A film by Jeffrey M. Smith – Narrated by Lisa Oz

A production of the Institute for Responsible Technology

How Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) threaten your family’s future

Yes on I-522 labels GMO food in Washington.

Why only 24 hours notice (the minimum required by law) is given to citizens about meetings commonly acknowledged to be of great public interest remains unanswered. What did the Pork Commissioners/staff know and when did they know it? Is this 24 hour notice a pattern? Why?

Wendy (@ the Pork) learned from John Dobson that he confirmed the meeting time with his principles last Thursday/Friday. Wendy states she learned of it (confirmation) only today.

Pork & County Commissioners Debate Fairground$

Role Call on Fairground$

UPDATE:

The meeting started out slow, but built up steam before eventually sputtering to a halt. Everyone, it seems, was in favor of the Fairground$ (especially the Hansens) but n0body wanted to pay for one. This hot potato was tossed around until a consensus to punt was reached. The 6 commissioners agreed to re-appoint/select a citizen committee from a new list of volunteers to study the issue and make recommendations. After a spate of mutual back slapping, they agreed to swap spit more often in the future. All agreed as well to placing a levy or increase of taxes for funding a new fairground on the ballot, that if the voters rejected such a tax/levy, the issue became moot/dead. No discussion (other than taxpayers) was given to alternative (e.g. naming facilities after sponsors, concession leases/fees, combining facilities w/adjacent counties, etc.) methods of financing construction of a fairground to replace the current soon to terminate arrangement.

County Commissioner Linda Ring-Erickson

The show lurched to a start chaired by Linda Ring-Erickson, our County Commissioner and 35th District State Legislatrix in waiting. She narrated the nature of the two official bodies composing the meeting along with their respective purposes before turning the mic over to Commissioner Bloomfield.

County Commissioner Steve Bloomfield (aka: clam pirate)

Steve Bloomfield recounted his concern and legal research into State mandates with respect to State agencies/bodies exceeding their jurisdiction. e.g. The Pork of Shelton appointing a citizens advisory committee including some from within Mason County, but outside the Pork’s political boundary of franchised residents. Bloomfield criticized the Pork for doing so and alleged it had overstepped its bounds, and was now cramping the County Commissioners’ style. Pork Commissioner Dick Taylor was allowed to respond.

Pork Commissioners Tick Daylor & Tom Wallitner

Dick Taylor (the Pork’s Chair) defended his body’s position by arguing the Fairground’s future was a countywide problem of considerable interest to the larger Mason community. Not wanting to be seen as giving up any turf, the County Commissioners took the bait and sagely nodded in agreement. After that, the spit swapping began in earnest.

As it turned out, ‘everyone’ was in favor of continuing, after reincarnation, the Fairground. But like the mice in the well known fable, nobody wanted to Bell the Cat! i.e. Nobody wanted to PAY for it.

Czar Tim Sheldon, minor Deity in Mason County

After mutually blaming the recent economic downturn for the impasse, the exultation of Commissioners agreed to fly their respective flags over the joint selection of volunteers for a grander citizen advisory committee fully authorized to make recommendations to the Commissioners for more studies on the Fairground issue. Suspecting a Commissioner in the woodpile, Tom Wallitner emphasized his insistence those selected would be ‘interested’ in the Fairground. “I’m certain volunteers for such an appointment will be interested,” Tim assured him.

Tom Wallitner casts a jaundiced eye

Mr. Hansen sits behind Pork Manager John Dobson

The meeting lasted an hour. The public was allowed to listen only. At one point when Commissioner Linda Ring-Erickson began to inquire about the possibility of leaving the current location of the Fairground alone, Pork Manager  (and pilot) John Dobson could be seen shaking his head. Sitting behind him (in V-formation) were the Hansens, hoping to spearhead the charge toward taxpayer largess.

Tom Davis

Tom Davis was there, holding up a chair–everyone was on their best behavior…knowing Santa will be arriving Nov. 2 (at least for them) this year.

