What Mittens? "Well, my strategy is pretty straightforward, which is to go after the bad guys, to make sure we do our very best to interrupt them, to - to kill them, to take them out of the picture. But my strategy is broader than that."

Truthout

Anyone with a shred of objectivity will certainly agree that President Obama dominated Monday night's "foreign policy debate" from start to finish. His opponent, Governor Romney, did a passable imitation of Obama's first debate performance during this last go-round, right down to the pained expressions, the distracted looks around the room, and the definite aura he emitted of being a man who would rather be anywhere else in the world but on that stage.

Twenty minutes into the thing, Romney turned an alarming shade of pink, and his upper lip began to carry a sheen of sweat that remained in place throughout, serving as a nifty homage to Richard Nixon's damp demeanor, circa 1960, in his debate against John F. Kennedy. Obama, for his part, stared daggers at Romney all night long, and Romney very much appeared to wilt under that hard gaze. The man looked ill for most of the night, and that turned out to be the least of his problems.

Had this been a prize fight, the referee would have called a knock-out right after Mr. Obama laid down this particular bit of chin music. Romney has spent the entire campaign to date doing an admirable impression of Sybil when it comes to his positions, but on the matter of foreign policy, Obama put the bricks to him before ten minutes had passed, and exposed Romney's shape-shifting nonsense once and for all.

"I know you haven't been in a position to actually execute foreign policy, but every time you've offered an opinion, you've been wrong. You said we should have gone into Iraq, despite that fact that there were no weapons of mass destruction. You said that we should still have troops in Iraq to this day. You indicated that we shouldn't be passing nuclear treaties with Russia despite the fact that 71 senators, Democrats and Republicans, voted for it. You said that, first, we should not have a timeline in Afghanistan. Then you said we should. Now you say maybe or it depends, which means not only were you wrong, but you were also confusing in sending mixed messages both to our troops and our allies."

And then, only a few short minutes later, the Republican candidate for President of the United States of America, in a debate on foreign policy, said exactly this: "Syria is Iran's only ally in the Arab world. It's their route to the sea."

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Willard Mitt Romney - a man who has been running for president since the Mesozoic Age, who has spent an enormous amount of money to surround himself with people who are supposed to explain stuff like geography to him - sat there on national television and showed us all that he still does not know how to read a map. Almost all of Iran's southern border verges on the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, giving them plenty of access to, y'know, the sea...but even if that were not the case, Syria would not be Iran's "route to the sea" because of the giant chunk of land between them called Iraq.

That was it. Not even twenty minutes into the contest, and Romney was sacked from walls to castle...except there was no one there to run up the white flag, and the man spent the remainder of those ninety long minutes holding on for dear life while spewing word salad like a Speak & Spell that had been left out in the rain.

Word salad like this: "Well, my strategy is pretty straightforward, which is to go after the bad guys, to make sure we do our very best to interrupt them, to - to kill them, to take them out of the picture. But my strategy is broader than that. That's - that's important, of course. But the key that we're going to have to pursue is a -- is a pathway to get the Muslim world to be able to reject extremism on its own. We don't want another Iraq, we don't want another Afghanistan. That's not the right course for us. The right course for us is to make sure that we go after the - the people who are leaders of these various anti-American groups and these - these jihadists, but also help the Muslim world."

And, God help us all, this: "I'd make sure that Ahmadinejad is indicted under the Genocide Convention. His words amount to genocide incitation. I would indict him for it. I would also make sure that their diplomats are treated like the pariah they are around the world. The same way we treated the apartheid diplomats of South Africa. We need to increase pressure time, and time again on Iran because anything other than a - a - a solution to this, which says - which stops this - this nuclear folly of theirs, is unacceptable to America. And of course, a military action is the last resort. It is something one would only - only consider if all of the other avenues had been - had been tried to their full extent."

And, yeah, this: "Let's talk about China. China has an interest that's very much like ours in one respect, and that is they want a stable world. They don't want war. They don't want to see protectionism. They don't want to see the world break out into - into various forms of chaos, because they have to - they have to manufacture goods and put people to work and they have about 20,000 - 20 million, rather, people coming out of the farms every year coming into the cities, needing jobs."

