maruta_us

i posed the question: what if you were lgbtq and had to evacuate a city in the middle of a disaster?

http://maruta-us.livejournal.com/55419.html

because a human rights tribunal i attended didn't pose that question.

personally, i imagine that a transgender womyn would face more difficulties than a transgender man, but i really don't know. and after watching the film "welcome to new orleans", i imagine that black folks take care of their own who live with them in the face of white supremacist violence.

***

a while ago, i posted something about the trafficking and fetishization of transgender people.

http://maruta-us.livejournal.com/112807.html

specifically, the status of being "gossiped about/ commodified/ fetishized/ worshipped/ traded by people who see them as a luxury item."

that was before i read something on a two-spirit website about two-spirit people being regarded as "spiritually gifted", "with a particular insight into spiritual matters", "keepers of the ancient traditional stories of creation, healing and growth", and
"people [who] knew how to speak both in the men and women’s ways" and "were the only ones allowed to go between the men’s and the women’s camps." i don't know what to make of that, but it's interesting.

one person's worship can become another person's idolatry or obsession or worse, and i thought of that recently when i was reading an essay by michelle o'brien on trans survival on the streets of philadelphia and the ball scene of black trans womyn. hell hath no fury like a queen scorned, and i may have pissed off the wrong one when i returned to washington d.c., and things started happening like my cellphone ending up on the other side of town, and of all the numbers in it, my oldest friend being called to relay a message to me about where i could pick it up. one advantage i see to identifying as "two-spirit"--as opposed to transgender--is that it enables the person who chooses to do so to avoid the hard identities of "man" and "womyn" and the perhaps inevitable focus on clothes, underwear, etc. but if you get drunk and get high on the weekends and rave and call yourself "two-spirit", are you re-enacting a legacy of colonialism?

ever since my wireless connection got knocked on my computer--the second time i've lost home computer use to a virus this year--i've wanted to write a review of the book "that's revolting! queer strategies for resisting assimilation" which soft skull press emailed me a review copy of, or an advance copy for a second edition, or something like that, a month ago.

years ago, when i had time (and money) on my hands to do things like sit in taco bell for hours, guzzling free drink refills and writing in my journal, i used to copy out my reading notes from books by hand, and then it helped to have a second journal to draft a review in, so that i could move from one (notes) to the other (drafts) without having to constantly flip back and forth through a bunch of pages. that's a beautiful system, when you have the time, and you don't come home to find your door wide open, and you don't have people ripping off sketchbooks, and you don't have to worry about keeping your bag on you at all times and things like that.

i think i'm going to have to give up the notion of writing a book review. one thing that's definitely atrophied over the past year is my skill at using the phone--again, because i've had problems keeping phones and phonebooks, and what i used the phone primarily for (journalism) doesn't translate well to other purposes. like, i've forgotten how to chat. it's hard not to feel silenced.

in the meantime, there's this...
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/ghana804/video/video_index.html

On May 28, Attorney General Mario Iguarán announced that 34 DAS officials [the Colombian equivalent to the FBI] and former officials – including the agency's last four directors – would be called in for questioning. […] The Attorney General’s Office is in the process of determining whether to charge the DAS officials with conspiracy to commit crimes, illegal use of surveillance equipment, abuse of authority, tampering with public documents, the destruction, suppression or concealment of public documents, or other charges.
At the same time, the Procuraduría General de la Nación (office of the inspector general) opened disciplinary investigations into 16 DAS officials in mid-May. It also linked the case to three key presidential aides: Bernardo Moreno, the general secretary of the presidency; Uribe’s press secretary César Mauricio Velásquez; and his communications adviser, Jorge Mario Eastman. The Procuraduría will be investigating meetings held by the three aides and the then heads of the DAS Intelligence and Counterintelligence offices. In the meetings, the three presidential aides reportedly received classified information on the wiretapping of Supreme Court judges, with whom Uribe was at loggerheads due to their investigations of dozens of the president’s allies in Congress – including his cousin, Mario Uribe – accused of ties with the far-right paramilitary militias.

Iguarán’s term ends Jul. 31, and his successor will be chosen by the Supreme Court - from a short-list provided by the president.

COLOMBIA: SPYING IN THE NAME OF 'DEMOCRATIC SECURITY'
Written by Constanza Vieira*
Thursday, 25 June 2009
(IPS) - While the world's attention was riveted on the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama, an operation was surreptitiously being carried out Jan. 19-21 at the headquarters of Colombia’s domestic intelligence agency, the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS), which answers directly to the president’s office.

Over the course of those three days, dozens of boxes of files, computer hard drives, tape recordings and transcripts containing the results of months or even years of spying on Supreme Court judges, prosecutors, human rights defenders, opposition politicians and journalists were destroyed on orders from above.

A month later, on Feb. 21, the operation was reported by the Bogota magazine Semana and the Noticias Uno TV newscast.

On Jan. 16, three days before – according to Semana – the government issued the order to gather up the recordings and documents from the DAS offices, a new DAS director had been appointed, Felipe Muñoz, who assumed the position on Jan. 22 – the day after the destruction of the files was completed.

"Of all the boxes taken to DAS Counterintelligence (the section in charge of verifying the loyalty of DAS agents and officials), containing documents, recordings, etc, only one was left, which was removed from (Counterintelligence on) the 11th floor on the evening of Wednesday Jan. 21," said a DAS employee who spoke to Semana anonymously. "I don’t know what they left in that box, or where it was taken. I only know that the rest was destroyed."

In reaction to the media reports, the Cuerpo Técnico de Investigaciones (CTI - the Attorney General’s Office’s judicial police), searched DAS offices on Sunday Feb. 22 – after the agency's director was notified about the operation.

