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An Obama-appointed judge rules its indefinite detention provisions likely violate the 1st and 5th Amendments
A federal district judge today, the newly-appointed Katherine Forrest of the Southern District of New York, issued an amazing ruling: one which preliminarily enjoins enforcement of the highly controversial indefinite provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act, enacted by Congress and signed into law by President Obama last December. This afternoon’s ruling came as part of a lawsuit brought by seven dissident plaintiffs — including Chris Hedges, Dan Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky, and Birgitta Jonsdottir — alleging that the NDAA violates ”both their free speech and associational rights guaranteed by the First Amendment as well as due process rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
A lone voice of sanity. Finally rising above the rumbling din of ignorance and fear-mongering. Very very very pleased with this.
Click above for the full article. Here is the opinion itself.
17 May, 2012
Sourced from thepeoplesrecord
Reblogged from thepeoplesrecord
Tagged as Glenn Greenwald Obama Presidency Security State civil liberties NDAA executive authority police state
Notes (117) -
President Obama sits on the bus where Rosa Parks’ protest began the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott. Photo via African Americans for Obama.
This picture is so powerful. Unbelievable.
My quotidian disgust and exasperation with the Obama presidency should not surprise any of my followers but even my cold cold heart is not immune to the symbolic and historical gravity of his / our country’s achievements.
19 April, 2012
Sourced from spiffingtea
Reblogged from spiffingtea
Tagged as Obama Presidency race racism history
Notes (24) -
Obama Indicts Sixth Whistleblower Under the Espionage Act
On April 3, 2012, the Obama administration indicted intelligence whistleblower John Kiriakou. Kiriakou is the sixth whistleblower that the Obama administration has charged under the Espionage Act for the alleged mishandling of classified information – more than all past administrations combined. In a rare move, the indictment was sealed until today.
Kiriakou is a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) veteran who headed counterterrorism operations in Pakistan after 9/11, organized the team operation that captured suspected al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah, and refused to be trained in torture interrogation tactics.
In December 2007, Kiriakou gave an on-camera interview to ABC News in which he disclosed that Zubaydah was “waterboarded” and that “waterboarding” was torture. Kiriakou was one of the first CIA officers to label waterboarding as torture, and his interview helped expose the CIA’s torture program as policy, rather than the actions of a few rogue agents. Kiriakou further exposed the CIA’s torture program and the CIA’s deception about torture even to its own employees in his 2009 book, The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA’s War on Terror.
Government Accountability Project (GAP) National Security & Human Rights Director Jesselyn Radack, a Department of Justice (DOJ) whistleblower herself, represented National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Thomas Drake, the first individual indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act for disclosing massive waste, fraud, abuse and illegality at the NSA through proper channels. The DOJ case against Drake fell apart days before the trial was set to begin last summer, in what was widely seen as a bellwether case for future prosecutions, like that of Kiriakou.
7 April, 2012
Sourced from occupyallstreets
Originally from occupyallstreets
Reblogged from occupyallstreets
Tagged as Presidency executive authority Obama Police State transparency
Notes (197) -
Neill Franklin, Executive Director of L.E.A.P., speaks truth to power on the absurdity of America’s Drug War, through the lens of a recent raid on a California medical marijuana manufacturing and education facility:
As I sit and watch video after video of Monday’s senseless federal raid of Oaksterdam University and other medical cannabis-related facilities managed by Richard Lee, the orchestrator of California’s historic Proposition 19, a few serious concerns come to mind.
…
Let’s take a look at the results of this “successful” raid upon those who care for the sick. The first indicator of success is one of public safety. That’s why we have such enforcement activity in the first place — law enforcement and public safety should be synonymous. Will the raid make the community safer? Will there be fewer homicides? Oh, wait, there never were any on-site at Oaksterdam. They occur blocks away while we “the police” do our thing here. Will there now be fewer robberies in the neighborhood? Just the opposite: violent crime has been down in the area since Oaksterdam became operational. Well, maybe there will now be less “pot” being sold to kids in the neighborhood? Actually, expect that to increase now that any marijuana being sold in the area, post-raid, will be done by drug dealers on the corners who don’t check ID. Oh yes, one more observation: Patients will no longer have access to safe medicine in safe environments. They will be forced to acquire cannabis from the dangerous illegal marketplace, lining the pockets of criminal organizations, gangs and thugs instead of universally supported local businesses that pay taxes and create jobs.
Which will, in turn, perpetuate violence in Mexico as drug cartels continue to jockey for positions in the U.S. market. upwards of 47,000 Mexican citizens have died since Felipé Calderon, with the full approval and material support of the United States, mobilized the Mexican military against the drug cartels in 2006. Forcing medical marijuana patients to turn to the black market only intensifies the economic incentives that make drug trafficking worth the risk for the cartels.
Yet another example of our absolutely insane drug policy destroying more lives than it could ever prospectively save.
6 April, 2012
Sourced from letterstomycountry
Reblogged from letterstomycountry
Tagged as police state violence war on drugs Obama
Notes (68) -
The executive branch is claiming the authority to target and kill any individual anywhere in the world - including American citizens - without any judicial process or oversight and without any transparency or accountability, it is subverting the Constitution and international law in assuming the role of judge, jury and executioner.
Under the Obama administration, drone strikes have escalated and expanded in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. In Pakistan alone, the Obama administration has launched six times as many drone strikes as the Bush administration, in fewer years in office, killing hundreds of innocent people and devastating families.
Ultimately, efforts to end the expansion of US drone strikes and covert wars are not only a legal matter, but a political and ethical one on which the viability of a livable future and meaningful democracy is based.
—
Leili Kashani, the Center for Constitutional Rights’s advocacy program manager
Drones Flying Under the Radar
(via socialuprooting)
6 April, 2012
Sourced from socialuprooting
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Tagged as Obama violence police state executive authority drones civil liberties
Notes (15) -
28 March, 2012
Sourced from sandandglass
Originally from sandandglass
Reblogged from rockyanderson2012
Tagged as Eric Holder Obama presidency police state due process violence
Notes (713) -
Obama And ISP’s To Launch Largest Digital Spying Scheme In History (Must Read)
If you download potentially copyrighted software, videos or music, your Internet service provider (ISP) has been watching, and they’re coming for you.
Specifically, they’re coming for you on Thursday, July 1.
That’s the date when the nation’s largest ISPs will all voluntarily implement a new anti-piracy plan that will engage network operators in the largest digital spying scheme in history, and see some users’ bandwidth completely cut off until they sign an agreement saying they will not download copyrighted materials.
Word of the start date has been largely kept secret since ISPs announced their plans last June. The deal was brokered by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and coordinated by the Obama Administration. The same groups have weighed in heavily on controversial Internet policies around the world, with similar facilitation by the Obama’s Administration’s State Department.
The July 12 date was revealed by the RIAA’s CEO and top lobbyist, Cary Sherman, during a publishers’ conference on Wednesday in New York, according to technology publication CNet.
The content industries calls this scheme a “graduated response” plan, which will see
-Time Warner Cable
-Cablevision
-Comcast
-Verizon
-AT&T
and others spying on users’ Internet activities and watching for potential copyright infringement. Users who are “caught” infringing on a creator’s protected work can then be interrupted with a notice that piracy is forbidden by law and carries penalties of up to $150,000 per infringement, requiring the user to click through saying they understand the consequences before bandwidth is restored, and they could still be subject to copyright infringement lawsuits.
Response: This is much worse than SOPA/PIPA and ACTA. It doesn’t necessarily censor the internet but it spys on everything you do. Your ENTIRE web history will be watched and recorded and might even assist the government. This was coordinated by Obama and his administration with the help of the MPAA and RIAA.
What is so dangerous about this is that this is not a law it is a policy adopted by several companies. That means this will not be debated in Congress and you will agree to be spied on by signing a contract with the company.
Internet censorship is becoming a reality and now the corporate elite will legally be able to spy on you. If we spread this and cause an uproar like what we did with SOPA, maybe they will back down. Either way people NEED to know about this.
25 March, 2012
Sourced from occupyallstreets
Originally from occupyallstreets
Reblogged from salubriousextrications
Tagged as security state digital freedom information economy liberty Obama
Notes (16963) -
P071511PS-0445 by The White House on Flickr.
Via Flickr:
July 15, 2011
“One of the most poignant days of the year was when Ruby Bridges visited the White House. Ruby is the girl portrayed in Norman Rockwell’s famous painting, “The Problem We All Live With,” which depicts Ruby as she is escorted to school on the court-ordered first day of integrated schools in New Orleans in 1960. When the Norman Rockwell Museum loaned the painting to the White House for a short period of time, the President invited Ruby to view the painting while it was on display outside the Oval Office.”
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)3 February, 2012
Sourced from lafuguedantoine
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Tagged as art painting Obama Norman Rockwell history civil rights civil liberties
Notes (56) -
A Sullivan reader writes:
I read the Newsweek cover story, and I’m sure [Sullivan is] going to get quite a large volume of comments due to the article’s virtual “come and get me” stance. But I thought I should give it a try as I might be able to add to a possible discussion.
In [Sullivan’s] defenses of Obama against his liberal critics, [he] seem[s] to take it for granted that liberals at large don’t have any issues they won’t (or shouldn’t) consider sacrificing for the sake of pragmatism. I’m with [Sullivan] all the way that Obama has done a truly inspiring job propping up the economy until it can stand on its own again. He constantly surprises, and just today his decision to kill SOPA fills me and my coworkers with hope.
But it’s not enough to repair the damage he’s done. I have the freedom to use the internet as it is now, but I have lost my guarantee under the constitution to equal protection under the law. My life is non-negotiable. I will not trade my constitutional rights away so that the real good work of Obama’s administration can begin in his second term. There are some lines not to be crossed that aren’t arbitrary or tribal. They’re actually the only ones that matter. Denying habeas corpus rights, secret evidence, and asserting the right to kill Americans by his say alone are disqualifying issues for me, and I’m sure many others.
It constantly amazes me how [Sullivan] believe[s] Obama deserves anyone’s support for those actions. If the economy were to vastly improve in the next four years, would it be worth it to lose our 4th Amendment rights? It isn’t to me. And I hope it isn’t for you, either.
Emphasis mine. The final nail in the coffin for me was when I learned about the case of Mohamed Hassan Odaini. The Obama administration is holding Yemeni “terror suspects” in prison that it knows are innocent:
[A]fter Obama decreed in January that no Yemeni detainees would be released — even completely innocent ones, and even though the Yemeni government wants their innocent prisoners returned – Obama DOJ lawyers basically lied to the court by claiming there was substantial evidence to prove that Odaini was part of Al Qaeda even though they know that is false. In other words, the Obama administration is knowingly imprisoning a completely innocent human being who has been kept in a cage in an island prison, thousands of miles from his home, for the last 8 years, since he’s 18 years old, despite having done absolutely nothing wrong.
So much for the audacity of hope.
18 January, 2012
Sourced from letterstomycountry
Reblogged from letterstomycountry
Tagged as Obama Presidency liberty militarism civil liberties
Notes (18) -
Happy New Year’s Eve everyone.
Tomorrow will be the first day of the first year of the American Police State.
