Human Rights

Eyes on the Prize: MLK’s Lessons for Occupy

by Valerie Schloredt

When he was assassinated in April, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. had just begun “The Poor People’s Campaign.” This focus on economic injustice, which included plans for a mass encampment of poor people in Washington, D.C., was remarkably similar to that of today’s Occupy movement. The connection is clear to present-day activists Kazu Haga and Jonathan Lewis, who are promoting King’s philosophy of nonviolence to Occupy groups, both for moral guidance and practical strategy.

60 Minutes video

Free Health Care Clinic Set For Weekend At Cal Expo

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) -- People are already lining up at Cal Expo for a free health clinic that launches Friday.

RAM California will offer free medical, dental and vision care to thousands of people this weekend. The event spans four days, Friday through Monday.

Organizers expect to screen at least 1,000 people each day.

PRESS ADVISORY

Contact: Rev. Ashiya Odeye, Executive Director, Justice Reform Coalition, 916 893-9793 cell therev – AT – justicereformcoaltion.org www.justicereformcoalition.org

attention: daybook/assignment desk

SACRAMENTO – US Bank – which Monday announced it would be leaving UC Davis because of protests by Occupy – is the target again Tuesday….this time in Sacramento as Occupy supports the fight to save a local farm from foreclosure and eviction.

by Tony De Renzo ( potony [at] comcast.net )
Tuesday Mar 13th, 2012 11:20 AM

Civil liberties advocates from the San Francisco 99% Coalition stage a protest in front of city hall to urge the Board of Supervisors to join the growing nationwide resistance to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) The San Francisco 99% Coalition

Lawrence Lessig & Jack Abramoff

Jack Abramoff is a former lobbyist who pleaded guilty in 2006 to charges of fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy to bribe public officials. Abramoff also worked as businessman, movie producer and writer. Abramoff's lobbying and the scandals and investigation are featured in a documentary movie "Casino Jack and the United States of Money" and a political satire movie titled "Casino Jack".

Lawrence Lessig is a law professor at Harvard. He has been the lead counsel in important cases concerning copyright laws for digital content. His current work concerns institutional corruption.
Source: Lawrence Lessig interviews Jack Abramoff

Play Program or Download(below the fold)

Catherine Crier

Catherine Crier, former judge and Emmy-winning journalist, argues that partisan politics are hurting the United States. She advocates reducing legal corruption in Washington, D.C. She has been television personality for CNN, ABC, Fox News and ESPN.
Source: Patriot Acts

The Other Scott Horton

Scott Horton Interviews The Other Scott Horton

The Other Scott Horton is an international human rights lawyer and contributing editor at Harper’s magazine and no relation to the interviewer. They discusses the U.S. government's refusal prosecute torturers. Also how WikiLeaks exposed high-level U.S. efforts to squash previous Spanish investigations of American political and military figures. Included is the contrast of U.S.’ repudiation of international law and universal jurisdiction, after helping establish them after WWII. The National Defense Authorization Act's indefinite detention provision also part of the conversation.
Source: Scott Horton Interviews The Other Scott Horton

Play Program or Download(below the fold)

First a bit of positive news from Andy Worthington, Brit investigative journalist and champion of due process for the Gitmo detainees and author of The Guantanamo Files. (Worthington was a featured speaker in a World Can’t Wait forum on Sunday in NYC.) If former President George W. Bush travels outside the borders of the United States to a foreign country, upon his arrival there is a good chance he immediately will be arrested for war crimes, particularly the perpetration of TORTURE! This is why George Bush canceled a recent trip to Switzerland.

You see, outside the “U.S. bubble” of conscience-less denial, minimization, indifference or (“we are always the good guys”) naivete, there are millions of non-Americans who grasp the depth of the international war crimes perpetrated by the USWarMachine. People who actually have a sense of moral justice. Well, it is understandable they would be more aware, since THEIR moral radar is not constantly jammed by a prevaricating and distracting US corporate mass media.

Foreign peoples are coming to recognize the mass defiling of the sanctity of human lives by the heart of darkness leadership of this once constitutional republic. Many foreigners questing for democracies of their own have woken up to the loss of such democracy in the United States, woken up so much faster to the tragedy than the U.S.‘s own citizenry.

I must confess that I have my own views of the Muslim world. Like most countries they want self-determination. That is the process by which a country determines its own statehood and forms its own allegiances and government. Self-determination is an idea that can't killed with bombs or bullets or autocratic leaders.

Robin Wright

Robin Wright talks with Charlie Rose about the Islamic world
Source: Robin Wright

Al McCoy

SubordiNations

Al McCoy talks about how empires are maintained, why the U.S. empire is in decline, and what the consequences might be depending on how we respond to that decline. Al McCoy is a professor of history at the University of Wisconson–Madison, and author of 'Policing America's Empire: The United States, the Philippines and the Rise of the Surveillance State,'
Source: TomCast for April 24, 2011: SubordiNations

Robin Wright talked about the recent Middle East uprisings and she responded to telephone calls and electronic communications.
Source: Rock The Casbah

Play Program or Download(below the fold)

The City of Sacramento played the Grinch again on December 8 when they arrested 23 Occupy Sacramento supporters defending their First Amendment rights at Cesar Chavez Park.

