Thursday, February 2, 2012

Bad Handel and Good Handel

Bad Handel:  Karen Handel and Avid Supporter
Good Handel:  Danielle De Niese singing Lascia ch'io pianga from Georg Frideric Handel's opera, Rinaldo:

Democracy Now: "Gasland" Director Josh Fox Arrested at Congressional Hearing on Natural Gas Fracking

Send Obama to the Quantico Brig?

Conjuring up the image of President Richard Nixon, who once stated "When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal,"  Obama recently disclosed secret government information on the Jay Leno Show, and on this past week's internet forum.  Last year, when asked about Army Private Bradley Manning's status, Obama quipped "If I was to release stuff, information that I’m not authorized to release, I’m breaking the law."  At the time, Manning had not been charged with any crime.

But, by the standards of Obama's statement on Manning, the president has also broken the law.  Glenn Greenwald takes this up in today's column, titled ACLU sues Obama administration over assassination secrecy.  The Obama administration, defending its program of assassination of American citizens, and its illegal drone assassinations, and killing of hundreds of innocent people as collateral damage, has stated repeatedly that these programs are so secret that even discussing them is forbidden.  Greenwald:
When they face the rule of law, then the program is so profoundly classified that it cannot be spoken of at all — indeed, the administration cannot even confirm or deny that it exists — and it therefore cannot be scrutinized by courts at all. 

Worse, they not only invoke these secrecy claims to avoid the ACLU and NYT‘s FOIA requests, but they also invoked it when Awlaki’s father sued them and asked a court to prevent President Obama from executing his son without a trial. When forced to justify their assassination program in court, the Obama DOJ insisted that the program was so secretive that it could not even safely confirm that it existed — it’s a state secret – and thus no court could or should review its legality (see p.43 of the DOJ’s brief and Panetta’s Affidavit in the Awlaki lawsuit).
 But Obama, on the Jay Leno Show, said:
This is a guy who was actively planning a whole range of operations here in the homeland and was focused on the homeland. And so this was probably the most important al Qaeda threat that was out there after Bin Laden was taken out, and it was important that working with the enemies, we were able to remove him from the field.
 And on the internet event last week, he said:
"I think that we have to be judicious in how we use drones," Obama said on Monday, adding that they have been used for "very precise, precision strikes against Al Qaeda and their affiliates."

Obama went on to say that "obviously a lot of these strikes have been in the FATA," the acronym for Pakistan's federally administered tribal areas, and have been used for "going after Al Qaeda suspects who are in very tough terrain along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan."

"This thing is kept on a very tight leash," Obama said. The U.S. does not use drones "willy nilly" but in a way that avoids more intrusive military actions, he said.
Obama, by divulging classified information to the public, using his own administration's tortured arguments, in his own words, "If I was to release stuff, information that I’m not authorized to release, I’m breaking the law," has done just that. 

Greenwald is clearly upset about where we've gotten:
It’s extraordinary enough that the Obama administration is secretly targeting citizens for execution-by-CIA; that they refuse even to account for what they are doing — even to the point of refusing to disclose their legal reasoning as to why they think the President possesses this power — is just mind-boggling. Truly: what more tyrannical power is there than for a government to target its own citizens for death — in total secrecy and with no checks — and then insist on the right to do so without even having to explain its legal and factual rationale for what it is doing? Could you even imagine what the U.S. Government and its media supporters would be saying about any other non-client-state country that asserted and exercised this power?
 When we voted for Obama, many hoped we'd get another  FDR, or at least a JFK.  Then we realized we'd gotten something more akin to another Gerald Ford.  Now, more and more, it seems what we've gotten is a newer version of some of the most uncomfortable aspects of Richard M. Nixon.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Addressing Public Education in Alaska - Part Two: The War on Alaska’s Public Schools — The Basic Outline

Nikolai School - Alaska Dispatch
--- by Linda Kellen Biegel

Last school year, I wrote a post about the proposed cuts in the Anchorage School District budget and how they would affect a family of a middle school student. It was then I became aware of the outrageous fees Mayor Dan Sullivan was charging the school district–for example: 100% of the salaries and benefits of those Anchorage Police–called Resource Officers–who only service the School District about 70% of the time. I tried to show how they were taking millions of dollars away from our kids. (Note: As of this week, these fees have not changed.)

Sadly, this week Jeanne wrote a post about this year’s cuts. They are much worse than last year and are precipitated by both Governor Parnell’s under-funding as well as Mayor Sullivan’s refusal to tax to the cap.

But it’s not just Anchorage that is suffering. Fairbanks, Juneau and many smaller and more rural schools are in deep trouble if things don’t change. The worst part: this is all orchestrated as part of a larger and more national attack on public education. Alaska is just next-in-line.

For over a year now, I’ve watched how the anti-public school drama has played out in Alaska on multiple fronts. From the Municipality of Anchorage to the Legislature to the Governor’s Office to outside organizations, the forces at work are performing a complex dance in multiple venues…a dance that is impossible to follow unless one is a complete research nerd (and then, only tenuously). I’ve wanted to write about it all in that context…I’ve started a number of posts. However, I haven’t been able to figure out how to present it. I started writing a list, like an outline…
…and realized that was the best way to start.

So here is a list of the characters in this drama and the means they are using to achieve their agenda — a summary of their activities so far. Jeanne and I will be writing multiple posts in the future on these education issues. This gives you a place to look up the various characters and refresh your memory about their place in the story.

Disclaimer: I want to emphasize that while the characters supporting these false “reforms” in Alaska seem to be Republican, the issue is not a partisan one. From what I can see, the majority of Alaska’s Republican Legislators are not yet “sold” on this bill of goods and are more than happy to receive input from their constituents.

The problem: Like every other Alaska issue, these strategies are generally pushed forward by those religious ideologues and/or those beholden to businesses/corporations who want privatization across-the-board. These businesses/corporations who are pushing this “education reform” agenda can do so with tons of money and the help of friendly politicians. We must contact our State Senators and Representatives to counter any misinformation. I hope this and future posts help you to do that.

Leading the attack:

Governor Sean Parnell — I covered some of the issues with the Governor at the beginning and discuss his budget below. Since the election, Governor Parnell has truly shown his religious extremist leanings and tea party philosophy, which includes a strong “Christian” influence in the interpretation of law. An alarming number of his appointees also seem to reflect his beliefs.

Representative Wes Keller — Originally appointed by Sarah Palin to fill a vacancy in the Legislature, Mr. Keller is a religious extremist and tea partier through-and-through. He is a state chairman for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Mr. Keller is the sponsor/creator of House Bill 145 and House Joint Resolution 16 (see below) with some help from ALEC’s “model bills.”


Senator Fred Dyson — He wasn’t appointed by Palin but “ditto” to everything else. Dyson is sponsor of the companion legislation in the Senate, SB 106 and he attended the ALEC Conference with Keller last year.

ALECA slightly re-worded summary from Pro Publica — I encourage you to follow the link and read the entire post: “For decades, a discreet nonprofit called the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC has brought together state legislators and corporate representatives to produce business-friendly “model” legislation. These “model” bills form the basis of hundreds of pieces of legislation each year, and they often end up as laws.”

The Friedman FoundationPer the Nation: “For most of the half-century since economist Milton Friedman first advanced the idea of school vouchers, it’s been the ultimate weapon in our educational debates, always ticking just under the surface, never quite going off. But after last November’s Republican statehouse victories, the right, sometimes abetted by Democrats and liberals, has brought back vouchers and school privatization with a vengeance.”

The Foundation has been heavily involved in most of those voucher battles across the country. As I will discuss below, they have turned their sites on Alaska by conducting a poll of residents regarding school vouchers.

Mayor Dan Sullivan — I have recapped some of the Mayor’s anti-education moves at the beginning of this post and Mudflats as a whole has covered many more. His “Education Summit” is ongoing and I discuss it below.

Jim Minnery–Minnery’s Alaska Family Council lists “School Choice” as one of their top issues. Minnery has been a proponent of changing the AK Constitution in order to use State money for religious education since back in 2008, as this email between Gov. Sarah Palin and then Atty General Talis Coleberg shows.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Anchorage It’s not hard to guess the motivation behind the Archdiocese’s push for school vouchers, as reflected in the “Catholic Anchor.” A story in the Chicago Tribune on what the results of Indiana’s voucher program revealed: “…Just as backers had hoped and opponents feared, a new statewide school voucher program in Indiana is draining money from public education and offering new life to struggling parochial schools.” My understanding is that the economy has taken a serious toll on the enrollment in parochial (as well as private) schools in the state. Last year, one of them had a Senior graduating class of three. These schools may be counting on our State money to keep them afloat.

KIPP Charter Schools — I included KIPP on this list even though their only actual appearance in the state was in the form of Dr. Mike Feinberg, who taught 5th grade for three whole years with Teach For America and then founded the “Knowledge Is Power Program” (KIPP) Charter Schools. The reason I list them is because the presentation by Feinberg at the Education Summit (third video, first speaker after Superintendent Comeau) sounded like he was trying to sell a Veg-O-Matic or a set of Ginsu knives rather than inform a group about education alternatives. And it makes sense…Alaska is a rich oil state with a surplus when most other states have deficits. You could almost see the man drooling.

The Artillery:

Governor Parnell’s Operating Budget (HB 284 — starting on page 8) — The Governor promised that his budget was a “full funding of K-12 Education”. In actuality, the budget doesn’t even cover inflation (which averaged 3.16% in 2011) and now has school districts across the state scrambling to cut much-needed programs. How much of a slap-in-the face was it to K-12 Education in Alaska? The “Teaching and Learning” line-item in the Department of Education budget makes up the bulk of the money shared by every school district in Alaska. If the budget stays as-is, Alaska schools will receive a little over $237 million this year…an increase of about $3 million from last year or about 1.3%. However, the Office of the Governor “Executive Office” line-item (which includes the Governor’s Staff) will be receiving over $13 million this year — an increase of almost $2 million or over 13%!

House Joint Resolution (HJR) 16 — A resolution which, if passed, would place an amendment to the Constitution on the ballot, allowing for public (education) money to go for a “public purpose.” According to the text of the resolution, it still specifically does NOT allow state money to go towards private or religious institutions. However, it DOES seem geared to allow state funds for privatized education. Also, I have been told of one more possibility (which will require more research)…it could leave open the option of a for-profit business that owns a religious school receiving funds. From Wes Keller’s Sponsor Statement:
HJR 16 opens some of these doors for both public and private education by allowing the release of funds to more than just public schools. This Constitutional Amendment allows those students seeking to excel in secondary and post secondary education to attend a school that meets their needs.
Like I said…more research…

House Bill (HB) 145 (Senate companion bill SB 106)Titled the same as the ALEC template voucher bill, HB145 is intended to establish: “…the parental choice scholarship program to be administered by school districts for the purpose of paying the cost of attending grades kindergarten through 12 at public and private schools…” In other words, it will establish school vouchers with State of Alaska money.

At this time, it suffers from some major drawbacks:

1) It’s unconstitutional per Article 7 Section 1 a) State money cannot be used to fund private or religious education (see HJR 16) and b) We must “establish and maintain a system of public schools open to all children of the State,” — since many village parents will be unable to utilize this “choice” (voucher), it could quite possibly get decimated in the courts.

2) Because there have been amendments on top of amendments in an attempt to get it to work, it is a huge pile of gobbledy gook that most of the members of the House Education Committee don’t even completely understand, based on their Friday meeting. Those pushing the bill (Rep Keller, Rep Dick) seem to think it’s been in the Education Committee “an embarassing” amount of time and just needs to get moved along…whether it functions or not.

**There is another meeting scheduled for Wednesday Feb 1st and I intend to send my testimony to the Committee beforehand. I encourage you to do the same.**

“Alaska K-12 School Choice Survey” — Several months ago, I was listening to a conservative show when the host started discussing a poll that proves Alaska wants to have vouchers private charter schools. It turned out to be a poll that was funded by the Friedman Foundation. The host was quoting numbers over 60% in favor of various types of alternative education…pretty impressive. When I researched the poll, I discovered the most important question:

How familiar are you with [Charter Schools/Virtual Schools/School Vouchers] in K-12 education? Not that familiar/Never heard of it — 62%

So basically, the vast majority polled had no idea what these folks were talking about. So, when these Alaskans who were quite used to receiving free money in the form of a Permanent Fund Dividend Check each year were asked a question worded like this:

“An education savings account allows parents to withdraw their child from a public district or charter school and recieve a payment into a government authorized savings account with restricted but multiple uses. Parents can then used these funds to pay for private school tuition, virtual education programs, private tutoring or saving for future college expenses. In general, do you favor or opppose this kind of savings account system?”

61% were all for it!

Note that 61% is about the same percentage of folks who had no idea what “school choice” really is. In other words, the same percentage of folks who know what all of this means said “no” to the free money.

Another note: if you look at the survey demographics, only 13% were Alaska Native. That does not match the State of Alaska demographics according to the 2010 Census, but it does match the Municipality of Anchorage demographics. In other words, while these folks were claiming that their “sample size” was Alaska, it was probably just Anchorage.

