Monthly Archives: July 2013

Washington, D.C.’s First Medical Marijuana Dispensary Opens Blocks From Capitol

"Warren's purchase came 15 years after nearly 70 percent of residents of the nation's capital passed a ballot measure allowing the drug for prescription medical use. Congress repeatedly blocked implementation until 2009, and the city council moved forward with a unanimous vote to allow doctors to prescribe pot for certain chronically ill patients. Now, the city has licensed three dispensaries to sell pot and six cultivation centers to grow the plants. Capital City Care executives said they hoped D.C.'s strict regulations, allowing only patients with HIV, AIDS, glaucoma, severe muscle spasms and cancer to receive medical marijuana, will spare them from federal prosecution." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWashington, D.C.’s First Medical Marijuana Dispensary Opens Blocks From Capitol

John Whitehead: Turning public schools into forts

"As surveillance cameras, metal detectors, police patrols, zero-tolerance policies, lockdowns, drug-sniffing dogs and strip searches become the norm in elementary, middle and high schools across the nation, America is on a fast track to raising up an Orwellian generation — one populated by compliant citizens accustomed to living in a police state and who march in lockstep to the dictates of the government. With every school police raid and overzealous punishment that is carried out in the name of school safety, the lesson being imparted is that Americans — especially young people — have no rights at all against the state or the police." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJohn Whitehead: Turning public schools into forts

Oakland to ban hammers, wrenches, tripods, walking canes, shields and other ‘tools of vandalism’ during ‘protests’

"The city of Oakland, California now wants to ban any object that could be used as a 'tool of vandalism,' including hammers, wrenches, slingshots, shields and presumably anything else with a blunt edge such as garden rakes or sticks. It's all part of Oakland's response to recent protests in which angry mobs of people caused significant damage to local businesses (because angry mobs tend to loot and burn their own neighborhoods first). The city claims these objects will be illegal to possess during a 'protest,' but there is no official definition of a 'protest,' meaning the police can invoke the ordinance any time they wish." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOakland to ban hammers, wrenches, tripods, walking canes, shields and other ‘tools of vandalism’ during ‘protests’

Dog and Pony Show Update

  I attended most of today’s Government Operations Committee meeting otherwise known as the “dog and pony show” on the S-7 substitute Medicaid Expansion bill (pg 3 Sec. 105c Line 19 cites the ACA) The whole one and a half leading up to the 1:30pm break was mostly a pep rally  parade of the Expansion …

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Free Barrett Brown – 321 Days In Detention Pending Trial

"Having previously been raided by the FBI on March 6, 2012 and not charged with any crime in relation to that incident, on September 12, 2012 Barrett Brown was again raided and this time arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation while he was online participating in a Tinychat session. He was subsequently denied bail and detained without charge and adequate medical treatment for over two weeks while in the custody of US Marshals. On December 4, 2012 Barrett was indicted by a federal grand jury on twelve additional counts related to data from the Stratfor breach. He faces these charges simply for allegedly pasting a hyperlink online." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFree Barrett Brown – 321 Days In Detention Pending Trial

Manning Show Trial Exposes the Fraud of Representative Democracy

"The U.S. government fears an informed American people, and an informed world public opinion, far more than it ever feared al Qaeda. What we’ve called 'representative democracy,' since the rise of universal suffrage in the West a century or so ago, has been an elaborate exercise in securing the outcome desired by ruling elites — preserving an intersecting alliance of corporate and state oligarchies — while maintaining the fiction of popular rule. Manning committed the one unforgivable sin in a sham representative democracy: He let the 'sovereign' people in on what 'their' government is really doing, and whose interests it’s really serving." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingManning Show Trial Exposes the Fraud of Representative Democracy

What we know thanks to Bradley Mannning’s leaks to WikiLeaks

"Bradley Manning, a 25-year-old US private, downloaded more than 700,000 classified documents from US military servers and passed them to WikiLeaks. The Guardian was one of several news organisations to publish a series of stories based on the contents of the files. Below are 10 of the most revelatory." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhat we know thanks to Bradley Mannning’s leaks to WikiLeaks

The Bradley Manning verdict is still bad news for the press

"The public needs to awaken to the threat to its own freedoms from the Obama crackdown on leaks and, by extension, journalism and free speech itself. We are, more and more, a society where unaccountable people can commit unspeakable acts with impunity. They are creating a surveillance state that makes not just dissent, but knowledge itself, more and more dangerous. What we know about this is entirely due to leakers and their outlets. Ignorance is only bliss for the unaccountable." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Bradley Manning verdict is still bad news for the press

Statement by Julian Assange on Verdict in Bradley Manning Court-Martial

"Today Bradley Manning, a whistleblower, was convicted by a military court at Fort Meade of 19 offences for supplying the press with information, including five counts of ’espionage’. He now faces a maximum sentence of 136 years. The ’aiding the enemy’ charge has fallen away. It was only included, it seems, to make calling journalism ’espionage’ seem reasonable. It is not. Bradley Manning’s alleged disclosures have exposed war crimes, sparked revolutions, and induced democratic reform. He is the quintessential whistleblower. This is the first ever espionage conviction against a whistleblower. It is a dangerous precedent." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingStatement by Julian Assange on Verdict in Bradley Manning Court-Martial

One-Man Stand Against Police Checkpoints: Joe Draego

"The phrase 'Your papers, please' has no place in a free republic. Joe Draego of Charlottesville, Virginia is among the brave and principled people who have challenged the legitimacy of police checkpoints. In early July, Mr. Draego was stopped at a checkpoint set up near his home and refused to comply when a police officer demanded to see his ID. He joins us today to explain what happened next -- and why he took the stand that he did." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOne-Man Stand Against Police Checkpoints: Joe Draego