfrp.png &
http://www.anony.ws/i/2012/11/22/uN3YF.png.
Jeremy has been demonized to such an extent that those who know him can not even recognize the person prosecutors portray him as in court while the very person responsible for securing the sanctity of his trial is herself directly associated with the crimes Jeremy is accused of having committed. The truth is great and and wants to be known. The truth is, Jeremy has done no wrong and those determined to prosecute him are guilty. The State is guilty of protecting their own interest, especially in their pursuit to prosecute those they consider dangerous to their agenda. Jeremy Hammond is and will always be a hero and his contributions to the Anonymous collective are and will always be an example for which others will follow. An example for which we, the Anonymous Solidarity Network, will continue to commemorate.
http://telecomix.org/
[Isn't it the moment of most profound doubt that gives birth to new certainties Perhaps hopelessness is the very soil that nourishes human hope perhaps one could never find sense in life without first experiencing its absurdity...
Vaclav Havel »]
Friday, January 18, 2013
PNN 1/20/13 - Champions of the People
PNN 1/20/13 [Listen Here]
R W Spisak News Director 7pm - 7:10pm
Emine Dilek Journalist 7:10 - 7:22pm - Live
Meredith Ockman VP State NOW 7:23 - 7:38pm - Live
Karen McArthur Move to Amend 7:39 - 7:54pm - Live
Susan Smith Pres. Prog. Caucus 7:55 - 8:02pm
Rep. Raul Grijalva 7:53 - 8:25pm
Co Chair Congressional Progressive Caucus
Events
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Progressive Coalition Annual Mtg
Jan 27th - Lake Mary Marriott
2. SPACE COAST PROGRESSIVES
Gun Control and Public Safety Expert Panel Presentation
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Announcements at 6:30 PM program begins at 7 pm
Each expert panel member will speak briefly (5 min.) Opening statements to be
followed by discussion and an audience Q & A.
Free and Open To the public
Front Street Civic Center, 2205 S. Front Street, Melbourne, FL 32901
3. LegiCamp 2013
LegiCamp 2013 is the third annual gathering of progressives which is held for the purpose of organizing actions for the Florida Legislative Session. The "unconference" format of scheduling sessions is based on the interests of attendees. Presenters will pitch their ideas to the group, and sessions will be planned according to those interests. Each session will be dedicated to planning specific legislative actions.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
8:30 AM to 5:00 PM (EST)
Orlando, FL (Venue TBA)
LegiCamp is hosted by Florida Progressives, a coalition which in 2011 organized the collective actions known as Awake the State.
To Register go to legicamp.com
4. PBNOW - will be hosting the 40th Annual Susan B. Anthony Feminist
of the Year Award 2/10/2013
5. Jan. 22 is the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision recognizing a woman’s constitutional right to legal abortion.
NEWS
======================================
0. Calling out from the earth to us Indigenous people are 150 million of our men, women, children and babies who were murdered by the white race for our lands. They are urging us to bring back natural law and order for the sake of the future generations, who are waiting to be released to us by our great Mother Earth. [snip]
Idle No More is the worldwide freeing of indigenous people. Listen to the thunder of the masses. We are destroying the dungeons of oppression, heading for the higher hills of freedom. This Tsunami is the beginning of the greatest liberation in history.
Corporate murder, aggression and colonialism are over. All wars will stop. The earth will be fairly distributed. Our Mother is reminding us of our birthright, to shake off the colonial bondage, to strike the death blow to fascism.
Our greatest weapon is truth and courage. Anyone who continues to turn a blind to genocide is guilty of complicity, according to the UN Charter. Corporations and artificial people will become nothing but faded memories.
1. March 6th: Legislative Session 2013 Starts.
2. 28 Million per day spent in Afghanistan - more than was sent to rebuild Germany
3. Of course this all supports Governor Scott’s goal of reducing state employees.
In case you were not aware, Florida has for many years been dead last in the nation for the least amount of state employees per capita and for the lowest amount paid for the state employees.
4. An unmanned U.S. aerial vehicle -- or drone -- reportedly killed eight people in rural Pakistan last week, bringing the estimated death toll from drone strikes in Pakistan this year to 35. As the frequency of drone strikes spikes again, some questions must be asked: How many of those targeted were terrorists? Were any children harmed? And what is the standard of evidence to carry out these attacks?
The United States has to provide answers, and Congress has a critical role to play.
The heart of the problem is that our technological capability has far surpassed our policy. As things stand, the executive branch exercises unilateral authority over drone strikes against terrorists abroad. In some cases, President Obama approves each strike himself through "kill lists." While the president should be commended for creating explicit rules for the use of drones, unilateral kill lists are unseemly and fraught with hazards.
When asked about the drone program in October during an interview on the "The Daily Show," the president said, "One of the things we've got to do is put a legal architecture in place, and we need congressional help in order to do that, to make sure that not only am I reined in, but any president's reined in terms of some of the decisions that we're making
5. TAMPA, FL -Locals protesting to keep Florida water clean
Former Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah and a group of more than a dozen people from Naples will be in Tampa Thursday, to join a more than 200-person protest of changes they fear could weaken standards for keeping Florida's water clean.
This is a battle over who sets the standards meant to keep pollutants like sewage and fertilizers out of our waterways.
Our local protestors argue water quality is already low enough: red tide outbreaks, worsened by pollution, bring thousands of dead fish to our beaches, shut down commercial shellfishing (clamming) on Pine Island, and forced the cancellation of a kid's fishing tournament on Sanibel Island last year.
Red tide occurs naturally, it is not caused by pollution, but some scientists and environmentalists say fertilizers and other pollutants make the harmful algae worse.
Protestors plan to argue the state (Florida DEP) is not willing to do the job right-- their standards are lower than the US EPA. Therefore, more than five environmental groups are gathering today to say to the EPA--please don't hand over more control of water quality standards to our state.
6. Toshiba creating nuclear reactor for mining Canada Tar Sands
Toshiba Corp. has reportedly designed a nuclear reactor and intends to market it to natural resource developers for mining Tar Sands in Canada and other places.
Nikkei reported this week that the company had completed design of a small 10,000kw reactor and had asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for approval to begin construction in the United States, but the process had been delayed in connection with a meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011. The company also planned to seek approval from Canadian authorities.
Sources told The Daily Yomiruri that one natural resource developer had hopes of using the reactor in Alberta by 2020.
“To ensure the reactor’s safety, Toshiba reportedly plans to construct a nuclear reactor building underground, while the building itself will be equipped with an earthquake-absorbing structure,” according to the paper.
The reactor would be used to inject steam about 300 meters underground into the oil sands. A separate pipe would then extract the sand as slurry.
Toshiba’s planned reactor would not need to be refueled for up to 30 years. Additional uses could included turning saltwater into freshwater and powering small communities in frontier areas like northern Alaska.
Ploughshares Fund Program Director Paul Carroll told Raw Story that environmental disasters were still a concern with small nuclear reactors – even one that was 1 percent the size of a 1 million kilowatt power plant — but “the individual accident scenarios are probably orders of magnitude less.”
“I don’t want to say you could have Fukushima in Canada, but I think Fukushima is a really fascinating example because it’s not so much that things failed there, but nature bats last,” he explained. “Here you had an earthquake and then a tsunami, and while some of those safety features worked initially, it basically was overwhelming.”
