Reclaim Reform (Ken Previti) has this up on the Chicago Teachers Union’s new IPO….the solution isn’t with those wearing Democrat or Republican Masks whom are in reality corporate employees…but with us.
God bless Karen Lewis and the CTU.
Category Archives: first amendment
Understanding the gravity of NAFTA
Idle No More has a post up on the far-reaching effects of NAFTA. This is especially important because now we have NAFTA on steroids with TPP being fast-tracked through Congress.
Here’s an update on Blackfire.
More here.
From the article:
Though officials did meet with NGOs opposed to the mine, they accepted Blackfire’s take that protestors were out to squeeze money from the firm, says MiningWatch’s analysis of the emails.
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Of course….because the mining company execs see everything in $$, they think everyone *else* thinks as they do. It is inconceivable to them that there are people who value the environment, their health, their children’s health, the Earth, etc.
Note how the company was unable to substantiate claims against Abarca. It appears he was thrown in jail under false claims.
NAFTA, and I fear TPP, are all about taking power and control away from the local people. It means losing their autonomy to decide what happens in their communities, as the mega million dollar lawsuit illustrates.
These trade agreements are not supportive of the democratic process, rather a dictatorial process. How is this representation of taxpayers?
Huffington, Gates, join forces
In what could be called the Billionaires’ News Service, Ariana Huffington and Bill Gates, amongst other billionaires, want to control even more of the media message….er, I mean, news…
…and this, my friends, is why we need the Fairness Doctrine. This is why we need a break up of the monopoly of the press and media by the 1%–they already have their voices heard, over and over. They were able to sell the Iraq War through their monopoly of the news outlets–radio, paper, TV–as we saw in the previous blog on Iraq Veterans against the War. It was scripted without so much as one critical media reporter…oh, wait, Phil Donahue was critical…and he was fired. The more that media is concentrated, the less independent voices are heard. If we had the media we had in the 60s and 70s, there would have been more investigating of WMD’s, and less cheerleading by the talking heads.
The Guardian link, has a little more detail. Keep in mind that the Guardian has also joined forces with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation… further concentrating Gates’ media messaging…
A side note~~A commenter on the commondreams site has this link up**. Wow. If this is true, it opens up yet another can of worms of falsifying evidence to get us into yet another war….
And the questions begin: Why did Scahill and Jones refuse to share a stage with Mother Marian? If Scahill is as good as investigative reporter that he is reported to be, then why would he not investigate the accusations against Mother Marian? Why did he not seek her out to get her side of the story? This is all just mindboggling.
**also note that the author writes articles published in Huffington Post.
NSA: It’s worse than we thought
I hope you’re sitting down, because this is going to blow you away.
An interactive graphic from Der Spiegel explains that this tool is a part of NSA’s ANT division that the agency developed so it can see and hear what is happening in a room “without having to actually install radio-signal-emitting bugging devices in them.”
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…and you thought that mercury poisoned folk like myself were crazy for saying that EMF’s bothered us greatly. When I was sicker, I could not talk on a cell phone for an hour, or I would become ill with a migraine. EMF’s from the classroom smartboard/computer/wand make me ill.
And as far as the radiated beams causing cancer…well, that is a stone in the gravel pit. The NSA is running amok with nobody reining them in or following anything that looks like our Constitution…
Oh, and in case you missed it–they’re also intercepting laptops bought online and installing spyware on them. Yep.
….because we got to get the boogeyman.
We got to get the boogeyman.
I wonder about this and those birds falling out of the sky. More here.
Mall of America…not for *that* America
The women of Idle No More tried to hold a Native American dance in the Mall of America, which promptly had them arrested. I kid you not.
123 years after Wounded Knee, and they’re still objecting to the Native Americans dancing.
What is the harm in that? I thought it was quite moving.
They won’t even give her the respect of telling her a valid reason why they can’t be there….because they don’t have one…
123 years after Wounded Knee massacre
Warrior Publications has a blog up on the massacre at Wounded Knee.
As I look at the photo of the mass grave, it is a shocking picture too similar to the Jews in Nazi Germany camps.
Something that is really important to know—these Native Americans had laid down their guns. They had given all their weaponry to the calvary in what they thought was a truce…
…and then they were fired upon…
Unarmed men, women, and children gunned down…
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Warrior Publications also has this up on Carter Camp, of the 1973 Wounded Knee siege. Treaty after treaty had been broken, and the Native Americans were asserting their right to exist, their right to practice their spirituality–which had been outlawed–and their right to their land. They were protesting the war-like atmosphere created by Dick Wilson, whom thought of the traditional American Indians as “communists” . He terrorized the traditionals.
