Sandra Fluke is a strong woman and one to be admired for staying on the high road while Rush degraded her and all women by calling them the worst of names. I wish someone would interview Rush’s former and current wife to see if they agree with his comments. While it is none of my business I wonder if any of them women ever used birth control pills and if any had abortions? I just don’t understand how a woman in her right mind would marry a man like Rush.

Rush is but an angry white man out of control  and is a convenient mouth piece for the extreme right which now seems to be in control of the Republican party. Rush, Fox Noise .. I mean News… Other ultra conservative commentators seem to also express in the most vile things about women, the president, and anyone who would want to help the average citizen..they bend and stretch the truth but most often lie, pull false data of some orifice and then what is worse their listeners believe it and repeat it.

The Republican Leadership and Candidates are afraid of Rush and have failed to sanction him. But were quick to object to those who would question some rather strange candidates that the Republican party has had such as Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, the pizza man Herman Cain and others….if someone ever created a Zoo for the strangest voices in American politics they would find most of the cages filled with the extreme right of what remains of the Republican Party.

I am glad the President Obama called fluke to tell her that she is not alone.  And we are all proud of her, her courage and leadership she has shown as she becomes a national voice for the protection of women and their rights.

The Republicans this election cycle are bashing women, gays, immigrants, and unions. Do they think that the Tea Cup movement will energize voters to overcome every one that has been attacked and offended by the spokesmen and women of the Republican party?… For what was left of the moderate Republicans it is no longer a party but a wake ..with the funeral soon to come.

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.    Nicaragaua
b.    ARMED FORCES RADIO
c.    He said Tray was gone
d.    Mississippi churning (anti-immigrant)

NICARAGUA AND BATAHOLA DEL NORTE

On the  week of February I spent in Nicaragua at this most progressive cultural and arts community center. I was invited by the USA BOARD which supports the work of the center. Also each year I am encouraged to attend by my friend Sister Helen Prejean. This time my wife Carolyn who works in Haiti joined us and we put her to work immediately translating for the basketball clinic

The clinic was coordinated by HolliOmari, a P.E. teacher in Los Angeles who has also played and coached at the college level. Over 35 students and teachers participated in this clinic. The enthusiasm was so great that we are now planning a week long training for coaches and P.E. teachers. We will have to raise about $4,000 in the future to make this a reality. There is also a possibility that Holli will also teach some volley ball.

There was a lot of learning and sharing done during the five days at Batahola.

Last year when I was there I tried to get Gerrardo the art teacher to paint my image into one the many murals that grace the center. They have on their walls images of campesinos, children, Carlos Fonseca, Sandino, Che Guevara, Arch Bishop Romero, RigobertaMenchu and many other heroes and sheroes. With every group of visitors they give them a walking tour of the murals to explain the history of this part of the world.  Well much to our surprise on every mural was a copy of a picture of me that Gerrando had drawn, had copied and then pasted up on each mural. It was pretty funny ..and for a day my face was up there amongst the many who have been such strong voices for human rights..

Armed Forces Radio

I hope that you can take a moment and call your congressman and senators to let them know that you want Rush Limbaugh taken off of the programing for our Armed forces..

If you call we can make a difference. Make a phone call.

“He said that Tray was gone.”

That’s how Sybrina Fulton, her voice full of ache, told me she found out that her 17-year-old son, Trayvon Martin, had died. In a wrenching telephone call, the boy’s father, who had taken him to visit a friend, told her that Trayvon had been gunned down in a gated townhouse community in Sanford, Fla., outside Orlando.

“He said, ‘Somebody shot Trayvon and killed him.’ And I was like, ‘Are you sure?’ ” Fulton continued in disbelief. “I said ‘How do you know that’s Trayvon?’ And he said because they showed him a picture.”
That was Feb. 27, one day after Trayvon was shot. The father thought that he was missing, according to the family’s lawyer, Benjamin Crump, but the boy’s body had actually been taken to the medical examiner’s office and listed as a John Doe.

The father called the Missing Persons Unit. No luck. Then he called 911. The police asked the father to describe the boy, after which they sent officers to the house where the father was staying. There they showed him a picture of the boy with blood coming out of his mouth.

This is a nightmare scenario for any parent, and the events leading to Trayvon’s death offer little comfort — and pose many questions.

Trayvon had left the house he and his father were visiting to walk to the local 7-Eleven. On his way back, he caught the attention of George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old neighborhood watch captain, who was in a sport-utility vehicle. Zimmerman called the police because the boy looked “real suspicious,” according to a 911 call released late Friday. The operator told Zimmerman that officers were being dispatched and not to pursue the boy.

Zimmerman apparently pursued him anyway, at some point getting out of his car and confronting the boy. Trayvon had a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea. Zimmerman had a 9 millimeter handgun.

The two allegedly engaged in a physical altercation. There was yelling, and then a gunshot.

When police arrived, Trayvon was face down in the grass with a fatal bullet wound to the chest. Zimmerman was standing with blood on his face and the back of his head and grass stains on his back, according to The Orlando Sentinel.
Trayvon’s lifeless body was taken away, tagged and held. Zimmerman was taken into custody, questioned and released. Zimmerman said he was the one yelling for help. He said that he acted in self-defense. The police say that they have found no evidence to dispute Zimmerman’s claim.

One other point: Trayvon is black. Zimmerman is not.

Trayvon was buried on March 3. Zimmerman is still free and has not been arrested or charged with a crime.

Yet the questions remain: Why did Zimmerman find Trayvon suspicious? Why did he pursue the boy when the 911 operator instructed him not to? Why did he get out of the car, and why did he take his gun when he did? How is it self-defense when you are the one in pursuit? Who initiated the altercation? Who cried for help? Did Trayvon’s body show evidence of a struggle? What moved Zimmerman to use lethal force?

This case has reignited a furor about vigilante justice, racial-profiling and equitable treatment under the law, and it has stirred the pot of racial strife.

As the father of two black teenage boys, this case hits close to home. This is the fear that seizes me whenever my boys are out in the world: that a man with a gun and an itchy finger will find them “suspicious.” That passions may run hot and blood run cold. That it might all end with a hole in their chest and hole in my heart. That the law might prove insufficient to salve my loss.

That is the burden of black boys in America and the people that love them: running the risk of being descended upon in the dark and caught in the cross-hairs of someone who crosses the line.

The racial sensitivity of this case is heavy. Trayvon’s parents have said their son was murdered. Crump, the family’s lawyer, told me, “You know, if Trayvon would have been the triggerman, it’s nothing Trayvon Martin could have said to keep police from arresting him Day 1, Hour 1.” Even the police chief recognizes this reality, even while disputing claims of racial bias in the investigation: “Our investigation is color blind and based on the facts and circumstances, not color. I know I can say that until I am blue in the face, but, as a white man in a uniform, I know it doesn’t mean anything to anybody.”

Zimmerman has not released a statement, but his father delivered a one-page letter to The Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. According to the newspaper, the statement said that Zimmerman is “Hispanic and grew up in a multiracial family.” The paper quotes the letter as reading, “He would be the last to discriminate for any reason whatsoever” and continues, “The media portrayal of George as a racist could not be further from the truth.” And disclosures made since the shooting complicate people’s perception of fairness in the case.

According to Crump, the father was told that one of the reasons Zimmerman wasn’t arrested was because he had a “squeaky clean” record. It wasn’t. According to the local news station WFTV, Zimmerman was arrested in 2005 for “battery on a law enforcement officer.”

Furthermore, ABC News reported on Tuesday that one of the responding officers “corrected a witness after she told him that she heard the teen cry for help.” And The Miami Herald published an article on Thursday that said three witnesses had heard the “desperate wail of a child, a gunshot, and then silence.”

WFTV also reported this week that the officer in charge of the scene when Trayvon was shot was also in charge of another controversial case. In 2010, a lieutenant’s son was videotaped attacking a black homeless man. The officer’s son also was not initially arrested in that case. He was later arrested when the television station broke the news.

Although we must wait to get the results from all the investigations into Trayvon’s killing, it is clear that it is a tragedy. If no wrongdoing of any sort is ascribed to the incident, it will be an even greater tragedy.

One of the witnesses was a 13-year-old black boy who recorded a video for The Orlando Sentinel recounting what he saw. The boy is wearing a striped polo shirt, holding a microphone, speaking low and deliberately and has the heavy look of worry and sadness in his eyes. He describes hearing screaming, seeing someone on the ground and hearing gunshots. The video ends with the boy saying, “I just think that sometimes people get stereotyped, and I fit into the stereotype as the person who got shot.”

And that is the burden of black boys, and this case can either ease or exacerbate it.

What Everyone Should Know About Trayvon Martin (1995-2012)

By Judd Legum on Mar 18, 2012

On February 26, 2012, a 17-year-old African-American named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida. The shooter was George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old white man. Zimmerman admits killing Martin, but claims he was acting in self-defense. Three weeks after Martin’s death, no arrests have been made and Zimmerman remains free.

Here is what everyone should know about the case:

1. Zimmerman called the police to report Martin’s “suspicious” behavior, which he described as “just walking around looking about.” Zimmerman was in his car when he saw Martin walking on the street. He called the police and said: “There’s a real suspicious guy. This guy looks like he’s up to no good, on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around looking about… These a**holes always get away” [Orlando Sentinel]

2. Zimmerman pursued Martin against the explicit instructions of the police dispatcher:

Dispatcher: “Are you following him?”

Zimmerman: “Yeah”

Dispatcher: “OK, we don’t need you to do that.”

[Orlando Sentinel]

3. Prior to the release of the 911 tapes, Zimmerman’s father released a statement claiming “[a]t no time did George follow or confront Mr. Martin.”[Sun Sentinel]

4. Zimmerman was carrying a a 9 millimeter handgun. Martin was carrying a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea. [ABC News]

5. Martin weighed 140 pounds. Zimmerman weighs 250 pounds. [Orlando Sentinel; WDBO]

6. Martin’s English teacher described him as “as an A and B student who majored in cheerfulness.” [Orlando Sentinel]

7. Martin had no criminal record. [New York Times]

8. Zimmerman “was charged in July 2005 with resisting arrest with violence and battery on an officer. The charges appear to have been dropped.” [Huffington Post]

9. Zimmerman called the police 46 times since Jan. 1, 2011. [Miami Herald]

10. According to neighbors, Zimmerman was “fixated on crime and focused on young, black males.” [Miami Herald]

11. Zimmerman “had been the subject of complaints by neighbors in his gated community for aggressive tactics” [Huffington Post]

12. A police officer “corrected” a key witness. “The officer told the witness, a long-time teacher, it was Zimmerman who cried for help, said the witness. ABC News has spoken to the teacher and she confirmed that the officer corrected her when shesaid she heard the teenager shout for help.” [ABC News]

13. Three witnesses say they heard a boy cry for help before a shot was fired.“Three witnesses contacted by The Miami Herald say they saw or heard the moments before and after the Miami Gardens teenager’s killing. All three said they heard the last howl for help from a despondent boy.” [Miami Herald]

14. The officer in charge of the crime scene also received criticism in 2010when he initially failed to arrest a lieutenant’s son who was videotaped attacking a homeless black man. [New York Times]

15. The police did not test Zimmerman for drugs or alcohol. A law enforcement expert told ABC that Zimmerman sounds intoxicated on the 911 tapes. Drug and alcohol testing is “standard procedure in most homicide investigations.” [ABC News]

The Martin case had been turned over to the Seminole County State Attorney’s Office. Martin’s family has asked for the FBI to investigate.

