Entries Tagged 'Rights' ↓

Imagine that one day in the not to distant future you answer a knock on your door and find that the Police are there to arrest you for a crime that you haven’t committed, but someone has identified you as having the potential to commit that crime some time in the future. Sounds like 1984 Science fiction doesn’t it. But what if it was actually happening right then and there? What would you do? More appropriately, would there be anything you could do? Or are you one of those who loudly state “That could never happen here?” Continue reading →

Media reform activists have drawn a line in the sand. Net Neutrality must be defended at all costs. Preserving a viable, independent, free and open Internet (and the media overall) is essential to a functioning democracy, but the forces aligned against it are formidable, daunting, relentless, and reprehensible. Some past challenges suggest future ones ahead. FULL ARTICLE

Featured Post for 05/01-05/07
CommonDreams reports:

62 Americans, dressed in the orange jumpsuits and black hoods that have become the symbol of Guantanamo detainees, were arrested in front of the White House in a nonviolent demonstration this afternoon.

The First Amendment to the Constitution reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Continue reading →

Recent News reports that Obama says those who actually did the physical torture of detainees cannot be tried for their crimes because they were “just following orders.” On the other hand, “those who ordered the torture cannot be tried as they only ordered it – They did not physically participate in the torture.” Therefore no one can be tried for torture. This is a perfect case of Circular Logic.

And a Carbon Copy of the Nuremberg Defense used by Nazi Torturers. Which didn’t save them. Bush, Obama, Congress, Cheney, Political Parties, people, are you listening? Continue reading →

The Russia Times recently aired a 4min video that reveals that supranational teams in America and Europe are working on new copyright laws that will give world governments and especially border agents to temporarily confiscate your PC or laptop and copy any files.

The Russia Times claims that due to the anticipated negative response from their populations, details of the new laws are not being shared with the public or their company at the moment. Continue reading →

The drug war is based on a repugnant assertion: that you do not have ownership over your own body; that you don’t have the right to decide what you’ll do with your body, with your property and with your life. The position of the drug warriors is that you should be in jail if you decide to do something with your body that they don’t approve of. FULL ARTICLE

The US has the highest incarceration rate and the biggest prison population of any country in the world.  With 5 percent of the world’s population, the US has 25 percent of the world’s prison inmates.  Recent research by the Pew Center concludes that one in every 31 Americans is in prison or jail or on probation or parole.  FULL ARTICLE

Americans have exercised Second Amendment rights for 234 years. Regardless of the meaning of the Second Amendment, the right of adverse possession makes gun rights final. To assault such a well-grounded right is an act of tyranny. FULL ARTICLE

Involuntary servitude was supposed to be abolished by the 13th Amendment, but things like Selective Service and the income tax make me wonder how serious we really are in defending just basic freedom.  The income tax enslaves workers for nearly 4 months out of a year by garnishing what amounts to all their wages in that period of time.  A military draft could demand your very life, without your consent.  This should be unthinkable in a free society. FULL ARTICLE

Binyam Mohamed is no longer a non-person, even though he’s still in Guantanamo.  After being flown around the world by the CIA, and tortured in both Pakistan and Morocco, he’s fighting the torture.  Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union have direct testimony of torture from the five who were transported in CIA sponsored flights by Jeppesen Datalan, a subsidiary of Boeing, and testimony to show that employees of Jeppesen knew they were planning flights in what has become known infamously as the “Torture Taxi.”

Monday, the ACLU represented Mohamed and 4 other men who were tortured and “rendered” by the CIA in the US Court of Appeals, 9th District in San Francisco.  The Bush administration had gotten a judge to throw out the men’s lawsuit against “extraordinary rendition.”  The ACLU and others hoped that the Obama administration would not stand on “national security” and let the suit go forward.  Continue reading →