What America (and the UK) has become
Thu, 2008-08-14 20:00
#1
Frustrated Mess
What America (and the UK) has become
Thu, 2008-08-14 20:00
#2
Frustrated Mess
quote:
In federal court affidavits, Mr. Ng's lawyers contend that when he complained of severe pain that did not respond to analgesics, and grew too weak to walk or even stand to call his family from a detention pay phone, officials accused him of faking his condition. They denied him a wheelchair and refused pleas for an independent medical evaluation.Instead, the affidavits say, guards at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I., dragged him from his bed on July 30, carried him in shackles to a car, bruising his arms and legs, and drove him two hours to a federal lockup in Hartford, where an immigration officer pressured him to withdraw all pending appeals of his case and accept deportation.
"For this desperately sick, vulnerable person, this was torture," said Theodore N. Cox, one of Mr. Ng's lawyers, adding that they want to see a videotape of the transport made by guards.
...
he died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a Rhode Island hospital, his spine fractured and his body riddled with cancer that had gone undiagnosed and untreated for months.
[url=http://www.truthout.org/article/ill-and-pain-detainee-dies-us-hands]A sick, fucked up country[/url]
[ 19 August 2008: Message edited by: Frustrated Mess ]
Tue, 2008-08-19 14:06
#3
Frustrated Mess
quote:
On May 14 I was arrested under section 41 of the Terrorism Act - on suspicion of the "instigation, preparation and commission of acts of terrorism": an absurdly nebulous formulation that told me nothing about the sin I had apparently committed. Once in custody, almost 48 hours passed before it was confirmed that the entire operation (involving dozens of officers, police cars, vans, and scientific support agents) was triggered by the presence on my University of Nottingham office computer of an equally absurd document called the "al-Qaida Training Manual", a declassified open-source document that I had never read and had completely forgotten about since it had been sent to me months before.Rizwaan Sabir, a politics student friend of mine (who was also arrested), had downloaded the file from the US justice department website
[url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/18/terrorism.civilliber... Yezza[/url]
Fri, 2008-08-22 09:25
#4
Frustrated Mess
quote:
Having already been branded a lesbian, a communist and a terrorist, and likened to Al Qaeda, Garcia is now being targeted by a local anti-Mexican immigration activist named Roy Warden. After threatening those he terms "Left Wing activists and Pendejo Thugs" that he will "draw my weapon and blow your freaking heads off," of late Warden has warned that he might "turn their skulls into red mush" in an attack that "will make the Shootout at the OK Corral look like a Sunday school picnic.""I am absolutely concerned about Roy Warden," admits Isabel Garcia. "I've brought him to police attention several times in the past. After all, I've been called a traitor, accused of sedition and of working for a foreign government… What if someone hears this kind of talk and decides to act on it?
Given Roy Warden's pronounced proclivity toward violence, and the recent Tennessee church shooting, such speculation seems warranted. It's not a stretch to ponder whether on-air remarks such as Jon Justice's call for 'bloodshed in the polling places' could one day prove to be the spark that turns such ominous hate speech into real-life acts of hatred - and real people's skulls into - yes — real red mush…
[url=http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/95841/arizona_shock_jock%27s_danger... is as ugly does[/url]
Fri, 2008-08-22 11:12
#5
M. Spector
quote:
At any given time, there are about 30,000 immigrants in detention in the United States.And the way they are treated is a scandal.
Sometimes, they can’t even get medical care for life-threatening conditions.
The great Haitian-American writer, Edwidge Danticat, has written a prize-winning book, “Brother, I’m Dying” about her uncle who perished in detention out of neglect.
She also testified about his treatment on October 4 before a House Judiciary subcommittee.
Immigration officials had taken away his medication for high blood pressure and an inflamed prostate. And even when he was vomiting they accused him of faking.
In the next issue of The Progressive, Laurel Maury tells about a man named Francisco Castaсeda, who was placed in an immigration facility in early 2006. He had a lesion on his penis, but the immigration service would never let him get a biopsy for it.
When he was released almost a year later, he found out he had invasive skin cancer. He had to have his penis amputated, and he died within the year.
[url=http://www.progressive.org/mag/wx081408.html]Detention for many is a death sentence[/url]
Fri, 2008-08-22 11:28
#6
So what happens to "defectors" Does a Cuban arriving on the shores of America get treated different than a Haitian? I suspect the answer but I don't really know.
