tagged w/ Civil Rights
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In January 2008 some members of an Internet-based collective known as Anonymous began actions against the Church of Scientology that are continuing. They designated their collective action “Project Chanology.” The originations of Project Chanology, its structure, its decision-making process, and its methods of protesting are collectively unique. Project Chanology shows the new types of social networking and activism that can spring from the instant communication the Internet provides. Understanding Project Chanology will provide a template for understanding such future movements and their actions........ http://www.makeahistory.com/index.php/recent-news/42986-the-war-hackers-vs-scientology-project-chanologyIn January 2008 some members of an Internet-based collective known as Anonymous began... more
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worrg
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11 months ago
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Many activists in the LGBT movement frequently hope and pray for a “Rosa Parks Moment.” By that, they mean a pivotal occurrence where an LGBT person stands up for themselves in a way that ignites a flame that won’t go out until we have our full equality.
While this wasn’t exactly the Rosa Parks Moment some hope for, the irony is not to be missed.
According to the Village Voice, this weekend, openly gay performer Ari Gold claims to have been sitting in the front seat of a Short Line bus holding another man’s hand.
The bus driver reportedly told Gold that if they wanted to continue sitting together, they’d need to move to the back of the bus. Channeling Rosa Parks, Gold refused. The driver pulled the bus over and phoned for a state trooper.
Upon the trooper’s arrival, the driver said that the couple was making him uncomfortable and he wanted them off the bus. Naturally, the trooper told the driver that nothing they were doing was illegal and he needed to continue the trip.
Gold announced to the bus what had occurred and the bus seemed displeased with the driver’s blatant homophobia. Gold will be filing charges.
see for more http://tinyurl.com/64hyr3fMany activists in the LGBT movement frequently hope and pray for a “Rosa Parks... more
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LOrion
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11 months ago
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Still waiting on the details...
But from what I can see the police are searching a woman's car while she is in handcuffs. When one officer walks to his car, he salutes the man who is behind the camera. The man then decides to use his First Amendment right to free speech, and call the officer a Nazi. The officer and his partner then walk onto the man's property as the property owner requests the officers to not trespass. The officer then begins to ask the man for identification. The man eventually complies with the officers orders and produces his ID card. Over the next 4-5 minutes the officers attempt to intimidate the man by threatening arrest for varies reasons including not cutting his lawn. The video finally ends with a third officer arresting the man in his own garage, while one of the other police officers tries to figure out how to turn off the camera.
This is what a police state looks like.
See the video here:
http://www.pigtube.org/2011/07/how-am-i-acting-like-nazi-doing-my-job.htmlStill waiting on the details...
But from what I can see the police are searching a... more
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Here are the RULES: (Read the article/interview for the reasons)
,,, that I have learned over the years that I find instructive. Most of my early experiences taught me what not to do, rather than what to do:
* Rules are created by those in power to keep power, not to create change. BREAK ALLTHE RULES, UNTIL WE ARE EQUAL.
* In politics things can be as simple or as complicated as they want those in power want them to be — it just depends on whether they want to do them or not.
* You need to pick a fight to win a fight — the religious right learned this long ago and the conservative right really adheres to this rule, even when the facts, science, reality and everything else is not on their side.
* Time is no guarantee for progress, the fight and the struggle is what moves us forward. Martin Luther King Jr. talked about this and warned against the false hope of being patient and just waiting until attitudes soften or change. Equality will never come to the community if we just sit around and wait for it.
* Chaos and crisis are very strong political motivators (next to money and votes.)
* Tomorrow never comes.
* We need to act like a civil rights movement and stop acting like a political movement. We have to relentlessly demand our rights everyday at every turn, regardless of what political cycle or election cycle or legislative window we find ourselves in.
* Secrecy is necessary to hide failure, change has never come in secret.
http://tinyurl.com/3hztrh2Here are the RULES: (Read the article/interview for the reasons)
,,, that I have... more
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LOrion
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11 months ago
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As always, (It feels so good to be able to use the word "ALWAYS" once again concerning Keith) Keith Olbermann delivered an emotional Special Comment last night. As I listened with tears welling up, (along with a silent roar of laughter at Olbermann's astonishing wit and sarcasm) I thought to myself, it's so good to have you back on the air.
For years, in the past I had sat in front of my TV with tears flowing down my face during one of Keith’s dissertations about some human topic or event concerning the strength or despair of the "human condition" (Pure Theatre of the Absurd is what I like to call it). These comments of hope (or anger) helped diminish my cynicism just a little and made me believe there was perhaps hope for us tragic human creatures. But always these feelings of encouragement were short lived because some other psychopathic saga (usually of a political nature) would come down the pike, bringing with it a puff of (GOP) gloom.
