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Revolution
Spooky summer on the horizon I’m gazing at
from my window into the streets
That’s where it’s going to be where everyone is
walking around, looking around out in the open
suspecting each other’s heart to open fire
all over the streets
like streets you read about every day
who are the network we travel through on the way to the center
which is energy filling life
and bursting with joy all over the screen
I can’t sit still any longer!
I want to go where I’m not feeling so bad
Get off this little island before the bridges break
(my heart is a sore thing too)
No I want to sit in the middle watching movies
then go to bed in my head
Someone is banging on it with a heavy stick like the enemy
who is he going to be turns into a face you can’t recognize
then vanishes behind a window behind a gun
Like the lonely hero stalking the main street
cries out Where are you? I just want to know
all the angles of death possible under the American sky!
I can hardly see for all the buildings polluting the sky
until it changes into a barrage of bottles
then clears up for a second while you breathe
and you realize you’e still as alive as ever and want to be
but would like to be somewhere else perhaps Africa
Start all over again as the race gets darker and darker
and the world goes on the way I always thought it would
For the winner is someone we recognize out of our collective past
which is turning over again in the grave
It is so important when one dies you replace her
and never waste a minute
~by Anne Waldman
News
Federal judge complicity
The Supreme Court is asked to decide if government officials can be held accountable for torturing a US citizen
Two of the most under-discussed afflictions in American political life are inter-related: (1) the heinous, inhumane treatment of prisoners on American soil (often, though certainly not exclusively, Muslim political prisoners), and (2) the virtually complete abdication by subservient federal courts in the post-9/11 era of their duty to hold Executive Branch officials accountable for unconstitutional and otherwise illegal acts in the War on Terror context. Those two disgraceful American trends are vividly illustrated by juxtaposing two events, which I happened to be reminded of yesterday while looking for something else; [ ... ]
The reason that’s so striking even several years later is it shows just how corruptly deferential American federal courts are to the Executive Branch when it comes to Muslims. One of the most amazing statistics of the last decade: not a single War on Terror victim — not one, whether foreign or American — has been permitted to proceed in an American court in an effort to obtain compensation for illegal treatment by the U.S. Government; instead, American courts have unanimously dismissed those cases at the outset, without reaching their substance.
[ ... ]
The central role played by federal judges in this full-on assault on legal equality and the Constitution when it comes to Muslim litigants and the War on Terror is often neglected. That’s because lawyers are in the best position to tell the story, but are often prevented — by their need to continue practicing before these judges and by formal disciplinary constraints – from publicizing the bad behavior of judges. Those factors, by design, operate to shield federal judges from scrutiny and critique. But no history of anti-Muslim hysteria, bigotry and legal oppression in the War on Terror will be complete without including the key enabling role they have played.
Tonight's the night
Yesterday the biggest newspaper in the district, the Scranton Times-Tribune endorsed Matt Cartwright against Tim Holden. Matt spent the weekend barnstorming up and down the large, sprawling district, including appearances with former Congressman Joe Sestak, who endorsed him last week. The biggest newspaper in Luzerne County, the Citizens Voice, endorsed him over the weekend, stating bluntly that "Judging by Cartwright’s campaign and Holden’s record, Cartwright would be a stronger advocate for working families in our region." Highly respected Wilkes-Barre columnist and ex-state Rep., Kevin Blaum ("The Arena"), writing for the Times Leader explained on Sunday why he's voting for Cartwright. The last polls showed that Matt was ahead of Holden and we're keeping our fingers crossed that they've held up.
If Matt wins, that will mean that Blue Dogs really are becoming an endangered species and Steny Hoyer will have a hard time sleeping tonight.
OWS Weekly Marches on Wall St: Final Friday #SpringTraining Before May Day
Friday, April 27th at 2PM in Liberty Square, the Final Spring Training is here!
It's been 6 weeks of training in street tactics. We've learned how to creatively move and communicate together as a unit, and disperse and swarm to reach a target. Along the way, we've built a community of trust by practicing together. And we've rung the People's Gong, a call to action, six consecutive weeks in a row.
Join us for the final Spring Training: Training Day. We will do a dry-run of May Day's Pop-up Occupation activities in Liberty Square - forming picket teams to target corporations and banks in the Wall Street area. Pacer teams will conduct training on how to do picket lines while in front of targets. We'll do a final convergence before heading over to ring the People's Gong.
Schedule:
2:05PM Spring Training Recap and Selecting Picket Teams
2:30PM Picket Teams Send-off & Training at Sites
3:30PM Re-converge at Liberty Square (Formerly known as Zuccotti Park)
3:45PM Move to Wall St Ring the People's Gong
4:30PM March back to Liberty Square
“99 Picket Lines” Underway as Immigrant Rights Groups, Occupy Wall St, and Unions Gear Up for May Day
The 1% crashed our economy, foreclosing on millions of homes, destroying jobs, and wrecking our city budget. Enough is enough. Another city is possibe, but we must build it.
As we approach May 1st, we will be setting up 99 picket lines to expose, disrupt, and shut down the 1% who rule our city. The 99 pickets will be an effective way for people to plug into the morning activities on May Day. A few other pickets will happen in coming days to build for the May 1st, but the focus of this project is May 1st. This is an opportunity to fight back against austerity, union busting, the attacks on immigrant rights, and the entire system of the 1% rule with a tactic and framework that is in solidarity with the May Day call to action. The recent General Strikes in Spain and Greece show us that when we all fight back together, against austerity we are stronger. The picket line is a tactic with a rich history. It can be diverse and does not have to be symbolic. [ ... ]
ACT UP and Occupy: Tax Wall St., End AIDS!
ACT UP (The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and Occupy Wall Street are joining forces to pump up the volume on a growing nationwide outcry for a "Financial Speculation Tax" (Fi.S.T.) on Wall Street.
To commemorate its 25th anniversary, the AIDS activist group ACT UP will return to its roots and stage a massive demonstration and march on Wall Street — on Wednesday, April 25 — starting at 11 am at City Hall and ending on Wall Street. Hundreds of protestors, including supporters from Housing Works, Health GAP, National Nurses United, OWS Healthcare for the 99% Working Group, Visual AIDS, MIX NYC, Le Petit Versailles, Queerocracy, Queering OWS and other groups will converge for a daylong siege in Lower Manhattan.
May Day Directory: Occupy General Strike In Over 115 Cities
See below for what we believe to be the most comprehensive list yet compiled of cities where Occupy May Day events are being planned, as well as other resources. Note: This is a living document. Check back for updates! If you have any additional events, please let us know in the comment section of this article. You are encouraged to share this page in as many ways as possible!
Occupy Wall Street Protester Can’t Block Twitter Subpoena
A Manhattan judge ruled today that Occupy Wall Street protester Malcolm Harris will not be able to prevent prosecutors from demanding "any and all user information" tied to his Twitter account. Harris was one of about 700 demonstrators arrested in last fall's march over the Brooklyn Bridge, only to have his social media profile subpoenaed by the district attorney's office. As the Wall Street Journal reported last month, "prosecutors have turned one of the movement's principal organizing tools — social media such as Twitter — against the defendants."
[ ... ] But a judge said today that the information is fair and relevant. "Twitter's license to use the defendant's Tweets means that the Tweets the defendant posted were not his," the decision said.
Pew study: Mexican immigration to U.S. down sharply since 2005
Mexican immigration to the U.S. has slowed since 2005 and the number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico living in the country has dropped significantly after more than four decades of growth, a study released Monday by the Pew Research Center shows.
Roughly 6.1 million unauthorized Mexican immigrants were living in the U.S. last year, down from a peak of nearly 7 million in 2007, the Pew study found. The report also says about 1.4 million Mexicans moved from the United States to Mexico between 2005 and 2010.
Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at Pew who co-wrote the analysis, said government data now show a clear shift among Mexican workers already in the U.S. who are returning home. He told the Associated Press that data is a sign that many immigrants are giving up on life in the U.S., feeling squeezed by increasing enforcement and limited economic opportunities that they don't see improving anytime soon.
