Undernews: October 6, 2011

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Reoccupying America update

OCCUPY CHARLOTTE

20,000 gather in NYC
What Cain and Romney think about it
Occupiers a bit more popular than Tea Party, alot more than Congress
25 arrested in Seattle
• Students in 100 colleges walk out in support
• NYC cops sued over bridge arrests
• The party's over. What happens now?

Supporters

• DeFazio proposes financial transaction tax
• Congressional Progressive Caucus, AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers, Teamsters AFSCME, SEIU 1199, Communications Workers of America, United Auto Workers, United Federation of Teachers, National Nurses United
• Russ Feingold Buddy Roehmer

FAQ

• Major crimes of our times
• Downloadable posters
• List of credit unions when you're ready to leave your greedy bank
• List of demands
• How to send food and supplies to protesters
• OccupyWallStreet
• Occupations across U.S.
• Occupy Colleges Facebook page
• Greg Mitchell's live blog

Alabama's new immigration law scares latino students away from school

ACLU - In the six days since Alabama's extreme anti-immigrant law has been in effect, the impact on communities across the state has been chilling. Parents are pulling their children out of school for fear of being forced to reveal their immigration status and some families are fleeing the state in order to avoid being separated from their children. According to an article in the New York Times today, "1,988 Hispanic students were absent on Friday, about 5 percent of the entire Hispanic population of the school system." An immigrant services helpline reported that they had received over a 1000 calls from people seeking assistance; some calls were from pregnant women afraid to go to the hospital, others from victims of crimes who now fear going to the police.

The ACLU is appealing the court's ruling.

Obama's secret panel could decide whether to kill you

Reuters - American militants like Anwar al-Awlaki are placed on a kill or capture list by a secretive panel of senior government officials, which then informs the president of its decisions, according to officials.

There is no public record of the operations or decisions of the panel, which is a subset of the White House's National Security Council, several current and former officials said. Neither is there any law establishing its existence or setting out the rules by which it is supposed to operate.

The panel was behind the decision to add Awlaki, a U.S.-born militant preacher with alleged al Qaeda connections, to the target list. He was killed by a CIA drone strike in Yemen late last month.

The role of the president in ordering or ratifying a decision to target a citizen is fuzzy. White House spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to discuss anything about the process.

Great thoughts of the GOP

ABC - Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said the demonstrators are coming across as "anti-capitalism." ... "Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks, if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself!" Cain said. "It is not a person's fault because they succeeded, it is a person's fault if they failed. And so this is why I don't understand these demonstrations and what is it that they're looking for.".... At a campaign stop in Florida Tuesday, Mitt Romney said the demonstrations were "dangerous" and "class warfare."

Alternative energy theories just won’t go away

Progressive Review - The amazingly convoluted tale of scientific investigation into alternative energy theories such as cold fusion and low energy nuclear reaction continues both unabated and underreported. We got interested in the matter in the 1990s, not because of the science (the early experiments were found faulty), but because of the heavy-handed way that both the scientific establishment and the media treated the inquiries.

We would come to think that a combination of academic arrogance and the self interest of existing energy corporations were working against honest inquiry in this critically important area.

What is fascinating is that despite the media and scientific establishment hostility, curiosity has not diminished. Witness this report from a conference of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, whose Pentagon job is to examine weapons of mass destruction. The conference was held in 2006 with the help of the SAIC and the report was recently acquired by the New Energy Times after a freedom of information request.

It is a reminder that stomping on scientific research doesn’t help.

Advisory Board Findings and Recommendations for LENR

- There is good evidence of excess heat and transmutation.

- New theory by Widom shows promise; collective surface effects, not fusion

- Low-energy implantation of ions

Summary:

Low-energy nuclear reactions are showing some remarkable progress with respect to energy (excess heat) production and transmuted element detection, but experiments remain only thinly reproducible. LENR also suffers from a basic lack of understanding of the governing physics.

There is also a compelling need for a theory that can explain production rates and lead to specific electrode treatments and electrolyte compositions and predictions of reaction power, energy and products. The Widom [-Larsen] theoretical construct appears promising but lacks robust experimental verification and rigorous peer review.

The polarizing history of LENR is a detriment to expanding research efforts, and it seems unlikely that deployable/useable devices could be expected within a five- to ten-year horizon. Some low-level funding by 6.1 agencies seems appropriate, both to exploit the possibility of a breakthrough and to monitor other (international) research in this field. Nonetheless, DTRA should not go it alone; rather, it should provide the leadership to build interagency research consortia with a focus on fostering improved research facilities and rigorous experimental protocols.

Recommendations:

LENR still suffers from negative publicity associated with cold fusion and is viewed as being conducted outside the domain of legitimate, mainstream science. Nonetheless, the persistent and increasingly repeatable demonstrations of excess heat and transmutation suggest that there is something here worth pursuing. DTRA should not do so alone but rather foster consortia that would help bring discipline and rigorous experimental protocol to this field. Additionally, efforts to better understand the physics of LENR as well as the development of first-principle predictive models are encouraged.

Hank Mills, Pure Energy Systems - Dennis Bushnell is a chief scientist at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. He is also an inventor, author, and has been a consultant to countless government and military agencies. A few of these include the DOD, Air Force, DARPA, and the NRC. . . .

During the show, he addressed what he called "Low Energy Nuclear Reactions" as being the most interesting and promising alternative energy technology being developed. In fact, it was first on his list, ahead of salt water agriculture, cyanobacteria, energy conservation, geothermal power, nano-plastic solar panels, solar thermal concentrators, and high altitude wind power.

"The most interesting and promising [technology sector] at this point ... [is] low energy nuclear reactions."
Bushnell went on to say that LENR technology could potentially solve all of our energy and climate problems. He stated the technology could be used for any application, including to power rockets for space travel. . .

He stated that all of the so called, "cold fusion" experiments performed over the last twenty years did not produce fusion reactions. His position is that they produced energy via a process called "Widom Larsen" theory, that does not involve fusion at all, but only "beta decay."

Wikipedia - Cold fusion researchers were for many years unable to get papers accepted at scientific meetings, prompting the creation of their own conferences. The first International Conference on Cold Fusion was held in 1990, and has met every 12 to 18 months since. By 1994, attendees offered no criticism to papers and presentations for fear of giving ammunition to external critics; according to physicist David Goldstein, this allowed for the proliferation of crackpots and prevented the normal processes of serious science. By 2002, critics and skeptics had stopped attending the conferences.

With the founding in 2004 of the International Society for Condensed Matter Nuclear Science, the conference was renamed the International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science¬an example of the approach the cold fusion community has adopted in avoiding the term cold fusion and its negative connotations. Cold fusion research is often referenced by proponents as "low-energy nuclear reactions", or LENR, but according to sociologist Bart Simon the "cold fusion" label continues to serve a social function in creating a collective identity for the field.

Since 2006, the American Physical Society has included cold fusion sessions at their semiannual meetings, clarifying that this does not imply a softening of skepticism. Since 2007, the American Chemical Society meetings also include "invited symposium(s)" on cold fusion. An ACS program chair said that without a proper forum the matter would never be discussed and, "with the world facing an energy crisis, it is worth exploring all possibilities."

On 22–25 March 2009, the American Chemical Society meeting included a four-day symposium in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the announcement of cold fusion. Researchers working at the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center reported detection of energetic neutrons using a heavy water electrolysis set-up and a CR-39 detector, a result previously published in Die Naturwissenschaften.The authors claim that these neutrons are indicative of nuclear reactions; without quantitative analysis of the number, energy, and timing of the neutrons and exclusion of other potential sources, this interpretation is unlikely to be accepted by the wider scientific community.

NYC cops sued over bridge arrests

Gawker - The Washington, D.C.-based Partnership for Civil Justice Fund has filed a federal class action lawsuit against New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, the city, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, and a bunch of unidentified cops and law enforcement agents over Saturday's controversial kettling-fest and mass arrest of protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge.

PCJ filed its 20-page case, Garcia v. Bloomberg (which you can read here), on behalf of five protesters who claim that, during their march from Zuccotti Park, NYPD officers led them and at least 700 others across the Brooklyn Bridge, prevented them from leaving, and "falsely" arrested them¬all alleged Fourth Amendment violations. According to PCJ, the defendants "engaged in a premeditated, planned, scripted and calculated effort to sweep the streets of protestors and disrupt a growing protest movement in New York," and cites as evidence of premeditation the fact that the officers who led the crowd were all allegedly command officers. Also, cops who delivered commands used their bullhorns, but spoke softly enough so that protesters couldn't actually hear them over all the noise. PCJ believes the cops spoke "inaudibly" on purpose, and that the use of the bullhorns was all a "charade"¬a way to justify the mass arrest without actually providing fair notice to most protesters, as required by the Constitution. In general, the NYPD enforces a "policy" of arresting people en masse without probable cause, PCJ asserts¬and this is just the latest example.

Mortgage lenders still fabricating documents

American Banker - Some of the largest mortgage servicers are still fabricating documents that should have been signed years ago and submitting them as evidence to foreclose on homeowners.

