Sunday, July 29, 2012

The Black Panthers and Young Lords and the Civil Rights Movement

                     The Black Panthers and Young Lords and the Civil Rights Movement

 Steven Sapp and Mildred Ruiz, founders of the 15-year old poetry theater
ensemble Universes, whose works invite old and new generations of theater crafters to create the new stories of today. Join them as they lead a conversation with Miguel Mickey Melendez, former Young Lord and an activist for Latino and Puerto Rican rights, and Billy X. Jennings, Panther historian and primary organizer of the Its About Time BPP/Alumni Committee Reunions.
The Black Panthers and Young Lords and the Civil Rights Movement from International Festival of Arts & on Vimeo.
The Young Lords in Chicago were always a gang and did not start out as a social club or youth group. They quickly sought out reputation walking into enemy territory and picking fights with all non-Latino gangs in Lincoln Park. Soon, they grew into several branches. This included a section in Old Town, another in Evanston and a few women auxiliaries called the Young Lordettes. When the Young Lords were transformed into a political, human rights group, male and female were both called Young Lords. By 1967, the working class section of Lincoln Park became primarily Latino and the Young Lords - in their late teens without a gang war and without organized meetings - ceased to exist, except loosely, as a gang. Some married or were on active Vietnam duty. Many were incarcerated for car thefts, purse snatching, burglaries, armed robberies, drug sales, stabbings, shootings, and other gang-related crimes. Others fell victim to hard drugs. Still others moved to different neighborhoods and joined up with other gangs. Many became heads of other gangs, but never opposed the Young Lords.


 During most of this period, Cha-Cha Jimenez and some remaining Young Lords spent their hours hanging out at the corner of Halsted and Dickens, at George's Hot Dog stand. Here Jimenez also hung out with loose members from the other gangs (some of whom he had spent time with in jails) and within a late 60s drug culture, they took to hard drugs, including: speed, acid, heroin, and cocaine. Cha-Cha Jimenez frequented jail, now more often due to drug related offenses. In the summer of 1968, he was picked up for a possession of heroin charge and given a 60-day sentence at Cook County Jail. An opposing black gang in jail told guards that Jimenez and five other Latinos were planning an escape. All were questioned, strip-searched and transferred to Maximum Security. It was here in "the hole" that Cha-Cha Jimenez read The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton, about a Franciscan monk. It was his first book since dropping out in the second month of his freshman year at Waller High School (now Lincoln Park High). The dropping out of school was facilitated by Cha-Cha Jimenez's deportation to Puerto Rico, due to several juvenile related offenses - plea-bargained by an attorney that was hired with coins saved by Cha-Cha's mother - so that Cha-Cha would not be incarcerated, until the age of twenty one.

 This religious book impacted Cha-Cha Jimenez, and he wrote a letter asking for a priest. Unconcerned with the everyday gossip of prisoners, he knelt down and went to confession between the cell bars of "the hole". Cha-Cha Jimenez then began to read about Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Black Nationalism and the organizing of the Black Panthers for self defense. Rioters were now being brought into the jail after King was assassinated, along with Mexican workers, rounded up in public relations raids by Immigration authorities. As they were being assigned dorms or cells, they passed through maximum security or the North Cell House, for further processing. To prevent the Mexican workers from being pushed around by some white and black guards, Cha-Cha Jimenez requested, and was given permission to translate for the Mexican workers, from his third level cell. These experiences made a secluded and captive Cha-Cha Jimenez realize, a need to fight for social justice. He was determined to duplicate a Black Panther Party for self defense, within the Puerto Rican and Latino communities. It was now also his intention to give up useless gang fighting and time consuming drugs upon his release, in order to devote all of his time to this new People's Movement. During this same period, the Puerto Rican section of Lincoln Park was being stripped of all city services to the poor. The Trina Davila Urban Progress Center was being relocated from the Armitage Avenue Methodist Church (later Young Lord's People's Church and their national headquarters) in Lincoln Park, to the Humboldt Park neighborhood. This was an area in need of services, and now also increasing in Puerto Ricans being displaced from Lincoln Park, as the result of the city's urban renewal program. Young Lords Party

                                 By Carlito Rovira
 JULY 28, 2009
Forty years ago, news headlines focused on a group of Puerto Rican youth in New York City who used daring and unusual forms of protest against racist oppression. These defiant and militant youths called themselves the Young Lords. Their examples, and the mass movement from which they arose, continue to inspire young people, especially today as we see greater proof that the only solution to oppression is organization and struggle. The Young Lords developed in Chicago during the 1950s. They were composed of unemployed students and working-class youth, who were among many street-youth organizations targeted by police and demonized as "gangs" by the capitalist-owned mass media. These youths came from families compelled to leave Puerto Rico between the 1940s and 1960s as a result of the economic hardships caused by U.S. colonialism.

