Indie journalists arrested in Greenfield last year return for accountability: Felony wiretapping among charges levied

Pete Eyre and Ademo Freeman (aka Adam Mueller) were arrested outside the Franklin County Jail by Todd M. Dodge of the Greenfield Police Department as they attempted to record the bailing out of a friend last July. On Monday, July 18th they hope to finally be vindicated at their trial held at Greenfield District Court.

The pair - advocates of transparency active with CopBlock.org and LibertyOnTour.com - have since their arrests sought to hold accountable those who violated their rights. Today two charges - a felony and a misdemeanor - against Eyre stemming from an unjust search of his vehicle parked blocks from the incident location, were dismissed. This is very telling.

Felony wiretapping is the most-serious remaining charge, though they are confident it too won't stick as they were told by a supervisor at the jail that they could film, no posted ban against filming existed, and no policy was ever produced to support later claims that recording was prohibited.

Hacking the recalls: Why we must have hand-counted paper ballots and citizen exit polls

It goes without saying that the outcomes of the nine Senate recall elections scheduled in Wisconsin will be of intense interest to most of the UW-Madison community. Forecasting the outcome of elections weeks in advance is always a risky business; nevertheless, we offer the following bold prediction:

In at least some cases, the candidate receiving the lesser of the actual votes cast — perhaps, in fact, the candidate you passionately opposed — will be declared the official victor.

Chances are, you either think we are nuts or you are already upset with the dismal state of elections in Wisconsin, if not the country. Either way, we hope this article will change your view of both (a) the security of the elections and (b) the ability of ordinary citizens like you to improve that security.

Here’s a second prediction which gets to the heart of the real problem:

No one — not the Government Accountability Board, not the media, not any elected official, and most certainly not you – has the slightest hope of ever disproving our first prediction in light of current election procedures and practices.

Mass Call-In to CNN Monday, July 11, 2011

Join us in a coordinated mass call-in to CNN on behalf of Leonard Peltier. Shut CNN down until they realize they have a story.

On Monday, July 11th, at 10 a.m. (Eastern Time), start calling with your statement. It is important that the calls to CNN start promptly at 10 a.m. Insist that they cover the injustice posed by the continuing imprisonment of Leonard Peltier. Advise them of Leonard’s current situation (see Leonard Peltier in the Hole), and tell CNN personnel that they should contact the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee at 701-235-2206 for information and referrals.

Then call back and ask for specific news anchors to cover/respond. Remember to be firm, but polite. Tell them freedom for Peltier is the only solution to this 35+-year injustice.

They may tell you that they get their stories from their affiliates (local) channels. While this is true, it is also true that they cover both whatever they wish and stories that demand coverage. We MUST demand coverage.

Call CNN at 404-827-1500 at 10 a.m., Monday, July 11, 2011.

The "There's Plenty of Money Act of 2012"

112th CONGRESS
1st Session
To highly resolve that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the United States of America.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 12, 2011
A BILL

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the Start Doing Our Damn Jobs Act of 2012.

SEC. 2. STOP KILLING PEOPLE

(a) The combined appropriations of the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and all military appropriations made through the Department of State, the Department of Energy, and all other military appropriations shall never be more than twice the funding, in absolute dollars, spent on its military in the previous year by the highest military-spending nation on earth other than the United States of America.

(b) The Department of Defense will be audited annually by the United States Congress.

We just stopped Congress from giving the power of war to presidents

"What's the point?" "We never win!" "Why bother trying?"
This time we won.
This is the point. Congressman Buck McKeon and Senator John McCain proposed to give Obama and all future presidents dramatically expanded powers to launch wars. They wanted to do so as part of the same "Defense Authorization Act" in which the House was restricting Obama's warmaking in Libya.

Activist groups like RootsAction pushed back. A great deal of support was generated for an amendment to strip the offending language out in the House, but the amendment failed. RootsAction, and other organizations, demanded that the Senate remove it:

At the same time, the House rejected amendments that would have limited or ended U.S. warfare in Afghanistan, and rejected an amendment that would have stripped Section 1034 from the bill. That section is perhaps the most fundamental change to the structure of our federal government that has ever appeared likely to pass through Congress, as it would effectively give the power to make war to all future presidents. We must demand that the Senate remove Section 1034.