Word salad. Period.

Every debate has a "moment" to be remembered. On Monday night, the moment came when Obama bent Romney over his knee and spanked him crimson over the issue of military preparedness: "I think Governor Romney maybe hasn't spent enough time looking at how our military works. You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military's changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines. And so the question is not a game of Battleship, where we're counting slips. It's what are our capabilities."

It was that pedantic. It was that embarrassing. It was that bad. I've been around the political block a few times, and in my entire experience, I have never seen anything like what took place on Monday night. In living memory, there has never been a Republican candidate for president so unprepared for even a basic conversation on foreign policy as Mitt Romney. In terms of the debate contest itself, it was no contest at all. This was not a matter of the Republican candidate bringing a knife to a gunfight. Romney brought a baby rattle to a gunfight, brought a kitten to a gunfight, brought a handkerchief to a gunfight.

Mitt Romney brought himself to a foreign policy debate, and when his wife led him dazed and done from the stage, there was nothing left of him but smoke and sweat.

"Error"-Filled Instructions Are Sent to Ohio Voters

NY Times

A Republican-run election board in a northern Ohio county sent out voting instructions to several precincts with the wrong date for Election Day and an incorrect description of the polling place location, leading state Democrats to suggest foul play in a presidential race that could be decided in a handful of states like Ohio by tiny margins.

The Ottawa County Board of Elections sent a mailer to three precincts last week referring to Election Day as Nov. 8, instead of Nov. 6, and said their new voting place was in a building on the east side of the high school rather than on its west side.

The Ohio Democratic Party issued a statement saying, “This error is deeply troubling.” A party spokesman, Jerid Kurtz, said it was “paramount that voters not be misled” and asked the board not only to issue a correction but also to review all its correspondence with voters from the past year.

JoAnn Friar, director of the county’s elections board, said that the error was unintentional and that a corrected version was being edited and would be sent out promptly.

“We had three precincts changing polling locations from the high school gym to the new maintenance building, and the mailer we sent out had the wrong date,” she said. “Then in trying to give more precise directions, it said it was to the east of the high school, and it’s really to the west.”

She said she suspected that the first error was a result of substituting part of the text on last year’s form, which was stored in the computer and when Election Day was Nov. 8, without proofreading it. “We’re sorry for the inconvenience,” she added. “There was certainly no intention of trying to make it more difficult for the voters.”

Ms. Friar said the wrong mailer went out to some 2,300 voters out of a total of about 30,000 in the county, which is on Lake Erie in northwestern Ohio near Toledo. Asked to explain how two errors were included in one short announcement, she replied, “If you’re going to mess up, do it right.”

Billionaires take lead in conservatives' self-pity parade

Aljazeera America's billionaires are up in arms! Sure, they've made out like bandits, while tens of millions of Americans are still suffering - out of work, in bankruptcy, or owing more on their mortgages than their houses are worth. Along with the rest of the 1 per cent, they've captured 93 per cent of income gains in the US in the first year of lopsided economic recovery. But that's not the point! The point is: They're the most oppressed people in the history of the world! What's happening to them in America today is reminiscent of Nazi Germany under Hitler!    Believe it or not, that's the message coming from a veritable parade of self-portrayed victims at the pinnacle of the 1 per cent of the 1 per cent, who are very angry at President Obama supposedly saying mean things about them. These men are so spectacularly wealthy that it's literally impossible to understand them in the context of other people's economic lives, to make sense of what they're saying. They're like elephants in the midst of a leper colony, complaining about a gnat bite in a dream they just remembered.  They've also been treated so well by Obama that it's likewise impossible to grasp. He could have gone after them immediately after taking office, breaking up the big banks and pursuing criminal charges against those responsible for destroying the economy based on multiple interlocking forms of fraud. Obama did none of that. There's simply no understanding their hatred of him in purely objective terms.  But their self-pitying portrayal as victims is another thing altogether. It's not just commonplace, it's virtually mandatory among the ranks of American conservatives today - particularly when there's little or no basis in fact. Indeed, it's sometimes even quantifiable, as I explained in a column occasioned by Herman Cain's slow, self-pitying exit from the presidential race.