Rachel Hansen–Lady in waiting

Pork Commissioner Jay Hupp

Somewhere in the middle of this, Jay’s proteges felt honor bound to eulogize Hupp and his efforts toward dissing the FAA (federal agency). Based on his own research into the legal ramifications of title transfer documents underlying the Fairground and Port property, Jay had a very different tale than the one Wallitner presented to explain why the Fairground was going to be cast adrift. Like the labors of Sisyphus, this tin can will continue to reappear along  whatever path the Commissioner’s choose.

Roslynn Reed, Candidate for County Commissioner

It looks like the game at the Pork of Shelton hasn’t changed much in the absence of Jack Miles. Darth Dobson continues to dominate while the wimpy Commissioners stay in step and tax payers are held hostage.

Like Dr. Martin Luther King, jr., Gene Sharp was influenced by Mohandas K. Gandhi, A. J. Muste, and Henry David Thoreau when he decided to devote his life’s work to non-violent political struggle against repression and tyranny.

Sharp’s key theme is that power is not monolithic; that is, it does not derive from some intrinsic quality of those who are in power. For Sharp, political power, the power of any state – regardless of its particular structural organization – ultimately derives from the subjects of the state. His fundamental belief is that any power structure relies upon the subjects’ obedience to the orders of the ruler(s). If subjects do not obey, leaders have no power.
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In Sharp’s view, all effective power structures have systems by which they encourage or extract obedience from their subjects. States have particularly complex systems for keeping subjects obedient. These systems include specific institutions (police, courts, regulatory bodies), but may also involve cultural dimensions that inspire obedience by implying that power is monolithic (the god cult of the Egyptian pharaohs, the dignity of the office of the President, moral or ethical norms and taboos). Through these systems, subjects are presented with a system of sanctions (imprisonment, fines, ostracism) and rewards (titles, wealth, fame) which influence the extent of their obedience.
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Sharp identifies this hidden structure as providing a window of opportunity for a population to cause significant change in a state. Sharp cites the insight of Étienne de La Boétie (1530 – 1563), that if the subjects of a particular state recognize they are the source of the state’s power, then they can refuse their obedience and their leader(s) will be left without power.

Tangentially, they who passively accede to violence and those (state or corporate) who wield it are themselves complicit in perpetrating the oppression that comes of it. A nation of sheep begets a government of wolves!

“Peace, peace…men cry “Peace!” But there *is* no ‘peace’. Is peace so sweet and life so dear that we would purchase it at ANY cost? I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty…or give me death!” -Patrick Henry-

Having jailed the youthful Matt Duran and Katherine “KteeO” Olejnik for ‘contempt’ when they refused to speak to the federal Grand Jury about their friends, Seattle federal judge Richard Jones turned his attention to 24 year old Leah-Lynn Plante. Being one of the youngest, Leah’s imprisonment had been held in abeyance in a futile attempt to frighten the iron willed young woman into submission. Leah’s resolve did not bend. By refusing to be broken, she succeeded in high-lighting the corruption in today’s federal Grand Jury system and its use as a vehicle for fishing expeditions, witch hunts, and intimidating political dissidents.

24 year old woman stands tall

Judge Jones had denied public access to the criminal contempt proceedings of Matt Duran on 9-13-12 in violation of the 6th Amendment. Federal Courthouse security staff, in fact, refused to allow the public on even the same floor of the building where the contempt hearing that led to Matt Duran’s imprisonment was being held.

On 10-10-12, Leah-Lynn Plante was ordered to be caged in the SeaTac Federal Detention Center by federal Judge Richard Jones. She will be in there for an indefinite length of time, potentially up to March of 2014.

Leah-Lynn Plante #42611-086
FDC SeaTac
PO Box 13900
Seattle, WA 98198

Katherine Olejnik #42592-086
FDC SeaTac,
P.O. Box 13900
Seattle, WA 98198

Matthew Kyle Duran #42565-086
FDC SeaTac
P.O. Box 13900
Seattle, WA 98198

KteeO (Katherine Olejnik) is interested in news/information about the Basque region, and reading material related to linguistics and social anthropology.

