News of other forthcoming suits:

Regarding Chicago, and (Rahm Emanuel) the new mayor’s new and very alarming attempts to squelch civil literties and protest: (from 1.19.12 London Guardian, Barnard Harcourt, “Outlawing Dissent”): Emanuel could have ordered his police “to issue written citations and move the protesters to the sidewalk. In fact, that’s precisely what the police would do a few weeks later at a more obstreperous protest by senior citizens at Occupy Chicago. On that occasion, 43 senior citizens who stopped traffic by standing or sitting in the middle of a downtown street were escorted by police officers off the street without being handcuffed, and were merely issued citations to appear in the department of administrative hearings. (Those arrests, however, took place under the watchful eye of Democratic Senator Dick Durbin and Democratic Representatives Danny Davis, Jan Schakowsky and Mike Quigley.)

“But not on 15 October or the following Saturday night. Instead of issuing citations, the Chicago police arrested over 300 protesters, placed them in handcuffs, treating the municipal park infractions as quasi-criminal charges, booked them, fingerprinted them and detained them overnight in police holding cells, some for as many as 17 hours. They are now aggressively prosecuting these cases in criminal court.”

“That’s precisely the type of practice that chills political expression. The inconsistent treatment of political dissent in Grant Park or at the Chicago board of trade reflects the colossal amount of discretion that mayors and police chiefs have over political discourse today. Police discretion is wide, political expression is fragile.”

“Rahm Emanuel’s message on the G8 and Nato meetings has been loud and clear – and chilling: the DEA, FBI, ATF, DOJ, state police and many other law enforcement agencies will be out in force; it will be harder to comply with the protest laws; and any deviations or errors will be costlier and punished. What’s really troubling is that the G8 and Nato will come and go, but these reforms are with us in Chicago to stay. Chicago’s mayor seems to be following in the footsteps of other municipal officials (recall Rudy Giuliani’s idea of staying on as mayor for an extra three months), who, with a touch of Potus-envy and perhaps a small Napoleonic complex, begin to act like minor tyrants.”

“It’ll be interesting to follow the first amendment litigation brought by the Occupy protesters. Their cases have been joined – there are about 100 of them in the challenge now – and their free speech claims will be heard by the chief judge at the Daley Center on 15 February 2012.”

South Africans know all about detention without trial. During the struggle for democracy, thousands of protesters were arrested and detained without trial. People were tortured through waterboarding, among other methods, just as is the case at present in jails run by the US military, e.g. at Guantanamo.

At the time Americans had a lot to say about the situation in our country. Lots of people and organizations called for boycotts and divestment. In general, most American activists seemed to be very chuffed with themselves, with their keen perspective, their moral superiority.

So, where are these people now, now that the shoe is on the other foot? Now that the US has adopted similar legislation to that adopted in South Africa 25 years ago?

Like Chris Hedges, South Africans know exactly what the kind of legislation signed by President Obama means. It means oppression. Press censorship. Torture. Armoured vehicles in townships.And ordinary people becoming fearful of one another, of what they say among themselves, at parties, at the workplace.

Do Americans really want this for themselves?

It is more or less idle to ask the question, even rhetorically, as to why the liberal class is so supine.  Decades of increasing demand for conformity to conservative status-quo views, under penalty of accusations of disloyalty, and the encouragement of namecalling like “socialist”,“communist” etc., has demonized criticism and opposition to “official” and almost uniformly conservative policies which work to postpone and/or prevent change.
  No wonder, after dacades of excessive demands for “loyalty” to wars and repressions, the “liberal class” is squelched and cannot get its act together, even in the face of grave dangers to life, liberty and the pursuit of any sort of democratic happiness. Social justice is already a crime, and freedom of expression will soon follow—unless .... unless the honest and open rational civilian mind can re-assert itself, arising with determined nonviolence from the smoking ashes of that “only a piece of paper”—the American Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

For anyone interested in articles that actually mention other candidates than Obama/Romney/Gingrich et all, please go to firedoglake.

There are currently articles there about Jill Stein (Green) and Rocky Anderson (Justice)

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Can you TruthDig it?

Dear citizens of Empire,
Romney or Obama: either one is a vote for the
status quo.

A video to illustrate the current state of America and the world:

Graffiti Philosophy

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” -
Jiddu Krishnamurti”

The world on its present course cannot avoid fuel shortages, debt-deflation,
fiscal austerity, increasing poverty, political and environmental conflicts over
energy and essential commodities, unprecedented global protests against Wall
Street financial injustice, political and legal challenges for full reserve monetary
reform, climate and humanitarian disasters, further revolution and war.

We are facing the perfect economic storm, in which sacrificing long-term high
performing income would guarantee poverty for the majority. Selling public
assets amounts to economic suicide.
- Link

re: 3rd Party
the former Governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson is running
for the presidential nomination with the Libertarian Party.

My Own Thoughts:
This country is so divided and broken,
that we need to scrap the whole system
and start over.

Therefore, we need a Constitutional Convention
to finish our ongoing
civil/culture/economic/human rights conflict,
which started in 1776.

A New Constitution will allow us to over-ride the 1% Congress,
the 2-party political system, and coney capitalism
all in one fell swoop—provided the populists win.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7886780711843120756

http://www.amazon.com/Obama-Postmodern-Making-Manchurian-Candidate/dp/0930852885

According to an article in the Guardian Mr. Adler obviously has other
ideas about ways and means of handling Mr. Obama

“Atlanta Jewish Times owner says sorry for Obama ‘hit’ column
Andrew Adler says he deeply regrets writing a column suggesting
Mossad agents should consider ‘a hit’ on the president if he fails to
support Israel”

guardian.co.uk, Friday 20 January 2012 16.10 EST
Article history