Gord's Poetry Factory

Remembering Folk Legend & Activist Pete Seeger Bruce Springsteen "We Shall Overcome"

2014-01-30T00:29:00.001-04:00

Bruce Springsteen sings "We Shall Overcome" as a tribute to Pete Seeger

By Diane Vadino
January 29, 2014 11:25 AM ET
"I lost a great friend and a great hero last night," Bruce Springsteen told a sold-out crowd at the Bellville Velodrome in South Africa yesterday, dedicating a reverent rendition of "We Shall Overcome" to his friend and fellow activist Pete Seeger. "Once you heard this song, you were prepared to march into hell's fire," Springsteen said.

(Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bruce-springsteen-honors-pete-seeger-with-stirring-we-shall-overcome-20140129#ixzz2rqulxIcO
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook)

+Real News Network : Remembering Folk Legend & Activist Pete Seeger

John Nichols: 94 year-old Pete Seeger's music was stronger than the forces that sought to silence him - January 29, 14

More at The Real News also check out +Bill Moyers & Co. Remembering Activist and Folk Singer Pete Seeger January 28, 2014 by Karin Kamp

Pete Seeger, who has died at age 94, will be remembered as a musician and activist who over a career spanning seven decades used his spirited voice to inspire political and social change. As recently as 2011, Seeger, a veteran of the labor, peace and civil rights movements, led an Occupy Wall Street protest through Manhattan. “Be wary of great leaders,” he said two days after the march. “Hope that there are many, many small leaders.”

Seeger played a key role in the folk music revival that began in the 1950s and helped create songs that served as the backdrop for the tumultuous events of the 1960s, including “We Shall Overcome,” “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” “Turn! Turn! Turn!” and “If I had a Hammer.”

During the Great Depression, Pete Seeger and his friend Woody Guthrie traveled together from town to town, Seeger with his banjo and Guthrie with his guitar, singing songs in exchange for meals. Later, Seeger came to New York where he played in support of unions and against fascism. Throughout his life, and especially during the McCarthy era, Seeger’s folk songs and affiliations with the left, attracted the attention of those in power who branded Seeger a dangerous radical.

In this clip from a 1994 interview, Seeger tells Bill that music has a power that, even after decades of playing it, he still doesn’t fully understand. “All I know,” he says, “is that throughout history, the leaders of countries have been very particular about what songs they want sung, so some people, beside me, must think songs do something.”

Robert Burns "Such a Parcel Of Rogues" & "A Man's A Man For All That"

2014-01-28T21:16:00.000-04:00

So here's a couple of Robert Burns' poems which are as relevant as ever. (They are adapted into English from the Scottish dialect )
Robert Burns Scottish Poet, The Bard born January 25, 1759
Died july 25, 1796.
For more see the rather large website Burns Country: Official Robert Burns site

Anyway this poem " Such a parcel of rogues " by Robert Burns is about the Sottish Lords who betrayed their nation to the English for property , power & gold. It is an apt & even today a relevant theme about those who are willing to sell out their own countrymen for the right price.

Such a parcel of rogues

Farewell to(all)our Scottish fame,
Farewell our ancient glory;
Farewell even to the Scottish name,
So famed in martial story.
Now Sark flows over Solway sands,
And Tweed flows to the ocean,
To mark where England's province stands-
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!

What force or guile could not subdue,
Through many warlike ages,
Is wrought now by a coward few,
For hireling traitor's wages.
The English ( still) we could disdain,
Secure in valour's station;
But English gold has been our bane-
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!

O would, (before) I had seen the day
That Treason thus could sell us,
My old grey head had lain in clay,
with Bruce and loyal Wallace!
But without pith and power, till my last hour,
I'll (make) this declaration;
We're bought and sold for English gold-
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!

The second poem is one of hope & a vision for a better world.

A Man's A Man For All That

1795

Is there for honest Poverty
That hangs his head, and all that;
The coward slave-we pass him by,
We dare be poor for all that!
For all that, and all that.
Our toils obscure and all that,
The rank is but the guinea's stamp, (pennies copper)
The Man's the gold for all that.

What though on humble fare we dine,
Wear hoddin grey ( like a sage), an' a that;
Give fools their silks, and knaves their wine;
A Man's a Man for all that:
For all that, and all that,
Their tinsel show, and all that;
The honest man, though ever so poor,
Is king of men for all that.

Ye see (yonder) birkie, called a lord,
Who struts, and stares, and all that;
Though hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a coof (fool ) for all that:
For all that, and all that,
His ribband, star, and all that:
The man of independent mind
He looks and laughs at all that.

A prince can make a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, and all that;
But an honest man is beyond his might,
Good faith, he musn't forget for all that!
For all that, and all that,
Their dignities and all that;
The pit of sense, and pride of worth,
Are higher rank than all that.

Then let us pray that come it may,
As come it will for all that,
That Sense and Worth, over all the earth,
Shall ( spread ), and all that.
For all that, and all that,
It's coming yet for all that,
That Man to Man, the world over ,
Shall brothers be for all that.

Martin Luther King Jr. "The Bell Tolls For" ... Kevin O'Leary and the One Percenters ??? Vietnam V Iraq?

2014-01-25T01:24:00.000-04:00

Canadian 1 percenter +Kevin O'Leary believes economic inequality abject poverty is just a great motivator. The poor he thinks are just a bunch of losers and bums. +TYT The Young Turks take him to task.

The Bell Tolls for Kevin O'Leary and the one percenters.

+Martin Luther King - For whom the bell tolls

More words from Martin Luther King JR. as he criticizes the +Vietnam War as immoral and so too the Military Draft of the USA during that period.

Non-cooperation with Evil is a moral necessity.

+MLK Where Do We Go From Here?
"I aint going to study war no more"

There can be no peace without justice and no justice without peace.
America with its mighty military as we know the lost the war in Vietnam and was forced to leave the country.
The war ended and the Draft was ex-punched .
Later America began another immoral and unnecessary war in Iraq.

MLK Speech for President Obama " When Silence Is Betrayal" & "When Dissent is Labeled Disloyalty"

2014-01-22T20:40:00.002-04:00

President Obama and other so-called Liberals love Martin Luther King til he questions the status quo of America's foreign wars and expansionism .
President Obama condemns any such as Julian Assange, Bradley Manning or Snowden who dare question the expanding of the security and intelligence state.
President Obama has made the speakers of truth to power the enemy of the state and the people.
President Obama is all in favor of free speech til the masses organize and fill the streets ala Occupy Movement then he just gives carte blanche and a wink and a nod to the local police to do as they please and tosses social and economic justice under the bus in favor of the rich and powerful.

Martin Luther King, "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam"

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr. " I Have A Dream Speech "

2014-01-21T22:18:00.001-04:00

Glenn Greenwald :The Lie of MP Julian Smith And EX-CIA Director Woolsey & John Bolton Call For Snowden's Execution

2013-12-18T22:59:00.000-04:00

When it comes to Snowden, Greenwald and NSA revelations it appears Obama and Fox News and Neocons are on the same page demanding that heads literally roll.

First Glenn Greenwald on " The Lie of MP Julian Smith " at http://utdocuments.blogspot.com.br/2013/12/the-lie-of-mp-julian-smith.html

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

The lie of MP Julian Smith
Earlier today, I testified before the EU Parliament's Committee Inquiry on Mass Surveillance of EU Citizens. After my opening remarks, I was asked numerous questions by Committee members. One of them, British Tory MP Timothy Kirkhope, exploited the hearing to ask not about surveillance, but about the journalistic process in which I and the Guardian engaged when reporting on the Snowden documents. Kirkhope specifically tried to advance the ongoing Tory attack on the Guardian that the paper shipped sensitive GCHQ documents outside of the country and should thus be criminally prosecuted.