UPDATE

MISSISSIPPI CHURNING UP ANTI-IMMIGRANT CHANTING AT A BASKETBALL GAME

From: Dave Zirin on March 15, 2012 – 8:52 PM ET

Welcome to the New South, which at times can look and act one hell of a lot like the Old South. The NCAA Men’s basketball tournament staged a first round matchup between Kansas State and Southern Mississippi and KSU won, as expected, 70-64.

The story of the game, however, was the members of the Southern Miss.school band who gave us all another lesson that the past is not always past, by starting a chant as racist as it was ignorant.

They engaged in a chorus of “Where’s your green card” aimed at Kansas State guard Angel Rodriguez. Imagine being Angel Rodriguez and having that chanted in your direction at full volume, while trying to play a basketball game. This has about as much in common with normal rowdy fan behavior as a glee club has with a lynch mob. Rodriguez’s four free throws in the closing moments of the contest helped seal the victory, but that’s not nearly enough of a response given both the behavior of the fans as well as the exploding anti-immigrant climate in the state.

The chant, first and foremost, was both racist and stupid, given that Rodriguez is actually from Puerto Rico, and therefore has citizenship if not voting rights. But given that the state of Mississippi’s Republican electorate just voted for Rick Santorum, who recently said that Puerto Rico could only be a state if everyone learned and spoke English, their actions should anger but not surprise.

It also shouldn’t surprise given the fact that today – of all days – Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant saw his deeply punitive, racial-profiling anti-immigration House Bill 488 pass the state house. The bill will deal with what Bryant calls the “massive, uncontrolled” influx of “illegals.” It also gives local and state police the powers to demand the immigration papers of anyone they choose to stop. “If we pass this bill, it will set Mississippiback 60 years,” said Rep. Sonya Williams-Barnes, D-Gulfport. “Let us show America we are not the narrow-minded people they say we are.” Nice try, but instead Bryant celebrated the bill, saying, “Perhaps it’s boat-rocking time in Mississippi.” Perhaps the students were just taking his lead, and trying to rock some boats.

Southern Mississippi School President Martha Saunders issued a statement a mere two hours after the gamewhere she wrote,

“We deeply regret the remarks made by a few students at today’s game. The words of these individuals do not represent the sentiments of our pep band, athletic department or university. We apologize to Mr. Rodriques and will take quick and appropriate disciplinary action against the students involved in this isolated incident.”

Yes, she misspelled Rodriguez’s name. And yes, treating this like an isolated incident is, pardon the expression given Mississippi’s history, a whitewash. Defenders of the Magnolia State will no doubt say that the state has changed dramatically from the days gone by. But given Bryant’s scapegoating, anti-immigrant agenda and given the extraordinary efforts taken by the state to deprive minority voting rights, it is, as Al Sharpton said, a change from Jim Crow, to James Crow, Jr. Esq. In other words, the depriving of rights and the threats to citizenship have erupted, yet now assume the language of legal niceties. But sometimes the bile rises to the surface, and from the mouths of Southern Miss. students, amidst a basketball game, the bile did runneth over.

[Dave Zirin is the author of “The John Carlos Story” (Haymarket) and just made the new documentary “Not Just a Game.” ]

WAITING FOR SPRING

It is still pretty cool up here in the Northwest and we are waiting for more sun and warmer temperatures.. I need to plant my cilantro and jalapenos… are you involved in a garden project? If not you should consider it …even if it is small

My best
Leno

Travel for Leno

March 29-April 2nd Denver, Colorado
Amnesty International Annual General Meeting
Plus I will add some other meetings to my agenda

SpearIt will speak on the legal punishment in post-Civil Rights America through the lens of rituals. By examining punishment practices from the perspective of culture the United States has the largest incarceration operation in the world and among the top five countries which execute its citizens.

SpearIt will speak at City Hall Council Chambers on March 8th at noon and at UW Law School on March 9th at 12:30 both events are open to the public.

Other events are being planned for Bellingham and Federal Way. For more information contact leno@magdaleno.org.

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.    Elect the 1 %
b.    Punishment in search of a crime
c.    Blacks and Mormons
d.    Unit leader urinates on corpses
e.    Getting ready for Nicaragua

Elect the 1%

Should Mitt or Mittens Romney get elected we would be selecting a strong representative of the 1%. With all our demonstrations and occupy actions reminding the world of the suffering of the 99% it would be the most painful irony of this decade to elect such a man.

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

A Clarification from Mitt Romney

About Poor People

LA JOLLA, CA – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney today released the following letter to the American people:

Dear American People:

Yesterday, comments I made about poor people made me look terrible.  This always seems to happen when I say what I really believe.

The fact is, I do care about poor people.  That’s because I’m poor myself, when you compare me to Mark Zuckerberg.

According to most projections, Facebook’s IPO should net Mr. Zuckerberg a personal fortune of $28 billion.  I couldn’t make a pile of dough-re-mi like that even if I fired people twenty-four hours a day.

Now, let’s take a look at Mitt Romney’s net worth: a measly $200 million.  Now do you see why I consider myself poor?  Compared to Mark Zuckerberg, Mitt Romney is practically a crack whore.

Now, I’m not going to sit here and envy a rich person like Mark Zuckerberg.  That’s exactly what President Obama wants poor people like me to do.  Mark Zuckerberg made his money fair and square, by creating useful products like imaginary sheep and angry birds.  Say what you will about Facebook, it has totally revolutionized the way we waste our lives.

The fact is, if you’re poor in America, you should do what Mark Zuckerberg did: create a social network.  I’ve just started my own, called TwoFaceBook.  With TwoFaceBook, your profile doesn’t stay the same for more than two seconds.
In closing, there’s one more reason I don’t worry about poor people.  They have Groupons.

Vote for me,
Mitt Romney
Credit for this piece goes to Andy Borowitz

PUNISHMENT IN SEARCH OF CRIME

Scaring you so they can punish gang members

In the Washington Legislature we have been fight some God awful bills that would punish gang members and those who look and act like them. It’s easy to demonize someone and abuse their constitutional rights. I watched legislators trash talk about gangs so much that I final took two bad looking but straight talking former gang members with me to a legislative hearing in Olympia to testify against a GANG INJUNCTION BILL..

The legislators and those in the hearing room were taken aback… here were these feared and so called violent individuals testifying and speaking good educated English… often people think that gang members are dumb and illiterate… if you know gang members you will find some the most amazing and smart leadership amongst this community.

We should not pass punitive laws and punish folks when we are not willing to spend the time and money to work with real and effective solutions.

Blacks and Mormons

http://christiandefense.org/mor_black.htm

Rev W. J. (Bill) Bailey asks that we take a look at this .

Unit leader among Marines who urinated on corpses

By Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — One of the Marines shown urinating on three corpses in Afghanistan in a widely distributed Internet video was the unit’s leader, two U.S. military officials have told McClatchy, raising concerns that poor command standards contributed to an incident that may have damaged the U.S. war effort.

Even before the unit deployed to southern Afghanistan last year, it suffered from disciplinary problems while the troops were based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., the officials said.

As Pentagon officials investigate the incident — the latest in a string of high-profile cases of U.S. troops abusing Afghans and Iraqis on the battlefield — the revelations renew questions about whether the U.S. military will hold commanders responsible when their troops misbehave or commit crimes.

Despite U.S. military doctrine stating that commanders ultimately are responsible for their units’ behavior in combat — and Geneva conventions barring the desecration of dead bodies — the Pentagon rarely has charged commanders in cases where troops have knowingly killed, injured or mistreated Afghans and Iraqis. Instead, lower-ranking troops or those directly responsible for crimes have been charged while commanders have only faced administrative penalties, like dismissal or demotion.

Experts say that the U.S. military hasn’t made the treatment of locals on the battlefield a priority for commanders. However, the military in Afghanistan has found that coalition troops’ behavior toward Afghans, including such acts as urinating in front of them, is a contributor to what one U.S. report last year called “a crisis of trust and cultural incompatibility” that has sometimes led to Afghan soldiers turning their weapons on their coalition partners.

Commanders “are often the last ones to feel the ax fall in terms of serious repercussions,” said Tammy Schultz, a professor of strategic studies at the Marines Corps War College.

Experts said that while commanders can’t be held responsible for everything their troops do, they do play a major role in how troops behave. Privately, three former commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan told McClatchy that mistreatment of Afghans and Iraqis wasn’t seen as a “career-ender,” and that if commanders were careful to avoid civilian casualties it was mainly to protect their own forces from repercussions.

Part of that calculus was the lack of charges or serious consequences against commanders in high-profile cases of abuse, they said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The case of the Marines in Afghanistan — which the two Pentagon officials discussed with McClatchy only on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing — will once again test how high up the chain of command the military will go to punish troops if the allegations are determined to be true.

The troops involved are members of a sniper squad from the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines. Officials at Camp Lejeune refused to release disciplinary statistics for the unit, but officials said that the ongoing investigation would study command climate.

The Marine Corps has identified the four Marines shown in the video, as well as a fifth who was recording it on video, officials said. They added that among those shown urinating on the corpses are two staff sergeants, including the unit’s leader. It was unclear whether the unit in question was the entire sniper squad.

The Marines believe that the men approached the corpses shortly after shooting them as part of a sniper operation. In the 38-second video posted online last month, the four Marines are shown standing over what look like three dead bodies, one with a bloody shirt. One Marine says, “Have a good day, buddy,” as he urinates on one of the motionless men. Another says, “Golden like a shower.”

Immediately after the video surfaced, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other top military officials called the act deplorable and promised a full investigation. Gen. John Allen, commander of the NATO coalition in Afghanistan, has made mitigating civilian casualties a focus of operations.

But the military’s handling of past cases continues to haunt its efforts to police new problems.

