Occupy Wall Street: Not on major media but worth watching!

[dagnabit]

plenty of referenced facts...

just cuz you wait three pages and repost the same shit does not delete the factual referenced rebuttals.

nice
try
with
the
return
key
and
whatnot
but
however
you
format
your
bullshit
it's
still
bullshit.


please show where i've "trolled"?

 

[Green lung]

Charitable donations don't make a dent in historic, record-income disparity.

.

Is record income disparity a bad thing for America? if so why?

 

[maryj315]

Is record income disparity a bad thing for America? if so why?

Is record income disparity good for America? If so why?

Mj

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

 

[onegreenday]

Our freedoms & fortunes are tied to Egypt's
freedoms & fortunes.

If the Egyptians with 100k protestors can't throw off their oppressors ; neither will we....


http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2011/12/20111217103526393990.html

Egyptian soldiers with batons charged into Tahrir Square, beating protesters and burning tents, on the second day of violent clashes and anti-military demonstrations in the capital.

The renewed fighting in Cairo on Saturday came as Egypt's health ministry reported 10 people were killed and 432 others injured since Friday when soldiers stormed an anti-military protest camp outside the parliament building, a short distance from Tahrir.

The soldiers cleared the area as thick black smoke filled the skies following the eruption of a fire in the area around Egypt's upper house of parliament.

Al Jazeera also filmed exclusive footage of what appeared to be a soldier, in a line of charging troops, drawing a pistol and firing shots at a group of retreating protesters.

"[These are] very nasty and such ugly scenes that we have witnessed for ourselves in downtown Cairo," said Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros.

"This is real violence that we have seen against the protesters, unarmed protesters being beaten by the military police and the soldiers."

Military police openly beat women protesters in the street, slapped elders on the face, and pulled the shirt off of at least one veiled woman as she struggled on the pavement. Witnesses told the AP new agency that soldiers beat and gave electric shocks to men and women dragged into detention, many of them held in the nearby parliament buildings.

Aya Emad, a 24-year-old protester, had a broken nose, her arm in a sling, her other arm bruised. She told AP that troops dragged her by her headscarf and hair into the Cabinet headquarters. She said soldiers kicked her on the ground, an officer used an electrical prod on her and another slapped her on the face.

Our correspondent reported that the situation had calmed down over the last few hours.

"We have a situation where the military police and the military soldiers are securing Tahrir Square themselves. Also on the periphery, they are trying to make sure that no one who wants to get back in gets back in. That seems to be their main objective right now, to get people out and to make sure that the whole area does not become re-occupied, as they put it."

Earlier, Tahrir and streets leading to the nearby parliament and cabinet headquarters looked like war zones. The military set up concrete walls between the square and parliament, but clashes continued.

Flames leaped from the windows of the state geographical society, which protesters pelted with firebombs after military police on the roof rained stones and firebombs down on them. Stones, dirt and shattered glass littered the streets around parliament.

Protesters grabbed helmets, sheets of metal and even satellite dishes to protect themselves from stones from troops above.

'Counter-revolution'


Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros reports from Cairo

Egypt's prime minister, Kamal el-Ganzouri, addressed the violence in a news conference earlier on Saturday, branding the protesters as counter-revolutionaries, and saying the fighting was an attack on the country's revolution.

"This is not a revolution, but a counter-revolution," he said. "Those who are in Tahrir Square are not the youth of the revolution."

He added that his government would not confront peaceful demonstrations with any force, but he said protesters "threw rocks and destroyed everything they came across".

Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh, who was at the press conference, said the "prime minister's promises have fallen flat, after the escalation of violence after his message".

Also on Saturday, nine members of a civilian council set up in November to advise the military after anti-army demonstrations resigned in protest of the military action.

The violence highlights tensions in Egypt 10 months after a popular revolt toppled President Hosni Mubarak. The army generals who replaced him have angered some Egyptians by seeming reluctant to give up power.

Skirmishes

The army assault on Saturday followed skirmishes between protesters and troops. A fire destroyed archives in a building next to Tahrir, including historic documents dating back over two centuries.

An official blamed petrol bombs for starting the blaze, the state news agency MENA reported.

An army official said in a statement troops targeted thugs SNIP

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

onegreenday, better don your mud suit.

 

[onegreenday]

thanks DB but nothing penetrates me
except the truth........

EDIT: Oh yah, those live bullets they shootin at protestors
come from old USA; that freedom lovin land..
hahaha

onegreenday, better don your mud suit.

