Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Home Blog Page 338

USA listen to LatAm, say experts

by the El Reportero’s wire services

Carlos AlzugarayCarlos Alzugaray

Latin American experts agreed today to consider as a favorable element for the political atmosphere in the region a plan of proposals presented by scholars to improve Cuba-US relations.

The initiative, to be presented tomorrow in the 31st Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, identified some 20 areas in which experts from the two countries suggest to start bilateral rapprochement.

According to Argentinian Andres Serbin, president of the Regional Coordinating Organization of Economic and Social Research, a significant aspect of the project is that joint proposals were made by experts from both countries.

In remarks to Prensa Latina, Serbin said this was possible because they created necessary bridges make concrete proposals in terms to improve the relations.

This creates conditions so that much of what has is being done in the hemisphere in terms of changing conditions will continue deepening by improving relations between the two countries.

According to Serbin, the process must be followed by a multilateral support of the atmosphere and the bilateral topic so that other countries in the hemisphere put pressure, so that this situation that is like a dinosaur from the past can disappear.

Serbin admits, though, that in the US political system the negotiations become extremely complex. However, the panorama is positive, taking into account some measures taken by the US administration of President Barack Obama without consulting Congress, and they are positive for the relations between the two countries.

Former Cuban diplomat Carlos Alzugaray said the improvement of relations is unavoidable in the wake of the failure of the current US policy that tries to separate the two societies.

We, the US and Cuban experts have chosen very concrete topics and we have reached agreement in all of them.

If there is understanding among scholars, some of them former diplomats, there can be an understanding between the two governments, said Alzugaray.

Obama has all the conditions to take a step to improve the links: he won the elections, he does not have to go to a re-election and he showed that Florida can be won without extreme positions, said Alzugaray.

Also Latin America and the Caribbean are demanding a change and the US government cannot afford to continue ignoring Latin America in a topic like this, he said.

Ex-dictator’s overturned conviction leads to large protests in Guatemala

Thousands marched in this capital on Friday to protest the Guatemalan Constitutional Court’s overturning of former dictator Efrain Ríos Montt’s conviction for genocide and crimes against humanity. Survivors and families of the victims of military repression led the procession.

Ríos Montt was sentenced two weeks ago to 80 years in prison for the deaths of 1,771 Ixil Indians between March 1982 and August 1983 as part of a counter-insurgency campaign.

The three CC judges who voted Monday to void the erstwhile strongman’s conviction “defend impunity and attack the constitution by annulling a verdict that adhered to the law,” Pedro Tul, a resident of one of the targeted Ixil communities, told Efe.

The protesters – who numbered around 6,000, according to organizers -marched pass the offices of Guatemala’s powerful business association, whose directors publicly called for Ríos Montt’s conviction to be thrown out.

The protest concluded with a sit-in at the CC.

Rand Paul: Obama embroiled in ‘Old McDonald farm’ of scandals

“Here a scandal, there a scandal, everywhere a scandal”

Steve Watson
Infowars.com

Senator Rand Paul hit out last week at the White House and the president himself regarding his handling of the triple whammy of scandals his administration has become embroiled in.

“We have sort of an ‘Old MacDonald Farm’ of scandals—here a scandal, there a scandal, everywhere a scandal,” Paul said during a Fox News appearance.

“We’re not sure which scandal to even talk about,” Paul noted, referring to the fallout from the Benghazi consulate attack, the targeting of journalists and DOJ seizure of media phone records, and the potentially illegal targeting of patriot groups and Tea Party organizations by the IRS.

Responding to Obama’s national security address from the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, Paul described it as “a misdirection campaign,” noting that it amounted to a failed attempt to downplay the severity of the mire that the administration is in.

“I don’t think this will work because he is putting off really the ultimate reckoning,” Paul said.

“He’s saying in 30 days we’ll do this and 90 days we’ll do this. The IRS scandal has been going on for over a year. The report is out there. I think they know who is responsible but he is not getting anybody,” he continued.

“Nobody is willing to be fired or removed from office from this. So I think it’s a bit of misdirection here. There are still some important questions about citizens overseas. Even that issue he sort of obscures. He says that of course that they should get due process but his idea of due process is flash cards and power point presentation. So even that he doesn’t really come clean with.” The Senator urged.

Before making his televised comments, Paul released a statement in response to the president’s speech, during which Obama addressed drone policy and specifically the targeted assassination of Americans overseas.

“For the record, I do not believe it would be constitutional for the government to target and kill any U.S. citizen – with a drone, or a shotgun – without due process,” Obama said during the speech. “Nor should any president deploy armed drones over U.S. soil.”

“I’m glad the President finally acknowledged that American citizens deserve some form of due process,” Paul responded in his statement. “But I still have concerns over whether flash cards and PowerPoint presentations represent due process; my preference would be to try accused U.S. citizens for treason in a court of law.”

This week Paul also introduced legislation designed to limit government surveillance of Americans, including the ‘Preserving Freedom from Unwarranted Surveillance Act’, which would outlaw the use of drone technology in US skies.

“The use of drone surveillance may work on the battlefields overseas, but it isn’t well-suited for unrestrained use on the streets in the United States,” Paul said in a further statement yesterday. “Congress must be vigilant in providing oversight to the use of this technology and protection for rights of the American people. I will continue the fight to protect and uphold our Fourth Amendment.”

