The Obama surveillance state
Margaret Kimberley | 05.06.2011 13:10 | Anti-militarism | Repression | World
Big Brother got even bigger under the first “Brotha” president, Barack Obama. Government also became even more secretive. “The Obama Justice Department says that only the executive branch has the power to determine what information courts ought to have” – a novel doctrine that wreaks havoc with the rights of people accused of crimes, especially whistleblowers. The death of Osama bin Laden, says Obama’s Attorney General, makes the Patriot Act even more vital to national security. “Perhaps we were better off when bin Laden was still alive.”
New York city police officers arrest a man near ground zero as President Obama leaves a ground zero,
Thursday, May 5, 2011 in New York. President Obama came to New York to visit with the firefighters
and to visit ground zero after announcing that U.S. forces had killed Osama bin Laden on Sunday,
May 1. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
__________________________________________________________________________________
Editorial comment:
Big Brother got even bigger under the first “Brotha” president, Barack Obama. Government also became even more secretive. “The Obama Justice Department says that only the executive branch has the power to determine what information courts ought to have” – a novel doctrine that wreaks havoc with the rights of people accused of crimes, especially whistleblowers. The death of Osama bin Laden, says Obama’s Attorney General, makes the Patriot Act even more vital to national security. “Perhaps we were better off when bin Laden was still alive.”
_________________________________
The Obama surveillance state
by Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report, 1 June 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 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. 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, 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 who 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.
_________________________________
Thursday, May 5, 2011 in New York. President Obama came to New York to visit with the firefighters
and to visit ground zero after announcing that U.S. forces had killed Osama bin Laden on Sunday,
May 1. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
__________________________________________________________________________________
Editorial comment:
Big Brother got even bigger under the first “Brotha” president, Barack Obama. Government also became even more secretive. “The Obama Justice Department says that only the executive branch has the power to determine what information courts ought to have” – a novel doctrine that wreaks havoc with the rights of people accused of crimes, especially whistleblowers. The death of Osama bin Laden, says Obama’s Attorney General, makes the Patriot Act even more vital to national security. “Perhaps we were better off when bin Laden was still alive.”
_________________________________
The Obama surveillance state
by Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report, 1 June 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 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. 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, 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 who 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
e-mail:
Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.com
Homepage:
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/freedom-rider-obama-surveillance-state
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America's appalling human rights record
05.06.2011 13:19
America's appalling human rights record
by Stephen Lendman, 18 May 2011
Coincidental with high-level US - China May 9 and 10 talks, the Atlantic magazine quoted Hillary Clinton calling China's human rights record "deplorable." She also suggested possible unrest erupting like in the Middle East, then added:
"They're worried, and they are trying to stop history, which is a fool's errand. They cannot do it. But they're going to hold it off as long as possible," ignoring America's scandalous human rights record, by far the world's worse.
Each year, the State Department publishes human rights reports for over 190 countries. Its April 8-released 2010 China assessment can be accessed through the following link:
Unsparing in its harshness, it calls China "an authoritarian state in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) constitutionally is the paramount authority," practicing:
-- "Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life;
-- Disappearance(s);
-- Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment;"
-- Harsh and Degrading "Prison and Detention Center Conditions;
-- Arbitrary Arrest(s) or Detention(s);"
-- Repressive and Corrupt "Police and Security Apparatus" Practices;
-- Harsh "Arrest Procedures and Treatment While in Detention;
-- Denial of Fair Public Trial(s);"
-- Incarcerating "Political Prisoners and Detainees;
-- Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence;"
-- Limited "Freedom of Speech and Press;"
-- Limited "Academic Freedom;"
-- Restricted "Freedom of Assembly and Association;"
-- Lack of Free "Elections and Political Participation;
-- Official Corruption and (Lack of) Government Transparency;
-- Discrimination, Societal Abuse, and Trafficking in Persons;
-- Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity;
-- (Restricted) Worker Rights;"
-- Repression in Tibet;
-- Restricted Freedom in Hong Kong;
-- Restricted Freedom in Macau;
-- and more in a 145 page report.
China Responds
Indeed, China's no model human rights champion. However, America's record is far worse at home and abroad, yet self-criticism is absent. Moreover, rarely do major media reports discuss abuses. Instead they regurgitate managed news, suppressing full and accurate disclosure of Washington's most deplorable human and civil rights record at home and abroad.
On April 10, two days after the State Department's report, China's Information Office of the State Council published its own comprehensive report titled, "The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2010," saying:
"As in previous years, (US assessments) are full of distortions and accusations of the human rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions including China. However, (America) turned a blind eye to its own terrible human rights situation and seldom mentioned it."