 

[onegreenday]

Hey DB, some new figures:

Nearly Half of Americans Below Poverty Line or Low-Income

New figures show hunger, poverty and economic decline are increasing at record levels across the United States. The Census Bureau reports nearly half of Americans have either fallen below the poverty line or are classified under the category of "low income." The number of low-income residents is at 97.3 million, coupled with 49.1 million in poverty, for a total of 146.4 million. The figure marks an increase of four million over 2009. Meanwhile, the U.S. Conference of Mayors reports all but four of 29 major cities saw an increase in requests for emergency food assistance between September 2010 and August 2011.

(ref. Democracy Now)

Definitely brings perspective to world poverty.

However, the top ten countries with the largest income disparity are industrialized. US has the highest disparity, only behind Turkey, Mexico and Chile.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...ty_n_865869.html#s278234&title=10_New_Zealand

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Yeah, I watched a news report on the same info. The rung above poverty status is $45k per family of 4. The two levels above poverty status have declined in numbers and indicators point to contraction and many are now, by definition living in poverty.

1.5 million homeless children still attend public schools and many receive the majority of food they'll eat on any given day. Another 3.5 million are sheltered but in poverty. Going hungry for at least part of every day life is the American way for 5 million school kids.

I really like Democracy Now. They're like NPR before peeps threatened to cut their funding, lol. If you can't stop the news you can always stop the check. Whatta country.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Occupy the Food System

Willie Nelson
President of Farm Aid

Posted: 12/17/11 10:39 AM ET

Thanks to the Occupy Wall Street movement, there's a deeper understanding about the power that corporations wield over the great majority of us. It's not just in the financial sector, but in all facets of our lives. The disparity between the top 1 percent and everyone else has been laid bare -- there's no more denying that those at the top get their share at the expense of the 99 percent. Lobbyists, loopholes, tax breaks... how can ordinary folks expect a fair shake?

No one knows this better than family farmers, whose struggle to make a living on the land has gotten far more difficult since corporations came to dominate our farm and food system. We saw signs of it when Farm Aid started in 1985, but corporate control of our food system has since exploded.

From seed to plate, our food system is now even more concentrated than our banking system. Most economic sectors have concentration ratios hovering around 40 percent, meaning that the top four firms in the industry control 40 percent of the market. Anything beyond this level is considered "highly concentrated," where experts believe competition is severely threatened and market abuses are likely to occur.

Many key agricultural markets like soybeans and beef exceed the 40 percent threshold, meaning the seeds and inputs that farmers need to grow our crops come from just a handful of companies. Ninety-three percent of soybeans and 80 percent of corn grown in the United States are under the control of just one company. Four companies control up to 90 percent of the global trade in grain. Today, three companies process more than 70 percent of beef in the U.S.; four companies dominate close to 60 percent of the pork and chicken markets.

Our banks were deemed too big to fail, yet our food system's corporations are even bigger. Their power puts our entire food system at stake. Last year the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Justice (DOJ) acknowledged this, hosting a series of workshops that examined corporate concentration in our farm and food system. Despite the hundreds of thousands of comments from farmers and eaters all over the country, a year later the USDA and DOJ have taken no action to address the issue. Recent decisions in Washington make clear that corporate lobbyists have tremendous power to maintain the status quo.

In November, the Obama administration delivered a crushing blow to a crucial rule proposed by the USDA (known as the GIPSA rule), which was meant to level the playing field for independent cattle ranchers. The large meatpackers, who would have lost some of their power, lobbied hard and won to leave the beef market as it is -- ruled by corporate giants. In the same month, new school lunch rules proposed by the USDA that would have brought more fresh food to school cafeterias were weakened by Congress. Food processors -- the corporations that turn potatoes into French fries and chicken into nuggets -- spent $5.6 million to lobby against the new rules and won, with Congress going so far as agreeing to call pizza a vegetable. Both decisions demonstrate that corporate power wins and the health of our markets and our children loses.

Despite all they're up against, family farmers persevere. Each and every day they work to sustain a better alternative -- an agricultural system that guarantees farmers a fair living, strengthens our communities, protects our natural resources and delivers good food for all. Nothing is more important than the food we eat and the family farmers who grow it. Corporate control of our food system has led to the loss of millions of family farmers, destruction of our soil, pollution of our water and health epidemics of obesity and diabetes.

We simply can't afford it. Our food system belongs in the hands of many family farmers, not under the control of a handful of corporations.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/willie-nelson/occupy-food-system_b_1154212.html

 

[dagnabit]

How can they say "obama dealt a crushing blow"?
we all know the president has absolutely no power over agencies.
The executive is not really an executive at all.
Or is the usda the one exception to the rule?

