In a civil society, people allow other people to voice their opinions publicly and peacefully on civic matters.

Though there are no specific rules or guidelines for holding a town hall meeting, a la New England style, when the turnout is large and the objective is to give as many people as possible an opportunity to speak on important issues–for example, health care reform, the people can be broken down into smaller discussion groups.   Thus, we have a more formalized form of getting public and peaceful discussion accomplished. It is known as the 21st Century Town Meeting.  Facilitators are used to keep groups of 15-20 people on track so that the discussions provide useful results.

Why aren’t Progressives and Conservatives not partnering with the AmericaSpeaks organization? I take it that certain self-interest groups want to destroy the town hall process for dubious reasons.

If anyone is interested in getting diversified Americans heard, contact AmericaSpeaks:  www.AmericaSpeaks.org.  They have been used successfully for many issues since 1998.

There is a less-structured alternative.  Why not a lottery.  Everyone receives a numbered ticket.  When that number is called, the person speaks.  However, “bailiffs” or State and local marshals will need to play an important role to maintain town-hall decorum.

Let’s hear what the objections would be by folks who have been organized to orchestrate fake protests at town hall meetings conducted by Democrats.   The videos below are telling.  The second video was taken by one of the conservatives, claiming that Kantor’s thugs removed one of there kin.  It serves, however, as a counter punch, to the Fox news video (third below), that apparently distorts, redirects, and intercedes into, the  news presentation .

It has been reported, although inadequately, that these protesters are being bussed in and their message manufactured  to disrupt  productive debate.   Why?  To give the illusion that Americans are against health care reform–i.e., reform that will take away the wealth from insurance companies, big pharma, and a compromised health-care corp?

Let’s see how President Obama handles his upcoming town hall meeting in New Hampshire on Tuesday.  Stay tuned.

This week I’ve got the most amount of things to do I think I ever had. What with getting everything for traveling in just a week. Working everyday @ Them®, On top of that putting together a presentation for college on friday. Still want to find time to check out Peepshows Collective show currently showing at Dreamspace Gallery.

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It’s open 10-6. Have to nip over during one of my lunch times. Give me some good idea’s for some of my printing making and type treatment illustrations I’m trying to work on. S**T. Theres way too much going on.

O and I graduated today. Ceremony, handshakes, clapping, wailing, photos, robes, smart clothes, tickets, parents, beers, pizza, south-bank, buses, deans, organ players, brass band, fat men, pink, stars, rows, seat numbers, marshals, no phone, emails, names, double barrel, pronunciation, mis-pr0nunc1a510n, flashes, lights, sun. O today had it all. O yes. Looking forward to this week in a weird sort of way.
Over n out Im gonna get some kip.

Probably the worst race officiating the World Superbike Championship has ever seen.

The marshals at the Nurburgring just stand and watch as top riders fall on oil in 1999.

Read the full story here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_08p-414uGY

Probably the worst race officiating the World Superbike Championship has ever seen.

The marshals at the Nurburgring just stand and watch as top riders fall on oil in 1999.

Link source:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_08p-414uGY

Panel Investigates Marshal

by Melissa Bailey | March 9, 2009 8:58 AM

Charles Vingiano refused to serve a restraining order to an alleged abuser — and now has to answer to a state commission, in a case that raises broader questions about protecting victims of domestic violence.

The State Marshal Commission at its last meeting found probable cause to investigate two complaints filed against Vingiano by volunteers with the Temporary Restraining Order Project, which is part of the Yale Law School’s Domestic Violence Clinic. If Vingiano is found guilty of either charge, he could lose his badge.

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2009/03/state_investiga.php

(Editor’s Note: The following story appeared in two parts in the Queens Tribune and Southeast Queens Press. )

Story and Photos By Michael Lanza

For Jean Sassine, the daily calculus of raising a family is getting harder every day.

He sifts through the monthly bills and rattles off numbers – but increasingly, they simply don’t add up. Sassine lost his job in August – barely scraping by on modest unemployment checks.

But one letter amid the ocean of bills sprawled across their dining room table has the power to inspire dread every month at this Queens Village household.

“You could lose your home,” the letter reads in bold print.

Sassine, a former film and television production worker, hasn’t been able to keep up with his mortgage payments since November – when his savings were depleted after opting to keep costly health insurance to fund his wife’s recent leg surgery.

