Brave Egyptian protesters will determine in the coming hours whether tyranny or democracy prevails in Egypt and across the region. They’ve appealed for international solidarity – let’s send them a massive response, and hold our governments accountable to stand with them too...
When we hear the word "WikiLeaks", the first name that springs to our mind is usually Julian Assange's one... but, there is another name we definitely need to keep tabs on: Bradley Manning. Not only because he is the alleged whistleblower after all, but also, because the way he is being treated right now should concern anyone who still believes in democracy.
The following is an email I've received a few hours ago from Linda Schade of the "Wikileaks Is Democracy" Group... Please, do take the time to read it and act upon it.
(And, of course, do feel free to pass it on...)
Thank you in advance
Loup Dargent
The Email
Dear Loup,
Julian Assange has called Bradley Manning “the world's pre-eminent prisoner of conscience.”
Manning is the Army private accused of leaking the documents that WikiLeaks has been publishing with other media outlets. He is now being held in the Marine Brig in Quantico in very abusive conditions. I am writing you to urge you to take action in his defense.
Manning has not been convicted of anything. He has not even gone to trial, yet he is being held in solitary confinement. He has not even been allowed a real pillow or blanket. He is allowed to exercise for one hour a day, but he is in shackles and goes to another small room where he does figure 8’s. He is not allowed to exercise in his 6 by 12 foot cell. He is awakened at 5 every morning and not allowed to sleep during the day.
Last week, the Brig Commander abused his discretion further and put Manning on suicide watch even though the brigs psychiatrist said he did not need it. This meant for two days Manning only had his boxer shorts – not even permitted his glasses – and remained in his cell for 24 hours. It has been reported that a superior in the Marines said the Brig Commander did not have the authority to require suicide watch, that could only be done by a psychiatrist.
Manning is not being treated like a normal prisoner. He is being treated to cruel and unusual punishment. Rather than pre-trial detention, this is pre-trial punishment.
Last week Robert Gibbs was asked about Manning at a White House briefing. He said he had not heard any talk of him but would check. Now, we want you to help us bring this issue to the attention of President Obama and Attorney General Holder. Please send a letter today.
Some have perceived Manning as a traitor. Even if that were true it does not justify pre-trial torture. Others see Manning as a patriot. He is not accused of giving documents to Iran, China or Russia. He is accused of giving them to the media so Americans can see what U.S. foreign policy is doing. He is not accused of trying to become rich by selling the documents. He gave them for free, allegedly, because he wanted to see a debate on U.S. foreign policy so the United States could live up to its highest expectations. He wanted to make the United States better. That is not treason, it is patriotism.
Thank you for taking action. Manning allegedly leaked these documents for us. We need to stand with Bradley.
‘Corrective rape’, the vicious practice of raping lesbians to ‘cure’ their sexuality, is becoming a crisis in South Africa. But brave activists are calling on the world to help stop these heinous Hate Crimes...
I thought that it would be a great way to celebrate the New Year by taking you all on a journey through Time and Relative Dimension in Style... or, failing that, by sharing my latest little YouTube video with you guys.
Great development in the current WikiLeaks saga: some people are putting their money where their mouths are... And, those Good Samaritans kind of persons are: Ken Loach, John Pilger, Jemima Khan and Michael Moore.
Cool! Now, that's what I call great news! And, it's not just the bail Michael Moore is putting up his own money to, nope.... but, let's the Big Man tell you all about it, as well as why, (via his email I've received a few minutes ago) himself.
Enjoy!
Loup Dargent
Why I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange (A statement from Michael Moore)
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010
Friends,
Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail.
Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars.
We were taken to war in Iraq on a lie. Hundreds of thousands are now dead. Just imagine if the men who planned this war crime back in 2002 had had a WikiLeaks to deal with. They might not have been able to pull it off. The only reason they thought they could get away with it was because they had a guaranteed cloak of secrecy. That guarantee has now been ripped from them, and I hope they are never able to operate in secret again.
