News unfit to print

Notes 26

How corporations became incarnate

Thom Hartmann, Berrett-Koehler Publishers: "We the People are the first three words of the Preamble to the Constitution; and from its adoption until the Robber Baron Era in the late nineteenth century, people meant human beings. In the 1886 Santa Clara case, however, the court reporter of the Supreme Court proclaimed in a 'headnote‚' - a summary or statement added at the top of the court decision, which is separate from the decision and has no legal force whatsoever - that the word person in law and, particularly, in the Constitution, meant both humans and corporations."

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ETC.

State Employee Actions: layoffs and furloughs ... Actions and Proposals to Balance FY 2011 Budgets: State Employee Actions: Furloughs and Layoffs
Maryland Politics: Maryland state worker layoffs coming
...Rendell administration announces 50 state employee layoffs
...Layoff Tracker: Budget cuts cost 159 Florida state workers jobs
More State Employee Layoffs Anticipated With Budget Cuts ...
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For whom the bell tolls--The ultimate message that a society has failed to deliver on the promises of social contract

Tunisia copycat burnings in 3 North African countries

By Marwa Awad and Lamine Chikhi Marwa Awad And Lamine Chikhi – Mon Jan 17, 8:08 am ET
CAIRO/ALGIERS (Reuters) – The self-immolation that set off the protest wave which toppled Tunisia's leader has led to apparent copycat protests in other north African states, with four men setting themselves on fire in Algeria and one each in Egypt and Mauritania.
In Cairo, a man set himself ablaze on Monday near parliament in a protest against poor living conditions.

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Why don’t we go to war against Arizona, maybe against every state where domestic terrorists have used weapons to kill innocent victims?

Extremist Killing Is as American as Apple Pie: Murders Grow on the Far Right Four Decades After Martin Luther King
Stephan Salisbury, TomDispatch: "The landscape of America is littered with bodies. They've been gunned down in Tucson, shot to death at the Pentagon, and blown away at the Holocaust Museum, as well as in Wichita, Knoxville, Pittsburgh, Brockton, and Okaloosa County, Florida. Total body count for these incidents: 19 dead, 26 wounded. Not much, you might say, when taken in the context of about 30,000 gun-related deaths annually nationwide."

Remarks of Jeh C. Johnson at Martin Luther King Observance Day, The Pentagon January 13, 2011
For his efforts, Martin Luther King, the man we honor today alongside George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, was the target of government surveillance and harassment. He was also the target of racist insults, bricks, bottles, numerous death threats, a knife in the chest in Harlem in 1958, and finally, he was murdered in Memphis in 1968.
The most controversial and difficult stand Dr. King took the final year of his life was against the war in Vietnam. Other civil rights leaders urged him to remain silent on the issue, not to alienate President Lyndon Johnson, who had been their best friend on civil rights.
In accepting his own Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, our President recognized that, in response to an unprovoked terrorist attack, war is inevitable to secure peace, and that the role of the military is to keep peace.

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Ex-banker says he's giving Wikileaks files on rich
By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Raphael G. Satter, Associated Press – LONDON – A former Swiss banker on Monday supplied documents to WikiLeaks that he alleges detail attempts by wealthy business leaders and lawmakers to evade tax payments.
Rudolf Elmer, an ex-employee of Swiss-based Bank Julius Baer, said there were 2,000 account holders named in the documents, but refused to give details of the companies or individuals involved.
"I do think as a banker I have the right to stand up if something is wrong," said Elmer, who addressed reporters at London's Frontline Club alongside WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
"I am against the system. I know how the system works and I know the day-to-day business. From that point of view, I wanted to let society know what I know. It is damaging our society," Elmer said.

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In name of anti-terrorism, unprecedented international lawbreaking and invasion of privacy

Swiss lawmakers angry at alleged US spying program

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press John Heilprin, Associated Press – Mon Jan 17, 8:47 am ET
GENEVA – Angry Swiss lawmakers called Monday for the ouster of U.S. diplomats suspected of illegally spying on people around their diplomatic missions, in a standoff over the use of counterterrorism measures.
The Swiss government said it has demanded a stop to any surveillance and is investigating the scale of what it calls an unauthorized spying program by the U.S. mission to the United Nations in Geneva and the U.S. embassy in Bern.
The probe follows outrage in Iceland, Norway and Sweden over reports that U.S. diplomats were monitoring some of their countries' citizens — including allegedly taking pictures of street demonstrations and of people deemed security risks, sparking a wave of anti-American sentiment.

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Our heroes defending our border against dangerous hordes. Sound like Gaza has come to the American border?

SAN ANTONIO, Tex. (Reuters) – The parents of a Mexican teenager allegedly killed last year by a bullet fired by a U.S. Border Patrol agent across the Rio Grande river, on Monday sued the U.S. government for $25 million.
The U.S. Border Patrol says Sergio Hernandez Guereca, 15, was pelting U.S. agents with rocks from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande river last June when Border Patrol agents on the U.S. side shot him to death.
The FBI has said that he was attacking the border agents with rocks at the time.
The incident was videotaped by several individuals and was broadcast on the Spanish-language Univision television network, and posted on the internet.
"We have seen brutality captured on video tape that stuns us as a country, when we think that law enforcement are trained and should not do that," Bob Hilliard, attorney for the Mexican family
said.