Fri, 2008-08-22 11:48
#7
N.Beltov
quote:
kropotkin1951: So what happens to "defectors" Does a Cuban arriving on the shores of America get treated different than a Haitian? I suspect the answer but I don't really know.
Cubans are in a whole different category when they "defect" to the US. Unlike Haitians, who might die from lack of medical coverage while in US detention,, Cubans go to the head of the line. It is a political show, the purpose of which is to undermine Cuba's government in the long term. There are some agreements to regularize Cuban emigration but the US side typically violates those agreements and disorganizes the whole arrangement.
A lengthy quote might be in order here.
quote:
According to the dominant version, the "high" number of Cubans who have
emigrated to the United States constitutes proof of the lack of legitimacy
of the government in Havana.
This claim is made by most of the international media, but no analysis of
the phenomenon is deemed to be necessary. That's really surprising because
the statistics of Cuban migration to the United States are available for the
period from 1820 to 2003, that is, for more than 18 decades (1).Why is it that the international media do not illustrate their claim about
Cuban emigration by using precise numbers that compare the pre-Revolutionary
period with the present time? In the name of what simplifying principle
don't they draw a comparison between the Latin American and Cuban migratory
phenomena to clarify this controversial debate?
The international media avoid analyzing in detail the Cuban migration to the
United States. They fear, and with reason, that the conclusions drawn from
the data provided by the U.S. immigration service will implacably contradict
their famous claim and unmask their deceitful and ideological nature.Massive emigration before 1959
[b]Before the defeat of Fulgencio Batista in 1959, Cuba sent more migrants to
the United States than Central America and South America together.[/b] In
addition, Cuba produced more emigrants than Africa and Oceania together and
surpassed Asian demographic behemoths such as China, India, Iran, Turkey and
Indonesia.Special legislation to promote illegal emigration
[b]In 1966, the U.S. Congress passed the Cuban Adjustment Act, which grants any
Cuban citizen who migrates legally or illegally the status of permanent
resident of the United States. The object of that legislation is to incite
to illegal emigration and to use that emigration as a political weapon to
damage the prestige of the Cuban government.[/b]
To this law we should add the brutal economic war that the United States has
waged against Cuba since 1960, a war that hugely affects the population and
constitutes a factor of incitement to emigration.1993 and 'the special period'
It is important to stop at the year 1993, which represents the worst moment
of the special period. In effect, when the Soviet Union crumbled in 1991,
Cuba was able to maintain (to a limited degree) its trade with the East. In
1992, the national reserves allowed the population to overcome the early
difficulties. But by 1993, no reserves were left.
In view of the economic and geopolitical conditions affecting Cuba, it
wouldn't be unrealistic to assume that 1993 was synonymous with a massive
migration to the United States. But the opposite occurred. In effect, out of
Cuba exited only 13,666 emigrants in 1993, less than Canada (17,156),
Jamaica (17,241), El Salvador (26,818 or twice the Cuban figure), the
Dominican Republic (45,420 or thrice the Cuban figure) and Mexico (126,561
or almost 10 times the Cuban figure). So, in 1993, Cuba occupied only the
sixth place among Latin American nations that issued emigrants.1994 and the 'wave' of rafters
The year 1994 was important to the degree that it saw a large wave of
rafters. The international media greatly propagandized and politicized those
events, which gave the impression that the entire population wanted to leave
the island. What was the reality?
In 1994, Cuba saw only 14,727 departures, as opposed to Canada (16,068), El
Salvador (17,644), the Dominican Republic (51,189 or thrice the Cuban
figure), and Mexico (111,398). In terms of U.S.-bound migration, Cuba was in
fifth place among Latin American countries.Current emigration
It is interesting to make a migratory balance using the latest data. In
2003, Cuba was the country of origin for 9,304 migrations to the United
States. In 2003, Cuba was only in tenth place in the hemisphere in terms of
migration, behind Peru (9,444), Canada (11,446), Haiti (12,314), Jamaica
(13,384), Guatemala (14,415), Colombia (14,777), the Dominican Republic
(26,205), El Salvador (28,296) and Mexico (115,864). Thus, Cuba went from
second place in 1959 to tenth place in 2003.Politization of the migration issue
Curiously, the migration issue has never been politicized when other nations
are involved. For example, El Salvador -- whose population (5.75 million) is
one half that of Cuba (11.2 million) -- sent out three times the number of
migrants to the United States in 2003. However, no one has ever utilized
this fact to denounce the political regime in El Salvador as a totalitarian
regime.Likewise, the Dominican Republic originated three times as many U.S.-bound
departures as Cuba, although its population is only 8.5 million. Jamaica,
whose population is 2.6 million, one-fourth that of Cuba, originated more
U.S.-bound departures than Cuba. The same can be said for Haiti, whose
population is barely 6.8 million, one-half that of Cuba.
