via; Freedom Archives
==================
Date: February 8, 2009
From: Robert R. Bryan, lead counsel
Subject: Mumia Abu-Jamal, death row - U.S. Supreme Court
Download the document HERE
<http://www.freemumia.com/pdfs/febupdate.pdf>
New case filing in Supreme Court On February 4, 2009, the U.S. SupremeCourt docketed and accepted for filing the Petition for Writ ofCertiorari, with supporting Appendix, that I had submitted December 19,2008 on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal. (AbuJamal v. Beard, U.S. Sup. Ct. No.08-8483.) A copy of the petition is attached. The central issue in thiscase is racism in jury selection. The prosecution systematically removedpeople from sitting on the trial jury purely because of the color oftheir skin, that is, being black. The bigotry that killed Martin LutherKing, Jr., so many years ago, has been rampant in the case of my clientand is a central part of the state's quest to murder him in the name ofthe law.
Prosecution's separate Supreme Court petition In an entirely separatecase (Beard v. Abu-Jamal, Sup. Ct. No. 08-652), the prosecution isseeking to overturn the victory we achieved last year in the U.S. Courtof Appeals for the Third Circuit. (Abu-Jamal v. Horn, 520 F.3d 272 (3rd Cir. 2008).) In that ruling the court ordered a new jury trial on the question of thedeath penalty. Our Brief In Opposition will be filed in the SupremeCourt on February 13, 2009.
Donations for Mumia's Legal Defense -- The legal defense for Mumia needshelp. The costs for our litigation in two case before the Supreme Courtare substantial. To help, please make your checks payable to the"National Lawyers Guild Foundation" (indicate "Mumia" on thebottom left). The donations are tax deductible, and should be mailed to:
Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159-2012
Conclusion -- Mumia remains on Pennsylvania's death row. We are in an epic struggle in which his life hangs in the balance. What occurs now in the Supreme Court will determine whether Mumia will have a new jury trial,or die at the hands of the executioner.
As I have previously pointed out, Mumia is in greater danger than at anytime since his 1981 arrest. Your support and activism is needed. Thisgreat journalist and author does not belong on death row or in prison. We must not rest until he is free.
Yours very truly,
Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123-4117
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal[E-mail: RobertRBryan@aol.com
Monday, February 23, 2009
Economy of Ashes
[col. writ. 2/4/09] (c) '09 Mumia Abu-Jamal
What we are seeing in the economy is something not seen in this country since the 1930's -- the time of the Great Depression.
If we think of the companies shedding jobs like trees shedding leaves, they are so numerous that it may prove easier to name companies that haven't -- (if we could find any!)
In January alone, some 1/2 million workers got pink slips.
And this economic crisis is global. Europe is locked in a financial vise, and big countries, like England and France, have announced ambitious stimulus packages. England has openly nationalized prominent banks facing default. Iceland has, for all intents and purposes, declared bankruptcy -- with not just banks, but government itself is failing.
And while China, the site of the world's most robust economy is still growing, its rate of growth has fallen so fast that some 20 million people -- 20 million! -- have lost their jobs, a direct result of the U.S. economic recession.
Over a year ago, American economist Nouriel Roubini, speaking at a meeting in Davos, Switzerland, said the U.S. economy looked "like an emerging market."
Roubini predicted that the U.S. would enter a recession which would last at least a year. he added, "The debate is not whether we're going to have a soft or hard landing. The question is only how hard the hard landing will be." *
A Chinese economist echoed that sentiment. Yu Yongding, of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences described the Chinese economy as at "quite a delicate stage." The problem, he concluded, was the "very bad situation" in the U.S.
Globalization was sold as the next best thing to the industrial age, when Americans would live in the warm glow of the information age, lit by computer screens, and the rest of the world would do scut work.
How's that working out, as the economy crumbles?
--(c) '09 maj
[*Source: Landler, Mark, "U.S. Policies Evoke Scorn at Davos: Fed Caved In to the Markets (or Maybe It Dawdled), Critics Say, New York Times, Thurs., Jan. 24, 2008, p. C9.]
What we are seeing in the economy is something not seen in this country since the 1930's -- the time of the Great Depression.
If we think of the companies shedding jobs like trees shedding leaves, they are so numerous that it may prove easier to name companies that haven't -- (if we could find any!)
In January alone, some 1/2 million workers got pink slips.
And this economic crisis is global. Europe is locked in a financial vise, and big countries, like England and France, have announced ambitious stimulus packages. England has openly nationalized prominent banks facing default. Iceland has, for all intents and purposes, declared bankruptcy -- with not just banks, but government itself is failing.
And while China, the site of the world's most robust economy is still growing, its rate of growth has fallen so fast that some 20 million people -- 20 million! -- have lost their jobs, a direct result of the U.S. economic recession.
Over a year ago, American economist Nouriel Roubini, speaking at a meeting in Davos, Switzerland, said the U.S. economy looked "like an emerging market."
Roubini predicted that the U.S. would enter a recession which would last at least a year. he added, "The debate is not whether we're going to have a soft or hard landing. The question is only how hard the hard landing will be." *
A Chinese economist echoed that sentiment. Yu Yongding, of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences described the Chinese economy as at "quite a delicate stage." The problem, he concluded, was the "very bad situation" in the U.S.
Globalization was sold as the next best thing to the industrial age, when Americans would live in the warm glow of the information age, lit by computer screens, and the rest of the world would do scut work.
How's that working out, as the economy crumbles?
--(c) '09 maj
[*Source: Landler, Mark, "U.S. Policies Evoke Scorn at Davos: Fed Caved In to the Markets (or Maybe It Dawdled), Critics Say, New York Times, Thurs., Jan. 24, 2008, p. C9.]
Music Over the Mall
[col. writ. 1/28/09] (c) '09 Mumia Abu-Jamal
As a student of history, of politics and of music I viewed the recent presidential inauguration with considerable interest.
And while it was obviously a moment of historic proportions, it can't be said that it held surprise.