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

How can they say "obama dealt a crushing blow"?

The "rule" was a proposal, not existing law.

we all know the president has absolutely no power over agencies.

Existing laws and proposals aren't the same things.

The executive is not really an executive at all.
Or is the usda the one exception to the rule?

You make your own arguments. Try arguing the issues instead of bastardizing exchange.

 

[dagnabit]

Who's arguments do you make?


I think I get it.
The president has no control over agencies except to crush proposed rules and create or abolish them.
Well that and appoint the heads of them...

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Who's arguments do you make?

Read the comment.

Existing laws and proposals aren't the same things.

I think I get it.
The president has no control over agencies except to crush proposed rules and create or abolish them.
Well that and appoint the heads of them...

You get what you wish to make. Read a book - learn something.

 

[onegreenday]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/dec2011/ocny-d19.shtml

New York City: Over 50 protesters arrested during attempt to establish new occupation site
By Sandy English
19 December 2011

Police in New York City arrested over 50 protesters on Saturday as they attempted to occupy an empty lot near Lower Manhattan’s Canal Street. The Episcopalian Trinity Church, which owns the lot abutting the site of the original occupation at Zuccotti Plaza, cautioned demonstrators that they would be subject to legal action if they trespassed on the property.

Trinity Church, an institution older than the United States, is one of the largest landowners in New York City. The church’s rector, Rev. James Cooper, told the media, "The health, safety and security problems posed by an encampment here, compounded by winter weather, would dwarf those experienced at Zuccotti Park."

On Saturday, approximately 500 supporters gathered at noon in a public area adjacent to the lot known as Duarte Park. They chanted, "We are unstoppable. Another world is possible," and "Whose streets? Our streets!”

At about 3:45 p.m., protesters used wooden ladders to scale a chain-linked fence that separated the property from Duarte Park. Police immediately moved in and began making arrests.

Police jabbed protesters with nightsticks as the fence that separated the church’s property from the park threatened to collapse under the weight of the crowd. After removing protesters from the lot, the police on scooters and in vans followed a group of roughly 200 demonstrators that attempted to march down 7th Avenue, where more arrests were made.

A few Episcopalian clergy who had opposed Trinity’ Church’s decision to ban protesters from its property were also arrested.

Most of those who participated in the demonstrations Saturday were drawn from the ranks of those, mostly youth, that had occupied Zuccotti Plaza from September 17 to November 15. On November 15, the New York Police Department (NYPD) cleared out Zuccotti Plaza at the behest of the city’s billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg.

On November 21, students protesting a tuition increase at a campus of the City University of New York (CUNY) were struck with nightsticks and dragged on the floor by campus police, who called for assistance from the NYPD.

The Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York City have faced escalating police violence and arrests since the first weeks of the demonstrations. On September 24, police officer Anthony Bologna was videotaped gratuitously pepper spraying young female protesters. On September 26, over 80 protesters were arrested during a march from Zuccotti Plaza to Union Square. The police arrested 700 demonstrators on the Brooklyn Bridge on October 1, under circumstances that had all the hallmarks of police entrapment.

The World Socialist Web Site spoke to Isobel Wohl, 25, who is unemployed after studying painting and earning a BFA from New York University. She had not been involved with Occupy Wall Street (OWS) until the November 15 police raid that evicted occupiers from Zuccotti Plaza. “The raid showed me how they were trying to stop people from speaking out and take away our First Amendment rights,” she said.

Isobel soon found herself among the thousands of victims of the brutal police crackdown. “Last Tuesday, I was going to go to the atrium at 60 Wall Street where Occupy was holding a meeting. I met up with them as they were marching to the red cube sculpture at Zuccotti. The police were trying to arrest some other people and they were trying to get me out of the way and struck me really hard and my head hit the side of the police truck. I got a concussion. The Occupy people were really nice to me and stayed with me until my mother picked me up and took me to the doctor.”*

Copyright © 1998-2011 World Socialist Web Site - All rights reserved

 

[dagnabit]

Read the comment.



You get what you wish to make. Read a book - learn something.

Interesting and well thought out response....


So the messiah did deal a crushing blow on behalf of his corporate masters yes?
Did you notice the crushing blow he dealt women's reproductive rights?

the crushing blows to state medical marijuana rights?

this guy is into crushing blows and you're still crushing on him and ready to blow....