7. FREE Whistle-Blower
President Obama has opposed waterboarding as torture since the 2008 campaign – so why is he sending the man who helped shed light on that practice to prison?
Former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who helped expose the Bush administration’s torture program, recently plead guilty to sharing the name of a colleague to journalists to use as a source. He is expected to receive a sentence of 30 months in prison.
It’s a cruel irony that the first agent connected to the CIA torture program to go to prison is the whistleblower who spoke out against the heinous practices of our government. From Bradley Manning to Aaron Swartz to John Kiriakou, the government’s pattern of overzealously prosecuting activists and whistleblowers has ruined too many lives already. If President Obama wants to show he opposes torture and supports government transparency he should pardon Kiriakou immediately.
Tell President Obama to pardon CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou: http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/pardon-kiriakou
In fact, the Justice Department has refused to pursue any of the people who sanctioned and carried out the torture Kiriakou helped expose. Yet they have gone after whistleblowers and activists with a zeal unmatched by any administration in history. Bradley Manning faces life in prison. Aaron Swartz took his life in the face of unrelenting prosecution. Thomas Drake, Shamai Leibowitz, the list goes on and on.
Kiriakou is the sixth person to be indicted under the Espionage Act by the Obama administration. It’s time the president end this war on whistleblowers. He can start by pardoning John Kiriakou.
Kiriakou served his country in the CIA for over 15 years, risking his life as an undercover agent chasing Al-Qaeda overseas — he does not deserve this treatment. Kiriakou says he engaged in rendition that resulted in the torture of detainees. He did not personally carry out torture. His leak was not even made public and presented no harm to the country.
Compare this to the reckless and very public outing of Valerie Plame — a case that resulted in four felony convictions for Scooter Libby, but not a single day in jail. It is unconscionable that Libby could avoid punishment, while Kiriakou must face years in prison for exposing the illegal and inhumane actions of the government — actions the Obama administration claims to oppose.
President Obama should not punish, but pardon John Kiriakou for his exceptional patriotism in speaking out against torture.
Sign our petition demanding President Obama pardon CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou.
8. Senator Simpson and the COW with 300 Million Teats
Recently the 2010 comment by Sen Alan Simpson (R-Wyoming) comparing Social Security to a very well endowed cow has been in the news again (e.g., in HuffPo; sorry I don’t seem to be able to manage a link to it). In response I can do no better than reproduce a multi-forwarded email I received today. (Full disclosure: I’ve been on SS for a while, so the retirement age is no longer an issue for me.) I have only deleted the name of the original sender since I don’t know if the first forwarder obtained the person’s permission to use it. Also, I’ m not clear where the embedding of the original letter ends and the statement of the first forwarder resumes.
In any case, here it is:
Alan Simpson, the Senator from Wyoming calls senior citizens the Greediest Generation as he compared “Social Security ” to a Milk Cow with 310 million teats.
Here’s a response in a letter from XXXXX XXXXX in Montana … I think she is a little ticked off! She also tells it like it is!
“Hey Alan, let’s get a few things straight!!!!!
1. As a career politician, you have been on the public dole (tit) for FIFTY YEARS.
2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 years old. I am now 63).
3. My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of zero losers in return for votes, thus bankrupting the system and turning Social Security into a Ponzi scheme that would make Bernie Madoff proud.
4. Recently, just like Lucy & Charlie Brown, you and “your ilk” pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to age, 67. NOW, you and your “shill commission” are proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN.
5. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying into Medicare from Day One, and now “you morons” propose to change the rules of the game. Why? Because “you idiots” mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal our money from Medicare to pay the bills.
6. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again. Why? Because you “incompetent bastards” spent our money so profligately that you just kept on spending even after you ran out of money. Now, you come to the American taxpayers and say you need more to pay off YOUR debt.
To add insult to injury, you label us “greedy” for calling “bullshit” to your incompetence. Well, Captain Bullshit, I have a few questions for YOU:
1. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political career?
2. At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and how much are you receiving in annual retirement benefits from the American taxpayers?
3. How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance?
4. What cuts in YOUR retirement and healthcare benefits are you proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or as usual, have you exempted yourself and your political cronies?
It is you, Captain Bullshit, and your political co-conspirators called Congress who are the “greedy” ones. It is you and your fellow nutcase thieves who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers.
And for what? Votes and your job and retirement security at our expense, you lunk-headed, leech.
That’s right, sir. You and yours have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of advancing your pathetic, political careers. You know it, we know it, and you know that we know it.
And you can take that to the bank, you miserable son of a bitch. NO, I did not stutter.
EVERYONE!!!
If you like the way things are in America delete this.
If you agree with what a Montana citizen, xxxxx xxxxx, says, please PASS IT ON!!!!
P.S. And stop calling Social Security benefits “entitlements”. WHAT AN INSULT!!!!
I have been paying in to the SS system for 52 years. “It’s my money”- give it back to me the way the system was designed and stop patting yourself on the back like you are being generous by doling out these monthly checks.
9. EPA changed course after gas company protested
WEATHERFORD, Texas (AP) — When a man in a Fort Worth suburb reported his family's drinking water had begun bubbling like champagne, the federal government sounded an alarm: A company may have tainted their wells while drilling for natural gas.
At first, the Environmental Protection Agency believed the situation was so serious that it issued a rare emergency order in late 2010 that said at least two homeowners were in immediate danger from a well saturated with flammable methane. More than a year later, the agency rescinded its mandate and refused to explain why.
Now a confidential report obtained by The Associated Press and interviews with company representatives show that the EPA had scientific evidence against the driller, Range Resources, but changed course after the company threatened not to cooperate with a national study into a common form of drilling called hydraulic fracturing. Regulators set aside an analysis that concluded the drilling could have been to blame for the contamination.
For Steve Lipsky, the EPA decision seemed to ignore the dangers to his family. His water supply contains so much methane that the gas in water flowing from a pipe connected to the well can be ignited.
"I just can't believe that an agency that knows the truth about something like that, or has evidence like this, wouldn't use it," said Lipsky, who fears he will have to abandon his dream home in an upscale neighborhood of Weatherford.
The case isn't the first in which the EPA initially linked a hydraulic fracturing operation to water contamination and then softened its position after the industry protested.
A similar dispute unfolded in west-central Wyoming in late 2011, when the EPA released an initial report that showed hydraulic fracturing could have contaminated groundwater. After industry and GOP leaders went on the attack, the agency said it had decided to do more testing. It has yet to announce a final conclusion.
Hydraulic fracturing — often called "fracking" — allows drillers to tap into oil and gas reserves that were once considered out of reach because they were locked in deep layers of rock.
The method has contributed to a surge in natural gas drilling nationwide, but environmental activists and some scientists believe it can contaminate groundwater. The industry insists the practice is safe.
Range Resources, a leading independent player in the natural gas boom, has hundreds of gas wells throughout Texas, Pennsylvania and other mineral-rich areas of the United States. Among them is a production site — now owned by Legend Natural Gas — in a wooded area about a mile from Lipsky's home in Weatherford, about a half-hour drive west of Fort Worth.