Back in March, Paul launched a 13-hour filibuster on the use of drone attacks in an effort to raise awareness on the issue, and to challenge drone attack architect John Brennan’s nomination for head of the CIA.

“I wanted to sound an alarm bell from coast to coast. I wanted everybody to know that our Constitution is precious and that no American should be killed by a drone without first being charged with a crime.” Paul stated at the time.

“As Americans, we have fought long and hard for the Bill of Rights. The idea that no person shall be held without due process, and that no person shall be held for a capital offense without being indicted, is a founding American principle and a basic right.” the Senator asserted.

The Kentucky senator also explained in his statement yesterday that his new legislation prevents police and intelligence agencies from monitoring Americans’ electronic communications without a warrant.

“Congress has passed a variety of laws that decimate our Fourth Amendment protections.” The Senator noted. “In effect, it means that Americans can only count on Fourth Amendment protections if they don’t use e-mail, cell phones, the Internet, credit cards, libraries, banks, or other forms of modern finance and communications,” “Basic constitutional rights should not be invalidated by carrying out basic, day-to-day functions in a technologically advanced world and this bill will provide much needed clarity and reassert Fourth Amendment protections for records held by third parties.” Paul said in his statement Thursday.

The Senator expanded on his televised comments in a further radio appearance last night, discussing Guantanamo Bay, the IRS scandal, the looming debt ceiling fight, immigration reform, Congress’ treatment of Apple, corporate taxes and a potential presidential run in 2016.

Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham, and a Bachelor Of Arts Degree in Literature and Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University.

Consumer group urges Trader Joe’s to stop selling meat from animals raised on antibiotic

by Ethan A. Huff

There is a very real public health crisis looming on the horizon, and its origins stem from the common food industry practice of force-feeding antibiotic drugs to cattle in order to bulk them up and rush their meat to market as quickly as possible. And a major consumer advocacy group is calling on the popular grocery chain Trader Joe’s to step up and stop selling meat and poultry derived from animals raised in this manner, which is causing widespread health problems and antibiotic resistance.

Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, recently ran a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times (LAT) petitioning Trader Joe’s to be an industry leader on this important issue. Since Trader Joe’s has already forged the way in taking a stand on other important health and food safety issues in the past, Consumers Union hopes Trader Joe’s will once again do the right thing and nix conventional meat from its product lineup.

You can view Consumer Union’s full-page ad here: http://notinmyfood.org.

“Eighty percent of the antibiotics sold in the U.S. are used by the meat and poultry industries so factory farm animals can grow faster and tolerate crowded and unsanitary conditions,” reads the Consumers Union announcement.

“As a progressive retailer that has already demonstrated care for their customers’ health by saying no to GMOs, artificial colors, and trans fats, Trader Joe’s should take the obvious next step by helping move the livestock industry in the right direction – towards healthy animals raised without drugs.”

Sign the petition urging Trader Joe’s to stop selling drugged meats

Though Trader Joe’s admittedly sells a variety of organic, grass-fed, and antibiotic-free meat and poultry products, some of its food offerings still contain conventional varieties of these same meats from animals raised in typical CAFO conditions – CAFO stands for concentrated animal feeding operation, and represents the typical format in place at most factory farms. With an increasing number of informed Americans interested in safe, antibiotic-free meat and poultry, it only makes sense for Trader Joe’s to take action now and lead the way towards improved meat production standards.

“Continuing to sell meat from animals that are routinely fed antibiotics contributes to the development and spread of antibiotic resistance,” adds Halloran. “As a company that has taken socially responsible stands on other issues, Trader Joe’s could make an important contribution to improving public health by carrying only meat and poultry raised without antibiotics.”

In other health related  news:

Triclosan in antibacterial soaps, toothpaste has never received safety approval from FDA

It is added to hundreds of consumer products ranging from hand soaps and body washes to toothpastes and even children’s toys, but it has never received formal safety approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). And even though the chemical industry claims that the antibacterial chemical triclosan is safe and effective, there is simply no substantial evidence to prove this, and plenty of evidence to show that triclosan is dangerous.

In fact, so much evidence has emerged in recent years showing the dangers of triclosan that consumer advocacy groups have been increasingly putting pressure on the FDA to conduct the safety reviews on the chemical that it should have conducted decades ago. The non-profit group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) actually had to file a lawsuit to get the FDA to act, and the agency is now expected to conduct its review later this fall after years of obvious stalling.

But the crux of the issue is that triclosan was never actually approved for consumer use under the law as it should have been, despite the fact that the chemical has now been in widespread use for more than three decades.

The FDA’s own website explains that there is no evidence showing triclosan is any better than simple soap and water at eradicating bacteria, and yet many conventional hand soaps on the market today contain it anyway.

“In 1978, the FDA published its first tentative guidelines for chemicals used in liquid hand soaps and washes,” explains a recent Associated Press (AP) article on the issue. “The draft stated that triclosan was ‘not generally recognized as safe and effective,’ because regulators could not find enough scientific research demonstrating its safety and effectiveness.”

This draft, however, was never actually finalized.

And neither were any of the other drafts the FDA crafted in subsequent years. Only in 1997 did the FDA eventually grant approval for triclosan’s use in a consumer product, but it was strictly for Colgate Total toothpaste in 1997.

