Attorney General Says No More Federal Raids

Obama promised that there would be no more federal raids on marijuana dispenseries in states that allow medical marijuana. Here Eric Holder confirms that what Obama said goes. Congratulations, States' Righters. And enjoy your freedom, glaucoma sufferers and chemotherapy patients who will not longer be arrested for filling prescriptions.

Global Warming Hits the Fan

Lescaux Cave Drawing photo from Discovery.com


Ok, now it's getting real. Sorry about all the birds and bees and whatever else that's dying. Sorry polar bears, drowning in the Artic versus starving is a tough way to go. All of that is sad, but extinction isn't new. This is new. Cave paintings are starting to mold over because heat has stifled the air's circulation in the cave. Cave paintings are probably the best thing we have on Earth. The pyramids are new compared to this. We're the generation that breaks them? We're the ones who can't be trusted to watch the house? You know, in the fight between caveman and astronaut, I used to pick astronaut, but I doubt any of them can paint. Booo.

Fly Clear?

For $200/year, your fingerprints, and a scan of your iris you can now skip the long and dreadful lines to get through security at over 20 airports nationwide. Sounds wonderful. Nothing better than giving up your most personal of identifying information to some random private company. That information will most likely be given to the government, and who knows who else will get their hands on it. Conspiracy theories aside, what happens when everyone starts getting these things? You know what would really cut down waiting time at the security line? The ridiculous security theater. No, my 7oz shampoo is not a bomb. And if my 3oz bottle of shampoo that you actually let me keep was a bomb, I'm pretty sure that ziploc bag would not contain the explosion. Give me a break America. Let's spend the money where it counts...

Get Ready For Higher Taxes

Taxes will be going up. And not because Barack Obama is some tax and spend liberal. The government offers us services such as a military to defend us, highways, and social security, but how does it pay for these things? Taxes. This should be news to nobody. So when we ask the government to start offering us more in the way of services, why do we get scared of having to pay more taxes? The government taxes the people so it can spend money on them. Tax and spend should not be an insult. It's what the government does. And according to Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Kent Conrad (D-ND), the government is going to need more revenue if it is to continue to offer services that Americans demand.

Bobby Jindal

Yeah, Obama had his first "State of the Union" address last night (it wasn't technically a State of the Union address, but whatever), and sure it was pretty good, and I should talk a little bit about it, but I can't get over Bobby Jindal's response on behalf of the Republican Party. I mean, this is the guy the GOP appears to be grooming for a Presidential run, and, I'm, well, you know, ummmm, here's Rachel Maddow's take on it....gahhhhh

Marijuana Bill Introduced in California

A California Assemblyman has introduced a bill that would legalize marijuana in the state and let the state tax it in a similar manner to alcohol. This comes in response to the budget crisis California has been facing. I've been preaching this all along. Granted, marijuana can be grown more or less undetected at home, but if passed, it could seriously increase California's revenue.

Aren't the Republicans the Ones Usually Doing This?

President Obama, today, has officially instructed the Treasury Department to begin implementing tax cuts for 95% of all Americans. According to Obama, average families will start bringing in an extra $65 per month by the first of April. Go ahead and mark up that green check mark under promises kept.

Dance Off of the Century!

Stephen Colbert throws down the gauntlet on Late Night with Conan O'Brien...

North Dakota House Passes "Personhood" Bill

The North Dakota House of Representatives recently passed a bill identifying even a one-cell embryo as a human being. Rather than calling it an anti-abortion bill, they are calling it a "personhood" bill in an effort to mask what it truly is. The final wording of the bill more or less gives full legal rights to anything carrying a human genome. This could be interpreted to mean that every time a person spits, or bleeds, or ejaculates and cells die that person has committed murder. It also would make abortion, or even the morning after pill for that matter, murder. The last time I checked though, a single cell didn't have a heartbeat, or brain waves or fingers and toes to wiggle or legs and arms to flail. The thing I find almost sad about this bill is that it's probably not really designed to pass as a real law. It seems to be designed to get passed and then challenged through the courts in an effort to overturn Roe v Wade. North Dakota, you make me sad. How about instead of putting so much effort into anti-abortion efforts, you put some real honest effort into working to reduce unwanted pregnancies in the first place? Let's be honest here: we all know abortion is ugly, but sometimes it is necessary, because as much as you may not want to admit it, a would-be mother's life has value too. Dare I say more value than a heartless, brainless, armless, legless clump of cells?

High Speed Rail?

The Obama administration may be seriously looking at investing in a high speed rail system in America. All I have to say is it's about time!

Why Can't Augusta Have a News Blog Like This?

The Atlanta Progressive News covers an anti-death penalty group's appeals to the Georgia State Legislature. Augusta is represented in the House by Barbara Sims, Quincy Murphy, Henry "Wayne" Howard, Hardie Davis, and Gloria Frazier. Senators are J.B. Powell and Ed Tarver.

(APN) ATLANTA - A coalition of Georgia religious and human rights activists led by Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (GFADP) spent Tuesday, February 17, 2009, asking state lawmakers to put the death penalty on hold in Georgia, improve indigent defense, and to oppose an effort to allow non-unanimous jury decisions in death penalty cases.


State Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) and activists urged lawmakers to place a moratorium on all executions while the State studies potential blind spots in the system.




Fort said he filed a moratorium bill Tuesday, adding "further studies are necessary to make sure the State is doing its job" of protecting the innocent. The bill information is not yet available online as of press time.


"We should demand that we have a system where mistakes are held at a bare minimum," he said.


