Barton Creek Mall Christmas Arrest

CodePink Austin, along with allies from Veteran's for Peace and Women in Black staged a Don't Buy War "freeze" at Barton Creek Mall on Saturday, December 3rd. 

The group was between the Santa photo station and the Gamestop store, which prominently advertises the 'Modern Warfare 3' video game. 

The goals were to raise awareness about the continuing wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, to educate shoppers about the costs (both human and economic) of the wars, and to dissuade parents from purchasing war toys. An APD officer assaulted/arrested a young woman (Nicole Mann) who had joined the group spontaneously. 

*Update*


First reports are that she sustained 4 broken ribs!  Also, from people associated with the arrest.  She has been charged with 1 felony and 2 charges that were lowered to a class "B" and class "C" misdemeanor.

Searches to find information within mainstream news have turned up no information.

**I've often wondered when it became policy for security/police to surround people being arrested so that they can be brutalized while unthinking corporate servants run about telling people to stop filming.  It is not illegal to film public officers in public spaces!!!

I Wanted This To Be Different

I have been very busy following and photographing Occupy Austin although I haven't been sharing much on my blog.  I planned to share some of the beauty I had witnessed  and commend Chief Acevedo and APD for being respectful of the rights of Americans.  Instead, this takes precedence:


A Marine from Wisconsin, Scott Olsen (24), was shot in the head by a projectile fired by Oakland police. When people ran to his aid, an officer threw a flash grenade at the limp body and the would-be rescuers.  As police watched, the critically injured veteran was eventually swept up and carried away by human beings.

It is unfortunate that many officers have yet to understand that most in the Occupations support police, the difficulties and stresses they face and their wage/benefits challenges.  

The following is Oakland Mayor Jean Quan's response:


Taken from her Facebook Page
October 25, 2011
7:30 am

Many Oaklanders support the goals of the national Occupy Wall Street movement. We maintained daily communication with the protestors in Oakland.

However, over the last week it was apparent that neither the demonstrators nor the City could maintain safe or sanitary conditions, or control the ongoing vandalism. Frank Ogawa Plaza will continue to be open as a free speech area from 6 am to 10 pm.

We want to thank the police, fire, public works and other employees who worked over the last week to peacefully close the encampment. We also thank the majority of the protestors who peacefully complied with city officials.

I commend Chief Jordan for a generally peaceful resolution to a situation that deteriorated and concerned our community. His leadership was critical in the successful execution of this operation. City Administrator Deanna Santana developed the plan and secured mutual aid from other departments and the State of California. She will direct departmental teams, including safety, public works, communications, to restore conditions at the Plaza so that it is available for public use.

The City welcomes all Oaklanders to continue to use the Plaza during daylight hours for peaceful protest.


~Mayor Jean Quan


Apparently, 1st Amendment rights expire at sunset.


At the time of this post, there were 9,854 comments on the above Facebook profile post.  I read about 200 and found only one comment supporting her.  The post has been shared 848 times and when I linked my blog to the post.  Apparently, her e-mail address (jeanquan4@gmail.com) has been disabled.

Carlos Miller reported that the mainstream news turned a blind eye as police attacked an unarmed crowd of people exercising their 1st Amendment rights.


What are you going to do about this?

Main Stream Media Is Missing A Wall Street Story

No major news outlet is covering "Occupy Wall Street"!  You might call your favorite news station and ask why.

Where is the News Coverage

I have searched and have not been able to find major news sources covering the tar sands sit-ins at the White House that lead to the arrests of 1,252 people.  It's an impressive list, including top climate scientists, Texas and Nebraska landowners, First Nations leaders, Dr. James Hansen, Bill McKibben, Gus Speth, Daryl Hannah, Josh Fox and Naomi Klein.

Dr. James Hansen is arrested protesting

 the TransCanada KeystoneXL pipeline 

in front of the White House, August 29, 2011 (Photo by Ben Powless)

Reports on the protest and sit-in from the main-stream media are completely absent.  One might expect the arrests of 1,252 in front of the White House, including so many notables might have garnered some attention.  I haven't found any.  Although, the Washington Post was the first mainstream article to pop up regarding the tar sands and the white house.  

