Report: Debtor Prisons on the Rise

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Democracy Now!
Oct. 5, 2010

New reports by the ACLU and the Brennan Center for Justice have found a sharp rise in debtor prisons across the country. Poor defendants are being jailed for failing to pay legal debts. In Ohio, a man named Howard Webb, who earns $7 an hour as a dishwasher, has served two stints in jail totaling over 300 days for being unable to pay nearly $3,000 in fines and costs from various criminal and traffic cases. In Michigan, a twenty-five-year-old single mother named Kawana Young has been jailed five times for being unable to afford to pay a few minor traffic tickets. Eric Balaban of the ACLU said, “Incarcerating people simply because they cannot afford to pay their legal debts is not only unconstitutional but also has a devastating impact upon men and women, whose only crime is that they are poor.”

UK-US Media Reports… Only When it’s Safe to Publish? by Sibel Edmonds

by Sibel Edmonds
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
originally published by Boiling Frogs Post
5 October, 2010

Image by codepinkhq via Flickr

Yesterday this made the headlines in UK:

Britain Held Secret War Talks With US Generals 11 Months Before Iraq Invasion

America’s most senior general flew into Britain for top secret talks on the invasion of Iraq 11 months before the attack on Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Details of the classified meeting, held at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, suggest Tony Blair’s Government was involved in detailed discussions about toppling the Iraqi dictator earlier than previously disclosed.American General Tommy Franks flew in to the base in April 2002 to attend a summit meeting called by the then Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon.

Dissent in the age of Obama by Cindy Sheehan

by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
crossposted from Al Jazeera
October 5, 2010

Image via Wikipedia

“The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.” – Albert Camus

Recently, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) raided the homes of at least eight anti-war/social justice activists here in the US.

I happen to be a prominent anti-war activist myself, and have joked that I am a “little hurt” that I was not raided and perhaps I should try harder. Even though, we have the urge to try and be light-hearted in this time of an increasing police state, with civil liberties on the retreat, it really isn’t funny considering that the activists could face some serious charges stemming from these raids.

The Mammography Controversy: Selling Out Women? by Cameron Salisbury

by Cameron Salisbury
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Opedinfo.com
crossposted at Arthritis-Alternatives
October 5, 2010

A Swedish study published recently maintains that mammograms for women in their 40s saves lives. It contradicts numerous studies done over the past 20 years, as well as recommendations from The American College of Physicians in 2007 and from the expert U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in 2009 which concluded that the benefits of mammography screening before age 50 do not outweigh the risks, something that has been widely acknowledged in public health circles since mammography became big business in the late 1980s.

More B.S. Charges Against Me by Cindy Sheehan

by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
October 5, 2010

photo from Cindy Sheehan’s
Facebook profile

In November 2009, I joined a caravan of peace activists that gathered at Travis AFB in Fairfield, Ca to head to Creech AFB in Nevada where many of the drone strikes in Afghanistan are coordinated and controlled from.

We were scheduled to stop at several AFBs along the way to protest this particularly inhumane practice, but I have to say that our Travis AFB stop started us off with a bang.

March to Nowhere by Chris Hedges

by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
October 5, 2010

We can hold One Nation marches every week. It will not make any difference until we revolt against the formal structures of power.

The liberal preoccupation with positive forms of propaganda ignores the root of our problem. The tea party and hate mongers on Fox such as Glenn Beck, however repugnant, are the manifestation of the crisis, not its cause. The forces assaulting the remnants of American democracy will not be cowed or discredited with rallies, such as the one in Washington on Saturday. We will blunt these rising anti-democratic forces only when we organize outside conventional systems of power. It means dismantling the permanent war economy and the corporate state. It means an end to foreclosures and bank repossessions. It means a functional health care system for all Americans. It means taking care of our poor and unemployed. And it means a system of government that is freed from corporate interests.

We Need an Alternative to the Democrats and the GOP By Timothy V. Gatto

By Timothy V. Gatto
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
liberalpro.blogspot.com
Oct. 5, 2010

When I attended the One Nation Rally on October 2, I was gratified that the public has become so aware of the corporate control that has gripped both political parties. The graft, the campaign financing using practices such as “bundling” donations, the offers of employment at lobbying firms should a politician retire or lose his or her seat and the many “perks” offered to members of Congress like hunting trips, vacations and country club memberships just to name a few. As I mentioned before, it was gratifying because I have been writing about this for the last five years and it has only become an issue that the bulk of people know about for the last two years.

Many of my articles were printed at the bottom of the page on the many sites that carry my work. I guess that when I started writing about corporate control of our republic, that issue wasn’t very sexy or thrilling. Still, it was to me and I’m glad I never quit writing about it.

Paul Jay grills Gerry McNeilly about the Police State tactics at the G20

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ww.therealnews.com

Gerry McNeilly: Complaints about G20 policing shows pattern that requires systemic review

Rowing with Roz by Ralph Nader

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by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
Oct. 5, 2010

Image via Wikipedia

Imagine interviewing a woman who has done something that no other woman in the recorded history of the world has accomplished. The remarkable Roz Savage has rowed solo across the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. She intends to row solo across the Indian Ocean early next year starting in Perth, Australia. In 2012 she will row across the stormy North Atlantic arriving in time for the Olympics in London.

Why is she doing this, you might ask? Aren’t there easier ways to travel? What’s she trying to prove?

The answers to these questions start with the story of her early life. From a poor family, she attended Oxford, rowed on the college team, graduated into a ten year management consultant job, married, bought a nice house, a spiffy sports car, etc.

The Stimulator: We are the insurgents

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stimulator | October 04, 2010

subMedia

This Week:

1. Favela Rising