12-04-23 Occupy news

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What a Difference a Day Makes: Life on the Front Lines of Occupy Federal Hall
http://www.opednews.com/articles/What-a-Difference-a-Day-Ma-by-Charlie-Grapski-120422-587.html

OpEdNews - Article: What a Difference a Day Makes: Life on the Front Lines of Occupy Federal Hall

www.opednews.com

Recent Occupy protests in NYC have engaged the Feds in a struggle with the Occupiers against the City's attempts to shut down the demonstrations taking place in the center of Wall Street. The past two week struggle demonstrates clearly that the Occupy movement has emerged from its Winter hibernatio...

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Are You "Spring Trained" for Occupy's May Day Strike?
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Are-You--Spring-Trained--by-Danny-Schechter-120423-2.html

OpEdNews - Article: Are You "Spring Trained" for Occupy's May Day Strike?

www.opednews.com

May Day is coming--a day for a new wave of Occupy led protests without, hopes News Dissector Danny Schechter, more mayhem.

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OWS Forecloses on Bank of America - Every Night!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/OWS-Forecloses-on-Bank-of-by-David-Everitt-Carl-120422-385.html

OpEdNews - Article: #OWS Forecloses on Bank of America - Every Night

www.opednews.com

Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York occupy Bank of America branches 24/7

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Occupy! 

11-12-10 Where should Occupy go next? Civil Disobedience in the footsteps of Thoreau and Gandhi!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/75348301/

12-04-23 Welcome France!

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12-04-22 Welcome Germany!

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12-04-22 Welcome Denmark!

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12-04-22 Greek Town Implements Revolutionary Barter System Without Euro

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Greek Town Implements Revolutionary Barter System Without Euro

Activist Post
Greece continues along a path toward self-sufficiency that could very well see them break free from their debt servitude.

In the wake of their pillaging by international financiers, Greeks who have realized that protesting is likely to bring little relief have begun to implement barter systems to meet their local community needs.  Through a combination of decentralization from the Euro, free markets, local cooperation, and the creation of a new currency based on productivity, markets like the one below in Volos are leading the charge to a restoration of the principles that build truly sustainable economies.

This is an encouraging sign, and one that is replicating throughout austerity-ridden economies the world over.  International currencies are increasingly being rejectedin the face of reduced living standards through inflation and outright theft by global banksters.

Americans would do well to learn from the truly revolutionary actions taken by individuals in deliberately collapsed countries, because if global (mis)managers have their way, a similar scenario is guaranteed to unfold in the United States.

Watch the Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9y9R0v96K48
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 Occupy! 11-12-10 Where should Occupy go next? Civil Disobedience in the footsteps of Thoreau and Gandhi!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/75348301/

12-04-23 Welcome Australia!

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12-04-22 If voting changed anything...

   Boycott the US presidential vote! It only legitimizes the illegitimate... 12-04-15 2012 Presidential Election Votes Will Be Counted in Spain
http://www.scribd.com/doc/89464081/11-12-10 Where Should #Occupy Go Next? Civil Disobedience in the Footsteps of Thoreau and Gandhi!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/75348301/

12-04-22 Debtors Prisons: The Next logical step in the US Robber Baron Revival Era...

Officially abolished in the United States in the 1830's, the courts resume the practice, legally or not..._____ICHBreast Cancer Survivor Jailed Over $280 Medical Bill 'Debtor's Prisons' Return to the U.SBy Alain Sherter

April 21, 2012 - How did breast cancer survivor Lisa Lindsay end up behind bars? She didn't pay a medical bill -- one the Herrin, Ill., teaching assistant was told she didn't owe. "She got a $280 medical bill in error and was told she didn't have to pay it," The Associated Press reports. "But the bill was turned over to a collection agency, and eventually state troopers showed up at her home and took her to jail in handcuffs."

Although the U.S. abolished debtors' prisons in the 1830s, more than a third of U.S. states allow the police to haul people in who don't pay all manner of debts, from bills for health care services to credit card and auto loans. In parts of Illinois, debt collectors commonly use publicly funded courts, sheriff's deputies, and country jails to pressure people who owe even small amounts to pay up, according to the AP.

READ MORE:http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31147.htm

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The Return Of Debtor’s Prisons: Thousands Of Americans Jailed For Not Paying Their Bills

By Marie Diamond on Dec 13, 2011 at 5:20 pm

Federal imprisonment for unpaid debt has been illegal in the U.S. since 1833. It’s a practice people associate more with the age of Dickens than modern-day America. But as more Americans struggle to pay their bills in the wake of the recession, collection agencies are using harsher methods to get their money, ushering in the return of debtor’s prisons.

