A LITTLE REBELLION

Another Day, Another Drone

A U.S. Predator drone's million-dollar missile ripped through the skies of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border today, fired by a chickenshit CIA operative 7,000 miles away on a computer in Nevada.

Nearly a dozen are instantly killed. But don't worry, some of these human beings were "suspected" terrorists, and if they weren't, we can't be too sure. THIS IS WAR!!!!! Kill them all. 

Ramses Obama, sending drone after drone after drone, bringing death and destruction to starving countries, piling up mountains of skulls there and mountains of debt at home, and lining the pockets of his merchants of death. Just another day in the life of an empire.

(via Antiwar.com)

Whisteblowing is Worse Than Mass Murder...

...According to the US government:

The US Army is holding Specialist Bradley Manning incommunicado in Kuwait on charges of leaking to WikiLeaks video of Apache helicopter pilots gunning down two Reuters cameramen and a number of Iraqis in a Baghdad neighborhood. The video is devastating in what it reveals about cold-blooded hi-technology warfare in a place like Baghdad.WikiLeaks has arranged for three pro-bono lawyers to assist Manning in his case. However, Manning must request they be allowed to see him. Since the Army will not inform Manning of their existence, he cannot ask for them to see him. Joseph Heller would love it, a perfect Catch 22.

Now, take a look at the now-famous clip, leaked by Wikileaks, of what the Amerikan Empire really is all about:

THIS is war, a side Americans rarely ever see. It is not glory, it is not honor, it is MASS MURDER. Plain and simple.

'Acuff-Rose' from Germany

Here's Sean McGurrin, Chris Haskins, and Tobias Langutt playing Uncle Tupelo's "Acuff Rose" at Scruffy's Irish Pub in Karlsruhe, Germany.

I am a huge Uncle Tupelo fan, and this is a GREAT cover. I think they really capture the essence of the song's simplicity and comfort in hearing a great country duo.

Keep in mind that Uncle Tupelo is from Missouri; and yet through the decentralized yet interdependent power of the Internet, they influenced musicians in Germany. Trade, whether economic or cultural, is peace.

David Beats Goliath

Writes James Ostrowski at LRC:

I have kept you posted here on what I call the Pork Lawsuit filed in Albany, NY in 2008. We are seeking to breathe life into the Jeffersonian NY Constitution of 1846 (PDF) by asking the courts to end billions of dollars of cash grants to corporations for “economic development.” It’s a classic David and Goliath story. Fifty libertarian and conservative activists throughout the state chipped in a few bucks to allow me to sit in the law library for two months and decipher dusty old law books.

We are up against five large law firms including Andrew Cuomo’s office and Cravath, Swaine and Moore, the second largest law firm in the US. Early in the case, their lawyer told me they would bury me with paperwork. My reply was, in effect, make my day.

The trial judge threw us out of court and we appealed (PDF) to the Appellate Division in Albany. On Thursday, the five-judge court unanimously reversed in a highly favorable opinion (PDF).

That night, after a well-attended press conference in Buffalo, we celebrated at a local pub. After all, it isn’t every day you hand the corporate state a defeat in their own backyard.

Ostrowski has also written a book and many essays on the evils statism, especially in public prisons schools.

A Tyrant Falls

For three decades, Josef Stalin unleashed hell on Russia and Eastern Europe, turning a quarter of the world into one big death camp: gulags, police states, famines, purges, mass murder, and mass starvation.

The Butcher of Budapest. Uncle Joe. He is THEE epitome of State power, a legacy of millions of skulls. And it's so sweet to see him fall once more.

Authorities removed a towering statue of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin from the central square of his native city in the dead of the night on Friday, carting away the monument to Georgia's most famous native. 

The 6-meter-high bronze statue will be replaced by a monument to victims of Georgia's 2008 war with Russia and of Stalin's repression, officials said -- a rebuke to Moscow.

(via Yahoo News)

Why Can't Gary Johnson Run For Governor?

(from Examiner.com)

It's hard not to feel apathetic about elections when after $110 million and a bombardment of television and radio ads, California has to pick between Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown for Governor.

Most of California agreed, with "Super Tuesday" gathering enough hype to get a whopping 11% of voters to turn out.

Can you blame them? We had a choice between a liberal Democrat with the predictable platform of "I'll spend more of other people's money!" And a liberal Republican who says that she'll spend other people's money "more wisely."

Then there's the continual violation of civil liberties and private property rights that is voraciously defended by nearly every major elected official: the "war on drugs".

Both Whitman and Brown defend the idea that by some unexplained mystical gift of their virtue, they have the right to forcibly tell you what you can and can't do with your minds and bodies, your private property.

This tyrannical notion is most often wrapped in Orwellian language, for our "protection" and "safety." But the war on (certain) drugs is an incredibly lucrative industry for the state, making it millions of dollars a year in asset forfeiture. Plus, the "no-knock " raids help give it the feeling of omnipotence. Control is the nature of political power, and it's a nearly effortless process when we voluntarily submit to these cages and chains.

The Emperor Has No Clothes

 The head of the Praetorian Guard in Afghanistan, General Stanley McKiller, verbally defies the Emperor himself in statements captured by Rolling Stone magazine.

