Oct 25 2012
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National Politics

Yes, Boycotting Amounts to Voter Suppression

Ukranian boycotters, seems at least they are honest.

Yes,the left’s boycotting the election does indeed amount to voter suppression. A personal letter from Rebecca Sohin couldn’t say it better: there exists a smug elitism running through the far left these days, as has always every election season, in the call for those on the left to ‘boycott the ballot box’ by not voting.

A smugness exists in the fact that while the Republican party has clearly stated over and over again that it wishes to return America back a couple of centuries, or at least about half a century is part and parcel of their social agenda.  They can’t wait to get a crack at it and many on the left seem all too eager to give them a chance.  Not surprisingly, this call to allow the foxes to run into the hen house and take as they please, seems driven by those who don’t often sleep to close to the coop door.

Many in this country can testify to their personal suffering at the hands of Republican policy; from the decision to allow student loans under the control of private lenders, leading to crippling interest rates and predatory collection practices, to collapses in the social safety net which have left many elderly people impoverished.  Day laborers toil on wages that cannot get them out of the homeless shelter or off the park bench, millions sold on home ownership have found themselves on the bottom of a giant billion dollar fraud for which not one architect has been called to account.

Since Ronald Reagan came to power women have increasing lost their ability to choose when they will get pregnant and as usual, the ones most effected are the poor and the socially alienated.  As a result, even though births to women have reduced significantly, when cut across class lines, its very obvious that poor and underserved women end up having children more often and at a younger age. This puts them at a distinct and often permanent economic disadvantage and places more children in the clutches of long term poverty as socio-economic factors come more into play.

Welfare reform has nearly all but destroyed access to flexible and affordable child care for poor women, access to food assistance has been trimmed down so that it is further unreachable by more impoverished persons, leading to further destitution and borderline homelessness (often couch surfing and substandard housing situations).  Housing programs have shrunk to the point where now Section 8 requires as much as an eight year waiting list for even the most needy families.

These policy changes cause real suffering among those affected by them.  Possibly the most critical aspect of the far left, especially among the academic and middle class far left is the removal from any tangible awareness of the effects of Republican policies throughout the last three decades in particular.  Since voting is as far as many known the only way that any society that seeks to have a participatory and truly representative decision making process, boycotting the vote begs the question, if not voting what?  Sharpening pitchforks? Donning bandanas?  Even after the strife and the burning, there will come a time when people must begin to construct something out of the ashes they have left.  Funny, some of us would rather not burn the entire house down when all it needed was a serious gutting and remodel.

As I have said repeatedly to activists who propose to sit out the election, what is your plan? What is it that you wish to do after you’ve convinced everyone you can to not participate in the electoral process? Do you have a plan to overtake it? Do you have a plan to dismantle it?

And most importantly, do you have a plan to deal with the impending day when your rights become even more compressed for the sake of a dollar? Are you willing to allow more plutocrats in faster to privatize more prisons under your nose, prisons and jails which you will could end up sitting in when cops are allowed to break up protests and arrest with even more impunity than now?

I ask this because one thing is abundantly clear; the Republicans represent the elites, the plutocrats and time and time again, this has been made clear to the public, with only Facebook fashioned outrage.   The same for the endless evidence of voter fraud in electronic voting machines, the now exposed slimy relationship between the Romney family’s investment holdings and ownership of H.I.G.  Its obvious that the vote may be rigged, if you stay home and sit on your hands and expect a bad outcome, then if such is rigged, we can assume that you won’t be in the streets with your outrage, but you will be smugly sitting at home, sipping a brew and announcing that you knew better — you stayed home, so it really has nothing to do with you.

Which really is the crux of the problem isn’t it? When opting out to vote, one opts out of paying attention and giving a damn and when that happens, nothing happens.  Those of us who want something to happen will have our ears to the ground, our eyes open and be fully engaged, participating and will be there to call account when the system completely fails and have people on the ready, on the ground, to take action.  Opting out is not action.

Snagged from TomDispatch, a letter to activists written by author Rebecca Solnit:

The Rain on Our Parade
A Letter to My Dismal Allies
By Rebecca Solnit

Dear Allies,

Forgive me if I briefly take my eyes off the prize to brush away some flies, but the buzzing has gone on for some time. I have a grand goal, and that is to counter the Republican right with its deep desire to annihilate everything I love and to move toward far more radical goals than the Democrats ever truly support. In the course of pursuing that, however, I’ve come up against the habits of my presumed allies again and again.

