Jan 12 2015
I have 4 articles for you this morning!
First, 3 regarding free speech, consistency, and hypocrisy in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo killings:
These are the biggest hypocrites celebrating free speech today in Paris
But as Daniel Wickham points out (as amplified by the journalist Glenn Greenwald), many of the 40 leaders attending the rally in Paris don’t have the best record of defending the principle of free speech so viciously attacked earlier this week:
Jump!
Jan 05 2013
On the campaign trail four years ago, US presidential candidate Barack Obama shared his views on whistleblowers. He said: “Often the best source of information about waste, fraud and abuse in government is a government employee committed to public integrity, willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism … should be encouraged rather than stifled.”
As president, the reality has been very different. During his first term in office, six whistleblowers have been charged under the Espionage Act for allegedly mishandling classified information. That is twice as many as all previous presidents combined.
The fact that Barrack Obama was once a Constitutional Law professor at the university of Chicago seems in complete contradiction to what he has done to protect the the abuses of government.
The Pentagon Papers, Watergate, Iran-Contra and wiretapping without warrants by the Bush administration are known to the wider public because someone had the courage to blow the whistle.
Nov 01 2011
It was bound to happen sooner or later – somebody realized that exercising free speech in this country can get you arrested.
Two local attorneys and the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday morning to stop nightly arrests of Occupy Nashville protesters on grounds that the state is violating their First Amendment rights…
“Here, the government has sought impermissibly to prohibit the political speech at issue rather than enforcing the criminal law,” the motion for a temporary restraining order states.
On various levels, this crushing of unpopular speech is being repeated all over the country. Some are already comparing the OWS to the Free Speech Movement of the 60’s.
However, I think the current battle over the right of free speech more resembles a forgotten legacy in American history from a century ago. When leftists with unpopular political ideas willingly allowed themselves to be arrested in the defense of freedom.
Mar 09 2011
Got a simple little story for you today of a multinational corporation that wants to build a great big cement plant in North Carolina really, really, bad, and the local opposition to what appears to be a corrupt and distorted decision process.
Two local activists in particular have drawn the ire of Titan Cement, the Grecian corporation who seeks to build the plant-and because the Company doesn’t like what the activists have been saying about what the impact of that plant will likely be or how the deal’s going down…they’re suing Kayne Darrell and Dr. David Hill, residents of North Carolina’s New Hanover County, and the two folks who are doing the complaining the Company dislike the most.
The Company further claims that they were slandered and defamed by the damaging statements that were uttered by the two at a county commissioners’ meeting and that they have lost goodwill and the chance to do business with certain parties as a result of these statements.
But what if everything the Defendants said was not only true…but provably so-and the Company was, maybe…just looking to shut people up by sending teams of lawyers after them?
As I said, it’s a simple story today-but it’s a good one.
Sep 19 2010
Americans for Prosperity has worked closely with the Tea Party since the movement’s inception. In the weeks before the first Tax Day protests, in April, 2009, Americans for Prosperity hosted a Web site offering supporters “Tea Party Talking Points”.
Talking Points: Taxpayer Tea Party [the Bullet point version, pdf]
Americans for Prosperity — April 2009
— Stop the handouts to Wall Street.
— Stop the Federal Reserve’s printing press
— Stop the federal bailouts that pick winners and losers in the marketplace.
— Stop exploding the national debt, which will crush our children and grandchildren.
— The grassroots MUST take action in order to achieve these goals.Federal Spending
The Obama Budget
Endless Government Bailouts
IRS History and Horror Stories
Who’s behind the baggers?
Americans for Prosperity Foundation — an organization that David Koch started, in 2004
Koch who?
And you thought the Teabaggers were being “run” by the Beckster …
Aug 20 2010
Former BP worker speaks out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
I wonder what he’s afraid of, still ?
Apparently, BP runs a tight ship — perhaps it’s best to not cross them ?
