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G_j's Journal
[/IMG]Help Stop Idaho's War on Wolves
https://secure.defenders.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=2437&s_src=3WDW1208AFTX5&s_subsrc=fblikeHelp Stop Idaho's War on Wolves
One year ago, Idaho finally got its chance to manage its wolves.
Since then, they have failed to manage these animals as the ecologically important wildlife that they are. Instead, state officials have pulled a bait-and-switch on wolf management planning.
By abandoning their original commitments to the Service and pandering to anti-wolf extremists, Idaho officials appear to be pursuing the ultimate goal of near decimation of wolves in the state.
It is clear that as a result of delisting, Idaho is pursuing a race to the bottom in wolf management -- and appear to be unraveling one of our nation's greatest conservation success stories: the restoration of Western wolves.
Take action now: Write to Interior Secretary Salazar urging him to immediately hold Idaho officials accountable for their extreme anti-wolf policies.
[/IMG]The majority voting on the rights of a minority
is simply wrong.
All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
Thomas Jefferson
In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.
Mahatma Gandhi
Which counties cast the most votes against amendment one
This map is showing which counties cast the most votes against amendment one than in favor for it and notes the percentage of people 25 or older who have completed a bachelor's degree.
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I am about to go vote AGAINST Amendment One!
calling for the constitutional discrimination against a specific group of citizens, and denying benefits to families because they are part of this 'group' is most certainly hateful. Franklin Graham is now on a TV ad promoting it. His father, Billy promotes it also.
I'm afraid this may pass with most not having been told the full ramifications.
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Bill info
The long title of Senate Bill 514 is: "An Act to Amend the Constitution to Provide That Marriage Between One Man and One Woman is the Only Domestic Legal Union That Shall Be Valid or Recognized in This State."
The bill proposes to add a new section to article XIV, which covers miscellaneous provisions. The sections of the bill are as follows.
Section 1"Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State. This section does not prohibit a private party from entering into contracts with another private party; nor does this section prohibit courts from adjudicating the rights of private parties pursuant to such contracts."
The bill appears to prevent not only same-sex marriages, but civil unions.
Section 2Specifies that the amendment shall be submitted to voters, and defines the ballot text.
Section 3Specifies that a simple majority vote is required for approval.
Sections 4 and 5Specify that the amendment will become effective when it is certified by the Secretary of State.
Supporters of the amendment will try to define it as only a choice on gay marriage while ignoring the harm it could cause to children, to our seniors and to victims of domestic violence.
Amendment One is a poorly written law that will have serious negative, unintended and harmful consequences on North Carolina’s children and families. The truth is that Amendment One is bad for North Carolina for the following reasons.
1. Harm To North Carolina’s Children
Amendment One will harm children and we have a role in protecting all of North Carolina’s children. This amendment could make it impossible for parents in committed, but unmarried relationships, to provide health care benefits to children in their household. In tough times like this we should not make it harder to raise a family and protect children.
2. Negative Effects on NC Seniors
Amendment One will hurt some of our seniors. Many older people who have previously lost spouses, but find love later in life never remarry, even though they are committed to their new partner. They do this to protect the benefits their previous spouse earned including health care, pensions, and Social Security, and Amendment One puts those benefits at jeopardy.
3. Dangerous Consequences for NC Women
Amendment One threatens domestic violence protections for unmarried women. Domestic violence protections for unmarried women could be declared unconstitutional because Amendment One legally recognizes only married couples as a family. Women deserve protections from domestic violence whether they are married or not.
Women deserve protections from domestic violence and stalking whether they are married or not. According to the Attorney General, leading experts at Duke and UNC law schools, and the state's Women's Commission, this amendment could take away those protections against violent acts from women whether they are married to their attacker or not. That’s wrong and dangerous.
***For example: An amendment similar to Amendment One caused Ohio courts to throw out domestic violence convictions. When an almost identical state amendment passed in Ohio, the courts there overturned 27 cases against attackers of unmarried women because the amendment meant that the state could only recognize married couples as a legal relationship with protected status.
http://www.ncdp.org/pages/741/
Wish the pro Amendment 1 ads here in NC would be considered hate speech and banned
but of course that will not happen... Still, calling for the discrimination against a specific group of citizens, and denying benefits to families because they are part of this 'group' is most certainly hateful. Franklin Graham is now on a TV ad promoting it. His father, Billy promotes it also.