Then there is the Forbes article.

Where is the coverage regarding this outcry and these arrests?

Religious leaders protest the pipeline as U.S. Park Police arrest United Church of Christ minister Rev. Mari Castellanos, August 29, 2011. (Photo by Justice and Witness Ministries)

Special thanks the Evironment News Service all of the photos came from this article.

Convert Plastic into Gasoline, Diesel and Kerosene

Yup...It's real.

I think I might let the news outlets know; they seem to have missed this.

I'd love to know what you think!

U.S. Presidential Candidate Arrested

One would think that a previous House Rep. & previous U.S. Presidential candidate accompanied by a Nobel Laureate being captured by military troops would be news. Not this time; the military involved is Israel's.

Cynthia McKinney and 20 other passengers, including the Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Mairead Maguire had their vessel boarded in international waters , were captured and are currently still being held.

I must question why such a thing was not mentioned in the news. What if John McCain and Al Gore had been captured? Or even Bob Barr? Why is there nothing being said? I found 3 articles when I did a Google "NEWS" search. THREE! Was there a single major news source? Ha. The Age (of Australia) and the Palestine Telegraph appear to be the closest thing to major news sources so far.

What has happened to Journalism?

Ya know, that's a good question. I'm calling the editor of my paper. What are you going to do?

The News and Ron Paul

This illustrates where we are with "news" in the United States.  I am not going to take a stance (other than my quotation marks), but would love to hear your point of view.  I have listed the "news" anchors responses to Ron Paul's words below the clip.

Mark Haines: "This is not going as planned"

ErinBurnett: "No it is not"

MarkHaines: "We were told that there would be a very limited number of opening statements, and it seems to be getting out of control."

ErinBurnett: "Here’s what we forgot, everybody is taking this live, you know what that means? Why would they miss an opportunity for free air time?"

MarkHaines: "We’re going to take a commercial break and get them out of the way, so that when something really substandard [hahaha-think he meant substantial] is happening, we don’t have to interrupt them."

Paper Ballots Are a Must!!!

Please ask for paper ballots when voting!!!

The first video is a full length film called "Hacking Democracy". It is a documentary I hope all my readers will watch. I sent it to all my friends and family back in May and hope that everyone has watched it and acted on what they discovered.



Here's an interesting video where an election official is showing how to recalibrate a machine and trying to make justifications for the vote switching that has been occurring. It is completely counter-intuitive that we would allow anyone to attempt to recalibrate a machine mid-election. We need to rid ourselves of this system in which there is no way to possibly go back to verify the results of an election.

You can find out more at Black Box Voting, The Brad Blog and Video the Vote.

McKinney/Clemente in 2008

Think that no presidential candidate cares about trillions of dollars missing each year?   Think no presidential candidate is asking real questions about 9/11?  Think again.  Think Cynthia McKinney.

This is the 1st all-women-of-color presidential ticket in US history! 

I am still amazed that hardly anyone knows about Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente. You would think that it might get a mention on the news. Somehow ABC, NBC, CBS and (fair and balanced) Fox News seemed to have missed it. 

Do you want to vote for someone who has not supported the dissolution of the Bill of Rights as Barack Obama and John McCain have? Cynthia is an option. She is running on the Green Party ticket. Rather than choosing between the lesser of two evils, how about not voting for evil at all?

Homer Simpson Tries to Vote for Obama

The future is here. Watch as Homer attempts to place his vote for Obama. If you are concerned about electronic vote tallying, get informed and involved here.

Even the cartoons leave out all of the rest of the candidates for President. Granted, the Simpsons is a show on Fox.

