Magdaleno

I must tell you that it was humbling for me to be at the conference of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Held in Kentucky Jan. 14-17: Celebrating with Heroes. Everyplace I looked there were men and women who are doing incredible work to protect the lives of others and make our society better.

They are helping our society to heal.

We have been led to believe that the only heroes are those that wear uniforms when in fact some of the REAL HEROES are folks who have never worn a uniform but who perform miracles and risk everything more than once. Some Day a President when does his or her State of the Union Address will have an Abolitionist, Peace Activist, Feminist, Environmentalist, Immigrant Rights Activist, or an LGBTQ Spokesperson sitting with the First Lady and the president would recognize these heroes as being an important part of the fabric of America.

At the NCADP Conference there were exonerees, murder victim’s families, and the families of death row inmates, lawyers, paralegals, religious folks, atheists, organizers, and many more. They came in all shapes, sizes, ages, from all over the country and some from other countries. They were common people who do incredible uncommon acts of humanity.

I got to be the MC [MASTER OF CEREMONIES OR MEXICAN IN CHARGE] for the awards dinner where we heard from the voices of New Mexico and their wonderful victory, we got to hear lawyers like Steve Bright, Tony Amsterdam and others, we got to hear Sister Helen as she recognized singer Steve Earle who moved our minds and hearts with his music…

As I looked around the hall and saw so many great individuals, I had to remind myself that there were in fact thousands of others across this country that who were also working hard to make our society more civil and just…and for some reason could not be in the room with us that night.

I am blessed to be part of such a wonderful movement that makes us all better because we give of ourselves …
So to all the Heroes and Sheroes I want to let you know that we celebrate your lives and dreams …thank you for all you do and dream.

Steve Earle update

Steve was in Seattle on this past Friday to perform at the Moore theatre. He came by my office at the SOCIAL JUSTICE FUND … and then along with Zeke from my office we went to lunch at FARESTART a great restaurant where they train homeless people to be Chefs.

Later that night Maru Villapando and I went to his concert and got to meet Steve backstage. In the concert he talked about peace, Immigrant Rights and then during the Encore he sang Ellis Unit One ..before singing this wonderful song he gave a ten minute spirited talk about abolition. Note. You can google this song and hear Steve sing this at a concert.

It was nice to see Amnesty International there at the Moore Theatre with their petitions for many human rights situations around the world.

MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a. Help Haiti
b. Top Ten Health Care Actions to Take
c. The Manchurian Candidates
d. You Need More Friends

HELP HAITI

There is much that can be done …and you can make a difference …every little bit helps..you can contact my good Friend Herns Marcelin who is a professor at University of Miami and spends much of his time in his home land Haiti working with the poor, students and building dreams. You can reach him at ‘LMarcel2@med.miami.edu’.

When I was in Haiti, Herns took me to the poorest barrio in Haiti and I got to see the people that he works with.

And you can also help Haiti through FAVACA by contacting rebecca@favaca.org 305.470.5034 www.favaca.org.FAVACA This is my favorite organization that has a long and honored history of working with Haiti.

BUY THIS SHIRT TO HELP A SMALL CHURCH THAT SUPPORTS THE POOR IN HAITI

You can purchase this shirt and others by visiting Progressive Rags the owner of this business is an good friend of mine and who has done years of work protecting the human rights of activists in Haiti.

Take a stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti! Half of proceeds from the sale of this shirt will go to the feeding program for children at St Clare’s Church, Tiplas Kazo, Port-au-Prince.

The program was started in March 2000 by our good friend the late Father Gerard Jean-Juste with help from Margaret Trost of the What If ? Foundation.

Part of the proceeds will also go to support the work of the South Florida Haiti Solidarity Committee, which supports the popular movement in Haiti in its struggle for democracy and social justice.

And if you would like cards or a poster of this image of the poster HAITI…MISSION POSSIBLE please contact FAVACA.ORG. Favaca is a leader in working with Non-profits
inside of Haiti.

TOP TEN THINGS DEMOCRATS SHOULD DO BEFORE ABANDONING AMBITIOUS HEALTH CARE REFORM

by Matt Miller, The Huffington Post

1. Work (in a bipartisan way, of course) with the National Rifle Association to arm America’s 50 million uninsured and give them a ticket to Washington.

2. Require every senior Wall Street banker to personally cover 1000 uninsured families (cost: just $13 million a year!)

3. If Conan can be paid $30 million not to host The Tonight Show, can’t some Democratic billionaire offer Scott Brown $31 million (one dollar for every uninsured American who stands to get covered by the bill) not to take his seat, forcing another special election in Massachusetts?

4. Ask China to demand health care’s passage because we need its deficit reduction to start paying them back all the money we’ve borrowed.

5. Pass it with 59 votes as an act of civil disobedience, let Republicans sue, and take the tyranny of the minority to the court of public opinion.

6. Bring back Hillary to negotiate a deal. She’s rested, she’s ready, and she learned her lesson in 1994.

7. Tell Republicans you’ll sign any plan they offer that the CBO certifies will cover at least 30 million of the uninsured.

8. Run wall-to-wall ads featuring Scott Brown’s nude centerfold until he says “uncle.”

9. Promise to run wall-to-wall ads featuring Scott Brown’s nude centerfold if he signs on.

10. Ask Congress to put the Bob Dole-Howard Baker-Tom Daschle bipartisan blueprint for universal coverage (at http://www.bipartisanpolicy.org/) to an up-or-down vote. Seriously.