China did, explaining internally suppressed information about:
-- America's scandalous human rights record;
-- a society in social crisis;
-- a domestic armed camp under police state laws, suppressing democratic freedoms, criminalizing dissent, spying illegally, controlling information, and persecuting political prisoners unjustly by denying them due process and judicial fairness;
-- torture, other abuses, and ill-treatment as official US policy at home and abroad;
-- having the world's largest global gulag;
-- systematic targeted killings and illegal detentions;
-- permanent wars for unchallengeable global dominance:
-- targeting nonbelligerent nations illegally without cause;
-- committing ruthless state terror;
-- endangering world stability and peace;
-- illegally transferring public wealth to America's aristocracy;
-- stealing elections;
-- institutionalizing two-party duopoly control, mocking the notion of democratic elections; and
-- as a result, is hated and feared globally, as well as to a growing extent at home.
In its report, State Department charges were mostly without corroboration. In contrast, China, under six major headings, used data from the US Justice Department (DOJ), FBI, other US agencies, state ones, and think tanks, as well as international and US media reports. They reveal a far different America than official Washington and managed major media reports, concealing dark side truths important to reveal.
(1) Life, Property and Personal Security
According to the Justice Department, one in five Americans are crime victims annually, by far the world's highest percentage. In 2009:
-- an estimated 4.3 million violent crimes were committed;
-- another 15.6 million property crimes; and
-- 133,000 million personal thefts against US residents aged 12 or older.
Easy access to guns exacerbates the problem, Reuters saying America ranks first globally on number of privately-owned firearms, an estimated 200 million, or two for every three residents. The fallout includes about 12,000 annual gun murders. Weapons are used in over one-fifth of violent crimes and nearly half of all robberies.
(2) Civil and Political Rights
Severe violations occur regularly, including:
-- privacy abuses; according to ACLU figures, more than 6,600 travelers were subjected to electronic device searches from October 1, 2008 - June 2, 2010, about half US citizens;
-- lawsuits were filed against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for authorizing search and seizures of laptops, cellphones and other electronic devices, without reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing;
-- refused entry into America, Colombian journalist Hollman Morris lost a Harvard fellowship by being unjustifiably accused of "terrorist activities;" many others are treated the same way;
-- the ACLU, Asian Law Caucus, and San Francisco Bay Guardian sued for release of FBI records on its repressive investigation and surveillance of Bay Area Muslim communities because of their faith and ethnicity, not suspicion of criminality;
-- in October 2010, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials ordered subjecting airport passengers to intrusive full-body scanning or pat-downs; they constitute a violation of privacy, civil liberties, and freedom of religion in some cases;
-- torture, other abuses, and ill-treatment are major problems in state and federal detentions to unjustly punish and extract information and confessions; reports surface regularly like on May 12, 2010, the Chicago Tribune saying local police were charged with arresting people without warrants, shackling them to walls or metal benches, withholding food, denying bathroom breaks, and providing no bedding; brutal beatings are also common, especially against people of color and Muslims;
-- at about 2.4 million, America, by far, has the world's largest prison population, mostly for nonviolent offenses; Blacks and Latinos are especially affected; overcrowding is a serious problem as well as torture, beatings, other abuses, and confinement of an estimated 25,000 inmates in isolation, another form of torture that turns human beings to mush;
-- political prisoners and wrongful convictions are also common, including false charges of terrorism and murder, mostly against Blacks, Latinos, and Muslims;
-- calling itself a "beacon of democracy," it's the best money can buy, electoral success depending heavily on raising the largest amount;
-- "while advocating Internet freedom," strict cyberspace restrictions are imposed, including by the Senate in June 2010 approving the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act; if enacted, it will give authorities "absolute power" to shut down the Internet under a declared national emergency, whether or not one exists; a February 17, 2011 Foreign Policy magazine article said federal Internet policies are "full of problems and contradictions;"
(3) Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
-- real unemployment remains stubbornly high at over 20%, way above official figures; so is true inflation at about 10% because of sharply rising food, energy, medical, college tuition, and other costs excluded or downplayed in official figures;
-- record high poverty exists, up to double US Census Bureau numbers based on real cost of living estimates;
-- hunger is a growing problem with a record numbers of people on food stamps, millions more food insecure, many others needing emergency help, and growing numbers not sure about their next meal;
-- homelessness also rose sharply, many hundreds of thousands affected nationally;
-- households without health insurance exceed 50 million people; a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) November 2010 report showed 22% of Americans aged 16 - 64 had no coverage; in California, it's nearly one in four.
