Ray McGovern and the Sam Adams party have presented the Sam Adams award to Edward Snowden. I am delighted. This from Ray’s account of the event:
In brief remarks from his visitors, Snowden was reassured — first and foremost — that he need no longer be worried that nothing significant would happen as a result of his decision to risk his future by revealing documentary proof that the U.S. government was playing fast and loose with the Constitutional rights of Americans.
Even amid the government shutdown, Establishment Washington and the normally docile “mainstream media” have not been able to deflect attention from the intrusive eavesdropping that makes a mockery of the Fourth Amendment. Even Congress is showing signs of awaking from its torpor.
In the somnolent Senate, a few hardy souls have gone so far as to express displeasure at having been lied to by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and NSA Director Keith Alexander — Clapper having formally apologized for telling the Senate Intelligence Committee eavesdropping-related things that were, in his words, “clearly erroneous” and Alexander having told now-discredited whoppers about the effectiveness of NSA’s intrusive and unconstitutional methods in combating terrorism.
Coleen Rowley, the first winner of the Sam Adams Award (2002), cited some little-known history to remind Snowden that he is in good company as a whistleblower — and not only because of previous Sam Adams honorees. She noted that in 1773, Benjamin Franklin leaked confidential information by releasing letters written by then-Lt. Governor of Massachusetts Thomas Hutchinson to Thomas Whatley, an assistant to the British Prime Minister.
The letters suggested that it was impossible for the colonists to enjoy the same rights as subjects living in England and that “an abridgement of what are called English liberties” might be necessary. The content of the letters was so damaging to the British government that Benjamin Franklin was dismissed as colonial Postmaster General and had to endure an hour-long censure from British Solicitor General Alexander Wedderburn.
There has been a determined attempt by government to justify the need to intercept everybody’s communications, all the time. We have, yet again, had MI5 claim there are many thousand violent Islamic terrorists running around the UK, (yet somehow not managing to kill anybody). The cry of “paedophiles” is raised, as always. I can imagine them suggesting the entire population be shot dead, and justifying it as making sure they get the paedophiles. The tabloids would go with that.
There still had not been a single credible claim by the mainstream media that any named individual has died, despite that contingency being trotted out all the time as the reason Snowden and Manning should not have revealed state crimes and abuse of power. I am hopeful that, with the internet still largely free to the dissemination of information, out next massive whistleblower is only weeks away.
Habbabkuk: You appear to have become increasingly deluded but it’s too late for outpatient treatment you need sectioning under the Mental Health Act 1983. Section 3 would seem appropriate because of the rapid deterioration. The small group of sycophants that mimic your every move and applaud you dutifully need another leader but the Israel Ministry of Propaganda will have someone lined up to replace you, so don’t worry.
Enjoy your stay.
It’s more than ancient trees and livelihoods.
Let’s remember what happens when people put themselves in front of the heroic IDF bulldozers.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/photostory-israeli-bulldozer-driver-murders-american-peace-activist/4449
Rachel Corrie. Gone, but never forgotten.
Much more.
#
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4449794,00.html
Unrelated of course –
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4449714,00.html
Beelzebub. 1 26pm
Thanks for the link.
I thought Sofia was absurd but she obviously has a lot to learn!
“IDF to Simulate Gaza Seizure in Ashkelon Drill”
“The IDF stated that the exercise would not interfere with the day-to-day life of residents, nor should they experience any delays or difficulties. The military does not intend to use public facilities or to block streets and throughways.
The Ashkelon Municipality said the city will cooperate with the military as required and that local police will also participate in the exercise.”
They surely must have let Dad in on this one.
The advert bots must be pretty clever to bypass the captcha calcs, and keep on posting here! Or is it the zifocukwits trying to shoehorn in another mod more conducive to their way of thinking. The fact that there is no one in authority to lean on, and the plebs are running a riot is making these miscreants pretty uneasy and miserable.
Twitter closes 10,000 Venezuelan accounts including government ministers
“Venezuela’s Maduro Denounces Twitter Attack as Thousands of Pro-Government Accounts Suspended”
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10139
Israel opposing diplomacy with Iran
http://www.presstv.ir/Program/331222.html
This is where we are heading in the UK — investigative journalism equals terrorism.
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE9A013O20131101?irpc=932
While David Blunkett wants to overhaul just one piece of the architecture New Labour put in place to achieve it.
One thing that puzzles me, though — Why aren’t the Lib Dems recording zero in the polls? For all their bleating about liberty, they are standing by while it is crushed.
Unless people do something about it.
The US government’s overriding vital interest: impunity for crimes of concern to the international community. The government killed JFK for faithfully executing the law, UN Charter Article 2 clause 4.
That’s why they dream up lots of little tiny theories and lie and lie and lie.
http://www.opednews.com/Diary/Is-The-Government-Holding-by-Russ-Baker-120605-846.html
It’s going to take at least another war, but the criminal US state will cease to exist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glPyZAj_wqc
Just a tragic accident like TWA 800.
Breaking news that Germany has called in the British ambassador to answer questions about allegations of spying from the embassy. No further news at this stage.
What will the Germans say about this?
Time for another burkah clad “terrorist” to do a one.
In for a penny, in for a pound, no longer content with just bouncing rubble around the mideast, now US is moving onto the main targets;
Not so merry Xmas, and a miserable new year;
One of the comments on the Guardian article on Mursi in court yesterday suggested that democracy in the Middle east is taken to mean an election for becoming the next dictator. Even if it is only a pretence, our parliament still has to chew over and vote on every piece of legislation for the next 5 years. You don’t just get your majority at the election and assume total executive powers as Mursi seemed to think.
