THE DRUG WAR IS CRIMINAL

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

The way the war on drugs has been pursued is one of the biggest reasons for the growing racial disparities in criminal justice over all.

- Ryan S. King, a policy analyst with The Sentencing Project, which recently released a report describing large disparities in the rate at which blacks and whites are arrested and imprisoned for drug offenses, even though the two groups use illegal drugs at roughly equal rates. (Source: The New York Times)

Please visit http://www.paracletefoundation.org and become involved in changing the Criminal (in-)Justice System.

Lloyd

NOW AIN'T THAT KIND OF HIM

Almost a Billion dollars in food aid paid for by US Taxpayers.

Food Aid. "Responding to skyrocketing global food prices, President Bush asked Congress for $770 million in emergency foreign aid targeted at the neediest in the developing world."

That does not bother me. What bothers me is that those who should be paying are the Oil Cartel, American Petroleum industry, World wide corporate interest. These all receive incentives, gifts, breaks and great profits at the expense of the same taxpayer who is paying the bill for cleaing up after them, for protecting them, for insuring them, financing them an giving them great concessions.

A one time shot across the bow of all these takers in an assessment of something equal to their las 3 months profits, would help a great deal and my even serve to open their eyes to ways to "spread it around" and try to be good neightors.

Lloyd

MCCAIN IS A GOOD REASON TO CHANGE

MCCAIN IS STEEPED IN MILITIARISM.


He is third generation military and his record shows it. He sees no solution that is not a military solution.

To make him president would be an error our country can ill afford.

Lloyd

Beyond Cruel for a Man with Penis Cancer

Judge calls immigration officials' decision 'beyond cruel'

With ONE out of TEN American Males in Prison, this is a major problem. The privatization of the prison system, the throwing of everyone into prison no matter what the crime by MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCES, man suffer and Crime Goes Unabated.

The ruling says a detainee who later died of penile cancer was denied a biopsy of a lesion though several doctors said the procedure was urgently needed. His family will be allowed to seek damages.

By Henry Weinstein, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer March 13, 2008
See the complete article HERE

In a stinging ruling, a Los Angeles federal judge said immigration officials' alleged decision to withhold a critical medical test and other treatment from a detainee who later died of cancer was "beyond cruel and unusual" punishment.The decision from U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson allows the family of Francisco Castaneda to seek financial damages from the government.Castaneda, who suffered from penile cancer, died Feb. 16. Before his release from custody last year, the government had refused for 11 months to authorize a biopsy for a growing lesion, even though voluminous government records showed that several doctors said the test was urgently needed, given Castaneda's condition and a family history of cancer, Pregerson said.But rather than test and treat Castaneda, government officials told him to be patient and prescribed antihistamines, ibuprofen and extra boxer shorts, the judge wrote in a decision released late Tuesday. In summary, the judge wrote, the care provided to Castaneda "can be characterized by one word: nothing."Pregerson blasted public health officials' "attempt to sidestep responsibility for what appears to be . . . one of the most, if not the most, egregious" violations of the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment that "the court has ever encountered."

Read the whole article here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cruel13mar13,0,2053450.story?track=ntothtml

THINKING BANKRUPTCY

DON'T (Disclosure. I had something to do with theis book's being published and revenue goest to my favorite charity: Paraclete Foundation (California)----- Lloyd Winburn

JUST RELEASED
Full disclosure in Government Abuse in Bankruptcy Cases.This Book promises to upset a lot of Bureaucrats, IRS Agents, Prosecutors and some Judges who simply handle the traffic through the courts.

Thinking of BANKRUPTCY? DON'T
READ ALL ABOUT IT
A Must Read for you if are contemplating filing bankruptcy, need help meeting debt payments, have collectors calling; you are down to your last pennies, broke, frustrated with car paymjent due, huuse payment late or the business is on the rocks and your wonder where the payroll is coming from and the land lord will not answer your calls.

YOUNG CUBAN DECENDANTS WILL DO IT

Cube is on its way to being recognized or "accomodated" by the US. The old school is about empty. Those Cubans who excaped Castro and took a position on the teets of the US are fading and the young people, withe the wisdom of youth and independent of the senseless emotionalism of the old times in Cuba, will bring about the change.... and fast.

In the Los Angeles TIMES of today:

Many in a newer generation of exiles favor loosening travel restrictions and defrosting diplomatic relations.

By Miguel Bustillo and Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers February 26, 2008
MIAMI --

Amilcar Yera, the owner of a Cuban restaurant that dishes out onion-slathered steaks and thick fried plantains to a discerning exile clientele, yearns for a day when Fidel Castro is dead and democracy sprouts anew on the island that still consumes his imagination.But Yera, who escaped communist Cuba a decade ago after marrying a German tourist, said he could no longer tolerate a U.S. government policy that starved the island of American visitors, trade and investments in hope of sparking a revolt. READ the ENTIRE ARTICLE

THE COST OF WAR

THERE ARE BETTER WAYS to solve problems between nations..... peoples. We must try them. A good start is to go back as far to the beginning as we can in Iraq. There will be tragedies when we leave. It is a given. But is will be much worse to stay.

I lifted this from SOJOURNERS and you should have it:
---- Sister Simone Campbell sojourners@sojo.net

I was in Lebanon and Syria in January and saw up close the agony of the war.
In Damascus, young Iraqi refugees have created a youth choir at the Good Shepherd Center. After singing for us, many came forward to tell us their stories. One young woman told us of fleeing with her father and disabled brother after being threatened in a town near Baghdad. The family thought it was most dangerous for the disabled child and thought that the 15-year-old daughter could act as a mother to him. Now they are worried because the mother and other children are in constant danger.

An 18-year-old spoke of coming with his mother, who has cancer. His father is still in Iraq and is working to support the mother and son in Syria. They are hoping to be able to relocate to a third country, but they have already been waiting over a year and his mother is getting sicker. He does not know what will happen to them.

The Iraqi chorus leader told us that they come together to try to learn from each others' suffering, both when they were in Iraq and now in Syria. He told us, "We smile, but inside our hearts we suffer in our own way. Jesus told us to love one another, but also we must ask what is next. What is our future? We want a solution to two problems—our having to leave AND the reason for leaving…the war. We were born free but now we do not have the freedom to make our own solutions."

It is with these words echoing in my mind and heart that I know we must respond to the needs of the refugees. We as a nation can do better than admitting fewer than 6,000 refugees in five years. We can welcome in those who have been displaced by this war.

AND we must work to end the violence in Iraq. We need to build peace through international involvement. We must end the U.S. occupation, internationalize a peacekeeping force, and have a surge of diplomacy both internally in Iraq and in the region. Only by changing our policy and tactics will these victims of the war have any freedom to make their own solutions. We must act now.

Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, is a religious leader, attorney, and poet with extensive experience in public policy and advocacy for systemic change. In Washington, she lobbies on issues of peace building and economic justice. In January, she was a member of a delegation of eight Catholic Sisters sponsored by Catholic Relief Services who traveled to Lebanon and Syria to meet with Iraqi refugees, Christian and Islamic leaders, representatives of religious and civil NGOs, U.S. diplomatic personnel, a Syrian Parliament Member, and UNHCR regional representatives.