Global
Keep the Greens off the ballot/ Ban the poor from the polls/ Fill the media with lies/ Pack the internet with trolls/ Shake a big nasty stick/ Wear religion on your sleeve/ Pick and choose the science/ You prefer to believe/ Buy a shiny flag pin/ Tack it to your suit/ Take alot of money/ From bastards who pollute/ Demonize the unions/ Like teachers and police/ Energize the bigots/ And claim that war is peace/ Give them games to game them/ Give them dollar DVDs/ So no one sees the forest/ As they're chopping down the trees/ If you want to get elected/ Then you gotta pay to play/ Because this is not democracy/ This is the USA.
A mass grassroots election protection movement has been born. It's finally forced the issues of mass disenfranchisement and hackable electronic voting machines into the mainstream.
And it's emerged from this election with a must-do list of things that need to be accomplished---soon---if we are to retain any shreds of American democracy.
Meanwhile the flaws in our system allowed the theft of the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004, and threatened to do it again this year. They've allowed the theft of countless other races for Congress, governorships, state offices, judgeships, referenda and more.
This cuts to the core of our democracy process. But as we've seen so many times before, we can change all this.
• Money out of politics: Corporations are not people, money is not speech. We cannot afford a system of "one dollar, one vote." Citizens United must be overturned and workable limits placed on campaign spending. This will require a Constitutional amendment. Move to Amend (www.movetoamend.org) is working on it, and needs our support.
Voter Supression In Center City Allentown: I visited over 15 polling centers in my hometown to see the effects of the Voter-ID laws, which weren't supposed to be in effect until after the election. I filmed many interviews, and even one nasty verbal exchange between a poll worker & and would be Latina voter. My hometowns' media decided ONLY to cover surburbia, and neglected the disenfranchised demographic(i.e. Blacks, Hispanics, Poor, and Elderly). I've put together a list of videos on youtube to better articulate the situation at hand, and bring more awareness to prevent future alienation . "We Are All In this together"-Michelle Obama.. Thank you for your help and concern.
FULL PLAYLIST OF ALL Voter Supression VIDEOS(WILL BE UPDATED)
Disenfranchised Latina Voter Denied Right To Vote By Nasty Election Worker 11/6/12 @B'nai B'rith
Obama Wins/ Supporter Responds Latina's Voter ID @B'Nai B'Rith FAIL 11/6/12 (Obama Wins Re election)
FULL PLAYLIST OF ALL Voter Supression VIDEOS(WILL BE UPDATED)
Disenfranchised Latina Voter Denied Right To Vote By Nasty Election Worker 11/6/12 @B'nai B'rith
Obama Wins/ Supporter Responds Latina's Voter ID @B'Nai B'Rith FAIL 11/6/12 (Obama Wins Re election)
On October 10th, Yekaterina Samutsevich was freed from prison on appeal. She is one of the three members of the Russian band Pussy Riot who was convicted of hooliganism on August 17th and initially handed a two-year prison sentence for performing a profanity-laden “Punk Prayer” inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. According to The Guardian, security camera footage proving that Samutsevich was prevented from joining the others during the performance secured the new ruling. The appeals of Samutsevich’s bandmates Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were struck down and their sentence is being upheld.
Yekaterina Samutsevich discusses her jailed bandmates in this AFP video.
Yekaterina Samutsevich discusses her jailed bandmates in this AFP video.
Summary So Far
So far, I have been discussing the Lucasville uprising as a whole. I’ve asked: Why should we doubt the accuracy of the trial court verdicts? What caused this rebellion, anyway? In what sense can these events be called “tragic”?
Let’s sum up where we have arrived.
In Essay 1 we offered some examples of the unreliability of conclusions asserted by prosecutors in trials after the end of the uprising. Particularly dramatic was the statement of one of the prosecutors (now a state court judge), Daniel Hogan, that we would never know “who hands-on killed the corrections officer, [Robert] Vallandingham. . . . I don’t know. And I don’t think we’ll ever know.” How can the State of Ohio propose to execute three men (Siddique Abdullah Hasan, Jason Robb, and James Were) for the murder of Officer Vallandingham when it doesn’t even know who killed him?