On Monday Feb. 23, an ad hoc committee of prosecutors visited DAS to join the CTI unit that was still carrying out the search.

The CTI carried out further inspections from Mar. 1-19, which were "significant" in terms of the information gathered, according to a 228-page CTI report to which IPS had access.

The report was addressed to the prosecutors working on the case, whose first goal was to locate the source of the leak to the press on the illegal DAS wiretapping operations.

The CTI computer experts discovered digital tracks in computers that had been "cleaned" by the DAS Counterintelligence office on the 11th floor, as well as in wiretapping equipment on two other floors of the building. The results of their report have not yet been divulged.

Material that was not destroyed, which has been held in DAS archives since 2007, marked "top secret," included 104 A-Z expanding files dated 2004 to 2005 and containing records and minutes of meetings from the highest levels of the domestic intelligence agency, along with other documents and photos handed over to the CTI by the new DAS leadership.

The first 46 pages of the 228-page CTI report sum up the content of the A-Z accordion files considered of greatest interest in judicial terms.

Eighty percent of the files referred to "operation Transmilenio", which involved spying on the José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective, a human rights group, and especially its director, human rights lawyer Alirio Uribe.

The DAS also kept human rights defender Gustavo Gallón, head of the Colombian Commission of Jurists – a non-governmental organisation with United Nations consultative status - under close surveillance, along with his entire family, under "operation Cascabel".

In addition, files were kept on Jesuit priest Javier Giraldo, the director of the databank of the Jesuit Centre for Popular Research and Education (CINEP), which documents the victims of Colombia’s long-ranging civil war.

Files were also found on the San José de Apartadó Peace Community in the banana-producing Urabá region in the northwestern province of Antioquia.

That community, of which Giraldo is one of the staunchest defenders, is an association of small farmers opposed to the use of weapons who have declared themselves neutral in the armed conflict.

Right-wing Colombian President Álvaro Uribe does not accept neutrality in the war, and accuses the community of being allied with the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the largest guerrilla group, which emerged 45 years ago.

Another peace group, the National Network of Initiatives for Peace and Against War, also fell under the suspicion of the Uribe administration, whose flagship "democratic security" policies include engaging the civilian population more actively in fighting the guerrillas.

Two files titled "Puerto Asís" were dedicated, according to the CTI report, to journalist Hollman Morris, director of the TV news programme "Contravía", which the reporter has described as "the voice of the voiceless in Colombia" because of its work uncovering human rights abuses and giving visibility to the victims.

The reporters critical of the government who were spied on by the DAS also included Carlos Lozano, director of the Communist newspaper Voz; Daniel Coronell, director of the Noticias Uno TV news programme; Félix de Bedout with the W Radio station; and Swedish reporter Dick Emanuelsson, a correspondent for several media outlets from his country.

Other files show that the phone conversations and e-mails of politicians belonging to opposition parties and Supreme Court magistrates were also intercepted, as the DAS wiretapping scandal continues to snowball.

The file named "Blancos políticos" (political targets), containing 541 sheets of paper, shows that presidential candidates were followed ahead of the 2006 elections: Carlos Gaviria of the left-wing Alternative Democratic Pole (PDA); Horacio Serpa of the Liberal Party; and Álvaro Leyva Durán, a former Conservative Party cabinet minister who announced his independent candidacy before withdrawing from the race.

"Blancos políticos" also included PDA members Luis Eduardo Garzón, then mayor of Bogotá; Antonio Navarro, the current governor of the southwestern province of Nariño; Senator Gustavo Petro; and lawmaker Wilson Borja. Another was Piedad Córdoba, a Liberal Party senator internationally known for her role in achieving the release of hostages held by the FARC.

Other "political targets" were former mayor of San José de Apartadó Gloria Cuartas and former attorney general Alfonso Gómez Méndez, a contender for the Liberal Party’s presidential candidacy.

On May 28, Attorney General Mario Iguarán announced that 34 DAS officials and former officials – including the agency's last four directors – would be called in for questioning.

The Attorney General’s Office is in the process of determining whether to charge the DAS officials with conspiracy to commit crimes, illegal use of surveillance equipment, abuse of authority, tampering with public documents, the destruction, suppression or concealment of public documents, or other charges.

At the same time, the Procuraduría General de la Nación (office of the inspector general) opened disciplinary investigations into 16 DAS officials in mid-May.

It also linked the case to three key presidential aides: Bernardo Moreno, the general secretary of the presidency; Uribe’s press secretary César Mauricio Velásquez; and his communications adviser, Jorge Mario Eastman.

The Procuraduría will be investigating meetings held by the three aides and the then heads of the DAS Intelligence and Counterintelligence offices.

In the meetings, the three presidential aides reportedly received classified information on the wiretapping of Supreme Court judges, with whom Uribe was at loggerheads due to their investigations of dozens of the president’s allies in Congress – including his cousin, Mario Uribe – accused of ties with the far-right paramilitary militias.

Iguarán’s term ends Jul. 31, and his successor will be chosen by the Supreme Court - from a short-list provided by the president.

*This is the first part of a special series of articles on the DAS wiretap scandal.

http://www.akpress.org/2009/items/greenzoneakpress

"Here's the awful truth: even if every person, every automobile, and every factory suddenly emitted zero emissions, the earth would still be headed, head first and at full speed, toward total disaster for one major reason. The military produces enough greenhouse gases, by itself, to place the entire globe, with all its inhabitants large and small, in the most immanent danger of extinction." —from the Introduction

This new investigation by Barry Sanders examines in detail the environmental impact of US military practices. In a period of unprecedented scrutiny of the social and economic impacts of the US defense policies, Sanders explores a completely different aspect of the situation, declaring military activity, from fuel emissions to radioactive waste to defoliation campaigns, as the single-greatest contributor to the worldwide environmental crisis.

