Transparency

Take Action Now: Demand Congress Release Trade Texts

June 5, 2015 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Petitions and Online Actions fast track, TPP, Transparency

By Staff at Popular Resistance, Popular Resistance has joined with a coalition of groups to demand that Congress use its power to publish the text of the Trans-Pacific Partrnership. This month is the key moment to stop Fast Track for the TPP and other rigged trade agreements. Secrecy is at the heart of the strategy to turn these abusive agreements into law. We can highlight this by demanding the text is made public. Please take action now: Sign the petition. Share this link and urge everyone you know to sign the petition. One of the most controversial aspects of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement is that it’s secret from the public. If the proponents of the agreement have their way, the text will still be secret from the public when the House votes on Fast Track trade negotiating authority, essentially a vote to pre-approve the agreement.

White House Ends Transparency During Sunshine Week

March 26, 2015 Lee Camp, www.rt.com/shows/redacted-tonight/ Resistance Report Media, Obama, Transparency

Redacted Tonight host Lee Camp sheds light on Washington's shadows in honor of Sunshine Week- a week where activists push for more government transparency. Unfortunately, there were several back-steps this past week with regards to transparency. The White House put into law the ability of one government department to avoid FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests. White House Director of Communications Jen Psaki omitted the long list of US-backed violent coups throughout our recent history. And the NYPD began altering Wikipedia articles in several recent cases of police brutality. Redacted Tonight with Lee Camp airs Fridays at 8pm on RT America. You can watch full episodes subscribing to youtube.com/RedactedTonight

Assange Interview: ‘Obvious And Conspicuous’ Injustice

March 25, 2015 Chris Spannos and Julian Assange, www.telesurtv.net/english Educate! Julian Assange, Media, Transparency, Wikileaks

What the U.S. is claiming is that any information about the United States gives it jurisdiction and if we publish information that came from the U.S. government, therefore it has jurisdiction to prosecute publishers that exist outside the United States, because of their connection. Now, the way journalists and publishers work is that some journalists get something from a source and then communicate it to other journalists in the organization; the editors and subeditors, the publisher, the distributor, the tech guys, and so on. What the U.S. government is saying is that this flow of information, that occurred within WikiLeaks as a media organization, is a conspiracy. So they have worked out a way to embroil an entire media organization in the U.S. jurisdiction based on any information coming in through one journalist working for that media organization.

Court Decides To Keep Eric Garner Grand Jury Secret

March 21, 2015 NYCLU, www.nyclu.org Educate! Eric Garner, Law, NYPD, Transparency

In response to a Staten Island judge’s decision to keep secret records from the Grand Jury which failed to indict an NYPD officer in the death of Eric Garner, the New York Civil Liberties Union issued the following statement. The NYCLU in December petitioned the court to release to the public the Grand Jury’s transcript, as well as the evidence presented and instructions the jury was given. Judge William E. Garnett rejected requests from the NYCLU, the Legal Aid Society, the public advocate’s office, The New York Post and the NAACP .

Obama Admin Sets Record (Again) For Most FOIA Requests Denied

March 20, 2015 Ted Bridis, www.ap.org Educate! FOIA, Freedom of the Press, Obama, Secrecy, Transparency

The Obama administration set a record again for censoring government files or outright denying access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press. The government took longer to turn over files when it provided any, said more regularly that it couldn't find documents and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy. It also acknowledged in nearly 1 in 3 cases that its initial decisions to withhold or censor records were improper under the law — but only when it was challenged. Its backlog of unanswered requests at year's end grew remarkably by 55 percent to more than 200,000. It also cut by 375, or about 9 percent, the number of full-time employees across government paid to look for records. That was the fewest number of employees working on the issue in five years.

US Trade Rep Threatens Congress With Prosecution

March 18, 2015 Mike Masnick, www.techdirt.com Educate! Congress, Democracy, Law, Transparency

For years now, we've been trying to understand why the US Trade Rep (USTR) is so anti-transparency with its trade negotiations. It insists that everything it's negotiating be kept in near total secrecy until everything is settled, and the public can no longer give input to fix the problems in the agreement. It's a highly questionable stance. Whenever this criticism is put to the USTR directly, it responds by saying that it will listen to anyone who wants to come and talk to the USTR. But, as we've explained multiple times, "listening" is about information going into the USTR. "Transparency" is about information coming out of the USTR. They're not the same thing by any stretch of the imagination.

