Local Green Paki Weiland makes a cameo in this Democracy Now! report on the Greek government’s intervention blocking civilian ships from leaving Greek ports to travel to Gaza:

Paki was arrested twice for fasting and protesting the U.S Embassy and the U.S. Ambassador to Greece, and her story and that of the Greek intervention was picked up in The Daily Hampshire Gazette and The Republican. From the Gazette:

The Canadian vessel in the fleet, “Tahrir,” was detained off the coast of Crete and returned to port on Monday. The Irish and Norwegian boats were sabotaged when their propeller shafts were cut before setting sail. The activists asserted that Israel was behind the sabotage, but the Israeli Embassy in Dublin denied those claims.

Additionally, Greek protesters rallying against austerity measures in Syntagma Square in Athens have taken up the flotilla’s cause and organized a march to support the effort to reach Gaza.

Interesting times!

Come one, come all!

Come to a hearing on Thursday, May 5, 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, State House Gardner Auditorium, Boston, to support “An Act to Invest In Our Communities”

by John Andrews, Nat Fortune, Shirley Kressel, and Jill Stein

{ Cross-posted at Open Media Boston and Blue Mass Group }

Dear GRP supporters and activists,

Please join us at a hearing on Thursday, May 5, 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, State House Gardner Auditorium, Boston. Come tell the Governor and legislature to stop slashing critical health, education, social and environmental services in order to protect billions in useless corporate tax giveaways and subsidies for the massive, needless health insurance bureaucracy!

Raise the bar for a better budget and real tax reform. As a first step, we’re supporting “An Act to Invest In Our Communities” (SB1416 / HB2553) at the hearing. Supporting this revenue bill is one part of our commitment to stop the cruel, needless cuts that the governor and legislature are making to critical programs.

From the Green-Rainbow Party

4/29/2011

Dear GRP supporters and activists,

Please join us at the hearing Thursday, May 5, anytime between 10:00 AM & 3:00 PM, State House Gardner Auditorium, Boston. Come tell the Governor and legislature to stop slashing critical health, education, social and environmental services in order to protect billions in useless corporate tax give-aways and subsidies for the massive, needless health insurance bureaucracy!

Raise the bar for a better budget and real tax reform. As a first step, we’re also supporting “An Act to Invest In Our Communities” (SB1416 / HB2553) at the hearing. Supporting this revenue bill is one part of our commitment to stop the cruel, & unnecessary cuts that the governor and legislature are proposing.

In addition to asking the rich to pay their fair share, the GRP is also calling for single-payer Medicare-for-all health care and the elimination of unjustified and ineffective corporate subsidies – saving at least $2.5 billion a year. The Green-Rainbow Party alone brings it all together into a “Better Budget,” which will not only prevent new budget cuts, but will allow us to restore essential public services that have been severely compromised over the past decade.  

{Note: it appears that this subpoena was served on David House of Cambridge, who was detained last year in connection to an investigation of WikiLeaks.}

FBI serves Grand Jury subpoena likely relating to WikiLeaks

Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com

Wednesday, Apr 27, 2011

In the wake of a massive disclosure of Guantanamo files by WikiLeaks, the FBI yesterday served a Grand Jury subpoena in Boston on a Cambridge resident, compelling his appearance to testify in Alexandria, Virgina.  Alexandria is where a Grand Jury has been convened to criminally investigate WikiLeaks and Julian Assange and determine whether an indictment against them is warranted.  The individual served has been publicly linked to the WikiLeaks case, and it is highly likely that the Subpoena was issued in connection with that investigation.

Notably, the Subopena explicitly indicates that the Grand Jury is investigating possible violations of the Espionage Act (18 U.S.C. 793), a draconian 1917 law under which no non-government-employee has ever been convicted for disclosing classified information.  The most strident anti-WikiLeaks politicians — such as Dianne Feinstein and Newt Gingrich — have called for the prosecution of the whistle-blowing group under this law, and it appears that the Obama DOJ is at least strongly considering that possibility.  

By KYLE SMEALLIE AND HARVEY SILVERGLATE

From the Boston Phoenix, March 24, 2011

Chuck Turner reports to prison Friday. If his sentence sticks, that’s where the 70-year-old former Boston city councilor will spend the next three years.

Turner was convicted of attempted extortion, for accepting a bribe from a paid FBI informant, and also of giving false statements to federal officials, for lying about it to investigators. But there is much more to the case. Stepping back, it becomes clear that Turner was targeted by the FBI because he refused to play ball and build the government’s case against another Massachusetts politician, former state senator Dianne Wilkerson. This is all about federal power – the power to destroy any who won’t cooperate with the government’s agenda.

by Jason Pramas, March 25, 2011

Open Media Boston Editorial

The scene at Northeastern Law School yesterday – as Chuck Turner gave his last speech before starting a three year term in federal prison – was sad on a number of levels. First, NU students did a very poor job of organizing the event – with the result that over 100 people were forced to leave the building where the event was being held, after a number of reasonable proposals to provide overflow space or use another facility on the large campus were rebuffed by the students and a couple of administrators who happened to be on hand. Second, most of the Boston press corps was also kept out of the event – this despite my public plea on behalf of the assembled journalists pointing out that failing to let us in was effectively preventing a large audience from being aware of the event at all – plus making the unfortunate treatment of the press part of the few stories that did ultimately get produced.

In recent testimony before the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, the executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Robert Greenstein, suggested that cutting tax expenditures (i.e., spending delivered through the tax code), and not program cuts, should be the focus of attempts to bring our federal deficit under control.

Below are excerpts from CBPP’s Off the Charts blog:

The costs of tax expenditures are large.  In 2010, individual tax expenditures totaled nearly $1 trillion, and total tax expenditures – both individual and corporate – amounted to $1.05 trillion.  This greatly exceeded the cost of Medicare and Medicaid combined ($719 billion), Social Security ($701 billion), and non-security discretionary programs, which stood at $589 billion, a little over half of the cost of tax expenditures.

By Lucinda Marshall, Feminist Peace Network.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.  It is a time to celebrate the lives of women and to renew our commitment to women’s human rights throughout the world.

Million Women Rise March in London

That it is even necessary to have such a day should give us pause.  There is not, after all, an International Men’s Day.  But the truth is that while women may be half of the world’s population, they most assuredly are not equal stakeholders when it comes to human rights and empowerment.