Imperial Presidency

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

Obama offers ‘grand bargain’ on corporate tax rate, infrastructure

"Obama wants to cut the corporate tax rate of 35 percent to 28 percent and give manufacturers a preferred rate of 25 percent. He also wants a minimum tax on foreign earnings as a tool against corporate tax evasion and the use of tax havens. Obama wants the money generated by a tax overhaul to be used to fund such projects as repairing roads and bridges, improving education at community colleges and promoting manufacturing, senior administration officials said. Republicans contended that by spending the revenue, it would violate Obama's previous commitment to a 'revenue-neutral' overhaul of corporate taxes." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama offers ‘grand bargain’ on corporate tax rate, infrastructure

How the Military Industrial Complex Targeted the Amash Amendment

"The NSA gave members of Congress private scare briefings. Former Attorney Generals and past 'spook agency' leaders signed an open letter of opposition. The Wall Street Journal attacked Amash as 'unqualified' to introduce such a bill. The Democratic Whip's office even suggested that the Amash amendment '...pertain[s] to persons who may be in communication with terrorist groups...' But the absolute worst tactic came from the House Republican leadership. They offered an amendment that would supposedly protect Americans from the PRISM system. Sounds good right? Well... It was a fraud designed to peel away support from Amash." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow the Military Industrial Complex Targeted the Amash Amendment

How the Media Has Distorted a Tragedy

"As a fiction, Zimmerman the white supremacist rivals Obama the Kenyan-born commie Muslim. Obama is right that our racial history—a history in which, a few decades ago, young black males in much of the country really could be murdered at will for looking at a white person the wrong way—gave Trayvon Martin’s death a powerful and painful resonance for black Americans. That made it all the more incumbent on the media to be scrupulously truthful and responsible in their coverage. At this, they have spectacularly failed, with deplorable consequences." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow the Media Has Distorted a Tragedy

Ex-Obama Aide (Stupidly) Dismisses Glenn Greenwald as a Fake Journalist

"Steven Rattner, a former member of Barack Obama's Treasury Department, appeared on the news show Morning Joe on Monday offering an opinion about The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who broke the story about NSA spying. Rattner's opinion? Greenwald isn't a journalist. This is apparently because Rattner may not have seen how Greenwald's reporting has shifted public opinion and moved public policy. Rattner may actually be unaware of what journalists do. Perhaps this blind spot is because the journalists he hangs out with work for Morning Joe." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEx-Obama Aide (Stupidly) Dismisses Glenn Greenwald as a Fake Journalist

Democratic establishment unmasked: prime defenders of NSA bulk spying

"Now, a bill to ban the government from collecting the telephone records of all Americans, while expressly allowing it to collect the records of anyone for whom there is evidence of wrongdoing, is - in the language of the House Democratic Leadership - a bill to Protect The Terrorists. This is the same Nancy Pelosi who spent years during the Bush administration pretending to be a vehement opponent of the illegal Bush NSA warrantless eavesdropping program after it was revealed by the New York Times, even though (just as was true of the Bush torture program) she was secretly briefed on it many years earlier when it was first implemented." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDemocratic establishment unmasked: prime defenders of NSA bulk spying

Obama cheers ‘victory’ in Korean War on 60th anniversary

"The United States was by far the biggest contributor to the multinational United Nations force that poured into South Korea to roll back a Chinese-supported invasion from the North. Nearly 1.8 million US servicemen and women served in Korea, of whom 33,739 died in combat and more than 100,000 were wounded, according to the US Department of Veterans Affairs. It was also the first war in which US forces were not racially segregated. The conflict ended with a ceasefire, which was never cemented with a treaty, leaving the two Koreas still technically at war." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama cheers ‘victory’ in Korean War on 60th anniversary

Obama Change.gov Promises Disappear from Web

"It may be that Obama's description of the importance of whistleblowers went from being an artifact of his campaign to a political liability. It wouldn't be the first time administration positions disappear from the internet when they become inconvenient descriptions of their assurances. Obama's vision for lobbying transparency has similarly been discarded along the way, but the timing here suggests that the heat on Obama's whistleblower prosecutions has led the administration to unceremoniously remove their previous positions." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama Change.gov Promises Disappear from Web

David Galland: “Trained-Monkey Collaborators of Death”

"Acting under political pressure, the government brought a case that clearly had no merit, with no supporting evidence, then proceeded in an underhanded way that clearly demonstrated bias… but when the jury votes unanimously to acquit, somehow the verdict is 'surprising'? Also choosing to ignore the verdict, certain leading lights in the black community have organized protests and even threatened Zimmerman with death. And just to add a little comedy to the proceedings, this week the Detroit City Council took time out from their busy schedule of lording it over their bankrupt domain to unanimously pass a resolution calling for a civil rights investigation into Zimmerman." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDavid Galland: “Trained-Monkey Collaborators of Death”