#OWS #ggi Quebec protests hit Toronto | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun

video at Quebec protests hit Toronto | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun

TORONTO - More than 1,000 people, banging pots and pans with wooden spoons, gathered in Dufferin Grove Park Wednesday to mimic similar student protests across Canada.

The group was rallying against austerity and for affordable tuition for students. It was among seven protests planned in Toronto Wednesday. "It's partially inspired by what's happening in Quebec, but we're hoping people will make that local connection too," organizer Leila Pourtavaf said.

Demonstrations against tuition hikes began in Quebec in February, but rallies have taken place in Ottawa and across Canada as well, attracting thousands of students. To date, there have been 2,500 arrests. Protesters also spoke out against Bill 78, an emergency law passed on May 18 in Quebec that restricts protesting on or near university grounds.

"The right to protest is one of the most legitimate forms of democracy," said Madison Trusolino, 22, who graduated from York University. Trusolino, who will go back to school in September, said even a slight increase in student fees is overwhelming. "Quebec is representing what young people are feeling, which is the Baby Boomer generation has created a climate of perpetuating debt," she said. "Any rise in tuition is unacceptable. We're going to spend the rest of our lives in debt just to get the education we deserve."

Here is a great piece by one of the few if not the only CBC commentator who is concerned about truth in reporting George Strombo (Stroumboulopoulos )at CBC on the Student Strikes in Quebec and on the draconian bill 78 :

UPDATE: How Are The Quebec Protests Being Reported Around The World? by George Stroumboulopoulus May 24, 2012

As the Quebec tuition protests continue, media outlets around the world are taking notice. Reporting on the situation has ranged from the even-handed look at the situation of Al-Jazeera's article to a New York Times op-ed calling Quebec "a province that rides roughshod over its citizens' fundamental freedoms".

Here's a sampling of how some international publications are covering the situation in Quebec:

The Guardian - 'Quebec's 'truncheon law' rebounds as student strike spreads'

"In its contempt for students and citizens, the government has riled a population with strong, bitter memories of harsh measures against social unrest - whether the dark days of the iron-fisted Duplessis era, the martial law enforced by the Canadian army in 1970, or years of labour battles marred by the jailing of union leaders. These and other occasions have shown Québécois how the political elite has no qualms about trampling human rights to maintain a grip on power.

Which is why those with experience of struggle fresh and old have answered Premier Jean Charest with unanimity and collective power. There are now legal challenges in the works, broad appeals for civil disobedience, and a brilliant website created by the progressive CLASSE student union, on which thousands have posted photos of themselves opposing the law. (The website's title is "Somebody arrest me" but also puns on a phrase to shake a person out of a crazed mental spell.)"

Al-Jazeera - 'Why are Quebec students seeing red?'

"Right now, Quebec's young scholars shell out just over $2,000 a year for a university degree, not including their living costs. That will be closer to $4,000 if the government gets its way. But even in the rest of Canada, the average is between $6,000 and $7,000.
As many Canadians, Americans, Britons and others have been asking, what's all the fuss about?

As always, it depends on who you ask and what your politics are. [...] The streets of Quebec don't seem likely to calm down anytime soon. A provincial election is due before the end of next year, and many are wondering if this issue - at once seemingly trivial, yet evidently so serious - might just be best turned over to the voters."

Associated Free Press - 'Quebec's tough stand backfires as protests grow'

"Bill 78 prohibits freedom of assembly anywhere in the francophone province without prior police approval and requires protesters to give the authorities eight hours' notice before an event and follow a planned route.

Rather than quelling the unrest, it appears to have made things worse for the embattled premier. Tens of thousands of demonstrators ignored their official itinerary on Tuesday as they took to the streets of Montreal to mark the 100th day of the movement.
"People are backing the students because Charest went too far," said Jacques Hamel, a sociology professor at the University of Montreal. "It's a threat to fundamental rights, freedom of expression, freedom of association."

Le Monde (Translated) - 'Quebec undermined by an unprecedented social crisis'

"Now, popular protest is not only aimed at increased university tuition fees, but also at "Bill 78" - dubbed "the truncheon law" by its detractors. The bill passed last weekend at the behest of Jean Charest's Liberal government, and it restricts the right to protest.

Roundly condemned by those on the street, who appear committed to civil disobedience, the bill has also been attacked in the media: 'Le Devoir' sees an "abuse of power" and an "authoritarian temptation", "connected to the fear generated by the weakness of the authorities", while 'La Presse' denounced the provision as "misguided and counterproductive".

Beyond this Gordian knot, which unleashes passions, how to interpret this standoff? Is this the inevitable result of a movement that has committed "outrages" or, as some suggest, a "generational show-down"? For 'La Presse', in any case, the "Rambo policy" adopted by the government can not help but lead to a worsening situation. Hence the urgent appeal launched by the newspaper for a "cooling down", which it called a "national duty" for each of the parties to the conflict."

New York Times - 'Our Not-So-Friendly Northern Neighbour'

"For a change, Americans should take note of what is happening across the quiet northern border. Canada used to seem a progressive and just neighbor, but the picture today looks less rosy. One of its provinces has gone rogue, trampling basic democratic rights in an effort to end student protests against the Quebec provincial government's plan to raise tuition fees by 75 percent.

On May 18, Quebec's legislative assembly, under the authority of the provincial premier, Jean Charest, passed a draconian law in a move to break the 15-week-long student strike. Bill 78, adopted last week, is an attack on Quebecers' freedom of speech, association and assembly. Mr. Charest has refused to use the traditional means of mediation in a representative democracy, leading to even more polarization. His administration, one of the most right-wing governments Quebec has had in 40 years, now wants to shut down opposition. [...]

Both Quebec and Canada as a whole are pro-market. They also share a sense of solidarity embodied by their public health care systems and strong unions. Such institutions are a way to maintain cohesion in a vast, sparsely populated land. Now those values are under threat.

Americans traveling to Quebec this summer should know they are entering a province that rides roughshod over its citizens' fundamental freedoms."

Do Canadians Approve Of Police Brutality And Infringements On Citizens Rights??? Protests In Montreal Joined By Quebec Lawyers And Harper's F-35 Jet Fighter Scandal

Maple Spring Protests in Quebec - Protests Grow after the Government Passed Draconian Police-state Style Laws to prohibit Protests and Marches. Though the Quebec government is nominally Liberal it is anything but liberal as it pushes for austerity policies which will have a negative effect on a majority of Canadian Citizens while the well to do and the 1% and their circle of friends are left unscathed.





Guardian - pot banging in Jarry, Montreal against bill 78 #ggi Published on May 25, 2012 by TheGuardian Hundreds in the streets of Jarry, in Montreal, voice their disapproval with the government's introduction of bill 78 to quash tuition fees protests



Quebec lawyers join protesters in Montreal to protest against Quebec's Draconian Anti-protest Law - The law is an assault on the Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms Protests Against Brutal Repression and Draconian Law in Quebec: The real News Network Published on May 30, 2012 by TheRealNews Lawyers join students in protest against Quebec Bill 78



Canadians revolt against anti-protest law

Published on May 29, 2012 by RTAmerica In Montreal, Quebec, Canada it's not just about tuition hikes anymore. In addition to the rising costs of education, a new ruling has outlawed the freedom of assembly and hundreds of thousands of people have joined the students in Quebec to demonstrate solidarity in the fight against injustice. Gayane Chichakyan brings us the latest from Montreal.