(4) Racial Discrimination
-- a longstanding problem, it affects all aspects of social life, but rarely reported; a May 2010 AP/Univision Poll found 61% of Hispanics and 52% of Blacks affected; on October 28, 2010, The New York Times said more than 60% of Latinos call discrimination a "major problem;"
-- American minorities enjoy fewer political rights, experience much higher unemployment, have lower incomes, fewer benefits, higher poverty, and growing inequality in education;
-- they also lack proper healthcare, face law enforcement and judicial discrimination, and are victimized most often by hate crimes;
-- Latino immigrant rights are seriously compromised, including unjustifiable detentions, interrogations, and targeting for appearing to be Mexican, Latin American, or indigenous non-whites;
(5) Rights of Women and Children
Gender discrimination is widespread;
-- in August 2010, the London Daily Mail said 90% of US women endure workplace discrimination;
-- only 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women;
-- women in comparable jobs to men earn only three-fourths as much on average;
-- companies like Wal-Mart have a disgraceful gender discrimination history;
-- millions of US women are victimized by sexual assaults and violence;
-- an October 2010 National Institute of Justice report estimated 20 million annual rape victims;
-- female prisoners are extremely vulnerable to rape, mostly by guards and prison officials;
-- 25% of women experience domestic violence at some time in their lives;
-- women's health rights aren't properly protected, especially for people of color;
-- child poverty is severe;
-- on November 21, 2010, the Washington Post said 25% of children endure hunger, citing the US Department of Agriculture;
-- over 60% of public school teachers say hunger affects children in their classrooms;
-- violence against children is widespread; according to Love Our Children USA, an estimated nine million are victimized; and
-- children's physical and mental health are insecure as a result of neglect, violence, sexual abuse, and societal indifference to their status.
(6) US Human Rights Violations Against Other Nations
America's longstanding human rights record abroad is appalling. As a result, in the last two decades alone, US wars, sanctions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan caused millions of deaths and overall depravation and human misery, mostly affecting civilian men, women and children. Moreover, in both countries, the death toll mounts daily, often by cold-blooded murder.
On September 18, 2010, for example, the Washington Post said a 5th Stryker Combat Brigade "kill team" targeted civilians, committing random murders, dismembering corpses, and hoarding human bones as trophies.
Indefinite detentions and torture are rampant. According to a joint May 2010 UN Human Rights Council/Special Rapporteur report titled, "Joint Study on Global Practices in Relation to Secret Detention in Relation in the Context of Counterterrorism," America commits appalling human rights abuses, including:
-- extraordinary renditions;
-- disappearances;
-- secret detentions;
-- torture, other abuses, and ill-treatment;
-- cold-blooded murder; and
-- various other crimes against humanity.
Despite promising to close Guantanamo and end these practices, they continue seamlessly under Obama, showing as much contempt for human rights as Bush II.
In fact, the rights of numerous nations are violated. For example, Cuba's been embargoed for half a century, harming the welfare of its citizens. On October 26, 2010, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution titled, "Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba" for the 19th consecutive time. Only Washington and Israel voted against it.
Under the UN Genocide Convention's Article II, America stands guilty. So does Israel for blockading Gaza. Both countries repeatedly violate, abuse and ignore international law.
Moreover, Washington never ratified:
-- the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;
-- the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women;
-- the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; and
-- the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
On November 5, 2010, the UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) enumerated serious US human rights violations, including:
-- failure to ratify key human rights conventions;
-- the rights of ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples;
-- racial discrimination; and
-- maintaining Guantanamo and other overseas torture prisons.
The UN Human Rights Council and most countries condemned America for these policies, noting that while paying lip service to human rights, Washington grievously violates them.
At the same time, it points fingers, enumerates abuses globally, yet turns a blind eye to its own arrogantly, glaringly and hypocritically.
As a result, its most abusive practices continue abroad and at home, a different reality than the sanitized major media, film, academia, and other dominant versions of a nonexistent fictional America.
Stephen Lendman
e-mail:
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net
Homepage:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/05/appalling-human-rights-record.html
I'd prefer to live in america rather than china
05.06.2011 21:39
I hardly see a queue of americans desparate to move to china, rather the other way around.
Stephen, i think you are gullible to believe the chinese. Use your brain and look at the evidence around you muppet
USA
USA - the land of the Unfree & Docile
06.06.2011 08:19
Now, we see the USA become a paramilitary state, that effectively is shutting down these much-lauded rights and instead hold these up as privileges to be taken away on a presidential whim. In China, one would not expect to find such rights ... that's why they were always the "nasty commies" remember, and how the USA had to wage a cold war against the Sino threat in order to protect those values back in the States. Was it not also these same rights and values that those "nasty terrorists" were so keen on demolishing? In which case, the terrorists are really in Senate and Congress, since it is they who have demolished those rights and freedoms far better than any alleged terrorist database ... sorry al Qaeda - could ever have done.
