Front page of the Huffington Post from Sept. 28.

As civil demonstrations and unrest spread across the globe, the Occupy Wall Street protest is spreading across the US. Rallies in solidarity with the Wall Street protesters are being organized in dozens of cities– including the Old Pueblo.

Occupy Tucson supporters are holding a “meeting” at the southwest corner of Stone and Congress in downtown Tucson on Saturday, October 1, beginning at 9 a.m. In just a few days, 282 people have joined the Tucson facebook page for this event.

For more information about the local and national movement, check out the Occupy Together website. The site has a list of protests, printable protest signs, and videos and photos of multiple protests around the country. In addition to spreading geographically, the Occupy movement is broadening, as unions join the “hippies and hipsters” (original corporate media label for the protesters).

UPDATE, October 1: The Occupy Tucson facebook group has added almost 200 members in the 24 hours since this post went up. They also now have their own website, OccupyTucson.org. It says that the meeting may move to one of the nearby parks– like by Veinte de Agsto Park, or the main library park–since the original location (Stone and Congress) was on private property.

Progressive groups like Common Cause have been calling for a conflict of interest investigation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for months now.

Back in January, Common Cause linked Justices Thomas and Antonin Scalia to the infamous Koch brothers.

From the Tucson Progressive…

The watchdog group Common Cause is now raising the question of conflict of interest in this case [Citizens United]. Two of the court’s most conservative justices– Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, who voted in favor of Citizens United– have been linked to Charles and David Koch, conservative billionaires who push right-wing causes with their contributions and benefited from the Citizens United ruling.

At issue is the justices attendance at soirees hosted by the Kochs. Common Cause has asked the Justice Department to investigate the connection and has asked for a re-trial if conflict of interest is found.

Today, the Huffington Post reported that a group of 20 Democratic lawmakers are calling for an ethics investigation of Thomas for 20 YEARS of not reporting gifts and other income on his financial disclosure forms. From the Huffington Post…

WASHINGTON — Democratic lawmakers on Thursday called for a federal investigation into Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ failure to report hundreds of thousands of dollars on annual financial disclosure forms.

Led by House Rules Committee ranking member Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), 20 House Democrats sent a letter to the Judicial Conference of the United States — the entity that frames guidelines for the administration of federal courts — requesting that the conference refer the matter of Thomas’ non-compliance with the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 to the Department of Justice.

The letter outlines how, throughout his 20-year tenure on the Supreme Court, Thomas routinely checked a box titled “none” on his annual financial disclosure forms, indicating that his wife had received no income. But in reality, the letter states, she earned nearly $700,000 from the Heritage Foundation from 2003 to 2007 alone.

Slaughter called it “absurd” to suggest that Thomas may not have known how to fill out the forms.

“It is reasonable, in every sense of the word, to believe that a member of the highest court in the land should know how to properly disclose almost $700,000 worth of income,” Slaughter said in a statement. “To not be able to do so is suspicious, and according to law, requires further investigation. To accept Justice Thomas’s explanation without doing the required due diligence would be irresponsible.”

The letter also cites a June report in The New York Times indicating Thomas may have regularly benefited from the use of a private yacht and airplane owned by real estate magnate Harlan Crowe and failed to disclose the travel as a gift or travel reimbursement.

Current law requires the Judicial Conference to refer to the Attorney General any judge the conference “has reasonable cause to believe has willfully failed to file a report or has willfully falsified or willfully failed to file information required to be reported.”

Slaughter’s press statement also notes that the Heritage Foundation was a prominent opponent of the Affordable Care Act, an issue the Supreme Court is expected to rule on by next summer.

Finally, someone has the backbone to investigate this guy. He never should have been confirmed in the first place. Special thanks to CD7 Representative Raul Grijalva for being one of the 20 signers on this letter.

The New Priorities Network, Tucson Chapter is meeting on Wednesday, September 28. Here is the meeting information.

What are your priorities?
War and militarism, or education, healthcare, and social programs?

It’s time to act!

Join us
Wednesday 12:00 NOON to 1 pm
Sandino Center,
1050 S. Verdugo Ave (directions below)

New Priorities Network nationally was founded to promote the building of local cross movement coalitions between the peace movement and groups that support education, healthcare and social services in order to strengthen both the voice in opposition to the wars and military spending and the voice in favor of spending on our community needs.

In Tucson, we have now had several meetings, have created some good materials including an excellent narrated slide show, and have met with some public officials and groups to
build support for a city council resolution on cutting military spending to fund our community needs. But, we still represent mostly the Tucson peace community. We want out of Wednesday’s meeting with a plan of action to seriously engage other sectors of our community in the discussion about the need for new priorities in government spending.

Please come or send someone to represent your group. Let’s figure out together how New Priorities can build the work of your organization and how we can help build the work of other movements to maximize the impact of progressive voices in Tucson, Arizona, and the US.

The Sandino Center is @ 1050 S. Verdugo Ave.
Traveling South from Congress on the I-10 frontage Road (it’s called Freeway), turn right on 19th St. (at the foot of the Motel 6 sign). Go two blocks and turn left on Verdugo. Sandino Center is the last house on the right.

If you can’t attend this meeting, check out NPN’s goals from their website.

Now in its 11 day, 1000s of protesters continue to occupy Wall Street to protest the corporate greed that is running our country into the ground. Understandably, since most media is run by corporations, there has been a news blackout about our “Arab Spring”. This is not unlike the media blackout surrounding the early pro-union protests in Wisconsin and sympathy rallies in 66 cities across the US.

Here are some links from the Huffington Post. Their bloggers have been covering the Occupy Wall Street story, although it has been absent from the Huff Po front page– until yesterday when there was a small thumbnail story (probably due to the 14,000+ facebook Likes and the 7,700+ facebook Shares).

Occupy Wall Street Protest Escalates On Eighth Day (VIDEO)

Occupy Wall Street Protesters Dig In As Tensions Rise With NYPD (PHOTOS)

Here is today’s story from The Nation, who rightly points out dismal coverage of Occupy Wall Street by the New York Times.

Correcting the Abysmal ‘New York Times’ Coverage of Occupy Wall Street

The Occupy Wall Street website has Live Streaming Video.

The photos and videos on these links are dramatic. It kinda makes ya wonder why we are hearing all of this yammering by the right about class warfare– against the rich– because we want to eliminate their Bush II tax cuts, which hearing no news related to Wall Street’s war on the rest of us.

I hope you can view the video that I linked to above. I had to sign in to You Tube to see it because You Tube said it may be “inappropriate”. (I thought that You Tube labeling anything inappropriate was a real lark. Come on, isn’t “inappropriateness” part of You Tube’s charm?)

Hmmmm… anyway, I didn’t see anything inappropriate in the video– unless you call NY police arresting people holding American flags and chanting “We are the 99%” (referring to the 99% of Americans who are not rich) inappropriate. (You can also check out other videos by the same videographer here.)

Soil contouring and other rain water harvesting techniques can solve residential flooding problems. (Photo Credit: Pamela Powers)

Have you considered water harvesting, but didn’t know where to start? Check out Watershed Management Group’s (WMG) first ever home tour on Saturday, September 17.

Eleven homes featuring water harvesting techniques will be on the tour. The cost is $10/car or $5/bike.

BICAS is organizing a bike tour of the WMG’s home tour (Cycling information here.)

Here is more information from WMG’s website:

Looking for inspiration and ideas to green and beautify your home landscape without increasing your water bill?

On September 17, 2011 WMG will be offering a self guided tour of a dozen Tucson yards that have been transformed into water harvesting oases through WMG’s Co-op Program.

Sites along the tour will demonstrate rainwater harvesting earthworks (contouring the land to capture, slow down, and increase rainwater infiltration), greywater systems, food production, native plantings, compost systems, and various types of cisterns and rainbarrels that capture rooftop runoff for landscape and drinking water use. Tour attendees will be provided with a brochure which will contain maps, suggested bike and bus routes, as well as an overview of each site. Homeowners will be on hand between 10am and 4pm on the day to answer questions.

To sign up please pay by credit or debit card at http://www.watershedmg.org/contribute and write hometour in the comments section or mail a check made payable to Watershed Management Group, P.O. Box 44205, Tucson, Arizona 85733. Checks should be received by Sept 10.

Tour Cost: $5 for bike or public transportation, or $10 per car (sign in is required at each site).

Contact Rhiwena Slack at co-op@watershedmg.org for more information.

Pima Community College has had a long egalitarian tradition of offering higher education to anyone who wanted it but that could change in 2012. During the summer, Pima announced its plans to eliminate its open enrollment policy.

The proposed changes to Pima College’s admissions policies will not only close the doors of opportunity to thousands of Arizona’s young people but also set up road blocks to attaining a higher education.

Currently, students entering Pima take placement exams to assess their skills and determine what level of math, reading, and writing classes they should take as entering freshmen. Students who don’t demonstrate the skills to succeed in college level courses right out of high school are placed in “developmental” (AKA remedial) for-credit classes.

According to Pima Community College Chancellor Roy Flores, writing in the Arizona Daily Star, only 5 percent of students who take remedial classes succeed in college.