Maple Spring - protests hit Canada

Published on May 29, 2012 by RTAmerica Massive demonstrations in Canada continue over the rise of college tuition, but now the Canadian government has passed a law denying it citizens the freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. The protest, now in its fourth month, has been dubbed the Maple Spring and was originally led by college students, but recently gained the attention of the everyday citizen. Michael Forian, political commentator, joins us with more.




This is awesome and phenomenal as we Canadians are often characterized as being boring , dull and a nation of conformists. Many Canadians including the government and the mainstream Media are dumbfounded or angry that Canadian citizens should act in such an unruly fashion.

The belief is that severe austerity measures must be imposed on the Canadian public thereby cuttin back on essential services including financing for education in general and including post-secondary education and on Health Care and social programs such as EI :employment Insurance in a time of increasing unemployment and increasing under employment . The new rules for EI is for the unemployed no matter what their training or educational level or the salary in their last job ie as a teacher or professor or nurse they must accept even minimum wage jobs in the service industry .

So the government's message at the federal and provincial levels of government is that in these tight financial times people must accept a job at MacDonalds or other fast food outlet even if their last job was being a public school teacher . Otherwise the individual will not receive government benefits such as Unemploymen benefits or welfare ie social assistance. Prime Minister Harper is a neoconservative who is only interested in beginning to dismantle big government to replace all programs from education and health care etc. by privatization.

Meanwhile the Harper government is involved embroiled that is with a scandal over the unnecessary extravagant spending on buying a number of fighter jets. Part of the scandal is over the low estimates on the cost for these airplanes as presented before the last election to the Canadian electorate as opposed to the real figures.


So we Canadians are being bullied by the Obama Regime and its Military National Security Industrial Complex to purchase 65 F-35 fighters for the sum of $29 billion at a time when the federal government under Prime Minister Haper is insiting on austerity measures to reduce various programs and services to Canadian citizens.

It appears the wishes of the American government and military trump the wishes of the Canadian electorate and citizenry. If anything Canada should be following a separate agenda to the USA. We should be lessening our ties to the USA. This is especially true given the made in America Global Economic Meltdown . We should also be distancing ourselves from America's hopeless pointless and dangerous and deadly adoption of a perpetual war policy which day by day makes the whole world less safe than it was prior to 9/11.

Instead Harper has convinced Canadians that America's agenda must be our agenda. So as members of the now wholly American controlled NATO we Canadians must agree to any efforts taken on under NATO's banner no matter how indefensible. So we help bomb the crap out of Libya and leave it in a mess ruled by warlords, thugs and religious fanatics. Libya is much worse off than it was under the sometimes thuggish Qadaffi . America has a habit of intervening in countries and in the end making things worse than what they were in the end this is no accident. America's main aim is to take down any nation that might some time in the future be a threat to America's military and to American Corporations. In other words all nations under the watchful eye of the American Empire must accept America's brand of deregulated monopolistic unfettered 19th century style capitalism.

When the USA intervened in Iran and Guatemala in 1953 they overthrew popular governments in favor of toadies who would do america's bidding without question . But America did the same thing in Chile, El Salvador , Honduras , Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Tunisia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Congo, Somalia and so on.

Concealing F-35 costs: A scandal at last BY DUNCAN CAMERON via rabble.ca, APRIL 10, 2012

Even its mainstream media supporters at Postmedia News, and CTVglobemedia are now angry with the Harper Conservatives for concealing the true costs of the F-35 fighter jet

The Harper government denounced the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) for claiming in March 2011 that F-35 fighter jet costs were about $10 billion more than announced by the Conservatives.

Media are swarming now because the Auditor General revealed last week that increased costs -- similar to what the PBO reported -- were known within the government, which chose not to share the information with parliament, or the public.

Catching the government with its pants down is certainly news. Note that it was the Auditor General, the PBO and the opposition parties that drew the media's attention to what had been known in Canada, and major news in the U.S. Cost over-runs, and mismanagement of the F-35 file were well covered in mainstream U.S. reporting on military issues.

The important questions remain unanswered. Why does Canada need to pay $29 billion or more for first-strike jet aircraft? Who do we intend to attack with our 65 F-35 fighters? Why would these target countries be considered a threat to Canada? A report by the Rideau Institute in 2010 questioned why Canada needed to acquire the F-35 received press attention at the time, but the issues it raised are still without a coherent response.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, speaking in Ottawa last March 28, described the U.S. as "100 per cent committed" to development of the F-35 first-strike jet aircraft, saying it is "part of the defence strategy the United States went through and has put in place." As a junior partner to the U.S., Canada is preparing to go along, without asking too many questions about what it all means.

The new U.S. defence policy has been described as the Asia pivot, with the U.S. re-balancing its military forces and creating a so-called "ring of fire" around China. The fear that China represents a threat to U.S. global hegemony is thought by the Chinese to be behind the Asia pivot, announced by President Obama in a November 2011 speech to APEC.

Stephen Harper has discovered China as a market for Canadian bitumen. To get it to market, Harper wants the Northern Gateway pipeline built across the Great Bear rainforest, from Alberta to Kitimat on the B.C. coast, with as little delay as possible, and without the financial interference of "foreign" environmental groups.

and also see:

F-35 committee probe stalled, shutting down soon? Opposition MPs fight Conservative motion to stop hearing witnesses at public accounts committee
CBC News Posted: May 29, 2012

Opposition MPs are asking whether the government has something to hide, after a Conservative motion to wrap up the public accounts committee's investigation into the controversial F-35 fighter jets purchase.

The motion, introduced during a closed-door meeting of the Commons public accounts committee, would ensure the committee proceeded to write its report without hearing from any more witnesses.

"We'll do everything that we can to prevent it," Liberal MP Gerry Byrne told CBC News. "This is too substantive, this is too important... these are issues that need to be in the public domain."

During question period on both Monday and Tuesday, opposition MPs asked why the government wanted to stop the committee from getting to the bottom of the controversy.

"We have heard from the auditor general not once, not twice, but three times. We have heard from departmental officials not once but twice," Andrew Saxton, the parliamentary secretary to the president of the treasury board, told the House of Commons Monday. "It is time to get on with writing the report."

Saxton's Monday Commons statement, the essence of which he repeated on Tuesday, was the first public indication that the committee's work may be nearly over.

MPs are not supposed to discuss in-camera committee proceedings in public, although Byrne has begun to do so out of frustration with the government's now-frequent moves to remove House committee meetings from the public and the media's gaze.

The committee's study followed the auditor general's report on the cost discrepancies surrounding the procurement process for the fighter jets.

Auditor-General hits back at critics, defends scathing F-35 report Ottawa— The Canadian Press
via The Globe And Mail, May. 15, 2012

The auditor-general has released a scathing report over the government's planned purchase of new F35 stealth fighter jets. The report says the Defence Department failed to properly inform the public of the fleet's true cost.

Tories defend shutting down probe into costly F-35 purchase by STEVEN CHASE Globe and Mail
, May. 28, 2012

Conservative Government Attempt To Shut Down F-35 Hearings Will Further Add to the Image of “Something To Hide” On the Program By David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen ,May 28, 2012

Defence Watch

There are some in the Canadian Forces who see the Harper government’s move to shut down House of Commons hearings into the auditor general’s report on the F-35 project as a public relations windfall for those opposing the jet purchase.