State agencies usually regulate water and air pollution, so the EPA's involvement in the Texas matter was unusual from the start. The EPA began investigating complaints about the methane in December 2010, because it said the Texas Railroad Commission, which oversees oil and gas drilling, had not responded quickly enough to the reports of bubbling water.
Government scientists believed two families, including the Lipskys, were in danger from methane and cancer-causing benzene and ordered Range Resources to take steps to clean their water wells and provide affected homeowners with safe water. The company stopped doing that after state regulators declared in March 2011 that Range Resources was not responsible. The dispute between the EPA and the company then moved into federal court.
Believing the case was headed for a lengthy legal battle, the EPA asked an independent scientist named Geoffrey Thyne to analyze water samples taken from 32 water wells. In the report obtained by the AP, Thyne concluded from chemical testing that the gas in the drinking water could have originated from Range Resources' nearby drilling operation.
Meanwhile, the EPA was seeking industry leaders to participate in a national study into hydraulic fracturing. Range Resources told EPA officials in Washington that so long as the agency continued to pursue a "scientifically baseless" action against the company in Weatherford, it would not take part in the study and would not allow government scientists onto its drilling sites, said company attorney David Poole.
In March 2012, the EPA retracted its emergency order, halted the court battle and set aside Thyne's report showing that the gas in Lipsky's water was nearly identical to the gases the Plano, Texas-based company was producing.
"They said that they would look into it, which I believe is exactly what they did," Poole said. "I'm proud of them. As an American, I think that's exactly what they should have done."
The EPA offered no public explanation for its change in thinking, and Lipsky said he and his family learned about it from a reporter. The agency refused to answer questions about the decision, instead issuing a statement by email that said resolving the Range Resources matter allowed the EPA to shift its "focus in this case away from litigation and toward a joint effort on the science and safety of energy extraction."
After the agency dropped its action, the company offered scientists access to a site in southwestern Pennsylvania. But the EPA has not yet accepted the offer.
Rob Jackson, chairman of global environmental change at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment, reviewed Thyne's report and the raw data upon which it was based. He agreed the gas in Lipsky's well could have originated in a rock formation known as the Barnett shale, the same area where Range Resources was extracting gas.
Jackson said it was "premature" to withdraw the order and said the EPA "dropped the ball in dropping their investigation." Two of the wells included in Thyne's report had water containing more than the 10 milligrams per liter of methane, or enough to be deemed hazardous by the EPA. One had 35 milligrams per liter, which Jackson called "particularly high" and an amount that federal regulators say is more than what requires immediate action.
"Two of the homes had methane within the action level for hazard mitigation, one of them well above this hazard threshold," Jackson said.
Lipsky, who is still tied up in a legal battle with Range Resources, now pays about $1,000 a month to haul water to his home. He, his wife and three children become unnerved when their methane detectors go off. Sometime soon, he said, the family will have to decide whether to stay in the large stone house or move.
"This has been total hell," Lipsky said. "It's been taking a huge toll on my family and on our life."
The confidential report relied on a type of testing known as isotopic analysis, which produces a unique chemical fingerprint that sometimes allows researchers to trace the origin of gas or oil.
Jackson, who studies hydraulic fracturing and specializes in isotopic analysis, acknowledged that more data is needed to determine for certain where the gas came from. But even if the gas came from elsewhere, Range Resources' drilling could have contributed to the problem in Lipsky's water because gas migrates, he added.
The company insists the gas in Lipsky's water is from natural migration and not drilling. Range Resources' testing indicates the gas came from a different rock formation called Strawn shale and not the deeper Barnett shale, Poole said.
In addition, he said, isotopic analysis cannot be used in this case because the chemical makeup of the gases in the two formations is indistinguishable. A Range Resources spokesman also dismissed Thyne and Jackson as anti-industry.
Range Resources has not shared its data with the EPA or the Railroad Commission. Poole said the data is proprietary and could only be seen by Houston-based Weatherford Laboratories, where it originated. It was analyzed for Range Resources by a Weatherford scientist, Mark McCaffrey, who did not respond to requests for an interview.
Gas has always been in the water in that area, Poole said. And years before Range Resources began drilling, at least one water well in the neighborhood contained so much methane, it went up in flames.
10. Internet Freedom Day: Celebrating the Birth of a Movement and Looking Ahead
On January 18th, 2012, CDT joined thousands of innovators, technologists, advocates, and individuals from across the political spectrum in an online blackout and protest demonstrating broad opposition to the two bills, which had the potential to wreak havoc on the Internet. The bills failed in the face of that unprecedented online revolt, which marked a watershed moment for the politics of Internet policy.
In the year since, this loose-knit and diverse Internet freedom coalition has successfully:
• Joined together to promote key principles for a free and open Internet in The Declaration of Internet Freedom;
• Advocated for major improvements to cybersecurity legislation;
• Stopped a privacy-invasive data retention mandate proposal dead in its tracks;
• Urged national governments to reject proposals at the World Conference of International Telecommunications (WCIT) that would threaten the exercise of human rights online; and
• Helped achieve unprecedented bipartisan support to secure the same privacy protections for Internet communications as postal mail and phone calls by updating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA).
The year ahead promises more fights for individuals' rights and the freedom to innovate on the Internet. Chief among these will be the effort to finish what was started in 2012 by passing ECPA privacy reform out of both Chambers of Congress.
But a pall is cast over this day by last week’s suicide of Aaron Swartz, a co-author of the RSS 1.0 specification, an early builder of Reddit, a founder of Demand Progress, and a stalwart advocate of an open Internet who played a key role in the victory that we celebrate today.
At the time of his death, Aaron was facing the possibility of years in federal prison for alleged violations of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a dangerously vague and overbroad law that CDT has long urged Congress to reform. In the wake of Aaron’s tragic death, Representative Zoe Lofgren has posted to Reddit a draft bill to begin that process of reform. In the spirit of the open Internet that Aaron championed, CDT has been collaborating and will continue to collaborate with allies like EFF, ACLU and Stanford’s Center for Internet & Society in an open process on Reddit to provide suggestions on how that draft can be improved and expanded before it’s introduced. Fixing the CFAA is long overdue, and we hope that this tragedy will at the very least spur Congress to finally enact these much needed reforms.
R W Spisak News Director 7pm - 7:10pm
Emine Dilek Journalist 7:10 - 7:22pm - Live
Meredith Ockman VP State NOW 7:23 - 7:38pm - Live
Karen McArthur Move to Amend 7:39 - 7:54pm - Live
Susan Smith Pres. Prog. Caucus 7:55 - 8:02pm
Rep. Raul Grijalva 7:53 - 8:25pm
Co Chair Congressional Progressive Caucus
Events
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Progressive Coalition Annual Mtg
Jan 27th - Lake Mary Marriott
2. SPACE COAST PROGRESSIVES
Gun Control and Public Safety Expert Panel Presentation
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Announcements at 6:30 PM program begins at 7 pm
Each expert panel member will speak briefly (5 min.) Opening statements to be
followed by discussion and an audience Q & A.