“What do you do? Do you drop the healthcare? Or do you try to buy time and not pay the mortgage and use that money,” Sassine lamented. “That’s what we did. But still, we’re living in Queens – you still have to have a car. We still have to pay the utilities – the gas, the light, the heating – it’s the middle of winter.”

Sassine wasn’t conned by predatory lenders. He didn’t buy a home he couldn’t afford. Sassine was one of 4.4 million victims of a hemorrhaging economy that has yet to be stanched. Now he stands to lose the place he has called home for nearly 30 years and owned for more than three.

Plagued by dwindling employment prospects and impossible credit markets, the family was left with few solutions to finance their home. They’re not alone.

Sassine is among the growing crowd of distressed homeowners in South and Southeast Queens – the City’s foreclosure epicenter – where the number of foreclosures skyrocketed and the value of homes plummeted last year. More than 5,000 Queens homeowners received foreclosure notices in 2008 and more than 100 foreclosed Queens homes are auctioned every week.

And according to a recent report, the growing foreclosure epidemic is threatening the very fabric of these working-class communities.

High-foreclosure neighborhoods in Queens had an average of 172 more crime incidents per neighborhood than low-foreclosure areas in 2006, the report by ACORN, a national community advocacy group, said. By 2008, the disparity had grown to an average of 424 more incidents in high foreclosure neighborhoods.

“In my neighborhood, abandoned homes are an invitation for kids to get into trouble,” Linda Bowman, a Far Rockaway resident and ACORN member, said. “I’ve seen more and more abandoned homes on my block, and sometimes there are people sleeping in them. We need to make sure people can stay in their homes so our communities are safe.”

Now Sassine is joining hundreds of local homeowners to put an end to the borough’s foreclosure crisis. He’s a member of ACORN’s home defenders campaign, a program designed to help foreclosed homeowners resist eviction and renegotiate mortgage terms. The group is proposing a one-year moratorium on foreclosures until President Barack Obama’s $75 billion housing legislation is implemented.

“There’s no safety net set up right now for the way the economy is,” Sassine said. “People are falling into situations beyond their control. I don’t understand why it’s such a problem for the banks to get with the program and just reach out to homeowners now.”

Sassine joined dozens of fellow home defenders last Friday outside a Corona marshal’s office, demanding the suspension of foreclosure evictions by the City agency.

They shouted, chanted and sang for nearly two hours outside City Marshal Edward Guida’s office – their exuberance only tempered by the tragic events that brought them there.

Nina Bryce, a 62-year-old Jamaica resident, was facing eviction this month after her home was foreclosed more than two years ago. The home was sold at auction in 2006, but an investigation later revealed that her bank had siphoned away their mortgage payments illegally.

“Even though we paid our mortgage on time for years, because of illegal activity at our bank, any day now, we could get an eviction notice from a marshal,” Bryce said.

And although she had already sought to rectify the situation in court, the urgency of her dilemma led her to the home defenders.

“Every week across the City, City marshals evict families from their foreclosed homes,” Sassine said. “President Obama’s plan will move past the all-voluntary efforts to incentivize and compel lenders into preventing millions of unnecessary foreclosures. Until then, not a single family should be turned out of their homes.”

The group claimed that Guida was responsible for issuing approximately 600 foreclosures in Queens – the most of any marshal.

Sassine led Bryce through a police detail protecting the marshal’s office and presented Guida with a symbolic notice of foreclosure.

Minutes later Bryce emerged with good news – a judge had issued a stay on her eviction. And although Guida played no formal role in the process, Bryce later acknowledged the marshal for his concern. She said Guida commended her feistiness and wished her luck in overturning the foreclosure.

It was a victory – Bryce’s eviction was delayed – although not in the way the protesters had hoped. It seemed there were no obvious villains today, only ordinary people separated by a sea of misfortune.

Ken Kelly, executive director of the New York City Marhsals, said many marshals share the protesters’ sentiment, but the group’s anger was misplaced.

Kelly explained that marshals had little power to stop or delay court ordered evictions, and those that did faced dire legal consequences.

“The marshal has no choice but to obey the court warrant,” he said. “I feel for the protesters and I understand it, but when it gets to the point when the marshal gets the piece of paper – he has absolutely nothing to do with the process.”

Except in cases where an eviction could jeopardize the health or safety of residents, marshals may face criminal contempt charges for failing to issue an order.