The Conservatives moved a motion during a recent closed-door public accounts committee meeting to end the panel’s inquiry into the auditor’s report on the F-35 procurement process, Postmedia has noted. The government’s manoeuvre, led by Conservative MP Andrew Saxton, comes after about seven hours of hearings and before opposition parties had their chance to grill ministers and Defence Department officials who have criticized Auditor General Michael Ferguson’s findings, the news service reported.

“To shut this committee down is a scandal,” said Gerry Byrne, a Liberal MP on the public accounts committee. “It means the government is desperate to hide something.”

Expect this to be the media strategy for the opposition parties for the foreseeable future. The strategy is to highlight the secrecy around the F-35 purchase and the lack of information about the cost and other issues.

At DND the talk is that the Conservatives have given the opposition MPs another PR windfall on the F-35 file. There has been widespread disbelief that the poor communications strategy has allowed the purchase to become a major political issue. This latest move will not help the situation at all, say NDHQ insiders.

#manifencours #montreal #22mai #ggi #berri #sherbrooke...

#ggi #OWS Maple Spring! Protests In Canada Growing Due To Gov't's Austerity Measures and New Anti-protests Law

Maple Spring!Protests Growing In Canada Democracy Now!



Truthdiggers of the Week: 400,000 Canadians Launching the ‘Maple Spring’ by Alexander Reed Kelly at Truthdig.com, May 25, 2012

More than 400,000 Canadians—students and defenders of freedom of expression—filled the streets of Montreal this week to demonstrate against a 75 percent university tuition hike and emergency legislation that placed draconian penalties on people exercising their right to protest.

Almost 1,000 demonstrators were arrested as the protest passed its 100th day this week. Many times that number marched in defiance of Bill 78, passed May 18, which suspended the current academic term, laid out regulations that required protesters to notify police of demonstrations eight hours in advance and of any protest involving 50 or more people, and threatened to fine student associations $125,000 if they disobeyed or failed to stop others from protesting.

In light of the new law, the week’s protests appear to be the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. And they did not come without a price. In addition to the hundreds arrested, 11 people were hospitalized at the beginning of May when police fired rubber bullets and tear gas into a crowd in Victoriaville. Two demonstrators suffered serious injuries: One lost an eye and another was critically wounded.

The government’s attempt to stem the protests with Bill 78 backfired. Speaking on “Democracy Now!,” Anna Kruzynski, assistant professor at Concordia University in Montreal, said “there was an explosion of support for the student movement” when the bill was passed, “but also a real questioning of the legitimacy of this government, this government that is trying to push through austerity measures that the majority of the population do not want to see.” By Kruzynski’s assessment, a genuine, broad-based social movement, which includes families, children, the elderly and others, is mounting around concern for Canadian youth and affordable education.

Overreaches by the NYPD during the course of the Occupy movement drew people from across the country to New York City, Zuccotti Park and hundreds of local encampments. Similarly, Canadian leaders handed protesters an invaluable recruiting tool when they attempted to abridge the right to demonstrate. For answering the call to stand against the depredations of austerity hawks for the sake of themselves, others and future generations, we honor hundreds of thousands of defiant Canadians as our Truthdiggers of the Week.

Bring Them Home : Soldiers Who Commit Suicide Ignored by Military, MSM US Gov't And Those In Power Eager To Send Other People's Children Into Combat But not Their Own

Bring Them Home-Bruce Springsteen 2007

 

The USA should bring back the draft but reconfigured so that the kids of the rich and powerful and the kids of elected officials who support war should be the #1 candidates for serving in the military and by this I mean serving in actual combat and not sitting in an air conditioned office in the Green Zone or its equivalent elsewhere. In other words those who so easily decide to go to war should be made to shoulder the responsibility of either going into combat themselves or sending their own children into combat.

If the Elites and the hyper-patriots want war then they or their children should be first in line for combat. Would they then think twice about going into war.

But as long as they or their kids are not forced to take part in combat they will continue to send other peoples kids into combat. According to these elites they and their children are too valuable to the nation to be sent into actual combat.
As for the lower classes in the USA they and their children being of no real worth are expendable in combat.

  Survivors of military suicide victims come together to grieve By Rebecca Ruiz at MSNBC US News, May 28, 2012

For the family and friends of service members who died by suicide, Memorial Day can be not only a solemn day, but also a painful reminder that military suicides are not treated the same as combat deaths.

Kim Ruocco, the national director of suicide education and outreach at Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS, has experienced this isolating grief firsthand. This weekend, she is bringing together about 100 suicide survivors at TAPS' annual Memorial Day weekend National Military Survivor Seminar and Good Grief Camp for Young Survivors.
"[Suicide survivors] are surrounded by people whose loved ones were killed in action," Ruocco said. "There's a real sense that their loved one's death was not an honorable death."

Ruocco's husband, Marine Corps Maj. John Ruocco, killed himself seven years ago. He was a Cobra helicopter pilot who ran 75 combat missions during a five-month deployment in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004. He had struggled with depression in the past, particularly after a training accident in the 1990s when two Cobras collided in midair, and he lost four friends.
In February 2005, while living temporarily in a hotel room near Camp Pendleton in California, awaiting a redeployment to Iraq and considering mental health counseling, John Ruocco hanged himself.

"He was so ashamed of being depressed and not being able to do his job," Kim Ruocco, 49, said. He was going to seek treatment, but she believes that "when he sat there and thought about what it meant to get help, how people would see you, how young Marines viewed him, how his peers viewed him ... he thought the problem was him."

Kim Ruocco, who has a master's degree in social work, provides counseling resources to suicide survivors, helps family members secure benefits and facilitates support groups. TAPS also tries to change procedures and policies that can be hurtful to suicide survivors, such as the exclusion of service members who died by suicide from state memorials and the distribution to suicide survivors of different Gold Star pins than the ones given to families when a service member dies in action.

This weekend's four-day event for survivors is expected to draw more than 2,000 participants. It will feature panels and peer support groups on dealing with grief, sessions on spirituality and meditation, and events for children.

In 2011, 301 active-duty service members died by suicide, according to the Department of Defense. More than half of those deaths occurred in the Army, where the suicide rate last year was projected at 24.1 per 100,000, outpacing the national rate adjusted for the comparison of 18.6 people per 100,000. A study released earlier this year by the U.S. Army Public Health Command found that the number of active-duty soldiers who committed suicide increased 80 percent between 2004 and 2008.

 Soldiers killed in combat are honored while those who return to the USA suffering from head trauma or post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or who commit suicide are still ignored by US military, the Mainstream Media and the US government.

Soldiers suffering from PTSD and other psychological problems or those who commit suicide are still treated as if they were malingerers and whiners who have in one way or another are seen as dishonoring the US military.

 President Obama and other officials take part in Memorial Day services and act so serious and concerned meanwhile sending troops to be wounded or killed in unnecessary questionable wars as in Iraq, Afghanistan etc.

If President Obama and others in positions of power and authority were so concerned over the troops they would bring them all home. Instead of reducing deployment they are increasing deployment while refusing to substantially increase salaries and benefits for their soldiers or spending what they should on soldiers who have been wounded or suffer from head trauma or PTSD (shell-shocked).  It sometimes seems that soldiers suffering from PTSD or related psychological disorders as a result of being in combat are still treated as whiners, malingerers and cowards as they were in  WWI and in WWII .  The infamous General  Patton treated PTSD victims as malingerers and cowards.

 More US soldiers have died from suicide than were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.

It is also hypocritical of those in the Congress and Senate and their wealthy contributors to shed tears on Memorial Day over those killed in combat while they refuse to send their own children off to war.
If you won't go yourself into combat and refuse to allow your children to take part in combat then you should be ashamed and should be ridiculed for sending other people's children into combat especially when it comes to wars such as Iraq and Afghanistan which are really Wars of Aggression and have nothing to do with defending the American Homeland.


Robert Bales and the Cost of Fighting Wars With Other People’s Kids Ken Allard at the Daily Beast , March 21, 2012

Ken Allard on the divide between American society and the soldiers sworn to defend it with their lives.

The staff sergeant suspected of killing 16 Afghan civilians, Robert Bales, will surely be held accountable both as an individual and an American soldier. He will be tried and, if convicted, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the death penalty is a possibility. But it’s too simple to blame Bales alone. His actions are the toll of more than a decade of fighting wars with Other People’s Kids.

Bales was serving in Afghanistan on his fourth combat tour, in a sense filling in for three other Americans missing from military service, AWOL in the country that once produced "the Greatest Generation." After 9/11, we never asked the American people for blood, sweat, and sacrifice, but instead sent them back to their usual lives. Instead, America fought the war against terror in Iraq, Afghanistan, and lesser-known hellholes with OPK, a term I coined in my 2006 book, Warheads.

The armed forces were downsized when the Cold War ended, with the active-duty army shrinking by more than a third, or a quarter-million soldiers in just five years as President George W. Bush pledged that a smaller army of less than half a million soldiers would be able to hold the fort until the nation mobilized to meet any future emergency. But when the U.S. went to war after 2001, that pledge was simply forgotten, leaving a force small enough that many of its members undergo multiple deployments as our wars have dragged on for more than a decade.

Reading the memoirs of George H.W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld, there seems to have been no thought given to mobilizing the country or sharing the burden of national sacrifice. Instead, the administration banked on the mostly less-than-upwardly-mobile soldiers already in uniform, including people like Bales.

#OWS #ggi Maddow War On Women Escalates Into Violence Ignored By MSM and Mitt Romney Says The Poor Need To Pay More Taxes???

Mainstream Media once again ignoring the increase in violence against abortion clinics and doctors who perform abortions or those who defend women's reproductive rights.

One of the questions Maddow does not raise is why the federal government the FBI and the Dept. of Justice or the Obama administration are not speaking out in public and in the media.

Rachel Maddow War on Women Escalates into Violence

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Mitt Romney and the republicans targeting the poor. Mitt Romney and other members of the GOP are shocked that the poorest American citizens don't pay taxes. So their big issue for the upcoming election is to increase taxes on the poorest Americans.
Meanwhile they insist that those making over 1 million dollars a year should to be fair have their taxes reduced.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

#ggi & #ows Quebec protests spreading beyond Montreal and being just about tuition | News | National Post

Quebec protests spreading beyond Montreal and being just about tuition | News | National Post

MONTREAL — The unpredictable nightly protests that helped spur a government crackdown have largely been a Montreal-only affair — until now.

Since Premier Jean Charest passed a law last week limiting protests in the province, defiant demonstrations have popped up in cities not known as hotbeds of activism.

Small groups from Granby, south of Montreal, to Jonquiere, north of Quebec City, have joined Montrealers in taking to the streets with pots and pans to protest Bill 178.

Their message is clear: This conflict is not just about tuition anymore.

Video: Quebec students fight for right to protest

Quebec protesters march through heavy rain and lightning
NELSON WYATT MONTREAL— The Canadian Press, May. 26, 2012

...Marches were also held in some other Quebec communities Friday, including the provincial capital and Sherbrooke. There was even a small pot-banging protest in downtown Toronto to support the Quebec students.

The tone of the Montreal march, despite the weather, reflected Thursday’s peaceful outing which drew throngs out on a warm evening. Friday’s march had a similar party vibe in the city where residents joke that there’s a festival every five minutes.

Besides the symphony of clanking pots and pans — a Chilean tradition which people used to protest against dictators — demonstrators danced in the streets and small singing groups appeared in other areas, such as outside the park where the nightly demonstration kicks off.

The pot-banging wasn’t limited to the demonstration however — more rang out from supporters on the sidewalk, and one taxi driver gleefully held up a heart-shaped baking pan that he beat with a metal spoon.

A man identified as Anastase Gentlethug tweeted, “Walmart has seen a big increase in pot sales this month.”

On a less friendly note, there were reports of an incident in the downtown bar strip where students catcalled a man who gave them the single-digit salute from the sidelines.

The protest had been declared illegal by Montreal police the moment it began because no route had been provided to authorities. Police said that violated a municipal bylaw.

The above mentioned article in the National Post let's say reflects my own views on this subject that is the issue is not just about tuition fees.

Yesterday I was using the remarks of CBC's Rex Murphy to point out the hypocrisy and duplicity of self-branded liberals who appear at times anything but liberals. The unfortunate reality is as we see in the USA and here in Canada is that so called liberals have moved further to the right over the last 20 or 30 years. The CBC is now no different really than Canada's other major network CTV. Both have become the mouth pieces of the status quo and the 1% who rule this country and control a majority of elected and un-elected officials. Since this class is doing well these days they cannot understand or fathom the fear and anger of those who are not doing all that well and can only believe that things for them and their children will just get worse.

Is the protests in Quebec only about the raising of university tuition fees or is it merely symbolic of greater issues of inequality ie economic inequality and government's priorities . For example Is the purchase of a number of fighter jets by the federal government more important than the Canadian government's obligation to higher education across the country. The current government of Canada is following the lead of other countries in a time of financial difficulty choosing austerity measures over other policies to correct the problem. The Harper government is in the process of passing legislation to cut back on unemployment insurance now known as in bureaucratize as Employment Insurance pay outs even though we are told the EI /UI is in fact flush with money.

Rex Murphy at CBC and other commentators and a lot of so called self-branded liberals are somewhat sanctimonious in their condemnation of the protests taking place in Quebec or those taking place across Canada under the brand of the Occupy Movement they appear to sufferfrom a form of amnesia about how various groups have had to struggle to achieve their goals ie women's rights and equality and others blacks, gays and so forth.

The question for any such group wanting to question and ultimately overthrow the status quo is where does one begin. The struggle for African Americans in the USA in part began with ending segregation at public schools 1954 Brown v the Board of Education. Before that the fight for equal rights began with the the struggle to end the "lynching laws" in the USA since the majority of those legally lynched were black men . But one of the issues which received more media attention was the boycott of municipal buses and later the buse companies which operated across state lines.

Now some liberals may believe that desegrating buses or lunch counters at Sears was not somehow worthy of massive protests and bringing whole town or cities to a standstill. But as for organized civil disobedience one has to begin somewhere and it is important to choose one's battles. So desegration and equality and protection of civil rights were the goals .

But one has to begin somewhere . The particular battles may even appearto be trivial but they become symbolic of the greater struggle. So when a black woman refuses to sit at the back of the bus and refuses to give up her seat to a white passenger this may be an issue of little importance but it became symbolic of the unjust Jim Crow segregation laws in the Southern States of America. The least and the greatest journey's it is said begins with one small step. So desegrating buses was not necessarily a life and death situation as long as one obeyed the law. But as a symbol it became the impetus for the local boycott which lead to the energizing of what became the Civil Rights Movement.

