2008-04-21T22:55:54Z opencongress.org 2008-04-21T22:55:54Z I have seen this on the WWW and wondered if it is getting any attention in congress? WHEN THE US MEDIA SAID NO MORE INJUSTICE WHEN THE US CONGRESS DENIED THE MASSES OF AMERICANS THEIR POSSIBLE FREEDOMS!Currently there are reported to be 100,000 falsely imprisoned Americans living along with the estimated 2,000,000 US prison population nationwide.America now has the very unique distinction of not only being rated the #1 in the World for having the largest prison population,but America also has the distinct rating of having the largest wrongfully imprisoned prison population in the World as well.Our US Congress affords themselves all the perks and salary most Americans could only dream about,but ask anyone of these Leaders Of The Free World to protect our Middle Class or Working Poor Americans from continuing to be falsely imprisoned endless decades due to the lack of federal appeal legal counsel being afforded them, and you just might be thought of as being crazy?The masses of the American people could never come close to ever being able to burden these federal appeal legal costs for themselves or for a family member,and should not need a lobbying group for this basic right of legal protection to be afforded them! Our Poster Child of this exact neglect by our US Congress is this young man named Manny Gonzales.Anyone interested in reading first hand how our US Congress is willing to allow our judicial system to continue keeping this now 21 year old young man imprisoned for 27 mandatory years for frightening someone with a hand gun(not even injuring the so called victim,) without affording him federal appeal legal counsel to properly be able to defend himself in our Federal courts of Appeal? Manny Gonzales The kid that everyone forgot in the CA prison system can be entered into any WWW search engine for the judicial ride of ones life! Tens of thousands of other Americans being imprisoned in the US are facing this same lack of legal counsel everyday, and with this lack of legal counsel being denied their right to new retrials,which in turn forces many of them to remain endless decades in the prison systems of the wealthiest country in the world! Just like the German people prior WW2,the American people and our National Media have not felt any concern or interest to speak out about our country having so many of our fellow Middle Class and Working Poor citizens being falsely imprisoned and not even being afforded the proper Federal Appeal legal counsel to assist in their attempt at exonerating themselves! We thank all of you Worldwide who have also had a concern and are interested with this injustice being changed in the American judicial system for assisting all of us(who are also just interested volunteers ourselves)with your time and computer skills in posting this article on the WWW anywhere you think it might make positive change! ***THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HAVE EVER BEEN INFORMED ABOUT THIS INJUSTICE *** 2008-04-13T20:11:52Z US Cadet Nurse Equity - Hundreds of surviving members of the United states Cadet Nurse Corps are waging a grass roots effort to garner support for their place as Veterans of WWII. They were part of the US Public Health Service which was militarized for the duration of WWII. Their uniforms bore the insignia of the USPHS Corps of Commissioned officers. From 1943-1945 The USCNC recruited 180,000 young women; 124,000 survived the rigors and regulations in service to their country. In actuality,they were the ROTC of today and would be officers and veterans. sixty years and seven US Cadet Nurse Equity Bills have died in committee, without a hearing. 2008-04-03T16:48:01Z I am waiting and waiting for them to extend the unemployment. I am about to run out of my benefits. I am pleased with the rebate that americans will receive, but for the people that are unemployed need those extensions!I dont want to lose my house that I have worked so hard for. If the President can borrow money for the war, he certainly can borrow it for us americans! 2008-04-03T12:25:44Z National Japanese American Memorial Foundation to Hold Annual Awards Dinner on April 4th Honors for Congressman Barney Frank, General Anthony Taguba, Joan Bernstein The National Japanese American Memorial Foundation (NJAMF) will host its 2008 Awards Dinner on April 4th at The Capital Hilton Hotel. The evening will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. NJAMF Chairman of the Board, Craig D. Uchida, notes that this anniversary serves as a reminder that, “Our country must guard against racially motivated governmental policies and make certain that this never happens again.” Funds raised at the event will go to support the Foundation’s public awareness and education programs. In the tradition of past Awards Dinners, NJAMF will honor American leaders who represent the values and beliefs of the Foundation. The evening’s honorees include Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), who will receive the Chairman’s Award for leadership that has significantly raised the nation’s awareness of the Japanese American community’s contributions to the history and life of the nation. Joan Bernstein (Chair of the U.S. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians) will receive the Award for Constitutional Rights for contributions to constitutional rights that have materially improved the treatment of, and opportunities made available to, all Americans, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or gender. Finally, Major General Anthony Taguba (USA-Ret) will receive the Award for Patriotism for contributions to the nation’s peace, security, and welfare that exemplify the spirit of patriotism in the face of prejudice. Secretary Norm Mineta, Congresswoman Doris Matsui, and General Eric Shinseki (USA-Ret) will be presenting the awards. The festive evening will include a reception, dinner and entertainment. The mistress of ceremonies will be Lori Matsukawa, an anchor for KING 5 News in Seattle. Live entertainment will be provided by the band, Grateful Crane, who will perform World War II camp songs. The National Japanese American Memorial Foundation (NJAMF) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to education and public awareness about the Japanese American internment during World War II. The Memorial is not only a monument to the Japanese American experience, but also a reminder that we must not allow this to happen to any group again. The Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II was authorized to be constructed as a national memorial in 1992 and was dedicated in 2000. Ownership of the Memorial was transferred to the United States Government in 2002, and The National Park Service is responsible for the maintenance of the Memorial today. www.njamf.com 2008-01-29T10:48:09Z Senate Finance is changing their rules on transparency and disclosure at their stimulus markup tomorrow. They could be doing a better job. We blogged on this last night (http://www.ombwatch.org/article/blogs/entry/4514/3) and put out background info and recommendations too here: http://www.ombwatch.org/budget/OMBWAnalysisSenateFinanceCommitteeRules.pdf Thanks! 