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2012 Page 1

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New posts will be added to the top of this page
Page 1 and Page 2 are posts from the front page.
They are archived here as Page one and Page two
These items below were at one time on my Home Page.
Now they are archived for 2012 below:
 
 
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http://youtu.be/B2Ms8AEH0Ps

Health Care All Oregon

A rally with speeches, music, and Health Justice Networking. This Rally on the steps of the Oregon State capital opened with the first speaker Wes Brain. This event was sponsored by the for www.HCAO.org 

{full video is here:} http://youtu.be/75M2g6iEYZ8

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mlkportland.logo.jpg

 
FULL VIDEO
MLK CELEBRATION
KEEP THE DREAM ALIVE! 
 PORTLAND 2013

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"
Everyone Has Rights"
by: Eternallyware

Human Rights Defender 

Produced by
 
Eternallyware
This video comes from Canada
In this video Eternallyware discusses our Human Rights..
He explains the meaning of words like "person" 
and "freedom" and how they factor in our lives
as we use banks and interact with the police.
 

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12.10.12
R2DToo serves lawsuit
complaint to City Hall
 
Out-take:  http://youtu.be/Suu4caTMK5U   [7 min]
Full Video:  http://youtu.be/Q9PbU90Sam0  [58 min]

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12.10.12
ICE Meeting with
Sheriff Staton - Portland Oregon
A dozen delegates have a 20 minute conversation in the County Sheriffs [Portland Oregon] office on December 10 2012 {Human Rights Day}
The topic was the ICE holds, being conducted by the sheriffs department for the Federal Government. The meeting was to demand the ICE holds discontinue. The sheriff said he would have a public announcement in one week (Monday 12/17.12)

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Click on picture to see the 10.6.12 Video
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Stop Human Rights Trafficking in Oregon

            VIDEO from speeches and rally
               at Directors Park on 10.6.12

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Occupy Portland Anniversary 
Solidarity w/ Colombian GM Workers
Rally March 9-17-12 in Portland Ore.
 

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APRIL / MAY VIDEOS 2012

 

4.1.12

We Wont Get Fooled Again

Right 2 Dream 2 -Protest / Rally

 

Part 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXWCmzxPDTI

Part 2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5qS7Xipfck

Part 3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbmW8OtLPUA

Part 4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHMYcfg_Q4o

 

 

4.2.12

Lone Vet at Frashour Protest

http://youtu.be/jXHMFFIhaWA

 

  

4.2.12.

 Fire Officer Frashour

Call for Picket Line

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONzHDgPojrM

 

4-4-12

Portland Human Rights meeting  New Director Introduction & Goals

 http://youtu.be/hdcdm-XEttU

 

 

4.4.12

Portland Human Rights Meeting

http://youtu.be/Jzt-eTJIQBk

 

 

4.12.12

Fred Bryant father of Keaton Otis at Vigil

http://youtu.be/0RlRl79YGz0

 

 

 

4.15.12

WPA - Long Term Job Loss Lecture - Panel

http://youtu.be/g9Fk5RTXLpI

 

 

4.15.12.

WPA - Long Term Job Loss Assembly - Portland Announcement - short video trailer: http://youtu.be/at2HAj0wjwY

 

4.15.12 WPA - Long Term Job Loss

Lecture - Panel

http://youtu.be/g9Fk5RTXLpI

 

 

 4.17.12

Protest at Main Post office

http://youtu.be/5iXjIpdQUd8

 

 

4.17.12

City Budget Cuts / Protest

Bake Sale at City Hall (rally)

http://youtu.be/6Pcl7o-_4UE

 

4.17.12

Tax Dodgerball - street theater

in Terry Schrunk Park

http://youtu.be/2ShLSzb4l-U

 

 

4.17.12

Lecture / Rethinking mental health & drugs with: Bob Whitacker

http://archive.org/details/Dr.RobertWhitakerPortlandOregon4.17.2012

 