A Victory For Fracking Transparency

February 14, 2015 Wayne Lax, www.trib.com Organize! Environment, Fracking, Law, Transparency, Wyoming

This week, under pressure from public interest groups, the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and energy giant Halliburton agreed to reform the state’s policies for disclosing fracking chemicals to the public. As a result of an Earthjustice lawsuit (representing Powder River Basin Resource Council, Wyoming Outdoor Council, Earthworks and the Center for Effective Government), oil and gas companies face a heavier burden of proof. Under the new policies, if they want to keep fracking chemicals confidential as trade secrets under state law, they will be required to submit detailed information in support of such requests.

Release The TPP Text: Light Brigade And Sit-In

December 5, 2014 Staff, www.popularresistance.org Petitions and Online Actions Democracy, Sovereignty, TPP, Transparency

In Australia and New Zealand last month, tens of thousands of people turned out to protest the TPP. Most of the anti-TPP protests in Japan have been attended by thousands of people too. Can we do the same in Washington,DC? The more of us who show up, the stronger our message will be to the negotiators and the administration that the era of trade deals that undermine our democracy and sovereignty and that threaten human rights and the future of the planet is over. It's time to stop trying to sneak these corporate give-aways through Congress and move to an era of trade that works for everyone, that protects people and the planet rather than destroying them. Our focus while the trade negotiators are here is to release the text of the TPP to the public so we can understand what is being written in our name.

TPP Talks Come To DC: Time To Release The Text!

November 22, 2014 Staff, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Corporatism, TPP, Transparency

We've just learned that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiators are coming to Washington, DC in early December so that the President can finalize the text. As you may well know, the parts of the TPP that we've seen show that this agreement will severely undermine our ability to protect our communities and the planet. The TPP extends way beyond a traditional trade agreement and puts in place laws that would not pass through Congress in the light of day. The TPP deregulates corporations and gives them enhanced power to sue from the local to the national level if laws interfere with their expected profits. And the court that would be used operates outside of our legal system and can't be challenged. Imagine life if the TPP passes: we would not be able to ban fracking or stop corporations from other toxic practices; we would not be able to give preference to local producers of goods and services; and we would lose more jobs to countries with lower wages and worker protections which would hasten the race to the bottom.

Lessons From Iceland’s Failed Open Source Constitution

October 5, 2014 Helene Landemore, www.slate.com Organize! Constitution, Democracy, Transparency

Who should write the constitution of a democratic country and, indeed, any country? The answer seems obvious: its people. Yet the constitutions of existing states, including democratic ones, have usually been written by small, rather unrepresentative subsets of individuals. Solon is supposed to have single-handedly laid out the foundations of democratic Athens. The U.S. Constitution was penned by a few dozen white men. More recent examples of constitutional processes involve the usual elites: professional politicians and state bureaucrats. But even elected or otherwise democratically authorized constitutional drafters are at best metaphorically, “We, the People.” Not only are typical constitutional processes rather exclusionary and elitist, but they also tend to be characterized by an utter lack of transparency.

Copwatch Cameras Being Shared In Ferguson

August 29, 2014 GoFundMe, www.gofundme.com Create! Camera, Ferguson, Militarization, Police, Transparency

WeCopwatch has been on the ground in Ferguson for the last week Copwatching and connecting with residents in the Cantfield neighborhood. (the location where Mike Brown was murdered). The space is autonomous, and has been stepping up as a community to be able to host the large volumes of people who come to pay their respects, and to also have a safe space for those who are grieving. There is a general consensus that more cameras are needed and with daily police attacks, it makes sense to to get them into people's hands as soon as possible. We're in the process of getting a bulk camera order together so that residents in each building in Cantfield Neighborhood have cameras. Protesting will eventually slow down, but this is the type of mutual aide that is lasting and extremely effective.