Virginia AG won’t investigate GOP worker who dumped voter registration forms

Raw Story

The Virginia State Board of Elections announced Friday that it will not ask the state’s attorney general to investigate the Republican operative accused of tossing out eight completed voter registration forms, rejecting Democratic-led efforts at a full investigation into the alleged tampering. 

State Senator and chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus Donald McEachin had called for a complete investigation of the incident, in which 31-year-old Colin Small is accused of deliberately discarding valid voter registration forms. 

“This is simply too serious an issue,” McEachin said in a statement. “Voting is the bedrock of our democracy and we, as Virginians, deserve to know exactly what happened, how widespread the abuse and under whose orders, if any, the individual in question acted.” 

Yet the board decided not to request a formal investigation by Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, leaving the matter up to local authorities. A spokesman for Cuccinelli’s office told the Washington Post that the attorney general could only review the case if the State Board of Elections asked him to do so.

Advocates asks Pennsylvania governor to veto juvenile life sentence bill

Jurist

Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] wrote a letter [text] to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett [official website] on Friday asking him to veto legislation [SB 850 text] which would maintain the sentence of life without parole as an option for child offenders. According to HRW, the bill would go against the spirit of the recent US Supreme Court ruling in Miller v. Alabama, which held [JURIST report] that mandatory life sentences for juveniles is unconstitutional. The bill applies a prison sentence of either life without the possibility of parole for juveniles or with the first parole hearing after 35 years for those over 15 and 25 years for those under 15. In the letter, HRW detailed several problems with the law:

It ignores that youth have a greater capacity for rehabilitation than older offenders. It ignores the racially disproportionate sentencing of youth in Pennsylvania. African American youth convicted of murder have been sentenced to life without parole in Pennsylvania at a much higher rate than white youth. It provides virtually zero public safety value at a very high cost. It will not provide a deterrent to future crime. Experts have shown that adolescents are unlikely to have the maturity and long-term rational thinking to be deterred by the prospect of a lengthy sentence.

HRW also pointed to international obligations which bind Pennsylvania, and all other states, to treat juvenile offenders differently than adults and allow for rehabilitation.

HRW is asking Governor Corbett to veto the bill in light of the Miller decision which was handed down in June. There has been much commentary written on this issue both before and after [JURIST comments] the decision. The case was heard in conjunction with Jackson v. Hobbs [SCOTUSblog backgrounder]. During arguments before in Supreme Court regarding Miller, Justice Antonin Scalia asked, "What's the distinction between 14 and 15? ... How are we to know where to draw those lines?" Later, Miller's attorney called for 18 to be the minimum age needed to impose a life sentence, and pointed out that most of the jurisdictions that have considered the issue in a legislative context have adopted an age 18 minimum for mandatory life sentences. He offered that those jurisdictions that permitted the imposition of mandatory life-sentences did so through a regime that transferred juveniles to the adult criminal justice system where they are exposed to mandatory life sentences, not because of the express will of the people or their legislators to impose mandatory life sentences on juvenile offenders.

The Black is Back Coalition to Hold Rally in DC on 11/4/12: “Break the Silence! The Unreported Wars and Attacks on Africans Worldwide.”

Black is Back Coalition 

The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations – an African led Coalition – will, for a fourth consecutive year, forward the demand for a peace agenda that recognizes the oppression of African people worldwide.

Washington, DC--October 22, 2012 –The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations will hold a rally and march on Saturday, November 3^rd and conference on Sunday, November 4^th in Washington, DC under the slogan: “Break the Silence! The Unreported Wars and Attacks on Africans Worldwide.”

The Black is Back Coalition recognizes that there are countless wars and attacks on African communities that are routinely ignored by the mainstream media as well as by the traditional peace movements. On the African continent, more than five million Africans in the Congo have been killed since 1998 as a result of proxy wars that have also led to the looting of our resources there. In South Africa, several months ago, police opened fired on striking miners killing about 30 and wounding about 70 in an act of violence reminiscent of the apartheid era. And in Haiti thousands marched recently in protest against the Martelly government who they contend has done very little to improve living standards there.

Here in Washington DC, the historic Barry Farm community at this very moment is on the frontlines of the gentrification assault. The proposed redevelopment scheme of Barry Farm, if successful, would lead to the displacement of many long-time residents there. Yet, the media and anti-war movements remain silent.

Unfortunately, there is a general lack of concern for and implicit support of the oppression faced by Africans worldwide. The assaults on African communities not only here in the US, but also throughout the Caribbean, throughout Europe, and on the African continent itself in the form of proxy wars, police containment, mass incarceration, economic underdevelopment, joblessness etc. are all being swept under the proverbial rug.

The Black is Back Coalition is calling for an end to this indifference. “On November 3rd we rally in Malcolm X Park in Washington, D.C., from every community in the U.S. Here we will make our united voices heard; here we will declare our united will to join with the peoples of the world to change the course of history that has enslaved and impoverished the majority for the benefit of the parasitic few,” said Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the Black is Back Coalition. “And on November 4th we will hold a conference to organize and plan. We will collectively decide what to do to tell our own story and to place our own aspirations, values and plans on the agenda for human progress and the conquest of social justice, peace and reparations.”

The rally starts at 12noon at Malcolm X Park.  March starts at 2pm leaving from Malcolm X Park. The conference will be held on Sunday, November 4th at SOUL 57, 1326 Florida Avenue NE from 12noon to 6:30pm.

The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations was founded September 12, 2009. Its members include a wide sector of the African Liberation movement from a variety of political and ideological persuasions whose objective is to forge a common anti-imperialist agenda. It is headquartered in Washington, DC.

For more information on the Black is Back Coalition, please visit: www.blackisbackcoalition.org.

Amnesty International Denounces Torture in California Prisons: An interview with Tessa Murphy

  InfioshopNews

“California Department of Corrections/PBSP-SHU policies and practices, have violated our human rights and subjected us to torture – for the purpose of coercing inmates into becoming informants against other inmates, etc., for the state,” writes one prisoner held in solitary at California’s infamous supermax Pelican Bay State Prison. This excerpt of his letter to the internationally renowned human rights organization, Amnesty International, is featured in Amnesty’s new report on the use of prolonged solitary confinement inside California’s ‘Security Housing Units’ (SHUs), entitled The Edge of Endurance: Conditions in California’s Security Housing Units.  

The Amnesty report states that “no other US state is believed to have held so many prisoners for such long periods in indefinite isolation.” At least 3,000 California prisoners are being held today in an extreme form of solitary confinement known as “super maximum” custody. Furthermore, the CDCR reported in 2011 that over 500 prisoners had spent over ten years in the Pelican Bay SHU, with 78 having spent over 20 years there. Explaining the recent emergence of SHUs, Amnesty writes that “California was at the forefront of moves to toughen penalties, and its prison population escalated during the 1980s and 1990s following the introduction of some of the nation’s harshest sentencing laws. Once a leader in the philosophy of rehabilitation, California also passed legislation which expressly described punishment rather than rehabilitation as the central aim of imprisonment. Pelican Bay SHU, which opened in 1989, was one of the first super-maximum security facilities specifically designed to be ‘non- programming,’ that is, constructed with no communal space for recreation, education or any other group activity.” 

In the Summer of 2011, prisoners held inside the Pelican Bay SHU initiated a multi-racial hunger strike that began on July 1 and spread throughout California’s prisons. While the Pelican Bay strikers declared victory on July 20, other prisoners around the states continued for up to several weeks longer. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) reported that at least 6,600 prisoners in at least one third of California’s 33 prisons participated in the hunger strike. Ending the use of prolonged solitary confinement was one of the strike’s five core demands.  