Free and Open To the public
Front Street Civic Center, 2205 S. Front Street, Melbourne, FL 32901
3. LegiCamp 2013
LegiCamp 2013 is the third annual gathering of progressives which is held for the purpose of organizing actions for the Florida Legislative Session. The "unconference" format of scheduling sessions is based on the interests of attendees. Presenters will pitch their ideas to the group, and sessions will be planned according to those interests. Each session will be dedicated to planning specific legislative actions.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
8:30 AM to 5:00 PM (EST)
Orlando, FL (Venue TBA)
LegiCamp is hosted by Florida Progressives, a coalition which in 2011 organized the collective actions known as Awake the State.
To Register go to legicamp.com
4. PBNOW - will be hosting the 40th Annual Susan B. Anthony Feminist
of the Year Award 2/10/2013
5. Jan. 22 is the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision recognizing a woman’s constitutional right to legal abortion.
NEWS
======================================
0. Calling out from the earth to us Indigenous people are 150 million of our men, women, children and babies who were murdered by the white race for our lands. They are urging us to bring back natural law and order for the sake of the future generations, who are waiting to be released to us by our great Mother Earth. [snip]
Idle No More is the worldwide freeing of indigenous people. Listen to the thunder of the masses. We are destroying the dungeons of oppression, heading for the higher hills of freedom. This Tsunami is the beginning of the greatest liberation in history.
Corporate murder, aggression and colonialism are over. All wars will stop. The earth will be fairly distributed. Our Mother is reminding us of our birthright, to shake off the colonial bondage, to strike the death blow to fascism.
Our greatest weapon is truth and courage. Anyone who continues to turn a blind to genocide is guilty of complicity, according to the UN Charter. Corporations and artificial people will become nothing but faded memories.
1. March 6th: Legislative Session 2013 Starts.
2. 28 Million per day spent in Afghanistan - more than was sent to rebuild Germany
3. Of course this all supports Governor Scott’s goal of reducing state employees.
In case you were not aware, Florida has for many years been dead last in the nation for the least amount of state employees per capita and for the lowest amount paid for the state employees.
4. An unmanned U.S. aerial vehicle -- or drone -- reportedly killed eight people in rural Pakistan last week, bringing the estimated death toll from drone strikes in Pakistan this year to 35. As the frequency of drone strikes spikes again, some questions must be asked: How many of those targeted were terrorists? Were any children harmed? And what is the standard of evidence to carry out these attacks?
The United States has to provide answers, and Congress has a critical role to play.
The heart of the problem is that our technological capability has far surpassed our policy. As things stand, the executive branch exercises unilateral authority over drone strikes against terrorists abroad. In some cases, President Obama approves each strike himself through "kill lists." While the president should be commended for creating explicit rules for the use of drones, unilateral kill lists are unseemly and fraught with hazards.
When asked about the drone program in October during an interview on the "The Daily Show," the president said, "One of the things we've got to do is put a legal architecture in place, and we need congressional help in order to do that, to make sure that not only am I reined in, but any president's reined in terms of some of the decisions that we're making
5. TAMPA, FL -Locals protesting to keep Florida water clean
Former Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah and a group of more than a dozen people from Naples will be in Tampa Thursday, to join a more than 200-person protest of changes they fear could weaken standards for keeping Florida's water clean.
This is a battle over who sets the standards meant to keep pollutants like sewage and fertilizers out of our waterways.
Our local protestors argue water quality is already low enough: red tide outbreaks, worsened by pollution, bring thousands of dead fish to our beaches, shut down commercial shellfishing (clamming) on Pine Island, and forced the cancellation of a kid's fishing tournament on Sanibel Island last year.
Red tide occurs naturally, it is not caused by pollution, but some scientists and environmentalists say fertilizers and other pollutants make the harmful algae worse.
Protestors plan to argue the state (Florida DEP) is not willing to do the job right-- their standards are lower than the US EPA. Therefore, more than five environmental groups are gathering today to say to the EPA--please don't hand over more control of water quality standards to our state.
6. Toshiba creating nuclear reactor for mining Canada Tar Sands
Toshiba Corp. has reportedly designed a nuclear reactor and intends to market it to natural resource developers for mining Tar Sands in Canada and other places.
Nikkei reported this week that the company had completed design of a small 10,000kw reactor and had asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for approval to begin construction in the United States, but the process had been delayed in connection with a meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011. The company also planned to seek approval from Canadian authorities.
Sources told The Daily Yomiruri that one natural resource developer had hopes of using the reactor in Alberta by 2020.
“To ensure the reactor’s safety, Toshiba reportedly plans to construct a nuclear reactor building underground, while the building itself will be equipped with an earthquake-absorbing structure,” according to the paper.
The reactor would be used to inject steam about 300 meters underground into the oil sands. A separate pipe would then extract the sand as slurry.
Toshiba’s planned reactor would not need to be refueled for up to 30 years. Additional uses could included turning saltwater into freshwater and powering small communities in frontier areas like northern Alaska.
Ploughshares Fund Program Director Paul Carroll told Raw Story that environmental disasters were still a concern with small nuclear reactors – even one that was 1 percent the size of a 1 million kilowatt power plant — but “the individual accident scenarios are probably orders of magnitude less.”
“I don’t want to say you could have Fukushima in Canada, but I think Fukushima is a really fascinating example because it’s not so much that things failed there, but nature bats last,” he explained. “Here you had an earthquake and then a tsunami, and while some of those safety features worked initially, it basically was overwhelming.”
7. FREE Whistle-Blower
President Obama has opposed waterboarding as torture since the 2008 campaign – so why is he sending the man who helped shed light on that practice to prison?
Former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who helped expose the Bush administration’s torture program, recently plead guilty to sharing the name of a colleague to journalists to use as a source. He is expected to receive a sentence of 30 months in prison.
It’s a cruel irony that the first agent connected to the CIA torture program to go to prison is the whistleblower who spoke out against the heinous practices of our government. From Bradley Manning to Aaron Swartz to John Kiriakou, the government’s pattern of overzealously prosecuting activists and whistleblowers has ruined too many lives already. If President Obama wants to show he opposes torture and supports government transparency he should pardon Kiriakou immediately.
Tell President Obama to pardon CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou: http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/pardon-kiriakou
In fact, the Justice Department has refused to pursue any of the people who sanctioned and carried out the torture Kiriakou helped expose. Yet they have gone after whistleblowers and activists with a zeal unmatched by any administration in history. Bradley Manning faces life in prison. Aaron Swartz took his life in the face of unrelenting prosecution. Thomas Drake, Shamai Leibowitz, the list goes on and on.
Kiriakou is the sixth person to be indicted under the Espionage Act by the Obama administration. It’s time the president end this war on whistleblowers. He can start by pardoning John Kiriakou.
Kiriakou served his country in the CIA for over 15 years, risking his life as an undercover agent chasing Al-Qaeda overseas — he does not deserve this treatment. Kiriakou says he engaged in rendition that resulted in the torture of detainees. He did not personally carry out torture. His leak was not even made public and presented no harm to the country.
Compare this to the reckless and very public outing of Valerie Plame — a case that resulted in four felony convictions for Scooter Libby, but not a single day in jail. It is unconscionable that Libby could avoid punishment, while Kiriakou must face years in prison for exposing the illegal and inhumane actions of the government — actions the Obama administration claims to oppose.
