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Criminalizing Dissent in America
by Stephen Lendman
America has a sordid repressive history. Among others, First Amendment rights are violated.
It guarantees freedom of religion, expression, to petition government for redress of grievances, and right to peacefully assemble.
The 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts restricted First Amendment freedoms.
So did 1919 anti-communist Palmer raids, the 1934 Special Committee on Un-American Activities, its House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) successor, secret FBI COINTELPRO crackdowns, the 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the 2001 USA Patriot Act, and other post-9/11 measures.
These and other measures expanded government surveillance, eroded habeas, formalized military tribunals, permitted torture-extracted confessions, and instituted violence for national security.
FBI "terrorist profiles" can investigate anyone for any reason. So can local police working cooperatively or alone. Street protests can be criminalized. America's right to dissent is endangered.
Planned Regime Change in Iran and Syria
by Stephen Lendman
Plans are longstanding. Timing alone isn’t known. Signs suggest 2012. If sanctions, subversion, cyberwar, and targeted assassinations fail, expect hot conflict to follow.
On January 9, the Washington Post quoted an anonymous US intelligence official saying America's goal for Iran is "regime change." A next day article retracted the statement, saying:
"An earlier version of this article reported that a US intelligence official had described regime collapse as a goal of US and other sanctions against Iran. An updated version clarifies the official's remarks."
All This and Heaven Too
By Robert Singer
All This and Heaven Too (1940), directed by Anatole Litvak, staring Charles Boyer and Bette Davis, aired this month on Turner Classic Movies.
The movie, and Rachel Field's novel by the same name, is based on the true story of Field's great-aunt, Henriette Deluzy Desportes, a governess employed by Theobald, Duc de Choiseul-Praslin to care for his children.
Henriette wins the love and affection of the children and although the Duc never expresses a love for the governess, we are to assume that he loves her, as well.
And that’s before the Duc beats his wife, Fanny Sebastiani Choiseul-Praslin, to death because she refuses to give Henriette a letter of recommendation. [1]
The Duc tries to make it look like a burglar killed his wife, but no one is fooled. The Duc and Henriette are arrested.
His wife, Fanny, is the daughter of Marachal Horace Sebastiani, one of the leading political and social figures in the Orleans Monarchy of France under King Louis Philippe. [2]
As the Duc is a privileged member of society, only other nobles can hear his case. The noblemen are concerned that if the Duc does not confess the crime, and involve Henriette, the masses will blame the government.
While under arrest, the Duc takes poison and on his deathbed, denies his own guilt and the involvement of the governess.
According to historians, the people of France were so incensed that the monarchy was unable to extract a confession, within a year the Orleans Monarchy (The February Revolution) was overthrown.
Charles Boyer and Bette Davis give the audience a superlative performance lasting 140 minutes, but the idea that Henriette is responsible for the downfall of King Louis-Philippe, in the words of one reviewer, is a historical gaffe.
Had Jack Warner understood that the February Revolution was the belated second phase of the July Revolution (1830) then Warner Brothers might not have paid Rachel Field $100,000 (in 1940 dollars) for the film rights. [3]
Historians agree that the July and February Revolutions were the last stage of the mother of all Revolutions: The French Revolution.
The storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 brought about radical and social change based on Enlightenment principles of citizenship and inalienable rights for the profane (the common man).
According to our filtered history books, the French Revolution was a popular uprising by peasants, serfs, and the working class (the Third Estate).
The French Revolution
At the beginning of the Revolution, kings, monarchs, and the despots of our history books held supreme power. By the time they ended, the human rights movement replaced centuries of tyranny and oppression for the common man.
Is that possible?
Revisionists are still trying to explain why the despots of our history books wouldn’t use the Guillotine to dispense with such a heretical movement.
Just Short of Treason in Georgia and Kansas
By Michael Collins
It's official. The crazies have arrived for the 2012 presidential race, florid in their deviant and repulsive rhetoric. Andrew B. Adler, editor of The Atlanta Jewish Times, called on Israel's President Benjamin Netanyahu to "Order a hit on a president in order to preserve Israel's existence." This reference to President Barack Obama appeared in the print edition of the paper on January 13 and was first published online by Gawker on the 20th (alternate links here and here).