I'm afraid this may pass with most not having been told the full ramifications of constitutional amendment one.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina_Senate_Bill_514_(2011)
North Carolina Senate Bill 514 (2011) (also called Amendment 1) proposes to amend the North Carolina Constitution to limit the types of domestic unions valid or recognized.[1] Sponsored by Republican Sen. Peter Brunstetter, the bill was passed by the North Carolina General Assembly in September 2011.[2] As a result, citizens of North Carolina will be voting on the amendment on May 8, 2012.[3]
North Carolina is the only US southern state that does not have a constitutional amendment banning same-sex unions.[4] State law, however, already defines marriage as being between men and women.[5]
Bill info
The long title of Senate Bill 514 is: "An Act to Amend the Constitution to Provide That Marriage Between One Man and One Woman is the Only Domestic Legal Union That Shall Be Valid or Recognized in This State."
The bill proposes to add a new section to article XIV, which covers miscellaneous provisions. The sections of the bill are as follows.[1]
[edit] Section 1"Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State. This section does not prohibit a private party from entering into contracts with another private party; nor does this section prohibit courts from adjudicating the rights of private parties pursuant to such contracts."
The bill appears to prevent not only same-sex marriages, but civil unions.[8]
[edit] Section 2Specifies that the amendment shall be submitted to voters, and defines the ballot text.
[edit] Section 3Specifies that a simple majority vote is required for approval.
[edit] Sections 4 and 5Specify that the amendment will become effective when it is certified by the Secretary of State.
Supporters of the amendment will try to define it as only a choice on gay marriage while ignoring the harm it could cause to children, to our seniors and to victims of domestic violence.
Amendment One is a poorly written law that will have serious negative, unintended and harmful consequences on North Carolina’s children and families. The truth is that Amendment One is bad for North Carolina for the following reasons.
1. Harm To North Carolina’s Children
Amendment One will harm children and we have a role in protecting all of North Carolina’s children. This amendment could make it impossible for parents in committed, but unmarried relationships, to provide health care benefits to children in their household. In tough times like this we should not make it harder to raise a family and protect children.
2. Negative Effects on NC Seniors
Amendment One will hurt some of our seniors. Many older people who have previously lost spouses, but find love later in life never remarry, even though they are committed to their new partner. They do this to protect the benefits their previous spouse earned including health care, pensions, and Social Security, and Amendment One puts those benefits at jeopardy.
3. Dangerous Consequences for NC Women
Amendment One threatens domestic violence protections for unmarried women. Domestic violence protections for unmarried women could be declared unconstitutional because Amendment One legally recognizes only married couples as a family. Women deserve protections from domestic violence whether they are married or not.
Women deserve protections from domestic violence and stalking whether they are married or not. According to the Attorney General, leading experts at Duke and UNC law schools, and the state's Women's Commission, this amendment could take away those protections against violent acts from women whether they are married to their attacker or not. That’s wrong and dangerous.
***For example: An amendment similar to Amendment One caused Ohio courts to throw out domestic violence convictions. When an almost identical state amendment passed in Ohio, the courts there overturned 27 cases against attackers of unmarried women because the amendment meant that the state could only recognize married couples as a legal relationship with protected status.
http://www.ncdp.org/pages/741/
Chris Hedges: Welcome to the Asylum
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/welcome_to_the_asylum_20120430/Welcome to the Asylum
Posted on Apr 30, 2012
By Chris Hedges
When civilizations start to die they go insane. Let the ice sheets in the Arctic melt. Let the temperatures rise. Let the air, soil and water be poisoned. Let the forests die. Let the seas be emptied of life. Let one useless war after another be waged. Let the masses be thrust into extreme poverty and left without jobs while the elites, drunk on hedonism, accumulate vast fortunes through exploitation, speculation, fraud and theft. Reality, at the end, gets unplugged. We live in an age when news consists of Snooki’s pregnancy, Hulk Hogan’s sex tape and Kim Kardashian’s denial that she is the naked woman cooking eggs in a photo circulating on the Internet. Politicians, including presidents, appear on late night comedy shows to do gags and they campaign on issues such as creating a moon colony. “At times when the page is turning,” Louis-Ferdinand Celine wrote in “Castle to Castle,” “when History brings all the nuts together, opens its Epic Dance Halls! hats and heads in the whirlwind! Panties overboard!”
The quest by a bankrupt elite in the final days of empire to accumulate greater and greater wealth, as Karl Marx observed, is modern society’s version of primitive fetishism. This quest, as there is less and less to exploit, leads to mounting repression, increased human suffering, a collapse of infrastructure and, finally, collective death. It is the self-deluded, those on Wall Street or among the political elite, those who entertain and inform us, those who lack the capacity to question the lusts that will ensure our self-annihilation, who are held up as exemplars of intelligence, success and progress. The World Health Organization calculates that one in four people in the United States suffers from chronic anxiety, a mood disorder or depression—which seems to me to be a normal reaction to our march toward collective suicide. Welcome to the asylum.
When the most basic elements that sustain life are reduced to a cash product, life has no intrinsic value. The extinguishing of “primitive” societies, those that were defined by animism and mysticism, those that celebrated ambiguity and mystery, those that respected the centrality of the human imagination, removed the only ideological counterweight to a self-devouring capitalist ideology. Those who held on to pre-modern beliefs, such as Native Americans, who structured themselves around a communal life and self-sacrifice rather than hoarding and wage exploitation, could not be accommodated within the ethic of capitalist exploitation, the cult of the self and the lust for imperial expansion. The prosaic was pitted against the allegorical. And as we race toward the collapse of the planet’s ecosystem we must restore this older vision of life if we are to survive.
The war on the Native Americans, like the wars waged by colonialists around the globe, was waged to eradicate not only a people but a competing ethic. The older form of human community was antithetical and hostile to capitalism, the primacy of the technological state and the demands of empire. This struggle between belief systems was not lost on Marx. “The Ethnological Notebooks of Karl Marx” is a series of observations derived from Marx’s reading of works by historians and anthropologists. He took notes about the traditions, practices, social structure, economic systems and beliefs of numerous indigenous cultures targeted for destruction. Marx noted arcane details about the formation of Native American society, but also that “lands [were] owned by the tribes in common, while tenement-houses [were] owned jointly by their occupants.” He wrote of the Aztecs, “Commune tenure of lands; Life in large households composed of a number of related families.” He went on, “… reasons for believing they practiced communism in living in the household.” Native Americans, especially the Iroquois, provided the governing model for the union of the American colonies, and also proved vital to Marx and Engel’s vision of communism.
..more..
Risk of Mass Solidarity On May 1st: SEVERE
http://www.occupywallst.org/article/ows-issues-solidarity-warning/Risk of Mass Solidarity On May 1st: SEVERE
Posted 5 hours ago on April 27, 2012, 6:13 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
severe solidarity
In a move reminiscent of Bush era fear-mongering, the Obama Administration has released to corporate media a vague bulletin warning of possible terrorist attacks on the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death. While the actual date of bin Laden’s death is May 2nd, many media outlets (including the Huffington Post, Fox News, the New York Post, and Gothamist) have reported the date as May 1st. In reality, President Obama announced the successful mission just before midnight on May 1st EST, but bin Laden was killed on May 2nd Pakistan time. The Associated Press, who were the first to report the bulletin, correctly cite the date as May 2nd.
While both the FBI and Dept. of Homeland Security (who released the bulletin), as well as the White House and top NYPD officials, have said there are no “credible” or “specific” threats, New York Congressman Peter King told local media the public “might notice increased security” on May 1st. He went on to say, “Obviously if police or anyone questions you or asks you questions, understand why it’s being done.” The same day, DHS Secretary Napolitano told a Senate hearing that her agency was helping coordinate local policing efforts:
During a Senate hearing Wednesday morning, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said DHS efforts "to get information, tools and resources out of Washington, D.C., and into the hands of state and local officials and first responders" have "led to significant advances" in protecting the homeland.
Meanwhile in Chicago, the Sun Times reports the head of the NATO Host Committee was “blindsided by the federal government’s decision to create a militarized ’Red Zone’ in the Loop [downtown Chicago]” weeks before the NATO summit, which is expecting massive protests from a coalition of Occupy, peace, labor, and immigration activists. The paper goes on to say (emphasis added):
The image of federal agents on downtown streets far from McCormick Place — in battle gear, weapons slung — three weeks before the summit is certain to have a chilling effect on those who live and work in the Loop. It also calls into question Host Committee Executive Director Lori Healey’s oft-repeated message that Chicago will remain “open for business” during the summit. [...]
