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Doing time for peace

Hundreds of Americans, young and old, are regularly going to prison, sometimes for months or years or decades, for nonviolently resisting U.S. militarism.

They block ports, ships, submarines, trains full of weapons, trucks full of weapons, and gates to military bases. They take hammers to weapons of mass destruction, cause millions of dollars worth of damage, hang up banners, and wait to be arrested. They cause weapons systems to be canceled, facilities to be closed, and Pentagon policies to be changed. They educate and inspire greater resistance.

The people who do this take great risks. U.S. courts are extremely unpredictable, and the same action can easily result in no jail time or years behind bars. Many of these people have families, and the separation is usually painful. But many say they could not do this without their families or without their close-knit communities of like-thinking resisters. A support network of several people is generally needed for each resister.

Gangnam Style

Story notes For television producer Shonda Rhimes

Dear Ms. Rhimes:
You are one of the bravest, most extraordinary women on TV and you are going to help save us from election fraud.

Thank you for creating the ABC television series "Scandal," -- and in particular for taking on the bedrock of democracy, voting rights. All of our other rights rest upon voting rights.

I also applaud your diverse cast, which includes many women in leading roles.

Over the last ten years, I, like many others, have written to numerous media and entertainment outlets to implore them to help us get rid of all electronic voting machines and bring democracy to our voting system and our country. To no avail, alas.

And then I saw a recent episode of "Scandal," entitled "Defiance," which did just this, in part, by addressing charges of election fraud in Defiance, Ohio in a fictional format.

Election Protection Observers point out how the system is broken in Ohio

The Republican Party and the Romney presidential campaign’s voter repression machine produced nearly 30,000 provisional ballots in Franklin County, Ohio. This accounts for roughly 5% of all the votes cast.

On Election Day, the Free Press reported a high number of early provisional at a majority African American polling location, Driving Park, on the Near East side. After complaints from Green Party observers and election attorneys from the Obama campaign, the illegal practice of forcing voters who were registered in the pollbook to vote provisionally, ceased.

Sherri Hamilton, a Green Party observer at Driving Park, complained about provisional voters being sent to the wrong precincts and being allowed to vote provisionally at the wrong location. These actions could have potentially disqualified their votes.

The 2d Amendment does NOT condone random slaughter

The Second Amendment does NOT guarantee the right of any and all citizens to own any and all kinds of guns.  

It DEMANDS, in the name of national security, that we regulate it.  

NEVER let assertions of the so-called "sanctity" of the 2d Amendment bully you into thinking it guarantees unregulated weapon ownership.  

It does NOT.  

Contrary to the propaganda perpetrated by the gun lobby, the 2d Amendment is the most heavily modified, curbed, explained, complex and contradictory of all the first ten Amendments.  

The slaughter of small children along with teachers, a principle and so many other innocents was the furthest thing from James Madison's mind when he wrote the Bill of Rights.  

He compiled it from a wide range of documents, including the Bills of Rights of Virginia (co-written with Thomas Jefferson) and other states to pacify the new nation's grassroots abhorrence of a strong federal government.  If our basic rights were not clearly and explicitly guaranteed, Americans were ready to rise up for a second revolution.  

Unions, friends, need volunteers to help Columbus families in need!

For over two decades the Central Ohio Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, has been partnering with community organizations in the “One New Toy” campaign during the holiday season to aid needy families, giving out tons of food, toys for children and aid to families needing help. This year that program will kick off this weekend (12/14-15-16) at St. Stephens Community House, 1500 E. 17th St, Columbus, (43219), and they are still looking for more volunteers.

Last year this program aided over 1,500 Columbus families, but this year the load is expected, due to the continuing economic downturn, to be even larger. Hundreds of volunteers are involved, packing and unpacking, unloading trucks and getting the food, gifts, to the waiting families, feeding, helping the volunteers, etc. Unions are asking for more volunteers, from progressive groups, or individuals wanting to give back to our community.

Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities

PREAMBLE
Whereas the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not self-enforcing,
Whereas statement of the inherent dignity and of the equal and supposedly inalienable rights of all members of the human family achieves little without a struggle against greed, injustice, tyranny, and war,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights could not have resulted in the barbarous acts that have outraged the conscience of humankind without the cowardice, laziness, apathy, and blind obedience of well-meaning but unengaged spectators,

Whereas proclaiming as the highest aspiration of the common people the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want doesn't actually produce such a world,

Whereas nonviolent rebellion against tyranny and oppression must be a first resort rather than a last, and must be our constant companion into the future if justice and peace are to be achieved and maintained,

Pile of Skulls

The boy is in his bed crying because there’s a monster in the room. Dad walks in, snaps on the light . . .

This is the setup for Joe Dator’s macabre, punch-in-the-nose-funny cartoon in a recent New Yorker. “See,” says Dad as he points to the wall, “there’s no monster in the corner — it’s just a pile of old skulls.”

Why, for God’s sake, did I think of this cartoon when I read about the newly released Global Terrorism Index? Could it be that our childhood monsters — whom grownups call terrorists these days — are being manipulated for political purposes?

This first-of-its-kind index, based on data collected by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, or START (which is headquartered at the University of Maryland), and published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, indicates that terrorist incidents across the globe have increased pretty much every year since 9/11 and the onset of the “war on terror.”

Nothing ‘balanced’ about focusing on cuts for vulnerable Americans

The pressure is growing in the face-off over the so-called “fiscal cliff” in Washington.

The president put his plan on the table. Republican Speaker John Boehner rejected it out of hand. And then . . . nothing. Republicans refused to make a counteroffer.

They are apparently waiting for the president to make another offer. Obama made that mistake before and got nothing in return. He is not likely to make the same mistake again.

Republicans are demanding that to get any increase in revenue to bring down deficits, Democrats have to agree to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

They have not said how much they want cut, but Senate leader Mitch McConnell suggested raising the eligibility age for Medicare by two years, and changing the cost-of-living index for Social Security so the benefits lose value over time. Republicans have also voted for a budget in the House that would turn Medicaid into a block grant to the states and dramatically cut the federal payment. These changes, we are told, are part of a “balanced” agreement.

Animal Rights Laws

As a registered voter and citizen of Ohio, I no longer have to wonder why we can't get animal abuse laws passed? During House Session-December 5, 2012-Part 2, our legislators can be heard joking and laughing about raping animals while they discuss a bestiality bill against raping dogs which I am unhappy to inform you is legal in OHIO, other than being charged with a misdemeanor Animal Abuse. They talked about how sheep don't have enough protection in Ohio; following by open laughter (65:38 time), not chuckles or snickers, out right belly laughing. There were even a couple comments by a business man about his personal relationship with his sheep. Again laughter, not chuckles or snickers, out right belly laughing. For our lawmakers out rightly joke and laugh out loud about animal abuse shows there is a bigger problem than most citizens and voters realize. This is such unprofessional and immoral, uncompassionate behavior for elected officials. Governor Kasich, VOTERS AND CITIZENS OF OHIO, you should be totally and utterly disgusted to have these kinds of people representing our state. I’M DISGUSTED and I want something done about this. How about you?

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