 A quick flight back to the Imperial City and a few minutes of groveling later, off with his head!!!!!!!!

 

General Petraeus, overlord of nearly a third of the world, will take over. He slaughtered thousands in the Balkans in the '90s and over a million in Iraq, and I am sure his legacy will be no different in Central Asia.

Obamacare Is Bad For Your Health

(via ronpaul.com)

'Pictures of the Socialistic Future'

I just got done reading a great article about Eugen Richter's 19th Century dystopian novel Pictures of the Socialistic Future.

Richter, a German, saw Bismarck's reign in Prussia leading to a dangerous path for not only Germany, but for the rest of the world.

He was right, of course; 19th Century Germany is where the modern welfare-warfare state was created, where individuals are barely more than slaves to the political State. A century later, the collectivist mindset would put its boot on the neck of Westerners, creating a century of firebombed cities, gulags, gas chambers, and in its uniquely American form, corporatism.

Here's part of the review of Richter's novel from the Mises blog:

Who could have foreseen such a mythic transformation? Out of all the critics of socialism, one stands out as uniquely prescient: Eugen Richter (1838–1906). During the last decades of the 19th century, he was the leading libertarian in the German Reichstag, as well as the chief editor of the Freisinnige Zeitung. Seventy years before the Wall, Richter's dystopian novel, Pictures of the Socialistic Future, boldly predicted that victorious German socialism would inspire a mass exodus — and that the socialists would respond by banning emigration, and punishing violators with deadly force.

Paul Westerberg is God

His unreleased song from the "Come Feel Me Tremble" DVD. A beautiful, sloppy mess. Classic Westy.

 

 

The Looting Queens of California

As a believer in peace, free markets, and individual liberty, living on the Left Coast can be very frustrating.

Everywhere I look, there are the legacies of collective, governmental action: crumbling schools, thousands of prisons, fleeing capital, unions with entrenched political power, and billions in red ink and debt.

For the last two decades, the electoral face of the policies that have created these problems are the Queens of California; the trio of Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, and Dianne Feinstein.

Every time they fly their private jets to Washington, DC, they expand the size and scope of government, at a terrible cost to our wealth and our liberty.

As our property is centralized into their hands, the irony is they, like nearly all politicians, are fabulously wealthy themselves. According to SF Gate, Madame Speaker Pelosi is a multimillionaire:

Pelosi, D-San Francisco, reported income of $102,161 from book royalties in addition to her salary of $223,500 as speaker. She also has several joint accounts and properties with her husband, Paul Pelosi, a real estate investor and venture capitalist.

The couple own a St. Helena vineyard, Zinfandel Lane, valued $5 million to $25 million, in addition to a town home valued from $1 million to $5 million.

Paul Pelosi also has stock in several companies, including Apple, Microsoft and Yahoo. He also listed a partial sale of stock in the United Football League valued at $1 million to $5 million, and a partial sale of stock in Motorola valued at $500,000 to $1 million.

So is Senator Boxer:

Boxer's value of assets is listed in a blind trust that the Senate Ethics Committee approved in 2001. The value of the trust is estimated at between $1 million and $5 million, according to her financial disclosure statement. Stewart Boxer reported assets in Wells Fargo Bank valued at $100,000 to $250,000.

Janet Napolitano: Big Mother

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano wants her eyes all over the Internet, a decentralized and interdependent economy and a free market of information. For our "protection," of course.

Writes Lew Rockwell:

Janet Napolitano wants total surveillance of the American people so the regime can monitor the cash cows for any sign of impending disobedience. This is a small price for the people to pay so the imperial corporate state can rip-off and run us and the world. Of course, this is not the way she puts it.

The Empire Comes Home

When the US government engages in imperial crimes overseas, it may be easy to somewhat rationalize these events since they occur thousands of miles away from our shores to people the Pentagon calls "terrorists."

But the history of empires shows that eventually they turn inward, and the tools that are used to make foreigners submit are imported to the domestic population to make us submit.

After 9/11 and the beginning of the "war on terror," the Bush Administration began brutally torturing thousands of (mostly innocent) random detainees all across Afghanistan and Iraq. Within months, an American citizen was kidnapped, tortured, and detained without trial.

Now fast forward a few years, and the tactics of occupation used in Mesopotamia have made their way back to the American continent. Law enforcement has grown increasingly militarized; the Pentagon has used the logic of empire to centralize police powers by passing out cash and sophisticated weaponry to local and county governments all across the country.

Tom Engelhardt on Democracy Now!

Tom Engelhardt, editor and founder of TomDispatch, is one of the leading voices exposing the crimes of the American Empire.

Here he is on Democracy Now! discussing his book, "The American Way of War: How Bush's Wars Became Obama's."

(via Antiwar.com)

Jon Stewart on Bush III

Here's a great clip of Jon Stewart from The Daily Show on Obama's love of executive power now that it's in his hands. Empire, drone strikes, torture, indefinite detention, and the jailing of whistleblowers who expose the crimes of the State. Hope and change indeed.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Respect My Authoritah
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Anarchy Day!!!!!