President Obama should not punish, but pardon John Kiriakou for his exceptional patriotism in speaking out against torture.
Sign our petition demanding President Obama pardon CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou.
8. Senator Simpson and the COW with 300 Million Teats
Recently the 2010 comment by Sen Alan Simpson (R-Wyoming) comparing Social Security to a very well endowed cow has been in the news again (e.g., in HuffPo; sorry I don’t seem to be able to manage a link to it). In response I can do no better than reproduce a multi-forwarded email I received today. (Full disclosure: I’ve been on SS for a while, so the retirement age is no longer an issue for me.) I have only deleted the name of the original sender since I don’t know if the first forwarder obtained the person’s permission to use it. Also, I’ m not clear where the embedding of the original letter ends and the statement of the first forwarder resumes.
In any case, here it is:
Alan Simpson, the Senator from Wyoming calls senior citizens the Greediest Generation as he compared “Social Security ” to a Milk Cow with 310 million teats.
Here’s a response in a letter from XXXXX XXXXX in Montana … I think she is a little ticked off! She also tells it like it is!
“Hey Alan, let’s get a few things straight!!!!!
1. As a career politician, you have been on the public dole (tit) for FIFTY YEARS.
2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 years old. I am now 63).
3. My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of zero losers in return for votes, thus bankrupting the system and turning Social Security into a Ponzi scheme that would make Bernie Madoff proud.
4. Recently, just like Lucy & Charlie Brown, you and “your ilk” pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to age, 67. NOW, you and your “shill commission” are proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN.
5. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying into Medicare from Day One, and now “you morons” propose to change the rules of the game. Why? Because “you idiots” mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal our money from Medicare to pay the bills.
6. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again. Why? Because you “incompetent bastards” spent our money so profligately that you just kept on spending even after you ran out of money. Now, you come to the American taxpayers and say you need more to pay off YOUR debt.
To add insult to injury, you label us “greedy” for calling “bullshit” to your incompetence. Well, Captain Bullshit, I have a few questions for YOU:
1. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political career?
2. At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and how much are you receiving in annual retirement benefits from the American taxpayers?
3. How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance?
4. What cuts in YOUR retirement and healthcare benefits are you proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or as usual, have you exempted yourself and your political cronies?
It is you, Captain Bullshit, and your political co-conspirators called Congress who are the “greedy” ones. It is you and your fellow nutcase thieves who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers.
And for what? Votes and your job and retirement security at our expense, you lunk-headed, leech.
That’s right, sir. You and yours have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of advancing your pathetic, political careers. You know it, we know it, and you know that we know it.
And you can take that to the bank, you miserable son of a bitch. NO, I did not stutter.
EVERYONE!!!
If you like the way things are in America delete this.
If you agree with what a Montana citizen, xxxxx xxxxx, says, please PASS IT ON!!!!
P.S. And stop calling Social Security benefits “entitlements”. WHAT AN INSULT!!!!
I have been paying in to the SS system for 52 years. “It’s my money”- give it back to me the way the system was designed and stop patting yourself on the back like you are being generous by doling out these monthly checks.
9. EPA changed course after gas company protested
WEATHERFORD, Texas (AP) — When a man in a Fort Worth suburb reported his family's drinking water had begun bubbling like champagne, the federal government sounded an alarm: A company may have tainted their wells while drilling for natural gas.
At first, the Environmental Protection Agency believed the situation was so serious that it issued a rare emergency order in late 2010 that said at least two homeowners were in immediate danger from a well saturated with flammable methane. More than a year later, the agency rescinded its mandate and refused to explain why.
Now a confidential report obtained by The Associated Press and interviews with company representatives show that the EPA had scientific evidence against the driller, Range Resources, but changed course after the company threatened not to cooperate with a national study into a common form of drilling called hydraulic fracturing. Regulators set aside an analysis that concluded the drilling could have been to blame for the contamination.
For Steve Lipsky, the EPA decision seemed to ignore the dangers to his family. His water supply contains so much methane that the gas in water flowing from a pipe connected to the well can be ignited.
"I just can't believe that an agency that knows the truth about something like that, or has evidence like this, wouldn't use it," said Lipsky, who fears he will have to abandon his dream home in an upscale neighborhood of Weatherford.
The case isn't the first in which the EPA initially linked a hydraulic fracturing operation to water contamination and then softened its position after the industry protested.
A similar dispute unfolded in west-central Wyoming in late 2011, when the EPA released an initial report that showed hydraulic fracturing could have contaminated groundwater. After industry and GOP leaders went on the attack, the agency said it had decided to do more testing. It has yet to announce a final conclusion.
Hydraulic fracturing — often called "fracking" — allows drillers to tap into oil and gas reserves that were once considered out of reach because they were locked in deep layers of rock.
The method has contributed to a surge in natural gas drilling nationwide, but environmental activists and some scientists believe it can contaminate groundwater. The industry insists the practice is safe.
Range Resources, a leading independent player in the natural gas boom, has hundreds of gas wells throughout Texas, Pennsylvania and other mineral-rich areas of the United States. Among them is a production site — now owned by Legend Natural Gas — in a wooded area about a mile from Lipsky's home in Weatherford, about a half-hour drive west of Fort Worth.
State agencies usually regulate water and air pollution, so the EPA's involvement in the Texas matter was unusual from the start. The EPA began investigating complaints about the methane in December 2010, because it said the Texas Railroad Commission, which oversees oil and gas drilling, had not responded quickly enough to the reports of bubbling water.
Government scientists believed two families, including the Lipskys, were in danger from methane and cancer-causing benzene and ordered Range Resources to take steps to clean their water wells and provide affected homeowners with safe water. The company stopped doing that after state regulators declared in March 2011 that Range Resources was not responsible. The dispute between the EPA and the company then moved into federal court.
Believing the case was headed for a lengthy legal battle, the EPA asked an independent scientist named Geoffrey Thyne to analyze water samples taken from 32 water wells. In the report obtained by the AP, Thyne concluded from chemical testing that the gas in the drinking water could have originated from Range Resources' nearby drilling operation.
Meanwhile, the EPA was seeking industry leaders to participate in a national study into hydraulic fracturing. Range Resources told EPA officials in Washington that so long as the agency continued to pursue a "scientifically baseless" action against the company in Weatherford, it would not take part in the study and would not allow government scientists onto its drilling sites, said company attorney David Poole.
In March 2012, the EPA retracted its emergency order, halted the court battle and set aside Thyne's report showing that the gas in Lipsky's water was nearly identical to the gases the Plano, Texas-based company was producing.
"They said that they would look into it, which I believe is exactly what they did," Poole said. "I'm proud of them. As an American, I think that's exactly what they should have done."
The EPA offered no public explanation for its change in thinking, and Lipsky said he and his family learned about it from a reporter. The agency refused to answer questions about the decision, instead issuing a statement by email that said resolving the Range Resources matter allowed the EPA to shift its "focus in this case away from litigation and toward a joint effort on the science and safety of energy extraction."
After the agency dropped its action, the company offered scientists access to a site in southwestern Pennsylvania. But the EPA has not yet accepted the offer.
