Freedom Rider: The Obama Surveillance State

by Margaret Kimberley

BAR editor and senior columnist 

June 1, 2011

"The Obama administration is once again protecting the Bush abuses which its supporters thought would now be long gone.”

The state security apparatus which came into being during the Bush administration is now supported just as strongly, if not more so, under president Barack Obama. There has been no let up, no change in course for a system which becomes stronger with each passing day and which faces almost no political opposition.

The Obama justice department recently asserted that it can withhold classified information [5] from a federal judge. Federal judges have security clearances and are permitted to see classified information in cases brought before them. The Obama justice department says that only the executive branch has the power to determine what information courts ought to have. The government attorney asserted, “There is no right for the plaintiff to give the court classified information at all.” The federal judge was so stunned that she described herself as “literally speechless” over the government claim that she ought to be kept in the dark.

The case in question is a remnant of the worst abuses brought about by the Bush administration, involving the kidnapping and rendition of Muslim cleric Abu Omar in Milan, Italy in 2003. A former CIA operative with State Department cover is now suing the federal government because it did not protect her right to diplomatic immunity. That operative was found guilty in absentia in an Italian court and faces arrest should she ever travel to Europe again. Now the Obama administration is once again protecting the Bush abuses which its supporters thought would now be long gone.

"Candidate Obama said he would protect the rights of whistle blowers, but now as president he tries to send them to jail.”

This is not the only instance of the current justice department moving forward with Bush administration prosecutions. Thomas Drake is a former employee of the National Security Administration now charged with violating the Espionage Act [6]. He faces 35 years in prison, having been accused of giving documents to a reporter. Candidate Obama said he would protect the rights of whistle blowers, but now as president he tries to send them to jail. The Obama administration has brought five Espionage Act prosecutions to court, more than all other past administrations combined.

Not content to defend Bush era abuses, and send whistle blowers to jail, Obama and Congress have extended the Patriot Act [7], without changes, yet again. Two Democratic members of the intelligence committee, Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, were not only among those who voted no, but they also exposed how the act is being interpreted in a new and dangerous way by the administration. The Obama justice department has decided to interpret the act in a way which it will not reveal to the public. In other words, the government has a secret way of determining what is and isn’t legal but will not share that secret with congress or with the people. Orwell and Kafka would find new sources of inspiration with this president.

When George W. Bush was president, I and many others often used the word fascism to describe the growth of government powers and the diminution of our rights. Now that those very same assertions of executive power are being made by Barack Obama, should we not continue to raise the same concerns?

We are told that we still have to fight endless wars and that we can’t ever get our rights back.”

The sad fact is that the surveillance state has strong bi-partisan support and it is likely to only expand. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were the impetus for the Patriot Act and wars of aggression, but events which ought to signal a return to normalcy never do. The death of Osama bin Laden was supposed to make us safer. That is what we have been told for nearly ten years.

Now that he is dead we are told that his death proves the need to continue doing away with civil liberties. We are told that we still have to fight endless wars and that we can’t ever get our rights back. Attorney General Eric Holder summed it all up for us. "Now more than ever, we need access to the crucial authorities in the Patriot Act." Perhaps we were better off when bin Laden was still alive.

Conservative Bill Kristol hit the nail on the head when he called Barack Obama a “born again neo-con.” Kristol had reason for this high praise after the president sought out his advice before telling the world that he intended to make war against Libya. The right wing whom Democrats use to keep unqualified support in their ranks are now getting off-line access to the man we are told must be protected from them. Of course that doesn’t make any sense, and neither do efforts to come to Obama’s defense on civil liberties or on any other issues either.

Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in Black Agenda Report, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com.Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.com.

This column first appeared:

http://blackagendareport.com/content/freedom-rider-obama-surveillance-state

Footnote Links:

[1] http://blackagendareport.com/category/department-war/espionage-act

[2] http://blackagendareport.com/category/department-war/patriot-act 

[3] http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/fascism-america
[4] http://blackagendareport.com/sites/www.blackagendareport.com/files/000-0210213659-police-state.jpg
[5] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/27/us/politics/27secret.html?scp=1&sq=beryl%20howeSave Nowll&st=cse

[6] http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/23/110523fa_fact_mayer#ixzz1NYRxJzuY

[7] http://www.nytimudall&st=cse

[8] http://freedomrider.blogspot.com/es.com/2011/05/27/us/27patriot.html?scp=2&sq=mark%20

9] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fblackagendareport.com%2Fcontent%2Ffreedom-rider-obama-surveillance-state&linkname=Freedom%20Rider%3A%20The%20Obama%20Surveillance%20State

Happy Tax Day: Sounds of Resistance Blasts Wall Street With People Powered

by Kevin Zeese

April 15, 2011

On April 15th, a concert and protest against Bank of America was held in Union Square Park. This was the first event organized by Its Our Economy, and it was co-sponsored by 16 other groups concerned about hunger, health care, housing, economic justice and ending war. Big finance and giant corporate banks are a root cause of the collapse of the U.S. economy and the decay of our political system.

                                                                                                                                                                         

See video of protest here.

The crowd heard from people facing foreclosure and bank harassment, Pulitzer Prize winning writer, Chris Hedges and Margaret Flowers of Physicians for a National Health Program, Gary Null from WBAI and Debra Sweet from World Can't Wait. They heard music from political hip-hop/rock powerhouse Junkyard Empire with special guests Broadcast Live and Sketch the Cataclysm. The music was hot, the speakers were solid and the hundreds in the crowd were excited and ready to make it OUR ECONOMY.

When the picket protest of the Bank of America across the street was announced people immediately lined up and marched over. The crowded picket covered both sides of the corner of the bank. When five of us went inside to continue the protest, at least 50 others joined us. The 8-10 security guards at the bank, obviously prepared for our arrival, could do nothing to stop us. There were chants of "BANK OF AMERICA SHAME ON YOU - WE PAY OUR TAXES WHY DON'T YOU," "PEOPLE NOT PROFITS, STOP FORECLOSURES NOW" and "FEED THE POOR, NOT THE WAR." Tarak Kauff from Veterans For Peace spoke connecting the big money banks with the wars, both inside America on the poor and shrinking middle class, and overseas. Nellie Bailly from Harlem Fight Back spoke on the devastation caused by foreclosures, Dr. Margaret Flowers spoke on the connection between corporate power and their tax avoidance schemes on basic human services, noting that Medicare and Medicaid were now on the chopping block, she said "Medicare is not the problem, it's the solution." I pointed to the type of economy we want one where everyone has more control over their economic lives, has influence on the direction of the economy and where peoples necessities come before corporate profits.

Author Chris Hedges spoke about how a culture of resistance is all we have left:

“Life is not only about us. We can never have justice until our neighbor has justice. And we can never recover our freedom until we are willing to sacrifice our comfort for open rebellion. The president has failed us. The Congress has failed us. The courts have failed us. The press has failed us. The universities have failed us. Our process of electoral democracy has failed us. There are no structures or institutions left that have not been contaminated or destroyed by corporations. And this means it is up to us. Civil disobedience, which will entail hardship and suffering, which will be long and difficult, which at its core means self-sacrifice, is the only mechanism left.”

Our first demand was Bank of America: Pay Your Taxes!

We started off the tax day weekend with this demand for the largest bank in America: a bank with 2.3 trillion in assets and billions in profits that has paid ZERO taxes each of the last two years despite high profits, huge executive salaries and big bonuses. For 2010 they will receive a tax refund of $666 million and in 2009 they received a tax refund of $3.5 billion despite receiving $50 billion in the Wall Street bailout and continuing to reap multi-billion dollar annual profits.

They avoid paying taxes by sending money overseas into tax havens which removes it from and thereby weakens the U.S. economy and the lost tax revenue weakens city, state and federal budgets. Of the 2,000 Bank of America subsidiaries, 371 are in tax havens out of the country, indeed they have 204 tax havens in the Cayman Islands alone where the corporate tax rate is 0%. Bank of America compounds the problem by also advising its wealthy clients on how to avoid taxes by sending money to tax havens.