NPR reports that it’s becoming increasingly common for people to serve jail time as a result of their debt. Because of “ sloppy, incomplete or even false documentation,” many borrowers facing jail time don’t even know they’re being sued by creditors:

Take, for example, what happened to Robin Sanders in Illinois. She was driving home when an officer pulled her over for having a loud muffler. But instead of sending her off with a warning, the officer arrested Sanders, and she was taken right to jail.

“That’s when I found out [that] I had a warrant for failure to appear in Macoupin County. And I didn’t know what it was about.” Sanders owed $730 on a medical bill. She says she didn’t even know a collection agency had filed a lawsuit against her. [...]

A company will often sell off its debt to a collection agency, generally called a creditor. That creditor files a lawsuit against the debtor requiring a court appearance. A notice to appear in court is supposed to be given to the debtor. If they fail to show up, a warrant is issued for their arrest.

READ MORE:http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/12/13/388303/the-return-of-debtors-prisons-thousands-of-americans-jailed-for-not-paying-their-bills/

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Robert Vee Discovers that Collections Agencies Have Created a New Debtors Prison -- with Government Help

By Cory Zurowski in Douchebags, fraud
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 11:00 am

Robert Vee, a highway construction worker from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, got boned not once but twice. If it wasn't bad enough that late last winter he was tossed into a local county clink -- the result of missing a court hearing over an unpaid credit card... 

The truly below-the-belt shot came when he found out his bail was the exact amount he owed the creditor: $1,875.06. It was not coincidence.

In various parts of the country, collections agencies -- fueled by a sideways economy and a growing industry that buys bad debt -- are hijacking law enforcement and the legal system to arrest and imprison people who have walked on unpaid bills, ranging from auto loans to credit cards to outstanding medical tolls.

In a multiplying number of cases, judges set the debtor's at exactly what they owe the creditors. And more often than not, if friends or family do come up with the bail money, they'll likely never see it again.

It will end up with the creditor who initiated the collection process and will ask the court for the bail amount.

READ MORE:http://www.truecrimereport.com/2010/07/debtor_robert_vee_bagged_on_he.php

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Debtor’s Prison for Failure to Pay for Your Own Trial

by Alex Tabarrok on April 18, 2012 at 7:38 am

Debtor’s prisons are supposed to be illegal in the United States but today poor people who fail to pay even small criminal justice fees are routinely being imprisoned. The problem has gotten worse recently because strapped states have dramatically increased the number of criminal justice fees. In Pennsylvania, for example, the criminal court charges for police transport, sheriff costs, state court costs, postage, and “judgment.” Many of these charges are not for any direct costs imposed by the criminal but have been added as revenue enhancers. A $5 fee, for example, supports the County Probation Officers’ Firearms Training Fund, an $8 fee supports the Judicial Computer Project, a $250 fee goes to the DNA Detection Fund. Convicted criminals may face dozens of fees (not including fines and restitution) totaling a substantial burden for people of limited means. Fees do not end outside the courtroom. Jailed criminals can be charged for room and board and for telephone use, haircuts, drug tests, transportation, booking, and medical co-pays. In Arizona, visitors to a prison are now charged a $25 maintenance fee. In PA in order to get parole there is a mandatory charge of $60. While on parole, defendants may be further assessed counseling, testing and other fees. Interest builds unpaid fees larger and larger. In Washington state unpaid legal debt accrues at an interest rate of 12%. As a result, the median person convicted in WA sees their criminal justice debt grow larger over time.

Many states are now even charging the accused to apply for and use a public defender! As a result, some defendants are discouraged from exercising their rights to an attorney.

READ MORE:http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2012/04/debtors-prison-for-failure-to-pay-for-your-own-trial.html

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Debtors' Prison Legal In More Than One-Third Of U.S. States

 


The Huffington Post   Jillian Berman

First Posted: 11/22/11

Not paying off debts can eventually land you in jail -- at least in a sizable minority of U.S. states.

Borrowers who can't or don't pay their debts can be sent to jail in more than one-third of states, the Wall Street Journal reports. Judges may issue a warrant when a borrower either misses court ordered payments or doesn't show up in court after being sued for payments on outstanding debt. Though there are no national statistics on the practice of jailing debtors, a WSJ analysis found that judges have issued more than 5,000 debt-related warrants since the beginning of 2010.

As high joblessness, slow wage growth and plummeting home values push more Americans into debt, the aftermath of the recession also makes it increasingly difficult for consumers to pay it back, and the collectors of that debt are getting more aggressive as a result.

Some states are attempting to rein in the practice of putting borrowers in jail, even as the number of borrowers threatened with arrest has surged since the financial crisis, according to a separate WSJreport. Washington state's House of Representatives voted unanamously in March to require debt collection companies to provide proof that borrowers had been notified about lawsuits before judges could issue an arrest warrant.