Rob Jackson, chairman of global environmental change at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment, reviewed Thyne's report and the raw data upon which it was based. He agreed the gas in Lipsky's well could have originated in a rock formation known as the Barnett shale, the same area where Range Resources was extracting gas.
Jackson said it was "premature" to withdraw the order and said the EPA "dropped the ball in dropping their investigation." Two of the wells included in Thyne's report had water containing more than the 10 milligrams per liter of methane, or enough to be deemed hazardous by the EPA. One had 35 milligrams per liter, which Jackson called "particularly high" and an amount that federal regulators say is more than what requires immediate action.
"Two of the homes had methane within the action level for hazard mitigation, one of them well above this hazard threshold," Jackson said.
Lipsky, who is still tied up in a legal battle with Range Resources, now pays about $1,000 a month to haul water to his home. He, his wife and three children become unnerved when their methane detectors go off. Sometime soon, he said, the family will have to decide whether to stay in the large stone house or move.
"This has been total hell," Lipsky said. "It's been taking a huge toll on my family and on our life."
The confidential report relied on a type of testing known as isotopic analysis, which produces a unique chemical fingerprint that sometimes allows researchers to trace the origin of gas or oil.
Jackson, who studies hydraulic fracturing and specializes in isotopic analysis, acknowledged that more data is needed to determine for certain where the gas came from. But even if the gas came from elsewhere, Range Resources' drilling could have contributed to the problem in Lipsky's water because gas migrates, he added.
The company insists the gas in Lipsky's water is from natural migration and not drilling. Range Resources' testing indicates the gas came from a different rock formation called Strawn shale and not the deeper Barnett shale, Poole said.
In addition, he said, isotopic analysis cannot be used in this case because the chemical makeup of the gases in the two formations is indistinguishable. A Range Resources spokesman also dismissed Thyne and Jackson as anti-industry.
Range Resources has not shared its data with the EPA or the Railroad Commission. Poole said the data is proprietary and could only be seen by Houston-based Weatherford Laboratories, where it originated. It was analyzed for Range Resources by a Weatherford scientist, Mark McCaffrey, who did not respond to requests for an interview.
Gas has always been in the water in that area, Poole said. And years before Range Resources began drilling, at least one water well in the neighborhood contained so much methane, it went up in flames.
10. Internet Freedom Day: Celebrating the Birth of a Movement and Looking Ahead
On January 18th, 2012, CDT joined thousands of innovators, technologists, advocates, and individuals from across the political spectrum in an online blackout and protest demonstrating broad opposition to the two bills, which had the potential to wreak havoc on the Internet. The bills failed in the face of that unprecedented online revolt, which marked a watershed moment for the politics of Internet policy.
In the year since, this loose-knit and diverse Internet freedom coalition has successfully:
• Joined together to promote key principles for a free and open Internet in The Declaration of Internet Freedom;
• Advocated for major improvements to cybersecurity legislation;
• Stopped a privacy-invasive data retention mandate proposal dead in its tracks;
• Urged national governments to reject proposals at the World Conference of International Telecommunications (WCIT) that would threaten the exercise of human rights online; and
• Helped achieve unprecedented bipartisan support to secure the same privacy protections for Internet communications as postal mail and phone calls by updating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA).
The year ahead promises more fights for individuals' rights and the freedom to innovate on the Internet. Chief among these will be the effort to finish what was started in 2012 by passing ECPA privacy reform out of both Chambers of Congress.
But a pall is cast over this day by last week’s suicide of Aaron Swartz, a co-author of the RSS 1.0 specification, an early builder of Reddit, a founder of Demand Progress, and a stalwart advocate of an open Internet who played a key role in the victory that we celebrate today.
At the time of his death, Aaron was facing the possibility of years in federal prison for alleged violations of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a dangerously vague and overbroad law that CDT has long urged Congress to reform. In the wake of Aaron’s tragic death, Representative Zoe Lofgren has posted to Reddit a draft bill to begin that process of reform. In the spirit of the open Internet that Aaron championed, CDT has been collaborating and will continue to collaborate with allies like EFF, ACLU and Stanford’s Center for Internet & Society in an open process on Reddit to provide suggestions on how that draft can be improved and expanded before it’s introduced. Fixing the CFAA is long overdue, and we hope that this tragedy will at the very least spur Congress to finally enact these much needed reforms.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
PNN - Democracy with a Human Face
RWS 7pm - 7:10pm
Sue Howai 7:10 - 7:32 pm
Mark Pafford 7:35 - 8:00
Jeff Clemmons 8:02 - 8:25pm
Sky Nelson 8:25 - 9pm - live
Events
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Let's have a large show of support for
a Move To Amend resolution at the Lake Worth City Commission!
PRESS RELEASE
“Slavery is the legal fiction that people are property. Corporate personhood is the legal fiction the property is a person.”
William Meyers
Tuesday 1/15/12
Lake Worth City Hall 6 N Dixie Highway Lake Worth FL
6pm Commission Meeting
Phone Contact: Linda Weil 561-729-1939
Email contact: Joni Albrecht albrechtmd@earthlink.net
Lake Worth City Hall 6 N Dixie Highway Lake Worth FL
6pm Commission Meeting
Phone Contact: Linda Weil 561-729-1939
Email contact: Joni Albrecht albrechtmd@earthlink.net
The Lake Worth City Commission ( at their regular 6pm meeting at City Hall) will be voting on a resolution supporting an amendment to the US Constitution that would return constitutional rights to people only and prevent corporations from being given the same rights as humans as was done in the 2010 Supreme Court decision "Citizen's United vs FEC".
Such resolutions have been passed by hundreds of local governments around the US as well as an increasing number of states.
Such resolutions have been passed by hundreds of local governments around the US as well as an increasing number of states.
This past summer, the US Conference of Mayors passed such a resolution at their meeting in Orlando.
The Move to Amend coalition has been working on a grassroots level towards an amendment that bans corporate personhood and states that money is not speech. The Palm Beach affiliate of MTA has been working to get supportive resolutions here in Palm Beach County.
The Move to Amend coalition has been working on a grassroots level towards an amendment that bans corporate personhood and states that money is not speech. The Palm Beach affiliate of MTA has been working to get supportive resolutions here in Palm Beach County.
In the last election we saw the powerful forces of large corporations trying to wrest our democracy from our hands.
Anyone who believes in democracy cannot let this continue. Our government is given privileges and responsibilities by us,
If corporations are given rights, they will control our government. This would not be a democracy: .Constitutional rights are meant for "We the People" and have no party affiliation.. An amendment to the constitution is the only way we can preserve this.
We hope you can join us to witness the important discussion on Tuesday in Lake Worth and the vote to follow.
2. Humanists of the Treasure Coast
Pot Luck Dinner and Get Together
Saturday, January 19, 6:30 p.m.
416 14th Avenue
Vero Beach, FL
Information or directions: 772-257-6774
3. Progressive Coalition Annual Mtg - January 27th
Lake Mary Marriott - Everyone Welcome
www.progressivedemcaucusfl.org/
4. LegiCamp 2013
LegiCamp 2013 is the third annual gathering of progressives which is held for the purpose of organizing actions for the Florida Legislative Session. The "unconference" format of scheduling sessions is based on the interests of attendees. Presenters will pitch their ideas to the group, and sessions will be planned according to those interests. Each session will be dedicated to planning specific legislative actions.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
8:30 AM to 5:00 PM (EST)
Orlando, FL (Venue TBA)
LegiCamp is hosted by Florida Progressives, a coalition which in 2011 organized the collective actions known as Awake the State.