Currently when it comes to Gay Rights and the rights of the GLBT community Gay Marriage has taken on this mantle of a symbolic struggle for equal rights. Again this issues may not seem that important for why should the Gay community worry so much about having the right to be married. The issue is really about seeing Gays as being equal to non-gays at least in a legal sense. As Martin Luther said the law and the government cannot make white people love him or even care about him but the law can be used to ensure his equal rights and protect him against violence to his person.

Even today the justice system in the USA is still geared towards treating blacks and other people of color unjustly. The police and justice system uses the law to continue the oppression of black people in America. Blacks are disproportionately harrassed by the police and are disproportionately taken into custody and charged and this continues on to the trial of black people to their being sentenced. Since Blacks are disproportionately represented in American prisons this leads to the erroneous conclusion that blacks are more prone to criminal activity than are white Americans. But in fact the situation is not that straight forward and studies have been done over the years showing black Americans are not more prone to criminal activities as Whites and it is the whole gamut of the justice system from law enforcement to trials and to prisons which knowingly or unknowingly leads to injustice for black Americans.

For instance the Trayvon Martin murder became symbolic of how unjust the justice system is in the USA. But it highlighted widespread racism and racial profiling and brought to the fore the "Stand Your Ground" Laws which gives citizens the right to pre-emptive shooting of would be threats whether real or imagined and the incident also pointed out the lack of more substantive gun control laws in the USA. According to the prevailing conservative or neo-liberal view we are all on our own and the notion of community is being undermined. The attitude of we are all in this together is replaced by each against each. Society as such according to this view is that society is just a bit of old fashioned out of date quaint "liberalism".

So getting back to the protests in Quebec this is in a variety of ways connected to the Occupy Movement and similar movements across Europe and the uprisings in the Middle east and Africa. All are fundamentally about not just individual rights but about collective rights, responsibility and accountability. Neo-liberalism and its twin neo-conservatism insists that by supporting the top 1% of society this will somehow trickle down to the rest of society. Those who are unemployed or underemployed are seen in this view as responsible for their own situation and ignores the economic reality. If government's and corporations choose austerity and cut backs and massive lay-off and relocating in countries which have few if any rights for workers and at the same time there is ongoing downsizing and the shrinking of government services this is not the individuals fault.
What has happened going back at least to 2008 is a financial meltdown of capitalism gone awry . CEOs get to take home ever growing salaries and bonuses and other perks while the people who work for a company are forced to accept a reduction or freezing of wages and cuts to benefits while others are simply laid off without any regard to their actual personal productivity or loyalty.

Meanwhile CEOs and their government counterparts get rewarded whether they are more or less productive. They can even by their own ineptitude take down the corporation they manage and still be rewarded. The proto-economics spokesperson or academic act as apologist for a corrupt system which has little relation to free market capitalism in which there is real substantive competition as already bloated corporations absorb smaller corporations creating a less regulated monopolistic capitalism and an unworkable more and more interconnected interlocking parts of the economic system where there is no line between bankers, investment firms and corporations that actually produce some physical and not theoretical products.

These companies which are meant to create physical products when they start to do poorly in the market place put the blame on everything from government regulations, taxation and wage demands of the workers rather than mismanagement at the top or an inability to make changes to their products to fit consumer needs and what consumers can actually pay for these products.
But in many instances these poorly performing entities go merrily on their way believing if worse comes to worse they can ask the government for bail outs and or lower taxes and cut the workforce and or decrease the wages of their workers.

#ggi Storm Troopers Unleashed On Canada's Uprising in Quebec Against New Draconian Anti-Democracy Laws

Photo from : Montreal police pepper spraying bar patrons during protest melee (video) By Benjamin Shingler, Canadian Press , Ottawa Citizen , May 20, 2012

Above photo: The student movement's red square spreads beyond Quebec. As protests raged in Montreal, Arcade Fire played with Mick Jagger on Saturday Night Life in New York City. Lead singer Win Butler sported the red square on stage. (NBC.com)

Two journalists were swept up and arrested as ranks of riot police surrounded a group of protesters near the intersection of St. Laurent Boulevard and Ontario Street. One of the reporters was wearing a ski mask to protect against police chemical irritants, and was lightly injured in the fray.

Both were held for 20 minutes and told by a police officer that he "didn't give a f—k" they were journalists, before being let go, according to La Presse.

So as in the USA the local storm troopers that is the riot squads make no distinction between violent out of control protesters and peaceful protesters , innocent bystanders or journalist .
Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly , freedom of the press no longer recognized as rights in Canada. The only thing that matters is supposedly law and order .

One of the issues is whether or not police , riot police, who look a lot like storm troopers in their full battle dress swinging batons and spraying mace / pepper-spray are helping to calm the situation or in fact stoking the fires deliberately to undermine the protesters and their initial grievances.

Watching the actions of police reminds us of the actions of police in oppressive regimes around the globe such as Bahrain , Pakistan,Honduras and so forth. By gearing up for rioting the police are in fact created situations that look like massive rioting when in fact it is a small minority of protesters and undercover police and other paid "Agent Provocateurs" who are engaged in premeditated , planned violent actions.


Montreal Police harass and threaten people lined up to enter a bar

L'attaque de la police montée à "Le P'tit Bar"-Manif Nocturne 23 Mai 2012

Published on May 24, 2012 by ongunsu
J'ai tourné cette vidéo pendant que j'étais coincé dans le P'tit Bar de me protéger de l'a brutalité policiere. Les polices montées attaquent les clients sur la terrasse du bar et essaye de entrer dans "Le P'Tit Bar" sur St Denis!
I shot this video while I got stuck at "Le P'tit Bar" to protect myself from police Brutality. The mounted police shamelessly terrorize the people on the terrasse of the bar and trying to get in to "Le P'tit Bar" on St Denis !



Montreal protesters defy demo law and clash with police - Montreal - CBC News



and from CBC news:

Dozens arrested Two journalists were swept up and arrested as ranks of riot police surrounded a group of protesters near the intersection of St. Laurent Boulevard and Ontario Street. One of the reporters was wearing a ski mask to protect against police chemical irritants, and was lightly injured in the fray. Both were held for 20 minutes and told by a police officer that he "didn't give a f—k" they were journalists, before being let go, according to La Presse.

Provincial police were called in for the second night in a row, as were officers on horseback. In various parts of downtown, constables fired tear gas and muzzle blasts at crowds. What began months ago as a student strike against the Liberal provincial government's plan to hike tuition fees by 70 per cent over the next five years has ballooned into a broader social movement supported by several of Quebec's major labour, environmental and political groups.

The movement picked up some celebrity backing in the last few days, with documentary filmmaker Michael Moore and Montreal band Arcade Fire lending their support. Moore is calling Quebec's student movement "amazing," and on Sunday tweeted: "Canadians are in revolt in Quebec over new gov't law limiting democratic rights. No news of it in US press. Their uprising is inspiring #ggi."

Videos dencouncing bill released The student movement's most popular hashtag is #ggi (grève générale illimitée, French for general unlimited strike.) The international hacker collective Anonymous has also taken an interest in the growing Quebec movement. One of the collective's Twitter accounts tweeted "Goodbye Quebec. Hello Quebecistan," and warned of future actions against the Quebec government. The group, which regularly hacks into government websites around the world, also released two videos denouncing Bill 78 and planned tuition increases. "Resistance is futile," a computer-modulated voice stated in one video. "The hour of war has come." The website for the Quebec Liberal party and the province's Education Ministry were down for portions of the weekend in an apparent cyberattack. Anonymous, however, did not claim responsibility. Student organizers estimate that 150,000 college and university students are still on strike.