READ MORE:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/debtors-prison-legal-in-more-than-one-third-of-us-states_n_1107524.html

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March 16, 2011, 6:15 p.m. ET

Welcome to Debtors' Prison, 2011 Edition

By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG

 
PAY UP, OR LOCKED UP: Jeffrey Stearns, of Indiana, spent two nights in jail over a $4,024.88 debt.
Some lawmakers, judges and regulators are trying to rein in the U.S. debt-collection industry's use of arrest warrants to recoup money owed by borrowers who are behind on credit-card payments, auto loans and other bills.

More than a third of all U.S. states allow borrowers who can't or won't pay to be jailed. Judges have signed off on more than 5,000 such warrants since the start of 2010 in nine counties with a total population of 13.6 million people, according to a tally by The Wall Street Journal of filings in those counties. Nationwide figures aren't known because many courts don't keep track of warrants by alleged offense. In interviews, 20 judges across the nation said the number of borrowers threatened with arrest in their courtrooms has surged since the financial crisis began.

The backlash is a reaction to sloppy, incomplete or even false documentation that can result in borrowers having no idea before being locked up that they were sued to collect an outstanding debt. The debt-collection industry says such errors are extremely rare, adding that warrants usually are sought only after all other efforts to persuade borrowers to pay have failed.

READ MORE:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704396504576204553811636610.html

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WSJ BLOGS

March 17, 2011, 9:17 AM

On the Rise of Debtor’s Prison: ‘The Scariest Thing That Ever Happened to Me’

By Ashby Jones

 
Historic building of a Debtors Prison in Virginia

Thought debtors’ prisons were a thing of the past? A contrivance used to punish the penniless in the age of Dickens?

Think again.

The WSJ’s Jessica Silver-Greenberg has a story Thursday on the return of the debtor’s prison ­ in 21st Century America.

According to the story, more than a third of all U.S. states allow borrowers who can’t or won’t pay to be jailed. Judges have signed off on more than 5,000 such warrants since the start of 2010 in nine counties.

READ MORE:http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/03/17/on-the-rise-of-debtors-prison-the-scariest-thing-that-ever-happened-to-me/

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Illinois “Debtors Prison” Bill in Senate Committee Hearing Next Week

Patrick Lunsford April 20, 2012 

A state bill that would directly address the practice of “body attachment” for debt-related judgments will be the focus of an Illinois Senate committee hearing next week having already unanimously passed that state’s House of Representatives.

The bill, HB 5434, would require subpoenas to appear to be served directly to a debtor’s person or home, rather than being mailed. It would also require that any arrest warrants issued for failing to appear to expire after a year, and it would return most bond money to the debtor, rather than allow it to be used to pay off the debt. Bonds would also be restricted to no more than $1,000.

READ MORE:http://www.insidearm.com/daily/debt-collection-news/debt-collection/illinois-debtors-prison-bill-in-senate-committee-hearing-next-week/

12-04-21 Welcome France!

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12-04-22 Torture: It did not start in GITMO, Abu Ghraib, or Afghanistan, but in the medieval prisons in the territorial United States

The degree to which the US has degraded itself can be gleaned from the fact that the treatise "Democracy in America" (1835 ) was the outcome of de Tocqueville's travels in the US to survey the prison system.  At the time it was considered by far more humane than any of its European counterparts.  Today, the situation is dramatically reversed.
     Water Boarding
The Rampart Scandal and the Criminal Justice System in Los Angeles County.By Erwin Chemerinsky:  Guild Practitioner, 57:121 (2001)"This is conduct associated with the most repressive dictators and police states... and judges must share responsibility when innocent people are convicted."     “No single reform can be sufficient.  Reform is not an event, but a process that will take many years to complete.
READ MORE:http://www.scribd.com/doc/27433920/
____Torture Inc. - Americas Brutal PrisonsSavaged by dogs, Electrocuted With Cattle Prods, Burned By Toxic Chemicals, Does such barbaric abuse inside U.S. jails explain the horrors that were committed in Iraq?
By Deborah Davies (2005)
They are just some of the victims of wholesale torture taking place inside the U.S. prison system that we uncovered during a four-month investigation for BBC Channel 4 . It’s terrible to watch some of the videos and realise that you’re not only seeing torture in action but, in the most extreme cases, you are witnessing young men dying.

The prison guards stand over their captives with electric cattle prods, stun guns, and dogs. Many of the prisoners have been ordered to strip naked. The guards are yelling abuse at them, ordering them to lie on the ground and crawl. ‘Crawl, motherf*****s, crawl.’

If a prisoner doesn’t drop to the ground fast enough, a guard kicks him or stamps on his back. There’s a high-pitched scream from one man as a dog clamps its teeth onto his lower leg.

