RevLeft

Homeland Battlefield Act Portion Found Unconstitutional By New York Judge

Klaatu — Thu, 17 May 2012 03:50:59 GMT

Quote:

Homeland Battlefield Act Portion Found Unconstitutional By New York Judge

Posted: 05/16/2012 5:43 pm Updated: 05/16/2012 11:03 pm

WASHINGTON -- A day before Congress weighs an amendment to end indefinite military detentions in the U.S., a federal judge Wednesday ruled the law that allows the practice unconstitutional.

Saying the measure has "chilling impact on First Amendment rights," U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest, of New York's Eastern District, found that a group of reporters and activists who brought the lawsuit had no way of knowing whether they could be subjected to it. That makes it an unconstitutional infringement on the First Amendment's free speech right and the Fifth Amendment's right to due process, Forrest said in a written opinion.

The lead plaintiffs -- Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges of the Nation Institute and Tangerine Bolen, who runs the website RevolutionTruth -- argued that they conceivably could be grabbed under the law because they deal with sources that U.S. authorities may deem to fall under the law, Section 1021 of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act.

The law defines the suspects who can be detained as a "person who was a part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces."

Forrest found the language too vague, and repeatedly tried to get government attorneys to say that the reporters' fears were unfounded. The lawyers declined.

"At the hearing on this motion, the government was unwilling or unable to state that these plaintiffs would not be subject to indefinite detention under [section] 1021," Forrest wrote. "Plaintiffs are therefore at risk of detention, of losing their liberty, potentially for many years.

"An individual could run the risk of substantially supporting or directly supporting an associated force without even being aware that he or she was doing so," Forrest wrote. "In the face of what could be indeterminate military detention, due process requires more."

"We dealt a pretty big blow to two branches of Congress and President Obama," Bolen told The Huffington Post. Bolen got involved in the lawsuit because she worked extensively on the Wikileaks and Bradley Manning cases, and used her website to expose where the war on terror has gone tragically wrong, including interviewing Iraqis and Afghans with damning tales to tell.

"Given that I engage in those two activities and I have an entire team around the world, I really felt that under the vague language of the NDAA, someone like me could easily get in trouble," Bolen said.

"If I start showing that we're behaving in such an egregious manner in this country in our alleged war on terror, and I become a thorn in the side of the U.S government in fighting for our rights -- the phrase material support, I'm talking to, quote, alleged terrorists or people around the world who may be questionable -- just by talking to them and interviewing them on a platform, am I providing them material support?" Bolen said. "That was my fear."

The author and activist Naomi Wolf said watching the judge question administration lawyers repeatedly on the issue of who might be detained under the law -- and the lawyers not answering -- was downright chilling. To have the judge find that state of affairs unconstitutional was a profound relief, Wolf said in an interview.

"To hear those words -- it's so true, it's so obvious -- it puts in glaring relief the hideousness, the unconstitutionality, the darkness of this legislative efffort and others like it," Wolf said. "She is so completely, obviously right. It's nothing short of treason to have put forward legislation like this, let alone to have had most of the people who represent us and our president sign off on this clearly, obviously criminally unconstitutional -- unconstitutional is inadequate. It's anti-constitutional. It's dictatorial.

"I'm so happy as a mother. It's so profound. All of us were put in danger by this law."

The White House had no comment on the ruling Wednesday night.

Reps. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Justin Amash (R-Mich.) are offering an amendment on Thursday to the 2013 Defense Authorization Act that would end the law. Amash sent an appeal to fellow lawmakers soon after the ruling, asking them to pass it.

"The amendment I�m offering with Rep. Adam Smith is the ONLY amendment that ensures that persons arrested on U.S. soil aren�t detained indefinitely without charge or trial," Amash wrote. "Voting against the Smith-Amash amendment allows the government to retain the power to detain persons, picked up in the U.S., for life, on the suspicion that they 'substantially supported' forces 'associated' with our enemies."

"If our constituents haven�t sent a clear enough message, tonight�s ruling surely does: Congress must act now to guarantee the constitutional right to a charge and a trial," Amash wrote.

The progressive group Demand Progress was among those directing voters to contact their elected representives about the law, using an online petition and a new Facebook tool.