Assuming lower level students are just wasting their time and money by trying college, Pima’s governing board proposes to institute an entrance exam which will determine who is admitted to Pima. In addition to passing the entrance exam, students must show proof of a high school education or a GED. Students who don’t pass the entrance exam will be offered remedial courses which non-credit and, therefore, not eligible for financial aid.

On the surface, these changes may seem minor, but if you are an unemployed or underemployed person who wants to better his life through higher education, the last thing you need is another roadblock to success and another bill.

The situation also begs the question of why so many Southern Arizona high school graduates place in remedial math, reading and/or writing and why so many of them don’t succeed in college after they take remedial classes. By citing the dismal 5 percent success rate as a reason not to offer open enrollment and remedial classes, Pima’s governing board is  dismissing lower-level students as deficient and not worth the investment– rather than turning the cold eye of evaluation on their high school education, the AIMES test (which attests to the students’ preparedness for college and life), or the remedial classes themselves.

Also, writing in the Arizona Daily Star, Greg Hart, former head of adult education at Pima College, claims that Pima has known for a decade that their remedial classes are not serving the students but has refused to address the problem until now. Hart has a point. If only 5 percent of the students who take remedial classes succeed in college, those classes (which are supposed to bring students up to college level proficiency) are not working for the vast majority of students.

Why is Pima proposing to eliminate open enrollment and remedial education now? Money. You’ll remember that Arizona’s “Education Governor” Jan Brewer authorized a budget that slashed funding for all public education earlier this year. Community colleges– long an affordable bastion of equal opportunity– were hit particularly hard by Legislative budget cuts. With the new entrance procedures and the elimination of remedial classes, Pima will cut approximately 200 adjunct professor positions.

Several former PCC faculty, including some of the founders, have voiced strong opposition to the proposed elimination of open enrollment.

…a 1980 review of the “Pima College Story” reported that the college “wanted education to be within the reach of all adults who desired it, whether they had a high school diploma or not, whether they were 18 or 78.” Even more recently, a former administrator wrote that “I very strongly endorse the support of maintaining the open admissions policy at Pima Community College. That is why we always endorsed the phrase ‘community colleges democratized higher education for all those who wished to pursue post-secondary education.’ That is why community colleges have always been so successful. As we all know, our success is embodied in the open admissions policy.”

Hundreds of column inches have been devoted to saving, changing, or eliminating Mexican American Studies classes at Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). These classes, which affect 500-700 students per year, have been touted as a pathway to future success in college and in life. Elimination of open enrollment at Pima will close the doors of opportunity to thousands of students per year; minority and low-income students will be hit the hardest. Unfortunately, little attention has been given to PCC’s plans.

If you want to learn more about the elimination of open enrollment and/or want to voice your opinion, there are two public forums this week.

Today, Wednesday, September 14, City Council Members Regina Romero, Richard Fimbres, and Karin Ulich are sponsoring a forum at 6 p.m. in the Sunnyside High School auditorium, 1725 E. Bilby Rd. (Campbell Avenue/Bilby Road).

On Saturday, September 17, at 10 a.m., Pima College will be holding a public forum in the PCC West Campus Cafeteria, 2202 W. Anklam Rd. (Anklam/Greasewood, from St. Mary’s/Silverbell, go one mile west).

Arizona needs an educated work force. Our schools should be strengthened– not weaken. Opportunity should be broadened– not narrowed. Our K-12 schools, community colleges and universities should be re-tooled to meet the needs of the students and the society as a whole– not closed.

Pima Community College shouldn’t turn its back on lower-level students; it should help them succeed.

Mad Men cast. (Photo Credit: publicity photo.)

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few years, you have heard of the hit TV drama Mad Men.

Set in the late 1950s to early 1960s, Mad Men is AMC’s  award-winning, mini-series about a fictional group of Madison Avenue advertising executives. It features superb script-writing and acting, as well as impeccable period costumes and scenery. In addition, Mad Men gives us glimpses of office life before equal rights for people of color, women, or the disabled… and a sense of history.

By season 4, it’s 1964 in the world of Mad Men. 1964 is the year a newly sworn-in President Lyndon B. Johnson took Republican challenger and Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater and the entire Republican Party to the cleaners. In a landslide victory (61% of the popular vote), Johnson won every state except Arizona.

Television commercials played an important role in the 1964 election, and the extra features on the Mad Men Season 4, Disc 3 include a round-up of speeches and commercials by both the Johnson and Goldwater during their presidential campaigns. (OK, only a political media nerd would watch a show totally comprised of old campaign speeches and commercials… twice… but the footage was fascinating.)

