Katrina & Rita tribunal begins today

From internationaltribunal.org:

On December 8th and 9th, 2005 hundreds of Internally Displaced People from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita gathered in Jackson, Mississippi in a Survivors Assembly to demand accountability, reconstruction and restitution from all levels of the U.S. government. The Survivors Assembly was convened as a democratic institution to provide Survivors, with a vehicle for self determination. Their demands were in response to the government’s campaign of terror and genocide against the Katrina-Rita victims and survivors. Katrina and Rita were category 5 hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi leaving over 2000 dead or missing and over 800,000 without homes, jobs or help.

Why a Tribunal?

Since Katrina and Rita, the government has:

• Forcibly removed tens of thousands of New Orleans and Gulf Coast residents
• Disenfranchised tens of thousands of African-American voters;
• Refused to adhere to its own policies and procedures pertaining to the security and well being of internally displaced persons (IDP’s);
• Grossly mismanaged resources for the reconstruction of the region, including awarding no-bid contracts to big corporations connected to the Bush administration;
• Eliminated environmental and worker protection laws;
• Unjustifiably criminalized thousands of Survivors, particularly the displaced;
• Set up a reconstruction process that excludes effective input, oversight, and control over the process by the majority African-American population;
• Currently threatening to seize large portions of New Orleans owned and occupied by African Americans to ethnically cleanse the city to prevent the return of its historic majority.

I wish I could afford/had the time to go to this, since I live in New Olreans and all, but like Ron over at RealArt I've got no job and little money, but I will still be making a trip to Houston this weekend for a show with my band (hopefully).

I think a tribunal is an absolutely appropriate measure to take. The government is trying to get rid of the poor black populations of New Orleans and other places in the gulf coast, and there aren't nearly enough people fighting it, which includes myself. I hope they get what they want, but who knows if this will get any media attention at all? The corporate media, which means quite literally all media now, don't like to report on issues that might illustrate that there is still a huge racial problem in this country.

I'll just leave you with this thought: it's fucked up.

DROPPING LIKE FLIES

Roberto Gonzales has resigned. Obviously to escape criminal judgement. Lets see how low the White House approval rating goes by next fall, I think we can get a 0%, why not?

Back in NOLA

I don't know if I ever said anything but I stayed in Texas all summer and I'm about to head off to my first day of my third semester at UNO.

It feels so strange being back here after the last few months, last year was a brand spankin' new experience for me and it was so overwhelming it's hard to believe I'm about to do it ALL over again. I'm caught between depression and excitement. I really just hope my biology class isn't too hard. And english.

Anyway, that's all I'm gonna post about what's going on in my head, I'll proceed to post every three millenia, g'day.

Innocent Man Sentenced to Death Under Cruel Texas Law

From The Brooklyn Rail via Alternet:

On Tuesday, August 7, in a six-to-three decision, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied his final writ of habeas corpus, giving the legal green light for his execution. Foster, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection on August 30, is now at the mercy of the merciless Board of Pardons and Paroles. The odds are bad. Five out of seven board members must recommend clemency before Governor Rick Perry will consider it -- and in a state that has executed nearly 400 people in thirty years, clemency has only been granted twice. But Foster's supporters, who are spearheading a letter-writing campaign to the board and governor, are relying on one particularly salient detail to move their minds, if not their hearts: Foster didn't kill anyone.

[...]

Foster was convicted under Texas's "law of parties," a twist on a felony murder statute that enables a jury to convict a defendant who was not the primary actor in a crime. This can mean sentencing someone to death even if he or she had no proven role in a murder.

clickhereforallofit

So in Texas, and apparently most states that still have the death penalty, you can get a death sentence for NOT killing someone, NOT knowing about it, and NOT intending it to happen, just UKNOWINGLY helping it happen.

When a lawyer wants to get an accomplice convicted like this, they bring the jury in to decide whether the defendant "should have known" a murder would take place.

Texas: the big fat, lone star, fascist state.

The Official WHATTHEFUCK? clip of the week

Courtesy of Moveon.org:

Move over Rover!

Karl Rove?

Good effing riddance I say. That's some good ol' fashioned ridance.

But it's a little fishy. Why now?

Remember when Ken Lay left Enron, then like two days later the whole company collapsed...what if something's about to go down on the Hill...


UPDATE 8/14:
I think I was talking about Jeff Skilling leaving and Ken Lay taking over for that brief period before Enron collapsed, ANYWAY...

Friday Art Blog!

These are from a place The Drafted played at in Beaumont called The Art Studio, Inc. We played in this huge warehouse behind the actual studio and there was this back part that used to be offices or apartments or something and there was a lot of cool shit there. The photos of the paintings are from inside the studio and the ones of cool objects are from the warehouse.

All the creepy stuff was inside that opening you see to the left, there were a few rooms up there and below there was something that looked like it used to be a shop.




Really artsy pic!


Cool painting in the warehouse, reminds me of my mom, she loves roosters.


Very creepy markings, probably not authentic though


Old car, pretty rare I think


Scary elevator shaft







Very cool


My personal favorite


*Note these paintings were for sale and I could probably get in trouble for having them on this page, but no one stopped me from taking pictures of them so until I get a lawsuit threat, they'll stay here. You can purchase them at The Art Studio, Inc. in Beaumont, TX

Holy shit it's the movie of the century!

Superstar rap mogul C-Note runs into fierce opposition when he tries to join the super stuffy Carolina Pines Golf & Country Club. Undeterred, C-Note gets the brilliant idea to buy the land adjacent to the golf club's 17th hole, which he cleverly leverages to gain membership. C-Note's crew wreaks havoc as they bring their larger-than-life style to the club.


YESSSSS!!!

and.......ANDY MILONAKIS!


I smell an Oscar! (Oscars smell like goat cheese right?)

None So Blind as the 'Color Blind'

I was thinking some of these exact same things yesterday in the context of the Jena Six, as well as a slightly unrelated (or maybe not) Baytown event, so instead of my own rant I'll use this guy's.

By Sean Gonsalves via Alternet.org:

No matter how many times a disturbed white male shoots up a school, church or workplace, bombs an abortion clinic or is arrested for being a serial killer, nobody raises questions like: is something wrong with white suburban culture? The response is either: that's one sick individual, or it just goes to show you how bad society is getting

[...]

Quarterback Tom Brady knocks a girl up, then starts dating some other chick while the first girl is pregnant. And the water-cooler talk is: Tom is such a stud. Why did he leave the first girl? She's so pretty ... But if it's not Tom Brady, but Antoine Brady in the spotlight there's a whole different conversation, variations on the what's-wrong-with-those-people theme.

[...]

[...] it completely misses the point when "color blind conservatives" talk about "playing the race card," or making whites feel guilty. It's not about making anyone feel guilty, or making excuses for the morally questionable behavior of individuals who happen to be black. It's about being honest about cultural dynamics and majority power in a race-conscious society. As Rabbi Heschel said: we are not all guilty but we are all responsible.

clickhereforallofit

The not-so-unrelated Baytown event I've been pondering is this little-big uproar in about how we have to "take our city back," because supposedly Baytown has become just ridden with "crime." I haven't seen any such changes myself, but then again I live in Highlands. I'll tell you what change I have noticed in Baytown though: more minorities. Hmmm, could it be that the group I'm speaking of could really be worried more about keeping Baytown predominantly white than predominatly safe?

Someone said--I don't remember if it was quoted in a Baytown Sun article or if it was on their website's message board--but someone said, "I don't care what the stats say, crime has gotten worse in Baytown." This suggests that there are some numbers out there that are telling a different story than this psuedo-vigilante group, and makes me further wonder if these people are just looking around Baytown at the growing number of minorities and thinking, "These folks are up to no good! Crime is out of control!"

I use the term "psuedo-vigilante" because this group is actually planning on cooperating with the authorities about this supposed issue, and our new mayor was at their El Toro gathering. This isn't some kind of Minutemen thing, but at the moment it's still a little silly to me. Maybe I'm just naive, and I'll admit I've witnessed a tad bit more crime in recent years, but I still can't rightfully testify that Baytown's crime has really gotten BAD.