Read the Google Cache of the "Arizona Sentinel" blog cut-and-paste hack job that right-wingers are claiming "proves" that Barack Obama applied to Occidental College as a foreigner. As you'll see with a quick read and the most minimal effort to find the faked sources referred to within, it's a hoax. Also a hoax, therefore, is the claim by right-wingers that the "Arizona Sentinel" is a newspaper website taken down by The Man because conspiracy theorists were TOO CLOSE to the truth! See here for a debunking of the fake "article."
Had it up to here with the silence of the Speaker of the House during years and years of U.S. Government torture? Then shout it to the highest clouds: Nancy Pelosi, Resign!
You read that right. Over the weekend five people were arrested on charges related to the practice and coverup of U.S. government torture, and three of those people were jailed.
The LGBT Equality Caucus describes its work in the Congress as “the extension of equal rights, the repeal of discriminatory laws, the elimination of hate-motivated violence, and the improved health and well being for all regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.” 79 Representatives have indicated their symbolic support for these ideals by signing up as caucus members, but support beyond symbolism for laws that would actually make those changes is highly variable.
The following are, nominally speaking, members of the LGBT Equality Caucus. But in practice, they haven’t taken the effort to support any more than a quarter of the LGBT policy slate this year. These are the weakest members of the caucus:
Ellen Tauscher has some excuse for her meager legislative performance; knowing that she was to be appointed as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security (a post she’ll be taking up next week), perhaps she has focused more on her future job than the one she was actually elected to. But what are these other four members of Congress thinking? Why did they even bother to sign up as members of the LGBT Equality Caucus in the first place? Did they think that nobody would notice their actual performance?
If you find that your representative is on this list of underperforming members of the LGBT Equality Caucus, then review the caucus’ slate of legislation for yourself. Find the bills you think are especially important (this is essential; we’ve found we don’t agree with all of the bills ourselves). Then click on your representative’s name to get his or her contact information and make a call to advocate for a little more consistency in Washington, DC.
I can’t tell you how many people showed up for demonstrations in eight cities as part of Torture Accountability Day. I can’t tell you because despite multiple searches I cannot find a single journalist’s report on any of today’s multiple Torture Accountability protests.
Ohio State Representative Ted Celeste made an appearance before a crowd of hundreds of Ohioans in front of the Statehouse building at noon today. In his speech, he reiterated the importance of a robust public library system in the state.
A transcription of his remarks:
Libraries rock!
You know, these are really very difficult times the state’s facing. My colleagues and I are trying to find a way to balance the budget, and in this kind of effort you expect everyone to give a little bit. And so it’s important for everyone to share the pain, but not to have libraries to go down the drain.
I want to tell you, you all have made an enormous impact. I have received 28,000 emails in the last 24 hours! I hope you’re sending copies of some of those e-mails to the governor, and the president of the Senate, and the speaker of the House, and telling them how important this is — because your message will be heard. Know that we’re talking to our colleagues in the House. My other colleagues in the House have heard your message loud and strong. Know that we’ll be there, fighting for libraries. We appreciate everything that you’re doing. My biggest thanks go to our libraries.
If State Rep. Celeste’s remarks about conversations within the Statehouse are accurate, then it sounds like the momentum is swinging toward the restoration of state funds for Ohio’s public libraries.
A young patron of the public library in Delaware, Ohio came down to the Ohio Statehouse today to explain why she opposes proposed state budget cuts of 50% to the state’s libraries:
Hi, I’m Celie and I like my library. I just love to go down there and pick up a book. It’s just amazing what it does to you. It’s like an adventure.
Recently we got a brand new pet and we knew nothing about it. The library let us get information about it that we thought was really important. If it wasn’t for the library we probably wouldn’t even have this wonderful animal and, well, they would probably be gone because we wouldn’t have given it the right care if we hadn’t got the correct information.
So I believe we should keep the libraries. They are very, very important to have. Thank you.
This is why activism on the issue of American torture by Americans is essential even though George W. Bush is out of office. This week, rallies, marches and other protect actions against torture are taking place across the country. Here’s a list of the actions I’m aware of; post a comment if you know of others.