You need to wake up. Then read the constitution....
Id suggest a book but you would read curious george and thinkit was reference material...
Triva:
what president created the dea?
bonus points:
how did the aforementioned president do so?

 

[onegreenday]

Wikileaks is seen as the catalyst for occupy movements around the world, beginning with a suicide in Tunisia which sparked their 'revolution'.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/dec2011/assa-d19.shtml

World Socialist Web Site
wsws.org
UK’s Supreme Court will hear Assange appeal against extradition
By Robert Stevens
19 December 2011

The Supreme Court in the UK is to hear an appeal by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange against his extradition to Sweden.

On Friday, the Supreme Court announced that three Supreme Court justices, Lord Hope, Lord Mance and Lord Dyson, had considered the appeal of Assange’s legal team and gave him permission to appeal. Assange’s case will be heard at the Supreme Court over two days, beginning February 1, 2012.

The Swedish authorities, in unison with the Crown Prosecution Service in the UK, are attempting to extradite Assange to Sweden to answer trumped-up allegations of sexual assault made by two women. Without any actual charge against him, Assange has been held under house arrest for more than a year since his arrest in London under a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) on December 7, 2010.

Assange’s appeal to the Supreme Court followed the dismissal of the legal arguments of his counsel against his extradition in November. This meant that the only legal avenue open to him was to seek permission from the High Court to be allowed to make an appeal to the Supreme Court.

On December 5, the High Court ruled that Assange could not automatically be heard by the Supreme Court, but could petition to be heard by them on the grounds that his case had “general public importance”. The decision to allow Assange to go forward to the Supreme Court was only taken reluctantly by the High Court.

Assange’s counsel had argued that the UK’s highest court should consider whether his extradition was unlawful on the basis that the request from the Swedish authorities was made by a “partisan prosecutor working for the executive”.

Stating that the issue was a matter of public importance, therefore allowing Assange the right to petition the Supreme Court, Sir John Thomas, one of the two High Court judges, maintained that the High Court had “very little doubt that, as a matter of law, the prosecutor was within the scheme” for issuing warrants.

On the basis of the High Court decision, Assange’s team was given a “certification of a point of law of general public importance” for the Supreme Court to consider. The High Court judges gave Assange’s legal team, headed by Gareth Peirce, just 14 days in which to petition the Supreme Court.

In allowing Assange to be heard, a statement from the Supreme Court read, “The Court has decided that seven Justices will hear the appeal given the great public importance of the issue raised, which is whether a prosecutor is a judicial authority.”

The fact that seven justices will hear Assange’s case, on the grounds of just one legal argument, is significant. The Supreme Court is the UK’s final court of appeal, and the maximum number of justices that can hear a case is 12. The more significant the case, the greater number of judges will hear it.

The attempt to railroad Assange to Sweden is so clearly a frame-up that the UK judicial system is forced to be seen giving him the chance to explore every legal avenue.

Sweden is attempting to extradite Assange without even having accused him of a crime.

One of the other legal grounds that Assange’s legal team attempted to be heard as a point of “public importance” is the fact that Sweden is attempting the extradition, despite the fact that Assange is not named as an accused on the face of the European Extradition Warrant that seeks his extradition.

This is just one of the many ways in which Assange’s basic democratic rights have been trampled from the moment the politically motivated “Get Assange” campaign began.

The arrest of Assange last December came just days after WikiLeaks began the publication of 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain.

These followed WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of secret documents exposing the criminal nature of the US-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. WikiLeaks first sprang to worldwide prominence when it released the leaked “Collateral Murder” video. It showed American soldiers shooting from a helicopter and killing defenceless civilians and children in Iraq in July 2007. The video came to symbolise the criminal occupation of US forces in Iraq, and did much to expose the murderous reality of the so-called “war on terror.”

WikiLeaks has also published American intelligence reports on the battle of Fallujah in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay operational manuals, diplomatic e-mails on US sources inside the Australian Labour Party and their involvement in the political coup against former prime minister Kevin Rudd in June 2010, and many other explosive issues.

In July 2010, the month prior to Assange’s visit to Sweden, WikiLeaks published 75,000 secret US military documents on the war in Afghanistan.

As far as the imperialist powers are concerned, these are the real “crimes” committed by Assange and WikiLeaks. For this he was branded by leading US political and media figures a “terrorist” and WikiLeaks a terrorist organisation. This was the atmosphere that existed leading up to his frame-up, after his visit to Sweden in August and his subsequent arrest in London.

The attempt to extradite Assange began with a dirty tricks operation.