“Following concern among prisoners about what they perceived as a lack of progress in implementing changes, the hunger strike resumed briefly in late September 2011, but was called off after meetings between prisoner representatives and CDCR and further assurances that CDCR would institute changes. While no disciplinary action had been taken against the first hunger strikers, the second hunger strike was treated by CDCR as a major rule violation and some prisoners were punished by having their property and canteen privileges confiscated. Fifteen of the strike leaders were reportedly moved to harsh conditions in administrative segregation cells for a short period,” writes Amnesty International in their new report.  

The CDCR has responded to the striking prisoners’ demands with their own proposals. Amnesty critiques the CDCR’s proposed reforms, arguing that “the reforms do not go far enough. There are continuing concerns about both the fairness of the procedures for assigning prisoners to what could still be indefinite SHU terms, and about the length of time in which prisoners will remain in solitary confinement….

While measures to reduce the number of prisoners held in security housing units are a positive step, in Amnesty International’s view the proposals should ensure that only prisoners who present a clear and present threat, who cannot be safely housed in a less secure setting are assigned to the SHU. Given the serious consequences of SHU confinement, the authorities should ensure that STG [Security Threat Group] validations are based on a thorough and impartial investigation, and only with concrete evidence of gang-related activity posing such a clear and present threat; that prisoners have a fair opportunity to contest the evidence; and that such decisions are subject to regular, meaningful review.”  

When these concerns were raised “during Amnesty International’s meetings with CDCR staff in November 2011, the department stressed that there were inmates in the SHU with serious gang connections, but acknowledged that they ‘over-validated’ and that there were prisoners in the SHU who did not warrant such a restrictive level of housing. CDCR also acknowledged that there were people assigned to the SHU as gang associates who had no direct role in gang activity. CDCR stated that the reforms under consideration were aimed at making the system fairer as well as targeting resources more effectively, taking into account the high cost of SHU confinement and the need to manage a tight budget. Amnesty International was told that the process would ultimately reduce the SHU population to ensure that only prisoners who could not be safely housed in a less secure setting would be assigned to the SHU.”   The bottom line of this important new report: “Amnesty International considers that the conditions of isolation and other deprivations imposed on prisoners in California’s SHU units breach international standards on humane treatment, and that prolonged or indefinite isolation, and the severe social and environmental deprivation existing in Pelican Bay SHU in particular, constitutes cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in violation of international law.”  

Unfortunately, getting the US to respect international law is not as clear-cut as the act of documenting human rights violations. Notably, The Edge of Endurance explains: “The USA has sought to limit the application of international human rights law in its conduct by entering reservations to article 7 of the ICCPR [International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights] and article 16 of the Convention against Torture as a condition of ratifying the treaties. The reservations state that the US considers itself bound by the articles only to the extent that ‘cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’ means the ‘cruel and unusual treatment or punishment’ prohibited under the US Constitution. Amnesty International has repeatedly called on the USA to withdraw its reservations as defeating the object and purpose of the treaties in question and therefore incompatible with international law.” 

Last week, on October 10, following a public call to end racial hostilities among California prisoners, another hunger strike was initiated at Pelican Bay, with 500 prisoners statewide participating, according to the CDCR. 

Tessa Murphy is the campaigner for the USA team at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International. She has provided the research for and worked on Amnesty's reports on supermax prisons and solitary confinement through her visits to a number of prisons, including the recent visit to California SHUs as part of the team that published the report cited above, entitled The Edge of Endurance. She also authored Amnesty's special report on the Angola 3, entitled USA: 100 years in solitary: ‘The Angola 3’ and their fight for justice.  

US Presidential Elections: Forecasting the Vote, Simulating the “Fraud Factor”

GlobalResearch

The 2012 Presidential True Vote and Monte Carlo Simulation Forecast Model is updated on a daily basis. The election is assumed to be held on the latest poll date. Link to this post for the daily update summary. This worksheet contains the weekly polling trend analysis.