The mountaintop removal, with its frequent explosions and dumping of massive amounts of toxic materials, is taking place right next to a coal sludge reservoir. That coal sludge reservoir holds 2.8 billion gallons of toxic waste, and it’s sitting behind a dam above an elementary school. You may remember when a similar dam broke not far away, in Kingston, Tennessee, spreading a deep layer of coal sludge, with heavy metals throughout, across the countryside, several feet thick.
Across the Atlantic, there has been another energy protest today, in Nottingham, UK. This protest was also against police tactics used to squelch an earlier protest against dirty energy. Police had imprisoned 114 protesters without charging them with any crime, merely for showing up at a demonstration outside the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station. The police claimed that there was the danger that the protesters might have intended to disrupt the power station’s operations.
As the recession continues, local public libraries are seeing an increased need for their services. In some cases residents are coming in to polish up their resumes and use library computers to search for jobs. Others are using the library as a place to spend some time out of the house now that they are out of work.
“As the economy worsens, library usage tends to go up,” said Molly Larson, who serves as both president of the Maine Library Association and director of the Rockport Public Library. Larson said some residents are using libraries to learn computer skills that will allow them to get a job. Rockland Public Library Director Amy Levine said the library provided a display of books and resources for job seekers that was very popular.
Basically, the library has been a source of assistance in helping displaced workers assemble a résumé and land fresh employment, West Virginia Library Commission Director J.D. Waggoner told lawmakers Monday….
Waggoner told a joint meeting of the Standing Committees on Government Operations and Government Organization that jobless residents are getting help in finding work through the libraries.
One man dropped his children off at school every week and then checked into his local library to go online and look for work. Within two weeks, the man found employment, Waggoner said. “That story is repeating itself over and over again across the state,” he said.
Move further west to the state of Ohio and you’ll find that libraries here are also providing needed services to people who are out of work. At my local Northside branch of the Columbus Public Library, there are dedicated sessions held twice a week for job seekers; librarians not only provide computer resources necessary for Ohioans out of work to write up a resume, but also provide guidance on resume strategy and education on the use of job banks databases. Other regular events in libraries across the city of Columbus — like GED classes and technology workshops — are aimed to help build citizens’ human capital so they can do more and earn more with their time. These services help Ohio pull its way out of its current deep recession.
As I pointed out last week, libraries provide essential social infrastructure to the young as well. At this time of year, summer reading clubs are in full swing, encouraging the latest generation to tap into the enjoyment of learning. In poor areas, libraries are distribution points for food to hungry kids who would have poorer educational outcomes (translation for WSJ readers: lower productivity) were it not for this supplemental nutrition.
Finally, as disposable income declines, libraries across the nation are experiencing large surges in book circulation; people are rediscovering the frugality of literacy at a starkly reduced price. I describe the economic good sense of libraries as a “starkly reduced price,” not free, because someone has to pay for the buildings, the electricity, the staff and, oh yes, the books. Our nation’s public libraries provide reading, educational, food for poor kids and job training more cheaply than if we each did all that work ourselves, and those services continue to redound positively, but it costs some money to keep them going.
Here in Ohio, public libraries have already taken cuts to their funding in stride. State funding for public libraries in Ohio is allotted as a proportion of tax revenues, so that as tax revenues have declined the funding for libraries has declined, too. In 2008, when the economy here was bad but not so bad as it is now, libraries across the state were allotted $458 million. This year, with tax revenues tanking, libraries in Ohio have already taken a $98 million cut, down to $360 million. Keep that in mind — this year, Ohio public libraries have already suffered a 21.4% cut in state funding without a complaint.
But last Friday (the day for news releases they don’t want you to hear), Governor Ted Strickland proposed cutting the state budget for public libraries by another $100 million. Strickland’s proposal would cut the libraries’ budgets disproportionately, singling them out for extra resource cuts beyond their share.
If this were an entertainment venue like a golf course or another new arena for a pampered professional team, I’d understand making another slash to the budget there. But these are libraries we’re talking about; they’re a vital piece of our social and economic infrastructure, providing services that help us get out of our slump. Ted Strickland proposing cuts to libraries as jobs leave Ohio is like the captain of a ship noticing the rudder’s broken and yelling for his first mate to cut some wood out of the hull to build a new one.
