Making Oakland Better Sunday Meeting Features Talk On Budget

A great group called "Making Oakland Better" had its first meeting on Sunday and just as this blogger returned from Georgia, and was running around taking care of personal matters. In other words, I missed the meeting.

The group made a number of decisions, listened to speeches by Oakland City Council Member Ignacio de la Fuente (District Five), City Attorney John Russo and City Auditor Courtney Ruby and as of this writing, is at the Oakland City Council’s Finance and Management Committee at Oakland City Hall. I repost a "recap" of the decisions the group made below, and give a link to their blog site:

Decisions Made / Positions Adopted By the Group

Police and Fire Retirement System: Make Oakland Better Now! urges the City to make the actuarially-required PFRS payment in the coming fiscal year, from the tax override reserve/surplus if necessary, and to examine all charter amendment and other options for reducing the cash flow impact of this obligation.
Rainy Day Fund: Make Oakland Better Now! supports a charter amendment instituting a rules-based Rainy Day Fund, similar to that proposed by the Budget Advisory Committee.
Budget Reform: Make Oakland Better Now! will promote adoption of performance based budgeting and budgeting for outcomes.

For more information and videos, click here: Making Oakland Better.

99er Nation Must Seize the Momentum of Public Protests Now or Perish

With public protests breaking out all over America (finally), the 99er Nation must seize the momentum of Public Protests NOW or perish. It is really just that simple.

Demonstrations are popping up in Ohio, Indiana, San Francisco, San Diego, Wisconsin, and the following cities:

Today Phoenix, AZ

2/22 - Little Rock, AR

2/22 - Sacramento, CA

2/22 - Palmdale, CA

2/22 - Denver, CO

2/22 - Des Moines, IA

2/22 - Annapolis, MD

2/22 - Boston, MA

2/22 - Springfield, MA

2/22 - St. Paul, MN

2/22 - Santa Fe, NM

2/22 - New York, NY

2/22 - Columbus OH

2/22 - Providence, RI

2/22 - Montpelier, VT

2/22 - Madison, WI

2/23 - Hartford, CT

2/23 - Atlanta, GA

2/23 - Scranton, PA

2/24 - Canton, OH

And sites like: http://protest.net/ and http://action.seiu.org/page/s/solidarityaction There is NO EXCUSE for not joining in to demand your rights! If you stay home you are part of the problem. Google Protest Marches in your City/State for up to date info and GET OUT THERE!!!!

ATTENTION NYC: There is a rally on Today in front of the real Tea Party headquarters: FOX News at 6th Ave. and 48th St. We'll start at 5 p.m., exactly when Tea Party leader Glenn Beck goes on!

Beck insists the American people support him, but we'll show him the American people really support our teachers, firefighters, police - and our unions.

Make your own signs. Wear Packers gear (or just green/yellow) and cheesehead hats (we'll bring a few to share). Bring your smartphones and cameras to tell the world!

(If you're not near NYC and want to host your own event: login to the JOB PARTY website http://jobparty.us/ , click "Events," and scroll to bottom to host your own event.)

WHEN: February 22, 2011 at 5:00 PM

WHERE:

FOX News

1211 6th Ave

New York, NY 10036

Google map and directions

GET OUT THERE!!!!!!

[The donation button below is for the protest sign fund. If you like what I write please donate so I can keep on fighting for the 99ers! Thank You!]

CRUDE Movie: A Brief Primer For Viewers - Part One

If you're interested in seeing the movie CRUDE, which is about a "one of the largest and most controversial environmental lawsuits on the planet," it's a good idea to be informed of what you're not going to see in the film.

CRUDE is about the Chevron-Ecuador case, but it makes its subjects, trail lawyer Steven Donziger and his crew, look like David trying to slay the Goliath that is Chevron. But the real problem with CRUDE lay in the hours and hours of outtakes that show what Donziger and his people were really trying to do: fabricate a believable story and "fix" the Ecuador court to draw billions from the American Oil Company, all the while protecting Ecuador's oil company, Petroeucador, which has been damaging the very environment that was cleaned up by Chevron Texaco before it left in 1992.

The issue for this blogger goes all the way back to grad school at U.C. Berkeley, and how Third World countries, like Ecuador, trap petrodollars and keep them from their poorest citizens. Americans help in this by working deals that protect these countries, while placing American business in the almost unassailable role of "bad guy." In other words, the perception is that because American Business has money, they must be at fault for the problems in the Third World.

That perception clouds the truth, that greed and corruption hamper many Third World economic development efforts. CRUDE ads to that perception in the matter of Chevron Ecuador, but the American Legal System has cleared that problem up. Here's PointOfLaw.com quoting U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan:

The release of many hours of the outtakes has sent shockwaves through the nation's legal communities, primarily because the footage shows, with unflattering frankness, inappropriate, unethical and perhaps illegal conduct. In the film itself, Attorney Donziger brags of his ex parte contacts with the Ecuadorian judge, confessing that he would never be allowed to do such things in the United States, but, in Ecuador, everyone plays dirty. The outtakes support, in large part, Applicants' contentions of corruption in the judicial process. They show how nongovernmental organizations, labor organizations, community groups and others were organized by the Lago Agrio attorneys to place pressure on the new Ecuadorian government to push for a specific outcome in the litigation, and how the Ecuadorian government intervened in ongoing litigation.

And here's an outtake from CRUDE where Donziger talks about the need to "pressure," and use "intimidation," and "humiliation" against the Ecuador court; actions that are illegal for an American lawyer to do and could lead to disbarment:



And here's another one where Donziger says to the film crew "That was off the record," as he's talking about having Richard Cabrera, the "fake" environmental expert who came up with the damage claims of up to $100 billion, there. Also, one person talks of making "everything they do transparent," causing Donziger to chime in saying "No. Not everything we do." Witness:



There's a lot more. Visit http://www.youtube.com/TexacoEcuador to see the rest.

Stay tuned.

99ers Don't Forget Twitter #99erAID Round 2 Tonight 8PM EST

99ers, advocates, media and all US jobless: Please Don't Forget Twitter #99erAID Round 2 Tonight at 8PM EST. Spurred on by the success of last week’s Twitter chat, event organizer Jason Tabrys (@99erAID) is poised for the second event in his ongoing weekly #99erAID Twitter March.

#99erAID seeks to allow 99ers and the long term unemployed a chance to get together and share ideas while also lending each other support. The group is not affiliated with any political party or advocacy group.

Quick guide to twitter chat: http://xltweet.com/show/?id=5452585C57

There is a page on Facebook if you want to RSVP to the #99erAID event. Even if you don't tweet or can't participate in this chat, please help get the word out. This event is both to chat with other unemployed/99ers and to get more attention for our plight. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=195361350493577

The event is scheduled to run between 8:00 PM EST and 9:30 PM EST with a 90 minute chat on the 99erAID Facebook group chat to immediately follow at 9:30 PM EST.

Any and all are welcome to participate and urged to help spread word about the event but the organizer has asked for respect, civility, and that all comments be made with an eye toward helping 99ers survive these harrowing times.

For more information please contact Jason Tabrys on Twitter @99erAID

99ers & All Unemployed - take a page from Wisconsin, Egypt, and Libya - NOTHING is IMPOSSIBLE if you participate in the process.

Tweet this out to all and to media / celebrity contacts:

1) WE NEED you to help in #99erAID Today 8PM so we can trend #SOLIDARITY!

Let's TREND tonight!!!

