Sunday, June 30, 2013

13-06-30 Nobel prize winner Corrigan-Maguire nominates Manning for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Only problem is that the prize is by now a disgrace, after having Obama, and then NATO win it (in succession?)... jz
____

Bradley Manning Should Win the Nobel Peace Prize
By Mairead Corrigan-Maguire
As a peace prize winner myself, I am nominating Manning for this honor for his work to help end the Iraq War and other conflicts.

13-06-30 Where left-right-and-center converge: It is debatable who is/was worse, Bush II, or Obama?

It took so long for people to figure it out: The two-party system is a charade. There is only the inside-the-beltway party. In control. Right now it is most likely headed by Robert Mueller III. And the pending succession in such regimes is not always smooth and orderly. The power center may move to another office, e.g., DHS, DOJ Office of US Attorneys, etc... Instability of the empire may result from any major blunder in the succession, inflicting harm worldwide. From the left, Michael Collins.
______

bushobama
The unrelenting warrior Obama tends to Wall Street while the people struggle amidst a flat economy and a polluted landscape. He's reminding us of Bush.

READ MORE:
____________


And this one is even better... :) jz

__________________
Republicans and Democrats can't agree on anything -- and they like it that way. But now they agree that Edward Snowden's a traitor? Something's fishy.
READ MORE:

13-06-30 Germans fume - NSA spied on EU institutions both in the US and Europe

In 2010 I was travelling in Europe and meeting Human Rights organizations, discussing the situation that evolved in the US over the past decade or two.  The response was almost total disbelief.  The US benefits from residual good reputation from 1945...  but that good reputation is quickly eroding.  jz
___

Deutsche Welle (German state broadcaster)
"DW represents Germany in the international media landscape. Germany’s international broadcaster conveys the country as a nation rooted in European culture and as a liberal, democratic state based on the rule of law."
Ein Eurokrat geht am 15.10.2003 auf das Justus-Lipsius-Gebäude in Brüssel zu, in dem der Europarat untergebracht ist. 

Report: NSA spied on EU institutions

According to a report in the German news magazine Der Spiegel, the US National Security Agency bugged institutions of the European Union. The magazine cited documents provided by whistle-blower Edward Snowden.
...
The documents, marked "top secret" and dated September 2010, specifically name the EU as a "target" for surveillance. The NSA appears to have had access to telephone calls, computer documents and emails.
Part of the surveillance included monitoring the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels (pictured above) where the European Council is housed. 
...
Source:

13-06-30 More on prosecution of a California man, for sidewalk chalk messages against Bank of America



One must wonder, would this prosecution have taken place, had the chalk messages been against others than Bank of America.  (e.g,, against President Obama).

And on such, Voltaire said:
If you wish to know, who your true dictator is, find out who you are not permitted to criticize.
jz
________


Additional reporting from Fox news:
...
40-year-old Jeff Rogers has been charged with 13 counts of vandalism for writing the series of protest slogans between February and August 2012 on sidewalks in front of Bank of America branches in San Diego. He is standing trial this week.
,,,
10 News reports Judge Howard Shore has barred Olson from invoking freedom of speech as a defense in the case.
...


On Thursday, Darrell Freeman, Vice President of Corporate Security for Bank of America told the jury he believed Bank of America's reputation has suffered because of the messages, 10 News reports. Olson has claimed Freeman pressured the city attorney to bring the case to trial.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/06/28/california-man-faces-13-years-in-prison-for-scribbling-anti-bank-messages-on/#ixzz2XgNCMVuh

13-06-30 More on US military censorship of news on Snowden and NSA

As it now turns out, it is much more than the Guardian...  Looks like a concerted effort to keep soldiers uninformed on who they serve and for what purpose.  But most importantly, protect them against any news of a free thinking man who defies authority for a good cause. jz
___

DoD Blocks Millions of Computers From Viewing Alternative News

Eric Blair
Activist Post

After the initial surge of web traffic to alternative news websites following The Guardian breaking the NSA spying story, traffic has slowed considerably despite the continued interest in the NSA story as well as other alternative headlines.

This dramatic drop in traffic may be due to broad censorship by the Department of Defense on "millions of computers".

What began as a rumor that the military brass was ordering soldiers not to view news about the whistleblower revelations that the NSA is spying on all Americans has swelled into a confirmed military-wide censorship campaign using a high-tech computer filtering system.

The US News and World Report is reporting that the DoD is blocking access to all articles related to the NSA scandal from all DoD computers. The filter reportedly effects millions of computers and potentially thousands of alternative news and civil liberties websites.

According to U.S. News:
The Department of Defense is blocking online access to news reports about classified National Security Agency documents made public by Edward Snowden. The blackout affects all of the department's computers and is part of a department-wide directive.
"Any website that runs information that the Department of Defense still considers classified" is affected, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Damien Pickart told U.S. News in a phone interview. 
According to Pickart, news websites that re-report information first published by The Guardian or other primary sources are also affected
"If that particular website runs an article that our filters determine has classified information... the particular content on that website will remain inaccessible," he said.
Pickart said the blackout affects "millions" of computers on "all Department of Defense networks and systems."
This is perhaps one of the most shocking displays of blatant censorship in the history of the United States. The idea that classified information should still be treated as "off limits" to regular military personnel after its broad release to the public makes no sense.

Unless, of course, they don't want soldiers learning the truth about what their government is doing for fear that they may recognize who the true enemies of the Constitution are.

Or this may simply be a beta test of the government's technical capability to filter Internet traffic away from certain news stories and the websites that carry them.
In either case, this should be a HUGE story in itself.  Draconian Internet censorship has finally arrived in a big way. 

Source: