This is an awakening to America's economic reality. Please read the article and view the video I posted on my other blog. It relates to the Crossing Borders Project; Portland's Homeless Project. Pass it around and share. We really need to wake up and make changes before we get to the point of no return. If we are not there already.
crossing borders project: Homeless and Income Inequality in America
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Bank of America Continuing their Fraud Tactics
Don't forget the problem we have had from activities from 2005 until everything went haywire in 2008 with one of the largest mortgage companies in America, The Bank of America. They were instrumental to the failing of our economy, people loosing their homes due to non response to their customers, tagging huge fines on homeowners and literally taking homes back from even those who were current on their payments.
Although the BofA paid our government millions of dollars in paybacks, many of those who were affected did not receive any benefits from that money. After the BofA paid this money it seems that the subject and attention was taken away from the BofA. However, the bank continues to fail in customer communications by failing to return calls, trailing the caller from one person to another, ignore written communication and fails to answer inquiries from lawyers. They have not changed in their mode of service nor have sharpened their loan policies.
I hear and read story after story of people who felt that they were given proper information before a new mortgage loan (I ask why would anyone go to BofA?) trusted the loan officer and had huge difficulties from the signing of their new mortgage loan.
I ask that you out there in America land, continue to ban this bank, remove your accounts and take them elsewhere, do not even attempt to get a mortgage loan or any other loan from this company.
Here are some samples of continual Fraud:
"Going into the loan application process we were VERY clear about what we could comfortably afford and said repeatedly that if those parameters would not work, to let us know and we would back out. We wanted to make certain we didn't take on something we could not afford and end up in foreclosure. We were told over and over by the loan officer that we were fine. Even when we received summaries that showed figures MUCH higher than our max agreed amount, we were assured many times that our loan officer was still "working the numbers". So taking her at her word we released our contingencies and moved forward. Then our escrow process went 30 days over, resulting in our living in a hotel as we had already given up our rental home based upon our contracted escrow closing date. I am told this can happen and was assured by the manager of our loan officer that we would be reimbursed for our expenses for having to stay at a hotel. So we made the best of a bad situation (2 young homeschooled kids, 2 large dogs, and 2 cats in a hotel room for any amount of time is NOT pleasant) and waited it out. The day before escrow finally closed we again contacted our loan officer to get our final numbers and were told she didnt have them in front of her but not to worry, they were what we wanted. So we went to sign our escrow docs. That was when we found out that our total monthly payment was $800 higher per month than our max agreed amount. " Jan 2013
"B of A was supposed to do a forebearance or loan modification, at the same time a different office was handling the foreclosure. They sent foreclosure papers to court, without even finishing the loan modification. We were smart enough to figure out how to file a response to their foreclosure and stop it dead in its tracks, "in pro per". Next thing we know, we get a paper from B of A stating that they are no longer handling our case.. and they tacked the attorney and court fees on the loan for this next company that is taking it over. Their names are NationStar Mortgage." Dec 15, 2012
After one year of continual fighting and attempts of communication with BofA "So I finally called BofA and laid it all out on the line, that I was now aware that this process was a proven pattern of fraud, that I would fight them tooth and nail until the last possible moment and that I would rather see the house burn than allow their fraudulent actions lead to it's repossession. I said I would not accept anything less than an immediate modification as agreed and that I reserved the right to seek legal action in the future to recoup my other substantial related losses. Once I made my position clear it is almost as if the time to continue to defraud us was no longer worth it because we were magically approved for a modification 3 days later, after never submitting new paperwork. While it has not yet been finalized, we have expressly complied with the terms thus far and I am hopeful it is a step in the right direction. While we may never recoup all that we have lost, I am sharing this with the hope that someone else might read it and not become their next victim"
These are only a few of what I have been hearing.
Don't forget the crimes of B of A.
Although the BofA paid our government millions of dollars in paybacks, many of those who were affected did not receive any benefits from that money. After the BofA paid this money it seems that the subject and attention was taken away from the BofA. However, the bank continues to fail in customer communications by failing to return calls, trailing the caller from one person to another, ignore written communication and fails to answer inquiries from lawyers. They have not changed in their mode of service nor have sharpened their loan policies.