Another prisoner has a broken ankle. He can’t crawl fast enough so a guard jabs a stun gun onto his buttocks. The jolt of electricity zaps through his naked flesh and genitals. For hours afterwards his whole body shakes. 

READ MORE:http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8451.htm

____The American Prison and the Normalization of Torture
By H. Bruce Franklin
The prison has become a central institution in American society, integral to our politics, economy, and culture. Between 1976 and 2000, the United States built on average a new prison each week and the number of imprisoned Americans increased tenfold. With a current prison and jail population of over two million, America has become the uncontested world leader in incarceration. Prison has made the threat of torture part of everyday life for millions of individuals in the United States, especially the 6.9 million currently incarcerated or otherwise under the control of the penal system. More insidiously, our prison system has helped make torture a normal, legitimate, even routine part of American culture.

Imprisonment itself, even when relatively benign, is arguably a form of torture. This is implicit in our society using prison as the most dire legal form of both "punishment" and "deterrence," except for execution. Moreover, in the typical American prison, designed and run to maximize degradation, brutalization, and punishment, overt torture is the norm. Beatings, electric shock, prolonged exposure to heat and even immersion in scalding water, sodomy with riot batons, nightsticks, flashlights, and broom handles, shackled prisoners forced to lie in their own excrement for hours or even days, months of solitary confinement, rape and murder by guards or prisoners instructed by guards--all are everyday occurrences in the American prison system.

READ MORE:http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/resources/torture/brucefranklin.html

____What Goes On There Is More Like Gulags Of Centuries Ago.Regarding the imprisonment of "Birther" Lt. Commander Walter Fitzpatrick, III, in Monroe County, Tenessee.(2011)

READ MORE:http://www.scribd.com/doc/72546279/ 

12-04-21 Half of America is officially poor

Half of America is officially poor

 


While it’s no surprise that nearly 50 million Americans live below the poverty line, new statistics from the US Census show that almost 100 million others are counted as low-income citizens, making half of the population of America officially poor.

READ MORE:http://rt.com/usa/news/half-poor-america-poverty-909/ 

12-04-21 How Goldman Sachs Captured Europe

In September 2008, Henry Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, managed to extort a $700 billion bank bailout from Congress. But to pull it off, he had to fall on his knees and threaten the collapse of the entire global financial system and the imposition of martial law; and the bailout was a one-time affair. Paulson’s plea for a —the Troubled Asset Relief Program or TARP—was opposed by Congress and ultimately rejected.

By December 2011, European Central Bank president Mario Draghi, former vice president of Goldman Sachs Europe, was able to approve a for European banks without asking anyone’s permission. And in January 2012, a permanent rescue funding program called the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) was with barely even a mention in the press. The ESM imposes an open-ended debt on EU member governments, putting taxpayers on the hook for whatever the ESM’s Eurocrat overseers demand.

READ MORE:
http://www.nationofchange.org/european-stabilization-mechanism-or-how-goldman-vampire-squid-just-captured-europe-1334847067

12-04-21 BUSH made torture legal, OBAMA only took the concept a step further...

 

How America Came To Torture Its Prisoners

I read nearly 140,000 formerly classified documents about America’s abuse of prisoners since 2001. Here is what I learned.
By Larry Siems|Posted Friday, April 20, 2012, at 1:37 PM ET
   
             
A Guantanamo detainee's feet shackled to the floor. "Gitmo" has been a source of controversy regarding the torture of prisoners.

Michelle Shepard/AFP/Getty Images.
It began with one document.

On Sept. 17, 2001, six days after the terrorist attacks in Washington, D.C., President George W. Bush sent a 12-page Memorandum of Notification to his National Security Council. That memorandum, we know now, authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to set up and run secret prisons. We still don’t know exactly what it says: CIA attorneys have told a judge the document is so off-limits to the courts and the American people that even the font is classified. But we do know what it did: It literally opened a space for torture.

Thanks to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit­a lawsuit the New York Times has called “among the most successful in the history of public disclosure”­we now know much of what happened in those secret spaces the Bush administration created. Under that litigation, the American Civil Liberties Uniongathered nearly 140,000 formerly classified documents from the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and the CIA that detail the abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody in the “War on Terror.” My job, as the author of the website www.thetorturereport.org and then of the book The Torture Report: What the Documents Say About America’s Post-9/11 Torture Program, was to dig through that incredible trove of documents and figure out for myself what, exactly, my country had done.
READ MORE:http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/04/george_w_bush_and_torture_america_s_highest_officials_are_responsible_for_the_enhanced_interrogation_of_prisoners_.html

12-04-21 Welcome UK!

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