Ruling For The People

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,
the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed"

The Center for A New American Socialist Democracy commends the United States Supreme court for affirming the right “of the People” over the individual States' desire to strip inner-city populations of the same set of rights as those in rural areas.

In the history of socialism, many movements have used armed struggle to bring the varied conditions of affected populations to the public discourse. Though many times, as when dealing with arms, many innocents suffer and injury is deadly when movements resort to armed conflict. But a popular media slogan is stated, “when it bleeds it leads”; yet most of the violence involved in our struggles have to do with state oppression rather then violent socialist political action.

Groups in the past have picked up arms against their oppressors only after repeated paramilitary actions by Federal, State and Local law enforcement that have resulted in the deaths of thousands upon thousands of American Citizens of every persuasion. It has become clear in the most recent of times that social democracy movements around the world are progressing beyond a rush to arms in the pursuit of social justice and political reform. The gun should always be in the closet or the locker, as it basically guarantees that our peaceful & legal forms of protest are readily embraced, for the alternatives are the ideas of the past that has caused so many such pain…

An informed electorate, a sign of cardboard & peaceful civil disobedience make the best weapons in these days, and the internet may now make the Pen that much more mightier then the Sword. Modern struggle is defined by shooting out broadcast emails and putting up manifestos on websites. Fundraising, grassroots outreach and even the flash mob phenomenon make the idea & implementation of revolution all the easier. Guns are not now needed for a modern revolution, just an educated population with arms to hold those signs and make those phone calls.

But we are of the people that most gun laws were actually enacted against. With the intention to remove the right to bear arms to African, Latino and Native Americans, gun ownership was to be a right of the few rich and powerful. Political ideology aside, those populations most severely restricted or barred from owning a hand gun are communities of color. This is not a mistake or has it been legislated without forethought. Those localities wishing to remove guns from the hands of citizens have the highest crime rates when looking at crimes committed by law enforcement officers. In addition, when looking at permits issued in those municipalities, the racial and economic disparity is glaring. Keeping weapons out of the hands of the under-represented and the under-served is seemingly key in the push to again gentrify metropolitan areas in the United States by its Mayors and city managers.

We believe that the Framers of the constitution intended “the People” to be able to arm themselves in a way that such does assure protection from abuses of a state who has a disregard for the rights of its citizenry. As much as abortion & the death penalty, gun control we concur is a complex issue for many, but all of these issues are issues of individual rights over the rights of the state. With so many across the country witnessing the criminality of so many political leaders, it would be wholly unwise and against the idea of self-preservation to forgo protection that the Second Amendment afforded to “we the people” in pursuit of a more perfect union.

Committing a crime with any weapon is exactly that, and could now be treated as such. Should a gun kill or a company’s product liability, each should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Socialists are among the most vociferous & activated against inner-city gun violence. Strict gun ownership laws have done nothing to curb said issue and the topic is a false argument in the act of removing “the people” from rights within the Constitution.

It is now with great hope that so called “liberals” will now advance to seeking ways to improve the lives of “inner-city” populations without the issue of Gun Control to divert attention from a lack of social investment of affected municipalities by the very politicians who champion more laws to control & imprison their poorer and minority populations.

Nader on Immigration & Latin America

In his own words, see 4 yourself!

The Business of Modern Slavery

LODI, Calif. -- On May 16th, a pregnant teenager pruning grape vines died in 100-degree heat. Yet, in the state of California, horses are not allowed to work but migrant workers are forced to without water.

On Wednesday, 500 farmworkers and their advocates capped a poignant, four-day march to the statehouse demanding safer conditions on thousands of vineyards and orchards.

Authorities in California -- the only state with a heat-illness standard -- suspect Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, a 17-year-old undocumented Mexican migrant, collapsed last month because her farm labor overseer had denied employees proper access to shade & water.

Some Democrats say no to war, sometimes...

U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday tabled legislation that would have ensured funded the war in Iraq for another year, in a surprise move that the Senate could overturn.

By a vote of 149-141, the Democrat-controlled House rejected a measure that would have given the Pentagon the budget to keep the wars against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan going strong through next summer, @ President George Bush's request.

