From:
Be the Change, Inc.
Tim Zimmermann
(703) 850-0735
tzimmermann@bethechangeinc.org

Additional Contacts:
Rubenstein Communications, Inc.
Germaine Febles
(212) 843-8031
gfebles@rubenstein.com

TIME
Ali Zelenko 212.522.1502
ali_zelenko@timeinc.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES BARACK OBAMA AND JOHN MCCAIN TO PARTICIPATE IN
FORUM ON SERVICE AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT ON SEPT. 11 IN NEW YORK CITY

* * *

FIRST JOINT APPEARANCE OF PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEES FOLLOWING THE PARTY
CONVENTIONS

* * *

FORUM KICKS OFF HISTORIC SEPT. 11-12 SERVICENATION SUMMIT

August 21, 2008 [New York, NY] - Presidential candidates Barack Obama
and John McCain will discuss in depth their views on service and civic
engagement in the post-9/11 world during a primetime forum on the
evening of September 11 in New York City.

The Forum is being staged by ServiceNation, a dynamic new coalition of
110 organizations that has a collective reach of some 100 million
Americans and is dedicated to strengthening our democracy and solving
problems through civic engagement and service. It will be the opening
event of the bipartisan, Sept. 11-12, ServiceNation summit, which will
launch a one year grassroots campaign to expand voluntary community and
national service opportunities for all Americans; use proven service
strategies to tackle some of America’s most chronic social challenges;
and call on all Americans to make service a bedrock ideal in our
democracy

At the Forum, called “A Nation Of Service,” Senators McCain and Obama
will appear on stage separately to discuss their respective visions for
the role of service in America’s future. Richard Stengel, Managing
Editor of TIME, will moderate, and the event will be open to all
broadcast networks.

“I look forward to participating in the 9/11 service forum,” said
Senator Obama. “After September 11, Americans of every age, race, region
and walk of life were ready to step up and answer a new call of service
for their country. Making that call to service will be a central cause
of my presidency, because we need the active citizenship of the American
people to meet the challenges of the 21st century.”

“I am pleased to be participating in the ServiceNation Summit in New
York City. The Summit will be an important remembrance of those that
made the ultimate sacrifice serving their country and others as we focus
on how to inspire others to serve causes greater than their own
self-interest through national and community service,” said Senator
McCain.

The Forum audience will include 9/11 family members, young Americans,
military veterans, and thought leaders, and questions can be submitted
by the general public at http://tinyurl.com/6jmhd5. “The Presidential
Candidates’ Forum will serve as a call to action for the next
administration,” said Forum moderator and TIME managing editor Richard
Stengel. “I hope to have candid conversations with Senators McCain and
Obama about their plans for engaging more Americans in national
service.”

I’ve got media credentials now for the summit but I don’t know that I will be able to attend the forum as my confimation email said: “More detailed information, including a schedule of events open to the media and details on media availabilities will be provided shortly.” I’ve sent an email to the Director of Strategic Partnerships to be placed on the invitation waiting list to attend the actual summit. While it seems very unlikely I’ll get the invite I did include that I was a director of the Manhattan Libertarian Party to spice up the request. You can find the rest of the press report minus some quotes from affiliates after the jump.

Background on ServiceNation and the Summit:

The bipartisan September 11-12 ServiceNation Summit, will convene more
than 500 distinguished leaders from American business, government and
leading non-profit institutions to celebrate the ideal and power of
service, and lay out a bold policy blueprint for addressing America’s
greatest social challenges through expanded opportunities for voluntary
community and national service. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will
welcome the Summit attendees when the proceedings continue the morning
following the candidates Forum, on Sept. 12th, and the summit will
conclude with a keynote address by California Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger, who earlier this year became the first governor to
create a cabinet post dedicated to service and volunteering.

“Service is an idea whose time has come.” said Alan Khazei, CEO of Be
The Change, Inc. one of the four organizations–along with City Year,
Civic Enterprises and Points of Light Institute–that are helping to
coordinate the ServiceNation effort. “The entire Service Movement is
energized by both Senators McCain and Obama making service a central
theme of their respective visions for America.”

