Wall St., Meet the 99ers

Self defined as the 99% who pay taxes and get screwed with less than 1% of the profits, a determined and disciplined group of mostly early 30 year olds attempted to occupy Wall Street.  Even the benches were fenced in!!!  After a day of playing hide & seek with the NYPD, the radicals settled in at "Liberty Park" on Broadway just north of Wall.  Although the afternoon was fraught with chaos and potential police riot, once this detente was reached everyone settled in.  I took a break and returned around 1:00 am.  Some were sleeping, a group of about 6 played with one of those little balls you kick around, there were clusters of folks around a guitarist or singer, some danced.  It all,  it was peaceful  I hope the morning will bring new recruits to the occupation of Wall Street.

Finally got the photos downloaded--more details will come about today's events and the people there.

O

https://occupywallst.org/

What Are We Hiding and Why?

The heady days of "hope" are long gone and we are now faced with the dilema of supporting a president most  of us only supported in theory.  He was unknown, untested and now, it seems, untruthful.  A man of the law who runs for president must completely comprehend and accept his campaign promises of transparency in governance and justice for ALL (not JUST US).  What is Obama protecting by messing around with linguistics in policy?  What have we done to maintain our security?  Why are lies and obstructions more pallatable to some citizens than truth and setting things straight?

The question that's haunting me is what could a person possibly do to make them "untriable?"  The answer keeps coming back that it isn't the prisoner who is untriable, but the legal system which "dissappeared" law abiding citizens.  Which brings us back to the question of what our president is  doing to protect and maintain our democracy, because democracy HAS to be for all, or it just ain't democracy.

I hope you have sufficiently digested and recovered from yesterday's food fest to stomach this.  And get ready when the news breaks out of our new Afghani Gitmo in Bagram.

(Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t;
Adapted: christophe dune / Flickr)

Obama's Fifth Category: The "Untriable" 

Tuesday 24 November 2009

[...]  According to The Washington Post, quoting an unnamed official, there are some 75 prisoners in this "fifth category." And the administration's position is that these people are untriable because the evidence against them was obtained through torture or because public trials would involve and potentially expose an unacceptable volume of classified material.

[...]  The Obama administration gave the human rights community apoplexy when it referred to "preventive detention." Now, it is simply saying that it's not going to seek any additional authority from Congress for such preventive detention. Which perhaps gives us a clue to the approach the administration has in mind. In a study by the Obama-friendly Center for American Progress, analyst Ken Gude suggests that the Obama administration "incarcerate detainees convicted in US criminal courts in maximum-security US prisons and transfer those who will remain in military custody to Bagram prison in Afghanistan." (Emphasis mine.)

That latter group would presumably include the untriable. Which appears to create a neo-GITMO at Bagram in Afghanistan.

http://www.truthout.org/1124094

Vote for the Soldier Killer

From today's GI Special/Traveling Soldier comes this passionate reminder of what we have to lose if you vote for McCain.

By Dennis Serdel, Vietnam 1967-68 (one tour) Light Infantry, Americal Div. 11th Brigade, purple heart, Veterans For Peace 50 Michigan, Vietnam Veterans Against The War, United Auto Workers GM Retiree, in Perry, Michigan

Vote For The Soldier Killer

Vote for the Soldier killer on the black and white ballot
vote for the corporations the bloody war profiteers
vote for an empty wallet a dead billfold and purse
vote for those who gave all the money away on wall street
vote for those who slaughtered and IED-ed your 401 k’s
vote for the change left in your pocket
after you payed all the bills, vote for your credit cards
while the Dow jumps around like it is on crystal meth
the hell with the Soldiers so far away
who gives a damn if they die, it’s every man for himself now
gas prices down just before elections what about that
vote for a job in the long voting lines, vote for your next meal
but the only ones hiring are the army the navy
the air force and marines
but the Soldiers are just Workers in uniforms
that die faster than a slow death like the cancer back home
Factories are broke like old beat up cars
sitting in the weeds with flat tires all around
dead carp rot in a pond by another closed shop
like a coffin with jagged windows
that stare back like black stars from the street
gangs rule the night because the cops are all gone
street lights shot out to sell drugs
houses burn down because the firefighters
are standing in an unemployment line in an America gone bad
living hand to mouth but who gives a damn
about the people in the streets
who gives a damn about winter while the banks
mortgage companies now own all of these homes that the people
used to live in with plywood on the windows
plywood on the doors, lawns are now three feet high
Vote for the home killers, vote for no jobs
on the black and white ballot
who cares if Bush and the white collar gangs
run off after shaking the piggie banks up side down
until the last trillion fell out
leaving the collapse of a country, collapse of a world behind
Garbage in the streets shots fired in the night
4 hours of electricity in Baghdad
Vote for more war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and...

Do you get it? What is the moral imperative? Step up to the plate!

Joseph, Mary & Jesus were Illegal Immigrants

Signore Berlusconi doesn't even pretend to give a shit. He's from the "social Darwin" school school of philosophy: if you aren't strong or powerful, you deserve to die. Just look at that face!
Italy to jail clandestine migrants
A new crime of 'illegal immigration' has been constructed in Italy. (Photo: European Commission)
RENATA GOLDIROVA
Today @ 09:27 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU home affairs ministers are gathering in Brussels to discuss a number of proposals on immigration, attempting to set a common approach across member states.
Eyes will also be on Italy after the country passed a controversial law on Wednesday (23 July) that would make undocumented migration a crime punishable by up to four years in jail.
A total of 161 Italian lawmakers in the country's senate supported the measures, while 120 were against and eight abstained.
According to media reports, the legislation will introduce a new criminal offence - "illegal immigration" - punishable by six to four years in prison. The law also states that property rented to an undocumented immigrant can be confiscated.
[...] "Foreigners committed 60 percent of the attempted homicides, 60 percent of the robberies [and] 82 percent of the muggings," [my bold] Sandro Mazzatorta of the anti-immigrant Northern League party told the the BBC, referring to his perceptions of the situation in the city of Brescia.
The country's interior minister is also a member of the Northern League, in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's governing coalition. Mr Berlusconi returned to power following snap parliamentary elections in April. Fears over irregular immigration featured prominently during the campaign.
But the tough line has come under heavy criticism from the country's left-wing opposition political parties as well as the Catholic Church and human rights organisations.
According to Anna Finocchiaro from the Democratic Party, the newly adopted law undermines the principle of equality. "I don't know why someone should be punished more because they're an illegal immigrant," she said, Euronews.net reports.
Other opposition politicians have warned it could also aggravate racism in the country.[...]
http://euobserver.com/9/26531/?rk=1