In addition, these nations do not enjoy the benefits of any "Adjustment Act"
and do not suffer any economic sanctions. Nevertheless, no one has dared to
utilize such an argument to describe those countries as being dictatorial
regimes.Ideological stigmatization
As one can easily see, the migratory argument is not valid for the purpose
of stigmatizing Cuba. If one wishes to politicize the issue, one can see --
from the 1959 statistics and the current data -- that the Cuban government
is without a doubt one of the most legitimate political regimes in the
American continent. Seen thus, stigmatization is only ideological and
therefore lacking in substance.Only the alternative press counteracts this type of disinformation, which is
orchestrated by the international media.Salim Lamrani, a French researcher at the Sorbonne university, read this
paper during a panel on the role of alternative media in the preservation of
historic memory, during the World Social Forum in Caracas, Jan. 27, 2006.(1) All the data relative to Cuban and other emigration, 1820-2003, come
from the Office of Immigration Statistics (2003 Yearbook of Immigration
Statistics), U.S. Department of Homeland Security, September 2004, pp.12-14.
[url=http://www.cubanlibrariessolidaritygroup.org.uk/articles.asp?ID=161]On the role of the alternative media using Cuba as an example[/url]
Fri, 2008-08-22 12:04
#8
Thx That is what I thought now I know.
Fri, 2008-08-22 14:39
#9
Frustrated Mess
quote:
In the lawless South Hebron Hills, things are wild as usual: The settlers continue to attack shepherd children with clubs and stones, to steal their sheep and to make their lives miserable, while the Israel Police continue to abuse anyone who tries to file a complaint against the settlers.
[url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=1014098]And Israel too[/url]
Tue, 2008-09-02 13:24
#10
Frustrated Mess
quote:
This is Israeli justice in a nutshell: Lt. Col. Omri Burberg, the battalion commander suspected of giving an utterly illegal order to shoot a bound Palestinian, is wandering free and being considered for a senior training post in the Israel Defense Forces. Meanwhile, Jamal Amira, the father of Salam, the amateur camera operator who filmed the shooting, spent 26 days in an Israeli jail, until a military judge was so kind as to release him on bail last week.
[url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1016196.html]The soft side of racist justice.[/url]
Tue, 2008-09-02 13:25
#11
Frustrated Mess
quote:
The window through which Salam Amira, 16, filmed the moment when an Israeli soldier shot from close range a handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian detainee has a large hole at its centre with cracks running in every direction.“Since my video was shown, the soldiers shoot at our house all the time,” she said. The shattered and cracked windows at the front of the building confirm her story. “When we leave the windows open, they fire tear gas inside too.”
Her home looks out over the Israeli road block guarding the only entrance to the village of Nilin, located just inside the West Bank midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It was here that a bound Ashraf Abu Rahma, 27, was shot in the foot in July with a rubber bullet under orders from an Israeli regiment commander.
The treatment of the family stands in stark contrast to the leniency shown to the soldier and his commander involved in that incident.
[url=http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080901/FOREIGN/87166974/1135/OPINION... the another side.[/url]
Tue, 2008-09-02 22:21
#12
ceti
Whoah, as a Cuban national you get an automatic green card upon reaching the US? What an inducement! The US would be flooded with millions, maybe a billion migrants (and not exaggerating) if the same opportunity was granted to everyone else.
Wed, 2008-09-03 03:23
#13
Cueball
Basically, I just think the capital of the British Empire moved shortly after WW II.
Wed, 2008-09-03 07:10
#14
Frustrated Mess
quote:
Yesterday, Goodman witnessed and experienced something very frightening that likely was not mentioned on your local news.During the opening of the Republican National Convention, she was arrested for asking police where her two producers were. They had been arrested, and because SHE asked a question police did not like, she was arrested too.
