Chris Hedges: Monitoring of AP Phones a “Terrifying” Step in State Assault on Press Freedom + Transcript

with Chris Hedges
Writer, Dandelion Salad
May 15, 2013

Image by scriptingnews via Flickr

democracynow on May 15, 2013

http://www.democracynow.org – The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges joins us to discuss what could mark the most significant government intrusion on freedom of the press in decades. The Justice Department has acknowledged seizing the work, home and cellphone records used by almost 100 reporters and editors at the Associated Press.

Only You Can Prevent Fracking by Peter Rugh + Frack Fact by Walter Brasch

Dandelion Salad

Image by e izzo via Flickr

by Peter Rugh
SocialistWorker.org
First published at Waging Nonviolence, May 7, 2013
May 9, 2013

SMOKEY THE Bear thought he smelled a fire in the woods. But as he approached the clearing and saw a giant derrick jutting out into the sky, he realized that what his nose had picked up was the scent of hydrocarbons. It was another piece of evidence that the increasingly widespread method of oil and gas extraction known as fracking was poisoning the environment that he and his human friends depend on. He decided something must be done.

The Latest Threats To Life As We Know It by William Blum

by William Blum
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.killinghope.org
April 9, 2013

Image by Abode of Chaos via Flickr

The Anti-Empire Report

Would you believe that the United States tried to do something that was not nice against Hugo Chávez?

Wikileaks has done it again. I guess the US will really have to get tough now with Julian Assange and Bradley Manning.

In a secret US cable to the State Department, dated November 9, 2006, and recently published online by WikiLeaks, former US ambassador to Venezuela, William Brownfield, outlines a comprehensive plan to destabilize the government of the late President Hugo Chávez. The cable begins with a Summary:

Bradley Manning: Hung Out To Dry

Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

www.aljazeera.com
Mar. 9, 2013

[...] Media outlets went on to draw on WikiLeaks for some of the biggest news stories of the decade. Manning’s leak meant millions of papers sold and pages viewed yet the story of the man himself has been pushed to the margins. Is this just ingratitude or something more sinister? Are important parts of the fourth estate signing up for a system of government-media relations that sees whistleblowers as enemies of the state?

NDAA: We Won’t Stop Fighting This by Chris Hedges

by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
September 17, 2012

Image by World Can’t Wait via Flickr

In January I sued President Barack Obama over Section 1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which authorized the military to detain U.S. citizens indefinitely, strip them of due process and hold them in military facilities, including offshore penal colonies. Last week, round one in the battle to strike down the onerous provision, one that saw me joined by six other plaintiffs including Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg, ended in an unqualified victory for the public. U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest, who accepted every one of our challenges to the law, made her temporary injunction of the section permanent. In short, she declared the law unconstitutional.

Chris Hedges: The Assault on Civil Liberties Under Obama More Egregious Than Under Bush + Carl Mayer: They Can’t Chill Your Freedom of Speech

with Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
September 14, 2012

Image by Shrieking Tree via Flickr

Sep 14, 2012 by TheBigPictureRT

Chris Hedges, Truthdig “The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress” joins Thom Hartmann. Civil liberties advocates led by journalists and writers Chris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, and Noam Chomsky secured a big victory yesterday. Federal Judge Katherine Forrest struck down the controversial indefinite detention provision passed and signed by President Obama on New Year’s Eve last year as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.

NDAA on trial: Obama Administration fights ban on indefinite detention of Americans

Dandelion Salad

Image by World Can’t Wait via Flickr

Aug 13, 2012 by RTAmerica

White House lawyers have been recently defending the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA. They have been arguing that jailing Americans indefinitely without trial in some instances is necessary for the safety and security of the country.Tangerine Bolen of Revolution Truth and a plaintiff in the case against the NDAA joins RT’s Kristine Frazao to discuss the matter.

Chris Hedges: When Empires Emplode + Update on the NDAA Lawsuit

Image by World Can’t Wait via Flickr

with Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
August 9, 2012

Aug 7, 2012 by wilrodx1

Guest host Sam Sacks discusses the world food crisis and corporate capitalism with journalist and author Chris Hedges.

First They Come For the Muslims by Chris Hedges

by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
April 16, 2012

Image by Daquella manera via Flickr

Tarek Mehanna, a U.S. citizen, was sentenced Thursday in Worcester, Mass., to 17½ years in prison. It was another of the tawdry show trials held against Muslim activists since 9/11 as a result of the government’s criminalization of what people say and believe. These trials, where secrecy rules permit federal lawyers to prosecute people on “evidence” the defendants are not allowed to examine, are the harbinger of a corporate totalitarian state in which any form of dissent can be declared illegal. What the government did to Mehanna, and what it has done to hundreds of other innocent Muslims in this country over the last decade, it will eventually do to the rest of us.

Rick Rozoff: NATO vs The 1st Amendment + Qur’an burning by US led troops in Afghanistan monstrous blasphemy

by Rick Rozoff
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Stop NATO
Stop NATO-Opposition to global militarism
February 22, 2012

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

MiloWolf on Feb 18, 2012

This video shows the early stages of the growing Chicago movement against the newly minted extraordinary police powers ordinance (dubbed the “sit down and shut up” laws). We go to one of the many actions around the city directed at Chicago aldermen who were about to vote on these new laws (designed by Democratic Party Mayor Emanuel to crush any dissent against the NATO/G8 summits he is hosting here in May).

James Corbett: Beyond SOPA: The Past, Present and Future of Internet Censorship

Dandelion Salad

Image by dreamwhile via Flickr

corbettreport on Jan 28, 2012

In recent weeks the general public has mobilized to face US legislative threats to Internet freedoms. Far from a conclusive victory, however, the death of SOPA and PIPA only highlight the latest in a series of measures that are seeking to create a legal framework for government-administered Internet censorship.

Police State Chicago: Emanuel gets his clampdown by Brit Schulte and Caitlin Sheehan

Dandelion Salad

by Brit Schulte and Caitlin Sheehan
SocialistWorker.org
January 23, 2012

Image by G20 Protest Photos via Flickr

The City of Chicago has enacted new measures to restrict free speech and protest–but not without a fight, as Brit Schulte and Caitlin Sheehan report.

ON JANUARY 18, the Chicago City Council overwhelmingly approved Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s ordinances to give police new powers to crack down on protests ahead of the NATO/G8 joint summit coming to the city in May.

Thomas Drake: These are the hallmarks of tyranny and despotism (must-see)

Image by dreamwhile via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

TheRealNews on Jan 4, 2012

Thomas Drake blew the whistle on a massive domestic information gathering scheme and was called “an enemy of the state” (speech at Sam Adams Awards)

The crime of making Americans aware of their own history by William Blum

by William Blum
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.killinghope.org
Oct. 4, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

The crime of making Americans aware of their own history

Is history getting too close for comfort for the fragile little American heart and mind? Their schools and their favorite media have done an excellent job of keeping them ignorant of what their favorite country has done to the rest of the world, but lately some discomforting points of view have managed to find their way into this well-defended American consciousness.

Banning the First Amendment by Walter Brasch

Image by anirvan via Flickr

by Walter Brasch
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
September 28, 2011

Parents demanded it be banned.

School superintendents placed it in restricted sections of their libraries.

It is the most challenged book four of the past five years, according to the American Library Association (ALA).

“It” is a 32-page illustrated children’s book, And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, with illustrations by Henry Cole.