The Georgia General Assembly is also considering two bills that anti-death penalty activists say are harmful.


SB 42 would do away with the Georgia Public Defenders Standards Council (GPDSC), a group that assures people who cannot afford legal defense are provided adequate and effective legal representation, and replace it with a single director appointed by the governor.




"This will dramatically weaken legal support for poor people," Sara Totonchi, chair of GFADP, said of SB 42 during a press conference at the State Capitol.


Activists say the GPDSC is well-designed but it was not been able to serve effectively because state lawmakers have been unwilling or unable to fully fund it.


Another bill, HB 32, would allow non-unanimous juries to issue a death sentence; this is the reintroduction of a bill Atlanta Progressive News also covered last Session.


Activists say if the bill becomes law, Georgia would become the first state with a hybrid system that factors in the jury and judge's decision.


"Split jury decisions don't show a weakness in the criminal justice system," Totonchi said. "They show strength and fairness. They are evidence that jurors are taking their duty seriously, carefully weighing the evidence, and making the system operate as it was intended."


GFADP also argues the inevitable, protracted constitutional challenges to such a law would cost taxpayers millions of dollars, tie up the courts, and further delay already drawn out death penalty trials, appeals, and reversals.


"What is so important about the rush to kill people in Georgia," Edward DuBose, chair of the Georgia conference of the National Associated for the Advancement of Colored People, asked. "We stand opposed to any deal that would reduce the number of jurors, especially in a state holding innocent people - people who have been on death row for 20, 30 years."


Meanwhile, a bill moving quickly through the General Assembly could slow the number of death penalty convictions.


SB 13, sponsored by State Sen. Preston Smith (R-Rome), would give district attorneys the option of seeking a life without parole sentence without first having to seek the death penalty to obtain it. The bill is also co-sponsored by State Sen. Kasim Reed, currently running for Mayor of Atlanta.


Current rules dictate that the only way to keep a convicted murderer in jail forever is for the district attorney to seek the death penalty or to obtain a murder conviction against someone who already had a violent felony conviction.


SB 13 unanimously passed the State Senate on February 03, 2009, and received a favorable report from the House Non-Civil Judiciary Committee on February 11, 2009.


A similar Senate bill failed in a conference committee last Session after lawmakers could not come to an agreement on the non-unanimous juries legislation, which the House wanted attached.


Since 1973, 129 inmates have been exonerated from death row, including five in Georgia. While DNA evidence has played a significant role in these exonerations, faulty eyewitness testimony has been to blame for putting innocent lives on the line.


Troy Anthony Davis has been on Georgia's death row since 1991 after a jury convicted him of the 1989 murder of Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail. The prosecution used only eyewitness testimony to obtain a conviction.


But since the original trial, seven of nine witnesses have either changed or recanted their testimony. In light of the recantations, groups like GFADP and Amnesty International say there is far too much doubt to execute Davis and that he should be granted a new trial so the new evidence can be heard.


Martina Correia, sister of Davis, said Tuesday her brother's case represents the problems that already exist in the system.


"We believe in a higher standard for the justice system," Correia said. "The standards that are trying to be imposed should really disgust all of us."


State Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Decatur), who spent at least two years trying to reform eyewitness identification procedures through the General Assembly, said Tuesday there has been progress without legislation.


Working with various law enforcement agencies, Benfield said the Georgia Public Safety Training Center has developed a course on eyewitness identification as part of its training for all officers.


"I hope we won't see injustices like Troy Davis again in the future," Benfield said.


Correia urged other Georgians to stay informed on these issues. "If I stand out, it's because too many of us stand back."


"This is bigger than the death penalty, this is bigger than Troy Davis," Correia added. "This is about a system unseen. We can fight and be a voice for the voiceless."


Stay with Atlanta Progressive News and Atlanta Progressive Blog for updates on these bills and others.

Gitmo Guard Speaks Out

Brandon Neely, a former guard at Guantanamo Bay, came forward a couple of years ago with his story and it is now being released. Obviously, based on his account, everything at Gitmo was on the up and up. That's why they all acted the same and treated the prisoners the same before and after the Red Cross showed up. Or not.

Change I Can Believe In

I'm still giving Obama a year before I judge...

If You Didn't Notice, I'm Back

I just returned from a six week trip to France and Spain. The trip was wonderful and I met a lot of great people while I was over there. I'll be departing again in the not too distant future, so don't get used to me being back.

Like, How Many Times Can She Say Like?

I don't know why this is newsworthy but here I am commenting on it myself anyway, so whatever. Apparently Bristol Palin (yes that's the expert-on-what? daughter of at-this-point-politically-irrelevant-also-ran Sarah Palin) thinks that teen abstinence is not realistic. Could America's right have finally found its safe sex education spokesperson? Well, no. Probably not. She says teen abstinence is unrealistic, but also wants to share her story so that teens might think twice about having sex. So, basically, this interview was pointless, and thus so was this blog post. And the answer is eight, if anyone actually went and read the article.

Easy Part: Done

President Obama signed the next economic stimulus package into law today, marking the end of all of the United States' economic woes. Wait. No. Even the administration is labeling this as merely the beginning of hopefully the end. Honestly, if we look back at recessions in our history, we always come out of them. The economy is cyclic. But how do we end up coming out of them most often? Well, war production always seems to help, but what if a war had a small hand in creating the economic problems in the first place? Could we not wage peace to get us out of the recession? A major part of Obama's plan is just that: focus on infrastructure and spending at home instead of abroad (let's be honest: money spent abroad is usually military/war related). Will it work? Only time will tell for sure. Stratfor has a pretty decent breakdown of the package.