After more than 20 years as a journalist, Goodman was doing what reporters are supposed to do. She was gathering news inside the Republican National Convention as well as seeking opposing views outside. Heavens to Betsy - a real journalist telling both sides!
The video of a demure Goodman walking into a group of police who were dressed in riot gear - looking like guards outside a dictator's palace - is surreal. It also convinced me that Republicans would love to provoke citizens practicing their constitutional right of civil disobedience into acting like misguided idiots. Then the mass media, which have been lifting pom-poms for the Bush administration for years, can blame them and make them look like lunatics worthy only of dismissal.
If Amy Goodman had been wearing an American flag or a Republican emblem on her lapel, I doubt she would have landed behind bars.
Voices of dissent have always restored balance after times of extreme, and if those voices are silenced, can we still call ourselves a democracy?
[url=http://www.truthout.org/article/silencing-town-crier]Freedom in Amerika[/url]
Wed, 2008-09-03 07:18
#15
Frustrated Mess
Video of this woman, so dangerous to Amerika, being arrested:
Wed, 2008-09-03 08:22
#16
quote:
How can a country formed by revolutionaries not understand that there is no democracy when there is no free press?
LOl It always astounds me at how little Americans know about their own history. There were no revolutionaries in the left sense. The first American civil war was a war between the American business elite and the colonial office. In fact the first thing the "patriot" business elite did in the run up to the civil war was get mobs to burn down every single Loyalist press in the colonies. IMO American leaders have always understood that the only free press is the press that agrees with the business elite.
Wed, 2008-09-03 08:38
#17
I used to blame Americans for their bad political choices until I realized they lost control of their plutocracy a long time ago. Robert Kennedy Jr speaking to Canadians recently said that all TV stations, radio, and newsprint in the U.S. is now owned by a single special interest group, the superrich. I think the American NSA-CIA also owns a number of front businesses and sometimes intervenes in news stories, and actually creating "the newz" for political purposes from time to time. Americans have little idea what their government does abroad or what the truth at home really is. It's a highly managed "democracy", if it can be described as such, controlled by deep state politicos and powerful right-wing interests working behind the scenes. The U.S.S.A. has struggled with black markets in power politics for a long time. Canada marches to the U.S. drum beat obediently, and very many Canadians are disillusioned with our own alleged democracy and all.
Thu, 2008-09-04 06:01
#18
Frustrated Mess
quote:
Nicole was videotaping. Her tape of her own violent arrest is chilling. Police in riot gear charged her, yelling, "Get down on your face." You hear her voice, clearly and repeatedly announcing "Press! Press! Where are we supposed to go?" She was trapped between parked cars. The camera drops to the pavement amidst Nicole's screams of pain. Her face was smashed into the pavement, and she was bleeding from the nose, with the heavy officer with a boot or knee on her back. Another officer was pulling on her leg. Sharif was thrown up against the wall and kicked in the chest, and he was bleeding from his arm.... When I asked St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington how reporters are to operate in this atmosphere, he suggested, "By embedding reporters in our mobile field force."
[url=http://www.truthout.org/article/why-we-were-falsely-arrested]In the USA freedom of the press is "reporting what we show you."[/url]
Thu, 2008-09-04 06:06
#19
Where is Sven to tell us how this isn't really suppression? Probably eating his own words due to the many many posts he wrote about how bad Canada is because we have a HRC.
So Sven, what do you have to say about your country's suppression of free speech, free assembly and freedom from religion?
Thu, 2008-09-04 07:02
#20
N.Beltov
[b]U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A![/b]
I thought I'd just say that, for practice or something.
Thu, 2008-09-04 12:47
#21
And I'll add that I have looked over Jordan and have seen the great USSA first-hand. It really has been a great country in the eyes of very many Americans. It's true that there are social programs for everyone but the poor. But even the poor in the USSA are sometimes treated better than they are here in Canada. Coloured lights can hypnotize Sparkle someone else's eyes, Woman! Get away from me. It's a total neon light show down there. They're crazier than ten barrels of monkey doo.
Thu, 2008-09-04 13:22
#22
Frustrated Mess
quote:
" ... once again we ended with Iranians once again providing the Hezbollah with money to help people to rebuild their houses."
