Tent Tribe and occupiers from LA continue their street occupation of the CCA, DTLA’s premier lobbying group. Please read more about the 626Wilshire Project or contribute ideas to the working group. Grow the resistance, liberate space!
July 7th, 2012
July 3rd, 2012
Mexican citizens who allegedly received supermarket gift cards from the Institutional Revolutionary Party [PRI] in exchange for their vote, are going on a “panic-stricken” shopping spree, La Jornada reports.
According to the Mexican newspaper, some card holders are afraid that credit on their cards might be confiscated by officials investigating allegations of vote-buying. Others fear that the credit on the cards might be cancelled because the PRI politician who distributed them may not end up winning local elections in the municipality of Nezahualcoyotl.
Last week, the leftist PRD party accused the PRI of distributing 1.8 million of these cards in Mexico State. The cards, which can be used at the Soriana supermarket chain, carry the logo of the CTM, a union affiliated with the PRI. Last week a PRD spokesman showed journalists gift cards that the PRI allegedly distributed in exchange for votes. La Jornada reports that at first, the party was offering cards with 100 pesos, ($7) worth of credit, but as election day approached, the amount on cards offered was raised to 300, 500, and even 700 pesos. Rocio Ugalde told La Jornada that even on election day (Sunday), PRI operatives were distributing these cards. She explained how the process worked: you go into the box, vote, take a picture of that ballot that you voted in favor of the PRI candidate, showed the photo to a PRI representative, and you received a gift card. Not all the cards that were handed out had full value; as people lined up to check the balance of their card, many had already been reported out of funds.
Univision News Tumblr: Mexico: PRI supporters go on “panic-stricken” shopping spree
As Roberto Lovato stated on his Facebook, “Imagine what the coverage of fraud allegations would be like if global media were talking about Iran, Egypt, Venezuela or some other, less ‘friendly’ country [instead] of Mexico. Imagine…”
(via thenoobyorker)
I really don’t know what to think of this entire situation. Would it be surprising if the PRI won after the last 6 years Mexico has undergone? Not really, but the PRI is notorious for election fraud and Mexico’s unfinished path towards democratization has yet to cement in a stable electoral system.
It’s a shame this is not being covered more because it’s incredibly important, not only due to our ties with Mexico but the welfare of the Mexican people, who have endured so much, quite a bit of which is directly our fault. Don’t question those elections though.
(via mohandasgandhi)(via mohandasgandhi)
May 18th, 2012
(via peaceful-wanderer)
May 14th, 2012
The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
Plato (via occupyla)
February 17th, 2012
The inside story on climate scientists under siege | Environment |
It is almost possible to dismiss Michael Mann’s account of a vast conspiracy by the fossil fuel industry to harrass scientists and befuddle the public. His story of that campaign, and his own journey from naive computer geek to battle-hardened climate ninja, seems overwrought, maybe even paranoid.
But now comes the unauthorised release of documents showing how a libertarian thinktank, the Heartland Institute, which has in the past been supported by Exxon, spent millions on lavish conferences attacking scientists and concocting projects to counter science teaching for kindergarteners.
February 13th, 2012
"Monsignors' mutiny" revealed by Vatican leaks
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Call it Conspiracy City. Call it Scandal City. Call it Leak City. These days the holy city has been in the news for anything but holy reasons.
“It is a total mess,” said one high-ranking Vatican official who spoke, like all others, on the condition of anonymity.
The Machiavellian maneuvering and machinations that have come to light in the Vatican recently are worthy of a novel about a sinister power struggle at a medieval court.
Senior church officials interviewed this month said almost daily embarrassments that have put the Vatican on the defensive could force Pope Benedict to act to clean up the image of its administration - at a time when the church faces a deeper crisis of authority and relevance in the wider world.
Some of those sources said the outcome of a power struggle inside the Holy See may even have a longer-term effect, on the choice of the man to succeed Benedict when he dies.
From leaked letters by an archbishop who was transferred after he blew the whistle on what he saw as a web of corruption and cronyism, to a leaked poison pen memo which puts a number of cardinals in a bad light, to new suspicions about its bank, Vatican spokesmen have had their work cut out responding.
The flurry of leaks has come at an embarrassing time - just before a usually joyful ceremony this week known as a consistory, when Benedict will admit more prelates into the College of Cardinals, the exclusive men’s club that will one day pick the next Roman Catholic leader from among their own ranks.
Bag of dicks (no offense to dicks). Read More.
January 6th, 2012
7 Reasons America's Mental Health Industry Is a Threat to Our Sanity
Drug industry corruption, scientifically unreliable diagnoses and pseudoscientific research have compromised the values of the psychiatric profession.
