Chicago Teachers oppose repression of anti-war and international solidarity activists

NADLER: Again-GOP Only Interested in Some of Constitution-Banishes Civil Rights & Civil Liberties
Source: Nadler Press Release NADLER: Again, GOP Only Interested in Some of the Constitution, Banishes Civil Rights and Civil Liberties from Judiciary Committee Friday, 07 January 2011 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), who has served as the Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties since 2007, responded to news that the Republican-led Judiciary Committee will change the name of the Subcommittee to the “Constitution Subcommittee..

A Day After Reading Constitution, Republicans Abolish Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties Bits of It
I sort of expected the Republicans to abolish labor-or at least its named inclusion among the business of Congressional Committees. After all, the GOP really doesn’t like tough things like physical work or the people who do it. But it wasn’t so long ago that the Republican Party-not to mention its newest Activist branch, the Tea Party-claimed to give a damn about Civil Liberties. Hell, Louie Gohmert, who reassured me yesterday the Fourth Amendment is still on the ...

Man charged with shooting woman during robbery spree
A 24-year-old Chicago man is charged with shooting a woman in the arm during an alleged spree of seven armed robberies at cell phone stores across the southern portion of the city. Terrell Washington, a Restaurant Worker from the 7100 block of South East End Avenue in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood, was ordered held in lieu of $550,000 bail Saturday. Prosecutors said Washington was identified from a photo array by a witness and, upon his arrest Thursday near his home, he admitted to the ro...

Searching Phones And Computers Not Warranted
In California, it was ruled that a suspect's phone could be inspected and searched without a warrant. This is dangerous ground, as it opens up the possibility of Laptops and other devices for search, and without giving police the requirement of giving cause, or following procedure associated with searching private property. Jonathan Turley, a Constitutional Law expert at George Washington University, took to his blog to raise his concerns about the ruling. "The Court has left the Fourth Amendmen...

Constitutional Cowards
"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards." - Eric Holder, United States Attorney General Ed. Note: The second half of this post was written before the reading of the constitution on the House floor, at the opening of this session of Congress, and has since been updated. Like a lot of people, when the new GOP majority in the House announced that...

US Justice Dept Subpoenas Twitter for Info on Wikileaks Volunteer
Today the US Justice Department subpoenaed Twitter for the account information of an Icelandic politician who worked as a volunteer with Wikileaks and Julian Assange. “I got the letter from Twitter a couple of hours ago, saying I got 10 days to stop it,” wrote Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of Iceland’s parliament, in an e-mail. “Looking for legal ways to do it. Will be talking to lawyers from EFF tonight.” EFF refers to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-prof...

Metro restarts some light rail construction
As if to punctuate Gilbert Garcia’s op-ed, the news for Metro at the start of 2011 is good. Last month, the Federal Transit Administration sent the first $50 million of the grant money for use on the North and Southeast lines. Last week, the FTA issued pre-clearance letters Metro needed before it could proceed with more than $12 million worth of projects for which it is relying on federal reimbursements. Ultimately, the FTA will pay about half the cost of the North and Southeast lines. &...

Rights groups seeks to block more of Arizona immigration law
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed a tough state law last April that required police to determine the Immigration status of anyone they suspected was in the country illegally. Key components of the state law were put on hold by U.S. District Court judge Susan Bolton before it came into effect in July, ruling that Immigration matters are the Federal Government's responsibility. But several other measures in the law including provisions banning drivers from hiring day laborers off the street, wen...

Free speech advocates seeks to block parts of AZ immigration law
Stumble This! Phoenix - A coalition of rights groups asked a Federal Judge on Friday to block parts of an Arizona state law cracking down on Illegal Immigrants, which they say infringe day laborers' free Speech rights. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed a tough state law last April that required police to determine the Immigration status of anyone they suspected was in the country illegally. Key components of the state law were put on hold by U.S. District Court judge Susan Bolton before ...

Rights groups seeks to block more of Arizona immigration law
Phoenix | Fri Jan 7, 2011 5:19pm EST Phoenix (Reuters) - A coalition of rights groups asked a Federal Judge on Friday to block parts of an Arizona state law cracking down on Illegal Immigrants, which they say infringe day laborers' free Speech rights. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed a tough state law last April that required police to determine the Immigration status of anyone they suspected was in the country illegally. Key components of the state law were put on hold by U.S. District Cou...

Mexican Drug War Spills Over Border
Weapons and munitions seized during a police and Military Raid are displayed in Coban, province of Alta Verapaz, Guatemala back in December. The hold of Mexican narcotraffickers has overflowed the country’s southern border, as the Mexican Zeta cartel has seized control of parts of northern Guatemala, leading the government there to suspend local Civil Liberties and declare a state of siege in the area. —JCL Narco gangs have opened a new front in South America’s expanding drug ...

Evicting the Homeless
Posted by JM Ashby How do you evict a Homeless person? I ask the question because I honestly don't know how you legally or morally evict a Homeless person from public property. That is exactly what has been occurring in Anchorage, Alaska and a Superior Court Judge has now ruled the practice as Unconstitutional. ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Anchorage's policy for raiding Homeless camps is unconstitutional, an Alaska judge has ruled. Superior Court Judge Mark Rindner issued his ruling late Tuesday in ...

Technology, the Public Sphere, and Political Change
I mentioned previously that one of the extreme gender feminists suggested on Twitter that the #MooreandMe Protest was something akin to a new Civil Rights movement. No doubt there's quite a bit of self-congratulations there. And while the gender feminists did gain a lot of attention, the power of Twitter and other media is to mobilize social change through strengthening civil society. The New Media gets people out in the streets, to the Ballot Box, raising money and distributing information. Thi...

