Winter Olympics on slippery slope after Vancouver crackdown on homeless

guardian.co.uk: Oversized neon Olympic rings illuminate Vancouver harbour while a giant mural of a snowboarder mid-trick welcomes visitors to the airport. In the city centre, a sleek steel-and-glass Olympic clock is counting down to next month's winter games.

But for 51-year-old Wayne, a homeless drug addict, looking up at the snowcapped mountains where the downhill competition runs will be fills him with dread.

"We're all going to be cleared out of here before the Olympics," he said, wrapped in a flimsy sleeping bag and clutching a bag of bottles plucked from street bins which he will exchange for money. "The clean-up will happen – they all want to hide the city's black eye, right?"

That black eye is the Downtown Eastside (DTES), one of the most highly visible and divisive parts of the Canadian city's involvement with the Olympics. The area is both ghetto and historic community. It boasts a high concentration of single-room accommodation and cardboard-and-shopping-trolley "homes" for Wayne and many of the region's other 2,660 homeless people.

James O'Keefe's Race Problem

Little Green Footbals: An activist organization that monitors hate groups has produced a photo of O’Keefe at a 2006 conference on “Race and Conservatism” that featured leading white nationalists. The photo, first published Jan. 30 on the Web site of the anti-racism group One People’s Project, shows O’Keefe at the gathering, which was so controversial even the ultra-right Leadership Institute, which employed O’Keefe at the time, withdrew its backing. But O’Keefe and fellow young conservative provocateur Marcus Epstein soldiered on to give anti-Semites, professional racists and proponents of Aryanism an opportunity to share their grievances and plans to make inroads in the GOP.

According to One People’s Project founder Daryle Jenkins, O’Keefe was manning the literature table at the gathering that brought together anti-Semites, professional racists and proponents of Aryanism. OPP covered the event at the time, sending a freelance photographer to document the gathering. Jenkins told me the table was filled with tracts from the white supremacist right, including two pseudo-academic publications that have called blacks and Latinos genetically inferior to whites: American Renaissance and the Occidental Quarterly. The leading speaker was Jared Taylor, founder of the white nationalist group American Renaissance.

Some new black history. First black woman named to lead any states National Gaurd

On Feb. 1, 2010 Brigadier General Mary J. Kight was named as the first female adjutant African-American female National Guard adjutant general in the nation. She will be in charge of the California National Gaurd. Read more here:

http://www.letstalkhonestly.com/blacknewsblackviews.html

Slavery in US Prisons--Interview with Robert King & Terry Kupers

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." --13th Amendment, 1865.

An 18,000-acre former slave plantation in rural Louisiana, the infamous Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola is the largest prison in the U.S. Today, with African Americans composing over 75% of Angola's 5,108 prisoners, prison guards known as "free men," a forced 40-hour workweek, and four cents an hour as minimum wage, the resemblance to antebellum U.S. slavery is striking. In the early 1970s, it was even worse, as prisoners were forced to work 96-hour weeks (16 hours a day/six days a week) with two cents an hour as minimum wage. Officially considered (according to its own website) the "Bloodiest Prison in the South" at this time, violence from guards and between prisoners was endemic. Prison authorities sanctioned prisoner rape, and according to former Prison Warden Murray Henderson, the prison guards actually helped facilitate a brutal system of sexual slavery where the younger and physically weaker prisoners were bought and sold into submission. As part of the notorious "inmate trusty guard" system, responsible for killing 40 prisoners and seriously maiming 350 between 1972-75, some prisoners were given state-issued weapons and ordered to enforce this sexual slavery, as well as the prison's many other injustices. Life at Angola was living hell -- a 20th century slave plantation.

Israel admits Gaza war violations

Israel has admitted that it violated its own rules of engagement during the war on Gaza last year. Two senior army officers have been reprimanded for firing artillery towards a heavily populated area.In the attack, a United Nations compound, where hundreds of civilians were sheltering, was set ablaze by white phosphorus shells. Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland reports.