O rancid sector of the far left, please stop your grousing! Compared to you, Eeyore sounds like a Teletubby. If I gave you a pony, you would not only be furious that not everyone has a pony, but you would pick on the pony for not being radical enough until it wept big, sad, hot pony tears. Because what we’re talking about here is not an analysis, a strategy, or a cosmology, but an attitude, and one that is poisoning us. Not just me, but you, us, and our possibilities.

Leftists Explain Things to Me

The poison often emerges around electoral politics. Look, Obama does bad things and I deplore them, though not with a lot of fuss, since they’re hardly a surprise. He sometimes also does not-bad things, and I sometimes mention them in passing, and mentioning them does not negate the reality of the bad things.

The same has been true of other politicians: the recent governor of my state, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was in some respects quite good on climate change. Yet it was impossible for me to say so to a radical without receiving an earful about all the other ways in which Schwarzenegger was terrible, as if the speaker had a news scoop, as if he or she thought I had been living under a rock, as if the presence of bad things made the existence of good ones irrelevant. As a result, it was impossible to discuss what Schwarzenegger was doing on climate change (and unnecessary for my interlocutors to know about it, no less figure out how to use it).

Read the rest of this excellent letter here: Tomgram: Rebecca Solnit, We Could be Heroes

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Oct 25 2012
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International, Labor and Worker Justice

British Unions Shut Down London With Strikes – Over 700,000 March

Image from Washington Post online slideshow

Nearly 800,000 union workers in Britain converged in London on yesterday to demand that the government end its austerity measures.  Similar to other unrest in Spain, Portugal and Greece and across the Atlantic in the US last year, Britian’s workers demand an end to the distribution re arrangement policies dubbed “austerity measures” by the press and politicians.

In favor of the conglomeration of capital among elite global finance and banking interests worldwide, government worldwide have proposed cutting public social safety nets.  The obvious effort to turn the world’s workers into pools of low-wage labor has met with resistance across America and Europe and now Brit workers take their turn to be heard.  In the rally labor leaders call for a general strike.  In addition, as Real News reports, London and other EU countries have November 14th in their sights for a continent wide day of action against austerity.

The Real News has posted a video and report:

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Oct 25 2012
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International, Labor and Worker Justice

China Caught Using Child Labor in FoxConn Ipod Factory

From the Guardian: Foxconn workers at a rally in the southern Chinese township of Longhau following a series of suicides among employees in 2010. Photograph: Bobby Yip/Reuters

In yet another exposure of the abuses of labor by Chinese plants owned by Taiwanese FoxConn company, this time in the use of students as young as fourteen duped into an ‘intern’ program.  Apparently the company had partnered with schools to provide child labor to the plants disguised as ‘interns’ but who were in fact laboring to produce widely popular Ipod products.

This proves once again that with the uncontrolled capitalist the past has no lessons to teach it, that the ethical barriers of humanity come crashing down in the face of profit.

From the Guardian:

Taiwan‘s Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, has admitted using student interns as young as 14 in a Chinese factory.

The case is in breach of national law and raises further questions about its intern programme.

Employment rights activists in China have accused Foxconn and other big employers in the country of using young student interns as a cheap source of labour for production lines, where it is difficult to attract adult workers to lower-paid jobs.

Foxconn, the trading name of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry, said it had found that some interns at a factory in Yantai, in the north-eastern Shandong province, were under the legal working age of 16. It did not say how many were underage.

“Our investigation has shown that the interns in question, who ranged in age from 14 to 16, had worked in that campus for approximately three weeks,” the company said.

Read the rest of the story in The Guardian.

Oct 24 2012
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Uncategorized

Oh how wonderful! There’s nothing that thrills us Americans more than seeing talentless heirs ad heiresses rise to prominence due to their god given right to do so. Bravo! We’re so glad to Warren Buffet and Obama openly step up to the plate as well!

shovonc's avatarINDIA UPDATE

In news that has relieved lovers of money everywhere, legendary investment guru Warren Buffet has announced that the search for his successor is finally over. New Delhi-based entrepreneur Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Indian Supremo Sonia Gandhi, will soon be taking over as head of Berkshire Hathaway.

“Despite an extremely rigorous gym schedule, this extraordinary young man has become a billionaire in just four years,” said the Sage of Omaha. “Not only did he convince real estate giant DLF to give him an entire suburb of Delhi at throwaway prices, he also got them to lend him the money, interest free. My sources inform me that he is also acquiring two or three other Indian states, but he’s too modest to talk about these things.”

