Then they came for me

The 'War on Terror” is kind of crazy, isn't it?

I mean, how can you declare war on a noun?

Homeland security, the multi-billion dollar government jobs program hasn't caught a single terrorist.

You have a much better chance of being murdered by your wife than a terrorist, so why hasn't the government declared war on your wife?

The answer is rather simple, and if one observes the war on the first amendment being waged by local police departments across the country, it's obvious.

Its about control of the population.

The first amendment guarantees Americans the right to peacefully assembly to redress their grievances.

It doesn't say, you may assemble unless you are violating a zoning ordinance.

It doesn't say you can assemble to protest, but not in a park, and you can't use a tent, or protest more than 24 hours.

The occupy protests were peaceful, yet the government's response was cruel and brutal.

Its all about control.

The drug war has been successful in one respect; it is an excellent method to control the poor.

The fourth amendment protection against search and seizure was tossed out with the trash to prosecute the drug war, which has been a de facto war against the poor.

It has been effective in that, currently, 25% percent of all blacks are labeled as criminals for using drugs not approved by the government.

Rush Limbaugh is a notorious drug addict.

Why hasn't the government declared a war on lying, drug addicted talk show morons?

Because they have lawyers.

Not public defenders, real lawyers.

There  is an old saying, its a truism, a cliché, but I will repeat it one more time, just for those of the middle class who believe that the destruction of our country's freedom and the criminalization of our poor, and the militarization of our police departments has no effect on them.

“They came for the Communists first.

I'm not a Communist so I didn't help.

Then they came for the poor, and I'm not one of them so I didn't help.

Then they came for the “freethinkers”,  I'm definitely not one of them, so I didn't help.

Then they came for me...and there was no one left to help.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, Bozo the Clown!

By Michael Blackburn, Sr.

What can you say about a group of candidates when Michele Bachmann seems like the least insane of the bunch?

Herman Cain, the Pizza Guy, to the regret of most pundits and humorists, is gone.

A couple of weeks ago he was overheard saying, “They are all just lyin' bitches.”

In his “goodbye” speech, his last hurrah, he said, “All of these unproven, untrue allegations, these false charges, are lies.”

That of course, was a lie, and he's not only done as a presidential candidate, he probably is done with his erstwhile vocation of giving inspirational speeches to women's groups.

Rick Perry, this guy is so dumb even stupid people think he's an idiot.

Ron Paul has a certain appeal, to crazy people, but his idea of no government at all (except to protect the rich) has no appeal to voters.

John Hunt has shown his real intellectual deficit by even attempting to run in this field of whackos and assorted nuts.

Michele Bachmann was doing pretty well, particularly with her anti-gay slurs, until everyone realized her husband is gay!

Mitt Romney, like Newt, is a flip flopper, but the Republicans don't think he is a “real Christian”, and they are only interested in a candidate who is a “real Christian” like serial adulterer Gingrich, the family values guy.

Gingrich, as you may recall, was forced from his position as Speaker of the house, BY HIS OWN PARTY.

He is the front runner now.

His platform?

Overturn child labor laws, “because they are stupid” and put 9 year olds to work cleaning the urinals of their more fortunate classmates, because, as he says, “poor kids in the ghetto (read black kids) don't know about the work ethic.

Let them do janitorial work in the schools.

The only thing they know about money is getting it illegally.”

I guess he doesn't know that most poor people, even most poor black people, DO work, they just don't make a decent wage.

Gingrich is the front runner in the Republicon flock.

Good choice.

Frankly, his candidacy, if he makes the cut, (and how could he miss, unless Bozo the clown enters the Republicon race?) should be hilarious.

Why Do Republicons Hate Democracy?

The Republicons are the Big “Gummint” party.

They want a huge, massive, government bureaucracy to watch every pregnancy, to make sure that a woman can't decide her own health issues.

They want the government to dictate to her.

They have the “Patriot Act” and  “Homeland Security” multi-billion dollar government bureaucracies

to “protect” us from Arabs and Afghans, and Americans who for whatever reason Big Brother doesn't like.

They have thousands of employees.

Government employees, paid for by taxpayers.

Your chances, as an American, in this country, of being killed by a terrorist, are almost zero.

You are much more likely to be killed by a friend, or even your wife.

They support and promote the so-called “Drug War”, another billion dollar super-bureaucracy which has been a colossal failure, in terms of curtailing drug use, but has churned out billions of dollars for DEA,  ATF and other fascist, boot -heeled groups of official thugs.

Also government employees.

