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Rice Crop Subsidies Could Feed Yingluck Into Prison

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose
government was toppled by a military coup in May, faces a possible 10
years in prison after the Supreme Court on Thursday (March 19) ordered
her trial for alleged negligence when she administered rice subsidies.

"I am innocent," Ms. Yingluck said on her Facebook page, hours after
the court's announcement.

The crop subsidies "enhanced the living standards of the rice
farmers," she said.

"The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political
Positions has authority to consider the case," the court ruled on
Thursday (March 19).

The Attorney General's office had charged her with "dereliction of
duty" for not correcting alleged problems within her government
subsidy program.

Ms. Yingluck's trial, scheduled to start on May 19, is expected to
increase divisions in this troubled and repressed Southeast Asian
country.

She remains popular despite the coup-installed junta's use of martial

Bangkok's Firing Squad, Lime Trees & "Underboobs"

BANGKOK, Thailand -- The angry, frustrated, talkative general who
seized Thailand in a military coup last May, said on Monday (March 23)
if he had "complete power" he would have "a firing squad" execute
people, but now he suffers insomnia because Thais are demanding
democracy.

In 2003, Thailand stopped roping convicts to a cross with arms
outstretched, to be shot in the back by a lone executioner, and
instead began lethal injections.

"I can't even stop people from opposing me at this moment," Gen.
Prayuth Chan-ocha said in a speech at a Federation of Thai Industries
convention here in Bangkok.

"If I genuinely had complete power, I would have imprisoned [critics]
or handed them to a firing squad. It would be over, I wouldn't have to
wake up at night like this.

"Today there are some people who love me, but there are also many
people who hate me," he said from a podium in front of a gigantic
screen which vividly projected Gen. Prayuth speaking,
larger-than-life.

Wealth vs. Money

“There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?”

The words are those of Jonas Salk, developer of the polio vaccine, speaking to Edward R. Murrow in 1955, as quoted recently in an essay by Paul Buchheit. What was he thinking? Six decades later, the words have such a counter-resonance with prevailing thought. They exude an old-fashioned humility and innocence, like . . . striking it rich isn’t necessarily the ultimate point of life?

I read these words and sense so much spilled wisdom in them, so much wasted hope. The world we’ve created is governed these days by two unquestioned principles: commodify and dominate. And it’s chewing up the resources that used to belong to every occupant of the planet.

Top 10 Reasons Bill Maher Is Not "Our Best Weapon Against ISIS"

10. This sort of argument for debunking Islam in the media as the best way to "defeat" ISIS/ISIL misses the fact that ISIS recruits from the United States make up almost certainly much less than 1% of recruits, so that 99% of the problem, even on its own terms, remains completely unsolved.

Come to the mini-conference to stop nukes in Ohio

STOP THE CARBON-NUKE BAILOUTS!!!

Mini Conference on the PUCO’s Upcoming Energy Decisions

Win a Carbon/Nuke Free Ohio

Move to Renewables and Efficiency

SUNDAY APRIL 12, 2015; 1pm to 5:45 pm

Columbus State Community College
Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation
339 Cleveland Avenue at the southwest corner of Grove Street Parking is in the lot by the building.

1:00 pm: Welcome by Emcees Harvey Wasserman, author/activist Bob Fitrakis, Prof. Political Science, Columbus State Community College

SPEAKERS

1:10 pm: Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Beyond Nuclear, Takoma Park, MD.
Davis-Besse nuclear reactor, a threat to Ohio and the Great Lakes.

1:50 pm: Carolyn Harding, Organizer, Radioactive Waste Alert & the Columbus Community Bill of Rights.
Challenging fracking in Columbus and Ohio – from injection wells to

2: 30 pm: Break

community rights.

2:45 pm: Ned Ford, Veteran Ohio energy activist and consultant.
EPA’s Clean Power Plan; Ohio’s Senate Bill 310; the big picture on Clean

Matt Bors comic

U.S. vets return to air to help birth state of Israel

  Some subjects are so controversial that it’s impossible to address them without raising extreme emotions.
  The Iraq War is one. Even though director Clint Eastwood avoided addressing the politics behind the war in American Sniper, the film still sparks angry reactions. While some viewers hail it as an anti-war document, others see it as a defense of an invasion that most Americans agree was a disaster.  

  Equally contradictory emotions are likely to greet the documentary Above and Beyond—or they would if it attracted any viewers who didn’t already agree with its sentiments. Directed by Roberta Grossman (Hava Nagila: The Movie), it details the efforts of flying World War II veterans who returned to the air in 1948 to defend the new state of Israel.

  It’s a compelling story, and an uplifting one for those who see Israel as these Jewish Americans did: a haven for a people who’d been the targets of the Holocaust, and who could never fully escape the age-old problem of anti-Semitism.

Is DC Comics finally getting the point?

For the last few years, DC Comics has seemed to be smack in the middle of a big nostalgia trip to the 90s, and not the kind that involves pogs, Pokémon and Power Rangers. Despite decades of success with adult-quality but kid-friendly fare on television, the company that owns Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the rest of the Justice League has been doubling down on the bleakness, violence and gratuitous female thong-shots that defined the worst of 90s comics.
  The overhaul of their entire line as the “New 52,” launched in September 2011, put far more emphasis on catering to the old straight white male market than expanding their audience. Ever since then, the company has been mired in a series of tone-deaf fumbles. There was the gross over-sexualization of Catwoman, Starfire and Harley Quinn, all of whom had been popular with women readers. There was the restoration of former Batgirl Barbara Gordon’s ability to walk, despite her role as one of the only significantly disabled superheroes in a major comic. And there was the editorial cancellation of lesbian Batwoman’s marriage, which led to the creative team leaving the book.

Freep Hero – Charleta Tavares

  Those of us in Ohio’s 15th district (the east half of Franklin County) should be proud to call Charleta Tavares our State Senator. Active in central Ohio politics for over 20 years, she has served as an Ohio House member, as a member of Columbus City Council, and is currently the Assistant Minority Leader in the State Senate. Charleta was the first African-American woman to hold a leadership position in the Ohio Legislature.
  Unfortunately, in 1998, J. Kenneth Blackwell bested Charleta in the race to become Ohio Secretary of State. Think of how different our state and country would be if Charleta, instead of Blackwell, had overseen the 2004 Bush-Kerry presidential election. No long lines. No flipped votes. No outsourcing the final tally. No stolen election and no second Bush administration.

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