Please sign this very important petition, and pass it on to everyone you know, or even don't know but have some way to alert them. This could very well be, if passed, one of the Orwellian moments our ancestors will look back on as a major turning point in the loss of our democracy. No shit.

http://act.demandprogress.org/go/548?akid=1329.407815.kl2Jpt&t=4

CISPA stands for "Cyber Intelligence Sharing & Protection Act". "Cyber" meaning the internet. "Intelligence" meaning the act of data collection, in this case: yours. "Sharing" meaning as-in B2B (business to business) as well as the NSA and/or other designated Homeland Security recipient(s), and "Protection" meaning several things, both corporate and national security related.

But it is all about keeping those, with the most power over us, in power.

This proposed legislation is being heartily sold to Congress & unwittingly to the American people by the corporate intellectual property holders, media content owners and the access providers who represent them to consumers. At the core this bill is about letting private companies trade, share, even sell ALL your private info, both public, proprietary and whatever else they can gather, by surreptitiously watching your activity, your browsing habits, all while you are online, in the name of national security as the ultimate intention. But with the goal of protecting intellectual property rights as the primary corporate motivation.

The corporate media message, echoed by too many of our elected officials will imply personal protections and security to each of us as their goals. But they will be lies of absolute distortion and untruths in order to dupe you into supporting the ultimate surrender of your Constitutional rights and liberties...

And they will be able to exercise those ill-gotten powers for any logical-sounding reason they can concoct, and with no meaningful restrictions when it comes right down to any public complaints being lodged at them in any court of law.

They will have the full backing and support of the US government, and in the name of National Security, the 21st century catch-phrase that seems to excuse, without the slightest need for explanation any and all transgressions on our citizen rights. Our Constitutional rights, what we have left of them since 9/11.

This is tyranny of the highest order. And where there is tyranny there is no liberty.

People may care about their personal & national security, but corporations only care about increasing their bottom line. So one certain outcome of this bill will be in the form of increased and invasive marketing tactics, strategies and campaigns. Along with the routine monitoring of your online activities in order to protect their corporate stake, not your privacy.

You could be subject to an assortment of disciplinary actions and penalties, arbitrarily adminsitered by your ISP, and without Due Process, on nothing more than the suspicion-looking behaviors of your internet activity. You could find yourself, for instance, suddenly cut-of from your account access, with no immediate way to address and correct their actions. They will be able to watch you in real-time, including your personal and political activities, your personal habits, while surfing the world wide web. And do not be so vain or smug as to believe that your self-perceived "innocence" will protect you either. Those with such power do not take the time to screen in that detail, until after they have pulled their drag nets in as large an area as they deem necessary. In most cases, the bigger the better. With "better" meaning cheaper for them logistically. Consequently, the resulting heap of unresolved cases of "mistaken identity" will become lost in both corporate and governmental bureaucracy, just as already today with the thousands who have found themselves on No-Fly lists merely by virtue of sharing someone else's name. Or lost in some CIA run prison facility, even for years after being declared as "no threat" by our failing judicial system.

Make no mistake, this is an unwelcome possibility that will not discriminate in the way it homogenizes the citizenry, but only by the way it discriminates against the individual's constitutional rights. And only in order to favor corporate and political profit and power.

If you are concerned now about SPAM, ID theft, hacking, and the continued invasion of your privacy by the get-in-your-face-and-pocket-used-car-sales tactics of the world today, then you should not support this bill. You should instead be nearly hysterical with the prospect of it's passage. Both publicly and vocally demonstrating your distress, both far and wide to anyone you can make listen.

It is one thing to have your browsing experience "personalized" through a Google, YAHOO or Facebook membership, already a risky enterprise if you value your privacy. But it is another thing altogether for your every move online to be actively monitored, recorded, assimilated & analyzed, then aggregated and used to further "know" you. The popups and emails you begin to receive, the web pages you visit that contain embedded advertising, even the mail you receive from the post office and the unsolicited telephone calls that come always at "dinnertime", will start to make you feel that someone has been in your home, your workplace, your other destinations, and in your car or other conveyance while you travel there. Taking notes in the same way a psychologist, a lawyer, or anyone giving you a personal interview would do. But with the impartiality, depth and determination you might expect from an interrogation. One possibly with a bag over your head.

And all this with the private sector posing as a representative of the national security arm of the government, and on your behalf as a citizen. Of course that the government will also have this information should frighten you even more. If you cherish your freedom and liberty at all.

Witch hunt anyone?

CISPA is a dangerous alliance between the public and private sectors of our society. With the private sector the solicitors & perpetrators, who will bear the least public and media scrutiny, and the public (government) sector who will bear the least responsibility or have sufficient and effective congressional oversight (thanks to our continued penchant for "smaller" government), for safeguarding what may be left of our civil or even our human rights. A relationship that is in the reverse from their publicly claimed intentions, their self-proclaimed perspectives, as citizen guardians and protectors. Making them impervious to assault from the legal system should anyone seek their constitutionally (once) guaranteed right to "redress", and further making any justice "virtually" impossible. Excuse the pun.

In a phony effort to curtail malicious activities on the internet, this bill could easily and instead open the floodgates and allow the most personally damaging illegal activity to proliferate unchecked, while protecting only the elite oligarchy who want nothing less than total control of our government, and thus the lives of each and every one of us in the marketplace. As well as in our homes with our neighbors and associates, our colleagues and friends and most importantly our families. And on our jobs, in our churches, and even sharing our most private and intimate moments.

This latest franken-evolution of the SOPA and PIPA acts will do no less than allow the private sector to be a data-collecting contractor for the NSA and Dept of Homeland Security. With the expressed privilege of assimilating the collected data for their own use BEFORE handing it over to our government. Frankly even our government should be concerned, even wary about such a potentially lurid and unwholesome arrangement. How will our government be certain, for instance, if these companies are giving them ALL the data they have collected? What safeguards could possibly be effective, given that we will allow these ISPs to control the operations, both physically and technologically? When there is profit to be made, there is a greater potential for corruption, and the hidden agenda that provokes their actions against us, the consumer.

Giving the companies that provide us our access to the internet, companies like Comcast and AT&T, permission to collect & share our personal data with other businesses will become an instant and irresistible free-for-all profit-motive resulting in unbridled and unprotected data dissemination across the globe. This will leave us all less protected from the bottom-feeders, the SPAMMER, hackers and cyber-terrorists, who have the worst reputations, and the least concern for either our personal rights, our privacy or our welfare. If you really want to protect American citizens from someone, protect us from those kinds of malicious assaults on our privacy and personal identification.

CISPA is an oxymoron of law enforcement goals & corporate agendas, dressed in the "sheep's clothing" they tout as increasing the safety & security of our citizens.

The real implications of the passage of this bill illustrate with little doubt that the proposed legislation is really a charade whose sole dual purposes are on the one hand, to give our growing national security police state more power to tract dissent and those who actively and even passively protest the government. It could well be very soon after passage of this bill, that you will not even physically have to participate in an "occupy" protest to feel the (pepper-sprayed) wrath of the uniformed and state-sanctioned bullies who "police" on behalf of the corporations, and at the behest of our growing fascist government; but instead you may only have to be within the questionable privacy of your own home, merely reading this blog post, that will result in their suspicion of you. From there you may find your life changing beyond your ability to control it, and beyond any future expectations of either liberty or freedom.

And secondly this bill will allow ISPs to police the intellectual property rights of big corporations, further enriching big business who benefit, profit the most from knowing the intimate details of our personal lives, our social behaviors, and even the nature of our employment; giving us even more to worry about as we try to improve our individual quality of life, and that of our families who depend on us to provide to them an adequate income in order to achieve that common goal: The American Dream.

It is the most urgent of imperatives that we stay on top of these continued assaults against, not just our personal liberties, but our personal & consumer privacy rights as well.

Sign here to protect our Democracy: http://act.demandprogress.org/go/548?akid=1329.407815.kl2Jpt&t=4

UPDATE: CISPA passed in the House, and will now go to the Senate. You should still sign the original petition thanking the President for his veto threat, but here is a new petition to the Senate urging them to stay focused on the will of the people and clear-headed about the dangers this bill poses.

http://act.demandprogress.org/go/555?akid=1331.407815.H485n_&t=3

America was created as an alternative to the political and social "caste" systems that have dominated civilization for most of history, and which favor those who do not hesitate to use and abuse their fellow Man for their own personal gain.

Our Founding Fathers intention was to create a new system of governance, a Democratic system that would seek to recognize and avail a birth-right of social, political and economic equality, insomuch as an individual is willing to participate, by virtue of their own labor and their commitment to a common civic responsibility. We call that vision the American Dream.

These are common values that the current incarnation of the Republican party, that is backed by a "privileged few" of our nation, as well as a growing number of Democrats, and their like-minded and moneyed "handlers", believe do not apply any longer, if they ever did. Or that they exist in such a form that does not include all people, as endowed by a common creator. Rather they believe that it is the function of our government to facilitate their greedy and selfish enterprises. That they deserve the over-arching fruits of our common labor via their connivance and twisted sense of entrepreneurship. Which they see as the ability to manipulate individuals and institutions, as needed, in order to produce their own personal wealth and power bases.

An "American Exceptionalism" is their creed. A form of extreme "nationalism" that has resonated in other cultures and nations, in other forms and in other times. Such was one insane man's idea of an "Aryan Race", and a thousand year empire. An ideology that resulted in the near extinction of the Jewish people, and the combined loss of millions of lives, and untold destructions to the physical constructs of civilization, including of the arts, both literary and visual.

While the physical "blood, sweat and tears" still belong to, and are given over, in greater measure by the majority of Americans, it is the wealthy whose intentions are to disproportionately benefit from those sacrifices and personal investments. They believe this to be their provincial right. Often referring to it as Social Darwinism, an artificial and evolutionary prerogative that exists outside the direct influence of the natural world, and attributable to social and economic classes. They will tout the ideological commentaries of their visionary idols such as Ayn Rand, Leo Strauss, Milton Friedman, Ronald Reagan, Alan Greenspan, and similar other ego-driven personalities as proof of their divine convictions. Often without knowing themselves the true and complete ultimate tragedy that befell many of them in spite of their beliefs. Ayn Rand, for instance, railed against social programs like Medicare and Social Security, yet took no exceptions when it came time to benefit from those programs herself.

Using the "common" mechanisms of corporate mainstream media and special interest political access, the wealthiest of our society lobby the public and our Democratic representation to work in their favor. And they are successful, more often than not, because they use their vast fortunes to corrupt the hearts and minds of our elected officials. They create a false economic reality, using political institutions and think tanks, which they have also created, and which they present, by findings, to the public as proof of their required intervention in the control of our collective economy. The current attacks on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are just one example of how they desire to funnel public funds into their personal coffers, and those of their elite cadre. The housing market crash of 2008 is one of the best examples of the road they will, and have repeatedly put our country upon if we allow them to have their way. The austerity measures currently being forced upon Europe by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other quasi-political right-wing institutions, are a fearful glimpse into a possible future for us here in America, if we do not resist these onslaughts by a large number of renegade and puppeted Republicans, along with a few Democrat allies. A future that may be more bleak than even at the height of the Great Depression of the early 20th century.

This 1% of our citizenry has far too much control over our system of government, and over the common-wealth of our economy. You need look no further than your own neighborhood, cities and towns, and their shrinking budgets to see the devastation they have wrought upon the other 99% of us: Foreclosures, homelessness and poverty growing and in record numbers. These moneyed influences have even come to the point of having sway over our very Judicial system, and have succeeded in the growing corruption of our courts in their favor.

There is no winning in giving up, or in just giving in. And their is no solution in hiding from the reality of the truth. You cannot go to sleep and hope it will go away by itself. We knew this as a nation when we fought for independence. Our forefathers understood this well, and even warned us to be vigilant to all threats from both foreign and domestic origins. When such a crisis comes it will interfere with your daily lives. And there is no ignoring that. In trying to do so, you only succeed in giving them more time to wreck even more havoc on your personal lives. And the Common Good of our society.

A Republican president, and commander of all Allied forces during World War II, Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us again of these special interests in his Farewell Address on January 17, 1961. He was directly speaking about the segment of our society that now seeks to privatize our very Democracy, with their assaults on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid being only one of the ways in which they are making these efforts. And their goal, in the supreme irony, being merely to accumulate more wealth and power for themselves, whom they see as most deserving.

I do not see these people as true Americans, in the same light as those common men and women who fought and died for us against their Mother England and King George III, who back then would have the fruits of our ancestors combined labors, just as those sinister forces desire today. But rather I see only rogues and economic mercenaries. Contemptuous people who look down upon the masses with disdain and revulsion. And with cynical amusement at those of us who try to occupy and withstand their assault: "The 99%".

It is way past time that we found solidarity in the common assault on our Constitutional values, and so begin to hold firm against those transgressions. While others may say "If you can't beat them, join them", I say, "If you can't beat them, entrench and do not surrender!" Surrender will only bring further hardship, more oppression, and unknown destruction and chaos to all the people of our global society. And to the ecology of our very planet, if we allow them such immense powers. Democracy will only be the first casualty, and that only of an idea, shared by so many for so long as a dream of a common unity and benefit. The real casualties will be the lives and families that become lost, disenfranchised and abused by a convoluted system of ever corrupting influences, at the hands of a small and powerful group of men and women. Many whose faces and names you may never know, but yet still have their hand so deeply reaching into your own humble and personal wealth. A wealth that you have very likely worked so much harder to gain than they who then reach out to pluck from you as they would a low-hanging fruit.

An extended interview by Juan Gonzalez with consumer advocate, Ralph Nader and Pentagon Papers whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg, from the Friday, March 18, 2011 Daily News Program from Democracy Now.

Ralph Nader and Daniel Ellsberg: We Need to See Courage and Mobilization Here as Well as the Middle East

As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have virtually disappeared from mainstream media coverage, Democracy Now!’s Juan Gonzalez has a wide-ranging conversation with Pentagon whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and longtime consumer advocate Ralph Nader about the ongoing U.S. military occupation of these countries, the treatment of WikiLeaks accused whistleblower Bradley Manning, and how this connects to the attack on worker rights in Wisconsin and beyond.

"More than a $120 billion a year [is] being wasted, hurting the welfare, really, of the people of Afghanistan and of Iraq," Ellsberg says. "It’s outrageous that this is continuing and that these events are not linked, that people don’t realize that it’s simply outrageous to be talking about removing fuel from elderly during the winter here, fuel aid and health aid and education aid, while we’re spending this money on the wars, these totally wrongful and unnecessary wars."

Protests against the occupations and the treatment of Manning are planned for this weekend.

The World Socialist Web Site urges all of its readers and supporters in Wisconsin to download, distribute, and post this article as widely as possible, and to develop a campaign in the working class. A pdf version for printing is available here. The article can be shared on Facebook and Twitter.
3 March 2011

The budget presented by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker on Tuesday has caused profound shock and outrage among workers throughout the state. It has now become clear to hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin workers and their families that they are confronted with a ruthless attempt to drastically lower their living standards, eviscerate crucial social services and benefits, and strip away their democratic rights.

Walker is demanding cuts of at least $1.5 billion from the state's budget to close a deficit that has been created, to a great extent, by his recent massive reduction of tax rates for large corporations.

These cuts include:

$1.25 billion in cuts to school aid and local government, including a reduction of more than $900 million in education funding statewide, which translates into a cut of approximately $500 per pupil.

$500 million in cuts from Medicaid, which finances critical state health programs for more than one million Wisconsin resid ents. The impact on low-income and uninsured adults and families with children will be devastating.

$250 million will be cut from funding for the University of Wisconsin. Moreover, as part of a scheme that will serve the interests of top corporations, the Madison branch of the University of Wisconsin will be carved off from the state system. This will gut the wages and workplace rights of 17,000 UW workers and lead to a sharp increase in college tuition costs over the next two years.

The Walker budget document is a declaration of war. His inclusion of further demands for the elimination of collective bargaining follows logically from his budget proposals. The cuts that he is calling for make a mockery of "bargaining," because his budget proposals require, by their very nature, the complete surrender by workers to his unilateral demands.

The oft-repeated position of union officials--that they are prepared to accept Walker's budget cuts if only he steps back from his demand for an end to collective bargaining--is not only cowardly, it represents a dangerous evasion of the political reality that exists in Wisconsin.

The term "collective bargaining" means nothing at all if unions are prepared to accept the dictates of state governments, which are acting in the interests of the capitalist bosses of the banks and industry. Collective bargaining did not emerge in the form of a permission slip granted by generous corporations to the workers. It w as wrested from the capitalist class in the course of decades of bitter conflict for social and democratic rights, in which countless thousands of workers' lives were lost. In the final analysis, collective bargaining existed only to the extent that workers were prepared to exercise the weapon of the strike to overcome the intransigence of the capitalist class and its political hirelings in local, state and federal government.

Walker's budget signifies in practice, if not yet in law, the collapse of collective bargaining. His administration is ramming a brutal and socially destructive budget down the throats of Wisconsin working people and their families.

How should the working class in Wisconsin respond to this political reality?

In recent days, there has been a growing realization among working people throughout Wisconsin that protests in the state capital are insufficient and that they must escalate their struggle.

Sentiment is building for a ge neral strike by the working class. Wisconsin workers, in ever greater numbers, are coming to realize that nothing short of a massive mobilization of their collective strength will be sufficient to beat back the attack of the Walker administration.

This sentiment is justified and corresponds to the political reality that exists in Wisconsin and, increasingly, throughout the United States. The collapse of collective bargaining--that is, the attempt of the state to impose, with the implicit threat of force, intolerable and unacceptable demands upon workers--has a profound objective significance. The ruling class is telling working people: "We do not negotiate. We demand. You must accept our terms."

This signifies, in effect, the end of compromise between the classes. The growing recognition of this political reality among workers lies behind the rising sentiment for a general strike.

It is necessary for workers who have come to this conclusion to build the momentum for a general strike. Talk about a general strike must turn toward its actual preparation.

In every work place, meetings should be called to discuss, debate and vote on a resolution for a general strike. Wherever substantial support exists for a general strike, rank-and-file committees, independent of union officials, should be formed to prepare for this action.

This movement should base the call for a general strike on the following demands:

* Total rejection of all economic concessions by the Wisconsin workers. Instead, social spending should be increased to meet the pressing problems created by three years of recession caused by the criminal speculative activities of the banks.

* Unequivocal rejection of any and all restrictions on the legal right of workers to negotiate and, when they so decide, strike to defend and improve their standard of living.

* For a substantial increase in taxes on corporate profits and the very rich to cover the budget deficit and the costs of new and essential social spending.

* For the immediate resignation of Governor Walker and his reactionary administration. Walker has deliberately made himself the political spearhead of the corporate attack on the working class and the use of dictatorial methods. The demand for his removal from office arises from the recognition that the struggle of Wisconsin workers against this budget is, in essence, a political struggle.

The call for Walker's removal does not imply a vote of confidence in the Democratic Party. Beyond the borders of Wisconsin there are Democratic Party governors and mayors who are calling for budget cuts no less draconian than those sought by Walker. The Obama administration is collaborating with the state governors and the Congress in Washington in the implementation of budget cuts that will wreak havoc on the lives of workers throughout the country.

However, inspired by the example set by Wi sconsin workers, the fight against the attacks on workers' rights will expand from state to state and across the country as a whole, in opposition to all the political representatives of the capitalist class.

Thus, the demand for Walker's removal raises the most important issue of all--the necessity for workers to create their own, independent, socialist alternative to the corporate-controlled Republican and Democratic parties.

The Socialist Equality Party supports and encourages the movement for a general strike against the Walker administration and its reactionary budget. The growing sentiment among workers that such action is necessary testifies to the intensity of social conflict in the United States. However, we urge workers to recognize that they are fighting not just one governor, but the capitalist class as a whole and the profit system upon which its rule is based.

David North

For more information on joining the Socialist Equality Party, click here. Attend the SEP/WSWS/ISSE regional conferences, The Fight for Socialism Today: www.fightforsocialism.org.

Since the early 1990's companies like Monsanto, DOW and DuPont have been quietly taking over the global food supply. Particularly Monsanto, and particularly in North America. A little research will show anyone that this problem is nearly out-of-hand, and like climate change and peak oil has a "tipping point" where there is no return from the damage done.

The thing that should stand out and alarm people the most is that these are not food, farming or agricultural businesses. They are chemical companies...

Send a strong message to our president and tell him to say NO to the destruction of our natural food system.

From CREDO action:

For months, we've been asking the USDA and the Obama Administration to deny Monsanto's application to market its genetically modified Roundup Ready alfalfa. Unfortunately, on January 27, President Obama's Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack issued unrestricted approval for GMO alfalfa, brushing aside very real concerns about its disastrous effects on the organic industry, the environment, and our health.1

It also appears that the decision came all the way from the top of the president's political team. According to Maureen Dowd's New York Times column on January 29, David Axelrod -- one of President Obama's chief advisers -- urged the administration to "plow forward' with the approval of GMO alfalfa in a White House staff meeting.2

Along with our allies, CREDO members have submitted hundreds of thousands of public comments opposing GMO alfalfa on the grounds that it will contaminate non-GMO strains and cause irreparable damage to the organic dairy and beef industry, which relies on GMO-free alfalfa for feed.

It is deeply disappointing that President Obama and his administration have chosen to support Monsanto's profits and consolidation of the agricultural sector over the livelihoods of farmers and health of consumers. But we can't give up now. We need to hold the administration accountable for their decision and dig in for the long-term fight against GMOs and Big Ag.

If GMO alfalfa wasn't enough, just a week later the USDA issued approval for another of Monsanto's GMO products -- sugar beets -- prior to the completion of a court-ordered environmental review.3

The problems with GMO crops are multifold. When grown in open fields, their genes are extremely difficult to contain. This is particularly true for alfalfa which is a perennial and a profuse pollinator, making it extremely likely that modified genes from its pollen will end up in conventional and organic crops.

Because organic certification prohibits the inclusion of GMOs, any contamination renders a food ineligible for the organic label. So otherwise organic cows that are fed contaminated alfalfa are no longer able to produce organic dairy or beef, decimating organic farmers' profit margins.

These decisions make it clear that the Obama administration is more comfortable standing up for Monsanto and Big Ag than for the farmers who produce and the consumers who eat our food.

The battle is far from over. The recent GMO approvals are already being appealed in the courts. We will continue to follow this issue and alert you to action opportunities.

In the meantime, we need to let President Obama know we're watching and that these potentially disastrous decisions are being made by his administration, on his watch.

Click here to sign the petition to President Obama telling him how infuriating this decision is, and pledge to hold him responsible for its effects.

Link: http://www.commoncause.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=6498987&auid=7645972

FROM COMMON CAUSE CALLING FOR A JUSTICE DEPARTMENT INVESIGATION

Did these two men, Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, have a shocking and undisclosed conflict of interest when they ruled on the Citizens United case -- which opened the floodgates to unlimited corporate political spending?

Sign our petition calling for a Justice Department investigation of whether Scalia and Thomas should have recused themselves from the Citizens United case because of their participation in secret political strategy meetings with Koch Industries!

    Read more here.

Link: http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/bradleymanning?source=em20110120

Julian Assange and Wikileaks have been getting all kinds of publicity in the mainstream media. That's all well and good, and would be even better if the media would focus on the content of the "leaks" rather than the persecution of the "wiki".

Clearly though there is another important side to this story that is not getting enough or the right kind of coverage. That Bradley Manning, the "suspected" whistle-blower for these leaks, is being held, without charge, and in 23 hours a day solitary confinement by our military government. And has been for the last six months.

Read the article below from firedoglake and see how hypocritical his confinement really is. Then please sign onto the letter there written on his behalf.

Oliver North’s Pre-Trial Conditions For UCMJ Violations Dramatically Different Than Bradley Manning’s

By: Jane Hamsher Thursday January 20, 2011 8:47 am

I will drive down to Quantico this weekend with Bradley Manning’s friend David House when David delivers petition signatures to the Commander of the Quantico brig. The petition urges an end to the inhumane treatment of Manning during his pre-trial confinement.

Sign the petition

Today David C. MacMichael, former Commander of Headquarters Company at Quantico, writes to the Commandant of the Marine Corps protesting Manning’s conditions.

MacMichael was involved in the Iran-contra affair and notes the dramatic difference in the treatment of Oliver North and Bradley Manning. North was also accused of violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice:

"At that time, I wondered why Lt.Col. Oliver North, who very clearly violated the UCMJ—and, in my opinion, disgraced our service—was not court-martialed.

When I asked the Navy’s Judge-Advocate General’s office why neither North nor Admiral Poindexter were charged under the UCMJ, the JAG informed me that when officers were assigned to duties in the White House, NSC, or similar offices they were somehow not legally in the armed forces. To my question why, if that were the case, they continued to draw their military pay and benefits, increase their seniority, be promoted while so serving, and, spectacularly in North’s case, appear in uniform while testifying regarding violations of US law before Congress, I could get no answer beyond, “That’s our policy.”

This is not to equate North’s case with Manning. It is only to suggest that equal treatment under the law is one of those American principles that the Marine Corps exists to protect. This is something you might consider."

When many people hear about Bradley Manning’s confinement, they believe that his conditions simply reflect the way in which the military deals with those who violate the UCMJ. But Oliver North was ultimately convicted of three felonies, which were only vacated due to an immunity agreement granted for his pre-trial testimony before Congress — with the help of the ACLU.

David House is the only person aside from Bradley’s lawyer who visits him regularly. He recently wrote about Bradley’s conditions here at FDL, which include severe restrictions on his ability to exercise, communicate or even sleep. Manning has not been convicted of any crime, nor is there a date for any court hearing. The New York Times recently reported that these techniques are being used to induce Manning to flip on Julian Assange and Wikileaks.

I don’t recall Oliver North being subjected to anything like that while he was awaiting trial.

Over 30,000 people have signed the petition. We’d like to get it up to 50,000 by the time David delivers them. I promise to be a faithful videographer and bring back video of David’s experience with the petitions, to the extent that it is allowed on the base.

Can you sign the petition and forward it to your friends?

I watched the "Iran-Contra Affair" hearings on C-SPAN, and "I don't recall" that he was subjected to anything remotely like Manning either. In fact the whole thing was treated like a circus show with the American citizen as the collective clown. It was a mockery that did nothing to bring justice to crimes that were just as much Ronald Reagan's as they were the US Military, Pentagon and CIA.

Watching those hearings you'd have thought that Congress was on trial for having called their actions into question in the first place. And of course you can tune into FOX and see him (North) there making tons of money with his own show. Do you think Manning will be able to look forward to such celebrity?

Link: http://century-club.com/blog3.php/2009/08/24/the-cove

Most people are aware of the Japanese whaling controversy. After all, it has been going on for thirty years. Some of you may know that there is a growing controversy over their dolphin fishing too. Some of you may also be aware of environmental studies being done around the Pacific on the affects of ocean pollution on the marine life, particularly dolphins, seals, whales and other higher marine lifeforms. But how many of you have thought about what the short and long term ramifications of these dangerous trends might be? Or are already?

Excerpt from The COVE's TakePart.com Action Page.

Winner of audience awards across the world, including Sundance, SilverDocs and Hot Docs, The Cove follows a team of activists and filmmakers as they infiltrate a heavily-guarded cove in Taiji, Japan. In this remote village they witness and document activities deliberately being hidden from the public: More than 20,000 dolphins and porpoises are being slaughtered each year and their meat, containing toxic levels of mercury, is being sold as food in Japan, often times labeled as whale meat.

The majority of the world is not aware this is happening. The Taiji cove is blocked off from the public. Cameras are not allowed inside and the media does not cover the story. It's critical that we get the word out in Japan. It's critical that we get the word out—everywhere. We believe that once the Japanese people know, they will demand change.

Link: http://century-club.com/blog3.php/2009/05/14/heating-up-the-battle-seiu

Click here to sign on in support of worker rights!

If you listen closely and pay particular attention to the rhetoric coming out of the corporate-led media and Congress, you'll notice that a blind defiance is building as the debates continue on the economic future of our nation. The "blindness" comes mostly from the extreme right of the Republican party and the hardliner Reaganites who still cling to the failed "trickle-down" freemarket theories of the 1980s. But the Republicans are not the only ones in the pockets of Big Corp. Many of our Democratic leaders are also blinded by the color of money, as many believe can be clearly seen in the recent healthcare roundtables held by Senators Max Baucus(D-MT) and Chuck Grassley(R-IA), where Senator Baucus claims to have the "people's" ear while medical professionals are arrested at the proceedings for protesting the lack of single-payer healthcare advocates. I have yet to hear of a poll taken that does not show a majority of Americans in favor of a public single-payer system. Additionally, polls show most doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals also favor single-payer. Including the conservative members of the American Medical Association. So how can Senators Baucus and Grassley, among too many others, believe the contradictions they follow? In their minds, trickle-down economics was not at all a failure. Never was. They believe in a kind of social Darwinism that says workers have no rights that are not given by the corporation, that we workers are devoid of the intellectual faculties that are otherwise necessary for the kind of wealth they enjoy, and the government needs to stay out of the way. It's Feudalism. It's corporate Fascism. And what they gain from the polarization they create is exactly what they want. To keep the population at odds with their own best interests, while they meanwhile rob us of more of our own future wealth and opportunity. And most importantly, our dignity.

A major aspect of the healthcare debate centers on the insurance industry's economic stake, and the current business-based delivery system. One of the fears that the opposition uses to delude us is to make us believe that our insurance is somehow inextricably tied to our jobs, and in order to keep us adequately covered, we must sacrifice in other areas of our employment. With 50 years of steady globalization and the growth of the multinational corporations has come an ever growing income disparity in America and around the world. A disparity larger than any since just before the Great Depression. Labor organizing fought an uphill battle for the next 30 years to bring us Minimum Wage, Overtime, holiday pay, Unemployment Insurance and work safety standards, among other rights and benefits. Then in the mid sixties, the corporations began to mount an ever-increasing public campaign of deception, jobs off-shoring, strategic bankruptcies, mergers, splits and whatever they could do to reverse those gains and break up the unions for good. They have come very close to succeeding.

Along with the healthcare debate, the Employee Free Choice Act is also quietly being readied for public debate and congressional consideration. It will be as hard, if not harder of a fight.

SEIU has made another clever and humorous video below to help us fight back against the Big Brother Corporation for our worker rights. Take a look at it and please sign the petition HERE.

Excerpt from the SEIU Action:

For decades, America’s CEOs ran the show, leaving the American people to fend for themselves.

The damage done to the American economy was a direct result of this era of CEO excess. To get back on track, we need to change the way that we do business.

The Employee Free Choice Act is a common sense economic recovery for working families that will pump billions into our nation’s economy. By empowering workers to form unions, we can better negotiate safer working conditions, honest wages, and better healthcare.

Click here to sign on!

Some good reading on the subject from Amazon.com