That's usually because politics tends to flatten highs, and lop off lows, as politicians attempt to appeal to the broadest base.
That's also because political systems strive for the safety and security of protocol; the safe refuge of precedent, to give the image that all is well, that the U.S. endures,and the empire is essential unchanged, and still regnant.
I therefore beheld it from a distance; interested, yes, but not engaged.
If anything was utterly remarkable, it was the vast throng, standing for hours in the biting cold for as far as the eye could see.
Yet, for all the glitter and spectacle, what moved most was something quite unexpected.
John Williams' composition (he of "Star Wars" and "Jaws" fame), "Heirs..." performed by violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo-Yo- Ma, clarinet player Anthony McGill and pianist Gabriela Montero, was a breathtaking piece of musical mastery. Perlman began the piece, his violin sounding a mournful dirge that was almost funereal. He was joined shortly thereafter by Yo-Yo Ma's deeper cello, which echoed this theme, painting a picture of wintry mourning, of emotional heaviness. This mood was shattered by McGill's light, airy clarinet, which was as triumphant as the coming of spring. By the time Montero graced the keys, the theme had wholly changed. From winter, to the bright warmth of spring, from dissonance to ebullient unity.
To say this was a composition of beauty and brilliance would be understatement.
It was a work finely tuned to its time. It was a music nicely pitched to the passing of a political era.
It teaches us that music. at its best, can be magical.
It was so wondrous that I wept.
--(c) '09 maj
As a student of history, of politics and of music I viewed the recent presidential inauguration with considerable interest.
And while it was obviously a moment of historic proportions, it can't be said that it held surprise.
That's usually because politics tends to flatten highs, and lop off lows, as politicians attempt to appeal to the broadest base.
That's also because political systems strive for the safety and security of protocol; the safe refuge of precedent, to give the image that all is well, that the U.S. endures,and the empire is essential unchanged, and still regnant.
I therefore beheld it from a distance; interested, yes, but not engaged.
If anything was utterly remarkable, it was the vast throng, standing for hours in the biting cold for as far as the eye could see.
Yet, for all the glitter and spectacle, what moved most was something quite unexpected.
John Williams' composition (he of "Star Wars" and "Jaws" fame), "Heirs..." performed by violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo-Yo- Ma, clarinet player Anthony McGill and pianist Gabriela Montero, was a breathtaking piece of musical mastery. Perlman began the piece, his violin sounding a mournful dirge that was almost funereal. He was joined shortly thereafter by Yo-Yo Ma's deeper cello, which echoed this theme, painting a picture of wintry mourning, of emotional heaviness. This mood was shattered by McGill's light, airy clarinet, which was as triumphant as the coming of spring. By the time Montero graced the keys, the theme had wholly changed. From winter, to the bright warmth of spring, from dissonance to ebullient unity.
To say this was a composition of beauty and brilliance would be understatement.
It was a work finely tuned to its time. It was a music nicely pitched to the passing of a political era.
It teaches us that music. at its best, can be magical.
It was so wondrous that I wept.
--(c) '09 maj
!*3/10 NY Live From Death Row! w/ Pam Africa + DR Prisoners
via: info@freemumia.com
================
LIVE FROM DEATH ROW! with PAM AFRICA, International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
City College - 137th St. & Amsterdam, NY - NAC Ballroom
Tuesday, March 10 - 7 PM
These are America's condemned, who bear a stigma far worse than "prisoner." These are America's death row residents: men and women who walk the razor's edge between half-life and certain death.--Mumia Abu-Jamal, Pennsylvania death row prisoner, from his book 'Live from Death Row'
Over 3,500 men and women sit on death row across this country. This national tour will bring you their voices and their struggles.
The tour features death row prisoners speaking live via speakerphone. Including:
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
Pennsylvania death row prisoner, author of Live from Death Row, We Want Freedom and numerous other books
KEVIN COOPER
California death row prisoner who came within 3 1/2 hours of being executed before he won a stay of execution
TROY DAVIS
On death row in Georgia and came within hours of execution in 2008 before he won a stay
STANLEY HOWARD
Former death row prisoner and torture victim still imprisoned in Illinois; contributing writer to the New Abolitionist...and more!
Also speaking at City College:
Lawrence Hayes, former NYS death row prisoner
Yusef Salaam, exonerated in the Central Park jogger case
LIVE FROM DEATH ROW!
City College - 137th St. & Amsterdam - NAC Ballroom
Tuesday, March 10 - 7 PM
www.nodeathpenalty.org
nyc@nodeathpenalty.orgSponsored by: Campaign to End the Death Penalty & the Free Mumia Coalition-NYC
The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia!Audio of most of Mumia's essays are at: http://www.prisonradio.org
PLEASE CONTACT:International Concerned Family & Friends of MAJP.O. Box 19709Philadelphia, PA 19143Phone - 215-476-8812/ Fax - 215-476-6180E-mail - icffmaj@aol.comWeb - www.freemumia.com
AND OFFER YOUR SERVICES!Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:
Mumia Abu-JamalAM 8335
SCI-Greene175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370
WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!
Subscribe: mumiacolumns-subscribe@topica.comRead: http://topica.com/lists/mumiacolumns/readSubscribe ICFFMAJ email updates list by e-mailingicffmaj@aol.com!
[Check out Mumia's latest: *WE WANT FREEDOM:A Life in the Black Panther Party*, from SouthEnd Press (http://www.southendpress.org); Ph.#1-800-533-8478.]
================
LIVE FROM DEATH ROW! with PAM AFRICA, International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
City College - 137th St. & Amsterdam, NY - NAC Ballroom
Tuesday, March 10 - 7 PM
These are America's condemned, who bear a stigma far worse than "prisoner." These are America's death row residents: men and women who walk the razor's edge between half-life and certain death.--Mumia Abu-Jamal, Pennsylvania death row prisoner, from his book 'Live from Death Row'
Over 3,500 men and women sit on death row across this country. This national tour will bring you their voices and their struggles.