I hear and read story after story of people who felt that they were given proper information before a new mortgage loan (I ask why would anyone go to BofA?) trusted the loan officer and had huge difficulties from the signing of their new mortgage loan.
I ask that you out there in America land, continue to ban this bank, remove your accounts and take them elsewhere, do not even attempt to get a mortgage loan or any other loan from this company.
Here are some samples of continual Fraud:
"Going into the loan application process we were VERY clear about what we could comfortably afford and said repeatedly that if those parameters would not work, to let us know and we would back out. We wanted to make certain we didn't take on something we could not afford and end up in foreclosure. We were told over and over by the loan officer that we were fine. Even when we received summaries that showed figures MUCH higher than our max agreed amount, we were assured many times that our loan officer was still "working the numbers". So taking her at her word we released our contingencies and moved forward. Then our escrow process went 30 days over, resulting in our living in a hotel as we had already given up our rental home based upon our contracted escrow closing date. I am told this can happen and was assured by the manager of our loan officer that we would be reimbursed for our expenses for having to stay at a hotel. So we made the best of a bad situation (2 young homeschooled kids, 2 large dogs, and 2 cats in a hotel room for any amount of time is NOT pleasant) and waited it out. The day before escrow finally closed we again contacted our loan officer to get our final numbers and were told she didnt have them in front of her but not to worry, they were what we wanted. So we went to sign our escrow docs. That was when we found out that our total monthly payment was $800 higher per month than our max agreed amount. " Jan 2013
"B of A was supposed to do a forebearance or loan modification, at the same time a different office was handling the foreclosure. They sent foreclosure papers to court, without even finishing the loan modification. We were smart enough to figure out how to file a response to their foreclosure and stop it dead in its tracks, "in pro per". Next thing we know, we get a paper from B of A stating that they are no longer handling our case.. and they tacked the attorney and court fees on the loan for this next company that is taking it over. Their names are NationStar Mortgage." Dec 15, 2012
After one year of continual fighting and attempts of communication with BofA "So I finally called BofA and laid it all out on the line, that I was now aware that this process was a proven pattern of fraud, that I would fight them tooth and nail until the last possible moment and that I would rather see the house burn than allow their fraudulent actions lead to it's repossession. I said I would not accept anything less than an immediate modification as agreed and that I reserved the right to seek legal action in the future to recoup my other substantial related losses. Once I made my position clear it is almost as if the time to continue to defraud us was no longer worth it because we were magically approved for a modification 3 days later, after never submitting new paperwork. While it has not yet been finalized, we have expressly complied with the terms thus far and I am hopeful it is a step in the right direction. While we may never recoup all that we have lost, I am sharing this with the hope that someone else might read it and not become their next victim"
These are only a few of what I have been hearing.
Don't forget the crimes of B of A.
Saturday, March 02, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
Fracking our Farms
 |
| (Photo Credit: “American Gasland,” artwork by River Side (marcellusprotest/Flickr)) |
Working the land is a difficult living. Rising costs and the encroachment of suburbs has led many farmers to seek out non-traditional sources of income. Leasing land to gas companies for hydro-fracking has become a potential lifeline for some.
Farmers who are in favor of fracking are facing opposition from environmental groups and sometimes even neighboring farms that might want to see the practiced banned. Some organic farmers are concerned with potential contamination from fracking activities that could threaten their livelihood by tainting their land.
as much as 60 percentof land in one New York country has already been leased out. The Marcellus and Utica shale formations that are located upstate are thought to hold vast reserves of natural gas, and natural gas development is expanding.A few farmers have become millionaires in best-case scenarios; others signed up quickly and receive only a small share of the overall royalties. Cornell researchers did, however, note that many leases are being obtained on the cheap.
 |
| Cornell professor Robert Oswald's study compared sickened wildlife to 'canaries in a coal mine.' (image credit:http://freelanceflaneur.blogspot.com) |
The effects on fracking includes, possible tainted water in Wyoming, Ohio fracking caused earthquakes and may have caused some in the U.K., Hydro-frackers told the EPA that they use diesel - (what?), we may have less gas than we think, hydrofracking sickening animals and people
Below Reposted: Organic Consumer Association
A Tale
of Five Farming Families
More than 600,000 fracking wells and waste injection sites have popped up all over the country, according to ProPublica. The oil and gas industry, along with federal regulators, would have you believe that injecting trillions of gallons of toxic liquid deep into the earth is harmless. Tell that to Jacki Schilke of North Dakota, who lost two dogs, five cows, chickens – and her health – after 32 oil and gas wells sprouted up within three miles of her ranch. Or Christine Moore, a horse rescuer in Ohio who sold her farm after a well went up five miles from her farm, creating an oily film on her water and making her too sick to care for her horses.
