MLK....What did you teach? Fact or Fiction

 Dr. Martin Luther King holds a place in history. But just what is that place? We are told many things about his non-violence and his assassination. One man killed by the hate of another man. Why then was there a trial in 1999 in civil court about the government involvement in his murder? You didn't know there was a trial? That is because it wasn't covered by mass media. No surprise there.

I twittered about it for the holiday but as I am new to that medium I don't know how far it went. I present below an article by a writer most eloquent that tells of just this trial and the King family. One last thought...rethink your history books and look again.

Dr. King family’s civil trial verdict: US government assassinated Martin Luther King

Written by Carl_Herman Politics, War and Peace Jan 15, 2012

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“What then is, generally speaking, the truth of history? A fable agreed upon.”  - Napoleon Bonaparte [69]
The following is from : Occupy This: US History exposes the 1%’s crimes then and now (6-part series)
Dr. Martin Luther King’s family and his personal friend and attorney, William F. Pepper, won a civil trial that found US government agencies guilty in the wrongful death of Martin Luther King. The 1999 trial, King Family versus Jowers and Other Unknown Co-Conspirators, [70] is the only trial ever conducted on the assassination of Dr. King.
The King family’s attempts for a criminal trial were denied, as suspect James Ray’s recant of what he claimed was a false confession was denied. Mr. Ray said that his government-appointed attorney told him to sign a confession in order to receive a trial. When Mr. Ray discovered that his signature meant no trial, his and the King family’s subsequent requests were denied.
The US government also denied the King family’s requests for independent investigation of the assassination.
Therefore, and importantly, the US government has never presented any evidence subject to challenge that substantiates their claim that Mr. Ray assassinated Dr. King.
US corporate media did not cover the trial, interview the King family, and textbooks omit this information. Journalist and author, James Douglass: [71]
“I can hardly believe the fact that, apart from the courtroom participants, only Memphis TV reporter Wendell Stacy and I attended from beginning to end this historic three-and-one-half week trial. Because of journalistic neglect scarcely anyone else in this land of ours even knows what went on in it. After critical testimony was given in the trial’s second week before an almost empty gallery, Barbara Reis, U.S. correspondent for the Lisbon daily Publico who was there several days, turned to me and said, “Everything in the U.S. is the trial of the century. O.J. Simpson’s trial was the trial of the century. Clinton’s trial was the trial of the century. But this is the trial of the century, and who’s here?” ”
For comparison, please consider the media coverage of O.J. Simpson’s trials: [72]
“Media coverage of the Simpson trial, which began in January 1995, was unlike any other. Over two thousand reporters covered the trial, and 80 miles of cable was required to allow nineteen television stations to cover the trial live to 91 percent of the American viewing audience. When the verdict was finally read on October 3, 1995, some 142 million people listened or watched. It seemed the nation stood still, divided along racial lines as to the defendant’s guilt or innocence. During and after the trial, over eighty books were published about the event by most everyone involved in the Simpson case.”
The overwhelming evidence of government complicity introduced and agreed as comprehensively valid by the jury includes the 111th Military Intelligence Group were sent to Dr. King’s location, and that the usual police protection was pulled away just before the assassination. Military Intelligence set-up photographers on a roof of a fire station with a clear view to Dr. King’s balcony. 20th Special Forces Group had an 8-man sniper team at the assassination location on that day. Memphis police ordered the scene where multiple witnesses reported as the source of shooting cut down of their bushes that would have hid a sniper team. Along with sanitizing a crime scene, police abandoned investigative procedure to interview witnesses who lived by the scene of the shooting.

The King family believes the government’s motivation to murder Dr. King was to prevent his imminent camp-in at Washington, D.C. until the Vietnam War was ended and those resources directed to end poverty and invest in US hard and soft infrastructure.
Please watch this six-minute video of the evidence from the trial, [73] and this eight-minute video [74] on the FBI’s disclosures of covert operations against Dr. King, including confirmation from his closest friends and advisors.
Coretta Scott King, Dr. King’s wife, is certain of the evidence after 30 years of consideration from the 1968 assassination to the 1999 trial:
“For a quarter of a century, Bill Pepper conducted an independent investigation of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. He opened his files to our family, encouraged us to speak with the witnesses, and represented our family in the civil trial against the conspirators. The jury affirmed his findings, providing our family with a long-sought sense of closure and peace, which had been denied by official disinformation and cover- ups. Now the findings of his exhaustive investigation and additional revelations from the trial are presented in the pages of this important book. We recommend it highly to everyone who seeks the truth about Dr. King’s assassination.” — Coretta Scott King, Dr. King’s wife.
The US Department of Justice issued a report in 2000 that explains their investigation into their own possible guilt in the assassination found no evidence to warrant further investigation. Dr. King’s son issued the following statement [75] rebuking a “self-study” rather than the independent investigation the King family assert the evidence demands:
“We learned only hours before the Justice Department press conference that they were releasing the report of their results of their “limited investigation,” which covered only two areas of new evidence concerning the assassination of Dr. King. We had requested that we be given a copy of the report a few days in advance so that we might have had the opportunity to review it in detail. Since that courtesy was not extended to us, we are only able at this time to state the following:
1. We initially requested that a comprehensive investigation be conducted by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, independent of the government, because we do not believe that, in such a politically-sensitive matter, the government is capable of investigating itself.
2. The type of independent investigation we sought was denied by the federal government. But in our view, it was carried out, in a Memphis courtroom, during a month-long trial by a jury of 12 American citizens who had no interest other than ascertaining the truth. (Kings v. Jowers)
3. After hearing and reviewing the extensive testimony and evidence, which had never before been tested under oath in a court of law, it took the Memphis jury only one (1) hour to find that a conspiracy to kill Dr. King did exist. Most significantly, this conspiracy involved agents of the governments of the City of Memphis, the state of Tennessee and the United States of America. The overwhelming weight of the evidence also indicated that James Earl Ray was not the triggerman and, in fact, was an unknowing patsy.
4. We stand by that verdict and have no doubt that the truth about this terrible event has finally been revealed.
5. We urge all interested Americans to read the transcript of the trial on the King Center website and consider the evidence, so they can form their own unbiased conclusions.
Although we cooperated fully with this limited investigation, we never really expected that the government report would be any more objective than that which has resulted from any previous official investigation.”
Let’s summarize: Under US Civil Law, covert US government agencies were found guilty of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King was the leading figure of the Civil Rights Movement, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and widely recognized as one of the world’s greatest speakers for what it means to be human. The family’s conclusion as to motive was to prevent Dr. King from ending the Vietnam War because the government wanted to continue its ongoing covert and overt military operations to control foreign governments and their resources.
It is therefore a factual statement that under US Civil Law, the US government assassinated Dr. King.
This is similar that under Criminal Law, both O.J. Simpson and the US government are not legally guilty for murder, but both parties are guilty for killing innocent victims under Civil Law.
People of sufficient intellectual integrity and moral courage will embrace the trial evidence and testimony, jury conclusion, and King family analysis as appropriate and helpful information in seeking the facts.
People who at least temporarily reject challenging information out of fear might say something like, “The government killed Dr. King? That’s a crazy conspiracy theory!”
Let’s consider that statement.
When someone says that a body of evidence is “crazy,” or a “conspiracy theory” (meaning an irrational claim easily refuted by the evidence) that’s a claim. With a claim comes a burden of proof. In this case, the person would have to demonstrate command of the facts to explain and prove why the evidence from the civil trial is somehow “crazy” and easily refuted.
If the person can do this, it would be tremendously helpful in understanding the facts. However, we know from our experience that such statements almost always have zero factual support, and that the person making such a claim literally doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
We also know from our experience, a person making such a statement is really voicing an emotional reaction something closer to the spirit of, “The government killed Dr. King? Ok, I read and understood the paragraphs about the trial and evidence. I read Mrs. King’s and her son’s statement. I haven’t invested the time to verify how valid that information is. I’m not stupid, but because the implications of what that means is so disturbing, I’m going to deny anything about it could possibly be true as my first response. If I’m going to continue being in denial and refuse to discuss the evidence, I’ll attack the messenger.”
We also need to consider the lack of coverage by US corporate media of this compelling evidence, trial verdict, and King family testimony from over 30 years’ analysis of the facts. Recall the evidence of US corporate media reporting being infiltrated by CIA agents to propagandize Americans’ access to information. This included the Director of the CIA’s admission to Congress that they have over 400 agents working in corporate media to make the US public believe what the CIA wants them to believe.
In 2006, George Washington University used a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the US military’s “Information Operations Roadmap.” This formerly secret and approved document details present US government strategies to generate propaganda, and then attack Internet alternative media that provides dangerous facts and discussion. The military promoted the term, “Fight the net.” [76]
Although I won’t enter the burden of proof here, you may know that there are similar and related bodies of evidence that the US government assassinated other American leaders who opposed key policies of an apparent violent faction within US government. The 1975 Senate Church Committee disclosed that the US government initiated and helped assassination attempts on multiple foreign heads of state. [77]
If we were discussing how the population of some other nation could employ critical thinking skills to understand current events from anytime in history, we would certainly understand the importance to anticipate disinformation from government, danger of controlled media, and assassination as a political weapon.
Failure to do so would appropriately elicit the label attributed to the first dictator of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin. Such people who believe what their government tells them when the history and present have overwhelming objective evidence to explain, document, and prove that the government is typical of so many other historical self-serving oligarchies are:
“Useful idiots.”
To the extent the United States today is any different from all other nations and all other times is up to your exercise of critical thinking skills.
endnotes:
69 Conversation with Emmanuel, comte de Las Cases (20 November 1816), Mémorial de Sainte Hélène, v. 4, p. 251.
70 The Martin Luther King Jr. Center. Civil Case: King Family versus Jowers. Transcript of closing statement: http://www.thekingcenter.org/civil-case-king-family-versus-jowers/ .
71 Probe Magazine. The Martin Luther King Conspiracy exposed in Memphis. Douglass, J.: http://ctka.net/pr500-king.html . Mr. Douglass took what he learned from the MLK trial and wrote a book on the explanation and evidence that similar covert US government factions assassinated President Kennedy: JFK and the unspeakable: why he died and why it matters. Reviews for your consideration here and here. Because the evidence for JFK being murdered by interests in our own government is so strong, AP US History teacher John Hankey created this DVD: Dark Legacy.
72 One of many analyses: law.jrank. Media – The O.j. Simpson Case: http://law.jrank.org/pages/12147/Media-O-J-Simpson-Case.html
73 Documentation from the King family, trial information, and video resources: Examiner.com. Martin Luther King assassinated by US government: MLK civil trial decision. Herman, C. Jan. 15, 2011: http://www.examiner.com/la-county-nonpartisan-in-los-angeles/mlk-assassinated-by-us-government-martin-luther-king-civil-1999-decision . For further documentation of evidence: What Really Happened: The Death of Martin Luther King: http://whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/MLK/mlk.html
74 RevolutionNewz. MSM blackout – the US govt executed Martin Luther King…Proven in US court, 1999: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k383kA7p7vs
75 Global Research. Martin Luther King Day: King family statement on the Justice Department’s “Limited Investigation” of the MLK assassination. Jan. 15, 2007
76 George Washington University. The National Security Archive. Rumsfeld’s Roadmap to Propaganda. Jan. 26, 2006: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB177/ . BBC News analysis: US plans to ‘fight the net’ revealed. Brookes, A. Jan. 27, 2006: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4655196.stm
77 History matters. Church Committee Interim report: Alleged assassination plots involving foreign leaders: http://www.history-matters.com/archive/contents/church/contents_church_reports_ir.htm

Occupy Wall Street! Donate !

Don't believe mainstream media that there is no main purpose!    30 million unemployed! 1% holds 95% of the wealth, homelessness, living wage , Simply stated "Stop the wars on the People

http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution      Donations are needed of all types. There are many ways to help. Go to this page for things needed and ways to help. NO CHECKS only money orders!
I am here because they are helping me!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDlf-erPtzM]

Occupy somewhere near you!

The Top Ten Myths in the War Against Libya » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

The Top Ten Myths in the War Against Libya » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names.

Speaking of the breadth of Gaddafi’s record, that ought to resist simplistic, revisionist reduction, some might care to note that even now, the U.S. State Department’s webpage on Libya still points to a Library of Congress Country Study on Libya that features some of the Gaddafi government’s many social welfare achievements over the years in the areas of medical care, public housing,  and education. In addition, Libyans have the highest literacy rate in Africa (see UNDP, p. 171) and Libya is the only continental African nation to rank “high” in the UNDP’s Human Development Index. Even the BBC recognized these achievements:

“Women in Libya are free to work and to dress as they like, subject to family constraints. Life expectancy is in the seventies. And per capita income—while not as high as could be expected given Libya’s oil wealth and relatively small population of 6.5m—is estimated at $12,000 (£9,000), according to the World Bank. Illiteracy has been almost wiped out, as has homelessness—a chronic problem in the pre-Gaddafi era, where corrugated iron shacks dotted many urban centres around the country”.

So if one supports health care, does that mean one supports dictatorship? And if “the dictator” funds public housing and subsidizes incomes, do we simply erase those facts from our memory?

Homelessness wiped out! Free medical! Literacy!  What???? And this is a BAD Guy???Read more...

Labor Day, a History

 

Labor Day

1. International: Celebrated around the world as the beginning of summer, in comemeration of the Haymarket Massacre, on the first of May. For information on this holiday, see the entry for: May Day .

