G_j
G_j's JournalLet's Help WikiLeaks Liberate the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiating Text
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/11019-lets-help-wikileaks-liberate-the-trans-pacific-partnership-negotiating-textLet's Help WikiLeaks Liberate the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiating Text
Tuesday, 21 August 2012 13:40
By Robert Naiman, Truthout | Op-Ed
On September 6, negotiators will go to Leesburg, Virginia, for the latest round of secretive talks on the "Trans-Pacific Partnership" (TPP) agreement. This proposed agreement threatens access to essential medicines in developing countries, threatens environmental regulations and threatens Internet freedom. Even members of Congress and their staff have been blocked from seeing the draft text, while corporate representatives have been allowed to see it.
Americans - and citizens of the other countries that would be covered by the agreement - have a right to see what our governments are proposing to do. Parts of the draft negotiating text have been leaked. But don't we have a right to see the whole text before the agreement is signed? After the agreement is signed, if there's anything in it we don't like, we'll be told that it's too late to change it.
Just Foreign Policy is issuing a reward if WikiLeaks publishes the TPP negotiating text. Instead of getting one rich person to put up the money, we're "crowdsourcing" the reward. We figure, if many people pledge a little bit, that will not only potentially raise a helpful sum of money for WikiLeaks, it will show that the opposition to this secretive agreement is widespread.
If WikiLeaks publishes the TPP negotiating text, it will show that WikiLeaks is still relevant to citizen demands for government transparency, that publishing US diplomatic cables wasn't the end of WikiLeaks' contribution to public knowledge of government misdeeds. And it will show that the WikiLeaks campaign for government transparency isn't just about issues related to war, but extends to every area where secretive government action threatens the public interest.
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Remove Rep. Todd Akin from the House Science and Technology Committee
Sign your name to call on Speaker John Boehner to remove Rep. Todd Akin from the House Science and Technology Committee.
Republican Congressman Todd Akin told a Missouri news station:
"First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare... If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."
The notion of "legitimate rape" is insulting. But this isn't the first time Akin went down this path. In 2011, Rep. Akin co-sponsored House bill H.R. 3 that proposed redefining rape to only cases of "forcible rape" to deny access to women's health services. Paul Ryan supported it too.
It is outrageous that someone with Rep. Akin's views and appalling ignorance is on a committee devoted to overseeing science policy. This is something that John Boehner can and must change right now.
Tell Speaker Boehner to immediately remove Rep. Akin from the House Science and Technology Committee.
http://www.leftaction.com/action/tell-boehner-remove-akin-science-committee
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/20/us/politics/todd-akin-provokes-ire-with-legitimate-rape-comment.html?_r=1
Senate Candidate Provokes Ire With ‘Legitimate Rape’ Comment
By JOHN ELIGON and MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
Published: August 19, 2012 582 Comments
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In an effort to explain his stance on abortion, Representative Todd Akin, the Republican Senate nominee from Missouri, provoked ire across the political spectrum on Sunday by saying that in instances of what he called “legitimate rape,” women’s bodies somehow blocked an unwanted pregnancy.
Asked in an interview on a St. Louis television station about his views on abortion, Mr. Akin, a six-term member of Congress who is backed by Tea Party conservatives, made it clear that his opposition to the practice was nearly absolute, even in instances of rape.
“It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare,” Mr. Akin said of pregnancies from rape. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something: I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.”
The comments, made during an interview with KTVI-TV that was posted on Sunday on the station’s Web site, provoked howls of outrage from Democrats and women’s rights organizations. Senator Claire McCaskill, the Democrat who will face Mr. Akin in the November election, immediately took to Twitter with a blunt response. “As a woman & former prosecutor who handled 100s of rape cases,” she wrote, “I’m stunned by Rep Akin’s comments about victims this AM.”