The ServiceNation Summit is being co-chaired by Caroline Kennedy; Alma
Powell, Chair of America’s Promise Alliance; TIME’s Stengel; Vartan
Gregorian, President of Carnegie Corporation of New York; Bill Novelli,
CEO of AARP; and Laysha Ward, President of Community Relations and the
Target Foundation. It is convened and underwritten by a grant from
Carnegie Corporation of New York and Presented by TIME, AARP and Target.
The recording artist, Usher, serves as the Youth Chair for the Summit.

Following the summit, on Sept. 27, ServiceNation will organize a
national Day of Action to engage tens of thousands of Americans in
events across the country that will showcase the power, potential and
impact of service. To date, 891 events have been created in 50 states.
The public can sign up to host, or find events to attend, at
http://events.servicenation.org <http://events.servicenation.org/> .

The goal of ServiceNation (www.servicenation.org), which currently
includes 110 organizations who collectively reach some 100 million
Americans, is to mobilize a grassroots movement that will inspire
America’s leaders to expand voluntary community and national service
opportunities, target Americas greatest societal challenges with proven
service strategies, and promote voluntary service as a core ideal in our
democracy. Facebook is the lead social media partner to help
ServiceNation achieve these goals. A full list of ServiceNation
coalition members can be found at:
http://www.bethechangeinc.org/servicenation/about_us/organizing.

In parallel to the ServiceNation campaign, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA)
and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) are currently working on new bipartisan
national and community service legislation designed to expand
opportunities for voluntary community and national service. One of the
key goals of the Service Nation campaign is to inspire the next
president and Congress to enact this legislation by September 11, 2009.

The Service Nation summit and forum will build on the momentum sparked
by TIME Managing Editor Stengel’s September 10, 2007 cover story –
“The Case for National Service.” Throughout the last year, TIME and
TIME.com have continued to cover national service topics with a
particular focus on the candidates’ positions. To coincide with the
Sept. 11-12 ServiceNation Summit, TIME plans to feature stories on
national service and civic engagement in the issue that hits newsstands
on Friday, September 12.

ServiceNation’s bipartisan Summit Leadership Council includes mayors,
governors, former Senators and leaders from every sector of American
society (full list is available at http://tinyurl.com/6l7vju).

Major supporters–in addition to AARP, Carnegie Corporation of New York,
Target and TIME-include the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, The Home Depot
Foundation, Bank Of America, Case Foundation, Charina Endowment Fund,
The Jenesis Group, the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund and Goldman
Sachs.

Forfeiture Support Associates (FSA) brings together two proven service providers—MPRI, an L-3 Communications Company, and AECOM Government Services (AECOM-GSI). FSA’s management approach leverages the resources and experience of MPRI and AECOM-GSI for a single purpose—continuous high-quality service delivery in a variety of labor catergories. Our core business focus is in providing key staffing support for Department of Justice (DOJ) agencies and offices, other Federal Law Enforcement prosecutorial venues, and the Federal Law Enforcement community in general. Our largest customers include the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), United States Marshals Service (USMS), Executive Office of the United States Attorney (EOUSA), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).

Business Division 1 – DOJ Asset Forfeiture Support

FSA’s primary business is generated from our Department of Justice (DOJ) Asset Forfeiture contract. This long-term contract provides the Federal Law Enforcement community with a wide variety of support, in 30+ labor categories. This contract vehicle has been in existence for decades and is administered by the Asset Forfeiture Management Staff (AFMS) at DOJ. Currently the contract provides nearly 1500 ordered positions in over 450 Federal Law Enforcement office locations throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and Guam. Click here for more information

Business Division 2 – GSA Schedule Support

FSA is currently in the process of becoming a GSA schedules contractor. Within the very near future FSA will be able to offer our Government customers the alternative of ordering our services directly from one of several GSA schedules.