A group of anti-war House Democrats voted against the funds. That, coupled with 132 Republicans just simply voting "present," meaning neither "aye" nor "nay," and tabled the war funding question for now.

Yet the vastly more hawkish Senate will pass its desire for a war-funding bill next week and will insure the money for further the criminal occupation of both countries in the coming year.

what to say? 50 Shots means innocent cops.......

Police officers who kill unarmed Black men are untouchable

Once again, the so-called justice system has proven that the life of a Black man has no value. First it was Amadou Diallo, an unarmed Black man, killed in a hail of 41 bullets.

Now, the three police officers who fired more than 50 shots and killed Sean Bell, 23, on the morning he was to be married in November 2006 have been acquitted of all charges.

Bell, on the day he was to be married to Nicole Paultre, was unarmed and was inside his car, attempting to get away from three armed men who approached him, wearing civilian attire, without badges displayed and without identifying themselves as police officers, by most accounts. They must have appeared as menacing thugs to Bell.

Anyone in his right mind would try to drive and get away from men approaching in such a manner early in the morning, at 4 AM, after a night of partying at Club Kalua to celebrate an impending wedding.

How can the judge who ruled on the case justify the firing of more than 50 shots into a vehicle? One of the officers admitted that he did not even realize he had emptied his magazine and loaded another clip and continued to fire into the vehicle. This means the officers did not even know what they were firing at--which also means they could not have known whether they were in danger or not. Bell’s friends Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield were both wounded in the shooting, with Guzman taking in 16 bullets.

The three officers most likely were drunk, and additionally possibly high on drugs, having spent all night at the club drinking while staking out the club. They supposedly went looking to prevent trouble; instead they committed the ultimate transgression--they murdered an innocent and unarmed man, likely because they were drunk, frightened and unprofessional.

Ironically, the Black Star News columnist Donald Winkfield predicted that this would be the outcome of this “trial” in his article two days ago.

Like the assassins of Amadou Diallo, these three killer cops, “detective” Michael Oliver, who reloaded his weapon and fired a total of 31 times, and “detective” Gescard Isnora walk away from charges of manslaughter, assault and reckless endangerment; “detective” Marc Cooper also laughs all the way home, having been acquitted of reckless endangerment. “Detective” Isnora fired 11 times, and “detective” Cooper, four times.

Justice Arthur Cooperman claims he found problems with the Queen’s County DA’s case, and that some prosecution witnesses contradicted themselves; he also reportedly cited prior convictions and incarcerations of witnesses.

Question to “Justice” Cooperman: What’s the relevance to the critical facts of the case? The officers fired with reckless abandon into Sean Bell’s car without even knowing whom they were firing at considering there were three people, all unarmed, inside the vehicle. Once the first officer started firing, the others, all presumably drunk, also opened up.

So this is standard police operation now.

We doubt that “Justice” Cooperman will have the last say on this matter.

Bell is survived by fiancée, Nicole Paultre, and daughters, ages five and one.

BLACK STAR PRESS

America's New Proxy War In The Balkans

The United States has supervised independence of Kosovo from Serbia against the wishes of the latter is expected to create a precedent for currently unrecognized states. Such a precedent would prioritise the self-determination of prospective states at the expense of the territorial integrity of the host state, thus stimulating separatism. The consequences of Kosovo independence are expected to involve territorial disputes in several unrecognized states in Eastern Europe.

Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci announced a date for independence "will be made public very soon" claiming it would be "a good surprise, made fast in the coming days" though he did not specify when the announcement would be made. Kosovo's parliament is expected to adopt a statement of intent to proclaim independence on February 17. Serbia has responded to plans for independence by passing a resolution threatening to cut ties with any nations that recognize Kosovo and possibly halt membership talks with the European Union and rule out membership in NATO. Serbia's president Boris Tadic also threatened to send the Serbian army to protect Kosovo Serbs if they came under attack. Chief of General Staff of the Serbian Army said independence and a declaration of a state of emergency would not mean enhancing military engagement on the part of the Serbian Army or an operation. He also said he received no orders to mobilize the army in the event of independence. Serbia plans to bring any nation recognizing independence into the International Court.