The government has 60 days to decide whether to appeal.

source
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1522587.html

Bourgeois Bullshit

Vyacheslav Brolotov — Thu, 17 May 2012 03:50:31 GMT

+ YouTube Video
ERROR: If you can see this, then YouTube is down or you don't have Flash installed.

Ugh. Comrade Stalin would have never allowed such a disgusting affront to proletarian morality. Men with long hair and earrings! The idea!

Why should I join Communism?

harte.beest — Thu, 17 May 2012 02:49:53 GMT

SO I'm actually embarrassed to sign up here. I'm an ex-wall st banker, currently working customer service ripping off old folks (don't ask)

I'm not educated in communism (especially compared to some of you) I don't know who tito is, or what roosterism is, or what the definitions of proletariat or buogousie are. I'll look themup later just wanted everyone to know that these are all new things to me so please forgive my future ignorance.

Im know thnking o getting bank nto banking, i have to renew my licenses but i'm thinking about not going back. I screwed over alot of people and I don't know if I should keep doing it

first I was moderate, then democrat, then liberal, then socialist, now I'm thinking of becoming a full blown commie

SO what's my first assignment?

Aquatic Ape Hypothesis

Vox Populi — Thu, 17 May 2012 02:38:43 GMT

I just heard of this hypothesis today from my roommate and I was curious as to what some more science savvy members think. I'm currently watching the BBC documentary and I think it's fascinating and I would like to get others opinions or theories on the subject. So, do you think it's possibly that instead of our ancestors making their way from the trees to the open plains of the savannah instead where aquatic? Further, do you think this theory is credible or plausible or do you think it's ridiculous and laughable? If the latter, please explain why.

For those unfamiliar here's the wiki link and I posted part 1 of the documentary below.

+ YouTube Video
ERROR: If you can see this, then YouTube is down or you don't have Flash installed.

Murray Bookchin's "Communalism" Philosophy

Mag�n — Thu, 17 May 2012 01:58:21 GMT

So recently a roommate of mine bought the book, Social Ecology and Communalism by Murray Bookchin, a former Anarchist who became disillusioned with it, and instead created what he called "Communalism", an idea he theorized that fell under Libertarian Socialism, and is for some either just branching off Anarchism, or completely leaves it behind for something new and fresh.

Just for you who don't know, or aren't familiar, there's a quick snip.

And here are the Wikipedia links to get more on either.

Murray Bookchin.

Communalism.

Anyway, I took a bit of a look at the book, not really familiar or as knowledgable with Communalism, as I am with Anarchism and the classic theories like AnCom, AnSyn, etc. and I'm really on the fence about it. I've only really known enough about Communalism to get by, like that they're against private property but not personal property, they want an egalitarian society, no money, and basically the basics of Communism. But what I didn't know was that Communalism has a major hangup for me. It sounds great and all, but when I looked into the book, and did some research on the internet (beyond Wikipedia), I found out pretty quick that it doesn't sound as Revolutionary as it might first sound like.

For one, and my biggest hangup, is Communalism sees no problem (as far as I'm aware) with voting in the current system of elections, and how they go about them, which to me sounds like a SocDem line. I mean we all understand you can't vote in revolution, but that seems to be sort of what Bookchin and Communalism, are saying?

Doing a little more research, and talking with my roommate about this, I found out that Communalism, although not a big subject in todays discussion, or ever was as far as I know, is debated among Anarchists as being revolutionary or not being revolution, and is possibly just another reformist ideology that some guy who became disillusioned with a real revolutionary ideology, made to better fit what he saw.

Basically that got me more interested in Communalism and Anarchists, because I don't know many Anarchists (any really,) who have a solid opinion on Communalism. They all seem to have the opinion I have, which is really on the fence about it. In one hand, yeah, it sounds nice, but on the other there's this big hangup on them seeming reformist and thinking you can "vote revolution in", which I just don't see or agree with it at all.

So what are you opinions, ideas, 2 cents worth on Communalism and Bookchin? Revolutionary or Reformist?

Oblomovism

brawler5k2 — Thu, 17 May 2012 01:16:13 GMT

Hello, I'm curious about a movement/observation/w/e called Oblomovism and I wish to request whether anyone here can share in depth information about this. Thank you in advanced :).

Nine Lives of Nestor Makhno?

Robespierres Neck — Thu, 17 May 2012 00:12:07 GMT

Does anyone know where I can find this show? Anywhere online?

Music like Commandantes?

Regicollis — Thu, 17 May 2012 00:07:40 GMT

I really like Commandantes' concept of recording rock/heavy versions of classic songs of the worker's movement.

Are there any other bands who are doing the same thing that you could recommend?

a alternative to capitalism for those facing a future of shifting through garbagecans

psycho — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:58:23 GMT

Quote:

Blockupy Frankfurt is a glimmer of hope in times of austerity
Popular protests such as Blockupy offer an alternative to capitalism for those facing a life hunting through garbage cans

Protest against austerity measures such as those imposed in Greece 'is the fury of refusal, of stifled creation, of indignation'. Photograph: Yiorgos Karahalis/Reuters

John Holloway

guardian.co.uk, Mon 14 May 2012 17.35 BST

Now, more than ever, the world looks two ways at once. Which way it turns will depend significantly on the protests announced for the days that come: Blockupy Frankfurt on 16 to 19 May, and all the explosions of creative anger that will follow.
One face looks towards a dark, depressing world. A world of closing doors. A closing of lives, of possibilities, of hopes. These are times of austerity. You must learn to live with reality. You must obey if you want to survive, give up your dreams. Do not expect to live by doing what you like. You will be lucky to find a job at all. Perhaps you can study, but only if your parents have money. And, even then, do not think that you can study something critical. Criticism has fled from the universities. What is the point of criticising when we all know that the world is set in its course? There is no alternative, just the reality of the rule of money, so forget your dreams. Work hard in whatever scrap of employment you can find, or else look forward to a life of hunting through garbage cans, because there will be no welfare state to protect you. Look at Greece and be warned.
This lesson of despair was learned by Dimitris Christoulas, who shot himself in Syntagma Square in the centre of Athens on 4 April. A 77-year-old ex-pharmacist whose pension was wiped out by the austerity measures imposed by the governments of Europe, he said: "I can find no other solution than to put an end to my life before I start sifting through garbage cans for my food."
This is the meaning of austerity. This is what the governments of Europe and the world are trying to impose on the people � all the governments are the servants of money, whether they speak from apparent positions of power, like the German government, or whether they are the simple functionaries of the international bank system, like Lucas Papademos or Mario Monti. The austerity measures do not just impose poverty, they cut the wings of hope.
That is the direction the world is heading in, but is that all there is? The death of Christoulas faces in two directions: it is despair, but also a refusal to accept despair. In his suicide note he writes: "I believe that young people with no future will one day take up arms and hang this country's traitors upside down in Syntagma Square just as the Italians hanged Mussolini in 1945." Hope glows in the very depths of despair.
The basis of that hope is a simple no: no, we will not accept your austerity. No, we will not accept the obscene inequalities of this world we live in; no, we will not accept a society that is hurtling us towards our own destruction. And no, we will not suggest alternative policies. We do not want to solve your problems because the future of capitalism is the death of humanity. Even if capital solves this crisis, the next one will not be far away, even more destructive. We will not obey you, politicians-bankers, because you are the dead past, we are the possible future.
That is our hope: we are the only possible future. But our possible future is no more than a possibility. Its realisation depends on our being able to turn the world around. How do we turn the world around? Christoulas speaks of young people taking up arms and hanging the politicians from the lampposts. The politicians of the world know that it is not just fantasy: that is why in Greece they are afraid to go out in the streets, that is why all over the world they are giving more and more arms and powers to the police. Yet it is not by arms that we can turn the world around and create something new. Guns are their weapon, not ours. Our fury is the fury of refusal, of stifled creation, of indignation.
But our refusal means little unless it is supported by an alternative creation. Refuse and create. Our "no" to the old world will not hold unless we create a new world here and now. Representative democracy has failed and we build a real democracy in our squares, our meetings, our protests. Capital fails to provide the basics of life and we form networks of mutual support. Money destroys, and we say "no, we shall create a different logic and a different way of coming together", and so we proclaim "no home without electricity" and organise the reconnection of the electricity supply whenever it is cut off. Debt collectors come to take away our homes and we organise mass protests to stop them. People go hungry and we create community gardens. The drive for profit massacres human and non-human life and we create new relations, new ways of doing things.
All of this is inadequate, all is experimental, but that is the way to go, that is the new world of mutual recognition struggling to be born. Perhaps we cannot yet change the whole world, but we can create and we are creating it here and now, we are creating cracks in the system and these cracks will grow and spread and multiply and flow together. We can and will stop it, we shall turn the world around.

Blockupy Frankfurt is a glimmer of hope in times of austerity
Popular protests such as Blockupy offer an alternative to capitalism for those facing a life hunting through garbage cans

Protest against austerity measures such as those imposed in Greece 'is the fury of refusal, of stifled creation, of indignation'. Photograph: Yiorgos Karahalis/Reuters

John Holloway

guardian.co.uk, Mon 14 May 2012 17.35 BST
Comment
Now, more than ever, the world looks two ways at once. Which way it turns will depend significantly on the protests announced for the days that come: Blockupy Frankfurt on 16 to 19 May, and all the explosions of creative anger that will follow.
One face looks towards a dark, depressing world. A world of closing doors. A closing of lives, of possibilities, of hopes. These are times of austerity. You must learn to live with reality. You must obey if you want to survive, give up your dreams. Do not expect to live by doing what you like. You will be lucky to find a job at all. Perhaps you can study, but only if your parents have money. And, even then, do not think that you can study something critical. Criticism has fled from the universities. What is the point of criticising when we all know that the world is set in its course? There is no alternative, just the reality of the rule of money, so forget your dreams. Work hard in whatever scrap of employment you can find, or else look forward to a life of hunting through garbage cans, because there will be no welfare state to protect you. Look at Greece and be warned.
This lesson of despair was learned by Dimitris Christoulas, who shot himself in Syntagma Square in the centre of Athens on 4 April. A 77-year-old ex-pharmacist whose pension was wiped out by the austerity measures imposed by the governments of Europe, he said: "I can find no other solution than to put an end to my life before I start sifting through garbage cans for my food."
This is the meaning of austerity. This is what the governments of Europe and the world are trying to impose on the people � all the governments are the servants of money, whether they speak from apparent positions of power, like the German government, or whether they are the simple functionaries of the international bank system, like Lucas Papademos or Mario Monti. The austerity measures do not just impose poverty, they cut the wings of hope.
That is the direction the world is heading in, but is that all there is? The death of Christoulas faces in two directions: it is despair, but also a refusal to accept despair. In his suicide note he writes: "I believe that young people with no future will one day take up arms and hang this country's traitors upside down in Syntagma Square just as the Italians hanged Mussolini in 1945." Hope glows in the very depths of despair.
The basis of that hope is a simple no: no, we will not accept your austerity. No, we will not accept the obscene inequalities of this world we live in; no, we will not accept a society that is hurtling us towards our own destruction. And no, we will not suggest alternative policies. We do not want to solve your problems because the future of capitalism is the death of humanity. Even if capital solves this crisis, the next one will not be far away, even more destructive. We will not obey you, politicians-bankers, because you are the dead past, we are the possible future.
That is our hope: we are the only possible future. But our possible future is no more than a possibility. Its realisation depends on our being able to turn the world around. How do we turn the world around? Christoulas speaks of young people taking up arms and hanging the politicians from the lampposts. The politicians of the world know that it is not just fantasy: that is why in Greece they are afraid to go out in the streets, that is why all over the world they are giving more and more arms and powers to the police. Yet it is not by arms that we can turn the world around and create something new. Guns are their weapon, not ours. Our fury is the fury of refusal, of stifled creation, of indignation.
But our refusal means little unless it is supported by an alternative creation. Refuse and create. Our "no" to the old world will not hold unless we create a new world here and now. Representative democracy has failed and we build a real democracy in our squares, our meetings, our protests. Capital fails to provide the basics of life and we form networks of mutual support. Money destroys, and we say "no, we shall create a different logic and a different way of coming together", and so we proclaim "no home without electricity" and organise the reconnection of the electricity supply whenever it is cut off. Debt collectors come to take away our homes and we organise mass protests to stop them. People go hungry and we create community gardens. The drive for profit massacres human and non-human life and we create new relations, new ways of doing things.
All of this is inadequate, all is experimental, but that is the way to go, that is the new world of mutual recognition struggling to be born. Perhaps we cannot yet change the whole world, but we can create and we are creating it here and now, we are creating cracks in the system and these cracks will grow and spread and multiply and flow together. We can and will stop it, we shall turn the world around.

"better this world", documentairy on the entrapment of the texas/rnc 2

psycho — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:17:12 GMT

+ YouTube Video
ERROR: If you can see this, then YouTube is down or you don't have Flash installed.

http://betterthisworld.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/ar...nformants.html

anyone seen this movie? i hope to get to see it soon, was it as good as i hope?

Rich asshole kills 2, raises anti-Chinese xenophobia

Tim Cornelis — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:26:09 GMT

I know, de mortuis nil nisi bonum, but whatever. A rich asshole drove at 100 km/hour in a 1,000,000$ ferrari right into a crossroad and killed 2 people, as well as himself.

Unfortunately, this has raised anti-Chinese sentiments.

http://shanghaiist.com/2012/05/16/fe...-singapore.php

DIY justice/does anyone know how to turn a license plate number into a home address?

homegrown terror — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:11:12 GMT

because i want to find the fucker who nearly killed my son last night.

MLism and being a Catholic

Black_Rose — Wed, 16 May 2012 20:31:35 GMT

I am consider myself a Catholic now (and no, I will not make any attempt to explicitly proselytize anyone) yet I still a Marxist-Leninist political weltanschauung. That itself is a testimony of the ideological coherence and power of MLism, but it also shows a lack of any credible alternatives in mainstream politics; I cannot revert to liberalism or social democracy (or be among the right) ever since I adopted an ML mindset.

The ideologies are inherently contradictory on social and political issues; for example, see CCC 1941:

Quote:

Socio-economic problems can be resolved only with the help of all the forms of solidarity: solidarity of the poor among themselves, between rich and poor, of workers among themselves, between employers and employees in a business, solidarity among nations and peoples. International solidarity is a requirement of the moral order; world peace depends in part upon this.

This entry obviously condracts ML orthodoxy as it claims that genuine solidarity (as opposed to general appeasement through social welfare programs and short-term tactical alliances) among the rich and poor, while MLism encourages agitation and class consciousness among the oppressed, under the leadership of an ideologically orthodox and political savvy vanguard, to seize power for the oppressing classes. However, I will not attempt to reconcile the two ideologies here. (I currently find ML orthodoxy tenable, and I find CCC 1941 to be quite idealistic and quixotic and difficult to accept rationally, while, in contrast, I could easily support ML position on class consciousness with my repository of historical, political, economic facts from an ML framework.)

Yes, in some social contexts, religion can be an opiate for the masses that acts as an analgesic that prevents the oppressed classes from being aware of the exploitative nature of capitalism and the capitalist class whose economic self-interest sustains the system. The opioid effort of religion would purportedly preclude a sense of class consciousness, as that requires the working class to have a general awareness of the incorrigibly unjust and exploitative nature of the system, collectively articulate legitimate grievances, and a willingness to act in a concerted fashion to overthrow the system. However, other factors besides religion, cultivated by bourgeois society, such as consumerism, individualism, and political pluralism, also serve to alienate and atomize the masses (by diverting their attention to narrow, individual economic aspirations as opposed to broad class interests) and prevents them from attaining class consciousness.

In practice, I find little conflict with practicing Catholicism (attending Mass and praying) and Church dogma (what is articulated in various statements of faith such as the Nicene Creed). I am currently an ML defeatist since I do not think a revolution is possible in the medium term in the United States, nor do I find contemporary bourgeois democracy or the sentiments of the electorate to be fertile ground to advance any political agenda. This is tantamount political apathy and disinterest, since I possess no personal preference for any outcome of the electoral possess as the political institutions are controlled by the cosmopolitan bourgeoisie, but retain some interest and curiosity in observing the election as a political phenomenon from a detached perspective. I still have an interested in defending ML as an intellectual position against my fellow parishioners, but I have no intention of converting them. To me, it is just an intellectual exercise that is unlikely to significantly affect an external political process or practicing my faith.