The practice continues nearly a year after the companies were caught cutting corners in the robo-signing scandal and about six months after the industry began negotiating a settlement with state attorneys general investigating loan-servicing abuses.

Several dozen documents reviewed by American Banker show that as recently as August some of the largest U.S. banks, including Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., Ally Financial Inc., and OneWest Financial Inc., were essentially backdating paperwork necessary to support their right to foreclose.

Some of documents reviewed by American Banker included signatures by current bank employees claiming to represent lenders that no longer exist.

Where the action is

Protests
Over 200 arrested at Ottawa tar sands protest

• Major protest planned for Washington in October
• October 2011 organization
• Canadian pipeline protest update

Major crimes of our times

From a statement from the NYC occupiers

• They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
• They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
• They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the work­place based on age, the color of one's skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
• They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
• They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
• They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
• They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
• They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
• They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
• They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
• They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
• They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
• They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
• They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
• They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
• They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
• They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
• They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty book-keeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
• They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
• They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
• They have per­pet­u­ated colo­nial­ism at home and abroad.
• They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians over­seas.
• They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.

Meanwhile, furthermore & on the other hand

What's happened to school funding since the crash?

Click for big version.

Headline of the day
Sarah Palin: the end of an error - Guardian

Word
David Korten, Yes Magazine - Contrary to the Wall Street propaganda, Wall Street is a job killer, not a job creator. Wall Street banks and corporations have no interest in creating jobs, educating American children, or assuring that Americans have health care and retirement security. They appeal for ever more tax breaks and regulatory relief only to have yet more money to use as they used their taxpayer provided bailout: to increase executive bonuses, pay dividends, buy other companies, buy back their own stock to increase the value of their stock options, buy political favor, create new financial bubbles, and outsource yet more jobs.

Glenn Greenwald - Modern establishment journalists have taken what should be the credo and mission of actual journalism ¬ afflict the powerful and comfort the powerless ¬ and completely reversed it.

Out of the twenty-five largest cities, [NYC] is the most unequal city in the United States for income distribution. If it were a nation, it would come in as the fifteenth worst among 134 countries ranked by extremes of wealth and poverty...It is the showcase for the top 1 percent of households, which in New York have an average annual income of $3.7 million. These top wealth recipients¬let’s call them the One Percenters¬took for themselves close to 44 percent of all income in New York during 2007 (the last year for which data is available). ...But here’s the most astonishing fact: the One Percenters consist of just 34,000 households, about 90,000 people.” -- Christopher Ketcham, ‘The Reign of the One-Percenters’.

Stats
Here's how CBO puts it. Under full employment, "the projected federal deficit under current law in fiscal year 2012 would be about a third lower, or roughly $630 billion instead of the $973 billion projected in CBO's most recent baseline.

Pocket paradigms
We have always had Christian fundamentalists in this country. We just used to call them New Deal Democrats. -Sam Smith

Word
President Clinton did not balance the budget; the [$10 trillion] stock bubble balanced the budget - Dean Baker

To judge schools by how demanding they are is rather like judging an opera on the basis of how many notes it contains that are hard for singers to hit. In other words, it leaves out most of what matters." - John Dewey

Pocket paradigms
I'm not a radical; I'm just a moderate of time that has not yet come. I'm like a bad comedian. I get the punch line right but my timing is all off.. - Sam Smith

Furthermore. . .
In an effort to combat obesity and promote healthy and culturally French eating, The Times reports that ketchup "is to be rationed in primary and secondary school canteens to ensure that French children remain French."

More bike innovations

PI

The only person out there worthy of mixing political views and music is Jello Biafra - Hank Williams III wondering why anyone bothered asking his dad, Hank Williams Jr., about politics. The younger musician told TMZ that he respects Biafra (the Dead Kennedy’s frontman-turned-Green Party activist), but he declined to talk politics himself. Reliable Source

Another reason your editor is glad to be out of Washington
In a city that hosts its fair share of murders and terror plots, Washington, D.C., police are cracking down on another threat to the nation's capital -- expired vehicle registrations. To the frustration of forgetful drivers, Metropolitan Police Department officers are throwing people in jail for letting their tag renewals lapse. "This is ridiculous," AAA spokesman John Townsend said, noting that surrounding jurisdictions would not arrest for the same offense. . . Townsend said in one case, police arrested a mother on her way to pick up her child from school, with her younger child in the car. In another incident, a D.C. resident on his way to meet up with his girlfriend was arrested and forced to spend the night in a series of holding cells. - Fox News

Sustain yourself
Using a tub and a toilet plunger when you don't have a clothes washing machine

What to do when a zipper gets stuck

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