The source of the polling data is the Real Clear Politics (RCP) website. The simulation uses the latest state polls. Recorded 2008 vote shares are used for states which have not yet been polled.

10/20/2012

Obama: 299 expected electoral votes; 95% win probability (477 of 500 election trials).
He leads the state poll weighted average by 48.3-45.8%.
He leads in 13 of 18 Battleground states by 49.9-47.7% with 134 of 205 EV.
The RCP National Poll average is tied 47.1-47.1%.
The True Vote Model indicates that Obama would have 54.5% and 358 expected EV in a fraud-free election. Will he be able to overcome the systemic fraud factor? [MORE]

$20M Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed Against Anaheim Police Department for Fatal Shooting of Latino Man

NBC

The family of a man shot by Anaheim police in January has filed a $20 million wrongful death lawsuit, court documents show.

The family of Bernie Cervantes Villegas alleges Anaheim officers wrongfully and negligently shot him to death on Jan. 7 outside an apartment complex on Ball Road, according to the civil complaint filed Oct. 15 in Orange County Superior Court. The lawsuit alleges that at least five members of the department’s SWAT team rushed around a corner and shot Villegas without provocation as he stood in a parking lot, talking with friends.

Police, responding to 911 calls of a man with a gun, shot Villegas who they say threatened them with what appeared to be a gun that later turned out to be a BB rifle, said Anaheim Police Sgt. Bob Dunn.

The lawsuit said Villegas was holding a small BB gun -- a present for his son -- but that he did not threaten the officers and was not a danger. The lawsuit said the officers fired without giving any commands or warnings.

The officers “created a blatantly false story that (Villegas) had a shotgun, that he had waved or pointed a gun at officers and that he had tried to threaten or attack officers,” the lawsuit said.

Villegas held a "small BB gun" by the end of the barrel and pointed upward while he stood and talked with friends, the lawsuit said.

In addition to wrongful death, the lawsuit alleges negligence, negligent hiring, and deprivation of civil rights.

The news comes as Anaheim police shot and critically wounded early Sunday a man on a bike they say was armed with a pistol.

Anaheim has been the focus of increased scrutiny after back-to-back fatal police shootings this summer, one of which prompted a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit by the family of a man who was unarmed.

The shootings sparked a series of protests across the country, clashes with Anaheim police and calls for city reform.

The number of police shootings in Anaheim have spiked as the city has been grappling with a spike in gang-related crime, officers said.

According to data provided by the city to NBC4 under the California Public Records Act, the city of Anaheim has paid out more $2.2 million to settle 10 officer-involved shooting cases dating to 2005.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. speaks in robocall: ‘I am human. I’m doing my best’

TheGrio

After more than four months of silence, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. asks constituents for patience and says he’s “anxious to return to work,” in a robocall to his 2^nd Congressional District Saturday, reported by Chicago radio station WBEZ, but gave no timeline on when he’d get back to work.

This is the first time many of Jackson’s more than 500,000 constituents have heard from him since taking a leave of absence in June to undergo medical treatment.

The son of civil rights leader and former presidential candidate Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. said in late June that he took a leave of absence for treatment of exhaustion, however his congressional office later confirmed that he was being treated at the Mayo Clinic for bipolar disorder. His office said on Sept. 7th that he had been released from the Mayo Clinic and would be recovering at his Washington, D.C. home, but not returning to work.

“Like many human beings, a series of events came together in my life at the same time and they’ve been difficult to sort through,” Jackson said on the robocall recording posted on WBEZ’s website. “I am human. I’m doing my best. And I am trying to sort through them all,” he said.

Jackson’s wife, Chicago Alderman Sandi Jackson, and his representatives have repeatedly said he will continue to run for re-election in the 2^nd District. With less than two and a half weeks until election day, Jackson hasn’t campaigned yet, but political analysts say he is a shoo-in to win in the heavily Democratic district that he’s served for nearly 18 years.

