Archive for June, 2010
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The Libertarian Bloc
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
By Daniel McCarthy
At the new pro-liberty blog Pileus, Jason Sorens — political science professor at the University of Buffalo and founder of the Free State Project — has published a very interesting state-by-state statistical analysis of the libertarian vote and its influence on public policy.
His results may not seem surprising: New Hampshire and Idaho rank as states with the greatest libertarian presence, and there’s a close correlation between the liberty bloc in a state and how free it is. (Sorens also finds that while the presence of a small number of liberals may make a state more pro-liberty, larger numbers detract significantly from its freedom score.) What’s noteworthy about this study is that this is the first time these data have been crunched to prove what intuition already suggests. Sorens’s study also statistically demonstrates for the first time that there is a discrete “libertarian” measure that is not a position on a conservative-liberal continuum.
Political science geeks will get a lot out of the study, though as with any analysis of this kind, there are assumptions that one can quibble with. What’s the upshot, though, for practical politics?
As the 2008 primary demonstrated, New Hampshire’s libertarian inclinations do not translate into an automatic top-three finish for a candidate like Ron Paul. The libertarian vote (using Sorens’s definition) is real and does affect state-level policy — but it’s also a small bloc that is easily swamped by conventional liberals and conservatives. (A separate analysis by Sorens shows that the Free State Project did add to the Granite State’s propensity to support Ron Paul — FSPers, of whom there are only about 600, do seem to have influenced their neighbors.)
A small but dedicated libertarian bloc can probably be most effective in state and local politics in places like Idaho and South Dakota; New Hampshire, because of its special status as host of the nation’s first major presidential primaries, may be more libertarian in some respects, but the non-libertarian vote will always be energized and active in presidential years. To perform well even in the Granite State during a presidnetial year requires that libertarians or liberty candidates appeal to “ordinary” conservative or liberal voters. The challenge is to explain pro-freedom ideas — from ending the Fed to ending the nation-building wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — in ways that appeal to the vast majority of voters who are not libertarians.
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Judge Orders User-Friendly Notices for Does Targeted By USCG Suits
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
Thousands of ISP subscribers targeted in mass copyright infringement suits will have a better shot at defending themselves as a result of a hearing held today in Washington, D.C. EFF appeared at a hearing as a friend of the court, arguing that the suits improperly lump thousands of defendants together, a shortcut that deprives the defendants of fair access to individual justice.
The brainchild of a Washington, D.C., law firm calling itself the “U.S. Copyright Group” (USCG), these “John Doe” lawsuits were filed on behalf of seven filmmakers and implicate well over 14,000 anonymous individuals in alleged unauthorized downloading of independent films, including “Far Cry” and “The Hurt Locker.” Time Warner Cable moved to quash subpoenas issued in two of the suits that sought the identities of the Doe defendants, and EFF, the ACLU and Public Citizen filed an amicus brief in support of the motion. EFF was invited to appear at the hearing, and told the judge that USCG did not offer enough evidence of a relationship between the defendants to justify suing them together, and that the evidence that the plaintiffs themselves submitted suggested the court did not have jurisdiction for people who are located across the country. Indeed, TWC noted that its records showed it had no subscribers in the District of Columbia.
During the hearing, Judge Rosemary M. Collyer said that while the plaintiffs had a right to pursue legitimate claims, she was also concerned that the defendants’ interests be protected as well, and that the defendants might not have a fair opportunity to raise legal objections. As a result, Judge Collyer ordered the plaintiffs, TWC and amici to work together to draft a notice that could be sent to subscribers whose information is sought. The notice is intended to help educate the defendants about the case and their legal options, such as the option to challenge jurisdiction.
EFF and its co-amici had urged the court to go a good deal further, because we believe the posture of these cases violated fundamental principles of fairness. However, we applaud the court’s effort to protect the defendants’ interests and, based on today’s hearing, we are hopeful that Judge Collyer will continue to seek to make these cases as fairer for the thousands of Doe defendants caught in the USCG dragnet.
