[U.S. President Barack] Obama has presided over a massive expansion of secret surveillance of American citizens by the National Security Agency. He has launched a ferocious and unprecedented crackdown on whistleblowers. He has made more government documents classified than any previous president. He has broken his promise to close down the controversial Guantánamo Bay prison and pressed on with prosecutions via secretive military tribunals, rather than civilian courts. He has preserved CIA renditions. He has tried to grab broad new powers on what defines a terrorist or a terrorist supporter and what can be done with them, often without recourse to legal process. The sheer scope and breadth of Obama’s national security policy has stunned even fervent Bush supporters and members of the Washington DC establishment.
‘Gay Gag Rule’ Now Law in St. Petersburg (Russia)
An anti-gay law has gone into effect in St Petersburg, prompting fresh concern from gay rights advocates that it will be used to promote hate crimes against homosexual and transgender individuals.
The new law penalizes what proponents say is the promotion of homosexual activity among children, but detractors say it is part of a wider effort to persecute homosexuals in Russia’s second largest city.
The law, which took effect Sunday, in part prohibits “the propaganda of homosexuality and pedophilia among minors.” Gay rights activists say it would criminalize even reading, writing or speaking about gay, lesbian, or transgender people. Violations carry hefty fines up to $16,700.
“This law has little to do with protecting minors,” said Polina Savchenko, director of the St. Petersburg LGBT organization Coming Out, in a statement today.
The law has prompted large protests in front of Russian embassies around the world in recent weeks. Homosexuality was outlawed during the Soviet Union and was only decriminalized by President Boris Yeltsin in 1993, though it remains highly taboo today.
Activists are quick to point out that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the famed composer and St. Petersburg native, was gay and suggest that even mentioning that fact is now illegal.
“We are offended and outraged by this act by city authorities and will continue fighting for the rights of LGBT citizens until the barbaric law is repealed,” Savchenko said.
She said she fears the law will only “encourage hate” towards the LGBT community.
(by By Kirit Radia, ABC News)
10 Reasons The U.S. Is No Longer The Land Of The Free
“If we are going to adopt Chinese legal principles, we should at least have the integrity to adopt one Chinese proverb: “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.” We seem as a country to be in denial as to the implications of these laws and policies. Whether we are viewed as a free country with authoritarian inclinations or an authoritarian nation with free aspirations (or some other hybrid definition), we are clearly not what we once were.”
“Even as we pass judgment on countries we consider unfree, Americans remain confident that any definition of a free nation must include their own — the land of free. Yet, the laws and practices of the land should shake that confidence. In the decade since Sept. 11, 2001, this country has comprehensively reduced civil liberties in the name of an expanded security state… At what point does the reduction of individual rights in our country change how we define ourselves?”
“The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” (U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 4).
Don’t Vote Obama.
Source: bacardilasagne
MythBuster Adam Savage: SOPA Could Destroy the Internet as We Know It
Soon the U.S. Congress will reconvene to consider the Protect IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Mythbuster and PM contributing editor Adam Savage says that if these sweeping pieces of legislation pass, the U.S. will join the likes of China and Iran in censoring the Internet, and destroy the openness that made the Web perhaps the most important technological advance of his lifetime.
“The Internet is probably the most important technological advancement of my lifetime. Its strength lies in its open architecture and its ability to allow a framework where all voices can be heard. Like the printing press before it (which states also tried to regulate, for centuries), it democratizes information, and thus it democratizes power. If we allow Congress to pass these draconian laws, we’ll be joining nations like China and Iran in filtering what we allow people to see, do, and say on the Web. And we’re better than that.”
Say No To SOPA
A List Apart strongly opposes United States H.R.3261 AKA the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), an ill-conceived lobbyist-driven piece of legislation that is technically impossible to enforce, cripplingly burdensome to support, and would, without hyperbole, destroy the internet as we know it.
We at ALA are not alone in our opposition to SOPA. Other opponents of the bill now before the U.S. House of Representatives include Google, Facebook, Twitter, Mozilla, Yahoo!, AOL, LinkedIn, eBay, Tumblr, Etsy, Reddit, Techdirt, Wikimedia Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, and the Center for Democracy and Technology.
The bill has its supporters, too, including Hollywood, media firms, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and their lobbyists, who have spent over $91 million to push this new law through.
- Americans, Tumblr has created a system that will call you with talking points, and then connect you to your representative.
- You can contact your representatives and your senators.
- Those outside the US can sign this petition. Registration is required. A US zip code is not.
We urge everyone reading this to take action today. Only an overwhelming show of solidarity gives us a chance of defeating this poorly written, dangerous bill.
What is “speech”? And to whom does it belong?
“[T]he concept that government may restrict the speech of some elements of our society in order to enhance the relative voice of others is wholly foreign to the First Amendment.”
- Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas in United States v. Automobile Workers, 352 U.S. 567 (1957)
“The Court has thus rejected the argument that political speech of corporations or other associations should be treated differently under the First Amendment simply because such associations are not ‘natural persons.’”
- Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 08-205 (2010)
“The act of occupation, this court has determined as a matter of law, is not speech.”
- Suffolk County (Mass.) Superior Court Judge Frances McIntyre, in a decision regarding the legality of Occupy Boston, 7 December 2011
So, corporations are “people” entitled to free “speech” in the form of spending an unlimited amount of money to influence the outcomes of elections in the United States, but the Occupiers’ reason for existing isn’t “speech”?
Accumulating random crap since 1976! Mostly strange humor, fountain pens, history, politics, LGBT issues, art, odd pictures from my iPhoto library, and irrelevant status updates. I'm an ESTJ. In my day job I'm a scientist or something. And I like boys.