“I took a ride out there and there was a knot in my stomach,” Kelly said of the Queens communities hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis. “These were nice middle class homes – and it just sucks the air out of the community when this happens. It’s just devastating to a community.”

And although the marshals made no concessions on eviction procedures – the home defenders vowed to keep fighting.

“Know your rights. Stick with your rights,” Bryce advised fellow protesters. “Don’t move out of your house. Stay in your house.”

We are looking to recruit stewards and marshals  Wirral Egg Run 2009 on the 29th March 2009.

If  you are interested in volunteering to steward along the  route  please contact use via email  at  stewards@wirraleggrun.co.uk or  marshals@wirraleggrun.co.uk.

Your support will help us to ensure that we can run the 2009 event as safely as  posible.

No experience is necessary as we will give you the training you will need to become a steward or marshal on our event

If you wish to register online please click on one of the following links to register to become a marshal or steward for the wirral egg run

For Marshal registration

For Steward Registration

ZOMBIE NATION’S KERNKRAFT 400 (SPORT CHANT STADIUM REMIX)

Currently my favorite song.

 

The new citizen outreach program from the MCGM states, and I quote:

“Help! MCGM to keep Mumbai Clean!”

One would hope the copywriter involved had enough wit to foist this ironic gem upon us, but unfortunately this is not likely to be the case. Methinks (and said experience as a failed copywriter bears this out) that the bus shelter in question was left in the hands of a non-anglo art director to fabricate, while the copywriter headed home late to his warm bed and snoring partner, and Gheuntak Godbole got crazy with the exclamation marks, with hilarious effect. Am waiting to see if the selfsame individual is handed translation duties – a Hindi version rendered thus is extra precious:

“Bachao! MCGM Mumbai ka safai kar dene wala hai!”

To wit: the hindi speaking (north-indian, pan spitting, motherland defiling, etc) population to which the translated ad pictured above is addressed possibly does not understand the words “clean up”, so what good is the transliteration? If this was a genuine effort, shouldn’t they have gone with “safaa kar do!” or something?

On a more prosaic note – what’s with the hyphenated particle used in “clean(dash)up mumbai”? Shouldn’t it read as a simple adverb, an exhortation to “clean up”, rather than the mindless and effortless compound adjective which serves as a pseudo brand name (“Give us your best Close-up smile, you’re now in Clean-up Mumbai!”) for another insincere ‘India Shining’-like experiment?

(Talking about Close-up, I must make a minor digression on the importance of the seemingly insignificant hyphenated modifier. Hindustan Unilever recently spent a packet relaunching ‘Close-up’ as ‘Close Up’ (or ‘CloseUp’). The rebranding might have had a legal impetus, since Levers have divested their toothpaste brands (outside india), but it is remarkable that the new global owners deemed the fresh grammatical avatar as distinct enough to allow it to go to market. Would love to see a “close-up vs close up” brand war.)

Back to the war against garbage. Apart from a fresh and interesting colour palette which, it must be said has been executed effectively over all communications, including the product (trash trucks, cans, etc), this effort really does seem like another empty tale from the old chakachak/whitewash ministry of public placation that has poured millions of rupees down the sewer drain for their cover-up operations.

Why not use the money instead to run ads educating people about the benefits and simplicity of waste separation, the dangers of projectile trashing, the risks of letting our cows, dogs and sundry animal neighbours eat garbage that spews out from poorly latched trash compactors, or get Priety Zinta to come clean about the fact that she would never date a spitter, even. Really, at this late hour in our struggle for hygienic survival we need to up the ante and cajole, embarrass, and threaten our population into mindfulness. Better still, tax them increasingly, collectively and publicly for the growing burden of the clean-up effort. See how that hits them in the scrotum of self-interest.

Jack Thompson was visited by a pair of US Marshals after he wrote a letter to Florida Bar member Judge Moreno, claiming Moreno was giving him fewer rights than a prisoner at Guantanamo bay.

According to Games Politics, Thompson wrote the letter on Friday expressing his frustrations that he can not obtain judicial relief in his battle against the Florida Bar.

“We find yesterday that enemy combatants at Guantanamo are to get more due process from federal judges than what I am to have,” he wrote.

“I guess my ‘mistake’ was not killing 3000 people to make my point.”