The tour features death row prisoners speaking live via speakerphone. Including:
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
Pennsylvania death row prisoner, author of Live from Death Row, We Want Freedom and numerous other books
KEVIN COOPER
California death row prisoner who came within 3 1/2 hours of being executed before he won a stay of execution
TROY DAVIS
On death row in Georgia and came within hours of execution in 2008 before he won a stay
STANLEY HOWARD
Former death row prisoner and torture victim still imprisoned in Illinois; contributing writer to the New Abolitionist...and more!
Also speaking at City College:
Lawrence Hayes, former NYS death row prisoner
Yusef Salaam, exonerated in the Central Park jogger case
LIVE FROM DEATH ROW!
City College - 137th St. & Amsterdam - NAC Ballroom
Tuesday, March 10 - 7 PM
www.nodeathpenalty.org
nyc@nodeathpenalty.orgSponsored by: Campaign to End the Death Penalty & the Free Mumia Coalition-NYC
The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia!Audio of most of Mumia's essays are at: http://www.prisonradio.org
PLEASE CONTACT:International Concerned Family & Friends of MAJP.O. Box 19709Philadelphia, PA 19143Phone - 215-476-8812/ Fax - 215-476-6180E-mail - icffmaj@aol.comWeb - www.freemumia.com
AND OFFER YOUR SERVICES!Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:
Mumia Abu-JamalAM 8335
SCI-Greene175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370
WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!
Subscribe: mumiacolumns-subscribe@topica.comRead: http://topica.com/lists/mumiacolumns/readSubscribe ICFFMAJ email updates list by e-mailingicffmaj@aol.com!
[Check out Mumia's latest: *WE WANT FREEDOM:A Life in the Black Panther Party*, from SouthEnd Press (http://www.southendpress.org); Ph.#1-800-533-8478.]
!*MUMIA Releases NEW BOOK!/Events Planned Nationally on his Birthday!
YOUR SUPPORT IS GREATLY NEEDED,
ATTEND AND/OR HOST YOUR OWN EVENTS!
===============================
via: info@freemumia.com
NEW BOOK! (View Book at http://www.freemumia.com/april242009.html)
JAILHOUSE LAWYERS: PRISONERS DEFENDING PRISONERS V. THE U.S.A.
Authored by MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
Foreword by Angela Y. Davis
--------
APRIL 24 MUMIA'S BIRTHDAY NATIONALLY COORDINATED "MORE THAN A BOOK PARTY" EVENTS
Mumia writes:
"This is the story of law learned, not in the ivory towers of multi-billion-dollar endowed universities but in the bowels of the slave-ship, in the hidden, dank dungeons of America .. It is law learned in a stew of bitterness, under the constant threat of violence, in places where millions of people live, buy millions of others wish to ignore or forget"
Let's use the opportunity of the publication of this brilliant and moving, vintage Mumia book to build the momentum for his case, to raise the money we desperately need in these challenging economic times, to get the word out – to produce literature, flyers, posters, videos, DVD's; to send organizers out to help build new chapters and strengthen old ones, TO GET THE PEOPLE OUT IN THE STREETS … all the work that we must do in order to FREE MUMIA as he faces LIFE IN PRISON WITHOUT PAROLE OR EXECUTION!
In the spirit of Mumia's book, we dedicate these "More Than a Book Party" events to the thousands and thousands of jailhouse lawyers who practice their craft in their own and their brothers' (and sisters') struggle for justice, against all odds and with the high risk of being subjected to the venom, punishment, and brutality of the prison system that is directed against them more than to any other sector of the prison population. THESE ARE THE HEROES AND SHEROES WE WILL HONOR. INVITE SOME OF THEM WHO ARE FORMER PRISONERS TO PARTICIPATE IN YOUR "MORE THAN A BOOK PARTY EVENTS!!!
MUMIA BIRTHDAY "MORE THAN A BOOK PARTY" APRIL 24TH EVENTS ALREADY SCHEDULED IN:
-PHILADELPHIA
-NEW YORK (NOTE: SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY APRIL 25TH BY THE FREE MUMIA COALITION TO AVOID CONFLICT WITH OTHER EVENTS)
-SAN FRANCISCO
-PITTSBURGH
-PORTLAND
-BOSTON
-WOODSTOCK
AND OTHERS !
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
215 476-8812
212 330-8029
TO ORDER BOOKS CONTACT: STACEY@CITYLIGHTS.COM
OR CALL
FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE GRASSROOTS WORK: (FUNDS WILL GO TO BOTH INTERNATIONAL CONCERNED FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL AND THE FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL COALITION (NYC)) ONLINE GO TO:
WWW.FREEMUMIA.COM
OR MAIL CHECKS TO:
FREE MUMIA ABU JAMAL COALITION, PO BOX 16, NEW YORK, NY 10030
(CHECKS FOR BOTH ORGANIZATIONS PAYABLE TO: FMAJC/IFCO)
ATTEND AND/OR HOST YOUR OWN EVENTS!
===============================
via: info@freemumia.com
NEW BOOK! (View Book at http://www.freemumia.com/april242009.html)
JAILHOUSE LAWYERS: PRISONERS DEFENDING PRISONERS V. THE U.S.A.
Authored by MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
Foreword by Angela Y. Davis
--------
APRIL 24 MUMIA'S BIRTHDAY NATIONALLY COORDINATED "MORE THAN A BOOK PARTY" EVENTS
Mumia writes:
"This is the story of law learned, not in the ivory towers of multi-billion-dollar endowed universities but in the bowels of the slave-ship, in the hidden, dank dungeons of America .. It is law learned in a stew of bitterness, under the constant threat of violence, in places where millions of people live, buy millions of others wish to ignore or forget"
Let's use the opportunity of the publication of this brilliant and moving, vintage Mumia book to build the momentum for his case, to raise the money we desperately need in these challenging economic times, to get the word out – to produce literature, flyers, posters, videos, DVD's; to send organizers out to help build new chapters and strengthen old ones, TO GET THE PEOPLE OUT IN THE STREETS … all the work that we must do in order to FREE MUMIA as he faces LIFE IN PRISON WITHOUT PAROLE OR EXECUTION!