[And yes, I respect the strident atheists among us would want to intellectually dismantle religion with their philosophical and empirical arguments (who also serve a practical purpose of being a moderating force against religious fundamentalism), but I find overt hostility towards religion to be politically unproductive. I simply respect the new atheist's desire (as individuals) to take pleasure in dominating their theistic adversaries, who are incapable of defending their own beliefs, during their debates.]

---
Some conservative Catholics encourage people to vote for Republicans who will at least hold the Democratic "culture of death" at bay. Fuck that! I rather just stay at home and puff a blunt during election day. At least I'll keep my moral and intellectual integrity.
---

Also, my signature is largely secular, despite it being a quotation from the Bible, as it does not directly state any tenet of faith. In the context of a radical left-wing forum, just regard the "lukewarm" as the liberals and social democrats who lack the determination and resolve of the communists to abolish capitalism. It was (and still is) my favorite quotation when I was an agnostic.

Question for leftcoms/Trots/etc regarding socialism in one country

Kim Brong il — Wed, 16 May 2012 20:26:10 GMT

Being a Marxist-Leninist, I obviously do believe that socialism can be achieved or at least partially built in one country should the revolution not spread.

But to the Trotskyists and Left Communists and whatnot - for what material reason can socialism not be built in one country? It's obviously not ideal, and SIOC was more or less a doctrine of necessity, but I see no reason why, materially, socialism cannot be built in one country. Anyhow though I don't mean this to be a debate thread, just asking anti-SIOC people to clarify their views on it.

Also, as a side question, what do most Trotskyists believe was the proper course of action when the revolution did not immediately spread into West Europe? You wouldn't agree that 70 years of war communism would be a bad idea?

Anarchists threaten Italian president

Tim Cornelis — Wed, 16 May 2012 20:25:13 GMT

Quote:

Anarchists threaten Italy's PM Monti

LOCRI, Italy | Wed May 16, 2012 8:36pm IST

(Reuters) - An Italian anarchist group that has claimed responsibility for shooting the boss of a nuclear engineering firm threatened on Wednesday to target Prime Minister Mario Monti.

The group, calling itself the Olga Nucleus of the Informal Anarchist Federation-International Revolutionary Front, said in a statement sent to a newspaper in southern Italy that Monti was among seven remaining targets after Roberto Adinolfi, boss of Ansaldo Nucleare, was shot in the leg last week.

The attack fuelled rising concern about a return of political violence in Italy because of economic hardship and increasing opposition to austerity measures implemented by Monti's government.

In a statement sent to the Calabria Ora daily, the group said that attacks against tax enforcement agency Equitalia would continue as long as the government pushed ahead with reforms to cut Italy's huge debt.

"We say to Monti that he is one of the seven remaining and that the people have no interest in staying in Europe, saving the banks and helping to balance the accounts of a state that squandered money for its own interests," the statement said.

Any suicide by an Italian citizen connected to tax difficulties would be punished as a "state murder", it added.

There have been a string of suicides in Italy by businessmen despairing at the collapse of their livelihoods because of the crisis.

The statement contained the same symbols and was in a similar style to a letter sent to Corriere della Sera newspaper last week claiming responsibility for the attack on Adinolfi in the northern city of Genoa.

Italian police believe the claim of responsibility to be genuine and Genoa chief prosecutor Michele di Lecce said last week he would not rule out further attacks.

The same anarchist group claimed last year to have sent letter bombs to among others, Deutsche Bank boss Josef Ackermann in Germany. The director general of Equitalia in Rome lost a finger after opening one of the bombs last December.

Suspected members of a group linked to the far-left Red Brigades, who terrorised Italy during the "Years of Lead" in the 1970s and 80s, called in court for armed revolution on Tuesday when asked about the Adinolfi shooting

(Reporting By Ilario Filippone, writing by Catherine Hornby; editing by Barry Moody)

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/0...84F0CI20120516