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Campaign for Direct Elections of Beijing Lawyers Association, 2008-2009
China Change, July 8, 2019
In 2008, encouraged by a sense that China was opening up to more democratic norms, a group of lawyers in Beijing sought to directly elect the Beijing Lawyers Association, which was controlled by the government and did not serve lawyers' genuine interests. In this exclusive interview, nine lawyers tell the story of their endeavor, the government's response, and how the lawyers and law firms that participated were punished for their roles in the effort.
HD edition is available for screening.
Tang Jitian (唐吉田), lawyer formerly with Beijing Anhui Law Firm:
I worked as a prosecutor for 7 years in Yanbian. I took the judicial examination in 2004. After I got the legal practice qualification certificate, I went to Shenzhen for an internship and got my license in 2006. I came to Beijing in 2007 and practiced at Haodong Law Firm near West Third Ring Road. At that time, civil society was rather active in Beijing. There were many online and offline activities. I took part in lectures and met lawyers Li Wusi and Xie Yanyi, as well as others. During the campaign for direct election of the Beijing Lawyers Association (BLA), I was a main contact person. The campaign took place between 2008 to 2009, and it was also something I got involved deeply. It has been more than 10 years since then, and I feel it's necessary to offer an assessment of it. In my opinion, the action was a landmark event for lawyers, as well as the rule of law, in China.
Tong Chaoping (童朝平), former director of Beijing Anhui Law Firm:
I started my practice in Beijing in 2003, during the SARS crisis. SARS was a pretty big event in 2003. I came to Beijing that May and found a law firm, where I practiced until 2006. After that I wanted to set up my own law firm. Why did I want to set up my own firm? Because I believed that China had developed a relatively robust legal system and constitution, that is, the 1982 constitution. But the constitution has a large number of clauses that are in a state of dormancy. Whichever clauses are beneficial for the authorities are in use, but the ones that benefit the people are in hibernation. Only by establishing my own law firm could I help advance the cause of rule of law in China. My power as an individual was tiny, buy by setting up my law firm, we could grow our strength. I believe that humanity's development advances from the barbaric to the civilized, and how to measure this? One important indicator is the degree to which the rule of law is respected.
In 2007, when I founded the Beijing Anhui Law Firm, there were 10,000 lawyers in Beijing and about 1,000 law firms. That works out to an average of ten lawyers at each firm. From when I started my business until the end of 2008, I had 26 lawyers working at the Anhui Law Firm.
Cheng Hai (程海), former director of Beijing Wutian Law Firm:
I got to Beijing in October 2003. I'd had a lot of jobs before becoming a lawyer. I'd been a sent-down youth; I'd been a worker; then I took the college exams and went to university; then I did grad school. I also worked as a civil servant in the Anhui provincial government. After that I became a teacher, and also tried my hand at entrepreneurship. Around 1999, in a dispute with a neighbor, I came into contact with a lawyer and discovered that I was well-suited for this line of work. I am quite interested in the idea of justice, so I sat the judicial exam. Before that lawsuit ended, I became a lawyer.
In October 2003 I started working at the Dingming Law Firm in Beijing. At that time I was handling routine civil cases. When I first started out, I didn't know the ropes, and had to do cases involving construction, labor disputes, and that kind of thing. I did it because I am interested in social equality and public welfare. In 2005, I filed my first public interest case. It was reported by the media. I wanted to install a landline telephone in my rental apartment, and I was required to get a guarantee from someone with a local household registration. So I sued the telecommunication company in Beijing. It involved identity discrimination, because based on the laws concerning guarantorship, there are only personal and property guarantors. This kind of household registration-based guarantee was obviously a form of discrimination. The court dismissed the case, but it was reported by the media.
Afterward I handled some human rights cases, such as the Chen Guangcheng case in Shandong involving brutal implementation of the one child policy. Lawyers Li Jinsong, Li Fangping, Li Subin and I went there. We were beaten three times, and were not allowed to meet the clients. The person I was representing was Chen Guangcheng's brother Chen Guanghe. For one, I wasn't allowed to meet the client, and on top of that there were black government cars stalking me. At this Public Security Bureau they seized my camera, then they beat me at an intersection. They beat lawyers on this bus, Li Fangping was bleeding.
Wen Haibo (温海波), lawyer formerly with Beijing Shunhe Law Firm:
If I start from the beginning, then I have to take some time to explain how I entered the human rights advocacy scene. Around 2004, I joined Gao Zhisheng's law firm. I was Lawyer Gao's assistant. We took on many cases involving forced demolition, medical disputes, and petitioners. Later on we accepted many Falun Gong cases. We investigated some of these cases, and we tried to use civil lawsuits to help Falun Gong practitioners stand up for their rights. But the circumstances were incredibly difficult. Many of the cases could not enter the litigation process.
This went on until 2005, when Gao Zhisheng's law firm was shut down and I was compelled to join another practice, the Yitong Law Firm. There were many people at that firm who I later became friends with: Tang Jitian, Yang Huiwen, Cheng Hai, and so on. At the firm, we would often discuss topics related to the public good and lawyers' rights. The feeling was that everyone was really unsatisfied with the supposedly professional, autonomous Beijing Lawyers Association.
Wu Hongwei (邬宏威), lawyer, Beijing Weize Law Firm:
The demand for direct elections of BLA in 2008 was preceded by a series of events. For example, we'd talked before about how lawyers involved in the case in Linyi, Shandong Province were ferociously beaten. When the rights of lawyers were violated, they received no protection. Afterward, there were some so-called sensitive cases, like the case of the "Three Grades of Servants" church that was classified by the authorities as "Lightning No. 1." When we got involved, the judicial authorities surveilled us from beginning to end. When we got there, that very day we were subject to search by the police, and we were barred from meeting with the defendants' relatives. Our right to practice came under pressure. This was one problem. In March 2008, there was the Tibetan incident that was big. A lot of Tibetans were arrested, so some lawyers wanted to intervene. This also brought on a wave of crackdown on lawyers.
Xie Yanyi (谢燕益), lawyer formerly with Beijing Kaitai Law Firm:
I think the year 2008 was very special. How should I say it, many things happened that year, like the Wenchuan earthquake. Looking back, there was also the Olympic Games and Charter 08. There was a lot of pent-up energy in Chinese society. You can call it an atmosphere, or a kind of force.
Li Xiongbing (黎雄兵), director of Beijing Qianqi Law Firm:
Of course, there is a broader background to this: that at the village level, there were experiments for autonomy, for grassroots elections. I'd say that in 2008, the space for civil society was more open and active.
In my memory, for instance, in Shaanxi, Guangdong, or even in Beijing, there were places where there was a great deal of political participation at the grassroots: people demanded elections for village committee seats and even for the head of township or the head of the county. There was this kind of demand for democracy. It was this social background that had an effect on activism in the legal profession, that is, the call for direct elections in the Beijing Lawyers Association.
Of course, we didn't mean to push for democratic elections in China through direct elections of the BLA. We weren't thinking about advocating democracy across China. This wasn't our aim; our aim was more about reforming the Lawyers Association, making it an entity that protects lawyers' rights and the fair interests of the legal profession, and provide a better environment for the advancement of the profession.
Wen Haibo (温海波):
The BLA at the time asked for very high membership fees. These were compulsory. If you didn't pay the fee, you couldn't practice.
The annual fee was about 2,500 RMB per lawyer, and 10,000 RMB for each law firm. After collecting the membership fee, the BLA didn't help lawyers develop their businesses and protect their rights. Quite the opposite, we called them the Second Justice Bureau. The Justice Bureau is the judicial administrative organ that manages lawyers, and the Lawyers Association usually helps the Justice Bureau carry out this task. What could happen is that, for example if some lawyers intervene in a sensitive case involving a major civil disturbance, the Lawyers Association or the Justice Bureau would issue warnings and order the lawyers to withdraw from the case, or follow the authorities' cues on how to represent their clients.
To us, these kinds of demands are outrageous and have no legal basis. They want lawyers to follow and cooperate with the authorities while taking on these sensitive cases. Many lawyers cannot accept this.
Cheng Hai (程海):
We asked the BLA and the municipal Justice Bureau to protect our rights, but were ignored time and again. There was no response at all. Moreover, there were some cases that the authorities gave us warning not to intervene in, or plead not guilty for, such as cases relating to Falun Gong and some other persecuted groups. Our actions as lawyers were restricted, and we did not receive protection. You have to pay fees to the BLA. The primary task of Lawyers Associations, according to the Attorney Law, is to ensure and safeguard lawyers' legally sanctioned rights to practice and their lawful interests.
Xie Yanyi (谢燕益):
I sued the National Trademark Bureau and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, and also provided legal consultation for people whose homes had been demolished and farmers trying to protect their land rights. I set up an office opposite the Miyun county government. These were used by BLA as excuses to punish me by not letting me pass the annual inspection, so I went to Beijing Justice Bureau to negotiate. The BLA serves as a tool to crack down on lawyers, right? Because it's the BLA that collects the fees for the inspection, they have to stamp it with their seal, and they are the ones to carry out the preliminary audit. So they obstructed me.
That year, when I went to the Beijing Justice Bureau to negotiate, I saw a stout man wearing glasses there at the entrance as well. I asked him what he was there for. He said that the Beijing Justice Bureau didn't pass his annual inspection and obstructed him. He went in first, and I waited outside. When he was done, I went in. I came out and saw him waiting for me. I asked him his name. He was Jiang Tianyong. That year us two were the last to pass the annual inspection, he was second to last, I was last.
Wu Hongwei (邬宏威):