Starting today, the 18th of every month is Anarchy Day, dedicated to the respect for every individual, voluntary action, and opposition to state power.

From fellow anarchist and examiner.com contributor Kent McNanigal:

Random Acts of Anarchy

(I apologize for using the collective terms "us" and "we", but couldn't think of any other way to say this. I am not presuming to speak for you. Really.)

I think it is time for anarchists to take back the term from the nihilists who have stolen it. Anarchists don't wish to destroy anything other than the coercive collective of government, and the slave mind-set that empowers it.

I think it would be great fun to have an "Anarchy Day". I have decided to celebrate annually on June 18th, with a mini-Anarchy Day on the 18th of every month, but there may be better dates. In northern climes, winter dates might not work too well for what I have in mind.

On our Anarchy Day, each of us individual anarchists could commit random acts of helpful, public anarchy. Each of us recognizes, of course, that we all, even the most enthusiastic statists, live our daily lives in a basic condition of anarchy. It is the only way that works unless you are in a coma. For one day, I would like to see us show the rest of the world why anarchism is the only philosophy that really works; without ordering others around and stealing from them.

BP Socialism and Oil for War

It's very frustrating watching the coverage of BP's now 2-month old oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

On the one hand, you have conservatives who have been blasting Obama daily for his "lack of leadership" and his "failure to respond." They seem to have a knee-jerk reaction to criticize anything the President does because he belongs to the "opposition" party. And like all good authoritarians, they crave a strong man.

The Left is no better. Resorting to attacks on "capitalism" and the "greedy oil companies," mainstream liberals tend to have the unfortunate deficiency of knowing very little about basic economics.

But BP (and you could include the entire oil industry as well) operates under the good ol' American socialist/corporatist system, with heavy ties to the Pentagon's war machine; privatized profits, with losses socialized on our backs. Writes Nick Turse via Antiwar.com:

As an institution, the Pentagon runs on oil.  Its jet fighters, bombers, tanks, Humvees, and other vehicles burn 75% of the fuel used by the Department of Defense. For example, B-52 bombers consume 47,000 gallons per mission, and when an F-16 fighter kicks in its afterburners, it burns through $300 worth of fuel a minute.  In fact, according to an article in the April 2010 issue of Energy Source, the official newsletter of the Pentagon’s fuel-buying component, the DoD purchases three billion gallons of jet fuel per year.

Another Police Raid, Another Pet Dead

Three days after a Seattle cop punched a 17-year old girl in the face, the State's fascistas are at it again.

This time, a 13-year old pit bull was shot when the police entered an elderly woman's home in the Imperial City. From ABC News:

According to the search warrant, six officers showed up at Robinson's door in the 1300 block 5th Street NW around 9 Tuesday night in search of drugs and paraphrenalia in relation to her 28-year-old grandson. Robinson says he hasn't lived in the home in years.

"My grandson couldn't even come in here 'cause he hasn't lived here so long. My dog don't know my grandson," said Robinson.

Robinson says she let them in under one condition.

"I said 'can I put my dog in the bathroom?'...The officer said 'yes' and then he opened the door and shot her," Robinson told us.

Bullet holes in the bathroom mark the spot where Wrinkles was killed.

Seattle Cop Assaults 17-Year Old Girl

In the last few decades, law enforcement in the US has evolved from a clumsy and occasionally abusive institution into a militarized police state.

The "war on drugs" has given us the loss of privacy, the confiscation of private property, millions locked in cages and/or put on parole, huge incentives for police departments for corruption and collusion with drug cartels, and the use of tactics that mirror the Gestapo's.

And now due to the bogeyman of "terrorism," Americans have passively shrugged off the presence of armed military personnel and porno scanners at airports. The passing of draconian legislation in the name of fighting "terrorism" also help numb Americans to the growth of the state. It's for your own good, got it?

Which is why it's not surprising to see what happened in Seattle last Monday. After citing a 17-year old girl for jaywalking, the teenager had the audacity to resist the armed government agent, who then punched her in the face. From Yahoo News:

 

 

The 30-year Afghan War?

From Jeff Sparrow at Crikey.com:

Last week, with very little fanfare, Afghanistan became the longest war in US history. In Australia, John Faulkner says Australian troops will be deployed for another three years minimum, a prediction that US strategic analyst Daniel Ellsberg immediately dismissed as hopelessly optimistic. “The war will no more be over in three to five years than it is right now … if Australians are committed to supporting this strategy, they can figure on 10, 20 and 30 years of involvement,” he said.

Thirty years: that’s a whole lotta war. And to what end?

Last week, the new British PM David Cameron told his troops: “This is not a war of choice, it is a war of necessity. […]  If we left tomorrow, those [terrorist] training camps could come back tomorrow, because the Afghans aren’t ready to look after their own security. As soon as they are ready, we can go home.” That’s the line here, too — but, actually, few of the war’s supporters now even pretend to believe it.

Bush called it "the long war." Obama calls it "the good war." And with no end in sight to this god awful occupation, the Amerikan empire grows and grows.

After all, we have always been at war with Eastasia.