Right wing Republican Mike O'Neal, speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives, forwarded an email referring to the president that quoted (approximately) Psalm 109.8: “Let his days be few and brief; and let others step forward to replace him." The Lawrence Journal World noted that the very next verse, 109.9, indicates how the president should be replaced: "Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow." (Image SND)
The First Amendment is ignored when reactionary mayors want to stop the free speech and assemblies of Occupy Wall Street. However, free speech is expanded beyond the limits of the law when religious extremists in Atlanta and Kansas step well outside of the boundaries of U.S. Code.
Occupy the Neighborhood: How Counties Can Use Land Banks and Eminent Domain
Ellen Brown
An electronic database called MERS has created defects in the chain of title to over half the homes in America. Counties have been cheated out of millions of dollars in recording fees, and their title records are in hopeless disarray. Meanwhile, foreclosed and abandoned homes are blighting neighborhoods. Straightening out the records and restoring the homes to occupancy is clearly in the public interest, and the burden is on local government to do it. But how? New legal developments are presenting some innovative alternatives.
Waging Covert War on Iran
By Stephen Lendman
Washington and Israel plan regime change in Iran and Syria. Israel wants regional supremacy. Washington wants global hegemony and control of the world's strategic resources.
America tolerates no independent states. Making them client ones is prioritized.
Insurgent infiltrators ravaged Syria for months. Libya's model was replicated short of NATO intervention perhaps to follow.
Washington, Israel, and rogue allies use many destabilization tactics. They includefake accusations, political and economic sanctions, isolation, covert and direct confrontation, cyberwar, targeted assassinations, and other provocations short of war perhaps planned.
Heading for More Middle East War
By Stephen Lendman
Washington, Israel and rogue NATO allies seem headed for ruinous wars with Iran and Syria, besides others ongoing interminably.
Former State Department official/now AIPAC-linked Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) fellow Dennis Ross said:
"There are consequences if you act militarily, and there's big consequences if you don't act. The administration considers the risks of permitting a nuclear-armed Iran to be greater than the risks of military action."
In fact, no evidence whatever suggests an Iranian nuclear weapons program, according to the latest March 2011 US intelligence assessment. Ross knows it. So do political Washington and major media scoundrels. Yet they suppress truth and promote confrontation and war.
Haiti: Two Years Later
By Stephen Lendman
On January 12, 2010, Haiti experienced a calamitous earthquake. Port-au-Prince was devastated. Property destruction and damage were extensive.
As many as 300,000 or more died. Many others were injured. Impoverished Haitians enduring crushing hardships lost everything, including loved ones.
Two years later, relief efforts belie unaddressed human needs.
A January 11 AFP article headlined, "Haiti quake victims stuck in a time warp," saying:
Port-au-Prince suburb Petionville symbolizes conditions. Around "2,500 people subsist in a crowded public park near open ditches flowing with human waste, a grim scene frozen in time two years after Haiti's earthquake disaster."
Israel's Draconian Infiltration Law
By Stephen Lendman
On January 10, Haaretz writer Jonathan Lis headlined, "Knesset passes (Law to Prevent Infiltration) that could put asylum seekers in jail without trial," saying:
"The bill would make 'illegal' migrants and asylum seekers liable to jail, without trial or deportation, if caught staying in Israel for 'long periods.' "
Moreover, anyone helping them or providing shelter faces five to 15 years in prison for being a good samaritan. Avoiding it involves proving they didn't know the refugee lacked residency status and wasn't guilty of alleged criminality.
Wisconsinites v. Governor Scott Walker
by Stephen Lendman
Last winter's epic battle between Wisconsin public workers and Republican Governor Walker ended badly for social justice. Nonetheless, struggling for it continues.
As issue was old-fashioned union busting. It included eroding collective bargain rights before ending them altogether. In addition, draconian wage and benefit cuts were imposed.
Brazen politicians conspired with corrupt union bosses. Rank and file interests lost out. Wealth and power ones prevailed. It's the same story nationwide at federal, state and local levels.
After draconian Wisconsin legislation passed, collective bargaining's only permitted on wage issues. In addition, health insurance and pension contributions doubled. Things got tougher for workers already hard pressed to make ends meet. Wage cuts ranged from 8 - 20% ahead of more coming.
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