Members of Sonia Gandhi’s domestic staff have welcomed the move.

“I kiss his boots on a regular basis,” said Law Minister Salman Khurshid, “It’s amazing how…

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Oct 23 2012
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International, National Politics Image

Just In: Obama Takes the World!

Oct 23 2012
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Uncategorized

What if They Held an Election and No One Came? An Interview of Activists

Boston Occupier Joe Ramsey interviews activists on the issue of boycotting the election:

“What if they held an election and nobody came?”

Joe Ramsey October 23, 2012 0

An interview with Election Boycott Activists Mark E. Smith and Terri Lee of the Boycott Election 2012 campaign.

This interview was conducted in September and October 2012, via email, by Joe Ramsey. The responses below were co-authored by Terri Lee and Mark E. Smith.

Joe Ramsey: Do you think that it’s correct to describe the U.S. as a “democracy” in 2012? How so or how not?

The definition of a democracy is a form of government where supreme power is vested in the hands of the people. In such a government, the final say on everything, including fiscal and foreign policy issues would be up to the people to decide by a direct vote.

Obviously we don’t have that kind of government, in fact both the Bush and Obama administrations were explicitly clear that they would not allow public opinion to influence policy decisions, so rather than having the final say, as we would if we the people had supreme power over government, we have no say at all. A republic is also a democratic form of government, but in a republic the people exercise their supreme power over government through their elected representatives rather than directly. But in order to exercise power over our elected representatives, we’d have to be able to hold them accountable and we can’t.

The best we can do is ask them to hold themselves accountable, and they don’t seem to want to do that–in fact they tend to grant themselves immunity and/or pardon themselves even for flagrant Constitutional violations and war crimes.

For more see Boston Occupier: What if They Held an Election and No One Came?

Oct 23 2012
39 Comments
Cops Gone Wild, Law, legal, Undoing Racism, Undoing the military-industrial complex

Cops Gone Wild

Infamous lover of pepper spraying entrapped, protesting women, NYC police supervisor, Tony Baloney seen in action.

 

In the Raw Story report about the Crown Heights police brutality issue, a video is embedded below the story that discloses a series of questionable police practices throughout the country.

Exposed in these videos are a series of obvious police abuses of power throughout the country.  A police frisking of news crews, police frisking and holding of two African-American men who are detained and threatened by police who state they will “make stuff up” to put the two arrestees at fault:

Another case of outrageous abuse involving an arrestee in Pennsylvannia, Robert Leone who is still as far as we know, serving time for crimes that seem overwhelmingly fabricated by a state police department and many actors, including the treating hospital and the Pennsylvannia jail system in participating in covering up the outrageously cruel actions of the officers involved in brutally beating Robert Leone:

More information is disclosed here on on a blog hosted by Amy Browne. Unfortunately the Facebook page for Robert Leone does not show up on a search and the link goes to nowhere.  But, the videos contained here also link to many other videos of police misconduct throughout the country. Updates to Robert’s Leone’s story will be posted when we can find them.

There is no doubt that the proliferation of small, portable video recording technology has increased the exposure of police misconduct.  The exposure of the historic Rodney King beating at first led to an all-white jury acquitting all officers involved in Rodney King’s horrific beat-down.  Not until the people in L.A.’s African American community used the only force they had in response — angry rioting, did the greater community demand justice for what many still wish to believe was an isolated and rare instance of police brutality.

But as technology increasingly improves and no longer does one need to hope for the presence of someone with a hulking video camera to be present at the scene, illegal police activity hits the spotlight ever more frequently.  In an era of increased paranoia, fed by a government intent on justifying police repression, people seem all too anxious to pick up the phone and report ‘suspicious’ behavior, all too often arising from assumptions based on long-held social prejudices.

While this site cannot possibly spend the time highlighting all instances of police brutality (and many sites exist that do that — which we will link to as we find them), we will attempt to draw attention to this issue and its larger social ramifications.

Especially important to note is the increased militarization of local police forces in the name of the ‘drug war’ when in fact proof exists time and time again that tanks, high powered assault weaponry and battering rams often are excessive, unnecessary and provoke police departments to act more like small guerilla armies than protectors of the law.  The implications of this trend are disturbing, when put up against the ease with which law enforcement officers cross the line of humane justice and into the realm of fascist enforcers of control and suppression. This is issue that should concern every citizen in this country.