Why is that significant?

Anchorage School District already has really nice charter schools within the system (and there is no reason we can’t have more). If you ask someone from Anchorage about charter schools, especially if they don’t know about the lower-48 kind, that will completely skew their responses.

The Education Summit — Per Municipal Code, Mayor Dan Sullivan’s roll in enacting School District changes is generally signing or vetoing what’s been passed through the School Board and the Anchorage Assembly. However, being that it’s an election year, he adopted the role of Superintendent by collecting corporate and private business money for an Education Summit. It was set up in three parts:

1) He hired Viewpoint Learning, a company of professional “handlers,” then hand-picked a mostly-conservative 100 participants. They brought up seven panelists. All but two of them were clearly pushing a privatized charter school and/or voucher agenda, four of them worked for organizations whose funding was provided directly by privatization advocates and only one had proof of an education plan with long-term success…a non-privatization pro-union strategy in Finland.

2) Now in phase 2, The Mayor’s Office is currently asking for Anchorage residents to attend the “community conversations.” This is the only time that the general public will have any input n the “scenarios” reached during the Education Summit. I’ve already signed up for one and I encourage everyone to do the same.

3) There will be a “Capstone Summit” in June where some of the Summit participants and some of the Community Dialogue participants will get together and finalize “recommendations.”

To be continued…

Addressing Public Education in Alaska - Part One: A Learning Moment

--- by Andrew Halcro


January 25, 2012: Dear Mr. and Mrs. Alaska, we regret to inform you that critical thinking died a tragic death in the House Education Committee this week. I'm sorry, but today's blog wasn't supposed to turn out this way.

To be honest, today's blog was planned to be a simple rewrite of a column I did on school choice over six weeks ago. I had originally intended to recycle the piece with some quotes and pithy observations from Tuesday's House Education Committee meeting.

But then the bigger, more troubling picture came into focus.

With ninety percent of Alaskan children attending public schools, lawmakers are considering adopting legislation along with amending the state constitution that would turn Alaska's public school system on its head. The bill would allow public money to be used to fund private and religious schools.

My previous column (linked above) describes exactly why the legislation (HB145) raises serious concerns regarding fairness, finance and unintended consequences. All of which are clearly visible to those who aren't blinded by the idea of a religious renaissance in Alaskan education.

However, shortly after Tuesday's committee meeting, it occurred to me; the real story wasn't about this short sighted legislation, it was about the alarming absence of critical thinking exhibited by lawmakers who were discussing the most dramatic shift in education since Alaska became a state.

What the hell did I just say?

The committee discussion sounded like the mob had executed a hit on critical thinking.
Leave the gun, take the canole. 

The debate about vouchers, school choice, or whatever you want to call taxpayers money flowing to private schools has been around for more than a decade. Ten years ago former Rep. Vic Kohring (R-Wasilla) was the standard barer of the public cash to religious organizations cabal. Today it's his successor, State Rep. Wes Keller (R-Wasilla).

The theory has always gone that kids will get a better education if government embraces competition and allows parents to use taxpayer money to pay tuition at private and religious schools.

It's a bad idea. This year we're paying private tuitions, next year were funding private school improvements. Anytime you give groups with political power direct access to state coffers, you're in for a penny in for a pound. Consider the recent controversy over tax exemptions passed for a politically connected religious group.

But it's not just the bad public policy, it's the way the bill was handle by committee members which made me ask; when did we stop thinking?

During the committee discussion, the issue arose regarding how the money allocated to pay for these new private tuition scholarships would be accounted for. One Republican stated they should just fund education in one pot and let the free market sort it out.

The free market? Really.

The free market has already sorted it out. The private schools that exist today are products of the free market where sellers established their product and pricing and attracted willing buyers. They built their schools by taking risks and hinging their success based on their ability to compete in the marketplace.

That's a free market.

What this legislation will do is inject a massive government subsidy that will distort market dynamics and create government sponsored winners and losers. This is AGIA with a backpack.

And while some want to frame it as an issue of competition, this bill would allow parents who are currently paying private school tuition, to get reimbursed with public dollars. This isn't fostering a free market, this is a bailout.

It's even more distorted when you realize recipients will receive state tax dollars when they don't pay any state taxes.

But not one committee member asked about the economic sense of this commitment. Especially with budget deficits projected in just a few fiscal years.  