The stakes are high for anyone identified in these cases. USCG’s strategy appears to be to threaten a judgment of up to $150,000 per downloaded movie — the maximum penalty allowable by law in copyright suits and a very unlikely judgment in cases arising from a single, noncommercial infringement — in order to pressure the alleged infringers to settle quickly for $1,500 - $2,500 per person.
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National Conference to Bring the Troops Home Now! July 23–25, 2010 Crowne Plaza Hotel, Albany, New York
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
http://nationalpeaceconference.org/Home_Page.html
National Conference to Bring the Troops Home Now!
July 23–25, 2010
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Albany, New York
In these troubled times, Washington’s wars and occupations rage, resulting in an ever increasing number of dead and wounded and the destruction of countries posing no threat to the U.S. Trillions are spent on seemingly endless conflicts in pursuit of profits and global domination, while trillions more are lost by working people in loss of jobs, homes, pensions, health care, and cuts to social programs and public services. The U.S. goes to war to plunder the world’s fossil fuel resources, the unrestrained use of which threatens the future of our planet.
We must demand the immediate and total withdrawal of U.S. military forces, mercenaries and contractors from Afghanistan and Iraq, and the end to drone attacks on Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other countries and call for self-determination for the people of all countries. Moreover, we recognize that the Middle East cauldron today also encompasses Iran, Yemen, Palestine, and Israel, while countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa are targeted for intervention by a militarized U.S. foreign policy.
The urgency of the current world situation DEMANDS UNITY OF ACTION and purpose to generate the broad social movement we must create to not only end wars and occupations, but to fundamentally change the aggressive policies that inevitably lead our country to militarism, racism, and war. Our cry must be “Money for Human Needs; Not for Wars, Occupations, and Bail-Outs.”
Come to a conference where peace, social justice and environmental activists will come together to discuss the major concerns we face and to hammer out an ambitious program of action. The time is long overdue for such a gathering.
SCHEDULE:
Friday evening, July 23: Panel discussion on “Strategies & Tactics in the Struggle to End the Empire’s Wars and Occupations”; Presentation of Action Proposal
Saturday, July 24: Keynote Speakers; Workshops; Lunch panel on Government Repression, Defense of Political Prisoners, and Guantanamo Detainees; Plenary Discussion of Action Proposal, Amendments & Resolutions
Saturday evening, July 24: Public Gathering with speakers & cultural performances
Sunday, July 25: Plenary Discussion and Vote on Action Proposal; Workshops
CO-SPONSORS
After Downing Street, Arab American Union Members Council, Bail Out the People Movement, Black Agenda Report, Campaign for Peace and Democracy, Campus Antiwar Network, Citizen Soldier, Code Pink, Fellowship of Reconciliation, International Action Center, Grandmothers Against the War, Granny Peace Brigade, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, May 1st Workers and Immigrant Rights Coalition, National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations, National Lawyers Guild, Office of the Americas, Peace Action, Peace of the Action, Progressive Democrats of America, Project Salam, September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, U.S. Labor Against the War, Veterans for Peace, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Voters For Peace, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, World Can’t Wait
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
NOAM CHOMSKY, Internationally renowned political activist, author, and critic of U.S. foreign and domestic policies, MIT Professor Emeritus of Linguistics
DONNA DEWITT, President, South Carolina AFL-CIO; Co-Chair, South Carolina Progressive Network; Steering Committee, U.S. Labor Against the War; Administrative Body, National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations
Additional Speakers: Joel Kovel, Dahlia Wasfi, Leila Zand, Cheri Honkala, Medea Benjamin, Pardiss Kebriaei, Kathy Kelly, Michael Ferner, Kevin Martin, Michael McPhearson, Nada Khader, Larry Holmes, Michael Eisenscher, David Swanson, Glen Ford, Blanca Missé, Pam Africa, Cindy Sheehan, Fahima Vorgetts, Kathy Black, Debra Sweet, Noura Erakat, Ann Wright (partial list)
PANEL ON POLITICAL REPRESSION, GUANTANAMO,
MUSLIM POLITICAL PRISONERS
Hear statements from political prisoners Attorney Lynne Stewart, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Imam Aref and speakers from Project Salam, the Muslim Solidarity Committee, and the Center for Constitutional Rights
Friday Night July 23 Panel on:
“Strategies and Tactics in the Struggle to End the Empire’s Wars and Occupations”
Speakers
1. Medea Benjamin, CODE PINK
2. Michael Eisenscher, National Coordinator, U.S. Labor Against the War
3. Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report
4. Chris Gauvreau, Administrative Body, National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations
5. Teresa Gutierrez, International Action Center
6. Kathy Kelly, Creative Voices for Nonviolence
7. Nada Khader, Palestinian-American and Executive Director of the WESPAC (Westchester Peace Action Coalition) Foundation
8. Kevin Martin, Executive Director, Peace Action
9. Michael McPhearson, United for Peace and Justice Co-Chair; Veterans for Peace
10. Blanca Missé, Graduate Student, UC at Berkeley; played leading role in March 4 student protests
11. David Swanson, WarIsACrime.org (formerly AfterDowningStreet.org)
12. Deborah Sweet, National Director, World Can’t Wait
WORKSHOPS SCHEDULED FOR UNITED NATIONAL ANTIWAR CONFERENCE (UNAC)
The Human Costs of Targeting Iraq
Zaineb Alani - Iraqi writer, poet, activist living in US has large extended family in Iraq
Elaine Hills - epidemiologist/lecturer Dept of Anthropology SUNY Albany, writer on impact of war on Iraqi health, Coordinating Committee Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace
Ali Hossaini, M.D. - Iranian-Iraqi-American physician recently returned from Baghdad working with Health Dept. to establish health care facilities to train personnel in latest blood transfusion and blood banking techniques, led several humanitarian efforts to assist peoples of Iraq, Palestine, & Jordan
Dahlia Wasfi, M.D. - Iraqi American activist, speaker, writer on effects of occupation on Iraqis, visited Iraq twice since invasion
Afghanistan/Pakistan: What Is the Strategy Behind US Intervention?
Charlotte Dennett - public interest attorney, investigative journalist on role of Big Oil in US policy in Mideast and Latin America, author “The People v. Bush: One Lawyer’s Campaign to Bring the President to Justice and the Nationwide Grassroots Movement She’s Encountered Along the Way”
Fahima Vorgetts - Women for Afghan Women
Michael Zweig - showing film excerpt “Why Are We in Afghanistan?” Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Study of Working Class Life at SUNY Stony Brook. Author “What’s Class Got To Do With It?” and “The Working Class Majority: America’s Best Kept Secret”, union officer United University Professions (Local 2190, American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO), Steering Committee US Labor Against the War
The Social Impact of US Military Intervention in Afghanistan & Pakistan
Kathy Kelly - Co-Coordinator Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Co-Founder Voices in the Wilderness defied sanctions to carry medicine to Iraq, served time in jail for non-violent actions, visited Iraq, Pakistan, Gaza & recently returned from Afghanistan
Fahima Vorgetts - Women for Afghan Women
Representative – Action for A Progressive Pakistan
Resistance to Israeli Apartheid in Palestine: Gaza, BDS, Nonviolent Resistance in the W. Bank & E. Jerusalem
Fadi Kanaan - Palestinian leader Palestine student support group at SUNY Albany
Nada Khader - Exec. Dir. WESPAC Foundation, Westchester peace and justice organization
Col. Ann Wright - Code Pink, just returned from Gaza Flotilla
Representative - Al-Awda NY
Israel & the Palestinian Struggle: Is a Two-State Solution Possible or Desirable?