4.25.12

Justin Bridges  - Free Private Manning "The Time is Now"

http://youtu.be/5rmJcT5LzDo

 

Full Video from Manning Surprise Rally:

http://archive.org/details/FreePrivateManning-PortlandOregonSupriseParty4.24.12  (27 min)

 

4.25.12

Human Trafficking Portland Human Rights Commission Public Forum

http://youtu.be/mxHEko76EHg

 

 

4.29.12

AIPAC DINNER
PORTLAND PROTEST

 

Part 1 AIPAC protest

 http://youtu.be/JIY2w7NMzgs

 

Part 2 AIPAC  protest

http://youtu.be/jB5NmpxZxR4

 

Part 3 AIPAC  protest

http://youtu.be/cpb8WZc5JJ8

 

Part 4 AIPAC  protest

http://youtu.be/cbHNfmmQHuE

 

Part 5 AIPAC  protest

http://youtu.be/DspsmHm-Zj8

 

 

5.1.12

"Get On The Sidewalk"

mAy dAy unpermitted march

music added to previous clip

http://youtu.be/5POISlZIYMw

Portland police and public safety farce on May day

Music track added to previous released footage

 

May 1 2012

May Day  - house reclaim 

Rise Up Together

A speech in the park in Portland

5 minute out-take from the rally in the park.

http://youtu.be/YOmlvVXVvyo

 

Full 63 min Video:

Alicia and the community walk to her house.

This is the complete full video file

http://archive.org/details/ReaclaimingAliciasFo

 

MAY DAY 2012

Whos Streets? Whos  Square?

Our Streets! Our Square!

A march in the street around 7PM

to a dance party in Pioneer Square

http://youtu.be/fiquvb4NbQ8

 

 

5.1.12

May Day 2012 Portland

Permitted March (2 hour video)

http://archive.org/details/MayDayMarch2012-PortlandOregon-FullPermittedMarch

 

5.1.12

Unpermitted May Day March

mAy dAy!!!  mAy dAy!!! 2012

http://youtu.be/u-0PLsV8AGY

 

5.1.12

SPEECHES on MAY DAY 2012

 

PART 1:

May Day Speeches 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYtLHE0biuw

 

PART 2:

May Day Speeches 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP6DHQZHsko

 

PART 3:

May Day Speeches 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFFD_wLxTOY

 

PART 4:

May Day Speeches 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2aD2COfJ3k

 

5.1.12

mAy dAy Protest - The Pushers (cops)

http://youtu.be/aD2-W-IEWz4

 

 

5.1.12

Undocumented and Unafraid

May Day Protest in front of Federal Building in Portland Oregon.

part: 1  http://youtu.be/pgY34uqxzcc  - Speeches part 1

part: 2  http://youtu.be/zqC_subtokw  - Speeches part 2

part: 3  http://youtu.be/MEAsr6UQvEY - Arrests part 3

 

 

5.1.12

WE WONT BE DIVIDED

MAY DAY 2012

drums, dancing & speechs

http://youtu.be/MdeOOa6cppw

 

 

5.1.12

May Day Drums & Dancing  Portland 2012

south park blocks

http://youtu.be/h_Vj3njkTQE

 

 

5.1.12

Unpermitted Smoke on May Day

Did the police use some kind of smoke 

 http://youtu.be/hcWVwBqH4-8

 

 

5.5.12

People Budget

Occupy Portland Budget Assembly:

 

part 1: http://youtu.be/eovIb8dfYRU (introductions)

part 2: http://youtu.be/ubD5_o3OYFE (common visions)

part 3: http://youtu.be/1Vr2pjb0Apg (workgroups)

part 4: http://youtu.be/dazfcjPOIP4 (community Report-back)

part 5: http://youtu.be/JALIU-7odog (suggetsions & solutions)

part 6: http://youtu.be/nyUv8_kirlw (powerpoint where is the money?)

part 7: http://youtu.be/xse2oUS9I64 (final)

 

out-take:    http://youtu.be/3ofsVOsWntk (Tubmen School)

 

 

5.2.12

Portland Human Rights Commission Meeting

http://archive.org/details/PortlandHumanRightsCommissionMeetingMay22012

 

5.7.12

Sharing Public Sidewalks public meeting

http://youtu.be/Cwn15LYYPK4

 

5.9.12

Brian Willson

Blood on the Tracks - Occupy Portland

 http://youtu.be/rZhG-NUNdIs 

 

 

5.9.12

Ralph Nader speaks at Lewis & Clark College

http://youtu.be/e9fF2sg10cY

 

 

 

5.11.12

Rethinking Psychiatry - A panel discusses effects of psychotropic drugs, the mental
health system, and the damaging pyscho-pharmacological industry.  http://youtu.be/X71mXF2I5mc
 

 

5.17.12

Bike Memorial for

Kathryn Rickson

http://archive.org/details/BikeMemorialForKathrynRickson5.17.12

This video is also posted on YouTube: http://youtu.be/z_LHONdak68

 

 

5.18.12

Stop the F-ing Wars Protest

Roberto - Part 1

http://youtu.be/hg3YhqV7si0

The Lone Vet - Part 2

http://youtu.be/BuQ1mhQNRWs

 

 

5.22.12

OCCUPY HISTORY
Civil Disobedience and
Nuclear Power  

http://archive.org/details/OccupyHistory-CivilDisobedienceAndNuclearPowerInTheNw5.22.12

 

 

 

5.24.12

OCCUPY THE POST OFFICE

http://youtu.bebe/q0-N6y16kds  (4 min)

 

http://archive.org/details/OccupyThePostOffice-PortlandOregon-May24201245Minutes

(45 minute video)

http://youtu.be/qO-N6y16kds

(Also on YouTube same 45 min video)

 

 

7.23.12
 
M.O.M.S. Solidarity Walk of 100 miles ... "And So We Walk"  (3 parts)
Both Cindi and Aleshanee have a grown child whose rights were taken away within the psycho-pharmaceutical treatment model. They are indignant of the gross abuses which have taken place and how their childrenâs anguish and pain were ignored and silenced. They will walk one hundred miles. They hope to raise awareness and to raise funds to help their children in their recovery. Three videos from the begining into the walk ....
 

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Returning Veterans Project - Portland Oregon

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6.15.12

 

Justice for Janitors 

Justice for All - Protest

Rally, Speeches and March

 

12 minute Trailer / Out-take

http://youtu.be/HddFvJ31X14

 

PART 1: http://youtu.be/DskVHSBPFHw 

[rally / interview]

PART 2: http://youtu.be/USaC9oeny14
[speeches from city leaders]

PART 3: http://youtu.be/N1OAAPPoQcI
[march through downtown]

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MAY DAY 2012 VIDEOS
are now posted online
Click my MAY DAY Video Page

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occupythepost0ffice5.24.12.log0.jpg

The protest Occupy the Post Office action at the University Station in SW Portland was recorded and now available
 
Same video is also on YouTube (45 min)
 
The shorter 4 minute out-take version is here:
http://youtu.be/alDJwPGIUp4
 
Also the same 4 min version is posted here:
 
The full version [3 hrs] will be posted soon. ~joe

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5.17.12
 
Bike Memorial for
Kathryn Rickson

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Joe Anybody
Archived Video
 Collection of
Ralph Nader
in Portland Oregon

Joe Anybody - Ralph Bader Video Collection
naderarchivelogo.jpg
joe anybody ralph nader videos are located here - click picture

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NATO PROTEST
‘US terrorizes anti-NATO, Occupy protesters’

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Undocumented 
& Unafraid Arrests http://youtu.be/MEAsr6UQvEY
3. Undocumented and Unafraid Arrests on May Day - Portland Oregon