Please watch Keith Olbermann's special comment of June 23, 2011 but have a tissue handy.
Then maybe you might like to read the very (unfortunately) accurate descriptive reality from the article below... The Rise of the Second-String Psychopaths BY David Schwartz.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/06/05-1
Will life ever have a silver lining as the song "Look for a Silver Lining" suggests? I hope so but I'm not too enthusiastic about it, but as long as Keith Olbermann stays on the air, I will have a resource to help get me through this journey called LIFE (in one --whole stable mental-- piece). thinkingblue http://www.thethinkingblue.com/psychopathsilverlining.htmlAs always, (It feels so good to be able to use the word "ALWAYS" once again... more
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By just being who they are, sharing their stories and others stories, they could show their colleagues that their marriages and families were not threatened by working together for LOVE. http://tinyurl.com/5uqrgstBy just being who they are, sharing their stories and others stories, they could show... more
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LOrion
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11 months ago
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The New York State Senate will bring the Marriage Equality Bill to a vote tonight (Friday). During the day, an agreement was reached for the addition of an amendment that would strengthen and clarify language that would protect religious institutions and specify that the proposed law would allow the state to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. From the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/25/nyregion/new-york-state-senate-to-vote-on-same-sex-marriage.html?hpThe New York State Senate will bring the Marriage Equality Bill to a vote tonight... more
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Is history repeating itself? Today in America, you can be beaten, electrocuted, sprayed with chemicals and kidnapped for exercising your first amendment right to free speech and expression. You don't have to go far to find the evidence that the Police are the new Nazis. All you have to do is a quick search on YouTube for 'Police Brutality' to find thousands of videos of police abusing their authority, and in most cases getting away with it.
The most recent video evidence of the American police state comes to us from RT contributor Adam Kokesh of Adam vs. The Man.
adamvstheman. com reports:
On May 28, 2011 Television host Adam Kokesh and several other activists participating in a flash-mob were arrested at the publicly-funded Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Their crime? Silently dancing, in celebration of the first amendment's champion; a clear violation of their right to free-expression. In an excessive use of force, video was captured of Adam being body slammed and placed in a choke for his non-crime.
Keep reading and see Obama propaganda videos here:
http://www.politicalfailblog.com/2011/05/obama-is-fraud-police-are-reincarnated.htmlIs history repeating itself? Today in America, you can be beaten, electrocuted,... more
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In a bit of a twist, a Christian school has banned the National Anthem.What? None of the usual insistence that not wearing a flag pin makes you a traitor and not placing your hand over your heart is tantamount of crapping on Old Glory?In a bit of a twist, a Christian school has banned the National Anthem.What? None of... more
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Civil liberties advocates are raising alarm over news the FBI is giving agents more leeway to conduct domestic surveillance. According to the New York Times, new guidelines will allow FBI agents to investigate people and organizations "proactively" without firm evidence for suspecting criminal activity.
We speak to former FBI agent Mike German, who now works at the American Civil Liberties Union, and Texas activist Scott Crow, who has been the focus of intense FBI surveillance from 2001 until at least 2008.
Read more and watch the video here:
http://www.politicalfailblog.com/2011/06/fbi-to-expand-domestic-surveillance.htmlCivil liberties advocates are raising alarm over news the FBI is giving agents more... more
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Many five year olds can't read, write, or even tie their own shoes. So why is the state of Kansas contemplating charging one with murder?
According to ABC News, a five year old girl is the prime suspect of the alleged bathtub drowning of an 18 month old, after conducting interviews that implied that the girl may have become irritated with the toddler, who wouldn't stop crying.
"Kansas City police are waiting for a medical examiner's report on how Jermane Johnson Jr., died, but have investigated the death as a homicide, spokesman Darin Snapp said Thursday.
"I've been in law enforcement for 20 years and it's the youngest suspect I can remember," Snapp said. "It's extremely rare."
The alleged suspect, victim, and other children were all being watched by a sixteen year old who reportedly fell asleep, leaving the kids unattended.
It's nearly impossible to actually charge a child with murder, especially one so young. One recent case from a few years ago in Arizona involved an 8 year old who shot his father and father's roommate, allegedly because of abuse. Although the child was originally charged with murder, the resulting plea was negligent homicide.
In the Arizona case, many argued that an 8 year old simply cannot be held responsible for an act of murder as he or she has not yet fully developed the part of the brain that understands right from wrong, or has full empathy for other people's emotions, nor sees them as total and real entities like they know themselves to be.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/murder-charge-considered-girl-drowned-crying-toddler/story?id=13811620Many five year olds can't read, write, or even tie their own shoes. So why is... more
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Oh, Pat Robertson, It's been a long time since there have been any natural disasters that he can blame on the country's acceptance of homosexuality, so it's time to turn to another boogeyman -- Muslims.
