http://www.dailypaul.com/…

As flu season approaches, many New Jersey parents are furious over a first-in-the-nation requirement that children get a flu shot in order to attend preschools and day-care centers. The decision should be the parents’, not the state’s, they contend.

Hundreds of parents and other activists rallied outside the New Jersey Statehouse on Thursday, decrying the policy and voicing support for a bill that would allow parents to opt out of mandatory vaccinations for their children.

“This is not an anti-vaccine rally — it’s a freedom of choice rally,” said one of the organizers, Louise Habakus. “This one-size-fits-all approach is really very anti-American.”

New Jersey’s policy was approved last December by the state’s Public Health Council and is taking effect this fall. Children from 6 months to 5 years old who attend a child-care center or preschool have until Dec. 31 to receive the flu vaccine, along with a pneumococcal vaccine.

The Health Council was acting on the recommendations of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has depicted children under 5 as a group particularly in need of flu shots. But no other state has made the shots mandatory for children of any age.

“Vaccines not only protect the child being vaccinated but also the general community and the most vulnerable individuals within the community,” New Jersey’s Health Department said in a statement. It has depicted young children as “particularly efficient” in transmitting the flu to others.

I don’t know that these people would be out protesting other freedom of choice issues… like government truancy laws, drug prohibitions, etc.  Check out the Oct. 16th FTL for a particularly retarded instance of that. It’s better than nothing though.

At least I’m assuming it was Code Pink given the bright pink dress she was wearing. The crowd started yelling “U, S, A” to drown out the protesters. McCain then said something about not letting people get worked up over ground static or something to that affect.

Funny that he claims we all have inalienable rights. McCain/Feingold? Supporting wiretapping? Supporting unconstitutional, aggressive wars? Supporting ignoring of habeas corpus? Supporting Lincoln? Attacking Democrats for being “me first, country second?”

He has a funny definition of ‘inalienable’ and ‘rights.’

http://rawstory.com/…

If you thought protests outside 2008’s Democratic National Convention were loud and proud, you ain’t seen nothing yet. So say organizers preparing for the 2008 Republican National Convention, set to take place in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Organizers estimate 50,000 protesters are getting ready to demonstrate outside the RNC, in the largest anti-war protest planned so far this year.

“We have word that people are coming on busses and carpools, people are flying in from all over the country,” said Katrina Plotz, an organizer for an RNC protest group. “We are expecting the police to uphold our right to demonstrate, to speak out against the war.”

AP Correspondent Haven Daley said in a Wednesday news video that it may be difficult keeping the protests peaceful, attributing his ominous prediction to “anarchist groups” which were not named.

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More negative usage of the word anarchist. Those people are generally violent, confused communists. I’d bet that more then half the time the ‘anarchists’ are in fact plants by the police.

http://articles.citypages.com/…

Paul Carroll was riding his bike when his cell phone vibrated.

Once he arrived home from the Hennepin County Courthouse, where he’d been served a gross misdemeanor for spray-painting the interior of a campus elevator, the lanky, wavy-haired University of Minnesota sophomore flipped open his phone and checked his messages. He was greeted by a voice he recognized immediately. It belonged to U of M Police Sgt. Erik Swanson, the officer to whom Carroll had turned himself in just three weeks earlier. When Carroll called back, Swanson asked him to meet at a coffee shop later that day, going on to assure a wary Carroll that he wasn’t in trouble.

Carroll, who requested that his real name not be used, showed up early and waited anxiously for Swanson’s arrival. Ten minutes later, he says, a casually dressed Swanson showed up, flanked by a woman whom he introduced as FBI Special Agent Maureen E. Mazzola. For the next 20 minutes, Mazzola would do most of the talking.

“She told me that I had the perfect ‘look,’” recalls Carroll. “And that I had the perfect personality-they kept saying I was friendly and personable-for what they were looking for.”

What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant-someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort’s primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division’s website, is to “investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines.”

Carroll would be compensated for his efforts, but only if his involvement yielded an arrest. No exact dollar figure was offered.

“I’ll pass,” said Carroll.

For 10 more minutes, Mazzola and Swanson tried to sway him. He remained obstinate.

“Well, if you change your mind, call this number,” said Mazzola, handing him her card with her cell phone number scribbled on the back.

(Mazzola, Swanson, and the FBI did not return numerous calls seeking comment.)

Carroll’s story echoes a familiar theme. During the lead-up the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, the NYPD’s Intelligence Division infiltrated and spied on protest groups across the country, as well as in Canada and Europe. The program’s scope extended to explicitly nonviolent groups, including street theater troupes and church organizations.

There were also two reported instances of police officers, dressed as protestors, purposefully instigating clashes. At the 2004 Republican National Convention, the NYPD orchestrated a fake arrest to incite protestors. When a blond man was “arrested,” nearby protestors began shouting, “Let him go!” The helmeted police proceeded to push back against the crowd with batons and arrested at least two. In a similar instance, during an April 29, 2005, Critical Mass bike ride in New York, video footage captured a “protestor”-in reality an undercover cop-telling his captor, “I’m on the job,” and being subsequently let go.

Minneapolis’s own recent Critical Mass skirmish was allegedly initiated by two unidentified stragglers in hoods-one wearing a handkerchief over his or her face-who “began to make aggressive moves” near the back of the pack. During that humid August 31 evening, officers went on to arrest 19 cyclists while unleashing pepper spray into the faces of bystanders. The hooded duo was never apprehended.

Given the current political environment… I’m wondering if another 1968 is possible. It came close at times in 2004. Perhaps if the D’s appear to have little or no contest come November things will be less tense. Then again St. Paul is a lot more out of the way then New York City so that alone may lessen the protester turnout.

I found the article linked to in the above image inspiring.  More than that I found the diagram even better.  The article outlines the ways in which our current state of corporatism is wrecking society.  This is nothing new.  It also offers some solutions, that is the part I liked.

The crux of it is this cliche:  The things you own, end up owning you.  Our system is rigged so that you continually work to get more and then have to work to maintain it.  Most people find work soul-crushing because they do something they don’t like to maintain their life style.  I challenge you, work less, buy less, do more.  Here are some suggestions:

1. Fly a kite.  Better yet build a kite and then try to fly it.  Keep working at it till you get one that actually works.  Then give it to a kid and start again.
2. Go for a walk in your neighborhood and talk to the people around you.
3. Paint a picture
4. Write a poem or a book (I’ll read it)
5. Do an interpretive dance
6. Make music
7. Build something, a stool, chair, table, wall, bathroom, house, community center, relationship, etc.
8. Have a picnic
9. Bake/Cook something
10. Plant a garden and grow some of your own food
11. Go fishing, hunting, apple picking, berry picking, etc.
12. Do any of the above with your children, wife, husband, boyfriend, girlfriend, friends, dog, cat, rabbit, etc.

This little bit of self reliance will make a difference.  You will feel better and the cause of liberty will be furthered.

Fine Print: It should be noted that I’m not ranting against capitalism.  In its purest sense capitalism is really freedom of exchange and contract.  I’m ranting against the current state of government indoctrination and government sponsored corporatism that leads to rampant consumerism.

The cameraman is pretty annoying. I saw a lot of protesters lately in the subway… no one seemed to be beat up. I don’t know what the hell led to all this but I have no doubt the NYPD overreacted.