Chinese Power Monsters Go Ballistic--55 More Tibetans Go To Jail

China sentenced 55 Tibetans as the 8th round of talks began
The Tibet Post International
6/11/08
China sentenced fifty-five Tibetans who took part in the March protests against Chinese rule in Lhasa, Tibet on 5 November 2008 as representatives of the estranged Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama took part in the eighth round of talks with China in Beijing.
Pema Tsewang, Chinese-appointed vice chairman of the regional government for Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), announced the sentencing during a meeting with Michael Andrew Johnson, visiting member of the Australian House of Representatives.
"Following the violence, police detained 1,317 people, of whom 1,115 were subsequently released. The rest stood trial,” said Tsewang, according to the official Xinhua news agency reported 5 November 2008.
This is the overall number given since the government began sentencing people for their roles in the peaceful demonstrations in Lhasa Tibetan capital, on March 14.
The Chinese government ruthlessly cracked down on peaceful Tibetan demonstrators across Tibet leaving 218 Tibetans dead, 1290 injured and 6705 arrested or detained since 10 March 2008.
According to state-controlled Chinese media, "rioters torched 120 houses and 84 vehicles and looted 1,367 shops, causing a direct economic loss of about USD 47 million. 18 civilians and one police officer died and 382 civilians and 241 police were injured."
Previous reports from the Chinese government said 30 people had been convicted of arson, robbery, disrupting public order and attacking government offices, among other crimes, as of April 29. Their sentences ranged from three years to life. [my bold] [This reminds me that not so long ago some America citizens were so frustrated and outraged by the murder of Rev. Martin Luther King that they took it out on their own communities.]
Chinese official news agency "Xinhua" did not elaborate on the length of prison terms awarded to the fifty-five or on what charges their convictions took place. It is unknown if they had legal representation. The sentences of the other 147 people who stood trial are also unknown.
Civil rights groups and international communities condemned the arbitrary detention of Tibetans for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression and opinion to voice their grievances with China.
http://www.tibetpost.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=840&Itemid=26

Rove Found in Contempt of Congress

Next step? Let's hope so...away we go!
House panel votes to cite Rove for contempt
By LAURIE KELLMAN – 34 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — A House panel Wednesday voted to cite former top White House aide Karl Rove for contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena to answer questions about the dismissals of several federal prosecutors as its Senate counterpart explored punishments for an array of alleged Bush administration misdeeds.
Voting 20-14 along party lines, the House Judiciary Committee said that Rove had broke the law by failing to appear at a July 10 hearing on allegations of White House influence over the Justice Department, including whether Rove encouraged prosecutions against Democrats such as former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.
[...] The House vote occurred as members of the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on allegations of administration wrongdoing ranging from discriminating against liberals at Justice to ignoring subpoenas and lying to Congress.
The Senate proceedings were the latest congressional review of the White House, a constitutionally mandated power that majority Democrats are eager to use. But three months from Election Day, a lame-duck Congress conducting oversight of a lame-duck White House produces mostly talk. There's little time and less willingness to spend the remaining five weeks of the congressional session doing more than holding televised hearings to try to convince voters that President Bush has abused the powers of his office.
The allegations certainly are serious.
Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, who reported this week that former department officials broke the law by letting Bush administration politics dictate the hiring of prosecutors, immigration judges and career government lawyers, was among the witnesses to appear Wednesday before the Senate panel.
Fine said his office and Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility are investigating the prosecutor firings and whether Bradley Schlozman, former head of the department's Civil Rights Division, used political or ideological criteria to make hiring decisions.
Under questioning by Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the panel's senior Republican, Fine said he uncovered no evidence that any Justice officials involved made false statements to Congress or violated criminal law. Politicization of the hiring process for career positions is a violation of civil law and department policy, he said.
The Senate probe sprang from Justice's firings of nine federal prosecutors that sparked congressional investigations last year and led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
House and Senate Democrats said the findings affirmed their contention that career Justice employees were hired and fired based on whether they were deemed sufficiently conservative, a violation of law. Conyers said earlier that he was considering bringing criminal charges against some of the former officials named in Fine's report who may have lied to his committee. Lying to Congress is a crime, but there's little agreement among Democrats on whether a perjury referral against some of the officials is warranted.
But one Republican acknowledged there's reason to look more closely. And everyone wants more answers by the Department of Justice. The question is what will be done now in the twilight of the 110th Congress and the Bush presidency.
[...] Some Democrats skipped right to thinking what can be done starting in January, after a new president and Congress are installed, probably with more Democrats in their ranks.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who led the investigation into the prosecutor firings, is pressing Fine to say whether making such a disregard of civil service rules a crime would deter the kind of conduct his investigation uncovered.
Similar legislation will be considered in the House.
"I will be asking Chairman Conyers to consider legislation to ensure that the politicization of hiring of career employees at the Justice Department never happens again," Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement.
Associated Press Writer Ben Evans contributed to this story. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h-he8f7AdVl4IRQAEFnivpPn6HOAD9289GU00

Fightin' Man, Melvin

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Racists Get OUT of Town!

EMERGENCY DEMO THURSDAY, 2 PM, TEACHERS' COLLEGE, COLUMBIA:

Noose hung on office door of African American prof at Teachers' College

Yesterday, a noose was hung on the door of an African-American professor at Teachers' College, Columbia University. In light of recent events at Columbia (not to mention Jena...), we cannot let this stand.
…the racist graffiti left in the bathroom of the School of International and Public Affairs shortly thereafter: "Attention you pinko Commie motherfuckers and Arab Towelheads: America will wake up one day and nuke Mecca, Medina, Tehran, Baghdad, Jakarta, and all the savages in Africa. You will all be fucked! America is for White Europeans!" I am not exaggerating here; this is the graffiti, verbatim.

A rally has been called: mobilize at 2 PM tomorrow at the gates of Teachers' College, on 120th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam. 1 train to 116th Street or 125 Street.

Unsubscribe Me

Participate in change and spread the word.

Amnesty International has set up a blog called Unsubscribe Me (from Human Rights Abuse) and it's very easy to use.
Whenever you start to get that "It's too much" feeling, log on to this site AND DO SOMETHING! Thank you.
http://www.unsubscribe-me.org

Go to the Top of the Charts!

With a bullet! Mellencamp may not be your musical cup of tea, but his song reveals he is still a white farm boy who can smell horse shit before he steps in it, and is warning us to take a higher path.
I say BRAVO and ENCORE!
JOHN MELLENCAMP WRITES SONG ABOUT JENA 6
Folksy rocker sings about injustice as part of recording session for new album.
http://relative-way.com/jenastream/

Props out to Mos Def for his passionate leadership in the hip hop community:

What’s different about this moment in terms of hip-hop and political activism is that ... we’re to the point where grassroots activists and hip-hop artists are talking with each other about political change,” said [Bakari] Kitwana.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21137111/