December 12th, 2011
Scott Gessler wants corporate money back in Colorado politics
Secretary of State Scott Gessler has proposed a wholesale rewrite of Colorado campaign-finance rules — changes Gessler says are long overdue but critics call a heavy-handed attempt to allow big money to dominate elections.
Gessler, who represented Republicans as a campaign-finance lawyer before he was elected last year, said the proposed changes are needed to make the rules clearer. He also said they reflect case law issued since most of the current rules were written nearly a decade ago, after Colorado voters approved a constitutional amendment on campaign finance.
“These rules have sort of grown up since 2002,” Gessler said.
Critics say Gessler is once again overstepping his authority, trying to alter state statutes and the Colorado Constitution through rule-making to reflect his political beliefs.
“Secretary Gessler has made no secret of his disdain for campaign-finance regulation,” said Martha Tierney, a campaign-finance attorney who has represented organizations such as the Colorado Democratic Party.
“This rewrite of the rules furthers his goal of rolling back campaign-finance laws,” Tierney added…
Among the more significant changes, the proposed rules would:
• Limit the total fine that may be charged for late or incomplete campaign-finance reports to $9,000 — or $50 a day for up to 180 days. Currently, there is no limit to the number of days that fines may accumulate. In some cases, this leads to groups or candidates racking up huge fines that Gessler’s office says many groups cannot realistically pay.
• Maintain a $5,000 contribution-and-expenditure threshold for issue-committee reporting that Gessler created through rule-making earlier this year. Last week, a Denver district judge ruled that Gessler did not have the authority to raise the threshold from the $200 set in the Colorado Constitution. Gessler is appealing that ruling, saying a recent 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision found the $200 threshold unconstitutional.
• Require political groups known as 527s to limit the amount of money they accept from any person to $500 every two years, but only if the 527 “expressly advocates” for a particular candidate. To expressly advocate, an advertisement has to use certain words to explicitly ask people to vote for or against a particular candidate. Gessler and supporters say the rule would protect free speech, while critics say it provides a way for 527s to influence elections by collecting unlimited donations.
This is so blatantly transparent that I’m astounded it’s working.
November 28th, 2011
US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week. An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women – targeted seemingly for their gender – screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park.
But just when Americans thought we had the picture – was this crazy police and mayoral overkill, on a municipal level, in many different cities? – the picture darkened. The National Union of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a Freedom of Information Act request to investigate possible federal involvement with law enforcement practices that appeared to target journalists. The New York Times reported that “New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers” covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding. Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being – falsely – informed by police that “It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk.”
In New York, a state supreme court justice and a New York City council member were beaten up; in Berkeley, California, one of our greatest national poets, Robert Hass, was beaten with batons. The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on “how to suppress” Occupy protests.
To Europeans, the enormity of this breach may not be obvious at first. Our system of government prohibits the creation of a federalised police force, and forbids federal or militarised involvement in municipal peacekeeping.
I noticed that rightwing pundits and politicians on the TV shows on which I was appearing were all on-message against OWS. Journalist Chris Hayes reported on a leaked memo that revealed lobbyists vying for an $850,000 contract to smear Occupy. Message coordination of this kind is impossible without a full-court press at the top. This was clearly not simply a case of a freaked-out mayors’, city-by-city municipal overreaction against mess in the parks and cranky campers. As the puzzle pieces fit together, they began to show coordination against OWS at the highest national levels.
Homeland security - protecting the people from the people? Ah yes, Rich from the not so rich. But let’s not call it class warfare right?
November 21st, 2011
A retired US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel on the #occupy protests: “I think this movement has really threatened a lot of politicians and the financial leaders …”
“I think this movement really has a lot of politicians and money/power people worried - they are really threatened - they realized they have finally awakened a sleeping giant.
I trace it back to a backlash against the 2010 elections and republican overreach - the attempt by Kasich and Scott Walker to strip people of their rights.
Now the veil has been lifted. Now we see that municipal and collegiate police forces have been militarized. They are now willing to casually use excessive force not to uphold the law, not to protect and serve - but to keep the citizens in line.
We must remember that we own the system. It has been taken away from us temporarily by political actors who have lied and deceived us for more than a generation - and sold us out the whole way.
I’m personally amazed at the discipline of the protestors, that no one has used Molotov cocktails on any of these police forces. All it needs is a William Wallace screaming “Freedom” and this thing will kindle right up.
We are about to enter the 2012 election season - the OWS needs to begin presenting political candidates with a concise, precise set of demands - maybe a new deal kind of thing, maybe a 99% deal kind of thing - and say - are you with us or against us? and if they are against the demands of the 99% - they get no votes from the 99% ””
— Unnamed Retired USMC Lieutenant Colonel
(via peaceful-wanderer)