Another thing is that there was professional discrimination. The BLA marked the certificate of lawyers who had previously held "special" professions with a "T" which meant that they would be treated preferentially. Lawyers from other provinces received a W. Lawyers are supposed to fight for democracy, social justice, and so on, and now they were being categorized like this. These instances sparked indignation among the lawyers. In these circumstances grew the demand to elect our own Lawyers Association. The so-called direct election of the BLA meant simply the concrete implementation of democracy.
Xie Yanyi (谢燕益)
At the time—and at present as well, actually—the Lawyers Association and its lawyers' representative assembly was the highest organization for serving lawyers' rights. Under the assembly was a council with a council chairman. Where did the assembly come from though? Nobody knows. Who were the lawyers' representatives? I never took part in the assembly, and nobody ever informed us of elections, we never took part in such a thing, and we had no idea how the representatives were selected. We inquired with the Justice Bureau time and again. The BLA still had a website at that time, and the Association had its rules, right? But there was nothing written there about how to select representatives or the assembly chairman.
Tang Jitian (唐吉田):
A common phenomenon among lawyers associations across the country in and before 2008 was that the Director of the Justice Bureau would concurrently hold the position of the President of the Lawyers Association. Although in Beijing and some other places, the positions of presidents, vice presidents, or supervisors began to be held by lawyers, the real power of the association was in the secretariat, and the staff of the secretariat were appointed by the Justice Bureau, and these people, especially the secretary-general, were actually cadres from the judicial authorities. Some lawyers associations would also have the position of Party Secretary, and it was usually held concurrently by a deputy director of the Justice Bureau who oversaw lawyers. Therefore, even if a lawyer was the president, vice president, or supervisor of the lawyers association, due to the constraints placed on him or her by the secretariat and the party secretary, the real power center was in the secretariat, that is, in the Justice Bureau, not at all in the hands of the lawyers.
In May, 2008, we had a discussion at Yitong Law Firm, there were a dozen or so lawyers, and we decided to get this started. We wanted to set up an organization, not really an organization, and we called it the Beijing lawyers salon. More than ten people joined, including Tang Jitian, Li Xiongbing, Zhang Lihui, and Jiang Tianyong, there were about a dozen of us. Yang Huiwen was also there. There was a charter requiring members to hand in some fees and fulfill some responsibilities. Some were tasked to compose a proposed Charter for the BLA, other to write analysis and rebuttals. A division of labor was thus set up to analyze the current state of the BLA, look after lawyers' own rights, mobilization, and organization. We held regular meetings since the salon's establishment.
At the time, Cheng Hai was elected convener, and the vice organizer was Zhang Lihui. I was new to Beijing and didn't know much about things. But I was willing to put in the time, talk to people, and do errands. So even though I was a new face, I was nominated to be the secretary.
Li Xiongbing (黎雄兵):
Just to clarify, all of us are from different law firms. There is none of collusion, conspiracy, and organization that the officials accused us of. It's not like that. Rather, it was a quest that came naturally as we practice law and saw problems in individual cases and violations of lawyers' rights.
Wen Haibo (温海波)
A detail that I can still remember vividly is that we spent a lot of our free time discussing about how to formulate the two documents — a charter for the BLA and the electoral process. And Qin Bing often brought people lunch boxes out of his own pocket.
I can still remember this because it seems inconceivable or a bit crazy, thinking about it now. But we did put in a lot of energy in a crazed manner, seeing it in hindsight. About a dozen of us met for days in the Yitong Law Firm office in a hotel across from the Beijing West Railway Station. A lot of lawyers would handle cases during the day and gather in the afternoon at Yitong to discuss the charter. We called it the folk version of the BLA charter. The meeting could go on from afternoon or evening all the way until two or three the next morning. Then the lawyers called taxis or drove home. Everyone was so intensely involved, thinking about it now, things were pretty crazy.
We met a few times at the office of an NGO called Aizhixing (Love Knowledge Action). We also met in the office of Open Constitution Initiative in Weigongcun near the North Third Ring Road as well as at the Yitong Law Firm near the Beijing West Railway Station. These are places where the lawyers who participated in the campaign worked and deliberated.
Liang Xiaojun (梁小军), director of Beijing Daoheng Law Firm:
I've been to a few of the meetings, including the study of Robert's Rule of Order, which we used to discuss paperwork, although I don't have a very strong impression of it. The translator of Robert's Rule of Order, Yuan Tianpeng, were invited to teach us how to use the rules in our discussions.
Why did we need so much discussion? The reason, as well as the legal basis for direct election of the BLA, was pretty clear, with little controversy. Our concern was to minimize the chance that the government make accusations based on something being phrased or worded improperly. So we wanted to make sure that our expressions were peaceful, reasonable, and respectful of the law. The documents we produced were very moderate and smooth, nothing more than requesting a good and genuine BLA.
The BLA should represent the legal profession and its image, protect its rights, and serve the broader direction of the country's democratic and legal reform. That was all we were calling for. The documents went through five or six rounds of revision.
Of course, this regime was not applicable in practice. Afterward we did some research. It was too cumbersome for us to use the parliamentarian rules. So we introduced an express voting process so that discussion on the topics wouldn't drag on for too long without any decision being made. You wouldn't imagine it, but we would start a discussion, from 8 or 9 pm, on the term length of the president of the BLA, which some lawyers think should be five years and some think it should be three, since five years would be too long. The disagreement would become a prolonged discussion that went back and forth for rounds and rounds. When more lawyers attending the meetings, from a dozen to twenty to thirty, think about how long it would take when everyone spoke for three minutes.
Then there would be a second round, and back and forth, which went on until after midnight, sometimes we couldn't even decide one item after an entire day. We felt that it was too time-consuming. Democracy is time consuming, but it's also a process of making compromises. So we thought that we shouldn't keep going like this and needed to speed up the process, thus the express voting was introduced to straighten things out.
Xu Zhiyong (许志永), founder of Gongmeng (公盟), or Open Constitutional Initiative:
At the Open Constitutional Initiative, we listed the BLA election as one of our projects. Our position was to provide support for lawyers who have the courage to stand up, and to encourage more lawyers to participate. One detail of significance was that we sent 16,000 letters to lawyers in Beijing, one letter per lawyer, to advocate for the significance of the democratic election and to introduce the candidates. We also provided support to the lawyers who chose to participate in the election, such as sending volunteers to help with things.
Our idea was to seize every opportunity to push forward democracy and the rule of law. We take the core values hanging on the wall and the articles written into the constitution as real, and we believe that democracy and rule of law are for real. What is democracy? It's the democratic election of the government and legislative body. What is the rule of law? It's judicial independence. Law should be made democracally. These are universal values and we take them seriously, that's why we took every chance to promote them.
Liang Xiaojun (梁小军):
I was an outlier participant. I don't know how they came up with this idea initially. But I was greatly inspired after receiving the letter, since I thought that these lawyers expressed the inner voice of many lawyers in Beijing. They represented the ideas of many lawyers in China and especially Beijing. I fully support their ideas. The internet wasn't as developed at the time, after learning about it through letters, the 80 to 90 lawyers in our law firm were all talking about it. Everyone was supportive and wanted to participate.
Back then, when we had meetings in a small meeting room, many people couldn't even sit down. People would stand outside the door to take part in it. More and more lawyers got to know that we were promoting direct elections, and many of them were willing to participate. Some of them were lawyers who had made enough money, and whose had secure source of business. They were also willing to participate in discussions and promote the elections.
During the process we also had extensive interactions with the NGOs and realized the importance of these organizations for societal development. They also provided help for our campaign. We in turn helped them to bring attention to some issues that they were passionate about. For example, we helped the OCI on some cases and began to have more understanding the marginalized communities, and through Aizhixing, the LGBT groups.
During this time we had a lot of interaction with Aizhixing, a company managed by Wan Yanhai, and we joined many of the activities he was involved in. We also communicated our vision to defend human rights. The other organizations that we had contact with include the Transition Institute founded by Guo Yushan, and the Yirenping Institute founded by Lu Jun, we also gave them legal support. I remember Guo Yushan called attention to the rights of taxi drivers, and we specifically called for a discussion forum to provide advice and support.
In August 26 [2008], we finalized the draft. My recollection is that Cheng Hai was the one who first posted it online. After that I also put it on Kaidi. The title was: "Follow the Historical Trend and Implement Direct Election of the Lawyers Association: An appeal to the lawyers of Beijing, the municipal judicial authorities, and the Lawyers Association." The other documents that went with the appeal also reflected our demands for the BLA to become an organization of lawyers themselves, instead of a tool of the Justice Bureau. I remember that one of these documents was the "Rules for the Election of the Beijing Lawyers Association." The main tone of these documents was that the president and vice president of the BLA should be elected by representatives who were directly elected by the lawyers, instead of by appointment of the Justice Bureau, or through the so-called consultation and other methods by which the authorities' decisions are imposed upon the lawyers.
It took a great deal of discussion for us to come up with two documents. We hoped to have more Beijing lawyers understand what was going on. So after the formulation of these two documents, we went online and gathered the contact information of many law firms. We contacted them by telephone and by mail to spread our ideas and writings. We got positive feedback from many of the lawyers. I remember that after sending out these appeals, there were I think 39 lawyers who signed the petition. After it was spread more, over 100 lawyers signed to show support.