Judge Moreno apparently took offence to this and sent two Marshals to have a chat with the attorney. Telling a judge you made a mistake in not killing 3000 people is like joking that you’re carrying a bomb through airport security – huge no-no in post 9/11 America.

In response to the visit, Thompson claimed the Justice Department are harassing him. He has written to the council for the House Judiciary Committee requesting a meeting in Washington to air his complaint.

And the insanity continues…

Courtesy of CVG.

Jun 17, 2008

Jack Thompson was visited by a pair of US Marshals after he wrote a letter to Florida Bar member Judge Moreno, claiming Moreno was giving him fewer rights than a prisoner at Guantanamo bay.

According to Games Politics, Thompson wrote the letter on Friday expressing his frustrations that he can not obtain judicial relief in his battle against the Florida Bar.

“We find yesterday that enemy combatants at Guantanamo are to get more due process from federal judges than what I am to have,” he wrote.

“I guess my ‘mistake’ was not killing 3000 people to make my point.”

Judge Moreno apparently took offence to this and sent two Marshals to have a chat with the attorney. Telling a judge you made a mistake in not killing 3000 people is like joking that you’re carrying a bomb through airport security – huge no-no in post 9/11 America.

In response to the visit, Thompson claimed the Justice Department are harassing him. He has written to the council for the House Judiciary Committee requesting a meeting in Washington to air his complaint.

And the insanity continues…

Courtesy of CVG.

Jun 17, 2008

Some brilliant pictures of the martian landscape can be found on the NASA web site HERE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 But, no repeat yet of pictures circulating earlier this year of the martian landscape, taken from the Mars Rover. It appears to show “a martian” seated on a rock (or, ist it just a rock??)

A day after a traffic marshal was mowed down by a private bus on the BRT corridor, Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit insisted on the need to give proper training to the drivers and users of the system.

Defending the BRT project, Dikshit said the accident was not due to the corridor but an outcome of the “recklessness” of the bus driver. “This accident has nothing to do with the BRT. But it is sad that a traffic marshal was killed due to the negligence of the bus drivers,” she was heard telling the reporters.

According to Dikshit, the users of the corridor will have to be alert while using it. “As BRT is a new concept in the city, people are not much aware about using it. Whenever a new thing is introduced, it is natural that people will face some difficulties,” she said.

Now this one takes the cake – the government is actually blaming people for accidents and poor planning! It’s some time into BRT and commuters are not finding the ride as smooth. All along the stretch, marshals are filling up for the traffic police. The question we’d like to ask is: Is it safe to leave traffic management to marshals? And should Delhi government admit its folly instead of shifting the blame and do away with BRT? Discuss.

I got a chance to tour a mansion today that’s for sale. The seller? The U-S Marshals.

The house was seized as part of an illegal online prescription drug business.

The house is not complete, but is still impressive.  It’s 22,000 square feet, has seven bedrooms, seven full baths, four half baths, an indoor pool, three stories, granite countertops, etc, etc, etc.

Check out the front entrance:

This is one of the bathrooms, with a view from the tub.

But there are plenty of things missing. Check out one of the living areas. It looks nice, until you get closer:

The fireplace looks great, but the marble floor is not finished. When the Marshals took control of the house, construction came to a halt. Contractors just left everything as is.

Here’s the kitchen, but since the electric wiring isn’t finished, nothing works.

I found one of these tucked in a closet. Well, not really tucked in. It’s hard to hide.

This safe is pretty big. At least four feet tall. The person who was building the house is a convicted felon. I found it a bit funny that even criminals feel the need for a safe in their own homes…from other criminals.

The house is valued at 5 million, and opening bids start out at 617,000 dollars.

 

The US administration is pressing the 27 governments of the European Union to sign up for a range of new security measures for transatlantic travel, including allowing armed guards on all flights from Europe to America by US airlines.

The demand to put armed air marshals on to the flights is part of a travel clampdown by the Bush administration that officials in Brussels described as “blackmail” and “troublesome”, and could see west Europeans and Britons required to have US visas if their governments balk at Washington’s requirements.

According to a US document being circulated for signature in European capitals, EU states would also need to supply personal data on all air passengers overflying but not landing in the US in order to gain or retain visa-free travel to America, senior EU officials said.

And within months the US department of homeland security is to impose a new permit system for Europeans flying to the US, compelling all travellers to apply online for permission to enter the country before booking or buying a ticket, a procedure that will take several days.