None of the “Homeland Security government employees or the “Drug War" employees have lost their jobs.

You won't hear the Republicons criticizing these government jobs.

The Republicons LOVE Big business, it is their thing.

When they rail against big “gummint” what they means is they don't want ANY government regulation of business.

They want government to bail them out when their profits are threatened, they want really big “gummint” then, but if you, a common citizen, lose your job, through no fault of your own, they don't want you to receive unemployment compensation.           

They don't want government to feed poor children in school, they do want government to subsidize massive agribusiness..

These are really evil people who suck up your taxes to spend on their desires, while millions of Americans live on the street.

The Democrats are in the tank, to a large extent as well, but at least their heart is in the right place.

A Republicon president killed thousands of innocent Arab women and children to protect oil interests.

The same president killed thousands of Afghan women and children..

We are still in those countries, even with a Democratic president.

Bush was the first American president to authorize torture, but the president has said basically, “That's in the past, we are not going to look into that.”

All polls show that most Americans are liberal.

Americans believe in democracy, freedom of thought, and equality,

Most Americans believe in a woman's right to choose.

Most Americans believe all Americans are entitled to health care.

Most Americans believe in equal rights for gays.

Most Americans believe education should be free, like it is in other industrial countries.

In short, Americans are liberals, except for a minority of uniformed or misinformed people.

For the sake of our country, we need to vote.

At this point you have the choice of two corporately sponsored candidates, but at least the Democrat's heart is in the right place.

Vote.

Stop police brutality against peaceful protesters!

Since Saturday night, millions of Americans have watched blast after blast of pepper spray directed at seated, passively resisting protesters at the University of California, Davis. The chemical was fired into their faces and on their bodies at point-blank range.
Two campus police officers are captured on video spraying the poisonous chemical.
The attack on the protesters was completely unjustified even according to the questionable standards of law enforcement, which allow the chemical's use in cases of a clear threat to the life and safety of police carrying out legitimate duties.
Criminologists across the country have joined in expressions of outrage, noting that police pepper spray can be even more dangerous than a Taser.
A victim of pepper spray first feels sharp burning and pain and then coughs as breathing becomes more difficult. Soon the victim's lungs begin to bleed, as was the case with several of the victims at the University of California last weekend.
This is not an isolated incident.
Police in New York used pepper spray on the first day of the Occupy Wall Street protests. When New York's billionaire mayor eventually evicted protesters from Zuccotti Park, it was supposedly out of concern for public safety.
In Portland, Ore., protesters were hit with pepper spray last week. Photographers captured the horrific image of a young woman having the spray pumped directly into her mouth, nose and eyes.
The same dangerous chemicals were also sprayed on Occupy protesters in Seattle.
We believe that it is time for the federal government to move in and stop what has become a pattern of attacks on the fundamental rights not only of Occupy Wall Street protesters across the country, but on the rights of all Americans to engage in peaceful protest.
This has historical precedent. When workers occupied an auto plant in Flint, Mich., in the 1930s,  U.S. troops were sent in to protect the occupiers from the police who were attacking them.
During the upsurge of the civil rights movement in the 1960's, our government again sent troops in to protect the public against police who used tear gas, water canons and attack dogs against civil rights demonstrators in the South.
As more and more members of the 99 percent majority exercise their rights to public assembly and free speech, we should, in a democracy, expect nothing less.
We are clearly in an era now where protests are becoming a daily, business-as-usual event. This demands a reassessment of how police forces, nationally, need to change the way they behave when "protecting" the "public." Even the definition of the "public" itself has changed as, more and more, the public and the protesters become one and the same.
One of the big issues for Occupy Davis students is the ceaseless round of tuition hikes resulting from the state's cuts to education. Previous generations of working-class youth attended that institution for free. Today, the tuition stands at almost $14,000 a year and it is climbing.
On Monday, New York City students at CUNY protesting tuition increases were also victims of police brutality at the Baruch campus.
Students all across America, asking for nothing more than what was granted to generations who came before them, should not have to face the threat of police attacks on their peaceful protests.
There are demands to fire the police chief, the officers involved and the University's Chancellor at Davis. While we support all of those demands, they are only first steps.
It's time for our elected leaders to speak out and take action against police brutality. The Justice Department today needs to step in with strict guidelines that protect all the people. And it should investigate the police departments involved for violating protester's civil rights.
Photo: One of the many pepper spray memes that popped up and went viral, this one depicting spraying at the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Print

Email to a Friend

by: PW Editorial Board

November 23 2011

tags: Civil liberties, civil rights, OWS, students, history