You’ve heard it before. No farms, no food. As one farmer said, “If they frack all the farms, there isn’t going to be any organic.”
With hundreds of thousands of fracking wells and waste injection sites in the U.S., it’s likely that our food supply already contains water, plants and animals (meat) contaminated with fracking chemicals. While we hear a lot about drinking water contamination, including people’s water catching on fire straight out of the faucet, that shouldn’t be our only concern. Contaminated crops and farm animals raised for food are also possible avenues for exposing humans to fracking chemicals.
Of course, not all farm animals are destined for the food chain. Those unfortunate enough to live near fracking wells can tell us a lot about the potential danger from fracking chemicals to our own health. Farm animals have the same susceptibility to disease that we have, but because they are exposed continually to air, soil and groundwater, and have more frequent reproductive cycles, they exhibit diseases more quickly, presaging human health problems. A study involving interviews with animal owners who live near gas drilling operations revealed frequent deaths. Animals that survived exhibited health problems including infertility, birth defects and worsening reproductive health in successive breeding seasons. Some animals developed unusual neurological conditions, anorexia, and liver or kidney disease.
What causes those health problems? Among the hundreds of toxic chemicals used in fracking are arsenic, benzene,ethylene glycol (antifreeze), formaldehyde, lead, toluene, Uranium-238. and Radium-226. The American Academy of Pediatrics’ list of common health problems from exposure to fracking chemicals includes autism, asthma, cancer, heart disease, kidney failure, infertility, birth defects, allergies, endocrine diseases and immune system disorders.
Farmers fighting back
Thankfully, many farmers are fighting back. Here are the tales of five farmers on the front lines of the fracking fight who are heroically sharing their tragic stories with the world in an attempt to expose the lie that natural gas is “cleaner power.”
Carol French, dairy farmer and cofounder of Pennsylvania Landowners Group for Awareness and Solutions (PLGAS). Carol’s Bradford County farm is surrounded by nine gas wells. Earlier this month, Carol posted to the Fracking Hell Facebook group that she had just lost three calves in nine days. “I have heard from other farmers with ‘changed’ water having similar problems,” she wrote. At the September 2012, Shale Gas Outrage protest in Philadelphia, Carol told the crowd how, two weeks after their water changed, her daughter developed a fever and diarrhea that turned to blood. She lost ten pounds in seven days. Watch Carol’s speech.
Steve and Jacki Schilke North Dakota ranchers. There are 32 oil and gas wells within three miles of Steve and Jacki’s 160-acre ranch. Jacki blames the wells for the loss of two dogs, five cows and a number of chickens, as well as the decline of her own health. Her symptoms began a few days after the wells were fracked, when a burning feeling in her lungs sent her to the emergency room. After that, whenever she went outside she became lightheaded, dizzy and had trouble breathing. At times, the otherwise fit 53-year-old, can’t walk without a cane, drive or breathe easily. She warns landowners against making deals with frackers: “They're here to rape this land, make as much money as they can and get the hell out of here. They could give a crap less what they are doing here. They will come on your property look you straight in the eye and lie to you.” Watch Jacki talk about her experience.
Susan Wallace-Babb, Colorado rancher. One day in 2005, Susan Wallace-Babb went out into a neighbor's field near her ranch in Western Colorado to close an irrigation ditch. She stepped out of her truck, took a deep breath and collapsed, unconscious. Later, after Susan came to and sought answers, a sheriff's deputy told her that a tank full of natural gas condensate less than a half mile away had overflowed into another tank. The fumes must have drifted toward the field where she was working, the deputy said. The next morning Susan was so sick she could barely move. She vomited uncontrollably and suffered explosive diarrhea. A searing pain shot up her thigh. Within days she developed burning rashes that covered her exposed skin, then lesions. Anytime she went outdoors her symptoms worsened. In 2006, she moved to Winnsboro, Texas, a small town two hours east of Dallas. In 2007, Susan testified in Congressional hearings on the health impacts of fracking. For three years her symptoms gradually improved, until she could work in her garden and go about her normal daily routine. Then, in early 2010, Exxon launched a project in an old oil field 14 miles away and began fracking wells to get them to produce more oil. Within months, Susan’s symptoms returned. Watch Susan’s testimony at the Congressional hearings.