About this exchange, Kirkhope's Tory colleague in Parliament, Julian Smith, who has been repeatedly calling for criminal prosecution of the Guardian, publicly claimed that - in response to Kirkhope's questions - I "confirmed" that the Guardian had indeed given me files that I did not previously have:

This statement is a lie. It's the exact opposite of reality. Rather than "confirm" any of that, I expressly refused to answer Kirkhope's questions about those matters, explaining that journalistic freedom means that journalists do not have to answer to political officials about the sources of their reporting or their journalistic process. The EU Parliament has posted the full video of my testimony (embedded below); here is the relevant exchange proving that Smith lied (beginning at roughly 46:00):

"Glenn Greenwald: Part of freedom of the press - an important part of freedom of the press that we've been talking about this morning - is that fortunately journalists don't have to answer to government officials about what their sources gave them, or how it is that they got their material. They're allowed to protect their sources and protect their journalistic materials from invasions by questions from the government like some of the ones you just asked."

and further developments include : Awards They Couldn’t Accept: The Tragic Irony of Greenwald, Poitras and Snowden

When I was honored as a top global thinker last week, 3 of my co-recipients didn't come. The reason why is chilling By Jesselyn Radack December 17, 2013 "Information Clearing House - "Salon" - I was humbled to have dinner in Washington, D.C., last week with an incredible group of my co-recipients recognized in Foreign Policy magazine’s 2013 list of leading global thinkers. Conspicuously absent in the category of “The Surveillance State and Its Discontents” were the discontents: Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Edward Snowden — not because they did not want to attend but because these three American global thinkers are unwelcome in the United States. Greenwald has been accused of being a co-conspirator to break the law. The U.S. government has regularly harassed, searched and intimidated documentary filmmaker Poitras at the border. And the U.S. government revoked Edward Snowden’s passport. Greenwald, Poitras and Snowden are on a growing list of journalists, activists and whistle-blowers who are unable to travel freely because of their First Amendment-protected activities. Their fears of persecution are sadly not exaggerated. The United Kingdom detained Greenwald’s husband, Brazilian David Miranda, for nine hours and charged him with violating an anti-terrorism law because he had met with Poitras and carried information (not some illegal substance or terrorist plans) for Greenwald. WikiLeaks journalist Sarah Harrison, who literally rescued whistle-blower Snowden from Hong Kong, has been advised by her attorneys not to return home to the U.K. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has long been the target of a U.S. criminal investigation, and was forced to seek asylum from Ecuador, but cannot get there. The U.S. has promised not to torture Snowden, but such a “promise” only raises the question: Is that how low a democracy should set the bar — at not torturing someone — rather than providing due process and abiding by international humanitarian standards? The Obama administration’s aggressive prosecution of whistle-blowers under the Espionage Act and willingness to embroil journalists in “leak” investigations and prosecutions casts doubt on the legitimacy of the criminal justice system...

and commentary from Jonathan Turley : Ex-CIA Director Calls For Snowden To Be “Hanged By His Neck Until He Is Dead” Dec. 18, 2013, Jonathan Turley.org

After the Snowden disclosures, Congress has pledged reforms. The White House has admitted abuses. Now a federal judge has declared the entire program to be unconstitutional. Yet, Woolsey wants Snowden dead. Welcome back to America’s Animal Farm.

Meanwhile one of the members of the former Bush administration who ought to be behind bars John Bolton condemns Snowden and warns Obama not to go easy on Snowden. John Bolton: Edward Snowden 'Ought To Swing From A Tall Oak Tree' by Mollie Reilly at Huff Post, Dec. 17, 2013 NSA Puff Piece Is ‘60 Minutes’ Latest Shame, Truthdig, Dec. 16, 2013

Rather than address the many disturbing revelations that have come from the leaks of Edward Snowden—intercepting voice, data and video communications by tapping fiber optic lines, actively working to compromise the security protocols used by online bankers, spying on lovers and world leaders—this report fixates instead on how Snowden pulled off the caper. In fact, Miller frames Snowden’s principled whistle-blowing as, “the most damaging breach of secrets in U.S. history.” The word damaging assumes the United States has been put in danger by Snowden’s leaks, but we know that actually it’s the intelligence establishment, and more specifically the rogue operations at the NSA, that have been endangered by Snowden’s leaks—not American safety.

'60 Minutes' Trashed For NSA Piece The Huffington Post,By Jack Mirkinson , Dec. 16, 2013 "60 Minutes" was trashed all over Twitter on Sunday night for a two-part story on the NSA which critics dubbed obsequious at best.

The piece was fronted by reporter John Miller, who had to tell viewers this at the top of the segment: "Full disclosure: I once worked in the office of the director of National Intelligence, where I saw firsthand how secretly the NSA operates." Miller is also likely set to leave CBS soon to work for the NYPD. Miller also said that the NSA agreed to speak to "60 Minutes" because it believes it has "not told its story well." It certainly found a comfortable place to do that on CBS News. The 25-minute segment consisted mostly of NSA officials dismissing concerns that their surveillance has gotten out of hand and showing off their gadgetry to the CBS cameras. There were no anti-NSA advocates or civil libertarians interviewed on-camera for the piece. The last words in the segment came from NSA chief Keith Alexander: "This is precisely the time that we should not step back from the tools that we've given our analysts to detect these types of attacks."

Meanwhile CBS wins dubious award for botched piece on Benghazi. '60 Minutes' Benghazi Debacle Named 'Error Of The Year'HuffPost, By Jack Mirkinson, Dec. 18, 2013

As if things weren't bad enough for "60 Minutes," the newsmagazine has now been given a prize nobody wants: Poynter's "Error of the Year" award, which it won for its disastrously botched story on the Benghazi attacks.

and so it goes,
GORD.

Jesus & Santa Are White - Megyn Kelly On Fox News

2013-12-13T00:05:00.001-04:00

Obama's Lies About Syrian Chemical Weapons & USA Hypocrisy Over Nelson Mandela

2013-12-11T22:21:00.000-04:00

The USA kept Nelson Mandela on the Terrorist Watch list up til 2008. America therefore can be seen as a supporter of South African Apartheid even after its demise.
The case of Syria just another example of Obama's duplicity .
One wonders if Mandela was still struggling to end Apartheid today would Obama have him removed via targeted assassination or would he praise him???

Seymour Hersh: Obama "Cherry Picked" Intel on Syrian Chemical Attack

Published on 9 Dec 2013http://www.democracynow.org - Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh joins us to discuss his new article casting doubt on the veracity of the Obama administration's claims that only the Assad regime could have carried out the chemical attacks in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta earlier this year. Writing in the London Review of Books, Hersh argues that the Obama administration "cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad." The administration failed to disclose it knew Syrian rebels in the al-Nusra front had the ability to produce chemical weapons. Evidence obtained in the days after the attack was also allegedly distorted to make it appear it was gathered in real time.

Watch Part 2 of this interview: http://youtu.be/dgdr2Bm5P-c.

Democracy Now!, is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on 1,200+ TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch it live 8-9am ET at http://www.democracynow.org.

Randall Robinson on Nelson Mandela, U.S. Backing of Apartheid Regime

Published on 6 Dec 2013

http://www.democracynow.org - In 1964, Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison on Robben Island. He would become the most famous political prisoner in the world and his freedom became a central demand of the international anti-apartheid movement.

Despite growing international pressure in the 1980s, the apartheid government received strong backing from the Reagan administration and Margaret Thatcher in Britain. The African National Congress was considered a terrorist organization by both nations. Mandela was listed on the U.S. terrorist watch list until 2008.

We speak to Randall Robinson, founder and past president of TransAfrica. He helped found the Free South Africa Movement and was arrested many times during the 1980s protesting the apartheid regime.

Watch full coverage of the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela on Democracy Now! at http://www.democracynow.org/topics/ne....