C T Brooks the UK and US have been spying on all other countries for decades, probably forever. What makes this different is that, if true, the British Embassy in Berlin will have been breaking international law because embassies are not to be used for such purposes. However as the report comes from MSM it is difficult to know if there is an ulterior motive for reporting at this stage.
Who really discovered America?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKORIevLLmk
‘The traditional story of Columbus discovering the New World is absolute fantasy, it’s fairy tales,’ Mr Menzies told MailOnline.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2449265/Who-Discovered-America–Controversial-historian-Gavin-Menzies-claims-Chinese-reached-New-World-first.html
Note the ‘real’ map has ‘the West’ and ‘the East’ transposed or reversed. This is of course the genesis of the ‘New World Order’ that still leaks human blood today.
John Goss agreed, that is why I included a reference to a probable course of theatrics. However, I am sure you are aware and others would corroborate this fact too;
To date Germany is under a regimen of stealth occupation, so much so that an RAF flight lieutenant needs not file any flight plans and can fly over Germany to any place he/she fancies.
The fact that now Germans are kicking up a fuss, could be an indication of the separation of the satellite countries from the US orbit, or there is a whole lot of secret horse trading in the background, hence the need for “public diplomacy” (washing the dirty linen in public).
Mark Golding great links, thanks mate.
===
Mike thanks for the heads up
Mark Golding,
Gavin Menzies is about as credible as Dan Brown, and taken about as seriously by academics.
Mark. 3 49pm
Thanks for throwing that in.
It’s good to see the ideas of Gavin Menzies getting an airing. Given that for most of historical time up until the industrial revolution China was technoligically ahead of Europe the notion that it’s great ships never went anywhere outside China’s back yard seems a bit quaint.
Also, given just how much of the history we learn is fantasy it wouldn’t be that surprising if this story had been written out by an inward-looking chinese elite class and ignored by our own eurocentric historians.
Isn’the fact that stuffy old academic historians hate the notion another plus?
Whatever the truth it’s a refreshing breath of fresh air to have the old memes given a shake now and then.
I can’t wait to hear Dad’s take on the idea. My bet is he’ll come up with one of his specially weighty and impressive words like egregious.
Hi Sofia Kibo Noh, you have hit the nail on the head despite your young age, it must be the “oh so superior egregious genes” at work there!
Just take note of the current bum’s rush to rewrite the Iraq war, and its fall out, as in the poxy
Iraq Cover upIraq Inquiry. Sad fact is today’s bullshit is tomorrow’s history. It is happening right under our noses. If you are keen try and search the hidden texts on the subject of WWII you will be amazed at the extent of the fucking lies and the deception.Also did you enjoy your “Foreign” connections interrogation session? The useless fuckers are so fucking dumb aren’t they? I had a good laugh though. How is the weather in the Whatafekia?
Jewish student receives death threats over Palestine solidarity work.
Stardom,Stratfor,Sheldon,Slalom,Shoa,Shawarma, Shalom.Sofia, I personally couldn’t care less whether it was Europeans, China or the Palestinians who discovered America. The important point is that no serious historian takes Menzies’ work seriously. He is a sensationalist bestselling author of fiction and he makes millions from it. Good luck to him. He is not a credible historian. You have issues about a Euro-centric view of history, which is a legitimate concern, and perhaps even a little bit of a chip on your shoulder about white people, but certainly if I had cited Menzies when I read History, I would have been laughed out of the lecture hall (by mostly Marxist historians who otherwise would be only too delighted to agree with you). You really need to find another hero.
@ Anon
“Mark Golding,
Gavin Menzies is about as credible as Dan Brown, and taken about as seriously by academics.”
_________________________
Thanks for that, Anon. I’m rather well informed on the world of history and historians and so was myself rather suspicious as I’ve never heard of this fellow. The combination of this unknown ‘historian’ (if he is a historian at all) and the sensation-avid Daily Mail somehow fails to inspire confidence, does it not? Unless you’re iunder 15, of course! 🙂
That said, I wonder what the point of Mark Golding’s post was : is it important who ‘discovered’ America anyway? If it was the Chinese, how does this affect anything in the world of 2013 or, for that matter, what conceivable light mould it throw on the development of the USA?
Fuckedup, I have no interest in “cutting and pasting spam bot shit”. Spammers have always plagued this site and the captcha doesn’t seem to have successfully deterred them. Still, I find their posts considerably more interesting than your angry pislamist outbursts, other than as an insight into the mind of the mentally deranged. Jon, Suhayl, Technicolour, Dreoilin and the blog owner have all basically told you to fuck off. Why don’t you do that?
Anon
I think our two posts crossed; thanks for the supplementary info.
Menzies book, “1421”, was published in 2002 to universal derision from professional historians (Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, professor of history at the University of London, dismissed 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, as “the historical equivalent of stories about Elvis Presley in Tesco and close encounters with alien hamsters”..) since when he’s written a book about Atlantis and another crediting China with the Renaissance. I’m surprised anybody still takes him seriously.
They do in China.
Habbabkuk, same goes for all the supporters of Russell Brand and his Beverly Hills revolution.
Ps, the “something” was that he can be used by anti-Western dunces like Mark to ‘show’ that all Western achievements are fabricated to create the ‘New World Order’, or something.
“What makes this different is that, if true, the British Embassy in Berlin will have been breaking international law because embassies are not to be used for such purposes.”
Shock horror embassies being used for spying in breach of international law! Of course only the British and US would use embassies for such nefarious purposes. Please get real.