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4.25.12 Human Trafficking

Portland Human Rights

Commission Public Forum

http://youtu.be/mxHEko76EHg

video is also here:

http://archive.org/details/PortlandHumanRightsCommissionHumanTraffickingForum4.25.12

 

4.24.12

Free Bradly Manning

City Hall Rally

http://archive.org/details/FreePrivateManning-PortlandOregonSupriseParty4.24.12

 

4.17.12 Lecture / Rethinking

mental health & drugs

with: Bob Whitacker

http://archive.org/details/Dr.RobertWhitakerPortlandOregon4.17.2012

 

4.17.12 Protest at Main Post office

Save the Post Offices rally

http://youtu.be/5iXjIpdQUd8

 

4.17.12 Tri-Met Budget Cuts

Protest & Max Ride

~video coming soon~

 

4.17.12 City Budget Cuts / Protest

Bake Sale at City Hall (rally)

http://youtu.be/6Pcl7o-_4UE

 

4.17.12 Tax Dodgerball - street theater

in Terry Schrunk Park

http://youtu.be/2ShLSzb4l-U

 

4.15.12 WPA - Long Term Job Loss

Lecture - Panel

http://youtu.be/g9Fk5RTXLpI

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- Powells event filmed by MobileT                 
                                                                                  -  Lewis & Clark event filmed by Joe Anybody

RALPH NADER IN PORTLAND
Both Events on 4.9.12 in Portland Were Recorded by joeanybody.com

 

Ralph Nader in PDX 4\9\12 Reportback:

Its been two years since Ralph Nader came to Portland, but he made it worth the wait when he held an open to the public book signing at Powell's City of Books yesterday (4/9). Naders new book, Getting Steamed to Overcome Capitalism, mesmorized the audience in the brightly lit Pearl room on the third floor of Powell's. Attendance was enormous with people crowding even the aisles of books to get a glimpse of and hear the man the commonwealth and corporations are secretly afraid of. As I made my way to the media corner, I heard a thunderous deep voice gradually rising as Mr. Nader once again became enraged within himself and moved the book release into lecture mode.

Nader Delivers Powerful Speech @ Book Signing Event In PDX

Ralph Nader comes to Portland! Nader gave a powerful lecture and released his new book "Getting Steamed to Overcome Corporatism" for a Q & A and signing at Powell's City of Books in downtown Portland. Look for Joe Anybody's video of Naders lecture/symposium at Lewis & Clark College in southwest Portland to follow this event on the same day.

 

This new book seems to reach into the psyche of the average person who is interested in learning about the shady practices that large Pac-Man corporations are using to exploit the people and hoard so called "capital". Nader emphasised the "fire in your gut" or boiling point analogy after using cold hard facts to astonish his audience and talked numbers in the sense of our government spending excess money on foreign wars not neccessary or worth fighting.
 
He also spoke about the statistics of those without healthcare and compared the US to other successful coutries which utilize a broad universal healthcare system. Another representative of Occupy Portland (Cameron Whittman) was there and questioned Nader and he responded with positive motivation for the Occupy movement, stressing that Occupy does need some leadership and that we the people can make a difference.

Mr. Nader also held a Q&A about his book and many good questions and comments were offered up. My question to Nader was on his view of ALEC, and he responded with a firestorm shaming them on everything from corporate manipulation to enactment of bad legislature.
 
Though the word "Occupy" was never included in the title or context of the book, it's almost as if it was written with the intention of motivating those who are now joining forces as a social movement. Hence Occupy.

VIDEO LINKS
LEWIS & CLARK: <video coming soon>
 

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F29
Peace House & Friends
Cleaning Toxic ALEC

Peace House and Friends went to a half a dozen different corporations in NE Portland to protest their relationship with ALEC. This was filmed on F29 as a seperate action from the gathering and march in downtown Portland. The peace house ALEC busters engaged in some street theater and handed out information. Filmed on 2.29.12 http://youtu.be/N8GUKSSMy2k

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Veterans for Peace videos
From local VFP or IVAW events I have filmed
 
To see VFP videos from prior to 2011 click here:
 
To see VFP videos from  2011 to 2012 click here:
 

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Scarred Lands & Wounded Lives from Specialty Studios on Vimeo.