Obama Backed Military Coup 's Election Fraud : Neoliberalism's True Agenda

2013-12-08T15:15:00.001-04:00

Real News Network: Honduras Election Fraud & the Creeping Police State

More at The Real News

US backed Regime Steals Election -Obama's Legacy In Honduras

2013-12-03T21:53:00.000-04:00

Xiomara Castro (left) next to the coffin of activist and supporter José Antonio Ardon, in Tegucigalpa.
Photograph: Gustavo Amador/EPA

Xiomara Castro former first Lady of Honduras

Honduras Election Fraud- The Real News Network

More at The Real News
"Banana Republic" Honduras Open for Business After Tainted Election , 03 December 2013 by lauren Carasik, Truthout

Few observers are surprised at widespread allegations of fraud, violence and intimidation in the November 24, 2013, election in Honduras, a country notorious for corruption; stark and longstanding social, political and economic inequality; and extremely fragile democratic institutions. After all, electoral mischief is what we have come to expect from the pejoratively termed "banana republics," countries in the global south characterized by iron-fisted oligarchic rule, the exploitation of resources and labor for international corporations and misery for the masses.

But although we may want to distance ourselves from the suffering in Honduras, grinding poverty, inequality and anti-democratic principles do not occur in a vacuum: What happens in contemporary Honduran politics is inseparable from its colonial legacy and present-day economic and geopolitical importance to its powerful neighbors to the north and the interests of transnational companies.

...Some critics allege a brilliantly orchestrated campaign to ensure and legitimize Hernandez's victory. Fraud, intimidation and violence before and during the election have a cumulative impact: dirty elections are stolen one vote at a time, through a variety of tactics that start well in advance of voting day. Hernandez's control over all the apparatus of government power, including the Congress, judiciary, military and electoral authority, facilitated the ease of influencing the outcome. The Honduran elite also control the media and its messaging to the electorate - and command a deep well of financial resources to inundate the airwaves and print media, with no public scrutiny of campaign financing.

...The poorly resourced LIBRE was vastly outspent by the National Party. Efforts to influence the outcome included vote buying, discount cards and jobs offered by the National Party, tampering with registered voter rolls to disqualify some voters and include others who could not legally cast a vote, credential buying that compromised multiparty oversight of voting tables, media manipulation, malfeasance in the calculation and transmission of the vote tabulation sheets, and intimidation and violence, including the criminalization of resistance leaders and targeted attacks and killings.

...Despite official results that bitterly disappointed many rooting for a more democratic and egalitarian civil society, Castro has not conceded defeat, and some hope can be salvaged from this contested process. The emergence of the LIBRE Party as a political contender helped break the longstanding stranglehold of the conservative National and Liberal parties. With the TSE giving Hernandez just less than 36 percent of the vote, he commands a weak mandate at best. Without a majority of seats in Congress, the National Party will have to cobble together a coalition to govern, presumably with the center-right Liberal Party. Voter participation of over 60 percent was a significant increase from 2009, an indication that the post-coup disillusionment with the electoral process is fading.

But Honduras is at grave risk of spiraling into even-more-brutal repression. Peaceful student protests on November 26 were met with a violent crackdown. Exacerbating fears of escalating repression against resistance protagonists is the news from human rights groups and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) that a hit list is circulating, containing the names of prominent human rights defenders, lawyers, union leaders, indigenous rights activists, teachers and opposition party members targeted for death, reminiscent of the 1980s, when death squads were lethally employed to silence dissent. Those reaping the economic and geopolitical benefits of Honduras' status quo will not cede ground easily. In the oft-cited words of Frederick Douglass, "Power concedes nothing without a demand." And so courageous Hondurans fighting for a more just, equitable and democratic society march on, with the winds of history blowing at their backs.

also see: Hundreds of protesters confront cops after ‘stolen’ Honduran election by Agence France-Presse, Nov. 26, 2013 via the Raw Story
and:
Thousands march in Honduras after election controversy Xiomara Castro and her leftist Libre party demand election recount, saying she was robbed of presidency Dec. 2, 2013,Guardian .com

Thousands of people marched peacefully through the capital of Honduras on Sunday in support of the opposition presidential candidate Xiomara Castro and her claim that last weekend's election was fraudulent.

..Both Castro and her husband, the former president Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted by a coup in 2009, led the protest march from a pickup truck carrying the body of a militant of their Libre party, who was shot dead hours before the demonstration began. "We are here to denounce the culture of death promoted since the coup. This can only be a political crime," said Zelaya, whose removal from office has left Honduras polarised.

...Castro alleges that tally sheets were altered, dead or absent people were included in the voter registry and polling stations were left open to election fraud.

Castro, 54, called the election "a disgusting monstrosity that has robbed me of the presidency" and said she would not recognise the Hernández government.

and for more background see:

Welcome to Honduras, the most dangerous country on the planet Drug wars have made Honduras, the original banana republic, the world’s most dangerous country Philip Sherwell Nov. 16, 2013, The telegraph

and further on President Obama's involvement in Honduras: In the beginning President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at least publicly condemned the military Coup in Honduras replacing democratically elected President Zelaya but was this just public posturing while in reality secretly supporting the coup .

Obama on Honduras

Uploaded on 30 Jun 2009 President Barrack Obama comments on the military coup in Honduras and states that Manuel Zelaya is the President recognized by the United States.

Hillary Clinton On Honduras Coup d'etat 2009

Hillary appears to condemn the Coup but appears to suggest that President Zelaya may have been trying to pervert in some way the democratic process and Honduran law and institutions for his own benefit ie prolonging term of office and making radical changes to Honduras Constitution. Zelaya wanted to hold a referendum to pose the possibility of making changes to the Constitution which had in fact been written mainly by American advisors with American political, military and corporate interests in mind .

So she leaves the question open about Zelaya's intentions regarding the Honduran Constitution and its legal apparatus and institutions. So her beef maybe with the way in which the ousting of Zelaya took place .

Secretary Clinton Meets With Honduran Foreign Minister

Uploaded on 28 Apr 2010

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton holds a bilateral meeting with Honduran Foreign Minister Mario Canahuati, at the Department of State April 28, 2010.

Human Rights are viewed by Neo-Liberals as equivalent somehow to Neo-Liberal Capitalism ie economic opportunity , full employment at low wages , rampant consumerism , rapacious unfettered capitalism and American Hegemony ???

Those in need in a Neo-Liberal society are taken care of by volunteer NGOs or government run organizations similar to those of Conservative Pro-Capitalism Christians ala the poor house, the tread mill laws of the 19th century.

President Obama has either changed his tune since the the Coup took place in 2009 to fit the present reality of 2013 in Honduras ie Real Politik or was always in favor of a less democratic more hardline government in power in Honduras as a more reliable partner for US imperialist interests in South America and its pro-neo-liberal anti-leftist obsession favoring "Fascism lite" .

Also checkout :

#OWS UPDATE: Obama Props Up Corrupt Anti-Democratic 1% Elite In Honduras Feb. 21, 2012 Gordspoetryfactory.blogspot.ca

Honduras Coup Earns Global Condemnation But Supported By Fox News & The Wall Street Journal July 6, 2009,Gordspoetryfactory.blogspot.ca

#OWS Update Wikileaks Cables : Proof 2009 Obama Backed Honduran Coup D'Etat & Another Big Fire In " Honduras, Gordspoetryfactory.blogspot.ca, Feb. 22, 2012

Canadian Gov't Smears Journalist Glenn Greenwald To Avoid Questions About Its Involvement With NSA Spying At G8 & G20 Summits

2013-12-02T00:33:00.000-04:00

Canadian government in order to distract from criticisms over its role with NSA spying at G8 and G20 summits joins US & UK smear campaign of journalist Glenn Greenwald.

MP Calandra Criticizes Greenwald/CBC Partnership on NSA Stories Instead of IllegalCSEC Spying at G8 & G20

But documents give proof of USA Spy operation on Canadian Soil during G8 and G20 summits which was fully supported by the Canadian government at the authority of Prime Minister Harper in conjunction with President Obama's Whitehouse. During that period the NSA was given carte blanche to spy on supposedly friendly allied countries taking part in the summit. America trusts no one or to put it in proper context no government can trust the USA not to be spying on it to gather intelligence it can use to put pressure on said countries ie bribe, blackmail, a bit of arm twisting gangster style. But then again US intelligence including the CIA has always had an unsavoury gangsterish side since its conception in the 1940s whether in Iran or Guatemala or later in Vietnam, Honduras, Chile, Cuba, Libya so why would anyone be surprised . As for Obama he has proven he has little interest in the niceties or quaintness of International Law and the Sovereignty and rights of other nations or human rights in general. He has also shown himself to be even a more strident defender of national security and secrecy than his predecessor Pres. W. Bush and has gone out of his way to expose and destroy Whistleblowers and others committed to truth and exposing government ethically questionable actions and wrong-doing and criminal activities.