Marilyn and Robert Hunt, West Virginia organic farmers. The Hunts own a 70-acre organic farm in Wetzel County, where they raise goats, chickens and cattle. When the landman from Chesapeake Energy approached the Hunts to lease their mineral rights, Marilyn did some research then turned down the offer. But that didn’t stop Chesapeake from, as she told ShaleReporter.com, “stealing gas from both sides of our property.” In 2010, Chesapeake received a permit for land disposal near her property and dumped waste on her land. “The water got little white flecks in it, and we started to get sick,” Marilyn said. “We lost a whole lot of baby goats that got gastrointestinal disorders from drinking the water.” Some of the baby chicks her daughter was raising died of nervous system failure, and the ones that survived were deformed. Interestingly, though, the cattle that drink from the spring water on the highest point of her property were spared any adverse impact, leading Marilyn to believe it was the water contaminated by the fracking waste that caused the illnesses.
Christine Moore, Ohio horse rescuer. Christine Moore and her family lived a dream life rescuing horses deep inside Ohio’s Amish country. When a well was fracked five miles from her house in January 2012, Christine went door to door, begging her neighbors not to lease their land for fracking. But most of the town, many Amish and Mennonite, didn’t listen. Two months after the well near her home was fracked, the water went bad. An oily film formed across the surface of the water in her horses’ bowls. The water inside her home, pumped from her well and filtered through a softener, began giving her severe stomachaches. She sent her horses to a no-kill shelter in upstate Ohio and, in July, sold the property to her neighbor who, according to Tuscarawas County records, has oil and gas exploration leases on multiple properties. WatchChristine describe how fracking destroyed her horse farm.
Related Article:
Questionable Economics of Shale and Gas
Palestinian Protesters Clash with Israelis in West Bank
 |
| Associated Press/Bernat Armangue - A masked Palestinian throws back a gas canister previously shoot by Israeli forces, not pictured, during a protest to support Palestinian prisoners, outside Ofer, an Israeli |
I posted this because of the previous post and my involvement with those living in the West Bank.
Palestinians have staged protests across the West Bank all week in solidarity with the 4,500 prisoners held by Israel. Four of the prisoners are staging a hunger strike and the worsening condition of one, Samer Issawi, sparked the latest round of unrest between the protesters and Israeli troops.
More
Remember: I conduct photojournalism workshops in the West Bank, so gather your group and come and learn a ton in the real world! Workshops
Monday, February 18, 2013
Palestinian Refugees Right to Return
Reposted from Causes.com
Letter from prisoner Samer al-Issawi as it came from the Ministry of Prisoners:
I turn with admiration to the masses of our heroic Palestinian people, to our Palestinian leadership, to all forces, parties and national institutions. I salute them for standing by our fight to defend our right to freedom and dignity. I draw my strength from my people, from all the free people in the world, from friends and the families of the prisoners who continue day and night chanting for freedom and an end to the occupation. My health has deteriorated dramatically and I'm hanging between life and death.
My weak body is collapsing but still able to be patient and continue the confrontation. My message is that I will continue until the end, until the last drop of water in my body, until martyrdom. Martyrdom is an honor for me in this battle. My martyrdom is my remaining bomb in the confrontation with the tyrants and the jailers, in the face of the racist policy of the occupation that humiliates our people and exercises against us all means of oppression and repression.
I say to my people: I'm stronger than the occupation army and its racist laws. I, Samer al-Issawi, son of Jerusalem, send you my last will that, in case I fell as a martyr, you will carry my soul as a cry for all the prisoners, man and women, cry for freedom, emancipation and salvation from the nightmare of prisons and their harsh darkness. My battle is not only for individual freedom. The battle waged by me and by my heroic colleagues, Tariq, Ayman and Ja'affar, is everyone's battle, the battle of the Palestinian people against the occupation and its prisons.
Our goal is to be free and sovereign in our liberated state and in our blessed Jerusalem. The weak and strained beats of my heart derive their steadfastness from you, the great people. My eyes, which started to lose their sight, draws light from your solidarity and your support of me. My weak voice takes its strength from your voice that is louder than the warden's voice and higher than the walls. I'm one of your sons, among thousands of your sons who are prisoners, still languishing steadfastly in the prisons, waiting for an end to be brought to their plight, their pains and the suffering of their families. The doctors told me I became exposed to stroke because of the disorder of my heartbeats, the shortage of sugar and the drop in blood pressure.
My body is full of cold and I can't sleep because of the continued pain. But despite the extreme fatigue and chronic headaches, as I move on my chair, I'm trying to summon all my resources to continue on the road till its end.
There is no going back, only in my victory, because I'm the owner of Right and my detention is invalid and illegal. Do not be afraid for my heart if it will stop, don't be afraid for my hands if they will be paralyzed. I am still alive now and tomorrow and after death, because Jerusalem is moving in my blood, in my devotion and my faith.
Palestine 16/02/2013 The above letter (in Arabic) was published on 16 February on Shirin Issawi's Page in Facebook.
Translated to English and Hebrew by Free Haifa Please share it and act everywhere to save Samer Issawi and for all the people that were imprisoned for their struggle for freedom.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Needs, Wants and Art in Florence
Hi everyone,
This is my first "real video" and I made it for One Day on Earth Project!
Gemma my intern and I worked on this together and she did a ton of work, plus all of the editing!
Clap Clap Gemma!
Please view the video at this link, share to spread the work and provide feedback!
Also, the CB Project is now preparing to conduct workshops with homeless men and sheltered women in Portland, Oregon! We have a total of 18 participants.
Needs, Wants and Art in Florence from Susan Brannon on Vimeo.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
EMERGENCY MEETING SALEM, OREGON: Write a email
Please read this important message from Oregonians for Farm & Food Rights regarding proposed canola production in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. Attend the hearing on Jan. 23 or submit your written comment to the Oregon Department of Agriculture by Jan. 25.
Last fall, many of you testified against allowing canola production in the Willamette Valley. Thank you! Unfortunately, the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) hasn't heard our message so we need your help again. Even though only six farmers spoke in support of canola at last fall’s hearing, and 34 farmers said they would be directly harmed by canola, the ODA is still moving forward to allow canola production in the Williamette Valley.
Please attend the public hearing on Wednesday, Jan. 23rd, 9 am at the Salem Fairgrounds, in Salem, Oregon, at Cascade Hall. Bring a friend. Bring a farmer! Submit your testimony and support your farmers. We need to stand up to the ODA and let them know the public is watching.
The Willamette Valley is one of the world’s last five great seed-growing regions. An unprecedented coalition of farmers – vegetable seed, wheat, clover, grass seed, organic farmers, fresh produce growers, and even sugar beet seed farmers – have banded together to try to stop the harmful introduction of this crop in their region. Our farmers truly need your help. Our food system needs your help.
If you are unable to attend the hearing, please send in a written comment by Jan. 25 at 5pm. Written comments can be mailed to: Canola Hearings Officer, Department of Agriculture, 635 Capitol Street NE, Salem, OR 97301 or sent via email to: canola-rulemaking@oda.state.
Learn more about the impact canola would have in the Williamette Valley atwww.farmandfoodrights.org. Scroll down the homepage for a map and directions to the public hearing on Jan. 23.
SAMPLE EMAIL:
If only six farmers spoke in support of canola at last fall’s hearing, and 34 farmers said they would be directly harmed by canola why are you still allowing the production of Canola in the Valley? Our country is supposed to be a Democracy and it is our taxes that keep you working. You are paid to represent the majority of the people in your region, and it is clear that the majority does NOT want Canola production next to the local farmers in one of the world’s last five great seed-growing regions that grow vegetable seed, wheat, clover, grass seed, organic farmers, fresh produce growers, and even sugar beet seed farmers.
I ask of you to save the economy in the Willamette by not allowing the contamination of Canola.
I ask you to represent the people and not the corporations and dollar.
Big Problems at the Sun London
This is an example of good journalism: (sarcasm noted) Yet the tabloid keeps going and going and going...
A Sun reporter, understood to be Anthony France, has become the 22nd journalist from the News International tabloid to be arrested as part of Scotland Yard's investigation into inappropriate payments to public officials between 2004 and 2011.
The Metropolitan police said that a journalist, a 39-year-old man, was arrested on Thursday morning in Hertfordshire by detectives from Operation Elveden, on suspicion of conspiracy to corrupt and suspected conspiracy to cause misconduct in a public office. He has been taken to a station in north London.
The journalist is the Sun reporter France, according to a News International source.
Two serving police officers were also arrested at 6am on Thursday, bringing the number of individuals detained as part of Operation Elveden to 56.
Major papers' longform meltdown : Columbia Journalism Review
No one equates story-length with quality. Let’s start with that concession.
But still. Story-length is hardly meaningless when you consider what it takes to explain complex problems, like say, the financial crisis, to the broader public. Or when you consider what it takes to lay out the evidence needed to properly support a story that makes explosive allegations against a powerful institution. It takes space.
Put another way, there’s a reason David Barstow’s landmark expose of bribery and high-level cover-ups at WalMart ran to more than 7,000 words.
So, all in all, it’s more than instructive to check in on longform newspaper writing, and the start of a new year isn’t a bad time to do it.
And it’s pretty to shocking to see what’s become of the time-honored form since the newspaper industry’s great unraveling started a decade ago.
The Los Angeles Times, for instance, published 256 stories longer than 2,000 words last year, compared to 1,776 in 2003—a drop of 86 percent, according to searches of the Factiva database. The Washington Post published 1,378 stories over 2,000 words last year, about half as many as 2003 when it published 2,755. The Wall Street Journal, which pioneered the longform narrative in American newspapers, published 35 percent fewer stories over 2,000 words last year from a decade ago, 468 from 721.
Read More....
Major papers' longform meltdown : Columbia Journalism Review
Monday, January 21, 2013
Transparency Isn't Treason: NY Times Journalist questions charge
 |
| PFC Bradley Manning. Photograph: AFP/Brendan Smialowski/Getty |
Susan Brannon
20 January 2013
I agree with the New York Times editor Margaret Sullivan and the Los Angeles Times editorial regarding the charges against Bradley Manning. Our Press freedom is at stake, those how would be our sources is at stake and journalists who help keep our governments accountable to its citizens through investigative reporting are at stake. In the end, our freedom is at stake. With these types of open ended interpretations of our laws, then anyone could be viewed as "aiding our enemy" with the call for treason. If a journalists finds important information that the public has the right to know, and a high level government official does not like the "news" then what was written can be twisted and viewed in a way that could lead to "aiding the enemy".
Manning did not have evidence of contact with "hostile nations or terrorists"...in fact, how that that phrase be viewed? Am I as a journalist, who has entered into Gaza, Jenin, Ramallah considered having contact with "hostile nations"? I was reporting the news plain and simple. I went into Jenin after 40 days of incursion and bombing of tons of homes to report what had happened. Yes, I admit I did speak to some Palestinians, and that is not a crime. I interviewed people who were eye witnesses to what happened while all news agencies were blocked form entering. Actually, I snuck inside during near the end of the 40 day incursion, bullet proof vest and all. Could our American government now say that I may have both "aided the enemy and had contact with hostile nations? The contact depending on which side is the "right" side, actually. I had contact on both sides, I spoke with the IDF, Mozan, those on the ground. Umm, what enemy did I aid? I wonder.
Repost: Bradley Manning Website
Last week in Fort Meade, MD, government prosecutors said that if PFC Bradley Manning had released documents to the New York Times instead of WikiLeaks, they would still charge him with indirectly ‘aiding the enemy,’ which carries a life sentence.
This would be unprecedented: never before has a soldier been sent to jail for ‘aiding the enemy’ as a result of giving information to a news outlet. Government prosecutors argue that Manning needn’t have intended to aid the enemy; merely that he knew Al Qaeda could use the information is enough. This would turn all government whistle-blowing into treason: a grave threat to both potential sources and American journalism.
Following this contention in court, the Los Angeles Times called on the government to drop the ‘aiding the enemy’ charge, writing in an editorial, “That charge strikes us as excessive in the absence of evidence that Manning consciously colluded with hostile nations or terrorists.”
Since then, even higher-profile media members have condemned the military’s pernicious claim and the precedent it would set. In an email in which she explained she couldn’t speak on behalf of her newspaper but could comment as a lifelong journalist and a former newspaper editor, New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan said,
“The implications for press freedom in the Bradley Manning prosecution trouble me, as does the federal government’s unprecedented targeting, in recent years, of whistleblowers and those who leak to the press. The issues certainly aren’t black and white, but if the public expects the press to do its crucial job in our democracy, people ought to be more worried than they apparently are. And I agree with the Los Angeles Times editorial that the “aiding the enemy” charge, which could result in a life sentence, is excessive.”
New York Times columnist and former executive editor Bill Keller said, “I think the treatment of Manning feels heavy-handed and out of proportion to actual harm done.”
In Michael Calderone’s story for the Huffington Post, “Manning Case Raises Troubling Questions For Journalists,” about the implications of this argument, the Washington Post’s Dana Priest said, “they don’t want other people to get the idea that they should be doing this,” and that it’ll have a “chilling effect on sources.”
Glenn Greenwald wrote for the Guardian, “[the government’s argument] can be – and almost certainly will be – just as easily applied to the vast majority of leaks on which investigative journalism has always relied.”
Mainstream news outlets, Greenwald said,
“might want to take a serious interest in this fact and marshal opposition to what is being done to Bradley Manning: if not out of concern for the injustices to which he is being subjected, then out of self-interest, to ensure that their reporters and their past and future whistle-blowing sources cannot be similarly persecuted.”
So why does the government continue to prosecute this way? Keller said, “It’s been clear from the outset that the government decided to make a lesson of Bradley Manning,” and that “the extreme conditions of his early confinement and the aiding-the-enemy charges suggest a deep animus toward Bradley.”
As the government works to discourage future leakers and to tighten security, it also classifies exponentially more documents every day. This harms the very people Bradley Manning wanted to inform in the first place: the American people.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
A Sustainable Dialogue: Climate change, debt and inequality 'threaten fina...
A Sustainable Dialogue: Climate change, debt and inequality 'threaten fina...: Persistent economic weakness is sapping the ability of governments to tackle the growing threat of climate change and ris...
Saturday, January 12, 2013
What Organic and Natural Food Companies funded NO to Prop 37?
10 Jan 2012
I find it interesting that many of the companies that donated millions of dollars to fight the proposal to label GMO product in California were actually companies that advertise organic. I even was buying a few of the products thinking that they were "with us". Here is a list of those who donated against Prop 37. It is time to fightback and boycott their foods.
These are called the Organic and Natural Traitor Brands
PepsiCo (Donated $2.5M): Naked Juice, Tostito's Organic, Tropicana Organic • Kraft (Donated $2M): Boca Burgers and Back to Nature • Safeway (Member of Grocery Manufacturers Association, which donated $2M):"O" Organics • Coca-Cola (Donated $1.7M): Honest Tea, Odwalla • General Mills (Donated $1.2M): Muir Glen, Cascadian Farm, Larabar • Con-Agra (Donated $1.2M): Orville Redenbacher's Organic, Hunt's Organic, Lightlife, Alexia • Kellogg's (Donated $791k): Kashi, Bear Naked, Morningstar Farms, Gardenburger • Smuckers (Donated $555k): R.W. Knudsen, Santa Cruz Organic • Unilever (Donated $467k): Ben & Jerry's • Dean Foods (Donated $254k): Horizon, Silk, White Wave
Shocking isn't it?
Speak out publicly in favor of the pending GMO Labeling Ballot Initiative (I-522) in Washington State in 2013, as well as the pending GMO labeling bills coming up in Vermont and other states.
2. Contribute as much or more money to the Yes on I-522 Campaign in Washington than their parent corporations spent to defeat Prop 37.
Sign the Petition here
Friday, January 11, 2013
Shell Oil and the Arctic and Petition
10 January 2013
Here's how unprepared Shell is to drill in the Arctic:
Even four months after it ceased drilling operations, Shell still managed to nearly cause a major oil spill, when its Kulluk drilling rig — filled with 150,000 gallons of diesel fuel and lubricant — ran aground 11 days ago, after the boats towing it lost control of the rig.
Following this incident, yesterday the Obama administration launched an urgent review of Shell's plans and preparedness to drill in the Arctic.1
Incredibly, Shell was only moving the Kulluk south to Washington to dodge $6 million in Alaska state taxes. But its grounding should be the last straw after a year of Shell drilling debacles that proved what has always been obvious: drilling in the Arctic is a disaster waiting to happen.
This wasn't even the first time Shell lost control of its drilling vessels in the rough Arctic waters last year. Additionally, the company had multiple problems with sea ice, and its oil spill containment dome system failed its first test spectacularly when it "breached like a whale" and was "crushed like a beer can." Shell couldn't even meet the agreements it made with the Obama administration, pulling major bait and switches on its oil spill response plan, EPA air pollution rules, and repeatedly failing to meet Coast Guard requirements for its oil spill containment barge. 2
We've been told that Shell is the best and most prepared oil company to drill in the Arctic. As Shell has bumbled and stumbled along, it's become painfully clear that even the best in the business is hopelessly outmatched by the Arctic.
It would be stunningly irresponsible to allow Shell's thirst for oil to lead to an inevitable disaster in one of the most pristine places on earth. And with NOAA just announcing that 2012 was the hottest year on record,3 it would be stunningly irresponsible to continue drilling for climate-heating fossil fuels, in ever more dangerous and destructive ways.
Sign the Petition
This review is a second chance for the Obama administration to do what it should have done last year, and say "Shell No!" to Arctic drilling. Click the link below to automatically sign the petition:
http://act.credoaction.com/r/?
http://act.credoaction.com/r/?
External linked references:
Internal Related Links:
Monday, January 07, 2013
VOTE: Worst Company of the Year Award!
Wow, we get the opportunity to really vote for the worse company of the year award! It's a difficult choice to chose the worse of all evils. Read the list then click at the bottom to cast your vote!
The companies listed are:
Alstom:
The French energy and transport conglomerate Alstom is involved in corruption scandals all over the world. Alstom systematically bribes local politicians, sometimes in the seven figures, to secure contracts. The frequency of known cases is such that one wonders if this is a deliberate business strategy. Alstom has been fined repeatedly and some of its subsidiaries were excluded from World Bank projects.
Coal India
Coal India's coal mines destroy the habitats of many large mammals and rob tribal peoples of their livelihood and homelands, forcing them into a life of bitter poverty. The dismal record with 205 workers dead and 699 seriously wounded in 2010 alone, suggests that working conditions at Coal India are indeed disastrous. At least 239 coal mines belonging to Coal India operate without environmental permit.
G4S
The ranks of the British security service company G4S include more than 650'000 employees. These security forces are often badly trained and paid and many of its members have a criminal record. The company is involved in countless cases of violations of international law and human rights abuses. G4S is present in the occupied Palestinian territories—manning checkpoints and managing prison security for Israel and is thus complicit in Israel’s illegal settlement policy.
Goldman Sacks
Between 1998 and 2009 Goldman Sachs pocketed horrendous fees to hide half of Greece’s public debt by means of accounting tricks, which eventually ruined Greece and plunged the EU into a financial crisis of which only Goldman profits. The bank has already earned at least 600 million dollars and Greece owes it 400 million per year until 2037, for a total of more than 10 billion dollars at the expense of European taxpayers.
Lonmin
Lonmin, the world's third largest mining concern, urged the South African mining ministery to take „appropriate“ measures against striking mine workers at their mine — with the help of the police or the army. A short time later, 44 protesting mine worker were shot dead by the police nd 77 more were seriously wounded. One day after the massacre, Lonmin threatened all workers who continued to strike with dismissal.
Repower
The Swiss energy corporation Repower is building a hard-coal fired power plant in Calabria, Italy, despite the opposition of the local population. The planned site lies at the very heart of the dominion of the `Ndrangheta Mafia, Italy’s and probably Europe’s most influential organized crime alliance. Repower will have to do business with the Mafia, or might already be doing business.
Shell
Shell is the first super-major oil company that plans to exploit the fragile Arctic in a high risk hunt for fossil fuels. The oil exploration in the Arctic has biodiversity consequences. While Shell confidently tells us that it has «made numerous plans for dealing with oil in ice». The company also admits that the technical and environmental challenges of oil exploration in the Arctic «are immense.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