Click here for more information

Business Division 3 – Commercial Support Contracts

FSA’s main business focus is in providing high quality labor support services to the Federal Law Enforcement community, or to other entities/companies that also provide like services. The FSA Commercial Services Division manages and supports all FSA business contract activities with US commercial companies.

Click here for more information

I wonder what their slogan is. “Helping the government steal your shit.”? “The paper pushers making sure your things end up in the forfeiture’s hands.”? Or something directed toward their clients? “Making sure they can’t get it back!” “Who wants a new gold watch?”

I wonder who’s buddy owns this company or it’s an ex DEA/FBI agent.

Russell Kanning has his driver’s license “violation” trial.
The judge harasses the press.
Ian presses for answers from City Government

Links to related videos will be posted here when they are available (entire trial and city manager interview):

(no links ready yet)

If interesting I’ll post the entire trial and city manager interview when available.

I have a neighbor that walks his pitbull past my house every couple of days.  He’s a large white man who grew up not liking black people but kept it to himself mostly.  He went to prison and became an evangelical racist.  I think he may be affiliated with a prison group, such as Aryan Nation, but I’m not sure and I don’t really want to ask.  Anyway he walked past the house a proceeded to ask:

“Ready for school to start again?”

I responded, “Yeah, time to fight the good fight once more.”

His reply, “You know they keep taking my money but it seems all the kids end up behind the courthouse or under the ground.”

My reply, “Yeah, we’re undergoing an education crisis.  The kids don’t want to be there and they don’t want to learn what we’re teaching.  It’s unfortunate.”

His reply, “I know why that is.”

My reply, knowing what he thinks the problem is, “It’s systemic.  There’s tons of reasons.  The problem is you can’t just fix one and expect it to go away.  Personally I think compulsory education is stupid and the way we fund the schools is an affront to people who disagree with our schooling methods.”

His reply, “No it’s because…” <racist rant concerning evolution and certain people who “never made it out of africa”.  Also there was something in there about BET>

So hopefully my neighbor got something out of it before he launched into his rehearsed diatribe.  It’s almost as if everyone, even the most screwed up people, can clearly see the problems.  It’s the causes that people disagree about.

OK, second story.  I’m biking home from the post office when I roll up next to a car with a Ron Paul sticker.  I look in the car and yell, “Woo hoo Ron Paul”.  The guy looks me up and down, mind you I need a haircut so bad my hair sticks out of my helmet and I was wearing a T-shirt with a vomiting clown on it, and then proceeds to say, “Yo” and stare straight ahead.

Thank you for your interest in covering ServiceNation’s Summit in New
York City. We have processed your press credential request; you have
been approved to receive a media pass for the summit.  More detailed
information, including a schedule of events open to the media and
details on media availabilities will be provided shortly.

Please call Lowell Eschen at 212-843-9347 with any questions.  We look
forward to working with you during the summit.

Sincerely,

Lowell Eschen
Press Coordinator
ServiceNation Summit

Received this at 1:31PM while I was out for a walk. I’ll post the details when I receive them. Hopefully it provides for more then just a few canned press conferences.

Two giant mortgage companies get into hot water over risky investments. The government steps in to throw them a lifeline should they need it.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans buy homes more expensive than they can afford. Congress approves a rescue package.

Troubles erupt at a Wall Street investment firm that made bad bets on mortgage investments. The Federal Reserve steps in and provides financial backing for the company’s takeover.

Meanwhile, tens of millions of people pay their mortgages on time, don’t max out their credit cards and put money into retirement funds. They may even save a little extra on the side.

In return, they get rates on their savings that don’t even keep up with inflation. They also are witnessing the horror of their nest eggs shrinking as the value of their homes plummets and the stock market tumbles.

Washington policymakers seem more focused on rescuing those who behave badly by putting at risk taxpayers who’ve played by the rules and shunned the get-rich-quick schemes of Wall Street croupiers.

If the government can toss a lifeline to troubled mortgage underwriters Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, they why won’t they do something for Americans who save their money?