Rex Murphy's attitude is revealed by his referring to the student protests as being a matter of students playing "hookey" and therefore should be dismissed out of hand.

For Rex law and order is more important than exercising one's rights or taking to the streets/Our Streets when the police and government engages in its own violent actions or is dismissive of the rights of all Canadians.
All laws he seems to argue no matter how wrong or ill-advised or which contravene the rights of Canadian citizens must be upheld. So for example if certain minorities are discriminated against that would not give them the right to commit acts of civil disobedience by breaking the law. So the Black person who in the 1960s insists on sitting in an area designated "Whites Only" Rex would side with the property owner and the police and would set the dogs on them.

Rex's other solution is taking part in useless debates over various issues. Merely debating over an issue as they do at Osgood Hall or Harvard or Oxford is not necessarily a sign of a healthy democracy it is rather just another game played by those in power.

For instance Rex's solution to any accusations of police brutality is to set up a series of debates about what does or does not constitute "police brutality" rather than defining police brutality making it prohibitive and punishable. One wonders if he is the sort of knuckle dragging neanderthal who supports the police or military or our secret police unconditionally. In other words all who are targeted by police at protests or at airport security and so forth are to be treated as guilty until they can if they are permitted to argue their case.

So if some protesters are violent than all are to be considered to be guilty of violence . So he advocates guilt by association and believes in collective punishment. In Rex's utopia any serious social, economic, political differences are resolved by so called civilized debate. But he forgets that our democratic society has gained rights not merely by someone like Rex pontificating but just as often by public actions aimed at getting the attention of the media and thereby the general public and eventually by elected officials and the top 1%. Women, Blacks, Gays etc. manage to get their rights enshrined after decades or centuries of protests and acts of Civil Disobedience. Rex seems to be under the impression that these rights are handed out to various groups without any struggle. Labor Unions didn't just refuse to work as he suggests but protested, marched in the streets tying up traffic and fighting with the Fascistic draconian police and military to get their rights recognized.
These rights have been hard fought for and there is a need for due diligence to maintain and where necessary to increase one's rights.

Rex forgets that the government and the ruling class have no interests in ensuring the rights of the 99%. It is only when the people demand that their grievances be not just heard but also taken seriously that change comes about.Rex Murphy by the way of a sidebar is part of the reason the CBC the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is no longer a trustworthy source for national news or even international news. The CBC at times sounds no better than FOX News or CNN as it panders to a neo-liberal, Neoconservative audience who brand anyone who airs a grievance legitimate or not as "WHINERS" . He and the CBC do not appreciate being reminded that Canada is moving away from where we were a decade ago towards a more conservative pro-monopolistic Capitalist society in which the rich fraudsters are rewarded lavishly while the rest get poorer . People are supposed to be grateful just for living in Canada or having a minimum wage job.

Commentator CBC's Neo-Liberal Rex Murphy's solution to unrest in Quebec sounds all too familiar as he posits blame on all protesters for the actions of a violent minority-His solution beat up and arrest all protesters and let God Sort out the innocent from the guilty.
Rex Murphy states he supports the democratic right to protests and yet is against any protests which may inconvenience other citizens.
Rex Murphy is all too happy to turn the water canons and the gas on protesters who engage in acts of civil disobedience. One can imagine that Rex Murphy would be pontificating and tut tutting the likes of Martin Luther king Jr. or mahatma Ghandi for encouraging acts of civil disobedience. He doesn't mind protest as long as they are quiet orderly and more or less an invisible non-invent. Many who support the students in Quebec or the Occupy movement in Canada and the USA and elsewhere for the most part do not support violence and vandalism but with these at times massive protests there is bound to be a small group who have their own agenda and will use violent tactics.

Rex of course says nothing about the unnecessary violent response by the police even against peaceful protesters.

#OWS Uprising Going Global : Montreal's Uprising !!! Over 500 protesters Arrested The single biggest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history."

Massive march in Montreal to protest Gov'ts Draconian Bill 78 to deter protests

Protest May 23, 2012

Montreal Protesters while being kettled and arrested shouting at police

Ugly scenes: A Montreal police officer charges at a protester during Wednesday night's demonstration against tuition fee hikes.

Time lapsed Video of Protests Montreal May 22, 2012



What is surprising especially for Canadians is how widespread the protests are being supported by average Citizens in response to the Quebec government's ill-advised legislation to stop any more protests.Ill advised as it were because it has had the opposite effect they had wanted. The unintended consequences are putting the government and police departments on notice that the protesters will not be deterred and simply go away.

'Biggest Act of Civil Disobedience in Canadian History'
Marchers defy Bill 78; Neighborhoods fill with sound of banging pots and pans Common Dreams.org,may 24, 2012

The single biggest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history."

That's how yesterday's Montreal protest is being described today. Hundreds of thousands red-shirted demonstrators defied Quebec's new "anti-protest" law and marched through the streets of downtown Montreal filling the city with "rivers of red."

Tuesday marked the 100th day of the growing student protests against austerity measures and tuition increases. In response to the spreading protests, the conservative Charest government passed a new "emergency" law last Friday - Bill 78.

...Bill 78 not only "enraged civil libertarians and legal experts but also seems to have galvanized ordinary Quebecers." Since the law passed Friday, people in Montreal neighborhoods have appeared on their balconies and in front of their houses to defiantly bang pots and pans in a clanging protest every night at 8 p.m.

Bill 78 mandates:

Fines of between $1,000 and $5,000 for any individual who prevents someone from entering an educational institution or who participate in an illegal demonstration.

Penalties climb to between $7,000 and $35,000 for protest leaders and to between $25,000 and $125,000 for unions or student federations.

All fines DOUBLE for repeat offenders

Public demonstrations involving more than 50 people have to be flagged to authorities eight hours in advance, include itinerary, duration and time at which they are being held. The police may alter any of these elements and non-compliance would render the protest illegal.

Offering encouragement for someone to protest at a school, either tacitly or otherwise, is subject to punishment. The Minister of Education has said that this would include things like 'tweeting', 'facebooking', and has she has implied that wearing the student protest insignia (a red flag-pin) could also be subject to punishment.

No demonstration can be held within 50 meters of any school campus


Ostensibly Tuesday's march was to commemorate the 100th day of a strike by Quebec college and university students over the issue of tuition increases. But a decision last Friday by the Charest government to pass Bill 78 - emergency legislation requiring protest organizers to provide police with an itinerary of their march eight hours in advance - not only enraged civil libertarians and legal experts but also seems to have galvanized ordinary Quebecers into marching through the streets of a city that has seen protests staged here nightly for the past seven weeks.

"I didn't really have a stand when it came to the tuition hikes," said Montrealer Gilles Marcotte, a 32-year-old office worker who used a vacation day to attend the event. "But when I saw what the law does, not just to students but to everybody, I felt I had to do something. This is all going too far."

and from The Montreal Gazette

Calm prevails over large afternoon protest March marks 100th day of unrest; demonstrators, police get testy at night By JAMES MENNIE, KATHERINE WILTON, ANDY RIGA, CHRIS CURTIS, MAX HARROLD and ROBERTO ROCHA, The Gazette May 23, 2012

Tuesday's march was billed as being two demonstrations taking place at the same time. One, organized by the federations representing Quebec college and university students and attended by contingents from the province's labor movement, abided by the provisions of the law and provided a route. The other, overseen by CLASSE, an umbrella group of students associations, deliberately did not.

