July 4th reprieve for Bradley Manning after prosecution rests

By Rady Ananda
COTO Report

As the nation readies itself for its annual celebration of freedom, the modern U.S. government seeking to severely punish hero whistleblower, Bradley Manning, rested its case prosecuting him for 21 charges, including ‘aiding the enemy’ which carries a life sentence. The court martial is being held at Fort Meade in Maryland and is expected to end in August.

Top image: In this June 5, 2013 photo Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted out of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., after the third day of his court martial.  In June 2010, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning was arrested for giving WikiLeaks more than 700,000 classified battlefield reports, diplomatic cables and video clips while working as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Jew or Genital?

A Story in Three Pieces

By Volaar

 I should have suspected that the future would not be anything like it had been promised to us in 1977.  During a compulsory sex education course one of our football coaches had the indubitable privilege of referring to our nether regions as, “gentiles.” 

EU signs ACTA, global internet censorship treaty

By Rady Ananda

Jan. 26, 2012 Today, the European Union and 22 member states signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced. They have now joined the US and seven other nations that signed the treaty last October.

D.C. Court Rules Sidewalk Convenience Trumps Constitution

By Veterans for Peace

The D.C. Superior Court ruled last Friday that possible pedestrian inconvenience was more important than the US Constitution or stopping wars.

Arrested during a White House demonstration on March 19, 18 defendants, including 8 members of Veterans For Peace, were found guilty by Judge Canan, Friday, of “failure to obey” and “blocking/incommoding” and fined $150.

The defendants argued for their 1st Amendment right to petition their government for redress of grievances.

A Poem for Scott Olsen, the Veteran and Protester Put in a Coma by Oakland Police

By Steven D
Booman Tribune
Wed Oct 26th, 2011 at 08:39:13 PM EST

My rubber bullets smashed in the face of a veteran
and then I picked up a kitten ever so gently.
I was the perfect picture of a policeman.I was only one person in one battalion
just doing his job, and doing it superbly.
My rubber bullets smashed in the face of a veteran

but orders are orders. I followed the game plan,
and my bosses said I acted honorably.
I was the prefect picture of a policeman

Tyranny at Occupy Oakland: Tear gas video; LRADs on scene

…the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Tonight marks the two-week anniversary of Occupy Oakland. Police have brought in sound cannons and have hit the crowd with tear gas, arresting several.

Regularly updating this piece with new video as it becomes available:

GMO, chemtrail opponent arrested in Serbia

By Mara Kern

For daring to expose the truth about genocide of Serbs and humanity by poisons sprayed from the planes, the truth about illegal growth and trade with GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in our country, Nikola Aleksić, the leader of Serbian ecologist is facing dire difficulties, and is requesting donations.

While on his way to the press conference in Belgrade, they tried to kill him, and this was not the first attempt to do so.

Monsanto sued him through its exclusive partner in Serbia for exposing the truth about GMOs, threatening to deprive him and his family of their flat as a means of lawsuit compensation with the help of corrupted courts in Serbia.

Occupy Wall Street protesters sue New York City

Image by AP

By Rady Ananda

After the New York Police Dept. arrested over 700 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge last Saturday, six of those arrested filed a class action lawsuit on Oct. 4, alleging constitutional violations for intentional entrapment and false arrest.

“The NYPD engaged in a premeditated, planned, scripted and calculated effort to sweep the streets of protesters and disrupt a growing protest movement in New York,” plaintiffs charged in the complaint.

Blackberry agrees to join UK censors during civil unrest

By Avril Ormsby
Reuters

BlackBerry said on Thursday it would close down its hugely popular messenger service in Britain if ordered to at times of civil unrest, after police singled out the system as a key tool used in last month’s riots.

Appearing before politicians investigating the large-scale disorder that swept Britain in early August, executive Stephen Bates of Blackberry-owner Research in Motion said the company would comply with orders given in special circumstances such as threats of terrorism or mass criminality.

Atheists Anonymous

By Volaar

When I read Jesse Beach’s essay on AA and theism I smiled a big smile.

I smiled not because I am an atheist or agnostic, but because I am an atheist/theist/agnostic spirit-jester who doesn’t give a damn about labels, snapshots or philosophical underpinnings when it comes to the issue of getting sober and staying that way.

The Patriot Act: When Truth Becomes Treason

By Susan Lindauer

Many Americans think they understand the dangers of the Patriot Act, which Congress has vowed to extend 4 more years in a vote later this week. Trust me when I say, Americans are not nearly frightened enough. Unfortunately, Bradley Manning is also subject to some of these rules, so it’s important for his supporters to understand what he’s facing.

Ever wonder why the truth about 9/11 never got exposed? Why Americans don’t have a clue about leadership fraud surrounding the War on Terror? Why Americans don’t know if the 9/11 investigation was really successful? Why the Iraqi Peace Option draws a blank? Somebody has known the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden— or his grave—for the past 10 years. But nobody’s talking to the people.

In significant part, that’s because of the Patriot Act— a law that equates free speech with sedition. It’s got a big agenda, with 7,000 pages of Machiavellian code designed to interrupt individual questioning of government policy. In this brave new world, free speech under the Bill of Rights effectively has been declared a threat to government controls for maintaining stability. And the Patriot Act has become the premiere weapon to attack whistle blowers and dissidents who challenge the comfort of political leaders hiding inconvenient truths from the public. It’s all the rage on Capitol Hill, as leaders strive to score TV ratings, while demogauging their “outstanding leadership performance” on everything from national security to environmental policy.

A Theism

By Volaar

Atheism:  (n) à-thē-i-zəm, godlessness (the doctrine or belief that there is no God). 