However, this Grinch, unlike the Dr. Seuss character, didn't just try to steal Christmas, but to deprive people of their rights under the Constitution.

The activists - including military veterans from the Vietnam and Iraq wars marking the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor - were arrested early Thursday morning about 2:30 a.m. during a "First Amendment Party" at Cesar Chavez Park.

21 of the 23 were booked into Sacramento County Jail and all were released by 2:30 p.m.

The Sacramento Police also cited and released two people without taking them to be booked in the County Jail. The two cited included a man in a wheelchair and a disabled military veteran.

Activists claimed they encountered some police brutality during the arrests. "Police did not use pepper spray to break-up the protest, but used very brutal 'pain' holds on some of those arrested," said Cres Vellucci, Occupy Sacramento spokesman. "Those actions are being investigated. The local ACLU office has been contacted."

I recommend opposing the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2012. The U.S. is not at war with any country. Nor is U.S. threatened by any group of criminals. Therefore, the U.S. does not need a war-time budget. The only defense needed is a few ships on each of the coasts. Veterans must get the best possible treatments for physical and mental injuries. I support job training for all Americans unable to find work.

The U.S. military is not a global police force. No country can possibly afford to pay for this useless manifestation of arrogance. Any secret provisions of this bill directly violate the Constitutional requirements to spell out all government expenditures. Detention of suspects without a public and fair trial also violates the 5th amendment of the Constitution. The excessive military expenditures by the U.S. government threatens the future economic viability of the U.S. economy.

The only expenditures needed for Iraq and Afghanistan are those needed for a speedy and safe exit by all U.S. personnel. These recommendations will be opposed by all who equate military might with the mission of the U.S. to shape the world. They can not see the foolishness of such a conceit. Americans expect their elected officials to put the health and wealth of their country ahead of useless and self-defeating projections of power

Mohandas K. Gandhi

Gandhi was born Oct. 2, 1869. In celebration of his 142nd birthday, this program explores non-violent resistance through the eyes of Gene Sharp and includes a few short excerpts from the movie Gandhi.

Gene Sharp

What Would Gandhi Do About Iraq and Weapons of Mass Deception?

It doesn’t have to take guns and tanks to effect change, according to Sharp. Sharp was interviewed by Tom Ashbrook in late 2002 before the second Iraq War.

Gene Sharp is president and founder of the Albert Einstein Institution, a nonprofit organization that promotes non-violent struggle in the face of dictatorship, war, genocide and oppression.
Source: What Would Gandhi Do?

Gene Sharp speaks on civilian-based defense

He asks why hasn’t war been abolished? He notes that nuclear deterrence is a desperate and bankrupt policy and power derives from obedience and cooperation of people, not from violence.
Source: Gene Sharp Lecture on Civilian-Based Defense

Play Program or Download(Below the fold)

Esther Duflo

Esther Duflo is a Professor of Economics at MIT and is a recipient of the MacArthur genius award and many other awards. She has co-authored the book, POOR ECONOMICS: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. She was interviewed by Terrence McNally, a journalist and radio host.

Source: Q&A: ESTHER DUFLO, Author

Scott Horton

Scott Horton Interviews The Other Scott Horton

The Other Scott Horton is an international human rights lawyer and contributing editor at Harper’s magazine. They discuss the spreading of American ideas through education instead of with bombs. Also they talk about why a one-world government is not a realistic possibility.

Source: Scott Horton Interviews The Other Scott Horton

Play Program or Download(below the fold)

Wangari Maathai

Hear a Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Wangari Maathai who founded a grassroots organization(Green Belt Movement) that empowers African women to improve their lives and conserve the environment through planting trees. She speaks about the balance of human and natural resources, and her feelings about God. Interviewed by Krista Tippett.
Source: Planting the Future

Neo Johnson and Zjaeriq Sanders

Let 4th Graders Read A Credit Card Agreement

Is your credit card agreement readable? Does it really have to be so long and complicated? 4th graders read a credit card agreement and say what they think of it.
Source: The Friday Podcast: 4th Graders Read A Credit Card Agreement

Play Program or Download(below the fold)

by Dan Bacher

On June 29, the California Fish and Game Commission voted 4 to 1 at its meeting in Stockton to approve a "preferred alternative," an amended version of the "unified proposal" developed by fishing, environmental and tribal stakeholders to create a network of marine protected areas on the North Coast.

Commissioners Richard Rogers, Michael Sutton, Jack Baylis and Jim Kellogg voted for the alternative, while Commissioner Daniel Richards voted against it.

Natural Resources Agency Secretary John Laird, a strong supporter of Arnold Schwarzenegger's privately-funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, claimed that the Commission decision was "a major victory in the effort to establish Marine Protected Areas on the north coast of California." He applauded the Commission for voting for an exception for area tribes to "continue hundreds of years of subsistence fishing."