Government

The Whistleblowers At The Frontier Of Digital Liberation

August 14, 2013 Nozomi Hayase, www.http://roarmag.org Resist! Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Government, Whistleblowers, Wikileaks

Computer scientist Nadia Heninger has argued that leaking information is now becoming the “civil disobedience of our age”. The late historian and activist Howard Zinn described the act of civil disobedience as “the deliberate, discriminate, violation of law for a vital social purpose”. He advocated it saying that such an act “becomes not only justifiable but necessary when a fundamental human right is at stake and when legal channels are inadequate for securing that right”. Snowden’s act was clearly one of civil disobedience. John Lewis, US Representative and veteran civil rights leader recently noted that Snowden was “continuing the tradition of civil disobedience by revealing details of classified US surveillance programs”.

Owner of Secure Email Service On Why He Shut It Down

August 14, 2013 Staff, www.democracynow.org Educate! Edward Snowden, Government, NSA, Surveillance

"Glenn Greenwald also wrote, “What is particularly creepy about the Lavabit self-shutdown is that the company is gagged by law even from discussing the legal challenges it has mounted and the court proceeding it has engaged. In other words, the American owner of the company believes his Constitutional rights and those of his customers are being violated by the US Government, but he is not allowed to talk about it.”

Zapatistas Celebrate 10 Years Of Autonomy With ‘Escuelita’

August 14, 2013 Leonidas Oikonomakis, www.roarmag.org Resist! Democracy, Government, Human Rights, Worker Rights and Jobs, Zapatistas

"The dialogue with the government didn’t work but it enriched us, because we met more people and it gave us more ideas. After the “Color of the Earth march” in 2001 we said that with or without a law we were going to build our government the way we wanted."

Moral Monday Movement—13 Weeks and 1,000 Arrests

August 13, 2013 Tanya Glover, www.occupy.comL Resist! Democracy, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Moral Monday, Racism, Women's Rights, Worker Rights and Jobs

"North Carolina was one of the first states in America to raise its voice against the immoral behavior of their state legislature[...]Each Moral Monday mobilized around a single issue. One week was for labor issues, another for women’s rights, another for voting rights, and so on. The beautiful thing was that no matter what the theme, people came out in droves. This is the meaning of intersectionality -- just because an issue may not affect us on a personal level, we’re still willing to speak up and fight for the fairness and freedom of others."

Who Did Obama Put In Charge Of Independent Review?

August 13, 2013 T.C. Sottek, www.theverge.com Educate! Government, NSA

When President Obama announced a series of intelligence reforms last Friday he called for the creation of an independent advisory group made up of "outside experts" who will review controversial surveillance programs. But based on a memorandum issued today by the White House, it's not clear how independent the effort will be. The president has directed the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, to establish the "review group" that will be responsible for issuing a report about how surveillance programs "impact our security, our privacy, and our foreign policy." The review group is intended in part, as the president said last week, to "maintain the trust of the people" — so why did the president put a man at the center of the spying controversy in charge?

The Moral Imperative Of Activism

August 13, 2013 Ray McGovern, www.consortiumnews.com Organize! Corporatism, Democracy, Finance and the Economy, Government, NSA, Wars and Militarism

This is our summer of discontent. The question we need to ask ourselves is whether that discontent will move us to action. Never in my lifetime have there been such serious challenges to whether the Republic established by the Founders will survive. Immediately after the Constitutional Convention, Ben Franklin told a questioner that the new structure created “a Republic, if you can keep it.” He was right, of course; it is up to us. So let’s face it. The Obama White House and its co-conspirators in Congress and the Judiciary have thrown the gauntlet down at our feet. It turned out that we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

Solidarity Sing Along Still Singing Truth To Power Despite Arrests

August 13, 2013 Joe, www.occupyriverwest.com Resist! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Human Rights

Hey, remember in fourth grade social studies, when you learned about our Constitutionally protected right to petition the government for redress of grievances, only if you paid for a permit and assumed all liabilities for the action. Wait! I don’t remember that second part. That’s because it only exists in Scott Walker’s Wisconsin, where close to 200 singers have been arrested for singing without a permit because of his illegal Capitol rules

Overcoming The Global Order Of Oppression, Fear And Paranoia

August 12, 2013 Gilbert Mercier, www.newsjunkiepost.com Educate! Democracy, Government, Privacy, Surveillance, Wars and Militarism

Orwell’s nightmarish utopia 1984 became strangely real on September 11, 2001[...] In our global Orwellian totalitarian state, life appears almost pleasant at times. Obey, stay in line, and rewards can be expected from conformity. Rebellious behavior, on the other hand, is no longer tolerated. The US is a prison nation, and incarceration has become the school system of the oppressed. During the McCarthy era, communists or people suspected of “anti-American” activities were prosecuted in the US, but now anywhere in the world a person suspected of being a “terrorist” or “other extremist” can be blown to smithereens by a drone.

How We Are Impoverished, Gentrified And Silenced – And What To Do About It

August 12, 2013 John Pilger, www.ohnpilger.com Educate! Corporatism, Government

I have known my postman for more than 20 years. Conscientious and good-humoured, he is the embodiment of public service at its best. The other day, I asked him, "Why are you standing in front of each door like a soldier on parade? "New system," he replied, "I am no longer required simply to post the letters through the door. I have to approach every door in a certain way and put the letters through in a certain way." "Why?" "Ask him." Across the street was a solemn young man, clipboard in hand, whose job was to stalk postmen and see they abided by the new rules, no doubt in preparation for privatisation.

Protests Continue Despite Warnings from US Postal Service

August 9, 2013 Simon Greenhill, www.dailycal.org Educate! Government, Post Office

Protesters have been occupying the space for nearly two weeks in a last-ditch effort to prevent the sale of the post office to private developers. The investigators, federal agents dedicated to enforcing Postal Service regulation, warned protesters verbally and provided them with the service’s rules governing conduct on Postal Service property on Friday. Agents have not attempted to forcefully remove the protesters but continue to monitor the scene. Currently, the protest is being held by four or five activists handing out pamphlets and talking to passers-by as well as a few loiterers who say they will remain despite the threat of law enforcement.

Wisconsin Activists Rebuke Gov. Walker’s Crackdown on Dissent

August 7, 2013 Andrea Germanos, www.commondreams.org Resist! Government, Wisconsin

Police in Madison, Wisconsin continued their crackdown on protesters in the capitol building on Monday, arresting 20 people taking part in the near-daily Solidarity Sing Along actions that protest Republican Gov. Scott Walker's agenda. The Solidarity Sing Along has been a noon-hour fixture in the capitol rotunda since it first began in March of 2011. The crackdown on the singers, however, began two weeks ago when Gov. Scott Walker announced that protesters need a permit for their actions in the capitol. Wednesday's arrests bring the number of citations to over 140.

Detroit Art: Big Jar Of Crisco Will Make That Fisting Easier

August 6, 2013 Camille Dodero, www,gawker.com Educate! Finance and the Economy, Government

Detroit-based artist Jerry Vile left a present for his bankrupt home: a giant Crisco can underneath the city's iconic Joe Louis fist. With his tribute, Vile left a placard identifying the installation's title as "A Vessel of Hope" and explaining that the gesture was meant to "ease the pain" of Detroit's bankruptcy. Most of the local media seemed to understand that this was an elaborate fisting joke. Except for one outlet. "Can anyone explain what this means???" asked the Facebook page of local news affiliate, Fox 2 Detroit, later adding, "Wow. Apparently, we're a little naive."

The Business of Mass Incarceration

August 4, 2013 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com Educate! Corporatism, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Government, Human Rights

Prisoners often work inside jails and prisons for nothing or at most earn a dollar an hour. The court system has been gutted to deny the poor adequate legal representation. Draconian drug laws send nonviolent offenders to jail for staggering periods of time. Our prisons routinely use solitary confinement, forms of humiliation and physical abuse to keep prisoners broken and compliant, methods that international human rights organizations have long defined as torture. Individuals and corporations that profit from prisons in the United States perpetuate a form of neoslavery.

NSA Secrecy Makes Congressional Oversight Impossible

August 4, 2013 Glenn Greenwald, www.theguardian.com Educate! Government, NSA

Members of Congress have been repeatedly thwarted when attempting to learn basic information about the National Security Agency (NSA) and the secret FISA court which authorizes its activities, documents provided by two House members demonstrate. From the beginning of the NSA controversy, the agency's defenders have insisted that Congress is aware of the disclosed programs and exercises robust supervision over them. "These programs are subject to congressional oversight and congressional reauthorization and congressional debate," President Obama said the day after the first story on NSA bulk collection of phone records was published in this space. "And if there are members of Congress who feel differently, then they should speak up." But members of Congress, including those in Obama's party, have flatly denied knowing about them. Members who seek out basic information - including about NSA programs they are required to vote on and FISA court (FISC) rulings on the legality of those programs - find that they are unable to obtain it.

US Government and Economy Driving Thousands To Attempt Suicide

August 4, 2013 Thom Hartmann, www.alternet.org Educate! Austerity, Finance and the Economy, Government

Over the past decade, our nation’s suicide rate has been steadily climbing, rising a staggering 23 percent. According to the Centers for Disease Control, there were 700,000 emergency room visits in 2010 alone for self-inflicted injuries. The fact is, America’s suicide rate is on the rise, and Conservative economic policies are to blame. In a study released in May, Professors David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu of Oxford University in England found that suicide rates in both the U.S. and U.K. increase when working class wages and wealth decline. The study calculates, for example, that there were 4,750 “excess” suicides during the recession period in the U.S., compared with suicide rates before the recession.

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