The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Category: Social Justice
Author Michelle Alexander-West is the wife of a United States federal prosecutor and an attorney in her own right. In this book, she does a truly remarkable job of drilling down through levels of strategy, policy and procedure that form the complex web of injustice that has brought the United States to the terrible point of imprisoning over 1% of our adult population and detaining 25% of all prisoners everywhere in the world … many of whom have been jailed for minor offenses, such as carrying a couple of marijuana cigarettes. Over 3200 non-violent offenders have been jailed for life for non-violent offenses like that, or for stealing an item of clothing worth $150. Unjust imprisonment is part of the intentional destruction of the lives of people of color.
Doc ACLU fought years to see sat @ Library of Congress, visible to all
Mother Jones reports on the strange case of the high-security document sitting in the Library Congress, “where anyone with a library card can read it.”
In a lapse that national security experts call baffling, a high-ranking FBI agent filed a sensitive internal manual detailing the bureau’s secret interrogation procedures with the Library of Congress …
For years, the American Civil Liberties Union fought a legal battle to force the FBI to release a range of documents concerning FBI guidelines, including this one, which covers the practices agents are supposed to employ when questioning suspects. Through all this, unbeknownst to the ACLU and the FBI, the manual sat in a government archive open to the public. When the FBI finally relented and provided the ACLU a version of the interrogation guidebook last year, it was heavily redacted; entire pages were blacked out. But the version available at the Library of Congress, which a Mother Jones reporter reviewed last week, contains no redactions.
All Steve Kardynal wants for Christmas is you!
Steve Kardynal does another take-off on Miley Cyrus, this time swinging to her song All I Want For Christmas Is You! Steve is as funny and outrageous as Richard Pryor back in the day. Gotta watch this charming, singing, bearded comedian and laugh a while. Merry Christmas Steve!
I can do something!
I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do ~ Edward Everett Hale
Thought of the day via Ken McDaniels. Thanks Ken!
Join the fight against new Newark Public School Closures
- Attend community organizing meetings. Next one’s a discussion open to the public on proposed school closures and charter incursions. Please come and bring friends:
South Side Malcolm X Shabazz HS Alumni Association
Thurs 19 Dec 2013 @ 7pm
80 Johnson Avenue, Newark NJ
In the School Library - Sign petition for Supt. Cami Anderson to give back to the schools the $50K bonus she got from Christie for taking over $50 million away from Newark students.
- Support Ras Baraka for Newark Mayor in 2014
- Arm yourself with information! Here’s important background information from the Malcolm X Shabazz HS Alumni Association correspondence:
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2013 12:11 PM
Subject: Urgent: Call out for concerned education leaders and organization representatives
Dear Elected Officials and organization leaders,
Your input is critical to the next steps to be taken in the announced plans by Supt. Cami Anderson to close schools in most areas of our City. We must make strategic plans now to address the privatization of our Newark public schools. And, you certainly have a critical role in making those plans.
Besides closing and colocating schools, all 6 to 8pm programs are closing, including recreation and the evening high school. And beyond belief, services to special needs students will also be “absorbed”. Community input and transparency (are being completely) voided.
Please come prepared to address fellow Newark alumnae, parents, students and all concerned about Newark’s schools on Thursday, December 19 when the South Side Malcolm X Shabazz HS Alumni Association convenes its meeting at 7pm in the school library at 80 Johnson Avenue, Newark, NJ.
We do want all who have pertinent literature to have the opportunity to distribute same. Please bring copies with you.
Saying of the day 131218
Happiness comes from sticking at things that often seem mundane, prosaic, boring, unglamorous ~ Alexander McCall Smith
There will be free wifi for 95 blocks in Harlem, but only outside
In a move seemingly designed to make Harlem more appealing to gentrifiers, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the
The coverage area is 95 blocks: 110 to 138 Streets between Frederick Douglass Blvd & Madison Ave.
Scientific method flow chart
Scientific method flow chart, found via Theresa Lam, who comments
That’s right, scientists should be open to the results changing at any point down the line … Everyone learns that in sixth grade.
So let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We need to follow results to their progressive conclusion, whatever that is.
The federal budget deal will be death for many Americans
Richard Eskow reviews the federal budget deal in the Huffington Post. He finds it seriously lacking, both in compassion and solutions to prevent today’s vulnerable from being completely consumed by the wealthy.
Man’s inhumanity to man.
I know, I know. That’s a pretty depressing thing to say. But let’s look at the facts: Federal workers will be expected to subsidize this deal with an increase in their out-of-pocket pension costs. There will be cuts to Medicare. Airline passengers will pay a new tax. Military retirees — military retirees — will see their benefits cut.
Privacy? Completely blown now, with the spy in your pocket
Spying on private citizens has reached the point of cannot be either tolerated or ignored one day longer. We need to keep our attention on this particular ball for longer than the America public’s typical 5 minute attention span. We need to address this issue with vigor and comprehension, because the sum of our civil rights are on the line with this intrusion on our privacy.
Cold? It’s a relative concept.
65º
Arizonans turn on the heat.
People in Minnesota plant gardens.
60º
Californians shiver uncontrollably.
People in Minnesota sunbathe.
50º
Italian & English cars won’t start.
People in Minnesota drive with the windows down..
40º
Georgians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, wool hats.
People in Minnesota throw on a flannel shirt.
35º
New York landlords finally turn up the heat.
People in Minnesota have the last cookout before it gets cold.
20º
People in Miami all die.
Minnesotans close their windows.
Religious leaders may stress over congregants’ issues
Never thought about this. Clergymen may stress over the personal woes their congregants bring to them as they look for guidance and hope in dark times. During these days of darkness for so many, the internal resources of many religious leaders must be stretched quite thin. In my Facebook timeline this morning I spotted these posts and want to pass along Vincent Grove‘s call to pray for our pastors, priests and rabbis … keep them lifted up as so many draw on the wells of their compassion and creativity to inspire hope and strength. It makes sense to help these important leaders say strong in faith and spirit as they serve our friends, family and maybe, even ourselves.
Christie’s people won’t honor OPRA request about conditions in 4 schools
The Schools Development Authority (SDA) is denying the public information on the facility conditions at Camden High School, Thomas G. Connors Elementary School (Hoboken), Cleveland Elementary School (Orange), and Orange High School.
The Education Law Center made an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request to obtain the SDA’s reports on the facility conditions at these four schools which are badly in need of repair. The SDA said no. This is unacceptable! Communities have a right to know what the facility conditions are at their schools. This is another example of the SDA stalling on urgent repairs.
Steve Kardynal does Miley Cyrus better than herself
Steve Kardynal‘s brilliant new Chatroulette video of Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball features him in undies atop a wrecking ball – and eventually, even less clothed – in his own living room. No, I can’t say any more. You’ve got to see Steve in action to understand how funny he is. Look! People sharing his chat session (pictured on left) are definitely having a blast watching his silly antics.
This by the way, is good, clean fun. Steve is the only woman-portraying, bearded, socked and booted man I’ve ever seen who can do full skin on a wrecking ball without even a hint of x-rated sexuality. 1.5 million views only a day after being posted.
Privatization on steroids trend has deep hooks in public ed
It escaped our notice that the privatization on steroids trend was reaching deeper hooks into public education than we dreamed it might. Yet, the encroachment makes sense within the context of increasing privatization every where. First, we had private food services doing the jobs of lunch ladies in our schools. We have seen a growing number of private corporations managing prison facilities … and some of them are currently extorting money from state governments which failed to live up to their contractual agreement to keep the prisons at least 95% full in order to satisfy the managing corporations’ profit expectations.