Robertson calls on his followers to renounce them as people renounced the Nazis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQOujxM585w&feature=player_embeddedOh, Pat Robertson, It's been a long time since there have been any natural... more
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Elmer 'Geronimo' Pratt, a former Black Panther leader, dies in Tanzania
June 2, 2011 | 7:36 pm
Elmer G. "Geronimo" Pratt, a former Los Angeles Black Panther Party leader who spent 27 years in prison for a murder he says he did not commit and whose case became a symbol of racial injustice during the turbulent 1960s, has died. He was 63.
Pratt died at his home in a small village in Tanzania, where he had been living with his wife and child, according to Stuart Hanlon, a San Francisco attorney who helped overturn Pratt's murder conviction. Hanlon said he was informed of the death by Pratt's sister.
Pratt's case became a cause celebre for elected officials, Amnesty International, clergy and celebrities who believed he was framed by the government because he was African American and a member of the Black Panthers.
"Geronimo was a powerful leader," Hanlon told The Times. "For that reason he was targeted."
Pratt was convicted in 1972 and sentenced to life in prison for the 1968 fatal shooting of Caroline Olsen and the serious wounding of her husband, Kenneth, in a robbery that netted $18. The case was overturned in 1997 by an Orange County Superior Court judge who ruled that prosecutors at Pratt's murder trial had concealed evidence that could have led to his acquittal.
Pratt maintained that the FBI knew he was innocent because the agency had him under surveillance in Oakland when the murder was committed in Santa Monica.
Photo: Elmer G. Pratt (left)
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Elmer 'Geronimo' Pratt, a former Black Panther leader, dies in Tanzania... more
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Extremism is a sacred word in the bipartisan lexicon, solemnly reserved for willful and persistent deviations from the holy mainstream. For that reason, it is not extremism to favor a policy that led to 2 million deaths in Vietnam. Our mainstream politicians supported that, you see. It is not extremism to have favored the indefensible war in Iraq, which led to at least hundreds of thousands of deaths and four million people displaced. How could it be? Why, the Washington Post and the New York Times favored it!
How about a sanctions policy that led to the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children? Even if this statistic were false, American officials, including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former US Ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson, said half a million dead Iraqi children were "worth it." No mainstream outlet I am aware of has referred to Albright and Richardson as extremists.
For that matter, no one has been called an extremist for thinking it’s all right for people to stick their hands down your pants at the airport. This is a matter of public policy, citizen.
Meanwhile, people typically accused of "extremism" in America are not responsible for even one death, and have usually been the people trying to prevent these deaths. The political and media establishments hope to drown out these dissident voices by labeling them "extremist," hoping most Americans will be too lazy to uncover how truly Orwellian that label is.
In that spirit, the left-wing Mother Jones magazine recently featured an article called "Ron Paul’s 15 Most Extreme Positions." Oooh, extreme! Beware, citizen! Block your ears! You shall hear only those positions that have been approved for you by Mother Jones and National Review! For who could possibly dissent from both Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney? Only an enemy of society.
I have tried to keep videos on my YouTube channel brief, but I couldn’t help myself this time. I went through all 15 "extreme" Ron Paul positions as fast as I could. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FFhSr1A1do&feature=player_embedded
http://www.tomwoods.com/Extremism is a sacred word in the bipartisan lexicon, solemnly reserved for willful... more
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Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of passing on some 720,000 diplomatic and military documents to the whistle-blower site Wikileaks, "should never have been sent to Iraq." An investigative film by the Guardian says that Manning was so "mentally fragile" prior to his deployment to Iraq that he urinated on himself, routinely shouted at officers, displayed violent behavior and had regular psychiatric evaluations
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/may/27/bradley-manning-wikileaks-iraq-videoBradley Manning, the US soldier accused of passing on some 720,000 diplomatic and... more
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Paul Dombrowski and Joe Serio met in a bar, each dragged there by friends on a night when neither felt like going out. The two men had begun to give up hope of ever finding a soul mate — but that night, 15 years ago, changed everything.
As the years went by, the couple similarly lost hope in ever having their relationship recognized by the state of Illinois. That, too, will change June 2, the first day same-sex Illinois couples can enter into civil unions that will provide them with the same state-level rights as married couples.
Dombrowski and Serio will join 29 other couples in Millennium Park for a civil union ceremony that will be attended by friends, family and dignitaries like Gov. Pat Quinn, who signed the bill into law this year.
"This is something we never even were able to put in our dreams for our future," Dombrowski said. "We just kind of went with the fact that marriage or anything like it wasn't going to be a possibility. But now it's happening."
