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U.S. had advance warning of abuse at Afghan prisons, officials say – The Washington Post
Even as other countries stopped handing over detainees to problematic facilities, the U.S. government did not.
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Daily Kos: Now I’m a f’ing hero (NSFW)
The word “Hero” is thrown around like a Frisbee, both by the left and the right, to describe anyone who joined up and served. I wasn’t a hero by any stretch of the imagination. All I did was keep a Cobra Gunship flying and loaded for bear. How many of the rockets, 40mm grenades and belts of minigun ammo I loaded killed how many human beings, is a question I don’t have an answer for. All I know is I loaded the gun and my pilot pulled the trigger.
Now we have a new generation of “heroes” coming back. I guess by attaching that label to them, we can collectively salve our conscience and hope the country treats them better than previous generations of returning “warriors” (another overused word).
I will not dispute that acts of heroism happen in combat. Usually its being in the right place at the right time (or wrong place at the wrong time). A situation develops and human nature kicks in. Its not for God and country, its not to save the world for democracy, its because it needs to be done. …
We lionize our “heroes” without realizing it comes with a price. Not one of then wanted to be a “hero”. Most of it is done by those as Desiderius Erasmus, once said: “War is delightful to those who have no experience in it”.One such “hero” was Ira Hayes. Ira Hayes was one of those who raised the flag on Iwo Jima in the famous photograph and survived. He was sent back to the States on a war bond tour and then forgotten.
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Tonight’s rallies, happening all across Israel, will be followed next week by the nation’s first-ever citizen-led general strike on November 1, one day before Occupy Oakland will engage in a similar effort.
[Includes links to events leading up to the protests. -L]
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Daily Kos: “Keep Wall Street Occupied.” Let’s Help This Go Viral.
“A fast, easy, free, and non-violent way to drive the big banks out of their greedy little minds is sitting in your mailbox right now. You just don’t know it yet.”
[video & transcript]
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Daily Kos: World’s first gay man to marry and LGBT veteran activist dies at 96
Danish veteran LGBT activist Axel Axgil has passed away today. A founder of the worlds oldest LGBT organisation and the very first in the world to legally marry his gay partner in 1989 he deserves a few words of rememberence.
“Even if you meet resistance, it is never in vain to fight for your cause. To plant a small seed and see it grow. I have seen that a few times over the years,” Axel said to a friend a few week ago… -
Breaking: Scene Reporter Arrested in Troopers’ Crackdown on Occupy Nashville | Pith in the Wind
Among those under arrest is evidently Scene reporter Jonathan Meador, who has been covering the protests. A fellow reporter asked the trooper arresting Meador if he really intended to lock up a journalist there to cover the events. According to the reporter, the trooper replied, “You want to be next?”
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What the Costumes Reveal – NYTimes.com – Joe Nocera
On Friday, the law firm of Steven J. Baum threw a Halloween party. The firm, which is located near Buffalo, is what is commonly referred to as a “foreclosure mill” firm, meaning it represents banks and mortgage servicers as they attempt to foreclose on homeowners and evict them from their homes. …
The party is the firm’s big annual bash. Employees wear Halloween costumes to the office, where they party until around noon, and then return to work, still in costume. I can’t tell you how people dressed for this year’s party, but I can tell you about last year’s.
That’s because a former employee of Steven J. Baum recently sent me snapshots of last year’s party.
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TEDxHouston 2011 – Wade Adams – Nanotechnology and Energy – YouTube
[Fantastically lucid explanation. -L]
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Boy Is Rescued 5 Days After Earthquake in Turkey – NYTimes.com
The boy, Serhat Tokay, who was only slightly injured, asked for water and food after search teams pulled him out of the rubble at around 2 a.m., NTV news reported.
More than a thousand aftershocks have been registered in the region since the 7.2 magnitude earthquake on Sunday, the disaster center said,…
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The Simpsons Called It: Three Eyed Fish Caught Outside a Nuclear Power Plant
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A student at Union-Scioto High School in Chillicothe, Ohio was brutally beaten this week by another student for being gay. Class members watched as the bully waited for the student to arrive in the classroom, grabbed him, pushed him to the ground and punched him in the face several times. …
According to an email received by Towleroad from Equality Ohio, “The victim has suffered a possible concussion and dental damage. The attacker was suspended from school for just three days. “
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Exclusive: Domestic Abuse Fears Grow in Immigrant Communities – Women’s Media Center blog
…Alabama’s new immigration law has abuse survivors and their advocates holding their breath. The law is the latest challenge to those trapped in abusive relationships who have concerns about either their own immigration status, that of their abuser or their children.