 These immigrants continued to experience oppression but under new circumstances. They became victims of extreme exploitation at their jobs in factories, hotels and restaurants; they encountered greedy slumlords and the violence of police and white racist gangs. The Puerto Rican migration occurred during the same years the Civil Rights movement arose. The struggles of the African American people impacted the newly arrived immigrants who also experienced the vile nature of racism. In many instances, Puerto Ricans identified with the demand for Black Power.

 In 1966, the Black Panther Party was formed. Panther leader Fred Hampton of Chicago sought to politicize the street organizations, particularly the Puerto Rican youths. The BPP’s efforts were successful when, in 1968, the Young Lords became a revolutionary political entity; they then became part of a fraternal alliance known as the Rainbow Coalition (unrelated to Jessie Jackson’s later Rainbow/PUSH Coalition), which also included the Brown Berets, I Wor Kuen, Young Patriots and the Black Panthers. In 1969, the Young Lords opened a chapter in New York City. For many years, Black and Latino people complained about the Sanitation Department’s double standards in trash pick up. White affluent areas were serviced properly with regular garbage pick-ups, while Black and Puerto Rican neighborhoods were left in unhealthy conditions.

 In the summer of 1969, the Young Lords began sweeping the streets and amassing large piles of garbage that were a nuisance to the community. Many people wondered about what the young, seemingly "good Samaritans" were up to. But the mystery did not last long. In August 1969, the Young Lords used the garbage they had collected as the means to execute a political offensive with military tactics. Tons of trash were dumped and set ablaze across the main arteries of Manhattan to disrupt traffic, including on the affluent 5th Avenue. The Lords demanded an end to New York City’s racist municipal policies on sanitation. In neighborhoods where the "garbage offensive" was launched, the Lords galvanized community support; many joined the organization. The mass media’s attacks on the Lords only worked in their favor. Within months, YLP chapters appeared in Philadelphia, Bridgeport, Jersey City, Boston and Milwaukee—cities with concentrations of Puerto Ricans. While mainly composed of Puerto Ricans, the organization also allowed members of other oppressed nationalities to join the Young Lords.

 The YLP had a military-type structure with a process for recruitment and rules of discipline that were strictly enforced. At the height of the YLP’s development, women comprised nearly half the number of its rank-and-file. In the years following the Garbage Offensive, the Young Lords engaged in numerous campaigns that involved bold actions and drew widespread attention. One example was the physical takeover of the First Spanish Methodist Church on 111th Street. The Lords repeatedly pleaded with parishioners for space in order to feed hungry children, but to no avail. This church was closed throughout the week and only opened for a few hours for worshipping by a congregation that mostly lived out of town.

Backed by community sentiment, the Young Lords entered the church during a Sunday mass and expelled the congregation. Using the church as a base, the Young Lords operated a free childcare service, breakfast program and legal clinic. Medical services were also provided. Disease and poor health care have long been an issue in the Puerto Rican community. Other actions taken by the YLP included the seizure of an unused tuberculosis testing truck, equipped with X-ray technology. After the truck was seized, the city was compelled to provide technicians to run the machine. The truck was then taken to East Harlem, where many people were tested for the lung ailment. The Lords demanded that Lincoln Hospital, which served the people of the South Bronx, expand its services. Because this facility originated in the mid-1800s, when it treated even escaped slaves from the South, its facilities were outdated and did not meet the current needs of the people. An infestation of rats and roaches in the hospital further exacerbated the deplorable conditions.

 In the early morning hours of July 17, 1970, about 100 members of the Young Lords boldly seized control of Lincoln Hospital. For 24 hours, the Young Lords and progressive medical professionals in the Health Revolutionary Unity Movement provided free medical services to community people. Today’s modern Lincoln Hospital—with its new facilities—is the result of a community struggle of which the Young Lords were in the leadership. The YLP drew up a 13-Point Program that outlined the group’s political objectives. It included independence for Puerto Rico, as well as liberation for all Latinos and other oppressed people. The Young Lords upheld the struggle against women’s oppression and openly denounced the capitalist system, calling for a socialist society. The Young Lords eventually voiced support for the rights of LGBT people. By all definition, the YLP gravitated towards communism. These young revolutionaries believed that the power of the people would eventually overwhelm the power of the oppressors. In that spirit, the YLP believed in the right of armed self-defense. This became evident in actions they took while patrolling the streets in areas they organized. Whenever the Young Lords witnessed the police arresting community residents, they would intervene to confront the racist cops and often liberated the arrestees. In late 1970, YLP member Julio Roldan, who had been arrested at a demonstration in the Bronx and was pending arraignment, was found hung to death in his cell at the "Tombs" prison facility in lower Manhattan. During this era, many prisoners were found mysteriously dead in their cells, but prison officials always labeled them "suicides."

