May 7, 2012

DHS's and FBI's War against Social Justice is inexcusably harsh and patently unconstitutional.

Occupy Wall Street's Act II: Hopefully it's a good second act.
OP-ED News - by Stephen Lendman
May 6, 2012 at 02:21:04

Grassroots activism takes time to grow. Broad-based participation is vital. Issues must be clearly defined.
Leadership is needed. Major obstacles must be overcome.

Avoiding being co-opted, diverted, divided, and/or subverted are key. So is staying the course because
major struggles aren't won short-term. Achieving social justice is the mother of them all, especially in
today's environment.

What began last September waned during winter cold. Perhaps May Day protests began Act II. Only the
fullness of time will tell.

-snip-

Last fall, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), FBI, and other federal security agencies began
coordinating with city officials and police to subvert and disrupt Occupy Wall Street encampments.

Tactics include violent confrontations, infiltrating local groups, and close monitoring. In 2003, a federal
judge expanded New York police surveillance powers. Citing "fundamental changes in the threats to
public security," he relaxed a longstanding court order restricting police monitoring of political groups.

-snip-

Social justice is on the chopping block for elimination. The criminal class in Washington is bipartisan.
Complicit with business, they've wrecked the economy and working households for profit. America's
resources are earmarked for militarism, imperial wars, banks and other corporate favorites.

Institutionalized inequality is policy. People needs no longer matter. Obama's National Commission on
iscal Responsibility and Reform (NCFRF) recommended deep social spending cuts.

-snip-

Before his death, Franklin Roosevelt proposed an economic bill of rights. He felt constitutional ones
weren't enough. He wanted legislation guaranteeing employment with a living wage, housing, medical
care, education, social security, and freedom from unfair competition and monopolies.

Presidents today don't talk that way. Roosevelt wanted more for ordinary people. Obama wants social
justice destroyed. Austerity, not vitally needed help, is policy.

Sustained popular resistance for change works. Organized people can beat organized money. Succeeding
depends on doing what it takes for as long as it takes.

The Washington/corporate America nexus is venal. Job one is slaying the beast. Yip Harburg's lyrics
from "Over the Rainbow" said somewhere "dreams that you dare to dream really do come true."

It takes sustained sacrifice. There's no other way. Quiting not an option! There can't be, no matter the
odds.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Occupy-Wall-Street-s-Act-I-by-Stephen-Lendman-120506-106.html

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wonder ....why can't the Dept. of Justice be called in on this, on behalf of Occupy, et. al. ... or is DoJ
already "in on it" in the worst of ways, as collaborators in this outright repression of dissent?

This curious mind wants to know. Is this the United States of America masquerading as Syria?

And where is the WH on this? It raises awkward questions there I would think.

May 1, 2012

WTF moment: Obama's national address on Foreign Policy on May Day?

I thought it was odd, and a little insulting for Obama to deliver a major national address
on Afghanistan exactly when any news about the national May Day occupy-related activities,
marches, foreclosure re-occupations, etc.

Talk about cognitive dissodence. one tv channel even had a split screen, with Obama on one
and some outbreak live of "violence" caused by police once they had incited the demonstrators
sufficiently.

What the hell kind of message is that from Obama to the OWS and far left peeps wanting to
have a voice relating to labor and economic inequality in "The Homeland". ???

April 18, 2012

Beyond bizarre: 37 y.o. Man attacked and killed by swans. He was their "caretaker".

Illinois man dies in attack by swans
By David Ferguson
Wednesday, April 18, 2012 10:25 EDT

A man whose job was to maintain and care for the swans at a suburban condominium complex in Des Plaines,
Illinois was killed yesterday in what appears to have been a freak attack by one or more of the birds, according
to a report at KSDK.com.

Anthony Hensley, 37, paddled his kayak too close to the nest of a mother swan, who knocked the man from
the boat and pursued him as he tried to swim for shore. Witnesses reported seeing two of the birds circling
where Hensley went down for the last time.

Approximately 30 minutes after the attack began, Hensley’s body was pulled from the water by police. The father
f two was described by family members as healthy and athletic, but he was thrown into the water fully clothed
and wearing boots.

MORE: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/18/illinois-man-dies-in-attack-by-swans/

April 7, 2012

PBS News doing nasty hit-piece re: Fed .Unemployment Comp. & the unemployed

Those WHORES!! I am hopping mad.

Segments like this make me wonder if we should even have public media if it's
going to shill for the 1% ... fuck them.

They interviewed "employers" (read Republican Mfg. Owners) who are claiming they
have "perfectly good manufacturing jobs for $12 - $14 per hour, but "they just can't
be filled with competent workers because of federal unemployment is paying them
better than that" and "as long as Congress keeps extending Unemployment Payments,
these jobs will go begging for workers".

Un-freeking-believable.. did anyone else just see this on PBS News?

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june12/jobseekers_04-06.html

EDITED TO ADD ABOVE LINK TO OP

April 2, 2012

This may be what pushes me over the edge to purchase a firearm

So if one of these f*cking things starts stalking and spying on me,
I'll just shoot the damn thing out of the sky. Problem solved.

Drones Coming To A Sky Near You As Interest Surges
By MARCUS WOHLSEN 04/ 1/12 03:55 PM ET

BERKELEY, Calif. -- Sharp-eyed dog walkers along the San Francisco Bay waterfront may have spotted a strange-looking plane zipping overhead recently that that looked strikingly like the U.S. stealth drone captured by Iran in December.

A few key differences: The flying wing seen over Berkeley is a fraction of the size of the CIA's waylaid aircraft. And it's made of plastic foam. But in some ways it's just like a real spy plane.

The 4 1/2-foot-wide aircraft, built by software engineers Mark Harrison and Andreas Oesterer in their spare time, can fly itself to specified GPS coordinates and altitudes without any help from a pilot on the ground. A tiny video camera mounted on the front can send a live video feed to a set of goggles for the drone's view of the world below.

"It's just like flying without all the trouble of having to be up in the air," Harrison said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/01/drones-coming-to-a-sky-near-you_n_1395394.html

March 31, 2012

One of the most damning and scary aspects of the Trayvor Martin murder

To me one of the most alarming and hideous aspects of Trayvon's Murder -- quite aside from the more obvious outrages
of Trayvon's death, the impacts on family and friends, the police Dept. gross incompetence and/or complicity, etc. -- is the
MESSAGE this sends to all the other gun-toting racist Right Wingnuts out there looking for excuses to act out their racist
hate with violence towards Black or Brown people. Not to mention the MESSAGE it sends to people of color about how they
have virtually NO protection from getting bullied, intimidated, ensnared into a violent white-racist incident and murdered in
cold blood; and their white murder just walks away with not even an arrest.

If Zimmerman continues to just walk away from this with no arrest, he literally "gets away with murder", believe me this is
NOT the kind of signal we want to be sending on the issue of racially motivated violence and murder.

March 26, 2012

THIS is what the 1% does NOT want to see this Spring & Summer.

The Poor People's Campaign of 1967
Organized by Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Poor People's Campaign
addressed the issues of economic justice and housing for the poor in the United States[1] King said, “We believe the
highest patriotism demands the ending of the war and the opening of a bloodless war to final victory over racism
and poverty”.[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_People's_Campaign

Their immediate aim was to secure federal legislation ensuring full employment and promoting the construction of
low-income housing to raise the quality of life of the nation's impoverished citizens.

The SCLC planned a nationwide march on Washington on April 22, 1968, to focus the nation's attention on this issue and
particularly to pressure Congress to pass legislation to address the employment and housing issues. Unlike earlier
marches, SCLC leaders planned the creation of Resurrection City, a giant tent city on the Mall in Washington, D.C.,
where demonstrators would remain until their demands were met. When Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis on
April 4, 1968, movement leaders debated whether to go forward with the planned demonstration. They chose to
continue the march with King's lieutenant, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, as its new leader. The march date was postponed
to May 12, 1968, though a few hundred people arrived in Washington on the original date. The first week, May 12-29,
brought a wave of nearly 5,000 demonstrators. During the second week Resurrection City was completed.

The protestors, people from a wide range of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds--Native Americans from
reservations, Latinos from the Southwest, impoverished whites from West Virginia, as well as rural and urban blacks--
came together and spread the message of the campaign to various federal agencies. They also disrupted life in
Washington to try and force the government to respond. At its peak, the number of protestors reached nearly 7,000
but still far short of the expectation of 50,000 people.

The march was also marred by weather and leadership divisions. An unusual downpour of rain made the ground
turn to mud causing the tents to weaken, and eventually forcing people to leave. Tension among the demonstrators
themselves caused violent outbreaks and undermined the effectiveness of PPC leadership. The assassination of
Senator Robert Kennedy, a presidential aspirant and one of the PPC's principal supporters in Congress, on June 5, 1968,
sealed the fate of the campaign. Resurrection City closed two weeks later on June 19, 1968.
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/poor-peoples-campaign-december-4-1967-june-19-1968

And the negative impact of the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy illustrate why OWS &
Occupy DC must remain as "leaderless" as possible.

March 24, 2012

OWS and Occupy Everywhere => Constitutional Amendment declaring Public Space = PUBLIC Property

WE OWN IT RULE: We the People hereby declare the "ALL Public Space Availability Act of 2012". Whereby
ALL public space in USA -- all publicly-owned park land, Federal, State, County and City parks in particular
-- are to be made available 24/7 for any and all public protests and/or demonstrations as We The People
see fit to manifest, especially where it involves distribution of basic-needs central to our personal or collective
survival; but also to simply give voice and full expression to citizen's being empowered to bring their message.

As involved citizens, we demand that states, cities & counties, insure equal access to food, water, shelter, and
other basic resources; in the event of a "national emergency".

If getting constitutional amendments is what is going to take to steer our collective ship in direction to manifest
a cultural * social * legal Jungian "container", then we may just as well get the fuck on with it.

March 22, 2012

Who knew USA was being invaded by 100s of Iranian Hezbollah? Just ask Rep. Peter King

I could barely believe my eyes and ears when I stumbled onto this happening
on C-Span today. Un-freaking-believable foaming at the mouth hyperventelating
about "Hundreds of Hezbollah" spying and plotting terrorist attacks in the USA
"in retaliation for the sanctions against Iran".

This is a naked & desperate attempt to gin up the public to be A-OK with
attacking Iran, "before they strike on US soil". Sound familiar?
Nice set-up for the next false flag, is what this sounds like to me, so
King and his ilk can say "SEE!! We tried to warn you!! ... Now let's hurry up
and bomb the shit out of Iran .. what more 'proof' do we need?"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Peter King: Iran May Have 'Hundreds' Of Hezbollah Agents In U.S.
Posted: 03/21/2012 1:00 pm Updated: 03/21/2012 1:10 pm

-- Iranian-backed Hezbollah agents, not al Qaeda operatives, may pose the
greatest threat on U.S. soil as tensions over Iran's suspected nuclear weapons
program ratchet up, according to the Republican chairman of the House
Committee on Homeland Security.

"As Iran moves closer to nuclear weapons and there is increasing concern
over war between Iran and Israel, we must also focus on Iran's secret
operatives and their number one terrorist proxy force, Hezbollah, which we
know is in America," said New York Rep. Peter King at a Wednesday hearing
of his committee.

The hearing, which featured former government officials and the director of
intelligence analysis for the New York Police Department, follows a foiled plot
to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, D.C., and testimony
by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper in late January that Iran's
leaders are "more willing to conduct an attack inside the United States in
response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime."

Opening the hearing, King said, "We have a duty to prepare for the worst,"
warning there may be hundreds of Hezbollah operatives in the United States,
including 84 Iranian diplomats at the United Nations and in Washington who,
"it must be presumed, are intelligence officers."

But Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the ranking Democrat on the
committee, said he was concerned that the testimony he was about to hear
was based on outdated information and not current intelligence. He noted
that "no current federal officials" were asked to testify on Wednesday.

"A word of caution is in order," Thompson said. "When we examine our
relationship with another country, we cannot look at any particular moment
in time and pretend that it tells the whole story. We cannot view the politics,
history and culture of any other country clearly by seeing a snapshot version."

Referencing Clapper's earlier testimony, Thompson said the director of
national intelligence should be called in for a classified hearing, but added,
"We should not engage in a public discussion that creates fear and delivers
misinformation."

ENTIRE ARTICLE + VIDEO OF COMMITTEE HEARING TODAY AT THE LINK
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/21/peter-king-iran-hezbollah-agents-undercover_n_1369950.html

March 17, 2012

Reality-check ... is this really what Arianna imagined would happen to HuffingtonPost?

To me, this brief article entitled "Al Qaeda To Osama Bin Laden: Fox News
'Lacks Objectivity' " .. as posted on Huffington Post --- referencing David
Ignatius' Washington Post scoop, i.e. the first reporter to examine the
documents "taken from bin Laden's compound" --- sounds to me like dog-
whistling off-key to the bat-shit crazy meme of the day to the withering
GOP, the decoded message being how much Osama HATED FOX News &
ABSOLUTELY LOVED the "Liberal Main-Stream Media".

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/al-qaeda-fox-news-bin-laden_n_1354128.html?ref=media#s490343&title=The_OReilly_Factor

Never mind that OBL is supposedly DEAD. But now we have OBL's "documents
and notes" to resurrect OBL's boogyman back from a watery grave, anytime it
might prove useful to the national security state, for your own good of course.

The central thrust of the HP article -- aside from selacious distractions about how
there were "tension in the house" due to bickering OBL wives, the older being
jealous of the younger, etc. -- seems to be to make sure everyone knows this ....
"how much Osama Bin Laden HATED FOX NEWS!!!! and how all those
other networks were so accommodating, like they'd really get Al Qaeda's story
right, and not do much damage to them in the process.

What complete bullshit this is, to me at least, it just reeks of propaganda, setting
stage so FOX can say "OH, Looky here!! How much OBL absolutely HATES FOX, which
FOX can then tout as a "Badge of Honor" and further distort the national conversation
... and project all the blame for our very real problems onto that "Goddamn Liberal
Osamo-lovin' Media that we've been trying to warn you about all along."

If Ignatius lets this "sneek peek" piece get distorted this way and used by FOX, I consider
him an accomplis in the crimes against humanity being committed here ... but especially
the crimes happening under a dense cloak of secrecy and denial in these United States,
that go mostly un-noticed, and only selectively enforced against the 99%, if ever.

Link to the Ignatius article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-bin-laden-plot-to-kill-president-obama/2012/03/16/gIQAwN5RGS_story.html