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3/21/12
3:00 PM protest 
at the Fred Meyer store
where she was working at in
Orchards Washington

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www.jwjpdx.org
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JWJ Worker Rights Hearing
Vancouver Hilton Hotel
2.23.12
The Hilton Hotel Workers had a "workers rights hearing" - [ http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2012/03/414483.shtml ]  
this is the video from the JWJ Workers Rights Hearing,
that was at the Vancouver Washington Library on 2.23.12 

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Into The Fire - Full Film

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July - Sept 2011
 
Papa Murphy's Pizza Workers Protest
Ten Slices of Solidarity!
Ten Slices of Solidarity 
Filmed from July through September in 2011
The workers stand against unjust work conditions at their local pizza shop (job) in Portland. All ten protests were filmed and are archived on my youtube.channel, in solidarity with the workers struggle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7To4k73Fzg
 

Tumbling

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 2.7.12
 
Portland Rising BusTrip
with Jobs With Justice on 2.7.12.
This [2 buses] trip stopped at a half dozen different places, showing solidarity with workers for good contracts and union support.
More information on www.jwjpdx.org
The full length video from this bus trip is coming soon.

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Rehire Ryan - A rally outside of New Season Market on 2.14.12.

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Occupy America / #OccupyAmerica

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2.6.12
Portland Anti Police Violence Protest Solidarity with Occupy Oakland
 

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Israeli Men Steal a Palestinian Old Woman's Home
and Tote Her Out of Her Home!

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A Christmas Story: Zen Style

It seems in Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan, there is a small monastery where the master is illiterate. The teacher was a farmer’s son and he had been taken to the temple when he was very young. He had never learned to read or write but he completed the koan study and came to complete enlightenment.

The teacher didn’t really know other religions except Buddhism, he scarcely realized until he heard the monks discussing Christianity. One of the monks had been to the University of Tokyo and the teacher asked him to explain Christianity.

“I don’t know that much about it,” the monk said. “But I will bring you the holy book of the Christian religion.”

The master sent the monk to the nearest city and the monk returned with the Bible.

“That’s a thick book,” the master said, “and I can’t read. But ....[ more ]

 

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RECOMMENDED LINK
Joe Anybody

9.23.11.
www.vimeo.com/27577619
VISIT the website AT:
www.EricAllenBell.org
"Listen"

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Occupy Portland 2011
video compilation from first three weeks
 

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Dr. Martin Luther King Speaks to The 99% Movement
 

"I'm Not Moving!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjfhOPCPJnE

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WALL STREET PROTEST
 
NY LIVESTREAM
WATCH IT ALL LIVE RIGHT HERE:
 
Day 9--> still continuing
HELPFUL LINKS

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An arrest warrant was presented to the police who did nothing in regards to Condi Rice and her war crime. A mock cage and look a like staged a street theater of Condi getting locked up by the citizens. http://youtu.be/lMtWnYLF3eM

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Tumbling

9.9.11 - Portland Ore. Presentation
Sept 11: Jim Fetzer, False Flag Terror
The Rise of the Global Police State
Slide show presentation filmed in Portland Oregon

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VFP Bridge Crossing to Japanese Hiroshima Memorial Portland Or. 8.7.11.

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Protest At Papa Murphys Pizza in Portland 
 Video #3
 

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www.jwjpdx.org
jwjlog0...jpg
SOLIDARITY

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The New Website From
The Lone Vet & Friends

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8.7.11
 
Brian Wilson and Rose Mary
"We Are All Connected"
 
 

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So what is Austerity?
Austerity measures are typically taken if there is a threat that government cannot honor its debt liabilities. Such a situation may arise if a government has borrowed in foreign currencies which they have no right to issue or they have been legally forbidden from issuing their own currency. In such a situation banks may lose trust in government's ability and/or willingness to pay and refuse to roll over existing debts or demand exorbitant interest rates. In such situations, inter-governmental institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) typically come in and demand austerity measures in exchange for functioning as a lender of last resort. When the IMF requires such a policy, the terms are known as 'IMF conditionalities'.