As of June 1, Illinois will be the sixth state that allows civil unions or their equivalent, and two other states — Hawaii and Delaware — have passed civil union laws that have not yet been enacted. Couples can get civil union licenses from county clerk offices on June 1 but, as with marriage licenses, must wait one day before holding a ceremony.
Cook County Clerk David Orr said he expects a large crowd June 1. "I think there are lots of people that plan to get their license the first day. I think a lot of people will be down there even if they aren't getting their license, just to be part of the fanfare."
Orr said licenses will be available at all five of the clerk's suburban offices as well as the downtown site, which will feature food, gifts and drawings.
"It's going to be a festive occasion," he said. "Hopefully the festivities will help in case there are long lines. We only have about 20 windows down there, so we're going to do our best to staff up."
The licenses will cost $35, the same as a marriage license. Straight couples who don't want to be married but do want the legal protections a civil union provides are also expected to take advantage of the law.
Advocates of gay and lesbian rights say the civil union law is a historic moment worthy of celebration, but they stress that it in no way marks the end of their work.
"I'm thrilled that this has become a reality in Illinois," said Rick Garcia, an activist who spent years fighting for the civil union law. "It is not marriage and it is not the same as marriage, even though opponents like to say it is. Nonetheless, real couples, real families need rights, and they need them now, so this is a good step."
Opponents of civil unions here and across the country have long said that such arrangements create a "slippery slope" that could lead to the legalization of same-sex marriage. And gay rights advocates do little to dispute that claim.
Camilla Taylor, an attorney with Lambda Legal in Chicago, a group that helped draft Illinois' civil union bill, said full marriage rights are the end goal, and she expects that having civil unions will highlight some of the problems of creating a separate, marriagelike classification.
"It's not sufficient to segregate same-sex couples into an inferior status," Taylor said. "One of the big problems with doing that is it invites private bias. It sends a message that the government considers these families inferior in some way."
The next step for advocates in Illinois will be deciding whether to pursue full marriage rights through a legislative process or a judicial one.
"'How do you get to marriage from here?' is a question that varies from state to state," Taylor said. "Approximately half the jurisdictions that enjoy marriage equality have done so by legislation, and the other half have achieved marriage through court action."
Robert Gilligan, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois, said he believes opponents of same-sex marriage would prevail if the matter were put to a vote.
"If people have the chance to vote on this issue, I am confident that the people will choose that marriage is a union between one man and one woman," Gilligan said. "If it's left to the court, we're concerned. We've seen in other states that oftentimes when civil unions became same-sex marriage, it's done through the judicial process."
Gilligan said the civil union law has already raised questions over whether religious groups that handle adoptions could be sued if they turn away same-sex couples.
"Children are best in a home with a mother and a father, and that's the way we have operated since Catholic Charities began," he said. "The law is not in conformity with our practice, and that creates a problem."
But for couples like Melissa Bert and Melissa Salisbury, the law creates an opportunity they have never had before. Bert is pregnant and due in August. She and Salisbury hope to have a civil union ceremony in June, which will allow Salisbury's name to be on the child's birth certificate along with Bert's.
"It's our shotgun wedding," Bert joked. "But really, it means so much. In August, my partner can put her name on the birth certificate. It will show that we're the parents, that we're in this from day one together."
The couple have been together for six years and held a wedding ceremony in Wisconsin three years ago. That wedding carried emotional significance but wasn't recognized by either Wisconsin or Illinois, so the civil union here will be a way to get the rights they previously couldn't access.
"We look at it, at least from the emotional standpoint, that we made that commitment years ago," Bert said. "This is just validating it, at least in the eyes of the state."
The group The Civil Rights Agenda plans to host another cluster of civil union celebrations June 3 at the Chicago History Museum. Anthony Martinez, the group's executive director, said about 30 couples had signed up, reflecting the widespread enthusiasm he has seen in the city's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
"From what we see, there are some people who are now planning their ceremonies and are waiting until they can send out invitations and whatnot," Martinez said. "But a lot of people want to be there right away, as soon as they possibly can. We know couples who are very excited about and want to be part of this historic moment."
That's the case for Angelica Lopez and Claudia Mercado, who will be another couple at the Millennium Park civil union event, hosted by the city's Advisory Council on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues. They've been together nearly 14 years, have a 2-year-old and are expecting another child in November, so they have nothing to prove to each other regarding the strength of their commitment.
"We know what our relationship is and what it means to us," Mercado said. "But this is a great opportunity for those that live in the state to be able to acknowledge that we do have a legitimate relationship and to be able to get recognition for the 13 1/2 years we've been together as a committed couple."
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/news/local/ct-met-civil-union-ceremonies-20110523,0,7399954.storyPaul Dombrowski and Joe Serio met in a bar, each dragged there by friends on a night... more
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