Continued after the jump…

Why aren’t the nation’s savers storming the Federal Reserve or the Treasury Department or the halls of Congress demanding that something be done for them?

“Perhaps there is a mentality that you can’t beat city hall,” ponders financial adviser and author Ric Edelman.

Or, maybe it’s just that the mentality of people who are savers also helps make them flexible enough to roll with the punches.

“I’m not a crybaby about what goes on in the world,” says Cathy Tozzi, 70, a retired school finance director.

The elderly , who are no longer working and are living off their income from savings and other investments , are getting walloped by the current economic hard times.

“People like my mom. You expect them to be upset. People who are doing a lot of saving now versus people who are done saving are two very different groups,” said John Huizinga, professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business.

Tozzi, who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. has cut back. “I shop at the 99 cent stores. There are ways of saving money.” Even so, she worries about inflation “eating into my savings.”

People who grew up during the hardships of the Great Depression are from a generation that was more frugal and knew how to save. To them, debt was a dirty word.

“They grew up with the mentality that you make the best of what is handed to you. They don’t worry they won’t make it to Rome or Paris this year. They will settle for a car trip,” says Alan Hilfer, director psychology at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The average rate on a one-year CD these days is around 2.3 percent, according to Bankrate.com. However, inflation has been rising closer to 5 percent over the past year, so savers are seeing their returns wiped out.

“Savings are taking it on the chin,” says Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com. “The Fed’s rate cuts geared to aiding ailing homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages have come at the expense of savers and retirees dependent on fixed income,” he said. “For the past 12 months, there has been a double whammy for savers as interest rates have fallen and inflation has increased.”

The average rate on a savings account is a rock bottom 0.37 percent, Bankrate says. That’s even worse than the 0.46 percent rate for the same time last year.

David Middleton and others are so mad about the situation in Washington that they got together and formed the grassroots group, Fed Up USA. The group , whose members number around 40 , have protested in Washington and elsewhere against “federal financial irresponsibility.”

Middleton, 32, who once worked in the information-technology field and is now self employed, says he was spurred to put on an “activist hat” earlier this year. That’s when the Fed provided a loan of $28.82 billion as part of JPMorgan’s takeover of the ailing Bear Stearns. “I was outraged. These companies make their decisions and their bets and they should be responsible for that. They should not be bailed out on the backs of the taxpayers,” he said.

He was equally aghast at the sweeping housing-rescue package approved by Congress and signed into law by President Bush last month. The package provides cheaper mortgages to struggling homeowners and lets the government lend money to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or buy their stock should they need it.

Mike Shedlock, who writes the popular blog Mish’s Global Trend Analysis, urged his readers to contact their elected officials in Washington to vote against the Fannie and Freddie aid package. Some people didn’t think it would make a difference in the outcome but they wrote protest letters anyway, he says.

“People are getting disgusted,” says Shedlock. At the same time, he acknowledged trying to motivate people to rise up is tough. Shedlock frets that the United States is “being run into the ground in debt” by Washington.

Washington policymakers , in Congress, the Bush administration and at the Fed , should hold banks, investment firms and other involved in the nation’s financial debacles accountable for their actions, Middleton said. And, policymakers should bolster their oversight and provide more information to the public.

Middleton said he stakes out evening church events to pass out fliers.

“We really want to get the message out to people,” he said.

Getting the word out, may be easier than getting Washington to come around. Middleton has written letters to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his lawmakers in Washington. “I got back the standard form letter … thank you for your comment,” he says.

Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson have said the rescues were necessary to avert a broader financial meltdown. And, the Fed’s rate cuts , while providing some relief to distressed homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages , were aimed at shoring up the wobbly economy. That benefits everyone , savers and the profligate alike.

Older savers may feel that keeping their hard-earned money mostly in a bank is the safest way to go, especially as they watch some of the big nosedives on Wall Street.