Dollhouse is Awesome

Dollhouse, the new series by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, premiered Friday on Fox. The Dollhouse is a high-dollar establishment that rents out "actives" to fulfill any imaginable whim of rich clients. Actives are humans whose memories and personalities have been erased and are custom programmed for each new "engagement" with just the right mix of real individuals' characteristics from a data library of what look like 8 track tapes. Eliza Dushku stars as an active named Echo. Buffy fans will remember Dushku's great performance when her character, Faith, switched bodies with Buffy and probably share Whedon's eagerness to watch her revolve through characters and to try search for some essence of Echo that survived the erasure.

Anyone familiar with Whedon's work will recognize certain themes- the stoic, unwitting heroine with the calm, fatherly guide, the back and forth between the realistic and the fantastic, the dangerous allure of power, the conflicting desires for freedom and belonging, and the big question- what makes us human. Maybe the funniest Whedon standby is his own dual alter-ego thing, here split between the programmer- a (redheaded youthful) genius unencumbered by moral concerns and fascinated by his ability to create magnificent beings, and the FBI agent- a (redheaded youthful) clear sighted, handsome soldier of righteousness whose conflict stems from the fact that his moral standards are higher than his line of work will allow.

Whedon has been criticized for the moral ambiguity of his characters and situations. (The fact that critics see complexity as a problem seems like more of a problem.) The FBI agent getting in trouble with his boss for jeopardizing an investigation of major human traffickers is compelling precisely because it is complicated. Dollhouse has also been panned because the actives are attractive and (presumably) often hired out as dream dates; there are concerns that Whedon's losing his girl-power soul. It could be that he's just moved from (totally awesome) magic and vampires to technology and slavery- quite real aspects of our world, a world where hopefully feminism can exist just as well as it did in that imaginary high school library built over a hell mouth in Sunnydale.

Miss it? Watch here.

Big Brother and Family Farms

From Organic Consumers Association:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been working for over five years to force a National Animal Identification System (NAIS) onto American animal owners. NAIS is designed to identify and track each and every individual livestock and poultry animal owned by family farmers, hobby farmers, homesteaders, and pet owners across the country.

USDA claims that NAIS is a disease tracking program, but has refused to provide any support for its claims.

In reality, NAIS will:

Create expensive and time-consuming tagging and reporting requirements for small farms. The requirements are particularly burdensome for those farmers raising sustainable livestock on pasture. Ultimately, this will reduce the availability of grass-fed meats, eggs, and milk.

Give factory confinement farms a loophole through the use of group identification, providing yet another unfair advantage for factory farms.

Not provide any information to the consumer, and does not improve food safety, because the tracking ends with the animal’s death.

Replace states' existing, well-functioning disease response and brand inspection programs with an unproven, expensive, and unreliable system.

Impose high costs and government surveillance on every farmer and animal owner for no significant benefits, and will likely force many small producers out of business.

NAIS does nothing to improve food safety for consumers or prevent animal diseases. This program is a one-size-fits-all program developed by and for big Agribusiness. NAIS will increase consolidation of our food supply in the hands of a few large companies and put the brakes on the growing movement toward local food systems.

The grassroots movement has already successfully stalled USDA's plans for NAIS, which originally called for the entire program - premises registration, animal identification, and tracking - to be mandatory by January 2009. The proposed rule is an opportunity to get thousands of objections in the formal record, and have an even greater impact.

Go here to sign a message to the USDA.

State of the Stimulus in Augusta

City/County Administrator Fred Russell sat in on a conference call Friday with our U.S. Representative John Barrow and others, including our Georgia Representative Hardie Davis, to get an overview of the stimulus bill. Mr. Russell recounts that 35% of the bill is tax cuts, including things like rebate checks for those making under $75,000, increased child and college tax credits, and accelerated depreciation for small businesses. Congressman Barrow discussed the "smart" energy grid, broadband expansion, and health care information technology. Of particular interest was direct aid to states, meant to save core services that state budgets such as Georgia's are threatening to cut. Georgia would receive $2.3 billion (other sources list $1.2 billion) to keep us at the 2008 funding level for education, $87 billion nationally for Medicare (he may have meant Medicaid- Georgia would receive $1.7 billion), and a billion for maintenance of Georgia's bridges and roads. When asked about what action the city is taking to ensure our share of funds, he says that the unfunded SPLOST list was sent to the Department of Transportation. Also our sewer people have sent a list to the water people. Are there any other lists ready to go to other agencies? Mr. Russell says we don't know yet; the bill hasn't been passed and signed and we don't know the rules.
Here are nice links to see what's in the compromised stimulus bill the House passed Friday (with only three yes votes from the Republicans who had such influence)- one for spending and one for taxes .

Poor People's Day in Atlanta

From the Atlanta Progressive News:

Story and photo by Jonathan Springston
(APN) ATLANTA - About 75 local and state activists descended on the Georgia State Capitol Thursday, February 12, 2009, via a boisterous caravan to unveil The People's Bailout, a plan for ordinary Georgians.

Several progressive constituencies hold lobby days while the Georgia legislature in session. Similar to last year, this year's 29th Annual Poor People's Day involved a caravan, which launched from the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless and ended at the Georgia Capitol.

Yesterday, an education day had been held at the office of the Georgia Coalition on Hunger.