The allegations of sexual assault made by the two women in Sweden do not stand up to any objective scrutiny. What is described as having taken place between Assange and the two women would normally be described as consensual sex.

Within 24 hours of the women making their allegations, Swedish chief prosecutor Eva Finné threw out the case, stating, “I don’t think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape.” On that basis, an initial arrest warrant issued by Sweden was cancelled.

The case was only resurrected due to the intervention of a leading right-wing social democrat and lawyer, Claes Borgström.

Borgström served in the Swedish government as equal opportunities ombudsman from 2000 to 2007 and operates a law firm in partnership with another Social Democratic politician and former minister for justice, Thomas Bodström.

One of the two women making the allegations is associated with the Christian wing of Swedish Social Democracy. In February, it emerged that one of the women making accusations against Assange told a Swedish journalist, who knew her, two different versions of what she claimed had happened and told the Swedish police a different version. Despite later claiming sexual assault, the woman allowed Assange to remain in her house for another week after he had supposedly assaulted her and repeatedly fielded offers made by others to put him up.

In a February hearing of Assange’s case in London, expert witness Andrew Ashworth, professor of English Law at the University of Oxford, analysed the EAW in relation to the statements made by the women in the preliminary investigation, as well as the prosecutor’s statement. Ashworth stated that he “did not consider that any of the alleged incidents” on the face of the EAW “is sufficient of itself to constitute any offence under English law.”

He added, “In respect of none of the four alleged incidents is there a clear allegation of lack of consent to the touching; moreover, in respect of none of the incidents is there any allegation that Mr Assange did not reasonably believe that the complainants were consenting to the touching.”

Assange fears that were he to be extradited, he will then be extradited to the United States. Sweden has a “temporary surrender” agreement in place with the United States in which Assange could be sent to the latter secretly and quickly.

The journalist John Pilger, one of Assange’s prominent supporters, commented, “Should Assange win his High Court appeal in London, he could face extradition direct to the United States. In the past, US officials have synchronised extradition warrants with the conclusion of a pending case.”

The Swedish government has been actively involved secretly in the illegal “extraordinary rendition” system on behalf of the CIA. To this end, the Swedish authorities have approved renditions through Sweden and also from Sweden. One of these renditions was Ahmed Agiza, an Egyptian asylum-seeker who was secretly apprehended by members of the Swedish Security Police in December 2001 and handed over to the CIA. From a Swedish airport, he was then flown to Egypt and tortured.

Copyright © 1998-2011 World Socialist Web Site - All rights reserved

 

[dagnabit]

North Korean television announced in a "special broadcast" that its leader, Kim Jong Il, is dead.

News of Kim's death was made public on Monday,with officials indicating that he actually died two days earlier while riding a train.

Reuters notes that the country had begun transferring power to his son, Kim Jong-un, who is believed to be in his late 20s.

The Korean Central News Agency,North Korea's state news agency, issued several statements on Monday. A release titled "Kim Jong Il Passes Away (Urgent)" said that he "passed away from great mental and physical strain" at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 17. A separate article entitled "Medical Analysis of Kim Jong Il's demise" added that Kim suffered an "advanced acute myocardial infarction, complicated with a serious heart shock."

Kim reportedly suffered a stroke in 2008, but appeared relatively healthy on recent trips around Asia, which were documented by state media.

The White House released a statement late Sunday evening in Washington:

"We are closely monitoring reports that Kim Jong Il is dead. The President has been notified, and we are in close touch with our allies in South Korea and Japan. We remain committed to stability on the Korean peninsula, and to the freedom and security of our allies."

At midnight on Monday, President Barack Obama spoke with Republic of Korea President Lee-Myung-bak to discuss the Korean Peninsula situation. A White House release read:

"The President reaffirmed the United States’ strong commitment to the stability of the Korean Peninsula and the security of our close ally, the Republic of Korea. The two leaders agreed to stay in close touch as the situation develops and agreed they would direct their national security teams to continue close coordination."

 

[onegreenday]

They should be more concerned with the stability of Amerika.

If Bradley Manning leaked the memo's he'd be the initial
spark for the worldwide 'occupy' movement and an
International hero (should he be convicted)

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/dec2011/pers-d19.shtml

World Socialist Web Site
wsws.org
Bradley Manning and the attack on democratic rights
19 December 2011

The persecution of whistleblower Bradley Manning is a stark warning to the entire working class. Now facing a military pretrial hearing on charges carrying a maximum sentence of death, the 24-year-old Army private is accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of government and military documents. The vindictive treatment of this courageous young man is aimed at intimidating all opposition to American imperialism.