Only one U.S. commander has been charged for abuses under his command in Iraq or Afghanistan. But that commander, Marine Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, who told his troops to “shoot now, ask questions later” in a November 2005 incident that left 24 civilians dead in Haditha, Iraq, reached a deal with prosecutors last month to avoid a lengthy prison term. Wuterich pleaded guilty to negligent dereliction of duty in exchange for a three-month sentence.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chair of the Armed Services Committee, said last week that while he didn’t want to second-guess the Haditha verdict, “I thought it may have led to more severe outcomes.”

Schultz, the Marine Corps War College professor, argues that military attitudes toward civilians in the Iraq and Afghan wars emanated from the top — starting when then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, reviewing a 2002 memo that discussed forcing detainees to stand for prolonged periods of time, scrawled at the bottom: “I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to 4 hours?”

That, Schultz said, helped set the tone for the wars.

Command climate begins with making sure troops keep their uniforms clean and extends to how they conduct themselves on missions. Charging or relieving a commander is subjective and varies across the U.S. military services, but it usually hinges on proving the commander knew about an offense and did not respond appropriately.

The military regularly conducts surveys that ask troops to rate the command climate in their units — including how commanders treat troops, mete out discipline and treat military families — but none of the questions deal with treatment of local residents.

In combat, platoon and squad leaders who are on the front lines with their troops report to battalion commanders, who often are stationed at the main base and at times patrol with troops. Those commanders report to a brigade commander who usually works from a local headquarters and, more than any other commander, is responsible for the unit.

Some military leaders have rejected the idea that troops should be charged, saying that some crimes are part of the inevitable horrors of war. In the Haditha case, then-Marine Lt. Gen. James Mattis recommended dropping the case against one of the eight Marines originally charged by writing that the Marine was “in my eyes innocent.”

Mattis has since been promoted to a four-star general and is the commander of the U.S. Central Command, whose responsibilities include the U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In past cases, commanders have said they weren’t aware of abuses or could do little to stop them. In other cases, prosecutors could not build a strong case.

In the case of Abu Ghraib, the notorious Baghdad prison where U.S. troops photographed the abuse of Iraqi detainees, two specialists received three- and 10-year prison sentences while the brigade general was reprimanded and demoted a rank to colonel.

Recently, the military has attempted to go more aggressively after midlevel commanders. The Army has been investigating allegations that five soldiers with the 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, created a “kill team” that targeted unarmed Afghans and cut off their fingers as trophies in 2009 and 2010. In all, 11 U.S. soldiers have been convicted so far in connection with the deaths of the Afghans.

While he hasn’t been charged, a 532-page Army report found that the Stryker brigade commander in that case, Col. Harry Tunnell, encouraged an aggressive posture toward Afghans that “may have helped create an environment in which misconduct could occur.”

Editor’s note: The original version of this story incorrectly stated that one of the staff sergeants was the platoon commander.

Read more here.

Getting ready for Nicaragua

On Feb. 23 I will join Sister Helen Prejean and a team of others on yet another annual visit to BATAHOLA DEL NORTE..it is a wonderful community center that empowers women and their families to dream and do the impossible. I  am just happy to volunteer my smile and corny jokes.

My best
Leno

THE TRAVELS OF LENO

Feb.23-28th Managua, Nicaragua
Bataholadel Norte

March 30-April 1st Denver, Colorado
Amnesty International Annual General Meeting

After a thorough investigation, Daily Intel has discovered that God is separately backing at least three different contenders for the Republican presidential nomination. Over the course of the past few months and even years, God has sent signs and direct messages to each of these candidates encouraging them to run, presumably without telling them that he supports other candidates as well.

Herman Cain: When Cain’s granddaughter was born in 1999, Cain says his first thought upon holding her was, “What do I do to make this a better world?” Cain told Christian radio host Bryan Fischer in January, “I know that that had to be God almighty sending that thought through my mind.” That’s the background for what happened twelve years later. While campaigning for president around December of 2010, Cain was feeling tired and discouraged when he received a direct sign from God that he must continue. This sign was delivered via God’s preferred method of communication, the text message:

Cain has also heard from God more directly, as he told a tea party rally in April:

Cain told the crowd about his battle with cancer in 2006, saying he’s been “totally cancer free” for the past five years.

“You want to know why? God said, ‘Not yet Herman,’” Cain told the crowd. “God said, ‘Not yet. I’ve got something else for you to do.’ And it might be to become the president of the United States of America.”

Rick Santorum: But around the same time God was encouraging Herman Cain to run for president, he was also telling Rick Santorum to throw his hat in the race. As Karen Santorum told CBN’s David Brody in May about her husband’s decision to run for president, “It really boils down to God’s will. What is it that God wants? … We have prayed a lot about this decision, and we believe with all our hearts that this is what God wants.”

Michele Bachmann: Meanwhile, Michele Bachmann is all but certain to jump into the race soon, and when she does, it will signal that God has been quietly encouraging her to run for president as well. As Bachmann told World Net Daily in 2009, she would never run without God’s personal endorsement:

“If I felt that’s what the Lord was calling me to do, I would do it,” she answered. “When I have sensed that the Lord is calling me to do something, I’ve said yes to it. But I will not seek a higher office if God is not calling me to do it. That’s really my standard.

“If I am called to serve in that realm I would serve,” she concluded, “but if I am not called, I wouldn’t do it.”

Bachmann recently confirmed that she has, indeed, “had that calling and that tugging on my heart.”

God hasn’t been universally generous with his support. He went out of his way to let Mike Huckabee know that he shouldn’t run for president, lest he take his focus off the much more important task of producing a series of conservative American history DVDs. And though God arranged for Sarah Palin to be chosen as John McCain’s running mate in 2008, there’s nothing to indicate that he backs her potential candidacy in 2012. Nevertheless, the fact that God has privately encouraged the candidacies of three different Republicans may cause voters to question whether, in reality, he really even has any preference at all.

God could not be reached for comment by press time, because, a spokesman says, he was helping a baseball player hit a game-winning home run, giving an old churchgoing lady the winning lottery numbers, making sure that a plane made it through the turbulence okay, helping someone survive a heart attack, and also, just for fun, creating a new animal that’s like a cross between a leopard and an alligator.

And now the most interesting Pat Robertson Says He Thinks God Has Shown Him Who The Next President Will Be

(leno’s note: I am still waiting for god to tell me when I will win the lottery, I hope that she will take the time to at least give me a hint so that I might buy more tickets)

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.    Youssou N’Dour for president
b.    Marriage Equality for Washington State
c.    Occupy Haiti

Youssou N’Dour to run in Senegal’s presidential election

Singer announces he will take on Abdoulaye Wade but analysts divided over whether he can win or will split opposition vote.. Article by Luke Harding, Monica Mark and agencies guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 3 January 2012 14.50 EST

Youssou N’Dour to run in Senegal’s presidential election

Singer announces he will take on Abdoulaye Wade but analysts divided over whether he can win or will split opposition vote

Singer Youssou N’Dour announces plans to stand as a candidate in the Senegalese presidential elections Link to this video

The Senegalese music star Youssou N’Dour has said he will stand in next month’s presidential election, in a high-profile challenge to the octogenarian incumbent Abdoulaye Wade.

N’Dour – a versatile singer, songwriter, and composer best known in Britain for his hit song with Neneh Cherry, 7 Seconds – said he decided to contest the election in the small West African state following overwhelming pressure from supporters.

“I’ve travelled the world and been seen by people all over the world and I think I have the ability to govern Senegal. I am the alternative,” N’Dour announced on his own television station, Television Futurs Medias. He said he would announce his policies intended to topple President Wade soon.

“For a long time, men and women have demonstrated their optimism, dreaming of a new Senegal. They have, in various ways, called for my candidacy … I listened I heard,” he added. He also accused the president of “hearing only in mono, not stereo”.

Hailed by Rolling Stone magazine as Africa’s most famous living singer, N’Dour is hugely popular among young Senegalese voters. He has been an outspoken critic of Wade, who – aged 85 and in power already for 11 years – is seeking a third term. Political analysts are divided on whether N’Dour can win the race, or will merely split the vote between a series of opposition candidates. Musicians who have toured with him have also described him as exacting. “I would have to see his manifesto before voting for him,” one former manager said, saying he quit after several years of touring with N’Dour following “one too many dramas”.
Senegal is, relatively speaking, a democratic success story. But in recent years Wade has faced accusations that he has subverted the constitution by standing for a third term in office, while also shoehorning his son, and potential heir, into the job of vice-president.

N’Dour has repeatedly attacked what he calls the government’s profligate spending. Senegal suffers from a lack of formal employment and an average income of just $3 a day. Last June riots erupted after Wade introduced electoral reforms that seemed designed to keep him in power, and power cuts left residents without electricity.
N’Dour enjoys widespread popularity in Senegal for his music, which helped expose the country’s “mbalax” drumming and singing styles to an international audience. But it remains unclear whether he will be able to translate his fame into votes.

The musician has announced that he is cancelling concert dates to focus on politics. Inside Senegal he also has a reputation as a successful businessman, with his own arts and culture TV station.
“It will be the most interesting election in a long time, because the outcome is by no means clear-cut,” Amadou Diop, an advisor to Idrissa Seck, a former PM and key opposition figure, said. “There are a lot of things that need to be fixed in Senegal and he has talked about these things. But just because he has overcome enormous difficulties to become a musician, that’s no guarantee of success in another arena.
“In Senegal, up to now, we’ve had presidents who are academics or high-level intellectuals like Abdou Diouf or Abdoulaye Wade. Now there’s a musical icon [...] who stands a chance of taking much of the youth vote,” analyst Babacar Justin Ndiaye added, according to Reuters.

The runup to the poll has been dominated by the constitutional row over whether Wade has the right to stand for a third term in a country that prides itself on a record of peaceful leadership changes – unlike many of its neighbours.

The revised Senegalese constitution limits presidential terms to two, but Wade argues that the amendment occurred after he had begun his first stint in office.

The row triggered a movement known as “Y’en a Marre” – French for “fed up” – headed by a group of rappers and a journalist. N’Dour has collaborated with the group, bringing his distinctive mbalax style to their protests, which have drawn huge crowds angered by perceived corruption and nepotism.

With stage names such as “Thiat” (Junior) and “Fou Malade” (Crazy Sick Guy), the rappers have roused young Senegalese with outspoken lyrics. Fou Malade raps of Wade’s speeches: “They get on our nerves.” Other lyrics compare Senegal to a pirogue – a traditional fishing boat – that is sinking.

A spokesman for Wade, Amadou Sall, dismissed N’Dour’s challenge. “We’re waiting for all the candidates, including Youssou N’Dour, to detail their policy ideas [...] and not just list a string of wishes,” he said.

LENOS NOTE: N’Dour was part of Amnesty International’s world concert tour called HUMAN RIGHTS NOW. Leno worked as Media Director for this tour and was impressed by the spirit and music of N’Dour.