2. United States: Celebrated in the United States as the end of summer, on the first Monday of September.

Origins of U.S. Labour Day: In 1882, Peter J. McGuire of the Brotherhood of Carpenters, and Matthew Maguire of the International Association of Machinists, make a proposal to the Central Labor Union of New York that a celebration be held to honor the working class. Thier suggestion comes just five years after the Battle of the Viaduct in Chicago – where U.S. troops suppressed a strike with a hail of bullets killing 30 workers. In New York, the Central Labor Union agrees to thier proposals, and on September 5, 1882, 30,000 union workers march through New York City making for the first Labor Day demonstrations. By 1885, other labor unions in the major industrial centers throughout United States begin demonstrating on Labor Day.

In 1887, after the Haymarket and Bayview massacres, in an attempt to appease workers and calm the growing uproar throughout the nation, five U.S. states recognize Labor Day as a holiday. Several months later, 35 African-American sugar workers are shot dead for striking; the leaders of the strike are publicly hanged.

This day of working class solidarity and organisation, barely yet started, with the yoke of capitalist exploitation increasing its weight, begins to take on an even greater meaning, as class conflicts between the working class and capitalists flare up.

In July 6, 1892, steelworkers of the Amalgamated Association of Iron & Steel Workers, go on strike in Homestead Pennsylvania, after having their pay cut by up to 25 percent. Henry C. Frick, head of the Carnegie Steel Company, refuses to pay the workers thier due wages, and instead hires scabs to work the factory. The Pinkerton guards at the Carnegie steel mill move into the strike to break up the workers and let the scabs pass-through. The striking workers resist the guards attempts to let in the scabs, and a battle ensues. Three guards surrender in the melee, while others are beaten on by the wives of the workers – seven beaten to death. When the dust has settled U.S. government soldiers arrive to gain control over the town, eleven workers are shot to death. Just five days later, striking miners in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, dynamite the Frisco Mill, leaving it in ruins.

Over the next two years class conflicts become increasingly sharp, while unions lead workers in the struggle to define their position within capitalist society. These conflicts and struggles would reach their precipice in the Pullman strike, and results in nationwide recognition of Labour Day.

In 1894, the Pullman Railroad and landowning company has declining sales, and lays off hundreds of workers. Workers remaining see thier wages drastically cut, while the rent the workers are forced to pay the Company (all workers had to live on Pullman's land) remains the same. On May 7, the workers form a committee asking to have the rent lowered. Their requests are flatly refused, and three of the workers on the committee have their jobs terminated. Three days later the Pullman workers, organized into the American Railway Union (led by a young Eugene V. Debs), go on strike demanding lower rents and higher pay. Several weeks pass, with no compromises being made by Pullman. On June 26, in an outstanding step of workers solidarity, fellow Railroad workers throughout the country refuse to switch trains with Pullman cars. These workers are fired one after another, with every worker who takes their place continuing refusal to switch Pullman cars. Over 150,000 workers in twenty-seven states join the nation-wide strike, utterly paralyzing the nation's Railway system.

On July 2, outraged by their loss of control and frigthened by the clear strength of the working class, the U.S. government orders the leaders of the American Railway Union to stop all communications, speeches, and organisation of their union members on strike. On July 3, the strike has gained so much strength and popularity that President Grover Cleveland follows suit and declares striking a federal crime ; ordering 1,936 federal troops, in conjunction with 4,000 national guardsmen, 5,000 deputy marshals, 250 deputy sheriffs, and the 3,000 policemen of Chicago (for a total of a 14,186 strong armed government force), to forcibly disperse the striking workers. The soldiers begin flooding into the town from all directions, cautiously securing their position against workers completed cut off from thier leadership. Workers begin building defensive street barricades by tiping over rail cars. On July 7, troops stand eye to eye with the striking workers, the workers stand their ground, and the soldiers open fire, killing 34 workers, while starting fires that consume 700 railcars and seven buildings.

“The rank and file have let their servants become their masters and dictators. The workers have now to fight not alone their exploiters but likewise their own leaders, who often betray them, who sell them out.” [Mother Jones]
On August 3, 1894, the strike is declared over by the police who have established full domination over the city. Debs and 71 other workers are arrested and imprisoned, many workers are blacklisted and forced into exile, the American Railway Union is forcibly disbanded (it had appealed to the AFL for support, but was refused), and Pullman employees are forced to pledge to never organize themselves again, and go back to work without their rightful wages.

Six days later, the country in the midst of economic depression and a potential working class revolt, the U.S. Congress hastily makes Labor Day a national holiday. These struggles slowly begin the gradual improvement of working conditions for U.S. workers -- while more than a hundred years would pass and still workers would be killed for striking, working conditions gradually began to improve, and a few basic workers rights were established within the capitalist system. In over two hundred years, finally granting workers the full freedom capitalism can offer: the freedom to sell one's labour power to the highest bidder.

Transcribed by B. Baggins

 

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May Day (May, 1)

Celebrated by workers around the world as an expression of their international solidarity and shared political aspirations for freedom.

History: The first of May was originally celebrated by pagans throughout Europe as the beginning of summer, which was recognised as a day of fertility (both for the first spring planting and sexual intercourse). A maypole was oftentimes erected for young women and men to dance around and entwine the ribbons they carried with one another to find a mate... at least for the night. The ancient Celts and Saxons celebrated the day as Beltane, the day of fire, in honor of the god of the sun; beginning their celebrations at midnight; soon acquiring the label Walpurgisnacht, or night of the witches.

Persecution of May Day began as early as the 1600s; in 1644 the British Parliament banned its practice as immoral, with the Church bringing its full force to bear across the spectrum. Governments throughout Europe were largely ineffective in outlawing these celebrations, and thus the Church took a different approach – it attempted to assimilate the festivities by naming Saints days on the first of May. These efforts led to the destruction of May Day in some places, but the traditions and customs of May Day continued to remain strong throughout much of the peasantry of Europe, whose ties to one another and nature were far stronger than their ties to the ruling class and its religion. Celebrations became increasingly festive, especially at night when huge feasts, song, dance and free love were practiced throughout the night.

After the revolutions of capitalism, the roots and principles of the tradition survived to various extents, with workers across Europe celebrating the first of May as the coming of spring and a day of sexual fertility. Most mythical and religious sentiments faded away, but the spirit of the festival in expressing the love of nature and one another gained strength.

Haymarket massacre: In 1884, the U.S. Federation of Organized Trade and Labor Unions had passed a law declaring that, as of May 1, 1886, an eight hour workday would be the full and legal workday for all U.S. workers – the ruling class had that much time to recognise this new law and put it into effect.

The owners refused.

On May 1, 1886, workers took to the streets in a general strike throughout the entire country to force the ruling class to recognise the eight-hour working day. Over 350,000 workers across the country directly participated in the general strike, with hundreds of thousands of workers joining the marches as best they could.

