a la gauche: ¡ya basta!

In the video below, more than a dozen cops pull three black men from a car, restrain them, then beat them savagely.

This shit is systematic.

Today is the 38th aniversary of the Kent State Massacre. Thirty-eight years ago, four students (Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, Bill Schroeder, and Sandy Scheuer) were murdered my the U.S. Military.

Remember them.

The students were unarmed, and the closest was more than 60 feet away from the Guard at the time of the shooting. There was no warning shot; the National Guard never issued an apology; and no one ever spent a day in jail for the killings...














They're right. They can't kill all of us!

Here are some links of interest:

* Alan Canfora, Kent State Victim

* May 4th Archive

* Section 10 - The Blacklisted Journalist

* An Eyewitness Account from Tom Grace

"[T]he legislation and histories of the time, and the language used in the Declaration of Independence, show, that neither the class of persons who had been imported as slaves, nor their descendants, whether they had become free or not, were then acknowledged as a part of the people, nor intended to be included in the general words used in that memorable instrument. . . . [A]ltogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

And with that, the United States Supreme Court ensured that the 20th Century would be defined, as W.E.B. DuBois wrote, by the color line. So, while we might be outraged at the Sean Bell decision itself, it comes directly from the flawed jurisprudence that gave us the Dred Scott Decision in 1857, Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, Bakke in 1978, Croson in 1989, Adarand in 1995, Gratz in 2003, and all of the Ward Connerly-inspired attacks on the very same affirmative action hard won by students facing water hoses and dogs; men and women facing jail, lynch mobs, and death.

read the rest at CounterPunch...

This is the kind of essay I wish I could send to every Democratic primary voter, as it looks more and more like the entire country's going to implode as we spend more time sniping at eachother about angry black men and Bosnia and whether we're bitter or not while there's a global food crisis and other serious matters at hand.

An excerpt:

The failure of the American left is a failure of nerve. It has been neutralized and rendered ineffectual as a political force because of its refusal to hold fast on core issues, from universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care for all Americans, to the steadfast protection of workers’ rights, to an immediate withdrawal from the failed occupation of Iraq to a fight against a militarized economy that is hollowing the country out from the inside.

Let the politicians compromise. This is their job. It is not ours. If the left wants to regain influence in the nation’s political life, it must be willing to walk away from the Democratic Party, even if Barack Obama is the nominee, and back progressive, third-party candidates until the Democrats feel enough heat to adopt our agenda. We must be willing to say no. If not, we become slaves.

Who knows what this country's fate will be?

From the AP:

The Supreme Court affirmed Wednesday that police have the power to conduct searches and seize evidence, even when done during an arrest that turns out to have violated state law.

read more at RAW STORY...

I read a great post over at Left I on the News the other day. It was the sorry state of affairs capitalism breeds and how Fidel Castro has been fighting against poverty for over 30 years. This is the man the U.S. works so hard to demonize. Don't believe everything you hear.

Here are Fidel's words from the UN in 1979:

Enough of the illusion that the problems of the world can be solved by nuclear weapons. Bombs may kill the hungry, the sick, and the ignorant, but they cannot kill hunger, disease, and ignorance. Nor can they kill the righteous rebellion of the peoples. And in the holocaust, the rich -- who have the most to lose in this world -- will also die.

read more at Left I on the News...

Remember Sean Bell. He was a victim of police brutality, classism, and racism. His family and friends are victims of our so-called "justice system".

I'm too pissed off to say much else, so I'll leave you to read the words of some other folks:

The night of Sean Bell’s murder was a cocktail of drunken poor males, and several of them had guns. The drunks with the guns also owned a ‘Get Out Of Jail’ free card better known as a police badge. This exemption is critical since it allows the police to sober themselves and corroborate their stories prior to being presented to a query on their conduct.

- from dallaspenn

This is a pretty good video someone put together about the Sean Bell case:

Sitting in the front row of the courtroom as the verdict was read, I was amazed at how Cooperman [the judge] gave the case a narrow reading that mentioned the flaws and inconsistencies of the prosecution case, but ignored the gaping holes in the defense version of what happened outside the Kalua that fateful night in 2006.

The detectives' defense depended on the notion that they identified themselves as officers, ordered Bell and his companions to surrender, and reacted when Bell tried to drive away.

But the lieutenant in charge of the operation testified that he never heard his companions ID themselves, and the first outside officers to arrive on the scene testified that they didn't see the detectives wearing badges. Cooperman gave no indication the inconsistencies mattered.

Cooperman also skipped any mention of whether the level of deadly force applied - dozens of shots fired at unarmed men who committed no crime - made any difference.

If all three officers on trial had done what Detective Michael Oliver did - empty their clips, reload and fire again - nearly 100 bullets would have flown. Would that be considered reckless?