Washington Governor Elated After Introducing Marriage Equality Bill: ‘I Feel So Much Better Today!’

thinkprogress.org

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) announced that she will be introducing legislation to legalize same-sex marriage during a press conference this morning, saying, “now it’s our time, it’s this generation’s call to end discrimination.” Linking the fight for marriage equality to racial justice,

OCCUPY HAITI STILL GOING STRONG

Over the holidays I had the chance to go to Haiti and found that most of the tent cities are still there and don’t seem to be going anywhere soon. The building of new homes or repairing the damaged ones is slower than most would like. At the same time many international donor countries are quickly pulling out of this country that still needs so much help and attention.

While in Haiti I was able to do a workshop for youth on the issue of organizing and hope and it was encouraging to see the light in their eyes as I tried to relate our struggles to theirs. I was also able to record a lengthy interview with a young lady who was buried for 2 ½ days in the ruble of a grocery store not knowing if she would survive. I am always amazed by what I learn from others when I travel and open up my mind and my heart.

SMILE …IT’S ONE OF THE BEST AND EASIEST THINGS YOU CAN DO EACH DAY

If you can share your smile with others you will help them to in turn share their smile with even more individuals. This is an easy way to help make our world better by giving light and hope to others..

SENDING A BIG CHICANO SMILE
leno

Epic Stewart Obliterates Fox News for Christmas Outrage

This is going to shock Fox News viewers, but the people who wrote our Constitution didn’t celebrate Christmas.  In fact, like Jon Stewart notes, for the first 67 years after the birth of this nation, Congress was in session on Dec. 25th.

How is that possible you ask?  It’s very possible to be exact.  Christmas is very much a modern invention.  The Founders had absolutely no concept of Santa Claus or of Jesus’ birthday.  The American government didn’t even recognize Christmas as a holiday until well after the Civil War in 1870.  Until then, everyone worked on Christmas if they had a job.

Of course these are simple facts Fox News doesn’t want people to know.  They want people to believe that Christmas has always been celebrated in America and that our Founding Fathers created a Christian nation.  Nothing could be further from the truth, however.  Which is why you’ll never see or hear anything remotely similar to what I just wrote on Fox News.  Facts are nothing to be concerned about to Republicans so long live their propaganda machine.

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.       End the war on drugs
b.      Prescriptions drug deaths
c.       Causes of death
d.      Immigration and bigots
e.      Want to curb violence
f.        Santa lost his pansa

END ALL WARS .. GOOD SLOGAN … HOW ABOUT INCLUDING THE WAR AGAINST DRUGS

For 41 years we have been waging the war against drugs at the initial insistence of then President Richard Nixon. In the process we have spent billions of dollars, had many people killed ..many of them innocent and yet the same amount of drugs seems to be coming into the USA.. Interesting that we have not spent the same amount of money to help people off of addictive drugs.

But I should note that the war on drugs has made it easier to arrest and incarcerate people of color. Thus the growth of the prison industry’s growth runs parallel to the expansion of this called WAR ON DRUGS. I have to laugh late at night at comments contacts I have in some prisons who tell me that while they were convicted of drug possession that the same drug is available inside of the prison. In this drug culture there are many pay offs and many who wear uniforms or have the right titles who facilitate drugs coming into the USA , our streets and prisons.

Marijuana is a drug that can and should be easily legalized both in Mexico and the USA. If this were to happen many experts believe that most if not all of the violence would be taken out of the drug cartel wars in Mexico. As of today more than 40,000 deaths can be attributed to Cartel and Military wars in Mexico and the majority related to the control of the Marijuana market.

Some who have been taught to fear Marijuana say that it is a GATE WAY DRUG to other harder drugs and that it is addictive. While there is some evidence of this there is much more additiction in the consumption of Alcohol and it is in fact a bigger GATE WAY.

The sobering fact is that our real addiction is to prescription drugs.. these are readily available from your doctor.. and more readily available to children who are seeking to get high.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS DEATHS INCREASE ..from Scientific American

The number of deaths and hospitalizations caused by prescription drugs has risen precipitously in the past decade, with overdoses of pain medications, in particular opioids, sedatives and tranquilizers, more than doubling between 1999 and 2006, according to a new study.

In fact, by 2006, overdoses of opioid analgesics alone (a class of pain relievers that includes morphine and methadone) were already causing more deaths than overdoses of cocaine and heroin combined.

“Teens and others have different attitudes in using these drugs,” often presuming the prescription substances are safer and less addictive than illegal drugs such as cocaine or heroin, says Jeffrey Coben, a professor of emergency and community medicine at the West Virginia University School of Medicine in Morgantown and lead author of the new study. “I think that’s a false assumption. Aside from the fact they can be taken orally rather than injected…[many prescription drugs] really are every bit as powerful, addictive and dangerous as heroin,” he notes, adding that, “when you combine them with other sedatives, that mix can become particularly lethal.”

Using data collected by the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, which gathers hospital patient information for about 8 million people every year, Coben and his colleagues were able to assess what drugs were implicated in the majority of poisonings—and in many cases whether the poisonings were intentional or not. The team selected opioids, sedatives and tranquilizers as the focus of the analysis because these substances are “contributing the majority of prescription drug overdose deaths,” Coben says. These categories of prescription drugs can kill and injure people by suppressing breathing, depriving the body of oxygen.

For prescription opioids, sedatives and tranquilizers—commonly prescribed for pain management—the number of hospitalizations for poisonings increased 65 percent between 1999 and 2006 (the first and last years, respectively, for which data were comparable and collected). The number of hospitalizations for all poisonings, including illegal drugs, other prescription medications and miscellaneous substances, increased during this time period as well, but that jump (33 percent) was about half the rate of those for the prescription pain drugs.

Unintentional poisonings from these drugs climbed 37 percent during the seven-year period, the researchers found. Intentional overdoses, in which people meant to inflict self-harm or death, jumped 130 percent (a far cry more than the 53 percent increase of intentional poisoning from other substances in the same time period). Intent was not listed in all cases and can be subject to reporting error. The results are detailed online April 6 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

No accident
Poisonings, from prescription drugs and other substances, are classified in medical records as injurious or accidental deaths. But regardless of whether the incidents are listed as unintentional or intentional, they are rarely true mistakes, noted Leonard Paulozzi, a medical epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in congressional testimony in 2007. “Most unintentional drug poisoning deaths are not ‘accidents’ caused by toddlers or the elderly taking too much medication,” he noted. “These deaths are largely due to the misuse and abuse of prescription drugs.”

CAUSES OF DEATH

(2009 – causes of death – annual causes of death by cause)

Cause of death1
Number
All causes

2,436,652

Cardiovascular diseases
779,367

Malignant neoplasms
568,668

Drug induced2
37,485

Suicide
36,547

Motor vehicle accidents
36,284

Septicemia (infections)
35,587

by Firearms
31,224

Accidental poisoning
30,504

Alcohol induced
23,199

Homicide
16,591

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
9,424

Viral hepatitis
7,652

Cannabis (Marijuana)

0

1 Based on the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Second Edition, 2004
2 Drug induced include both legal and illicit drugs.

Source:

* Kochanek KD, Xu JQ, Murphy SL, et al. “Deaths: Preliminary data for 2009.” National vital statistics reports; vol 59 no 4. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2011. pp. 17-20.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr59/nvsr59_04.pdfComment is free
* Cif America

US immigration laws bow to the bigots and the opportunists

Laws in Arizona and Alabama have given bigots with badges a licence to go after Latinos and the poor

* Gary Younge
Gary Younge
guardian.co.uk, Friday 16 December 2011 14.31 EST
Article history

Hispanic immigrants

America’s standard of living is dependent on exploiting cheap, foreign labour, much of which is undocumented. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

While travelling along the US-Mexican border, from Brownsville to San Diego, I met a man in New Mexico who went by the name of Quasimodo who claimed he “could tell an ‘illegal’ by looking at them”. I found this doubtful, and so asked Quasimodo, one of the Minutemen, an anti-immigrant vigilante group how. “It’s like wild dog versus tame dog. They just don’t have the same kind of look.”

Preposterous as Quasimodo’s claim may sound, this crude and offensive rule of thumb has, in many states, become the rule of law. Legislation in Alabama, Arizona and elsewhere gives police the right to check the immigration status of those they ‘suspect’ of being undocumented.

This has effectively given bigots with badges a licence to go hunting with impunity for “wild dogs”. Earlier this week a Justice Department investigation into Maricopa County, Arizona (which includes Phoenix) found the sheriff’s department conducting raids against illegal immigrants because “dark-skinned” people speaking Spanish were reported congregating in an area.

The 22-page report came just a few days after the supreme court agreed to hear challenges to the constitutionality of Arizona’s law. The decision will have widespread ramifications for a range of anti-immigrant statutes across the country. Given the political complexion of the court there’s no saying how they will rule. Either way, the reality of how these laws are applied and experienced are clear.

When it comes to the push against immigration in the US, two things should be made clear. First of all, it is not in truth a push against immigrants per se but against poor foreigners.

The US has no problem with wealthy outsiders. A rare example of bipartisan legislation recently was the Visit USA Act, by Democrat Charles Schumer and Republican Mike Lee, which sought to fast-track visas for foreigners spending $500,000 on property. It would allow them and their families to live in America for as long as they owned their homes, but not to work or claim federal benefits. It’s unlikely to become law; but it’s also unlikely to be controversial either.

This hypocrisy was highlighted last month when it caught the wrong kind of immigrant, Detlev Hagar, a German Mercedes executive, was arrested after he was arrested because his rental car had no licence plates and could produce only his German ID card. Previously he would have been given a ticket and a court date.

This was generally understood to be an unintended consequence of the law. Put bluntly, it was not supposed to ensnare Hagar; it was one of his low-paid employees they were after.

Secondly, while the real target might be poor people in general, they are aimed at Latinos in particular.

In a written ruling earlier this week, blocking part of Alabama’s law designed to evict undocumented people from their mobile homes, federal judge Myron Thompson, found substantial evidence that “the term illegal immigrant was just a racially discriminatory code for Hispanics” .

He went on to argue that the laws “treatment of children in mixed status families, who are overwhelmingly Latino, is so markedly different from the State’s historical treatment of children in general suggests strongly that the difference in treatment was driven by animus against Latinos in general and thus that the statute was discriminatorily based.”

The Justice Department’s three-year investigation into Maricopa County found the sheriff’s department had “a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos” that “reaches the highest levels of the agency.” The very highest level in Maricopa is sheriff Joe Arpaio, the Bull Connor of West and aspiring Republican kingmaker.

A report by the New York Times earlier this week illustrates how this all plays out in real life. It detailed a number of American citizens, all of whom were Hispanic, who found themselves in the crosshairs of the Department of Homeland Security because they ‘looked’ illegal and were not given the opportunity to prove their citizenship.

“I told every officer I was in front of that I’m an American citizen, and they didn’t believe me,” Antonio Montejano told the Times. Montejano, who was born in Los Angeles, was arrested on a shoplifting charge last month and spent two nights in a police station in Santa Monica and another two in an LA county jail cell, until his citizenship status was clarified.

In her testimony before Birmingham City Council, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mary Bauer gave several examples of racial profiling in which Latinos had been identified, on the basis of their ethnicity, as likely to be undocumented. To mention but a couple: in Northport, Alabama, Latino customers were told that their water services would be shut off if they didn’t provide proof of immigration status; a documented Latino from Ohio was told his bank card would not be accepted because he didn’t have identification issued by Alabama. The Monday after the law was implemented the absentee rate for Latino children doubled as families fled. A Human Rights Watch report released this week revealed that one minister lost 75% of his congregation.

This is intentional. I once suggested to a minuteman running for office that there was no way the US could deport all the undocumented immigrants. “We don’t need to deport them,” he explained. “All we have to do is enforce our employment laws and pretty soon they won’t be able to get a job and will self-deport.” So the border ceases to be a just a physical entity and is reproduced in all aspects of American life.

The paradox is that the experience of these laws shows that while America’s conservative politics are dependent on nativist rhetoric its standard of living is dependent on exploiting cheap, foreign labour, much of which is undocumented.

In Georgia, which passed a bill similar to Arizona’s, more than 80% of respondents, by acreage, to a Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association survey, reported around 40% labour shortages, prompting substantial financial losses. In Alabama farmers are reporting tomatoes “rotting on the vine”.

Worse still, their aim of creating a hostile environment stands in direct contradiction to their bid to ensure a safe climate for international capital. Not long after the Mercedes incident a Japanese manager was also arrested in Alabama, even though he had his Japanese driving licence and passport with him. The St Louis Dispatch responded with a bid to get foreign companies to come to Missouri. “Our state has many advantages over Alabama,” argued an editorial in the St Louis Dispatch. “We are the Show-Me State, not the ‘Show me your papers’ state.”

“Alabama has worked so hard to reinvent itself as a destination for global manufacturing. It’s really been a remarkable transformation,” Mark Sweeney, who helps companies find locations for capital investment, told Mobile’s Press Register. “Unfortunately, this law really is counter to that effort.”

Xenophobia on this level comes at a price: either documented citizens work for less or they pay more for their goods. It’s not obvious that they are prepared to do either.

“Just as the Carthaginians hired mercenaries to do their fighting for them, we Americans bring in mercenaries to do our hard and humble work,” wrote John Steinbeck in Travels With Charley in 1968. “I hope we may not be overwhelmed one day by peoples not too proud or too lazy or too soft to bend to the earth and pick up the things we eat.”

Fifty years on these ‘merceaneries’ are neither too proud, too soft nor too lazy. But thanks to bigotry and opportunism, many are now too scared.

WANT TO CURB VIOLENCE IN THE STREETS .. THEN HOW ABOUT CURBING IT IN SPORTS

I have never understood why in sports we continue to allow and honor violence and the violent players.

Recenty in Professional football we have seen a player stomping on another when the opposing player was on the ground. And on another instance a defensive player spears the opposing quarterback with his helmet causing a illegal helmet to helmet hit. It was just awful watching the replay of this.

Then I saw two rival basket ball teams who throughout the game were  insulting and pushing and shoving each other. Eventually I saw a full fight erupting that emptied both benches. I wonder if the coaches tried to cool their player down during half or if they stoked the fires that eventually caused the brawl.

And then there is Hockey which allows people to fight for a while before they intervene.. and it seems that each team has players that are called enforcers.. those who are willing to physically mix it.. Many enforcers and other players are seriously injured by these confrontations. It think they should eliminate this element from this game.

I think punishments must be tough for both the player, the coach, the school and/or owner. When they are all getting punished either in suspensions or serious fines then you will begin to see a change in this attitude.

For example a bench emptying brawl should suspend the team from playing its next three games plus a fine. And serious violations of the examples of these rules should be noted in professional football such as helmet to helmet attacks and that the player should  be suspended and fined,  along with the coach and team owner. And then if this continues to happen that team should  be suspended from playing 2-3 games.

And in the case of Hockey ..if the fines, punishment and suspension goes up the line you will see this violence end immediately ..

Unless we are seriously willing to curb violence in sports then how can we tell our youth not to fight or criticize gang members for continuing to do payback and get revenge in a form of violence.. this diet of violence creates an atmosphere where the victims are not just on the field but children, spouses and others.

THIS SANTA LOST MOST OF HIS PANSA (stomach)

Over the past 30 years I have often been asked to play Santa for some poor kids somewhere.. and it has always been  fun. In those days I had a very large and protruding stomach and could say a good HO HO HO …and we did not need to steal any pillows for special affects. In this past year I lost 70+ lbs  and the invitations to play Santa have disappeared….as have the tummy rubs some young ladies would do of my tummy thinking that perhaps like Buddha I would bring them good luck. But I will still have good holidays since I have learned to recognize and appreciate the many celebrations that go beyond a Christmas tree and obscene shopping sprees.

My best
Leno

Travel

January  El Salvador

February 9-11 Los Angeles

February 23-29 Nicaragua

March 1-3 Denver

They have lost their jobs, health plans and homes. There is despair around every corner. This massive and growing problem will not go away until the rich and the semi rich take steps to pay their fair share. The disparity of wealth is growing and is worst in communities of color.

Thanks to all of the 99% who are protesting including my friend 84 year old Dorli Rainey who was pepper sprayed in Seattle and with whom I have been on many a protest.

We cannot be silent … if you cannot occupy then support those who do

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a. Tommie Smith
b. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor
c. A soldier kills
d. Worst president
e. Penn State
f. Kick Starter

TOMMIE SMITH signed a book for Leno

Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their black gloved fists in the air at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico and were joined in protest by Silver medallist Peter Norman from Australia who wore a patch which read ATHLETES FOR HUMAN RIGHTS.

Tommie won the Gold and John the Bronze. Peter Norman wore a patch on his chest saying OLYMPIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ..thus joining the protest. Peter was never allowed to represent Australia because he had joined in this protest. Our government also banned Tommie and John and too many of us were silent.

Last week a friend and civil rights attorney Tracy Rice attended Jesse Jackson’s 70th birthday party in Los Angeles and Tommie was one of the many special guests. Tracy took my copy of SOMETHING IN THE AIR (a wonderful book about the 1968 Olympics) and she got it signed for me and got me Tommie’s card. So on my next trip to California I will get to meet yet another of my heros.

SONIA SOTOMAYOR of THE SUPREMES

I happened to be at the home of Bettie Baca and Alex Rodriquez in Virginia for Alex’s 70th birthday. They have their annual holloween and birthday party and gather many family and friends. I got there with a mask that was just as scary as my own face.. and I was introduced to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor as a member of Bettie and Alex’s family.

It was great to talk with her about family issues, to join her in dance and to speak with her in Spanish.

It is so wonderful to have her as a member of the SUPREMES.

SOLDIER KILLS

The headline read Soldier guilty of murders; he betrayed his nation

Staff Sgt. Calvin gibbs was found guilty by a Army panel of murdering unarmed afghan villagers and a dozen other crimes.. he was part of problematic platoon of the 5th brigade , 2nd infantry dividion of Lewis-McChord. Gibbs is 6’ 4” and he along with other soldiers are being charged .. two others were already convicted of murder.

I bring this to your attention because if you Google Sgt. Gibbs’ name you can find more of the gory details … but more importantly I want to remind you that he and the other soldiers are but more of the awful products of this crazy war. A war that has damaged the citizens of Afghanistan as well as our own soldiers. While these soldiers must shoulder their fair share of punishment … I wonder why we don’t try and punish the politicians, military trainers and leaders that made our next door neighbors into vicious killers. We trained them to believe that these people were demons and that collateral damage was part of the game … we did the same in Viet Nam …

While this case has come to trial I am fearful that hundreds or thousands of other cases will never surface and we will never give justice to the people whose country we have invaded…

THE WORST PRESIDENT …

The TEA FANATICS and the leadership of the Repub (lican) party say that Obama is the worst president ever … hmmm???

I wonder why none of the current presidential or congressional candidates have had George Bush out campaigning for them

And some how they have forgotten about former president Richard M. Nixon who was booted out of office along with his vice president. While he was given a pardon by President Gerald Ford… 60 members of his administration were indicted.. not to mention the many minutes of erased tapes. If I was running for office I would bring up both Bush and Nixon … the elephant is supposed to have a long memory but this is not true for today’s right wing..

King County judge named to state Supreme Court

By Steve Miletich

Seattle Times staff reporter

As a teen, Steven González earned money cleaning park bathrooms in the California town where he grew up.

On Tuesday, Gov. Chris Gregoire appointed González to serve as one of nine justices on the Washington State Supreme Court.

González, a King County Superior Court judge, will replace Justice Gerry Alexander, who is retiring at the end of the year.

González touched on his modest upbringing in his remarks at the Temple of Justice in Olympia, where a room full of current justices and others in the audience exploded in applause at Gregoire’s announcement.

He also spoke of the future, saying he wanted to renew a belief that the “rule of law matters.”

Gregoire called González “exceptionally well qualified” for the job, citing his experience as a judge, prosecutor and private attorney. She singled out his role in successfully prosecuting a high-profile terrorism case.

Listing other attributes, Gregoire described González as a “very good listener” with a record of displaying a “thorough understanding of the issues” before him on the bench.

González also appreciates that people expect to be treated fairly and impartially by the courts, Gregoire said.

“It’s critical that we believe the outcomes from courts will be fair for everyone,” González said after the appointment.

He expressed a concern that a lack of teaching about civics in schools, coupled with the politicization of the courts, has affected the faith people have in the justice system.

González said he will continue his practice of speaking to middle- and high-school students about civics and how the courts fit into the three branches of government.

González, 48, was appointed to the Superior Court bench by former Gov. Gary Locke in March 2002. He won a contested election the same year, then was re-elected in 2004 and 2008.

Now a criminal department judge, González also has served in the civil and family-law departments.

His appointment to the state’s high court won widespread praise, drawing comments about his intellect, character and ethical conduct.

“Beyond Steve’s impressive intellect and public-spiritedness, it is his demeanor that marks him for greatness on the Supreme Court,” fellow Superior Court Judge William Downing said in a statement. “The calm thoughtfulness he always projects will garner the respect of litigants and influence with his new colleagues.”

Pramila Jayapal, executive director of the Seattle-based social-justice organization OneAmerica, said in a statement, “I have known Judge González for many years and am deeply impressed by his demeanor, moral character and deep commitment to public service.”