Snowden Docs Reveal Joint NSA/CSEC Spy Op During 2010 G8/G

Published on 28 Nov 2013
11/27/2013

Top secret documents retrieved by U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden show that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government allowed the largest American spy agency to conduct widespread surveillance in Canada during the 2010 G8 and G20 summits.

Lies and Dirty Politics
Canadian MP Smears Greenwald/CBC, Nov. 30, 2013, Information Clearing House

and reply from Glenn Greenwald:

Wall Street Journal's Alistair MacDonald "reports" an outright lie

By Glenn Greenwald

The Wall Street Journal's Toronto-based reporter, Alistair MacDonald, last night published what can only be described as an outright lie. Here's what he claimed:

. @CBC admits it paid taxpayer's money to @ggreenwald for access to Snowden's documents but won't say how much. #NSA #NSAFiles #cdnpoli
— Alistair MacDonald (@macdonaldajm) November 29, 2013

And this:

Interesting that @cbc admission it paid Glen Greenwald for access to #NSA docs only came after we enquired, not last night when aired
— Alistair MacDonald (@macdonaldajm) November 29, 2013

Not only is it patently false to say that the CBC paid me for "access to Snowden's documents" - more on that in a minute - but MacDonald must know that his claim about what CBC "admits" is also patently false. Here's what the CBC's Director of News Content, David Walmsley, actually wrote about our relationship:

For those of you wondering, CBC News is currently in a freelance relationship with Glenn Greenwald. As both a journalist and a commentator, Greenwald has written for many prestigious media outlets in recent years, ranging from The Guardian to the New York Times to Salon.com.

He will write and report for CBC News and will help provide context and analysis on the documents from the NSA. Greenwald knows these files well. He has spent months exploring the global role of the NSA working with material taken by a former National Security Agency employee, Edward Snowden.

As with all CBC News content, stories generated by CBC reporters and Mr. Greenwald that are connected to these documents will be held to CBC journalistic standards.

Indeed, that is exactly what the contract provides and is exactly what I'm doing for CBC: writing news stories for them as a freelance journalist, alongside CBC staff journalists and editors. What is particularly laughable is MacDonald's self-praising boast that he was the one who uncovered this relationship: in fact, the very first (and so far only) article we published at the CBC on this story featured my byline right at the very top of the article:

So the breaking discovery from this intrepid, fearless Wall Street Journal investigative reporter is that the freelance journalists who reported on a big story for a large media outlet with a byline were paid for their work. Is that ever not the case?

Does MacDonald write his articles for free for the Wall Street Journal, or is he paid for his work? How much is he paid? Why has he not disclosed this? What is he hiding? Let the journalists who write articles for big media outlets without being paid for their work step up and be the first to support this attack.

MacDonald's claim that CBC paid for "access to Snowden's documents" is equally false. The CBC does not have "access to Snowden's documents". They only have access to the specific, carefully selected documents that we are reporting on together. What they're paying for - under a standard joint freelance contract with both me and my freelance colleague Ryan Gallagher - is the work that freelance reporters always do: selecting and analyzing the material to be reported and then participating in the drafting and finalizing of the article and reporting (for both TV and print): extensive work we all did together.

Aside from being completely standard, having a genuine freelance contract with media outlets is the only way to report on these documents. If we did not have such a contract, then the US government and its apologists (the very same people now criticizing us for having these contracts), would claim (dubiously but aggressively) that we were acting as a "source" or a distributor of documents, rather than as journalists in reporting them, and thus should lose the legal protections accorded to the process of journalism. As a result, we ensure that we negotiate a standard freelance contract so that nobody other than charlatans (such as those employed by the Wall Street Journal) could contest their authenticity and normalcy (for the extensive work we did in reporting and writing this story - one that broke news all over Canada and then the world - Ryan Gallagher and I were paid a joint freelance fee of $1,500).

This is, yet again, nothing more than the standard tactic of distraction we see over and over. Just as was true of the Manning war crimes disclosures: there is a small cottage industry of pundits, bloggers, and journalists who evince zero interest in the substance of the revelations about NSA and GCHQ spying which we're reporting on around the world. The people I'm referencing literally almost never mention any of the actual revelations, but are instead obsessed with spending their time personally attacking the journalists, whistleblowers, and other messengers who enable the world to know about what is being done.

Everyone having any sort of public impact merits critical scrutiny, and that certainly includes me. But when that scrutiny comes in the form of blatantly absurd and false attacks like the one from the Wall Street Journal - and from people who devote no time or attention to the substance of the revelations - then it seems clear that the attacks are little more than means of doing the NSA's dirty work for it: trying to discredit the journalists reporting on the story to ensure attention is shifted away from the spying revelations.

As I said from the start, I'll answer these kinds of attacks now and then but it won't succeed in distracting attention from what matters. In the last six weeks alone, we've reported on NSA and GCHQ documents in Germany, France, Spain, Norway, Holland, the U.S., the UK, and now Canada. More stories are coming in these and other countries in the next two weeks. Nothing is going to stop or even impede our reporting the newsworthy stories around the world that show what is being done to internet freedom and individual privacy by the world's most powerful factions operating in the dark and with no real accountability.

UPDATE (Sat.): On Twitter yesterday, MacDonald acknowledged that his accusations were fundamentally false, but tried to pass it off as merely a "clarification" of his defamatory claims:

Clarifying, @CBC tells me it paid @ggreenwald as freelancer not paid for access to NSA documents
— Alistair MacDonald (@macdonaldajm) November 29, 2013

Those, evidently, are the ethics of The Wall Street Journal: if you publish radically inaccurate but incendiary accusations that are then proven totally false, don't retract them or apologize for them: just pretend you're "clarifying".

Moreover, after devoting numerous tweets to publicly demanding that I disclose my compensation arrangement for the story I worked on with CBC, MacDonald acknowledged that I fully answered his questions, but repeatedly refused to disclose his own compensation. He first tried to justify that double standard this way:

@ggreenwald you campaign on transparency. I don't. Again, my questions on you pay are valid given that and over moral positions you take
— Alistair MacDonald (@macdonaldajm) November 29, 2013

Apparently, MacDonald, though claiming to be a journalist, does not campaign for transparency. Isn't that rather elemental to the job? He then justified his refusal to adhere to his own disclosure demands this way:

@ggreenwald all night, a few tweets? My salary has no bearing on my work, because my positioning is different to yours. All the best
— Alistair MacDonald (@macdonaldajm) November 29, 2013

The idea that journalists should be forced to disclose their compensation arrangements is moronic, but if you're going to impose that demand on others, you don't get to exempt yourself. So add that to the journalistic ethics of the Wall Street Journal: disclosure of compensation is for other journalists, but not for themselves.

Right Wing Conservatives Accuse Pope Francis of Being a "Marxist"

2013-11-30T00:30:00.000-04:00

Right wing conservative Christians accuse the Roman Catholic church of promoting one world government and Marxism and possibly the so-called Homosexual agenda and other leftist/liberal causes.

Rush Limbaugh befuddled by spiritual religious leader who is anti-materialism. Religious leaders are ok in his book if they don't take their religious beliefs to heart. Limbaugh forgets that Jesus was a spiritual leader who was dismissive of the wealthy. The mere acquisition of wealth did not impress Jesus . Limbaugh just wants a feel good religion in which he may do as he pleases as long as he invokes the name of some deity and thereby be saved. So for him it is utter madness for a religious leader such as Pope Francis to speak out against social and economic or political injustice including "unfettered Capitalism".