The window for comments to Governor Ted Strickland (call 614-466-3555) or to your legislator (find your member by zip code here) closes quickly — the public has less than a week left! As of July 1, 2009 the process, along with the fiscal year, will have already moved on. If you are an individual living in Ohio and you support your library, make yourself heard.
Fortunately, it’s not just an individual effort here. As George W. Bush learned during his presidency, you really don’t want to piss off the librarians. Across the state, advocates for libraries are passing out leaflets to patrons as they enter and leave their local branches. The brand spankin’ new activist website Save Ohio Libraries website indicates that pro-library rallies are happening tomorrow, Wednesday June 24 2009, at these sites:
Centerville: Centerville Public Library at 4:00 pm
Cleveland: Cleveland Public Library Main Branch at 10:30 am
Cincinnati: Loveland Branch Library at 11:00 am
London: London Public Library at 6:30 pm
Portsmouth: Portsmouth Public Library 1:00 pm
Those are just the Wednesday rallies. On Thursday, June 25 at 11:30 am, there will be a statewide Save Our Libraries rally at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. The Statehouse stands on the corner of Broad and High Streets downtown. Gather at the McKinley Statue (near High Street), and wear a red t-shirt if you have one. Bring a sign, but don’t attach any sticks — the police will confiscate these as a security threat. Stick up a flyer if you have the time.
See the Ohio Library Council for continuing information about this fight for Ohio libraries’ future.
Once, on our New York State Progressive Directory, we had a link to an organization called the Buffalo Coalition for Progressive Media, at RadioFreeBuffalo.org. That link is not there any more.
Why? Radio Free Buffalo sold out. (Is it possible for free radio to sell out?)
The Buffalo Coalition for Progressive Media seems to have dissolved. Its web site now is filled up with non-progressive messages like how to win 250 dollars at the NBA shore, and my favorite given the current political climate, photographs of Iranian girls.
One of the most important things to remember when it comes to progressive media: Stick around. Corporate media goes to work every day. Progressive media needs to do the same.
Today I intended to scoot down the block to Columbus Pride 2009 in order to interview the folks down at the Skreened booth. Skreened, a national print-on-demand outlet for ethically-made t-shirts, centers its production here in Columbus, Ohio and not only features t-shirts for local LGBT organizer Stonewall Columbus but also is participating in the Columbus Pride 2009 festival with a booth full of gay and lesbian-themed shirts. I thought it would be fun to chat with the folks there, take a few pictures, and feature links to the most clever shirts along with some discussion of Skreened’s relationship to social change.
That was the plan, but in over an hour of walking about under the hot sun looking for that Skreened booth, I didn’t find it. That doesn’t mean Skreened wasn’t there; it is, rather, a testament to the scale of the Columbus Pride event in 2009.
A fair chunk of space of the Columbus Pride 2009 festival was taken for celebration with music, food or merchandise. Everything from mesh shirts to rainbow leashes and doggie shirts proclaiming “I Have 2 Mommies” could be found in the shade of one tent or another. But I was startled by the size of the activist presence at this event. There were organizations that advocated for queer issues particularly, and the predominant issue occupying available literature, petitions and calling lists was that of same-sex marriage. But there were groups with a broader mandate that made a presence at the pride festival, too. The ACLU was there. The Libertarian Party had a presence, too.
And then there was the booth of Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. When I saw her booth, I thought that her office would have been there in some voter registration effort, or as a way of spreading the word about nondiscrimination laws in Ohio. But as I checked her booth out, I noticed that the prevalence of campaign materials; Jennifer Brunner is running for the United States Senate. Brunner’s twitter account (”yes,” she writes, “it is really me”) and campaign blog confirm that this was a campaign event for Jennifer Brunner for Senate.
Consider who we Ohioans had for a Secretary of State just a few years ago — the Bible-thumping Ken Blackwell — and this is an astonishing shift. Just two years ago, it seemed that same-sex marriage was a no-touch issue for Democrats and a winner for Republicans. Now we have a candidate for the United States Senate in the supposedly culturally conservative state of Ohio campaigning with an explicit platform plank of marriage equality:
I support Marriage Equality as a matter of civil rights. Civil rights, including marriage, for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered individuals are human rights. LGBT people must be ensured their basic equal rights, so that they can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community.