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Help the NLG Protect Protest!
http://www.nlg.org/news/announcements/help-the-nlg-protect-protest-at-the-rnc-and-dnc-2/08/15/2012
Help the NLG Protect Protest at the RNC and DNC
Have you ever written the number for a National Lawyers Guild hotline on your arm before setting out to a protest march? Have you ever stood in a crowd squaring off with police and been comforted by the sight of bright green NLG Legal Observer® hats? Has an NLG member ever helped you through a legal problem stemming from a demonstration?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, or if you simply care about keeping the First Amendment strong and the streets safe for protesters, now is the time to consider giving to the NLG through our Indiegogo campaign at http://indiegogo.com/nlg.
The Republican and Democratic national conventions are rapidly approaching. In addition to the delegates coming to shake hands and eat catered food, thousands of demonstrators will converge to protest politics as usual, and the NLG is mobilizing dozens of volunteers to provide protest legal support. That means keeping Legal Observer® eyes on police for as long as protesters are in the streets. That means staffing a support office and a 24-hour legal hotline to ensure that each arrested protester has an ally in the courtroom. And, despite the fact that the NLG is not-for-profit, that means coming up with money.
The things we need are simple: office space and office supplies, gas money, housing, and hats for our Legal Observers®. But every piece is vital to this effort, and the costs add up. To make this happen we need $20,000. We know it sounds like a lot, but it is only 1/5,000 of the budget for policing the two conventions. Put another way, law enforcement may have the latest in tear gas and surveillance technology, but with some of the best legal minds in the country volunteering their services, a few computers and hats will go along way.
Help us defend dissent. Donate today, and pass the word on to your friends and family.
Texas Executes Man With IQ of 61; State Cites Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” To Justify Killing (DN!)
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/8/8/texas_executes_man_with_iq_ofLast night, Texas executed 54-year-old Marvin Wilson, despite evidence that he was mentally disabled and reportedly sucked his thumb into adulthood. Wilson’s lawyers had argued that an IQ test on which Wilson scored 61 — nine points below the standard for competency — should have saved him from execution under a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring execution of the intellectually disabled. Wilson is the second prisoner in Texas to be executed by a new lethal injection method involving a single drug. We speak with Democracy Now! producer Renée Feltz, who has long reported on the death penalty, especially in Texas, where she has covered the state’s ongoing execution of developmentally disabled prisoners. Feltz reads from a statement by the son of legendary author John Steinbeck condemning Texas for using Steinbeck’s fictional character, Lennie Small, from "Of Mice and Men," as a "benchmark to identify whether defendants with intellectual disability should live or die."
"On behalf of the family of John Steinbeck, I am deeply troubled by today’s scheduled execution of Marvin Wilson," Thomas Steinbeck wrote. "The character of Lennie was never intended to be used to diagnose a medical condition like intellectual disability. I find the whole premise to be insulting, outrageous, ridiculous, and profoundly tragic. I am certain that if my father, John Steinbeck, were here, he would be deeply angry and ashamed to see his work used in this way." [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/8/8/texas_executes_man_with_iq_of
The Devil Still Has Us Death Dancing at Fukushima
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/08/08-0Published on Wednesday, August 8, 2012 by Common Dreams
The Devil Still Has Us Death Dancing at Fukushima
by Harvey Wasserman
Our lives still hang by a Devil’s thread at Fukushima.
The molten cores at Units 1, 2 & 3 have threatened all life on Earth. The flood of liquid radiation has poisoned the Pacific. Fukushima’s cesium and other airborne emissions have already dwarfed Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and all nuclear explosions including Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Children throughout Japan carry radioactive burdens in their thyroids and throughout their bodies. Hot spots in Tokyo demand evacuation. Radioactive tuna has been caught off San Diego. Fallout carried across the Pacific may have caused spikes in cancer and infant mortality rates here in the United States.
And yet, 16 months later, the worst may be yet to come. No matter where we are on this planet, our lives are still threatened every day by a Unit 4 fuel pool left hanging 100 feet in the air. At any moment, an earthquake we all know is coming could send that pool crashing to the ground.
If that happens---and it could as you read this---the radiation spewed into the atmosphere could impact every living being on Earth. And that certainly includes you.
Cecile Pineda lays it all out in her brilliant new DEVIL’S TANGO: HOW I LEARNED THE FUKUSHIMA STEP BY STEP (Wings Press: San Antonio; www.ipgbook.com).
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