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Nabi Saleh Friday 29.7.2011 nonviolent protest against the theft of the village's land, against the occupation and against apartheid; harassment of journalists, photographers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpVS8BVXqss&feature=feedlik

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Will the US Apologize to Maher Arar?
USA allows Torture of Maher Arar and then wont apologize

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Click Picture to see video of Portland's Jail-Cell Demonstration

300 DAYS OF
USA MILITARY TORTURE
ON US SOIL

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Oligarchy:
Is a small group of people
who together govern a nation
or control an organization,
often for their own purposes.
 
Does this sound like anyplace you know of?

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(suckers)
 
 

The good nature wasn't returned. Enjoy that grin, the cadre member's scowl seemed to say. "This is your last chance to smile, big guy."

This was I-Day at the United States Naval Academy: Induction Day. The day that 1,247 brand-new, mostly fresh out of high school wanna-be Navy officers showed up at this august school on the banks of the confluence of Chesapeake Bay and the Severn River. Bright eyed and bushy tailed, as the saying goes, these 984 men and 263 women from 10 countries were about to have their worlds rocked.

I'd come there Thursday as part of Road Trip 2010, my journey around the U.S. Northeast in search of some of the best places to write about I could find. But this was actually a book-end piece of reporting for me. A year ago, on Road Trip 2009, I'd stopped in on I-Day at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., and once I knew I was going to be on the East Coast for this year's project, I knew I had to see how the Navy's methods of breaking in the newbies compared to that of the Air Force. Indeed, my visit to the Naval Academy was the anchor stop of this year's entire trip.

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In a live demonstration of globe-straddling communication technologies like Skype, this forum connects to citizen journalists and activists around the world, some of whom frequently test the limits of governmental authority. Moderator Ethan Zuckerman wonders if these new digital forms are fundamentally liberating, providing users access to public spaces they might otherwise be denied. He pursues this line of inquiry in a series of internet conversations with correspondents covering some of the world’s most ravaged or oppressed regions

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People shouting at the world over megaphones; Size=240 pixels wide

Dark side of the electronic surge

LIKE laws and sausages, consumer electronics have joined the list of things best not to see being made. Behind our shiny iPhone or cutely-packaged Nintendo games console is a process that reeks of exploitation, drudgery and, as we can now see, despair.

The spate of suicides at Foxconn's plant in Shenzhen has provided an alarming education and raises a perfectly timed red flag over the US-China currency debate. China has been forced to acknowledge that the real story behind its growth figures is, in many cases, a degrading one.

There are three important practical lessons to be drawn from the deaths. The first is places like Foxconn must, sadly, exist if we want cheap electronics.

The punishing hours, the 350,000 employees squeezed into one vast complex, the pseudo-military discipline, the mind-numbing silence of the shop floor, these are all things that we can deplore, but which belong on the conscience of anyone who has ever made a call from a mobile phone, sent an e-mail or snapped a friend on a digital camera. Which is to say, all of us.

The glitzy myth of electronics has also been punctured: Foxconn exists because electronics manufacturing is no longer the work of artisan specialists. This company has done to technology what McDonald's did to lunch.

The second lesson is that Foxconn represents the China that Beijing would prefer the country not to be. From the outside, the country looks export-led - one of the main reasons that China's failure to allow its currency to rise against the dollar has drawn so much condemnation in Washington. The reality is rather different, and Foxconn usefully demonstrates why.

Take the 30-gigabyte iPod, one of the many Apple devices that depend on Foxconn. When it first went on sale in the US, it sold in the stores for $US299. It left the factory in China with a value of $150, but only $7.50 of that value was actually created in China. The remainder belonged to the other Asian countries (Japan, Taiwan) where the components were made.

According to analysis by CLSA Securities, globally, workers received $1.06 billion in earnings from iPod-related jobs, or about $25 per iPod sold. Chinese workers received only about 2 per cent of the global pay cheque, or 55c per unit sold. As it looks to its future, China desperately wants to be Apple, not Foxconn.

But the third and most critical lesson of Foxconn is that significant parts of the US rhetoric on China's currency policy are misguided. The Obama administration is under relentless domestic pressure to "do something" about the undervalued Chinese currency, the yuan, and to prod China into letting it rise. Attention has turned to the timing of Washington's decision to officially label China a "currency manipulator", a meaningless slur given that 50 countries around the world peg their currencies to the US dollar.

Beijing, knowing that its economy is primarily driven by domestic investment, is probably keen for the yuan to appreciate but will not allow itself to appear bullied into doing so. But Foxconn kicks away one of the main struts of those angrily demanding that Beijing allow the yuan to rise: many of those manufacturing jobs that China is supposedly stealing from the US are not jobs that Americans could countenance doing themselves.

An attempt to run a plant like Foxconn in the US would be disastrous and that is why the jobs were outsourced there in the first place. Even if the yuan rose by 40 per cent against the dollar, it is hard to imagine mass-market electronics assembly jobs moving back to the US.

The currency scuffle between Washington and Beijing is in a lull, but could flare-up again at any moment: When it does, America must look at Foxconn for a sense of how the trade world really works.

The Times

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/dark-side-of-the-electronic-surge/story-e6frg6ux-1225873209029

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May 25, 2010, 11:37 am

7 Green Peace Activists are

Seized in Anti-Drilling Protest

Greenpeace activists painted and posted anti-drilling messages in big letters on the bridge of a ship that is scheduled to depart for Alaska to support drilling operations in July.
 
Greenpeace Greenpeace activists painted and posted anti-drilling messages in big letters on the bridge of a ship that is scheduled to depart for Alaska to support drilling operations in July.

Charges have been filed against seven members of Greenpeace who boarded an offshore drilling support ship in a Louisiana port and painted anti-drilling slogans in crude oil on the vessel’s side on Monday afternoon.

The ship is docked in Port Fourchon, La., an area affected by the BP oil spill in the gulf, and is to sail to the Arctic this summer to support Royal Dutch Shell’s company’s exploratory drilling plans there, Greenpeace said. Activists rappelled down the side and painted the phrase “Arctic Next?” on the vessel. They also lowered a sign saying “Salazar: Ban Arctic Drilling” before being seized by the port police.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was visiting the area at the time and was the intended recipient of the message, a Greenpeace spokeswoman said.

Amid the furor over BP’s so-far unsuccessful effort to stanch the well blowout in the gulf, plans continue for Shell to drill offshore in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. The company has been granted several permits and could begin drilling as early as this summer.

The activists were charged with unauthorized entry of “critical infrastructure” and of an inhabited dwelling, according to the Lafourche Parish sheriff’s department. Both counts carry a maximum penalty of six years in prison.

The activists were released on bail early Tuesday morning.

A Greenpeace representative argued that the charges were disproportionate. “It is outrageous that prosecutors would confront peaceful protesters with such a heavy hand while not a single BP executive has been charged for the devastation they have wrought on the Gulf of Mexico and the people and animals that depend on it,” Phil Radford, the group’s executive director, said in a statement.

In an e-mail message to a Dow Jones reporter late Monday, Shell confirmed that its ship had been targeted and said it was “disappointed” by the tactics used by Greenpeace.

A spokeswoman for the Lafourche Parish sheriff’s Office, Sgt. Lesley Hill Peters, suggested that the protesters could also face terrorism-related charges. The New Orleans Joint Terrorism Task Force “is looking into the matter,” she said.

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