Finanical liberties over Civil liberties: NSA comes to Utah

(posted by deesings)

Utah legislators have made it clear that they will do whatever it takes to keep the Federal Government from dictating the affairs of the state.

That is, except for spying on people.

Utah is about to be descended upon by the National Security Administration (NSA).

The Army has awarded a $1.2 billion contract to a construction consortium to build a spacious new data center in Utah for the National Security Agency’s (NSA’s) cybersecurity effort.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it awarded the contract to Balfour Beatty/DPR/Big-D to erect a facility in Williams, Utah, that will be used for the NSA’s Comprehensive National Security Initiative, the NSA said in an emailed statement.

You would think that with all the controversy over federal government interference in state affairs by Utah’s legislators, that this would generate a lot of opposition from our state officials.  Not so.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said during his inauguration on Tuesday the state would be vigilant in keeping the federal government from pushing too far into the state. But the lieutenant governor said there is “absolutely no disagreement” that national security is an essential role of the federal government, and that the data center is welcome in Utah.

Back in November Utah Legislators made a big stink about accepting federal monies for education.

Just like a little kid stomping its feet, the Utah Legislature approved $101 million in federal money for Utah teachers. In a special session called by Governor Gary Herbert, lawmakers called the bill that created the funding “sinister” and the money itself “crack cocaine.” They also pledged an end to taking federal dollars. Governor Herbert was pleased they approved accepting the money.

(Standard Examiner)

I repeat:

They also pledged an end to taking federal dollars.

Senator Chris Buttars-R, West Jordan said accepting the money “consummates a takeover by the federal government of the legislative process.” Buttars also ripped up a copy of the Utah Constitution during an attempt to introduce a resolution to refuse the funding.

Yet now our state government is happily accepting an invasion of  a federal government agency which is using the “it will create jobs” bait to lure the legislators into believing that this project will be good for our state’s economy.  Never mind that this “job security” will be temporary.  Never mind the fact that NSA is at the forefront of eroding our civil liberties by collecting data without court orders on individuals.  Financial liberties over civil liberties – that’s what this amounts to.

Those who claim to oppose big government often love to quote Benjamin Franklin, who once said that “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” And yet in a quest for safety from potential unemployment and economic hardship, principles (and liberty) are thrown to the wind for what the Governor also claimed to be a “win, win, win” situation.

(Connor Boyack of Connor’sConundrums)

What would our founding fathers say?

Our founding fathers didn’t feel the lack of intestinal fortitude that required a vast security apparatus to see to their safety.

(Tom King, Utah activist)

My how times have changed.

As Connor Boyack states:

The NSA’s data center will largely be forgotten once it becomes operational. By then, the “godsend” of the 10,000 temporary construction jobs will be history. But the 1-200 individuals employed at the facility will continue their Orwellian mission of monitoring anybody they desire. Get ready, Utah: Big Brother will be camped out in your backyard.

RIP Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn, historian, political activist and author of the People’s History of the United States, has died.  He was traveling in California last week and succumbed to a heart attack at age 87.  Here is an article from the Boston Globe:

Howard Zinn, historian who challenged status quo, dies at 87

“He’s made an amazing contribution to American intellectual and moral culture,” Noam Chomsky, the left-wing activist and MIT professor, said tonight. “He’s changed the conscience of America in a highly constructive way. I really can’t think of anyone I can compare him to in this respect.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Rest in peace Howard Zinn.  Your words and actions and examples will live forever.

Help save one of the largest remaining unprotected blocks of riparian habitat on the Jordan River!

Tuesday, January 5 and through January 15, 2010

Attend the Jan. 5 City Council meeting and give a 2-minute comment in person.

7:00 pm, 451 S. State St., Rm. 315 (Note:  in order to speak you must fill out a form available near the entrance door and give it to City Council staff.)

Salt Lake City officials want to build, entirely at taxpayer expense, a sprawling $43 million sports complex on a 140-acre block of open space along the west bank of the Jordan River at 2200 North (see illustrations and photos in the attached “background” document.)  The proposed facility, to be built in two phases, will eventually consist of 17 sports fields, a forest of stadium-type lighting poles, 3 new roads, a new bridge over the Jordan River, parking for 1,300 or more cars, and no less than 9 new buildings including an outdoor and indoor soccer stadium, a maintenance building, a concessions building etc.

Panoramic view of proposed Jordan River Nature Park site at 2200 North.  The structure at left is a model airplane facility which will be moved to another location.

Given the object lesson of Hurricane Katrina it is purest madness to build any large public facility within any flood plain.  This particular site is not merely within the flood plain of the Jordan River but also within that of the Great Salt Lake, which rises and falls cyclically, its saline waters moving long distances up the Jordan River from its mouth.  The site has been inundated by flood water twice within the past 60 years, and was under water for several years during the mid-1980’s.  It will flood again.  When it does taxpayers will be asked to bail out and rebuild the facility all over again.
This is the last, relatively large block of undeveloped, unprotected, publicly owned land remaining on the Jordan River.   Blocks of open “lowlands riparian” habitat this large serve as incubators and stepping stones for a large variety of native plants, animals and birds.  In recent surveys the public has overwhelmingly supported open land & habitat preservation instead of sports facilities at this location and throughout the Jordan River corridor.

In at least four major open stakeholder planning initiatives over the past 35 years, this site has repeatedly been recommended for protection from commercial development as a flood control/water banking area, a nature park, nature preserve, native plant and wildlife restoration area, and/or a nature center.  Since 1995 Tree Utah has planted 18,000 native shrubs and trees on the site.

In 2003 voters approved Proposition 5, a bond for a $22.8 million sports complex, with an additional $7.5 million in matching funding to be contributed by the Real Salt Lake soccer team. But the bond was not site-specific.  Although Salt Lake City planners and environmental groups have identified and studied at least four viable alternative sites, the City has acted unilaterally to select this particular one, with no meaningful opportunity for public review and comment on the siting decision.  A similar but significantly larger facility for hosting regional soccer tournaments already exists in West Valley City.   Salt Lake City planners have never studied the need for such a facility and their own projections are that the facility will require a taxpayer subsidy of $270,000 per year if its utilization falls below 50%.

Moreover, total costs have nearly doubled (from $22.8 to $43 million) in part due to the high cost of building within a river flood plain.  Recently Salt Lake City mayor Ralph Becker announced that he will ask Salt Lake County taxpayers to contribute another $17 million to the project.

The Becker Administration is now planning to ask the City Council to release the Prop. 5 bond on January 5th, 2010 – in effect, granting final approval for the project.  Public meetings regarding the plans are anticipated only afterwards, a tactic calculated to ensure that comment.

We need your help preserve this valuable remnant of riparian open space.

Following in priority order are some things you could do to help:

1.) Pass this announcement along to all people that you know who might care and be willing to help.  Tell your friends and neighbors about this issue. “ Viralize” it.

2.) Sign our online petition about the siting of the regional sports complex at:
www.petitiononline.com/jrsp0001/

3.) Attend the Jan. 5 City Council meeting and give a 2-minute comment in person.

7:00 pm, 451 S. State St., Rm. 315 (Note:  in order to speak you must fill out a form available near the entrance door and give it to City Council staff.)

4.) Join the Jordan River Restoration Network to stay updated by using this link:
http://www.JRRN.org/join/request/

By becoming a registered member of this web site you can stay in touch with the latest information about this issue and make it much easier for us to notify you when something is cooking.  There is no cost.

5.) Send a message to elected officials. Please call, write or email them to say that you oppose location of the project on the Jordan River.  Ask that the Jan. 5 vote be delayed, as we need time for public process.  See the attached sample letter and talking points for some ideas of what to say.  Also attached is a list of people to contact with their email addresses and phone numbers.

Click here for emails, sample letter to send, and more information.

Tell Obama “No You Can’t!”: Saturday, December 12th

Tell Obama “No You Can’t!”
http://www.enduswars.org/spreadtheword

Help us get the word out for the Dec. 12 rally against President Obama’s troop escalation plans for Afghanistan!

This is an emergency protest rally, to take place on Saturday, December 12, from 11 am to 4 pm in Lafayette Park (across from the White House) in Washington, DC. It’s being organized by the End US Wars coalition (http://www.enduswars.org). The speakers list includes Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Cynthia McKinney, Sen. Mike Gravel, David Swanson, Rev. Graylan Hagler, and many others, and musicians will perform. Along with the rally on December 12, the film “Rethink Afghanistan” will be shown Friday, December 11, from 6 to 8 pm at Busboys & Poets, 14th & V Streets NW.

Because to the short amount of time between President Obama’s Afghanistan speech and the rally, we need lots of help getting the word out far and wide about the Dec. 12 rally. We need to do some ‘guerrilla media’ work to publicize the event and encourage people to attend — or if they can’t attend the rally, to speak out against the deployment of more US troops to Afghanistan.

Here’s what you can do:

• Notify friends, neighbors, family, and anyone else you know who might be outraged at the escalation plans. Send them the announcement appended below by e-mail, make phone calls, paste the announcement on your Facebook page.

• Post the announcement on e-mail discussion lists, community bulletin boards, and blog pages. If you read a news article online about the Afghanistan War, paste the announcement into the ‘comments’ section below the article text.

• Download and print the 2-per-page flyer, cut it in half, and pass it out: http://www.enduswars.org/Dec12Rally-2.pdf

• Make a phone call to a call-in radio talk show and tell listeners about the rally. Be sure to mention the web site: End US Wars dot org

• Write a letter to the editor about your opposition to the Afghanistan War and mention the rally.

There are lots more people who are outraged by the President’s escalation plans — people of every political stripe. Some people support Obama, but oppose his current policies.

Let’s reach them, tell them they aren’t alone, and encourage them to join us on December 12 when we send a message to President Obama to “do the right thing”!

* * * * *

Tell President Obama “No You Can’t!” send more US troops to Afghanistan

Emergency Anti-War Rally at the White House against President Obama’s planned military escalation in Afghanistan
• When: Saturday, December 12, 11 am to 4 pm
• Lafayette Park in Washington, DC, across from the White House, near the Farragut West Metro Station
• Organized by End US Wars http://www.enduswars.org

Speakers for the rally will include Rep. Dennis Kucinich, former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, former Sen. Mike Gravel, Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kathy Kelly, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges, author David Swanson, Rev. Graylan Hagler, Capt. Ron Fisher, Gael Murphy (CODEPINK), Debra Sweet (World Can’t Wait), Elaine Brower (Military Families Speak Out), Brian Becker (ANSWER), Mathis Chiroux (Iraq Veterans Against the War), among many other national peace leaders. Musicians Jordan Page, Head-Roc and others will perform. (Go to the website for current list of rally speakers.)

Join us in our demand that President Obama must announce an immediate ceasefire in Iraq and Afghanistan to end the wars and order our troops home. He must stop Predator drone attacks and covert operations in Pakistan, and he must begin immediate reconstruction and recovery in war torn regions.

If the President does not meet these demands, he will face intensified opposition, with anti-war candidates prepared to defeat his war policy politically.

Along with the rally on December 12, the film ‘Rethink Afghanistan’ will be shown Friday December 11, from 8 to 10 pm at Busboys & Poets, 14th and V Streets NW in Washington, DC.

More information: email contact at enduswars. org or visit http://www.enduswars.org
For press inquiries, phone: Laurie Dobson, Director, End US Wars (207)604.8988

No Escalation Protests across the U.S. last week

A small group of people braved the bitter cold in Salt Lake City, Utah on December 3, 2009 to protest the surge of troops to Afghanistan, joining 100 cities across the nation last week in the common message:  No Escalation!

Afghanistan: No Escalation! Vigil this Thursday, December 3!

Afghanistan: No Escalation!

Vigil, Thursday, December 3, 2009
5:30-6:30pm
125 South State Street, Salt Lake City, UT
Bring signs!

Rethinking Afghanistan: Sign the Petition

Sign the petition online

Community Coat Exchange attended by many in need

KSL TV coverage

More coverage

Father Roy Bourgeois and SOA Watch Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

Father Roy Bourgeois and SOA Watch Nominated for the
Nobel Peace Prize

Father Roy Bourgeois, MM, and School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch) have been nominated for one of the most prestigious
awards in the world – the Nobel Peace Prize – for their sustained faithful nonviolent witness against the disappearances, torture, and
murder of hundreds of thousands of civilians (peasants, community and union organizers, clerics, missionaries, educators, and health
workers) by foreign military personnel trained by the U.S. military at U.S. taxpayer expense at the School of the Americas at Fort Benning,
Georgia.

The candidacy of Father Roy and SOA Watch for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize has been officially submitted to the Nobel Committee in Oslo,
Norway by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. The official announcement was made by AFSC
representative John Meyer on Sunday, November 22 at 9am at the gates of Fort Benning (home of the School of the Americas) during the annual
November vigil to close the SOA.

“We are deeply honored, and deeply humbled, to be nominated for this prize for peace,” commented Bourgeois, a Vietnam veteran,
Purple Heart recipient and a Catholic priest, who helped found SOA Watch.  ”This nomination is a recognition of the work of the thousands struggling against militarism across the Americas.”

SOA Watch is a nonviolent grassroots movement that works through creative protest and resistance, legislative and grassroots media work
to stand in solidarity with the people of Latin America, to close the School of the Americas (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for
Security Cooperation) and to change oppressive U.S. foreign policy that institutions like the SOA/ WHINSEC represent.

This weekend, SOA Watch is gathering by the thousands at the gates of Ft. Benning to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the killings of
14-year-old Celia Ramos, her mother Elba Ramos, and the six Jesuit priests she worked with at the Central American University in San
Salvador in November 1989. Human rights defenders from Colombia and Bertha Oliva, founder of human rights organization COFADEH, Committee
of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras, which has been actively resisting the SOA graduate-led coup as part of the
resistance front.

Buy Nothing Day – November 27, 2009 – Recycle and Warm a Heart

There’s only one way to avoid the collapse of this human experiment of ours on Planet Earth: we have to consume less.

Buy Nothing Day is a long time project of Adbusters, a Canadian organization comprised of “artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entreprenuers” dedicated to “topple exisiting power structures and forge a major shift in the way we live in the 21st century”

Every year people around the globe engage in Buy Nothing Day, a day dedicated to alternatives to shopping,  in various ways (visit the site to see!).

Utah will host the 4th Annual Community Coat Exchange on Buy Nothing Day at the Salt Lake Downtown Library Plaza from 10am – 2pm.  The aim is to proivde a community service while educating people on reducing, reusing, recycling and consuming less.

So….on Friday, November 27, 2009:

If you need a coat, come get one.  If you have a coat, we know someone who can use it.