Alabama joins a growing list of states that have considered putting immigration enforcement into the hands of local police, though Alabama’s law has gone the furthest. The concept of locally enforcing federal immigration laws has long been thought risky, both because immigration enforcement requires complex training and because enforcing immigration law creates rifts between local police and immigrant communities, thereby making it harder for police to be effective in enforcing other laws—among them domestic violence protections .
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Federal Judge Strikes Down Much of SF’s Cell Phone Law – Quality of Life – The Bay Citizen
A federal judge ruled Thursday that San Francisco’s controversial cell phone ordinance violates the First Amendment, Reuters reported.
The law requires cell phone retailers to post warnings about radiation phones emit and disseminate information to minimize exposure. In the ruling, which found most of the ordinance unconstitutional, U.S. District Judge William Alsup wrote that San Francisco “cannot paste its municipal message over the message of the retailers.”
While the judge found that it is OK to require customers to be given fact sheets discussing the possible risks of cell phone use, he insisted that the sheets not mislead customers into believing the phones are dangerous.
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Budget Cuts Erase a Lifeline for the Elderly and Disabled – The Bay Citizen
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Scientists Trace Worldwide Forest Pandemic to California – The Bay Citizen
Discovery has implications for the effects of climate change on trees
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Occupy Oakland: The Best Offense is a Good De-Fence (PIC) – Culture Feed – The Bay Citizen
[It's art! -L]
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At last, honors for the first black Marines – USATODAY.com
“Whenever military service came up I couldn’t truthfully say, ‘Yeah, I’m a proud Marine,’” Smith said. “I tried to say it and it wouldn’t quite come out.”
Smith was one of thousands of African Americans who joined the Marine Corps during World War II and then learned they would be shipped off to a separate boot camp for blacks and serve in segregated support units commanded by white officers. …
“It was liberating,” said Smith, who received a doctorate after the war and went on to a career as a professor and administrator at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign. “At last I feel like a damned Marine.” …
Amos has ordered the Marine Corps to teach recruits the history of the Montford Point Marines, with the rest of the Corps’ legacy. He also intends to incorporate their story into the curriculum of advanced courses for senior officers. …
The Marines were slower than the Army in allowing African Americans into their ranks.
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Flier to OWS Protesters: “Defending Against Tear Gas” | Mother Jones
“Maalox is a must.” That’s one of the many tips to be found in “Defending Against Tear Gas,” a fascinating flier making the rounds on the internet today…that instructs Occupy protesters on how to protect themselves …. It also shows how information-sharing among the protesters and their sympathizers is spreading organically at a rapid clip.
The flier, which urges that its tips be used “only for defense purposes” and exhorts protesters to “never incite violence,” is distributed by an unknown party with a Hotmail account who says it is “not directly affiliated” with the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Its data appears to be crowdsourced from Wikipedia, Global Post, and Agence-France Press, among others.
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On Monday, Oct. 24, Julian Assange announced that WikiLeaks has been forced to suspend publication to focus its energy on urgently needed fundraising due to what he termed an “illegal blockade.” He told reporters that WikiLeaks has relied on cash reserves to fund the past 11 months of operations due to the refusal of Bank of America, PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, and Western Union to process donations, starving the organization of 95 percent of its revenue stream. He added that WikiLeaks, with a staff of about 20 employees, needs $3.5 million to stay afloat through 2013.
The blockade was enacted last December, just days after WikiLeaks, in concert with the New York Times, the Guardian, Der Spiegel, and El Pais, published a small fraction of some 250,000 classified US state department cables. The news outlets that actually published the cables suffered no halts in payment.
This financial blockade, if left unchallenged, will likely affect more than just WikiLeaks. Trevor Timm, an activist and blogger for the Electronic Frontier Foundation recently explained to TechNewsWorld, “The financial blockade is a free speech issue,” …
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About the Database | Global Nonviolent Action Database
Why this database?
1) To provide free access to information about hundreds of cases of nonviolent action for learning and for citizen action. We research campaigns that have reached a point of completion. The cases are drawn from all continents and most countries. People are shown struggling for human rights, economic justice, democracy, national and ethnic identity, environmental sustainability, and peace. To learn more about searching by the issues people are struggling about, go to Issue Clusters.
2) To make available comparative information that will support researchers and writers to develop strategic knowledge and theory. Each case is presented in two formats: the database file (with searchable fields) and the narrative describing the struggle as an unfolding story. The database supports searches by country, by issue, by action method used, and even by year — there is a case from ancient Egypt, 12th century BCE! Some cases are part of a “wave” of campaigns, such as the “Arab Awakening” of 2011; by pressing each “wave” button one can find cases.