From Mythili Rao
CNN
Decrease font Decrease font
Enlarge font Enlarge font

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Two undocumented workers from Mexico and one from Ecuador have reached court settlements in recent weeks for a total of $3.85 million in damages for New York construction-site accidents, an attorney for the men announced Wednesday.

"All three cases involve construction and terribly unsafe working conditions," the attorney, Brian O'Dwyer, said in a news conference. "We're here today to re-emphasize -- as we have in the past -- to the Latino community and all undocumented workers that they have the same rights once they're on the job as any New York citizen."

A 33-year-old undocumented plumber from Mexico who was scalded by an exploding pipe at a Wall Street construction site in 2004 settled his damage claim for $2.5 million, according to a statement given to reporters at the news conference. The married father of two, who says he still has nightmares from the accident, hopes to open a restaurant or bar with the settlement money, his cousin told reporters.

In a separate statement, owners of the Wall Street site said only that the injured plumber was "employed directly by [the] contractor and not by the owner of the property nor the managing agent." Reached through a public relations firm, a spokesperson for the contractor, Swig Equities, had no comment.

Another undocumented Mexican worker suffered severe injuries to his left foot and other parts of his body when a steel beam fell on his lower body at a building site in downtown Manhattan, the news conference statement said. The 52-year-old settled his damage claim against Beway Realty Corp. and F.J. Sciame Construction Co. Inc. for $750,000, according to the statement.

David Koeppel, a managing member of Beway Realty, said he was not familiar with the case. F.J. Sciame Construction, the site's contractor, did not respond to inquiries.

A 36-year-old Ecuadorian laborer who worked at the Arverne by the Sea community in Queens -- a neighborhood The New York Times has called a "bright spot" in the housing market for its strong sales and low foreclosure rates -- settled a damage claim for $600,000, the news conference statement said.
Don't Miss

* 10 undocumented immigrants killed in crash
* 2 teens get jail time in immigrant's death
* Court tosses out ID theft conviction
* Rally for undocumented immigrants

He was injured when three large 44x10-foot trusses, each weighing 200 pounds, collapsed onto him in August 2007, fracturing his hip and causing other injuries, according to the statement.

The father of three, who had worked in construction for more than a decade and owned his own company at the time of the accident, said he was very sad after the accident because he did not know how he would support his family. His two sons, now 7 and 8, and his 16-year-old daughter were all born in the United States.

"The contractor tried to blame me," he said at the news conference, speaking in Spanish. What message would he give other workers? "Don't be afraid to talk to a lawyer."

Although he had not yet recovered enough to resume construction work, he hopes to use the settlement money to build a home for his family in New Jersey.

Messages left for The Beechwood Organization, developers of Arverne by the Sea, were not returned.

Joel Magallan, executive director of Asociacion Tepeyac, an immigrant advocacy group, said that while construction work is often dangerous, undocumented workers are likely to work at sites that lack safety equipment and OSHA regulation compliance.

"This is a great day for the undocumented immigrants," Magallan said. "They have to know today that they have rights -- the same rights as other workers who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents."

"Many workers are threatened by their employers with deportation or discharge if they bring their cases to court," O'Dwyer said. "What we find normally on work sites in New York is that deaths occur to the undocumented far out of proportion to their work in the workplace, and that is because of the fact that they just do not receive the safety protections," he said.

In 2005, O'Dwyer won a historic $4 million settlement for a 33-year-old Mexican worker who had fallen 30 floors in a scaffolding accident in the Bronx. The injured worker, who was hospitalized for four weeks and underwent seven surgeries after the 2001 accident, told CNN on Wednesday that workers -- documented or undocumented -- should not to be afraid to stand up for their rights.

Although it is illegal for an employer to knowingly hire a worker who is undocumented, according to the New York City Mayor's Office of Immigration Affairs, if an undocumented worker is hired by an employer, he or she then has the right to be paid minimum wage and overtime, the right to health protection and workplace safety, and the right to organize to improve labor conditions.

"Each of these men was injured in the course of their work on construction sites, and their immigration status was irrelevant to their right to seek redress for those injuries," O'Dwyer explained in a statement. "Enforcing laws requiring a safe workplace serves the interests of all Americans, whether they are citizens or not."

The men involved in the settlements said they chose to remain anonymous to protect relatives outside of the United States, who could become the target of kidnapping schemes if knowledge of their settlements became public.

with the automobile companies in federal receivership, and a people's economic summit in detroit that would have been interesting...

this list is different, shorter than i remember it being in its published form (maybe in expelled from eden?) what had me thinking about it this morning was the line about abolishing the automobile, because if automobiles didn't exist, it would have been harder for me to rent a truck and leave oakland last fall... also because of something i read in another entry here, that in asia, crime rates are lower, because there are fewer automobiles and/or the population is less mobile...



http://www.edrants.com/category/vollmann/page/2/

The beauty in these books would flourish more widely if the following social changes were made:

1. Abolish television, because it has no reverence for time.

2. Abolish the automobile, because it has no reverence for space.

3. Make citizenship contingent on literacy in every sense. Thus, politicians who do not write every word of their speeches should be thrown out of office in disgrace. Writers who require editors to make their books “good” should be depublished.

4. Teach reverence for all beauty, including that of the word.

I’ve never read the book of that title, but I’ve had reason to think about it off and on, throughout the winter. In going through my blog this morning, prompted by harassment by my landlord, I see that over the winter, I’ve mentioned Bo Brown a lot—11 of 15 entries mentioning her date from this period, which has something to do with my discomfort here after living in California most of my adult life, and also something to do with how closely we worked together for a number of years. I’ve never been this far north, or lived through a winter like this, or lived in an Ivy League college town before.