San Francisco supervisors recommend city administrator to be mayor
San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted to recommend the appointment of City Administrator Edwin Lee as interim mayor, to fill out the term of Gavin Newsom, who was elected California's lieutenant Governor. The 10-1 vote in support of the longtime Civil Servant was advisory because the position doesn't become vacant until Newsom resigns. A final decision is likely to fall to a board with four newly elected members who will be seated this weekend. If approved, Lee, 58, would be the city's fi...

Stop Making Laws Named After People Who Die
Civil Rights lawyer and Foundation for Individual Rights in Education co-founder Harvey Silverglate (Reason archive here) has a great piece up at Forbes about still another legislative attempt to restrict Speech in the name of protecting Students. Excerpt: Few American institutions best the Congress in the destructive practice of turning a human tragedy into an assault on liberty. Exhibit A is the ongoing effort to ratchet up anti-bullying measures on campus—with potentially dire consequences...

US demands Twitter release Assange details
Staff at the whistleblowing website Wikileaks were last night preparing a Legal Challenge after discovering that US officials had issued a Subpoena on their Twitter account to demand private messages, billing addresses and other details. The group suspects that other Social Networking sites and email providers will also have been asked to reveal their private conversations. The site's founder, Julian Assange, was one of four people associated with the group to have a Subpoena on their account....

What is B'Tselem?
Because of a debate that I'm currently conducting with a commenter on the previous post, I thought it would be useful to provide some information about B'Tselem, one of the Israeli Human Rights groups that the Knesset wishes to investigate for its supposedly anti-Israel actions. B'TSELEM - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories was established in 1989 by a group of prominent academics, attorneys, Journalists, and Knesset members. It endeavors to document and ...

Britain Vows To Change 'Embarrassing' Libel Law
Britain's plaintiff-friendly Libel laws have become an international embarrassment, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said Friday, vowing to change rules that have made the country a "libel Tourism" destination for angry corporations and foreign celebrities. In a Speech on Civil Liberties, Clegg said the existing laws, which place the burden of proof on defendants, have a chilling effect on journalism and scientific debate. It is "simply not right when academics and Journalists are effectively bu...

For the record, I do not support this sort of nonsense
Normally, I would not touch a story like this; but this one sticks out a bit: WASHINGTON (AP) — First, fiery packages sent to Top Officials in Maryland were opened, revealing an angry message complaining of the state’s Terrorism tip line. Then, a mailing addressed to the nation’s Homeland Security chief ignited with a similar flash of fire and smoke at a D.C. postal processing facility. While authorities have not said if the latest parcel contained a note, they did say the three packages

NEW CENSUS TRACKS CITYS CHANGING FACES
Raquel Velazquez, 38, and her 20-year-old son Francisco wait outside Pasteur Elementary School ,5825 S. Kostner, to pick Raquel's Children up after school. Census data shows that the Southwest Side neighbhorhood has grown increasingly Hispanic since 2000. Ten years ago the Southwest Side neighborhood surrounding 54th and Kildare was 67 percent white residents with no Hispanic heritage. But as of 2009, the area was 68 percent Hispanic, with whites dropping to less than a third of the population, ...

NEW CENSUS TRACKS CITYS CHANGING FACES
Raquel Velazquez, 38, and her 20-year-old son Francisco wait outside Pasteur Elementary School ,5825 S. Kostner, to pick Raquel's Children up after school. Census data shows that the Southwest Side neighbhorhood has grown increasingly Hispanic since 2000. Ten years ago the Southwest Side neighborhood surrounding 54th and Kildare was 67 percent white residents with no Hispanic heritage. But as of 2009, the area was 68 percent Hispanic, with whites dropping to less than a third of the population, ...

Remember, When @patgarofalo Says He Doesnt Care About The Opinion Of The Teacher Union He Means TEACHERS!
I just wanted to clear something up about what Representative Pat Garofalo said in an article about education priorities this legislative session and more specifically about alternative teacher licensure. In the article he had this to say about Education Minnesota : “The Legislature is in a position to work with Gov. Dayton and get something done, and I’m very confident that we’ll be able to reach agreement on that,” said House Education Finance Committee Chair Pat Garofa...

US Dept. of Education Training Teachers on Alinksy and Cloward-Piven
Doug Ross has a piece from yesterday that’s a must read. The Department of Education is funding training for teachers on the Marxists Saul Alinksy and Cloward - Piven. Oh, and they’re also being trained on the need for a state-run media. No doubt to keep the union bosses flush with Taxpayer Dollars. You may also be surprised that the Department of Education, in its official capacity, is a huge devotee of Saul Alinsky. Who is Alinsky? He was best known as a community organizer...

Teachers Union Claims Members Scalp
The Grand Rapids Education Association, a local affiliate of Michigan’s largest teachers’ union, is attempting to pick off one-by-one 90-some members that have refused to pay their dues. About 18 months ago, the School Board voted to no longer deduct dues from employees’ paychecks, which meant union members had to physically write a check to the union.  Many saw it as their opportunity to Protest the obnoxious behavior of union leaders during a previous contract negotiation period.&

CPS defends its handling of layoffs
Attorneys for Chicago Public Schools presented oral arguments this morning in their appeal of an October ruling that the district mishandled the layoffs of nearly 750 tenured teachers to solve Budget woes. Sally Scott, an attorney for CPS, told the three-judge panel in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals that the district followed all the proper rules for layoffs laid out by the Illinois general assembly. She argued the though the legislature has granted tenured teachers many protections, the dist...