Aug 18 2010
Our founders were brilliant people. Really. They were. One of the very best things about the first amendment is the idea that we get to hold each other accountable for those things we say and do. This isn’t civil or criminal accounting, but social accounting.
Before we showed the world what the value of expression is for society, people were limited in what they could say, “because it might disturb the powers that be”, or maybe they valued their head being attached to the rest of their body.
Free speech and tolerance are linked together in a most powerful way. If we tolerate bigots, for example, we will live in a world filled with bigots.
Why is this?
Not everybody does the work to properly socialize, and they won’t do that, unless they feel some need, or pressure to do it, which is the core of what the First Amendment is all about.
Aug 15 2010
Edward E. Clark, President of the Wildlife Center of Virgina
Earlier in June of this year, I was invited to be part of an interdisciplinary team of wildlife experts, that was organized by the Humane Society of the United States. There were about five of us from around the country, who work with two HSUS disaster response experts.
We flew into New Orleans with the idea that we were going to spend a week, in the area — accessing the damage of the Oil Spill; looking at the Habitat at risk.
And trying to come up with an Inventory if you will, of the short term and long term issues, that needed a response.
[…]Well the hour came, where we finally were — supposedly — given our clearance to fly over the area where the Oil was coming ashore.
[… and ? ]
Jul 21 2010
Gallery: Signs of trouble
Oil spill victims find an outlet for anger about the crisis and resentment toward BP.
A WashingtonPost Photo Gallery …
Jul 17 2010
BP buys up Gulf scientists for legal defense, roiling academic community
Ben Raines, Press-Register — July 16, 2010
More than one scientist interviewed by the Press-Register described being offered $250 an hour through BP lawyers. At eight hours a week, that amounts to $104,000 a year.
[…]
The contract makes it clear that BP is seeking to add scientists to the legal team that will fight the Natural Resources Damage Assessment lawsuit that the federal government will bring as a result of the Gulf oil spill.
Is it their Scientific Expertise, that they want —
Or their Scientific Silence?
Jun 18 2010
Sea creatures flee oil spill, gather near shore
by Jay Reeves, John Flesher, Tamara Lush (AP) — Jun 16, 2010
GULF SHORES, Ala. – Dolphins and sharks are showing up in surprisingly shallow water just off the Florida coast. Mullets, crabs, rays and small fish congregate by the thousands off an Alabama pier. Birds covered in oil are crawling deep into marshes, never to be seen again.
Marine scientists studying the effects of the BP disaster are seeing some strange phenomena.
Fish and other wildlife seem to be fleeing the oil out in the Gulf and clustering in cleaner waters along the coast in a trend that some researchers see as a potentially troubling sign.
The animals’ presence close to shore means their usual habitat is badly polluted, and the crowding could result in mass die-offs as fish run out of oxygen. Also, the animals could easily get devoured by predators.
“A parallel would be: Why are the wildlife running to the edge of a forest on fire?
But, but those Sea Critters, CAN’T RUN onto the Land, most of them.
Jun 12 2010
Let’s see, Maybe the NYTimes will help …
Last week, Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, tried to bring a small group of journalists with him on a trip he was taking through the gulf on a Coast Guard vessel. Mr. Nelson’s office said the Coast Guard agreed to accommodate the reporters and camera operators. But at about 10 p.m. on the evening before the trip, someone from the Department of Homeland Security’s legislative affairs office called the senator’s office to tell them that no journalists would be allowed.
“They said it was the Department of Homeland Security’s response-wide policy not to allow elected officials and media on the same ‘federal asset,'” said Bryan Gulley, a spokesman for the senator.
[…]
Capt. Ron LaBrec, a Coast Guard spokesman, said that about a week into the cleanup response, the Coast Guard started enforcing a policy that prohibits news media from accompanying candidates for public office on visits to government facilities, “to help manage the large number of requests for media embeds and visits by elected officials.”
Reason 10) Elected officials and Media on the same ‘federal asset,’ are not allowed.
Reason 9) Easier to manage requests for ‘media embeds’ and visits by elected officials.