Students and Workers Unite! Protect Ohio voters

Senate Bill 159 could impact thousands of Ohio voters ability to make their voices heard in the upcoming election. There is still a possibility that the senate will try and pass the Voter ID Bill SB 159 on July 11th. To stop that from happening we're asking you to write to email the Senate President to let the senate know, we wont let them withhold our right to vote this November.

a href=http://tinyurl.com/VoteNoNiehaus>Let Senate President Niehaus know that you do not support HB 159, the Photo ID Bill

Please forward this message to anyone and everyone who will join us and take action today!

While some of you might know me, others probably don’t. My name is Will Klatt and I’ll be the Ohio Student Organizing Coordinator through the 2011 election as part of the We Are Ohio campaign. I’ve been involved in the student movement since 2005 and since graduation in 2009 have been working on a number of union and community organizing drives. I’m excited to be working with you to make sure youth in Ohio have a voice and making sure that SB 5 is repealed.

A July Fourth shame on the founders

Yes, that was I standing before the U.S. Embassy in Athens on the eve of the July Fourth weekend holding the American flag in the distress mode — upside down.

Indignities experienced by me and my co-guests on “The Audacity of Hope,” the American boat to Gaza, over the past ten days in Athens leave no doubt in my mind that Barack Obama’s administration has forfeited the right to claim any lineage to the brave Americans who declared independence from the king of England 235 years ago.

In the Declaration of Independence, they pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to a new enterprise of freedom, democracy and the human spirit. The outcome was far from assured; likely as not, the hangman’s noose awaited them. They knew that all too well.

But they had a genuine audacity to hope that the majority of their countrymen and women, persuaded by Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and the elegant words of Thomas Jefferson, would conclude that the goal of liberty and freedom was worth the risk, that it was worth whatever the cost.

The Ohio Republican Party is poised to steal the 2012 vote in Ohio

The Ohio Republican Party is poised to steal the 2012 vote in Ohio. Unlike 2004, this time it will be legal. The vote could come Tuesday, July 5, in the Ohio legislature.

The Bill is House Bill 194, which targets the core of Ohio's Democratic voters. Given the closely divided swing nature of the Ohio electorate, it is likely to disenfranchise more than enough young, elderly, low income, working class and people of color to guarantee a permanent Republican majority in the Buckeye State.

Under the direction of GOP Governor John Kasich---himself the beneficiary of a dubious vote count in 2010---the Ohio Republicans are clearly determined to make it as difficult as possible for traditional Democrats to register, vote or get their votes counted in future elections.

King George III won: Happy Fourth of July!

The Declaration of Independence is best remembered as a declaration of war, a war declared on the grounds that we wanted our own flag. The sheer stupidity and anachronism of the idea serves to discourage any thoughts about why Canada didn't need a bloody war, whether the U.S. war benefitted people outside the new aristocracy to whom power was transferred, what bothered Frederick Douglas so much about a day celebrating "independence," or what the Declaration of Independence actually said.

When you read the Declaration of Independence, it turns out to be an indictment of King George III for various abuses of power. And those abuses of power look fairly similar to abuses of power we happily permit U.S. presidents to engage in today, either as regards the people of this nation or the people of territories and nations that our military occupies today in a manner uncomfortably resembling Britain's rule over the 13 colonies.

Or perhaps I should say, a large portion of us take turns being happy or outraged depending on the political party with which the current president is identified.

The end of nuclear power: Can a weakened nuclear industry survive its deadly repeating history

The Nuclear Industry is a global affair, especially when something goes wrong, requiring transparency to ensure the safety of children and families around the world. History has shown that significant releases of radiation that effect the environment and population can be released long before any hope of containment or control can be expected. Nuclear disasters can not only threaten the health of first responders, but also cripple critical systems that allow complex situations to be analyzed and reported effectively.

While the amount of time it takes before officials act can be measured in days and weeks, the amount of time before radiation can spread and effect those outside of the nation’s borders can be a matter of minutes or hours. After the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, it was noted that radioactivity from the damaged station could reach the opposite end of the Pacific Ocean within a matter of days.

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