Get It Now?

Our religious friends will be gratified to know that this word is at the bottom 50% of word lookups in the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, while our atheist friends will be disturbed to recognize that the mechanics of human perception render their basic doctrine mute in cases where the god under review is omnipresent.

Silent protester Ray McGovern brutalized by cops at Hillary Clinton talk on free speech

By Rady Ananda

Walking like an Egyptian pharaoh more than an Egyptian, during Hillary Clinton’s talk on free speech on Tuesday at George Washington University, she allowed the arrest and brutalization of a silent protester, Ray McGovern, who since his retirement from the CIA has been actively protesting war. The university’s newspaper, GW Hatchet, reported Clinton’s words:

“What happened in Egypt and what happened in Iran, which this week is once again using violence against protesters seeking basic freedoms, was about a great deal more than the Internet,” Clinton said. “In each case people protested because of deep frustrations with the political and economic division of their lives.”

Try looking in the mirror, Clinton.

What Bertrand Russell May Have Missed

By Volaar

A thought occurred to me yesterday just as Father Richard Rohr was reformulating truth in terms of Hellenistic (Greek) Thought versus the kind of thoughts that Jesus of Nazareth was allegedly spinning out of whole cloth with regards to the “holy trinity.” 

Here are the three principles of Greek Thought that underpin all of western “civilization”:

1)      A = A (principle of identity)

2)      A != !A (principle of noncontradiction)

3)      A or !A = unary truth (principle of the excluded third)

Russell goes on to suggest that, “nothing can both be and not be,” and “everything must either be or not be.”

Get Internet Access When Your Government Shuts It Down

Does your government have an Internet kill-switch?  Read this guide to Guerrilla Networking and be prepared for when the lines get cut.
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By Patrick Miller and David Daw
PCWorld

These days, no popular movement goes without an Internet presence of some kind, whether it’s organizing on Facebook or spreading the word through Twitter. And as we’ve seen in Egypt, that means that your Internet connection can be the first to go. Whether you’re trying to check in with your family, contact your friends, or simply spread the word, here are a few ways to build some basic network connectivity when you can’t rely on your cellular or landline Internet connections.

The war on WikiLeaks: A John Pilger investigation and interview with Julian Assange

By John Pilger

The attacks on WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, are a response to an information revolution that threatens old power orders, in politics and journalism. The incitement to murder trumpeted by public figures in the United States, together with attempts by the Obama administration to corrupt the law and send Assange to a hell hole prison for the rest of his life, are the reactions of a rapacious system exposed as never before.

In recent weeks, the US Justice Department has established a secret grand jury just across the river from Washington in the eastern district of the state of Virginia. The object is to indict Julian Assange under a discredited espionage act used to arrest peace activists during the first world war, or one of the “war on terror” conspiracy statutes that have degraded American justice. Judicial experts describe the jury as a “deliberate set up”, pointing out that this corner of Virginia is home to the employees and families of the Pentagon, CIA, Department of Homeland Security and other pillars of American power.

Media Matters: Iceland a Port of Refuge

By Tesha Miller
Seismologik

Julian Assange’s creation of Wikileaks and its subsequent release of hundreds of thousands of classified US War and Diplomatic documents has become one of the most controversial journalistic undertakings of the day. The release of this sensitive material has spurned a global debate about the role of journalism in contemporary times and what level of information is appropriate for individual consumption. The amount of knowledge that the public has on national and international affairs depends directly upon the legislative outcomes to these new information challenges and ultimately, how we decide to protect journalists, whistleblowers and news media organizations.

Explaining the Acts of Madmen

Jared Loughner did not shoot 18 people because of his political views anymore than the above criminals committed their crimes because they support Obama.

By Milo Nickels
Activist Post

Watch this video where the director of the Southern Poverty Law Center blames the Giffords shooting on “right wing political beliefs.”

Basically, they ignore the real reason that Jared Loughner became violent (i.e. mental illness), and blame it all on his political views.  This is simply irresponsible.  Would it be fair of me to say that supporting Obama causes people to become criminals?  How about after I see the above mug shots?

Imperial overreach: Obama goes after Iceland Parliament Member for Wikileaks involvement

Birgitta Jonsdottir, the Icelandic MP and former WikiLeaks volunteer, who is now fighting a US justice department attempt to get hold of her private messages on Twitter Photograph: Halldor Kolbeins/AFP/Getty Images

Obama Pries into private communications and bank info of Iceland politician over Wikileaks affiliation: PM edited “Collateral Murder” and appears in film, WikiRebels

Icelandic MP Named in Wikileaks Case
By Iceland Review

Spokespersons of the Wikileaks-page say that American authorities have asked the web-page Twitter to submit all messages from four individuals, including Icelandic Member of Althingi, Iceland’s Parliament, Birgitta Jónsdóttir. According to the Wikileaks people the U.S: Department of Justice has demanded that Witter submit personal messages, information on IP-numbers, links and personal information on Julian Assange and three other individuals who have connections to Wikileaks. One of the three is Birgitta Jónsdóttir.

Kick Out For Change In 2011

Happy New Year’s Eve, gentle readers.

Corporate fascism is on the march, racism against Arabs on the part of law enforcement is thick enough to cut with a knife, Republicans in the legislature can dare refuse funds for the treatment of Ground Zero  heroes, Democrats refuse to come to the aid of Dennis Kucinich, 90% of the casualties in our mid-east wars are civilians (up from 70% during all of Viet Nam) and our President is a pestilent windbag of tepid air.  Strikes by labor and university students are global and virtually unknown by our media and ignorance and brainwashed stupidity have run rampant.

If anyone is feeling powerless this evening, imagine my shock.