Promising Youth Jailed for Principles

Statement from Leah-Lynn Plante on her Silence

Romans once used lead to seal joints in their aqueducts. Until recently, we used it (some still do!) in our gasoline. Genetically Modified produce has lead to dramatic increases in food allergies and a dark foreboding of what the future holds for our progeny. Recalling Thalidomide, it’s yet unclear how pernicious the long term effects of that the agri-business industry promotes as tested safe will be. Eerily, the U.S. is virtually alone in being the only developed nation having no requirement with respect to GMO to inform consumers what’s in the food they’re eating.

Living Better through Chemistry?

Many such GMO plants include genetic code for the plant to produce insecticides. But wait!…if the plant is producing chemicals that kill bugs, what could it be doing to us? Time will tell. If you don’t want to wait to make a decision, if you want the right to decide NOW what you eat, you may want to vote yes on I-522. Some ill effects related to GMO could not only be carcinogenic, but mutagenic–a pathology that effects not only your children, but their children…and their children’s children.

Video Monsanto Doesn’t Want You to See!

Righteousness uber Redemption

Like George Bush, Romney leaves Americans with a sense of vertigo on the issue of torture. i.e. Even Hitler, though responsible for the Holocaust and countless atrocities, didn’t PUBLICLY cozy up to torture like these two. Months ago at a press sponsored Republican presidential candidates forum, Ron Paul was the only candidate to unapologetically condemn torture as morally wrong and counterproductive. All the others, including Romney, approved of it. (Bush once explained, “We HAD to know what they were THINKING!”)

This isn’t ‘torture’, it’s…uh..whatever the meaning of ‘is’ is.

Perhaps forgetting how the once common practice of beating black slaves wasn’t considered ‘torture’, Herman Cain brashly promised to bring back water boarding if he were elected. Today, it looks as though Romney is following Cain’s lead. This leaves an important question unanswered. What was the point of beating the Nazis only to become just like them?

I like your style, Romney–don’t stop saying stuff.

An article buried on the bottom of page 13 of The New York Times on Friday revealed that Romney’s national security team has recommended to him that he rescind President Obama’s executive order barring torture.

The Times article, by the great Charlie Savage, also notes that Romney last December said he didn’t think waterboarding was torture and he would use techniques [isn’t that a creepy word] Obama refuses to use, that are not allowed by the Army manual.

This puts Romney squarely back in the sadistic Bush-Cheney camp. [And, to many, the camp of war criminals]

Waterboarding: Old Torture, New Pretext

And little wonder: Because many of the people on Romney’s national security team actually served in the Bush-Cheney administration who backed waterboarding and other kinds of brutalities/attrocities.

This is a lovely glimpse into what a Romney presidency would look like.

In fact, it’s a horrifying flashback, and a reminder that the neocons and Cheneyites are just biding their time, waiting for their opportunity to abuse power once more when the national mood returns to business as usual.

This is what happens when there is impunity, as Professor Al McCoy of the University of Wisconsin argues. By not prosecuting Bush or Cheney or Rumsfeld or Alberto Gonzales and other senior officials who designed the torture policy, and by not prosecuting the CIA agents who actually did the waterboarding, President Obama has left the door open for the torturers…hardly a ringing endorsement for the President.

And they’re lining up to get back in.

New budget released Friday has 75% tax on millionaires, still commits to spending cuts  – Common Dreams staff–

Camel through the Eye of a Needle

France unveiled on Friday what it describes as its toughest budget ever, which includes a 75% tax on millionaires [and “more prisons“] in an attempt to tackle its deficit.

France unveiled on Friday a new budget that includes a 75% tax on millionaires. (photo: badlyricpolice via Flickr) “It’s a combat budget to fight against a debt that only continues to increase and that rests on the shoulders of French taxpayers and generations to come,” Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Friday morning.

Let Them Eat Pork

The Guardian notes that the new “suptertax,” a two-year 75% tax rate on earned income for people earning more than €1m a year, “is expected to hit only 2,000 taxpayers. A new 45% income tax band is to be introduced for those earning more than €150,000 a year.”

A man who steals a goose from the commons is arrested

“We’re asking the wealthiest taxpayers to make an effort,” Ayrault added after a cabinet meeting. “As for companies, we’re bringing back justice. CAC-40 firms pay less taxes than small companies…now we’re asking them to contribute.”

But the budget also includes austerity measures for France’s middle class.  CNN reports that “A third of the savings will come from cuts to public spending.”  The BBC notes that the cuts to public spending are set to increase:  “While the cuts in 2013 will be two-thirds comprised of tax increases and one-third from spending cuts, the government said that from 2014 it would be divided equally.”

Key to Success

The Guardian adds that the budget also “commits the government to an austerity program that will be unpopular with leftwingers in the party, at a time when unemployment is rising and the economy teeters on the brink of recession.” Economist Nouriel Roubini remarked that President “Hollande was not elected by his base to pursue austerity and reforms, but rather to boost growth and hiring in the public sector.”

Did you hear someone knocking?

The government’s goal to cut the annual deficit to the eurozone limit of 3% of GDP next year won’t come without growth, Pierre Laurent, national secretary of the French Communist party, says, and adds that “the budget will rather worsen the situation, because we know that the current austerity recipe is pushing the economy into a recession.”

On Holiday…every day

SHELTON, Wash. — A fast-paced wildfire fire raced through trees and brush northeast of Shelton, threatening homes and power lines. At this point in time, it is 0% contained and growing. It is currently estimated to have spread to over 30 acres.

The intensity of the flames is exploding trees from the heat. At times, the raging flames formed an intense wall of fire and a line of flames is burning through brush. A large plume of smoke rose into the sky near East Evergreen Drive and East Mason Lake Road.

Arguably, Christine Schaller may be among the most qualified to seek office as a Thurston County Superior Court judge. But she’s currently a resident of Pierce County. Despite her long time connections and work in Thurston, she lives in Pierce apparently in violation of RCW 3.50.057 and its language prohibiting non-residents from holding office as a county Superior Court judge.

Schaller’s Campaign bio & video

With respect to qualifications, her case is genuinely compelling. This reporter has witnessed her profoundly competent and hard work–the kind of judge, in that respect, all citizens wish for. But her legal case raised troubling issues. Do citizens want to abandon a law which requires judges to be part of the communities in which they adjudicate? Should Schaller prevail, will it open a Pandora’s box to interlopers from every corner of the State running for judicial office wherever opportunity arises? Will it confuse voters who are already ill informed as to candidates running to sit on the bench of the very courts we rely on to maintain stability, justice, and remedies in a contentious society?

Those questions may be answered on the 18th of this month (October, 2012) when Marie Clarke v. Kim Wyman (case #:87823-4) is argued before our State Supreme Court @ 1:30pm. This reporter will be there to record the event, arguments, and colloquy. A live stream (and video archive) will be made available by www.tvw.org for those who cannot attend but wish to see the unedited presentation by the parties. This case will be profoundly important to our system of elected judges in this State. For unlike Thurston Commissioner Indu Thomas who is also running to sit on the Thurston County Superior Court bench, Schaller is genuinely and truly well qualified. Unfortunately, Thomas is a Thurston County resident.

Additional ramifications extend to other judges currently sitting on the various Superior Court benches around the state (e.g. Grays Harbor County Judge Godfrey) whose legal residencies have been investigated and challenged. (More about the Judge Godfrey controversy can be found on this site.)

Shawn Newman, a highly articulate and dedicated Washington State attorney who teaches law at St. Martin’s College in Lacey, is representing Christine Schaller’s interest in this particular controversy. That interest prevailed when it was adjudicated by Kitsap Co. Superior Court Judge Olsen in Schaller’s favor. Newman argued our State’s Constitution was devoid of language requiring residence, therefore it superseded RCW 3.50.057 which does. He also raised a 1976 case (Hatfield v. Greco) which ruled once a Superior Court judge had adjudicated a ballot dispute, it couldn’t be appealed–the reasoning being citizens were entitled to a speedy and certain conclusion.

The outcome of this dispute could have huge implications for the future of our system of selecting judges, possibly becoming the progenitor of a transition to appointed judges, much as in the federal system.