As far as all the other products triclosan is currently added to, the FDA has never approved such uses, nor has it affirmed that the chemical is safe or effective in such products.

Triclosan linked to endocrine disruption, brain damage and cancer

None of this would be all that concerning if triclosan was merely ineffective at performing its stated function. But research has shown that exposure to triclosan can lead to a host of negative consequences, including severe hormone disruption, brain damage, and even several types of cancer. Triclosan has also been shown to damage the environment, as it is one of the most frequently detected chemicals in streams and other waterways throughout the U.S.

“Triclosan and triclocarbon are antibacterial chemicals commonly added to consumer products … (and) they have been shown to disrupt hormones and can encourage the growth of drug-resistant bacteria or ‘superbugs,’” explains NRDC in its chemical index. “Animal studies have shown both of these chemicals can interfere with hormones critical for normal development and function of the brain and reproductive systems … (and) triclosan has been associated with lower levels of thyroid hormone and testosterone, which could result in altered behavior, learning disabilities, or infertility.”

Be sure to check out the NRDC chemical index for more information abou t both triclosan and triclocarbon: http://www.nrdc.org/living/chemicalindex/triclosan.asp.

Ríos Montt’s crime – a testimony from a resisting community in Guatemala

Native Mayan Ikil (above) in the city of Chajul (below).

by Orsetta Bellani

On May 10, 2013, Efrain Rios Montt – 87-year-old former Guatemalan dictator – was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity. The general was sentenced to 80 years in prison for the murder of 1,771 indigenous ethnic Ixil Maya peoples. The ruling has a great historical value, as it is the first time in the world that a former head of State is convicted for genocide.
“The recognition of the crime of genocide affects all Guatemalans,” said Judge Yasmin Barrios at the end of the trial, after hearing more than 100 witnesses and victims. “Recognizing the truth helps heal wounds. The administration of justice is a right belonging to the victims. These events should not happen again, because the people of Guatemala wish to live in peace.” However, on May 20, 2013 the Central American country’s Constitutional Court overturned the verdict, so the process returns to where it was on April 19.
As business leaders, agribusiness and financial groups in Guatemala manifested in the capital demanding the annulment of the trial of the former dictator, President Otto Perez Molina declared he accepted the ruling. The decision was taken for granted, as in the past, the Guatemalan President said that there was no genocide and that the accusations were lies of the Communists. In fact, Perez Molina was very close to Rios Montt: the current president was an army major assigned to the Ixil region, where the crimes attributed to Rios Montt in the period 1982-1983 took place.

According to the Commission for Historical Clarification, in Guatemala the toll of dead and missing people during the conflict exceeds 200 thousand, among them 83 percent are indigenous Mayans. In its report, the Commission writes: “Many of the human rights violations were perpetrated with cruelty and publicly. […] The murder of defenseless children, who were often killed by being beaten against walls or by being thrown alive into pits, where later bodies of adults were thrown, traumatic amputation or removal of members; impalements, murder of people burned alive, the evisceration of victims still alive in the presence of others, the detention of people already mortally tortured, in agony for days, the opening of the wombs of pregnant women. Extreme cruelty was a resource used intentionally to generate and maintain a climate of fear in the population. The vast majority of the victims of the state’s actions were not combatants in the guerrilla groups, but civilians.”

It is estimated that in Guatemala in the early ‘80s, between 500 thousand and one and a half million people were forced to flee from violence: around 150 thousand fled to Mexico, while others were forced to move constantly within the country. Among them, Dona Elvira, a woman who for twelve years was part of the CPR (Communities of Population in Resistance, nomadic communities that became the priority of the army operations) of the Department of Petén.

Native.

At that time, families of the CPR-Petén packed a few things every morning because they had to be ready to flee into the jungle at any time. “There was always surveillance in the four points,” says Dona Elvira. “The signal when the army came was a shot in the air, then we had to grab our bag and leave. The army followed and we hit the road and made camp elsewhere, because when they came to camp where we were, they smashed everything.”

Dona Elvira tells about the difficulties of those years, continuous fear, peer solidarity and hunger. They ate whatever the forest would provide: roots, plants and some fruit. “Sometimes the other members found cornfields and stole a little corn to feed the children, there were many children. We cooked the little corn we had, as we were carrying utensils and a pot. We made dough balls wrapped in leaves and found a place to eat them. We couldn´t light a fire during daylight, because there was always a plane over the mountain and if they detected smoke, they would throw bombs at the camp. So we cooked at night.”

After the last attack, in 1992, the exiles of the CPR-Petén understood that the army had not arrived and created four communities in the Lacandona jungle. “When we came over here, we did not bring anything, because we had nothing to bring, but then many organizations supported us,” says Dona Elvira. “The only government institution that supported us a bit was Fonapaz (National Fund for Peace): they supported us with food, but it was a little bit. All we got was through international organizations: the basic and elementary school, the medical center, the radio, the store. The government has not delivered as promised, all they accomplished was the mechanical drilling of a well to draw water, but very soon the pump broke.