Many progressives in New Hampshire have expressed concern that the efforts of some groups, particularly Cop Block in Manchester, NH and their libertarian supporters, draws attention from the real issues of police brutality in a misguided effort to create instances of police brutality by unnecessary escalation and provocation.  There exist enough cases of police over-use of authority that purposeful martyrdom not only trivializes real abuse cases, but draws attention from the broader, more important issues of racism, socio-economic stratification and increasing public xenophobia fed by the military-industrial complex and the media.

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Oct 23 2012
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Cops Gone Wild, legal

NYC Homeless Man Beaten by Cops

On October 16th, news broke nationally that a young man sleeping in a community center in the Crown Heights section of New York City was awakened by police and subsequently abused for almost five minutes for not complying with the cops’ demands that he submit to arrest.  The man repeatedly told the police he was allowed to be at the community center and had the permission of the center’s director, which one would think the cops would have notified to confirm and at least waited until the director came to the center to confirm.  But instead the cops acted on what appears to have been an anonymous ‘tip’ that someone was sleeping at the center without authority, thus trespassing.

How many times have people called cops asking for action on a particular issue only to have them say that they can’t act on ‘anonymous tips’, which on the whole seem to protect our rights and keep revenge seekers and busy-bodies from driving the cops all over on trivial, meaningless errands. Its still unclear why the cops felt that whoever called in had enough weight and authority for them to act by not only entering the center in the middle of the night, but to consider that person’s word of more value than a live individual or the community director, so much more weight that violating this individual’s right to safety and health was of secondary importance?

In the story as reported in Raw Story, you can see the senseless beat-down that this young man had to endure by these thugs in uniform.  Further down is the Crown Heights community coming forward to demand justice. I’m heartened to see the Jewish community coming together with the African-American community on this and I hope this is a trend we will see more of; police brutality is an issue that effects us all and we all need to be equally concerned and dilligent in calling out instances of its occurance. Far too often brutality in the African American community is over looked, despite overwhelming evidence. Let’s hope that will become more and more a feature of the past.

Raw Story: New York Police Brutally Beat Man for Sleeping at Synagogue

UPDATE: Charges have been dropped

From New York Daily News:

Brooklyn prosecutors have dropped all charges against a Jewish man videotaped getting pummeled by two cops at a Crown Heights synagogue.

Ehud Halevy, 21, was sleeping in the back room of the ALIYA youth center on East New York Ave. Oct. 8 when he was confronted by two police officers. After an argument about evacuating the premises — which the shirtless man refused to do — he was punched repeatedly by Officer Luis Vega.

A tape depicting the beatdown has gone viral and elicited angry responses from the Jewish community and elected officials, with many calling for the cops to be fired.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly had called the video “disturbing.”

“We believe the police fabricated the police report that they submitted and have failed to publicly acknowledge what really happened that night,” said ALIYA director Moishe Feiglin. He said Halevy was there with permission.

“After review of all available evidence, I have decided to dismiss the charges against Ehud Halevy,” Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes announced Monday afternoon.

Halevy was facing up to seven years in prison for the assault rap. He was also charged with resisting arrest, trespass, harassment and marijuana possessions.

The DA’s decision means the case is now closed.

A petition on change.com asking Hynes to drop the charges garnered nearly 90,000 signatures.

“Justice was done here,” said Halevy’s lawyer Norman Siegel. “There was no legal basis for the criminal charges and the dramatic video was extremely helpful.”

He said his client “was very pleased.”

The charges will be officially dismissed Wednesday.

Unfortunately, not everyone is so lucky as to have a whole unified community come together and put up such an immediate fuss that embarrasses the local department so much they can’t move fast to put the ‘incident’ out of public view.  Most victims of police brutality aren’t so lucky, often members of communities that the public has been trained to see as inhuman and in need of constant ‘correction’.

Even though Halevy and his attorney may be pleased with the outcome, nowhere in the Daily News story is any mention of punishment of the cops who obviously went way over board.  Some disciplinary action seems called for at the very least. It is disturbing that police officers who demonstrated an obvious lack of judgment and restraint still possess the power to restrain individuals without question and with deadly force.

It is distressing to say the least when a party that suffers under the weight of institutional wrong doing backs off when their personal wrong gets set right.  They forget is seems that the rest of the community needs them and their story to push for broad improvements in the institution that wronged them.  Dismissing the charges only amounts to an effort to move the stain out of the public view as soon as possible.