Voting for Female Presidential Candidate

I have finally made my decision who to vote for in the unfolding Orwellian play.  I have decided not to vote for either of the false dichotomies.   For all of the obvious reasons, I cannot support Senator McCain or his scary sidekick.  I can no longer give any credence to Barack Obama as a candidate as he supported FISA and the elimination of the 4th Amendment (It had McCain's support too).   I can support no candidate for president who so plainly illustrates a desire to dismantle the constitution, rather than to "uphold and defend it".

Some of you may have heard about Bob Barr running on the Libertarian ticket; another scary character.  He is a libertarian authoritarian, ex-CIA and a major player in the war on drugs.  He advocates complete federal prohibition of medical marijuana.  He even authored the "Barr" amendment which prohibits future laws that would "decrease the penalties for marijuana".

Who is there left, you ask?  A female candidate for President of the United States.  Yes, there is a woman who is actually on the ballot and she is black!  What's more?  She has a black female Vice Presidential running mate.  In the last 3 months, there are only 4 people I have spoken with who even know she is running.  Yes, I am voting for Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente.

I can understand that she may not be the mainstream's most viable candidate, but one would expect just a bit more hoopla in the news about a female presidential candidate, especially a black one.

I won't tell anyone to vote any particular way.  All I ask is: 

Don't vote for the lesser evil.  Don't vote for evil at all.  Vote your conscience.

Media Blackout!

Does it bother anyone else that some amateur blogger in Austin knows that the House sent 35 articles of impeachment to the Judiciary Committee (click here for original article), but Fox News, NBC, CBS and ABC haven't mentioned a peep? Anyone wonder why they haven't heard it on Clear Channel radio?

Put simply, "WTF"?

NY Cops Beat Tibetans in Front of U.N.

Did you see this on the news?

The United States has given China most favored nation trading status. China is hosting the Olympics. Our corporations lobby against the rights of workers in China. We accept China's financial bailouts year after year. It only stands to reason that Police Officers in the United States would show their support for China by beating the crap out of peaceful "Free Tibet" protesters in front of the United Nations.

The following footage was shot at a free Tibet peaceful march and assembly in New York on the 14th of March.

It shows the protestors holding flags and signs and peacefully walking down the street towards the UN building as police vehicles screech onto the sidewalks, cops pour out and begin to beat the protesters with clubs as UN security guards stand and watch.

At one point, you can hear Officer Serano threatening to "f***ing kill" two of the peaceful protesters.

You can hear the cameraman say,

"Look at these cops, clubbing people in front of the UN, unbelievable, protesting to free Tibet, cops clubbing people in their legs on the sidewalk, in front of the UN in America, unbelievable, this is not China."

According to Wikipedia:

In the 1990s continued most favoured nation status for the People's Republic of China sparked U.S. controversy because of its sales of sensitive military technology and its use of prison labour, and its most favoured nation status was only made permanent in 2000.

If you would like to call the NYC Internal Affairs Bureau to have your voice heard, you can reach them at 212-741-8401.

Anyone else going to call their local news station to ask why this hasn't appeared?

Got Milk?

Milk, it does a body good?

As many of you know, I don't think that milk is healthy choice for anyone. These kids use an unsophisticated, yet effective, way of testing the theory that you can't drink a gallon of milk in an hour without throwing up.

Ever wonder about drug residues are in your milk?

There is a great video on how Fox News suppressed an investigative story on rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone). You can watch it here.

Hillary Clinton - Election Finance Fraud?

The following video, provided by the Equal Justice Foundation of America, is the rough cut trailer for "Hillary! Uncensored." The documentary uses home video to expose alleged election finance fraud. The expected release date of the film is November 1, 2007.

I have no position on the expose', other than to criticize the press for ignoring the allegations. I will wait to see what filters out. Yes. It is a political hit-piece and it ends with a propagandistic attack against Hillary. I, again, am only publishing this for information's sake.



From the Hillcap site:

Paul vs. Hillary Rodham Clinton, William Jefferson Clinton, et al.

Thanks to KK for sending this one in!