In what they would later call the Haymarket riots, during the continuing strike action on May third in Chicago, the heart of the U.S. labor movement, the Chicago police opened fire on the unarmed striking workers at the McCormick Reaper Works, killing six workers and wounding untold numbers. An uproar across the nation resounded against the government and its police brutality, with workers' protest rallies and demonstrations throughout the nation set to assemble on the following day.

On May 4, Chicago members of the anarchist IWPA (International Working Peoples' Association) organized a rally of several thousand workers at Haymarket Square to protest the continuing police brutality against striking workers on the South Side. As the last speaker finished his remarks that rainy evening, with only 200 of the most dedicated workers remaining at the rally, 180 armed police marched forward and demanded the workers to disperse. Then, deep within the police ranks, a bomb exploded, killing seven cops. The police opened fire on the unarmed workers – the number of workers wounded and killed by the cops is unknown to this day. Eight anarchists were arrested on charges of "inciting riot" and murder. The retaliation of the government was enormous in the days to follow, filling every newspaper with accusations, completely drowning the government murders and brutality of days past.

Eight workers were convicted as anarchists, were convicted of murder, and were convicted of inciting a riot. Only one of the eight men accused was present at the protest, and he was attempting to address the crowd when the bomb went off. In one of the greatest show trials in the history of the working-class movement no evidence was ever produced to uphold the accusations, though all eight were convicted as guilty. Four of the prisoners – Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engel and Adolph Fisher – were executed, Louis Lingg committed suicide, and the three remaining were pardoned due to immense working class upheaval in 1893.

On May 1, 1890, in accordance with the decision of the Paris Congress (July 1889) of the Second International to commemorate the Haymarket martyrs, mass demonstrations and strikes were held throughout Europe and America. The workers put forward the demands for an 8 hour woring day, better health conditions, and further demands set forth by the International Association of Workers. The red flag was here created as the symbol that would always remind us of the blood that the working-class has bleed, and continues to bleed, under the oppressive reign of capitalism.

From that day forward (starting in 1891 in Russia, by 1920 including China, and 1927 India) workers throughout the world began to celebrate the first of May as a day of international proletarian solidarity, fighting for the right of freedom to celebrate their past and build their future without the oppression and exploitation of the capitalist state.

The Assassination of Alice Walker

Is Israel planning to assassinate Alice Walker? Has Secretary of State Hillary Clinton essentially given Israel the green-light for such an operation? Most

via The Assassination of Alice Walker.

"...I also feel that when our government, in the person of our president, can make a speech about this area, and really speak only to the Israelis and not to the Palestinians, this is unacceptable. We cannot accept this. I mean, we look at what has happened to the Palestinian people for all of these decades, and it is insufferable. We will not accept it. We will not. As Americans, with our history of enslavement of people, of segregation, of apartheid, of brutalization, of lynching, we will not accept this. We will not.

So, Gazans, and especially the children, we are on our way. We are coming. We hear you. We are coming. ...." Alice Walker

How did you celebrate the 4th?

Arrested for Dancing....... What is Freedom?

How do you define freedom to your children?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jUU3yCy3uI&feature=player_embedded#at=612



Why didn´t everyone start dancing? We let this happen. As Franklin said “Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
What will you do?
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="688" caption="Billy Club Party"][/caption]

TURN UP THE VOLUME!

Dear Allies for Youth Justice in Mississippi:

SAVE THE DATE!!

The ACLU of MS, NAACP, Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Coalition is hosting two FREE weekend conferences this summer and you don’t want to miss out!

These separate but consecutive conferences will be held:

July 9-10, 2011 at Jackson State University in Jackson, MS.

For YOUTH:

4th Annual Mississippi Youth Hip Hop Summit:
Turn up the Volume!

This awesome event serves as a venue to bring social justice awareness, inform youth of your rights, and encourage leadership and responsibility in a creative culture. Youth must be engaged in the effort to improve school and police relationships with teens.  It is time that youth have a voice in the decisions that effect their futures.  This weekend will mark the beginning of a statewide youth movement.  It's time to TURN UP THE VOLUME!

Day 1: Social justice workshops and sessions focusing on issues relevant to Mississippi youth

Day 2: Creative workshops using hip hop as a means to spark a state wide youth movement in Mississippi

 

For PARENTS AND ADVOCATES:

2nd Annual Mississippi School House to Jail House Parent Advocate Conference: Take it to the Next Level!
As the youth participate in the Hip Hop Summit, parents and advocates will attend their own workshops regarding ways to act as effective advocates for your kids and youth in your community regarding school disciplinary and juvenile justice issues such as communicating with school boards and interacting with local legislators to stop the school house to jail house pipeline. It’s time for parents to TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL to advocate for youth!

Registration information to come soon!

For more information, call Nancy Kohsin-Kintigh at 601.354.3408 or go to www.facebook.com/ms.hiphopsummit

*Please NOTE:  These are seperate events on the same weekend and at the same location!  Parents, Advocates and Youth will be brought together for some meals, fun, and entertainment!

**Out of town participants will be housed in the JSU dorms.

THIS EVENT IS FREE AND SPONSORED BY THE ACLU OF MS, NAACP, AND THE COALITION FOR THE PREVENTION OF SCHOOLHOUSE TO JAILHOUSE!  START ORGANIZING YOUR CHURCH, SCHOOL, AND COMMUNITIES NOW!

--
For Human Rights, Liberty, and Freedom for All!

Nancy Kohsin-Kintigh
ACLU MS
Program Director
nkohsinkintigh@aclu-ms.org
601.502.4196 cell

Article 31: The Right To Water

Article 31: The Right To Water.

Earth Day , Late

Earth Day is my wedding anniversary. We did not really plan it, it just happened. But if I WAS to plan a wedding that would be the day. My wedding was earth friendly. Shorts,tank-top and in front of a judge in Austin,Texas. No fuss , just romance. I hope my daughters do the same.

In commemorating Earth Day , our family has watched the movie/documentary ¨Dirt!¨. It is full of information and inspiration that, if you are a caring person, you can help restore earth´s original Eden. Maybe not right away but for a future generation. It is also a maddening film to see how we have pillaged resources. And  to add to it they developed a site to encourage us to BE THAT HUMMINGBIRD!


We also watched  ¨Flow; for the love of Water¨ another excellent film. No matter how much you think you know there is more to learn. Did you know that the American company Bechtal privatized the rain!? In Bolivia with the insistence of the World Bank! Some info from their site and movie:

Of the 6 billion people on earth, 1.1 billion do not have access to safe, clean drinking water.
(www.charitywater.org)

While the average American uses 150 gallons of water per day, those in developing countries cannot find five.
(www.charitywater.org)

There are estimates that from five hundred thousand to seven million people get sick per year from drinking tap water. Erik Olson, Deputy Staff Director of Barbara Boxerʼs Environmental and Public Works Committee (EPW), FLOW.

