SOLUTIONARYS: Courage is Contagious

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msfreeh
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SOLUTIONARYS: Courage is Contagious

Post by msfreeh »

I am creating this topic with an eye towards encouraging solutions to current problems.
If the LDS Freedom Forum is to become more than a cyber wailing wall and psychological soup kitchen for the political down and out
material posted here will focus on solutions to current problems.

As a voter and taxpayer you own the criminal justice system but have no say in how it is run.
Did I mention you are also the primary consumer of this system?
Do you know what primary consumer means?



see link for full story
http://thephoenix.com/Boston/news/15337 ... at-a-bill/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Story-telling: How to pass (or defeat) a bill
Legislative Logic
By LANCE TAPLEY | March 27, 2013

Social scientists have found that if you want to convince people of something, don't be too wedded to sober statistics and iron-clad logic. People respond best to a vivid story. In this regard, humans haven't advanced much beyond the hunter-gatherer tribe around the campfire.

That includes legislators. Keeping this in mind, let's guess at the outcome of two criminal-justice bills recently presented to Maine's Legislature.

LD 873, AN ACT TO ESTABLISH POSITIVE REENTRY PAROLE

Parole is a prisoner's conditional, supervised release into the community. This bill would allow rehabilitated inmates, after half their sentence had been served, to apply for parole to the Maine State Parole Board. Its sponsor, Democratic Senator John Tuttle, told the Criminal Justice Committee, "I believe that people are capable of changing."

Maine's parole board still exists for five older prisoners, even though parole ended in 1976 for new offenders. As society began its tough-on-crime binge, the end of parole in a number of states and for all federal crimes has contributed to the United States breaking world imprisonment records.

LD 873's supporters include Greg Kesich, the Portland Press Herald editorial page editor, who recently opined: "Here's an idea that could save the state $100 million." He suggested parole would eliminate the need for the new prison that Governor Paul LePage has requested.

At the February 22 hearing, both Senator Tuttle and Judy Garvey of the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition (MPAC) said that warehousing rehabilitated prisoners didn't make sense logically or financially: it costs over $50,000 a year to keep someone in prison in Maine, and just the possibility of parole would encourage rehabilitation.

The bill's numerous opponents, however, were more interested in punishment than rehabilitation. For the most part, they were victims of violent crime or those who spoke for them.

They had vivid, emotional stories to tell. One rape victim gave the committee a gruesome account of the rape, of the shame and humiliation she endured being examined at the hospital, and of the terror she felt for years afterwards.

If you break the law, she said, you should just get "shelter, food, water, only necessities." Her daughter wrote the committee, "There is no place in society for a monster" like her mother's rapist.

It was also argued that people who commit violent crimes should be kept locked up as long as possible because victims will be afraid when perpetrators are let out. The group Parents of Murdered Children gave the committee a list of anecdotes about parolees who had committed vicious crimes.

On that subject, a news story doubtless was on the legislators' minds. The morning of the hearing, the national news media proclaimed at full volume that the likely murderer of Colorado corrections director Tom Clements was a parolee (killed in a shoot-out with Texas police). He has since been named the suspect in the killing.

Veteran committee member Gary Plummer, a Republican senator, said the bill "probably" wouldn't go anywhere.

LD 352, AN ACT TO PROHIBIT PRISONERS FROM FILING PROTECTION FROM HARASSMENT COMPLAINTS AGAINST PERSONNEL

The Judiciary Committee heard this bill on March 21. It would deny inmates the right to ask a court to stop various kinds of harassment, including violence and intimidation, by guards or other prison staff. The Department of Corrections, which submitted the bill, claimed that handling these complaints was a burden on it and other state agencies.
Last edited by msfreeh on August 12th, 2013, 2:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

msfreeh
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Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by msfreeh »

see link for full story

http://www.mainjustice.com/2013/04/01/a ... -material/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Aaron Swartz Supporters Harass Prosecutors, Prompting U.S. to Call for Redacting Material
April 1, 2013
Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz is insisting that confidential documents sought by Congress related to the prosecution of the late Internet activist Aaron Swartz be redacted to protect people identified in them from harassment and threats.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Heymann, who was prosecuting Swartz before the activist’s suicide on Jan. 11, has had his Facebook page hacked and his personal contact information distributed, according to a brief filed last Friday in federal court in Massachusetts by Ortiz’s office.

Heymann also received a postcard sent to his home with a photo of Ortiz on one side and a photo of a “guillotine with a disembodied head” that appears to be that of the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose computers Swartz used to make massive authorized downloads of academic documents from a database called JSTOR.

Stephen Heymann

Heymann’s father, Philip Heymann – who served as Deputy Attorney General during the Bill Clinton administration – also received a similar postcard, although he has nothing to do with the case, prosecutors wrote.

“This postcard is even more pointed in its message: the disembodied head pictured on the guillotine is Professor Heymann’s,” the brief said.

These examples were offered by prosecutors as a cautionary tale of what could happen to other people linked to the case through the disclosure of highly confidential discovery material provided by the U.S. to Swartz’s lawyers last year under a protective order.