By 3: 30 p.m., a little more than 90 minutes after the marches began to snake their way through downtown, CLASSE, which estimated the crowd at 250,000, described the march as "the single biggest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history."

Other crowd estimates varied between 75,000 and 150,000 protesters. Montreal police do not give official crowd estimates but the Place des festivals, which demonstrators easily filled before the march began, holds roughly 100,000 people.

In Montreal the police obeying the orders of the 1% arrested over 500 people in one night. There are still questions being raised over the police tactics and the use of undercover police or paid thugs or whether the Black Bloc is in fact independent of the authorities or paid agent provocateurs ???

In the 2010 protests at the G20 summit it became obvious that some of the more violent protesters were government organized undercover infiltrators and agent provocateurs who egg demonstrators to commit violent acts and /or destruction of private or public property.

Record arrests as police use controversial kettling to control Montreal protests National Post Wire Services May 24, 2012

MONTREAL — Police made more than 500 arrests Wednesday evening, the largest number of people arrested in a single night so far in the weeks-long Quebec student demonstrations, after using a controversial technique to control protesters.

The evening march that began with people festively banging pots and pans in support of protesting students ended in the early morning hours with police kettling a crowd of demonstrators and arresting 518 people.

Montreal wasn’t the only city to have roundups Wednesday night. There were also mass arrests at protests in Quebec City and Sherbrooke.

The arrests came just hours after the Quebec government signalled it would be getting tougher on the striking students and set strict conditions for any resumption of negotiations with student strike leaders: There will be no talk of a tuition freeze, and no question of scrapping a newly enacted emergency law.

Barring that, Education Minister Michelle Courchesne suggested Wednesday that there will be no return to the bargaining table in a dispute that has made international news.

“I’m not giving up. I’m very tenacious, very determined,” Courchesne said. “I want to talk to them, and it’s up to them to take some steps so that we might talk.”

But within hours of Courchesne’s tough talk, police also flexed their muscles, making hundreds of arrests after a Wednesday night march in Montreal.

Kettling is a police tactic widely used in Europe where riot police surround demonstrators and limit or cut off their exits. It has been widely criticized because it often results in the scooping up of innocent bystanders as well as rowdies.

A recent report by Ontario’s police watchdog blasted Toronto police for their use of kettling during the G20 summit two years ago, saying they violated civil rights, detained people illegally and used excessive force.

The Montreal demonstration was the 30th consecutive nightly march since the student protest against tuition fee increases began more than three months ago.

Endless War: NATO Protests & Afghanistan Agreement TYT Cenk Uygur And Update Birther Sheriff Joe Arpaio And Pastor Calls For Killing All The Gays

Another 10 to 12 years in Afghanistan ???

NATO Protests And Afghanistan Agreement TYT Cenk Uygur May 21, 2012



One could argue that Obama will probably win his re-election in part due to the extremist rhetoric coming from the Republican Party and the Religious Right . The question of his re-election becomes a no brainer as the alternative of Mitt Romney and the republicans is scary and dangerous.

And the right wing GOP, uberconservatives and religious right use Eliminationist language concerning the plight of Gays in America. This type of rhetoric is that of proposing genocide of a minority of citizens who are gay (GLBT) . The right has come to believe that the USA is threatened by the conspiracy of Gays and their supporters which the right labels as the "Gay Agenda".

In their world view as it were the "Gay Agenda" is just another part of the "Secular Humanists" conspiracy to destroy America's values and its institutions from marriage to education to government . They believe that the very notion of the Separation of Church and State is a fiction created by " Secular Humanists " . The GOP and religious Right believe that America from its beginnings was meant to be a Christian Nation reflecting Christian values and adhering to the Biblical laws given to the Israelites.

 It is disturbing how these religious right extremists use Jesus to justify their own prejudices and intolerance of anyone who is different. They depict Jesus as a  gun enthusiast and a believer in monopolistic capitalism who has no problem with killing anyone with whom he disagrees. Their Jesus is more like Rambo than Martin Luther King or Gandhi. 

Charles L. Worley, North Carolina Pastor: Put Gays And Lesbians In Electrified Pen To Kill Them Off via Huffpost,May 21, 2012




And now a visit to right wing Loon's news at the Washington Times owned by God's chosen prophet or Son Of God Sun Myung Moon and one of the rightwing conspiracy online news sites World Net Daily :

Looniest Sheriff in USA says : "I'm Not going to call it quits"

And from WND the right wing imagination is over wrought:

UPDATE Sheriff Joe Arpaio Craziest Sheriff in America
Birthers and the right wing in America stokes as Arpaio tries to uncover the Obama/ Manchurian candidate conspiracy

ARPAIO DISPATCHES COLD CASE POSSE TO HAWAII at WND via Washington Times, May 22, 2012

In a major development in his probe of Obama’s eligibility for Arizona’s 2012 presidential ballot, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has dispatched his lead Cold Case Posse investigator and a deputy detective to Hawaii.

The mission to Obama’s purported birthplace comes as the Hawaii Department of Health continues to resist efforts by Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett to verify that the Honolulu agency has a valid birth certificate on file for Obama. ...

Arpaio told WND Friday that the Hawaii Department of Health’s refusal to confirm to Bennett that it has a valid Obama birth certificate on file makes it look like Hawaii officials “are hiding something.”

original article posted at WND: World Net Daily

WND EXCLUSIVE
HAWAII FIVE-O: SHERIFF JOE SENDS DETECTIVES TO HONOLULU
Cold Case Posse seeks to crack mystery of Obama's birth 50 years ago

Here's a sampling of comments by Arpaio supporters

We will tell our grandchildren one day about a very brave man who stood in the gap and fought for Truth, Justice and the American way, but he won't be in a comic book. He will be in our history books as the honorable Sheriff Joe.

and :

Obama submitted a Presidential Preference Election Candidate Nominaton Paper (ARS 16-242), received by the Arizona secretary of state 2007 dec 13 pm 3:01, that is signed by Obama (who did not use his full name) and notorized by Ray Anderson (commonwealth of Virgina) 30 november 2007

"I am a natural born citizen of the Untied States..."
Subsequently, when asked for proof (a birthcertificate), he initially declined to do so... and each document since made public has been proven (forensically) to be frauds/forgeries.

ITS TIME TO SEE THE MICORFICHE HAWAII SUPPOSEDLY HOLDS... and his college records (if they even exist)

and more revealing of the mindset and prejudices of the right:

The dope smoking, cocain snorting Kenyan in chief is not looked into by the media... instead they go back fifty years to report on the then minor Romney giving a free haircut (to paint him as a bully)... but never gave Obama the same curtesy (especially since he bragged about being a bully in his own book)... the DNC brown nosers in the media could not be more biased hypocrites... they are neither journalists or news people, instead they are no better than Nazi propagandists... socialist, commie dirtbags... bullies... morale rapists... clowns that should be tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail.

and from WND Faith section:

and WND "Deal of the Day " advertisement for DVD proving that the Exodus story about Moses and the Israelites can be proven as an historical event by recent archaeology

NEW IN WND SUPERSTORE
VISUAL PROOF OF EXODUS' RED SEA CROSSING?
New DVD explores underwater evidence of Egyptian chariot wheels at WND, May 22, 2012

If you don’t believe the Exodus story of the Red Sea crossing, you are in for a Rood Awakening!