2008-01-17T17:23:48Z The Blind Leading the Blinder Not a tip really (this was in the Post today), but this arrangement for contracting out Justice department activities is one of the most outrageous I've seen. See my blog here about the entire affair: http://www.ombwatch.org/article/blogs/entry/4479/52 The Blind Leading the Blinder The Washington Post reported this morning that congressional leaders have asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the use of no-bid contracts to hire businesses and corporations to oversee and monitor other businesses and corporations. Sen. Patrick Leahy☼ (D-VT) and Rep. John Conyers☼ (D-MI) apparently thought something smelled fishy when a federal prosecutor steered a no-bid, 18-month contract worth between $28 million and $52 million to his old boss, former Attorney General John Ashcroft. The contract is for overseeing an out of court settlement the Justice Department reached with a knee and hip replacement company called Zimmer Holdings, Inc. from Warsaw, Indiana. Apparently Zimmer Holdings was accused of bribing giving kickbacks to doctors who used their knee and hip implants. Now the way these types of settlements work is that the monitoring company is paid directly by the offending business that it is supposed to be monitoring. Therefore, Ashcroft's consulting firm will be paid directly by Zimmer Holdings - the very entity he is supposed to be overseeing to make sure, if you can believe this, they don't make more illegal payments or bribes. It's hard for me to even begin to describe the gut-wrenching, mind-boggling irony of this situation. First off, how can Mr. Ashcroft be expected to monitor a company in an independent manner that is paying him directly? Second, it's not like Zimmer Holdings was accused of union-busting or providing unsafe working conditions for its employees. They were accused of bribing doctors! Wouldn't it be reasonable to believe they could continue to attempt to offer illegal bribes? And how would the public know if they were doing that? Because the monitor company's bills are not subject to an independent review, are we just supposed to take Mr. Ashcroft's word for it? While I certainly wouldn't accuse Mr. Ashcroft of being involved in covering up questionable activities or practices (cough), he isn't the only one involved in contracts like these. In fact, they are being relied on by the Justice Department more and more. A new study by two lawyers in Texas has found there has been a 600 percent increase in these types of settlements between the department and large companies in the last five years. Even more amazing, the same prosecutor who awarded the contract to Ashcroft (Mr. Christopher Christie of New Jersey) has directed similar contracts to other former colleagues at the Justice Department, and several other former government officials with ties to the Bush administration have been awarded similar contracts since 2001 according to the Washington Post. While we all know Mr. Ashcroft is above reproach, I have no way to know whether these other former government officials are. Further obscuring whether the public interest is being upheld in these monitoring agreements, the identify of the monitoring company is not always made public; Ashcroft's case only came to light because payments from Zimmer Holdings to Ashcroft's consulting firm appeared on filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. So, the bottom line is the Justice Department is relying more and more on private companies (usually companies with close ties to the current administration) to monitor the actions of other private companies it has accused of breaking the law but decided against prosecuting. And just to make the situation even more insidious, the identity of the monitoring company and the payments they receive directly from the company they are supposed to be monitoring are often kept secret. Are they serious? Good luck to the GAO in sorting all of this out. It appears as though it's yet another aspect of federal contracting that is just a huge mess. 2008-01-08T12:11:57Z One of the bills lots of people want to stop is the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act. There's a petition against it - you can sign at http://www.petitiononline.com/S1959/petition.html Anyone can print out the petition, and send it to their public officials. The Senate version of this bill still has not passed, so sending the petition to Senators is a top priority for people who want to stop this. The text of the petition is below. To: U.S. Senate We the undersigned strongly oppose the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, HR. 1955 / S. 1959. This legislation does not criminalize conduct, but may well lead to criminalizing ideas or beliefs in violation of the First Amendment. By targeting the Internet, it may result in increased surveillance of Internet communications in violation of the Fourth Amendment. This bill would establish a Commission to study and report on "facts and causes" of "violent radicalism" and "extremist belief systems." It defines "violent radicalism" as "adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change." The term "extremist belief system" is not defined. "Ideologically based violence" is defined in the bill as the "use, planned use, or threatened use of force or violence by a group or individual to promote the group or individual's political, religious, or social beliefs." Thus, "force" and "violence" are used interchangeably. If a group of people blocked the doorway of a corporation that manufactured weapons, or blocked a sidewalk during a demonstration, it might constitute the use of "force" to promote "political beliefs." The bill charges that the Internet "has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens." This provision could be used to conduct more intrusive surveillance of our Internet communications without warrants. We the undersigned strongly urge the Senate to refuse to pass S. 1959, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. 2008-01-07T07:47:32Z The ALS Registry Act S. 1382 has been frozen by Senate trickery. As a person coping with ALS my dream is to keep it on the front page. This century old disease deserves more than a whisper. Lou Gehrig deserved more. Thank You 2007-12-31T17:28:49Z A great place to find out about H. Res. 797 in the 110th congress. 2007-11-27T10:45:41Z http://www.womensvoicesforchange.org/2007/11/gillibrand-inte.html Interview with Rep Gillibrand