Saturday, June 29, 2013

April M. Short — Facing 13 Years in Prison for Denouncing the Bank Bailouts—Using Kids' Chalk?

The ruling judge has stripped the defendant of his First Amendment rights.
AlterNet
Facing 13 Years in Prison for Denouncing the Bank Bailouts—Using Kids' Chalk?
April M. Short

Welcome to Amerika. Teaching a lesson in intimidation.
San Diego’s mayor, Bob Filner, called the trial “a misuse and waste of taxpayer money” in a June 20 memo to City Attorney Jan Goldsmith.
He wrote: “It could also be characterized as an abuse of power that infringes on First Amendment, particularly when it is arbitrarily applied to some, but not all, similar speech."
Exactly, selective prosecution is abuse of power, that is, use of power largely or solely to the advantage of the power elite.

Wake up, America. It's getting late in the game. Neoliberalism is fascism and the enemy of democracy. Economic liberalism is the enemy of political freedom.

See also, Digby, This Really Is Big Brother: The Leak Nobody's Noticed, at Hullaballo, cross-posted at AlterNet.
Government documents reviewed by McClatchy [Newspapers] illustrate how some agencies are using that latitude to pursue unauthorized disclosures of any information, not just classified material. They also show how millions of federal employees and contractors must watch for “high-risk persons or behaviors” among co-workers and could face penalties, including criminal charges, for failing to report them. Leaks to the media are equated with espionage.
“Hammer this fact home . . . leaking is tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States,” says a June 1, 2012, Defense Department strategy for the program that was obtained by McClatchy.







3 comments:

Malmo's Ghost said...

Here's a comment from the article:

"Red vs Blue, left vs right, conservative vs liberal are fights between citizens intentionally created by the political class to divide us. Drop the partisan hatred as it only serves the overlords."

Divide and conquer. Time tested.


As for this case, It could end up at the high court, but at any rate will be appealed if there's a conviction.

Ralph Musgrave said...

I see the BoA claimed it cost them $6,000 to clean the water soluble chalk off the pavement. What does it cost BoA to wash up a cup or a dish? $1,000?

Please, please: I want to come to America and do the washing up in some BoA canteen. I’d only charge $100 per cup or dish. I’ve always heard about America being the land of opportunity. Now I know it’s true.

Tom Hickey said...

Cost breakdown:

Labor - 100 (10 hr at $10 p/hr)
Materials - 25 (buckets, detergent, brushes, misc.)
Management & overhead - 5875 (because some people are better than others)
Total - 6000