So far, I have been discussing the Lucasville uprising as a whole. I’ve asked: Why should we doubt the accuracy of the trial court verdicts? What caused this rebellion, anyway? In what sense can these events be called “tragic”?
Let’s sum up where we have arrived.
In Essay 1 we offered some examples of the unreliability of conclusions asserted by prosecutors in trials after the end of the uprising. Particularly dramatic was the statement of one of the prosecutors (now a state court judge), Daniel Hogan, that we would never know “who hands-on killed the corrections officer, [Robert] Vallandingham. . . . I don’t know. And I don’t think we’ll ever know.” How can the State of Ohio propose to execute three men (Siddique Abdullah Hasan, Jason Robb, and James Were) for the murder of Officer Vallandingham when it doesn’t even know who killed him?
Veterans For Peace Chapter 92 in Greater Seattle is represented by the ACLU of Washington in suing the city of Auburn for the right to participate in this year's Veterans Day Parade.
Veterans For Peace chapters are participating in events on or around this November 11th in over 50 U.S. cities, many of them honoring the tradition of Armistice Day, the earlier name for what is now called Veterans Day.
Veterans For Peace has participated in the Auburn parade every year since 2006.
Auburn rejected VFP's application to march in the parade this year, saying that other applicants more closely met the parade's goals and purpose. Among the applicants accepted are a motorcycle club, a Corvette club, the Optimists and Kiwanis International, the Sons of Italy, and a Daffodil Festival float.
The suit asserts that the City of Auburn is discriminating against Veterans For Peace because of the group’s viewpoint, and seeks a court order to allow VFP to march.
Veterans For Peace chapters are participating in events on or around this November 11th in over 50 U.S. cities, many of them honoring the tradition of Armistice Day, the earlier name for what is now called Veterans Day.
Veterans For Peace has participated in the Auburn parade every year since 2006.
Auburn rejected VFP's application to march in the parade this year, saying that other applicants more closely met the parade's goals and purpose. Among the applicants accepted are a motorcycle club, a Corvette club, the Optimists and Kiwanis International, the Sons of Italy, and a Daffodil Festival float.
The suit asserts that the City of Auburn is discriminating against Veterans For Peace because of the group’s viewpoint, and seeks a court order to allow VFP to march.
November 6 marks a tremendous victory for the fracktivists in Mansfield, Ohio. They passed a "Community Bill of Rights" referendum with 62.87% of the vote on Tuesday.
The Center for Health, Environment, and Justice reported this:
"Mansfield is a city with roughly 48,000 citizens located 80 miles southwest of Cleveland and 66 miles northeast of Columbus, right in the heart of the Utica Shale basin. Eric Belcastro, the Pennsylvania Organizer for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), explained the rationale behind the “Bill of Rights” push in a blog post:
Faced with the permitting of two 5,000 foot deep injection wells in Mansfield by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR)…[t]he amendment would drive a community Bill of Rights into Mansfield’s charter and then prohibit the injection of fracking wastewater on grounds that such prohibition is necessary to secure and protect those community rights. The amendment also recognizes corporate “rights” as subordinate to the rights of the people of Mansfield, as well as recognizing the rights of residents, natural communities and ecosystems to clean air and water."
The Center for Health, Environment, and Justice reported this:
"Mansfield is a city with roughly 48,000 citizens located 80 miles southwest of Cleveland and 66 miles northeast of Columbus, right in the heart of the Utica Shale basin. Eric Belcastro, the Pennsylvania Organizer for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), explained the rationale behind the “Bill of Rights” push in a blog post:
Faced with the permitting of two 5,000 foot deep injection wells in Mansfield by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR)…[t]he amendment would drive a community Bill of Rights into Mansfield’s charter and then prohibit the injection of fracking wastewater on grounds that such prohibition is necessary to secure and protect those community rights. The amendment also recognizes corporate “rights” as subordinate to the rights of the people of Mansfield, as well as recognizing the rights of residents, natural communities and ecosystems to clean air and water."