U.S.’s roads have been turned into a revenue generating survillance grid

by Michael Snyder
Economic Collapse Blog
News analysis

What do speed traps, parking tickets, toll roads, speed cameras and red light cameras all have in common? They are all major revenue sources for state and local governments. All over America today there are state and local governments that are drowning in debt. Many have chosen to use “traffic enforcement” as a way to raise desperately needed revenue. According to the National Motorist Association, issuing speeding tickets raises somewhere between 4.5 billion and 6 billion dollars in the United States each year. And the average price of a speeding ticket just keeps going up. Today, the national average is about $150, but in many jurisdictions it is far higher. For example, more than 16 million traffic tickets are issued in the state of California each year, and the average fine is approximately $250.

If you are wealthy that may not be much of a problem, but if you are a family that is barely scraping by every month that can be a major financial setback. Meanwhile, America’s roads are also being systematically transformed into a surveillance grid. The number of cameras watching our roads is absolutely exploding, and automated license plate readers are capturing hundreds of millions of data points on all of us.

As you drive down the highway, a police vehicle coming up behind you can instantly read your license plate and pull up a whole host of information about you. This happened to me a few years ago. I had pulled on to a very crowded highway in Virginia and within less than a minute a cop car had scanned me and was pulling me over because one of my stickers had expired. But these automated license plate readers are being used for far more than just traffic enforcement now.

For example, officials in Washington D.C. are now using automated license plate readers to track the movements of every single vehicle that enters the city. They know when you enter Washington, and they know when you leave. So where is all of this headed? Do we really want to live in a “Big Brother” society where the government constantly tracks all of our movements?

Back in the old days, the highways of America were great examples to the rest of the world of the tremendous liberties and freedoms that we enjoyed. Americans loved to hop into their vehicles and take a drive. But now government is sucking all of the fun out of driving. The control freak bureaucrats that dominate our political system have figured out that giant piles of money can be raised by turning our roads into revenue raising tools.

At this point things have gotten so bad that even some police officers are admitting what is going on. Just check out what a few of them told Car and Driver. http://www.caranddriver.com/features/more-tickets-in-hard-times.

The president of a state police union isn’t pretending it doesn’t happen. James Tignanelli, president of the Police Officers Association of Michigan union, says, “When elected officials say, ‘We need more money,’ they can’t look to the department of public works to raise revenues, so where do they find it? Police departments.

“A lot of police chiefs will tell you the goal is to have nobody speeding through their community, but heaven forbid if it should actually happen—they’d be out of money,” Tignanelli says.

Police Chief Michael Reaves of Utica, Michigan, says the role of law enforcement has changed over the years. “When I first started in this job 30 years ago, police work was never about revenue enhancement, but if you’re a chief now, you have to look at whether your department produces revenues,” he says. “That’s just the reality nowadays.”

And as the economy has gone downhill, many jurisdictions have massively jacked up traffic fines. According to the Los Angeles Times, various traffic fines in the Los Angeles area are far higher than they once were.

But politicians just keep wanting to find a way to issue even more tickets. One of the hottest trends all over the country is to automate the issuing of traffic tickets by installing cameras. According to USA Today, this has become a huge growth industry…

Sales of the cameras have nearly quadrupled since companies moved to digital and wireless technology in the mid-2000s. The number of local contracts for cameras was up to 689 last year, from 155 in 2005, according to industry data complied by market leader American Traffic Solutions (ATS).

The amount of data that these automated license plate readers are capturing is astounding. Photographing a single license plate one time on a public city street may not seem problematic, but when that data is put into a database, combined with other scans of that same plate on other city streets, and stored forever, it can become very revealing.

Information about your location over time can show not only where you live and work, but your political and religious beliefs, your social and sexual habits, your visits to the doctor, and your associations with others. And, according to recent research reported in Nature, it’s possible to identify 95 percent of individuals with as few as four randomly selected geospatial datapoints (location + time), making location data the ultimate biometric identifier.

Our license plates have essentially become “our papers” which the government can read whenever it would like without even asking for our permission.

According to L.A. Weekly, local police agencies in the L.A. area have captured more than 160 million data points on private citizens using these automated license plate readers…

L.A. Weekly has learned that more than two dozen law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles County are using hundreds of these “automatic license plate recognition” devices (LPRs) — units about the size of a paperback book, usually mounted atop police cruisers — to devour data on every car that catches their electronic eye.

The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles Police Department are two of the biggest gatherers of automatic license plate recognition information. Local police agencies have logged more than 160 million data points — a massive database of the movements of millions of drivers in Southern California.

Each data point represents a car and its exact whereabouts at a given time. Police have already conducted, on average, some 22 scans for every one of the 7,014,131 vehicles registered in L.A. County.

As the use of these devices becomes more widespread and they become even more sophisticated, eventually the government will know where almost all of us are and what almost all of us are doing at all times.

The following is a brief except from a Washington Post article that detailed how automated license plate readers are now being used to create a “dragnet” that will track the movements of all vehicles from the time that they enter Washington D.C. to the time that they leave…

With virtually no public debate, police agencies have begun storing the information from the cameras, building databases that document the travels of millions of vehicles.

This is just the beginning.

For now, as long as you carefully obey all traffic laws and you don’t work in a major city like Washington D.C., the changes that are happening probably do not affect you too much.

But the key is to see where all of this is going. Our roads are slowly but surely being transformed into a revenue generating control grid. And this is just yet another example of how government feels the need to constantly watch, monitor, track and regulate everything that we do.

