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Dissent in the Age of Obama
“The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.” - Albert Camus
Recently, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) raided the homes of at least eight anti-war/social justice activists here in the US.
I happen to be a prominent anti-war activist myself, and have joked that I am a “little hurt” that I was not raided and perhaps I should try harder. Even though, we have the urge to try and be light-hearted in this time of an increasing police state, with civil liberties on the retreat, it really isn't funny considering that the activists could face some serious charges stemming from these raids.
I have felt this harassment on a smaller scale myself and I know that defending oneself against a police state that has unlimited resources, time and cruelty, can be quite expensive, time consuming and annoying.
There is nothing noble about an agency that has reduced itself to
being jackbooted enforcers of a neo-fascist police state, no matter how
much the FBI has been romanticised in movies, television and books.
For
example, in one instance, early in the morning of September 24, at the
home of Mick Kelly of Minneapolis, the door was battered in and flung
across the room when his partner audaciously asked to see the FBI’s
warrant through the door’s peephole. At Jessica Sundin’s home, she
walked downstairs to find seven agents ransacking her home while her
partner and child looked on in shock.
These raids have terrifying implications for dissent here in the US.
First of all, these US citizens have been long-time and devoted
anti-war activists who organised an anti-war rally that was violently
suppressed by the US police state in Minneapolis-St. Paul, during the
2008 Republican National Convention. Because the Minneapolis activists
have integrity, they had already announced that they would do the same
if the Democrats hold their convention there in 2012.
I have
observed that it was one thing to be anti-Bush, but to be anti-war in
the age of Obama is not to be tolerated by many people. If you will also
notice, the only people who seem to know about the raids are those of
us already in the movement. There has been no huge outcry over this
fresh outrage, either by the so-called movement or the corporate media.
I submit that if George Bush were still president, or if this
happened under a McCain/Palin regime, there would be tens of thousands
of people in the streets to protest. This is one of the reasons an
escalation in police state oppression is so much more dangerous under
Obama - even now, he gets a free pass from the very same people who
should be adamantly opposed to such policies.
Secondly, I
believe because the raids happened to basically ‘unsung’ and unknown,
but very active workers in the movement, that the coordinated, early
morning home invasions were designed to intimidate and frighten those of
us who are still doing the work. The Obama regime would like nothing
better than for us to shut up or go underground and to quit embarrassing
it by pointing out its abject failures and highlighting its obvious
crimes.
Just look at how the Democrats are demonising activists who are
trying to point out the inconvenient truth that the country (under a
near Democratic tyranny) is sliding further into economic collapse,
environmental decay and perpetual war for enormous profit.
Barack and Joe, the commandantes
of this police state, say that those who have the temerity to be
critical are “asleep” and just need to “buck up". White House
spokesperson, Robert Gibbs, recently stated that we on the “professional
left” need to be “drug tested” if we are not addicted to the regimes’
own drug: the Hopium of the Obama propaganda response team.
It
seems like, even though some of those that have been nailed to the cross
of national security do activism around South America, most of the
activism is anti-war and pro-Palestinian rights. Being supportive of any
Arab or Muslim, no matter how benign or courageous is a very dangerous
activity here in post-9/11 America.
The Supreme Court just
decided (Wilner v. National Security Agency) that the National Security
Agency (NSA) did not have to disclose if it was using warrantless
wiretapping to spy on attorneys representing the extra-legal detention
of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Obtaining warrants, with cause,
and attorney-client privilege were important principles of the US
justice system, but even the neo-fascist Supreme Court is undermining
the law - talk about “activist” judges!
Not only have activists
been targeted here in the States, but Obama has ominously declared
himself judge, jury and executioner of anyone that he deems a national
security “threat". These are the actions of a tyrant and another assault
against our rights and against the rule of law from a person who
promised “complete transparency” from his administration.
We
have learned that Obama’s first victim under his presidential execution
programme is Anwar al-Awlaki, a US-born Muslim who is now in Yemen.
Without showing proof of al-Awlaki’s so-called executionable offenses
and without a trial in a court of law, Obama has unloosed his hit squads
on Awlaki. Is there anyone out there reading this who does not believe,
or fear, that this programme could quickly descend into summary
executions within the borders of the US?
Al-Awlaki’s father has filed a motion in federal court to stay the execution of his son until he gets his constitutionally guaranteed rights to due process, but Obama’s justice department has refused to cooperate stating that to do so would ‘undermine’ that fabled, exploited and ephemeral ‘national security'.
When Obama behaves like Bush, only on steroids, he amply demonstrates why other people hate our country so much. Persons in other countries are not nearly as blind as Americans. They know that even though Obama went to Cairo to blather about building understanding between the US and the Muslim world, actions speak louder than words and Obama’s actions drip with carnage and pain.
Obviously, the suppression of dissent here in the US, while outrageous and inexcusable, has not reached the level of the McCarthy witch hunts of the 1950’s - yet.
The longer we Americans remain silent in the face of these injustices, the more they will continue to occur and escalate.
Make your voice heard!
Comments
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118 Comments so far
Show AllHi there Cindy! Very glad to see you here again! As I always say, the empire's psyops technicians know far about us than we know about ourselves. If you just sit back at watch it, your head will spin. I call it "brilliant evil." On the one hand it's awesome, on the other hand it's darkness.
Cindy you are a rare person of intelligence, integrity and honesty. The fact that the fascist, war monger, Pelosi beat you in the last election speaks volumes about the American electorate. America has the fascist, government it deserves and unfortunately America does not have enough Cindy Sheehans!
Cindy Sheehan - An Army of One.
--she is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.
Seconded. And if people only knew the harassment Food Not Bombs has been facing (I read up on it after seeing an earlier comment) and starts too ask themselves how resources can be used for this but not to keep tabs on hedge fund managers...
Cindy, get a job. You're yesterday's news. Yawn......
Billy, you sound like a boy.
To Whomever Flagged the 8:24 pm Post:
I think I understand how you feel. Still, consider that it may be the better part of wisdom to allow Nature to do its work. In many cases, a creature's voice gives the rest of us an important clue as to exactly what kind of creature it IS, and empowers us to regard it accordingly.
You might as well flag the buzzing of flies and mosquitoes, the hiss of the snake, or the braying of a jackass.
Wrapping yourself in the flag?
What flag?
Probably one of those First Amendment nuts. Who keep pretending we all have rights and obligations :)
>^^<
Cindy Sheehan has accomplished more in one day of her life than many of us accomplish in a lifetime. Ms. Sheehan spoke the truth with a bold and human face to those who placed our nation at risk. At a time when few had such courage. She challenged establishments' sanitized version of war and brought the carnage associated with our brutal policies back into focus.
You, young man are the bore. . As my grandma used to say, "Use the brains god gave you before you speak."
It's a rhetorical question... why aren't these stories reported on MSM? (I think we know the answer.)
Yes indeed! If Bush did what Obama's done to these activists the outrage would be loud and messy. But Obama gets a pass---as he does on most of his travesties.
Read this article by Chris Hedges about the recent march in DC:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/march_to_nowhere_
20101005/
Higgs Boson
Excellent link and article by Chris Hedges. It is surprising that Common Dreams did not see fit to publish his article.
who are the individuals at CD that make decisions?
Their names and bios are posted on the home page.
Everyone knows that the Nobel Peace Prize is a coveted award, given each year to the person or persons who have done their level best to make our world a saner, safer place for human existence. Peace doesn't just happen. It requires a lot of planning and hard work. Cindy Sheehan has, ever since the death of her soldier son in 2004, made that kind of extraordinary effort.
Mr. President, it seems pretty clear to me that Ms. Sheehan deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, while you, Sir, do not. So do the right thing here. Give up that misdirected Nobel honor in favor of someone who actually deserves it, and who, unlike you, has worked exhaustively over many years for lasting world peace.
Cool.
It would please me no end to ripp it out of Obombers undeserving hands,,, wipe it off and hand it to Cindy!
>^^<
Excellent essay, Cindy Sheehan. However, I beg to differ with you on the notion that the suppression of dissent in this country hasn't reached McCarthyite proportions like in the 1950's. It's getting there, if it's not there already.
Yes, and its more subtle and sophisticated this time around.
Right you are, doubledee!
"Just look at how the Democrats are demonising activists who are trying to point out the inconvenient truth that the country (under a near Democratic tyranny) is sliding further into economic collapse, environmental decay and perpetual war for enormous profit."
It's called guilty by association. If you criticize the Democrats, you are deemed a guilty Republican. Look it up.
Most of what we write on CD is to "criticize the Democrats".
Where did you look that up?
This is about harassing Activists, not calling them "Republicans".
We've shown that we were not anti-Bush, we were anti-war and anti-war crimes by the United States. And here we are, still committing war crimes in the name of the American people, paying for death rather than for education. Killing for profit, and threatening those who dare speak out. Same-o same-o, like it's 1969.
God bless you, Cindy.
The drug called Hopium. I like that.
It good to see Cindy back.
The Obama regime would like nothing better than for us to shut up or go underground and to quit embarrassing it by pointing out its abject failures and highlighting its obvious crimes.
Bears repeating.
We have to push back against the corporatist, militarist duopoly if we hope to stop the rollback of our civil liberties and halt the war machine that is tearing apart communities at home and abroad.
Vote Green and help build America's peace party.
Question: What's the difference between Nixon and Bush and Obama when it comes to civil liberties?
Answer: Obama claims the divine right of kings to put to death any subject that he so chooses.
All I can say about the tragic people who put the Uncle Tom in office is that there's nothing more stupid and oblivious than a Democratic voter. And nothing more evil and petty than a Republican voter. Between these two types the US is sure headed to a collapse, which is actually a fantastic thing for world peace. So keep voting Democratic and Republican, Americans.
Another touchdown Cindy, thanks. Real progressives have always maintained that we'd be better off under McCain.
A McCain White House wouldn't even DREAM of getting away with all the right-wing measures that the Obama bacteria are throwing at us at a dizzying and dazzling pace.
McCain - and Palin?!! You've got to be kidding... Obama is complicit and cowardly (though he speaks well and might be amenable to pressure to do the right thing - if it's strong enough), but he's not taking as much initiative with new horrors as those two would have, I guarantee!
You guarantee? lol you sound like just another apologist Democratic hack. Obama has been creating new horrors with his war escalation in Afghanistan. And not even Bush stooped to the level of assassinating American citizens without trial, which is what Obama's doing. He's a disgrace with people like you as his enablers.
Excellent points made about what is happening here in the age of Obama.
Besides the surveillance and home invasion raids of the anti-war activists, I have noticed a distinct atmosphere of fear and suppression of free speech at colleges and universities in the US. Most likely in every political science, international or middle east studies class, there sits a plant from Campus Watch or FBI, intently listening to how a professor might respond to a provocative question about US policy or Zionism. Remember Ward Churchill?
I'm sure, like Barack Obama, underneath all the mass consciousness and mass picture show, that Cindy Sheehan is a fine human being. I find it disingenuous however, that in her Bio she uses the word peace 3 times and never "anti-", for what is she but a tireless griever of a war that took her son; as passionate as this may be...it's not peace(and as Richard Cheney would remind her, Casey signed on the line via his own free will). War is destruction, peace is creation; where in any of her writings are the opportunities and suggested actions of and for peace? No: Peace Of The Action doesn't get it, this is a rant on being against how much the MICC receives from the national budget.
As an example: instead of writings like "Obama went to Cairo to blather", why not focus on points like that of Barack Obama being the first president of the United States to admit in public, sure it was in Cairo, but he said it, that the United States used proxies for fighting and pitted one group against another as (SOA) behavior to further it's gain, and that this behavior was exacting a horrible cost? I know grieving has it's needed place, but in health there is a healing. I know the feeling of hatred will arise and arise again, but it's neither peace nor the foundation of a healthy society that returns to and uses peace for turning the energies of the passions of hatred into actions for human betterment.
I truly hope Cindy finds the peace that will one day help her heal from the grief of the loss of her son, as I hope too that CD commentators and contributors will one day know the peace that is and can change the hatred for the US's Middle East and World Wide Oil Crusade into a humanly dignified uplifting of all humanity.
"Peace IS the way" -- MLK (sure he's been quoted as saying "no justice, no peace", but that was in the context of facing abject poverty, and how much easier it was to miss finding peace there as opposed to the odds of a spark becoming a raging flame in the same situation, thus the better option being a culturing of peace through peace)
Yes..."let your voice be heard", but first: Stop, breath, listen...then speak; and always remember: for satisfaction, pleasure and accomplishment in any endeavor -- peace IS, and peace IS the way.
In the words of Ian McKay, "what the f*** have YOU done?"
I have stood up with my Congressional Representative in a Town Hall setting and called for the Impeachment of Bush/Cheney. Not as an attack on Bush or Cheney but as an approach to changing Our fascist behavior. Failing to win impeachment sure, but within the debate the representative confided the fear of "appearing" soft on terrorism. So failing at impeachment, while gaining better insight into political operations, and then being clubbed over the head with Barack Obama's Ode To War during his "peace prize" acceptance speech I focused my energies toward building more social credibility and human understanding through my endeavors in human development: and with promising success, for the same type of human recognition and responses that goes into helping a lame person stand and walk on their own[where before there was only trials of drugs(chemical warfare) and surgery(munitions warfare) with no or very limited success(mostly in the form of $$ for the AMA and their enablers)]; which has now been video documented, is the same type of human recognition and responses that will help move US past the relatively infantile, adolescent, and juvenile(these stated as biological markers, not as pejoratives) and into a new form of maturity that has the potential to help us move past the atrocious way humanity uses oil and rapes it's feminine, for examples. Mine is not to demean the likes of Cindy Sheehan, but to help her reach her greater potential; with her name "brand" recognition, she could actually become a great focal point for a peace movement instead of the anti-war movement. The same way her dissent could be aimed at not taking Bush, Obama or Pelosi down, but in uplifting the United States of America, which, if you haven't looked around lately, could do a whole lot of good for people in other countries too. For our own individual good, as well as for the mass social, Thick Nhat Hanh is right, as is MLK, every step(as in the form of human recognition mentioned above) is peace, peace is the way. When one stumbles off the path, hopefully someone is there for helping them get back on it. Thanks for asking. Now, do you have any of your own words you would like to try out? It's a lot of fun once one starts telling their own story along with those of others. Peace.
