Tag Archives: Free Speech

Should local Israel boycott arrestees face wrongful charges alone, without your support or media scrutiny?

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COLORADO SPRINGS- There’s a plan tomorrow, Thursday Jan 6 at 1:30, for the first court appearance of BDS activists Cyndy Kulp and Ted Nace, arrested in November at a local shopping center, and charged with trespass to curtail their free speech. THE PLAN is for the two Middle East Peace Project activists to follow legal procedures unobtrusively, no press, no statements, no calling attention to the Israeli war crime they were protesting, or now the patently unconstitutional abridgment of their civil liberties. Self-censorship does seem odd when the original goal was to raise public outcry about injustice in Palestine. Isn’t media scrutiny otherwise the only opportunity which knocks when you’re gagged by wrongful arrest? Not much of a plan. Are veteran BDS campaigners Coloradans For Peace going to disrupt tomorrow’s agenda to sweep BDS/Free-Speech under the rug? HELL YES.

A strategy of keeping your head low, of tempering your message to avoid offense, of your sponsors and allies disassociating themselves from you, is a plan for mice not men.

While it might feel unseemly to call attention to yourself, even as a victim of injustice, that’s the same inhibition that keeps so-called advocates for social reform from protesting in public in the first place. Standing on the sidewalk, holding a sign is about trying to draw attention.

Long time peace activists Kulp and Nace need not check their outspoken humanitarian compulsions at the door tomorrow. Please turn up at 1PM tomorrow outside the Municipal Courthouse to show your support and help the two raise their voices to further the message about which they feel so passionately.

COLORADANS FOR PEACE is scheduling a press conference tomorrow at 1PM to object to the city’s recently unveiled policy of enforcing severe limitations on rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. In the past this harassment has been aimed at antiwar protest, now it is being used to silence critics of Israeli Apartheid and the illegal subjugation of the Palestinian people. If either of these issues is important to you, please come lend your voice.

Below is the policy which the City of Colorado Springs is seeking to enforce:

COLORADO SPRINGS POLICE DEPARTMENT BULLETIN

ORIGINATED BY: COMMANDER BRIAN GRADY
APPROVED BY: DC PETER CAREY
DATE ISSUED: 05-17-10
GENERAL TOPIC: FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS
SERIAL NO: 013-10(P)

The legal counsel for some large business owners has contacted the City Attorney’s Office to request that the Police Department enforce trespassing laws against individuals circulating petitions or otherwise expressing free speech views on their private property. Senior Attorney Will Bain has communicated with the attorneys and has done legal research to determine the current law regarding free speech on private property. Senior Attorney Bain advised that the private rights of the business owner outweigh the free speech rights of the individual.

Additionally, the research by the City Attorney’s Office indicates that at this time the Citadel Mall, Chapel Hills Mall, the First and Main Shopping Center, the World Arena, and University Village can be interpreted to be public areas due to their size, number of stores, and past court rulings. While the malls and shopping center can still impose time, place, and manner restrictions, the charge of trespass will not be appropriate for these five locations in Colorado Springs when addressing free speech rights. BOLOs have been placed on these addresses as a reminder.

All sergeants and officers shall review the additional changes and detailed procedures to be followed in these type cases, which are outlines in General Order 701, dated 01/13/10.

Here is the Coloradans For Peace press release:

Coloradans For Peace and its social justice allies unequivocally reject the City of Colorado Springs assertion to limit free speech rights on public or private property. We reject the conclusion alleged by the City Attorney that current law allows for initiating trespassing charges to curtail individuals “expressing free speech views.”

Whether against antiwar protesters, or activists boycotting Israeli goods stolen from occupied people in violation of international law, we feel that municipal policies should seek to defend, not inhibit, the First Amendment rights of its residents and citizens.

CFP objects to the attempt to set precedent whereby private property landowners operating facilities open to the public can dictate what civil liberties they will allow or disallow. And we certainly oppose law enforcement behavior which takes it upon itself to enforce trespassing charges without being summoned by the traditional complaints to warrant legitimate intervention by police officers.

Render unto Obama the peace symbol that is Obama’s

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I’ve always cherished the peace symbol button I wear on my coat lapel, lovingly decorated for me with rhinestones. But I see what it has become, a broach. Time to take it off, not because it’s grandmotherly, it’s pure and simple outrée. PEACE: Yeah, who doesn’t want peace –so what? That the peace symbol has become ubiquitous would have been something to celebrate only a couple years ago when it marked you as an obstinate hippie or wannabe malcontent. Today peace means Pax Obamana: WORLD PEACE imposed by imperial drone, PEACE KEEPING by occupation. The PEACE OF MIND come of military security. The PEACE AND QUIET absent of conscience, PEACEFULLY free of dissonant free speech. When George Bush said he would bring corporate malfeasance into compliance with the law, we thought he would reform their lawbreaking, instead Bush meant he’d change the law. Obama promised peace, the war = peace incarnation, and he intends to bring us into compliance.

Obama pushes Elena Kagan as rightist

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SCOTUS
Everything I need to know about Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan I learned directly from President Obama. In his email to me yesterday, Obama explained that though Kagan hails from academia, she has an “openness to other viewpoints.” Uh, in the context of school, does “other” mean uneducated? And hasn’t sunlight shed on DC post-Bush revealed that “skill in working with others to build consensus” is code for: shows affinity for corruption? It means believe in change so long as it doesn’t upset the applecart.

By all accounts, Kagan is the kind of conservative I abhor. As Harvard dean, she’s an educator diametrically opposed to enlightened students and faculty. The Peter Principle in its absolutely most corrosive position of authority. Squelch the last tugs of intellectual idealism with moral bankruptcy.

Much as we like to hold its ivy covered walls in high regard, Harvard has served as breeding ground for an inordinate proportion of our nation’s greedy bastards. A conservative foil to such neoliberal ideologues as are Wall Street apprentices would be inhumanitarian indeed. I’ve no doubt Elena Kagan will be a Clarence Thomas of feminism, the Scalia of selflessness, the Roberts of empathy and the Alito of intellect.

Obama thought I might be impressed by an example of advocacy Kagan has shown, the anti-corporate bandwagon I suppose:

“choosing the Citizens United case as her first to argue before the Supreme Court, defending bipartisan campaign finance reform against special interests seeking to spend unlimited money to influence our elections”

Two points we can glean from this: Kagan argued against free speech, against the position of the ACLU in fact. And two, as an indication of her persuasive potential, she lost.