Swartz’s family and friends have accused Ortiz and Heymann of threatening Swartz with up to 35 years in prison if he did not agree to plead guilty in their probe of his unauthorized download of the JSTOR documents. Although prosecutors said Swartz in reality would have faced between three and six months in prison under the terms of any plea agreement, Swartz supporters blame prosecutors for his suicide.

In campaigning for an “open” Internet with few restrictions on the flow of information, Swartz commanded an almost cult-like following. Those supporters have made their anger with the government known through outreach to Congress – House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is investigating the matter — and such symbolic gestures as generating the necessary 25,000 signatures to force the White House to respond to a petition demanding scrutiny of Ortiz and the “firing” of Heymann.

The current issue concerns a request from Congress that Swartz’s former lawyers hand over so-called discovery material, work product that each party in a dispute is required to provide the other for purposes of preparing their arguments for trial.

Congressional investigators asked Swartz’s former lawyers at Keker & Van Nest LLP in California to provide the material. On Feb. 7, 2013, Michael J. Pineault, identifying himself as counsel for the estate of Swartz, contacted the Massachusetts prosecutors and asked they agree to release of the documents and to modify a court order that protected their release.


However, the lawyer for Swartz’s estate “asserted that the disclosure of the names was necessary because one issue he and his client were focused on, along with Congress and the press, was the role and conduct of the ‘institutional players,’” the government wrote in the brief.

Although Heymann and three other Assistant U.S. Attorneys have agreed to allow their names to go unredacted in the documents, the government said other people involved “did not voluntarily inject themselves into this matter” but were “drawn in simply because they did their jobs.”

In addition to the guillotine postcards to the Heymanns, Ortiz’s home has been targeted by protesters, the government said.

msfreeh
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Re: SOLUTIONARYS

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http://www.globalresearch.ca/american-d ... ce/5329966" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


“American Dream”: Food loaded into Dumpsters while Hundreds of Hungry Americans Restrained by Police
By Sarah Carlson
Global Research, April 05, 2013

Hundreds of poor people waiting outside of a closed grocery store for the possibility of getting the remaining food is not the picture of the “American Dream.” Yet on March 23, outside the Laney Walker Supermarket in Augusta, Ga., that is exactly what happened.

Residents filled the parking lot with bags and baskets hoping to get some of the baby food, canned goods, noodles and other non-perishables. But a local church never came to pick up the food, as the storeowner prior to the eviction said they had arranged. By the time the people showed up for the food, what was left inside the premises—as with any eviction—came into the ownership of the property holder, SunTrust Bank.

The bank ordered the food to be loaded into dumpsters and hauled to a landfill instead of distributed. The people that gathered had to be restrained by police as they saw perfectly good food destroyed. Local Sheriff Richard Roundtree told the news “a potential for a riot was extremely high.”

“People got children out here that are hungry, thirsty,” local resident Robertstine Lambert told Fox54 in Augusta. “Why throw it away when you could be issuing it out?”

SunTrust bank is trying to confuse the issue and not take direct responsibility for their actions. Their media relations officer Mike McCoy, stated, “We are working with store suppliers as well as law enforcement to dispose of the remaining contents of the store and secure the building.” Yet he also said that the food never belonged to SunTrust Bank.

There is no need to sugar coat what happened. Teresa Russell, chief deputy of the Marshal’s Office in Richmond County, said the owner of the building ordered that the food be taken to the landfill. Some people even followed the truck to the landfill and were still turned away.

In Richmond County, there are about 20 evictions per day, and the area surrounding the supermarket is one of the poorest in the state. According to the last available data, the poverty rate is 41 percent. Many people in that parking lot probably knew all too well how evictions work, and were in desperate need of the food assistance.

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gclayjr
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Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by gclayjr »

msfreeh,

A lot of informaton here, and I'm not sure I complety understand what you are driveing at. I will respond to the first article.

It seems to me that the author is one of many in our government who thinks that the purpose of prison is to rehabilitate criminals. I don't agree with this idea. The purpose of prisons is to punish offenders and to provide a consequence for their criminal activity and to remove them from society.

These people are always complaining about how much it costs to incarcerate people, but they never complain about how much it costs to try various usless rehabilative therapy techniques to change our prisoners.

More importantly, they never complain about the cost to society that rescitivist criminals do to good people when released back into society based upon some "good idea" of some rehabilative judge's creative sentencing.

That being said, I certainly am willing to consider whether there is injustice in sentencing guidlines, but that would only be if we as people can be convinced that the sentance in not appropriate to the crime, not because of some belief that the sentence is not condusive to a rehabilative approach to punishing criminals..

Regards,

George Clay

msfreeh
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Re: SOLUTIONARYS

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Thanks George for responding.
My post are created to remind readers that as voters and taxpayers they own the criminal justice system.
My intent is to make them smart shoppers reminding them they are the primary consumers of the CJ system
while I hope ,making our community a safer place to live.
I view prisons as electronic cesspools that do nothing more than warehouse people while producing a more vicious and
competent criminal. Here in Maine it cost $56,000.00 to warehouse 1 inmate for 1 year in state prison. see
http://www.vera.org/pubs/price-prisons- ... -taxpayers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
That does not include court costs, police costs or welfare costs and more importantly the costs to the victim of the crime.
The Maine Department of Corrections recidivism statistics will guarantee the Maine voter and taxpayer that at least 60 out of 100 men and women released from prison will return back to prison within two years.



Can anyone within earshot of my post tell me what business you use that has a 60% failure rate?

My take this to the bank mantra is:

Does the criminal justice system create more disorder than the order it brings?

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gclayjr
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Location: Pennsylvania

Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by gclayjr »

I agree that the prison system is a failure. I think you have to set realistic goals. It is not realistic to see them as places to rehabilitate criminals, and declare it a failure when those efforts fail.

On the otherhand, we don't need to aggravate the situation by creating an environment for teaching criminals to be more vicious. I don't know to what extent Main mixes juvenils with adult felons, but that is definately a bad idea. I think there is probably some value in keeping first time offenders, and those who commit lesser crimes separate from major recivist felons, I think that would be a good idea.

I think you set society and the criminal for greater failure if you think of prisons as schools to rehabilitate criminals which invariable leads to oligarchs deciding that it is better to release a crminal into society rather than follow the sentence he was given.

Regards,

George Clay

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durangout
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Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by durangout »

gclayjr wrote:

It seems to me that the author is one of many in our government who thinks that the purpose of prison is to rehabilitate criminals. I don't agree with this idea. The purpose of prisons is to punish offenders and to provide a consequence for their criminal activity and to remove them from society.
I agree. This is why if I were ever to run for office the only legislation that I would propose is to reinstitute the chain gang.

msfreeh
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SIGN THE PETITION


http://www.change.org/petitions/petitio ... -her-now-2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



DECLARATION BY DICK GREGORY — APRIL 4, 2013



I hereby declare on this day commemorating the life and sacrifice of my friend

and brother in struggle, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that in the spirit of his

moral legacy, I demand the immediate release from prison of the legendary

lawyer Lynne Stewart, who devoted her entire professional life to the poor, the

oppressed and those targeted by the police and a vindictive State.

I further declare that from this day forth, I shall refuse all solid food until

Lynne Stewart is freed and receives medical treatment in the care of her family

and with physicians of her choice without which she will die.

There is no time to lose as cancer, which had been in remission, has

metastasized since her imprisonment. It has spread to her lymph nodes, her

shoulder and appears in her bones and in her lungs.

A criminal defense attorney in New York for over 30 years, Lynne Stewart’s

unwavering dedication as a selfless advocate was acknowledged by the

community as well as judges, prosecutors and the entire legal profession. Such

has been her reputation as a fearless lawyer, ready to challenge those in power,

that judges assigned her routinely to act for defendants whom no attorney was

willing to represent.

In 2002, Lynne Stewart was targeted by then-President George Bush and

Attorney General John Ashcroft for providing a vigorous defense of her client,

the blind Egyptian cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. She was charged with

conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist activity after she exercised

both her and her client’s first amendment rights by presenting a press release

to a Reuters journalist. She did nothing more than other attorneys, such as her

co-counsel former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, have done on behalf of their

clients.

The reason for the prosecution and persecution of Lynne Stewart is evident to

us all. It was designed to intimidate the entire legal community so that few

would dare to defend political clients whom the State demonizes and none

would provide a vigorous defense. It also was designed to narrow the meaning

of our cherished first amendment right to free speech, which the people of this

country struggled to have added to the Constitution as the Bill of Rights.

The prosecution and imprisonment of Lynne Stewart is an ominous threat to

the freedom, rights and dignity of each and every American. It is the agenda of

a police state.

I ask you to join with me to demand freedom for Lynne Stewart. An

international campaign has been launched with a petition that supports her

application for compassionate release. Under the 1984 Sentencing Act, the

Bureau of Prisons can file a motion with the Court to reduce sentences “for

extraordinary and compelling reasons.” Life threatening illness is foremost

among these and Lynne Stewart meets every rational and humane criterion for

compassionate release.

Join with me, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Pete Seeger and 6,000 other people

of conscience throughout the world who have signed this petition to compel the

Warden of the Federal Medical Center, Carswell and the Director of the Bureau

of Prisons to act. Act now. There is no time to lose.





The petition (below) can be found online at the Justice for Lynne Stewart

website: http://www.lynnestewart.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; or at

http://www.change.org/petitions/petitio ... -her-now-2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;





Contacts: Lil Gregory at 508.746.7427 to schedule interviews with Dick Gregory and

Ralph Schoenman at 707.552.9992 for follow up information on Dick Gregory and the

Campaign to Save the Life of Lynne Stewart.



PETITION TO FREE LYNNE STEWART: SAVE HER LIFE – RELEASE HER NOW!



Lynne Stewart has devoted her life to the oppressed – a constant advocate for the

countless many deprived in the United States of their freedom and their rights.

Unjustly charged and convicted for the “crime” of providing her client with a fearless

defense, the prosecution of Lynne Stewart is an assault upon the basic freedoms of us all.