- from NY Daily News

This is another good video, this one from Papoose:

This has been a part of the liberal press game that has been played since the Emmit Till lynching, in which the press renders everything a Shakespearean tragedy -- complete with tragic character flaw in the victim. Emmit Till whistled at a white lady, and should have known that was wrong. Rodney King was high on PCP and should have known better. Patric Dorismond struggled with a vice cop who tried to entrap him, but he shouldn't have done that.

The problem with this aspiration to make Shakespearean tragedy out of racist attacks is that it is always immaterial to the case. What is material to the case is this: an undercover pig pulled a gun on Sean Bell. Bell, justifiably fearing for his life, attempted to drive away. For this simple act of self-preservation, Bell and everyone else in the car were sprayed by bullets from a number of undercover pigs.

If blood-alcohol levels mattered at all to this case, Bell would have gotten a breathalyzer exam rather than sprayed with bullets. There are no excuses here, no matter how hard you look for them. This was a lynching, pure and simple.

- from ALL OUT FOR THE FIGHT

Fuck the police!

Oh... WOW! Wow.

So now we can talk about spreading democracy, but we aren't supposed to actually meet with democratically-elected legitimate governments if they are in conflict with allies, it seems.

Israel has even refused to provide security for Carter while he is in Israel, almost legitimizing attempts by extremists to assassinate him.

Still, Carter goes on. When I met him and his family a year ago, it was obvious I was dealing with a man who judges himself by history, and he knows that taking his controversial steps now will lead to a better tomorrow.

If you get a chance, see the film about him, Jimmy Carter Man From Plains.

The following is from The Japan Times Online:

For the first time ever, graphic feature-length footage of the annual slaughter of some 2,500 dolphins in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, has been captured during a unique yearlong covert operation.

The secret filming by members of the U.S. conservation group Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS) — equipped with state-of-the-art technology and financed to the tune of $5 million by Netscape founder Jim Clark — is being turned into a major documentary feature film destined for worldwide release this summer (although distribution in Japan is at present not certain).

The story of how this film of the barbaric killing and subsequent butchering of dolphins was made — together with the resulting sale of their meat that massively exceeds Japanese and international limits for mercury content — is told here, exclusively, for the first time anywhere in print.

read the rest at The Japan Times Online...

Okay, NOW we can take his guns, right?

I read a few Asimov books when I was a teenager. I guess I was naive, but I never thought there'd actually be robots that could really do "stuff" in my lifetime ... at least not cool shit like you're about to see. If the U.S. military machine was not behind the development of these robots, I think this new technology would be fantastic. I always imagined robots being used to help people. But the truth is that these robots will be used for nefarious purposes. These robots will be used to control people.

Would you believe that tiny dragonfly-like robots are already being used to surveil Americans? The following is from an October 2007 story from the Washington Post:

Vanessa Alarcon saw them while working at an antiwar rally in Lafayette Square last month.

"I heard someone say, 'Oh my god, look at those,' " the college senior from New York recalled. "I look up and I'm like, 'What the hell is that?' They looked kind of like dragonflies or little helicopters. But I mean, those are not insects."

Out in the crowd, Bernard Crane saw them, too.

"I'd never seen anything like it in my life," the Washington lawyer said. "They were large for dragonflies. I thought, 'Is that mechanical, or is that alive?' "

... [snip] ...

So what was seen by Crane, Alarcon and a handful of others at the D.C. march -- and as far back as 2004, during the Republican National Convention in New York, when one observant but perhaps paranoid peace-march participant described on the Web "a jet-black dragonfly hovering about 10 feet off the ground, precisely in the middle of 7th avenue . . . watching us"?

They probably saw dragonflies, said Jerry Louton, an entomologist at the National Museum of Natural History. Washington is home to some large, spectacularly adorned dragonflies that "can knock your socks off," he said.

At the same time, he added, some details do not make sense. Three people at the D.C. event independently described a row of spheres, the size of small berries, attached along the tails of the big dragonflies -- an accoutrement that Louton could not explain. And all reported seeing at least three maneuvering in unison.

"Dragonflies never fly in a pack," he said.

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice said her group is investigating witness reports and has filed Freedom of Information Act requests with several federal agencies. If such devices are being used to spy on political activists, she said, "it would be a significant violation of people's civil rights."

It would be a "significant violation of people's civil rights"? And does that surprise anyone?

So, yea - dragonfly spy robots are pretty scary. But check out the following video:


It's called Big Dog and it's created by Boston Dynamics for the U.S. military. This thing can carry 340 lbs, it can continue walking after being kicked, it can maintain its balance on ice. This thing is amazing.

And there there is the gecko robot that can climb walls. "What's it for?" you ask?

The machine, which was designed by Stanford University on behalf of the Pentagon, could be used for search and rescue missions, intelligence gathering, or other uses.

The emphasis is mine.

Perhaps the most terrifying thing about all of this is that these are the ones we know about. They're amazing, but does that mean that there are more amazing robots out there with more sinister possibilities?

Last, but not least - RoboSwift, the flying spy bird. This thing is fast. It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a ... a ... a spy robot from the Department of Homeland Security? Yikes!


read more about the CIA robots at RAW STORY..

If they don't make a t-shirt out of this shit, something is terribly wrong the world.

God, it's just so ... creepy.

Now, even white moms from the 'burbs are noticing police abuse. Uh-oh...

Manslaughter, rape, assault. A recent spate of allegations against police officers on the outskirts of New York City has raised fears that a big-city problem has invaded the suburbs.

"You don't want this to go on anywhere but you certainly don't expect it in the suburbs," said Alicia Barnes of White Plains, a mother of 2-year-old twins.

Experts agreed, however, that the suburbs are not immune.

"Law enforcement in the suburbs is only as good as the patchwork of police departments that exists in each county," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

"It takes proper oversight and accountability to ensure that the police are our friends, our protectors, and not bullies who think they are above the law."

This shit has been happening forever to minorities, to the poor, to the people no one notices. Predictably, this article claims that these cases of police abuse are just isolated incidents. They say that all the time, of course.

read more from the AP via RAW STORY...

Another American has been murdered by the police with a "non-lethal" taser.

From The Charlotte Observer:

A 17-year-old died at Carolinas Medical Center Thursday after a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer shocked him with a Taser during a confrontation at a grocery store in northeast Charlotte.

...

Turner had worked as a cashier and bagged groceries at the Food Lion at 3024 Prosperity Church Road, where the incident happened.

Officers responded to a disturbance call at the grocery store about 1:15 p.m. When they arrived, they saw Turner throwing something at a store manager, according to a CMPD news release issued Thursday night. The release does not say what the object was, and a police spokeswoman could not be reached.

...

A preliminary check of N.C. criminal records did not turn up any criminal convictions for the teen.

Turner graduated from Crossroads Charter High School last year, his mother said. He had wanted to go to Central Piedmont Community College and be a personal trainer. He didn't have any health problems and had never been in trouble, she said.

Can you imagine what might have happened if the cops hadn't had tasers? I mean, here's a kid throwing food items at his manager! The cops might have had to like grab him or something. WOW! Thank goodness for tasers, right?

In what will no doubt be called another "isolated incident", two South Carolina Highway Patrol Troopers are under investigation after using their vehicles to hit two black suspects.

You might recall that a South Carolina trooper was recorded threatening to kill another black "suspect" a few years ago. In the video, from 2004, the trooper can be heard saying, "You better run, nigger, because I'm fixin' to kill you." Evidently, the troopers in South Carolina know that no harm will come to them for trying to kill black South Carolinians. They've learned from the past that they are above the law.

From RAW STORY:

In one video, a patrol car chases a man through the parking lot of an apartment complex, then follows him between buildings and across footpaths and lawns where children are playing before running into him.

In the other, a patrol car hits a suspect as he tries to cross in front of it on a back road. The man flips over the side of the car and then off the road. "Hey, I nailed the fuck out of him," the trooper proclaims. "He went flying up in the air. ... I was trying to hit him."

Both officers remained on duty. The one who boasted of deliberately hitting the suspect was given a three day suspension. The other officer, who admitted to poor judgment but said he hit the man accidentally, received only a reprimand.

It's hardly surprising that these cops kept their jobs. This sort of behavior is commonplace within America's police force. The joke is that it is played off as being isolated incidents. We're told over and over that this type of thing is very rare, blah, blah, blah, blah... And many Americans believe it. But you should believe it. Look for examples of police brutality and you'll find it in every nook and cranny, in every city in the United States.

The government is now looking into these two cases, but don't hold your breath. This whole "investigation" will likely be very lengthy (long enough to be forgotten), it will be ignored by the MSM, and these cops will go on to abuse dozens of other people.


read more at RAW STORY...

[Reuters photo]
At least 32 people have been arrested during protests in Washington DC marking the fifth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, police said.

About 100 Protesters in the US capital blocked the entrance to the Internal Revenue Service, the US tax collection agency, as campaigners attempted to focus attentions on funding for the war.

The activists were arrested when they cross barriers outside the building, police said.

The protest was one of a number marking the Iraq war set to take place across the US.

We wanted to put our bodies between the money and what that money goes to fund - the war, the occupation, the bombs," said Frida Berrigan, from the War Resisters League.

"It would have been nice to shut down the building for the whole day but I think this was a good symbolic action," she said.

read the rest at Al Jazeera...

They say he fell off a cliff. Bullshit.

A city police chief who led an investigation into charges that Britain cooperated with secret CIA flights to transport terrorism suspects without formal proceedings has been found dead, his deputy said Tuesday.

Manchester Chief Constable Michael Todd, 50, was found dead in Snowdonia, about 240 miles northwest of London, Deputy Chief Constable Dave Whatton said. He had been missing since going out for a walk Monday during his day off.

read the rest at RAW STORY...

The following video shows another case of police brutality. The cops are restraining and arresting protesters. The young woman in the video is tasered for nearly twenty second AFTER she has been restrained on the ground.

The people will only take so much.