In the spirit of Mumia's book, we dedicate these "More Than a Book Party" events to the thousands and thousands of jailhouse lawyers who practice their craft in their own and their brothers' (and sisters') struggle for justice, against all odds and with the high risk of being subjected to the venom, punishment, and brutality of the prison system that is directed against them more than to any other sector of the prison population. THESE ARE THE HEROES AND SHEROES WE WILL HONOR. INVITE SOME OF THEM WHO ARE FORMER PRISONERS TO PARTICIPATE IN YOUR "MORE THAN A BOOK PARTY EVENTS!!!
MUMIA BIRTHDAY "MORE THAN A BOOK PARTY" APRIL 24TH EVENTS ALREADY SCHEDULED IN:
-PHILADELPHIA
-NEW YORK (NOTE: SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY APRIL 25TH BY THE FREE MUMIA COALITION TO AVOID CONFLICT WITH OTHER EVENTS)
-SAN FRANCISCO
-PITTSBURGH
-PORTLAND
-BOSTON
-WOODSTOCK
AND OTHERS !
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
215 476-8812
212 330-8029
TO ORDER BOOKS CONTACT: STACEY@CITYLIGHTS.COM
OR CALL
FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE GRASSROOTS WORK: (FUNDS WILL GO TO BOTH INTERNATIONAL CONCERNED FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL AND THE FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL COALITION (NYC)) ONLINE GO TO:
WWW.FREEMUMIA.COM
OR MAIL CHECKS TO:
FREE MUMIA ABU JAMAL COALITION, PO BOX 16, NEW YORK, NY 10030
(CHECKS FOR BOTH ORGANIZATIONS PAYABLE TO: FMAJC/IFCO)
The Fallen
[col. writ. 2/12/09] (c) '09 Mumia Abu-Jamal
A nation's economy is always a work of complexity, which accounts for the divergent opinions of economists, who often come down on different sides of the big issues, as in what works, and what doesn't.
Broadly speaking, the conflict is between classic and Keynesian economics, with the former of the view that the market is self-regulating, and the latter of the view that the market isn't self-regulating, but must be massaged and managed by government fiscal policies.
The latest stimulus package is Keynesian (after British economist John Maynard Keynes [1883-1946], as was the bailout of the banks and financial institutions.
It seeks to influence events by an aggressive expansionist fiscal policy.
But it seems like this is less stimulus than stopgap, for it seeks to stimulate something that is in almost deadly shape.
Look at it this way; if your heart stops, and you are given a powerful jolt of electricity, your heart may resume beating, but the problem is hardly solved.
You don't need a defibrillator unless the body (the system) is in an advanced state of collapse. And it's that state of serious illness that isn't being seriously addressed, for the American economy has been ill for quite some time.
Much can be traced to the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) era, which sought to emphatically transform the economy to one run on information and financial services, with the manufacturing to be exported to foreign markets where labor was cheaper.
Unfortunately, no serious educational efforts were undertaken to adjust to this dramatic economic shift, and instead, a decade was wasted on largely irrelevant battles over No Child Left Behind, when millions of children experienced school as a test-taking prison, instead of a site of substantive learning.
With manufacturing hollowed out, and real wages falling annually, how could the economy not have a massive seizure?
For, of all the money roaring through the U.S. economy, over 70% is from personal consumption of goods and services, which means the economy is consumer-driven.
Let us illustrate; the U.S. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) for 2006 was over $13 trillion. Personal consumption of goods and services came to over $9 trillion.
The net effect of joblessness and lowered wages is a hit at the heart of the economy, that $750 billion could hardly touch.
Until the fundamentals can be recognized and corrected, these problems will continue, and the economy will sputter along, until the next heart attack.
--(c) '09 maj
A nation's economy is always a work of complexity, which accounts for the divergent opinions of economists, who often come down on different sides of the big issues, as in what works, and what doesn't.
Broadly speaking, the conflict is between classic and Keynesian economics, with the former of the view that the market is self-regulating, and the latter of the view that the market isn't self-regulating, but must be massaged and managed by government fiscal policies.
The latest stimulus package is Keynesian (after British economist John Maynard Keynes [1883-1946], as was the bailout of the banks and financial institutions.
It seeks to influence events by an aggressive expansionist fiscal policy.
But it seems like this is less stimulus than stopgap, for it seeks to stimulate something that is in almost deadly shape.
Look at it this way; if your heart stops, and you are given a powerful jolt of electricity, your heart may resume beating, but the problem is hardly solved.
You don't need a defibrillator unless the body (the system) is in an advanced state of collapse. And it's that state of serious illness that isn't being seriously addressed, for the American economy has been ill for quite some time.
Much can be traced to the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) era, which sought to emphatically transform the economy to one run on information and financial services, with the manufacturing to be exported to foreign markets where labor was cheaper.
Unfortunately, no serious educational efforts were undertaken to adjust to this dramatic economic shift, and instead, a decade was wasted on largely irrelevant battles over No Child Left Behind, when millions of children experienced school as a test-taking prison, instead of a site of substantive learning.
With manufacturing hollowed out, and real wages falling annually, how could the economy not have a massive seizure?
For, of all the money roaring through the U.S. economy, over 70% is from personal consumption of goods and services, which means the economy is consumer-driven.
Let us illustrate; the U.S. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) for 2006 was over $13 trillion. Personal consumption of goods and services came to over $9 trillion.
The net effect of joblessness and lowered wages is a hit at the heart of the economy, that $750 billion could hardly touch.
Until the fundamentals can be recognized and corrected, these problems will continue, and the economy will sputter along, until the next heart attack.
--(c) '09 maj
With 'Judges' Like These....
