Government

Oil Regulation Being Privatized In Alberta, Canada

December 23, 2013 Sheila Pratt, www.edmontonjournal.com Educate! Corporatism, Government, Oil and Gas, Tar Sands

More than 75 environment officers who watched over oil industry activities left the provincial environment department this fall, to take higher paying jobs with the new industry-funded Alberta Energy Regulator. Another 75-plus are expected to leave in the spring. In mid-November, the department also began handing over to the regulator thousands of files on oil industry activity pertaining to the Public Lands Act, according to documents obtained by the Journal. This shift in staffing and the moving of years of files out of a government department to the new arm’s length regulator are key steps in the government’s plan, announced last spring, to create a more streamlined approval process for oil companies that wanted “one window” to get permits for new projects. Previously, companies had to apply to the environment department for some permits and to the old regulator, the now defunct Energy Resources Conservation Board.

US Navy Sailors Sue TEPCO Over Fukushima

December 22, 2013 William Boardman, www.readersupportednews.com Educate! Fukushima, Government, Health Care

The core of this story is the lawsuit filed December 21, 2012, by attorney Paul C. Garner of Brooks & Associates of Encinatas, California, on behalf of nine plaintiffs (including a one-year-old), all of whom "were among the members of the U.S. Navy crew and attached to the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), whose home port was San Diego, California, when they were exposed to radiation off the coast at Fukushima prefecture, Japan, whereat the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is located, on and after March 11, 2011, during the mission known as 'Operation Tomodachi.'" The complainant seeks a jury trial, but the case is still in the pre-trial stage. The plaintiffs are seeking $40 million each in damages as well as a fund of more than a billion dollars to be used for their future medical expenses.

#Not1More: New Deportation Statistics Reported for 2013

December 21, 2013 Staff, www.notonemoredeportation.com Educate! Government, Immigrant Rights, Immigration

It’s clear that the President’s dual position of “deporter-in-chief”and champion-of-reform is untenable and mutually exclusive. It’s universally accepted--and confirmed by today’s report--that the president has discretion when it comes to immigration enforcement. The fact that he hasn’t fully exercised this discretion reflects the limitations of his political calculus not his legal authority. The White House has sought to blame and appease nativists at the same time: blame them for blocking reform while appeasing them by expanding the criminalization of immigrants and a culture of suspicion. The politics are changing though, as it is unpopular to be responsible for separating families. However, the policies just aren’t changing fast enough. To accelerate the process, the President needs to reverse the deportation apparatus he’s built in the past five years and expand relief so that people don’t have to worry about being one of the statistics reported today.

Seven Postal Protesters Arrested

December 21, 2013 Saul Hubbard, www.registerguard.com Resist! Government, Post Office

Holding signs aloft and using a megaphone, the protesters staged a sit-in on the processing center’s loading dock and refused to leave when asked to do so. Arrested by U.S. Postal Inspection Service police officers, the protesters were cited for blocking the loading dock, a federal misdemeanor charge, and quickly released. Among those arrested were Bart Bolger, a part-time rural letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service; Jamie Partridge, a retired letter carrier from Portland; and Peg Morton, a longtime Eugene peace activist. The sit-in followed a rally outside the adjacent Gateway post office attended by about 40 people — including processing center employees, activists and local elected officials — on what is typically the busiest day of the year for the Postal Service.

Simplify Your Path To Abundance

December 20, 2013 David Gross, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Government, Wars and Militarism

When Money Magazine profiled me a few years ago for an article on how people avoid taxes, they wrote that their readers probably wouldn’t enjoy the “ascetic lifestyle” that comes along with my technique. Well, if this is “asceticism,” asceticism is very underrated. The life I’m leading now is fuller and more enjoyable than ever. I have less anxiety and feel more integrity, and I’m genuinely living a bountiful life. By being willing to take in less income, I can work fewer hours. Those now-free hours are much more valuable to me than the money I’d been trading them for. It seems that many things people give up to pursue their careers are more valuable than the money they gain in the trade.

Nader: Invest In People, Not War

December 19, 2013 Ralph Nader, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Finance and the Economy, Government, Wars and Militarism

Earlier this month, a delegation of activists took to Capitol Hill to demand a decrease in the massive, out-of-control military budget. As millions of Americans struggle with inadequate health care, low wages, deteriorating public services and uncertainty about their futures as the wage gap between the wealthy elite and the working poor widens, billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars are pouring into the coffers of the Department of Defense every year. The Pentagon budget currently makes up half of the U.S. government's entire operating budget. Estimated to be around $716 billion in 2013, the U.S. defense budget is greater than the defense budgets of the next ten highest spending nations combined. The gathering was, appropriately, scheduled on International Human Rights Day.

Eyewitness To America Betraying Mandela’s South Africa, II

December 19, 2013 Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! Government, Human Rights, Mandela

At the dawn of the Nelson Mandela administration, I had the extraordinary privilege to sit at the table with the new African National Congress leadership as the Environmental Protection Agency /White House liaison to the Mandela government. My job was to work with the new ANC leadership to design and provide US technical environmental expertise to assist the majority population's recovery from the environmental and public health disaster the apartheid system imposed on it. This process took place through the flagship foreign policy vehicle, the US-South African BiNational Commission commonly called the Gore-Mbeki Commission or the BNC. All bilateral foreign policy activities between the US and South Africa took place through this Commission.

Budget Deal: Who Wins? Who Loses?