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Oct 22 2012
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International, National Politics

Damn Well About Time: UN Groups to Monitor Elections

Its damn well about time.  The ACLU and the NAACP have requested that election monitoring groups from the UN come in and monitor areas where minority vote suppression has been witnessed.  Of course the wingnuttia is having the predictable hissy fit about it, stamping their feet claiming that the UN can’t watch them because well, because they aren’t American.

Which is the point.  We want objective, fair and reasonable observation which can only come from a group completely removed from the rampant corruption coming out of the conservative even some of the moderate sides of the political landscape here.

You’d think that after all their crying and whining about ‘rampant’ election fraud, they’d welcome an outside source to monitor for such activities.  But no, apparently the wingnuts don’t like others looking over their shoulders.  I’d suggest they calm down because the best way oftentimes to find guilt is to find the one that resists the light of day the most.

 

 International monitors at US polling spots draw criticism from voter fraud groups

Liberal-leaning civil rights groups met with representatives from the OSCE this week to raise their fears about what they say are systematic efforts to suppress minority voters likely to vote for President Obama.

For more reading look here.  Thanks Daily Kos for sending out the clarion call about this.

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Oct 21 2012
1 Comment
Healthcare, War on Women

Thanks Nelle for Your All Your Work!

This past Thursday New Hampshire resident and activist Nelle Douville was awarded the Volunteer Service Award from Volunteer NH for her tireless work in defense of women’s reproductive rights.  Nominated by Planned Parenthood, Nelle was recognized for her dedication to women’s reproductive rights, particularly her brave service as an escort at the Manchester Planned Parenthood clinic.

Nelle was recognized in particular for her dedication to acting as a greeter/escort for women coming to the Planned Parenthood Clinic in Manchester, NH for services.  Every Thursday, the day when most of the state’s most dedicated religious wingnuttia shows up to harass women, Nelle can be counted on to provide a much needed buffer of sanity. As an escort, Nelle provides protection to women from the judgmental to those in need of services. Modest about her work but realistic about its importance, “Most days are pretty uneventful in terms of the protesters. It isn’t my job to pick fights with them, so I try to avoid interaction. I’m there for the patients.”

Nelle showing one protective weapon she uses.

Usually she says that the average count of protesters runs at about fourteen, with one time the number as high as sixty-one.  “They are there in all weather, rain, snow, heat… and sometimes some have children with them in poor weather conditions.”  Private security detail provides a security person on duty during these days to ensure that the protesters follow the law.  Nelle says that for a time the police would provide security but they weren’t always regular in showing up, the security service though is reliable, which is important. “There were two days they weren’t there. Those were particularly crazy, because the protesters didn’t feel under scrutiny for their behavior.” she adds.

Since Operation Rescue started the trend in the 80’s of harassing and shaming women entering into reproductive services clinics nationwide, the role of on-the ground escorts provides that final bridge in real time, over the troubled waters of women’s rights to secure access to proper medical care.  Asked about what sticks in her mind about her experience as a clinic escort, “Anytime someone is in tears bothers a great deal. Some of the comments can be quite cutting, and the usual ploy is to yell out all manner of uncouth things until people near the door, then they hurry a spiel to get them to go to their choice of quote family planning clinic.”

Clinic protesters in Manchester.  Apparently thinking no one notices their historic hypocrisy on the issue of supporting unmarried pregnant women, the sign at the table reads, “Pregnant women need support not abortions.”

Women like Nelle supply the mundane, yet essential service to other women who go to Planned Parenthood for a wide variety of healthcare services tailored specifically to women’s needs. As Nelle reminds, “Planned Parenthood offers a wide array of services and people try to misrepresent what it does.” While religious fundamentalists focus entirely on Planned Parenthood’s early term abortion services, most of their work provides education and screening for sexually transmitted diseases, essential healthcare such as PAP screenings and check-ups and also of course, affordable birth control.

Nelle also has helped out at rallies, providing the much needed assistance with manning tables and booths that help distribute information to the public about Planned Parenthood’s variety of healthcare services to women.

The Planned Parenthood Clinic in Manchester can always use a helping as Nelle most usually does her work alone.  Anyone interested in finding out more about becoming an escort (training is necessary to learn to deal with the protesters and provide the services needed to the clinic) one can go to the Planned Parenthood site here.  One thing to note: Planned Parenthood is not interested in counter-protesters or those feeling the urge to have the Great Battle with the protesters.  The job is to make sure that women get the services they need as easily and safely as possible.  Thanks Nelle for providing that much needed service to women in New Hampshire!

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