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Failing the Test: Obama and Pennsylvania Gov. Corbett Must Go
By Dave Lindorff
Just because someone has the ability to do something, does not mean he or she should do it.
A review of recent TSA sex crimes by Bill Fisher
As reported here on September 13th, yet another TSA screener has been arrested for child pornography. While not a crime unique to TSA workers, it does raise the question of why the TSA is attracting a disproportionate number of criminals and pedophiles.
Yet another TSA agent charged with child porn
This is getting so routine I should keep a template so I can just fill in the blanks.
Patdown Assault Trauma Syndrome: fear, shaking, sleeplessness, nightmares, and flashbacks by Sommer Gentry
As one reads the letters from victims of TSA patdowns released last week, strong patterns emerge. Nearly every letter uses one of these turns of phrase: demeaning, degrading, dehumanizing, humiliating, violated, traumatized, sexually assaulted.
Even Congress can’t stop the TSA from assaulting passengers by Sommer Gentry
A FOIA request by governmentattic.org, which the TSA only answered after more than a year’s delay, has shaken loose some 200 pages of complaints about patdown procedures that TSA received between November and December 2010. Among these letters were several from members of Congress and congressional committees. The following excerpts give us a feel for Congressional sentiment towards the TSA.
It’s all your fault, you miserable, lying travelers by Philip Weber
Meet David Castelveter. David Castelveter works for the TSA, and he knows exactly what’s wrong with airport security. You.
Read the rest at TSA News.
TSA retaliation
Anyone who’s been paying the slightest bit of attention already knows the TSA retaliates against passengers who don’t toe the line.
TSA wants your drink redux
Several people have sent me a link to what they think is a new TSA story. In fact, it’s an old story, but it bears repeating (as so many do).
Read the rest at TSA News.
TSA: eliminating backscatter scanners? by Bill Fisher
While the press has been reporting TSA stories such as the multi-million-dollar shoe scanner debacle and the TSA’s denial of stonewalling a court order to take public comment on the scanners, one story has gone vi
Politics aside, what should we do about the TSA? by Christopher Elliott
American voters, who have felt powerless against the allegedly invasive screening methods used by an expanding TSA, got an unexpected gift from avery unexpected place last week.
Read the rest at TSA NEWS.
Totalitarianism in the US: An Accident Waiting to Happen
By Numerian
First appeared in The Agonist
Listening to Paul Ryan’s speech at the Republican National Convention, I couldn’t place where I had come across something quite like this before. Then it struck me – Pravda! I used to subscribe to Pravda in high school and college, first to learn Russian, and second, to pursue a college program in Soviet studies. Pravda was a newspaper that specialized in the Big Lie – the Five Year Plan was always ahead of schedule, Soviet industrial capabilities exceeded that of any other country, people were starving on streets all across America. The newspaper was a non-stop stream of lies, just as Paul Ryan’s speech was studded with Big Lies – lies that were easily disprovable, such as Barack Obama did nothing about the Simpson-Bowles recommendations to reduce the budget deficit (Paul Ryan didn’t mention he voted against these recommendations when the House killed any chance of enacting them); or that Obama made it easier for people to live off welfare (the President altered the enrollment rules of welfare at the request of Republican governors); or the Romney favorite – Obama cut over $700 billion of Medicare benefits for individuals (the cuts were imposed on hospitals and insurance companies, not beneficiaries, and Romney has the same cuts in his economic plan). (Image: Wikipedia)
It's Not Just the LAPD: The Big Lie About Police Brutality is That it's Not Rampant
By Dave Lindorff
Police brutality is in the news, thanks to the widespread availability of amateur video.
We've seen scene after scene of police beating the crap out of, and even shooting and killing unarmed or minimally dangrous students, women, old men and crazy people, many of them after they have been handcuffed and checked for weapons.
Prosecution finally turns over Quantico emails
Austin Police to Start Enforcing 50-Foot Rule to Record Them in Public
Austin police are trying their best to deter Antonio Buehler from recording them in public, doing everything from arresting him, accusing him of “inciting violence” against them, and attempting to create a rule in his honor that would require citizens with cameras to stand at least 50 feet away from police officers.
Kafkaesque Parole Practices Ruin Lives
By Linn Washington, Jr.
The perplexing predicament confronting Daryl Brooks could confound writers Albert Camus and Franz Kafka, two authors acclaimed for their works about individuals subjected to surreal forms of injustice.
Brooks, a community activist in Trenton, New Jersey, is facing a Kafkaesque return to prison because some NJ state parole personnel charged him with committing a parole violation that top NJ Parole Board officials contend is not actually a violation.
Tom Vellner, Boston Magazine: my cousin’s experience with the TSA
Tom Vellner writes in Boston Magazine about the experience of his cousin at the hands of the TSA.
Read the rest at TSA News.
Your pants may be cleared, but baggage still goes unscreened
As so many Americans love to say, "Meh, facts schmacts."
Historic Tehran NAM Summit
Historic Tehran NAM Summit
by Stephen Lendman
After the UN, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is the most important world body. Hopefully its 16th summit will infuse it with new life.
As host, Iran has a historic opportunity. At the same time, it can enhance its own prestige and enlist support against hostile Washington/Israeli designs.
Godfather Obama Institutionalized Indefinite Detention
By Sherwood Ross
Rather than scrap it as un-American and authoritarian, Godfather Obama has institutionalized the practice of “unlawful indefinite detention” he inherited from his predecessor in the White House.
That’s the view of Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU), one of blthe nation’s foremost authorities on the rule of law. Romero says that instead of closing down the Guantanamo operation and resolving its legal cases in the Federal courts, Obama has done the opposite and, in fact, revived “the illegitimate Guantanamo military commissions.” Romero doesn’t refer to Obama as “Godfather,” of course. Maybe because he doesn’t have to.
A Shift in the Zeitgeist? Hitchhiker Finds Drivers Suddenly More Willing to Give a Lift
By Dave Lindorff
Sometimes a journalist just has to go with the story, even if it’s going all wrong.
The Secret Scheme To Sabotage Abu-Jamal's Appeal Rights
By Linn Washington, Jr.
Mumia Abu-Jamal, the internationally recognized American political prisoner, thwarted a Philadelphia judge’s secretive court order that could have eliminated his future appeal rights when he filed a last- minute motion on August 23rd challenging that order sentencing him to life-without-parole.
De profundis clamavi
De profundis clamavi, or why we can talk till we’re blue in the face but until we put our money where our mouth is we won’t get rid of the TSA
What my father would have said about the TSA by Philip Weber
My father fathered the way they did on black-and-white TV, though not so much Ward Cleaver as Ralph Kramden (if he and Alice had had kids). He went to work, Mom stayed home. Every night we ate dinner together, but I don’t remember Dad ever saying much. When he did, it was so unusual that it stuck with you.
Worldwide Protests on Friday, August 24th at GM sites and U.S. and Colombian Embassies
International Call to Action:Support the General Motors-Colombia Hunger StrikersThirteen members of ASOTRECOL, the Association of Injured and Ex-Workers of General Motors Colombia, launched a hunger strike on Wednesday, August 1st outside the U.S. embassy to demand that GM justly compensate, provide medical care, and reintegrate over 200 workers who were fired after suffering work-related injuries. As proof of their commitment, the workers have sewn their mouths shut and plan to carry out the hunger strike to the death. August 24th marks the 24th day of their to-the-death hunger strike and 387 days of a tent occupation in front of the U.S. embassy in Bogotá. General Motors walked out of negotiations on August 6th and has since refused to return to the table. A few days ago Colombian authorities shut off the electrical supply to the hunger strikers' camp, leaving them without light and necessary medical equipment.Protests organized for August 24thDetroit: GM Headquarters, 300 Renaissance Center --- 12pmWashington D.C.: Capitol Hill --- 12pmNew York: Colombian Consulate --- 12pmBogotá: U.S. Embassy, 24/7São Paulo: Colombian EmbassyHanover: Colombian EmbassySPONSORS (as of 8/22): Witness for Peace; United Steel Workers; São José Metal Workers Union, Brazil (Sindicato dos Metalurgicos de São José dos Campos e Região); International Automotive Workers Council (InternationalerAutomobilarbeiterratschlag); Service Employees International Union 32 BJ; Occupy Wall Street Labor Outreach Committee; South East Michigan Jobs with Justice; Washtenaw Community Action Team; Graduate Employees’ Organization, AFT-Michigan, Local 3550; Lecturer Employees' Organization, AFT-Michigan, Local 6244; Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice; Moratorium Now!; U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange; Autoworkers Caravan; Organization for a Free Society; Solidarity; International Action Center ASOTRECOL website: www.asotrecol.com
Hey, neighbor! Can I borrow your Stowaway Detector? by Philip Weber
It’s a fact: guys love gadgets, and TSA Administrator John Pistole is no exception. If it beeps or buzzes, John wants one.
Talk Nation Radio: The War on Whistleblowers With Thomas Drake and Jesselyn Radack
Jesselyn Radack and Thomas Drake discuss their experiences as government whistleblowers, the retribution they've endured, and the currently worsening pattern of secrecy, intimidation, and persecution of whistleblowers in Washington, D.C.
Jesselyn Radack is a former ethics adviser to the U.S. Department of Justice who came to prominence as a whistleblower after she disclosed that the FBI committed an ethics violation in its interrogation of John Walker Lindh (the "American Taliban") without an attorney present, and that the Department of Justice attempted to suppress that information. Her experience is chronicled in her memoir, TRAITOR: The Whistleblower and the "American Taliban". Radack was this past year's co-recipient of the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence award.
Jesselyn Radack is the Government Accountability Project's National Security & Human Rights Director. In her role, she works primarily with national security and intelligence community whistleblowers, including those from the Defense Department, Department of Homeland Security, NSA and CIA – with a special focus on torture, secret surveillance, secrecy, and political discrimination. See http://whistleblower.org
She recently represented former NSA official Thomas Drake on whistleblower matters stemming from the government's unsuccessful prosecution of him under the Espionage Act.
Thomas Drake is a former senior executive of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), decorated United States Air Force and United States Navy veteran, computer software expert, and whistleblower. He is the 2011 recipient of the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling and co-recipient of the Sam Adams award. The government's retribution against Drake, for exposing waste, abuse, and incompetence, included charging him under the Espionage Act. The charges fell apart.
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Engineer: Christiane Brown.
Music by Duke Ellington.
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Dumb enough to work for the TSA, too dumb to understand satire by Amy Alkon
Wearing the above shirt, designed by BoingBoing’s Cory Doctorow, caused a “brown” man to be abused (even more than the rest of us usually are) by TSA thugs and then yanked off a plane.
“Behavior detection”: still a bad idea by Deborah Pierce
John Pistole, who heads the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), posted an op-ed in USA Today on August 17, 2012 in an attempt to shore up support for and justify the existence of his “behavior detection” program.
A tale of two agencies by Philip Weber
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