December 18, 2013 Jack Rasmus, www.greenshadowcabinet.us Educate! Finance and the Economy, Government, Wars and Militarism

The deal agreed to this past week by both wings of the single Party of Corporate America (POCA)—aka Democrats and Republicans—has been hailed as a pragmatic, albeit ‘narrow’ agreement that shows the two wings can once again agree on fiscal changes and deficit cut matters, thus ending an era of dysfunction that has characterized U.S. government since 2010. The narrow budget deal, amounting to only $85 billion over the next two fiscal years, 2014-2015, is also being defined as the end of efforts to reach a ‘grand bargain’ on taxes and deficit cutting, as well as the end of the Republican wing Teaparty faction’s ability to disrupt government to promote its own interests and Teaparty candidates in Republican primaries. However, none of these arguments ‘spinning’ the budget deal are accurate.

Saudi Activist Sentenced After Calling For Constitutional Monarchy

December 16, 2013 Staff, www.rt.com Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Government, Health Care

A Saudi Arabian political activist was sentenced to four years in prison, 300 lashes, and a travel ban after calling for a constitutional monarchy. He is the fourth member of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) to be jailed this year. ACPRA’s Omar al-Saed, 24, was jailed after the organization called for democracy and made statements criticizing the country’s ruling family over its human rights record, Reuters reported. Al-Saed berated the motivations behind his imprisonment via the ACPRA website in a statement released by the group on Friday: “I am the proud prisoner Omar Mohammed al-Saed. I read out to you the motives and causes of my imprisonment: my hatred of injustice, the fabrication of pain and misery, taking advantage of passive attitudes, treating them as if they were fools, and denying them their livelihoods for brutal personal ambition,” he said.

Eyewitness To America Betraying Mandela’s South Africa

December 15, 2013 Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! Government, Mandela, South Africa

When I was offered the position of Executive Secretary to the BNC in 1995, I made it clear to the EPA—citing racist US foreign policy in other African countries—that I would not be a part of any diabolical scheme against the South African people. I was a supporter of the South African Freedom Charter and excited about helping the Mandela government implement environmental policies that would reverse decades of harmful and at times fatal policies towards the black majority. Soon after assuming my position I realized that something had gone terribly wrong. In a 1996 letter to my mentor, professor Noam Chomsky I wrote: "The Freedom Charter is not on the table. I’m heart broken to report that despite the blood sacrifice of so many activists, South Africa is entering a neo-colonial phase."

Here’s Why It’s Long Past Time We Close Guantánamo

December 13, 2013 Michael Lehnert, www.freep.com Educate! Government, Guantanamo Bay

In 2002, I led the first Joint Task Force to Guantánamo and established the detention facility. Today, I believe it is time to close Guantánamo. In the coming week, Congress will lay the foundation for whether and to what extent Guantánamo can be closed. The annual defense bill appears to have compromise language that would give the president some additional flexibility to transfer detainees to their home or third countries, though it maintains an unwise and unnecessary ban on transferring detainees to the United States. Still, this is a step forward toward closing our nation’s most notorious prison — a prison that should never have been opened.

U.S. Plans New Bank Fraud Cases In Early 2014

December 12, 2013 David Ingram and Aruna Visnawatha, www.reuters.com Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Finance and the Economy, Government

The U.S. Justice Department plans to bring mortgage fraud cases against several financial institutions early in 2014, using as a template the case that ended last month in JPMorgan Chase & Co's $13 billion settlement, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday. In an interview with Reuters, Holder would not say which companies or how many could face lawsuits but said the Justice Department was in contact with them and it was hard to say whether the talks would lead to settlements. "We have a number of investigations that are coming to a head at the same time," he said. "It is my hope that the next round of these cases will be filed soon after the new year."

VIDEO: Protesters Demand Peoples Budget: “We Are Hungry”

December 12, 2013 Dennis Trainor, Jr., www.AcronymTV.wordpress.com Resist! Finance and the Economy, Food and Agriculture, Government, Human Rights, Poverty, Video

Only hours before Paul Ryan and Patty Murray announced that they reached a two year budget agreement (The BiPartisan Budget Act of 2013), representatives from a broad coalition demanding a budget that would cut military expenditures in order to increase funding for a wide range of domestic programs called on Congressional leaders to craft a budget for people, peace and the planet. Now, because this broad coalition included over a hundred peace, anti-hunger, anti-poverty, environmental and community groups it is almost universally ignored within the walls of Congress. That is one reason why part of that call came in the form of an unscheduled visit to the office of Paul Ryan and Patty Murray.

Leaked: Pussy Riot, Greenpeace Activists Will Be Freed Under Amnesty

December 9, 2013 Staff, www.rt.com Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Government

The members of the Pussy Riot punk band, Greenpeace activists and protesters jailed after the May 2012 Bolotnaya demonstration will be freed in an amnesty dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution, Izvestia newspaper claims. A total of 25,000 people will be freed under the amnesty initiated by President Putin, Interfax cited Vladimir Vasilyev, deputy speaker of parliament, as saying. “Around 1,300 people will be released from prison, and 17,500 people will be relieved of non-custodial sentences. In addition, criminal proceedings against nearly 6,000 can be terminated,” Vasilyev said. Several Russian media including Izvestia and Vedomosti newspapers have obtained a copy of the draft amnesty, which was submitted to the parliament by President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

Emergency Demo At Algerian Embassy To Protect Djamel Ameziane

December 9, 2013 Staff, www.ccrjustice.org Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Government, Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights

Join us between 2-3 P.M. on Tuesday, December 10, in front of the Algerian embassy in Washington, DC. We're demonstrating because the Center for Constitutional Rights' client Djamel Ameziane has been sent from Guantánamo to Algeria against his will and in violation of international law. Djamel is now being held in secret detention and is at risk. He is an innocent man who has suffered detention at Guantánamo for nearly twelve years, despite having been cleared by both President Bush and President Obama. Join us to call on the Algerian government to release Djamel Ameziane immediately, and to respect and protect his human rights.

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