By the end of August, after our article demanding direct elections was published, it caused a great stir in the media and society, and was considered a positive action. Contrary to our hopes, the authorities quickly responded with suppression. The first reaction, around September 5, was that the Beijing Lawyers Association published a statement called "A Solemn Statement," which applied a political label to our actions.
But since the separation of the lawyer profession from the state, lawyers had become more and more market-oriented and private. As a body intended to serve the legal profession, the BLA did not feel shame in acting like they were issuing demands to Party members, using ideological discourse and saying things like "their intention is to destroy our Party" and so on. It misrepresented the requests for direct elections into subversion of the lawyer system, the judicial system, and even the political system.
We found this statement utterly preposterous: As an association for lawyers, how could it even publish such a statement? It feels just like class struggle, like they've raised a club to strike the lawyers on the head.
After we posted our appeal on August 26, although we recruited more lawyers to participate and hoped that lawyers would pay attention to the problems of the BLA, in fact the progress was very slow. But 10 days later, the "Solemn Statement" came out, and had a major ripple effect. Up to that point our appeal felt like a fist hitting on cotton, but unexpectedly after the statement came out, many lawyers were disgusted and moved closer to us. They spoke out one way or the other, some made clear statement that they wanted to join the petition, and the momentum it took was beyond our imagination.
Apart from the BLA response, a deputy bureau chief surnamed Dong of the Beijing Justice Bureau, who was in charge of overseeing lawyers, gave an interview with the state media. His opinion regarding our call for direct election—of course, he put on an official's airs—was that the conditions weren't mature, and he deflected the issue without shooting it down outright. He didn't deny outright the positive meaning of what we were doing. He only said that the conditions weren't ripe yet, and whether or not there were direct elections was not the problem, the issue was how to improve the services of the BLA. It was a high-sounding, pretentious response.
In regards to this, we quickly drafted up a rebuttal, and it was me who did the writing. Cheng Hai, Tang Jitian, and a few others were privy to the details. I rejected the idea that the conditions for having direct elections had yet to mature. I raised a few issues: was it that the judicial administrative agency's ability was lacking, or was it that the BLA's present capabilities and conditions weren't up to par, or did Mr. Dong simply think the lawyers themselves were too low in character?
Contrary to these two official responses, some academics in Beijing, including law professors and other academics, expressed their support for the lawyers actions. In their view, this represented a positive development that advanced the rule of law and the legal profession, and that it was the right direction for the growth, services, and capabilities of the BLA.
After the appeal was published on August 26, on September 14 or so, we went to meet Dong Cunjiang, vice director of the Justice Bureau in charge of lawyers' affairs. With us were lawyers Cheng Hai, Li Subin, and Zhang Lihui, four of us went to talk to him about why the lawyers wanted directed elections. The BLA in and of itself is an organization composed of legal professionals, so why did it do these illegal things? How was its funding managed? Why did they chose such an expensive place for members to do physicals?
That time I negotiated with the Justice Bureau, I didn't go alone, but I don't remember now who went with me. I remember that we were in an office of the Justice Bureau. On our side, we were four or five people. On the other side were the Justice Bureau's Xiao Lizhu (萧骊珠) and three or four of her subordinates. We had a heated debate on the issue of direct elections. We believed that society had already reached a relatively mature level of development. Elections were not only being held in autonomous organizations such as the neighborhood and village committees, but some mass organizations as well, such as trade unions as well. Being legal professionals, and adding the fact that Beijing lawyers were so concentrated, there would be no technical problems. We could even try online voting. On what basis could the Justice Bureau claim that our requirements were divorced from national conditions and out of line with reality?
Xiao Lizhu acted very harshly. She said that we had gone too far, that we were transgressing into dangerous territory, and so on. I remember that at the end of the meeting, she also singled me out, saying, "you came from the procuratorate. You should know the nature of our country. What kinds of consequences will arise from your doing this? I don't need to say it, you yourself should be aware. You should think about it carefully." At that time, I was in a state of enthusiasm and commitment, and disregarded her warnings. Later events proved the seriousness of her words.
Some staff in the Justice Bureau and the BLA deliberately avoided these topics, but some people lashed out viciously and with arrogance. For example, Li Dajin, then the BLA president, said that the people who demanded direct elections were the dregs of the legal community; they were poor wretches who want to escape their fate by launching revolution. These people should be severely punished and thrown out their jobs, and so on. Some of these statements were made publicly, and some were passed around internally. Zhao Xiaolu, then chairman of the board of supervisors of the BLA, and who later set up a firm on Cuiwei Road in the Gongzhufen area, also heaped some verbal humiliations on us.
In fact, we had difficulties making headway in our campaign, because the number of lawyers who were willing to step out and join the call for direct elections were relatively few. The majority of lawyers only wanted better income and social status. Many lawyers were summoned by the Justice Bureau or the BLA for talks. The officials would say to everyone they summoned, "as lawyers, especially those who come from out of province, you have such good working conditions in Beijing. Why don't you take focus on making more money? If you don't have opportunities, I can help put you in a good law firm where you will make good money every year. Where's the sense in stepping out for the so-called direct elections?" So it seems that what we did was pretty incomprehensible to these officials.
In order to earn the title "Civilized Law Firm" and open more branches around the country, the law firm I was in at the time had to have a good relationship with the Justice Bureau. Because of me, they were under great pressure. At first the director was polite to me, and persuaded me to leave the law firm. Later, he became resolute, leaving no room for discussion. When my contract expired, I must leave, no renewal. I had no choice but to leave. I really couldn't change the firm's decision, and in the end, I had to leave. Others had similar experiences: Wen Haibo, Yang Huiwen, Cheng Hai, and so on, they were also dismissed by their law firms.
In the fall and winter of 2008, Tang Jitian, Cheng Hai, and Yang Huiwen joined the Anhui Law Firm.
In February, 2009, the 7th Beijing Lawyers Association and its board passed the Association's Charter as well as Guidelines for Elections.
In March, 2009, Beijing Lawyers Association held elections to select a new administration.
Tong Chaoping (童朝平):
The electoral rule was that a candidate for lawyer representative needed recommendations from three law firms. So, Anhui Law Firm and two other law firms recommended a candidate, a human rights lawyer. However, the Justice Bureau would not approve him, and did not recognize the recommendation. The Justice Bureau set up a subordinate election committee. This committee would not approve the candidate. What could we do?
After our recommendation was rejected, our firm identified 4 candidates from among 26 lawyers. These four were independent candidates, namely Tang Jitian, me, and Yang Huiwen and Cheng Hai. We would participate in the election independently. In order to let more lawyers know our candidacy, we knocked on the doors of law firms one by one, telling them of our positions and asking them to make an independent judgment: "if you believe we can represent you better as your lawyers' representatives, then please give us your vote."
At that time, it so happened that one day the BLA was having a free movie screening in a theater in the National Library for some lawyers. Upon learning about this, we first of all questioned the matter on the one hand: why did the BLA provide these members free tickets at the expense of all members? On the other hand, we also seized the opportunity. Many of us, including me, Teng Biao, Tang Jitian, Yang Huiwen, and Tong Chaoping, went to the theater. We were outside of the entrance, holding promotional materials about the direct elections. When we saw someone passing by or entering the door of the cinema, we would stop him or her and ask if he or she was a lawyer. If we found the person was a lawyer, we would give the materials we were passing out and take a very short time, 10 seconds, to explain our views to these people, and promote Lawyer Yang Huiwen to be elected president of the BLA.
Many BLA staff and security guards came out to stop us from passing out flyers on the street. However, in that situation, we argued with the security guards and the BLA personne. I remember it was Jiang Tianyong who argued most vigorous with them. He said that our practices were legal and that we were promoting direct elections to these members of BLA.
The same day, we were having a meeting at the office of the Open Constitution Initiative near Dazhong Temple to discuss the next steps. At that time, Yang Huiwen wanted to run for president of the BLA and, according to my recollection, Zhang Lihui wanted to run for chairman of the board of supervisors. When they passed out materials there, Yang Huiwen was beaten by security guards. After we heard the news, we adjourned the meeting and immediately took a taxi to go over to help. I had a heated argument with the officials of the Justice Bureau and the BLA.
In my memory, those present were Xiao Lizhu and Feng Xinquan of the Municipal Justice Bureau, and Liu Jun, deputy secretary general of the BLA, as well as some others. I demanded that they offer apologies, and called the police to handle the situation. But in the end nothing was done. This incident showed that the Justice Bureau and the BLA were unlikely to accept our opinions and recommendations.
At that time, the location of our constituency district was in the district Justice Bureau in Balizhuang. During the electoral process, there were 4 of us and 12 official candidates whom the Justice Bureau selected, so there were a total of 16 candidates. We received more votes than most of the official candidates.
Almost all the lawyers of the Anhui firm participated, and the administrative staff also went to videotape the scene. We wanted to prevent them from playing tricks, so we had to gather evidence at the voting venue. Sure enough, the authorities had their deployment too. They brought some mafia-like figures who loitered around inside and outside the venue and put pressure on us. Because of our mobilization and canvassing done ahead of time, me, Tong Chaoping, Yang Huiwen, Cheng Hai, and Zhang Lihui were all chosen as candidates in the first round of elections.