Later in the hearing, the same lawmaker went on to advocate for combining the annual education appropriation into just one big pot so it would be easier to debit the public school money and credit the private school account. So for every dollar we spend supporting private schools, we'll automatically deduct a commensurate amount from public schools.

This is never going to happen.

Every district in the state is struggling to make ends meet including Juneau where they're considering laying off teachers. Alaska's communities are not going to stand idly by as state education funding is siphoned away to private schools that bare none of the costly burdens but get all of the bounty.

There were two other major components of this legislation that also should have drawn serious concerns from committee members.

In addition to paying tuition, the bill calls for the state to pay for the student's transportation cost based on the same cost per student as the host district. In Anchorage the allocation is $384 per student, per year.

Here's the thing; the $384 dollars the Anchorage School District gets per student will not come close to covering private school transportation costs.

The cost per unit paid by the ASD is base upon moving tens of thousands of students around Anchorage every school day. There is no way private schools can compete with the ASD's economy of scale in providing the same city wide transportation for the same cost.

Point being: How long do you think it takes before private schools begin lobbying lawmakers for an increase in transportation funding? 

The bill also allows private schools to enjoy an exemption from having to meet the state's required minimum number for a recognized school. The current state minimum for continued state funding is ten students.

Look, if you have less than ten students to start a school, then you don't have a school - you have a very large family. However this legislation would allow for a two year grace period to allow start ups to achieve the minimum standard. 

But not one committee member raised questions about the cost utilization of funding such small start ups and then throwing in transportation. And not a single member asked if making exemptions to the student minimums impacted public schools.

Nor did anyone bring up the predictable cost shifts to the state treasury while oil production is falling faster than you can say vouchers.

Since the sponsor testified the money for the program "has to grow," and since there is no way to play a zero sum game with existing education funding, more money would have to be appropriated every year for the tuition scholarships. That means an expensive new entitlement program at a time when the legislative finance director testified to the House Finance Committee that state government needs to reign in spending.

But again, committee members could barely muster an ounce of critical thinking.

Towards the end of the hearing, the issue surrounding the mechanics of funding the program resurfaced, prompting Rep. Keller to convince committee members that their concerns would be addressed in the next committee.

Keller's comments represent the single biggest cop out lawmakers take in the legislative process; defer to another committee. Nothing pisses me off more than when I hear a committee chair say a topic of discussion should be deferred to another committee. It's a convenient excuse for not having to understand the total impacts of the bill. It's also why so many bad pieces of public policy pass into law.

In this case, education committee members appeared to be all to willing to ignore the pesky little details like how do we financially sustain this new program and how will this impact the public school system which serves ninety percent of Alaskan students.

This is a cop out because everything is relative when it comes to public education policies.

Do these education committee members realize that the financial impacts on education in Alaska is their purview? Do they realize that this bill will have significant impacts on every other component of the state's education system from the base student allocation to pre-k and higher education? Do they understand that such a monumental piece of legislation should pass a more rigorous examination than simply waving it around as if it were a base runner sprinting for home?

The real tragedy is that at a time when lawmakers should be looking to strengthen a public school system that serves ninety percent of Alaska's school students, they're proposing to decimate it.

I can still remember the day I was in ASD Superintendent Carol Comeaux's office a few years back, interviewing her for a column I was writing. She told me the story about how the previous morning ten newly arrived Hmong children, who didn't speak a word of english, were enrolled in an East Anchorage elementary school.

This story highlights the irony and the audacity of Rep. Keller calling his proposed legislation school choice.

Until private and religious schools have to accept all students without exception like public schools are required to, this isn't about competition and it certainly isn't about true school choice.

It's an expensive mirage packaged as school choice that will allow private and religious schools to feed off the public trough while not having to meet any of the responsibilities that their public school counterparts must.

Again, not one word from education committee members questioning the long term impacts on Alaska's public school system. Not one to question how we fund a new program when we're currently struggling to fund our existing education obligations. Not one word to question why the state should fund schools that get to pick and choose what students they accept.

Yet these are the hands that hold Alaska's education future.

In the words of a famous fictional educator, "Bueller, Bueller, anyone, anyone."

Max Blumenthal on Some of the Complexities of Major Jewish Donors in the 2012 Campaigns

Will Obama Take Us to War on an "If"?

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The Obama Doctrine

Glenn Greenwald, reacting to the Haditha war crimes final verdict, posted four points, which resonate, of course, with his latest book and its profound message.  His points might be regarded as the centerpiece of "The Obama Doctrine":

The Rules of American Justice are quite clear:

(1) If you are a high-ranking government official who commits war crimes, you will receive full-scale immunity, both civil and criminal, and will have the American President demand that all citizens Look Forward, Not Backward.