Matt Miller is the host of the public radio program “Left, Right & Center,” and the author of The Tyranny of Dead Ideas, just out in paperback

Manchurian Candidates: Supreme Court allows China and others unlimited spending in US elections

Thursday, January 21, 2010

By Greg Palast | Updated from the original report for AlterNet

In today’s Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Court ruled that corporations should be treated the same as “natural persons”, i.e. humans. Well, in that case, expect the Supreme Court to next rule that Wal-Mart can run for President.

The ruling, which junks federal laws that now bar corporations from stuffing campaign coffers, will not, as progressives fear, cause an avalanche of corporate cash into politics. Sadly, that’s already happened: we have been snowed under by tens of millions of dollars given through corporate PACs and “bundling” of individual contributions from corporate pay-rollers.
The Court’s decision is far, far more dangerous to U.S. democracy. Think: Manchurian candidates.

I’m losing sleep over the millions — or billions — of dollars that could flood into our elections from ARAMCO, the Saudi Oil corporation’s U.S. unit; or from the maker of “New Order” fashions, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. Or from Bin Laden Construction corporation. Or Bin Laden Destruction Corporation.

Right now, corporations can give loads of loot through PACs. While this money stinks (Barack Obama took none of it), anyone can go through a PAC’s federal disclosure filing and see the name of every individual who put money into it. And every contributor must be a citizen of the USA.

But under today’s Supreme Court ruling that corporations can support candidates without limit, there is nothing that stops, say, a Delaware-incorporated handmaiden of the Burmese junta from picking a Congressman or two with a cache of loot masked by a corporate alias.

Candidate Barack Obama was one sharp speaker, but he would not have been heard, and certainly would not have won, without the astonishing outpouring of donations from two million Americans. It was an unprecedented uprising-by-PayPal, overwhelming the old fat-cat sources of funding.

Well, kiss that small-donor revolution goodbye. Under the Court’s new rules, progressive list serves won’t stand a chance against the resources of new “citizens” such as CNOOC, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation. Maybe UBS (United Bank of Switzerland), which faces U.S. criminal prosecution and a billion-dollar fine for fraud, might be tempted to invest in a few Senate seats. As would XYZ Corporation, whose owners remain hidden by “street names.”

George Bush’s former Solicitor General Ted Olson argued the case to the court on behalf of Citizens United, a corporate front that funded an attack on Hillary Clinton during the 2008 primary. Olson’s wife died on September 11, 2001 on the hijacked airliner that hit the Pentagon. Maybe it was a bit crude of me, but I contacted Olson’s office to ask how much “Al Qaeda, Inc.” should be allowed to donate to support the election of his local congressman.

Olson has not responded.

The danger of foreign loot loading into U.S. campaigns, not much noted in the media chat about the Citizens case, was the first concern raised by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who asked about opening the door to “mega-corporations” owned by foreign governments. Olson offered Ginsburg a fudge, that Congress might be able to prohibit foreign corporations from making donations, though Olson made clear he thought any such restriction a bad idea.

Tara Malloy, attorney with the Campaign Legal Center of Washington D.C. says corporations will now have more rights than people. Only United States citizens may donate or influence campaigns, but a foreign government can, veiled behind a corporate treasury, dump money into ballot battles.

Malloy also noted that under the law today, human-people, as opposed to corporate-people, may only give $2,300 to a presidential campaign. But hedge fund billionaires, for example, who typically operate through dozens of corporate vessels, may now give unlimited sums through each of these “unnatural” creatures.

And once the Taliban incorporates in Delaware, they could ante up for the best democracy money can buy.

In July, the Chinese government, in preparation for President Obama’s visit, held diplomatic discussions in which they skirted issues of human rights and Tibet. Notably, the Chinese, who hold a $2 trillion mortgage on our Treasury, raised concerns about the cost of Obama’s health care reform bill. Would our nervous Chinese landlords have an interest in buying the White House for an opponent of government spending such as Gov. Palin? Ya betcha!

The potential for foreign infiltration of what remains of our democracy is an adjunct of the fact that the source and control money from corporate treasuries (unlike registered PACs), is necessarily hidden. Who the heck are the real stockholders? Or as Butch asked Sundance, “Who are these guys?”
We’ll never know.

Hidden money funding, whether foreign or domestic, is the new venom that the Court has injected into the system by its expansive decision in Citizens United.

We’ve been there. The 1994 election brought Newt Gingrich to power in a GOP takeover of the Congress funded by a very strange source.

Congressional investigators found that in crucial swing races, Democrats had fallen victim to a flood of last-minute attack ads funded by a group called, “Coalition for Our Children’s Future.” The $25 million that paid for those ads came, not from concerned parents, but from a corporation called “Triad Inc.”

Evidence suggests Triad Inc. was the front for the ultra-right-wing billionaire Koch Brothers and their private petroleum company, Koch Industries. Had the corporate connection been proven, the Kochs and their corporation could have faced indictment under federal election law. As of today, such money-poisoned politicking has become legit.

So it’s not just un-Americans we need to fear but the Polluter-Americans, Pharma-mericans, Bank-Americans and Hedge-Americans that could manipulate campaigns while hidden behind corporate veils. And if so, our future elections, while nominally a contest between Republicans and Democrats, may in fact come down to a three-way battle between China, Saudi Arabia and Goldman Sachs.

Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.” Palast investigated Triad Inc. for The Guardian (UK). View Palast’s reports for BBC TV and Democracy Now! at www.gregpalast.com.

TIME TO INCREASE YOUR POOL OF FRIENDS

We all need to find a way to include more people in our circles..it will open up our lives to new and interesting individuals who are out there waiting to be invited in..

Me being a real live introvert have a hard time making new friends..… but once the ice is broken it is wonderful.. I am always searching for a connection to this new person and then once it is made it gets most exciting….let me know how you do in reaching out to new worlds.

My best
leno