Rush Limbaugh: The pope sounds like a Marxist by Elias Isquith, Salon.com, Wednesdat 27, 2013

"This is just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the pope"

Rush Limbaugh

Pope Francis: Capitalism is “a new tyranny”
"The culture of prosperity deadens us," the pope writes in a document laying out the platform for his papacy , KATIE MCDONOUGH, Salon.com, Nov. 26, 2013

Here's an excerpt of what the Pope said from above mentioned article at Salon.com

How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.

Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a “disposable” culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new. Exclusion ultimately has to do with what it means to be a part of the society in which we live; those excluded are no longer society’s underside or its fringes or its disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the “exploited” but the outcast, the “leftovers”.

In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase; and in the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.

Conservative activist: Pope Francis exposed the ‘Marxist problem’ inside the Catholic Church by Eric W. Dolan, Raw Story.com, November 29, 2013

Cliff Kincaid on Pope Francis and Catholic Marxism

Thanksgiving Myths Versus Historical Truth of Native American Genocide

2013-11-28T00:55:00.000-04:00

I learned that in 1637 the body of a white man was discovered dead in a boat. Armed settlers -- which we tell our children were God fearing, gentle, sharing, kind Pilgrims -- invaded a Pequot village. They also set the village, which included many children, on fire. Those who were lucky enough to escape the fire were systematically sought, hunted down and killed. While many, including historians, still debate what exactly happened this day, also known as the Pequot Massacre, it directly led to the creation of "Thanksgiving Day." This is what the governor of Bay Colony had to say days after the massacre, "A day of thanksgiving. Thanking God that they had eliminated over 700 men, women and children."

Quote from: " Happy National Genocide (Thanksgiving) Day!" by Nicole Breedlove, Huffington Post, November 25, 2013

In America the overarching myths about Thanksgiving overshadow the historical truth regarding the Genocide of Native Americans.

Whenever historical truths get in the way of America's Mythology the Myths are merely restated and reinstated as it were.
Americans in general are unwilling, unable or incapable of confronting their history which is steeped in violence and racism.
The genocidal assault on Native Americans competed with the assault on African Americans from the brutality and injustices of slavery to American Apartheid under Jim Crow to the present unequal and unjust treatment of Black and Hispanic Americans and other minorities.
America based upon its belief in its "exceptionalism", "Manifest destiny" and the idea that it is "God's City on the Hill" historically and currently continues its Imperialistic project of widening and deepening its hegemony around the Globe by any and all means at its disposal from spying that is gathering intelligence to targeted assassinations, kidnappings , renditions,torture, Drone strikes , massive bombings and invasion of other nations with no regard to international law or even notions of human decency .
The rendition, torturing and summary execution of America's so-called enemies is seen as justified.

Do Native Americans Celebrate Thanksgiving?
Video from Huffington Post

For most Americans, Thanksgiving commemorates a shared feast between Native Americans and European colonists, but the history that followed the feast is not a happy one. How do Native Americans approach the problematic national holiday?
Originally aired on November 26, 2013
Hosted by: Nancy Redd
Guests:
Chase Iron Eyes @lastrealindians (Bismarck, ND) Attorney, Founder of lastrealindians.com
Dennis Zotigh @NDN Culture (Washington, DC) Museum Cultural Specialist at the National Museum of the American Indian
Jacqueline Keeler @jfkeeler (Portland, OR) Native American Writer
Terra Trevor (Santa Barbara, CA) Writer

" Thanksgiving: Celebrating the Genocide of Native Americans" by Gilbert Mercier, News Junkie Post , November 25, 2013

The sad reality about the United States of America is that in a matter of a few hundreds years it managed to rewrite its own history into a mythological fantasy. The concepts of liberty, freedom and free enterprise in the “land of the free, home of the brave” are a mere spin. The US was founded and became prosperous based on two original sins: firstly, on the mass murder of Native Americans and theft of their land by European colonialists; secondly, on slavery. This grim reality is far removed from the fairytale version of a nation that views itself in its collective consciousness as a virtuous universal agent for good and progress. The most recent version of this mythology was expressed by Ronald Reagan when he said that “America is a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere.”

In rewriting its own history about Thanksgiving, white America tells a Disney-like fairytale about the English pilgrims and their struggle to survive in a new and harsh environment. The pilgrims found help from the friendly Native-American tribe, the Wampanoag Indians, in 1621.

Unfortunately for Native Americans, the European settlers’ gratitude was short-lived. By 1637, Massachusetts governor John Winthrop ordered the massacre of thousands of Pequot Indian men, women and children. This event marked the start of a Native-American genocide that would take slightly more than 200 years to complete, and of course to achieve its ultimate goal, which was to take the land from Native Americans and systematically plunder their resources. The genocide begun in 1637 marks the beginning of the conquest of the entire continent until most Native Americans were exterminated, a few were assimilated into white society, and the rest were put in reservations to dwindle and die.

In an article at Huff Post Nicole Breedlove argues that we have been misled about the origins of "Thanksgiving" as it is celebrated in the USA. It was not celebrated to commemorate a feast attended by Native Americans and the Pilgrim immigrants but rather to celebrate the massacre of some 700 Pequot Native Americans including men, women and children.

" Happy National Genocide (Thanksgiving) Day!" by Nicole Breedlove, Huffington Post, November 25, 2013

Thanksgiving has never been a celebratory holiday in my family. Whenever my family did cook we always gave thanks that all the Native Americans weren't wiped out when Columbus "discovered" America. I never understood why my family was so against Thanksgiving. In school we drew turkeys with our hands and it was a happy time. It meant a couple of days off from school. My teachers made it seem like Thanksgiving was a holiday to look forward to. The New York City public education system told me what Thanksgiving was all about. I was very careful to regurgitate what they taught me when tested so I wouldn't get a failing grade. When I was older though I was told the truth by my family.

My great, great, great, great grandfather was a part of a band of Black Indians in Florida, hence my unique and Native American-sounding last name. It seems I come from a long line of warriors and activists. I am a revolutionary not by choice but by lineage. When I did finally learn, there was no stopping me. Whenever someone asked what I was doing for Thanksgiving I proudly stated that I no longer celebrate it. Thanksgiving day should be known as National Land Theft and American Genocide Day.

I learned that in 1637 the body of a white man was discovered dead in a boat. Armed settlers -- which we tell our children were God fearing, gentle, sharing, kind Pilgrims -- invaded a Pequot village. They also set the village, which included many children, on fire. Those who were lucky enough to escape the fire were systematically sought, hunted down and killed. While many, including historians, still debate what exactly happened this day, also known as the Pequot Massacre, it directly led to the creation of "Thanksgiving Day." This is what the governor of Bay Colony had to say days after the massacre, "A day of thanksgiving. Thanking God that they had eliminated over 700 men, women and children."

William B. Newell, a Penobscot Indian and former chairman of the Anthropology Department at the University of Connecticut stated, "Gathered in this place of meeting, they were attacked by mercenaries and English and Dutch. The Indians were ordered from the building and as they came forth were shot down, The rest were burned alive in the building. The very next day the governor declared a Thanksgiving Day. For the next 100 years, every Thanksgiving Day ordained by a Governor was in honor of the bloody victory, thanking God that the battle had been won."

When I finally found out the origins of Thanksgiving it made me nauseous. Never again will I celebrate a holiday I know nothing about until I investigate its origins. I am very thankful, pun intended, that I learned about the origins of this holiday. It is a reminder that history can be rewritten and if told enough times eventually becomes the truth!

and so it goes,
GORD.

Obama's Perpetual War in Afghanistan Without Apologies or Restrictions???

2013-11-24T22:25:00.001-04:00

So much for Obama's Peace in our time motif as he pursues perpetual war in Afghanistan without apologies or restrictions. American liberals will make more excuses up to defend Obama's indefensible pro-war policies.

Afghanistan War in 2024?
The Young Turks -November 22, 2013

Published on 22 Nov 2013
"Secretary of State John Kerry announced Wednesday that the United States and Afghanistan had finalized the wording of a bilateral security agreement that would allow for a lasting U.S. troop presence through 2024 and set the stage for billions of dollars of international assistance to keep flowing to the Kabul government. The deal, which now will be presented for approval by an Afghan grand council of elders starting today, came after days of brinkmanship by Afghan officials and two direct calls from Mr. Kerry to President Hamid Karzai, including one Wednesday before the announcement. Just the day before, a senior Karzai aide had said the Afghan leader would not approve an agreement unless President Barack Obama sent a letter acknowledging U.S. military mistakes during the 12-year war. But Mr. Kerry emphatically insisted Wednesday that a deal was reached with no U.S. apology forthcoming. "President Karzai didn't ask for an apology. There was no discussion of an apology," Mr. Kerry said. "I mean, it's just not even on the table." After a 12-year war that stands as the longest in U.S. history, the security accord defines a training and counterterrorism mission in Afghanistan lasting at least another 10 years and involving an estimated 8,000-12,000 troops, mostly American...".* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.

In Afghanistan, 'Security Deal' Means US Occupation Forever In addition to immunity, US demands right to enter Afghan homes in 'bi-lateral security agreement' - Sarah Lazare, staff writer, Common Dreams November 19, 2013

Days before the so-called bi-lateral security agreement heads to an Afghan council of elders and political leaders for a final decision, the U.S. is attempting to force through a stipulation that would allow U.S. troops to continue raiding Afghan homes, in addition to measures giving U.S. troops and contractors immunity from Afghan law and extending U.S. military presence far beyond Obama's 2014 pullout date.

Critics charge that the U.S. is giving itself the green light for open-ended occupation at the expense of the Afghan people. "Occupation is not defined by how many occupiers are policing someplace," said Kimber Heinz of the War Resisters League in an interview with Common Dreams. "If you reduce the amount of occupation forces but keep them there forever, then the occupation continues and the war on people's everyday lives is not actually over — no matter what the US government or mainstream media tells us."

The U.S. is pushing for the right to enter Afghan homes over the initial objection of Afghan negotiators. The New York Times reports that President Hamid Karzai's spokesperson, Aimal Faizi, announced Tuesday that Karzai would allow U.S. home raids in "extraordinary circumstances." He said this was in exchange for an agreement from President Obama to issue a letter apologizing for mistakes in Afghanistan.

This latest development follows attempts on the part of U.S. negotiators to ram through immunity for U.S. troops and independent contractors from Afghan law. According to The Washington Post, the U.S. appears to have succeeded in including this immunity in a previously-circulated draft of the agreement.

Meanwhile President Obama continues to defend the use of Drones . Most American citizens support the use of Drones mainly because it leads to fewer American casualties. Obama plays on this support while ignoring legal and ethical or moral questions concerning the use of Drones on civilian populations.

Blocking NATO to Stop Drones November 23, 2013 By Ashfaq Yusufzai, Inter Press Service via Truthout.org

Upping the ante against U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan, celebrated cricketer-turned-political leader Imran Khan has threatened to block NATO supplies to Afghanistan through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where his party leads a coalition government.

“We are holding the biggest ever anti-drone protest in Peshawar, where we could decide to block NATO supplies permanently,” Khan, who leads the Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI), told IPS ahead of massive protests planned by the party for Nov. 23.

“We don’t want to start a fight with the U.S. but we have every right to protest these illegal assaults which kill innocent people,” Khan said, calling the attacks a breach of international law and a violation of human rights.

His party is enraged over a U.S. drone strike at a madrassa or religious seminary that killed at least eight people in Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in northwestern Pakistan, on Nov. 20.

Also see newly released British report criticizing the UK government and military for the botched series of military interventions in iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria etc.

UK actions in Iraq and Afghanistan wars were incoherent, report says by Richard Norton-Taylor, Nov. 21, 2013, The guardian

Chatham House report challenges view that politicians, including Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, bear sole blame for failures

...The way Britain went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan was incoherent, inconsistent, and opaque, with political leaders failing to face up to military commanders, according to a study by a leading thinktank released on Thursday.

The report, published by Chatham House, challenges the view that politicians, notably Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, should bear the sole blame for Britain's military failures. Drawing on recent evidence, including from the Chilcot inquiry, it concludes that Britain suffered a wider failure of government, with politicians, senior military officers and civil servants all playing a part.

"The overall impression of British practice was of disorder and incoherence, informality and individuality", said James de Waal, the report's author. The British governmental machine was simply unsuited to the enormous challenges and pressures of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, he suggests.

There was no clear idea of the roles of ministers, senior military officers, and civil servants and how they should work together. "All interpreted their roles in different ways, with effectiveness depending on the quality of individuals and the personal relationships between them", says the report, titled "Depending on the Right People: British Political-Military Relations 2001-2010".

The bloody disaster of Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan is laid bare by Simon Jenkins ,The Guardian, Nov. 18, 2013

Bombs and militia violence make clear the folly of Britain's wars – the removal of law and order from a nation is devastating

...In each case – Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan – it was easy to see evil in the prevailing regime. These are bad guys that we need to go after, said the Americans. Yet the removal of law and order from a nation is devastating, however cruel that order may have been. Iraqis today repeat that, whatever the ills of Saddam Hussein, under his rule most ordinary citizens and their families could walk the streets at night without fear of murder or kidnap. Religious differences were tolerated. Iraq should have been an oil-rich modern state. Even the Kurds, scourged by Saddam in the past, enjoyed autonomy and relative peace.

In each of these cases Britain and its allies, chiefly America, intervened to overthrow the army, disband government, dismantle the judiciary and leave militias to run riot. Little or no attempt was made to replace anarchy with a new order. "Nation building" was a fiasco. The British bombs that flattened government buildings in Kabul, Baghdad and Tripoli did not replace them, or those who worked in them. Those who dropped them congratulated themselves on their work and went home.

It is hard to exaggerate the misery and chaos created by so-called "liberal interventionism". It is hard to think of a more immoral foreign policy, roaming the (chiefly Muslim) world, killing people and sowing anarchy. That is why the blood-stained consequence should be splashed across headlines. Those who seek political kudos by visiting violence on foreign peoples should never be allowed to forget their deeds.

Chocolate Factory to be converted for Marijuana Distribution And Obama's War Crimes

2013-11-16T15:13:00.001-04:00

First some good news:

Chocolate Factory to be converted for Marijuana Distribution

Old Hershey’s Factory May Become Marijuana Plant
October 23, 2013 by Zoe Bain

The address 1 Hershey Drive in Smiths Falls, Ontario, was once the site of a booming chocolate factory. But now, if all goes according to plan, the building will be used to grow and manufacture hyrdoponic medical marijuana. The Ottawa Citizen reports that legal weed supplier Tweed Inc. Of Ottawa hopes to transform part of the former chocolate wonderland into a wonderland of a much different sort. Health Canada still needs to approve the plan, but the mayor of Smiths Falls, Dennis Staples, already approved the project. Health Canada has officially stopped accepting applications to allow people to grow their own marijuana for medical use, so now the 30,000 plus authorized users are turning to growers like Tweed.

If approved, the new tenants will be a whole lot different than those who inhabited the space during the Hershey era, which lasted from 1963 to 2008. There was once a museum, a huge gift shop, specialized tours, and of course the ever lingering smell of chocolate. However all of those things could make a comeback of a different variety if Tweed moves in — tourists, smell (of a much different variety), and all.

Canada chocolate factory may get new life as marijuana farm
BY JULIE GORDON Sep 26, 2013 Reuters

A Canadian start-up wants to turn an empty chocolate factory in eastern Ontario into a production facility for medical marijuana, a possible boost for a local economy that has been hurting since the landmark Hershey plant shut down in 2008.

The old factory, which for decades churned out Hershey chocolate bars, has been conditionally sold to a start-up called Tweed Inc, which plans to use about a third of the 470,000 square foot plant to grow medical marijuana.