I remember almost two years ago, when I attended a Resource Generation conference in North Carolina, one of the closing exercises was for all the participants to write a letter to themselves to be held and mailed back to them in a number of months. I wrote myself about being heartbroken, to find myself on the other side of the country, dealing with police, feeling totally cut off from my work and forced out by Bo, after pouring my heart, soul, and money into Prison Activist Resource Center ever since I got out of prison. Not only did I feel that the violence and state surveillance that I had experienced wasn’t being taken seriously, but at some point—I forget when—I became aware that there was a sign on the back of the door of a neighboring office warning people what to do if I came by because of “violent” threats I had made against Bo. It was a shock to find out about that by walking into the office. It felt to me like a lot of young people were uncritically defending her because of her history as a political prisoner and her weight as an elder, and it was alienating.

And as the first person to update the PARC resource directory in four or five years—and the editor and final writer of the report “Toxic Sweatshops” , as well as a Prison Legal News story on the subject—I did feel a very real pride in it as “my” work, particularly as someone who recovered from a crippling injury to do it. I had issues—even if I have yet to think or articulate them clearly—with a “copyleft” that would enable me to be forced out of the organization while that work was there. It was my class privilege that enabled me to produce all that, and if almost two years later, PARC is no longer bound to its historical dependence on white men with class privilege and foundation ties and has transitioned into something more truly owned and operated by the community it is a part of and serves, I guess that’s a good thing, especially considering that in the meantime, the state has done things like attack the Long Haul community center and seize its computers. It’s taken me time and space to look back on this and my own situation with a little more objectivity in an attempt to get over my sense of feeling “robbed” and my anger at Bo as someone who should have known better, precisely because of her experience.

Earlier this year, my friend—at least, I’d like to think she’s my friend—Favianna posted a very well-researched criticism of Shepard Fairey, who I had never heard of before he got arrested attending his own retrospective exhibition, and who I’ve received emails about as ripping off the work of Third World artists. This week has reminded me of a Chicano author Fred Aldama, who the first thing I remember him saying to me was, “You know, Hunter S. Thompson ripped off everything from Oscar Zeta Acosta.” And in being prompted to look over this blog, I wonder if there have been criticisms of me in movements for reproductive justice and sexual liberation (or framed in negative terms, movements against rape, sexual assault, and state violence) for publishing work here without materially contributing to or participating in those movements—defining them as “other” to myself?

When I reread this blog and see the anti-violence initiatives developed either by GLBTQ centers that probably receive government funding (such as Washington D.C.’s) or collectives (such as those in NYC and Philly), these are flyers that I picked up while attending events , not events that I participated or even spoke in. If publishing them here brought undesirable attention or repression by the state in any way, I would hate to hear that.
Last spring, I went to the county advocacy center (as well as the human rights commission) and spoke to somebody about sexual abuse, who told me that the center was considering starting a co-ed group to discuss these things in 1-2 months and that I would be welcome to participate. It reminded me of an old friend from the Bay who kicked a speed habit (if I remember correctly) and talked about a support/talk therapy group as useless except as a place for people to hook up and get laid—that memory may not be accurate, and I can’t remember whether it was a GLBTQ-specific group or not. But from my own experiences accompanying a girlfriend to 12-step or 16-step meetings, I remember being looked at like a fresh piece of meat by a bunch of people who hadn’t had their favorite substances in a long time when I walked in the door. So what my friend said was believable, and for that reason (I think), I chose not to participate. (Maybe that reflects being raised in a health care system with access to private doctors.) Ditto, going to either of the health centers on the college campuses nearby to discuss these things. I remember a professor friend walking me into one, and the reaction on the face of the student who was at the front desk made me think about leaving.

Now, some people are literal-minded and want to read a lot of information and medical classifications and categories. And some people, presented with the housing choices I had last year—a woman of African descent well-established in the community , used to renting to students with year leases; a home of bubbly young female undergrads, in a home owned by one of them; and a single mother homeowner living out in the hills a little bit, also attending college—would have chosen #2. What was I thinking when I made my choice? I guess whatever the case, the choices one makes—to the extent that they are choices made with free will, and not reactions—reveal something about oneself.

I’ve squandered most of the past week trying to pull together all my correspondence with my current landlord dating back to last fall and all my writing on this blog to file a complaint with the County Human Rights Commission. I guess the assumption has been that I might want to pull some writing from this website, and in any case, I wanted to see what I had actually posted or linked to here. Since my landlord googled me and wants to send me back to prison, which of the following things I’ve posted here merit that? Opposing rape? Asserting that womyn, GLBTQ people, and sex workers have rights?

*my bibliography;

*articles from award-winning publications such as PR Watch; the SF Bayview; the Independent (UK); the Delaware News-Journal; Left Turn; CBS; The Nation; the Washington Post; Democracy Now; Tom Paine; Juan Cole; the New York Times; the San Francisco Chronicle; the Los Angeles Times; Time Magazine; ESPN; Cycling News; the Guardian (UK); Consortium News; NarcoNews; History Is a Weapon; the Real Cost of Prisons; KPFA; Time Magazine; McClatchy Newspapers; CNN; the Associated Press; Common Dreams; Reuters; the Virginia Quarterly Review; the Virginia-Norfolk Pilot; the Raleigh-Durham News-Observer; Wikipedia; Upside Down World; Poor Magazine; the Times Online (UK); Black Voices; TruthOut; Philadelphia News; the Ithaca Journal; USA Today; the Miami Herald; the San Diego Union-Tribune

*press releases from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility; Human Rights Watch; the American Civil Liberties Union; United for Peace; the Center for International Policy and its Colombia Program; the Center for Justice and Accountability; the Prison Commission; the American Friends Service Committee; the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation;