What struck me as most amazing was the complete consistency in the Republican Party’s messaging from 1964 through to the current presidential campaign.

A little background, in the summer of 1964 Congress passed and Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – do you believe it: during a campaign year, they worked?– and language which would create other social safety net programs (including, Medicare and Medicaid) was being crafted.

Small government Goldwater took on Johnson who was in the process of creating War on Poverty and related programs: Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment insurance, Head Start and other social programs that current Republicans are still fighting against.

Check out these Goldwater commercials to view the Republican Party’s age-old message.

Goldwater on small government

Goldwater on morality

And here are a few familiar Democratic Party messages. Obviously, the Democratic Party’s messaging has changed, as evidence in the War on Poverty commercial. No one– not even our Black president– would run a commercial like that today. Heavy sigh…

Johnson’s ‘Goldwater is scary dangerous’ ad [paraphrasing, of course]

Johnson’s War on Poverty (I wish Obama would run an ad like this.)

Also, on the same DVD is Johnson’s January 1965 inaugural speech. Today’s media critics would chastise Johnson for his halting delivery, but the words are inspirational. I particularly like it when he says as a country we need justice, liberty, and union to survive. Think about that statement. Do we have those things today?

Under Arpaio, a new documentary film by Tucson’s own Pan Left Productions is definitely a must see movie.

The film by J.M. Aragon aired on Saturday to a packed house at the Salt of the Earth Labor College’s first class of the fall semester.

I have been in Arizona long enough to have a general knowledge of Arpaio’s dastardly deeds– the neighborhood sweeps for illegal aliens [his terminology], the racial profiling, the tent city jails in the desert, the chain gangs, the pink underwear, the bologna sandwiches, and the investigations of Arpaio that never go anywhere.

But I was shocked by what I didn’t know– murder and torture (on video tape) inside the Maricopa County Jail; trumped up traffic charges to back up police stops (thanks to SB1070); intimidation, arrest, and detention of elected officials (including several members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors) and others who challenge his authority or tactics; destruction of evidence by the Sheriff’s office; and millions of dollars in lawsuits brought against him.

Aragon and co-producer Mary Charlotte Thurtle have created a chilling documentary by weaving together interviews of Latino activists who have been targeted by Arpaio; interviews of lawyers and family members of prisoners who were murdered by Sheriff’s deputies inside the jail; surveillance video from the Maricopa County jail; videos of traffic stops as they happen; and Arpaio’s speeches.

The big questions that I came away with are: Why isn’t Arpaio in jail? Who votes for this guy? Has anyone been tortured and murdered in the Pima County Jail?

The current version of Under Arpaio is a director’s cut, according to Aragon. During the next few months, he will be showing the film to small audiences around Tucson and raising funds for broader distribution. He plans to have a larger viewing at The Loft in the future.

It is a marvelous film, which deserves national attention. This film made me glad I don’t live in Maricopa County. Here’s the trailer.

Salt of the Earth Labor College will present Under Arpaio, a film by Jason Michael Aragon and co-producer Mary Charlotte Thurtle of Tucson’s Pan Left Productions on Saturday, September 10, at 2 p.m.

Under Arpaio is the story of people abused in Arpaio’s Maricopa County jails, harassed in their neighborhoods, and racially profiled. The documentary also details the culture of corruption within the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department, now under federal investigation. Most importantly, it features the grass roots movement that is fighting back against this new Arizona style fascism.

Following the movie, there will be a discussion with the producer.

Salt of the Earth Labor College, located at 1903 E. Irene Vista in Tucson, sponsors free weekly classes on Saturdays. Here is the Fall 2011 schedule.

Experience art up close and person at The Glow. (Photo Credit: Pamela Powers)

The Glow, an annual lighted art walk and musical extravaganza, is this weekend, September 9-10 at the Triangle L Ranch in Oracle, Arizona.

If you have never been to The Glow, take a drive up Oracle Road this weekend for this unique, family-friendly community event.

The Glow is the brainchild of artist and Triangle L owner Sharon Holnback, who has been hosting and perfecting the event for several years.

The Glow is a little different each year, but it’s always an experience. But don’t believe me. Check out the video below with photos from past Glows (2007-10).  The Glow website also has a gallery (scroll down) and particulars about this year’s event, including a schedule of bands and other performers, as well as a list of participating artists.

The fun starts at 7 p.m. There is food at the event, but there are also several great restaurants along the route. (Watch out for the speed traps and Oro Valley cops, also along the route. The speed limit changes at least 5 times between Ina Road and the Triangle L.)