But Jennifer Brunner hasn’t stopped there. She very clearly isn’t just giving a ritual nod to same-sex marriage (and how interesting that support for same-sex marriage could even be considered a “ritual nod” now). She’s written a paragraphs-long essay that goes beyond a tepid position to declare boldly, “What’s there to ‘Get’ about Marriage Equality?”. Brunner writes:
I have trouble getting past the fact that it has to be so complicated for people in same-sex couples. Questions such as “Can we file our taxes as married?” and “Should we register as domestic partners in multiple jurisdictions?” and “How do survivor benefits for domestic partnership benefits work?” to “Marriage for Same-sex Couples: Considerations for Employers,” leave my head spinning. And this is all about who you decide to love and commit yourself to. Why is it different for some people when civil rights and the protection of individual freedoms are the bedrock of the most special democracy in the history of the world?
…The founding document of the American Revolution leading to the birth of the United States contains the basic tenet that each person is entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
For LGBT couples, the right to marry is elemental. It is time to make that right available to all American couples, whether they are heterosexual or same-sex. This is a family values issue.
For those LGBT couples who have children, the problems become even greater without the right of marriage. As the number of LGBT-headed families continues to increase, so does the necessity for marriage equality for them and their children.
Marriage equality is critical for stable families and the welfare of children in changing social environments. When the commitment and rights of marriage are not available to a couple facing difficult times, an unexpected breakup or death can shatter an LGBT family, leaving not just the partners, but also the children, vulnerable and at risk of even greater emotional, social and financial loss.
Custody issues for LGBT couples with children but without marriage are fraught with uncertainty. Jurisdictional differences, the respective starting points of the parties (was one member of the couple coming out of a heterosexual relationship?), attitudes of some judges toward LGBT individuals and whether the parent is biological or adoptive often affect the outcome.
…I continue to simmer when I think of the recent legislative and constitutional amendments specifically denying equal rights to LGBT citizens that were initiated by political operatives to stoke the fires of hatred and division among ordinary citizens who would otherwise be living without this heightened and unnecessary rancor and dissension. I continue to simmer as I recognize that these actions were initiated primarily for the purpose of retaining power by a small group of people who have hurt many innocents, LGBT and straight alike, for their selfish and greedy purposes. We have not benefited from this, and it is time for marriage equality to be available to all, straight or LGBT. We are a community, and in these times, we must support and depend on each other as people do in a real community.
In a state said to be an electoral barometer, this not only forthright but clearly impassioned advocacy for same-sex marriage is both notable and commendable. If Brunner succeeds at winning a seat in the U.S. Senate from Ohio with such a clear statement on the subject of same-sex marriage, she’ll have a mandate to push for change as one of 100; her victory will be a clear signal for similarly-minded, perhaps meeker candidates that it really is all right to advocate for equality in America.to
The Maine Green Independent Party, which recently saw two of its members elected to the Portland City Charter Commission, is moving upward in scale with Green Party member Lynne Williams running for Governor of Maine in the elections of 2010.
Lynne Williams shares her life story here, one with many moves in many places and through many institutions and counter-institutions. With electoral work for Tom Hayden and Gary Hart, a PhD in psychology and a legal degree, residence from New York to California to Maine. Considering that Williams is someone who has come to Maine from “away,” it is interesting to me that she ends her biography with a proclamation against “interlopers who seek to colonize Maine.” A more complete introduction to Williams’ campaign principles is here.
A reader may be surprised to learn that Williams does not back the current expansion of wind farms into Maine by corporations such as First Wind. Indeed, her current line of work as a lawyer has been to advise the rural communities of and surrounding the town of Lincoln in social movement organizing against the erection of wind farms. Her arguments regarding “the impact of noise, vibrations and light flicker on people and wildlife” has some critics belittling Williams for NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) activism that promotes green industry… just not the sort that smirches residents’ own pretty view and property values. But Williams clearly promotes other forms of wind farm development, highlighting this year’s successful arrangement for cooperative windfarm development on Vinalhaven, community owned, community researched, community developed, providing local power and local income.