The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.(www.water.org)

According to the National Resources Defense Council, in a scientific study in which more than 1,000 bottles of 103 brands of water were tested, about one-third of the bottles contained synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic. (www.nrdc.org)

Water is a $400 billion dollar global industry; the third largest behind electricity and oil.  CBS News, FLOW.

Next time your run the water to brush your teeth just think about it.                                      Next time it RAINS, think about the idea that someone, some corporation,                               thinks they OWN THE RAIN!! And when will it happen here?                                                    So for us, every little thing we can do is helping recreate Eden.                                           Compost your food and garden waste, garden, catch rain and conserve.

CLEAN WATER LINKS

Global Water Organization
NRDC
Oxfam
International Rivers
Pacific Institute
Polaris Institute
Riverkeeper
Delaware Riverkeeper

Milwaukee Riverkeeper
Potomac Riverkeeper
Sierra Club
Waterkeeper Alliance
Be Water Wise
Nuba Water Project
Wastewater Works
Clean Water Action

African Boreholes

Water Pure International

Whenever The Need

Hydraid

More links for Ethnic Studies

Thu, April 21, 2011 3:49:25 PM
ETHNIC STUDIES WEEK LINKS
...

OOPS!In the last email I forgot links for Ethnic Studies Week.
SECOND ANNUAL ETHNIC STUDIES WEEK OCTOBER 1-7 2011 website. You can register your endorsements, report on your plans, and volunteer under the CONTACT page.
http://ethnicstudiesweekoctober1-7.org/
Save Ethnic Studies. The Tucson Unified School District Mexican American Studies and supporter website. You can read the latest and send them funds through this website
http://www.saveethnicstudies.org/

Roberto Cintli Rodriguez regular commentaries on Tucson and Arizona developments blogspot.com/-LHiIa_nwgOo/Ta3Gqx04U8I/AAAAAAAAAK0/1s0bNse_eZc/s1600/No%2BMexicans.jpg

Carleen Sanchez and Maythee Rojas on the importance of Ethnic Studies and ES
week on KPFK April 20.
http://archive.kpfk.org/parchive/mp3/kpfk_110420_190050femmag.MP3

Sundiata Cha Jua ��s Introduction to the Special Issue of the Black Scholar on ethnic studies. ���Defending Ethnic Studies in Arizona: Obama, the Rise of the Hard Right, Arizona and Texas and the Attack on Racialized Communities Studies��
http://works.bepress.com/sundiata_chajua/20/

Thanks, to the 19 of you who responded right away to the last mailing and sent in endorsements and a few who volunteered, and to those who forwarded the email. I will publish the endorsement list May 9 on the website, to give you all a chance to get them in. Remember I can't assume you or your organization is endorsing unless you tell me.
Take care, Anne
Tucson Unified School District Mexican American Studies

Daniel Ellsberg: The Shameful Abuse of Bradley Manning

America's Best Political Newsletter.

via Daniel Ellsberg: The Shameful Abuse of Bradley Manning.

Do you remember Ellsberg? You might recall he was called ¨The Most Dangerous Man in America¨ , he too was a leaker.

Nixon had nothing compared to Bush and Obama in regards to deceit, deception, malevolent, abhorrent behavior.

Carnival of Chaos! April 2011

Wow! This has been a very busy Spring and what a wonderful turn out for the carnival! I have to say I hate spam but the decision to keep truckin´ on  has paid off. Thank you all so much for the submissions!!

Since it it spring here in the south we have already planted parts of the garden. Sorry , Yanks. But our days have been in the 70ś  , so in go the tomatoes! We are also working bees and our first attempt at raising queens. Nothing could be more ¨educational¨ for the children than helping with these endeavors. We learn more each time we plant a seed or open the hives. 

The migrations are on, too. Hummingbirds, Monarchs, worms, and more. Don´t forget to plant something for the bees!!!

[caption id="attachment_588" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="It is spring! Worm migration"][/caption]

Add to that all the current events of the world, makes for a full plate of erudition. Do you know what an Alpha particle is? How far and fast radioactive particles can travel?

Welcome to the April 2, 2011 edition of ...........

[caption id="attachment_315" align="alignright" width="179" caption="Click Here!"][/caption]

 

Chaos

Chris Brandon presents Hello World posted at BreakSolid.   A new site with an old perspective. Implementation  and distribution of knowledge as well as overcoming the chasm of mainstream media needs to be addressed.

We all need outdoor time and especially the children. Ann shares one of her activities for winter. Ann presents Outdoor Hour Challenge Winter Series #9 Mammals and #45 Squirrels posted at Harvest Moon by Hand.

[caption id="attachment_591" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Can you name these tracks?"][/caption]





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

William Hambleton Bishop, MA presents Chaos is the result of resisting what is | Thoughts from a Therapist posted at Thoughts from a Therapist, saying, "chaos and resistance"

I love this submission! Chaos defined? And yet we are given thoughtful contemplation of our individualness in the world. ¨The Tao of Pooh¨ was my favorite book in college and helped me on in life. Is rejecting what is, the same as resisting what is?



Richard Tyler presents The N-Word, Huck Finn, and Racism in Society posted at Live Your Way, saying, "This is an article about racism in society today, the good, the funny, and the informative."

As a transplanted Yankee, I have come to see many sides of this issue. Everyone has a reason for using, or not, the word in question. I, however, can not imagine Twain´s work without it.

What I do for Eden

Read Aloud ... Dad presents The Secret How To Become A Read-Aloud Ninja posted at Read Aloud Dad, saying, "Do you want to become a Read-Aloud Ninja? I never knew they existed until yesterday. The word "ninja" in kanji script  Like any martial art, you have to perfect your technique if you aim to master the art."

Thanks R.A.D.!! My Dear Old Dad  read to us every night he was home.(Firefighters are home only four nights a week)We had a chair in the room just so he could read for more than a few minutes. Alice in Wonderland, Arabian Nights, Aesop´s Fables, The Charge of the Light Brigade are just a few of the writings he read. He also told stories without books, tales like the Three Pigs and the like.



Danette presents Make Your Child Laugh: The Developmental Stages of Humor :: Help! S-O-S for Parents posted at Help! S-O-S for Parents.

My eldest, Griffin, just yesterday said that his favorite sound in the world is Abdur Rabbi (4yrs) laughing!



Socratez presents Why Knowledge Is Essential To Live Your Life posted at Socratez Online.

If you can learn anything it should be that there is ALWAYS more to learn!

Something smells...

Tara Forte presents Top 30 Ghost Blogs posted at Forensic Science Technician, saying, "While ghost hunting shows display cheesy scenes of lamps being knocked over and too many people shoved in a room looking for an”experience,” ghost blogs do the exact opposite, creating an intimate storytelling environment the reader can be sucked into for the moment, no matter what they think about the afterlife."



