…why are they pushing to ‘whitewash’ the history books? ”remov[ing] references to slavery and mentions of the country’s founders being slave owners…”? ”includ[ing] the exploration of the positive aspects of American slavery, lifting the stature of Jefferson S. Davis to that of Abraham Lincoln”? ”study[ing] the “unintended consequences” of affirmative action.”? What the Fuck?
In a misguided attempt to appear ‘fair and balanced,’ the San Francisco Chronicle syndicates Debra Saunders, who may be one of the most poorly educated syndicated conservative columnists writing in the U.S. today. In particular, she seems ignorant of the actual contents of that conservative fetish, the U.S. Constitution. In a recent rant against the Occupy Oakland movement, she attempts the following bon mot:
“Free speech does not mean free camping.”
If memory (or cut and paste) serves me, free speech shares the First Amendment with a prohibition against:
“…interfering with the right to peaceably assemble ”
Except for a few miscreants, the camping has been relatively peaceable.
It’s not the first time that Ms. Saunders has demonstrated her ignorance of Constitutional law. I understand why the paper feels the need to have a token Reactionary in the editorial section, but why did they pick the most stupid one?
…never was, never will be, as long as the Reactionaries in charge. Although Needlenose graciously outlined over $2.4 trillion in first year budget cuts for completely unnecessary programs (that any non-hypocritical fiscal conservative could get behind), the Congressionals instead decide to go after family planning funds, a program that actually saves the U.S. an estimated $3.4 billion/year in medical fees.
What more proof do you need that this never was about the budget deficit, providing jobs or anything even remotely connected to the economy, and is just a continuation of the Culture Wars of the past 2 decades?
Remember the awful Total Information Awareness project and the great hullabaloo that killed it (or more likely drove it underground)?
Spy buddy sends me this guest post on a similar ‘mass surveillance’ system used to spy on folks abroad:
Mass Surveillance by the US Intelligence Agencies
Here is a greatly disturbing post (sounds like the stuff my schizophrenic cousin would say when he wasn’t on his meds) that summarizes a portion of Project PM Wiki. Smith describes a mass intelligence surveillance program with no government oversight that is funded by the US government and operated by federal agencies and US companies called Romas/COIN. According to Smith, Aaron Barr had a leadership role in the putting together the team of companies that bid on this contract. (Remember Barr? He resigned from his own firm after he was discovered to have planned a full-scale information war against political activists at the behest of corporate clients.)
Ms Smith describes a sophisticated mass surveillance campaign called Romas/COIN- soon to be replaced by a similar program known as Odyssey. For two years, the U.S. has been conducting mass surveillance and data mining against the Arab world. What is interesting is that despite listening into phone calls, monitoring activities of individuals, and reading emails the Intelligence community was surprised by all the uprisings in the Arab world. Hmm, they really know how to use this stuff.
Most importantly Smith notes that this program was headed up by agencies, individuals and corporations who seem to have no government oversight-despite US taxpayer funding- while having carte blanche to monitoring the public.
…to be Fabulous!
Feel the Rainbow, Newt!
Tip of the ‘Nose to Film Critic Buddy!!
Another battle lost in the class war (assuming you the reader isn’t one of the wealthy)! The Supreme Court just struck down what is really the only tool to combat Corporate ‘dirty tricks’ and sleaziness – the class action suit.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it was a particularly good tool, what with a few lawyers making obscene amounts of money from a settlement while we the consumer get a coupon for $10 off on our next purchase of more product from the greedy defendant. But with the Congressionals mutated into Ultimate Tools by unlimited corporate campaign financing, the trend of reduced consumer legislative protection and the corruption of existing consumer protection agencies will continue to accelerate. And at least as part of each settlement, the Corporation would be required to discontinue their predatory practice du jour.
Time for Obama to channel his inner FDR and threaten to expand the SCOTUS to 11 members, with two very young and very extreme lefties as candidates! Otherwise, we are stuck with the Supreme Tools in the Roberts Court, whose overt mission is to reverse 100 years of pro-consumer and pro-freedom legislation through extreme judicial activism.
Well the Tea Baggers aren’t completely useless and their rhetoric not completely empty – and the Dems aren’t completely spineless! Who knew? Passive aggressive bi-partisanship has accomplished what Obama and his previously overwhelming control of Congress was unable to do – kill Shrubya’s Spying on America Patriot Act!!
Although our people and elected leaders seem increasingly unclear on the concept of the separation of church and state, Shrubya wasn’t able to fully compromise the system (beyond SCOTUS anyway) with Baylor University graduates. I suspect the courts will make short work of Oklahoma’s crazy Muslim-baiting ballot measure.
Some photos from downtown Oakland earlier today, hours after the riots partially inspired by the involuntary manslaughter verdict against BART police officer Johannes Mehserle in the death of Oscar Grant:
Several businesses had boarded up their windows as a precaution before the verdict was announced, and/or put up posters in support of Grant as a possible talisman against harm.
Even many that did not survived unscathed, though — the several blocks where the rioters ran rampant were more bruised than broken by the violence. Still, a significant amount of damage was readily visible…
Of the establishments that were attacked, jewelry stores and pawnshops were among the primary targets — suggesting either that they’re symbols of oppression I hadn’t realized previously, or that some of the rioters were more interested in scoring free stuff than protesting injustice.
The venerable downtown Sears department store was a more traditional object of the crowd’s anger, as were a couple of banks on the other side of the street.
As I said, though, the overall level of damage was far lower than many people feared — the City Center mall at the heart of downtown Oakland seemed more or less unaffected, as did the City Hall and other government buildings just a block to the north. (The police presence was probably strongest in these areas, inevitably leaving the neighboring blocks more vulnerable.)
In fact, one reason it was hard to tell just how many buildings and businesses had suffered from Thursday night’s outbreak of violence was that dozens had already been shuttered — due not to fear, but rather the chronic urban poverty of the area, amplified by the economic downturn of the last two years.
You could make a strong case that the latter have caused downtown Oakland more suffering than any pack of rioters could hope to inflict.
(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)