This statement was issued less than a week after Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. was accused of misusing campaign money and drinking with women who weren’t his wife at a Washington, D.C. bar. Additionally, Jackson’s message came just days after the Illinois congressman told The Daily he is “not well” in his first interview since he undertook an extended leave of absence.

The post-American Middle East

Aljazeera For generations the Middle East has served as a setting for the grand narratives of American imperial power. US presidents have had a long-standing and complex relationship with Arab leaders, often playing puppet-master to the proxies and despots they put in power to look out for US interests. The Arab Spring ushered in the debut performance of a new player: The Arab people themselves. And they are loud, clear, and unabashed about their desire to take the front seat in the policies and procedures of their region. "I don't think the Arab Spring is the greatest thing for American interests." - Robert Kaplan, the national correspondent for The Atlantic  From attacked embassies to unwinnable wars, the Arab world is quickly and deftly slipping out of US control and the power the US has enjoyed in the Middle East may finally be reaching an end. As the Arab people begin to proactively tell their leaders and the world what they want, the question now becomes how the US, so accustomed to directing the region as it pleases, will deal with its diminishing power. Rhetorically, Barack Obama embraced the Arab Spring, but is he just the latest US president to dream of a new Middle East?

Cuba's Castro appears in public - Not ill

aljazeera Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro has reappeared in public, meeting at a Havana hotel with a Venezuelan politician, refuting persistent rumours that the former leader was on his death bed. "We are going to have Fidel with us for a long time" - Antonio Martinez, Hotel manager Castro, who led Communist Cuba for almost five decades before illness sidelined him, "is very well," Venezuela's former vice-president Elias Jaua said on Sunday after meeting the revolutionary icon. The 86-year-old Castro "is very well, very lucid," Jaua, a loyal supporter of leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose government financially supports the Cuban regime with cut-rate oil and aid, told reporters. After the five-hour meeting on Saturday, Castro accompanied Jaua back to the Hotel Nacional, and then posed for pictures with hotel staff. "We are going to have Fidel with us for a long time," said hotel manager Antonio Martinez. Martinez said the former Cuban president was accompanied by his wife Dalia Soto del Valle during the visit to the hotel.

ACLU sues LA Sheriff Department for Unlawful Imprisonment of Latinos

PressTv

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department for keeping people illegally in jail.

The lawsuit also accused LA authorities of holding arrestees for several days or months, despite being eligible for bail. 

According to Sheriff’s Department, the holds are part of the federal government’s Secure Communities program, but the ACLU believes that illegal detentions are just a small part of the civil liberties violations caused by the federal government. 

The controversial program sends the fingerprints of all detainees through an immigration database. However, several studies have shown that the program oftentimes leads to the arrest of legal residents.

A recent study by the Warren Institute shows 93 percent of people arrested under the program are Latino. 

Data from the Sheriff’s Department also indicates last year that at least 20000 Latino males were detained at the county jail for immigration holds.  

The Sheriff’s Department declined to comment on the lawsuit. But advocates say the problem is not isolated to Los Angeles County since immigration holds have caused bail denials in at least 17 California counties, including Orange and San Diego

International monitors at US polling spots draw criticism from voter fraud groups

The Hill

United Nations-affiliated election monitors from Europe and central Asia will be at polling places around the U.S. looking for voter suppression activities by conservative groups, a concern raised by civil rights groups during a meeting this week. The intervention has drawn criticism from a prominent conservative-leaning group combating election fraud.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a United Nations partner on democratization and human rights projects, will deploy 44 observers from its human rights office around the country on Election Day to monitor an array of activities, including potential disputes at polling places. It's part of a broader observation mission that will send out an additional 80 to 90 members of parliament from nearly 30 countries.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the NAACP and the ACLU, among other groups, warned this month in a letter to Daan Everts, a senior official with OSCE, of “a coordinated political effort to disenfranchise millions of Americans — particularly traditionally disenfranchised groups like minorities.”

The request for foreign monitoring of election sites drew a strong rebuke from Catherine Engelbrecht, founder and president of True the Vote, a conservative-leaning group seeking to crack down on election fraud.