Hard Questions Raised By Officers Wearing Cameras

August 25, 2014 Vivian Ho, www.sfgate.com Educate! Cameras, Police, Transparency

Police departments around the Bay Area and the country are equipping officers with wearable cameras in an effort to capture video evidence that could head off the kind of dispute that exploded after an officer killed an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Mo. Use of the cameras is now expected to swell, with Ferguson among the cities planning to buy them as part of a profound shift in law enforcement that comes two decades after the mass emergence of videos of violent police encounters. But while police leaders and critics are in rare agreement over the cameras - the watchdogs see accountability, the police see a way to protect officers from unfounded accusations - the technology's spread is raising questions. In some cases, including a friendly-fire shooting that left a BART sergeant dead in January, officers failed to turn on cameras at crucial moments. Attorneys for people shot by police have had to sue to see footage. And it remains a point of debate whether an officer who shoots someone should be able to review the video before making an official statement. Moreover, videos of police shootings do not necessarily calm debate over whether they are justified. Police in St. Louis released a cell phone video this week of two officers killing a suspect who advanced with a knife, an effort to show the shooting was warranted in the wake of the controversial killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson, which was not video-recorded.

Secretive White House Office For Lobbyists

August 4, 2014 Heather Rogers, www.propublica.org Educate! Lobbyists, Secrecy, Transparency, White House

In early 2011, after years of study, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration moved to reduce the permissible levels of silica dust wafted into the air by industrial processes like fracking, mining or cement manufacturing. The move came after years of public comment and hearings, and reflected emerging science about the dangers posed by even low levels of dust. OSHA predicted the rule would save 700 lives annually and prevent 1,600 new cases of silicosis, an incurable, life-threatening disease. The proposal stirred fierce opposition from an array of industries, which argued that the costs of reducing silica levels far outweighed the potential benefits. When OSHA pushed ahead, the lobbyists took their arguments to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a division of the Office of Management and Budget. Few people have ever heard of OIRA even though it is part of the White House and has broad authority to delay or suggest changes in any draft regulation. OIRA's deliberations on the silica rule began in February 2011, and lasted two and a half years. During that time, records show, its officials held nine meetings with lobbyists and lawyers for the affected industries, but sat down only once with unions and once with health advocates. Last August, the office sent a revised version of the rule back to OSHA; the worker protection agency has yet to act.

Snowden Proved Right: You Can’t Work Inside The System

July 6, 2014 Greg Miller, www.washingtonpost.com Educate! CIA, Secrecy, Transparency

“I submitted a FOIA and it basically destroyed my entire career,” Scudder said. “What was this whole exercise for?" His request set in motion a harrowing sequence. He was confronted by supervisors and accused of mishandling classified information while assembling his FOIA request. His house was raided by the FBI and his family’s computers seized. Stripped of his job and his security clearance, Scudder said he agreed to retire last year after being told that if he refused, he risked losing much of his pension. In an interview, Scudder, 51, cast his ordeal as a struggle against “mindless” bureaucracy, but acknowledged that it was hard to see any winners in a case that derailed his CIA career, produced no criminal charges from the FBI, and ended with no guarantee that many of the articles he sought will be in the public domain anytime soon.

1.8 Million People Call For TPP To Be Made Public

June 4, 2014 Fuseworks Media, www.voxy.co.nz Resist! Petition, Popular Protest, TPP, Transparency

A petition of more than 1.8 million people worldwide, calling for the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to be made public has been delivered to Australia’s Parliament this morning. Australian Parliamentarians and representatives from a range of Australian and international organisations, including 350.org, Avaaz and SumOfUs, have joined forces to call on the negotiating Governments to disclose the details of the TPP. The TPP is a highly secretive and expansive free trade agreement between the United States and twelve countries in the highly biodiverse Pacific Rim, including Australia, Mexico and New Zealand. To date, it has been negotiated in secret with no external input other than that of 600 corporate lobbyists. Leaked text reveals that the deal would empower corporations, including big oil, coal and gas companies, to directly sue governments in private and non-transparent trade tribunals over laws and policies that they allege reduce their profits.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 »

assetto corsa mods

Daily movement news and resources