A populist response to the recent private bank bailout in the US, this year's seven-point People's Bailout includes calls for single-payer universal healthcare, a moratorium on foreclosures, increasing the minimum wage, reforming the tax code, ending time limits on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), ending privatization of public institutions, and sentencing non-violent petty criminals to house arrest.

"We need jobs, fair taxes, just welfare assistance," Sandra Robertson, Executive Director of the Georgia Citizens' Coalition on Hunger, said. "We need public housing. We need a host of things to help ordinary people."

This year, Poor People's Day holds significance for an even larger majority of Georgians, as the US has entered an economic recession which analysts are saying is much worse than recent US recessions.

The numbers tell the story: according to a pamphlet regarding the People's Bailout, 393,168 Georgians were out of work, 112,000 more were working jobs paying less than the federal minimum wage, and 116,225 foreclosures occurred in 2008.

As previously covered by Atlanta Progressive News, last year's Poor People's Day had been combined with a people's ballot-where people got to vote on their issue priority-and also coincided with a World Social Forum solidarity day. After a long caravan ride through downtown, activists met at the Georgia Coalition on Hunger office for speeches.

In 2006, the main event was held at a downtown church and included a march to the Capitol and lobbying of legislators for an increase in the state minimum wage, one which today still has not been enacted.

In Georgia, there are some occupations which are allowed to pay wages lower than the federal minimum wage, which has been incrementally increasing since 2007.

"We can tell those in high places that when the time for change comes... [no one] can stop it," Dr. Kenneth L. Samuel, pastor of the Victory Church in Stone Mountain, said.

"We have to be the change agents. We need to reinvest in America," he added. "Now is the time. Let's fight the war on poverty [and] put the focus back on our own people."

Other speakers targeted specific issue areas of concern.

Alan Essig, Executive Director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, said Georgia should do "something fundamental about the tax code."

"You can give relief to low to moderate income people," Essig said. "We can give a tax cut to the majority of Georgians."

The People's Bailout calls for exempting families who make less than $12,000 a year from paying taxes.

Additionally, the plan calls for requiring families making over $100,000 a year and corporations earning more than $250,000 taxable net income to pay 18 percent state income tax. Other corporations should pay 12 percent.

Further, the plan states that families who earn less than $100,000 taxable income but more than $39,000, should pay 10 percent; while families earning between $12,001 and $39,000 should pay 6 percent.

"We believe this is a fair tax that helps lower-income families," the plan states. "Our poorest citizens should not carry the bulk of the tax burden of our state."

Bobbie Paul, Executive Director of Georgia Women's Action for New Directions (WAND) discussed nuclear power and the impact Georgia Power's plan to expand the Plant Vogtle nuclear facility will have on residents living in the area.

"Tritium coming from nuclear power plants can be carcinogenic, mutagenic, and multigenerational," Paul said. "It is a bad idea."

She also expressed disappointment over the Georgia Senate's passage of SB 31 Wednesday, as reported by Atlanta Progressive News. That bill would allow Georgia Power to raise rates on consumers to pay for the construction of the expansion at Plant Vogtle rather than waiting to bill customers after the project is complete.

"If we had a people's lobby, this never would have happened," Paul said.

The American Association of Retired People is leading the charge against the bill and hoping to convince enough members of the Georgia House to stop it.

"Georgia Power's fantasy for clean and cheap power... is just that - a fantasy," Paul said. "[One] that is meant to shift risks from utility shareholders and executives to taxpayers and ratepayers."

Other topics of discussion today included homelessness and the prison industrial complex.

Citizens had a chance to spend yesterday participating in workshops and plenary sessions on these and other topics during Education Day at the Coalition on Hunger's headquarters in Atlanta.

To conclude the ceremony Thursday, participants jammed the phone lines of the Capitol, making calls to several state lawmakers, telling them, "We demand The People's Bailout."

They also encouraged lawmakers to support HB 290, which would raise the minimum wage and do so every year to keep up with the cost of living.

Afterwards, a delegation went to the Capitol to speak to different lawmakers about these issues.

"We know they will hear, when each and every one of you makes your voices heard," Dianne Mathiowetz of the Atlanta International Action Center said.

Stay tuned to Atlanta Progressive Blog for more pictures from Thursday's event and more information about The People's Bailout.

Buckle Up, Georgia. All Y'all.

Is it really over? I didn't even know that we didn't have to wear seatbelts in pick-em-up trucks here in Georgia; we were the only state with a specific pickup exemption. The Georgia Senate voted today 49-4 to go nanny nation and require adults in trucks to wear seat belts. It will get us some federal highway funding we've been refused under the old law. I can see seat belt laws and helmet laws if medical care were covered by the government, but when we have to pay our own hospital bills shouldn't nobody get to tell us we have to be smart. New Hampshire has no seat belt law. "Live Free or Die" they say.

Augusta's Unemployment First-Timers Increasing

Georgia's initial claims to unemployment insurance has increased 80.7% percent since last January. Ours here in Augusta was slightly below that at 79.1%, but well above the rates of cities such as Columbus (21%), Macon (41.1%), Valdosta (35.4%), and Savannah (39.1%). According to the U.S. census 14.5% of Georgians are below poverty level, but 22.5% of Augusta-Richmond County residents are living in poverty. Mayor Deke doesn't seem to figure either of these statistics into his formula for good economic health. "The fundamentals of our economy are strong" echoes in his ringing endorsement of our fair city last month. Augusta is "faring better than any city in the state and better than most across the country. ... We're a community that's praying. That's what's doing it."

