Tag Archives: Politics

Timeless Music:: Nex Millen/Retrospective “Who Is Mumia Abu Jamal”



Respect The Culture, LLC, a Philadelphia-based record label and multi-media company, has released Nex Millen/Retrospective’s album, “Who is Mumia Abu Jamal?” The iTunes download features the spoken word of controversial death row inmate and political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal.

Nex Millen’s alternative, soulful beats accompany the spoken word of Jamal, recorded from death row at Huntingdon State Prison and S.C.I. Greene. The album also includes guest appearances by Assata Shakur, Allen Ginsberg & Jello Biafra.

“Millen’s latest effort features his skillful production and a message in his music – the message of death row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal,” “From the haunting keyboards of ‘To Be Like Malcolm, A Message To Mumia’ to the funky, up-tempo sound of ‘A Bright Shining Hell’ to the subtle scratching in ‘Statement of the Facts’ and ‘Legalized Crime’ to the moving strings of ‘The Depth of Our Courage,’ Millen’s beats artfully support the powerful lyrics without detracting from the purpose of the piece – to allow listeners to hear the voice of Jamal and his supporters – many for the first time.”

Mumia Abu Jamal is an award-winning journalist who exposed police violence against minority communities. Imprisoned in 1982 for the alleged murder of a Philadelphia policeman, Jamal maintains his innocence, citing the lack of evidence, racial bias in jury selection, improper tactics by the prosecution and ineffective counsel from the public defender at trial as well as new forensic and other evidence in his defense.

During his twenty plus years of incarceration, Jamal has published numerous recorded and written essays regarding his political and social beliefs via www.prisonradio.org. All of the proceeds from the sales of this download will be donated to The International Concerned Friends & Family of Mumia Abu Jamal.

“Who is Mumia Abu Jamal?” is available for purchase at iTunes, Rhapsody, MSN Music, Sony Connect, Verizon Wireless and other music sites online.

For a free download of “Legalized Crime” click here.

Why Did Mumia Abu Jamal Lawyer Quit?



Lawyer Robert R. Bryan stepped down after Abu-Jamal asked him to sit silent in court while another lawyer argues that jury instructions in his 1982 trial were flawed.

At Abu-Jamal’s insistence, Widener University law professor Judith L. Ritter will now argue the issue.

Abu-Jamal, 56, has had about 10 lawyers represent him since his 1981 arrest, and another dozen or two work on his behalf through advocacy groups.

Bryan had taken over the case seven years ago and pushed to overturn both his client’s death sentence and conviction in the 1981 slaying of a Philadelphia police officer.

“He and I had a very basic disagreement about this argument tomorrow,” Bryan said Monday. “It finally got to the point where I just felt like, ethically, I was totally compromised.” Continue reading

Blowout Aboard The Deep Water Horizon


Michael Williams, a Transocean employee who was chief electronics technician on the rig, said there was “confusion” between those high-ranking officials in an 11 a.m. meeting on the day of the rig blast, according to a sworn statement from Mr. Williams reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Williams himself attended the meeting. ~ The confusion over the drilling plan in the final hours leading up to the explosion could be key to understanding the causes of the blowout and ultimately who was responsible. ~ What is known from drilling records and congressional testimony is that after the morning meeting, the crew began preparations to remove from the drill pipe heavy drilling “mud” that provides pressure to keep down any gas, and to replace this mud with lighter seawater. ~ Ultimately, the crew removed the mud before setting a final 300-foot cement plug that is typically poured as a last safeguard to prevent combustible gas from rising to the surface. Indeed, they never got the opportunity to set the plug. ~ [...] Typically well owner BP would have final say, since it was paying roughly $1 million a day to lease the rig and pay for services from 12 companies that had people on the rig. ~ What is clear is that workers soon began displacing the mud. Later that afternoon a pressure test provided ambiguous readings, a possible sign of gas seeping in, according to what Rep. Henry Waxman says a BP executive told House investigators. Eventually, in the evening, after further tests, BP made a decision to carry forth in removing more drillin…