If Bank of America paid the current corporate tax rate it would have paid $1.7 Billion in taxes instead of getting hundreds of millions in refund.

Our second demand - Stop Foreclosures

Bank of America is the biggest owner of mortgages in the United States - owning up to 25% of the mortgages in the United States. The last two years saw nearly 7 million foreclosures, each year produced record foreclosures and 2011 is likely to break that record with one out of seven houses in the U.S. currently behind in their mortgage payments. Foreclosures ensure a downward spiral in the economy, destroy neighborhoods and put families on the street. Foreclosures continue to increase, pushing housing prices down, ensuring no real economic recovery. One out of four houses in the United States is underwater - the mortgage is more than the value of the house. The housing market is so bad now that not only are people walking away from their houses, but there are reports of banks walking away from houses in foreclosure, leaving problems in communities. Bank of America needs to:

1.      Refinance houses so they are consistent with their post housing bubble values. Why should Bank of America, whose practices helped to create the housing bubble continue to profit from phony housing values?

2.      Modify loans when people get behind on their mortgage so they can stay in their homes and stop the avalanche of foreclosures now.

Bank of America may have red, white and blue in their sign, with a mock American flag insignia but they show that is a veil for their lack of patriotism.

Our final demand is Break Up the Big Corporate Banks

If banks are "too big to fail" then they are too big. They dominate the economy and the political system. Ten huge banks now control 60% of the economy. They ensure concentration of capitaland concentration of political power. Because of the federal government's protection of the big banks, small and moderate sized banks cannot compete. Failure to break up big corporate banks ensures their dominance of the economy and the government. It is time for the people to take back ownership of government and politics and it begins with breaking up the big banks.

We cannot count on the Congress or president to do this for us. It is our job to organize and mobilize for ourselves to make this OUR ECONOMY. The Sound of Resistance was part of the U.S. Uncut tax weekend protests challenging the banks for avoiding paying taxes. The Sound of Resistance will be the first of many that ItsOurEconomy.US will sponsor and we will be providing people with tools to build their own power to challenge the banks and other big business interests that pay no taxes but have the political power.

We can have the power. The people need to organize to take the economy and make it our own. We need to shift the power of government from big banks and big corporations and demand that the necessities of the people come before corporate profits. 

Join us - sign up atwww.ItsOurEconomy.US - get involved and make a difference.

Kevin Zeese is the executive director of Its Our Economy.

Stained Then Blamed for the Stain

by Donna Smith

June 5th, 2011 10:20 AM

It’s no secret that Americans think bankruptcy is for deadbeats, losers and folks with substandard moral character and work ethics.  The stain of a personal bankruptcy carries far wider and deeper than a negative credit rating.  For the rest of a bankrupt American’s life, the stain will be used as a shield against legal protection from crimes as horrific as rape or sexual assault.

Want proof?  Just ask the former IMF chief’s lawyers.  Or just ask the NPR journalist or the Wall Street Journal reporter who participated in the interview I am about to cite to explain why they didn’t object to hearing that whether or not the young, female hotel worker involved in the rape charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn is determined to be credible will rest in large part on her character.  Ask why we will check for personal bankruptcy as primary among the determining factors of her supposed credibility as a victim of rape.

First, from the transcript of NPR’s Morning Edition, June 3, 2011, host Mary Louise Kelly of NPR and guest Sean Gardiner of the Wall Street Journal, as they discuss how the case against Strauss-Kahn will be defended:

KELLY: Now, you have written that this is a classic he-said, she-said case.

Mr. GARDINER: Right.

KELLY: And that Mr. Strauss-Kahn's defense team is going to be looking to try and discredit the maid. What kind of things are they likely to be looking for?

Mr. GARDINER: Yeah, they've hired a private investigation firm, and they're going to look for anything and everything they can do to quote, unquote, "muddier her up." That's what the cops call it. You know, bankruptcy, has she not been a good tenant, what do her coworkers say about her, what do her work evaluations, you know, any dirt you can on her, and just, you know, use it in whatever way you can.