To Register go to legicamp.com
NEWS
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0. March 6th: Legislative Session 2013 Starts.
1. Jack Lew for Treasury Secretary - Opposed By Wm Black
President Obama is facing criticism for nominating another former Wall Street executive to become treasury secretary. On Thursday, Obama tapped his own chief of staff, Jack Lew, to replace Timothy Geithner. Lew was an executive at Citigroup from 2006 to 2008 at the time of the financial crisis. He served as chief operating officer of Citigroup’s Alternative Investments unit, a group that bet on the housing market to collapse.
Lew has also long pushed for the deregulation of Wall Street. From 1998 to January 2001, he headed the Office of Management and Budget under President Clinton. During that time, Clinton signed into law two key laws to deregulate Wall Street: the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.
On Thursday, independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont criticized Lew’s nomination, saying, quote, "We don’t need a treasury secretary who thinks that Wall Street deregulation was not responsible for the financial crisis."
At a press conference at the White House Thursday, President Obama praised Jack Lew’s record.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Jack has the distinction of having worked and succeeded in some of the toughest jobs in Washington and the private sector. As a congressional staffer in the 1980s, he helped negotiate the deal between President Reagan and Tip O’Neill to save Social Security. Under President Clinton, he presided over three budget surpluses in a row. So, for all the talk out there about deficit reduction, making sure our books are balanced, this is the guy who did it—three times. He helped oversee one of our nation’s finest universities and one of our largest investment banks. In my administration, he’s managed operations for the State Department and the budget for the entire executive branch. And over the past year, I’ve sought Jack’s advice on virtually every decision that I’ve made, from economic policy to foreign policy.
AMY GOODMAN: For more on the nomination of Jack Lew, as well as other news about Wall Street, we’re joined by two guest. William Black, author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One_, he’s associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, former senior financial regulator. His recent article for the Huffington Post is called "Jacob Lew: Another Brick in the Wall Street on the Potomac."
We’re also joined by Matt Taibbi, contributing editor for Rolling Stone magazine, his latest piece, "Secrets and Lies of the Bailout," which we’ll talk about in a bit, author of Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History.
WILLIAM BLACK: Well, on financial matters, Jack Lew has been a failure of pretty epic proportions, and he gets promoted precisely because he is willing to be a failure and is so useful to Wall Street interests. So, you’ve mentioned two of the things in terms of the most important and most destructive deregulation under President Clinton by statute. But he was also there for much of the deregulation by rule, and a strong proponent of it, and he was there for much of the cutting of staff. For example, the FDIC, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, lost three-quarters of its staff, and that huge loss began under Clinton. And the whole reinventing government, Lew was a strong supporter of that. And, for example, we were taught—instructed by Washington that we were to refer to banks as our "clients" in our role as regulators and to think of them as clients.
He goes from there to Wall Street, where he was a complete failure. You noted that part of what Citicorp did was bet that housing would fall. That was actually one of their winning bets. But they actually made a bunch of losing bets, as well. And the unit that he was heading would have not been permissible but for the deregulation of getting rid of Glass-Steagall under President Clinton. And you saw, as an example of Citicorp, why we shouldn’t be doing this. Why would we create a federal subsidy where all of us, through the U.S. government, are on the hook for Citicorp’s gambling on financial derivatives for its own account, you know, running a casino operation? That makes absolutely no public policy sense.
Then he comes into the Obama administration, and he was disastrously wrong. He tried very hard to impose austerity on the United States back in 2011, which is—he wanted, you know, the European strategy, which has pushed the eurozone back into recession, and Spain, Greece and Italy into Great Depression levels of unemployment.
And this is the guy, after all of these failures, who also is intellectually dishonest. He will not own up to his role and deregulation’s role and de-supervision’s role in producing this crisis—and not just this crisis, but the Enron-era crisis and the savings-and-loan debacle.
4. Lew Opposed by Sen. Sanders
Bernie Sanders campaigned, hard, for Barack Obama's reelection.
But the independent senator from Vermont is not going to rubber-stamp the president's selection of Jack Lew, a supporter of banking deregulation who has passed back and forth through the revolving door from Wall Street to Washington, as the nation's 76th Secretary of the Treasury.
While Sanders caucuses with the Democrats, he represents the people who elected him. And he swears an oath to a Constitution that requires -- not "allows," requires -- the legislative branch of the federal government to check and balance the executive branch.
One of the Senate's most vital duties is that of providing "advice and consent" on presidential nominations. A president has broad leeway when it comes to naming members of the Cabinet -- arguably broader leeway than in the naming of lifetime appointees to the federal judiciary. But that leeway is not such that senators can or should simply approve every nominee. Advice should be given, and at times consent should be denied -- not just by partisan foes of the sitting president but, sometimes, by allies of that president.
In the hyper-partisan environment of today's Washington, it is common for members of the party caucus affiliated with the president to go along with any pick the president makes. But there are times when principle must prevail over partisanship.
Sanders, who has a history of breaking with Democratic and Republican presidents on economic-policy issues, says Jack Lew is the wrong candidate for the Treasury post being vacated by Tim Geithner, whose bias in favor of Wall Street was such that his 2009 nomination was opposed by Sanders, Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold and West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd.
Here's how Sanders explains his opposition to the Lew nomination:
"Jack Lew is clearly an extremely intelligent person and I applaud his many years of public service to our country. I believe that he will be confirmed by the Senate. Unfortunately, he will be confirmed without my vote. At a time when the middle class is collapsing and millions of workers are unemployed, I do not believe he is the right person at the right time to serve in this important position.
"As a supporter of the president, I remain extremely concerned that virtually all of his key economic advisers have come from Wall Street. In my view, we need a treasury secretary who is prepared to stand up to corporate America and their powerful lobbyists and fight for policies that protect the working families in our country. I do not believe Mr. Lew is that person.
"We don't need a treasury secretary who thinks that Wall Street deregulation was not responsible for the financial crisis. We need a treasury secretary who will work hard to break up too-big-to-fail financial institutions so that Wall Street cannot cause another massive financial crisis.
"We don't need another treasury secretary who believes in "deficit neutral' corporate tax reform. We need a treasury secretary willing to fight to make sure that large, profitable corporations pay their fair share in taxes to reduce the deficit and create jobs.
"We don't need a treasury secretary who will advise the president that he should negotiate with the Republicans to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits. We need someone who is going to strengthen these programs.
"We don't need another treasury secretary who believes that NAFTA and Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China have been good for the American economy. We need someone in the White House who works to fundamentally re-write our trade policy to make sure that we are exporting American goods, not American jobs."
5. FUKUSHIMA NEWS
Bend Bulletin
More than a year and a half since the nuclear crisis, much of Japan's post-Fukushima cleanup remains primitive, slapdash and bereft of the cleanup methods lauded by government scientists as effective in removing harmful radioactive cesium from the …
Fukushima cleanup crews cut cornersThe Japan Times
Government to deal with Fukushima clean-up firms for sloppy jobThe Japan Daily Press
6. CROOKED CLEANUP: Environment Ministry failed to act on Asahi tip-off
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Environment Ministry officials in December received details and photographic evidence of shoddy decontamination work in Fukushima Prefecture, but they dithered on taking action by citing “manners” and the need to confirm the information.
New Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara has also been slow to react since The Asahi Shimbun ran its first story on the issue on Jan. 4.
Asahi Shimbun reporters, who witnessed slipshod work at 13 locations between Dec. 11 and 18, visited the Fukushima Office for Environmental Restoration, which is responsible for overseeing decontamination work around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, on Dec. 25.
The reporters told a senior representative that general contractors instructed workers to dump potentially contaminated vegetation and not to bother with the proper recovery of water used for cleaning.
The journalists explained about the 13 locations and dates and showed photographs taken at the sites.
The office representative said it is a matter of “manners.”
“It appears that workers (dumped vegetation) not out of malice but because they removed more radioactive materials than they had expected,” the representative said.
The same day, Asahi Shimbun reporters met with two senior officials at the Environment Ministry in Tokyo and provided the list of 13 locations.
“We cannot do anything unless we confirm the facts,” Masaaki Kobayashi, director-general of the Environment Management Bureau, said. “We will contact the Fukushima office.”
The ministry also appeared to largely ignore information about the dodgy decontamination work from a person on the front line.
A worker in his 20s who said he was ordered to dump vegetation sent a fax to the Environment Ministry in Tokyo and the Fukushima Office for Environmental Restoration on Dec. 26.
The fax explained what was happening at the work sites and contained his real name and e-mail address. But the man had not received any response as of Jan. 8.
Asahi Shimbun reporters visited the Fukushima Office for Environmental Restoration again on Dec. 26 and showed director Takashi Omura a photograph of a site supervisor kicking fallen leaves into a river in Tamura.
“It is a grave problem if it is true,” Omura said. “I will immediately consult with those in charge.”
However, Omura did not discuss the issue with Environment Ministry officials in Tokyo until Dec. 28, the last business day of 2012 for government workers.
By that day, two general contractors contacted by The Asahi Shimbun had informed Omura's office that water used for cleaning may have not been properly recovered at decontamination sites.
In late afternoon on Dec. 28, Kobayashi said, “I do not know about the situation because I have not received reports from (the Fukushima office).”
Local government leaders in Fukushima Prefecture expressed outrage after reading The Asahi Shimbun’s report on Jan. 4. Omura called them and apologized for “causing worries.”
Yoshimi Okunishi, a councilor at the Minister’s Secretariat at the Environment Ministry, told reporters in Tokyo that the ministry will investigate whether the report is true.
“Our ministry will not move unless a newspaper article appears,” one employee said.
The ministry did not begin questioning general contractors until Jan. 7, when it set up a task force on the issue headed by Senior Vice Environment Minister Shinji Inoue.
But subcontractors and workers have changed at many decontamination sites since the start of the new year, which could make it difficult for the task force to obtain first-hand information.
On Jan. 9, Inoue visited Tamura, where the site supervisor kicked leaves into the river on Dec. 14. The leaves on the ground were gone, and it was impossible to tell if they were removed by workers or fell into the river and flowed away.
The response of Ishihara, who became environment minister on Dec. 26, has been unclear.
Ishihara and the Environment Ministry also plan to rely on voluntary investigations by general contractors instead of interviewing front-line workers.
“We will not have enough information to make a judgment until we read reports (from the contractors),” Ishihara said.
The ministry expects to receive the reports by Jan. 11 and compile measures on Jan. 18 to prevent a recurrence.
During questioning on Jan. 7, the companies only admitted that water used for cleaning was not properly recovered in two instances in December.
Ishihara did not come to his Environment Ministry office on Jan. 4, the first business day for government workers this year.
When asked what he did on the day, Ishihara said on the night of Jan. 8, “I do not remember.”
The Asahi Shimbun asked the same question through the ministry’s public relations office. A written reply said Ishihara issued instructions to a senior vice minister to confirm facts and respond strictly.
Ishihara did not appear in the Environment Ministry until Jan. 6, when he attended a briefing scheduled from last year. He and other senior ministry officials discussed what to do and decided to set up the task force.
Ministry officials hope to minimize the fallout of the scandal because only general contractors can handle the contracts, which are awarded for each municipality.
The officials have relied on the companies to carry out the decontamination project worth 650 billion yen ($7.4 billion), an extremely large amount for a ministry project.
Slipshod work can constitute violations of not only government contracts but also a special measures law on dealing with contaminated waste.
If serious offenses are found, the ministry could be forced to exclude a general contractor from the project.
(This article was compiled from reports by Toshio Tada, Tamiyuki Kihara and Miki Aoki.)
7. Fukushima Cleanup Workers Have Been Dumping Contaminated Debris Into Rivers
After a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck Japan on March 11, 2011, officials promised to use cutting-edge technology from across the globe to mount the most ambitious radiological cleanup humanity has ever seen.
But it appears that the $11.5 billion, multi-decade effort has become part of the nuclear disaster.
Reporters for Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, found that crews "have dumped soil and leaves contaminated with radioactive fallout into rivers," water sprayed on contaminated buildings "has been allowed to drain back into the environment," and supervisors "instructed workers to ignore rules on proper collection and disposal of the radioactive waste."
Workers told Asahi Shimbun that "a feeling of helplessness led to a moral vacuum that enabled workers to ignore the Environment Ministry’s rules."
The Japanese government said it will investigate the shoddy work after it confirmed two cases, but Asahi Shimbun also reports that Environment Ministry officials didn't act after Fukushima Prefecture residents filed "a continuous stream" of complaints.
Hiroko Tabuchi of The New York Times reports that instead of drawing on technology from local business and foreign companies that can remove harmful radioactive cesium from the environment, central and local governments have hired Japan’s largest construction companies to handle much of the delicate work.
The companies are politically connected but have little radiological cleanup expertise, which has resulted in the use of "primitive" techniques — such as collecting contaminated debris in garbage bags and leaving the waste on roadsides, in fields and on the coastline — that do not remove harmful radioactive cesium from the environment.
The new reports are the latest in a long string of seemingly negligent acts by officials responsible for the nuclear fallout.
In July we reported that some workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were ordered to lie about their radiation exposure.
Also in July we reported that 36 percent of Fukushima children had abnormal growths – cysts or nodules – on their thyroids a year after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Also in July we reported that 36 percent of Fukushima children had abnormal growths – cysts or nodules – on their thyroids a year after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
We subsequently found that the American Thyroid Association had not seen specific data on the Fukushima radiation risks despite the fact that Japan's Institute of Radiological Sciences found that some children living close to the plant were exposed to "lifetime" doses of radiation to their thyroid glands.
In August it was revealed that radiation released from the nuclear power plant has caused harmful mutations in generations of nearby butterflies, and in October scientists found that fish caught in waters near the damaged reactors indicated there was still a source of radioactive cesium either on the seafloor or still being discharged into the sea.
In October the operator of Japan's crippled Daiichi nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company, admitted that it played down the risks of a tsunami so it wouldn't have to shut down the plant to address them.
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