Book Review:: The Politics of Happiness by Derek Bok



During the past forty years, thousands of studies have been carried out on the subject of happiness. Some have explored the levels of happiness or dissatisfaction associated with typical daily activities, such as working, seeing friends, or doing household chores. Others have tried to determine the extent to which income, family, religion, and other factors are associated with the satisfaction people feel about their lives. The Gallup organization has begun conducting global surveys of happiness, and several countries are considering publishing periodic reports on the growth or decline of happiness among their people. One nation, tiny Bhutan, has actually made “Gross National Happiness” the central aim of its domestic policy. How might happiness research affect government policy in the United States–and beyond? In The Politics of Happiness, former Harvard president Derek Bok examines how governments could use happiness research in a variety of policy areas to increase well-being and improve the quality of life for all their citizens.
Continue reading

Earth Day Is Now Big Business



Earth Day Is Now Big Business
By LESLIE KAUFMAN NY Times

So strong was the antibusiness sentiment for the first Earth Day in 1970 that organizers took no money from corporations and held teach-ins “to challenge corporate and government leaders.”

Forty years later, the day has turned into a premier marketing platform for selling a variety of goods and services, like office products, Greek yogurt and eco-dentistry.

For this year’s celebration, Bahama Umbrella is advertising a specially designed umbrella, with a drain so that water “can be stored, reused and recycled.” Gray Line, a New York City sightseeing company, will keep running its buses on fossil fuels, but it is promoting an “Earth Week” package of day trips to green spots like the botanical gardens and flower shopping at Chelsea Market.

F. A. O. Schwarz is taking advantage of Earth Day to showcase Peat the Penguin, an emerald-tinted plush toy that, as part of the Greenzys line, is made of soy fibers and teaches green lessons to children. The penguin, Greenzys promotional material notes, “is an ardent supporter of recycling, reusing and reducing waste.”

To many pioneers of the environmental movement, eco-consumerism, creeping for decades, is intensely frustrating and detracts from Earth Day’s original purpose.

“This ridiculous perverted marketing has cheapened the concept of what is really green,” said Denis Hayes, who was national coordinator of the first Earth Day and is returning to organize this year’s activities in Washington. “It is tragic.”
Continue reading

Philadelphia to Ease Marijuana Penalty


The city’s new district attorney and the state Supreme Court are moving to all but decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use in an effort to unclog Philadelphia’s crowded court dockets.
Under a policy to take effect later this month, prosecutors will charge such cases as summary offenses rather than as misdemeanors. People arrested with up to 30 grams of the drug – slightly more than an ounce – may have to pay a fine but face no risk of a criminal record.
“We have to be smart on crime,” said District Attorney Seth Williams, who took office in January. “We can’t declare a war on drugs by going after the kid who’s smoking a joint on 55th Street. We have to go after the large traffickers.”
The shift is a major move in a reform agenda being hammered out in an unusual partnership between Williams and two members of the state Supreme Court, Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille and Justice Seamus P. McCaffery, each of whom has a long background in criminal justice.
The goal is to sweep about 3,000 small-time marijuana cases annually out of the main court system, freeing prosecutors and judges to devote time to more serious crimes. The diverted cases amount to about 5 percent of the caseload in criminal court.
Police have been briefed on the policy shift, but appear less than enthusiastic about it.
“We’re not going stop locking people up,” Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman, said Friday. He said marijuana possession remained illegal.
“We’re going to stop people for it. . . . Our officers are trained to do that,” Vanore said. “Whether or not they make it through the charging process, that’s up to the D.A. We can’t control that. Until they legalize it, we’re not going to stop.”

What Is Deem And Pass?


