Posts tagged news
Is it possible the article is even scarier than the headline? After all, it’s not like the UN is some radical organization known for coming to hasty conclusions.
World running out of resources: UN
A major United Nations report has called for a sustainable “evergreen revolution”, warning that time is running out to ensure there is enough food, water and fuel to meet the needs of the world’s rapidly growing population.
Full Story: ABC
You can get the report from the United Nations (pdf)
(via theatlantic)
US Senate To Vote On Bill That Will Allow The Military To Arrest Americans On American Soil And Hold Them Indefinitely
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/11/26/us-senate-to-vote-on-bill-that-will-allow-the-military-to-arrest-americans-on-american-soil-and-hold-them-indefinitely/
Since Occupy Wall Street began, American police officers have arrested thousands of people for exercising their constitutionally protected right to protest. On Monday or Tuesday, the US Senate will vote on a bill that would give the President the ability to order the military to arrest and imprison American citizens anywhere in the world for an indefinite period of time.
A provision of S. 1867, or the National Defense Authorization Act bill, written by Senators John McCain and Carl Levin, declares American soil a battlefield and allows the President and all future Chief Executives to order the military to arrest and detain American citizens, innocent or not, without charge or trial. In other words, if this bill passes and the President signs it, OWS protesters or any American could end up arrested and indefinitely locked up by the military without the guaranteed right to due process or a speedy trial.
This bill was written in secret and approved by committee without a single hearing. Senate Republicans support the bill and enough Democrats support it to give it a great chance of passing. This provision does have opponents. President Obama has threatened to veto the bill and even Ron Paul is concerned enough to bring it up during one of the GOP debates. An amendment called the Udall Amendment has been offered by Democratic Senator Mark Udall that would delete the dangerous provision.
If you are an American citizen, protect your constitutional rights. Call your senator and tell them to approve of the Udall Amendment. No American citizen should be arrested by the military and held indefinitely without charge or trial. It’s not conducive to American values and would give the military and the government more power over the American citizenry. The last time Americans had to deal with an overreaching military was during the Revolutionary era. Because of that, the Founders included the 3rd Amendment to ban the quartering of troops during times of war and peace. Once again, Americans are under threat of dealing with a military that has more power than it should have. And it could cost us most of the freedoms we tend to take for granted.
America is NOT a battlefield. America is a free country and American citizens should not ever be arrested by the military and certainly not without being charged or getting a trial. This provision would cast aside the Constitution and put the liberties of American citizens here at home and around the world at serious risk. Please call your senator or visit this link, because this is a risk Americans cannot afford to take.
Stephen Colbert does a good explaining the economic crisis with in the EU. Take Greece—please!
Colorado has introduced an amendment to declare “corporations are not people” and another bill to overturn Citizens United, the decision that declared campaign contributions are protected by free speech.
W00t!
Occupy Oakland protesters declare victory after thousands of demonstrators shut down Port of Oakland
The estimates I was hearing for how many people marched on the port ranged from 10,000 to 15,000. I’d guess there were at least 8,000 people. There was the first march at four. I stood on the corner for ten minutes waiting for a friend with waves of people passing by and when he caught up to us we were still only in the middle of it, with no end in sight behind and no end in site ahead. Then there was a second march that left at 5pm, and it was just as big as the first. I was on top of one of the semi trucks so we could see the crowd coming up over the bridge and it appeared to be an endless stream of people for about an hour. Other people on the semi with me used words like “amazing” and “historic” to describe the mass of people. There seems to be very little mention of it in the media, and though the protest is described as peaceful the media is giving zero accomplishment to all that was accomplished in just one week.
OAKLAND, Calif. - Occupy Wall Street protesters declared victory after thousands of demonstrators shut down evening operations at one of the nation’s busiest shipping ports late Wednesday, escalating a movement whose tactics had largely been limited to marches, rallies and tent encampments since it began in September.
A voice over a bullhorn said “the night is not over, yet.” Protest organizers told demonstrators to head back to the downtown plaza across from City Hall, which is where the Oakland movement has been based for several weeks and was the scene of intense clashes with authorities last week.
The nearly 5-hour protest at the Port of Oakland, the nation’s fifth-busiest shipping port, was intended to highlight a daylong “general strike” in the city, which prompted solidarity rallies in New York, Los Angeles and other cities across the nation.
The demonstrations in Oakland were largely peaceful and police say there were no arrests.
Police estimated that a crowd of about 3,000 had gathered at the port at the height of the demonstration around dusk. Some had marched from the city’s downtown, while others had been bused to the port.
The crowd disrupted operations by overwhelming the area with people and blocking exits with chain-link fencing and illegally parked vehicles. The demonstrators also erected fences to block main streets to the port. No trucks were allowed into or out of the area.
Port spokesman Isaac Kos-Read said evening operations had been “effectively shut down.”
(Source: enlighteningnews)
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NYPD lunging at a protester from Occupy Wall Street because, clearly, he is a threat.
(via silas216)
Mother Jones magazine on Tumblr: We've noticed a trend.
http://motherjones.tumblr.com/post/10547211832At the Reagan Library debate in California, attendees memorably broke into a spontaneous round of applause in support of Rick Perry’s record on the death penalty. At last week’s debate in Tampa, a handful of audience members cheered the prospect of a man without health insurance being left to…
Corrections Officials Sign-On for Troy Davis
http://www.schr.org/action/resources/corrections_officials_sign_on_for_troy_davisWe write to you as former wardens and corrections officials who have had direct involvement in executions. Like few others in this country, we understand that you have a job to do in carrying out the lawful orders of the judiciary. We also understand, from our own personal experiences, the awful lifelong repercussions that come from participating in the execution of prisoners. While most of the prisoners whose executions we participated in accepted responsibility for the crimes for which they were punished, some of us have also executed prisoners who maintained their innocence until the end. It is those cases that are most haunting to an executioner.
We write to you today with the overwhelming concern that an innocent person could be executed in Georgia tonight. We know the legal process has exhausted itself in the case of Troy Anthony Davis, and yet, doubt about his guilt remains. This very fact will have an irreversible and damaging impact on your staff. Many people of significant standing share these concerns, including, notably, William Sessions, Director of the FBI under President Ronald Reagan.
Living with the nightmares is something that we know from experience. No one has the right to ask a public servant to take on a lifelong sentence of nagging doubt, and for some of us, shame and guilt. Should our justice system be causing so much harm to so many people when there is an alternative?
We urge you to ask the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to reconsider their decision. Should that fail, we urge you to unburden yourselves and your staff from the pain of participating in such a questionable execution to the extent possible by allowing any personnel so inclined to opt-out of activities related to the execution of Troy Anthony Davis. Further, we urge you to provide appropriate counseling to personnel who do choose to perform their job functions related to the execution. If we may be of assistance to you moving forward, please do not hesitate to call upon any of us.
Respectfully and collegially,
Allen Ault – Retired Warden, Georgia Diagnostic & Classifications Prison
Terry Collins – Retired Director, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction
Ron McAndrew – Retired Warden, Florida State Prison
Dennis O’Neill - Retired Warden, Florida State Prison
Reginald Wilkinson – Retired Director, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction
Jeanne Woodford – Retired Warden, San Quentin State Prison
In a perfect world, the execution of Troy Davis Wednesday night in Georgia would herald a new era in America’s grim history with the death penalty. It would shake the criminal justice system out of its self-satisfied torpor and force government and the governed both to face the ugly truth about capital punishment in the United States in the twenty-first century. It would propel this question to the forefront both of the nation’s political debate and the Supreme Court’s docket: How many exceptions to the rule must we allow or tolerate, how many legitimate questions must linger beyond the death chamber, before we either fix the system or end the experiment?
When the state kills those whose guilt is in serious doubt, or when the state kills those to whom it has not given fair justice, it doesn’t just perform an injustice upon the individual, the rule of law, and the Constitution. It also undermines the very legitimacy of the death penalty itself, for its continuing use as a sentencing option derives its civic and moral strength mostly from the fiction that it can be, and is, credibly and reliably imposed. Once our confidence in that credibility is shattered, as it should be now that Davis is gone, all that’s left of the death penalty is state-sponsored retribution and the hangman’s noose.
Andrew Cohen parses the significance of the Georgia execution in the history of American capital punishment. Read more at The Atlantic
I made a chart (with the great Celine Nadeau) comparing Social Security and a Ponzi scheme. They don’t have much in common.
(via motherjones)