 The Young Lords responded to Roldan’s death with militancy, accusing the state of murder. Following a procession with Roldan’s coffin through East Harlem, the YLP returned to the First Spanish Methodist Church, which they had seized a year earlier—but this time, they came armed with shotguns and automatic weapons. They demanded an investigation into Roldan’s death. Deeply entrenched community support for the Young Lords prevented a gun battle, as government officials knew there would be an enormous political fallout if they initiated a police onslaught. The Young Lords held the church for three months. There are many examples of heroism among these young revolutionaries—not only in New York or Chicago, but also in other cities where the Puerto Rican people were in struggle. Shamefully, because that people’s movement no longer exists, non-revolutionary interpretations of that period persist, which dismiss the relevance of the Young Lords’ history for the struggle for socialism today. Regardless of what may be argued, the Young Lords openly called for the destruction of capitalism and establishment of socialism in the United States. This is made indisputably clear in the YLP’s 13-Point Program. The Young Lords, like the Black Panther Party, attempted to build a highly disciplined organization. They understood that without the organizational sophistication of a vanguard party, revolution is impossible. It is precisely this lesson that revolutionaries today should embrace and emulate in order to realize the future victory of socialism. Black Panthers (1968) part 1 Black Panthers (1968) part 2 Black Panthers (1968) part 3 Black Panthers (1968) part 4 Black Panthers (1968) part 5 Black Panthers (1968) part 6

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Drumline


      Drumline - Last Battle


         Hampton University Drumline Block


         Lincoln University Marching Musical Storm Drum Line


         Norfolk State Drumline


         ESC 2011: 1. Semi-Final - NC Cold Steel live in Düsseldorf


         Tenn State  Uni Drumline vs. NC A&T Uni


          Durham,NC,Hillside drumline at wchs competition


         NC A&T  COLDSTEEL Drummers 2012 pt1


          COLDSTEEL Drummers 2012 pt2


Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Camille Yarbrough


Camille Yarbrough Camille Yarbrough's multifaceted career has included stints as a dancer, an educator, a singer, an actress, a performer, a writer, and a radio show host. Known for her dedication to perpetuating cultural awareness among African Americans, Yarbrough has used her broad range of talents to serve as a voice of inspiration and hope within her community. Her 1975 album, The Iron Pot Cooker, has been heralded as a precursor to modern rap, and her four children's books have received high praise. Yarbrough was born in 1938 in Chicago, the seventh child in a family of four boys and four girls. Her father was originally from Alabama, and her mother was from Chicago. Yarbrough had fond memories of growing up in an African-American neighborhood and first became interested in music after hearing the local street merchants singing the blues as they went about their day. 


When she was 15 years old, Yarbrough happened onto a community center and became involved in the center's musical program. She also began studying dance at the center. At the age of 17, she was introduced to primitive dance, based on a modified Katherine Dunham Technique, which was taught by Jimmy Payne. Yarbrough also mastered the Martha Graham Technique, and she was soon performing the mambo and the cha-cha in local gigs. As a teenager, Yarbrough frequented The Tivoli, a Chicago club that drew many of the top performing stars of the African-American community, including Moms Mabley, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, and Josephine Baker. Along with being wholly absorbed in the music, Yarbrough was equally enthralled with those performers that spoke out against racism. 


A decade before the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Yarbrough listened to Baker and others who opened her eyes to social activism. After graduating from high school, Yarbrough took a job at the Blue Angel, a Chicago-based Calypso club. While at the Blue Angel, she became friends with dancers from New York who were members of the Katherine Dunham Dance Company. Gaining confidence from the encouragement of the other dancers, Yarbrough took a big step and moved to New York City. Taking a train from Chicago to New York, she found temporary housing with the family of a Puerto Rican dancer she knew. However, her attempt to establish herself in the new city proved unsuccessful, and she soon returned to Chicago. Once back in Chicago, Yarbrough gained an audition with John Pratt, the husband of Katherine Dunham. Pratt was impressed with Yarbrough and subsequently offered her a job as a dancer. 