And no one objected.  Of course no one objected because we still believe bankruptcy means evil, wrong, dirty, sloppy, lazy, stupid, irresponsible, dishonest and so on.  Just finding out that someone has declared personal bankruptcy gives everyone from bosses to landlords to public servants reason enough to find bankrupt people flawed so fatally that even being protected from physical rape becomes problematic.  Individuals who go bankrupt are tainted.  We taint them.  And it comes so naturally as a part of our profit-loving, American DNA, that we don’t bat an eye when we hear the taint used against an injured person.

Of course, multiple bankruptcies by rich business owners are considered a prudent and sometimes necessary way to protect that wealthy and powerful interest from total collapse.  On the same day on the same NPR station, news stories about the auto industries emergence from the brink of financial ruin, including bankruptcy for some companies, was reported as if it were part of the successful strategy to rich profitability once again.  Hail, hail, hail.

Isn’t it classic Americana to have a rich and powerful international banker be accused of actually raping a young, working class hotel housekeeper only to have her credibility slandered by looking at her financial standing (credit history, including any bankruptcy)?  Classic indeed.  And even more classic is that scarcely anyone notices that, and no one protests it.

Rich and powerful interests taint then rape those with little or no power and then excuse the rape by discrediting the tainted and raped.  We don’t live in an alternate universe; we wallow in it with regularity.  When we do not stand up to this sort of cultural-financial bias, we defend it.

So, what do we do with tainted patients in our broken healthcare system?  Oh, come on.  Don’t be naïve.  We label them tainted.  We make it hard for them and hard for their families to ever again dig out from under the mess.  The very people who make the taint possible – the profiteering insurance companies, providers and drug companies – don’t think for an instant about pushing people to the edge of the financial precipice and throwing them over to bankruptcy.  There are more than enough widgets to go around, and disposing of the flawed ones is efficient.

The term “medical bankruptcy” has been used to somehow soften the language of the taint in recent years and by some politicians and even some who pretend to want to protect against it.  But it is a lie.  There is no way on a credit report or other financial history to label a personal bankruptcy as having been caused by medical crisis, and most personal bankruptcies that are the result of medical crisis might not necessarily look like medically caused bankruptcies to the uneducated or misguided reviewer.

There is no way to only include medical debt in a personal bankruptcy.  Everything goes down with the ship.  Credit cards that carried everyday expenses when drug costs and co-pays and deductibles were paid will be listed as will all sorts of other personal debts that cover the struggle of a working class person to try to stay afloat rather than be tainted by bankruptcy.  I know because I lived it, and I know the taint.  It’s a tattoo that cannot be un-inked.

I know very few people who choose personal bankruptcy as an option.  Our up-bringing as responsible Americans and the taint we know will come makes sure of that.  Yet, no credit report, no lease application, no future employer, and no law enforcement person checking us out in the future will give one iota if the cause of our bankruptcy was prolonged medical crisis or not.  They won’t care if we had insurance and fought for years to stay out of bankruptcy.  They won’t care at all.  The taint of that bankruptcy will be all that matters.

During this recent recession, more and more Americans have faced bankruptcy and foreclosure.  In future years we’ll see the results of that mass tainting of personal history as we take those many millions of people out of the credit loop and broad economic activity of this nation.  And in the meantime, watch out if you’ve ever gone bankrupt.  Because if you get raped or otherwise victimized and need the protections of our criminal justice or legal system, you will be found unreliable and unworthy of the rights afforded the non-bankruptcy-tainted.

Donna Smith is best known as one of the documentary subjects of Michael Moore’s 2007 movie, "SiCKO." Her journalism career includes 15 regional awards from the AP Managing Editors. Donna now works as a national single-payer healthcare advocate and community organizer for the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, and co-chairs the Progressive Democrats of America’s national "Healthcare Not Warfare" campaign.

This column originally appeared at:

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/stained-then-blamed-for-stain