I always liked Ghost stories around the campfire.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of chaos using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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It´s Not Just Others that are Protesting

Food prices and unemployment are rising. This coupled with the assault on the common man, those in the lower and middle class, by the Wisconsin government  and Maine´s government have begun a people´s protest.
....But unions are right to be worried. Declining membership, being squeezed out of the private sector, and anti-union attitudes have all contributed to the labor movement's deterioration since the McCarthyist 50s, but particularly since the Reagan era. A blow like Wisconsin could never have been struck without the last 40 years of the slow debilitation of the unions after the incredible build-up of the workers' movement in the first half of the 20th century.

The corporations have been fighting a century long war of attrition, while we organizers have been either too-focused on the day-to-day, too-focused on the distant Revolution, or too willing to believe the myth of our own weakness.

The economy is but one indication that the current system hangs by but a thread. The environment is another. It's time we realized our own potential, our own power, and took advantage of the perpetual crisis to make a lasting change through overcoming--or at least balancing out--the over-concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few and redistributing them among the many.

Look around you. All is not right, all is not equal. Stop the wars! stop the war on workers!

Even children understand equal and fair. It is only when we ¨grow up¨ that we tend to rationalize why things are not fair. Why our brothers and neighbors have less or more. They don´t work hard enough, they are not smart enough. Or they are rich because they worked hard or perhaps are ¨self-made¨.  Nothing happens by it self, the CEOS of any business are nothing without the worker, the labor. The amusement park does not run without the ticket taker, computers are not made by fairies, on and on. Even Henry Ford knew if he did not pay his workers a fair wage they would not be able to buy the same cars they were making.

¨.....Although the Model T had made Henry Ford rich and famous, he continued to advocate for the masses. In 1914, Ford instituted a $5 a day pay rate for his workers, which was nearly double what workers were paid in other auto factories. Ford believed that by raising the workers' pay, the workers would be happier (and faster) on the job, their wives could stay home to care for the family, and the workers were more likely to stay with the Ford Motor Company (leading to less down-time for training new workers). Ford also created a sociological department in the factory that would examine workers' lives and try to make it better. Since he believed he knew what was best for his workers, Henry was very much against unions.¨

Solidarity!

Copy and Paste

Subject: Nuclear disaster in Japan

Hi,

The disaster unfolding in Fukushima, Japan is a terrible reminder of the dangers of nuclear power.

Right now the President has $36 billion in taxpayer giveaways to the nuclear industry to build more plants here in the US in his proposed budget. Join me and tell the President and your members of Congress that there is no place for taxpayer giveaways for nuclear energy in this year's budget. Just click the link below...

http://us.greenpeace.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=801&s_src=taf

More US Intervention

Egypt - U.S. intelligence collaboration with Omar Suleiman “most successful”

By Richard Smallteacher, Wikileaks staff 1 February 2011
More articles ...
- Egyptian Military Succession Plans Told to US Embassy
- Evidence of torture and repression by Mubarak´s Police
- Cable from Imprisoned Egyptian Opposition Leader: Defend Democracy “for the friendship of peoples live forever”

New cables released by Wikileaks reveal that the U.S. government has been quietly anticipating as well as cultivating Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian spy chief, as the top candidate to take over the country should anything happen to President Hosni Mubarak. On Saturday, this expectation was proved correct when Mubarak named Suleiman to the post of vice-president making him the first in line to assume power.

An intelligence official who trained at the U.S. Special Warfare School at Fort Bragg, Suleiman became head of the spy agency in 1993 which brought him into close contact with the Central Intelligence Agency. Recently he took up a more public role as chief Egyptian interlocuter with Israel to discuss the peace process with Hamas and Fatah, the rival Palestinian factions.

In recent years most political analysts have assumed that the heir apparent was Gamal Mubarak, the president’s younger son, but the U.S. embassy in Cairo came to a different conclusion more than five years ago. On 15 June 2005, a memo (05CAIRO4534) written for Timothy Pounds, the director for Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and North Africa at U.S. National Security Council, noted: “(A)ll agreed that the most likely candidate to be appointed to the post (of vice-president) was General Omar Soliman, Director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service (EGIS).” (State department officials use a different spelling of Suleiman’s name)

Almost a year later, another diplomatic memo (06CAIRO2933) written on 14 May 2006 made it clear that the U.S. government was working closely with Suleiman on key regional matters such as figuring out how best to marginalize Hamas in Palestine: “(O)ur intelligence collaboration with Omar Soliman, who is expected in Washington next week, is now probably the most successful element of the relationship.”

The diplomatic memo, which was written by Francis J. Ricciardone, Jr. (the U.S. ambassador to Egypt) to brief Robert Zoellick (then Deputy Secretary of State) who was visiting Cairo at the time, notes that “Omar Soliman also told us he would be glad to see you (Zoellick), if schedules permit - he will be working the Israeli and PA delegations in Sharm” – referring to a meeting being held in the Egytian resort town of Sharm-el-Sheikh.

Inanother diplomatic cable, Suleiman is reported to have told the U.S. ambassador, “Egypt is America’s partner” noting that “Egypt will continue to provide the USG (U.S. government) with its knowledge and expertise on the critical regional issues, such as Lebanon and Iraq. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains the core issue.”

The following year the ambassador sent yet another memo (07CAIRO1417) to Washington in which he described Egypt as a “dictatorship” suffering from “paranoia” noting that political analysts were hard pressed to predict the future.

“Presidential succession is the elephant in the room of Egyptian politics,” Ricciardone wrote. Discounting the possibility of Mubarak being succeeded by his younger son because of Gamal’s failure to complete his military service, the ambassador once again pointed to Suleiman as the most likely successor as a "rock-solid" loyalist to Mubarak.

“(I)n the past two years, Soliman has stepped out of the shadows, and allowed himself to be photographed, and his meetings with foreign leaders reported. Many of our contacts believe that Soliman, because of his military background, would at the least have to figure in any succession scenario for Gamal, possibly as a transitional figure,” Ricciardone wrote.

The memo notes however that “an alleged personal friend of Soliman tells us that Soliman "detests" the idea of Gamal as president.”

One of the reasons that Washington has been keen to support Soliman is his opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood. A blog posting on Al Jazeera’s website by Clayton Swisher, former director of programs at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, sums up a 2005 meeting with Suleiman: “(H)is blunt words made me drop my biscuit. Suffice it to say he does not have a high opinion of Islam in politics, and is not shy about telling Western audiences the lengths he will go to allow his security services to keep the Muslim Brotherhood and their offshoots at bay.”