In 1955, at the age of 18, Yarbrough began touring with the 35-member Katherine Dunham Dance Company. Dunham, also an anthropologist who had studied African culture, incorporated many elements of traditional dance into her choreography. As a result, Yarbrough was educated in the traditions of a variety of cultures, including African, South American, and Central American. Yarbrough spent 18 months on tour with the dance company and performed in the United States, Australia, Korea, Japan, New Zealand, and Vietnam, as well as across Western Europe. When the company had a lull in the theater performances, they performed in clubs. When the tour ended, Yarbrough returned to Chicago and resumed her job at the Blue Angel. In 1960 Dunham assembled her dancers once more, and Yarbrough joined the company for a brief tour of Paris before the company went bankrupt and permanently disbanded. In 1961 Yarbrough moved to New York City once again. This time, with more experience and maturity, she soon established herself as a dancer and actress. 
                       Camille Yarbrough - Ain't it a Lonely Feeling Just six months after arriving in New York, Yarbrough landed her first part on stage, dancing in the Broadway show Kwamina, a story of an African man who falls in love with a white woman missionary. Later performances included Trumpets of the Lord, Cities in Bezique, Sambo, and To Be Young, Gifted, and Black. First staged at the Cherry Lane Theater, To Be Young, Gifted, and Black was Yarbrough's most successful stage appearance. The company toured 56 cities, playing on college campuses around the country. Excerpts from a personal diary Yarbrough kept while on tour appeared in the New York Times on April 18, 1971. Yarbrough worked on television soap operas Search for Tomorrow and Where the Heart Is during the early 1970s. She also had a small part in the film Shaft, playing the part of Shaft's sister. Yarbrough bristled at the racism she encountered as an actress, and she was distressed by the stereotyped roles assigned to black actors. According to DuEwa M. Frazier's "Taking Her Praise: Profile of Camille Yarbrough, A Renaissance Woman," Yarbrough said of her acting days: "We were discriminated against as actors and performers. Even the shows you did, some directors would direct you gearing towards racial stereotypes. I was always in trouble for resenting those behaviors, so I would be out of work for a little while." Her conflict with the image of blacks on stage and screen eventually led Yarbrough away from a career in acting. After becoming seriously ill from contact with toxic chemicals, which required a stay in the hospital, Yarbrough began seriously studying her cultural heritage and writing poetry and music. Eventually she developed a show, entitled "Tales and Tunes of an African American Griot," which she performed for two years. 


Out of that show she produced the elements of her album The Iron Pot Cooker, released in 1975 by Vanguard Records. The album title references the practices of female Nigerian doctors who traveled about with iron pots in which they would mix and cook herbs and healing mixtures. The Iron Pot Cooker received renewed attention in February of 2000 when Vanguard re-released the album on compact disc. The 47-minute production featured the single "Take Yo' Praise," which appears on track 4, track 7 (remix), and track 8 (dance remix). Fatboy Slim's extremely popular cover of the song, titled "Praise You," ignited renewed interest in Yarbrough's original version. Other songs on The Iron Pot Cooker include "But It Comes Out Mad," "Dream/Panic/Sonny Boy the Rip-Off Man/Little Sally the Super Sex Star (Taking Care of Business)," "Ain't It a Lonely Feeling," "Can I Get a Witness," and "All Hid?" Yarbrough's only album later ea Yarbrough incorporated songs from the Iron Pot Cooker into her performances, which were a mixture of song, dance, storytelling, and cultural history. She became known for appearing on stage in traditional African dress, complete with flowing African wrap gowns and long African earrings. Along with her highly acclaimed stage performances, Yarbrough served as a professor of African dance and diaspora in the African Studies Department of the City College of New York for 12 years. She also worked as a radio broadcaster, anchoring a late-night talk show on WWRL-AM, which focused on issues of concern to the African-American community. 
               CAMILLE YARBROUGH Take Yo' Praise.wmv  
 In 1979 Yarbrough published her first book, Cornrows. Aimed at children fourth grade and above, Yarbrough used Cornrows as a vehicle to tell the stories of great African-American activists. Mother and Great-Grammaw spend the day telling a young sister and brother of the great deeds of such heroes as Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks. The matriarchs also talk about black entertainers and writers, including Langston Hughes, Harry Belafonte, and Aretha Franklin. Great Grammaw also reminisces about her childhood days in Alabama, explaining the significance of the cornrows hairstyle. The day is ended when Father returns home from work, thus completing the uplifting image of the African-American family who thrives on their cultural heritage. Cornrows won the Coretta Scott King Award. Yarbrough published her second children's book in 1989. Winner of a Parents Choice Award, Shimmershine Queens is a novel that, like Cornrows, stresses the importance of cultural heritage. Cousin Seatta becomes the character through which knowledge is imparted to the story's protagonist, a young girl named Angie. Angie learns from Cousin Seatta about the past struggles of the African-American community and the future opportunities that cannot be squandered by ignorance or destroyed by negative images within the community. In 1994 Yarbrough published her third children's book, Tamika and the Wisdom Rings. 


Written for third through fifth graders, the book tells the story of eight-year-old Tamika, who lives with her older sister and parents in an inner city apartment complex. When her father is murdered by drug dealers, the family must move into a much smaller apartment and struggle to overcome numerous obstacles. Tamika and the Wisdom Rings is an uplifting story of the importance of inner strength and perseverance. Little Tree Growing in the Shade, Yarbrough's fourth publication, once again aimed at children, was published in 1996. Horn Book Magazine reviewer Henrietta M. Smith noted, "Yarbrough has skillfully woven the variegated threads of African-American history into a memorable story for young readers that speaks of the rich culture of the Africans brought in captivity to America." The little tree growing in the shade refers to the African-American people who refuse to give up despite ongoing struggles to survive. Set in a concert at the park, Sister asks Daddy, "Why are they called spirituals?" The question affords Daddy the opportunity to tell the family stories of their culture and its heroes. 