*websites of the following organizations: Common Ground Relief; School of the Americas Watch; the Southwest Organizing Project; Peoples Hurricane Relief; Electronics Recyclers; Pace e bene; the American Psychological Association; the Mexican League in Defense of Human Rights; FOR Colombia; Witness for Peace; the Center for Constitutional Rights; more Hurricane Katrina and Rita relief groups than I care to list; the US Human Rights Network; the Yogyakarta Principles; Stop Blackwater; the Sex Workers Organizing Project; the Prostitutes Education Network; SWANK (anti-capitalist sex workers); Beyond Marriage; Sex in the Public Square; Amnesty International USA; the San Francisco Human Rights Commission; the North American Congress on Latin America; the United Palestinian Appeal for Gaza; Americas Voice Online; U.S. Social Forum; Detroit: City of Hope; the Attorney General of the State of New York; We ACT for Environmental Justice; the Society of Professional Journalists; the National Freedom of Information Coalition; Reporters without Borders; the Committee to Protect Journalists; Friends of Brad Will; the George Jackson Brigade Information Project; Prison Activist Resource Center; the Latin American Working Group; the Federal Trade Commission’s Identity Theft site; No Justice No BART; Justice Now; Rising Tide North America

*reading lists and notes from the following books: Introduction to Challenging Hegemony; Violence in the Making and Unmaking of the Black Panther Party; Serpico; The Other Half of the Truth: Searching for Truth, Justice, and Reparations for Colombia's Victims of Paramilitary Violence; the John Pilger movie “War on Democracy”; Total Chaos

*a few quotes from individuals (mentioned below) and the following books: Revolutionary Suicide; Memoir of a Race Traitor; Challenging the Secret Government; Legacy of Ashes; What We Want, What We Believe: The BPP; The Final Days; the Autobiography of Angela Davis;

*documents related to traffic tickets, police stops, courts, and travel problems;

*notes on restorative justice and alternatives to calling the police (Afrocentric models, peace protocols, the All of Us or None self-determination pledge, violence prevention handouts from the DC Metro PD’s Gay and Lesbian Unit, Philly Stands Up, Support New York, Philly’s Pissed, Incite-Women of Color Against Violence, the Philadelphia Rape Crisis Center/Women Organized Against Rape, Men Can Stop Rape, Generation Five, San Francisco Women Against Rape, the Audre Lorde Project’s Safe Outside the System Collective, the Advocacy Center of Tompkins County; a five point program for reproductive health in public education, The Stop AIDS Tompkins County Project)

*notes on House Committee Hearings

* notes from the panels What Would a Feminist Left Be Like?, Is a Radical Homosexual Agenda Possible, and Sex Work, Trafficking, and Left Politics: Towards a New Vision on Prostitution and Justice

*an interview that was never published in Bad Subjects;

*personal writing, including my top five list of big crazy dreams

Bibliography. (1)
SOA Watch. (3)
Prisons (5)
New Orleans (5)
Eavesdropping (on journalists starting in 2005) (3)
Reading (2)
Quotes (8)
(Balagoon, Jackson, EZLN, Hawes, Davis)
CIA/torture (14)
Contractors (12)
Israel (5)
Sports (2)
Innocence (1)
Seymour Hersh and the Gestapo (1)
Demilitarization in Latin America (21)
A lot on Chiquita (8)
A lot on Colombia (5)
COINTELPRO (1)
House Judiciary Committee (1)
Restorative justice (3)
Reading notes
South Africa (1)
police murder/brutality/torture (mostly Chicago-3) (6)
Violent relationships, sexual assault , conflict resolution (8)
Sex worker rights (2)
HIV (2)
Dreams (1)
Violence in the unmaking of the BPP (1)
shielding immigrant children from American youth culture (1)
disability (1)
stalking (1)
landlords (3)
usher (1)
oprah (1)
fundraising (1)
south central l.a. (1)
self-esteem (1)
deaths in detention (1)
hacking (1)
hiphop (3)
iraq (2)
zimbabwe (1)
tips for a good life (1)
land and oil (1)
pakistan (4)
russia/georgia (3)
notebooks (2)
identity theft (2)
journalism and FOIAs (3)
judges (1)
intersex identity, and justice (4)
parenting (1)
relationships (1)
Bo Brown (15)

Brothers Prove Cops Wrong With Video

http://news.aol.com/article/security-camera-clears-drug-suspect/526114?icid=main|main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fsecurity-camera-clears-drug-suspect%2F526114

i've spent today--and money that should be going to other causes--rereading this blog to see exactly what i've posted here that's so inflammatory. in the meantime, here's something interesting...

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/06/12/us/AP-US-Cuban-Militant.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

June 12, 2009
Feds Try to Block Evidence Release in Posada Case
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:38 p.m. ET

EL PASO, Texas (AP) -- Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to block the potential public release of ''sensitive'' evidence in a perjury case against an aging anti-Castro Cuban militant who once worked for the CIA.

In a motion filed in federal court last week, prosecutors asked District Judge Kathleen Cardone to block the release of information that ''potentially implicates the privacy, propriety, law enforcement, and other interests of third parties and foreign governments'' in the case against Luis Posada Carriles.

The 81-year-old former CIA operative and U.S. Army soldier is accused of lying to U.S. authorities about his involvement in a series of 1997 bombings in Havana that killed an Italian tourist. He also is charged with lying to immigration authorities about how he sneaked into the United States from Mexico in 2005.

Posada has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty in the perjury case.

Prosecutors contend that ''the government has a compelling interest in preventing certain sensitive but unclassified discovery materials from being disclosed to anyone not a party to the court proceedings in this matter; such material may include information relevant to ongoing national security or criminal investigations and prosecutions.''

In previous filings, lawyers for Posada asked prosecutors to turn over copies of documents detailing Posada's ''long-term association with U.S. government intelligence and law enforcement agencies.''

Besides the criminal case, which marked the first time U.S. authorities have accused the one-time ally of being involved in a terrorist event, Posada also is wanted in Cuba and Venezuela on charges that he plotted the deadly 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner.

A telephone message left Friday for Posada's lawyer in El Paso, Felipe D.J. Millan, was not immediately returned.

Posada, who is scheduled to stand trial in February, is living with his family in Miami.

A federal immigration judge in El Paso ordered Posada out of the country in 2005. But the judge also ruled that he cannot be sent to Cuba, where he was born, or Venezuela, where he is a naturalized citizen, because of fears that he could be tortured.

No other country is willing to let him in.

As a relatively new resident of ######, New York, attending my first Common Council meeting last night, I was surprised to hear a number of objections to the proposed Collegetown development plan from long-time ###### residents, self-identified "owner-occupiers" who had complaints about landlords who depend on a constant turnover of students to maintain their properties in substandard conditions.It was also reassuring for me to hear, given what I have experienced since moving into a 4-unit building on S###### Street.

On September 20th, I began moving into an apartment at #### . S###### St. #1, taking over a lease from R### S#######. Upon moving in, I was prompted to ask about the history of the unit due to its poor condition. Neither the bathtub nor the sink drained, and the pipes were caked with gunk.

Landlord ##### ###### told me that the unit had last been occupied by someone for four years, who moved out on July 31st, and that neither he nor the tenant maintained the place very well.

Unbeknownst to me, the upstairs apartment--rented to a person named ####-- ("#### #########" was on the mailbox) was filled with trashbags, and there have been concerns about unauthorized access, both to the building (which did not have a locking front door) and to my apartment, where the landlord keeps a locked supply closet.

Since I moved in, I have had to participate in cleaning out the basement, the backyard, and the upstairs apartment in an effort to make mine liveable. In October, the landlord claimed that #### was a problem tenant he had been after to clean up, and in December, he sent me a holidays/greeting card thanking me for "all the help cleaning out the basement and the backyard... and taking good care of my investment." As part of this, it was customary for me to haul things out, and for Dave to take them to the dump in his truck.

Meanwhile, I have experienced the following problems:

*monthly calls to the Drain Brain to clear the plumbing, due to the toilet backing up and either the bathtub or the kitchen sink;

*an infestation of fleas, that has prompted me to pay for foggers and required a professional extermination;

*problems with mail delivery, and the possibility of it being ripped off

Increasingly, over the past month, I have dealt with an escalation of written harassment from the landlord, complaining about me "blowing [him] into the city", threatening me with arrest, accusing me of having "mental disorders" and "some type of OCD that requires medication", being "a bit insane" and a "complete idiot", and a "total whack job." At this address, the only major change over the past month is that the upstairs apartment has been cleared out.

#### has offered both to let me out of my lease without any penalty and pledged to make the remaining time on my lease as uneventful as possible if I choose to stay. The former is true only after the intervention of the city and expense of time and money on my behalf. The latter is hard to believe, given that he threatened me with eviction yesterday over the state of the yard. In reviewing his property files, I know that he had a two-year running battle with the city over bringing another property on S###### Street up to electrical code, writing at one point, "I am not your typical slumlord." I would ask what is a typical slumlord, and now I know others have concerns about landlords in the area.

I have contacted a third-party inspector who for the price of $465 will inspect and document conditions for ALL FOUR units of this building. (See below for the conditions the inspector will document.) My preference (considering the labor I have already put into this place) would be to pay this inspector in lieu of one month's rent. Dave and city inspector ####### ########### have contacted me about installing a new toilet, considering the monthly problems I've had with the one in my unit, and I have expressed some concern about the plumbing being inadequate for the building and heard different things about that. (*)

I like the ###### area, am excited about the possibilities offered by things like energy audits, weatherization, green retrofits and building, and would like to see ### E. S###### St. be a healthy building for all its residents. I also think students need to be more involved in the communities they live in, and taking on housing conditions is one way to do that. I am learning my way around the Ithaca area and organizations like Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services and hope to make a positive contribution in my time here.

Aaron Shuman
[my address]

The major interior and exterior components of an ### home inspection
include the
following:
*Grounds: Grading, Draining, Sidewalks, Driveway
*Structure and Foundation
*Roof, Vents, Chimneys, and Attic
*Gutters and Downspouts
*Porches, Patios, and Decks
*Garages and Carports
*Basement and Crawl Space
*Heating system and distribution*
*Cooling system*
*Water Heaters
*Electrical System
*A representative sample of Lights and Receptacles
*Plumbing System
*Sinks, Toilets, Bathtubs, and Showers
*Walls, Floors, and Ceilings
*Doors and Windows
*Stairs, Fireplaces, Smoke/Fire Detectors
*Major built-in appliances

*Weather permitting

*After four months, going to the city inspectors, and a local builder, several people confirmed that my plumbing could be clogged by the upstairs unit, and if that person is a friend or has any sort of relationship with the landlord that's threatened by me raising concerns about housing issues, would have every incentive to sabotage my plumbing and make my stay there difficult.

judging from the sample provided below, what grade level would you say the author is writing at?

after i went to the city to get this four-unit building inspected and to see whether it would be classified as "unliveable" under the city's housing, i wrote a letter to the local/county papers and common council about the situation. here's what i received from the landlord. needless to say, i disagree with his version of events, and anyone who walked down this street would disagree with his characterization of as the "Taj Mahal"..