In the event of a declaration of independence Deputy Prime Minister Božidar Đelić said on November 23rd Serbia "should be prepared for the worst case scenario," however Defense Ministry plans for reacting to an independence declaration were not revealed. Dušan Proroković, Serbia's state secretary with the Kosovo Ministry, has said an action plan for Kosovo has been made that involves establishing Serbian institutions to administrate Kosovo. An office set up in northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica will serve as part of a Serbian parallel government after Kosovo's independence.

The Albanian National Army is reportedly mobilizing its troops to send into the Serb majority regions in Northern Mitrovica and Northern Kosovo to protect Albanians once Kosovo declares its independence, though he would not reveal the size of the force. Reports say Northern Kosovo is already effectively part of Serbia with Serbian police sizing up everyone who cross the bridge over Ibar river into the Serb area of Mitrovica and posters of Serbian generals and politicians on several buildings. Some policemen are reported by Reuters to actually be undercover Serbian security forces and one told a reporter: "If they [Albanians] want to take the north by force, we'll defend ourselves. Serbs are ready."

Serbia's Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic warned "A Pandora's Box could open up there and cause partition of Kosovo, something Serbia does not want" referring to threats by some Kosovo Serbs to secede from Kosovo after a declaration of independence. In response to partition the Albanian National Army said they would "do everything to unify and protect our territories." To prevent a secession from Kosovo Germany has 500 troops and the U.S. has 200 troops stationed along the border.

As Kosovo will be partitioned, Prime Minister Agim Ceku has suggested Kosovo & Albanians in four other countries may want to unite with Albania.Nait Hasani, a member of the Kosovo government has also said Kosovo may try to unite with Albania. Hasani was quoted as saying to a Polish paper, "First there should be supervised independence as proposed by Ahtisaari. But it is known that Kosovo and Albania citizens are one nation who want to live in one state."

Kosovo's independence is another act in the Balkanization of former empires. But it creates principles which can only exacerbate problems in other countries. In place of acceptance of minority autonomy within a single state structure there will be fights to the bitter end between centralism and separatism.

President Bush received a hero's welcome in June of 2007 when he arrived in the Albanian capital of Tirana, a marked contrast from the protests that greeted the president on his summer'07 European tour. Mr. Bush was the first U.S. president to visit the country, where the "decider" was extremely popular for reasons made painfully apparent in the Last 72 hours.

Russia may have well been privy to such intelligence since, therein explaining the resumption of cold war like tensions with the West. This international engineering by a "Lame Duck" US President will assuredly contribute to the myriad of dilemmas facing the next Administration on the Foreign Policy front.

One man’s desire for such legacy is eerily reminiscent of the worst follies of the 20th century’s worst world leaders…Bush May be the first of the 21st…

UN finally says something about Gitmo, too little too late!

The United Nation's independent investigator on human rights in the fight against terrorism today urged the United States to release all people detained as "enemy combatants," close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay and abolish military commissions.

Martin Scheinin visited the naval base in Cuba from December 3-7 at the invitation of the U.S. government, while a tribunal in the case of Salid Ahmed Hamdan, an accused guard for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was under way.

He said they "confirmed the difficulties or even impossibility of the defence to provide evidence, as neither witnesses from abroad or high-value detainees from the Guantanamo facility next door could be heard, at least in this particular occasion."

A Finnish law professor, whose U.N. job title is special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, said he wanted better access to those detained at the Guantanamo prison.

The facility was opened in January 2002 after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

"I still hope that a further follow-up visit will be possible for the purpose of conducting unmonitored interviews with detainees at places of detention, including Guantanamo Bay, despite the government's current position that it objects to such a request," he told the Council.

The United States responded by saying it was "disappointed" Scheinin had declined an offer to view the base on the same terms offered to other international observers, but did not specify what those terms were.

"We hope that in future the work of the special rapporteur proceeds differently. In particular, we hope he will focus on less well-worn arguments under discussion elsewhere and more on practical solutions to common problems faced by the international community," the US said.

In a statement that will be formally delivered to the U.N. Human Rights Council tomorrow, Jamil Dakwar, Advocacy Director of the ACLU's Human Rights Program, said Scheinin's assessment came as no surprise.

"Over the past six years, we have witnessed the U.S. government abandon the bedrock principle of respect for the rule of law," Dakwar said.