So why is WikiLeaks, after performing such an important public service, under such vicious attack? Because they have outed and embarrassed those who have covered up the truth. The assault on them has been over the top:
**Sen. Joe Lieberman says WikiLeaks "has violated the Espionage Act." **The New Yorker's George Packer calls Assange "super-secretive, thin-skinned, [and] megalomaniacal." **Sarah Palin claims he's "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands" whom we should pursue "with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders." **Democrat Bob Beckel (Walter Mondale's 1984 campaign manager) said about Assange on Fox: "A dead man can't leak stuff ... there's only one way to do it: illegally shoot the son of a bitch." **Republican Mary Matalin says "he's a psychopath, a sociopath ... He's a terrorist." **Rep. Peter A. King calls WikiLeaks a "terrorist organization."
And indeed they are! They exist to terrorize the liars and warmongers who have brought ruin to our nation and to others. Perhaps the next war won't be so easy because the tables have been turned -- and now it's Big Brother who's being watched ... by us!
WikiLeaks deserves our thanks for shining a huge spotlight on all this. But some in the corporate-owned press have dismissed the importance of WikiLeaks ("they've released little that's new!") or have painted them as simple anarchists ("WikiLeaks just releases everything without any editorial control!"). WikiLeaks exists, in part, because the mainstream media has failed to live up to its responsibility. The corporate owners have decimated newsrooms, making it impossible for good journalists to do their job. There's no time or money anymore for investigative journalism. Simply put, investors don't want those stories exposed. They like their secrets kept ... as secrets.
I ask you to imagine how much different our world would be if WikiLeaks had existed 10 years ago. Take a look at this photo. That's Mr. Bush about to be handed a "secret" document on August 6th, 2001. Its heading read: "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US." And on those pages it said the FBI had discovered "patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings." Mr. Bush decided to ignore it and went fishing for the next four weeks.
But if that document had been leaked, how would you or I have reacted? What would Congress or the FAA have done? Was there not a greater chance that someone, somewhere would have done something if all of us knew about bin Laden's impending attack using hijacked planes?
But back then only a few people had access to that document. Because the secret was kept, a flight school instructor in San Diego who noticed that two Saudi students took no interest in takeoffs or landings, did nothing. Had he read about the bin Laden threat in the paper, might he have called the FBI? (Please read this essay by former FBI Agent Coleen Rowley, Time's 2002 co-Person of the Year, about her belief that had WikiLeaks been around in 2001, 9/11 might have been prevented.)
Or what if the public in 2003 had been able to read "secret" memos from Dick Cheney as he pressured the CIA to give him the "facts" he wanted in order to build his false case for war? If a WikiLeaks had revealed at that time that there were, in fact, no weapons of mass destruction, do you think that the war would have been launched -- or rather, wouldn't there have been calls for Cheney's arrest?
Openness, transparency -- these are among the few weapons the citizenry has to protect itself from the powerful and the corrupt. What if within days of August 4th, 1964 -- after the Pentagon had made up the lie that our ship was attacked by the North Vietnamese in the Gulf of Tonkin -- there had been a WikiLeaks to tell the American people that the whole thing was made up? I guess 58,000 of our soldiers (and 2 million Vietnamese) might be alive today.
Instead, secrets killed them.
For those of you who think it's wrong to support Julian Assange because of the sexual assault allegations he's being held for, all I ask is that you not be naive about how the government works when it decides to go after its prey. Please -- never, ever believe the "official story." And regardless of Assange's guilt or innocence (see the strange nature of the allegations here), this man has the right to have bail posted and to defend himself. I have joined with filmmakers Ken Loach and John Pilger and writer Jemima Khan in putting up the bail money -- and we hope the judge will accept this and grant his release today.