Sent: Thu, 19 Feb 2009 3:01 pm
Subject: RE: letter to the editor on housing problems (re: new toilet install)
You really should stick to the “facts” and not some delusional bullshit that you’ve made up. Or perhaps in your mentally unstable and twisted mind, these are the facts? You should also leave out the names of other tenants. You’ve got no beef with them. It is obviously me that you have a hard-on for. In any case, as I have said before, it’s not what you know that I have a problem with, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so, that is what I have issue with. You agreed to rent the apartment after viewing and inspecting it thoroughly. You did NOT take over Reza’s lease. You signed your very own lease. I’ve recently provided you with a second copy. Take a look at it closely. We met to discuss the lease and go over any questions or concerns you had at the time. You voiced no concerns, signed the lease and moved in after trucking your belongings from the west coast. I met you on the day you arrived and even helped unload your moving van. Find another landlord that provides that service.
I’ve Googled you son. I know exactly where you’ve come from and what you are all about. Your law breaking, civil disobedience, shit disturbing ways precede you. The four months you did in Federal Prison were obviously not long enough. For a freelance journalist, I’d say you write at a fourth grade level. No doubt you’ve had a hard life, but I had nothing to do with your parents dying at a young age. You need to seek counseling to address your abandonment and anger issues. Until you seek help and take your medication on a regular basis, you will continue to battle these inner demons that haunt you.
Since you’ve moved in you’ve been unable to sit still. You took it upon yourself to trespass into my basement, other tenant’s apartments and my attic to remove items that do not belong to you. I’ve received $500 in garbage fines as a result of your perpetual cleaning binges, yet your apartment looks like a hellhole. You’ve cut the lock off a bicycle chained to a post and moved it without the owner’s permission. You’ve changed the locks on the doors to your apartment without my permission. You’ve broken the main entrance (front) door window and removed the hardware. You’ve chipped away at the cement steps until they started to break apart. You’ve started scraping (and gouged the wood) the loose paint off my property in the middle of winter. Everyday is a new nightmare with you. I’ve begged you to stop, but you continue to vandalize my property. I have made an offer to let you out of your lease without repercussion, yet you refuse to make arrangements to leave. Any other landlord would have evicted your sorry ass long ago. You are so screwed up, you can’t even detect when someone is being nice to you. At this point, I’m not even sure it is safe for you to live alone. You might require some sort of supervision. You are worse than an unsupervised three year old.
You went directly to the City building department before even notifying me of any of the issues with the toilet or fleas(?) to me. How can I fix something that I am not aware of. Now that I’ve addressed all your issues, you still aren’t satisfied. The City inspector stated that the toilet was flushing slowly (yeah, that’s right “slowly”. It works, but it is slow). Instead of telling you and the inspector to go shit in your hats, I make arrangements to have a new toilet installed, but you won’t grant my plumber access. Why? Are you afraid if you do, you will no longer have anything to whine about? Are you not satisfied with the City inspector’s assessment? Is this why you’ve contacted private inspection company? I’ve done everything you’ve requested in a timely manner and it is still not good enough for you.
If anyone on this elaborate e-mail trail can reply and honestly tell me that I am at fault, I’ll consider taking a different position. My plumber, Mike (Drain Brain) has expressed a willingness to discuss his work and history of my property. Any idiot can clog a toilet. Over the years, I’ve had everything imaginable snaked from the drains (handiwipes, combs, tooth brushes, shampoo caps, tampons, q-tips, ect). The toilet was snaked once when you moved in (September) and again recently (February), hardly monthly. I have the invoices to prove that.
In fairness to you, I’ve attached some pics of this tenement that I’ve subjected you to live in. Dude, you’re in the Taj Mahal of ####### St and you don’t even realize it. Brand new fridge, newer stove, hardwood floors, built-ins and tons of cupboard space, all for $550 per month!!! I can provide additional photos of the complete renovation of the upstairs unit as well (if anyone is interested). I have current and previous tenants recommend me to others looking for apartments. I’ll let my reputation stand on its own merit. You are definitely a totally insane whack job and an idiot with some type of ODC and other mental disorders. Why else would you be pushing my buttons like this? My intent is not to harass you. If I were to harass you, you’d clearly realize the difference. I’ve begged you to stop e-mailing (and harassing me), but you just can’t help yourself. I’ll be watching you, dude.


[and another fantasy gem]

Aaron:
1. You are most welcome. A-Arrow was not conviced that there was any flea
problem to begin with, however, he did note that the dust and filth in your apt would be a strong contributing factor. When that unit was turned over to you it was CLEAN. The floors had all been freshly mopped and polished. I strongly suggest you invest in a broom or dust mop and actually use it on occassion. Get yourself a box spring/mattress and stop sleeping on the floor. You are not homeless street bum, you need to start taking care of your unit. It's time to get your shit together. You are a grown man, stop behaving like child.

2. The toilet was clogged due to your own doing. You need to employ the courtsey flush strategy in the future and stop loading the toilet with excessive amounts of #2 and toilet paper. Any idiot can purposely clog a toilet.Also the blown isulation that you dumpped in apt #2 bathroom sink (when you were in there and in the attic without permission) contributed greatly. If I catch you tresspassing agian, I will have you arrested. County lock-up will make the 4 months you did in the Pen seem like a vacation. Thanks to the internet, I am now well aware of your seedy past. The tiolets and drainage when properly used are just fine. If you disagree, you are welcome to locate a suitible sublettor and move out. I am not interested in housing a shit disturber any longer. Your reputation of being a pain in the ass to landlords preceeds you. I am not at all like the one you've dealt with in the past. You are barking up the wrong tree, son. I am not interested in putting up with your BS in the future. Drainage in multiple unit apts are commonly shared. There is never individual drains for each unit. they all feed to one main drainage system.

3. The upstairs unit was trashed by the previously tenant (without my
knowledge). As soon as I was made aware of the situation, I took care of it.
Jill's tenancy has ended under mutually agreed upon terms. That's all you need to know. If you are writing a book ... leave that chapter out. Cutting the lock on someone elses bike and moving it without her knowledge is stealing. Keep your nose out of other peoples business and worry about taking care of yours. If someone from the City can tell me that it is a "requirement" that the common entrance door be locked, I will take care of it. Now that maintenance issues are resolved, the door to apt 2 will be locked in the future. The attic door will also be pad locked. Thank you for your concern and advice. If I want it in the futue .... I'll ask for it.

4. The "grey powder" in the attic is blown insulation. It was there when I
purchased the property and there when the City inspected and issued the C of C. If it was a problem, they would have documented it and had me take care of it. Contrary to your opinion, there is no conspiracy a foot here. Sorry to
disappoint. All four boiler furnaces are newer and quite energy efficient. I'll have the outside painted when the City tells me I need it done, not when you think it should be painted. Please refer to my paragraph explaining my desire for tenants that are not shit disturbers. I've provided you with tenant info forms to start the process. During our last encounter, you aksed if I still want you to move out and you asked if you could stay. I told you that it was never my suggestion that you move out. You indicated that you were not happy there and I stated I would work with you to re-locate. However, if you think thatn you are going to stay there and bust my balls the entire time, that is not going to happen. I am on to you now. I know what you are all about.

5. What the hell are you talking about: entering your apt and leaving anything for you? I've not been in your apt without you being present since you moved in. What exactly are you accusing me of? I always call 24 hours in advance to make appointments with tenants. It's not what you know that I have a problem with ... it's what you know for sure that just ain't so that I have aproblem with.

Again, If you are not happy in your apt, I've given you the authorization to
locate a suitable sublettor. If you are not interested in re-locating, you are welcome to stay. But I can't have these constant requests for unnecessary
service. Please let me know what your intentions are. If you do decide to find another apt, please do not use me as a reference. No landlord in their right mind would rent to you.

The city building department does code inspections, and the city health department does citations. When I called the city health department and a third-party person who does green housing inspections, they both told me I would need permission for my landlord for them to do an inspection. What sense does that make?

####:
It is an improvement that you are writing me in a courteous, professional tone instead of your sarcastic insults speculating on my sanity (1/14), accusing me of making "false claims" (1/14), warning me to stop being such a "shit disturber" (2/2), warning me that my reputation with landlords precedes me (2/2), threatening me with arrest (2/2) and retaliation for going to the city (2/10), telling me that you will keep your eye on me (2/2), suggesting that I file a formal claim against you (2/2), and giving me permission to break my lease at any time without any repercussions (2/10).

Your reputation with the city precedes you, given that you previously accused a code enforcement officer of being overzealous and harassing you, and on the other ##### street property, were cited for electrical violations and had a two-year running battle with city inspectors on bringing the electricity up to code, that required Director ##### to get involved. I should--and may still--file a claim against you with a judge as you suggested, and with the county human rights commission. I am a 36 year-old man, a member of the Society of Professional Journalists who has written for award-winning publications for a number of years, and have never experienced these problems with any other landlord in my history.

It is my contention that you rented me an unliveable unit, and I have had to tell you not to leave items in the unit. The previous tenant noted an infestation of some kind of vermin, and that has been a recurring problem since I have lived there. I regret clearing out the basement and the upstairs apartment before calling the city in to document conditions. And I regret not moving sooner.

You have been paid for June and already have last month's and security deposit. However, my intention is to vacate the unit as soon as possible and to return the keys to you by mail as soon as possible. You have been a drain of time, money, and energy.

when i moved to this town, i had to order a social security card three times before i finally received one.

***

i haven't seen my passport in over a year. i "lost" it, along with my press pass and the case in which i carried them, soon after moving here. on the west coast, i had to renew it because it had expired, and if i have to replace it, that will be at least the second time in recent years.

***

i haven't received mail from the west coast in over a year. when i returned there last fall, i was surprised to be informed that my p.o. box had been cancelled.

***

i've been having problems with mail delivery on the east coast. not only have i had mail stolen, but it's as if someone has filed a change of address without my permission.

***

i've closed a bank account for the third time in a year.
*i forget why i closed the account i had for many years with a credit union on the west coast, but it may have had something to do with not wanting to return there or difficulty in service.
*i opened an account with bank of america and closed that in solidarity with this call from rising tide north america. http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/2009/01/28/1833/
*i opened an account with a credit union on the east coast and closed that because my ATM card was "lost", while my apartment is being renovated.

***

i may have to cancel all my credit cards and the email address i've had since i can remember.

***

cell phones? i've had a few...

once, i got a metro phone for a month-long trip.
once, i got a t-mobile phone because i didn't want protesters to text message me on my work phone.

i've had cell phones in three different area codes and contracts or month-to-months with three different providers (verizon, metro, t-mobile). now i'm on my fourth (credo). they all kind of suck.

***

computers? i'm on my third in a year...

the first one was knocked off a small table by the homeowner's dog, the screen shattered, and unable to be repaired under warranty.
the second one had issues but either a virus blacked out the screen or the light bulb burned out.
the third one downloaded something that knocked out its WWAN connection.

addresses? i'll be on my third in about a year and a half soon.

i had a girlfriend who accused me of being all three. the first time we kissed, she said, "you stole a kiss from me." I was like, "we just kissed. what are you talking about?!"

http://boliviarising.blogspot.com/2009/06/new-political-constitution-of-state.html

what's up with all these stories over the past couple of days?

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/06/11/reagan-diaries-reveal-man-beyond-the-image/