Noura Erakat - Palestinian American Human Rights Attorney and activist, adjunct professor of international human rights law in the Middle East at Georgetown University, helped launch the Palestinian equal rights lobby: the American Association for Palestinian Equal Rights, former National Grassroots Organizer and Legal Advocate U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
Joel Kovel - author “Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine
Representative - Al-Awda NY
Iran Under Threat from the US and Israel
Gareth Porter - historian, investigative journalist, policy analyst on US foreign & military policy
Phil Wilayto - Editor, The Virginia Defender, author “In Defense of Iran: Notes from a U.S. Peace Delegation’s Journey through the Islamic Republic”
Leila Zand - Fellowship of Reconciliation
US Economic & Military Expansion into Africa
Abayomi Azikiwe - Editor, Pan-African News Wire
The Truth of US Occupation of Haiti
Nellie Bailey - Harlem Tenants Council, just returned from Haiti
Marty Goodman - active in Haiti solidarity for 20 years
Ray Laforest - Haitian American labor leader (AFSCME) and Haitian community organizer, elected member of Pacifica National Board
Tony Savino - Award-winning photographer will present an eye-opening and critical slideshow on earthquake relief
David Wilson - US-based immigrant rights activist who was in Haiti during the earthquake
Closing Guantanamo
Pardiss Kebriaei - Staff Att’y Guantanamo Global Justice Initiative at Center for Constitutional Rights
Colombia: No U.S. Military Bases
Antoine Castro del Rio - Colombia Polo Democratico
Natalia Fajardo –
End US Support for the Honduran Coup Government
Joe Callahan - Honduras Solidarity Network
Alexy Lanza - Honduran, La Voz de los de Abajo & Casa Morazan in Chicago
Defending Muslim Political Prisoners
Mongi Dhaoudi - Executive Director, CT Chapter, CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations)
Representative - Muslim Solidarity Committee from Albany
Representative - Project Salam
Organizing Veterans & Military Families
Chantelle Bateman - NE Regional Field Organizer Iraq Veterans Against the War
Ryan Henowitz - Iraq veteran
Patrick McCann - Board of Directors/DC-Area Chapter (016) President Veterans For Peace, Board of Directors, Montgomery County (MD) Education Association
Nikki Morse – Organizer, Military Families Speak Out
Organizing Active Duty GI’s & GI Resistance
Christine Beckermann or Michelle Roubidoux - members Toronto War Resisters Support Campaign
GI resisters living in Canada
Tod Ensign - Director Citizen Soldier GI/veterans rights advocacy group
Jimmy Massey - founding member of IVAW, founder Peace It Together
War, Militarization, & the Assault on Civil Liberties & Communities of Color
Pam Africa - Chair, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Abayomi Azikiwe - Editor Pan-African News Wire, Co-Founder Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice, Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs
Lillie “Ms K” Branch-Kennedy - Virginia prisoner advocacy group R.I.H.D. - Resource Information Help for the Disadvantaged
Shahid Buttar - Executive Director National Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Representative - New York State Prisoner Justice Network
Poor People’s Movements & the Triple Evils of Racism, Economic Exploitation & Militarism
Ana Edwards - Founding Member (Virginia) Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality; Chair Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project; host radio program DefendersLIVE!
Cheri Honkala - Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign/March to US Social Forum
Immigration Reform & the Militarization of the US/Mexico Border
Cristobal Cavazos - DuPage, IL Immigrants Rights & Grassroots Immigrant Justice Network
Jaime Gonzalez - Mexico border wars, drugs, Grassroots Immigrant Justice Network
Monami Maulik Executive DirectorDRUM- Desis Rising Up & Moving
Dennis Wilson - co-author of “The Politics of Immigration”, produces Weekly News update on the Americas published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York
Women Against War
Maria Butler - Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Peacewomen Project Associate
Connie Frisbee Houde - Albany Women Against War group
Col. Ann Wright - Code Pink, just returned from Gaza flotilla
US Foreign Policy & the Economic Crisis: A Vital Labor Concern
Kathy Black - Co-Convenor, U.S. Labor Against the War; President Philadelphia Coalition of Labor Union Women; AFSCME District Council 47
Doug Bullock - 1st VP Albany Central Labor Council, Albany County Legislator
Michael Eisenscher - National Coordinator, U.S. Labor Against the War
Barry Weisleder - lifelong Canadian antiwar and union activist, leader of the Socialist Caucus in the Labour Party, leader of Workers Solidarity & Union Democracy Coalition within the Ontario and Canadian Labor Councils.
Building Solidarity with Unions & Workers in Countries Targeted by US Imperialism
Amjad Ali - North American representative Iraq Freedom Congress and General Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (GFWCUI)
Michael Eisenscher - National Coordinator, U.S. Labor Against the War
Bring Our War Dollars Home: City Council, Town & State Legislature Meeting Resolutions & Voter Referendum Campaigns
Chris Hellman - Communications Liaison National Priorities Project, former military policy analyst for the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, frequent media commentator on military planning, policy, and budgetary issues
Mark Roman - Vietnam war resister, founding member Waterville Area Bridges For Peace And Justice, one of the organizers of the Bring Our War Dollars Home campaign in Maine
Paki Wieland – Lifelong peace activist, organizer Bring Our War Dollars Home campaign in Northampton, MA
Representative - Cut War Budget 25%
Electoral & Legislative Strategies against Militarism, War and Empire
Cole Harrison - Co-Convenor, UFPJ’s Afghanistan Working Group; Convenor, Boston United for Justice with Peace Afghanistan/Pakistan Task Force, Co-Convenor of its Legislative Action task force
Howie Hawkins - NY Green Party candidate for Governor
Christopher Hutchinson - Socialist Action candidate for US Congress in CT
Kevin Martin - Executive Director, Peace Action
Mary-Nichols Rhodes - Ohio Congressional District Organizer, Progressive Democrats of America
Student Organizing: Budget Cuts & U.S. Wars
Ross Caputi - Iraq War Veteran, participated in the Second Battle of Fallujah, President Boston University Anti-War Coalition
Jackie Hayes/Colin Donnaruma - SUNY Albany Students Against the War
Pat Korte – student at the New School, organizer with International Solidarity Initiative
Blanca Misse - Berkeley student leader March 4 demos; shop steward, UAW Local 2865
Counter-Recruitment in High Schools
Jim Murphy - Coordinator NY Vets Speak Out & International Veterans Fellowship of Reconciliation
Dayl S. Wise Vietnam/Cambodia veteran, member, Vietnam Veterans Against the War & Veterans for Peace Presentation Fellowship of Reconciliation Youth and Militarism program
Global Warming & War: Breaking the Consumption-Fossil Fuel Cycle
Joel Kovel - academic, writer, eco-socialist, Editor-in-Chief journal “Capitalism Nature Socialism”
Maggie Zhou, Ph.D. - MA Coalition for Healthy Communities & Committee for a Secure Green Future
Health Care, Not Warfare
Andrew D. Coates, MD - secretary, Capital District chapter, Physicians for a National Health Program, teaches at Albany Medical College and practices internal medicine in Albany, NY, member Public Employees Federation, AFL-CIO.
Margaret Flowers, MD - Maryland chapter, Physicians for a National Health Program
Mary Nichols-Rhodes - Ohio Congressional District Organizer, Progressive Democrats of America
The Faith Community & the Antiwar Movement
Shamshad Ahmad
Mark Johnson - Executive Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation
Sybil Stock - Social Justice Committee at the Unitarian Universalist Association in Albany
Spiritual Approaches to Creating Peace
Blasé Bonpane - Executive Director, Office of the Americas
Kathy Kelly - Co-Coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Co-Founder, Voices in the Wilderness defied sanctions to carry medicine to Iraq, served time in jail for non-violent actions, visited Iraq, Pakistan, Gaza & recently returned from Afghanistan
Rev. Sam Trumbore
Paki Wieland
The Rise of Right Wing Populism & the Tea Party: Do We Need a Right-Left Coalition?