Does anyone else feel like the life is slowly being choked out of our society, or am I alone?

Americans – like Nazi Germans – don’t notice that all of our rights are slipping away -Part 5

by Marvin Ramirez

Marvin J. RamirezMarvin Ramirez

At a time when most people are noticing the government increase of domination over the people, contrary to what should be: the people domination over the government, El Reportero is glad to publish the following article authored by Washingtonblog.com. I believe that it is my duty to inform the people of some aspects of our current government that are becoming detrimental to our liberties. Perhaps this article will wake some people up, perhaps not. Due to its length and our limited space, we will publish it in several parts. This is the fifth part of a series.

Americans – like Nazi Germans – don’t notice that all of our rights are slipping away — Part 5 and last part

by washingtonsblog.com
Sixth Amendment

The 6th Amendment guarantees the right to hear the criminal charges levied against us and to be able to confront the witnesses who have testified against us, as well as speedy criminal trials, and a public defender for those who cannot hire an attorney:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Subjecting people to indefinite detention or assassination obviously violates the 6th Amendment right to a jury trial. In both cases, the defendants is “disposed of” without ever receiving a trial … and often without ever hearing the charges against them.

More and more commonly, the government prosecutes cases based upon “secret evidence” that they don’t show to the defendant … or sometimes even the judge hearing the case.

The government uses “secret evidence” to spy on Americans , prosecute leaking or terrorism charges (even against U.S. soldiers ) and even assassinate people.

And see this and this.

Secret witnesses are being used in some cases. And sometimes lawyers are not even allowed to read their own briefs.

Indeed, even the laws themselves are now starting to be kept secret. And it’s about to get a lot worse.

True – when defendants are afforded a jury trial – they are provided with assistance of counsel. However, the austerity caused by redistribution of wealth to the super-elite is causing severe budget cuts to the courts and the public defenders’ offices nationwide.

Moreover, there are two systems of justice in America … one for the big banks and other fatcats, and one for everyone else. The government made it official policy not to prosecute fraud , even though fraud is the main business model adopted by Wall Street. Indeed, the largest insider trading scandal of all time, illegal raiding of customer accounts and blatant financing of drug cartels and terrorists have all been committed recently without any real criminal prosecution or jail time.

On the other hand, government prosecutors are using the legal system to crush dissent and to silence whistleblowers.

And some of the nation’s most powerful judges have lost their independence … and are in bed with the powers-that-be.

Seventh Amendment

The 7th Amendment guarantees trial by jury in federal court for civil cases:

In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

As far as we know, this right is still being respected. However – as noted above – the austerity caused by redistribution of wealth to the super-elite is causing severe budget cuts to the courts, resulting in the wheels of justice slowing down considerably.

Eighth Amendment

The 8th Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment: Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual
punishments inflicted.

Indefinite detention and assassination are obviously cruel and unusual punishment.

The widespread system of torture carried out in the last 10 years – with the help of other countries – violates the 8th Amendment. Many want to bring it back … or at least justify its past use.

While Justice Scalia disingenuously argues that torture does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment because it is meant to produce information – not punish – he’s wrong.

It’s not only cruel and unusual … it is technically a form of terrorism.

And government whistleblowers are being cruelly and unusually punished with unduly harsh sentences meant to intimidate anyone else from speaking out. They are literally being treated as terrorists.

Ninth Amendment

The 9th Amendment provides that people have other rights, even if they aren’t specifically listed in the Constitution:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

We can debate what our inherent rights as human beings are. I believe they include the right to a level playing field, and access to safe food and water. You may disagree.

But everyone agrees that the government should not actively encourage fraud and manipulation. However, the government – through its malignant, symbiotic relation with big corporations – is interfering with our aspirations for economic freedom , safe food and water (instead of arsenic-laden, genetically engineered junk ), freedom from undue health hazards such as irradiation due to government support of archaic nuclear power designs, and a level playing field (as opposed to our crony capitalist system in which the little guy has no shot due to redistribution of wealth from the middle class to the super-elite, and government support of white collar criminals ).

By working hand-in-glove with giant corporations to defraud us into paying for a lower quality of life, the government is trampling our basic rights as human beings.

Tenth Amendment

The 10th Amendment provides that powers not specifically given to the Federal government are reserved to the states or individual:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Two of the central principles of America’s Founding Fathers are:

(1) The government is created and empowered with the consent of the people and

(2) Separation of powers

Today, most Americans believe that the government is threatening – rather than protecting – freedom … and that it is no longer acting with the “consent of the governed”.

And the federal government is trampling the separation of powers by stepping on the toes of the states and the people. For example, former head S&L prosecutor Bill Black – now a professor of law and economics – notes: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the resident examiners and regional staff of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency [both] competed to weaken federal regulation and aggressively used the preemption doctrine to try to prevent state investigations of and actions against fraudulent mortgage lenders.

Indeed, the federal government is doing everything it can to stick its nose into every aspect of our lives … and act like Big Brother.

Eric Holder: idiot zen master

by Jon Rappoport
www.nomorefakenews.com

In his recent testimony before Congress, US Attorney General Eric Holder, the so-called highest law-enforcement officer in the land, responded to questions about the AP scandal.

Holder’s Justice Dept. had secretly subpoenaed and seized the phone records of Associated Press reporters.