If a Maine progressive is looking for other indications of Lynne Williams’ bona fide status, a look to the Bangor Daily News supplies detail of Williams’ recent work as a legal backbone for Maine activists in trouble:
As an attorney, she represents Forest Ecology Network and RESTORE: The North Woods in their roles as intervenors in the permitting process for the Plum Creek development proposal on Moosehead Lake. She represents the Wildlife Alliance of Maine and Animal Welfare Institute in their efforts to protect endangered lynx by increasing restrictions on trapping in the state.
She also represents groups that oppose the development of liquefied natural gas terminals in Washington County and southern Maine towns that are concerned about Poland Spring’s use of groundwater in its water-bottling operations.
Former clients include anti-war protesters charged with criminal trespass after refusing to leave the Bangor offices of U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, and Friends of Magurrewock, which sought to halt construction of a new border crossing in the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge in Calais. She also represented Deane Brown, an inmate at Maine State Prison in Warren who unsuccessfully sued prison officials for barring him from speaking to the media.
Williams has advocated for repeal of Maine’s school administration consolidation law, favors impeachment proceedings against President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, and briefly represented two men who were accused of trespassing on Martha Stewart’s property on Mount Desert Island. She has helped gay and lesbian couples in Maine register as domestic partners and has been honored by the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine for representing nonviolent protesters of the Iraq war.
Lynne Williams will not be running against incumbent Democrat John Baldacci, who must step down due to term limits. This will be an open election for an open seat. Ongoing evidence of the Green Party’s viability in Maine will make this a good race to watch.
This week, Rep. André Carson of Indiana added his name to the growing list of members of the House of Representatives who formally support H.R. 104, John Conyers’ bill to establish an independent investigative commission, complete with subpoena power, to look into the torture, extraordinary rendition and surveillance without warrants that took place during the presidential administration of George W. Bush — and some of which continues to take place under President Barack Obama.
CafePress recently instituted a change in their pricing policy, and as a result its shopkeepers–the people who do all the work as far as coming up with designs, putting the designs on products, etc.–are going broke….
This is an unconscionable act on the part of CafePress and they should truly be ashamed of themselves. They’re screwing the very people who made CafePress the success that it is today.
Please boycott the CafePress marketplace.
A search for SmartAssProducts on the CafePress marketplace today shows “244 Smartassproducts designs available on 1,650 products.” And yep, I checked: they’re the same designs SmartAssProducts advertises on its smartassproducts.com websiite.
The imperative “Boycott the CafePress Marketplace” is missing the implied “You” which does not include the writer’s “Me.”
By the way, we at Irregular Times have withdrawn from the CafePress Marketplace, not just because the Marketplace is bad for graphic designers but also because it’s bad for customers. We encourage you to do the same. “You” means designers, too.
In New York State, the drive to pass marriage equality legislation is bearing good fruit. It isn’t just moving toward legislative success, with passage in the state Assembly, and a vote to come this month in the state Senate. The movement is also breaking open public discussions of the status of non-heterosexuals in New York. People are talking about ideas in a new way, and hearing voices they hadn’t paid attention to before.
The reason for this change? He’s met with constituents who are being discriminated against by New York’s current, outdated marriage restrictions. Valesky is seeing these people in person, as they are, not the freaks he might otherwise imagine them to be. One can see by his statements that Senator Valesky is also learning to understand the debate not as about granting rights to same-sex couples, but as a matter of equality, in which the rights people already have need to be respected in the law.
Activism in favor of same sex marriage seems to be working. Keep it up, New York.
It is a time of fear in the face of freedom, a time for the widening of previous roads and the opening of new paths, a time of an emptying country and swelling cities, yet a time when these paths are mined by knowing algorithms of the all-seeing eye. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection. These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread. Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.
Libraries rock!
But last Friday (the day for news releases they don’t want you to hear), 
And then there was the booth of Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. When I saw her booth, I thought that her office would have been there in some voter registration effort, or as a way of spreading the word about nondiscrimination laws in Ohio. But as I checked her booth out, I noticed that the prevalence of campaign materials; 
A reader may be surprised to learn that Williams does not back the current expansion of wind farms into Maine by corporations such as 
This week, 
Those people include politicians. Last week, I referred to a group of 
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