Yarbrough remains a voice in the African-American community as songstress, poet, and activist. During the early 2000s she continues to stage her performance for numerous cultural events. In August of 2002 she hosted and sang for the annual African Voices Rhymes, Rhythms and Rituals Music and Poetry Concert in Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem. She is associated with The African American Traditions Workshop and continues to perform at multicultural events.
                   Nana Camille Yarbrough Promo Nana Camille Yarbrough: Can I Get a Witness Nana Camille Yarbrough: Elders Nana Camille Yarbrough: But It Comes Out Mad Nana Camille Yarbrough: We Are Family Camille Yarbrough: Hand Me Downs part 1 of 3 Camille Yarbrough: Hand Me Downs part 2 of 3 Camille Yarbrough: Hand Me Downs part 3 of 3

CAMILLE YARBROUGH Take Yo' Praise.wmv

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Frederick Douglass: ‘What Is July 4th to the Negro?’



        Frederick Douglass: ‘What Is July 4th to the Negro?’

By UrbanFaith Staff July 4, 2012 


The legendary abolitionist’s speech ‘The Meaning of July 4th for the Negro’ became his most famous statement on America’s struggle to live up to its own ideals.

In the nineteenth century, many American communities and cities celebrated Independence Day with a ceremonial reading of the Declaration of Independence, which was usually followed by an oral address or speech dedicated to the celebration of independence and the heritage of the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers. On July 5, 1852, the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester, New York, invited the Black abolitionist and civil rights leader Frederick Douglass to be the keynote speaker for their Independence Day celebration. The Fourth of July Speech, scheduled for Rochester’s Corinthian Hall, attracted an audience of 600. The meeting opened with a prayer and was followed by a reading of the Declaration of Independence. When Douglass finally came to the platform to deliver his speech, the event took a jarring turn. Douglass told his audience, “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” And he asked them, “Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?”

Within Douglass’ now-legendary address is what historian Philip S. Foner has called “probably the most moving passage in all of Douglass’ speeches.”

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelly to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.

On this and every July 4th, Americans might do well to re-read and reflect on Douglass’ famous message. It challenges us to move beyond the biases and blind spots of our own cultural privileges and consider those around us for whom, as Langston Hughes said, “America has never been America.”

             Danny Glover Reads Frederick Douglass


Frederick Douglass

Patriotism, July 4, 2012 


NationofChange / Op-Ed - Published: Wednesday 4 July 2012 
Robert Reich 



Our system of government is America’s most precious and fragile possession, the means we have of joining together as a nation for the common good. It requires not only our loyalty but ongoing vigilance to keep it working well. 


     In the last two weeks, the Supreme Court has allowed police in Arizona to demand proof of citizenship from people they stop on other grounds (while throwing out the rest of Arizona's immigration law), and has allowed the federal government to require everyone buy health insurance – even younger and healthier people – or pay a penalty.


      What do these decisions — and the national conversations they’ve engendered — have to do with patriotism? A great deal. Because underlying them are two different versions of American patriotism.  The Arizona law is aimed at securing the nation from outsiders. 


     The purpose of the heatlhcare law is to join together to provide affordable health care for all.  The first version of patriotism is protecting America from people beyond our borders who might otherwise overrun us — whether immigrants coming here illegally or foreign powers threatening us with aggression.  The second version of patriotism is joining together for the common good. That might mean contributing to a bake sale to raise money for a local school or volunteering in a homeless shelter. It also means paying our fair share of taxes so our community or nation has enough resources to meet all our needs, and preserving and protecting our system of government.  


       This second meaning of patriotism recognizes our responsibilities to one another as citizens of the same society. It requires collaboration, teamwork, tolerance, and selflessness.  The Affordable Care Act isn’t perfect, but in requiring younger and healthier people to buy insurance that will help pay for the healthcare needs of older and sicker people, it summons the second version of patriotism.  Too often these days we don’t recognize and don’t practice this second version. 


       We’re shouting at each other rather than coming together — conservative versus liberal, Democrat versus Republican, native-born versus foreign born, non-unionized versus unionized, religious versus secular.  Our politics has grown nastier and meaner. Negative advertising is filling the airwaves this election year. We’re learning more about why we shouldn’t vote for someone than why we should. As I’ve said before, some elected officials have substituted partisanship for patriotism, placing party loyalty above loyalty to America. 




 
       Just after the 2010 election, the Senate minority leader was asked about his party’s highest priority for the next two years. You might have expected him to say it was to get the economy going and reduce unemployment, or control the budge deficit, or achieve peace and stability in the Middle East. But he said the highest priority would be to make sure the President did not get a second term of office. Our system of government is America’s most precious and fragile possession, the means we have of joining together as a nation for the common good. It requires not only our loyalty but ongoing vigilance to keep it working well. 


       Yet some of our elected representatives act as if they don’t care what happens to it as long as they achieve their partisan aims.  The filibuster used to be rarely used. But over the last decade the threat of a filibuster has become standard operating procedure, virtually shutting down the Senate for periods of time.  Meanwhile, some members of the House have been willing to shut down the entire government in order to get their way.


        Last summer they were even willing to risk the full faith and credit of the United States in order to achieve their goals.  In 2010 the Supreme Court opened the floodgates to unlimited money from billionaires and corporations overwhelming our democracy, on the bizarre theory that corporations are people under the First Amendment. Congress won’t even pass legislation requiring their names be disclosed.  Some members of Congress have signed a pledge — not of allegiance to the United States but of allegiance to a man named Grover Norquist, who has never been elected by anyone.


        Norquist’s “no-tax” pledge is interpreted only by Norquist, who says closing a tax loophole is tantamount to raising taxes and therefore violates the pledge.  True patriots don’t hate the government of the United States. They’re proud of it. Generations of Americans have risked their lives to preserve and protect it. They may not like everything it does, and they justifiably worry then special interests gain too much power over it. 


       But true patriots work to improve the U.S. government, not destroy it.  But these days some Americans loathe the government, and are doing everything they can to paralyze it, starve it, and make the public so cynical about it that it’s no longer capable of doing much of anything. Norquist says he wants to shrink it down to a size it can be “drowned in a bathtub.” When arguing against paying their fair share of taxes, some wealthy Americans claim “it’s my money.” 


       They forget it’s their nation, too. And unless they pay their fair share of taxes, American can’t meet the basic needs of our people. True patriotism means paying for America.  So when you hear people talk about patriotism, be warned. They may mean securing the nation’s borders, not securing our society. Within those borders, each of us is on our own. These people don’t want a government that actively works for all our citizens.  Yet true patriotism isn’t mainly about excluding outsiders seen as our common adversaries. It’s about coming together for the common good. 

This article was originally posted on Robert Reich's blog.

ABOUT  ROBERT B. REICH
Robert Reich, one  of the nation’s leading experts on work and the economy, is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. Time Magazine has named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including his latest best-seller, “Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future;” “The Work of Nations,” which has been translated into 22 languages; and his newest, an e-book, “Beyond Outrage.” His syndicated columns, television appearances, and public radio commentaries reach millions of people each week. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, and Chairman of the citizen’s group Common Cause. His widely-read blog can be found at www.robertreich.org.

OWS activist: 'Police treated humans like animals'

Supreme Court’s Plutocratic Political Hacks Rule Against the People in Montana  

NationofChange / Op-Ed - Published: Wednesday 4 July 2012 By Jim Hightower 



In his majority decision, Supreme joker Kennedy drew from his deep well of political ignorance and judicial arrogance to declare that these gushers of special interest money “do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.” "Two wrongs don't make a right," as my old Texas momma used to instruct my brothers and me. But apparently, five of the justices on our Supreme Court didn't have mommas with such ethical sensibilities — or perhaps they're just ignoring their mommas' wisdom now in order to impose their extremist political agenda on you and me.

That agenda became startlingly clear in 2010, when the black-robed cabal of Sam Alito, Anthony Kennedy, John Roberts, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas hung their infamous Citizens United edict around America's neck. It allowed unlimited sums of corporate cash to spew into our elections, effectively legalizing the wholesale purchase of America's elected officials. In his majority decision, Supreme joker Kennedy drew from his deep well of political ignorance and judicial arrogance to declare that these gushers of special interest money "do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption." Is he on the court — or in a comedy club?

Not only were Kennedy and his fellow corporatists wrong on the substance of their decree, but also ridiculously wrong on the politics. You don't need a law degree to see that CEOs are presently flooding this year's presidential and congressional races with hundreds of millions of corporate campaign dollars, gleefully perverting the political process to buy government policy for their own gain. That not only gives the appearance of corruption, it is corrupt. And now the same five judicial extremists have added a third egregious wrong to their agenda of turning The People's rights over to soulless corporations.

On June 25, they struck down a century-old Montana law (enacted directly by the people through a 1912 initiative vote) that banned corporate money from corrupting that state's elections. Join NationofChange today by making a generous tax-deductible contribution and take a stand against the status quo. These five are not mere "judicial activists" — they're dangerous political hacks, fronting for corporate powers that are openly attempting a plutocratic coup on America.

As a Montana newspaper editorial succinctly put it: "The greatest living issue confronting us today is whether the corporations shall control the people or the people shall control the corporations." That was written in 1906, as Montanans were rising up in outrage against the "copper kings" — giant, out-of-state mining corporations that were grossly exploiting Montana's workforce, extracting its public resources, and routinely extending bribes to control its government. A populist rebellion culminated 100 years ago in the passage of a citizens initiative, called the Corrupt Practices Act. With that, Montana's people outlawed direct corporate expenditures in elections for state offices.

Their law worked, breaking the copper kings' legislative chokehold. A century later, the law was still working, for the lack of corporate cash allowed people politics to supplant money politics, opening up a more democratic electoral process. Even today, the average cost of state senate races stands at only $17,000 in Montana. Rather than blitzing the airwaves with ads, candidates go town-to-town and door-to-door, having actual discussions with everyday folks about their needs and concerns.

Because of this, Montana has one of America's highest rates of voter turnout. How positive — a model of democracy in action! Until an out-of-state corporate front group rode in like copper kings from hell to sue the state. With a pack of high-dollar lawyers and a bundle of corporate funding, the group wailed that Montana's anti-corruption law discriminates against poor corporations, denying them their First Amendment "right" to have the biggest voice in government that money can buy.

On June 25, in a terse, unsigned ruling, the five corporate hacks now controlling the Supreme Court ratified the ridiculous argument of the front group, imperiously shoving Montana's law into the ditch and re-imposing the rule of special interest money on the people's will.To stop this court's collusion in the corporate coup against our democracy, We The People must pass a constitutional amendment overturning these decisions.

To help, go to: www.United4ThePeople.org NationofChange


 ABOUT Jim Hightower National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the book, Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow, Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.

July 4, 2012 - Occupy National Gathering in Philadelphia As American as mom and apple pie. 

  

#occupywallstreet 

 From June 30th to July 4th, 2012, Occupy movement activists and supporters will gather in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the first Occupy National Gathering. This event is the culmination of months of organizing and consensus-building by countless activists from across the country. It has been endorsed by Occupy General Assemblies from Wall Street to Sacramento, and Austin to Kalamazoo, providing a clear example of the movement’s disparate chapters collaborating on a massive scale.

 Occupy Philadelphia and the National Gathering Working Group, which initially proposed the event, invite all people to gather on Independence Mall for five days of community and movement building culminating in a massive outdoor gathering on July 4th. The main goals of the event are to strengthen our internal bonds, join together in direct actions, and engage in a transparent democratic process reflecting the values of the movement. 

 
 Activities will include: Four days of discussions, teach-ins, political theater, and community bonding. Protests and direct actions with Occupiers from across the movement. Collectively crafting a Vision for a Democratic Future on July 4th. All people of good conscience who are fed up and ready to stand up for economic and social justice are invited to join us at Independence Mall. 

We will send the message that injustice of any kind is unacceptable. No government or corporation can ignore the will of the people any longer. We can build a better world together. Associated Press / NBC 10 Philadelphia National 'Occupy' to Descends on Philly July 4A group of protesters affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement plans to elect 876 “delegates” from around the country and hold a national “general assembly” in Philadelphia over the Fourth of July as part of ongoing protests over corporate excess and economic inequality. 

 


The group, dubbed the 99% Declaration Working Group, said Wednesday delegates would be selected during a secure online election in early June from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. In a nod to their First Amendment rights, delegates will meet in Philadelphia to draft and ratify a “petition for a redress of grievances,” convening during the week of July 2 and holding a news conference in front of Independence Hall on the Fourth of July. Facebook posters, pics, comments: 
   
"NO BOMBS - NO JAILS - WE'LL BURN YOUR ***** BANKS" now that's what I call a chant! NOW @ OCCUPY NATGAT Marching Philadelphia 


 

 

July 2, 2012 Philadelphia NOW @ OCCUPY NATGAT Marching Philadelphia [Click to view image: '780d3c90bd75-12-07-04_natgat_7.jpg'] 


 

Boycott the US presidential vote! It only legitimizes the illegitimate... 12-04-15 2012 Presidential election votes will be counted in Spain http://www.scribd.com/doc/89464081/Occupy! 11-12-10 

 
Where should Occupy go next? Civil Disobedience in the footsteps of Thoreau and Gandhi! http :// http://www.scribd.com/doc/75348301/12-06-08 Courts and Judges as racketeering enterprises under RICO (the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) - key element in the current financial crisis http://www.scribd.com/doc/96504009/Secede! 

 

 NATGAT March in Philadelphia now - Occupy Marines Flag

The US in its current form is simply unmanageable...12-01-01 Secession - A Smart Business Move! http://www.scribd.com/doc/76877453/Get Up, stand up, stand up for your rights!

 _______ Joseph Zernik, PhDHuman Rights Alert (NGO) The 2010 submission of Human Rights Alert to the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the United Nations was reviewed by the HRC professional staff and incorporated in the official HRC Professional Staff Report with a note referring to “corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California.”Human Rights Alert online Flag Counter: 

Take away justice, then, and what are governments but great bandit bands?Saint Augustine, Civitas Dei (City of God,4.4)
 
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WHAT DID THE EXPERT SAY ABOUT THE CURRENT FINANCIAL CRISIS? 

* "I think it's difficult to find a fraud of this size on the U.S. court system in U.S. history," said Raymond Brescia, a visiting professor at Yale Law School who has written articles analyzing the role of courts in the financial crisis. "I can't think of one where you have literally tens of thousands of fraudulent documents filed in tens of thousands of cases." Reuters (Jan 22, 2012) http://www.scribd.com/doc/79572282/

* Foreclosure fraud: The homeowner nightmares continueCNN (April 7, 2011) * About 3 million homes have been repossessed since the housing boom ended in 2006… That number could balloon to about6 million by 2013 Bloomberg (January 2011) * "...a system in which only the little people have to obey the law, while the rich, and bankers especially, can cheat and defraud without consequences." http://www.scribd.com/doc/50753639/Prof Paul Krugman, MIT (2011) 

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WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA?

* "...judges tried and sentenced a staggering number of people for crimes they did not commit." Prof David Burcham, Dean, Loyola Law School, LA (2001) http://www.scribd.com/doc/29043589/ * "This is conduct associated with the most repressive dictators and police states... and judges must share responsibility when innocent people are convicted." Prof Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, Irvine Law School (2001) http://www.scribd.com/doc/27433920/

* "Innocent people remain in prison"* "...the LA Superior Court and the DA office, the two other parts of the justice system that the Blue Panel Report recommends must be investigated relative to the integrity of the system, have not produced any response that we know of..."LAPD Blue Ribbon Review Panel Report (2006) http://www.scribd.com/doc/24902306 /

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WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN CALIFORNIA?

* "...corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California." United Nations Human Rights Council Staff Report (2010) http://www.scribd.com/doc/38566837/

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WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE STATE COURTS IN THE UNITED STATES? 

* "On July 26, 2010, Laurence Tribe, Senior Counsel for the United States Department of Justice, Access to Justice Initiative, delivered an important speech to the Conference of Chief Justices, challenging them to halt the disintegration of our state justice systems before they become indistinguishable from courts of third world nations."Prof Laurence Tribe, Harvard Law School (2010), per National Defender Leadership Institute (2010) http://www.nlada.net/library/article/national_dojspeechto%20chiefjustice07-26-2010_gideonalert

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WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE CONDITIONS IN THE PRISON IN MONROE COUNTY, TENESSEE?

* "What goes on there is more like gulags of centuries ago."ACLUhttp://www.scribd.com/doc/72546279/

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WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES?

* "More than 100 law professors have signed on to a letter released today that proposes congressional hearings and legislation aimed at fashioning "mandatory and enforceable" ethics rules for Supreme Court justices for the first time. The effort, coordinated by the liberal Alliance for Justice, was triggered by "recent media reports," the letter said, apparently referring to stories of meetings and other potential conflicts of interest involving Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas among others."More than 100 law professors, as reported by the Blog of the Legal Times (February 2011) http://www.scribd.com/doc/49586436/

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WHAT DID CHIEF JUDGE OF THE US COURT OF APPEALS, 5TH CIRCUIT, SAY ABOUT THE US JUSTICE SYSTEM? 

* "The American legal system has been corrupted almost beyond recognition..." Chief Judge, US Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit, Edith Jones, speaking before the Federalist Society of Harvard Law School (February 2003) http://www.scribd.com/doc/50137887/

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WHAT DID THE CHAIR OF THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE SAY ABOUT THE US JUSTICE SYSTEM?

* In a speech in Georgetown University, Senator Leahy, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee called for a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" on the US Department of Justice.Transcript of Senator Leahy speech (2009) http://www.scribd.com/doc/38472251/

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VIDEOS:#NatGat Protestors Arrested Kettled by PhillyPD Stre.
http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution/video?clipId=pla_4ba2e2d1-c54b-4376-971e-27ddec9d090a&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb
OWS' first 'National Gathering'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMQOCaFY9lc
chris hedges at NatGat Philadelphia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DIBu6p9nno
Welcome Speeches & Trainings - Occupy National Gathering - (1 of 4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KFdf57X41M
Police Attack at Occupy National Gathering (part3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BBswdpdwjY
Fight for Philly In The News
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URoUJWBgZUI

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

If Jesus ran for the Republican nomination

Bill Maher - America IS a Stupid Country and now there's proof

    Even though this is quite sacrosanct and non-patriotic, it may be still good for a laugh.  After all -- look who's doing the talking!!!!

2010 STUPIDEST STATE SHOWDOWN! [HD].mp4

Van Jones on the GOP's cheap patriotism

Van Jones on the middle class becoming a trap door to poverty

Van Jones on Deep Patriotism

Van Jones on American Innovation (Part 1)

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Meet Adam Perlman

Meet Adam Perlman In order to gain the most from this presentation, one must not only first click onto the preceding link and read the short introductory article on this radio blog, but then follow up by clicking on the link below it to hear an informative commentary from this physician who is a highly respected practitioner and advocate. You will gain more respect for this type area of medicine when you do.