See the other sections under the About menu for more on the coding, uses, limitations, and building of the Global Nonviolent Action Database.
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The OWS Demands group meets « LBO News from Doug Henwood – October 24, 2011
“There seems to be some misconception that the Demands Group is a bunch of outsiders. It is not. This is a argument within the Occupy Wall Street movement.
“The Demands Group is a working group just like any other working group. Yesterday evening I spent three hours in the park taking part in their meeting, and I can attest, it was run scrupulously according to consensus procedures under experienced facilitators. And frankly it was one of the most satisfying consensus meetings I’ve taken part in.”
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4 Key Questions About the Future of Occupy Wall Street | Occupy Wall Street | AlterNet
With its decentralized structure, it’s impossible to predict where the Occupy movement might end up. But we can at least identify the questions that will determine its future.
Can the movement move from tactic to strategy?
Michael Kazin, a historian of left movements, argued in an interview with Salon this week that the occupation of public spaces to bring attention to economic injustice and corruption on Wall Street is at heart a tactic – one that has been remarkably successful. Can Occupy now shift to a broader strategy for effecting change?
The answer to that question depends on what sort of change Occupy wants to accomplish, which is itself not a settled issue. …
Can Occupy’s decentralized structure be effective in the long term? …
Will the occupations survive the winter? …
Can public and media interest be sustained?
Occupy Wall Street accounted for 10 percent of the mainstream media’s news coverage in the week of Oct. 10-16, according to Pew. That’s a remarkable accomplishment for a movement that was then less than a month old. But the mainstream media has a notoriously short attention span. …
To force the media — and the public — to stay interested, occupiers will have to show both durability and creativity.
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Moving Beyond Civil Rights – NYTimes.com – Richard Thompson Ford
[This might more aptly be titled Moving Beyond Discrimination Lawsuits. -L]
The recent unsuccessful sex discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart demonstrates the inadequacy of the civil rights model. …
Statistics can show a pattern of discrimination, but they are not enough to prove that any particular woman was discriminated against. …
Individual managers may have unconsciously allowed stereotypes to influence their decisions. This kind of inadvertent discrimination is less like Jim Crow racial bigotry and more like a workplace accident. Just as we reduce the risk of accidents through comprehensive occupational safety and health regulations rather than relying on lawsuits after the damage is already done, we could regulate employment practices to reduce the risk of discrimination.
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Girls equal in throne succession | BBC News
The leaders of the 16 Commonwealth countries where the Queen is head of state unanimously approved the changes at a summit in Perth, Australia.It means a first-born daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would take precedence over younger brothers.The ban on the monarch being married to a Roman Catholic was also lifted. …The change to the Royal Marriages Act will end a position where every descendant of George II is legally required to seek the consent of the monarch before marrying. …”The monarchy discriminates against every man, woman and child who isn’t born into the Windsor family. To suggest that this has anything to do with equality is utterly absurd,” spokesman Graham Smith said.
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UN votes to end no-fly zone over Libya | AJE
Security Council members vote unanimously to end no-fly zone in place since March despite Libyan calls for a delay.
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NATO announces end of Libya mission | AJE
Alliance agrees to end seven-month military campaign despite appeal from Libya’s new leaders to stay until end of year.
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Bold Stroke: New Font Helps Dyslexics Read [Slide Show]: Scientific American
This month Boer released the font in English for U.S. users to purchase online.
Boer began designing the font in 2008 while studying at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. It eventually became his graduate school project. In December 2010 a fellow student conducted an independent study on the font as part of a master’s thesis and discovered a significant reduction in reading errors by dyslexics when reading Dutch text typed in Dyslexie as opposed to the Arial font.
Boer’s research could likewise have a big impact on English speakers, given the prevalence of dyslexia when reading that language, as compared with Italian…
Whereas the majority of typography designers want their fonts to be aesthetically pleasing (think of the flowing serifs of Lucida Calligraphy or the chiseled lines of Arial), Boer was more concerned with reading comprehension. He estimates that the time he spent designing his font added up to 15 hours per letter. He even recruited dyslexic college pals for feedback.
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Nor’easter: Biggest October Storm in NYC History? – ABC News
A rare October Nor’easter that is forecast to hit at least 10 states from North Carolina to Maine starting Saturday morning has the potential to be the biggest October storm in New York City history…
[Bundle up, occupiers! -L]
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Venn diagram: Platypus playing a keytar | FlowingData • Nathan Yau
The word you’re looking for is epic.