Due to our vote canvassing, this election ended with less than half the votes going to any of the candidates backed by the authorities. According to the electoral rules, a second round of elections must be held if no candidate gets more than half of the votes. In the second round of elections, only 12 candidates were allowed in accordance with the runoff rules, and these 12 would be chosen according to who had received the largest number of votes in the first round of voting.
However, the election committee, manipulated by the Justice Bureau, did not allow the 4 independent candidates who had the most votes to enter a runoff election, and the 12 officially recognized candidates who got fewer votes became candidates instead. In this way, they stripped us of our constitutional rights to elections, and killed our opportunity.
Only 12 people's names were printed on the ballots of the second round election, and the two blank spaces for self-chosen candidates were removed. Moreover, if you fill in another person on your ballot, for example, if you fill in Tong Chaoping, who was not one of the candidates they designated, then your ballot would become invalid. This is another unconstitutional act.
Therefore, the BLA election was a blatant violation of the law: such flagrant disregard for the law and rules during elections was simply unprecedented throughout the country. Later, this case was reported by the China Youth Daily. China News Weekly was also planning a report, but it was eventually shut down, almost certainly because the Beijing Justice Bureau contacted the Central Propaganda Department.
Since the BLA had blatantly violated their own election rules, me and some of my colleagues decided to go to the BLA representative meeting and ask to audit the session. It was about March or April of 2009. We came to the venue set at Beijing Continental Grand Hotel in the Asian Games Village or Beichen Road. But we simply couldn't get in and couldn't get close to the site. After some maneuvering among ourselves, I remembered Zhang Lihui and I got to the floor of the meeting. The guards were very nervous. There was an official in the Justice Bureau called Chai Lei, who at that time was perhaps a deputy director a department. He was the one who often had contact with guobao, or the security police. He came out with the guards and finally drove us out of the floor where the meeting was hosted.
After the BLA election, it was in mid-2009, and it was also the period of the annual review of lawyers. A large scale of suppression of lawyers' right to practice occurred, the most severe in over a decade. Many lawyers who participated in the BLA direct election were forced to stop practicing, blacklisted, and finally had their licenses suspended or revoked. I was personally forbidden from taking the annual review starting in 2009, until I left the Gaobo Longhua Law Firm and transferred to another firm. Only following a year of suspension did I resume normal practice.
So around 2008, Yitong Law Firm was suspended for six months. Before this happened, we were compelled to leave Yitong to find employment with other law firms. I transferred to a law firm where lawyer Liu Wei was working at the time. Tang Jitian and Yang Huiwen both went to a different firm. Yitong has since recovered from the six-month suspension. There's no denying that the discussions we had at Yitong Law Firm brought about quite a lot of trouble for the firm. We are very thankful for Yitong director lawyer Li Jinsong's help in the BLA direct elections campaign, because he let us use the firm's space for discussions, and he also withstood the pressure put on him from the BLA and the Justice Bureau.
I was the director of Anhui Law Firm, the Justice Bureau order me to dismiss lawyers, and the number one person they named was Tang Jitian. There were other human rights lawyers who were marked for dismissal too. They told me, "If you don't dismiss them, your firm won't pass the annual review." I said to the then director of the Chongwen District Justice Bureau, surnamed Liu. I said, Director Liu, although you are the leader, I can't follow this instruction of yours, because these lawyers we hired are all our treasures. If they violated the constitution and the law, I would dismiss them immediately. However, these lawyers at our firm, like lawyer Tang Jitian, uphold the dignity of the constitution and law, and help many people in China's disadvantaged groups. If you have me dismiss him, then I will have violated the law and betrayed morality and justice. I can't do something like this, that would be immoral or illegal.
Then the Justice Bureau made their second move and conducted a carpet review of my entire law firm to see if we had transgressed the law in any way.
The review found no wrongdoing on our part. In June, they should have put the stamp of approval on our lawyers' certificates, which would have allowed them to practice as normal. Instead, they did not stamp any of our lawyers' cards, but they privately consulted each lawyer: Do you want to get stamped? If you want to get stamped, you can have it now, but you must transfer away from Anhui Law Firm. Leave the Anhui Law Firm. If you can't find a new firm, we will find one for you right away.
Another thing they did was to investigate all the accounting records of the Anhui firm. They secretly contacted the accountant who provides me service to see if we had any overseas funding.
Another thing was they asked the manager in my office, who was also a lawyer, to report whether I had violated any law. They put forward an offer to him that as long as he reported me, they would let him practice in Beijing; if he didn't report me, sorry, he can't practice in Beijing anymore. As a result, this lawyer is still practicing outside Beijing to this day.
Under these conditions, I felt that by upholding the dignity of the constitution and the law, our firm may have touched upon a third rail issue. Later, a series of facts proved this. What happened? In my hometown, I have had a good personal relationship with police officers of the local police station. They told me that the police in Beijing had visited my hometown more than once to investigate me and to see if there were any previous criminal records and if I had done anything illegal. But they found nothing.
In the following months, the Justice Bureau of Chongwen District in Beijing carried out a series of maneuvers to disband the Anhui Law Firm, including driving partners away and forcing a landlord to rescind a rental agreement. On March 28, 2010, the Anhui Law Firm closed down.
At the time of the annual lawyer's inspection in 2008, several of the main participants, including Tang Jitian, Jiang Tianyong, Zhang Lihui, Yang Huiwen, and Tong Chaoping, had yet to have their lawyers' certificates restored. They have been unable to continue their legal work. As I understand it, many lawyers did not think that participating in such an action would bring such great disaster to themselves. I was among them.
I feel that I have taken part in these events based entirely on my own conscience. I hoped to do something to promote the development and democratization of the legal profession. If I could make the choice again, I think I would still do something like this. Because I think that what we did, whether then or now, is correct, meaningful, and valuable.
The campaign marked a starting point where lawyers became more aware of the collective effort to defend their rights. You can say that it matured or became more apparent, anyway from that point onward, a clear consciousness began to develop. This was the experience we had in the direct election of the BLA. Later, we went further and began to refer cases to each other, discuss cases together, and jointly represent some rights defense cases. Since that point on, we've come together as a community.
Although the Internet makes it easier for us to connect, the experiences of direct election of BLA have directly or indirectly influenced lawyers' self-awareness, the question of professional autonomy, and later experiments such as the launch of the Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Group.
Li Xiongbing (黎雄兵)
To put it simply, I feel that the government is only paying lip service when it says "governing the country according to the law." There is a long, long way to go before it is a practice, a conscious idea that drives actions. Lawyers as a whole is a participant on this journey. Lawyers, narrowly speaking, are a professional group, a way of making a living. But broadly, and more objectively, they participate in the mechanism of social fairness and justice.
The main misconception that everyone has currently is that it's best to wait for the greater environment to change, or a major opportunity to come. In fact the opportunities lie within each of us. If everyone changes, if one person changes, it will lead to more people changing. More people changing will cause change among a majority of the people, and this country will change as well. So we should start this big change.
I think the significance of the 2008 BLA direct election in the history of lawyers in China is self-evident, and cannot be overstated. Although the effort was suppressed and many lawyers paid a hefty price, it planted the seeds of democracy and freedom in the minds of many lawyers. Today these lawyers are facing an even more severe and crueler environment, but one day they will rise again to claim their rights, and to take part in democracy building and the progress of democracy.
Tong Chaoping, Yang Huiwen, Wen Haibo, Jiang Tianyong, and Zhang Lihui had their law licenses revoked in 2009-2010.
Yang Huiwen resumed practice several years later in Shanxi Province.
Tong Chaoping has continued offering legal services without license.
Wen Haibo has been working at an NGO.
Tang Jitian was disbarred permanently in 2010.
Jiang Tianyong was arrested in November 2016, for organizing support for lawyers detained during the 709 crackdown. He is due to be released on February 28, 2019.
Cheng Hai continued practicing law until 2018 when he was disbarred and his firm shut down for representing lawyer Wang Quanzhang, a 709 detainee.
Xie Yanyi continued practicing until 2015 when he was detained during the 709 Crackdown on human rights lawyers. He remained in secret detention for 553 days and was severely tortured. He was forcibly disbarred in 2018.
A China Change Production
6 responses to "Campaign for Direct Elections of Beijing Lawyers Association, 2008-2009"
Campaign for Direct Elections of Beijing Lawyers Association, 2008-2009 « – China Change says:
[…] Campaign for Direct Elections of Beijing Lawyers Association, 2008-2009 " China Change […]
China: Campaign for Direct Elections of Beijing Lawyers Association, 2008-2009 | IAPL Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers says:
[…] Campaign for Direct Elections of Beijing Lawyers Association, 2008-2009 […]
China: 1413 Days and Counting: Li Wenzu's Fight for Her Husband's Freedom | IAPL Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers says:
Jenny Lau 68267998 says:
China really needs to change. They are the evil of this world.
China Change » Civil Rights Activists Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi Indicted for Subversion on Scant, Slanderous 'Evidence' says:
[…] China's Great FireWall. In 2008, Xu Zhiyong's Gongmeng helped a group of lawyers in Beijing to campaign for direct election of Beijing Bar Association — unsuccessfully. During the 2016 people's […]
改变中国 » 公民运动倡导者许志永和丁家喜被以颠覆罪起诉,起诉书是一份空无证据的陷害书 says:
[…] 第六条指控中说许志永伙同丁家喜所明确的颠覆国家政权的方式、方法和目标是通过"渗透社区,把持基层政权 "。起诉书不敢说的是,"基层政权"指的是中国的县、区(城市地区)级人民代表选举;"渗透社区"是公民积极参选。从八十年代初中国允许公民参加这一最低层次的人大代表选举开始,不断有中国公民要么以独立候选人身份参选,要么是帮助其他独立候选人竞选。许志永本人曾三次作为独立候选人在北京邮电大学选区参选,并于2003年和2006年成功当选,但在2011年被该校校长、中国"防火墙之父"方滨兴 "击败"。2008年,许志永领导的公盟曾帮助北京的一群律师推动北京律师协会的直接选举,但没有成功,而且参与的律师和律师事务所遭到了严厉惩罚。2016年人民代表选举期间,当时许志永在监狱里,中国当局严厉打击了北京和其他地方的独立候选人。 […]