It just goes to show how low the USA has stooped in its record of protecting rights and freedoms that the only country one can compare Amerika favourably to is none other than China. Next the flag-wavers will be telling us that Amerika is great 'cos they don't shoot people for inadvertently contaminating milk. There's not much left to celebrate in the former "land of the free", is there?
Not Impressed
e-mail:
yada@yada.com
yes but
06.06.2011 11:27
As with the peoples paradise of CUBA, the cuban coast guard must find it a real strain to find all those US citizens floating over.
The same goes for Mexico, that border fence is to keep those evil capitalist pigs and terrorists from the evil USA from crawling over.
As for China, things have never been worse for them after the revolutions stopped. all those people liveing beyond 40 and the economy??? Ye Gods they were Sooo much better run under Mao, it must be hell there.
If your house is full of crap you tidy it, you dont knock it down and blame the mess for being in a mess.
Fix the world, dont burn it in a fit of stupidity.
anon by right
@ anon by right
06.06.2011 21:30
The USA is not a bastion of freedom, and there are serious doubts as to whether it was ever such a bastion or whether it was that Hollywood - the all-Amerikan propaganda machine for cultural hegemony - sold the world and the Americans an image to cover the usurpation and exploitation of the balance of the globe. The Marshall Plan, like the entry of the USA into the WWII, are all marketed as the USA saviour plan, the defender of rights and liberties the world over, and yet, let's face it, the Marshall Plan was simply a means by which the USA held war-torn Europe to ransom. Taking a war-torn continent and extending loans that it could never pay back, allowing the installation of remote military bases ... these are not the expressions of freedom but of ransom.
The USA would not be nearly as reviled and cursed as it is, if it had not forced all of that crap about how wonderful it all was upon a world audience. The exploitation and colonisation of South America for Amerikan economic interests, the wars in Indo-China for geopolitical strategic outcomes, the attempts to control everything whether or not it is even within the ambit of Amerika to do so, and the complete and utter failure of any checks and balances ... this is what Amerika means to most of the world: a rogue state run by an economic aristocracy, with unemployment as high now as it was during the depression, with homelessness, and crime rife throughout its cities, its failure to engage meaningfully in all agreements that might curtail the extent of its economic aristocracy who continually benefit from the status quo, even if that status quo means the death of more and more people both within and outside of the physical and political territoriality of the actual North American boundaries.
Looking at who is fleeing which country after those countries have been economically eviscerated is simply disingenuous. Amerikan foreign policy is mere propaganda, and your comment suggests that you have swallowed it hook, line and sinker.
Not impressed
Well done.
07.06.2011 16:13
I hardly see a queue of americans desparate to move to china, rather the other way around.
Stephen, i think you are gullible to believe the chinese. Use your brain and look at the evidence around you muppet"
Well I like this article, its a solid piece of work and speaking as an objective observer, I find it long overdue to hold the human rights record of the US up against the human rights record of other nations that the US has long, and some would say, strategically condemned for behaviour that curiously is remarkably specific to US foreign policy.
If we see the US accused of torture then its only a matter of days before it accuses some other nation of carrying out acts of torture. The US does spend a lot of time condeming other nations for this reason. Even more so now because the current Democratic regime wants to exploit the fact it is not the Republican party to consolidate its supposed reputation around the world.
I think the comments about non-whites moving to the US more than any other nation just goes to show how much impotence and infantality exists in the realm of internet chatter, especially that which tends to practice its stupidity deliberately on certain internet websites!
Migration around the world is far too complex a subject to be reduced to petty point scoring because an American soldier in uniform is displaying anti-war proclivities in public...always guaranteed to set the flag waivers into vomiting episodes of "pull yur socks up man, don't you know da niggers can see ya"!
The US human rights record is now, thankfully, a matter of world opinion...that being that world opinion now recognises the US as possibly the worlds foremost human rights abuser. Its conduct in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and a whole host of other nations is well established among other nations. The US has clearly realised this far too late in the day and is now standing about scratching its head in puzzlement at what has happened for world opinion to change like this.
Sure, the Chinese are no angels but then the Chinese do not consider themselves an empire, and are not acting to actively build an empire. Public opinion on the whole subject of human rights abuses tends to be folded between human rights abuses committed to maintain domestic control, and human rights abuses committed to consolidate expansionist ideology. The latter tends to ellicit the very worst kind of reactionary zeal from world opinion. This is something the US is now withering under.
I take my hat off to the young man in the photograph above. Its a brave thing indeed to stand above the political machinations of your government at a time when it has become one of the worlds leading human rights abusing states. It takes guts to stand apart from a crowd that waives the flag of a nation while that nation state is denying the basic rights of citixens in countries that it does not govern.
Well done Stephen.
anon