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.
Macky: why have you persistently attacked – not questioned, or engaged with, but attacked – Craig’s moderator and one of the longest term posters on Craig’s board, as well as other longest term posters on Craig’s board? Why have you encouraged other posters to join in?
“Further, what counter references are forwarded other than; “trust me, I know what I am talking about”.”
How about innocent until proved guilty – do you really want Habba to prove that he isn’t an Islamophobe? Of course it would be wrong of us to assume that supporting police state type behaviour means that you are in favour of a police state?
“Hence the constant torrents of one liners; “Evidence please”/”links please”!”
It’s really very simple, Passerby. If Macky says something like calling Habbabkuk an “Islamophobe”, he ought to be able to back it up with evidence by way of a link. Otherwise he is a malicious liar. Understood?
Garbage, Macky, but I’ve come to expect it from you. And I don’t do “tag team attacks”. I don’t do tag-teams. To quote Fred: ‘No sides, no cliques, no cabals, just people’.
I thought you might post that. It was a perfectly reasonable suggestion, as I’ve said before. And I’m quite happy to reiterate it.
(Some of the “Palestinian supporters” here are making me wary of association with them. Any Palestinian worth his salt would likely be saying, “With friends like those, who needs enemies?”)
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LOL! Well said.
Sofia, thanks. Those Banksy Palestine images are fucking great.
Technicolour, because Jon failed to ‘deal with the problem’, ie banning those with views different to his own, even though he did actually ban Habbabkuk. Macky probably imagines Jon is a ‘Zionist hasbara agent’ for not banning everyone not obsessed about Israel.
Thanks Phil.
Hats off to Brand too! He gets these conversations into parts of our society where you’d least expect them.
“People don’t throw your bags out of windows because of lies; they throw them out because of the truth.”
John Goss (13h37)
“ESLO I mentioned Zionists and the Rothschilds because everybody knows I am opposed to them, and that is what I get the most flak about. I do not try to hide it. They use and manipulate governments. They say so themselves.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I will accept what you say about Zionists, except that I would perhaps rephrase to read “They endeavor to use and manipulate governments”, but you should really stop banging on about the Rothschilds. What you say about the House of Rothschild may have been (partly) true a couple of centuries ago but is simply off-the-wall today. As somebody pointed out a few weeks ago on this blog, apart from anything they are not a major financial force any more.
“Your view of if I cannot say something nice about someone I stay silent is fine in the context of a blog, prudent if you’re living under Ghengis Khan, Vlad Tepes or Stalin, but if you are living in a democracy, as we claim to be, and injustice is evident, then it is the moral duty of everyone to see that that injustice is righted.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here I think you indirectly and unwittingly illustrate a point that some of us make from time to time, viz that the Eminences appear to confine their moral outrage and muscular condemnations to the behavior of the western world, modestly averting their gaze from the often heinous behavior of many governments/countries elsewhere. In this connection I again draw attention to Jon/Mod’s excellent post of a couple of weeks ago on CHINA (theme : beware of possible false Gods).
“Jon failed to ‘deal with the problem’, ie banning those with views different to his own, even though he did actually ban Habbabkuk.”
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and, may I add, most unjustly!
I was away from the blog for a few weeks and have posted sparingly since my return. A careful reading of this thread makes it very clear who the real disrupters and trouble-makers are (and were).
A note for the record.
I refuse to engage, correspond, or communicate with any ziofuckwit entity. Further I do not recognise zionistan as an entity.
Anon at 1.58 pm.
“John Goss, when dealing with a subject – an entire country in this case – you should take the time to inform yourself from a wide range of credible sources. Because almost all of your knowledge of Haiti is gained from News Junk Post, it is hardly surprising that you will have formed the view that Haiti’s historical problems with poverty and corruption are all the fault of America. And, yes, if all you knew about Haiti was the work of some Amerikkkan apologist, then you would no doubt consider America entirely blameless.”
Why don’t you read the article? Dr Chery’s argukment is about the government president disposing of an honest judge because of his honesty. Are you suggesting that that is the way democracy should work? After reading it you can point me in the direction of what you consider to be better-informed research into the history of Haiti and the way it treats its honest judges.
“I refuse to engage, correspond, or communicate with any ziofuckwit entity.”
Is that what you said to your boss?
Cheap, Anon.
Now, I love a good old row but this place is currently playground noise. You said this and I never said that and they said this and you were horrid. No you were horrid.
If you are so easily offended to bicker page after page after page, post after post, about the same old same old nothing, then you are probably a little too invested in your virtual anonymous character.
I’m not interested in reading the article, John. I am concerned that virtually your entire knowledge of Haiti is gleaned from the anti-American News Junk Post. If everything I knew about banking was gained from reading your work, I would be very badly informed indeed, not to say very poor! 🙂
Well, all that guff from Macky came and went in a puff of nothingness. I thought it was worth at least two or three pages of discussion.
. . . .
Some moons ago, JimmyGiro referred to a link that described the myth of saturated fats being a significant cause of heart disease. I looked into his link and found it to be creditable. Tonight, I watched our regular science program on the ABC take up this issue and I think many of you will find it possibly life changing – not in an emotional way, but in an important life extending way.
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3861759.htm
“Cheap, Anon”
If there’s one thing Fedup is spot on about, it’s in his description of you as the “den mother”.
We all had a good laugh about the thought of Fedup being dismissed for calling his boss a ziofuckwit, and wished him the best of luck with finding a new job. Your pious “now, now” posts remind me of my late, great aunt, who was a nun, and who was also utterly devoid of humour.
Here’s a new one for Anon by Ilan Pappe, a Jew who got out of Israel and who now teaches at Exeter University.
Reclaiming Judaism from Zionism
18 October 2013
Jews in today’s Israel must reconnect to Jewish heritage before it was distorted by Zionism.
