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Since early 2011, Obama's been waging proxy war on Syria. Imported death squads masquerade as freedom fighters. The scheme's familiar. It repeats. It reflects US imperialism's dark side. In the 1980s, CIA-recruited mujahideen fighters battled Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers. Ronald Reagan called them "the moral equivalent of our founding fathers." He characterized Contra killers the same way. —Stephen LendmanFor over a century now US ambassadors have acted as fifth columns in the nations they are embedded in, their role chiefly to foster corporate and plutocratic power and coordinate machinations against any truly pro-democratic government.•••••"The dead end identity politics of SF Pride, which sells out a peace hero like Bradley Manning to curry favor with the American ruling class, is what I had in mind. The empire loves your tameness, irrelevance and cowardice, SF Pride. You don’t bother the American ruling class — a five foot two, 105 pound soldier does because he has a conscience and because he didn’t make comfort the guiding principle of his life...." —Randy Shields

BOOKS: What Academic Freedom?

 ACTIVISTS & HEROES, AMERICAN STUDIES, BIG BROTHER, BOOK NOTES, BOURGEOIS VALUES, CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, FALSE DEMOCRACY, GREAT HYPOCRISY, HISTORY, JUDICIAL, POLICE & REPRESSION  1 Response »
May 162013
 
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by David Rosen, THE BROOKLYN RAIL

Marjorie Heins
Priests of Our Democracy: The Supreme Court, Academic Freedom and the Anti-Communist Purge
(New York University Press, 2013)

Today, we take the concept of “academic freedom” for granted. In February 2013, city officials and Zionist groups sought to prevent a talk at Brooklyn College about the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (B.D.S.) movement against Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.

Mayor Bloomberg denounced efforts to prevent the talk in no uncertain terms: “If you want to go to a university where the government decides what kind of subjects are fit for discussion, I suggest you apply to a school in North Korea,” Bloomberg said at a press conference. In the face of the mayor’s rant, the college’s president, Karen L. Gould, held firm and the talk took place. Continue reading »

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Indecency remembered: Kitten Stompers at the Supreme Court

 ABOMINATIONS, AMERICAN STUDIES, ANIMAL DEFENDERS, ANIMAL MARTYRDOM, ECOANIMAL, INDECENT SLIMEBALLS, JUDICIAL  5 Responses »
May 042013
 
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Archives: Articles you should have read the first time around but missed.

Alito Dissents as Other Justices Kick Up Their Heels!
by RANDY SHIELDS, Counterpunch, a fraternal site
(APRIL 23-25, 2010)

Editor’s Note: This article is accompanied (see addendum) by a cultural-political analysis provided by the editors of Animal People. It amplifies the comprehension of the issues faced by activists working to eliminate these forms of appalling cruelty.
Alito: Momentarily out of sync with an out of control court.

Alito: Momentarily out of sync with an out of control court.

Last Tuesday the Supreme Court patted America on the back about its specialness, its  sacred right of free speech, by striking down a law which prohibited the selling of “crush” videos where kittens and other small animals are stomped to death for the sadistic sexual satisfaction of, well, people who have a God-given right to sadistic sexual satisfaction and that most defended corollary American right — the right to make money off of it. The  8 to 1 majority decision (http://is.gd/bAK7p) is a straight up over broad interpretation of a very targeted law which let off the hook nearly every other kind of depiction of animal cruelty — hunting, slaughterhouses, bullfighting, etc. –  as Justice Samuel Alito’s WTF! dissent makes obvious.  Continue reading »

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Gay Marriage Celebrates the Rights Granted Under the Constitution

 AMERICAN STUDIES, BOURGEOIS VALUES, CULTURE & CRITICISM, GENDER, JUDICIAL  Comments Off
Apr 102013
 
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Religous supporters of gay marriage.

By STEVE JONAS

The power and authority of the Supreme Court of the United States to review acts and actions of the other two branches of the Federal government is nowhere to be found in Article III of the Constitution, the one which defines and describes the Supreme Court and its powers.  It was the fourth United States Chief Justice, John Marshall, and colleagues on the Court during his long tenure (1831-1835), who essentially made it up as they went along, in a series of cases ranging fromMarbury v. Madison through McCulloch v. Maryland.  Continue reading »

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Supreme Court Authorizes Lawless Wiretapping

 AMERICAN STUDIES, ASSHOLES, BASTARDS & CRIMINALS, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, CONSERVATIVES & REACTION, CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES, CULTURE & CRITICISM, JUDICIAL  1 Response »
Mar 012013
 
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by Stephen Lendman

Supreme-Court-current-justices.imgcache.rev1317397950503

America’s Supremes are notoriously hard right. Equal justice under law is just a figure of speech. Rule of law principles and egalitarian fairness don’t matter. Power politics corrupts the High Court. It lacks legitimacy. Five Supreme Court justices are Federalist Society (FS) members. They include Chief Justice John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, and Clarence Thomas. They’re ideological extremists.

Continue reading »

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The Norwegian prison where inmates are treated like people

 CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM, CONTROVERSY, CULTURE & CRITICISM, INTERNATIONAL, INTERNATIONAL REPORTAGE, JUDICIAL  Comments Off
Feb 252013
 
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On Bastoy prison island in Norway, the prisoners, some of whom are murderers and rapists, live in conditions that critics brand ‘cushy’ and ‘luxurious’. Yet it has by far the lowest reoffending rate in Europe.

/ The Guardian, 

An inmate sunbathes on the deck of his bungalow on Bastoy.

An inmate sunbathes on the deck of his bungalow on Bastoy.

Photograph: Marco Di Lauro

The first clue that things are done very differently on Bastoy prison island, which lies a couple of miles off the coast in the Oslo fjord, 46 miles south-east of Norway‘s capital, comes shortly after I board the prison ferry. I’m taken aback slightly when the ferry operative who welcomed me aboard just minutes earlier, and with whom I’m exchanging small talk about the weather, suddenly reveals he is a serving prisoner – doing 14 years for drug smuggling. He notes my surprise, smiles, and takes off a thick glove before offering me his hand. “I’m Petter,” he says. Continue reading »

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John Cusack Interviews Law Professor Jonathan Turley About Obama Administration’s War On the Constitution

 ANNOTATED NEWS, ASSHOLES, BASTARDS & CRIMINALS, BATTLE OF COMMUNICATIONS, CITIZEN TOOLS, GOVERNMENT CRIMES, GREAT HYPOCRISY, INDECENT SLIMEBALLS, JUDICIAL  Comments Off
Sep 032012
 
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The Constitution: use it only when convenient  (Photo: Jonathan Thorne, Edited: Lance Page)

By John Cusack, Truthout | Interview
I wrote this a while back after Romney got the nom. In light of the blizzard of bullshit coming at us in the next few months I thought I would put it out now.
Photo on right: Jonathan Turley—>
______________
Now that the Republican primary circus is over, I started to think about what it would mean to vote for Obama…

Since mostly we hear from the daily hypocrisies of Mitt and friends, I thought we should examine “our guy” on a few issues with a bit more scrutiny than we hear from the “progressive left”, which seems to be little or none at all.

Instead of scrutiny, the usual arguments in favor of another Obama presidency are made: We must stop fanatics; it would be better than the fanatics—he’s the last line of defense from the corporate barbarians—and of course the Supreme Court. It all makes a terrible kind of sense and I agree completely with Garry Wills who described the Republican primaries as ” a revolting combination of con men & fanatics— “the current primary race has become a demonstration that the Republican party does not deserve serious consideration for public office.”

True enough. Continue reading »

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