[col. writ. 2/7/09] (c) '09 Mumia Abu-Jamal
In Pennsylvania's Luzerne County, there are 9 judges of the Court of Common Pleas. Two of them just pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to convict and sentence juveniles to a private prison, so that they could get kickbacks from the prison's builders and owners.
According to published accounts, Judge Mark A. Ciavarella and Senior Judge Michael T. Conahan sent hundreds of boys and girls to the private facility, and pocketed some $2.5 million in kickbacks.
This was accomplished not merely because of the venal greed of the judges, but because virtually none of the children were provided with legal representation.
When the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center filed a petition in the PA Supreme Court calling the county's practice of adjudicating and sentencing some 250 kids to jail without legal representation unconstitutional, the state's highest court denied the petition on Jan. 8, 2009. To make matters even worse, recently filed criminal information states that the 2 judges used their power and influence in the county to de-fund the county juvenile facility, precisely as they were steering kids to the private jail (boy -- talk about privatization!).
Nearly a month later, the state's highest court changed their minds, vacating the denial.
What transpired in the interim?
Well, for one thing, the 2 judges provisionally pleaded guilty to federal charges of honest wire service fraud.
Hundreds of children get socked into jail, after demonstrably unconstitutional proceedings with no legal representation, and the state's highest court doesn't even raise an eyebrow.
The media reports on this outrage, and the PA Supreme Court expresses little interest.
This is the nature of judging these days, when even kids are expendable fodder for the prison industrial complex.
Luzerne County is the state's 10th largest county, with just over 300,000 souls.
At least 22% of their judges have admitted being corrupt, in the sordid business of selling the freedom and well-being of poor children for profit.
--(c) '09 maj
{Sources: Legal Intelligencer, 2/3/09; 2/4/09.}
In Pennsylvania's Luzerne County, there are 9 judges of the Court of Common Pleas. Two of them just pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to convict and sentence juveniles to a private prison, so that they could get kickbacks from the prison's builders and owners.
According to published accounts, Judge Mark A. Ciavarella and Senior Judge Michael T. Conahan sent hundreds of boys and girls to the private facility, and pocketed some $2.5 million in kickbacks.
This was accomplished not merely because of the venal greed of the judges, but because virtually none of the children were provided with legal representation.
When the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center filed a petition in the PA Supreme Court calling the county's practice of adjudicating and sentencing some 250 kids to jail without legal representation unconstitutional, the state's highest court denied the petition on Jan. 8, 2009. To make matters even worse, recently filed criminal information states that the 2 judges used their power and influence in the county to de-fund the county juvenile facility, precisely as they were steering kids to the private jail (boy -- talk about privatization!).
Nearly a month later, the state's highest court changed their minds, vacating the denial.
What transpired in the interim?
Well, for one thing, the 2 judges provisionally pleaded guilty to federal charges of honest wire service fraud.
Hundreds of children get socked into jail, after demonstrably unconstitutional proceedings with no legal representation, and the state's highest court doesn't even raise an eyebrow.
The media reports on this outrage, and the PA Supreme Court expresses little interest.
This is the nature of judging these days, when even kids are expendable fodder for the prison industrial complex.
Luzerne County is the state's 10th largest county, with just over 300,000 souls.
At least 22% of their judges have admitted being corrupt, in the sordid business of selling the freedom and well-being of poor children for profit.
--(c) '09 maj
{Sources: Legal Intelligencer, 2/3/09; 2/4/09.}
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Ship Of Fools
Paul Craig Roberts
Infowars
February 9, 2009
Is there intelligent life in Washington, DC? Not a speck of it.
The US economy is imploding, and Obama is being led by his government of neconservatives and Israeli agents into a quagmire in Afghanistan that will bring the US into confrontation with Russia, and possibly China, American’s largest creditor.
The January payroll job figures reveal that last month 20,000 Americans lost their jobs every day.
In addition, December’s job losses were revised up by 53,000 jobs from 524,000 to 577,000. The revision brings the two-month job loss to 1,175,000. If this keeps up, Obama’s promised three million new jobs will be wiped out by job losses.
Statistician John Williams (shadowstats.com/) reports that this huge number is an understatement. Williams notes that built-in biases in seasonal adjustment factors caused a 118,000 understatement of January job losses, bringing the actual January job loss to 716,000 jobs.
The payroll survey counts the number of jobs, not the number of employed as some people have more than one job. The Household Survey counts the number of people who have jobs. The Household Survey shows that 832,000 people lost their jobs in January and 806,000 in December, for a two month reduction of Americans with jobs of 1,638,000.
The unemployment rate reported in the US media is a fabrication. Williams reports that
"during the Clinton Administration, ‘discouraged workers’ those who had given up looking for a job because there were no jobs to be had–were redefined so as to be counted only if they had been ‘discouraged’ for less than a year. This time qualification defined away the bulk of the discouraged workers. Adding them back into the total unemployed, actual unemployment, [according to the unemployment rate methodology used in 1980] rose to 18% in January, from 17.5% in December."
In other words, without all the manipulations of the data from a government that lies to us every time it opens its mouth, the US unemployment rate is already at depression levels.
How could it be otherwise given the enormous job loss from offshored jobs. It is impossible for a country to create jobs when its corporations are moving production for the American consumer market offshore. When they move the production offshore, they
shift US GDP to other countries. The US trade deficit over the past decade has reduced US GDP by $1.5 trillion dollars. That is a lot of jobs.
I have been reporting for years that American university graduates have had to take jobs as waitresses and bartenders. As over-indebted American consumers lose their jobs, they will visit restaurants and bars less frequently. Consequently, Americans with university degrees will not even have jobs waiting on tables and mixing drinks.
US policymakers have ignored the fact that consumer demand in the 21st century has been driven, not by increases in real income, but by increased consumer indebtedness. This fact makes it pointless to try to stimulate the economy by bailing out banks so that they can lend more to consumers. The American consumers have no more capacity to borrow.
With the decline in the values of their principal assets–their homes–with the destruction of half of their pension assets, and with joblessness facing them, Americans cannot and will not spend.
