Archive for June, 2008
Put Your Money Where Your Racism Is
12:35 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Money|race|US Presidential Race 2008 · Comments Off
19 Jun 2008
This 5 dollar bill made it’s appearance in a Staten Island, NYC woman’s wallet.Denver Police Stock Up on Pepper Spray for the DNC
10:32 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · DNC|US Presidential Race 2008 · Comments Off
19 Jun 2008
Looks like I’ll have to pack some anti-pepper spray gear for the Democratic National Convention because the Denver Police are stocking up. From Democracy Now:
Denver Police Department is stocking up on pepper spray guns ahead of the Democratic National Convention. The city has ordered eighty-eight projectile launchers that fire plastic balls filled with cayenne pepper and other substances. Denver is purchasing the weapon from SWAT, Security with Advanced Technology. The news comes just weeks after SWAT announced plans to merge with the company Pepper Ball Technologies. Meanwhile, some residents of Denver are questioning why a half-dozen military helicopters flew over parts of the city on Monday as part of a secret security drill.The Denver Post reported the military aircraft buzzed above the Pepsi Center, the site of the Democratic Convention. A military spokesperson denied the drill was connected to the convention. Lt. Nathan Potter said,“It’s routine preparation for the global war on terrorism.”
Yeah sure. I am randomly selected for those secondary security checks at the airport.
The Scariest Possibility Ever? McCain and Giuliani on One Ticket?
8:32 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · US Presidential Race 2008 · 1 Comment
19 Jun 2008
I have personal beef against Rudy Giuliani. From my years working with families who have lost their children to police brutality, the Giuliani years aka Giuliani time in NYC was the worse. Young men of color were killed with impunity and Giuliani made it a point to smear these victims, even to their grieving mothers. For example:
In 1995, two young Puerto Rican men Anthony Rosario and Hilton Vega were shot in the back and killed by two New York City detectives in the Bronx. Evidence showed that when they were killed, they were laying face down on the floor and an independent autopsy revealed that Rosario was shot fourteen times in the back and Vega was shot eight times in the back.“One of the detectives, was Rudy Giuliani’s former bodyguard Patrick Brosnan. So what did Giuliani do? First, he had the audacity to call the police officers to commend them on their actions and then when Anthony Rosario’s mother Margarita called in to his radio show, Rudy talked over her, insisting that gunfire was exchanged and that her son had a criminal record. Both of these statements were lies. Giuliani also told the dead man’s mother that perhaps she should look at her parenting skills to help explain why her son died. Is this the kind of person we want as president?”
Well thankfully we don’t have to worry about him as president, but if John McCain were to choose Rudy as his running mate and if anything happened to McCain, well then we would have to deal with King Rudy. And yet, Giuliani’s name is being thrown around alot, perhaps more times than he can say 9-11 in a single breath.
Bloggers of the World Unite Against AP
12:58 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism|Blogs|Internet|Justice · 1 Comment
18 Jun 2008
Political bloggers of all sizes and political leanings are organizing to boycott AP after AP decided to attack a mid-size blog claiming that publishing fragments of their syndicated news articles and reports violates copyright. Bloggers are saying that using snippets and links to stories falls under Fair Use but AP apparently feels otherwise.
From Culture Kitchen:
Here’s one of the six disputed blog entries:Clinton Expects Race to End Next Week
Hillary Rodham Clinton says she expects her marathon Democratic race against Barack Obama to be resolved next week, as superdelegates decide who is the stronger candidate in the fall. “I think that after the final primaries, people are going to start making up their minds,” she said. “I think that is the natural progression that one would expect.”
If you follow the link, you’ll see that the blog entry reproduces 18 words from the story and a 32-word quote by Hillary Clinton under a user-written headline. The blog entry drew 108 comments in the ensuing discussion.
I have all the expertise in intellectual property law of somebody who’s never been sued, so standard disclaimers apply. But I have difficulty seeing how it violates copyright law for a blogger to link to a news story with a short snippet of the story in furtherance of public discussion.
AP feels otherwise. In a June 3 letter, AP’s Intellectual Property Governance Coordinator Irene Keselman told me:
… you purport that the Drudge Retort’s users reproduce and display AP headlines and leads under a fair use defense. Please note that contrary to your assertion, AP considers that the Drudge Retort users’ use of AP content does not fall within the parameters of fair use. The use is not fair use simply because the work copied happened to be a news article and that the use is of the headline and the first few sentences only. This is a misunderstanding of the doctrine of “fair use.” AP considers taking the headline and lede of a story without a proper license to be an infringement of its copyrights, and additionally constitutes “hot news” misappropriation.
Keselman reverses the definition of fair use and claims in the take down that citizens only have the right to fair use if they pay for it : AP considers taking the headline and lede of a story without a proper license to be an infringement of its copyrights.
Read details of the accusations here.
Europe Chooses to Criminalize Immigrants
11:44 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|World · 6 Comments
18 Jun 2008
After a long period of bickering between the different EU member states — some more liberal than others — Europe has finally agreed on a new policy to confront what is seen as an immigration problem in the region.