The first criminal charges filed in relation to the BP blowout.
Former BP employee indicted for destroying evidence of oil released
A former BP engineer who assisted in attempts to stop the flow of oil from the company's Macondo well after the Deepwater Horizon explosion was arrested today on charges of intentionally destroying evidence concerning the amount of oil released from the well. Kurt Mix, who resigned from BP plc in January, was charged with two counts of obstruction of justice in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in New Orleans and unsealed today.
[ ... ]
According to an affidavit filed by FBI Agent Barbara O'Donnell in support of the complaint against Mix, "Mix deleted numerous electronic records relating to the Deepwater Horizon disaster response, including records concerning the amount of oil potentially flowing from the well, after being repeatedly informed of his obligation to maintain such records and after it became apparent that his electronic records were to be collected by an outside vendor retained by BP's counsel to collect electronic documents."
[ ... ]
The messages, some of which were recovered during the FBI investigation, included real-time flow-rate analysis during the Top Kill operation that indicated the attempt to stem the flow of oil wasn't working, "contrary to BP's public statements at the time," the affidavit said.
Inside the minds of internet hoaxers
When pranksters create internet hoaxes for fun - or for profit - it becomes difficult to trust what we read or see online. Jokers and for-profit marketing companies are now devising elaborate online hoaxes, taking advantage of the in-built desire among consumers and media outlets to believe what they really know is unbelievable. ... Hoaxes are part of a long tradition of public fakery, as the BBC's Matt Danzico reports {Video at the link}.
Working-Class Concerns Don’t Cause Romney or Obama Pain
Their personas strike a contrast with other presidential candidates who campaigned successfully during economic hard times in part due to an ability to empathize. In past recessions, Ronald Reagan projected warmth, Bill Clinton a consoling manner, and Franklin Roosevelt a sense of bonding with people’s suffering.
“We have two candidates who don’t project that image of feeling the pain,” said H.W. Brands, a presidential historian at the University of Texas at Austin. “In 2008, being able to feel the pain of ordinary Americans wasn’t a critical thing. It’s going to be much more important this year.”
Despite risks, sea-floor mine opens for business in Papua New Guinea
Canada-based mining firm Nautilus Minerals said Tuesday it had signed China’s Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group as the first customer of its pioneering Papua New Guinean sea-floor mine.
[ ... ]
Sea-floor mining is a new industry that has, until now, been little explored due to the abundance of untapped mineral sources on land and the unknown risks associated with undersea environments.
But Nautilus believes up to one-third of the world’s minerals could eventually come from the sea floor, with land reserves being run down and demand ramping up for resources, particularly from China.
Charge Your Phone Just by Walking
The new nPower PEG allows users to charge mobile devices without an outlet, without sunlight or wind—without anything but a little bit of motion. Users, for instance, can throw it in a bag while they’re walking, strap it to a bike, or take it jogging, and then plug in their phone to recharge it. Movement causes a spring-mounted magnet to bounce and pass repeatedly through a coil, charging the battery. It’s especially useful for people who need to power their mobile devices while they’re off the grid.
High-Speed Trading: My Laser Is Faster Than Your Laser
According to its New Jersey-based operator, Hibernia Atlantic, the $300 million Project Express will be 5.2 milliseconds faster than the AC-1, with an execution time of 59.6 milliseconds. That will make Project Express the world’s fastest transatlantic cable when it opens in 2013 and the first to achieve round-trip trading speeds of less than 60 milliseconds. Unless someone beats them to it.
As of this morning, it appears someone will. A small company called Perseus Telecom, in partnership with a subsidiary of India’s big telecom company, Reliance Communications, has announced the launch of QuanTA, a fiber-optic cable stretching from Long Island to the U.K. with an expected round-trip execution time of less than 60 milliseconds by the end of 2012. Rather than build a brand-new cable like Hibernia-Atlantic did, Perseus made improvements to an existing cable called the FLAG Atlantic-1 North, or FA-1 North, a small portion of a 17,000-mile underwater fiber-optic cable stretching from the east coast of North America to Japan. Until now, the FA-1 North was the second-fastest transatlantic cable after the AC-1.