Holder stated he didn’t know anything about anything, because he had recused himself from the issue and recused himself from the new internal DOJ investigation of the matter.

What?

Huh?

His own agency, the US Dept. of Justice, had spied secretly on reporters. But he, Holder, the head of that agency, decided to remain entirely ignorant about the whole fiasco, once he discovered the vague outline of what was going on.

This is like the manager of a car agency learning that 50 new cars in his lot have packets of heroin in their glove compartments, and immediately withdrawing to Bermuda for a fishing vacation.

The Congressional committee then asked Holder about the new internal DOJ investigation of itself vis-a-vis the AP scandal. Holder said he wasn’t absolutely sure about that either, because, again, he had recused himself.

This is like that car-agency manager sitting in his boat in Bermuda and putting a blindfold over his eyes and plugs in his ears.

Why did Holder recuse himself? Unasked, unanswered. That in itself is staggering.

Possibly, he recused himself because he might be a target of the ensuing investigation into the scandal. In other words, he needed to avoid the appearance of being in charge of his own agency, from which position he could, theoretically, let himself off the hook?!?!

In that case, his power is decimated. He’s a sitting duck. He’s nobody.

Some unit of the Justice Department is tasked with figuring out how and why the DOJ spied on reporters—and who is to say that unit is automatically free from political influence and corruption? Who is to say that unit will do an honest job and indict employees of the DOJ?

In other words, it’s a no-win situation. Doesn’t matter who, at the Dept. of Justice, does or doesn’t recuse himself. Holder could have kept his head in the game and pushed the internal investigation himself. But he didn’t.

He’s the village idiot. He doesn’t know anything about anything.

The press doesn’t gang up and attack him hard.

“Listen, Mr. Holder. We’re not buying your recusal or your ignorance. You’re the man in charge. You’re the boss. If you don’t know what’s going on, what good are you?”

“Mr. Holder, when exactly did you okay the secret seizing of AP reporters’ phone records? We know you did. When was it?”

“What? You never did okay the spying and seizing, Mr. Holder? You mean you, the boss, didn’t know what was happening on your watch? Your people feel no need to get your approval for a major op like this?”

“We’re camping out on your doorstep until we get some real answers.”

NONE of this has happened. The press has whined and complained, and that’s about it.

Holder is saying that any knowledge he might have, but doesn’t, about the original plan to spy on reporters, about the actual spying, about the aftermath of the spying, and about the new internal investigation into the spying…any knowledge on these subjects could make him INFORMED, and therefore, better able to lie now to investigators, if he were so disposed, which of course he isn’t.

Right? Got it? Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Irrefutable logic. No problem. Let’s all take a nap.

Well, I hate to say this, but he does. He thinks he can get over. He thinks he can slither through and around and over the press.

And he’s probably right, judging by what the press has and hasn’t done so far.

The man is a towering liar and fabricator. He’s all lies all the way up and down.

Can’t the committee before whom he’s testifying at least fall down laughing, because they’re seeing a man like them working his act?

We may be seeing the greatest bureaucratic ploy in the history of the democracy.

Imagine a million bureaucrats like him. Each one defers to the other, who in turn expresses the same across-the-board Zero. At the end of it, the apparatus spits out a blank piece of paper and everybody goes home.

Yes, government is wonderful. It’s cosmically zen. It’s what we all want.

Life without life.

To top it off, Obama, at his press conference yesterday, said he has full confidence in Holder. Meaning: Obama is sure Holder will remain a blank slate.

“I have full confidence that the man who is running the Department of Justice isn’t running it. He’s staring at the wall. That’s 4what I want him to do.”

Recusal, the actual version, works like this. A lawyer who once represented a client suing a chemical company for damage is now an appeals judge. Another case involving the same company comes up for review. The judge backs out. He says, “I once went up against the company in court, so I won’t get involved now.”

What Holder is doing is from another planet. He’s found a way to take the Fifth without admitting he has anything to incriminate himself about.

“Mr. Jones, were you at the restaurant on the night of the murder?”

“I recuse myself from answering that question.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to give the impression that I have any knowledge about the murder.”

“But you’re on trial for the murder, sir.”

“Yes, and that in itself is prejudicial. Do you see? Aspersions about my character and actions have been cast. I wish to remove myself from the possibility of such accusations.”

“You can’t. That’s why you’re here. We suspect you of committing murder.”

“I recuse myself.”

“Are you invoking your Fifth Amendment rights?”

“Absolutely not. That would imply I have some knowledge about the crime. I reject that characterization.”

“You Honor, the witness is unresponsive. Please instruct him to answer my original question.”

“As a judge, I find the defendant’s posture of recusal interesting. I think we’ll let him go with a warning and a small fine. Three hours of community service in the White House, for which he’ll earn seven thousand dollars an hour. Court is adjourned.”

The author of two explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED and EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com.

Isabel Allende’s Una Venganza turned into opera by tenor Plácido Domingo

by the El Reportero’s news service

The play Una Venganza. Plácido Domingo above and Isabel Allende below.The play Una Venganza. Plácido Domingo above and Isabel Allende below.