Medea Benjamin - Code Pink
Chris Gauvreau - CT United Against the War; Administrative Body, National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations
Glen Ford - Black Agenda
Kevin Zeese - Co-Founder, Voters for Peace
Deepening the Base & Building Bridges between the Climate Change, Peace & Economic Justice Movements
Suren Moodliar - Majority Agenda Project organizing team, coordinator Mass. Global Action and Encuentro 5
Weimin Tchen - Majority Agenda Project organizing team, member Boston United for Justice with Peace
UNITED ANTIWAR CONFERENCE (UNAC)
For further information and to register, go to our website:
http://www.nationalpeaceconference.org
Or write UNAC, P.O. Box 21675, Cleveland, OH 44121; phone 518-227-6947
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Guess Who Wants to Kill the Internet? by Maidhc Ó Cathail
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/06/guess-who-wants-to-kill-the-internet/#…
Guess Who Wants to Kill the Internet?
by Maidhc Ó Cathail / June 30th, 2010
It would be hard to think of anyone who has done more to undermine American freedoms than Joseph Lieberman.
Since 9/11, the Independent senator from Connecticut has introduced a raft of legislation in the name of the “global war on terror” which has steadily eroded constitutional rights. If the United States looks increasingly like a police state, Senator Lieberman has to take much of the credit for it.
On October 11, 2001, exactly one month after 9/11, Lieberman introduced S. 1534, a bill to establish a Department of Homeland Security. Since then, he has been the main mover behind such draconian legislation as the Protect America Act of 2007, the Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010, and the proposed Terrorist Expatriation Act, which would revoke the citizenship of Americans suspected of terrorism. And now the senator from Connecticut wants to kill the Internet.
According to the bill he recently proposed in the Senate, the entire global internet is to be claimed as a “national asset” of the United States. If Congress passes the bill, the US President would be given the power to “kill” the internet in the event of a “national cyber-emergency.” Supporters of the legislation say this is necessary to prevent a “cyber 9/11″ – yet another myth from the fearmongers who brought us tales of “Iraqi WMD” and “Iranian nukes.”
Lieberman’s concerns about the internet are not new. The United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which Lieberman chairs, released a report in 2008 titled “Violent Islamist Extremism, The Internet, and the Homegrown Terrorist Threat.” The report claimed that groups like al-Qaeda use the internet to indoctrinate and recruit members, and to communicate with each other.
Immediately after the report was published, Lieberman asked Google, the parent company of You Tube, to “immediately remove content produced by Islamist terrorist organizations.” That might sound like a reasonable request. However, as far as Lieberman is concerned, Hamas, Hezbollah and even the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are terrorist organizations.
It’s hardly surprising that Lieberman’s views on what constitute terrorism parallel those of Tel Aviv. As Mark Vogel, chairman of the largest pro-Israel Political Action Committee (PAC) in the United States, once said: “Joe Lieberman, without exception, no conditions … is the No. 1 pro-Israel advocate and leader in Congress. There is nobody who does more on behalf of Israel than Joe Lieberman.”
Lieberman has been well-rewarded for his patriotism – to another country. In the past six years, he has been the Senate’s top recipient of political contributions from pro-Israel PACs with a staggering $1,226,956.
But what is it that bothers Lieberman so much about the internet? Could it be that it allows ordinary Americans access to facts which reveal exactly what kind of “friend” Israel has been to its overgenerous benefactor? Facts which they have been denied by the pro-Israel mainstream media.
How much faith would American voters have in the likes of Lieberman, who claims that the Jewish state is their greatest ally, if they knew that Israeli agents planted firebombs in American installations in Egypt in 1954 in an attempt to undermine relations between Nasser and the United States; that Israel murdered 34 American servicemen in a deliberate attack on the USS Liberty on June 8, 1967; that Israeli espionage, most notably Jonathan Pollard’s spying, has done tremendous damage to American interests; that five Mossad agents were filming and celebrating as the Twin Towers collapsed on September 11, 2001; that Tel Aviv and its accomplices in Washington were the source of the false pre-war intelligence on Iraq; and about countless other examples of treachery?
In his latest attempt to censor the internet, does Lieberman really want to protect the American people from imaginary cyber-terrorists? Or is he just trying to protect his treasonous cronies from the American people?
Maidhc Ó Cathail is a freelance writer. His work has been published by Al Jazeera Magazine, Antiwar.com, Dissident Voice, Khaleej Times, Palestine Chronicle and many other publications. Read other articles by Maidhc.
Read the original with live links:
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/06/guess-who-wants-to-kill-the-internet/#… -
Ron Paul Interview
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
By Matt Hawes
Later tonight, Congressman Paul will be on Fox Business’ Money Rocks with Eric Bolling. The program starts at 8pm eastern.
Update:
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Schiff for Senate donation challenge
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
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National debt continues to skyrocket
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
By Matt Hawes
From USA Today:
The federal debt will represent 62% of the nation’s economy by the end of this year, the highest percentage since just after World War II, according to a long-term budget outlook released today by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office….
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Free Press Launches ‘Corruption Road’ to Track Telecom Industry Influence in Washington
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
WASHINGTON – Today, Free Press launched “Corruption Road: How Corporate Money and Astroturf Pollute Media Policy,” a new tool that illustrates the millions of dollars being funneled from the major phone and cable companies into Washington’s economy of influence.
Free Press Campaign Director Timothy Karr issued the following statement:
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Audit the Fed vote on House Floor today!
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
By Matt Hawes
As the House debates the financial regulatory reform bill, the Republicans will offer the thorough Paul-Grayson Audit language as part of their motion to recommit.
In support of this motion, Representative Paul has written an “Audit the Fed” post for the “America Speaking Out” website. Check it out here and show your support by voting for the idea and leaving a comment.
You can find out more about the motion to recommit here.
Call Congress and urge your representative to support Audit the Fed (especially if they’re a cosponsor) by voting for the motion to recommit on H.R. 4173. If final passage of the Dodd-Frank bill comes up for a vote, demand they oppose this latest government move to interfere in the economy.
Update: The House rejected the motion (and the Paul-Grayson language) 198-229. See the roll call here.
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“Please Remove Your Shoes”
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
By Tim Shoemaker
Salon.com reports on a new documentary opening tonight in Washington, D.C. that challenges the TSA’s screening procedures. The film features a “particularly memorable” segment on our own Steve Bierfeldt.
For years in this column I’ve been railing against the foolishness and incompetence of the Transportation Security Administration. Nearly a decade after the terror attacks of 2001, TSA guards continue to waste our time and suck up our tax dollars, ransacking carry-ons for harmless pointy objects and tubes of toothpaste, confiscating butter knives from airline pilots*, compiling secret lists and intimidating passengers into submission.
(* It happened to me, twice; I carry a set of small, airline-size silverware in my roll-aboard as part of my layover survival kit.)
Well, it turns out I’m not the lone voice in the wilderness I thought I was. Boston-based producer Fred Gevalt and his crew have put together a 94-minute documentary on TSA’s “broken promise,” as the filmmakers call it, featuring interviews with Congress members, air marshals and TSA whistle-blowers. “Please Remove Your Shoes” debuts in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, June 30, at 7 p.m. at the Landmark E Street Cinema. The screening is invitation-only, but there are some open seats. If you’re interested in attending, please contact Fred Gevalt at fgevalt@gmail.com
I’ve seen the film, and it’s almost everything it should be. The interview with Steve Bierfeldt is particularly memorable. Bierfeldt is the Ron Paul campaign worker who was detained by TSA in St. Louis because …. well, you need to watch it and see.
The TSA has continuously been developing today’s “safety procedures” to stop yesterday’s terrorists. This documentary certainly sounds like it could be worth watching, and it’s a topic certainly worth addressing. However, no film or article is never without its faults, and the author of the column raises some relevant points worth reading. If you’re interested check out the documentaries website: “Please Remove Your Shoes”.