With the health care bill dragging into its second year of debate, there is talk from house leader Nancy Pelosi that a “procedural action” called Deem and Pass may be used to move the health care bill through the House. Half vote and half procedural action, the Deem and Pass action – otherwise known as the “Slaughter rule” – has raised blood pressures on both sides of the aisle, but unless you are a career politician, deem and pass can get more confusing than no fax payday loans very quickly. So here’s the basic primer on deem and pass for all the non-politicians out there. Continue reading

Obama’s Energy Tax or Cap and Trade?


The 2010 Obama budget reveals the major tax hike that Pelosi, Reid, and Obama are counting on to fund the outrageous bailout and stimulus spending that is propelling federal spending to record levels-27.7 percent of GDP in 2009, an all-time record other than the four peak years of World War II.

The tax hike is a broad-based energy tax that will wallop every American who fills a gas tank, pays an electric bill, or buys any product that has to be grown, shipped, or manufactured.

The mechanism is cap-and-trade, which is like a tax on coal, oil, and natural gas but instead of being set at a specific amount, the total level of use is capped and companies are forced to pay the government for emissions permits-which Wall Street wizards at companies like AIG and Goldman Sachs can in turn trade on sophisticated exchanges and derivative markets.

White House Budget Director Peter Orzcag admitted that decreasing carbon emissions imposes costs on the economy, and “much of those costs will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices for energy and energy-intensive goods.” Continue reading

President Obama Introduce New Home Star Program



By Patrick Rodgers patrick@connectsavannah.com
At 12:30 p.m. yesterday, the President entered Eckburg Auditorium at Savannah Tech, where hundreds of invited guests, elected officials and media had been waiting for his arrival. After rounds of applause and a barrage of camera flashes, the President began his comments against a backdrop of blue curtains and several American flags.

Obama talked about his tour of the campus, including facilities where students learn about green technology that will “help transform how we produce and use electricity.”

He pointed out that the Recovery Act has helped fund 300 road projects in the state at the moment, and also mentioned the billions of dollars in loan guarantees he announced last week for the construction of Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle, which he says will create 3,000 construction jobs and over 800 permanent jobs upon completion. This drew applause from the crowd.

The loan guarantee also drew several anti-nuclear protesters outside, including one who was wearing a pig suit and waving a sign decrying “nuclear pork.”

Foremost on the President’s agenda was green technology, jobs and the Recovery Act, all of which segued into his announcement of the new Home Star program.

He did not discuss whether the program would be paid with unused Stimulus money, or whether it would require further investment of taxpayer money.

“My job is to make sure every American can find a job,” the President told the crowd.

The Home Star program will include incentives for home owners to make their homes more energy efficient, upgrades like better windows, insulation and more, which would also stimulate jobs for contractors and construction workers. The improvements would also save homeowners money.

The program could make a significant difference in our national energy consumption.

According to Obama, “40 percent of the energy we use is in our homes and buildings.” Continue reading

Democrats push to peg energy to jobs



Might the new jobs bill be the new energy bill?

Democrats are pushing to have energy provisions included in the new jobs bill, even as climate advocates warn that pulling popular programs from the climate bill could further cripple their already-dimmed chance of passage this spring.

“If you take some of the green stuff out, some of the goodies, and put it in the jobs bill, you’re hurting the idea of having an energy package that would attract support,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who’s working on drafting a climate bill with Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.).

The three senators have been meeting regularly and hope to take up their legislation this spring, with significant bipartisan support.

But the outlook for passing a climate bill has dimmed after a bruising battle over health care reform and the loss of the Democrats’ 60-vote supermajority in the Senate.

And that has moderate Democrats looking to put some of the most popular energy provisions into the jobs package that is rapidly taking shape.

Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, who opposes passing a climate bill this year, suggested using the energy bill as the base for jobs legislation, which has had bipartisan backing.

“We can use that bill and combine it with parts of the jobs package and really lay out a framework to get America working again,” said Landrieu, who voted against the energy bill in committee. “I think energy is the best place we could go right now to create jobs.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32430.html#ixzz0eU7m2raT