Under the baton of Placido Domingo, acclaimed Chilean writer Isabel Allende’s short story Una Venganza (An Act of Vengeance) emerges from the printed page as the opera Dulce Rosa, a production with a Latin heart and Greek tragedy in its soul that premieres Friday in Los Angeles.

Dulce Rosa is a further effort by the L.A. Opera, directed by Domingo, to bring lyric opera to a wider audience.

“We’re always looking to create new works,” the Spanish tenor told Efe.

Domingo got behind the adaptation of Una Venganza when the idea was proposed to him by composer Lee Holdridge and librettist Richard Sparks, to whom Allende gave the go-ahead years ago without really expecting anything to come of it, she told Efe.

“It finally emerged, to my surprise,” the author of The House of the Spirits said, adding that she often receives requests from artists to stage her stories but “only about 10 percent are used as proposed, the rest get lost somewhere along the way.”

Allende, who will attend Friday’s premiere, chose to remain on the sidelines of the project and leave the work “to people who know the field.”

Dulce Rosa relates the traumatic experience of young Rosa Orellano, played by Uruguayan soprano María Antunez, who, after a political uprising takes the life of her father, a powerful senator of a Latin American country, is raped by a guerrilla with whom she will later attempt to settle scores.

The opera is in English, though Domingo said he plans its translation into the language of Cervantes in order to export the production to Spanish-speaking countries.

“There are some contacts with the Miami Opera, and I believe with the Santiago Opera in Chile. I also want it to be a work that can be produced with young singers. I would love to take it to Valencia (Spain) and it will almost certainly go to Washington,” the tenor said.

JLo Performed, but Who Won ‘American Idol’ 2013?

image

On Thursday night’s finale of the 12th season of Fox’s American Idol, former judge Jennifer López took the stage to perform her new single Live It Up with rapper Pitbull.

López was among a number of celebrity performers, including a few former Idol contestants to appear on the show. Jennifer Hudson, Aretha Franklin, Travis Barker (Blink-182), Emeli Sande, Adam Lambert, Jessie J, Psy, Frankie Valli, and The Band Perry performed. Judges Randy Jackson, Mariah Carey, and Keith Urban even performed – Jackson playing bass guitar.

Bill Clinton meets with Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Colombian President

Visiting U.S. former President Bill Clinton met in Cartagena with Colombian head of state Juan Manuel Santos and literary icon Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and on Thursday joined Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro for a ride around that Caribbean city in an electric taxi.
Petro uploaded a photo to his Twitter account Thursday that shows him driving one of the vehicles of their entourage and Clinton next to him in the passenger seat.

The Clinton Foundation promotes environmentally sustainable policies and has supported the Bogotá mayor’s office in its efforts to build up a fleet of electric public transport vehicles and create a large cities’ fund to finance climate change adaptation efforts.

image

On Tuesday night, at the beginning of his stay in Cartagena, Clinton attended a dinner hosted by Santos.

According to the daily El Tiempo, Santos and Clinton spoke during the meal about the Colombian government’s ongoing peace talks in Cuba with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the Andean nation’s largest guerrilla insurgency.

Clinton congratulated Santos on that initiative.

On Wednesday, Clinton walked around Cartagena’s historic downtown and visited 86-year-old García Márquez, recipient of the 1982 Nobel Prize in literature, and his wife, Mercedes Barcha, at their home.

Clinton said afterward that the conversation centered on family and that Garcia Marquez recalled that he had met the former president’s daughter, Chelsea, 20 years ago and the two had had a long chat about his books.

The ex-head of state said the Colombian author was surprised then that a person so young (Chelsea was a teenager at the time) had read so much and was familiar with his work.

Clinton recalled that, a month after their literary discussion, Garcia Marquez sent his daughter all of his works that had been translated into English.

Lunada Literary Launge at Galería de la Raza

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

San Francisco Carnaval 2013 starts on Saturday, May 25, with the Festival on Harrison Street, between 16th and 24th Street. And on Sunday is the Grand Parade, which begins at 9:30 a.m. on 24th and Bryant streets, travels west and turn on Mission Street to 17th St. In the photo, the monarchs of Carnaval: Veronica Soto Howard and Jean Cedric Ndzomo. Read below for more info. Roberto Hernández is the executive producer of Carnaval 2013.San Francisco Carnaval 2013 starts on Saturday, May 25, with the Festival on Harrison Street, between 16th and 24th Street. And on Sunday is the Grand Parade, which begins at 9:30 a.m. on 24th and Bryant streets, travels west and turn on Mission Street to 17th St. In the photo, the monarchs of Carnaval: Veronica Soto Howard and Jean Cedric Ndzomo. Read below for more info. Roberto Hernández is the executive producer of Carnaval 2013. (PHOTO BY CHRIS COLLINS)

Galería de la Raza is proud to be the home of the Lunada Literary Lounge, the Bay Area’s only full moon bilingual literary, ritual, and performance gathering. The season has been going full-steam and has boasted the likes of John Santos, Israel Matos, Deuce Eclipse, Avotcja, the girls of Mission Girls, Sarah C. Jimenez, Jade Cho, DJ AGANA, and a surprise appearance by Guillermo Gómez-Peña thus far on stage. With two more dates in the spring 2013 roster left, May promises to deliver the noise.

On Friday, May 24, open mic sign-up at 7:15 p.m. $5 admission.