Why bail out GM and Citibank when the firms are moving as many operations offshore as they possibly can?
Much of US infrastructure is in poor shape and needs renewing. However, infrastructure jobs do not produce goods and services that can be sold abroad. The massive commitment to infrastructure does nothing to help the US reduce its massive trade deficit, the financing of which is becoming a major problem. Moreover, when the infrastructure projects are completed, so are the jobs.
At best, assuming Mexicans do not get most of the construction jobs, all Obama’s stimulus program can do is to reduce the number of unemployed temporarily.
Unless US corporations can be required to use American labor to produce the goods and services that they sell in American markets, there is no hope for the US economy. No one in the Obama administration has the wits to address this problem. Thus, the economy will continue to implode.
Adding to the brewing disaster, Obama has been deceived by his military and neoconservative advisers into expanding the war in Afghanistan, a large mountainous country. Obama intends to use the draw-down of US soldiers in Iraq to send 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan. This would bring the US forces to 60,000–600,000 fewer than US Marine Corps and US Army counterinsurgency guidelines define as the minimum number of soldiers necessary to bring success in Afghanistan–and less than half as many as the army that was unable to occupy Iraq.
The Iranians had to bail out the Bush regime by restraining its Shi’ite allies and encouraging them to use the ballot box to attain power and push out the Americans. In Iraq the US troops only had to fight a small Sunni insurgency drawn from a minority of the population. Even so, the US "prevailed" by putting the insurgents on the US payroll and paying them not to fight. The withdrawal agreement was dictated by the Shi’ites. It was not what the Bush regime wanted.
One would think that the experience with the "cakewalk" in Iraq would make the US hesitant to attempt to occupy Afghanistan, an undertaking that would require the US to occupy parts of Pakistan. The US was hard pressed to maintain 150,000 troops in Iraq. Where is Obama going to get another half million soldiers to add to the 150,000 to pacify Afghanistan?
One answer is the rapidly growing massive US unemployment. Americans will sign up to go kill abroad rather than be homeless and hungry at home.
But this solves only half of the problem. Where does the money come from to support an army in the field of 650,000, an army 4.3 times larger than US forces in Iraq, a war that has cost us $3 trillion in out-of-pocket and already incurred future costs. This money would have to be raised in addition to the $3 trillion US budget deficit that is the result of Bush’s financial sector bailout, Obama’s stimulus package, and the rapidly failing economy. When economies tank, as the American one is doing, tax revenues collapse. The millions of unemployed Americans are not paying Social Security, Medicare, and income taxes. The stores and businesses that are closing are not paying federal and state income taxes. Consumers with no money or credit to spend are not paying sales taxes.
The Washington Morons, and morons they are, have given no thought as to how they are going to finance a fiscal year 2009 budget deficit of some two to three trillion dollars.
The practically nonexistent US saving rate cannot finance it.
The trade surpluses of our trading partners, such as China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia, cannot finance it.
The US government really has only two possibilities for financing its budget deficit. One is a second collapse in the stock market, which would drive the surviving investors with what they have left into "safe" US Treasury bonds. The other is for the Federal Reserve to monetize the Treasury debt.
Monetizing the debt means that when no one is willing or able to purchase the Treasury’s bonds, the Federal Reserve buys them by creating bank deposits for the Treasury’s account.
In other words, the Fed "prints money" with which to buy the Treasury’s bonds.
Once this happens, the US dollar will cease to be the reserve currency.
In addition, China, Japan and Saudi Arabia, countries that hold enormous quantities of US Treasury debt in addition to other US dollar assets, will sell, hoping to get out before others.
The US dollar will become worthless, the currency of a banana republic.
The US will not be able to pay for its imports, a serious problem for a country dependent on imports for its energy, manufactured goods, and advanced technology products.
Obama’s Keynesian advisers have learned with a vengeance Milton Friedman’s lesson that the Great Depression resulted from the Federal Reserve permitting a contraction of the supply of money and credit. In the Great Depression good debts were destroyed by monetary contraction. Today bad debts are being preserved by the expansion of money and credit, and the US Treasury is jeopardizing its credit standing and the dollar’s reserve currency status with enormous quarterly bond auctions as far as the eye can see.
Meanwhile, the Russians, overflowing with energy and mineral resources, and not in debt, have learned that the US government is not to be trusted. Russia has watched Reagan’s successors attempt to turn former constituent parts of the Soviet Union into US puppet states with US military bases. The US is trying to ring Russia with missiles that neutralize Russia’s strategic deterrent.
Putin has caught on to "comrade wolf." He has succeeded in having the president of Kyrgyzstan, a former part of the Soviet Union, evict the US from its military base. This base is essential to America’s ability to supply its soldiers in Afghanistan.
To stop America’s meddling in Russia’s sphere of influence, the Russian government has created a collective security treaty organization comprised of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Uzbekistan is a partial participant.
In other words, Russia has organized central Asia against US penetration.
To whose agenda is President Obama being hitched? Writing in the English language version of the Swiss newspaper, Zeit-Fragen, Stephen J. Sniegoski reports that leading figures of the neocon conspiracy–Richard Perle, Max Boot, David Brooks, and Mona Charen–are ecstatic over Obama’s appointments. They don’t see any difference between Obama and Bush/Cheney.
Not only are Obama’s appointments moving him into an expanded war in Afghanistan, but the powerful Israel Lobby is pushing Obama toward a war with Iran.
The unreality in which he US government operates is beyond belief. A bankrupt government that cannot pay its bills without printing money is rushing headlong into wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran. According to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis, the cost to the US taxpayers of sending a single soldier to fight in Afghanistan or Iraq is $775,000 per year!
The world has never seen such total mindlessness. Napoleon’s and Hitler’s march into Russia were rational acts compared to the mindless idiocy of the United States government.
Obama’s war in Afghanistan is the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. After seven years of conflict, there is still no defined mission or endgame scenario for US forces in Afghanistan. When asked about the mission, a US military official told NBC News, "Frankly, we don’t have one." NBC reports: "they’re working on it."
Speaking to House Democrats on February 5, President Obama admitted that the US government does not know what its mission is in Afghanistan and that to avoid "mission creep without clear parameters," the US "needs a clear mission."
How would you like to be sent to a war, the point of which no one knows, including the commander-in-chief who sent you to kill or be killed? How, fellow taxpayers, do you like paying the enormous cost of sending soldiers on an undefined mission while the economy collapses?
Research related articles:
Canada firm on quitting Afghanistan by 2011
Russia to ship equipment to finish Iranian nuclear plant
Irish Times Lisbon poll fools public - Deception has set in for referendum 2
Woman fools Japan’s airport security fingerprint system
Hezbollah says US ship is threat
Russia sinks Georgian ship trying to attack Russian navy ships
Another Russian Bomber Intercepted Near U.S. Navy Ship
Who’s going to Finance the rising US National Debt?
‘US ship nearly fired at Iranians’
Iranian aid ship to break Israeli siege of Gaza
Army Officials Say Many More Active-Duty Troops Are Needed
‘Iran aid ship nears Gaza’
Infowars
February 9, 2009
Is there intelligent life in Washington, DC? Not a speck of it.
The US economy is imploding, and Obama is being led by his government of neconservatives and Israeli agents into a quagmire in Afghanistan that will bring the US into confrontation with Russia, and possibly China, American’s largest creditor.
The January payroll job figures reveal that last month 20,000 Americans lost their jobs every day.
In addition, December’s job losses were revised up by 53,000 jobs from 524,000 to 577,000. The revision brings the two-month job loss to 1,175,000. If this keeps up, Obama’s promised three million new jobs will be wiped out by job losses.
Statistician John Williams (shadowstats.com/) reports that this huge number is an understatement. Williams notes that built-in biases in seasonal adjustment factors caused a 118,000 understatement of January job losses, bringing the actual January job loss to 716,000 jobs.
The payroll survey counts the number of jobs, not the number of employed as some people have more than one job. The Household Survey counts the number of people who have jobs. The Household Survey shows that 832,000 people lost their jobs in January and 806,000 in December, for a two month reduction of Americans with jobs of 1,638,000.
The unemployment rate reported in the US media is a fabrication. Williams reports that
"during the Clinton Administration, ‘discouraged workers’ those who had given up looking for a job because there were no jobs to be had–were redefined so as to be counted only if they had been ‘discouraged’ for less than a year. This time qualification defined away the bulk of the discouraged workers. Adding them back into the total unemployed, actual unemployment, [according to the unemployment rate methodology used in 1980] rose to 18% in January, from 17.5% in December."
In other words, without all the manipulations of the data from a government that lies to us every time it opens its mouth, the US unemployment rate is already at depression levels.
How could it be otherwise given the enormous job loss from offshored jobs. It is impossible for a country to create jobs when its corporations are moving production for the American consumer market offshore. When they move the production offshore, they
shift US GDP to other countries. The US trade deficit over the past decade has reduced US GDP by $1.5 trillion dollars. That is a lot of jobs.
I have been reporting for years that American university graduates have had to take jobs as waitresses and bartenders. As over-indebted American consumers lose their jobs, they will visit restaurants and bars less frequently. Consequently, Americans with university degrees will not even have jobs waiting on tables and mixing drinks.
US policymakers have ignored the fact that consumer demand in the 21st century has been driven, not by increases in real income, but by increased consumer indebtedness. This fact makes it pointless to try to stimulate the economy by bailing out banks so that they can lend more to consumers. The American consumers have no more capacity to borrow.
With the decline in the values of their principal assets–their homes–with the destruction of half of their pension assets, and with joblessness facing them, Americans cannot and will not spend.
Why bail out GM and Citibank when the firms are moving as many operations offshore as they possibly can?
Much of US infrastructure is in poor shape and needs renewing. However, infrastructure jobs do not produce goods and services that can be sold abroad. The massive commitment to infrastructure does nothing to help the US reduce its massive trade deficit, the financing of which is becoming a major problem. Moreover, when the infrastructure projects are completed, so are the jobs.
At best, assuming Mexicans do not get most of the construction jobs, all Obama’s stimulus program can do is to reduce the number of unemployed temporarily.
Unless US corporations can be required to use American labor to produce the goods and services that they sell in American markets, there is no hope for the US economy. No one in the Obama administration has the wits to address this problem. Thus, the economy will continue to implode.
Adding to the brewing disaster, Obama has been deceived by his military and neoconservative advisers into expanding the war in Afghanistan, a large mountainous country. Obama intends to use the draw-down of US soldiers in Iraq to send 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan. This would bring the US forces to 60,000–600,000 fewer than US Marine Corps and US Army counterinsurgency guidelines define as the minimum number of soldiers necessary to bring success in Afghanistan–and less than half as many as the army that was unable to occupy Iraq.
The Iranians had to bail out the Bush regime by restraining its Shi’ite allies and encouraging them to use the ballot box to attain power and push out the Americans. In Iraq the US troops only had to fight a small Sunni insurgency drawn from a minority of the population. Even so, the US "prevailed" by putting the insurgents on the US payroll and paying them not to fight. The withdrawal agreement was dictated by the Shi’ites. It was not what the Bush regime wanted.
One would think that the experience with the "cakewalk" in Iraq would make the US hesitant to attempt to occupy Afghanistan, an undertaking that would require the US to occupy parts of Pakistan. The US was hard pressed to maintain 150,000 troops in Iraq. Where is Obama going to get another half million soldiers to add to the 150,000 to pacify Afghanistan?
One answer is the rapidly growing massive US unemployment. Americans will sign up to go kill abroad rather than be homeless and hungry at home.