text:
Валерій Олександрович Нестере́нко ( 10 березня 1950, Федорівка) — український художник і педагог; член Львівської організації Національної спілки художників України з 2000 року. Заслужений художник України з 2013 року.

Біографія
Народився 10 березня 1950 року в селі Федорівці (нині Генічеський район Херсонської області, Україна). 1971 року закінчив Одеське художнє училище (викладач С. Лукін); 1979 року — Львівський інститут прикладного та декоративного мистецтва (викладачі Теофіл Максисько, Володимир Овсійчук).

Після здобуття фахової освіти працює у Львівському інституті прикладного та декоративного мистецтва/ Львівській національній академії мистецтв: старший науковий співробітник науково-дослідного сектору, у 1991—2012 роках — старший викладач, завідувач кафедри академічного живопису. Живе у Львові в будинку на вулиці Щурата, № 5.

Творчість
Працює у галузях станкового і монументального живопису, книжкової графіки. Автор мозаїчних композцій для громадських та церковних споруд, живописних полотен, графічних портретних рисунків і шаржів. Серед робіт:

живопис
 «Коли прозріє Україна» (1980);
 «Духовність України» (1989);
 «Тарас Шевченко з нами» (1991);
 «Душа в клітці» (1991);
 «Народження духовності» (1994);
 «За що?» (2001);
 «Зеленійся, рідне поле» (2009);
мозаїчні панно
 «Дилема» (1997);
 «Явлення Покрови в храмі» (церква святого Миколая у смт Великому Любіні, 1998);
 «Думи кобзаря» (Підгайці, 2002);
 «Хрещення Ісуса Христа» (церква святої Параскеви П'ятниці у Львові, 2002);
 для церкви Матері Божої Марії (село Сокільники, 2003);
 «Ісус Христос» (дзвіниця церкви святого Володимира та Ольги у місті Винниках, 2005);
 «Митрополит Іов Борецький» (церква святого Миколая у смт Великому Любіні, 2013);
 для собору Пресвятої Богородиці при монастирі отців василіян (смт Брюховичі, 2018);
інше
 графічна серія «Портрети» (2003—2019);
 оформлення компакт-диска «Духовна музика України» за поемою «Неофіти» Тараса Шевченка (2010);
 оформлення поетичної збірки «АТОманія» Ігоря Гургули (Львів, 2015).
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Бере участь в обласних, всеукраїнських художніх виставках з 1980 року. Персональні виставки відбулися у Львові у 2000, 2003, 2010–2011 роках, Каневі у 2010 році.

Уклав посібник «Синтез искусств в подготовке специалистов декоративно-прикладного направления» (Сургут, 2005), навчально-методичний посібник «Шарж і карикатура в системі графічного мистецтва» (Львів, 2007).

Окремі роботи художника роботи зберігаються у Львівській галереї мистецтв, Шевченківському національному заповіднику у Каневі.

Примітки

Література

Українські живописці
Українські портретисти
Радянські художники
Радянські педагоги
Українські художники-монументалісти
Художники-мозаїчисти
Українські графіки
Українські ілюстратори
Художники Львова
Члени Національної спілки художників України

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United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) yesterday called on New York area hotels to refuse to host President Ahamdinejad and the Iranian Delegation during the upcoming conference at the United Nations, scheduled to begin in New York City on May 3, 2010.
Speaking about UANI's hotel campaign, UANI President Ambassador Mark D. Wallace said: President Ahamdinejad and his regime are the world's leading state sponsors of terrorism; they defy international law in developing a nuclear weapon and brutally repress their own people.
No American-based venue should host this outlaw regime. We call on all New York-area venues to help isolate and condemn the Iranian regime by refusing to host President Ahamdinejad and his cohorts.
UANI, in September 2009, called on all New York City hotels to refuse to host President Ahamdinejad and the Iranian delegation. As a result President Ahamdinejad was confined to the one venue that agreed to host him.
UANI calls on all New York City hotels to join with multinational corporations such as General Electric, Huntsman, Caterpillar, Ingersoll Rand, KPMG, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Siemens, ENI, Petronas, Daimler, Royal Dutch Shell, Trafigura and Glencore, all of which have recently either severed their business ties with the Iranian regime or announced that they will not pursue new business with Iran.


