Tag: NDAA

The Politics of No Choice

TRC contributor, Tesha Miller 

US Presidential campaigns are now in full swing and the curtains are propped wide open to reveal the sideshow spectacle which has come to represent her politics.  Come one, come all!  Tune out to the real issues of the day, like the slow and agonizing death of the middle class and the lack of a committed political body willing to lift a finger to stop the bleed-out of the people’s wealth.  Let’s not look at the costs, moral and financial, involved in empire’s endless rampage against oil rich nations, or the ethical morass which our tarnished state now represents to the rest of the world.  And by all means, don’t dare utter a word about the promise of yet another QE3 by Bernanke, which will further saddle the nation with greater debt and which America’s working class will ultimately be forced to pay; even as they proclaim the dire need for austerity. Oh no!  This election is about the cults of personalities and about their hollow promises of change. 
If you’ve made it this far and haven’t been purged from the voting lists, due to political affiliation, or still actually believe in the lessor of evil politics, you likely still believe that America is a democratic state, because you get the November privilege of casting a vote.  Maybe you’re mesmerized by the endless campaign messages splattered across your TV screen which are approved by some smiling talking head and you find yourself hoping to God that the entire nation isn’t going to catch fire, just like Rome; even though you smell the burning and feel the heat on your neck. Its making you sweat. 
You force yourself to believe that the system still works because if it doesn’t, it means that you actually have to do something about it, or admit that you’re a coward and are going to get exactly what you deserve.  After all, they showed us what’s coming for the troublemakers, we got front row tickets to the preview; if you take to the streets, like OWS, you get beaten by police in riot gear and jailed without charge.  And should you make enough noise…you might even get paid a visit by the FBI and put on a domestic terrorist list.  
So you play your role in the entire process and pick a side, with a held nose, and debate with your friends and neighbors from the prescribed talking points.  You steer clear of the messy details: the ever widening reaches of the police state, the loss of basic civil rights, the mounting racial tensions, corporate personhood, systemic corruption, environmental carnage, inequality, soaring incarceration rates, failing infrastructure, constant warfare and the end of the American dream. 
I am here to tell you that without your direct involvement in the process that the middle class is going to be a concept reserved for history books.  I am here to tell you that the US is going to continue down the pathway of western hegemony till an economic collapse, or much of the world is a war torn wasteland.  Finally, I’m here to tell you that real democracy isn’t merely the ability to choose between highly selected corporate candidates of gunshot, or poison.  I am here to empower you and remind you that while it is true that we are presented with the politics of no choice, during Novembers election; it doesn’t mean that you can’t determine a third choice for the betterment of our nation…the choice of solidarity with your fellows.

Chris Hedges – Live in Los Angeles / Part Three

A film by Michael Sosebee for Occupy
submitted by Gabrielle Price

On June 28, 2012 Chris Hedges gave an historic talk to a sold-out audience at the Immanuel Presbyterian Church, in Los Angeles, California.  In this final installment, Chris talks about the struggles of the working class and poor of America who are losing unemployment benefits, their homes and food stamps.  He speaks about grassroots movements, his arrest in DC, the birth of Occupy, their demands and his successful law suit against President Obama’s unconstitutional NDAA law.

My personal thanks to Michael Sosebee for sharing this beautifully filmed footage with TRC. I applaud him for his integrity in gifting Chris’s important words and historic message to Occupy and its supporters.

US Supreme Court’s Sotomayor agrees : Organizations are not people

submitted by Gabrielle Price 

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that organizations cannot be sued for the torture under the Torture Victim Protection Act.

The decision came in the case of Azzam Mohamad Rahim, who immigrated to the United States in the 1970s and became a U.S. citizen. In 1995, while on a visit to his home village on the West Bank, he was taken into custody by Palestinian Authority intelligence officers; in the following days, he was allegedly imprisoned, tortured, and killed. The U.S. State Department issued a report classifying Rahim’s death as an extra-judicial killing, while in the custody of the Palestinian Authority.

Rahim’s American family, filed suit against the Palestinian Authority and the PLO under the Torture Victim Protection Act, which authorizes lawsuits against “individuals” who commit acts of torture. The family argued that Congress intended the word “individual” to cover organizations.

But Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the court, rejected that argument as “unpersuasive.”

“No one, we hazard to guess, refers in normal parlance to an organization as an ‘individual,’” Sotomayor said, and there was no indication that Congress intended otherwise.

Hmm, so organizations [i.e. corporations] are NOT individuals, Judge Sotomayor?  You might want to tell Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney this bit of news – as well as the very well organized movement called Move to Amend, oh, and several states, including more recently Vermont who have already moved to amend the constitution which states that corporations are indeed, considered individuals.

The notorious 1886 case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad is just one in a long series of Supreme Court cases that entrenched “corporate personhood” in law. Justices since have struck down hundreds of local, state and federal laws enacted to protect people from corporate harm based on this illegitimate premise. Armed with these “rights,” corporations wield ever-increasing control over jobs, natural assets, politicians, even judges and the law.

The American people roundly reject this archaic notion and we are glad to hear that Judge Sotomayor agrees with us – or does she?  This is a mixed message and one that must be clarified by working to overturn one of the oldest Supreme Court rulings.  One that clearly only serves to marginalize the rights of We The People, including the soldiers who take a blood oath to protect the Constitution – NOT CORPORATIONS OR ORGANIZATIONS.

This is dangerous territory – not only does this archaic law state that corporations are people, giving the 1% free reign to spend and lobby for their own interests, now according to Judge Sotomayor, a corporation could torture a REAL individual.  And the Supreme Court just gave them a ‘get out of jail free card’ for doing so.
Keep this in mind when you think of the banks and corporations who have built the prison industrial complex and indefinite detention under the NDAA.  George Orwell is speaking to us from the grave – and we had better listen – and make our elected officials listen when the people say, “WE will not compromise.”

OCCUPY the Move to Amend movement that is growing across the country – sign the petition, then start a ballot initiative in your state before November if your state has not yet done so.

Find the rest of the NPR article here: Organizations Can’t Be Sued For Torture, High Court Rules