Swisher concludes: “President Mubarak’s appointment of Suleiman is a way of messaging assurances to a wary state of Israel and US congress. But it also speaks the unspoken to Egypt’s Islamic parties: don’t even think about it … there is little doubt in my mind why Hamas viewed Suleiman a dishonest broker and an obstacle to real reconciliation. Of course, that is probably what Egypt intended by sending him.”

US Prepares for Another War.........can we say oil?

From the World Socialist Web Site :

Home » World News » Africa » Libya

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Western powers exploit Libyan crisis to step up intervention plans

By Mike Head
5 March 2011

Under the cynical cover of addressing a humanitarian crisis in Libya, the US and its European allies are intensifying military operations and economic measures directed against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.

 

Amid preparations for a possible armed intervention, US marines have arrived in Greece for deployment to US warships off the Libyan coast, and US military cargo planes have commenced flights to the Tunisian-Libyan border.

 

What began as a popular revolt against the repressive Gaddafi regime is increasingly being channelled, with the help of an interim administration in Benghazi, Libya’s second city, into the pretext for an imperialist intervention. Such an operation would seek to establish a de facto client state in Libya. It would help imperialist forces assert control over the country’s large oil and gas fields and serve as a bastion of reaction against the working-class uprisings sweeping the entire region, from Morocco to Iraq.

 

British and European leaders welcomed President Barack Obama’s statement on Thursday, in which he demanded Gaddafi’s removal and pointedly refused to rule out the imposition of a militarily-enforced “no-fly” zone over Libya. His remarks were an indication of US readiness to support an operation to oust the regime and install a compliant government of the type being shaped in Benghazi.

 

The London-based Guardian reported yesterday that British Prime Minister David Cameron, who had earlier called for Britain and its allies to draw up plans for a no-fly zone, “was offered important support by Barack Obama on Thursday night. American military planners had been instructed to draw up a full range of options, including a no-fly zone, Obama said at the White House during a press conference with his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderón.”

 

The British newspaper stated that Cameron and Obama now agreed on “the need for military planning if there is a greater humanitarian catastrophe or if Gaddafi becomes even more aggressive; and the absolute need for Gaddafi to stand down.”

 

According to the Guardian, Cameron and other European leaders had been left in no doubt by Washington that the European Union should be seen to be taking the lead in responding to the Libyan crisis. For that purpose, Cameron had “shown leadership” by openly advocating a no-fly zone, and was now working with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in drawing up plans for an emergency European Union summit in Brussels next Friday.

 

The Russian government, which holds a veto at the UN, has publicly opposed a no-fly zone. But British Foreign Minister William Hague said that while “ideally” such a zone would need to be sanctioned by the UN, that was not essential. No-fly zones operated over Iraq by the US and Britain, as initial steps toward ousting the Saddam Hussein regime, did not receive such Security Council approval.

 

Washington is anxious for its European allies to take the front position, at least publicly, precisely because of the hated record of US imperialism in the Middle East. This includes not only its ongoing wars of occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq, but its role in the post-World War II oppression of Libya itself.

 

In Libya itself, after World War II, the US and Britain took advantage of the defeat of Italy to continue the brutal oppression of the Libyan people, up to half of whom had died under Italian colonial rule from 1911 to 1943. Although a puppet king, Idris I, was installed after formal independence in 1951, Libya’s neo-colonial status continued—symbolised by the establishment of the giant US Wheelus air base near Tripoli, which functioned as a hub for US military operations across North Africa.

 

The discovery of oil in 1959 only tightened the American, British and Italian domination of Libya, the hostility toward which created the conditions for Colonel Gaddafi’s military coup in 1969. One of Gaddafi’s first actions was to demand the closure of the Wheelus base, which—like his nationalisation of Libya's oil industry—initially gave the colonel anti-imperialist credentials and a base of popular support.

 

Yesterday, Britain said it was sending several planes to airlift thousands of Egyptians stuck in refugee camps on the Tunisian-Libyan border, while France said it was dispatching a helicopter carrier to waters off Libya to help evacuate civilians. The British government also reported that one of its border agency vessels had intercepted a ship bound for Libya and seized “a significant quantity of Libyan currency.”

 

Washington is also positioning itself to militarily intervene, in the name of evacuating some of the estimated 180,000 foreign workers who have fled Libya. Two US amphibious warships, the USS Kearsarge and the USS Ponce, joined the USS Barry in the Mediterranean, and 400 marines were flown to a naval base at Souda Bay on the Greek island of Crete, ready to be transferred to the Kearsarge. Base spokesman Paul Farley said they had been deployed “as part of contingency planning to provide the president flexibility on full range of option regarding Libya.”

 

Pentagon spokesman Colonel David Lapan said the military had not been given orders beyond two cargo flights to the Libyan-Tunisian border on Friday and a planned transport of refugees from the Tunisian side of the border today. But he announced that the overall military effort, including movements of ships had been code-named Operation Odyssey Dawn.

 

Unilateral economic sanctions imposed by the Western powers are being used to try to cripple the Gaddafi regime, and seize Libyan assets. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday that the US had frozen about $32 billion in assets held by the Libyan Investment Authority, Libya’s sovereign wealth fund. Obama described the measures as the “most rapid and forceful set of sanctions that have ever been applied internationally.” On the same day, the British government froze similar assets, including holdings at the HSBC bank, worth about $3.2 billion, on top of about $1.6 billion in assets linked to Gaddafi and his children.

In a related move, Interpol, the international police agency, issued an international “Orange Notice” alert for Gaddafi and 15 members of his inner circle, declaring that they had been “identified as being involved in or complicit in planning attacks, including aerial bombardments, on civilian populations”. While there is little doubt that the Libyan regime has mounted murderous attacks on anti-government protesters, the Western authorities have offered no specific evidence to substantiate such charges, which could provide a justification for sending in forces to capture Gaddafi.

 

Within the US political establishment, pressure is mounting for an intervention. Former Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain and former Democrat vice presidential candidate Senator Joe Lieberman issued a joint statement urging the White House to move faster, “for both moral and strategic reasons.”

 

Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, McCain revealed something of the reactionary calculations motivating US policymakers. He warned that the revolutionary movement seen in Libya, Egypt and elsewhere would continue to spread, “beyond the boundaries of the Arab world” and “throughout the globe.”

 

Inside Libya, Gaddafi’s former justice minister, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who now heads the opposition National Libyan Council in Benghazi, called for foreign air strikes and a no-fly zone. Citing sources within the council, the New York Times reported that this stance was adopted at a heated council meeting where “others strongly disagreed”. There has been deep opposition to such a call within popular protests against Gaddafi, because of fears of a return to neo-colonial rule—fears that Gaddafi is exploiting to posture as a defender of Libyan sovereignty.

 

The readiness of the bourgeois opposition leaders in Benghazi, however, to facilitate an intervention by the same powers that have plundered Libya historically is rooted in their own class interests in preventing the development of a wider mass movement from below against the regime.

