Of course I can't mention California state parks without a political side.....

Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed massive state park closures as part of his proposed budget, in an effort to "save" hundreds of millions of dollars.  AND he has rejected state Democrats' proposal to add $15.00 to the state park fees for visitors.

News of The Terminator's proposed park closures and parks on his hit list, which includes Sinkyone State Wilderness Park:

• North state parks on Schwarzenegger’s hit list
  
• Feds Could Seize State Parks On Closure List
  
• Local gems on list of parks that state could shut down
  
• A List OF State Parks Arnold Schwarzenegger Wants To Close!, Terminator's Proposal To Cut Budget Gap.
  
• Schwarzenegger Would Close 220 State Parks To Cut Deficit

HR676 call your congresspeople, sign Bernie Sanders' petition on the legislation for Single Payer Health care.

There is also a blog called Single Payer Action for more information and up to date news on this very crucial issue.

The Green Party's platform also advocates for Single Payer Health Insurance.

It's time we the people took better action on this and stop the corporate corruption between the U.S. Government and the private insurance industry!

From the rawstory

The aim of "Sock and Awe" (www.sockandawe.com), launched by Britain's Alex Tew, is to knock Bush out with a shoe, a feat already attained by 1.4 million players, according to the website Tuesday.

Aptly named after the US "Shock and Awe" military campaign to knock out Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, the game gives players 30 seconds to aim at a figure of Bush ducking behind a rostrum.

It was in protest against the Bush administration's Iraqi policy that journalist Durgham Zaidi threw both his shoes at the outgoing president Sunday during his swansong visit to the battleground. The action won Zaidi widespread plaudits in the Arab world where Bush's policies have drawn broad hostility.

The Emperor’s New Clothes
(or Bil Kundara* America)
*a threatening remark involving the potential use of a shoe

By Vi Ransel

12/18/08

Our strutting, imperial president
paid his farewell visit to Iraq
where he appeared with puppet, Nouri al-Maliki,
not expecting to find himself under attack.

He stood in front of the world’s TV cameras
and pontificated at a press conference podium
“The work hasn’t been easy, but it’s been necessary” he said,
thus exposing America as the world’s moral colon

 

with this flippant dismissal of four million refugees
and the destruction of an entire society,
the erasure of the beginnings of Western Civilization
and the taking of more than a million Iraqi lives

by means of his aggressive and illegal war
on a non-threatening, essentially unarmed nation.
And then Bush got as close as he’d ever come
to confronting the reality of one of his failures.

As this genocidal, sociopathic Upper Class Twit
was doing a rhetorical backstroke in Iraqi blood,
he was given a final and fitting tribute
in the universal language of television.

A young, Iraqi journalist introduced him
to one of the Middle East’s most well-known customs
which exposed the indecency of George W. Bush
like Joe Welch did to McCarthy and his Commission.

While world journalists still refuse to ask the questions
which would skewer Bush with his own callous charade,
he stood up and with the courage of his convictions
threw his shoes into George W. Bush’s smug face.

He yelled “Ya kalb!” calling Bush “You Dog!”
treating the occupier to a souvenir of his “victory”,
not a shower of flowers from grateful Iraqis,
but a shower of shoes from Muntather al-Zaidi.

This is the farewell kiss, you dog.
This is a gift from the Iraqis, he went on.
This is from those who were killed in Iraq,
from the injured, the widows and the orphans.

Bush ducked the first shoe and in seconds
Muntather had fired off the other
aimed just above Bush’s head, it hit the American flag,
and brought a whole new meaning to the term “shoe bomber”.

In most Middle Eastern countries, the shoe
is seen as an object of dirt, pollution and disrespect
and can be used to insult or to denigrate someone
and millions the world over share the same contempt

for this miserable, draft-dodging chicken hawk
who’s conducted a War of Terror and stunning atrocities
from the distant safety of his Washington Offal Office
for eight years and made it seem like eternity.

And while protected by billions in military technology,
still he stood exposed, not as emperor, but as fool,
and he proved he was no match for a man without a weapon,
armed with only the truth and two of his shoes.

Overnight Muntather al-Zaidi became
one of the most beloved people on the face of the earth,
and even in America the man who humiliated the president
is more popular than the president himself.

Please go to www.uruknet.info and click on either “Sacred Shoe” or “The Hero Who Made Bush’s Head a Playground for His Shoes” to sign a petition for the release of this courageous young man. Thank you. Thanks also to Layla Anwar for the term “bil kundara” and its definiton.

Poet and part-time actor Viola Ransel is a Senior Contributing Editor with CJO.

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org

Greens support workers occupying a factory in Chicago after layoff: bailout money isn't being used to help working Americans


WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders said today that the incoming Obama Administration and Congress should take six major steps to reverse the financial meltdown and restore financial security for Americans.

The steps include a Green public works program, aid for state and muncipal governments, expansion of mass transit, Single-Payer health care, a peace dividend gained by ending the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and an end to the wasteful war on drugs.

Green Party candidates running for local, state, and national office in 2008 promoted many of these ideas even before the crisis precipitated. In September, Cynthia McKinney published a ten-point list of solutions and reforms in response to the Wall Street meltdown, titled "Seize the Time" (http://votetruth08.com/index.php/learn/mckinney-messages).

Greens expressed support for United Electrical Workers union members occupying a Republic Windows and Doors plant in Chicago after the plant was shut down and they were laid off with three days' notice and told they had no assurance of receiving severance and unused vacation pay. The company's creditor, Bank of America, received $25 billion from the government's financial bailout package. Greens said that the bank's actions, including refusal to allow Republic to give workers 60 days notice (as required by law), demonstrates how bailout money isn't being used to assist working Americans facing financial hardship.

Six Green steps for economic recovery:

(1) Enact a massive Green public works program, creating new living-wage jobs in conservation (including weatherization and energy retro-fitting); clean and safe energy technologies to replace fossil fuel and nuclear sources and create a carbon-free economy; repair and improvement of America's deteriorating infrastructure (especially water and sewer systems); and improvement of public schools and Green job training programs.( Read more... )

(Thanks to James Landis for emailing these quotes and his thoughts on this.)

"This economy of ours is on a solid foundation." President Bush - Jan. 4 after meeting with the President's Working Group on Financial Markets.
________________

"There is no cause to worry. The high tide of prosperity will continue." - Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury. September 1929
________________

"I hope you're confident about our economy. I am." President Bush. Jan. 30, 2008 at the Robinson Helicopter Co. in Torrance, Calif.
________________

"While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed the worst and with continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover. There is one certainty of the future of a people of the resources, intelligence and character of the people of the United States - that is, prosperity." - President Hoover - May 1, 1930
________________

"Losing a job is painful, and I know Americans are concerned about our economy; so am I. It's clear our economy has slowed, but the good news is, we anticipated this and took decisive action to bolster the economy, by passing a growth package that will put money into the hands of American workers and businesses." - President Bush - March 7, 2008 on news that the economy lost 63,000 payroll jobs in February.
_________________

Truth is....... now, as then, they don't have a clue. The rich guys are taking care of the rich guys to the tune of 1.6 trillion dollars (thus far), and what trickles down to the rest of us cannot be mentioned in polite company.
JCL

RNC8

"We have been humbled by such an immense initial show of solidarity and are inspired to turn our attention back to the very issues that motivated us to organize against the RNC in the first place. What’s happening to us is part of a much broader and very serious problem. The fact is that we live in a police state- some people first realized this in the streets of St. Paul during the convention, but many others live with that reality their whole lives. People of color, poor and working class people, immigrants, are targeted and criminalized on a daily basis, and we understand what that context suggests about the repression the 8 of us face now. Because we are political organizers who have built solid relationships through our work, because we have various forms of privilege- some of us through our skin, some through our class, some through our education- and because we have the resources to invoke a national network of support, we are lucky, even as we are being targeted."

http://rnc8.org/2008/09/a-letter-from-the-rnc-8/

Join the Freee the RNC8 Facebook Group

http://rnc8.org/2008/09/rnc-8-charged-as-terrorists-under-state-patriot-act-by-bruce-nestor/

In what appears to be the first use of criminal charges under the 2002 Minnesota version of the Federal Patriot Act, Ramsey County Prosecutors have formally charged 8 alleged leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee with Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism. Monica Bicking, Eryn Trimmer, Luce Guillen Givins, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor, Robert Czernik, Garrett Fitzgerald, and Max Spector, face up to 7 1/2 years in prison under the terrorism enhancement charge which allows for a 50% increase in the maximum penalty.

Affidavits released by law enforcement which were filed in support of the search warrants used in raids over the weekend, and used to support probable cause for the arrest warrants, are based on paid, confidential informants who infiltrated the RNCWC on behalf of law enforcement. They allege that members of the group sought to kidnap delegates to the RNC, assault police officers with firebombs and explosives, and sabotage airports in St. Paul. Evidence released to date does not corroborate these allegations with physical evidence or provide any other evidence for these allegations than the claims of the informants. Based on past abuses of such informants by law enforcement, the National Lawyers Guild is concerned that such police informants have incentives to lie and exaggerate threats of violence and to also act as provacateurs in raising and urging support for acts of violence.

"These charges are an effort to equate publicly stated plans to blockade traffic and disrupt the RNC as being the same as acts of terrorism. This both trivializes real violence and attempts to place the stated political views of the Defendants on trial," said Bruce Nestor, President of the Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. "The charges represent an abuse of the criminal justice system and seek to intimidate any person organizing large scale public demonstrations potentially involving civil disobedience, he said."

The criminal complaints filed by the Ramsey County Attorney do not allege that any of the defendants personally have engaged in any act of violence or damage to property. The complaints list all of alleged violations of law during the last few days of the RNC -- other than violations of human rights carried out by law enforcement -- and seeks to hold the 8 defendants responsible for acts committed by other individuals. None of the defendants have any prior criminal history involving acts of violence. Searches conducted in connection with the raids failed to turn up any physical evidence to support the allegations of organized attacks on law enforcement. Although claiming probable cause to believe that gunpowder, acids, and assembled incendiary devices would be found, no such items were seized by police. As a result, police sought to claim that the seizure of common household items such as glass bottles, charcoal lighter, nails, a rusty machete, and two hatchets, supported the allegations of the confidential informants. "Police found what they claim was a single plastic shield, a rusty machete, and two hatchets used in Minnesota to split wood. This doesn't amount to evidence of an organized insurrection, particularly when over 3,500 police are present in the Twin Cities, armed with assault rifles, concussion grenades, chemical weapons and full riot gear," said Nestor. In addition, the National Lawyers Guild has previously pointed out how law enforcement has fabricated evidence such as the claims that urine was seized which demonstrators intended to throw at police.

The last time such charges were brought under Minnesota law was in 1918, when Matt Moilen and others organizing labor unions for the Industrial Workers of the World [ed. correction-TCIMC] on the Iron Range were charged with "criminal syndicalism." The convictions, based on allegations that workers had advocated or taught acts of violence, including acts only damaging to property, were upheld by the Minnesota Supreme Court. In the light of history, these convictions are widely seen as unjust and a product of political trials. The National Lawyers Guild condemns the charges filed in this case against the above 8 defendants and urges the Ramsey County Attorney to drop all charges of conspiracy in this matter.

Source:
Bruce Nestor, President
Minnesota Chapter of National Lawyers Guild


-(It also should be mentioned that there were many more people that were arrested besides these 8, and without the publicity. Please keep them in mind and donate what you can to the Coldsnap Legal Collective to help them out!)

This the video to which Naomi Wolf (post below) refers.

Thank you to Ester Republic which states:
This is a video of the arrests at the Take Back Labor Day concert, narrated by a guy from the Glass Bead Collective who interviewed a bunch of people and then buried his video camera so it wouldn't get confiscated. Good thing, huh?

The Minnesota Independent has continued to cover this story, the most recent development being a forum held by the Society of Professional Journalists. Nick Coleman of the Minneapolis Star Tribune has also written about the experiences of St. Paul residents vis-a-vis the protests and arrests.

Salt Lake's "Wes", who is a regular at our weekly peace vigils, is featured and describes the police scene at the RNC, inlcuding innocent hip-hop concert attendees arrested for no reason



Wes at a peace vigil in Salt Lake:

Lets Get Out - Song sung by Lauryn Hill

Yes it is socialism at last. America, the great free enterprise, every man for himself, empire has at last gone and dumped capitalism. Socialism has now taken hold in the USA!

At least for the rich it has. Yes we now have socialism for the rich in America - and capitalism for everyone else.

The old saw that business has to make it on its own is now history. Start a bank and if it is nearing collapse, no problem. The government will bail you out.

Lost you job because the corporation is closing the plant and moving overseas where cheaper labor can be found? Tough luck Jack - you are on your own.

It's called a revolution! You wanted revolution, well you got it. Revolution for the rich.

Aye, it's a return of feudalism. Back to the days of the lords and masters. And the serfs in their crumbling villages at the bottom of the hill.

Feudalism, the 21st century variety. But this time every peasant gets a car and a TV. That's if you can afford to put the gas in it or pay the cable bill.

So just keep your mouth shut and get in line.

Remember, if we don't treat the rich with respect they won't invest their money and create jobs for us.

All hail the lords of Wall Street.

Bow to the masters of diaster.

On your knees you!!!!!
---------------------------
Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com
http://space4peace.blogspot.com (Blog)

Again, thanks to Cliff at One Utah for posting this. Wexler has a lot of guts. And Rice is a Liar, big time.