Might WikiLeaks cause some unintended harm to diplomatic negotiations and U.S. interests around the world? Perhaps. But that's the price you pay when you and your government take us into a war based on a lie. Your punishment for misbehaving is that someone has to turn on all the lights in the room so that we can see what you're up to. You simply can't be trusted. So every cable, every email you write is now fair game. Sorry, but you brought this upon yourself. No one can hide from the truth now. No one can plot the next Big Lie if they know that they might be exposed.
And that is the best thing that WikiLeaks has done. WikiLeaks, God bless them, will save lives as a result of their actions. And any of you who join me in supporting them are committing a true act of patriotism. Period.
I stand today in absentia with Julian Assange in London and I ask the judge to grant him his release. I am willing to guarantee his return to court with the bail money I have wired to said court. I will not allow this injustice to continue unchallenged.
The global recession has already plunged over 100 million people back into poverty and unemployment -- but this week, we could turn the tide of economic destruction.
In today's post, we truly have got a musical gem for you...
In this relatively old (in internet time anyway) ad targeted at the UK we can watch and listen to Lemmy (Ian Fraser Kilmister) and his band Motorhead playing their legendary manic song, The Ace of Spades, at half the normal speed, in... a French bar.
Now, that's what I call "entente cordiale"...
For those of you who don't know who on Earth are Motorhead, I'll diplomatically point to the related Wikipedia page where it says that they are "a British rock band formed in 1975 by bassist, singer and songwriter Ian Fraser Kilmister, known mostly by his stage name Lemmy, who has remained the sole constant member. The band pre-dated, but are sometimes regarded as part of, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, which re-energised heavy metal in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Usually a power trio, Motörhead had particular success in the early 1980s with several successful singles in the UK Top 40 chart. The albums Overkill, Bomber, Ace of Spades, and particularly No Sleep 'til Hammersmith, cemented Motörhead's reputation as one of Britain's foremost rock bands." and invite those who want to know more about them to... well, yep, click on the link for more info.
Sakineh's adultery case is a tragic sham stacked with human rights violations. First, she was to be stoned to death. But the Iranian government had to revoke the sentence after her children generated a tremendous outcry against the farcical trial -- she could not speak the language used in court, and the alleged incidents of adultery took place after her husband's death.
Then her lawyer was forced into exile, and the prosecution conjured up a new trumped-up charge for which she would be executed -- the murder of her husband. Despite this being double jeoprady, as she is already serving time for alleged complicity in this crime, Sakineh was tortured and paraded on national television to 'confess', and was found guilty. The regime has now arrested two German journalists, her lawyer and her son, who has bravely led the international campaign to save his mother. All remain in prison and Sakineh's son and lawyer have been also tortured and have no access to lawyers.
Now Iranian human rights activists state an order has just been issued from Tehran to implement her killing immediately, she is on the list and tomorrow is execution day.
Persistent campaigning led Iran to drop Sakineh's stoning sentence and captured the attention of leaders in countries with influence on Iran, like Turkey and Brazil. Now let's urgently raise our voices to stop her killing and inhumane treatment and free her, her lawyer, her son and the jailed German journalists.
A massive public outcry has the moral authority to stop heinous crimes. Let's use these 24 hours to send a clear message -- the world is watching and we all stand together today to save Sakineh's life and against injustice everywhere.
With hope and determination,
Loup Dargent (On behalf of Alice, Stephanie, Pascal, Giulia, Benjamin and the whole of the Avaaz team)
PS: I've just sent an emergency message to Iran's allies and key UN powers urging them to intervene and help safe Sakineh's life.
Only a few days until Halloween and, I realised that I hadn't posted anything Halloween related at all this year.... Shame on me!
But then, checking up my email account inbox a few minutes ago, guess what I've found waiting for me? Yep, one brand new, fresh from the virtual press, email from Michael Moore.
It had to be a sign...
I mean, Michael Moore is kind of regarded as (among many other things) the Boogeyman by some of his opponents/detractors, isn't he?
So, maybe, just maybe, by sharing his email with you guys, I might be doing something Halloween-ish at the same time, after all?
Hey, that works for me.
Enjoy...
Loup Dargent
PS: Happy Halloween!
A Boot to the Head ...from Michael Moore
Thursday, October 28th, 2010
Friends,
There she was, thrown to the pavement by a Republican in a checkered shirt. Another Republican thrusts his foot in between her legs and presses down with all his weight to pin her to the curb. Then a Republican leader comes over and viciously stomps on her head with his foot. You hear her glasses crunch under the pressure. Holding her head down with his foot, he applies more force so she can't move. Her skull and brain are now suffering a concussion.
The young woman's name is Lauren Valle, but she is really all of us. For come this Tuesday, the right wing -- and the wealthy who back them -- plan to take their collective boot and bring it down hard on not just the head of Barack Obama but on the heads of everyone they simply don't like.
Teachers union? The boot!
Muslim-looking people? The boot!
Thinking of retiring soon? The boot!
Living in a house you can no longer afford? The boot!
Doing a bit better with your minimum wage? The boot!
Stem cell research, the bullet train, reversing global warming? Ha! The boot for all of you!
What? You like your kids being covered by your health plan 'til they're 26? The boot for them and the boot for you!
In love with someone of your own gender? A double boot up the ass for every single one of you sick SOBs!
Hoping there's a few jobs left here in the U.S. when you graduate? How 'bout just a nice boot to your head instead?
And most importantly, the last boot is saved for the black man who probably wasn't born here, definitely isn't a Christian and possibly might be the Antichrist sent here to oversee the destruction of our very way of life. A boot to your head, Obama-devil!
Yes, one big boot is poised to stomp out whatever hopey-changey thing we might have had two years ago and secure this country in the hands of the oligarchs and the culture police.
And if they win on Tuesday, they plan to show no mercy. They will not speak of bipartisanship or olive branches or tolerate any filibuster threats. They will come in and do the job with a mandate they'll perceive the electorate will have given them. They will not fart around for two years like the Democrats did. They will not "search for compromise" or "find middle ground." They will not meet you halfway on the playing field.
They know that touchdowns aren't scored at the 50-yard line. Unlike our guys, they're not stupid or spineless.
Make no mistake about it, my friends. A perfect storm has gathered of racists, homophobes, corporatists and born agains and they are on fire. Two years of a black man who secretly holds socialist beliefs being the boss of them is more than they can stomach. They've been sick to death since the night of 11/04/08 and they are ready to purge. They won't need a rope and tree this time to effect the change they seek (why bother when a nice shoe on another's skull will do just fine, thank you).
They simply need to get their base to the polls (done), convince enough people Obama is responsible for the fact they don't have a job or a secure home (done), and then hope enough of us Obama-voters are so frustrated, disappointed and downright mad at the Dems (done) that we'll either stay home Tuesday or, if we vote, we won't be carpooling with 10 others to the polls.
Done? Or not?
These Republicans mean business. Their boots are all shined and ready. But they've got one huge problem:
Too bad the majority party has done precious little to bring about the change for which the majority voted. Yes, change takes time. But try telling that to someone who hasn't worked in two years. Or who hears the knock of the foreclosure sheriff at the door. The booted-up minority knows how to make hay in a situation like this. All they need is us, the disappointed, dismayed, disgusted us.
What say you? Stay home and punish the weak-kneed, sell-out Democrats? Or spend every free moment you have between now and Tuesday trying to protect what little progress has been made so we can live to fight another day (even if it is with "allies" like a Democratic Party that will more than likely still not get the message of what they need to do -- and has, in fact, spent much of the past two years giving progressives the boot)? Perhaps our job, post-election, is to provide a gentle but swift boot in the bee-hind of the party whose mascot is an ass.
Right now, we've got 112 hours. Seems like enough. Yours,
So, yes, nowadays, vampires are, let's face it, the butt of all jokes and, obviously, this movie has taken the easy road by making fun of them... Actually, its writers have chosen an even easier road by mocking Twilight. But, hey, after all, vampires are vampires... even those who glitter.
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