 

Jalil’s call demonstrates that the opposition council, which includes other recent defectors from Gaddafi’s leadership, would be perfectly willing to enter into intimate relations with the Western powers and oil companies—no less than Gaddafi and his cronies, who cemented lucrative ties in Washington, London, Rome and other capitals during the past decade.

 

London’s Daily Telegraph has reported that British officials have held talks with former allies of Gaddafi, to identify “potential future leaders”. Among them was General Obaidi, a former interior minister and head of Libyan special forces. A Downing Street source told the newspaper that Obaidi was someone Britain “could do business with.”

 

The Gaddafi regime is continuing to attack protesters with brutal force. Yesterday, about 1,000 demonstrators shouting slogans and waving pre-1969 flags in the poor suburb of Tajoura on the outskirts of Tripoli were dispersed after Friday prayers by police firing tear gas and plastic bullets. Other parts of the capital were patrolled by fleets of vehicles packed with soldiers, police and men in plain-clothes armed with AK-47s.

 

In Zawiyah, 60 kilometres west of Tripoli, residents told Reuters at least 30 people had been killed, including the town’s opposition commander, when pro-government forces attempted to retake the town. According to residents, pro-Gaddafi militias opened fire on a peaceful protest in front of the town’s hospital, killing seven people and injuring many others.

Despite intensive efforts to prevent media coverage, evidence also emerged of large-scale detentions by the security forces. An Amnesty International spokesman confirmed that it was receiving, and trying to verify, reports of disappearances and rapes in Tripoli.

 

Sporadic fighting occurred elsewhere, especially in areas surrounding key oil facilities. In the east of the country, opposition forces said they had pushed further west and seized control of Ras Lanuf, an oil terminal which has been under the regime’s control and lies along a strategic coastal road between the east and Sirte, Gaddafi’s birthplace.

Jeffrey Sommers: The Koch Brothers\' Plan for Wisconsin

America\'s Best Political Newsletter.

via Jeffrey Sommers: The Koch Brothers\' Plan for Wisconsin.

I can remember when my brothers went to live in California in the 70´s. It was the place to be. Prop 13 was in ´78.

How telling of us that we think a free education is bad socialism. An educated populous is in fact a burden to the elite, just like the educated slave of our recent past. To guarantee housing and food was voted down by the US and Israel at the UN. Our elite think even this is too much, no guarantees for anyone but them! Sold to us on the DREAM that one day we will be one of THEM. Keep dreaming.

It is not just the honeybees we have to worry about

 

Pollinators of all kinds are decimated by Big Agra and Big pharma. We will not survive without  bees.  The EPA is NOT looking out for ´the people´  just corporate.

Neonicotinoid pesticides (synthetic derivatives of nicotine) are probably the most serious man-made danger to bees, birds and other wildlife ever introduced into the environment: they are more than 7,000 times more toxic than DDT, according to recent research.

Biobees

This stuff is now on our plates, what is it doing to us? Our children?

Also read Wiki-Bee Leaks and see the EPA document that was revealed. Worth reading!

Terror in Arizona: Just another 'isolated incident'? Funny how that list keeps mounting | Crooks and Liars

Terror in Arizona: Just another 'isolated incident'? Funny how that list keeps mounting | Crooks and Liars.

-- July 2008: A gunman named Jim David Adkisson, agitated at how "liberals" are "destroying America," walks into a Unitarian Church and opens fire, killing two churchgoers and wounding four others.

-- October 2008: Two neo-Nazis are arrested in Tennessee in a plot to murder dozens of African-Americans, culminating in the assassination of President Obama.

-- December 2008: A pair of "Patriot" movement radicals -- the father-son team of Bruce and Joshua Turnidge, who wanted "to attack the political infrastructure" -- threaten a bank in Woodburn, Oregon, with a bomb in the hopes of extorting money that would end their financial difficulties, for which they blamed the government. Instead, the bomb goes off and kills two police officers. The men eventually are convicted and sentenced to death for the crime.

-- December 2008: In Belfast, Maine, police discover the makings of a nuclear "dirty bomb" in the basement of a white supremacist shot dead by his wife. The man, who was independently wealthy, reportedly was agitated about the election of President Obama and was crafting a plan to set off the bomb.

-- January 2009: A white supremacist named Keith Luke embarks on a killing rampage in Brockton, Mass., raping and wounding a black woman and killing her sister, then killing a homeless man before being captured by police as he is en route to a Jewish community center.

-- February 2009: A Marine named Kody Brittingham is arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate President Obama. Brittingham also collected white-supremacist material.

-- April 2009: A white supremacist named Richard Poplawski opens fire on three Pittsburgh police officers who come to his house on a domestic-violence call and kills all three, because he believed President Obama intended to take away the guns of white citizens like himself. Poplawski is currently awaiting trial.

-- April 2009: Another gunman in Okaloosa County, Florida, similarly fearful of Obama's purported gun-grabbing plans, kills two deputies when they come to arrest him in a domestic-violence matter, then is killed himself in a shootout with police.

-- May 2009: A "sovereign citizen" named Scott Roeder walks into a church in Wichita, Kansas, and assassinates abortion provider Dr. George Tiller.

-- June 2009: A Holocaust denier and right-wing tax protester named James Von Brunn opens fire at the Holocaust Museum, killing a security guard.

-- February 2010: An angry tax protester named Joseph Ray Stack flies an airplane into the building housing IRS offices in Austin, Texas. (Media are reluctant to label this one "domestic terrorism" too.)

-- March 2010: Seven militiamen from the Hutaree Militia in Michigan and Ohio are arrested and charged with plotting to assassinate local police officers with the intent of sparking a new civil war.

-- March 2010: An anti-government extremist named John Patrick Bedell walks into the Pentagon and opens fire, wounding two officers before he is himself shot dead.

-- May 2010: A "sovereign citizen" from Georgia is arrested in Tennessee and charged with plotting the violent takeover of a local county courthouse.

-- May 2010: A still-unidentified white man walks into a Jacksonville, Fla., mosque and sets it afire, simultaneously setting off a pipe bomb.

-- May 2010: Two "sovereign citizens" named Jerry and Joe Kane gun down two police officers who pull them over for a traffic violation, and then wound two more officers in a shootout in which both of them are eventually killed.

-- July 2010: An agitated right-winger and convict named Byron Williams loads up on weapons and drives to the Bay Area intent on attacking the offices of the Tides Foundation and the ACLU, but is intercepted by state patrolmen and engages them in a shootout and armed standoff in which two officers and Williams are wounded.

 

Brutal Reprisals Against Peaceful GA Inmate Strikers Confirmed. Was One Victim Hidden For Weeks By Prison Authorities?

Brutal Reprisals Against Peaceful GA Inmate Strikers Confirmed. Was One Victim Hidden For Weeks By Prison Authorities?.