The movie Thunderheart is loosely based on the events at Wounded Knee. (Pay close attention to the bartender in one of the scenes–Crosby, Stills, and Nash fans will see a familiar face. 🙂
On the message board under portrayal of elders, a commenter talks about Grandpa Reaches being their favorite character in the movie–he was a medicine man, but not full of himself, not holier-than-thou. He was the genuine deal.
Another commenter was commenting on the scene where Grandpa’s TV and ancient sacred turtle rattle are destroyed–they were trying to explain to someone why Grandpa would be upset about them breaking his TV, but not the sacred rattle.
It struck me odd, too, but trying to think as the Native Americans do about possessions, perhaps it was supposed to be a “letting go” of possessions such as the rattle, because it, too, could be replaced? Or perhaps Grandpa Reaches thought that the rattle represented connection with the Creator, but he didn’t need an object because he was always connected? I don’t know the answer, but it’s a good question.
They also talked about what Grandpa Reaches gave Ray Levoi for his sunglasses. I thought it was probably a stone that Grandpa had blessed?
Anyway, I hope I haven’t given too much away to anyone who hasn’t seen it but wishes to–a really good movie full of twists and historical value.
Opposing Enbridge
Warrior Publications has this up on the curious fact that people opposing the Enbridge pipeline are not the radicals that the Oil industry and the politicos would like you to think.
Like I’ve said before, there are a lot more people in favor of protecting the environment but are afraid to be categorized as terrorists or radicals, so they remain silent. It really came home to me when I wrote an op-ed for my local paper talking about environmental concerns, including GMO labeling. I had people call me and talk to me in person (in a low voice, no doubt so no one else could hear the conversation) about how they agreed with me. But they didn’t take that next step and write their own op-ed on how they, too, wanted to protect the environment.
The oil industry and others have done a bang up job of portraying *all* environmentalists as radical, violent people….when only a small number of people have done things that are disagreeable to the rest. And I’m sure there were agent provocateurs amongst the violent ones.
The following isn’t related to the environmental protests, but it is helpful in understanding that it isn’t paranoia on the part of protestors:
Allen Dulles and his brother
Elliott at firedoglake has this preview of a book salon today at 5:00 p.m. EST. Wow. Just listening to the short video just sends the mind reeling….if there were any reason for limiting the power of the defense dept, and especially defense contractors, this is IT. Dulles had entirely too much power to manipulate situations towards his own personal goals instead of what was best. And his warped view of what freedom means is just stunning….it’s all about the money.
A wiki entry on JFK and Allen Dulles here.
I’ve read a couple of blogs on JFK and the CIA theories, and Huffpost mentions Senator Hart, who was on the Church Committee to investigate. He put it on the press’ failure to follow up on the witnesses being shot and other leads. He also states that nobody wants to put this out there because whomever did it is still “out there”. Well, I don’t know about that particular person or persons, since it was 50 years ago….but yeah, there are still mercenaries born every minute who would just as soon shoot you as look at you. It’s called courage, Gary, when you speak out even though you’re scared.
Another Presbyterian, Maggie Kuhn, spoke the phrase: “Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.”
Funny that she and Allen Dulles could be of the same faith with such opposing views…
I heart Valerie Plame
Valerie Plame was on CNN talking with Wolf Blitzer a little while ago. I tried to locate her interview on their site…but it’s nowhere on there and I’m too tired to look deeper for it.
She talked about the newest revelation of the CIA operative in Iran…who disappeared while on assignment. She said the analyst who sent him there had no business doing so. A further explanation on CBS stated that three analysts were fired after his disappearance.
Plame stated that since 9/11, the defense dept has been overtaken by defense contractors. She named the amount, but I forget how much– a large amount, though. She is all for cutting the amount of defense contractors to shrink the dept back to manageable size. (paraphrasing)
Watch your back, Valerie. John F. Kennedy had the same thoughts….
Staley, Farmer’s Advocate
I found this while looking up farmers for the previous blog. I thought it was a great historical piece. He died in 1988….seems like yesterday, but now 25 years past.
Now the only ones with power are Big Ag factory farms. Why is it that we have no enforcement of antitrust laws?? Can someone tell me?
Eagle 
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