Libya: Educate Yourself

Instead of trying to explain what is going on in Libya within this blog post the following links direct to posts from journalists who went out and did research and got the information and anything I wrote as a second hand account could not do justice what was written straight from those journalists. This entire scenario is terrible and people need to care and be involved:


What's Happening in Libya Explained



Gadafi's Son Warns of Civil War

Gaddafi loyalists launch attacks against civilians as conflict in Libya escalates

There are some gruesome videos out there of people praying and being shot in the head as their bleeding bodies are carried away. This is really something that people need to be educated about. Americans need to be thankful that they have these freedoms and are not ruled under a dictator.

Jezebel, Gawker, etc. New Layout

Nieman Journalism Lab online reported on February 7, 2011 about the new layout that Gawker, Jezebel, Lifehacker, Deadspin (and all the other sites affiliated with Gawker Media) went through. Some readers are still having trouble accepting it and some didn't even notice it.

Screenshot

Nick Denton is the entrepreneur who created Gawker Media, and he tells Nieman Journalism Lab's Megan Garber that this entire change was "inevitable." Well, most people are used to Facebook always changing its layout, but after being so used to the old Gawker Media layouts this came as a shock that was a bit confusing at first.

It was recorded that the first few days after this change the page views for all the sites, but as people get used to the layout it should improve.

Gawker Sidebar

The article on Nieman Journalism Lab is really good to reference and it would just seem terrible to copy and paste everything from there - so make sure to check out that article for information about Gawker Media possibly going on television, etc.

99ers Wanted: This is How it is Done / Twitter #99erAID Round 2 Tomorrow

99ers Wanted: This is how protesting is Done & PLEASE HELP with Twitter #99erAID Round 2 Tomorrow.

Spurred on by the success of last week’s Twitter chat, event organizer Jason Tabrys (@99erAID) has announced a second event with an eye toward weekly #99erAID events.

#99erAID seeks to allow 99ers and the long term unemployed a chance to get together and share ideas while also lending each other support. The group is not affiliated with any political party or advocacy group.

The event is scheduled to run between 8:00 PM EST and 9:30 PM EST with a 90 minute chat on the 99erAID Facebook group chat to immediately follow at 9:30 PM EST.

Any and all are welcome to participate and urged to help spread word about the event but the organizer has asked for respect, civility, and that all comments be made with an eye toward helping 99ers survive these harrowing times.

For more information please contact Jason Tabrys on Twitter @99erAID

99ers & All Unemployed - take a page from Wisconsin, Egypt, and Libya - NOTHING is IMPOSSIBLE.

With more and more credible sources debunking the “official” unemployment rate announced by the US government of 9%, it is clear that the people are starting to get the truth out there. (See 15% Unemployment? http://www.zerohedge.com/article/albert-edwards-and-goldman-sachs-biggest-scandal-last-decade-plunging-labor-force-participat)

After this “inconvenient truth” gets nationwide exposure, how many are still going to be complacently content to sit on the sidelines, continuing to allow the 99er Nation to perish a slow, painful ruination?

Americans ARE NOT too lazy to get out and stand together an a vocal, undeniable demonstration of “We are MAD as HELL and are not going to take it anymore” and lest there be any doubt as to how that is done - check out the video and the continuing saga of Madison Wisconsin (see video)

OK any of you near these marches?? http://action.seiu.org/page/s/solidarityaction

PLEASE spread the word for 99ers and all unemployed to show at these rallies!!!!

[UPDATE: here's a good list:

http://www.workinglife.org/blogs/view_post.php?post_id=2549

Also, I went to the link the author of this piece mentioned re. a rally in NY on Tuesday:

I'll start with our own 2nd effort here in New York City. TOMORROW--we're going to be in front of FOX NEWS at 5 p.m. For those of you who aren't sure, that's at 48th and 6th Ave. Please RSVP here .

http://jobparty.us/cheesehead_rally_nyc_2 ]

If you cannot protest yourself, please donate for sign printing costs using the PayPay widget at http://joblessunite.yolasite.com/help-for-99ers.php or below THANK YOU!

Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill Protest from Matt Wisniewski on Vimeo.