The new legislation, known as The Return Directive, will allow for the detention of immigrants caught without papers for up to 18 months before being deported back to their countries of origin. Once warned, they will be given the chance to leave the region within 30 days. If they don’t they can be incarcerated for up to 6 months.
Before The Return Directive, there was no common agreement in Europe on the handling of undocumented immigrants. And even though it was approved by the majority of the European parliament, not everyone was in agreement, as evidenced by the image above of Spanish parliament member Willy Meyer Pleite. Nevertheless, the tides are shifting in Europe — for the worst.
Via / El Litoral
Oh Stop Saying Republicans Are Racist
10:58 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · race|US Presidential Race 2008 · Comments Off
18 Jun 2008
I mean why can’t people take a joke, right? Like the obviously hilarious button, pictured right, that was on sale at the Texas Republican state convention this past weekend. Of course state GOP officials say they had no idea and would have prevented this vendor from selling the pins.
Via / Talking Points Memo
Fidel Lives!
18 Jun 2008
Can you believe it has been five months since the world last saw images of Fidel Castro? How did we live without him? Well fear not, yesterday via Cuban state television, the world was treated to the visage of Castro, chatting it up with bff Venezuela’ Hugo Chavez. No chatting could actually be heard in the video, as it was silent (they might have been planning a surprise party), but Chavez said that the pair talked for over three hours about the global energy and food crises. Pero pobre Fidel looks like a man of his 81 years, scraggly beard and all.
You can see the Cuban television report here.
Via / The Guardian (UK)
Police Officer Found Not Guilty of Killing Homeless Guatemalan Immigrant
6:58 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration|Justice|New York · Comments Off
18 Jun 2008
It has been well over a year since Rene Perez, a homeless immigrant from Guatemala was found dead. George Bubaris, a former police officer in the area was accused of second-degree manslaughter, unlawful imprisonment and official misconduct and was found not guilty.
There was evidence of a pattern and practice of immigrant deaths in the area that pointed to law enforcement. Mt. Kisco is an upscale neighborhood with a new influx of immigrants, the perfect breeding ground for racial violence.
The county medical examiner had ruled the death a homicide, saying that the man, Rene Javier Perez, had died of internal abdominal injuries. Prosecutors said that Mr. Bubaris had inflicted those injuries by punching Mr. Perez.
The prosecution, Mr. Quinn said, also contended that Mr. Perez’s injuries were sustained within the two hours before his death. “We introduced evidence to show that the injuries were inflicted 6 to 36 hours before” he died, Mr. Quinn said.
Just as important, he said, was the fact that the defense established that the injuries were “equally consistent with a fall” as with a beating. Mr. Bubaris, 31, who resigned from the Police Department after he was charged, originally came under suspicion because he was the last person seen with Mr. Perez.
Mr. Perez, 42, was homeless, had a history of alcoholism and a long arrest record for petty crimes, according to medical and court records.
Chilean Teachers Protest Against Education Inequality
4:30 pm By Maegan La Mala · Activism|Chile|Education|Latin America · Comments Off
17 Jun 2008
An on-going series of public manifestations against the state of the Chilean education system came to a head yesterday as hundreds of school teachers took the streets, and at least 20 broke into the Palace of the Moneda, throwing about pamphlets expressing their opposition to the “Ley General de la Educación”. 12 teachers were arrested when they tried to submit a document with their demands to the government at the palace.
The National Organization of teachers has called for a strike which was set to begin yesterday and extend into Thursday, and its spokesperson said that 90% of the schools in the Santiago metropolitan area would stop classes, while the Chilean Minister of Education debunked the claim, saying that 1800 schools in the capital were having classes.
Meanwhile, several schools and universities have been taken over by student protesters, and according to Mexico’s La Jornada, at least two — the University of Santiago and the University of Valdivia — have been “vacated” by the carabineros.
The new Chilean education law at the center of this public backlash is said to perpetuate the breach between rich and poor with regard to education, and is costing president Michelle Bachelet some major popularity points. For some background on the LGE, check out Chilean college student-blogger Ernesto Manriquez’s analysis of the legislation and what it will change.
Via / La Jornada
Image via Arriving at the horizon on Flickr
Kids Sent to Institution Because of Cell Phone Addiction
12:56 pm By Maegan La Mala · children|Lifestyle|society|Spain|Tech · Comments Off
17 Jun 2008
Two Spanish children, aged 12 and 13, have been sent to a mental hospital because of their addiction to cell phones. BBC Mundo reports that the two boys were sent to the institution because they were “unable to do normal activities without their cell phones.” According to the parents, the children’s grades were affected by the excessive cell phone use and their conduct was also severely impacted.
The children will be receiving treatment in the Children’s Mental Health Clinic in Lleida (Catalunya) for three months in an attempt to get them off the cell phone habit.
The BBC reports that the boys had been showing signs of addiction to their cells for 18 months prior, but the parents had not intervened.
Maybe I’m old school, but do we really need a treatment program for this? How about just taking the cell phones away?
By the way, it’s not just kids who are addicted to cell phones in Spain. In a country of 44 million people, there are 50 million cell phones — more phones than people.
Via / BBC Mundo
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