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The Jack Russell Terrier is originally from England where he got the name of Reverend Jack Russell who developed a dog for his hobby, the fox hunt. Terrier (terra is Latin for soil) is the collective name for a group of dog breeds descended from small hunting dogs used by the Romans to chase game from their burrows. Terriers typically track and trap foxes, otters, martens, polecats, badgers, rats and rabbits in their den. Judging by the barking of the dog, the hunter can dig out and kill the game. But if necessary, the terrier can also fight himself. To perform these tasks properly, terriers often have a fierce character and do not like to be commanded.
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Blurryface is not just the name of the American indie duo Twenty One Pilots' recently released album, it's Tyler Joseph's alter ego. As Tyler said "it represents all the things that I as an individual, but also everyone around me, is insecure about". So, Blurryface has it's own twitter account and a story to tell.
The album starts intensive with the almost disturbing music background with the drops of piano, which calm the song down a bit, with a statement in every word of the "HeavyDirtySoul". Tyler wants us to think and when he asks"Can you save my heavy dirty soul", you reflect this question on yourself. Can we save our heavy dirty souls from the YOLO zombies we've become?
The intensiveness of the first song disappears with the second one. "STRESSED OUT" has the relaxing sound and dance beats. In this one Blurryface says: "My name's 'Blurryface' and I care what you think" While the first song was extremely confident, this one opens the insecure half of Blurryface to us, it's full of nostalgia and the desire to "turn back time", when everything was easier and better than now. It is relatable to everyone, we all have fears of future and growing up and the childhood seems to be the happiest period of our lives "but now we're stressed out.
Oh, the happy reggae of the third song of the Blurryface "Ride" just doesn't match with the deep meaningful lyrics and I just love it, love it, love it. We all have heavy thoughts but we have to stay happy and just slide through this life like the cave penguin from Fight Club.
After the happy mood of the "Ride", the single "Fairly local" feels dark and intense. So, after riding all over the places of life, Blurryface "have seen the streets you're walking down", he's fairly local and he is confident in his thoughts again, he doesn't let people change him and put labels on him, because he knows who he is.
"Tear in my heart" brings the happy mood back, love is in the air, the dangerous but tender love, that we all need while dealing with all our fears, doubts and problems.
"The judge" is what Twenty One Pilots is in terms of instrumental background. It starts with the light ukulele, rises with the guitar, slows down by pace and ends with the piano. Playing with instrumentals is what we love about this band. But who is a judge here? Does Tyler refer to God as a judge and asks him to set him free and let his freezing dirty soul get warm in hell?
The "Doubt" sounds more electric and after the thoughts about the Judge it's logical to take some time and think about fears and doubts, what is wrong and what is right in our lives. And as we know Tyler is known for being a Christian, so it's fair to guess that he refers to God, the Judge, again and asks him to not forget about him even when he doubts him, cause he is just a little scared child.
"Polarize" sounds like something you can hear in a common night club at first, but the lyrics and Tyler's scream by the end of the song makes you change your mind. Listen to this song and imagine Tyler continuing his conversation with God.
And the cheerful instrumentals are back with "We don't believe what's on TV". You can think this song is about your love, you can think it is about your faith. It is a song about something or someone, who means the world to you. Someone who doesn't make you want to die for, but who makes you want to live for.
"Message man", you sneaky! Going from electro to reggae bouncing, well done you. What about the lyrics? Well "These lyrics aren't for everyone, only few understand" is more like you will understand it your way and keep it a secret.
I love the soft high vocals in the "Hometown", continuing the conversation between the soul and its keeper.
"Not today" makes you dance and bang your head when Tyler shouts out words. The lyrics as Tyler sings truly are quiet depressive in comparison with the whole mood of the song, but hey, we got used to it already, right?
Blurryface is the shadow of Tyler, his insecure alter ego, who jumps in emotions from being scared or angry, or happy and in love. I feel like Tyler as a Christian is going through the phase of doubting his religion and desperately wants God to help him, to show him that he's still there.
The instrumental part of the album is brilliant in its schizophrenic mix of genres as always, piano, ukulele, guitars and Josh Dun's outstanding drums are always a pleasure.


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Bill Shorten calls for a Federal ICAC. First investigation for corruption should be into the CDPP Sarah McNaughton
By Shane Dowling on January 31, 2018 • ( 5 Comments )
Sarah McNaughton has been the CDPP for over 18 months and to my knowledge has only charged Kathy Jackson and 5 or 6 others from the Trade Union Royal Commission which is meant to be part of her role. What makes it stranger is that she is well aware of the Royal Commission and the hundreds of charges it recommenced given she worked there. While she might not be able to have direct involvement in any prosecution arising from the Royal Commission because of perceived bias it is her office that has responsibility.
I also wrote to Ms McNaughton on Monday in relation to the frivolous and vexatious charge against me as per the below email and asked for the charge to be dropped. But that aside the bigger issue for the public is why such a lack of action in relation to the hundreds of charges recommended against dozens of people at the Royal Commission.
Ms McNaughton was appointed as the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions in May 2016 which was only 6 months after she finished being paid $900,000 for 9 months work as Senior Counsel Assisting the Trade Union Royal Commission.
Even if Sarah McNaughton drops the charge against me as per the below request she still has many questions that she needs to be answered in relation to the pathetic performance of the CDPP under her leadership in relation to the criminal charges recommended by of the Trade Union Royal Commission.
As it happens Senator Kimberley Kitching is mentioned in the below email and the Trade Union Royal Commission recommended criminal charges against her, but Sarah McNaughton has done nothing.
The below email to Sarah McNaughton is in regards to the frivolous police charges against me for an email I sent to NSW judges in 2016. (Click here and here to read more)
From: SHANE DOWLING
Sent: 29 January 2018 13:09
To: Sarah.McNaughton@cdpp.gov.au; inquiries@cdpp.gov.au
Cc: andrew.colvin@afp.gov.au
Subject: CDPP conspiring with Chief Justice Tom Bathurst & Ors to have journalist Shane Dowling jailed for exposing judicial bribery and paedophile ring and protection
Dear Ms Sarah McNaughton SC – Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions
I am writing to you requesting that you withdraw the frivolous and vexatious criminal charges against me of using a carriage service the harass and intimidate which related to an email I sent in September 2016 to judges of the NSW Supreme Court in my role as a journalist accusing eighteen of them of being paedophiles or suspected paedophiles and also raising bribery allegations. This is blatantly a conspiracy to have someone falsely charged which now includes you and the CDPP, Chief Justice Tom Bathurst of the NSW Supreme Court, the NSW Crown Solicitors office and others. Not one of the judges has complained or denied the allegations and only Registrar Rebel Kenna has made a complaint to the police.
The key evidence of the conspiracy to have me falsely charged is the police statement of the Chris D'Aeth who is the Executive Director and Principle Register of the Supreme Court of NSW. Mr D'Aeth makes it very clear is his police statement that Chief Justice Tom Bathurst is the one driving the attempt to have me convicted and jailed of criminal charges. (See paragraph 10 of the attached police statement for specific mention of Chief Justice Bathurst)
Based on Mr D'Aeth's police statement it is also very clear that the office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and the Australian Federal Police decided in 2016 that there was no crime committed by me. It is also clear that the NSW police also said no crime had been committed after a complaint in February 2017 by Registrar Rebel Kenna and I have only been charged after a further complaint to the NSW police by Crown Solicitor Lea Armstrong in May/June 2017. So why are you still proceeding with the matter when your office even flagged withdrawing it on the 12th of December 2017?
Your office has also failed for the third time to serve the full brief of evidence which you should have done by the 16/1/18. As you will see by the police witness statement of Chris D'Aeth at paragraph 13 he talks of producing emails as part of his witness statement. I am still not in receipt of those emails. In summary:
Chief Justice Tim Bathurst is the driving force behind having me charged and attempting to have me jailed as per Chris D'Aeth's police statement. So why is there not an interstate judge hearing the matter to avoid perceived bias?
Can you confirm why your office, or the Federal Police did not charge me in 2016 when the matter was first referred to your office then you referred it to the federal police. Is it true that you or the AFP advised Chief Justice Tom Bathurst that no crime had been committed?
Can you explain why you have failed three times to serve a full brief of evidence? Why have you not served copies of the emails as referred to in Chris D'Aeth's police statement?
Given only Rebel Kenna has made a complaint does that mean the other 17 judges named as paedophiles or suspected paedophiles are admitting the crimes or are they admitting that I have committed no offence in sending the email.
Further evidence served by your office on the 16/1/18 shows that NSW Police told me as far back as 2014 that calling someone a paedophile is not a crime. So why have you charged me?
Also, the further evidence served by your office on the 16/1/18 relates to Andrew Landeryou calling journalists paedophiles and other names during the course of the Trade Union Royal Commission in an attempt to intimidate journalists to stop writing about his wife's criminal conduct as General Manager of the Health Services Union Victoria Number 1 Branch. His wife is Kimberly Kitching who is now Senator and the Royal Commission did recommend criminal charges against her in 2015. Can you explain why your office has never charged her? Are you also aware that Andrew Landeryou and Kimberley Kitching are very good friends with Bill Shorten? Is that why Kimberley Kitching has never been charged by your office even though the Royal Commission recommended it? I am sure you would be aware of this given you worked at the Royal Commission.
In Police Officer David Price's statement, he refers to Bondi Detectives taking over his investigation into Andrew Landeryou. Why are there no statements from the Bondi Detectives? Is it because they refused to perjure themselves? (See end of attachment for a copy of David Price's his statement)
Why has the hearing on the 28th March only been set down for a 2-hour hearings? Sounds like an attempted carpet sweep to me.
Why has your office been colluding with the NSW Crown Solicitors office and sharing material and information? The NSW Crown Solicitors Office have acted for the NSW Supreme Court to have me charged with contempt of court for an associated matter for which I am awaiting sentencing. I cannot say much more as they have put suppression orders on it. So why does your office know all the details if suppression orders have been put on it?
Is your office just keeping the charges going until I am sentenced on the contempt matter then plan to withdraw your charge? If this is the case, then it is clear collusion as I am sure everyone involved would know that if you withdraw your charge it undermines the credibility of the contempt charge.
In 2015 "Senator Bill Heffernan claimed in Parliament on Tuesday (19/10/15) that he has a police list of 28 prominent people that includes a former Prime Minister and current judges that are suspected of being paedophiles". Can you advise what action has the CDPP taken? (Click here to read more)
In 2015 Fairfax Media and the ABC's Four Corners program reported that: "The Mafia bribed NSW judges $2.2m a top-secret police report alleges." Can you advise what action has the CDPP taken? (Click here to read more)
Can you please respond by the close of business on Friday the 2nd of February 2018. I am currently self-represented and awaiting legal aid approval so please respond directly to me. Just so there is no confusion. I am a journalist and will publish this email. You may remember me from the Trade Union Royal Commission which I reported on extensively and you were Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission.
Will Sarah McNaughton withdraw the charge? I don't know but her and the CDPP need to be investigated no matter what. While there are many issues raised by me in the above email one of the most disgusting is that the CDPP have now breached court orders three times by failing to serve a full brief of evidence. I'll let you know what happens.
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Categories: CDPP
Tagged as: CDPP, Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, Sarah McNaughton
Australia's paedophile epidemic being covered-up by judges
Craig McLachlan goes for the victim shaming defence to fight sexual assault and harassment allegations
clearly shorten is so confident of the judicial system! better get on ancestry.com might be related to stokes ! actually noone know the connections between these people except they are sweetly looked after
Noteworthy is that David Feeney is to resign due to the citizenship debacle and ALP .. Bill Shorten is under the wheels of his party's chariot in an upcoming by-election, not surprising he wither's and dither's like a fish-wife trying to sell rotting fish.
When will he ever realise that all the straws he draws will be short.
angela coral eisenhauer says:
Well done Kangaroo court. Please take the time to read my facebook latest posts, if you have time, and if fakebook hasnt crashed by then 😊
I completely agree with Bill Shorten's call for a Federal ICAC, as long as Bill Shorten & his crime gang are the first people or the first lot of people that are investigated for corruption. There is evidence a mile long that exposes Bill Shorten & his cronies committing widespread corruption for as much as 20 years. Bill Shorten actually thinks he's above the law in wanting this Federal ICAC. Well Bill Shorten must be very careful for what he wishes for.
Pingback: Further pieces of the puzzle that Malcolm Turnbull abused the law in covering-up crimes by Kerry Packer | Kangaroo Court of Australia