--Joe Biden
[url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1017891.html]Rebuilding houses? The evil bastards![/url]
Thu, 2008-09-04 16:30
#23
ceti
Whoah Fidel, did you just mix Roger Waters and the Guess Who together?
Thu, 2008-09-04 16:32
#24
ceti
Biden is a gas bag, only less frightening than the neo-cons because he is so full of himself and no one takes him seriously. Cheney and Palin however, are true believers -- the kind that would shoot you in an instant. Biden would just talk and talk, giving you time to get away.
Fri, 2008-09-05 17:09
#25
Frustrated Mess
quote:
In what appears to be the first use of criminal charges under the 2002 Minnesota version of the Federal Patriot Act, Ramsey County Prosecutors have formally charged 8 alleged leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee with Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism.... The last time such charges were brought under Minnesota law was in 1918, when Matt Moilen and others organizing labor unions for the Industrial Workers of the World on the Iron Range were charged with “criminal syndicalism.” The convictions, based on allegations that workers had advocated or taught acts of violence, including acts only damaging to property, were upheld by the Minnesota Supreme Court. In the light of history, these convictions are widely seen as unjust and a product of political trials. The National Lawyers Guild condemns the charges filed in this case against the above 8 defendants and urges the Ramsey County Attorney to drop all charges of conspiracy in this matter.
[url=http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20690.htm]No justice only lies in America[/url]
Fri, 2008-09-26 13:44
#26
Frustrated Mess
quote:
"We arrived in the early hours of the morning and they took the shackles off our feet and pushed us out of the plane. They hit me and pushed me down on the asphalt. We heard screams and dogs barking. I collapsed with my right leg under me, and I felt the ligaments tearing. When I fell, the soldiers started treading on me. First, they walked on my back, then – when they saw me looking at my leg – they started kicking my leg. One soldier shouted at me: 'Why did you come to fight Americans?' I had a number – I was No 35 and this is how they addressed me, as a number – and the first American shouted at me: 'You filmed Bin Laden.' I said I did not film Bin Laden but that I was a journalist. I again gave my name, my age, my nationality."
[url=http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-six-y... Home of the Craven[/url]
Sun, 2008-09-28 14:19
#27
quote:
Originally posted by ceti:
[b]Biden is a gas bag, only less frightening than the neo-cons because he is so full of himself and no one takes him seriously. Cheney and Palin however, are true believers -- the kind that would shoot you in an instant. Biden would just talk and talk, giving you time to get away.[/b]
Off topic: I don't think he even takes [i]himself[/i] that seriously. [img]tongue.gif" border="0[/img] Unlike Dan Quayle, who was prone to the same sorts of gaffes.
On topic:
I have to say, I'm sad but not surprised, really.
[ 28 September 2008: Message edited by: DrConway ]
Fri, 2008-10-03 13:29
#28
Frustrated Mess
quote:
A 90-year-old Akron woman, about to be evicted from her La Croix Avenue home for failing to pay her mortgage, apparently shot herself Wednesday while Summit County sheriff's deputies were knocking on her door.
[url=http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20940.htm]They bail out fraudsters and gamblers not grandmas[/url]
Wed, 2008-10-29 18:21
#29
Frustrated Mess
[url=http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CB_GUANTANAMO_HUNGER_STRIKER?... in Ameirca do brutalized, hunger striking victims "squirm violently".[/url]
quote:
Three years ago, the man known as Internment Serial Number 669 stopped eating. Ahmed Zaid Zuhair, a father of 10 children in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, had been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002 without charges and decided to join a mass hunger strike in protest. The U.S. military was determined not to let him succeed.Since then, according to court documents reviewed by The Associated Press, guards have struggled with him repeatedly, at least once using pepper spray, shackles and brute force to drag him to a restraint chair for his twice-daily dose of a liquid nutrition mix force-fed through his nose.
Wed, 2008-10-29 18:23
#30
Frustrated Mess
quote:
Jawad's military lawyer, Air Force Maj. David Frakt, said the suppressed evidence indicated Jawad was drugged by Afghans who recruited him for a purported mine-clearing operation and that he was one of three people who confessed to throwing the same grenade.At a hearing in August, he presented testimony that Jawad was beaten and chained to the wall while in U.S. custody in Afghanistan then subjected to extreme isolation and sleep deprivation at Guantanamo even after the sleep deprivation program was ordered halted.
[url=http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=434417]They accuse others of terrorism[/url]