She said González has shown a compassion for “our most vulnerable communities” and understands the complexity of immigration issues.
González, who is married to Michelle González, assistant dean of the University of Washington law school, and is father of two children, will be only the second justice of Hispanic heritage to serve on the state’s high court, said court spokeswoman Wendy Ferrell.

Charles Z. Smith, of African-American and Cuban descent, was the state’s first ethnic minority on the court. He was appointed in 1988 and served until 2002, when he stepped down after reaching the state’s mandatory retirement age of 75.
Estela Ortega, executive director of El Centro De La Raza, a Seattle Latino group, said that González’s life experience is “valuable in the court, and for our community in general.”

“It gives our community a lot of hope,” she said. “Our young kids who are coming up who can see a role model like Steve González.”
González, before his appointment to the bench, served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Seattle from 1997 to 2002, handling cases in the Western District of Washington. He was part of a prosecution team that won a terrorism conviction in 2001 against Algerian Ahmed Ressam in a millennium bomb plot first detected in Port Angeles.

Andrew Hamilton, a King County deputy prosecutor and former federal attorney who worked with González on the case, said Tuesday that González volunteered to take on one of the most arduous tasks — collecting evidence from foreign governments using carefully constructed information.

As a result, Hamilton said, “Steve had a total command of the facts of this case, better than anybody else.”

Previously, González served as a domestic-violence prosecutor for the city of Seattle and worked as an associate in the business law department at the Seattle law firm Hillis Clark Martin & Peterson.

He earned a bachelor’s degree with honors in East Asian Studies from Pitzer College in his hometown of Claremont, Calif., and his law degree from the University of California School of Law in Berkeley, known as Boalt Hall, where he was the technical editor of La Raza Law Journal.

González, a self-described “curious person” who speaks Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Spanish, said during Tuesday’s interview that he began thinking about a legal career while in college, although others had joked earlier about the possibility because of his penchant for debating just about any relevant subject.

He said he never imagined then that he would someday become a state-court justice, noting his grandmother on his father’s side, after losing her job, cleaned the dorms he lived in at Pitzer.

His mother’s family entered the United States through Ellis Island about 100 years ago from Eastern Europe; his father’s family came to California from Mexico during the revolution in that country of the early 1900s.

His mother, who worked as nurse’s aide and a social worker, and his father, a carpenter, divorced when he was 12, said González, who has an older brother and a younger sister.
González said it was his mother who taught him about “justice and hard work.”

Working in the restrooms also drove him toward college, he said at Tuesday’s ceremony, although he mistakenly tried to apply to a women’s college adjoining Pitzer.

González, who chairs the Washington State Access to Justice Board and co-chairs the Race and Criminal Justice System Task Force, will begin serving as a justice in January, earning $164,230 a year. He will face election to a six-year term next fall.

Alexander, who was elected to the court in 1994 and served nine years as chief justice, is retiring at the end of the year under the mandatory-age provision.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this story.

PENN STATE

This is a sad story of a storied football program and coach. Many universities have closed their eyes, ears and minds to abuse of children, women and to racism within in their sports programs.. winning is the cocaine of the booster club and many alumni.. the rules are broken everyday and while the millions of dollars come in to these universities those in charge turn their heads and ignore the problems in the room or field next door.

Tell me why do sports coaches receive a much larger salary and benefits and not to mention more freedoms that the faculty and the university president??? The average salary for a top football coach is today $1.47 million. Double Fudge!! How many good instructors could we have for that amount of money?

If we really want to make sure that we have better safeguards than we have today in sports then we must make Education much more important than sports and winning…

Kick Starter

If you haven’t done so already, visit the Cesar’s Last Fast Kickstarter fundraising page and join up with all the human rights and environmental activists that want to see this story told. There’s only $3,765 left to raise to meet their $21,000 fundraising goal. BONUS: the other day the filmmakers received a $5,000 matching grant from Norman and Lyn Lear – so any donation you make today will go twice as far.

My Jalapeno best
leno

DREAM A BETTER WORLD!

THE TRAVEL SCHEDULE

Nov. 19-28 Miami
Family, friends and activists meetings ..and some turkey..
Dec. 19- Jan 2 Dominican Republic
Family, friends and sun and some fish
Jan. 15- 20 El Salvador tentative
Follow up on Homies Film preparation
February 22-28 Nicaragua
Visit to Batahola del Norte

A few weeks ago, I asked you to join me in supporting the wonderful one-of-a-kind documentary about my friend and mentor Cesar Chavez called Cesar’s Last Fast. We’re now heading into the final two weeks of the campaign, and there’s still $8,000 to raise.

We now have 15 days to reach our goal – we know we can make it with your help.

With your help we can finish this important film and bring it to a new generation farm workers, workers in other low-wage industries, and Americans of all backgrounds.

This is a story about Cesar but it is also a story about those who are willing to sacrifice and to dream the impossible. Many of you met Cesar or heard of him and now you can ensure that many more will hear of his story and the legacy that he has left for all of who struggle for justice and freedom.

Click here to donate.

These misguided men and women allowed some in their audience to attend with some of  the worst signs depicting the president as Hitler or some African tribesman… these extremists came to events because they were well-funded by the lobbyists and business people of the far right.

It was as if they came to their costume party in an hysterical induced rage chanting foolish things like GET THE GOVERNMENT OUT OF MY SOCIAL SECURITY… weren’t they told that Medicare , Medicaid , social security and veterans’ health were already part of this so called socialist take over..

The news pundits talked about the TEA PARTY as their being a new political movement but in fact it is the same religious right and older white Americans who fight against their own best interests and support tax breaks for the super-rich…

The media beyond FOX gave them legitimacy by covering them and their well-financed protests which often were only a few hundred strong… this mostly white elderly grouping trying to fashion itself by name  is but the far right wing tip of the Republican party.. And for media pundits to call them a party is a serious joke…

Meanwhile you have the OCCUPY WALL STREET movement that has gone viral pushing many to stand up to the rich and they unlike the TEA CLAN do not have any corporate sponsors… they did not come on fancy buses in costumes and they just happened to stay more than a couple of hours. And they are not a wing of any party…
The media was late in coming to cover this movement and did not give it the same minutes or coverage they gave to the TEA TALKING HEADS.

I support with my heart and head this important uprising… while I want to see more people of color involved I do appreciate the white folks taking over the streets… while this movement is not as well represented by people of color I will continue to support it as long as it speaks for us all. Today an interview by Latino Media did show many Latino occupiers who spoke excellent Spanish.

Visiting OCCUPY SEATTLE I was impressed by the organization and the quality of the individuals there… And it is a bit daunting to be around so many well informed individuals. I was there when they were doing an educational moment about the proposed pipeline.  Since there was no sound system they had do to use the PEOPLES MIC… this is where the speaker says a phrase and then it is repeated by the crowd so that all can hear… as I participated in this it reminded me of so many religious services where the HIGH PRIEST OR PRIESTESS speaks and then the believers repeat the exact words or respond in some recognized chant or prayer. In this case we were learning twice.

We first heard the information from the speaker and then from our own voices… when you repeat something in your own voice you have a better chance of retaining the information than just by listening…I loved being a part of this.

The Wisconsin demonstrations and others across the country have for the past years begun educating us all that we cannot sit by and let the rich make mega profits, turn people out of their homes, get a bail out and then demand even more tax breaks…just so you know I don’t mind anyone making a profit… but I am against obscene profits at the expense of working men and women.

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.    CHSC and the judicial system
b.    Reverend Shuttlesworth
c.    Went under the knife

COMMUNITY HEALTH AND SAFETY COMMITTEE

I have become a part of a new and exciting new organizational effort that is a program of the LATINO COMMUNITY FUND which will help to organize the Latinos to speak about the racial injustices with in the judicial system.

We will begin our work in the State of Washington and work to correct some of the worst practices against Latinos and other people of color. We will look at the so called WAR ON DRUGS and the DEATH PENALTY which are just parts of the attacks on communities of color and the poor.

Race is the Gorilla in the room that drives this Nation of Incarceration which now has become a profit industry for many at the expense of working people. Corporations and prison guard unions want more prisons and tougher laws because they get jobs and make money… This expansion of the prison system is not about justice or diminishing crime but making a profit.

HOMELAND SECURITY AND ICE… have seen fit to criminalize immigrants and brand them with a criminal stigma that will be with them the rest of their lives. Thus today you have the fastest growing population in Federal prisons is Latino Immigrants.

Latinos must speak out and demand changes

Reverend Shuttlesworth BIRMINGHAM, Ala. –

The Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth refused to back down despite huge risks, enduring arrests, beatings and injuries from fire hoses aimed at blacks marching for racial equality in the segregated South of the early 1960s. He died this week at age 89, lauded for his fearlessness in that fight.

When others feared standing up to fire hoses and snarling police dogs in his native Alabama, Shuttlesworth soldiered on with his civil rights campaign. Alabama’s first black federal judge, U.W. Clemon, said Shuttlesworth flung himself at injustice well knowing he could be killed at any moment.

“He was the first black man I knew who was totally unafraid of white folks,” said Clemon, a practicing lawyer since retired from the bench.

Shuttlesworth died Wednesday at a Birmingham hospital.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, another activist in the civil rights movement led by the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., called Shuttlesworth “fearless, determined, courageous.”

Lewis organized his own defiant sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, Tenn., in his student days and also met with arrests and physical attacks.

“When others did not have the courage to stand up, speak up and speak out, Fred Shuttlesworth put all he had on the line to end segregation in Birmingham and the state of Alabama,” the Georgia Democrat said. “He was beaten with chains, his church was bombed, and he lived under constant threat of physical violence.”

In an era of seething racial tensions, Shuttlesworth survived a 1956 bombing, an assault during a 1957 protest, chest injuries when Birmingham authorities turned fire hoses on demonstrators in 1963, and countless arrests. He personally exhorted King to bring his supporters to Birmingham to fight for equality as the civil rights movement gained traction.

King would go on to reap international attention, overshadowing the rest, yet he signaled he himself admired Shuttlesworth.

In his 1963 book “Why We Can’t Wait,” King himself called Shuttlesworth “one of the nation’s most courageous freedom fighters … a wiry, energetic and indomitable man.”

Born March 18, 1922, near Montgomery and raised in Birmingham, Shuttlesworth drove a truck for a time, studied theology by night and was ordained in 1948. He became pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1953 and met King in 1954 – a year before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus.

Televised scenes of police dogs and fire hoses being turned on marchers, even children, in the spring of 1963 helped the rest of the nation grasp the depth of racial animosities in the South.

Referring to the city’s notoriously racist safety commissioner, Shuttlesworth would tell followers, “We’re telling ol’ `Bull’ Connor right here tonight that we’re on the march and we’re not going to stop marching until we get our rights.”