I’m rather disappointed that Obama.com misses the mark so widely with their emails. Considering they don’t just spam, but follow as well, I’m hurt that my profile doesn’t suggest that I’m unlikely to be receptive to reassurances of anyone’s centrism. If they’re tailoring their messaging at all, I’m simply insulted by the last argument that presumes I’m an idiot. I have enough respect for the security services, so I think they would know.

The resignation of Justice Stevens has drawn attention to there no longer being a Protestant on the Supreme Court, which might be problematic if you consider that moral issues are being decided by nine judges neither of whom share the average American’s religion. Kagan would make the court fully one third Jewish, to represent 1% of the population. Geographically the court is 100% from New York. Perhaps is is chiefly Kagan being a woman that prompts Obama to conclude:

ensuring a Court that would be more inclusive, more representative, more reflective of us as a people than ever before

Cindy Sheehan, Phil Ward & Travis AFB

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Action against UAV drones at Travis AFB, CaliforniaColorado Springs has its own loony pro-war vet, every bit the ass like retired sergeant Phil Ward, pictured here trying to intimidate antiwar luminary Cindy Sheehan. The good news is these puffed chests are easily deflated, but you have to act decisively. Sheehan and her colleagues plan to press charges against Ward, who police had let pass, and whom the media permitted to remain nameless.

The media have blamed last week’s altercation on Sheehan, although the video shows otherwise. The elderly vet can be seen moving straight into Sheehan, standing nose to cheek until she steps back and attempts to keep him one bullhorn’s length away. Then Ward strikes at the horn, and pushes others who come to Sheehan’s rescue.

Though he put Sheehan and her fellow activists at risk, Sgt. Ward brought the media’s attention to her new tour to protest the US Air Force bases, in this case Travis AFB in California and Creech AFB in Nevada, from which air strikes on Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq are being conducted via unmanned drones.

Hmm. Where is our good old Major George when we need some publicity?

Here is Sheehan’s own account of “What happened at Travis AFB on Saturday.”

“Killing is right and proper”

Cindy Sheehan

On Saturday, Bay Area CODEPINK and I, started our caravan to Creech AFB in Nevada with a morning peace rally at Travis AFB in Fairfield, CA.

After we got there we were informed that we had to move off the base and were shown by MPs where we could protest. As good warriors for free speech and peace, we groused about it and we were moving forward to where we were supposed to go, when a very angry older man pulled up and started yelling at us to: “Don’t go, I want to counter protest you.” I told him, first of all, he shouldn’t be drinking so early in the morning, and secondly not to worry, that we were going anywhere, we were just moving about 100 yards away.

We decided to just stop and take a picture by the Travis AFB sign and then we were going to get back in our cars to caravan down to Lemoore NAS because it was extremely windy and we were running a little late anyway.

I was giving a little speech denouncing the drone-bombing program and the upcoming 50 percent troop escalation to Afghanistan, when the angry old man, now dressed in a military uniform, charged around the corner and got right into my bullhorn-I told him to get out of my face and he very violently slaps the bullhorn away from me.

Everything happened so quickly: I was so shocked that I was actually physically assaulted that I just turned away from him and that’s when my colleague, Suzanne immediately jumped to my aid and got between the man and me. He swore profusely and pushed her-and then a mini-melee ensued. The numerous MPs and POs that were there finally intervened after I asked them to stop the man from assaulting my friends. I touched no one even though I was within my rights to defend myself. The video clearly shows that the aggressor and the person who brought unreasoning anger and violence to the rally was Sgt. Phil Ward

After the mini-melee, a Fairfield Police Officer, told Suzanne and I that we couldn’t press charges against the man who physically assaulted us because it was a “he-said, she-said” situation, when at least one dozen law enforcement officers were standing around and witnessing the events AND if we did press charges, then Suzanne and I would also have to go to jail until things got sorted out! Complete bullshit.

After all that, when we were leaving, like we were asked to, I got about 2 feet out of the parking lot and I noticed one of the CODEPINK women was not in the van, so I pulled over to the side of the road to wait for her and as soon I we got rolling again, to add insult to injury, I WAS PULLED OVER and detained for about one-half hour and kept isolated in my car from the others until I was presented with a ticket for “impeding traffic!”

We dropped my daughter’s car off and I hopped in the van with a group of desperadoes, (with me being the third youngest, at 52, and six out of eleven in the van being over 70), and we headed down to Lemoore NAS and a National Guard post in Fresno. After another three- hour drive from Fresno, we landed at a cheap motel in Mojave California and I was shocked to open my email and see that I had received numerous emails attacking me for essentially “bullying” a poor, old military veteran.

I watched the news videos to confirm my recollection, which was 100 percent correct. I got to watch an interview that Phil Ward did after his attack on us and he says that the killing in the wars is “right and proper” and was exceedingly upset with Obama because he is only sending 34,000 more troops to Afghanistan when the generals asked for 40,000 more. During an interview with me, I am clearly shaken, but I say, “no matter how much violence they bring to us, we will bring them more peace.”

A thing to think about in this whole episode, is that at least one area newspaper posted that we were going to be at Travis AFB, and it only drew ONE person out to protest us who was unreasonably aggressive and almost comically out of control? Hmm-it makes one wonder what Phil Ward was up to. He charged out of his car at us from the second he got there and felt it was okay to be physically aggressive towards me and the other protestors and he did get away with it with impunity?

We will bring them more peace, but we will also bring them justice, too, as we are planning on pressing charges against Phil Ward as soon as we return from Creech AFB.

There’s scum that attack and more scum that protect those attackers.

There’s scum that take away our rights to peaceably assemble and to freedom of speech, and more scum that protect those who try to steal those rights.

We the People need to be the ones to vigorously defend our rights and defend peace on earth from everyone from Sgt. Phil Ward to President Obama who think that killing is “right and proper.”

Video of Phil Ward attacking our protest.

We will be pressing charges against Phil Ward and Officer Glasshoff from Fairfied, CA and I will be fighting the ticket that I received that day

FDR wanted an Economic Bill of Rights

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You think Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address was a zinger, you should see FDR’s. Unearthed by Michael Moore for his new movie, the footage records Roosevelt declaring his intention to pursue a Second Bill of Rights. FDR died before he could make it happen, and you’ll never feel more sorry for yourself. FDR proposed these economic rights because our “political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.” They were: equal rights to a job, fair pay, a home, medical care, retirement, and education. All these would have been affordable to the prospering industrial superpower, before the richest 1% took ownership of 90% of America’s wealth.

Curiously, as revealed in the film, FDR’s diplomats sent to rebuild Europe and Japan, did survive the president, and were able to draft new constitutions which guaranteed those rights. As a result, our former enemies, the refashioned Germans, Italians and Japanese, have all these protections. Theirs are now the most prosperous economies on Earth.

FDR in 1944: Read it and weep.

It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.

This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.

As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.

We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.

Plucky ACORN staff show compassion for demonstrably stupid crackers

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Hannah Giles poses as hapless prostitute to defraud ACORN office
Congress has sadly overreacted to the Fox News video sting operation to discredit ACORN. Over the summer, most of the community activism offices did run the Giles/O’Keefe whore/pimp act straight out the door, but invariably some staff member was going to take pity on the inadvisably-dressed, street-smart-deficient pair.

What are you going to do, tell someone they’re too stupid to a) turn tricks b) mortgage a whorehouse c) traffic in child prostitutes?

Nor can you put the word out to all your offices to be on the lookout for two dopey white kids, dressed for success based on Quentin Tarantino characters, who appear to be trying to effect an undercover sting. Because that would be racial profiling. Community activists aren’t like the CIA, prepared to entrap the least idiot who voices aspirations to be an outlaw. Because American idiots abound.

I used to have a telephone number listed in the Yellow Pages under Science. Long story, but we’d get calls from uneducated white people looking for laboratory equipment, specifically beakers and measuring devices, for manufacturing Meth. Regularly. I didn’t tell them to get lost, or to turn themselves in. I referred them to the public library where a reference librarian would be able to redirect their wild hair with trained gentleness.

At yesterday’s Teabag Constitution Day Rally, I was reminded about interacting with idiots. There wasn’t an angry white person there who’d graduated high school. Someone was speaking about the constitution, and asked the crowd which amendment protected their right to free speech. The response was silent.

Arguments broke out between “patriots” and counter-protesters. Here’s how they devolved: “Have you read the Constitution?” “HAVE YOU?” “Have you?” “HAVE YOU?” “Have you?” Ad infinitum ignoratum.

The best sign was held aloft, directly in the center, by a young cracker daughter. It read, in giant, meticulously markered bold letters: LIEIR!

The is no talking sense with dumb bastards. You can only be nice, advise them to look things up, read, get an education. Why step on their dreams? If they think their best chances in life lay in prostitution and pimping, who are you to stand in their way. Their inglorious venture will be thwarted by law enforcement soon enough.

Why does this sound familiar?

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Village President John Deschane, 60, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam, said many people in town believe it’s disrespectful to fly the flag upside down.

“If he wants to protest, let him protest but find a different way to do it,” Deschane said

Translation from Right Wing Bullshit to Real English:
“You have the right to free speech unless we dislike what you say or how you say it”
“We’re Fighting For Your Freedom, How DARE you go ahead and actually use that Freedom?”

Dispute over flag protest erupts in Wisc. village
AP

By ROBERT IMRIE, Associated Press Writer Robert Imrie, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jul 10, 2:44 pm ET

WAUSAU, Wis. – An American flag flown upside down as a protest in a northern Wisconsin village was seized by police before a Fourth of July parade and the businessman who flew it — an Iraq war veteran — claims the officers trespassed and stole his property.

A day after the parade, police returned the flag and the man’s protest — over a liquor license — continued.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin is considering legal action against the village of Crivitz for violating Vito Congine Jr.’s’ First Amendment rights, Executive Director Chris Ahmuty said.

“It is not often that you see something this blatant,” Ahmuty said.

In mid-June, Congine, 46, began flying the flag upside down — an accepted way to signal distress — outside the restaurant he wants to open in Crivitz, a village of about 1,000 people some 65 miles north of Green Bay.

He said his distress is likely bankruptcy because the village board refused to grant him a liquor license after he spent nearly $200,000 to buy and remodel a downtown building for an Italian supper club.

Congine’s upside-down-flag represents distress to him; to others in town, it represents disrespect of the flag.

Hours before a Fourth of July parade, four police officers went to Congine’s property and removed the flag under the advice of Marinette County District Attorney Allen Brey.

Neighbor Steven Klein watched in disbelief.

“I said, ‘What are you doing?’ Klein said. “They said, ‘It is none of your business.'”

The next day, police returned the flag.

Brey declined comment Friday.

Marinette County Sheriff Jim Kanikula said it was not illegal to fly the flag upside down but people were upset and it was the Fourth of July.

“It is illegal to cause a disruption,” he said.

The parade went on without any problems, Kanikula said.

Village President John Deschane, 60, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam, said many people in town believe it’s disrespectful to fly the flag upside down.

“If he wants to protest, let him protest but find a different way to do it,” Deschane said.

Congine, a Marine veteran who served in Iraq in 2004, said he intends to keep flying the flag upside down.

“It is pretty bad when I go and fight a tyrannical government somewhere else,” Congine said, “and then I come home to find it right here at my front door.”

At least they didn’t beat up any elderly and disabled people…

This time…

Judge Larry Naves mocks justice in Ward Churchill ruling

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Judge Larry Naves Ward Churchill rulingYesterday Judge Larry Naves vacated the jury verdict in the Ward Churchill trial and refused to compel CU to reinstate Churchill saying that to do so would send a message to students that the University of Colorado “tolerates academic misconduct.” This, despite the fact that the jury found that charges of academic misconduct were made in order to silence Churchill without appearing to violate his free speech rights and wrongly fired him based on the trumped up charges.

The judge also failed to award any damages to Churchill, nor did he rule that CU must pay his legal fees. Further, Judge Naves’ 42-page ruling indicated that CU was a quasi-governmental body and, as such, should have been shielded from litigation to begin with.

Of course, Churchill attorney David Lane will appeal the ruling to a higher court, hopefully one that has more respect for the judicial system and the Constitution. This isn’t over, but how unfortunate that the bastard Judge Naves has prolonged the charade.

yet another Triple Standard… (quadruple, quintuple, sextuple ….)

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A group of “hippies” including a retired Judge get beaten by the CSPD at a parade where the entrance fees and requirements are fulfilled, the Gag-Zette and all it’s Sieg Heil readership say “well, Free Speech, yes, but there have to recognitions of Consequences of that Speech (In other words, we’re “Free” to say whatever we want as long as the Local Gestapo isn’t offended in any way) Ward Churchill…

Sues because a Government Agency, (state college) machs mit der Sieg Heil and obeys the orders of UnterFuhrer Bill Owens and fires him on made-up charges…

The jury agrees but only awards him a dollar.

One Juror says the same thing, “Free speech, yes, but there has to be recognition of Consequences of Free Speech”

Meaning, once again, that the Local Gestapo can crack down on Free speech…

An American journalist gets arrested in Iraq and it’s a “Hostage Situation” according to the Same Right Wing Freaks who think we should be beaten, impoverished or imprisoned for “free” speech.

The Right Wing FigPuckers like our Regular ChickenHawk Trolls say WE should be docile and accept punishment for Free Speech but not their Right Wing Accomplices.

They say WE should be punished for Civil Disobedience but that THEIR War Criminal “heroes” should go unpunished for THEIR murders and Tortures and other Violent Crimes.

Like the Blackwater Goon Squads.

I’m not for the death penalty, but the four Blackwater Goons who got hacked up and hanged on the Fallujah bridge, while nobody deserves death, they DID get exactly what they and their Comrades in and out of the Official Military dish out routinely.

But again, we should be punished for objecting.

Some of the Right Wing Freaks have suggested that I should be beaten up or even murdered for pointing out these things.

Since they have no MORAL objections to those suggested actions, and their Leaders say that there’s no LEGAL objections, and the Local Gestapo like the EPCSD and the CSPD would look the other way or perhaps even participate in such actions, I guess the only REAL reason they haven’t comes down to Simple Cowardice.

Zionist Right Wing launches new effort to fire another Left university professor

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William RobinsonUniversity of California- Santa Barbara Sociology and Global Studies Professor, William Robinson, is under attack from the Jewish Anti-Defamation League for having spoken out against Israeli military atrocities in Gaza. Their position is quite simple and is that he should either shut up or be fired. See The Robinson Case

A quick view of his defense site shows that this professor and his supporters are quite aware of the nature of this enemy of free speech they are up against. See Academic Freedom in the News The Anti-Defamation League perversely spends much of its time trying to shut people up and defame them, so to speak. As another example of how this works, see the recent Right Wing attacks against President Obama himself for having shook hands with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Below is a passage of a news report about Obama and Hugo Chavez’s meeting last week.

‘Obama returned to Washington early Sunday evening. But even before he got back, Obama was facing condemnation from some Republicans about how he dealt with Chavez. “I think it was irresponsible for the president to be seen kind of laughing and joking with Hugo Chavez,” said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.’

While the Anti-Defamation League itself is not trying directly to remove Obama from office (they love Obama’s selection of Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff way too much!), they do have a campaign going full steam to falsely label Hugo Chavez as being antisemitic. See ADL’s report below…

“What is troubling about Venezuela is that anti-Semitism is being used as a political tool,” Mr. Foxman said. “Anti-Semitism is fostered by those at the highest levels of government, trickled down the government apparatus and left unchallenged by officials in the Chavez regime, the government-controlled media, and civic and religious leaders who support the regime in Venezuela.

“We are encouraged by the many expressions of support for the Venezuelan Jewish community coming from opposition politicians and independent media outlets, who we believe more accurately reflect the views and feelings of the vast majority of the Venezuelan people.”

That is an excerpt from their website’s ADL Report: Venezuelan Jewish Community Under Threat

Coming after the US coup attempt and kidnapping of Hugo Chavez, one rather imagines that the ADL has the whole situation backwards. It is not the Chavez government that is anti-Semitic at all, but rather that it is the Right Wing Zionist Movement that is anti-Chavez. They want him removed just like they want all radical Left antiwar professors removed from their academic posts inside the US. And the ADL campaign against Venezuela’s current government moves hand in hand with the Republican campaign against Obama for shaking hands and laughing alongside Hugo Chavez. Both the Republican Right and the ADL simply want to stifle all views critical of US foreign policy and Israeli government policy.

This Israeli-made campaign to silence and trash all critics of the Jewish State hegemony in the Middle East promoted in US foreign policy even has been seen down to the level of covert attacks on American blogs like this one. That is why we now express our own solidarity with UCSB professor William Robinson. We will not, and should not, let them silence us all. They have many tools of intimidation and censorship and we need to bring to the light of day all of them.

Yes, they may succeed at silencing an individual critic of Israel here and there but our Movement to expose the reactionary nature of US foreign policy use of Israeli Zionist Jewish State propaganda grows stronger over time. People around the globe are simply getting fed up with the racism and imperialism that are political cornerstones of the Israeli and US governments. The truth will continue to rise up through the blankets of neo-con and Zionist propaganda for having yet more of their bloodshed and pillage.

Visit Professor Robinson’s website

Mother Jones: You Don’t Need a Vote

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Mary Harris Jones portrait from her 1925 autobiographyAfter the 1914 Ludlow Massacre and the later capitulation of the UMWA union, Mother Jones, by now 85 years old, toured the US to spread the word about what happened. She wrote in her autobiography, about a meeting in Kansas City: “I told the great audience that packed the hall that when their coal glowed red in their fires, it was the blood of the workers, of men who went down into black holes to dig it, of women who suffered and endured, of little children who had but a brief childhood. ‘You are being warmed and made comfortable with human blood’ I said. … ‘The miners lost,’ I told them, because they had only the constitution. The other side had bayonets. In the end, bayonets always win.'”

From The Autobiography of Mother Jones, Chapter 22:
YOU DON’T NEED A VOTE TO RAISE HELL.

Five hundred women got up a dinner and asked me to speak. Most of the women were crazy about women suffrage. They thought that Kingdom-come would follow the enfranchisement of women.

“You must stand for free speech in the streets,” I told them.

“How can we,” piped a woman, “when we haven’t a vote?”

“I have never had a vote,” said I, “and I have raised hell all over this country! You don’t need a vote to raise hell! You need convictions and a voice!”

Some one meowed, “You’re an anti!”

“I am not an anti to anything which will bring freedom to my class,” said I. “But I am going to be honest with you sincere women who are working for votes for women. The women of Colorado have had the vote for two generations and the working men and women are in slavery. The state is in slavery, vassal to the Colorado Iron and Fuel Company and its subsidiary interests. A man who was present at a meeting of mine owners told me that when the trouble started in the mines, one operator proposed that women be disfranchised because here and there some woman had raised her voice in behalf of the miners. Another operator jumped to his feet and shouted, ‘For God’s sake! What are you talking about! If it had not been for the women’s vote the miners would have beaten us long ago!'”

Some of the women gasped with horror. One or two left the room. I told the women I did not believe in women’s rights nor in men’s rights but in human rights. “No matter what your fight,” I said, “don’t be ladylike! God Almighty made women and the Rockefeller gang of thieves made the ladies. I have just fought through sixteen months of bitter warfare in Colorado. I have been up against armed mercenaries but this old woman, without a vote, and with nothing but a hatpin has scared them.

“Organized labor should organize its women along industrial lines. Politics is only the servant of industry. The plutocrats have organized their women. They keep them busy with suffrage and prohibition and charity.”

Israeli ‘Hasbara’ spam alert

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HasbaraRemember when the defense department was paying public relations companies and Iraqi newspapers to insert articles praising the Iraq war? The companies also attempted to plant coverage favorable to the US military in US newspapers. There rightly was a media uproar about the manipulation. We’ll see whether the same happens over this (Hasbara spamming of blogs?)

The (Israeli) foreign ministry shouldn’t get a pass on this one. It may view such hasbara as maximising its efforts to “explain” Israel’s position in the world media. I view it as a cynical attempt to flood the web and news media with favorable flackery in a vain attempt to tilt public opinion toward Israel. Not only does it do Israel a disservice, it stains every legitimate effort that the ministry might make to explain Israel to the world, since no one will believe a word it says knowing it engages in such outright propaganda.

Not to mention that this is such cheap pennyante stuff. What do they gain by this? How effective can it be and how many can be convinced? By the way, I’ve even noticed the hasbaraniks in my own blog. You can see them a mile away because they’ve never published a comment before yet write something like: “I’ve enjoyed your blog for a long time, but anyone with a brain in their head knows that Hamas is out to destroy Israel blah, blah blah.” Pretty formulaic stuff. Also, you can Google a few phrases of the comment and if you find it appears elsewhere on the web you know you either have a hasbaranik or someone who has repetition compulsion….

Full article about Israeli military spamming of antiZionist blogs can be read at Hasbara spam alert …See wikipedia for more about hasbara, otherwise known as Israeli military propaganda spamming.

As one can see by the fake ‘discussion’ by Israeli military spammers here on Not My Tribe, this Israeli suppression of free speech and discussion is a very real problem. We have to spend inordinate amounts of our own time just discussing with these spammers about what they actually are doing rather than talking about anything more political than that. They are extremely boring for us, and extremely boring to others, too. Quite simply they clutter up blogs with their gang graffiti, and that is really about all they are actually about.

And be sure to visit the REPORTING AND CREATING THE MESSAGE art of political ‘Jewish State’ spamming page of the Israel Hasbara Committee to get it from the horse’s mouth. See how dishonest all these spammers really are when they claim to be mere concerned citizens all alone by themselves, rather than a concentrated and coordinated Israeli governmental effort in support of the Israeli war machine. They are lying when they pretend that we are making it all up. They are lying for Israel and in support of its racist policies. They are lying in support of the murder of more Arab peoples. They are lying to steal yet more Palestinian land.

Do Jews and Muslims actually benefit from anti hate speech laws?

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hate-speech-lawThe United Kingdom just denied entry to a Dutch Right Winger because he supposedly said bad things about Muslims, and meanwhile, Germany continues to imprison people who say bad things about Jews. Who came up with this idea that if you can just shut speech up that that somehow solves the problem? That’s got it totally backwards, doesn’t it?

Free speech, even when it is hateful speech, actually serves to often times open up channels of communication between 2 groups of hostile people. Worried about hate speech? If you solve the problem in the first place then you won’t have that hate speech follow more often than not.

Sure, there are hate mongers who will never respond to any speech to them other than mere repetition of their own hateful attitudes towards the target group for their hate. That being said, if you outlaw the expression of their hate through their speech, then you just hide it away where it begins to fester into more dangerous possibilities of expression.

Society has much more to gain by not outlawing speech of any kind than it generally does in trying to limit and outlaw it. Does anybody really think that if a person is thrown into jail for 2 years for saying bad things about Islam or Judaism that they will return to society a better person? Isn’t that just a version of a school yard bully who tells the smaller kid that if he doesn’t shut up that he will go and kick his ass? What’s the lesson learned there?

It’s time to stop making hate speech an illegal speech threatened by jail time if you engage in it per somebody else’s opinion. That’s pretty stupid law. Meanwhile, we have all sorts of other laws on the books that actually do more harm than good. We have laws that legalize torture, and laws that throw people in jail for life for the use of some self abusing substance or other. Jailing people for saying nasty things about other people or their religion or social grouping is also a stupid law that does just the opposite of what it is intended supposedly to accomplish. It makes people hate others more instead of less. It’s time to do away with this sort of law hiding behind the idea that it is in someway a supposed tolerance campaign for multi-diversity. It just isn’t so.

District 11 Colorado Springs cutbacks get to rolling

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I went to one of the District 11 cutback hearing meetings where the Administration pretends to solicit community input for decisions they pretty much already have planned to make, and shared the auditorium with about 700 other concerned but utterly confused folk. It’s cutback time here in the city since the School District put itself in a very deep hole taking out loans whose interest payments now eat up huge chunks of money.

At a little over $63 million interest service on loans per year, that adds up to 1/2 billion dollars over every 8 years by my calculations taken from the School Districts own data. See my earlier comments about these figures on the commentary here about district 11 school district corruption

One half billion dollars every 8 years in debt service? Good grief! One would think that it would get mentioned by somebody at least at these meetings, and it was fully my intention to bring it up.

In fact I did, as I was being kicked out of the school with my big sign that said… DISTRICT 11- GRADE F I was told that no signs were permitted on Private Property by the ten or so cops on the scene. What the Heck?

“I thought my kid was getting a public education,” I responded.

But in a country where torture is legal and legalisms are torture the public in this case is classified ‘private’ per the cops! When I try to take a sign into the City Council public meetings they tell me I can’t do it because it’s public property. That’s America for you, isn’t it? You can’t do it on public or private property, either one, if it has to do with Free Speech. Amazing how so few people actually know that about our Fantasy Land though! They seem to think that we’re in the land that guarantees that Free Speech flourishes! Not exactly, Folk. I had to put my sign away and then try to sign up as a speaker. I did and never got to speak.

So no signs, no flyers, no nothing. That was my 3 hours spent in the auditorium. You see, handing out flyers with info not controlled by the D-11 administrative team would amount to giving them actual input, the parents input, and the teachers input. But D-11 merely wants to pretend that it is asking for public input, not actually get it. I almost got arrested for clapping for one speaker while standing up! That”s how tightly run this charade actually was. I kind of feared getting tasered but merely got ordered to sit down instead! It was a super mannerly assembly.

I really ran into trouble, too, there when I said I was ‘pissed off to an Administrative type in the John, who then lectured me on language! He didn’t seem upset at all that the public was pissed off though, just that I used bad language! He looked so horribly angry at me… He and I were the only ones in the John.

Colorado Springs is just that type of city though with just that type of people. Many of those speaking said that their schools were just fabulous and that the District should close some other school down instead. The meeting was not exactly solidarity forever… lol… It did seem like boredom forever though. What a charade. We all love our schools..blah/blah/blah.

Jerry Heimlicher, Council Member District 3 got to speak next to the last one allowed, and used his time to say that he wanted to be a good partner with this school district management that is refusing to ‘fess up to the real reason they are putting up to 8 public schools on the chopping block. See More details on D-11 restructuring plans Good Ol’ Jerry, wants to play the team player with everybody since he’s always the consummate play liberal politician in town.

I caught Jerry going out the door where I verbally asked him why he didn’t expose the interest servicing that the School District was hiding away from telling the public about? After all it is the real reason for cutbacks being made, and not the pretend reasons which can be found here… ‘If your child goes to a District 11 school, that school could soon be closing. The district is looking at closing at least eight schools and re-configuring several others. They say lower enrollment and budget cuts are to blame.’ …at KKTV Parents Weigh In On Possible District 11 School Closures See how D-11 forgets to mention that $63 million per year servicing of debt interest payments that are the real cause of the distress?

Jerry said that he didn’t want to talk to me about it, and stiffly headed towards his car. Shame on all of the D-11 administrative hacks, and shame on Jerry Heimlicher too for covering up for their crooked asses! The children will suffer because of the banks pulling off this gigantic haul, and this is just the beginning of the school cutbacks that will be coming our way most soon enough. The city too is already cutting services, and the layoffs are a coming. Who’ll bail the people out? All we have are cons in office these days.

New York man to get up to 15 years jail for exercising free speech in the United States

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free speech cartoonHave you ever listened to or seen Almanar tv? Check it out for 5-10 minutes and hear some news, some music, some soap operas. Almanar Tv

Sure it’s in Arabic, but at least it’s not NPR, PBS, Fox, or any of the other American military-industrial-government propaganda sources spewing out the same poison as always. Ooohhhh…. Pretty dangerous isn’t it?

Did you know that a man in New York State just got found guilty of broadcasting what you are now listening to and watching on Almara tv? That’s what the Pentagon torture, occupation, and murder crowd call ‘terrorism’! Free Speech! It must be stopped! We’re supposed to be believing all the US government lies and noise, and free speech might actually interrupt that? NY man pleads guilty to broadcasting Hezbollah TV.

So who defined free speech as ‘terrorism’, besides the US government, US courts, and US media corporate propagandists? It all started with an anti free speech coalition called The Coalition Against Terrorist Media. Had you ever, as an American, feared that supposedly horrible something defined by this group as ‘terrorist media’? That’s right! This group defines free speech as ‘terrorism’, which make this ‘coalition’ about as unAmerican as it gets!

But it goes deeper in doo-doo here, as the so-called ‘Coalition Against Terrorist Media’, despite its claim to be a coalition of Muslims, Jews, and Christians, is really nothing more than a front set up by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Get the picture yet? The defense of democracies involves the suppression of free speech, according to these Right Wingers who are actually setting current US government and legal policies.

So who is behind the so-called ‘Foundation for the Defense of Democracies’? Let’s check out SourceWatch’s entry on this group. Below is a partial list of the names of those who helped criminalize Free Speech by campaigning to have this man thrown in jail (up to 15 years) for broadcasting a TV station that is already on air in the US, Almanar tv available on internet as you did at the beginning of this commentary.

The following information was updated August 16, 2007.[4] ]Board of Directors of ‘Foundation for the Defense of Democracies’.

Steve Forbes, Board Member; CEO Forbes Magazine (site bio)
Dr. Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Board Member; Former Ambassador to the UN (site bio)
Jack Kemp, Chairman Emeritus; Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (site bio)
[edit]Distinguished Advisors
Judge Louis J. Freeh, Former Director of the FBI (site bio)
R. James Woolsey, Former Director of the CIA (site bio)
Newt Gingrich, Former. Speaker of the House (site bio)
Joe Lieberman, US Senator (D-CT) (site bio)
[edit]Board of Advisors
Gary Bauer, President, American Values (site bio)
Donna Brazile, Campaign Manager Gore 2000 (site bio)
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Task Force on Terrorism Chairman (site bio)
Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), U.S. House of Representatives (site bio)
Frank Gaffney, President, Center for Security Policy (site bio)
Amb. Marc Ginsberg, Former Ambassador Morroco (site bio)
Charles Jacobs, President, American Anti-Slavery Group (site bio)
Charles Krauthammer, Syndicated Columnist (site bio)
Bill Kristol, Editor, Weekly Standard (site bio)
Hon. Richard D. Lamm, Former Colorado Governor (site bio)
Rep. Jim Marshall (D-GA), U.S. House of Representatives (site bio)
Sen. Zell Miller, Former U.S. Senator (site bio)
Richard Perle, Former Chair of the Defense Policy Board and FDD Advisor (site bio)
Steven Pomerantz, Former Assistant Director FBI
Oliver “Buck” Revell, Former Associate Deputy Director FBI
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), U.S. Senate (site bio)

These people don’t defend democracies, they destroy them. Here, watch some more Almanar Tv for free Now ponder the nature of the US society where the top leaders sponsor torture of prisoners, invasions of other countries, and state terrorism around the world, yet New York businessman, Javed Iqbal, faces 15 years in jail through our government’s labelling Free Speech an act of terrorism!

Calling Obama Calling Obama! Oops, the line went dead! Did you notice how that liberals’ American idol, Al Gore, crept into the picture. His VP candidate when he ran for the White House, DP-RP Joe Lieberman, is one of of the fat cats on this list of unAmericans against free speech rights. Are you surprised? You shouldn’t be.

And notice, too, all these former top cops from the FBI and CIA defining free speech in your country as a form of terrorism. These are the real terrorists who are undermining National Security and the American right to free speech without being jailed. They hate free speech by others, and they hate democracy… PERIOD.

The gilded age and the police nightstick

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Oscar of the Waldorf cookbookA legacy institution of the Gilded Age is the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel. Most of us only know it from the nutty salad, the mysterious Red Velvet Cake recipe, Thousand Island Dressing and Veal Oscar named for the famous maitre d’ hotel. I encountered the book of recipes collected by “Oscar of the Waldorf” and its cover illustration caught my eye. The coachman and carriage don’t look so opulent to us today, but do you recognize a timeless trapping of affluence? There’s nothing else in the picture but the policeman and his nightstick.

We almost dismiss the incongruity of the attendant police officer. That’s because he’s Officer Friendly to us, circa the 1950s egalitarian economic boom, earned post New Deal and post WWII, when law enforcement began to serve and protect the middle class share of the pie. Before those times, whose order did the police enforce?

Could the Waldorf diorama have featured some other occupation at the curb? A newsboy, a shoeshine, or a traffic director? If the cabbie is picking up late night revelers, why not depict a doorman or lamplighter?

If this scene did not include the policeman, he’d be missing.

The Gilded Age of the soaring wealth of bankers and industrialists, of the steel, coal, and rail robber barons, came at the expense of poverty wages for all the rest. The homeless of America’s eastern cities died in the streets, if they crossed the paths of the leisure class at all. As in London, where the bobbies were celebrated for carrying no guns, cops on the beat didn’t need more than a nightstick to beat back beggars and riffraff.

Just as in the Waldorf illustration, the policeman’s nightstick isn’t holstered, it is fingered idly like a baton. We’ve seen it in countless Chaplin, Keaton, and Keystone reels. The policeman’s baton might be carried idly, and animated mindlessly as a clerk might twirl a pencil, but the gyrations telegraphed a swinging function meant to be understood.

Today, a modern financial crisis has finally hit the post industrial era, and unemployment is taking a precipitous plunge. The repercussions for the American middle class are yet unclear to most, their comforts still too tangible to fathom gone. But our modern times have already seen the resurgence of the Rich And Famous, (to even beyond the lunge of our Super-Lotto winners, who always chose the sub-six-figure annuity). Exclusive cars, toy submarines and tickets into space cost multi-millions, but the rich have that money to burn. Common Americans have also watched the armoring of their police, using weapons which offend us, but which protect the security of institutional wealth. Para-military police forces are the natural escalation of the right-to-bear-arms arms-race, the equivalent of nightsticks to quell our social disquiet.

Already aren’t we seeing the police block the public’s way, lest we soil the red carpet of the well-heeled? Aren’t police blocking free speech in public spaces, when the monied media has decided it wants the backdrop to serve their message? Wait until we are gazing covetously upon the gilded extravagances, from the alley side of the gilded wrought iron gate.
guilded age of the nightstick
Wiki notes:
Thousand Island Dressing came to the Waldorf from the so-named Lake Ontario waterway where New York’s super rich had their summer homes. The $100 recipe for Red Velvet Cake was the urban myth which resurfaced as the $250 Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookie.

The original Waldorf Hotel was built by an Astor whose middle name was Waldorf, next door to an aunt with whom he was feuding. Later another Astor convinced her to move uptown and replaced her home with a taller hotel named the Astoria. The two luxurious hotels hyphened via the Peacock Alley, inspiring the popular song “Meet me at the hyphen.” In 1931 the landmark was moved to accommodate the Empire State Building, and was purchased in 1949 by Conrad Hilton who added the double-hyphen flourish, completely in the spirit of gilded ornamentation.

The crime of removing reporters from the scene of police crimes

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St. Paul’s Democratic Party mayor, Chris Coleman, is going to get away with his crime of allowing police removal of reporters from the scenes of police criminality. Yes, that’s exactly what he is doing by ‘dropping the charges’ against all reporters captured by the police at the Republican Party Convention, and this ‘dropping the charges’ routine seems to be the new ‘In’ way to violate American’s Constitutional Rights. No charges for reporters arrested in GOP protests

How can one protest at political events if the police have the option to just arrest you, harass you in the courts for months, and ultimately to ‘drop charges’? How can reporters go about their work? Any damages ever paid out are simply paid for with tax payers money, so it is slim consolation to actually sue for one’s rights either? Plus, that is another way to tie your one lawyer or two up in court with the brigades of municipal and police lawyers. It is a form of financial harassment by public authorities that is just as legal as torture is in present day America. Proud to be an American? Why?

Free Speech in the USA, USA, USA Zone

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Exploring your free speech rights in America. Has it come to this? Mouth off all you want into the online ether or in the privacy of your local spheres of influence, but try to rise above the din where cameras might be forced to televise your message, and you’d better come equipped. Forget your pocket constitution, you need helmet, goggles and bandana.
Peace pith helmet Continue reading →

‘Conspiracy to commit riot in furtherance of terrorism’?

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pig cartoonAttorneys for Minnesota Nine call criminal charges ‘outrageous’ and YES they are. The real conspiracy is to extend the US government’s unconstitutional lack of legal norms given to tortured US-held POWs in places like Guantanamo to US citizens in places like Minnesota.

The conspiracy is to use the US legal system now held hostage in the hands of international war criminals lodged in DC, and to us it against ordinary Americans that might actually exercise their rights to Free Speech. The real conspiracy is to defend the undemocratic lock that 2 corporate controlled political parties have on our electoral rights in this country by jailing protesters in illegal manner.

Demand that they drop these criminal charges against these defendants now, and urge that the media begin to cover what’s going on in our country now! They are covering up these criminal actions by government policing agencies with a thick screen of silence. Defend your own freedoms (what’s left of them) NOW!

Wrong place, wrong time, wrong lessons from the RNC This columnist writes for a conservative mainstream daily and had to tone it down quite a bit. Still his writing gives a glimpse of the type of police state mentality that the biggest metropolitan area in Minnesota was put through by the federal government.

Shameful that the local politicians actually were too scared and complicit to object, and instead condoned it largely and covered it up. We have the same type of people in city government right here in Colorado Springs.

What to do in a Gas Attack

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Because the U.S. Police State has reverted to their old habit of using C.S. Tear Gas against Americans.

Unlike Saddam Hussein or the Iraqi Army, the U.S. Gov’t actually HAS been responsible for the death by gas of American civilians (mostly civilians, they’ve used gas at the Military Side of Leavenworth penitentiary as well)

With Tear Gas there’s not too much that can be done, taking a regular Military or Israeli Civilian Issue gas mask to a demonstration is considered “provocation” by the Pigs and they also think it’s an excuse to bust your head open, handcuff you and then hit you several more times while handcuffed, and then charge YOU with assault.

Much like their Nazi predecessors did.

So, the best thing to do is, when you’re in a situation where you feel the Pigs will assault civilians (for the “crime” of disobeying the order to give up their constitutional rights), the vinegar in a bandana routine works a little, minimalizes the damage.

But what of people who AREN’T prepared? The asthmatic who’s a couple of blocks or even a dozen blocks away, for instance, the little old lady with emphysema, the infant in a stroller a block or a dozen blocks away? The Pigs can’t control the wind. And they’re proven to just seriously not give a Damn about the safety of civilians, even those who aren’t involved in the “Crime” of organized free speech.

Best thing is to have trained personnel around to render aid to these people, and to give warning that a Gas Attack is imminent.

One of the clearest signs that such an attack is about to proceed, is when the pigs put on their own protective masks.

A more subtle sign is when they start hustling Pro-Pig politicians out of the immediate area, the counterprotesters for instance.

A much better sign, and it gives you up to 15 minutes to prepare, is when they pull back their Horses and Attack Dogs.

Because their Horses and Dogs are more important to them than the Civilians they’re allegedly sworn to protect. And there’s no possible way to fit a horse or a dog with a gas mask.

Targeting the reporters

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video reporterThe police in the US are targeting reporters. At the Democratic Party Convention they went after the ABC reporter, and now in Minnesota at the Republican Party Convention, they have gone after the news team from Democracy Now. It is getting just plain dangerous for any citizen to hold a camera in their hand these days, especially while exercising your Right to Free Speech and filming the police as they go about their daily duty of terrorizing people.

In Iraq, the Pentagon went after al jazeera’s reporters, as they had done previously in Yugoslavia when they bombed the Yugoslav television station during that war. In the West Bank, Israel targets those who do the reporting there about the Jewish abuse of Palestinians. Israeli army targets family over brutality film

Isn’t it always the same with dictatorships? In Mexico, they do the same, also, as in Colombia and all the other US Empire’s stooge states. Is there any real difference between the US government and the Chinese government in how political dissidence is targeted by the police for elimination? Especially when there is a camera in hand alongside a pen.

RNC marchers charged with felony riot

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RNC arrests Monday
SAINT PAUL- These people have been herded from the streets to a park by the river. As riot troops close in, people were told to place their hands on their heads and that they are being arrested. Watch as some are tear gassed as others, credentialed journalist embeds, are issued gas masks. Elsewhere, Amy Goodman is arrested and later released. Two of her producers are being detained on FELONY RIOT charges.

This follows the arrest of an ABC reporter in Denver. Not a legal precedent hopefully if the ACLU can help it:

DENVER – Following news reports and a video showing Denver law enforcement agents ordering a reporter off a public sidewalk and pushing him into the street and later arresting him, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Colorado called for renewed protection of the First Amendment guarantees of free speech and a free press.

The following can be attributed to Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union:

“The physical removal of ABC reporter Asa Eslocker from public property and his subsequent arrest are a blatant assault on the First Amendment. Arresting a reporter for simply doing his job is both unconstitutional and un-American. That free speech is curtailed during the Democratic Convention underscores the need for continued protection of civil liberties, regardless of the party in power.”

The following can be attributed to Mark Silverstein, Legal Director of the ACLU of Colorado:

“The arrest of Asa Eslocker is the latest of several troubling incidents in which law enforcement has mistreated dissenters or others exercising their right to free speech dissent during the Democratic National Convention. On Monday hundreds of people were rounded up by police, detained without access to attorneys and denied the most basic due process protections. Arrestees were flexi-cuffed together so that they couldn’t even use the bathroom alone, and in at least one case a woman was forced to walk barefoot and in leg shackles into a courtroom. The First Amendment is supposed to be the cornerstone of democracy, but some law enforcement agents in Denver have shown a complete disregard for the right to free speech.”

St. Paul’s Democratic Party mayor encouraging police violence against protesters at RP convention

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Mayor ColemanJust like in Denver, the Minnesota Democratic Party is now encouraging an excessive police presence plus police violence against protesters, but this time at the Republican Party convention! Here is Chris Coleman, the DP mayor of St. Paul, praising the police violence in that city Below is an excerpt from press coverage by the Minneapolis paper…

‘St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman praised officers for showing restraint and said a small number of law-breaking demonstrators marred what started as a peaceful day of free speech.

“Their efforts were nothing short of heroic,” Coleman said. “They did not fail. They did not take the bait. We’ve done what we could to offer unprecedented access so peoples’ voices could be heard. Unfortunately, very small handful of individuals decided to break the law.”

St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington said the trouble makers came from a half-dozen loosely organized groups totaling up to 180 people, representing a small fraction of the massive turnout Monday.’

Yeah sure, Mayor. And just what are these small group of people doing that merits turning out the National Guard in addition to the already massive police presence in your city? What a bunch of crap, and the whole Democratic Party shares responsibilty for this police state atmosphere everywhere today in America.

DNC disruption provided by FOX NEWS

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Fox bulldogDENVER- Sunday DNC Antiwar Rally. Predictably enough, the only disorder at the DNC protests was instigated by Fox News knave Griff Jenkins. At Recreate 68’s kickoff rally on Sunday, ambush reporter Jenkins tried to rush the stage and force an interview of Ward Churchill. AIM security intervened, but the camera skirmish created an inordinate distraction for the speaker at the podium and the audience trying to listen.

The diminutive Fox dick started shouting about HIS FREE SPEECH RIGHTS, which I believe illuminated his own understanding of the “journalism” role Fox serves. He doesn’t report, he decides. This thug’s media clout gave him the delusion he could speak over our right to assemble and attend to our speakers. His self-importance was laughable, and the crowd was not convinced. It started chanting FUCK FOX, FUCK FOX. Which of course Fox News reported as an anti-Fox riot. This was repeated later when Jenkins tried to interview marchers along the parade route.

Ward Churchill

In fact the only confrontations to come of the DNC demonstrations involved Fox’s Jenkins, Michelle Malkin, and inexplicably as far as I can undersand, Alex Jones from Prison Planet.