"It's an exciting opportunity," said Mark Zekulin, Tweed's vice president of community engagement. "There is a demand and there's good opportunity in this market."

Tweed Inc has applied to Health Canada for a permit to grow medical marijuana at the factory in Smith Falls, Ontario, some 350 km (220 miles) from Toronto. It will distribute its product to patients across Canada who have permission to use the drug.

Canada legalized medical marijuana in 2001, authorizing an initial 500 people to grow and smoke the drug. That number has since ballooned to about 30,000, causing headaches for those who regulate and police marijuana use.

The government earlier this year responded with a plan to take legal production out of private homes and license private companies to produce medical marijuana for authorized patients.

also see Mom as the New Face of Anarchy? Police Terrorize Americans Who Object to Right Wing lunacy by using "Anarchist Label" by Barbara Parramore at Alternet.org, November 11, 2013

Barbara Parramore in her above mentioned article at Alternet.com discusses how her mother has become labeled by authorities as being an "anarchist" for daring to question those in authority and she is surprised and shocked but I am not.

Maybe its my age but for decades I have watched as the more rational people in our society are condemned as 'radicals' from Martin Luther King to Ralph Nader to Chris Hedges, or anyone who questions the the American Military and America's right to expand and defend its Empire.

Once it was enough to label someone a communist, commie a red etc. to marginalize and to silence critics now the government uses terms such as "Anarchist" , radicals, terrorists etc. In a recent action in New brunswick the government has labeled the anti-pipe line protesters as "radicals' which is one step away from "anarchists" and "terrorists" and the authorities are using these labels in order to shut down even peaceful protests because there is a chance some participants might be "radicals'-
For instance during the G20 so called riots in Toronto the police and the Harper government used such labels to allow for a brutal crack down on mostly peaceful protesters while most Canadians were duped into believing the government officials and their media lap dogs who are against any and all public protests it would seem.

Torture inquiry 'finds UK intelligence officers knew of mistreatment'
Gibson report, published next week, reportedly calls for further investigation of how far British ministers were responsible , The Guardian Nov. 14, 2013

More than likely little will come from such investigations . Besides neo-liberals and liberals tend to side with the government and the military and have become super-fans of the Perpetual war on terror .
Renditions, torture, drone attacks, targeted assassinations, black ops and designating anyone as a traitor who publishes supposedly sensitive intel on government operations. When every vocal and influential critic is deemed the enemy then the message from the government and the media and the liberal elite is for critics to remain silent since as they say loose lips sink ships -what a lot of bullocks but there you go-

Secrecy we are told is good for the nation and its people. What you are not told is none of your business but the government's.
So using torture on POWs and murdering innocent civilians in Pakistan and Afghanistan is just good for the nation and any criticisms of these actions are by those who are unpatriotic who hate their own nation state and who hate all those who are part of the nation's military. Sadly even most so -called liberals agree as they bought into the over hyped "Cold War" now they buy inot the over hyped War on Terror.

UK use of drones in Afghanistan remains under wraps after disclosure campaign is thwarted, The Independent november 16, 2013

Campaigners have vowed to continue to fight the "culture of secrecy" surrounding Britain's use of drones after a protracted legal battle to force the Government to disclose details of deployments in Afghanistan failed, with the information tribunal backing the Ministry of Defence's refusal to reveal information on military operations.

The appeal to the Information Commissioner was filed in wake of numerous Freedom of Information requests that were refused by the MoD. But after a two-day closed hearing the information tribunal supported the MoD's position with soldier's lives being cited as the key reason for the lack of disclosure.

"The MOD referred to the disclosure of the requested information as involving 'risk to life and limb', the Commissioner used the phrase 'life and death'," the ruling stated.

"We do not consider either of these phrases to be over-dramatising the level of risk that could be caused to service men and women should the information be released and available to enemy forces in Afghanistan."

Barack Obama Lambasted By Cabinet Minister Ed Davey Over Drone Strikes In Pakistan ,The Huffington Post UK | By Paul Vale, November 14, 2013

A senior British government minister has lambasted Barack Obama's policy of using drone strikes against Taliban and al Qaida leaders in Pakistan, adding that current international law is unfit to handle the technological advances represented by the unmanned aircraft.

Liberal Democrat Ed Davey, who sits in the Cabinet as energy secretary, said that the use of drones to strike targets in Pakistan "transgressed the sovereignty" of the country, while accusing the US military of setting a "very dangerous precedent".

Speaking on the BBC’s Question Time, Davey said: "On drones I think there's a serious question we have got to face up to. Because I think if the Americans keep using drones in the way that they have been doing everyone is going to say this is setting a very, very dangerous precedent."

...recently published Ministry of Defence figures that show the UK’s unmanned fleet flew 892 missions in 2012, with the aircraft firing weapons on 10% of those sorties. The incidents in which missile were fired are believed to have been on missions in Afghanistan, with ministers insisting that British drones are not used to carry out operations in Pakistan.

Anti-Drone Movement Speaks: 'End the Secrecy, No to Kill List'
'After ten years of using drones it is about time that American citizens demand accountability from our government'
- Sarah Lazare, staff writer Common Dreams, November 15, 2013

Activists from across the globe kicked off the largest-ever anti-drone summit Friday with a boisterous White House rally then march to the headquarters of one of the most notorious weapons manufacturers in the world.

"After ten years of using drones it is about time that American citizens demand accountability from our government," said organizer Medea Benjamin of Code Pink in an interview with Common Dreams. "Our government has been getting away with a covert program killing innocent people in our names. It is high time we react and say no to killings, no to secrecy, and no to a kill list."

and also see in reference to Rememberance Day :

Once again another American citizen seems shocked that the US military and the Pentagon and CIA and Special Ops and its related government departments are not committed to defending the freedoms of American citizens but rather are out to expand and defend the American Empire in the name of George W. Bush or Barack Obama.
Obama if he meant what he said on the campaign trail would have curtailed the War on Terror and stopped using unethical and illegal tactics such as the use of Drones to murder innocent civilians and the use of torture, renditions, targeted assassinations or toppling in some cases legitimate governments inorder to gain access to natural resources or just to extend America's influence while defending brutal dictatorships such as those in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia etc. and he would have curbed the massive survelliance now taking place or maybe he could have investigated America's broken justice system or stopped the irrational War on Pot or stopped the militarization of local police forces or even stood up to police forces over cases of the use of unnecessary force instead he used his power to expand the War on Terror and to do all he could to crush the peaceful OCCUPY Movement to appease conservatives and Wall Street.

Stop Thanking the Troops For Me: No, They Don't Protect our Freedoms!", November 11, 2013, Altwernet.org

Birth of the Living Dead - Official Trailer

2013-11-13T21:58:00.001-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/v/pLMq1nxO_bk?autohide=1&version=3&autohide=1&feature=share&attribution_tag=-pHJ7GW-8t-s_WFjqz5u8A&showinfo=1&autoplay=1

Birth of the Living Dead

" In 1968 a young college drop-out named George A. Romero directed "Night of the Living Dead," a low budget horror film that shocked the world, became an icon of the counterculture, and spawned a zombie industry worth billions of dollars that continues to this day.

"Birth of the Living Dead," a new documentary, shows how Romero gathered an unlikely team of Pittsburghers — policemen, iron workers, teachers, ad-men, housewives and a roller-rink owner — to shoot, with a revolutionary guerrilla, run-and-gun style, his seminal film. During that process Romero and his team created an entirely new and horribly chilling monster -- one that was undead and feasted upon human flesh."

Arctic Monkeys: Take A Walk On The Wild Side : Lou Reed RIP

2013-11-10T00:18:00.000-04:00

Arctic Monkeys: Take A Walk On The Wild Side
Tribute to the late Lou Reed

Obama's Drone Wars 'Wounds of Waziristan'

2013-11-05T19:27:00.000-04:00

'Wounds of Waziristan': Exclusive Broadcast of New Film on Pakistanis Haunted by U.S. Drone War Democracy Now , Nov. 4, 2013

or video link: Democracy Now Wounds of Waziristan

also see: http://woundsofwaziristan.com/ Wounds of Waziristan © MADIHA TAHIR AND PARERGON FILMS 2013

and All In With Chris Hayes at MSNBC " Drone Warfare Politics Change in Washington" April 24, 2013.

As the Senate Judiciary held a hearing on the use of drones, host Chris Hayes talks about the implications of drone strikes with author Joshua Foust, independent journalist Madiha and Open Zion's Ali Gharib.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

also see: OpEdNews 11/4/2013 Drones have come out of the shadows By Medea Benjamin OpedNews,Nov. 4, 2013

At each of the over 200 cities I've traveled to this past year with my book Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control , I ask the audience an easy question: Have they ever seen or heard from drone strike victims in the mainstream US press? Not one hand has ever gone up. This is an obvious indication that the media has failed to do its job of humanizing the civilian casualties that accompany President Obama's deadly drone program. This has started to change, with new films, reports and media coverage finally giving the American public a taste of the personal tragedies involved.

and check out US law makers lack of concern or interest in innocent blood being shed in the USA's Drone Wars;

Congressional No-Show at 'Heart-Breaking' Drone Survivor Hearing In "historic" briefing, Rehman family gives heartbreaking account of drone killing of 65-year-old grandmother... to five lawmakers - Lauren McCauley at Common Dreams, Oct. 29, 2013

Despite being heralded as the first time in history that U.S. lawmakers would hear directly from the survivors of a U.S. drone strike, only five elected officials chose to attend the congressional briefing that took place Tuesday. ...According to journalist Anjali Kamat, who was present and tweeting live during the hearing, the only lawmakers to attend the briefing organized by Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), were Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Rep. Rick Nolan (D-Min

also at ICH: The Moment I Realized Barack Obama Is Insane By Michel L. Ston, Nov. 4, 2013

...I remember the exact moment I realized Barack Obama was mad. I suspected it even before he took office, having been trained by Johnson and Nixon and Ford and Carter and Reagan and Bush and Clinton and Bush to pay attention to the signs. But the moment I knew it, the pundit-proof moment, came at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The supreme orator was in a jocular mood. One of the Jonas brothers (boy band singers) had been presuming to “date” one of Barack’s daughters, apparently, and the President of the United States, the most powerful man in the world outside the banking industry, wanted the young suitor to know that “I have two words for you: Predator Drone.” Bless me if the room didn’t break out in riotous laughter! Maybe some of it was nervous laughter, like when Dubya performed his skit pretending to look for WMDs in the Oval Office. (You could make a case that all you need to know about American foreign policy can be gleaned from one of the cheap seats at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner). Now I don’t insist that the Jonas boy is as innocent as Anwar Al-Awlacki’s 16-year-old son, but the image of even a boy band singer being vaporized or dismembered to preserve the virtue of the President’s issue failed to fill me with mirth. Rather, it was like a cold knife to the heart. It said everything about how Barack Obama views the mounting civilian dead in his terrorist war against the terrorists. It said too much.

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Greenwald on NSA Spying And War Criminal Dick Cheney Ironically Accuses Snowden of Being a Traitor

2013-11-04T00:34:00.001-04:00

(Old news??? well I missed it while in hospital )

Cenk Uygur on The Young Turks Irony of War criminal and ethically challenged former VP Dick Cheney accusing whistleblower Edward Snowden of being a traitor for going public with data on NSA's massive spying program

Who's The 'Traitor' - Dick Cheney or Edward Snowden?

Published on 17 Jun 2013
"Former vice president Dick Cheney defended the NSA surveillance on Fox News, saying that it could have helped the United States prevent the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. "As everybody who's been associated with the program's said, if we had had this before 9/11, when there were two terrorists in San Diego—two hijackers—had been able to use that program, that capability, against that target, we might well have been able to prevent 9/11," Cheney said, according to NBC."*

Dick Cheney told Fox News that because Edward Snowden leaked classified information, he is a traitor.

But wait, wait, wait, Dick! Does a name like "Scooter Libby" ring any bells? Is it okay for Cheney to leak info for his own benefit but not okay for anyone to expose him? Cenk Uygur breaks it down

‘In the last four months, we've learned a lot about our government.
‘We've learned that the U.S. intelligence community secretly built a system of pervasive surveillance. Today, no telephone in America makes a call without leaving a record with the NSA. Today, no internet transaction enters or leaves America without passing through the NSA's hands. Our representatives in Congress tell us this is not surveillance. They're wrong.’

Above quote by Edward Snowden from article at
Daily Mail:'No phone call, no Internet transaction, isn't recorded by the NSA': Edward Snowden fires back at U.S. government surveillance denials Senator Dianne Feinstein claimed that the NSA's phone-tracking is benign Whistle-blower Snowden said in a statement that it is pervasive in nature
By TED THORNHILL PUBLISHED: 13:49 GMT, 25 October 2013

Web Exclusive: Greenwald on NSA

Published on 3 Nov 2013
Glenn Greewnald on new NSA spying revelations and how they have been handled by the media.

Edward Snowden Says He Will Help German Investigation Into The NSA Spying Scandal

Senate NSA reform gives agency even more spying powers

Nov. 3, 2013 RT-Video

DOJ whistleblower meets with Snowden

Published on 2 Nov 2013
A former Justice Department official talks about her recent contact with Edward Snowden.

also see : Snowden Letter to Merkel: 'Speaking The Truth Is Not A Crime' Nov. 1, 2013, via Information Clearing House

"Though the outcome of my efforts has been demonstrably positive, my government continues to treat dissent as defection, and seeks to criminalize political speech with felony charges that provide no defense," Edward Snowden says in his letter.

and:

Time World :Greenwald on Snowden Leaks: The Worst Is Yet to Come By Vivienne Walt / Rio de Janeiro @vivwaltOct. 14, 2013

and:
Glenn Greenwald: Enemy of the State By Natasha Vargas-Cooper October 25, 2013 via "Information Clearing House

Julian Assange Interview- 2013-Obama's Demonization of Wikileaks

2013-10-27T01:08:00.001-03:00

Heroic Wikileaks founder Julian Assange demonized for revealing the truth by the ruling governments and their supporters.

Again and again government officials have talked about having Assange and others connected with him and or Wikileaks renditioned, imprisoned without due process, tortured or simply assassinated.

In waging its phony War on Terror the American government has told a thousand lies to sell this war to the American people and to keep its citizens in a state of fear and near panic. Selling such lies to the American people became a lot easier after they had been traumatized by the events of 9/11. And later they were reassured by the CNN live triumphal self-indulgent coverage of the American bombing of Baghdad in which the destruction of a foreign city and the murder of thousands of Iraqi civilians was celebrated and gloated over based upon the false premise that the Iraqi President Saddam and the Iraqi people were involved in and complicit in the events of the 9/11 Al Qaeda terrorist attack.

President Obama has been just as guilty as former president Bush in keeping the fear mongering alive. Obama falsely creates the impression that the Islamic extremists thousands of miles from the USA are still a direct threat to the citizens of the USA that every city or town or neighborhood in the USA is vulnerable to these on-going threats in the same way as they supposedly were by the Soviet Union during the trumped up Cold War.

End Times Are Here, Woohoo! Politician Raves! TYT -

2013-10-25T21:18:00.001-03:00

Cenk Yugur at The Young Turks points out at how dangerous Christian Fundamentalists are.
Senator Michelle Bachmann is happy that in her view the Biblical End Times are near.

NEWSNIGHT: Paxman vs Brand - full interview

2013-10-25T17:07:00.001-03:00

EU leaders unite over US spying allegations

2013-10-25T00:29:00.001-03:00

U.S. War Crimes Continue : Amnesty International: Obama should explain why drones killed civilians

2013-10-23T23:58:00.001-03:00

Pakistani PM urges Obama to end drone strikes

2013-10-23T23:44:00.001-03:00