kpete
kpete's JournalCrime Watch ALERT
That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.
Aldous Huxley
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/multimedia/video/2008/wallace/huxley_aldous_t.html
Anthony Weiner Forever
http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/anthony_weiner_forever_20130730/
Obama Calls Out Republicans For Wasting Time On Keystone: ‘That’s Not A Jobs Plan’
While Republicans have advocated for Keystone by insisting that it will create jobs, Obama slammed that assertion Tuesday, pointing to the Cornell University estimate that Keystone would only create 50 permanent jobs:
If (Congressional Republicans have) got a better plan to create jobs rebuilding our infrastructure or to help workers earn the high-tech skills they need, then they should offer up these ideas. But I’ve got to tell you, just gutting our environmental protection, that’s not a jobs plan. Gutting investments in education, that’s not a jobs plan. You know, they keep on talking about an oil pipeline coming down from Canada that’s estimated to create about 50 permanent jobs. That’s not a jobs plan.
MORE:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/07/30/2384551/obama-keystone-jobs/
Progressives to target GOP town halls-Borrowing the Tea Party's strategy & stirring up trouble
A progressive group will make a push this August to stir up trouble for Republicans when they return to their home districts and participate in local events and town halls. The group Americans United for Change is launching a website called Accountable Congress to alert progressive activists to when Republicans will be holding events in their area. Upcoming targets include Chris Christie, Ted Cruz and Peter King.
Brad Woodhouse, the president of the group, says that though in the past the idea has been to stealthily confront Republican lawmakers at town halls, “sometimes it’s been too stealth, and we haven’t generated enough activity. He added: “Since everyone knows that both sides are doing this, we’re going to be public-facing about it.”
From The Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/30/progressives-august-recess_n_3678743.html
Greenwald: NSA hearing canceled
Greenwald: NSA hearing canceled
By DYLAN BYERS | 7/30/13 4:26 PM EDT
This week's informal congressional hearing on the National Security Agency's surveillance program has been canceled, according to The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald, who was expected to testify via satellite.
Democratic congressman Alan Grayson and a bipartisan group of congressman were expected to hear from Greenwald and other critics of the NSA's surveillance practices on Wednesday, according to a Guardian report from last week. The meeting was not meant to be a formal committee hearing, but would take place on the Hill before a dozen members of Congress from both parties.
But Greenwald now tells POLITICO that the hearing has been canceled due to Obama's decision to meet with House Democrats.
"Obama developed a sudden and newfound interest in House Democrats and scheduled a meeting with them for that same time," he wrote in an email, adding that the committee was trying to re-schedule the meeting to take place before congress goes on recess.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/07/greenwald-nsa-surveillance-hearing-cancelled-169526.html#.UfkOwl_ZhG8.twitter
perhaps in light of this:
Revealed: NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'
• XKeyscore gives 'widest-reaching' collection of online data
• NSA analysts require no prior authorization for searches
• Sweeps up emails, social media activity and browsing history
• NSA's XKeyscore program – read one of the presentations
MORE:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023378381
COOKIES!?!
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) offered a plate of cookies Tuesday to a group of mostly female demonstrators protesting a new law he signed Monday restricting abortion access.
McCrory went outside the gates of the governor's mansion, cookies in hand, and pointed at protester Jamie Sohn. "'These are for you. God bless you, God bless you, God bless you,'" she quoted him as saying.
The protesters did not appreciate the gesture. They returned the chocolate chip cookies to the gate with a sign that read, "Will take women's health over cookies!"
They also saw the move as sexist, chanting, "Hey Pat, that was rude. You wouldn't give cookies to a dude."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/31/pat-mccrory-cookies_n_3681532.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
What Manning Revealed - Read This & Tell Me Just WHO Is Our Government Keeping Safe?
What did WikiLeaks reveal?PFC Bradley Manning is a US Army intelligence specialist who is accused of releasing classified information to WikiLeaks, an organization that he allegedly understood would release portions of the information to news organizations and ultimately to the public.
The "Iraq War Logs" published by WikiLeaks revealed that thousands of reports of prisoner abuse and torture had been filed against the Iraqi Security Forces. Medical evidence detailed how prisoners had been whipped with heavy cables across the feet, hung from ceiling hooks, suffered holes being bored into their legs with electric drills, urinated upon, and sexually assaulted.
U.S. defense contractors were brought under much tighter supervision after leaked diplomatic cables revealed that they had been complicit in child trafficking activities. DynCorp -- a powerful defense contracting firm that claims almost $2 billion per year in revenue from U.S. tax dollars -- threw a party for Afghan security recruits featuring boys purchased from child traffickers for entertainment.
The Guantanamo Files describe how detainees were arrested based on what the New York Times referred to as highly subjective evidence. For example, some poor farmers were captured after they were found wearing a common watch or a jacket that was the same as those also worn by Al Queda operatives. How quickly innocent prisoners were released was heavily dependent on their country of origin.
Even though the Bush and Obama Administrations maintained publicly that there was no official count of civilian casualties, the Iraq and Afghanistan War Logs showed that this claim was false. Between 2004 and 2009, the U.S. government counted a total of 109,000 deaths in Iraq, with 66,081 classified as non-combatants. This means that for every Iraqi death that is classified as a combatant, two innocent men, women or children are also killed.
-U.S. Military officials withheld information about the indiscriminate killing of Reuters journalists and innocent Iraqi civilians.
-The State Department backed corporate opposition to a Haitian minimum wage law.
-The U.S. Government had long been faking its public support for Tunisian President Ben Ali.
-Known Egyptian torturers received training from the FBI in Quantico, Virginia.
-The State Department authorized the theft of the UN Secretary General's DNA.
-The Obama Administration allowed Yemen's President to cover up a secret U.S. drone bombing campaign.
MORE:
http://www.bradleymanning.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/WikiLeaks2.pdf
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/what-did-wikileaks-reveal
Meanwhile, still free to roam the streets, take their book tours and collect their 5- and 6-digit speaking fees, is the cabal of scorpions that rationalized torture which they claimed was not torture, secretly rendered people off the streets of U.S. allies and secretly transported them to secret prisons in nations ruled by dictatorial regimes, fabricated evidence to take us into Iraq, where thousands of Americans and tens if not hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died in the conflict, conjured up a hell-hole at Guantánamo Bay, a place the attorneys created to be jurisdictionless—not quite the U.S., not quite Cuba—and thus free from both American and international law.
ACLU: America using Manning case to intimidate ANYONE considering revealing valuable info in future
“While we’re relieved that Mr. Manning was acquitted of the most dangerous charge, the ACLU has long held the view that leaks to the press in the public interest should not be prosecuted under the Espionage Act,” said Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. “Since he already pleaded guilty to charges of leaking information – which carry significant punishment – it seems clear that the government was seeking to intimidate anyone who might consider revealing valuable information in the future.”Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/07/30/bradley-manning-found-not-guilty-of-aiding-the-enemy-still-faces-over-100-years-in-prison/#ixzz2aabEoupT
America WAKE UP The MANNING Circus Trial Should Be Considered UNCONSTITUTIONAL
Today's ruling also opens up a new avenue for charging leakers and whistleblowers—section (a)(1) of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which until now, has never led to a conviction. It’s was crafted in the 1990s by using some of the worst parts of the Espionage Act and adding the phrase “with a computer.”
https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/blog/2013/07/bradley-manning-espionage-act-conviction-blow-both-whistleblowers-and-journalists
A recently unsealed decision from Colleen Kollar-Kotelly just changed the interpretation of the Espionage Act for Washington DC to cover leaks that wouldn’t even harm the US.
http://blogs.fas.org/secrecy/2013/07/prosecutors-burden/
http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/07/30/doj-responds-to-non-intell-committee-member-of-opposition-party-but-not-intell-committee-member-of-presidents-party/
Today's ruling also opens up a new avenue for charging leakers and whistleblowers—section (a)(1) of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which until now, has never led to a conviction. It’s was crafted in the 1990s by using some of the worst parts of the Espionage Act and adding the phrase “with a computer.”
This harsh conviction, coupled with a little noticed ruling unsealed this week (SEE ABOVE) in the Stephen Kim/Fox News leak case, will make it much easier for the government to charge leakers under the Espionage Act in the future. It's just the latest sign that the law has been morphed into a version of the UK’s Official Secrets Act—something that should be considered unconstitutional in the United States.
(if you have not read this, PLEASE DO)
https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/blog/2013/07/bradley-manning-espionage-act-conviction-blow-both-whistleblowers-and-journalists
These charges were unnecessary from the start, given that Manning had already pleaded guilty to ten lesser counts that would land him up to twenty years in jail no matter the outcome of the trial. With this verdict, the government is not seeking justice, it's seeking to intimidate and scare any future whistleblowers from coming forward with potentially vital information that the public should know.
There is a sliver of hope for Manning – the sentencing hearing begins tomorrow and there are no minimum sentences for the crimes he has been convicted of. The defense will also now be able to admit evidence as to his intent and the lack of damage the disclosures cost.
**********
also note this:
‘ We are informed that, since July 2010, PFC Manning has been confined for 23 hours a day to a single cell, measuring around 72 square feet (6.7 square metres) and equipped only with a bed, toilet and sink. There is no window to the outside, the only view being on to a corridor through the barred doors of his cell. All meals are taken in his cell, which we are told has no chair or table. He has no association or contact with other pre-trial detainees and he is allowed to exercise, alone, for just one hour a day, in a day-room or outside. He has access to a television which is placed in the corridor for limited periods of the day. However, he is reportedly not permitted to keep personal possessions in his cell, apart from one book and magazine at a time. Although he may write and receive correspondence, writing is allowed only at an allotted time during the day and he is not allowed to keep such materials in his cell.
http://www.juancole.com/2013/07/tortured-americas-bouazizi.html
I did this post for woo me with science
I am heartbroken and not of sound mind today,
thus i ramble...
kp
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Member since: Fri Sep 17, 2004, 03:59 PMNumber of posts: 71,980