Let’s try to visualize the most unfair criminal trial we can imagine. Let’s make a
list of elements that might be part of such an unjust proceeding.
The list might include the following elements.
1. The judge excuses one potential jury member after another who states that he or she could not in good conscience recommend the death penalty.
2. The evidence in support of convicting the defendant consists entirely of testimony by other prisoners.
Each of these elements was present in the trial of George Skatzes, who was found guilty and sentenced to death for the aggravated murder of prisoners Earl Elder and David Sommers. In addition, in the portion of the trial concerning Mr. Elder’s death:
3. Skatzes was sentenced to death for allegedly ordering prisoner Rodger Snodgrass to murder Earl Elder. But Snodgrass, a prosecution witness, testified that Elder was still alive when he left Elder’s cell.
1. The judge excuses one potential jury member after another who states that he or she could not in good conscience recommend the death penalty.
2. The evidence in support of convicting the defendant consists entirely of testimony by other prisoners.
Each of these elements was present in the trial of George Skatzes, who was found guilty and sentenced to death for the aggravated murder of prisoners Earl Elder and David Sommers. In addition, in the portion of the trial concerning Mr. Elder’s death:
3. Skatzes was sentenced to death for allegedly ordering prisoner Rodger Snodgrass to murder Earl Elder. But Snodgrass, a prosecution witness, testified that Elder was still alive when he left Elder’s cell.
Election 2012 probably doesn’t prove anything.
But it provides some evidence for the hopeful proposition that: even when the game is rigged, the cheaters lose:
· MONEY. Even though the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision allowed gross amounts of money (almost $6 billion) from known and unknown donors to distort the process, few elections near the top of the ballot appear to have been bought. But the down-ballot races may be most of the iceberg.
Big money may not have overwhelmed the electoral system in 2012, but that’s far from saying big money doesn’t control too much of government and too many public officials.
· PROCESS. Even though hyper-partisan Republican legislators, election officials, and outside groups made a concerted effort by a variety of means to suppress voting by likely Democratic-leaningconstituencies, there was sufficient pushback from the courts, the Justice Department, and professional election officials to allow the democratic process to function pretty well.
But it provides some evidence for the hopeful proposition that: even when the game is rigged, the cheaters lose:
· MONEY. Even though the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision allowed gross amounts of money (almost $6 billion) from known and unknown donors to distort the process, few elections near the top of the ballot appear to have been bought. But the down-ballot races may be most of the iceberg.
Big money may not have overwhelmed the electoral system in 2012, but that’s far from saying big money doesn’t control too much of government and too many public officials.
· PROCESS. Even though hyper-partisan Republican legislators, election officials, and outside groups made a concerted effort by a variety of means to suppress voting by likely Democratic-leaningconstituencies, there was sufficient pushback from the courts, the Justice Department, and professional election officials to allow the democratic process to function pretty well.
A HUGE thank you to Bob Fitrakis and the Free Press for their tireless efforts to prevent another theft of Ohio’s vote. USA Today, Forbes, The Atlantic Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, & Huffpost all (finally) reported on dangers of black box voting on DREs. Bob was in an Ohio court on election day to get a temporary restraining order to prevent use of the untested, uncertified software patches installed late last week that would circumvent the regular reporting procedures to the secretary of state. The order was not granted, but Bob's work and the efforts of activists finally shone enough light on the subject to break the silence of the mainstream media... We are coming closer to the day when Athan Gibbs may finally rest in PEACE!
In memory of Athan: I thank you, Bob, from the bottom of my heart…
In memory of Athan: I thank you, Bob, from the bottom of my heart…