But this solves only half of the problem. Where does the money come from to support an army in the field of 650,000, an army 4.3 times larger than US forces in Iraq, a war that has cost us $3 trillion in out-of-pocket and already incurred future costs. This money would have to be raised in addition to the $3 trillion US budget deficit that is the result of Bush’s financial sector bailout, Obama’s stimulus package, and the rapidly failing economy. When economies tank, as the American one is doing, tax revenues collapse. The millions of unemployed Americans are not paying Social Security, Medicare, and income taxes. The stores and businesses that are closing are not paying federal and state income taxes. Consumers with no money or credit to spend are not paying sales taxes.
The Washington Morons, and morons they are, have given no thought as to how they are going to finance a fiscal year 2009 budget deficit of some two to three trillion dollars.
The practically nonexistent US saving rate cannot finance it.
The trade surpluses of our trading partners, such as China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia, cannot finance it.
The US government really has only two possibilities for financing its budget deficit. One is a second collapse in the stock market, which would drive the surviving investors with what they have left into "safe" US Treasury bonds. The other is for the Federal Reserve to monetize the Treasury debt.
Monetizing the debt means that when no one is willing or able to purchase the Treasury’s bonds, the Federal Reserve buys them by creating bank deposits for the Treasury’s account.
In other words, the Fed "prints money" with which to buy the Treasury’s bonds.
Once this happens, the US dollar will cease to be the reserve currency.
In addition, China, Japan and Saudi Arabia, countries that hold enormous quantities of US Treasury debt in addition to other US dollar assets, will sell, hoping to get out before others.
The US dollar will become worthless, the currency of a banana republic.
The US will not be able to pay for its imports, a serious problem for a country dependent on imports for its energy, manufactured goods, and advanced technology products.
Obama’s Keynesian advisers have learned with a vengeance Milton Friedman’s lesson that the Great Depression resulted from the Federal Reserve permitting a contraction of the supply of money and credit. In the Great Depression good debts were destroyed by monetary contraction. Today bad debts are being preserved by the expansion of money and credit, and the US Treasury is jeopardizing its credit standing and the dollar’s reserve currency status with enormous quarterly bond auctions as far as the eye can see.
Meanwhile, the Russians, overflowing with energy and mineral resources, and not in debt, have learned that the US government is not to be trusted. Russia has watched Reagan’s successors attempt to turn former constituent parts of the Soviet Union into US puppet states with US military bases. The US is trying to ring Russia with missiles that neutralize Russia’s strategic deterrent.
Putin has caught on to "comrade wolf." He has succeeded in having the president of Kyrgyzstan, a former part of the Soviet Union, evict the US from its military base. This base is essential to America’s ability to supply its soldiers in Afghanistan.
To stop America’s meddling in Russia’s sphere of influence, the Russian government has created a collective security treaty organization comprised of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Uzbekistan is a partial participant.
In other words, Russia has organized central Asia against US penetration.
To whose agenda is President Obama being hitched? Writing in the English language version of the Swiss newspaper, Zeit-Fragen, Stephen J. Sniegoski reports that leading figures of the neocon conspiracy–Richard Perle, Max Boot, David Brooks, and Mona Charen–are ecstatic over Obama’s appointments. They don’t see any difference between Obama and Bush/Cheney.
Not only are Obama’s appointments moving him into an expanded war in Afghanistan, but the powerful Israel Lobby is pushing Obama toward a war with Iran.
The unreality in which he US government operates is beyond belief. A bankrupt government that cannot pay its bills without printing money is rushing headlong into wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran. According to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis, the cost to the US taxpayers of sending a single soldier to fight in Afghanistan or Iraq is $775,000 per year!
The world has never seen such total mindlessness. Napoleon’s and Hitler’s march into Russia were rational acts compared to the mindless idiocy of the United States government.
Obama’s war in Afghanistan is the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. After seven years of conflict, there is still no defined mission or endgame scenario for US forces in Afghanistan. When asked about the mission, a US military official told NBC News, "Frankly, we don’t have one." NBC reports: "they’re working on it."
Speaking to House Democrats on February 5, President Obama admitted that the US government does not know what its mission is in Afghanistan and that to avoid "mission creep without clear parameters," the US "needs a clear mission."
How would you like to be sent to a war, the point of which no one knows, including the commander-in-chief who sent you to kill or be killed? How, fellow taxpayers, do you like paying the enormous cost of sending soldiers on an undefined mission while the economy collapses?
Research related articles:
Canada firm on quitting Afghanistan by 2011
Russia to ship equipment to finish Iranian nuclear plant
Irish Times Lisbon poll fools public - Deception has set in for referendum 2
Woman fools Japan’s airport security fingerprint system
Hezbollah says US ship is threat
Russia sinks Georgian ship trying to attack Russian navy ships
Another Russian Bomber Intercepted Near U.S. Navy Ship
Who’s going to Finance the rising US National Debt?
‘US ship nearly fired at Iranians’
Iranian aid ship to break Israeli siege of Gaza
Army Officials Say Many More Active-Duty Troops Are Needed
‘Iran aid ship nears Gaza’
CHINESE SICK LEAVE: 'I NO COME WORK TODAY!!!
Note: I received the following joke in an email today. It's probably old, but what the hell, I'll share it with the rest of you anyway.
Hung Chow calls into work and says, 'Hey, I no come work today, I really sick. Got headache, stomach ache and legs hurt, I no come work.'
The boss John says, 'You know something, Hung Chow, I really need you today. When I feel sick like you do, I go to my wife and tell her to give me Sex. That makes everything better and I go to work. You try that.' Two hours later Hung Chow calls again. 'I do what You say and I feel Great. I be at work soon.........You got nice house'
Hung Chow calls into work and says, 'Hey, I no come work today, I really sick. Got headache, stomach ache and legs hurt, I no come work.'
The boss John says, 'You know something, Hung Chow, I really need you today. When I feel sick like you do, I go to my wife and tell her to give me Sex. That makes everything better and I go to work. You try that.' Two hours later Hung Chow calls again. 'I do what You say and I feel Great. I be at work soon.........You got nice house'
Sunday, February 01, 2009
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