After years of post-conviction freedom, her bail was revoked arbitrarily and her

imprisonment ordered, precluding surgery she had scheduled in a major New York hospital.

The sinister meaning of the relentless persecution of Lynne Stewart is unmistakably clear.

Given her age and precarious health, the ten-year sentence she is serving is a virtual death

sentence.

Since her imprisonment in the Federal Prison in Carswell, Texas her urgent need for

surgery was delayed 18 months – so long, that the operating physician pronounced the

condition as “the worst he had seen.”

Now, breast cancer, which had been in remission prior to her imprisonment, has reached

Stage Four. It has appeared in her lymph nodes, on her shoulder, in her bones and her

lungs.

Her daughter, a physician, has sounded the alarm: “Under the best of circumstances,

Lynne would be in a battle of the most serious consequences with dangerous odds. With

cancer and cancer treatment, the complications can be as debilitating and as dangerous as

the cancer itself.”

In her current setting, where trips to physicians involve attempting to walk with 10 pounds

of shackles on her wrists and ankles, with connecting chains, Lynne Stewart has lacked

ready access to physicians and specialists under conditions compatible with medical

success.

It can take weeks to see a medical provider in prison conditions. It can take weeks to report

physical changes and learn the results of treatment; and when held in the hospital, Lynne

has been shackled wrist and ankle to the bed.

This medieval “shackling” has little to do with any appropriate prison control. She is

obviously not an escape risk.

We demand abolition of this practice for all prisoners, let alone those facing surgery and the

urgent necessity of care and recovery.

It amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of human rights.



There is immediate remedy available for Lynne Stewart. Under the 1984 Sentencing Act,

after a prisoner request, the Bureau of Prisons can file a motion with the Court to reduce

sentences “for extraordinary and compelling reasons.” Life threatening illness is foremost

among these and Lynne Stewart meets every rational and humane criterion for

compassionate release.

To misconstrue the gravamen of this compassionate release by conditioning such upon

being at death’s door – released, if at all, solely to die – is a cruel mockery converting a

prison sentence, wholly undeserved, into a death sentence.

The New York Times, in an editorial (2/12), has excoriated the Bureau of Prisons for their

restrictive crippling of this program. In a 20-year period, the Bureau released a scant 492

persons – an average of 24 a year out of a population that exceeds 220,000.

We cry out against the bureaucratic murder of Lynne Stewart.

We demand Lynne Stewart’s immediate release to receive urgent medical care in a

supportive environment indispensable to the prospect of her survival and call upon the

Bureau of Prisons to act immediately.

If Lynne’s original sentence of 28 months had not been unreasonably, punitively increased

to 10 years, she would be home now — where her medical care would be by her choice

and where those who love her best would care for her. Her isolation from this loving care

would end.

Prevent this cruelty to Lynne Stewart whose lifelong commitment to justice is now a

struggle for her life.





Free Lynne Stewart Now!





Ralph Poynter and Family

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by msfreeh »

http://sfbayview.com/2013/belize-territ ... der-lines/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by msfreeh »

NCIA was created by Jerome Miller, former Commissioner of Youth Services in Massachusetts who closed all the Reform Schools in Massachusetts.
Andrew Vachss worked for Jerome Miller in Mass in 1972-73 running the Andros Secure Facility for Violent Juvenile Offenders who commit murder,etc. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Vachss" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Vachss dedicated his first book THE VIOLENT LIFESTYLE JUVENILE OFFENDER to Richard Allen an ex-con who worked for him at Andros.
As a teenager in the 1950's Richard Allen , a African American , was leader of the bi-racial Boston Juvenile gang called the Majestics which had several hundred members.


Since 1977, the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, Inc. has provided individual care, concern, and treatment for intellectually disabled individuals and those involved with the criminal justice system.

http://www.ncianet.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

msfreeh
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Posts: 7683

Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by msfreeh »

2 reads


http://www.cflj.org/john-brown-day-2013/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
John Brown Day 2013

Posted on Apr 09 , 2013 in Get Involved

Title: John Brown Day 2013
Location: See event flyer for locations
Description: An annual ceremony at John Brown’s home and gravesite in the Adirondack Mountains.
This year’s program features:
– original musical oratorio
– a conversation with comedian and activist Dick Gregory
–Discussions on Harriet Tubman and John Brown and MORE!

Click here to view event flyer
Start Date: 2013-05-10
End Date: 2013-05-11

2nd read
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/4/8/he ... ne_stewart" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Comedian Dick Gregory Launches Hunger Fast for Lynne Stewart

The family of the jailed civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart is calling for her release to receive urgent medical attention. Stewart was found guilty in 2005 of distributing press releases on behalf of her jailed client, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as the "Blind Sheikh." In 2010, she was re-sentenced to 10 years in prison — nearly five times her original sentence of 28 months. Stewart has breast cancer which has reportedly spread to other parts of her body, including her lungs. In a statement, the comedian and activist Dick Gregory announced a liquid-only hunger fast to demand Stewart’s immediate release. Gregory said: "The prosecution and imprisonment of Lynne Stewart is an ominous threat to the freedom, rights and dignity of each and every American. It is the agenda of a police state."

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by msfreeh »

Spirituality and Politics
http://login.ramdass.org/podcast/spirit ... -politics/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The world is a reflection of our internal state; if we dwell on turmoil, anger and confusion then that’s how the world will be perceived to the individual. You have to work on yourself first before you can effectively take any social or political action. A quiet mind and and an open heart are important attributes to project into the world.

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by msfreeh »

Spread the word! Will you take a moment to urge your friends to speak out as well? It’s as easy as posting this message on your social networking sites:
https://action.eff.org/o/9042/p/dia/act ... n_KEY=9048" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fight with us against the Internet's latest threat, #CISPA. Let's stop this terrible bill. https://eff.org/r.2bJf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; via @EFF #CISPAalert

Thank you for helping us defend privacy and free speech in the digital age,

Rainey Reitman
Activism Team
Electronic Frontier Foundation

msfreeh
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Posts: 7683

Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by msfreeh »

see link for full story
http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/20 ... tly-video/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nancy Pelosi says she would have done chained CPI differently (VIDEO)


Liberal activists are preparing a noontime protest of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco office Thursday — largely because of what they say is her “agnostic” stance on chained CPI. Activists from Bold Progressives will deliver 200,000 signatures on a petition asking Pelosi to join fellow Dem Reps. Mark Takano, D-CA and Alan Grayson, D-FL in opposing any cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits.

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by msfreeh »

Now is the time to start planning on creating a conference at BYU or some other venue in Salt Lake
and bring speakers in Salt Lake City this fall to discuss the evidence for taxpayer funded FBI agents
creating the Boston Marathon bombing .
I would also feature speakers who can present the best evidence for FBI agents
creating the 1993 1st World trade Center bombing, Oklahoma City bombing , 911,
Lockerbie bombing, Mumbia, TWA Flight 800 Missile attack.
I would suggest putting the conference within a context like RE-INVENTING OUR LAW ENFORCEMENT SYSTEM
so the conference is more than gotcha journalism . You do not want the event to become a 3 day psychological soup
kitchen for the conspiratorial down and out.
I would emphasize identifying FBI agents who were specifically involved in creating each terrorist event as opposed to blaming
the FBI which is just three letters of the alphabet.
The organizing committee would be headed by Dr Jones who would ensure the committee was not infiltrated by
taxpayer funded FBI informants. Dr Jones would use secure phone lines and e-mail to organize the event to prfevent
sabotage from FBI agents.

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by msfreeh »

As always you have to ask:
How do we shut down the FBI ?

Wed Apr 24, 2013 at 01:53 PM PDT
Rush Limbaugh Admits StopRush is Kicking His @#$
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/04/2 ... ng-His-@#$" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

msfreeh
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Posts: 7683

Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by msfreeh »

see link for full story

http://blog.sfgate.com/energy/2013/04/2 ... m-big-oil/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


After SF vote, other cities may divest from Big Oil


A nationwide divestment campaign launched Thursday, with officials in 10 cities urging their fellow mayors and council members to ditch fossil fuel stocks. Supporters see divestment as a way to punish companies whose political clout has helped block federal climate change legislation, companies whose products are slowly warming the earth.

The movement scored a big win this week when San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to recommend that the city retirement fund divest its fossil fuel holdings. Next week, Berkeley’s City Council is expected to vote on a resolution asking California’s immense public employee retirement system, CalPERS, to do the same.

Berkeley already avoids investing city funds in fossil fuel companies, said Mayor Tom Bates. That isn’t a formal policy, but Tuesday’s resolution would begin the process of making it one.

“We don’t invest in guns or tobacco, and it turns out we don’t invest in oil, either,” he said. “But the real issue isn’t us — it’s CalPERS. They are major players.”

Two organizations are leading the divestment drive. One, the Mayors Innovation Project, is a network of politically progressive mayors who swap policy ideas on urban issues. The other, 350.org, is a climate campaign that has organized a growing divestment effort on college campuses.

In addition to Berkeley and San Francisco, the other cities so far include Bayfield, Wis.; Boulder, Colo.; Eugene, Ore.; Ithaca, NY; Madison, Wis.; Richmond, Calif.; Seattle, Wash.; and State College, Penn.

Pursuing divestment,

msfreeh
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Posts: 7683

Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by msfreeh »

see link for full story


http://represent.colorofchange.org/our-work/campaigns/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;




I’m stunned.

I was planning to email you today to tell you about the next step in our campaign to convince FOX to drop the television program COPS. We were going to unveil ads to be placed in The Hollywood Reporter and AdWeek calling on advertisers to pull their support of the program.

But before I could, AdWeek and The Hollywood Reporter rejected our ads.

Trade publications like AdWeek and The Hollywood Reporter are delivered weekly to Hollywood executives and potential advertisers and we need to get this into as many other publications as we can before FOX executives meet in May to announce which shows get renewed for next season. Will you join us?

Please click here to contribute $3 today to help us keep pushing FOX and its advertisers to stop profiting from a reality that's so costly for the Black community.

COPS AD rejected

Nothing in our ad was lewd or profane, it simply told the truth about how media have profited from the dehumanization and over-incarceration of Black people. The rejection of our ad by two notable media outlets makes it clear how powerful the corporate forces we're up against are.

Research has shown that programs like COPS create warped perceptions of Black folks and communities of color1 and the criminal justice system.2 This relic should have never made it to air — let alone survived for 25 years.

The truth is that for 25 years COPS has glorified the failed “War on Drugs” by taking viewers on a ride-along with officers as they patrol and harass people in low income neighborhoods across the country. COPS has turned the criminalization of Black folks and other communities of color into entertainment for millions — all while lining the pockets of Fox with advertising dollars.

This rejection shows us how much harder we have to work to get FOX to drop COPS. We are committed to spreading our ads far and wide — until the only thing that gets rejected is COPS.

Please click here to contribute $3 today to help us turn up the heat on FOX and its advertisers.

Thanks and Peace,

--Rashad
April 27th, 2013

P.S. We need to turn up the heat ahead of the network upfronts next month, which is when the networks and advertisers will be making a lot of their big decisions. Please click here to contribute $3 and help us get these ads out to let them know how toxic COPS is for our community.

References

1. "Opportunity for Black Men and Boys: Public Opinion, Media Depictions, and Media Consumption" (.pdf), The Opportunity Agenda, 10-01-11
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2114?t= ... 999.KWZmFq" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

2. "How television influences social institutions: the case of policing and criminal justice," Aaron Doyle, 10-01-00
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2356?t= ... 999.KWZmFq" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by msfreeh »

Monday, 29 April 2013 14:28
Historic vote to ban pesticides blamed for huge decline in bees

http://www.collapsenet.com/free-resourc ... ne-in-bees" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Historic vote to ban pesticides blamed for huge decline in bees

“Europe is on the brink of a landmark ban on the world's most widely used insecticides, which have increasingly been linked to serious declines in bee numbers. Despite intense secret lobbying by British ministers and chemical companies against the ban, revealed in documents obtained by the Observer, a vote in Brussels on Monday is expected to lead to the suspension of the nerve agents.

Bees and other insects are vital for global food production as they pollinate three-quarters of all crops. The plummeting numbers of pollinators in recent years has been blamed on disease, loss of habitat and, increasingly, the near ubiquitous use of neonicotinoid pesticides.

The prospect of a ban has prompted a fierce behind-the-scenes campaign. In a letter released to the Observer under freedom of information rules, the environment secretary, Owen Paterson, told the chemicals company Syngenta last week that he was "extremely disappointed" by the European commission's proposed ban. He said that "the UK has been very active" in opposing it and "our efforts will continue and intensify in the coming days"

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by msfreeh »

I'm excited to announce the latest update to our annual Who Has Your Back? privacy report!
https://www.eff.org/who-has-your-back-2 ... ort_whyb=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

When you use the Internet, companies ask you to trust them with your private data: from personal messages, to search terms, to photos, and much more. But government officials increasingly ask companies to hand that data over, a fact highlighted by the recent battle over CISPA.

To make Who Has Your Back?, EFF lawyers and activists review company policies and interview legal departments to find out exactly how companies deal with government requests for your data. We review their answers and give stars to companies with industry-leading policies and practices, which helps privacy-conscious users make informed decisions and encourages the companies to step it up.

But the real power behind Who Has Your Back? comes from you. EFF's strong and principled community pushes companies to take privacy seriously, and after three years, we're proud to report that even more companies have moved towards instituting best practices when it comes to standing up for users’ privacy from the government.

We’re proud to be fighting for users’ rights, made possible by donations from individuals like you. Please consider supporting projects like Who Has Your Back? by joining EFF today!

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by msfreeh »

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2 ... estruction" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Green Giants Profit From the Planet's Destruction

By Naomi Klein, Guardian UK

03 May 13



A new movement has erupted demanding divestment from fossil fuel polluters - and Big Green is in their sights


he movement demanding that public interest institutions divest their holdings from fossil fuels is on a serious roll. Chapters have opened up in more than 100 US cities and states as well as on more than 300 campuses, where students are holding protests, debates and sit-ins to pressure their to rid their endowments of oil, gas and coal holdings. And under the "Fossil Free UK" banner, the movement is now crossing the Atlantic, with a major push planned by People & Planet for this summer. Some schools, including University College London, have decided not to wait and already have active divestment campaigns.

Though officially launched just six months ago, the movement can already claim some provisional victories: four US colleges have announced their intention to divest their endowments from fossil fuel stocks and bonds and, in late April, 10 US cities made similar commitments, including San Francisco (Seattle came on board months ago).

There are still all kinds of details to work out to toughen up these pledges, but the speed with which this idea has spread makes it clear that there was some serious pent-up demand. To quote the mission statement of the Fossil Free movement: "If it is wrong to wreck the climate, then it is wrong to profit from that wreckage. We believe that educational and religious institutions, city and state governments, and other institutions that serve the public good should divest from fossil fuels." I am proud to have been part of the group at 350.org that worked with students and other partners to develop the Fossil Free campaign. But I now realise that an important target is missing from the list: the environmental organisations themselves.

You can understand the oversight. Green groups raise mountains of cash every year on the promise that the funds will be spent on work that is attempting to prevent catastrophic global warming. Fossil fuel companies, on the other hand, are doing everything in their power to make the catastrophic inevitable. According to the UK's Carbon Tracker Initiative (on whose impeccable research the divestment movement is based), the fossil fuel sector holds five times more carbon in its reserves than can be burned while still leaving us a good shot of limiting warming to 2C. One would assume that green groups would want to make absolutely sure that the money they have raised in the name of saving the planet is not being invested in the companies whose business model requires cooking said planet, and which have been sabotaging all attempts at serious climate action for more than two decades. But in some cases at least, that was a false assumption.

Maybe that shouldn't come as a complete surprise, since some of the most powerful and wealthiest environmental organisations have long behaved as if they had a stake in the oil and gas industry. They led the climate movement down various dead ends: carbon trading, carbon offsets, natural gas as a "bridge fuel" - what these policies all held in common is that they created the illusion of progress while allowing the fossil fuel companies to keep mining, drilling and fracking with abandon. We always knew that the groups pushing hardest for these false solutions took donations from, and formed corporate partnerships with, the big emitters. But this was explained away as an attempt at constructive engagement - using the power of the market to fix market failures.

Now it turns out that some of these groups are literally part-owners of the industry causing the crisis they are purportedly trying to solve. And the money the green groups have to play with is serious. The Nature Conservancy, for instance, has $1.4bn (£900m) in publicly traded securities, and boasts that its piggybank is "among the 100 largest endowments in the country". The Wildlife Conservation Society has a $377m endowment, while the endowment of the World Wildlife Fund-US is worth $195m.

Let me be absolutely clear: plenty of green groups have managed to avoid this mess. Greenpeace, 350.org, Friends of the Earth, Rainforest Action Network, and a host of smaller organisations such as Oil Change International and the Climate Reality Project don't have endowments and don't invest in the stock market. They also either don't take corporate donations or place such onerous restrictions on them that extractive industries are easily ruled out. Some of these groups own a few fossil fuel stocks, but only so that they can make trouble at shareholder meetings.

The Natural Resources Defense Council is halfway there. It has a $118m endowment and, according to its accounting team, for direct investments "we specifically screen out extractive industries, fossil fuels, and other areas of the energy sector". However, the NRDC continues to hold stocks in mutual funds and other mixed assets that do not screen for fossil fuels. (The Fossil Free campaign is calling on institutions to "divest from direct ownership and any commingled funds that include fossil fuel public equities and corporate bonds within 5 years".)

Purists will point out that no big green group is clean, since virtually every one takes money from foundations built on fossil fuel empires - foundations that continue to invest their endowments in fossil fuels today. It's a fair point. Consider the largest foundation of them all: the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. As of December 2012, it had at least $958.6m - nearly a billion dollars - invested in just two oil giants: ExxonMobil and BP. The hypocrisy is staggering: a top priority of the Gates Foundation has been supporting malaria research, a disease intimately linked to climate. Mosquitoes and malaria parasites both thrive in warmer weather, and they are getting more and more of it. Does it really make sense to fight malaria while fuelling one of the reasons it may be spreading more ferociously in some areas?

Clearly not. And it makes even less sense to raise money in the name of fighting climate change, only to invest that money in, say, ExxonMobil stocks. Yet that is precisely what some groups appear to be doing. Conservation International, notorious for its partnerships with oil companies and other bad actors (the CEO of Northrop Grumman is on its board, for God's sake), has close to $22m invested in publicly traded securities and, according to a spokesperson, "we do not have any explicit policy prohibiting investment in energy companies".

The same goes for Ocean Conservancy, which has $14.4m invested in publicly traded securities, including hundreds of thousands in "energy", "materials" and "utilities" holdings. A spokesperson confirmed in writing that the organisation does "not have an environmental or social screen investment policy". Neither organisation would divulge how much of its holdings were in fossil fuel companies or release a list of its investments. But according to Dan Apfel, executive director of the Responsible Endowments Coalition, unless an institution specifically directs its investment managers not to invest in fossil fuels, it will almost certainly hold some stock, simply because those stocks (including coal-burning utilities) make up about 13% of the US market, according to one standard index. "All investors are basically invested in fossil fuels," says Apfel. "You can't be an investor that is not invested in fossil fuels, unless you've actually worked very hard to ensure that you're not."

Another group that appears very far from divesting is the Wildlife Conservation Society. Its financial statement for fiscal year 2012 describes a subcategory of investments that includes "energy, mining, oil drilling, and agricultural businesses". How much of WCS's $377m endowment is being held in energy and drilling companies? It failed to provide that information despite repeated requests.

The WWF-US told me that it doesn't invest directly in corporations - but it refused to answer questions about whether it applies environmental screens to its very sizable mixed-asset funds. The National Wildlife Federation Endowment used to apply environmental screens for its $25.7m of investments in publicly traded securities, but now, according to a spokesperson, it tells its investment managers to "look for best-in-class companies who were implementing conservation, environmental and sustainable practices". In other words, not a fossil fuel divestment policy. Meanwhile, the Nature Conservancy - the richest of all the green groups - has at least $22.8m invested in the energy sector, according to its 2012 financial statements. Along with WCS, TNC completely refused to answer any of my questions or provide any further details about its holdings or policies.

It would be a little surprising if TNC didn't invest in fossil fuels, given its various other entanglements with the sector. A small sample: in 2010, the Washington Post reported that TNC "has accepted nearly $10m in cash and land contributions from BP and affiliated corporations"; it counts BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell among the members of its Business Council; Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy, one of the largest US coal-burning utilities, sits on its board of directors; and it runs various conservation projects claiming to "offset" the carbon emissions of oil, gas and coal companies.

The divestment question is taking these groups off guard because for decades they were able to make these kinds of deals with polluters and barely raise an eyebrow. But now, it appears, people are fed up with being told that the best way to fight climate change is to change their light bulbs and buy carbon offsets while leaving the big polluters undisturbed. And they are raring to take the fight directly to the industry most responsible for the climate crisis.

Hannah Jones, one of the student divestment movement organisers, told me: "Just as our college and university boards are failing us by not actively confronting the forces responsible for climate change, so are the big corporate green groups. They have failed us by trying to preserve pristine pockets of the world while refusing to take on the powerful interests that are making the entire world unliveable for everyone." But, she added, "students now know what communities facing extraction have known for decades: that this is a fight about power and money, and everyone - even the big green groups - is going to have to decide whether they are with us, or with the forces wrecking the planet."

It doesn't seem like too much to ask. I mean, if the city of Seattle is divesting, shouldn't WWF do the same? Shouldn't environmental organisations be more concerned about the human and ecological risks posed by fossil fuel companies than they are by some imagined risks to their stock portfolios? Which raises another question: what are these groups doing hoarding so much money in the first place? If they believe their own scientists, this is the crucial decade to turn things around on climate. Is TNC planning to build a billion-dollar ark?

Some groups, thankfully, are rising to the challenge. A small but growing movement inside the funder world is pushing the big liberal foundations to get their investments in line with their stated missions - which means no more fossil fuels. It's time for foundations to "own what you own", says Ellen Dorsey, executive director of the Wallace Global Fund. According to Dorsey, her foundation, which has been a major funder of the coal divestment campaign, is now "99% fossil free and will be completely divested by 2014".

But convincing the biggest foundations to divest will be slow, and the green groups - which are at least theoretically accountable to their members - should surely lead the way. Some are starting to do just that. The Sierra Club, for instance, now has a clear policy against investing in, or taking money from, fossil fuel companies (it once didn't, which caused major controversy in the past). This is good news for the Sierra Club's $15m in investments in publicly traded securities. However, its affiliated organisation, the Sierra Club Foundation, has a much bigger portfolio - with $61.7m invested - and it is still in the process of drafting a full divestment policy, according to Sierra Club's executive director, Michael Brune. He stressed that "we are fully confident that we can get as good if not better returns from the emerging clean energy economy than we can from investing in the dirty fuels from the past".

For a long time, forming partnerships with polluters was how the green groups proved they were serious. But the young people demanding divestment - as well as the grassroots groups fighting fossil fuels wherever they are mined, drilled, fracked, burned, piped or shipped - have a different definition of seriousness. They are serious about winning. And the message to Big Green is clear: cut your ties with the fossils, or become one yourself.

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by msfreeh »

The Navy’s plan for training with sonar and explosives will spell disaster for whales. Take Action

http://www.nrdc.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by msfreeh »

WHO WHAT WHY


http://whowhatwhy.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by msfreeh »

see link for full story

http://stopsmartmeters.org.uk/9th-grade ... attention/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Foreign researchers are extremely excited for a biology project from five 9th grade girls.

Researchers from England, Holland and Sweden have shown great interest in the five girls’ biology experiments.

Take 400 Cress seeds and place them into 12 trays. Then place six trays in two rooms at the same temperature. Give them the same amount of water and sun over 12 days, and remember to expose half of them to mobile [Wi-Fi] radiation.

It is a recipe for a biology test so brilliant that it has attracted international attention among acknowledged biologists and radiation experts. Behind the experiment are five girls from 9b in Hjallerup School in North Jutland, and it all started because they found it difficult to concentrate during the school day:

Six trays of seeds were put into a room without radiation, and six trays were put into another room next to two [Wi-Fi] routers. Such routers broadcast the same type of radiation as an ordinary mobile.

Then it was just necessary to wait 12 days, observe, measure, weigh and take pictures along the way. And the result spoke was clear: cress seeds next to the router did not grow, and some of them were even mutated or dead

more: http://stopsmartmeters.org.uk/9th-grade ... attention/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7683

Re: SOLUTIONARYS

Post by msfreeh »

two stories


1st story
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/2 ... 27729.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Obama Heckled During Speech On Drones, Gitmo (VIDEO)


2nd story
Medea Benjamin

http://americanswhotellthetruth.org/por ... a-benjamin" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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