When the Zionist movement appeared in Eastern Europe in the 1880s, it found it very difficult to persuade the leading rabbis and secular Jewish thinkers of the day to support it.
The leading rabbis saw the political history in the Bible and the idea of Jewish sovereignty on the land of Israel as very marginal topics and were much more concerned, as indeed Judaism as a religion was, with the holy tracts that focused on the relationship between the believers themselves and in particular their relations with God.
Secular liberal or socialist Jews also found the idea of Jewish nationalism unattractive. Liberal Jews hoped that a far more liberal world would solve the problems of persecution and anti-Semitism while avowed socialists and communists wished peoples of all religions, not just the Jews, to be liberated from oppression.
Even the idea of a particular Jewish socialist movement, such as the Bund, was a bizarre one in their eyes. “Zionists who were afraid of seasickness” is how Russian Marxist Georgi Plekhanov called the Bundists when they wanted to join the international communist movement.
/..
http://electronicintifada.net/content/reclaiming-judaism-zionism/12859
I have met him. He’s a lovely man.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilan_Papp%C3%A9
From the website of Sonia Karkar in Australia FYI, who gets such a hard time from the Zionist supporters there that all of her e-mail system was wiped.
Jerusalem’s system of checkpoints inside Palestinian neighborhoods of the holy city 24Oct13
Mondoweiss by Allison Deger
I’m standing in Jerusalem, but behind a five-lane, metal turn-stop, gated, chain-linked, barbed-wire military instillation. There’s a call box with a button to alert the Israeli army when pedestrians want to pass. Even though I’m in a valley between windswept hills with cinder block houses and black water tanks on their roofs, I feel more like I’m in the parlor of Satre’s No Exit; sometimes the guards answer the buzz of the button, and sometimes the gates roll open, otherwise the checkpoint is locked. And I never know if I can pass through the gate, unless I try to push the metal bars forward. I wonder am I waiting for the checkpoint to open, or is it already open and I just haven’t tried to leave? Am I trapped, or do I imagine that I am trapped?
Welcome to a-Zeitim crossing, one of the newer divisions inside of Jerusalem. Although hailed as an undivided capital, where Jewish-Israelis can trot from neighborhood to neighborhood, increasingly intractable metal is constructed between Palestinian localities. Like plantar warts, these checkpoints spread on the ridges and lowlands, hidden unless I look for them. Before last week I hadn’t heard of a-Zeitim, probably because cars can’t drive through, only foot traffic. And this checkpoint is nestled between Palestinian residential areas in the periphery of Jerusalem.
/..
http://www.australiansforpalestine.net/86523
We have a Banksy opposite the local vets which got the perspex treatment long ago from the curry house owners. Covering his work with perspex is fascinating. It stakes a fraudulent claim that visually devalues what is being protected. Another cultural minefield well laid by our bristolian anti-hero.
Jemand (Stormy-J) 24 Oct, 2013 – 3:38 pm
“JimmyGiro referred to a link that described the myth of saturated fats being a significant cause of heart disease. I looked into his link and found it to be creditable. Tonight, I watched our regular science program on the ABC take up this issue…”
I didn’t see Jimmys’ links but it’s on the news here too. I laughed and laughed when they were recommending butter. Why anyone has ever purchased marjorine is fucking beyond me.
Expanding the theme of rejecting consumerism – today is the 6 month anniversary of me having stopped using any soap on my hair. My hair is looking and feeling better than ever. I get the occasional compliment on my hair looking good (for an old fella). People are amazed when I tell them why.
AA; Makes sense that Carlin was familiar with RAW. Also went to Catholic school and had sadistic nuns to form his perception. Actually, that experience may have been the impetus for their independent thought; iow it was easier to disembark because there was no attachment.
The issue of perception (the first intent) was marvelously explained by the cafeteria cosmologist.
Sociologists find it difficult to observe human behavior without affecting it. I laughed out loud at his simple explanation of quantum.
Santa Cruz indeed. We all draw our own lines in the sand.
I did not know that as many as 8,000 Haitians had died from the cholera imported by the UN. Compensation is being considered. The people should not hold their breath.
Haiti: Cholera Outbreak Two Years On
by Fran Quigley / October 23rd, 2013
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/10/haiti-cholera-outbreak-two-years-on/
Am noting some disparate critiques of Russell Brand, but as ever, flaccid and weak tea.
Contrarians Unite !
I am off and will buy a new statesman for my journey. I’ll try to ocr and paste the shaman articles tomorrow if anyone’s interested.
“How about innocent until proved guilty – do you really want Habba to prove that he isn’t an Islamophobe? Of course it would be wrong of us to assume that supporting police state type behaviour means that you are in favour of a police state?”
I just want Sheheit (that was RAW’s idea, only he used S/He to keep it andgrogenous) to display the same standard he requires of others.
Sheheit doesn’t have to prove anything, except maybe the capability of responding to the question;
Have you congratulated Snowden on his award?
Thanks Phil. I’d like to see what he has to say re shamans.
Go well.
A contemporary of RAW is Alan Wilson Watts; not as funny; just as perceptive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9HEUAkQKLY&list=TL_N7LD94oRtDuOs8QuCLGIdQtLeCP0EPL
MOAR Russel Brand……http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inB-6R1-4ng
Banksy images: The guy throwing the flowers looks like David Cameron. I’m sure the Bullingdon Boys threw a few things back in the day, but not flowers.
Craig is to be congratulated for setting up a virtual space in which to achieve catharsis. Perhaps Bandar and Assad should post here; it might help them process a few issues…
The Canadian journalist Linden MacIntyre was the journalist who uncovered the “Kuwaiti incubator” lie. The resultant film won an Emmy, back when journalists did this kind of thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Sell_a_War