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Best statistics question ever | FlowingData • Nathan Yau
…the best statistics multiple choice question ever written on a chalkboard. Try not to think too hard.
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Roots Manuva’s Latest: 4Everevolution
The Root Recommends: The latest album from genre-blending British rapper Roots Manuva.
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Racism in School: Black Children Aware but Motivated | The Root
A recent study out of UCLA says that minority students as young as second grade are aware of stigmas against their ethnic groups and have increased academic anxiety as a result. But in a compelling twist, researchers also found that minority kids are more motivated about school than their white classmates. …
So if black kids are more motivated, why are there so many disparities — from grades and graduation to discipline and dropouts — among ethnic groups?
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I Am Not a Costume: A Campaign Against Racist Halloween Costumes
[interview] We talked about the origin of the campaign and where it’s headed next.
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The study that shows why Occupy Wall Street struck a nerve – The Washington Post
Perhaps my memory is faulty, but I don’t remember voting to turn the United States into a nation starkly divided between haves and have-nots. Yet that’s where we’ve been led. …
This is not what Republicans want you to think of when you hear the word redistribution. You’re supposed to imagine the evil masterminds as Bolsheviks, not bankers. You’re supposed to envision the lazy free-riders who benefit from redistribution as the “poor,” and the industrious job-creators who get robbed as the “wealthy” — not the other way around.
If Americans were to realize they’ve been the victims of Republican-style redistribution — stealing from the poor to give to the rich — the whole political atmosphere might change.
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The Path Not Taken – NYTimes.com – Paul Krugman
Maybe the most telling thing is what now passes for a success story. A few months ago various pundits began hailing the achievements of Latvia, which in the aftermath of a terrible recession, nonetheless, managed to reduce its budget deficit and convince markets that it was fiscally sound. That was, indeed, impressive, but it came at the cost of 16 percent unemployment and an economy that, while finally growing, is still 18 percent smaller than it was before the crisis. …
If you’ve been reading accounts of the financial crisis, or watching film treatments like the excellent “Inside Job,” you know that Iceland was supposed to be the ultimate economic disaster story: …
Iceland hasn’t avoided major economic damage or a significant drop in living standards. But it has managed to limit both the rise in unemployment and the suffering of the most vulnerable; the social safety net has survived intact, as has the basic decency of its society. “Things could have been a lot worse” may not be the most stirring of slogans, but when everyone expected utter disaster, it amounts to a policy triumph.
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For all its social snootiness, Wall Street has suffered far more from the meddling of members of its own class than from intrusions by those outside it. It was Franklin D. Roosevelt, an aristocrat, who held the lords of finance responsible for the Great Depression…
…Occupy Wall Street represents something new. …Their chief weapon is neither eloquence nor argument, but their physical presence.
As critics have noted, the protesters are not in complete agreement with each other, but the overall message is reasonably coherent. They want more and better jobs…. They also want to reduce the influence that corporations…wield in politics, and they want a more populist set of government priorities: bailouts for student debtors and mortgage holders, not just for banks.
…the Woodstock Era was different in ways that tell us important things about the current siege. Then, radical students preached an affinity with the “working class,” but it was rare that the students and any members of the working class actually joined arms. …
The Hard Hat Riot epitomized the battle lines of the era: protesters and workers on opposite sides.
…Capitalism may have triumphed in China—even in Vietnam—but in America it’s in a quagmire. This is what has brought the protesters to Wall Street.
…To the extent that the movement offers remedies, most are unresponsive to the problems that inspired it.
…High bonuses [on Wall Street] aren’t the cause of poor job growth or of steadily flattening wages. What contributes most to income disparity in the bottom and the middle of the scale are technology and globalization. …
Improving the educational system, investing in infrastructure, and incentivizing corporate investment would [accomplish something], but such steps will take decades, not weeks.
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Despite Iraq Vet’s Cracked Skull, DoJ Sees No Evil in Occupy Crackdown | Threat Level | Wired.com
As for the Justice Department keeping an eye on the broader police response to Occupy protests around the country to see whether authorities are violating Americans’ constitutional rights (e.g by punching them in the face in the street or macing women for exercising their First Amendment rights), the Justice Department says it’s not investigating that either.
But Hinojosa does promise that, “The Department will review complaints, as it always does, that indicate a pattern of misconduct or criminal misconduct.” The DoJ helpfully sent along the link where you can lodge a complaint. …
When Egypt teargassed and beat protestors in Tahrir Square, the world, including the Obama administration, howled in outrage.
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