(2) If you are a low-ranking member of the military, you will receive relatively trivial punishments in order to protect higher-ranking officials and cast the appearance of accountability.

(3) If you are a victim of American war crimes, you are a non-person with no legal rights or even any entitlement to see the inside of a courtroom.

(4) If you talk publicly about any of these war crimes, you have committed the Gravest Crime — you are guilty of espionage – and will have the full weight of the American criminal justice system come crashing down upon you.
A president who lied himself into office by claiming he would protect whistleblowers, is now prosecuting more of them than any of his predecessors.

A president who lied himself into office by claiming he would end torture and prosecute those who had engaged in it earlier, is now just snuffing people that get in the way:
The promise to scrap his predecessor’s hardliner war-on-terror policies, which helped Barack Obama win presidential election, is apparently off the table. The political reality is that the current administration is doing quite the opposite thing.
 

Long before he became US president or the winner of a Noble Peace Prize, Barack Obama was a constitutional law professor. During his election campaign he vowed to reverse the abuses and policies of his predecessor George W. Bush.
 

Three years later, many civil rights advocates, who once cheered “yes, we can,” are finding themselves disillusioned.
 

“Not only has the Obama administration blocked torture accountability and refused to investigate and prosecute. He has basically maintained indefinite detention. He has revived military commissions. As well he has expanded targeted killings – they’ve increased under the Obama administration manifold, and he’s even authorized the killing of a US citizen,” explains Maria LaHood from the Center for Constitutional Rights.
 

World-renowned author and scholar Noam Chomsky believes the Obama administration has changed gears and accelerated illegal practices into overdrive.
 

“There is a shift between Bush’s policies and the Obama’s on this. Bush’s policy was to kidnap people, take them to Guantanamo or Bagram or some other torture chamber and try to extract some information from them. Obama’s policy is just to kill them. They’re killing them all over the world. 

And the Bin Laden assassination was a case point,” he told RT.
 

Another was the drone killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric. President Obama described the man as “the leader of external operations for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.”
Apart from those two are hundreds more killed by US UAVs. The number of drone strikes during the first two years under Obama exceeded the total carried out during Bush’s 10 years.
 

“If a President McCain were doing the exact same thing that President Obama is doing, he would have been denounced by a lot of liberals. It’s one of those dangerous moments in the US history. We saw it a bit with Clinton in the 1990s, where a democrat campaigned and pledged to change the country and the world has actually pushed the right-wing agenda further forward than a republican could have if they took the power,” says New York-based journalist and author Jeremy Scahill.
 

As Obama gears up for his re-election campaign, civil liberties groups that believed his words the first time around are now left to judge the commander-in-chief on his actions.
"As Obama gears up for his election campaign,"  I asked some of my friends this morning what they think the Democrats who still support this fucking war criminal should put up as his campaign slogan.  Here are some of the suggestions:
‘The devil made me do it’


VOTE FOR JILL STEIN


Obama 2012: “I Suck Slightly Less”


Frack Baby Frack


Of the Banksters, By the Banksters, For the Banksters


This Time is Different


Gotcha!


Half a Loaf of Bread Is Better Than None


“Half a slice is better than none


You won’t be sorry this time!


The Rule of Law is so last century!


He Put the Extra in Extra-Judicial


Believe in change you can be deceived by!


Obama/Citigroup 2012


Who else you gonna vote for?


Eat your peas and get over it!


It could be worse


Read my lips – I am a Democrat


Since 2009 Giving the Tea Party only 95% of what they demand – we know compromise


Obama – He Killed Osama
As you might glean, it will be a tough haul for the Obama campaign machine to get people like me who donated every penny we could afford, opened up our houses to volunteers, and campaigned on the streets and in the Obama HQ for hours and hours to do that again. 

Do you think you have a slogan that will help him convince me he deserves the same efforts I gave in 2008? 

Good luck!

Monday, January 30, 2012

Stupid Valley Sled Punks Post Long Video of Themselves Breaking the Law



Hey, Dudes - too late to take it down. We've already copied it, its url and all that, and sent it on to DNR.

They're snowmobiling in an area of Hatcher Pass closed to motorized recreation.

Democracy Now's Coverage of Yesterday's Occupy Oakland Police Action