The War On Terrorism And The Countdown To The 2010 Olympics

By Dana Gabriel for countercurrents.org/: The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics will be the largest security operation in Canadian history. It will include more than 15,000 Canadian Forces, private security personnel, along with the RCMP and other police agencies. The U.S. will also provide security and support for the Games. With the Olympics fast approaching, the fear of terrorism is back in the public’s psyche. Although there has been no specific threats to the Games, more than anything, it is the danger of terrorism which is used to justify the huge security operation. This is further advancing the militarization of North America and U.S.-Canada military and security integration. The Olympics will take bi-national security cooperation to a whole new level. Unmanned drones are patrolling the U.S.-Canada border as part of the war on terrorism and to curb smuggling, along with drug trafficking. It is unclear if they will be used for surveillance during the Games, but U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman, Juan Munoz-Torres has stated that, “If the RCMP or Canadian government believes they can make use of the aircraft for support during the Olympics, we will be more than willing to provide it.” In Afghanistan, Pakistan and other parts of the world, armed American drones continue to carry out strikes against suspected terrorists and insurgents. It is interesting that many of the weapons used in the war on terrorism overseas are later deployed for domestic purposes. The use of unmanned drones on the northern border will only add to the further militarization of North America.

The People of Walmart: An Exercise in Classism, Misogyny, and Fat Bashing- From Womanist Musings

Monoplists, Public Policy and Indigenous Rights

Submitted by Sina Brown-Davis via:Fourth World Eye » The World Trade Organization is essentially the world’s “chamber of commerce” sanctioned by states’ governments to regulate public policy. It is now quite commonly accepted in the assemblies of government that when public policies (health, education, economic, human rights, indigenous rights, etc) prevent profit or reduce profits for a corporation (read trans-state corporation) the policy is twisted to favor profit and reject benefits to the public. Big corporations often supported by BINGOs (big international non-governmental organizations) seek to maintain monopolies–rejecting and defeating free enterprise competition. Protecting monopolies has become the norm instead of the exception. Free enterprise competition is given lip service but little else.States’ governments fail to regulate corporations. (Since the US President Jimmy Carter Administration states’ governments led by the US have stripped themselves of all regulatory powers with the help of corporations.) Since the 2008 collapse of international financial institutions and the consequent breakdown of domestic economies few political leaders have strained to push for reregulation. For those trying their efforts have largely been obstructed by overwhelming corporate, political party brethren, ngos and public information media [owned by major corporations] opposition and propaganda.

Womanist Musings: Blogger Paul Shirley To Haitians: Please Use A Condom Once In A While

Womanist Musings: "Thursday, January 28, 2010
Blogger Paul Shirley To Haitians: Please Use A Condom Once In A While

I wish that I could say that the tragedy in Haiti has caused people to recognize Western culpability in the state of that country. I wish I could say that now that eyes have been opened, that the worldview of Haiti will change but such thoughts are utopian at best. Even in the worst of circumstances there are always going to be those that hold onto their privilege with a death grip because to do otherwise would mean recognizing that they are not entitled to the life of ease to which they have become accustomed." Read more at Womanist Musings regarding this pathetic POS views on Haitians.

ACORN Pimp Arrested: FBI probe "activist" in Louisiana

Conservative activists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles poised as a "pimp" and "prostitute" in an attempt to uncover wrongdoing at community housing group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). They generated mainstream coverage after they filmed several workers talking about illegal activities.

The roller coaster of stupidity in the name of conservatism. James O'Keefe, 25 along with three other men were arrested for attempting "bug" Louisiana Democratic senator Mary Landrieu's main office in New Orleans.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing in the media, investigative journalism. Andrew Breitbart, a conservative blogger with ties to Matt Drudge was promoting videos by O'Keefe and his former girlfriend Hannah Giles. The pair were convinced that the community organization group ACORN was responsible for Barack Obama's victory in 2008 through "voter fraud" and "illicit activities". They traveled to ten ACORN locations and managed to videotape a few of the workers talking about "how to created fake voter registrations", "smuggling El Salvadoran children for prostitution" and convinced a woman to "admit that she murdered her husband". They wanted to expose the liberal lies and shame the group.

The CEO of the community group Bertha Lewis slammed the pair, Fox News (which heavily promoted the pair) and the Republican Party for creating a "witch hunt" and slander of an organization that helps low income families find housing. ACORN is currently in the process of suing Breitbart, O'Keefe and Giles for restitution and unauthorized filming in a private business.

The impact of the videos affected the lawmakers and many broke ties to the group. The House of Representatives and Senate have voted unanimously to sever funding to the organization group. The U.S. Justice Department is fighting the repeal the decision made by Congress.

Since the videos were posted on YouTube, O'Keefe and Giles became internet sensations. Unfortunately, Ms. Giles image was tarnished in the matter and hasn't been featured in many of the filming by O'Keefe.

To make matters worse, this arrest has been buzzing across the internet. Many liberals are thrilled to see this person arrest, and conservative voice despair and anger to the actions. One prominent conservative activist, Michelle Malkin dismissed him and severed ties to O'Keefe. In one of her postings, Malkin stated:

"Let it be a lesson to aspiring young conservatives interested in investigative journalism: Know your limits! "Know the law. Don’t get carried away. And don’t become what you are targeting."

Details on the matter: Associated Press

Conservative ties bind 4 La. phone plot suspects

New Orleans (AP) - Four men accused of trying to tamper with Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu's office phones shared a common experience as young ideologues writing for conservative publications.

Federal authorities said two of the men posed as telephone workers with hard hats, tool belts and fluorescent vests and walked into Landrieu's office in a New Orleans federal building Monday. The others are accused of helping to organize the plan.

The most well-known suspect is James O'Keefe, 25, who posed as a pimp for a hidden-camera expose that damaged the reputation of the liberal community-organizing group ACORN and made him a conservative darling.

O'Keefe and suspect Joseph Basel, 24, formed their own conservative publications on their college campuses. A third suspect, Stan Dai, 24, was editor of his university's conservative paper and directed a program aimed at getting college students interested in the intelligence field after 9/11.

The fourth suspect, Robert Flanagan, 24, wrote for the New Orleans-based conservative Pelican Institute and had recently criticized Landrieu for voting in favor of health care legislation after securing a Medicaid provision helpful to her state.

O'Keefe was a featured speaker at a Pelican Institute luncheon days before his arrest, though institute president Kevin Kane said Wednesday that he had no idea what happened at Landrieu's office or what the four were doing there. Flanagan, son of the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, was a contract worker for the institute, mostly writing for its blog.

"Robert has done terrific work and I think very highly of him, and am very sorry to see him in this difficult situation," Kane said.

It's not yet clear whether the plan was a prank intended to be captured on camera or a more serious attempt at political espionage, as claimed by state Democrats who dubbed it "Louisiana Watergate."

Democratic National Committee spokesman Hari Sevugan said Republicans once praised O'Keefe as an American hero, "yet today, in light of these deplorable and illegal attacks on the office of a United States senator by their champion, Republicans have not offered a single iota of disgust, a whisper of indignation or even a hint of outrage."

In October, Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas, sponsored a resolution praising O'Keefe and the woman who posed as a prostitute, Hannah Giles, for their investigation of "fraudulent and illegal practices and misuse of taxpayer dollars" by ACORN. Thirty-one Republican congressmen signed on as co-sponsors.

In response to the arrests, Olson said that "if recent events conclude that any laws were broken in the incident in Sen. Landrieu's office — that is not something I condone."

A witness told authorities O'Keefe was sitting in the waiting area of Landrieu's office and appeared to record Basel and Flanagan on his cell phone when they arrived posing as phone workers. Landrieu, who was in Washington at the time, said in a statement that the plot was "unsettling" for her and her staff.

A federal law enforcement official said one of the suspects was picked up in a car a couple of blocks away with a listening device that could pick up transmissions. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not part of the FBI affidavit. Another official said Dai was the suspect arrested outside.

All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

"It was poor judgment," Flanagan's lawyer, Garrison Jordan, said. "I don't think there was any intent or motive to commit a crime."

O'Keefe, Basel and Dai returned to the courthouse carrying suitcases Wednesday morning for private appointments with the department that handles arrangements with defendants before trial. None would comment as they entered and exited the courthouse.

Flanagan, who was not with them, is the only suspect who lives in Louisiana. Basel is from Minnesota; O'Keefe, New Jersey; and Dai, the D.C.-Virginia area.

As O'Keefe left jail Tuesday with Dai and Basel, he said only "Veritas," Latin for truth.

As he got into a cab outside, O'Keefe said, "The truth shall set me free." His father, James O'Keefe, Jr., of Westwood, N.J., said he had not spoken to his son in several days and did not know he had traveled to New Orleans, let alone why he went to Landrieu's office.

"That would not be something that I can even imagine him doing," he said. "I think this is going to be blown out of proportion."

The allegations were quickly condemned by ACORN, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now. Its political affiliates have registered hundreds of thousands of voters in urban and other poor areas of the country.

O'Keefe's arrest "is further evidence of his disregard for the law in pursuit of his extremist agenda," ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis said in a statement. The organization's Twitter feed commented on the news: "Couldn't have happened to a more deserving soul."

Last year, O'Keefe used a hidden camera to record ACORN staffers who appeared to offer illegal tax advice and support the misuse of public funds and illegal trafficking in children.

The videos were first posted on biggovernment.com, a site run by conservative Andrew Breitbart. In the past, Breitbart has said O'Keefe — now a paid contributor to BigGovernment.com — is an independent filmmaker, not an employee.

In an e-mail to The Associated Press, Breitbart said: "We have no knowledge about or connection to any alleged acts and events involving James O'Keefe at Senator Mary Landrieu's office."

Dai is a former assistant director of a program at Trinity Washington University that taught students about careers in intelligence, university president Patricia McGuire said. It was part of a national effort to interest students at liberal arts colleges in careers in intelligence but did not teach spy craft, she said.

He was listed as a "freelance consultant" in a Junior Statesmen program at the Central Intelligence Agency where he appeared as a speaker.

O'Keefe and Basel were also active in conservative publications at their respective colleges, Rutgers University and the University of Minnesota-Morris. They gave a joint interview Jan. 14 to CampusReform.org, a Web site that supports college conservatives on student publications.

"I happen to call what I do shoe leather journalism and not advocacy journalism," O'Keefe was quoted as saying. "So, I would consider it just journalism."

___

Associated Press Writers Kevin McGill in New Orleans, Pete Yost in Washington, Justin Pritchard in Los Angeles and Ben Nuckols in Baltimore contributed to this report.

Tea Party Disputes Take Toll on Convention

By KATE ZERNIKE The New York Times,
Published: January 25, 2010

A Tea Party convention billed as the coming together of the grass-roots groups that began sprouting up around the country a year ago is unraveling as sponsors and participants pull out to protest its expense and express concerns about “profiteering.”

The convention’s difficulties highlight the fractiousness of the Tea Party groups, and the considerable suspicions among their members of anything that suggests the establishment.

The convention, to be held in Nashville in early February, made a splash by attracting big-name politicians. (Former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska is scheduled to deliver the keynote speech.) But some groups have criticized the cost — $549 per ticket and a $9.95 fee, plus hotel and airfare — as out of reach for the average tea partier. And they have balked at Ms. Palin’s speaking fee, which news reports have put at $100,000, a figure that organizers will not confirm or deny.

Tea Party events exploded last winter, as increasingly large gatherings protested the federal stimulus bill, government bailouts and proposed health care legislation. While they vary by name, specific tenets and relative embrace of anarchy, such groups tend to unite around fiscal conservatism and a belief that the federal government — whether led by Republicans or Democrats — has overstepped its constitutional powers.

Tea Party Nation, the convention organizer, started as a social networking site for the groups last year, a kind of Facebook for conservatives to “form bonds, network and make plans for action.” But its founders, former sponsors and participants are now trading accusations.

Philip Glass, the national director of the National Precinct Alliance, announced late Sunday that “amid growing controversy” around the convention, his organization would no longer participate. His group seeks to take over the Republican Party from the bottom by filling the ranks of local and state parties with grass-roots conservatives, and Mr. Glass had been scheduled to lead workshops on its strategy.

“We are very concerned about the appearance of T.P.N. profiteering and exploitation of the grass-roots movement,” he said in a statement. “We were under the impression that T.P.N. was a nonprofit organization like N.P.A., interested only in uniting and educating Tea Party activists on how to make a real difference in the political arena.”

Mr. Glass said he was also concerned about the role in the convention of groups like Tea Party Express, which has held rallies across the country through two bus tours, and FreedomWorks, a Tea Party umbrella. He called them “Republican National Committee-related groups,” and added, “At best, it creates the appearance of an R.N.C. hijacking; at worst, it is one.”

Erick Erickson, the editor of the influential conservative blog RedState.com, wrote this month that something seemed “scammy” about the convention. And the American Liberty Alliance withdrew as a sponsor after its members expressed concerns about the convention’s finances being channeled through private bank accounts and its organizer being “for profit.”

“When we look at the $500 price tag for the event and the fact that many of the original leaders in the group left over similar issues, it’s hard for us not to assume the worst,” Eric Odom, the executive director of the American Liberty Alliance and an organizer of the tax day rallies last April, wrote on the group’s Web site.

Sherry Phillips, who founded and runs Tea Party Nation with her husband, Judson, said Monday that it is not a nonprofit group.

Ms. Phillips said the American Liberty Alliance was “a for-profit company that takes donations.” The National Precinct Alliance, she said, demanded compensation of around $3,000. “Our budget on this convention is very tight and we could not afford them,” she wrote in an e-mail message.

She declined to comment on Ms. Palin’s speaking fee.

“If there is any profit,” Ms. Phillips said, “the money will go toward furthering the cause of conservatism.”

Mr. Glass denied that his group had requested money and said convention organizers had asked his group to pay $2,200 to speak.

As for FreedomWorks, it is not a convention sponsor. Tea Party leaders in training sessions at the group’s headquarters on Monday said their members, for the most part, could not afford the convention or were not interested.

An earlier version of this article erroneously said that Sherry Phillips called the Tea Party a "nonprofit" group.

Fox News leaves false report on Haiti uncorrected By Daniel Tencer

January 25th, 2010
By Daniel Tencer, reporter The Raw Story

Fox News is staying silent after bloggers and commentators criticized the news network for a January 13 report on its Web site that stated Cuba was "absent" from global aid efforts in Haiti.

Observers note that the communist country was, in fact, one of the first to arrive after the earthquake that is now estimated to have taken the lives of 200,000 people. That has led some bloggers to accuse Fox of using the devastation in Haiti to propagandize against Cuba.

In an online news story entitled "US Spearheads Global Response to Haiti Earthquake," Fox reported that "one geographically close country is conspicuously absent from the roster of helping hands. Cuba, which had evacuated some of its residents as a precaution in case the earthquake triggered a tsunami, has so far not offered any assistance publicly to its devastated island neighbor."

"The opposite is the case," reports Tony Iltis at Green Left Online. "At the time the earthquake struck, Cuba already had 344 doctors and paramedics working in Haiti. Also, in the past 12 years 450 young Haitians have graduated as doctors from Cuban colleges, free of charge."

Iltis reported:

From January 13, more teams of Cuban health workers, accompanied by Haitian medical students studying in Cuba, began arriving in Haiti with medical supplies.

A January 12 Granma article said that, within a week of the earthquake: “Cuban doctors in the Haitian capital [had held] 13,418 consultancies, with 1,078 operations, more than 550 of them considered major surgery. The Cuban doctors have also assisted 38 births.”

Notably, on the same day that Fox published its report, the network also ran an article from the Associated Press that stated, "Cuba, which already had hundreds of doctors in Haiti, treated injured in field hospitals."

Fox doesn't appear to have corrected the error. As of press time, the network had not responded to Raw Story's repeated requests for comment.

For nearly two weeks media watchdogs have been complaining that Fox News has been minimizing its coverage of the Haiti earthquake. MediaMatters reported that, in the first full day after the earthquake -- Jan. 13 -- MSNBC devoted 20 times as much time to Haiti as Fox News, and on January 14, the ratio was roughly five to one.

But other observers say the lack of coverage is more widespread than Fox News. Freelance journalist Dave Lindorff reported last week that Cuba was commonly overlooked when US news outlets reported on international aid efforts.

Far from “doing nothing” about the disaster as the right-wing propagandists at Fox-TV were charging, Cuba has been one of the most effective and critical responders to the crisis, because it had set up a medical infrastructure before the quake, which was able to mobilize quickly and start treating the victims.

If Cuba is to share any blame for the misconception that it's doing nothing, it may be that the government in Havana simply didn't put out a press release fast enough. A Jan. 13 article in Granma, the Cuban state-run publication, didn't mention Cuban relief efforts. That led bloggers to post the article as proof Cuba was absent from the rescue effort.

But news of the country's efforts is slowly beginning to trickle into the United States. On Monday, NPR reported that "the day after the earthquake struck the Cuban doctors reopened two hospitals. Since the Cubans live in the poorest neighborhoods amongst the most disadvantaged Haitians they were actually the first responders."

Note: Fox News didn't cover the Haiti telethon.