Carnaval San Francisco Festival and Grand Parade in the SF Mission District

The traditional grand Carnaval San Francisco arrives once again to the San Francisco Mission District bring a long line of colorful floats and over 30 music and dance groups.

CARNAVAL SAN FRANCISCO is happening this year thanks to all the people who have stepped up to volunteer, the City & County Of San Francisco, Galeria de la Raza, BRAVA! For Women in the Arts, 24th Street Merchants Association, Mission Merchants Association, Mission Neighborhood Centers, Loco Bloco, Good Samaritan FRC, Accion Latina, Latin Zone Production, Precita Eyes Mural Center, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, 24th Street Cultural Collaborative, NBA, Grants for the Arts, Recology, Supervisor David Campos,Mayor Ed Lee, Mayors Office of Economic & Workforce Development, Invest In Neighborhoods Initiative, BART, Island Squeeze, Balancoire and all the Carnaval artists, DJs and volunteers.

Mexican rock alternative band to play in SF

Torreblanca is a Mexican rock/pop/alternative independent band created late 2007. They’re a young group, four musicians – each quite different from each other- still they mix in a surprising and awesome way to create a unique and fresh sound together. They pay special attention to arrangements in live performances, and love to play every show joined by special guest musician friends onstage. That’s where they feel they get to explode just the way they like to.

Torreblanca seek to offer unpredictable, elegant, important and well played songs; visceral and sincere in their interpretation, they tend to captivate their listeners.

The band has recorded an EP called Defensa (2010) and, on September 2011, they released their first LP Bella Época, which was produced by Quique Rangel (bass player in Café Tacvba).

Bella Época was received with great acceptance in Mexico’s rock media, highlighting on Rolling Stone and Marvin magazines best of the year lists. It was also featured in magazines and newspapers such as: Warp, Nylon, El Fanzine, Esquire, Reforma, Record, Círculo Mixup and Chilango and digital media such as: Mehaceruido, Panamerika, Club Fonograma and Lifeboxset.

On Wednesday, May 29, 2013, at Brick and Mortar Music Hall (1710 Mission St. San Francisco. Doors open at 8 p.m., and the Show starts at 9. p.m. Cover is $12 adv. $15 door. For advance tickets visit: www.brickandmortarmusic.com.

Video Torreblanca: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meDZPbTgJIs.

Video Diana Gameros: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqoCI5SthMg.

SF Zoo and the Mexican Consulate event

In partnership with the Consulate General of Mexico in San Francisco, this special traveling exhibit makes its only U.S. stop at the San Francisco Zoo! A bi-lingual, multi-media show, Travesia explores the amazing migratory world of gray whales, from the Arctic seas to the Mexican lagoons of Baja.

Interpretive works from eight contemporary Mexican artists encourage reflection on the relationship between humans and nature. Models of a gray whale’s head and tail encourage discussion of the life cycle of the gray whale. Illustrative panels explore the significance of gray whales in the bio-diverse Northeastern Pacific region.

Come learn about this conservation success story, made possible by the dedication and cooperation of Canada, the United States and Mexico.

Member Preview: June 7, 12-4 p.m. Open to the public: June 8, 12 p.m.In the Pachyderm Building.

¡Viva Cuba!

Viva Cuba is an original musical about post-revolutionary Cuba presented by the American Theater Company. It is showing Fri and Sat May 31 and June 1 8 p.m.

At Southside Theater – Fort Mason Center Marina and Laguna. $20 general, $15 students, $12 Children and Seniors. Tickets at door or: Fortmason.org.

Boxing

The Sport of Gentlemen

boxing

May 24 At Uncasville, Conn. (ESPN2/ESPN Deportes):

Delvin Rodriguez vs. Freddy Hernandez, 10 rounds, junior middleweights;

Issouf Kinda vs. Chris Howard, 10 rounds, junior welterweights;

Michael Moore vs. Doel Carrasquillo, 8 rounds, junior middleweights;

Constantin Bejenaru vs. Excell Holmes, 4 rounds, heavyweights;

Joseph Perez vs. Frank Trader, 6 rounds, junior lightweights;

Alexander Juarez vs. TBA, 4 rounds, junior middleweights.

At Walsall, England:

Ameth Diaz vs. Martin Gethin, 12 rounds, IBF lightweight eliminator.

May 25 At Montreal (HBO):

Jean Pascal vs. Lucian Bute, 12 rounds, light heavyweights;

Eleider Alvarez vs. Allan Green, 10 rounds, light heavyweights;

Kevin Bizier vs. Aldo Nazareno Rios, 8 rounds, welterweights;

Sebastien Gauthier vs. Manuel Roman, 8 rounds, junior featherweights;

Mikael Zewski vs. Derrick Samuels, 8 rounds, welterweights;

Sebastien Bouchard vs. Frank Cotroni Jr., 6 rounds, junior middleweights.

1...337338339...599Page 338 of 599

SELECTIONS

POPULAR TICKETS

POPULAR CATEGORY

ABOUT US

Welcome to our Marvin J. Ramirez website! We are an innovative newspaper located in the heart of San Francisco. With a relentless passion for telling powerful stories, we inform our community with truthful news, insightful analysis, and compelling reporting.

Contacto: lreportero@aol.com

FOLLOW US

© Copyright 2023. Agenciadigital.pw. All rights reserved.