According to a May 1963 New York Times profile of Shuttlesworth, Connor responded to word that Shuttlesworth had been injured by the spray of fire hoses by saying: “I’m sorry I missed it. … I wish they’d carried him away in a hearse.”

Fellow civil rights pioneer the Rev. Joseph Lowery said of Shuttlesworth: “When God made Bull Connor, one of the real negative forces in this country, he was sure to make Fred Shuttlesworth.”

In January 1956, King’s Montgomery home was bombed while he attended a rally. Months later on Christmas night 1956, 16 sticks of dynamite detonated outside Shuttlesworth’s bedroom as he slept at the Bethel Baptist parsonage.

No one was injured in either bombing, and the day after he was targeted, Shuttlesworth led a protest against segregation on buses in Birmingham. Then in 1957, he was beaten by a mob when he tried to enroll two of his children in an all-white school in Birmingham.

After the turbulent times ended, Shuttlesworth took up a new chapter.

He remained active in the movement in Alabama and regularly visited but moved in 1961 to Cincinnati, where he was a pastor for most of the next 47 years. In Cincinnati, Shuttlesworth left Revelation Baptist Church and became pastor of the Greater New Light Baptist Church in 1966.

In 2004, he was briefly president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, resigning after about three months complaining board members were trying to micromanage the organization.

He moved back to Birmingham in February 2008 for rehabilitation after a mild stroke.

In November 2008, Shuttlesworth watched from a hospital bed as Barack Obama was elected the nation’s first African-American president. The year before, Obama had pushed Shuttlesworth’s wheelchair across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma during a commemoration of the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march.

On Wednesday, Obama recalled that moment on the bridge – “a symbol of the sacrifices that he and so many others made in the name of equality.” He said Shuttlesworth’s fight benefited all Americans and “America owes Reverend Shuttlesworth a debt of gratitude.”
Associated Press writers Errin Haines in Atlanta, Kendal Weaver in Montgomery, Ala., and Lisa Cornwell in Cincinnati contributed to this report.

LENO’S NOTE ON SHUTTLESWORTH..The good reverend was the right man at the right time. The last time I saw him was when I was with Amnesty International and I was at conference on the death penalty along with a lot of the Civil Rights leadership in Atlanta. Reverend Joe Lowery had asked if Shuttlesworth could introduce him that day and I responded that it was my event and that I would like to introduce Joe. Perhaps I should have sat back and listened to a pro do the introduction.

WENT UNDER THE KNIFE

This past week I went to Portland to have a Hernia Repaired. I was at the GOOD SAMARITAN HOSPITAL.. Good Sam as it is called locally…. I had excellent care and was most appreciative that I had health insurance.



I send my best
leno

THE TRAVELS OF LENO

Oct. 25-30  Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland
Meetings with sister organizations, some human rights Politics and a visit to Aviva’s business graduate school in Virginia



NOV. 1-8   Los Angeles

•  1-5 International Drug Policy Reform Conference
•  4-6 Western Regional Conference of Amnesty International
• 6―7 Meetings with Activists in Los Angeles

Nov. 19-28  Miami
Family, friends and activists meetings ..and some turkey..



Dec. 19- Jan 2 Dominican Republic
Family, friends and sun and some fish



Jan. 15- 20 El Salvador tentative
Follow up on Homies Film preparation



February 22-28 Nicaragua
Visit to Batahola del Norte

I’d like to ask you to join me in supporting this wonderful one-of-a-kind documentary about my friend and mentor Cesar Chavez called Cesar’s Last Fast.

It is most important that we share the legacy of Cesar Chavez because it is a story of struggle, hope, faith and nonviolence. Cesar reached people across America and internationally. He touched many communities beyond the farm worker and Latino communities. Cesar believed that we were all brothers and sisters and should work together to make our world better. Cesar’s fight against pesticides made him one of the early environmental voices and was willing to sacrifice himself in this fast so that others might live.

Directed and produced by two friends of mine, Richard Ray Perez and Molly O’Brien, Cesar’s Last Fast is a powerful exploration of the life of one of our country’s civil rights leaders. This is the story of Cesar’s spiritual life and of the man himself, rather than the story of the farmworker movement. It’s a story that’s not yet been told, and one that can have a powerful impact on today’s generation of movement-builders and organizers.

Rick and Molly are running a Kickstarter fundraising campaign to raise money to finish the film. They’ve had the support of the Sundance Institute and Norman Lear became an early backer to get the project off the ground, but finding production money has been tough. As of today, they’re almost halfway to their goal of $21,000. Please donate and back this very important film. From small donations of $10 to large donations, everything makes a difference. It’s a subject very close to my heart.

Click here to donate.

All  my best,
Leno

Memphis today is about 70% black but this was not the case in 1968.

Memphis was chosen as the site for this gathering because of its historic significance in our struggle for Civil Rights. This was the place of the famous sanitation workers strike and Dr. Kings support of the strike and his death on April 4th.  King’s death and my involvement with student actions at the University of Colorado forever changed my life.

At the Lorraine Motel where King was killed there is now the historic CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM which also includes the building across the street where it is believed that the shots were fired on that fateful day.

This is a site that we all need to visit and appreciate. It was very moving to walk through all of the exhibits and see so much of the history captured. It was like a spiritual shrine… one of the issues that I did not see portrayed was the photo of the 1968 Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos who raised their fists in protest when they got their medals.. this image could be in there but I did not see it.

But you must go visit and learn and think about what we must do NOW \!

ON ANOTHER NOTE… Memphis was also the home to Elvis Presley and his famous GRACELAND HOME .. I also went to visit this museum and found the majority of folks in their 70’s going to see things about their icon. I was a young man during this rock and roll period and enjoyed the music of Elvis..

There was nothing spiritual about this tour but it was interesting… Elvis ruined his life with prescription medications and a life style that has taken to many great artists from us to early in their lives.

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.    Troy Davis lives (three stories)
b.    Class Warfare.. My Ass
c.    The 9-11 Anniversary what they forgot to say

TROY DAVIS LIVES ON …

“If one of our fellow citizens can be executed with so much doubt surrounding his guilt, then the death penalty system in our country is unjust and outdated.”

President Jimmy Carter re: Troy Davis

AP/The Huffington Post First Posted: 9/22/11 10:39 AM ET Updated: 9/22/11

ATLANTA — Former President Jimmy Carter says the execution of death row inmate Troy Davis in Georgia shows that the nation’s death penalty system is “unjust and outdated.”

The Georgia Democrat said Thursday in a statement to The Associated Press that he hopes “this tragedy will spur us as a nation toward the total rejection of capital punishment.”
Davis was executed late Wednesday night for the 1989 murder of off-duty Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail. His supporters say he was the victim of mistaken identity, while prosecutors and MacPhail’s family said justice was finally served after four years of delays.

Carter says “if one of our fellow citizens can be executed with so much doubt surrounding his guilt, then the death penalty system in our country is unjust and outdated.”
“I am innocent,” Davis said moments before he was executed Wednesday night. “All I can ask … is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth. I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight.”
Prosecutors and MacPhail’s family said justice had finally been served.

“I’m kind of numb. I can’t believe that it’s really happened,” MacPhail’s mother, Anneliese MacPhail, said in a telephone interview from her home in Columbus, Ga. “All the feelings of relief and peace I’ve been waiting for all these years, they will come later. I certainly do want some peace.”

She dismissed Davis’ claims of innocence.

“He’s been telling himself that for 22 years. You know how it is, he can talk himself into anything.”

Hundreds of thousands of people signed petitions on Davis’ behalf and he had prominent supporters. His attorneys said seven of nine key witnesses against him disputed all or parts of their testimony, but state and federal judges repeatedly ruled against him — three times on Wednesday alone.

Davis’ execution had been halted three times since 2007. The U.S. Supreme Court even gave Davis an unusual opportunity to prove his innocence in a lower court last year. While the nation’s top court didn’t hear the case, they did set a tough standard for Davis to exonerate himself, ruling that his attorneys must “clearly establish” Davis’ innocence — a higher bar to meet than prosecutors having to prove guilt. After the hearing, a lower court judge ruled in prosecutors’ favor, and the justices didn’t take up the case.

His attorney Stephen Marsh said Davis would have spent part of Wednesday taking a polygraph test if pardons officials had taken his offer seriously. But they, too, said they wouldn’t reconsider their decision. Georgia’s governor does not have the power to grant condemned inmates clemency.

RACHEL MADDOW AND FRANK RICH on TROYDAVIS

The Huffington Post   Jack Mirkinson   First Posted: 9/22/11 09:09 AM ET Updated: 9/22/11 09:29 AM ET

Rachel Maddow and columnist Frank Rich spoke strongly against the death penalty on Maddow’s Wednesday show.

Maddow was covering the execution of Troy Davis, who was killed by the state of Georgia on Wednesday night, even as an unprecedented public campaign from every corner of the political world called for the execution to be halted due to thepersistent doubts surrounding his guilt. Maddow and Rich spoke before he was executed.

Rich said that, as tragic as he felt the Davis case was, he hoped it would turn attention to the problems with the death penalty. “If anything good is coming out of this drama,” he said, “…it’s really focused people on a case that really is about the best argument against the death penalty you could muster.”

Maddow brought up a letter that former wardens who had carried out executions had written to the Georgia Department of Corrections. In the letter, the wardens said that the doubt surrounding Davis’ guilt would haunt the people who carried out his execution, as the doubt around some people they had executed had haunted them. Rich said that the letter was moving and powerful.

“These are people who actually execute the machinery of death,” he said. “And this idea…that the people who do this are not going to be hurt by it or marred by it is preposterous, because they’re human beings too.”
Rich said that the letter could be applied to the country. “This is on America’s soul too,” he said. “There’s something wrong with a society that takes life.”
Maddow also pointed out the seeming incongruity with conservative disdain for the machinery of government, except when it comes to killing prisoners. “Is there a libertarian case to make for the government not being able to be trusted with something as heavy as killing American citizens?” she wondered

TROY DAVIS LIVES ON. I AM TROY AND YOU ARE TROY

This historic movement and efforts to save the life of Troy Davis will continue. Troy reminded us that this effort WAS BIGGER THAN HIM… and it is. And we should remember this as we continue to work to abolish this most inhumane act.

No government should have the right and the power to kill its own citizens. And we must all work hard to rid the USA of its worst practice of HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE.
We must all join local, state and national efforts to build a community of hope that will help us to end the death penalty. We don’t need the majority of Americans to be on our side we just need a very vocal and very active minority.

I also want to encourage our INTERNATIONAL BROTHERS AND SISTERS for all of their support in behalf of Troy Davis and hope that they will continue to be strong and continue to pressure U.S. government officials, businessmen and tourist regarding the abolition of the death penalty.