President Bush on Irish Television

A YouTuber posted this Irish TV interview with President Bush. He claims it was banned in America. I don't know that it was banned, but I do know this is another reason to wear a red maple leaf when I travel.

Ron Paul with Jon Stewart on Daily Show

Ron Paul appears on the Daily Show on June 4, 2007. As bad as the media wants to forget this guy, I think I should do my part and remind you of him.

Dictatorial Power Grab?

Dictatorial Power Grab?

President George W. Bush recently assigned more powers to himself. National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD51) & Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD20) allow the President of the United States to take over in case of national emergency(defined in broad terms). The president can declare a national emergency exists and then the president could take control of all national essential functions for continuity of the government including all federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments as well as private sector organizations...All without consulting the Congress!

You can see the Whitehouse press release here.



I was excited to find that this made it to a mainstream outlet via Jerome Corsi who contributes at World Net Daily. So...Washington Journal isn't FOX News, but it's a start. I think it's great videos such as this are becoming more readily available.

I want real news; I don't care about dogs dialing 9/11 or what celebrity got high or laid yesterday!!

Blackout on U.N. Inspector Barred from Hutto Detention Facility

UN Human Rights Inspector Barred from Hutto Detention center in Taylor, TX!!!

&

CCA has been granted an exemption from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services!!!

(Hutto Detention Facility)

The UN human rights office in Geneva has stated that, Dr. Jorge Bustamante, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, was scheduled to tour the Hutto facility on Monday as part of an official fact-finding mission. But according to news reports, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has denied U.N. Inspectors access to the facility.

They knew the inspection was coming and made a conscious decision to bar them.

Wake Up America!!!

(picture courtesy of Mother Jones.com)

From the Eye On Williamson blog:

Last week, from documents (Linked here - part 1 and part 2 [.PDF]) sent to us from Dave Maass of the San Antonio Current, EOW has learned that Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) applied for and was granted an exemption from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS). It’s interesting that CCA would want to keep DFPS out of its facility.

An article from December of 2006 from the Texas Civil Rights Review:
Citizens denounce Hutto jail before county commissioners.


I will follow this article up with more details as time and leads allow.

Police Brutality Update

Update to the LA Police Brutality post:

(click image or on link below to view)

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/03/1357234

The link includes some footage from the protests. I saw much more the night of the attack. It is unfortunate that this is the only outlet I have been able to find that is providing footage, so far. Please send in any other footage you locate. Are those who are being trained to protect us train in reason, logic and negotiation or just small arms, tazer and hand-to-hand combat?

Text from the link:

The Los Angeles Police Department is coming under increasing criticism for violently crushing a largely peaceful immigrants rights march on Tuesday. Police with riot guns fired 240 rounds, shot tear gas and clubbed protesters and journalists gathered in MacArthur Park. At least ten people were injured including seven journalists.

Pedro Sevcec was broadcasting live for the Spanish-language television network Telemundo when police knocked over his monitors and lights and hit his staff with batons. Sevcec told the Los Angeles Times a police officer grabbed one of his cameras and threw it more than fifteen feet to the ground. He said police pointed a riot gun at his face, hit him with a baton and forced him out of the park.

Patricia Nazario of the public radio station KPCC was also injured. On Wednesday Nazario described to listeners what had happened to her.

• Patricia Nazario, reporter for KPCC.

Others assaulted include four employees of KVEA-TV Channel 52 and a reporter for the public radio station KPCC hit by a police baton. Christina Gonzalez, a reporter for the Fox affiliate KTTV-TV Channel 11, suffered a bruised shoulder after she was shoved to the ground. Her camera operator suffered a broken wrist. The incident was caught on tape.

• Report by Fox affiliate KTTV-TV Channel 11.

The LAPD says it gave orders to disperse but several journalists and protesters have disputed the account. The order was made only in English and not even near the main crowd. LA Police Chief William Bratton admitted the actions taken by the police were inappropriate. He said "I was disturbed at what I saw." The LAPD has launched a pair of investigations. Several news groups say they're considering legal action.