September 17, 2013

Has Wikileaks Been Infiltrated by Russian Spies?

Leak group has a troubling history with the Kremlin
Joshua Foust in War is Boring

... the chain of events leading up to Snowden’s flight, and his decision in Hong Kong to flee to Russia, of all places, strongly suggest that Russian intel has co-opted him to a remarkable degree ...

Assange got his Kremlin show after he threatened to publish embarrassing documents on Russia’s political elite in 2010, but relented after an FSB official hinted at violent reprisal against Wikileaks. Those documents were never published.

Months later, Israel Shamir, a Belarussian anti-Semite who publicly identifies himself as Wikileaks’ Russian-language representative, sent a tranche of documents about democracy activists to Belarussian tyrant Alexander Lukashenko. He was selling them for a reported $10,000 ...

When Snowden landed at the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow on June 23, Putin was surprised. “It was completely unexpected for us,” he told reporters. But it is difficult to square that statement with the Kommersant report alleging Snowden’s days-long stay in the Russian consulate — or even Putin’s statement earlier in June that he would welcome Snowden’s asylum ...

https://medium.com/war-is-boring/b876a8bc035a

September 17, 2013

I shouldn't really be knocking doors this late: the streetlights are on and the sunset gone

But I've miscalculated how long the list would take: I'd guessed two minutes per door, and it's really closer to three and a half. So I'm out later than I expected, knowing I won't finish tonight and just trying to get as far along as I can

In the failing light, house numbers become difficult to read. It might not look like a great neighborhood, but everybody I've met has been friendly, a mix of the retired lower class, recent immigrants, students and not yet established young people. Doing two more addresses on this page will at least finish the street and leave only a quick handful on the next street for tomorrow

Under a lamp, I squint at my walk list to decipher the remaining names and places. Then I crisscross the road, trying to figure out the numbers

And this must be it. Sensing someone moving in the front room, beyond the old curtains, I climb the steps to the dark cluttered porch, knock, then descend again to the walkway below and start counting. I'm not sure how long to wait

Then a dim bulb suddenly illuminates the porch and the door opens. I identify myself and explain what I'm about. He steps from behind the screen to accept the offered literature, and I re-descend before offering my spiel

Yes, he'll vote. And yes, he'll vote for the folk I'm promoting.

There's another name on my list here, and considering the hour I wasn't sure whether or not I would ask. He's older, upright, alert, unhurried, careful, and unafraid. So I mention her

That's my grand-daughter, he tells me. She lives across town

I promise to take her name off the list so we don't look for her there again

It's OK, he says. I see her all the time. My great-grandchildren stay here a lot

I expect that keeps him busy

It's fine. I'm together

I ask him to remind her how important it is to vote. And then, in the dark, I thank him and prepare to move along

He walks to the edge of the porch and offers his hand. I climb the steps yet again to receive a warm firm shake

September 10, 2013

There seems to be an organized push for it: George Will has been peddling the idea for some time

... George Will's latest column in Washington Post .. jumps all over Russ Feingold for his proposed change to the 17th Amendment, ending gubernatorial appointments to Senate vacancies, and requiring special elections to fill the seats. Will thinks we'd be better off just getting rid of the 17th Amendment ...
.. George Will Thinks We Should Repeal The 17th Amendment
February 22, 2009 08:00 PM
By Nicole Belle

Just after the 2010 election, Justice Antonin Scalia decided to explain the parts of the Constitution he doesn't like. "The 17th Amendment has changed things enormously," Scalia said. "We changed that in a burst of progressivism in 1913, and you can trace the decline of so-called states' rights throughout the rest of the twentieth century." A sinister "burst of progressivism" is unconstitutional -- and so, Andrew Napolitano of Fox News insists, is the 17th Amendment itself, because it was added "at the height of the progressive era, when the government started telling us how to live" ...
Constitutional Myth #9: The Election of Senators 'Harms' the States
The 17th Amendment removed a firewall of privilege -- which is why the Right doesn't like it
GARRETT EPPSJUL
20 2011, 1:01 AM ET


... Georgia state Rep. Buzz Brockaway ..., a Republican, has introduced a bill in the state legislature to repeal the 17th Amendment ... Texas Gov. Rick Perry supports it; so do GOP Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jeff Flake of Arizona. (Republican Indiana Sen. candidate Richard Mourdock endorsed the idea during his campaign last year, before, in an ironic twist, losing the popular vote.) ...
Georgia Legislators Propose Ending Direct Election of Senators—Why Not Just Get Rid of the Senate?
Fri Feb. 15, 2013 10:45 AM PST
—By Tim Murphy

PHOENIX — A freshman southern Arizona lawmaker is leading the effort to strip Arizona voters of the right to nominate U.S. senators. The proposal by Rep. David Stevens, R-Sierra Vista, would give that right to the elected legislators from each party. Only after that process is complete would voters get a say, in the general election, who they actually want to send to Washington. Stevens said his measure, if approved by Arizona voters in November, would be a partial return to the way things were before the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was adopted ...
Bill would let legislators nominate U.S. senators
BY HOWARD FISCHER, CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES
February 08, 2010 9:45 PM

... I have had multiple questions about HB 415 ... that would put the nomination of US Senators in the hand of the Legislature like the Framers of the original Constitution ...
Should the Tenn. state legislature select the primary candidate for U.S. Senate?
April 2, 2013

Six Republicans Who Think Voters Should Not Be Able To Choose Their Own Senators
BY IAN MILLHISER ON AUGUST 13, 2012 AT 2:30 PM

September 7, 2013

Freedom Day

whisper
listen
whisper
listen
whispers say we're free
rumors flyin
must be lyin
can it really be?
can't conceive it
can't believe it
but that's what they say
slave no longer
slave no longer
this is Freedom Day ...



released in 1960 for the upcoming 1963 centenary of the Emancipation Proclamation

September 7, 2013

Fables of Faubus

oh! Lord! don't let 'em shoot us!
oh! Lord! don't let 'em stab us!
oh! Lord! don't let 'em tar and feather us!
oh! Lord! no more swastikas!
oh! Lord! no more Ku Klux Klan! ...

two! four! six! eight!
they brainwash and teach you hate
hello! ...

September 6, 2013

Wat Tyler's Rebellion

... from miles around unto Blackheath
the people made their way
and John the priest of Colchester
these words to them did say
"when Adam toiled to win his bread
and Mother Eve she spun
all folk were equal one and all
and masters there were none" ...

upon the fourteenth day of June
the King rode to Mile End
and he spoke softly to us all
"I am the poor man's friend
your wrongs shall all be righted
all bondsmen be made free"
oh! curse the day we trusted him!
for he lied wickedly ...

at Smithfield next we met the King
the nobles gathered round
the Lord Mayor struck a killing blow
Wat Tyler struck the ground
our masters bared their teeth and smiled
to see our hero slain
"you have been slaves since you were born
and slaves you'll now remain" ...

the men of England long ago
rose to demand their rights
though they've been dead six hundred years
remember them tonight
they raised the flag of liberty
they fought the battle well
they died but others will arise
to ring the freedom bell ...

September 6, 2013

General Ludd's Triumph (The Fucking Buckaroos)

no more chant your old rhymes about bold Robin Hood
his feats I do little admire
I will sing thee the triumph of General Ludd
now the hero of Nottinghamshire ...

... his wrath is entirely confined to wide frames
and to those that old prices abate
and those engines of mischief were sentenced to die
by unanimous vote of the Trade ...

... he may censure great Ludd's disrespect for the Law
who ne'er for a moment reflects
that foul imposition alone was the cause
which produced these unhappy effects
let the haughty the humble no longer oppress
then shall Ludd sheath his conquering Sword ...

September 6, 2013

Chicago Teacher

September 5, 2013

Hammer Ring

September 5, 2013

Don't be too polite girls!