January 2012
9 posts
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This Is Why We Protest: Department of Homeland... →
Please share.
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EPIC’s FOIA lawsuit forced the DHS to disclose 285 pages of records. The documents include contracts, price estimates, Privacy Impact Assessment, and communications concerning DHS Media Monitoring program. These records make public, for the first time, details of the DHS’s efforts to spy on social network users and journalists.
The records reveal that the...
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This Is Why We Protest: How Private Prisons Game... →
Click on title for link. Infuriating how the Republicans keep insisting that “free market capitalism” is a “survival of the fittest” - and yet continually resort to subsidies, bailouts, and lobbying for public policy changes to bolster businesses or sectors that would otherwise be failing.
The worst part of taking this approach to private prisons is that, by creating a...
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This is Why We Protest: "Some reflections on my... →
[reposted from the blog of Matt Bieber, a graduate student at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, who received criminal charges of trespassing for merely attending a Romney event]
On Friday, January 6, I took a bus from my home in Boston to Manchester, NH. I was planning to attend a few Republican primary events, write a few posts for this blog, maybe cross-post them on HuffPo, and...
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U.N. Envoy criticizes United States for not... →
WASHINGTON — December 2, 2011 — The United Nations envoy for freedom of expression is drafting an official communication to the U.S. government demanding to know why federal officials are not protecting the rights of Occupy demonstrators whose protests are being disbanded — sometimes violently — by local authorities.
Frank La Rue, who serves as the U.N. “special...
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This Is Why We Protest: Chilling first-person... →
Albuquerque International Sunport Security Checkpoint:
I pass a camera crew filming the ticket counter. I stop and consider telling them what I am about to do, but decide against it. They probably won’t care. Instead, I wheel my baggage to the security area.
I can feel my heart beat in my chest. I’ve never done anything like this. I’ve always said “Yes sir,” even when I...
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This is why we protest: Chase Bank, in a class... →
Links to PDF of the class action lawsuit and related press by clicking on the title of this post.
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This is why we protest: Utica Cops Caught Planting... →
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Eric Cantor spanked on 60 Minutes while trying to... →
ouse Majority Leader Eric Cantor set out to “humanize” his image by doing a 60 Minutes interview with Leslie Stahl that aired on New Years Day. This is how Stahl explains the context of the interview, “President Obama has made Eric Cantor the face of Republican inflexibility.”
Although it did not go entirely as planned, it’s clear what Cantor and his press team...
December 2011
49 posts
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"The American Century is Over," Andrew Bacevich,... →
Well worth the read.
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My #OccupyLA arrest, by Patrick Meighan (one of... →
This is well worth the read.
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“If you followed my tweets from the markup session for SOPA in the House of...”
– http://boingboing.net/2011/12/17/wtf-is-happening-with-sopa-now.html
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“How dismal it is to see present day Americans yearning for the very orthodoxy...”
– (via occupy-your-mind)
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“It’s gotten to the point when anytime I see John Boehner at a podium, I...”
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A better world is possible, part 1.
I was struck by the phrase “a better world is possible,” projected onto a building next to the Brooklyn Bridge by #occupiers during the November 17 march.
It made me think how we’re mis-allocating our resources and how to question some of the assumptions which we’ve been taught to simply accept.
Advertising and public relations were ramped up in the early 20th century in...
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“The escalating violence - and increasingly twisted use of “public...”
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UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi reverses... →
It disgusts me to read her quotes to the press.
It disgusts me to see how the mainstream media has failed to continue to cover that event.
And it disgusts me that there has been no coverage yet linking the nationwide police brutality against the protesters to today’s decision to pass NDAA (and President Obama’s failure to veto that bill) - allowing indefinite military detention of US...
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"The oppressive treatment of Manning is designed... →
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“Today, Obama failed to veto the NDAA, thus authorizing indefinite military...”
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THIS IS WHY WE PROTEST: "Is the use of militarized... →
A radical change in law to allow the use of the military inside the United States, against U.S. citizens and residents, and to allow their indefinite military detention based merely on suspicion of being engaged in hostilities against the U.S is being rushed through congress. This amendment, sponsored by Senators Carl Levin and John McCain, was added in the senate after a closed door...
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"The last time Congress passed indefinite... →
Despite his promise to veto amendments within the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) President Obama said Wednesday he will approve the law allowing the U.S. military to arrest and hold anyone it deems a terrorist, even on American soil.
Phil Hirschkorn of CBS News reports the Obama administration abandoned its veto saying the final version of the bill had been “softened.”...
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THIS IS WHY WE PROTEST: Obama strips Americans'... →
President Barack Obama human rights disconnect: Required Indefinite Detainment Bill include U.S. Citizens, proclaimed this Human Rights Week
With little public outrage, on Saturday, President Barack Obama proclaimed human rights week as Senator Levin had revealed on the Senate Floor that, in what constitutes treason and flagrant breach of human rights, particularly Article 9 of the...
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Washington Post reports 67% of Americans would... →
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THIS IS WHY WE PROTEST: Obama failed to veto the... →
American Democracy: 1776-2011.
It turns out that destroying the American democratic republic was easy to accomplish, historians will write someday. Simply get the three major cable news networks to blather on about useless bull**** for a few days, while legislators meet in secret behind closed doors to rush through the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA), and its evil twin...
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“The Iraq war is a little like “Lost”: it’s ending, but...”
– Andy Borowitz
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THIS IS WHY WE PROTEST: Obama refuses to veto... →
Barack Obama has abandoned a commitment to veto a new security law that allows the military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay.
Human rights groups accused the president of deserting his principles and disregarding the long-established principle that the military is not used in domestic policing....
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This is why we protest: Congressional staffers... →
istellar:
Congressional staffers behind SOPA get shiny new jobs as entertainment industry lobbyists
Allison Halataei (former deputy chief of staff for House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas)) and Lauren Pastarnack (former senior aide on the Senate Judiciary Committee) have cool new jobs. Having written the Internet-destroying Stop Online Piracy Act for their bosses while drawing a...
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Police to test laser that 'blinds rioters' →
‘The technology, developed by a former Royal Marine commando, temporarily impairs the vision of anyone who looks towards the source.
It has impressed a division of the Home Office which is testing a new range of devices because of the growing number of violent situations facing the police. The developer, British-based Photonic Security Systems, hopes to offer the device to shipping...
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Indefinite Military Detention of U.S. Citizens is... →
WASHINGTON — A measure that Congress will likely pass this week allowing indefinite detentions of Americans by the U.S. military will mark a significant loss in the war on terrorism, says a former admiral who ran the Navy legal system.
The National Defense Authorization Act, passed by the Senate just over a week ago after a heated debate, includes a provision that requires the military...
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“I did not vote for these bastards. I voted for other bastards. I demand a...”
– Protester in Moscow, regarding accusations of fraud in the electoral process (via one of my favorite tumblogs, istellar)
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“Rich people do not create jobs. Customers create jobs.”
– Business Insider “destroys the fiction” that is trickle-down economics.
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“Truth can reach the public in other ways. In fact, you can even shame the press...”
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“Most Americans won’t notice these lost opportunities. They don’t get out much or...”
– Rogue Columnist (via azspot)
Reblogging without further comment, because none is necessary.
(via undercovernun)
one thing i miss a lot about germany: i can bike or bus anywhere within the city and take the train anywhere else.
(via eytancragg)
^ Yep.
(via silverqueen)
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Actual Children’s Answers to The Question “What Is...
Actual Children’s Answers to The Question “What Is Love?”
“Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.” - Chrissy, age 6 “Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.” - Terri, age 4 “Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.” - Danny,...
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Media misdirection #26: The fake tumblr profiles...
Interesting to note the recent slew of obviously fake tumblr profiles (the pictures of attractive young women who seem to be speaking with Karl Rove’s hateful voice) appearing recently.
It’s as if they’re trying to sap the support of the movement by trying to make it appear as if (1) people who identify with the (attractive fake profile person) should also be dismissive of the...
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Waif16: Congress Destroyed USPS →
waif16:
The media reports that the United States Postal Service is a dying business. The media propagates that technology has replaced “snail mail” and as a result the United States Postal Service is facing a projected $14B deficit next year. This ladies and gentlemen is what I would refer to as a…
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“I can’t think of any reason why as a population we should be expected to stand...”
– Alan Moore (via twinklebat)
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