In February 2010, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks began publishing material that Manning is accused of providing. The documents revealed the criminality of the American government and the Obama administration, along with other governments worldwide. Revelations of corruption and brutality of Middle Eastern regimes helped fuel the revolutionary upsurge across the region, beginning with the Tunisian uprising one year ago.

Many files documented US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the most explosive releases was a video, published under the title “Collateral Murder,” showing a US helicopter gunship mowing down Iraqi civilians, including children and two Reuters journalists, in a Baghdad neighborhood. In an era of highly censored coverage of US military operations, the exposure of the American public to such an atrocity had a significant impact in intensifying popular opposition to the occupation of Iraq. (See, “Leaked video shows US military killing of two Iraqi journalists”)

If Manning is, in fact, responsible for releasing this material, he has done humanity a great service. The only “crime” he has committed is that of exposing the real crimes of US imperialism. While he stands before the military court, those government and military officials responsible for launching illegal wars, carrying out torture and violating basic democratic rights remain at large.

Held for over a year and a half by the military, Manning has been subjected to solitary confinement, forced nakedness, sleep deprivation and other cruelties. He has been denied due process and private meetings with his legal counsel and human rights investigators.

His plight has drawn denunciations from international rights organizations as well as from masses of ordinary people all over the world. The Obama administration—along with the entire political establishment and corporate media—has met these appeals with indifference and contempt.

The state’s treatment of Manning has been aimed at breaking his will, in the same manner that detainees at Guantanamo Bay have been compelled to confess to charges fabricated by the US government.

The Obama administration intends to use Manning in its effort to take down WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, who is currently appealing extradition to Sweden on trumped-up sex charges. If he loses his appeal, Assange faces the possibility of extradition to the United States to be tried as a terrorist by the Justice Department or seized and imprisoned for life without trial by the US military.

As the Article 32 hearing against him enters its fourth day, Manning’s defense team must present its arguments without the testimony of 46 of the 48 witnesses it had requested. The Justice Department has a direct influence on the proceedings, in the form of Lieutenant Colonel Paul Almanza, the investigating officer and Department of Justice prosecutor who is presiding as judge in the case. Dismissing protestations of the defense that his employment constitutes a conflict of interest, Almanza and the Army have rejected calls that he recuse himself.

The methods of the Obama administration—indefinite detention, torture, suppression of information, military drumhead trials—speak volumes about its attitude toward democratic rights. Propelled into office in no small part by hatred of the militarist policies of the Bush administration, Obama has substantially expanded the military-intelligence apparatus, launched new wars, and established a policy of extrajudicial state assassination, including of US citizens.

Significantly, after pledging to create “the most transparent administration in history,” the president has classified record amounts of data and prosecuted more government whistleblowers for “espionage” than all prior administrations combined.

The president is presently poised to sign into law the legal framework for a police state. The National Defense Authorization Act contains provisions that will allow citizens who are detained on US soil to be held indefinitely, without charge or trial, in military prisons. The bill effectively legalizes policies established by the Bush administration and expands their use onto American soil, shredding the Bill of Rights. (See “Obama, Congress back legalization of a police state”)

The prosecution of Manning is of a piece with this assault on democratic rights, supported by the entire US political establishment. The state is effectively saying that not only must it be free to commit crimes all over the world, but that anyone who seeks to expose these crimes will face the harshest punishment.

The decay of democracy in the United States is not accidental. It is deeply rooted in the breakdown of American and world capitalism. The ruling class has responded to the crisis, which has created a social catastrophe for millions of people, with increasingly vicious austerity measures. The national wealth has been funneled to an ever smaller and richer financial plutocracy.

As a result, masses of people are being pushed into class struggle. For this reason above all, Washington is laying the foundations for a police state.

Hanging over the head of Bradley Manning is a sentence of life in military prison, if not death. Working people who are concerned for his life and opposed to the war policies of US imperialism must recognize that the vendetta against Manning and other whistleblowers is inherently linked to the attack by the ruling class on the rights and living conditions of the working class as a whole.

A mass movement against war and the attack on democratic rights must be developed on the basis of an independent, revolutionary socialist strategy. Private Manning can be defended only as part of a struggle by the working class against the Obama administration, both parties of big business, and the capitalist system they serve.

Naomi Spencer

Copyright © 1998-2011 World Socialist Web Site - All rights reserved

 

[mrcreosote]