Yet, the recent collapse of IndyMac and some other banks is increasing anxiety about that, experts say. “Who is supposed to be more on top of financial things than a bank? But banks made all these terrible mortgage loans and caused these disruptions, and we are dependent on them for our (financial) security,” Hilfer says.

I submit this as a prototype of many more similar articles to come. BTW, FedUpUSA has a website. For non-Adobe Acrobat pdf readers, it appears that their media kit pdf file can be read as separate files in the links provided directly underneath the media kit link.

note for bile - When I attempt to add strikethrough formatting to previous text when editing this post, that formatting (but not the text itself) disappears after saving it.

The government is pressing ahead with plans to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on a massive central silo for all UK communications data, The Register has learned.

Home Office civil servants are working on plans for the database under the banner of the Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP). The team has recently been expanded and a director-level official appointed to run the project, which is not yet official policy in public.

The project has been pushed hard at Whitehall by the intelligence agencies MI6 and GCHQ. One ISP source described their demands as “science fiction”. It’s envisaged that the one-stop-shop database will retain details of all calls, texts, emails, instant messenger conversations and websites accessed in the UK for up to two years.

Others have countered in Communications Data Bill discussions that a central, searchable database will not “maintain capability”, but grant investigators unprecedented power to cross-reference data sources (including location data from mobile phone triangulation), go on “fishing trips”, and infringe privacy.

The Information Commissioner’s Office voiced such opposition when early details of the IMP were reported in May. But according to our sources, public resistance to the überdatabase has so far had no significant impact on policy.

I reported on this in May. Doesn’t look like much has really changed but it seems that there has been some outrage over it. As expected the government doesn’t care what the subjects say and are continuing more or less full steam (as inefficiently as that is).

I think that if I were over in the UK I’d work to start a movement to fill the database. Generate huge amounts of bogus data. Modify email servers to throw in randomly sized file attachments from /dev/urandom into every message sent and the receive end can remove it. Either the government starts filtering everything which would increase necessary cpu power, they’d start dropping messages, or they log lots of completely bogus data. I think each scenario is a win. Push TOR and other anonymous/encrypted forms of communication and you render their efforts mute.

I showed up in court today, so the thugs didn’t have to come to my house and break down the door and accidentally kill anyone … or go to the wrong house and hurt others.
The judge found me guilty of driving after suspension of driving priviledges in NH
He fined my 300 bucks … he asked when I would pay it and then said I could do “community service” and I said I could probably do that.

Yes … I am free … and I did do some driving today.
coconut … have that video on my desk by morning
I will have to find out where I can do my community service. There should be someplace where I will be helping people and not empowering the bad guys.
They didn’t get any money out of me.
I cost them money.
We had pizza.

coconut had filmed the ordeal and when released I’ll post that here. From other reports on NHUnderground.com Russell agreed to 30 hours of service at $10/hour to pay off the $300 fine. I understand the compromise of service to jail but in a way it seems to be a step backwards philosophically. When Russell was sentenced to jail for nonviolent, statute crimes he was acting under his own volition and the government people aggressed against him in order to place him in their jail. In this case he’s agreed to community service so he’s not harmed and/or thrown in jail again but this decision is made under duress. He’s going to be nonviolent regardless as that’s how he is and if he defended himself he’d likely be seriously harmed so by agreeing to community service he’s submitted to their tyrannical ways actively vs previously just continuing on and putting all responsibility on them. Not that I wouldn’t have done the same nor am I ignoring the fact he showed up to court at their request. Just pointing out the differences in approaches.

There is also this dilemma. If you go to jail you aren’t giving them the resources the government needs to survive. No wealth transfer to them. They have to expend resources in order to deal with you. While with community service, assuming you get to choose, you’d be creating wealth outside the system. Likely fighting the system for as long as possible to the point before they imprison you and then agreeing to community service, again assuming you get to choose it, would be the best route. You’d drain some government resources, bypass possible acts of violence, and create wealth in the private sector. You’d still be bowing down to the aggressors as pointed out above but in almost an agorist fashion helping bleed the beast.