text:
MS-Sync-Flickr-Provider
=======================

A Microsoft Sync Framework SimpleSyncProvider implementation for Flickr

## Usage

```C#
var localProv = new FileSyncProvider(homeFolder);
var flickrSettings = new FlickrConnectionSettings
	{
		ApiKey = "Your Flickr Key",
		SharedSecret = "Secret",
		AccessToken = "oAuth Token",
		AccessSecret = "oAuth Secret",
		UserId = "Flickr User Id"
	};
var flickrProv = new FlickrFullEnumerationProvider(Guid.Parse("0360D566-B745-4879-9E54-F6BB083D92E1"), homeFolder, flickrSettings);
var agent = new SyncOrchestrator
	{
		Direction = SyncDirectionOrder.DownloadAndUpload,
		LocalProvider = localProv,
		RemoteProvider = flickrProv
	};
agent.Synchronize();
```

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Beauménil  es una población y comuna francesa, en la región de Lorena, departamento de Vosgos, en el distrito de Épinal y cantón de Bruyères.

Demografía

Enlaces externos
 INSEE
 Elecciones municipales de 2008

Beaumenil


The KS1 children have chosen to complete a sponsored 'Polar Expedition' themed obstacle course for their Lenten Fundraiser this year.
Our Lenten fundraiser is taking place on Friday 5th April. Children will complete a non-stop, 30-minute obstacle course.
After discussion, they have chosen to support Wishes4Kids and The Childhood Tumour Trust, as these charities have supported a child in school and the children were keen to support both charities- donations will be halved following the event.
Please help the children to 'advertise' their sponsored event so that we can raise as much money as possible for these very worthy causes!


Open seven days a week, our store is in the Maygate Shopping Plaza, located directly across from Golden Gate Shopping Plaza on Mayfield Road next to Huntington Bank. We repair broken Apple devices, including iPads, iPhones and iPods, most Samsung devices and many more. Here, you'll find the battery or light bulb that you need. Visit our friendly, professional staff today! We have a giant inventory of batteries and light bulbs for the home, business, and government. Plus, we provide on-site services, including battery analysis, installation, recycling options and a variety of additional commercial services.


Efficient Symbolic Tools package (EST) is a tool for the formal verification of systems. It is a collection of symbolic algorithms based on binary decision diagrams (BDDs). Curently, it supports only our own BDD package called Biddy, but one day it could support other BDD packages, too.
EST itself provides libraries of functions, which you can use in your own main program. Or, you can try our simple Tcl/Tk GUI called My Interface, from which you can access all the features.
EST distinguishes itself as a small and portable package with a readable source code in C and well implemented algorithms. EST runs on many different computers with different operating systems, including GNU/Linux, MS Windows, and Solaris.


text:
Cmentarz Saint-Josse-ten-Noode (fr. Cimetière de Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, niderl. Begraafplaats van Sint-Josse-ten-Noode) znajduje się w gminie Schaerbeek w Regionie Stołecznym Brukseli. Został założony w drugiej połowie XIX wieku. Pochowano na nim wielu znaczących przedstawicieli belgijskiej kultury i polityki.

Pochowani na Cmentarzu Schaerbeek
 Charles de Groux (1825-1870)
 André Van Hasselt (1806-1874)
 Jean-Baptiste Madou (1796-1877)
 Caroline Gravière (1821-1878)
 Eugène Van Bemmel (1824-1880)
 Charles Rogier (1800-1885)
 Édouard Agneessens (1842-1885)
 Armand Steurs (1849-1899))
 François Binjé (1835-1900)
 Guillaume Charlier (1854-1925)
 George Garnir (1868-1939)
 Georges Pètre, (1874-1942)
 Franz Courtens (1854-1943)
 Guy Cudell (1916-1999)

Cmentarze w Belgii
Saint-Josse-ten-Noode
Schaarbeek


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View and enter eulogies for Rodney Edgar Mosbacker, USMA '69, who passed away on March 18, 2019.
Click on "Post a new eulogy" to add your own eulogy to Rodney.
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text:
Sophia Kurz
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Sophia Kurz is a sophomore double-majoring in Journalism and Informatics at the University of Texas at Austin. She is currently a general reporter for Texas News Channel and editor for The ATX Review.
Devleena Samanta Invents Ways to Detect Molecules in Living Cells
Devleena Samanta joined the Department of Chemistry in fall 2021 as an assistant professor. She designs and synthesizes nanoscale materials to address challenges in biology and medicine, and she's passionate about teaching students from a variety of backgrounds. She received her Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University. We recently spoke with her to learn more.
Chemistry Nanotechnology
Assistant Professor Lief Fenno is Developing New Tools to Treat Addiction
A lot of excitement in recent years has centered around a new set of tools that allow researchers to turn neurons on and off in the brains of living animals using light. These tools, called optogenetics, hold promise for a better understanding of how memory and learning work in healthy brains and might lead to new treatments for a host of disorders, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, depression and addiction.
Neuroscience Faculty profile
Undergraduate Research Played Role in Paper Tied to Early Career Award
Alex Bard, Joe Espinoza and Tyler King with two other FRI students (Margaret Tran and Emily Reynolds) in the Luminators research stream at the annual FRI picnic in 2014.
When they joined the Luminators stream of the Freshman Research Initiative, alumni Tyler King, Alex Bard, Joe Espinoza, Desmond Schipper and Ohri Esarte Palomero all expected to have experiences in chemistry research that would serve them well in their future. What they may not have predicted was that they all would contribute to a paper that the Journal of Coordination Chemistry singled out for special recognition for being among its highest quality articles of the year.
Undergraduates Undergraduate Research Chemistry Freshman Research Initiative Accolades
NSF Awards Graduate Research Fellowships to 22 UT Natural Sciences Students
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awards a Graduate Research Fellowship to students who plan on pursuing a research-based master's or Ph.D. program in a STEM-related field. The fellowship is awarded to exceptional individuals and will support them in elevating their research with the goal of furthering advancements that will transform the future.
Undergraduates Graduate Students Statistics and Data Sciences Physics Neuroscience Mathematics Marine Science Integrative Biology Human Ecology Computer Science Chemistry astronomy molecular biology Class of 2022
Professor Layla Parast Aims to Improve Healthcare Using Biostatistics
New faculty members in the College of Natural Sciences take on the important roles of mentor and researcher, always pushing the limits of science and inspiring their pupils. This academic year, we gained faculty members whose compelling character and work are worth learning about. Meet new statistics and data science professor, Layla Parast, whose work in biostatistics aims to improve medical treatments and trial outcomes.
Statistics and Data Sciences health & medicine Alumni Faculty profile
Some Trees May Play an Outsized Role in the Fight on Global Warming
Black locust trees have a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria that allow them to access nitrogen, which is critical for growth. Credit: iStock.
As greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide continue to pile up in the atmosphere, the world is experiencing more destructive extreme weather events like hurricanes, heatwaves, floods and droughts. A new study, published earlier this month in the scientific journal Nature Plants, finds that as Earth continues to warm, a certain group of trees, called nitrogen-fixing trees, may be able to help forests remove more heat-trapping CO2 from the atmosphere than previously thought.
Integrative Biology Climate Change Postdoctoral Research Botany Energy Environment and Sustainability Biodiversity
AI Bests Expert Human Players at Video Game
A still from the video game Gran Turismo Sport. Credit: Jamie Wynder /Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0).
An artificial intelligence system made history recently by beating a human world champion in Sony's popular video racing game, Gran Turismo Sport. The technological feat, which made the cover of the journal Nature, involved an AI system designed in part by three University of Texas at Austin computer science Ph.D. alumni and professor Peter Stone.
Artificial Intelligence Computer Science Alumni
Astronomer Brendan Bowler Receives 2022 Sloan Research Fellowship
Brendan Bowler, an assistant professor of astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences has been selected as a 2022 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in Physics.
Space Planets astronomy Accolades
Zak Page Named a 2022 Cottrell Scholar
Zachariah Page, assistant professor of chemistry at The University of Texas at Austin, has been selected as a 2022 Cottrell Scholar by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement.
Accolades Chemistry


text:
Be Altitude: Respect Yourself (180g LP) + Stax Vintage Logo T-Shirt Bundle
Details This bundle contains The Staple Singers' album Be Altitude: Respect Yourself on 180-gram vinyl and a Stax Vintage shirt in maroon, discounted together while supplies last. 50th Anniversary Edition of The Staple Singers' iconic fourth album for Stax Records, "Be Altitude: Respect Yourself". Featuring the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and The Memphis Horns, the album is pressed on 180-gram vinyl with …
Be Altitude: Respect Yourself (180g LP)
Details 50th Anniversary Edition of The Staple Singers' iconic fourth album for Stax Records, "Be Altitude: Respect Yourself". Featuring the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and The Memphis Horns, the album is pressed on 180-gram vinyl with ALL-ANALOG mastering from the original stereo tapes by Jeff Powell at Take Out Vinyl. Includes the Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit "I'll Take You …
Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection (180g 7-LP Box Set) + Stax Vintage Logo T-Shirt Bundle
wpengine February 9, 2022
Details Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection presents all of the group's studio albums released on the iconic Memphis label, spanning 1968–1974, and features the Staples' biggest hits, including "I'll Take You There," "Respect Yourself" and "If You're Ready (Come Go with Me)." The six studio albums were cut from the original analog masters by Jeff Powell at Take …
Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection (7-CD) + Wattstax Hoodie Bundle
wpengine December 3, 2021
Details This bundle contains the Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection in a 7-CD box set, along with a Wattstax hoodie. Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection presents all of The Staple Singers' studio albums released on the iconic Stax label, spanning 1968-1974. The final, seventh disc offers rarities, non-album singles, and several live recordings from the legendary 1972 Wattstax music festival. Housed in a slipcase, the collection …
Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection (7-CD) + Wattstax T-Shirt Bundle
Details This bundle contains the Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection in a 7-CD box set, along with a Wattstax t-shirt. Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection presents all of The Staple Singers' studio albums released on the iconic Stax label, spanning 1968-1974. The final, seventh disc offers rarities, non-album singles, and several live recordings from the legendary 1972 Wattstax music festival. Housed in a slipcase, the collection …
Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection (7-CD) + Stax Vintage Logo T-Shirt Bundle
wpengine January 3, 2021
Details Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection presents all of The Staple Singers' studio albums released on the iconic Stax label, spanning 1968-1974. The final, seventh disc offers rarities, non-album singles, and several live recordings from the legendary 1972 Wattstax music festival. Housed in a slipcase, the collection also includes a deluxe booklet with archival photos and new liner notes from American music specialist and curator …
Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection (7-CD Set)
Details Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection presents all of The Staple Singers' studio albums released on the iconic Stax label, spanning 1968-1974. The final, seventh disc offers rarities, non-album singles, and several live recordings from the legendary 1972 Wattstax music festival. Housed in a slipcase, the collection also includes a deluxe booklet with archival photos and new liner notes from American music specialist and …
Stax Vintage Logo T-Shirt (Maroon)
Details A Stax short sleeve t-shirt in maroon Features a vintage Stax logo on the front Comfortable 100% cotton jersey t-shirt Includes a printed Stax Records custom neck tag
Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection (180g 7-LP Box Set)


text:
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Lindsay Lohan Admits She Failed Drug Test On Twitter — 'I Am A Work In Progress.'
comment 17 Comments
September 20, 2010 7:34AM EDT
EXCLUSIVE: Ryan Seacrest & Julianne Hough Dine With His Parents at Ritzy Atlanta Country Club — SECOND Dinner In Less Than A Month!
Hollywood Life Staff
In town to film 'Footloose,' Julianne accompanies Ryan to an upscale Atlanta Country Club for dinner with his parents!
It looks like things are moving fast between new beaus Ryan Seacrest and Julianne Hough as she was spotted dining out with his parents in Atlanta for the second time this month! An eyewitness tells HollywoodLife.com that the pair pulled up in a town car to an exclusive Atlanta Country Club just before 9 pm on Sept. 18 and exchanged a quick kiss before going inside to dine with his parents. "He was wearing a suit with no tie and she was in a deep red sleeveless dress, they were really affectionate and seemed very relaxed and happy," the source went on to say.
The two were greeted by Ryan's parents, Constance and Gary Seacrest and ate in the club's dimly lit ballroom.
"Julianne looked gorgeous, but she was almost unrecognizable because her hair was so much darker than expected," says the source. "She must have changed it for her new film role."
But this is not the first time the new couple have dined with Ryan's parents. The Seacrest crew, along with Julianne, were spotted at Atlanta's ritzy French restaurant Bistro Niko, Aug. 23, in the upscale Atlanta suburb of Buckhead.
Ryan, a native of Dunwoody, Ga., will soon be on the road again as American Idol begins its new season with judge Jennifer Lopez, but maybe Julianne will still find time to hang out with his parents even while he's gone!
Sources close to the couple are even saying the happy duo are close to tying the knot! So it looks like the 14 year age difference between the 22-year-old stunner and the 36-year-old host is not keeping these two apart!
-Chloe Melas
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American Idol footloose Julianne Hough Ryan Seacrest


Hospitals are under increasing pressure to provide high quality care while reducing costs. In addition to improving the environmental health of their communities, healthcare institutions in New York State and around the country are realizing the value of adopting sustainable practices as a means to reduce costs without compromising quality care.
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Learn more about what NYSP2I has done in this sector.
EPP is growing across industries, but because of the vast quantity of supplies necessary to provide service, opportunities abound in healthcare. EPP is the practice of purchasing products/supplies whose environmental impacts have been found to be less damaging to the environment and human health when compared to competing products/supplies. Many EPP options are available at similar or lower price as the alternative. NYSP2I developed an Excel-based EPP framework to help purchasers compare products.


Chionodes is the closest I could get.
Have been seeing this one here. Chionodes emptor is what I am calling it in my files, but that is not a confirmed ID, just my closest comparison. That bright white thorax doesn't match exactly.
I agree. Looks most like Chionodes emptor.


text:
Q: Getting "Failed assertion, no message given." as error when running Ruby Selenium Test Cases I'm using selenium webdriver to write tests, and the following code returns the error message "Failed assertion, no message given.":
product_name_error_message =  @driver.find_element(:tag_name => "span", :class => "error").text
assert product_name_error_message == "Product Name must be greater than 3 and less than 255 characters!"

Sorry, I'm a newbie to Ruby and I couldn't find any solutions for this error message on the web. I've checked with a browser, this text does appear on the page, and with the proper span tag and class. It's just that the selenium webdriver can't find this element, and throws this inconclusive error. Help?

A: Try displaying what value is returned after you run your first line of code.
So
product_name_error_message =  @driver.find_element(:tag_name => "span", :class => "error").text
puts product_name_error_message
assert product_name_error_message == "Product Name must be greater than 3 and less than 255 characters!"

I reckon that variable does not hold that value anyways.
Also you could club all in one line -
verify { assert(@driver.find_element(:tag_name => "span", :class => "error").text.include?(Product Name must be greater than 3 and less than 255 characters!"),"The text is present")}

A: Webdriver returns unicode values from the webpages. Comparing regular string with unicode one might be the reason why the assertion in your code fails.
Another guess is trailing whitespaces in the element's text value.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange