Firstly let me wish you all a very happy yuletide -- all be it somewhat belatedly.

We have most of us i hope had at least a safe, warmish, secure yuletide season (so far).

Some in this world are much less fortunate; in a time of hightened economic crisis, which for most of us means choosing when to pay which bills and when to eat, some of us will face homelessness and get to wait on increasingly large social housing lists in increasingly cruddy B&B's and that is if we are lucky,.

Not to mention get bullied by the likes of James Purnell (UK MP and department of work and pensions secrectary) because obviously the current recession isn't the bankers fault, not the money buyers, the business peoples faults not it is of course poor people --- the fact that the government bail out of the banks in just ONE day cost as much as a years of invalidity to EVERYONE claiming it was convienently ignored by the media and indeed the government themselves.

And yet there are some folks more ignored, more victimised than the general populace ~ folks who find themselves innocent of the crime they have been charged and convicted of yet are still in prison for it.

"Morally free from guilt, guiltless, free from the guilt of a particular crime or offense, a man [person] is innocent of the crime charged."(Source: Webster's 1913 Dictionary)

From a US perspective and indeed any country which still retains and uses the death penalty no matter how seemingly rare it is carried out given any possible miscarriage of justice on death row can be killed by state murder at any time.

Yet being imprisoned minus the risk of DP is still no laughing matter, and in both the UK and US where 'legitimate' prisoners upon parole and/or release get climatisation and some help after a fashion (not consistant or good enough but it is at least something) MOJ (miscarriage of justice) cases get nothing, bareing in mind those fortunate enough to be released as 'innocent' have often lost their homes, jobs/source of income, leave with severe physical and mentla health problems and in some cases have no freinds or family standing by them.

So whilst i send my thoughts and hopes and 'prayers' to everyone who is in need, in trouble in distress and in 'want' (deprivation) i send particular thoughts to those imprisoned for financial debt (none payment of utility bills such as TV licence) and more so to those who have commited no crime yet find themselves victims of MOJ's.

find out more here are some links for international orgs, UK orgs and US articles/orgs. 

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200708u/innocents-in-prison

http://www.innocentinprison.org/

http://www.mojoscotland.com/

http://www.innocent.org.uk/index.html

a single by the stunning Alabama 3 that was released in 2007 in aid of MOJOScotland and whose sentiment is perfect here and now .... 

a UK case that aptly demonstrates MOJ's http://justiceforsimon.co.uk/

happy yuletide to you all ... remember mainstream media is a good place to start but if it is all you read then you are aiming blind and become blinkered by the state ;) 

beccaxx

hello, just a few thoughts inthe run up to the festive season .... no judgments intended. 

Why do we need to eat copious amounts of meat at the 'festive season'? One can not help think about the line from 'Babe' that Ferdinand says as he witnesses the female duck being carved up for christmas dinner .... "christmas is carnage ..."

http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/turkeys/index.htm

What other 'foods' do folks like to eat for the 'festive season' ....

foie-gras is often seen as a luxurious 'treat' .... well here is what that luxurious treat really costs .... http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/foiegras/index.html

Instead of turkey some folks eat other avians .... so what about ducks and chickens .... what price do they pay for us to eat their meat?

http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/ducks/index.htm

http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/chickens/broiler.htm

note the figure for factory chicken deaths in the UK 30 per second and 2.5 million per day ..... that is simply horrific. a true animal holocaust.

any other meat has a price also, not one humans pay however ....

http://www.factoryfarming.org.uk/

http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/dirtymeat/expanded.htm

feeling good about eating fish: check out the realities of fish sentience ...

http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/fish/index.html

]There ARE viable alternative to this 'festive slaughter' however ... and to the meat industry in general specifically factory farming ... for onesuch alternative see ... http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/other/veganfarming.html

Think you have to miss out on delicious food by going veggie or vegan? Think again ... less cruel food and extremely tasty too .... for some ideas see http://www.viva.org.uk/christmas/recipes.php

http://www.viva.org.uk/christmas/recipe_luxuryroast.php

This recipe is fabulous as it is one entirly customisable ---- every veggie and vegan cook has some version of a festive roast they developed themselves from the basics of a nut roast ....

my version invovles different ingredients every year ...

i even make one with vegan sausage mix, chopped apples, herbs, onions and cranberries wrapped in vegan pastry baked and served with either xmas dinner or as a nice nibble/treat over the festive season. you can even make a sweet version for a pudding if one wants to using winter and autum fruits and nuts bound with chocolate and nut purree mix.

Christmas does not need to be carnage -- it does not need to be dead animal to be tasty, fun and fattening ;)

I'm not sitting in judgment we all have different ethical lines and that is as it should be, but hopefully all the above will dispell some myths, reveal some info and at least demonstrate veggie and vegan food does not need to be sanctimonious 'healthfreak' food but can be tasty, luxiorious, fattening, delicious, indulgence.

bx

The UK spends £20bn a year on these sickness and disability benefits - £5bn less than the 'loan' fund it donated to the banking sector in just one day. Meanwhile new cash injected into the Social Fund – a source of interest-free loans for people on low incomes, including grants to help the mentally ill return to the community and emergency loans to re-house families who've lost their homes due to fire or flood – stood at just £81m for the whole year.

Whilst there has been a little talk about more regulation, nobody has stood up in parliament and called for a major rethink about the way we run our economy. And no wonder – all their pensions are linked to the value of shares in the very businesses the government is propping up!

But the hypocrisy doesn't stop there. For years we heard the same old story about how there's never any money for a liveable benefits system or a decent minimum wage, but somehow UK plc finds billions of spare cash to support corrupt businesses that are in a mess only because of a greed that has benefited no one but their shareholders. For years we've heard the mantra that the free market must be allowed to run unfettered – yet the most 'capitalist' governments are nationalising huge companies left, right and centre. It just goes to show that capitalism is a myth and the sooner we stop wasting money propping up a failed system that will never work - the better.

http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news647.htm

Just how much more are we going to take of this crap? 

Trouble is we are not going to end up with capitalism failing to bring in any form of improvment, what we are seeign in action is captalism failing to bring in totalitarian absoloutism, we are seeing the beggining of police juntas, yet the media is so blinkered it won't even ask the questions that need asking let alone propose any conclusion that is not pre-approved. 

So if one is a banker or more accuratly a money changer, one can scrounge of the state as much as one wish, yet if one is starving and dying of hyperthermia one has to stop being a burden on the state .... well apparently banks are 5bn more of a burden in one day than anyone on welfare is in a year ..... so who should we be attacking and villifying in the popular media? 

As we approach a winter with quickly rising fuel bills, so those on state benefits are worse off than ever, as those on the poverty line struggle to survive, we see those who have created these false emergancies, getting bailed out, energy chiefs boasting that a harsh winter will mean record profits ..... the people who suffer from these bansk failing are the average workers, the employees who now face a winter potentially dependent on state benefits, as recipients of said benefits now cross class divisions in ways unprecedented before, we now see just how real the division between bourgoisie and proletariat is. 

Maybe if poverty striken folks all die from cold, starvation, suicide and the like we will generate enough money to bail out any bank and corporation that fails .... the image of capital surviving on the bodies of the working folks has never been more vivid.

Maybe one day these diseased cancers on society will learn money is not the reason for living and can not be taken with you. Perhaps they will ask themselves who it was according to Christian Theology (a religion most claim lip service to) that Jesus threw out of the temple. 

Times article ~ Frances Gibb Legal Editor ~ Legal Aid falling apart

According to the propaganda about the legal and justice system every man & woman guilty or innocent gets a fair trail in a court judged by their peers with competent legal representation. 

Increasingly those of us with a minimal of a passing interest in our prosecution system have seen this to be a comforting lie, designed to induce complacency. 

The case Frances Gibb addresses invovles yes a very horrible crime and if guilty the accused deserves the appropriate sentance ~ however we are talking about a 17yr old who has been left without legal representation because of the beaurocracy in our legal aid system. 

You can bet your bottom dollar that the prosecution will use the best person/people they feel they need for the job yet the defence is having trouble getting anyone even vaguly qualified for a murder trail of this complexity. 

In a year where unsafe convictions have been high profile (barry george) in the media and public awareness, it seems incongruous that nobody really cares, still, about preventing unsafe convictions now and in the future.

One of the many things miscarriages of justice cases often have in common is poor legal representation at the original trail, what often leads to the unsafe conviction being overturned, is through friends, family, charity, a decent legal team being engaged on behalf of the defendant. 

Curtailing legal aid funding in the manner illuminated by the times article can only lead to trouble, guilty or innocent everyone has a right to fair trail, this is not occuring and it is past time the voting public gave a dam. 

"I hear much of people's calling out to punish the guilty, but few are concerned to clear the innocent - Daniel Defoe, writer 1661-1731

http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,437087,00.html

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,401899,00.html

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/03/murat-kurnaz.html

Read the book "Five Years of my life; An Innocent Man in Guantanamo" you will and should be disturbed, a feeling of impotence will hit as the realisation hits this is being done in the name of so called 'freedom' and 'justice' ...

We tell ourselves slavery ended in the 1800's but it didn't, this mans life cost $3000, and it became clear very quickly to authorities in the US and Germany he was innocent yet he still spent five years in conditions no-one should ever be in.

In it's way this is far more disturbing than individual miscarriage of justice cases, because what occurred to Murat Kurnaz is courtesy of 'Allied' forces transpiring across the board, a sort of mass miscarriage of justice being perpetrated in our names.

We might not be able directly halt what is befalling many but by goodness we can open our minds and see what is really happening and alter our own perception of the current world situation.

Maybe be less inclined to believe everyone who looks potentially Moslim is a terrorist, question what the media and politicians tell us.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist. 

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Martin Niemöller 

 If someone who was at one stage a supporter of Hitler (till 1934 I believe) then all of us can question and review our view of what is done in the world.