I realize that our hearts are heavy and that this execution has been most difficult for us all but you and I know that Troy would want us to work even harder now to end this horrific practice of human sacrifice.

Class Warfare My Ass

Saturday 24 September 2011 by: William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican presidential candidate, speaks at the Florida P5 Faith and Freedom Coalition Kick-Off event at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Florida, September 22, 2011. (Chip Litherland / The New York Times)

I have to live for others and not for myself: that’s middle-class morality.- George Bernard Shaw

I have been saying this for years upon years, but it bears repeating: the most awesome, fearsome, and effective weapon in the arsenal of the modern Republican Party is their total, utter and complete lack of shame.

That weapon – the ability to say or do anything, literally anything, even as it flies in the face of on-the-record comments made just the day before, or contradicts thousands of votes cast in congresses past – is the equivalent of a battlefield-deployed tactical nuclear weapon. It clears the field, but good, and if everything is ashes in the aftermath, so be it. So long as effective spin makes the news cycle, it’s a victory for them, and screw the people who get hurt.

The GOP wins when that is the contest, and that is all they care about…and the awful irony comes when the very people getting screwed are up on their feet cheering after the deal goes down, because “their team” won the day.

Watching these recent GOP debates has cracked me up for any number of reasons, but nothing can top watching those millionaires square off in an attempt to prove who among them is the most “folksy,” the most in tune with the working stiff. Mitt Romney, whose personal fortune roars deep into nine figures on the left of the decimal, actually claimed he was a middle class guy during a recent campaign appearance.\

Ah, yes, the irony again…just think, if people banking nine figures of personal wealth were actually considered middle class, all of our problems would be solved, right?

Or something.

Which brings us to the subject of “class warfare.” The term has been a favorite broadside of the right-bent rich-people-first set going on forty years now, and in times past has always reaped them rich rhetorical benefits. We’re a classless society here in America, don’tcha know, so accusations of “class warfare” have all too often sent lily-livered liberal-leaning politicians scuttling for the exits, for the apology, for the eventual retreat.

Oh no, it isn’t class warfare, this is only fair…which earned, invariably, a reply of “CLASS WARFARE SOCIALISM WHAAARGARBLE”…which, in turn, earned another hasty retreat instead of a proper and just reply.

Which is, should have always been, and should now be: kiss my ass, you leech, you bloodsucker, you greedy whore, you war profiteering glutton, you disgrace, you betrayer of America.

Oh, I know the argument. I know it as well as the spit I leave on the sidewalk when there is a bad taste in my mouth. The rich are better than us, they are the ones making the jobs, they have earned their esteemed position through a Randian process of natural economic selection, etc…except for the sneaky fact that a large number of these “business titans” inherited their wealth, and today increase their wealth not through hard work, but through favorable interest rates and even more favorable tax rates on money that is already in the bank.

The top-earning businesses in America today, across the board, are wallowing in record profits, and yet somehow hiring is stagnated. Why is that?

Could it be that these titans are holding off on hiring in order to affect the number of jobless Americans, so as to influence public opinion as we head into an election season? God almighty, to have such astonishing reach…to be able to keep millions out of work in order to put one black guy out of a job…now that’s real power.

Class warfare, indeed.

Poverty has increased locally and nationally across the board, joblessness is reaching Great Depression-era levels, and millions have lost houses to those whose own homes resemble castles, to those who are secure in both funding and foundation. Money does not disappear. It has to go somewhere; what is lost is always found. Most all of us have spent the last several years losing money hand over fist, while Forbes tells us that the richest among us have increased their wealth by vast amounts in one year.

Try to contain your shock.

There is work available for the doing, on infrastructure and new technology fields and any number of other areas, but the GOP majority in the House of Representatives won’t have any of it, because their marching orders are to screw the American economy in as many orifices as are available to try and unseat the sitting president. Period, end of file, and if you still think that isn’t their intention, I have a big red bridge over San Francisco Bay to sell you.

Class warfare? These cretins have the unmitigated gall to accuse other people of class warfare?

It is a wonder of American politics, this absolute and astonishing lack of shame on the part of the modern GOP. They have spent the last thirty years stifling a minimum-wage increase, they blocked legislation to help 9/11 responders pay for very present health concerns, and spent the latter part of this last week trying to screw disaster relief funding for people who lose homes to tornadoes, floods, wildfires and earthquakes. They hate Social Security and Medicare down to their gold-plated bones. Now they are deliberately and intentionally stifling the very economy they themselves tore up, for no other reason than to win the next election.

How are they doing it? Money and power, power and money, and be damned to those who suffer for their desires.

Psssst…it is class warfare: full-throated, no-bullshit class warfare, and the rich ones whining about it are the ones who are winning. Be on your own side for a change of pace.  They got the guns, as a man once said, but we got the numbers.

It is class warfare, and has been for a generation. We’ve been losing, badly.

For now.

10th anniversary of 9-11  what they forgot to say…

I listened carefully to much of the coverage of the 10th anniversary of 9-11 and while I said my prayers for all those lost on that day I was at the same time astonished and dismayed at key issues that were left out of the discussion. Here are some that should have been mentioned.

a.    Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction
b.    Contractors have robbed us blind..
c.    The rape and mistreatment of USA service women and workers for those Mega Contractors.
d.    The First Responders were forgotten and we have not given them appropriate health care…and they were not part of the main ceremony
e.    Guantanamo and other locations were sites for torture
f.    Many innocent men and women were rounded up imprisoned and had their lives ruined
g.    There was no mention of the millions of innocent people killed and injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
h.    No mention about how these two wars created the conditions for our economic crisis and how their financial costs were off the books during the Bush years.
i.    No mention of the outright lies of our government.
j.    They did not talk about the mistake it was in creating HOME LAND SECURITY and adding INS and FEMA to its charge ..
k.    They did not mention the increase in hate crimes against Muslims and Latinos as a result of this so called war against terrorism
l.    Did not mention how the targeting of immigrants in their war on terrorism was wrong including the building of the wall
m.    Nor did I hear about the physical and psychological damage to Service Men and women and their families
n.    I did not hear about the many suicides and acts of violence by these damaged service men and women.
o.    Did not talk about what a waste TSA and all its practices are and that none of the airport practices do not make us safer.. but that they do make a lot of money for people providing the new machines..

I probably forgot to mention a few items but not as many as the media and politicians forgot in their recognition of the 10th anniversary.

Dream and Do

leno

LENO’S Travel schedule

Oct. 6-9 Familia and Book Research and Theatre
American Night by Richard Montoya and Culture Clash
Opens in Denver on Oct. 7th
Denver Colorado

Oct 26-31st   Funding search and visit friends and family
Washington DC, Baltimore, and Charlottesville Virginia

Even more striking is the lack of news of this international scandal on Murdoch’s U.S. television called FOX NEWS. Which might be called FOX WITHOUT THE NEWS…?

The PEW Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism just surveyed reportage of the story in two time frames: July6-8 and July 11-18. In the period according to PEW CNN devoted almost 170 minutes to the story, NBC about 145 and Fox only about 30 minutes. This being the biggest story of the summer is almost forgotten by Fox. And then much of their coverage was spent defending Murdoch and minimizing the story…

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS
a. Homies Unidos you can make a difference
b. Only a person who risks is free
c. Violence visits Norway
d. Good jobs rally
e. Went to Canada

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE… helps us finish raising the money for the story of HOMIES UNIDOS

We are almost there… we have raised $12,000 and just need to raise another $8,000 by the 20th of August. If every one of you who read this AHORA would give $10-$20.00 we could easily reach our goal.

Below is information you can share with your lists…

The story of how we began HOMIES UNIDOS in EL SALVADOR is a story that needs to be told

Please view this video and learn about Leno Rose-Avila and his work with gangs in El Salvador and how you can help him to capture this part of history. Leno is a long time human rights activist and worked with Cesar Chavez and Amnesty International

ONLY A PERSON WHO RISKS IS FREE

By Author Unknown
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach for another is to risk involvement.
To expose your ideas, your dreams,
Before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To believe is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because the
greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The people who risk nothing, do nothing,
have nothing, are nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow,
but they cannot learn, feel, change,
grow, love, live.
Chained by their attitudes they are slaves;
they have forfeited their freedom.
Only a person who risks is free.

~ from page 147 of the book “Addiction by Prescription”
by Joan Gadsby ~

Jill Mangaliman was visiting and saw lines from this poem on a poster on a wall in my bathroom and has shared the entire poem with her Facebook friends.

NORWAY … THE HOME OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE HAS VIOLENCE ON ITS HANDS

The violence in Norway again shows us that no society is free from violence or the misguided emotions of one who is drenched in fear.

The Wall Street Journal on its web page immediately called these senseless killings as the act of terrorist Muslims as did many right wing news commentators. The same thing happened around the Oklahoma bombing… for hours on talk radio you heard the right wing calling that act of violence the work of ISLAMIC TERRORISTS… And they never apologized once they discovered how wrong they had been.

Violence is never the answer to one’s fear and does not serve as a solution. Those who plant fear and hatred in the hearts and minds of some in the public just might add to the damage of a mind in need of healing… and instead of healing they become the instigator of violence.

We now more than ever need the peace makers …

RALLY FOR GOOD JOBS…PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS OF CONGRESS…watch the video

I joined many community organizations and unions at a very important rally at South Seattle Community College to raise our voices and demand good jobs. I was able to join with Michael Woo Executive Director of GOT GREEN to Emcee

Working Washington Supporters Speak Out for Good Jobs Now

The Seattle Speak Out for Good Jobs was loud, raucous and filled with over 700 people asking a simple question: Where are the Jobs?

Congressman Jim McDermott and King County Executive Dow Constantine were on stage listening to us tell our stories about how this unfair, unbalanced economy is hurting working families who just want a fair deal. Every speaker talked about how they wanted to work and couldn’t find living wage jobs. Some were angry, some were hurt, but all were all fired up and ready to do whatever we need to do to get this economy moving again.

Watch the video: http://youtu.be/12oF-TsvHbE

WENT TO VANCOUVER CANADA EH !!!

I went to Vancouver Canada with Toi Sing Woo last Monday… I had never been so I decided I wanted to see the clean streets of Canada and be able to say HOW YOU DOING EH!

I drove up to the immigration kiosk and handed the man our passports… when asked Toi said she was going as a tourist… and then he looked at me… and I responded by saying I JUST WANT TO CROSS THE BORDER AND SAY EH ,,he didn’t know what to say and waved us on through…

It was a good day and like what I saw of the city and want to go back…

ENJOY SUMMER AND ALL IT HAS TO OFFER
My Jalapeno best
leno