The Federal Protective Service will deploy additional personnel beginning May 1, bringing in more people from out of town and outfitting them in “battle dress uniform.” They will be carrying “non-lethal” long guns — bean bag weapons — in a show of force that at the same time will allow people to move in and out of the zone freely, federal employees were told.
Just months after Obama signed the NDAA “indefinite detention” legislation into law, federal officials’ intentions to drastically increase security for May 1st conveniently coincide with the May Day General Strike in over 120 cities across the U.S. President Obama has already deported more immigrants than the Bush Administration; failed to close Guantanamo; continues to prosecute whistle-blower Pfc. Manning for taking an ethical stand by exposing horrendous U.S. war crimes; frequently invokes “state secrets” to carry out unaccountable, covert spying on U.S. residents; and continues the widespread use of unilateral drone strikes and targeted political assassinations. In response to the U.S. government’s escalating repression, thinly-veiled Islamophobia, and attempts to militarize our cities and borders while scapegoating immigrants, OccupyWallSt.org hereby issues our own warning: A Solidarity Warning to the 1% and their beneficiaries and bodyguards in government. The 99% will not be intimidated or divided. We will stand together and protect one another. We will not be terrorized. We will not be afraid.
Further, we reject any attempt to co-opt May Day -- an historic, international celebration of labor and immigrants rights -- by the government or media. For over a century, May Day has been a day of militant resistance against economic inequality. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the 1% used the imaginary threat of an immigrant-led Communist conspiracy to ensure May Day (which commemorates events in Chicago) would not become a federally-recognized holiday in the U.S., as it is in over 80 countries. Instead, they attempted to re-brand May 1st variously as Americanization Day, Loyalty Day, and Law Day. We must not let them do it again. Through the Red Scare to the War on Terror, we must honor the true history of May 1st. As we have seen countless times throughout history, we cannot rely on politicians from any political party to sincerely look out for our interests. They serve only the wealthy financial elite. We must stand together as the 99%.
However, we must also recognize that the State’s “anti-terrorism” efforts target particular communities within the 99%. This May Day, organizers are taking precautions to ensure the fullest protection possible for undocumented and/or criminalized communities who wish to exercise their right to free speech safely on May Day. See here for more information on ways everyone can take part in May Day festivities!
And remember: If you notice suspicious people in uniform carrying weapons or plotting to spread fear through well-coordinated violent attacks on civilians on May 1st, alert your local Occupy community. If you see something wrong with racism and vast income inequality defended by a militarized government in this country, say something with us in the streets this May Day!
Looming Crisis: Officials Close Gulf Waters to Shrimping As Reports of Deformed Seafood Intensify
Looming Crisis: Officials Close Gulf Waters to Shrimping As Reports of Deformed Seafood Intensify
Last edited Thu Apr 26, 2012, 03:41 PM USA/ET - Edit history (1)
Source: Energy News
State officials shut down shrimping in Gulf amid scientists finding deformities and ‘horrifying creatures’ — Media attributes closure to lesions, then retracts
Title: Looming Crisis: Officials Close Gulf Waters to Shrimping As Reports of Deformed Seafood Intensify
Source: Stuart H. Smith
Date: April 23, 2012
Alarmed by widespread reports of visibly sick, deformed seafood coming out of the Gulf of Mexico, state officials have closed area waters to shrimping this morning (April 23). The waters will be closed indefinitely as scientists run tests in an effort to get a handle on a situation that is fast becoming a full-blown crisis on the Gulf Coast.
The closures – including all waters in the Mississippi Sound, Mobile Bay, areas of Bon Secour, Wolf Bay and Little Lagoon – mark the first official step in responding to increasingly urgent reports from fishermen and scientists of grotesquely disfigured seafood from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle.
I am deeply saddened but not surprised by the shrimping closures. I applaud the courageous move by state officials to put consumer safety first. There’s no doubt in my mind – as I’ve said for months on end – that seafood coming out of the Gulf of Mexico is unfit for human consumption.
Read more: http://enenews.com/state-officials-shut-down-shrimping-in-gulf-amid-scientists-finding-deformities-and-horrifying-creatures-media-attributes-closure-to-lesions-then-retracts
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