[ ... ] Like Spread Networks and Hibernia-Atlantic, Perseus won’t disclose the identity of the trading firms it charges to use its cable, nor will it say how many there are or reveal its fees. CEO Percy will say his new project is highly cost-effective and he’s able to pass savings on to speed-trading clients.
Merkel Pushes Back Against Hollande’s Call to End Austerity\
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said balanced budgets are the best answer to the debt crisis, rebuffing French Socialist presidential candidate Francois Hollande’s campaign pledge to reverse Europe’s austerity drive.
As Europe’s two largest economies head toward potential conflict over quashing the crisis, Merkel and her ruling party stood firm on German-led remedies, including the debt-cutting fiscal pact signed last month by all 17 euro-area leaders.
[ ... ]
Hollande, who leads President Nicolas Sarkozy in polls for France’s runoff election on May 6, said yesterday that budget austerity across Europe is “bringing desperation to people” and that he’ll refocus the economy on growth if he wins.
Colleges Confuse Students With Letters Offering Aid That’s Debt
Susan Romano read her son Zach’s financial-aid letter from Drexel University, and her eyes jumped to the line highlighted in yellow: “$13,442 expected payment” for the first year at the $63,000-a-year school.
“At first, I thought it was great,” said Romano, 48, an insurance claims representative from Huntington, Pennsylvania. “The more I read it over and over, the worse it got.”
It turned out the college’s “offered financial aid” included $42,000 in loans to be taken out by the family, including a “suggested” $36,178 in parental borrowing or private loans.
“A loan to me is not financial aid,” Romano said. “It is money I have to pay.”
White killer whale adult spotted for first time in wild
Scientists have made what they believe to be the first sighting of an adult white orca, or killer whale.
The adult male, which they have nicknamed Iceberg, was spotted off the coast of Kamchatka in eastern Russia.
It appears to be healthy and leading a normal life in its pod.
White whales of various species are occasionally seen; but the only known white orcas have been young, including one with a rare genetic condition that died in a Canadian aquarium in 1972.
Panda Cam: Explore.org Launches Live HD Video Of Giant Panda Bear Cubs For Earth Day (LIVE VIDEO)
This year, you can celebrate Earth Day in the company of giant panda cubs.
On April 22, 1970, an estimated 20 million Americans rallied for a cleaner environment. According to the Earth Day Network, "The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts."
To commemorate the 42-year-old event, Explore.org, the multimedia organization of the Annenberg Foundation, is featuring a new live HD feed of panda cubs at the Bifengxia Panda Reserve in China.
Scientists to world leaders: You broke it, you own it
But the council goes on to argue that, while science must guide this process, enacting this change will require more than some technological magic bullet. It will require a massive cultural undertaking. “Innovation alone will not be enough,” say the authors, “We can transform our values, beliefs, and aspirations towards sustainable prosperity.”
And therein lies the third and final theme of the State of the Planet Declaration: We have got to act fast. “[Global] systems can confer remarkable stability and facilitate rapid innovation,” the report states. “But they are also susceptible to abrupt and rapid changes and crises, such as global financial meltdowns or the volatility of the global food system.”
Are the world leaders convening for the Earth Summit in Rio in June willing or able to make the kind of changes necessary to avoid this kind of meltdown? Judging from their preliminary agreement, called the “zero draft,” it doesn’t look good. But individual countries are planning to bring their own commitments to the table, and around the world, people are mobilizing for the cause.
General Envisions Afghanistan After 2014
Where do Afghan forces need the most work? According to Toolan, the United States will have to focus on improving roles in intelligence, combat medicine, special operations, artillery and criminal investigation in the Afghan police forces.
"As the conventional forces leave, special operations forces will continue to be required because their (Afghan military) special operations capabilities are going to take a little bit more time to nurture and mature," according to Toolan.
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