I'm sure that Cindy Sheehan (and the rest of humanity) will be both thrilled and humbled to hear that you have arrived to help us fulfill our greater potential.
Well...it's not me but "the way" that humanity should be thrilled and humbled by, though it's always fun and indeed thrilling to have help fulfilling humanity's greater potentials. The hugs of admiration I receive from mothers on a regular basis for the work I do with their children, I know is an expression of how the mother feels about what her child is experiencing and not about me; just like the child that crumbles into tears hearing I'm not making a visit that day, it's not because of me, but because of how the child feels and acts when they are with me; and thankfully they become more and more independent to experience similar feelings and acts without me.
Be careful, or at least be aware, that by chiding my attempts, as coarse or as clumsy as they my be, at human uplift and betterment, you also chide and limit the power of your self. Humanity can live in peace. Individuals have accomplished peace, so can the greater society, but it takes human recognition, of self and other.
I've counted the black blobs (redacted information) in my FBI file - nearly each page of which has the vital message at the top: "Buy U.S. Savings Bonds". You gotta laugh.
"I am often asked: What is the way to peace? There is no way to peace. PEACE IS THE WAY.
-- A.J. Muste (1885-1967)
i know the way to peace: JUSTICE for all.
willful denial?
The early bird gets the worm.
But its a New Jersey worm, and its MOTHER is really really pissed. Getting together with other worm gals, they form Worm Mothers Against Early Hungry Birds. They go on Oprah to demand JUSTICE. Oprah (foolishly) gives each worm gal a free Cat.
The cats begin to attack and kill early New Jersey birds. THEIR Mothers get really really pissed. They form Angry Mothers of Birds Killed By Cats. Oprah cannot WAIT to have the NJ gal Bird Mothers appear on her show --- to demand JUSTICE.
--Trylon
Stop apologizing for Obama. It's unseemly.
Who's apologizing for Obama? Like other humans, I try to meet him where he's at. Did I appreciate his Ode To War while picking up the Nobel Peace Prize? No; nor his sitting mute while thousands of humans were massacred in Gaza, nor the slight of hand on torture. But when he leaves a crack in the door for Americans to examine their "School of Americas" behavior and other atrociousness, I'm not going to stuff the opening with "War Pig" signs, I'm going to amplify(one of humanity's great unrecognized capacities) any enthusiasm for the examination.
That Obama said it is of far less import than is his continuation of it.
Yes, especially to those being tortured at Bagram, and those beings eviscerated by drone bombs. But to me Obama is a pure politician caring for himself and family. Politicians bend with the wind, and the strongest breeze is still coming from those profiting from the MICC, and those misguidedly believing they are profiting from the MICC. The One Nation rally wasn't great for me, but it helped with putting the cost of maintaining(to bad it's still not measured in moral terms) the Middle East occupations into mass consciousness, as well as what are the true security threats in the world, there are thus hopefully great and functionally productive gusts of wind forming that will far exceed people walking around with "War Pig" signs hanging from their necks. An example of the form of communication I think is most effective was Harry Belafonte's speech at the One Nation rally; there was no uncertainty to the depth and sterness of his warning about Our lurking totalitarianism, but with no dehumanization: this leaves the focus where it should be, not on personalities or character assassination, but on the behavior and atrocities of totalitarianism; by putting the focus on the behavior and it's costs, alternative actions can be considered and applied; and on personal human terms in regard to the behavior, and not in terms of tribal me/us vs. you/them where a staunch closed eyes, closed ears defensive stance will always be elicited.
Sadly true.
I have never met Barack Obama, nor have I much love for our currently ever so corrupted political system. I believe him to be possibly a sincere person who simply has not enough real world experience on the national, and international, stage, an admittedly charitable view, especially in light of the vast sums he took from our corporate masters coupled with his poor showing these last two years..
As to the words of Mr. Belafonte; many have stood before the people and spoken truth, all seemingly have been ignored by a people mesmerized by easy credit and wage enslavement. As our economy disintegrates, due in large part to the natural evolution of Capitalism I think, folks just might awaken. One can always hope.
Come mister Taliban, tally me banana-
Daylite come an me wan go home.
sorry for repeated post.