Correct Information Should Be Privileged Over Incorrect

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Augusta government quiz:
Q. Who is in charge of getting proposals ready for stimulus money here in Augusta?
A. According to Fred Russell, Augusta-Richmond County Administrator- nobody, really.

Congresswoman Tells People Facing Foreclosure to Squat

In an interview with Amy Goodman, Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio advises people not to leave thieir homes when faced with foreclosure. After all the trading and buying and selling of mortgages, the bank may not be able to produce the actual loan note. And even then, the sheriff may or may not boot you.
From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Marcy Kaptur of Ohio is the longest-serving Democratic congresswoman in U.S. history. Her district, stretching along the shore of Lake Erie from west of Cleveland to Toledo, faces an epidemic of home foreclosures and 11.5 percent unemployment. That heartland region, the Rust Belt, had its heart torn out by the North American Free Trade Agreement, with shuttered factories and struggling family farms. Kaptur led the fight in Congress against NAFTA. Now, she is recommending a radical foreclosure solution from the floor of the U.S. Congress: "So I say to the American people, you be squatters in your own homes. Don't you leave."

She criticizes the bailout's failure to protect homeowners facing foreclosure. Her advice to "squat" cleverly exploits a legal technicality within the subprime-mortgage crisis. These mortgages were made, then bundled into securities and sold and resold repeatedly, by the very Wall Street banks that are now benefiting from TARP (the Troubled Asset Relief Program). The banks foreclosing on families very often can't locate the actual loan note that binds the homeowner to the bad loan. "Produce the note," Kaptur recommends those facing foreclosure demands of the banks.

"[P]ossession is nine-tenths of the law," Rep. Kaptur told me. "Therefore, stay in your property. Get proper legal representation … [if] Wall Street cannot produce the deed nor the mortgage audit trail … you should stay in your home. It is your castle. It's more than a piece of property. … Most people don't even think about getting representation, because they get a piece of paper from the bank, and they go, 'Oh, it's the bank,' and they become fearful, rather than saying: 'This is contract law. The mortgage is a contract. I am one party. There is another party. What are my legal rights under the law as a property owner?' "If you look at the bad paper, if you look at where there's trouble, 95 to 98 percent of the paper really has moved to five institutions: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wachovia, Citigroup and HSBC. They have this country held by the neck."

Kaptur recommends calling the local Legal Aid Society, Bar Association or 888-995-4673 for legal assistance.

The onerous duty of physically evicting people and dragging their possessions to the curb typically falls on the local sheriff. Kaptur conditions her squatting advice, saying, "If it's a sheriff's eviction, if it's reached that point, that is almost impossible." Unless the sheriff refuses to carry out the eviction, as Sheriff Warren C. Evans of Wayne County, Mich., has decided to do. Wayne County, including Detroit, has had more than 46,000 foreclosures in the past two years.

After reviewing TARP, Evans determined that home foreclosures would conflict with TARP's goal of reducing foreclosures, and that he'd be violating the law by denying foreclosed homeowners the chance at potential federal assistance. "I cannot in clear conscience allow one more family to be put out of their home until I am satisfied they have been afforded every option they are entitled to under the law to avoid foreclosure," he said.

Bruce Marks of the Boston-based Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America is taking the fight to the homes of the banks' CEOs. Last October, as the TARP bailout was shaping up to benefit Wall Street and not Main Street, NACA blockaded the entrance of mortgage giant Fannie Mae until it got a meeting with executives there. Now NACA is working with Fannie Mae to restructure mortgages. Marks is organizing a nationwide, three-day "Predator's Tour," going to the CEOs' homes to demand meetings with them. He told me: "This is what we're going to do with thousands of homeowners, go to their (the CEOs') home and say: 'I want you to meet my family. I want you to see who you're foreclosing on.' … If they're going to take our homes, we're going to go to their homes, and we're going to tell them, 'No more.' "

Before the inauguration, Larry Summers, the chair of President Obama's National Economic Council, promised congressional Democratic leaders to "implement smart, aggressive policies to reduce the number of preventable foreclosures by helping to reduce mortgage payments for economically stressed but responsible homeowners, while also reforming our bankruptcy laws and strengthening existing housing initiatives."

According to a report by RealtyTrac, "Foreclosure filings were reported on 2.3 million U.S. properties in 2008, an increase of 81 percent from 2007 and up 225 percent from 2006." As the financial crisis deepens, people facing foreclosure should take Kaptur's advice and tell their bankers, "Produce the note."

Naomi Klein on Crisis, Theft by Ideology, and Enough Already

From The Nation:

Watching the crowds in Iceland banging pots and pans until their government fell reminded me of a chant popular in anti-capitalist circles in 2002: "You are Enron. We are Argentina."

Its message was simple enough. You--politicians and CEOs huddled at some trade summit--are like the reckless scamming execs at Enron (of course, we didn't know the half of it). We--the rabble outside--are like the people of Argentina, who, in the midst of an economic crisis eerily similar to our own, took to the street banging pots and pans. They shouted, "¡Que se vayan todos!" ("All of them must go!") and forced out a procession of four presidents in less than three weeks. What made Argentina's 2001-02 uprising unique was that it wasn't directed at a particular political party or even at corruption in the abstract. The target was the dominant economic model--this was the first national revolt against contemporary deregulated capitalism.

It's taken a while, but from Iceland to Latvia, South Korea to Greece, the rest of the world is finally having its ¡Que se vayan todos! moment.

The stoic Icelandic matriarchs beating their pots flat even as their kids ransack the fridge for projectiles (eggs, sure, but yogurt?) echo the tactics made famous in Buenos Aires. So does the collective rage at elites who trashed a once thriving country and thought they could get away with it. As Gudrun Jonsdottir, a 36-year-old Icelandic office worker, put it: "I've just had enough of this whole thing. I don't trust the government, I don't trust the banks, I don't trust the political parties and I don't trust the IMF. We had a good country, and they ruined it."

Another echo: in Reykjavik, the protesters clearly won't be bought off by a mere change of face at the top (even if the new PM is a lesbian). They want aid for people, not just banks; criminal investigations into the debacle; and deep electoral reform.

Similar demands can be heard these days in Latvia, whose economy has contracted more sharply than any country in the EU, and where the government is teetering on the brink. For weeks the capital has been rocked by protests, including a full-blown, cobblestone-hurling riot on January 13. As in Iceland, Latvians are appalled by their leaders' refusal to take any responsibility for the mess. Asked by Bloomberg TV what caused the crisis, Latvia's finance minister shrugged: "Nothing special."

But Latvia's troubles are indeed special: the very policies that allowed the "Baltic Tiger" to grow at a rate of 12 percent in 2006 are also causing it to contract violently by a projected 10 percent this year: money, freed of all barriers, flows out as quickly as it flows in, with plenty being diverted to political pockets. (It is no coincidence that many of today's basket cases are yesterday's "miracles": Ireland, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia.)

Something else Argentina-esque is in the air. In 2001 Argentina's leaders responded to the crisis with a brutal International Monetary Fund-prescribed austerity package: $9 billion in spending cuts, much of it hitting health and education. This proved to be a fatal mistake. Unions staged a general strike, teachers moved their classes to the streets and the protests never stopped.

This same bottom-up refusal to bear the brunt of the crisis unites many of today's protests. In Latvia, much of the popular rage has focused on government austerity measures--mass layoffs, reduced social services and slashed public sector salaries--all to qualify for an IMF emergency loan (no, nothing has changed). In Greece, December's riots followed a police shooting of a 15-year-old. But what's kept them going, with farmers taking the lead from students, is widespread rage at the government's crisis response: banks got a $36 billion bailout while workers got their pensions cut and farmers received next to nothing. Despite the inconvenience caused by tractors blocking roads, 78 percent of Greeks say the farmers' demands are reasonable. Similarly, in France the recent general strike--triggered in part by President Sarkozy's plans to reduce the number of teachers dramatically--inspired the support of 70 percent of the population.

Perhaps the sturdiest thread connecting this global backlash is a rejection of the logic of "extraordinary politics"--the phrase coined by Polish politician Leszek Balcerowicz to describe how, in a crisis, politicians can ignore legislative rules and rush through unpopular "reforms." That trick is getting tired, as South Korea's government recently discovered. In December, the ruling party tried to use the crisis to ram through a highly controversial free trade agreement with the United States. Taking closed-door politics to new extremes, legislators locked themselves in the chamber so they could vote in private, barricading the door with desks, chairs and couches.

Opposition politicians were having none of it: with sledgehammers and an electric saw, they broke in and staged a twelve-day sit-in of Parliament. The vote was delayed, allowing for more debate--a victory for a new kind of "extraordinary politics."

Here in Canada, politics is markedly less YouTube-friendly--but it has still been surprisingly eventful. In October the Conservative Party won national elections on an unambitious platform. Six weeks later, our Tory prime minister found his inner ideologue, presenting a budget bill that stripped public sector workers of the right to strike, canceled public funding for political parties and contained no economic stimulus. Opposition parties responded by forming a historic coalition that was only prevented from taking power by an abrupt suspension of Parliament. The Tories have just come back with a revised budget: the pet right-wing policies have disappeared, and it is packed with economic stimulus.

The pattern is clear: governments that respond to a crisis created by free-market ideology with an acceleration of that same discredited agenda will not survive to tell the tale. As Italy's students have taken to shouting in the streets: "We won't pay for your crisis!"

Christians Allowed into Cobb County Schools After Hours

Which one is true or truer: I just got back from the postal complex and saw a story about a faith-based group in Cobb County, or I just got back from the post office and saw a story about a Christian group in Cobb County? Anyway, the Child Evangelist Fellowship gets to use the school for free after hours after all- just like the Boy Scouts get to, and Fulton County Schools have to pay them almost $22,000 to cover legal fees and court costs.
I like separating Church and State, but I also like Little House on the Prairie. Just let people use public buildings. They're ours. Use a sign-up sheet so it's fair. Big whoop. Where else should groups meet? Denny's? The mall? Park benches? Why wouldn't we want Bible study kids to use an open room? Maybe people would be less obsessed with private property if they felt more welcome on public property.
I know there's a grudge. I know Christians groups have been pretty rough on public schools. I know there's creationism and abstinence-only sex ed. But that's the school board's fault and people should vote better for their school boards. Little kids reading the Bible is not the problem. Letting Crusaders get into office is the problem. We have got to do better at studying school board candidates. Living in Georgia, our votes often don't do much at state or national level, maybe we would do better to study school board candidates. Which candidates did you like? Wanna see who won?

Troy Davis is Still Waiting

Troy Davis is still waiting for a decision from a panel of three judges as to whether he will get a hearing on new evidence. New evidence such as seven of the nine eyewitnesses the state used to convict Davis of shooting and killing a police officer have since recanted. And that one of the two remaining witnesses has been implicated as the real killer. No murder weapon or physical evidence has been found to link Davis to the crime.



Tell Governor Perdue that Troy Davis must not be executed without a court ever considering the evidence of his innocence.

See What's Planned for Augusta

From Administrator Fred Russell at the unveiling of Augusta Tomorrow's Master Plan:
"Setting the bar high for a bright future. Check the Augusta Tomorrow web site."

I Don't Want to Frighten Anyone

That's a lie. Look at this!


From Discovery News:

A rare fossil of an ancient whale with a fetus still inside reveals that its species -- an ancestor to modern whales -- gave birth on land 47.5 million years ago, according to a paper published in the online journal PLoS.

The discovery, along with prior fossil finds, suggests the first whale ancestors were full-time land dwellers that might have been related to the early relatives of hoofed animals, such as sheep and cattle.

Maiacetus inuus, meaning "mother whale," represents an intermediate evolutionary stage. It lived at the land-sea interface and often moved back and forth between the two environments in what is Pakistan today.

It looked like an improbable cross between a cow, whale, shark, alligator and sea lion.

Georgia Senate OKs "Life Without Parole"

ATLANTA (AP) — The state Senate has approved legislation which would allow prosecutors to seek life without parole against convicted killers without first pursuing the death penalty.


The legislation from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Preston Smith passed unanimously Tuesday.


Under current law, prosecutors may not obtain a sentence of life without parole unless they first seek the death penalty. Smith, a Rome Republican, says such capital trials are time-consuming and costly.


Life without parole is already an option for prosecutors in rape cases.


Smith says the bill has the support of prosecutors but that lawyers in the defense community are split on the change.


The bill now moves to the state House.

SB 42- A Message from Amnesty International

The case of Troy Davis has revealed deep flaws in Georgia's justice system. With the Georgia Legislature in session, now is the time when things could be made better -- or worse.

Senate Bill 42 will make things worse. It dismantles the independent agency that for five years has been working to ensure effective legal representation of indigent defendants, and replaces it with a single Director, hand-picked by the Governor.

This will dramatically weaken legal support for poor people charged with crimes, including those who face the death penalty.

You can make things better.
Urge your Senator to vote NO on Senate Bill 42
Join Amnesty International and Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty for a Moratorium Lobby Day on February 17

We should not be dismantling indigent defense at a time when the Troy Davis case has made the shortcomings of Georgia justice all too clear.

Please take action, and then join us at the state capitol on February 17. As we already know, when we bring our voices together, we can make a real difference and move the state of Georgia in the right direction on the path of justice.

Here is the link to send a message to your Senator.

No-Party People

From Rasmussen Reports:

During January, the number of Americans who say they are not affiliated with either the Republican or the Democratic Party rose by a full percentage point to 26.6%.

The number of Americans who consider themselves to be Democrats dropped from 41.6% in December to 40.9% in January. Still, the number of Democrats topped the 40% mark for the fourth straight month and the ninth time in the last twelve months. Prior to the past twelve months, neither party was able to claim allegiance from more than 40% of Americans in any monthly polling dating back to November 2002.

The number of Republicans slipped two-tenths of a point in January to 32.8% in November to 32.6% in December. That’s the lowest number of Republicans in the country since last July.

Rasmussen Reports tracks this information based upon telephone interviews with approximately 15,000 adults per month and has been doing so since November 2002.

Continued.

Rove Will Cooperate

From Talking Points Memo:

Karl Rove will cooperate with a federal criminal inquiry underway into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys and has already spoken to investigators in a separate, internal DOJ investigation into the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, his attorney said in an interview.

Rove previously refused to cooperate with an earlier Justice Department inquiry into the firings. The Justice Department's Inspector General and its Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) said in a report released last September detailing their earlier probe of the firings of the U.S. attorneys that their investigation was severely "hindered" by the refusal by Rove and other senior Bush administration officials to cooperate with the probe.

Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, said that Rove, however, will cooperate with a federal criminal probe of the firings being led by Nora Dannehy, the Acting U.S. Attorney for Connecticut who was selected by former Attorney General Michael Mukasey to lead the investigation. Dannehy has recently empaneled a federal grand jury to hear evidence in the matter.

Luskin told me that Rove had earlier not cooperated with the Inspector General and OPR probe into the firings because "it was not his [Karl's] call... it was not up to us decide." Luskin said that Rove was directed by the Bush White House counsel's office not to cooperate with the Inspector General and OPR.

Continued.

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

South Carolina Sheriff Excited About Phelps' Bong

From Huffington Post:

Michael Phelps has so far emerged unscathed from the controversy created by the photo showing him smoking from a bong, with his sponsors still standing behind him. However, he still could face criminal charges if it's determined that he was smoking marijuana, which shouldn't be too difficult considering there's a photo and Phelps has already confessed:

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott says he will charge Michael Phelps with a crime if he determines the Olympics hero smoked marijuana in Richland County...

...Possession of marijuana is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail or a $570 fine, plus court costs.

But Lott seems to be the only person talking about making a case against Phelps. Both the USC and Columbia Police Departments said they would not pursue charges.

More Money Needed for Public Defense in Georgia

From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

In what may be its final stand, Georgia’s public defender council voted Monday for emergency spending and a budget far exceeding Gov. Sonny Perdue’s recommendation.

The Georgia Public Defender Standards Council is seeking more funding when other state agencies are slashing their budgets to make up for a revenue shortfall. Council members said the defender agency needs the money to meet its constitutional obligations.

The request goes to the Legislature, where some lawmakers want to strip the council’s board of its power. Senate Bill 42, which would turn over authority to the defender council’s executive director, recently passed a key committee by a 5-4 vote.

On Monday, the council voted to request $1.4 million in emergency funding to keep the agency afloat through the end of the fiscal year, which ends June 30. Separately, it voted to ask for $48.3 million for fiscal 2010, more than $12 million more than what is being recommended by Perdue.

Before the vote, executive director Mack Crawford cautioned against it.

“I think it’s suicidal, to be honest with you,” he said. Asking for more when other agencies being ordered to get by with less may do more harm than good, he said.

Dawson County Commission Chairman Mike Berg, a member of the council’s board, agreed. “You know everybody else is cutting back,” he said.

But Walker County Attorney Don Oliver, another member, said the council is asking for the bare minimum. “This agency has never been fully funded, and the money is there,” he said, referring to an indigent defense fund.

In 2004, lawmakers voted to fund the new defender system through increases in court fees and criminal fines. But the fund has been collecting millions of dollars more than what the Legislature has given the agency.

On Monday, the council voted to ask the Legislature to hold on to money collected by the fund. Whatever money is left over —- beyond what is appropriated to the defender agency —- would then be used to cover unexpected costs, such as fees for defending someone like courthouse killer Brian Nichols. Whatever money is not used for the agency would be returned as grant money to counties, the council recommended.

Holder Confirmed as Attorney General

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -

The Senate confirmed Eric Holder as U.S. attorney general on Monday, putting him in position to oversee President Barack Obama's plans to overhaul U.S. legal policy in the war on terrorism.

The Senate voted 75-21 to approve Holder, a deputy attorney general under former President Bill Clinton. Aides said he would be sworn in on Tuesday as the first black U.S. attorney general.

Holder, 58, is a former federal judge, U.S. prosecutor and prominent white-collar attorney.

Obama last week designated Holder to oversee plans to close the Guantanamo prison for terrorism suspects, and develop new policies on detaining and interrogating terrorism suspects.

The project is a centerpiece of Obama's push to restore America's image, which has been tarnished by charges of human rights abuses in the antiterrorism campaign launched by former President George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks.

"At a time when our moral authority in the world is threatened by the immoral acts that were sanctioned from the top, we need an attorney general who puts civil liberties first," said Senator Roland Burris, an Illinois Democrat who filled the Senate seat vacated by Obama.

The new attorney general must also protect the public against terrorism and "put people first" in combating Wall Street crimes, Burris said during a debate on the nomination. "We can be certain that Eric Holder will do these things."

Protest in Davos

And some BBC coverage of Davos.

The Global Wealthy to Our Rescue?

From Too Much:

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin delivered the opening keynote address last week at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, before an elite gathering that included a record 1,400 CEOs from around the world and over 40 heads of state.

Putin fit right in. His remarks would strike all the right notes — and anticipate the themes that would bounce around throughout the forum’s five days.

Only “mutual trust,” Putin would assert, can bring the world out of global economic meltdown, along, of course, with an ongoing commitment to making the world safe for big-time investors.

“We are convinced that those who create attractive conditions for global investment today,” Putin declared, “will become the leaders in restoring the world economy.”

And creating those “attractive conditions,” Putin would explain to a reporter who asked him “if the shrinking number of billionaires was a positive to be taken from the credit crisis,” means keeping the world a place where grand fortunes can continue to accumulate.

Putin has had highly publicized run-ins, over the years, with several Russian super-rich “oligarchs.” At Davos, he vigorously protested his image in the West as a “billionaire slayer.”

“It was never my goal to stamp out billionaires,” Putin pronounced, adding that should anyone, acting within the law, gain a billion or two, then “God bless him.”

Putin would not entertain, even for a moment, the possibility that the chase after billion-dollar fortunes may have somehow contributed to the global economic meltdown. Neither would any other mover and shaker at Davos.

The forum’s endless panels and speeches systematically ignored the impact of grand accumulations of private wealth on the world economy. One session did promise a look at “Hard Lessons about Global Imbalances,” but the “imbalances” in question turned out to revolve around currency reserves, not top-heavy concentrations of income and wealth.

Forum organizers titled another session “Threats to Society.” Did maldistributions of income and wealth count as a “threat”? Not quite. The panel focused instead on “illegal drugs and counterfeit goods,” the global increase in “illicit activities and transnational crime.”

This studied silence on the concentration of the world’s wealth should hardly count as any sort of surprise. That wealth, after all, has been concentrating in the pockets of the same wealthy who drop in on Davos every year. These exalted souls could hardly be expected to acknowledge the consequences of their own fortunes — and how they’ve amassed them.

But those consequences remain the biggest hurdle to global economic recovery. A world where wealth has tilted overwhelmingly to the top, where average people must go deep into debt to get by, where grand fortunes translate into the political power that stymies needed reforms, will forever be unstable.

At Davos, the rich and their retainers did their best to fudge that reality. They worked hard to strike a sober, problem-solving pose. They spent less on parties. One top global public relations executive, Howard Rubenstein, even suggested that business leaders should pay, out of their own pockets, for the half-hour helicopter ride from the Zurich airport to the Davos snowy slopes.

“They should avoid anything that appears super fancy or super rich,” the PR expert intoned, “or thumbing their noses at taxpayers during a time of austerity.”

On that score, the world’s bankers and corporate leaders largely succeeded last week. But they still face a more daunting task: reclaiming their credibility in a world no longer so easily vowed by riches and those who hold them.

“The wealth creators of recent years,” summed up two British journalists covering the Davos scene, Ashley Seager and Larry Elliott, “have suddenly become the wealth destroyers.”