That’s what Hebrew roots teacher Michael Rood offers in an on-location teaching that includes underwater video recordings of what looks like Egyptian chariot wheels and other debris from the biblical miracle.

US Veterans Protests Against America's and NATO's Wars

In spite of a recent softening of language on nuclear issues, and gestures towards a nuclear-free vision - particularly from Obama - NATO continues to assert its need to retain nuclear weapons. As the new Strategic Concept states: "The supreme guarantee of the security of the Allies is provided by the strategic nuclear forces." It rejects a policy of "no first use" of nuclear weapons. In other words, NATO would be prepared to use nuclear weapons in a first strike.

Quote from: Time for NATO to face new realities
NATO's Core Function is to Advance US Global Interests and Foreign Policy Goals. By Kate Hudson London, UK, May 21, 2012


Chicago Police violent reaction to peaceful trapped protesters at NATO Summit

NATO Chicago - Police Block and Attack Protesters - 5-19-2012



Much of the mainstream Corporate media ignored possibly the most notable protest to take place at the Chicago NATO Summit which was that of American veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and occupations.

In Chicago, Afghanistan and Iraq Veterans Put NATO's Endless War on Trial by Robert Naiman at truthout, May 21, 2012

...in Chicago yesterday, veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq told their stories when they threw back their service medals in protest at NATO leaders, echoing a famous protestagainst the Vietnam War.

A lot of media coming out of Chicago last night focused on street skirmishes between a handful of apolitical adventurists and the Chicago police. But some media got the real story.

Zach LaPorte, a 28-year-old mechanical engineer from Milwaukee, who served in Iraq in 2005 and 2006, said, "I witnessed civilian casualties and civilians being arrested in what I consider an illegal occupation of a sovereign nation," Reuters reported. Former US Army Sgt. Alejandro Villatoro of Chicago, who served during the Iraq 2003 invasion and in Afghanistan in 2011, said: "There's no honor in these wars ... There's just shame."

The local ABC news affiliate in Chicago produced an exemplary story, which highlighted the ceremony in which Afghanistan and Iraq veterans threw back their medals, giving veterans the center stage they deserved for telling their stories.

Afghanistan to Top NATO Agenda-Al Jazeera



The NATO Summit in Chicago highlights NATO's fear mongering and pro-war propaganda all as a means to justify it's own
existence .
NATO has become essentially a tool to be used by the USA to advance America's global interests.
NATO should have been disbanded once the Soviet Union fell and was no longer a major threat to the West.
NATO still refuses to give up its Nuclear First Strike position.


Time for NATO to face new realities
NATO's Core Function is to Advance US Global Interests and Foreign Policy Goals. By Kate Hudson London, UK, May 21, 2012

...From its ostensible origins as a defensive alliance facing off against the Soviet Union in 1949, it has seamlessly morphed into an openly aggressive, globe-straddling operation, whipping recalcitrant states into line in its self-appointed capacity as the righter of international wrongs. Vigilante-style, it can ride roughshod over the qualms of the United Nations - and often the restrictions of international law - to assert or impose its own view of peace and freedom. Occasionally it presents a softer face, protecting aid or pursuing humanitarian goals, yet no one is in any real doubt that NATO is all about hard power.

... The fact is that while the US has declined in many respects, it has increasingly used NATO to support and advance its global power projection. But one big question is whether NATO states will continue to foot the bill.

A cursory glance at NATO's recent history shows that whatever its changing rationale, or the nature of its supposed enemies in the post-Cold War period, its core function has remained to advance US global interests and foreign policy goals. This became apparent at the end of the Cold War, when the Warsaw Pact was dissolved but NATO wasn't. Rather than scaling back its military presence, the US moved to fill the positions vacated by its previous rival. As the countries of eastern Europe embraced free-market economics and multiparty democracy, the US moved rapidly to integrate them into its sphere of influence via NATO expansion - faster than western Europe embraced eastern Europe via the European Union.

This was an effective strategy - indicated by the "new Europe" issue at the time of the war on Iraq - with Poland vigorously backing the US, against the "old Europe" of Germany and France. At NATO's 50th anniversary in Washington in April 1999, a new "Strategic Concept" was adopted. This moved beyond NATO's previous defensive role to include "out of area" - in other words, offensive - operations. The geographical area for action was now defined as the entire Eurasian landmass and the war on Afghanistan started soon after.

NATO's last leaders' summit in Portugal in November 2010 took the NATO vision beyond Eurasia, releasing a new Strategic Concept entitled "Active Engagement, Modern Defence". It recommitted to an expansive and interventionist military agenda with a projected global reach. This included an expansion of its area of work to "counter-terrorism, cyber-security, and the proliferation of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons" and, in the words of British Prime Minister David Cameron, "securing failed states on the other side of the world".

It's an open question whether Cameron was referring to Afghanistan or whether he had a vision of new interventions, but it is certainly the case that the US will face problems over the Afghanistan intervention at this summit. This has been a NATO-led war since 2003, when it assumed control of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) established in 2002. Currently, there are almost 130,000 troops from 50 countries in Afghanistan under the auspices of ISAF, with NATO members providing most of the force. Most of these - about 99,000 - are US troops, 22,000 of which are due to return home this year. Clearly there is a strong drive within Washington itself to get the whole thing wound up. Earlier this year US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said that the administration wanted to wind up combat operations before the withdrawal deadline.

...NATO's nuclear policies conflict with the legal obligations of the signatories to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Articles 1 and 2 of the NPT forbid the transfer of nuclear weapons to non-nuclear weapon states, and US/NATO nuclear weapons in Europe are located in non-nuclear weapons states. In spite of a recent softening of language on nuclear issues, and gestures towards a nuclear-free vision - particularly from Obama - NATO continues to assert its need to retain nuclear weapons. As the new Strategic Concept states: "The supreme guarantee of the security of the Allies is provided by the strategic nuclear forces." It rejects a policy of "no first use" of nuclear weapons. In other words, NATO would be prepared to use nuclear weapons in a first strike.

...The decision at the 2010 NATO summit to integrate the US missile defence system with a European theatre missile defence programme under the auspices of NATO has caused major problems in relations with Russia. Concerns remain that missile defence will enable the US to attack another country without fear of retaliation and US adherence to missile defence continues to threaten the survival of the new START Treaty on bilateral US/Russia nuclear reductions.

Chicago Police Pummel NATO Protesters And The Chilling Effect : Police /FBI Concocted Terrorists Plots in the USA

Chicago Police Pummel NATO Protesters with Batons (Raw Video)



The police are supposed to respond with appropriate amount of force and no pummel and beat all protesters even those who are peaceful.

The police only make matters worse by indiscriminate violence against protesters.

The police also make things worse by forcing crowds into ever decreasing amount of space.
Once corralled or Kettled in this way telling people to back off or back up becomes as it were problematic when no real escape route is opened up. So the situation becomes more tense rather than less which creates a chaotic scene in which protesters are being pushed against one another as the police close in on protesters giving protesters no room to maneuver creating more tension , anxiety and claustrophobic environment from which many can not readily free themselves from the situation.

NATO Arrest On Michigan Ave Bridge

Published on May 18, 2012 by MNjuggalo420
Arrest on Michigan Avenue Bridge in Downtown Chicago During the 2012 NATO Summit. Officer Telling me to back up when that physically impossible at the moment with people behind me and a knee high barrier you have to cross. The video is a short edit, does show me backing up and leaving.

"Does Anybody Deserve This!" CNN's Don Lemon Shocked Police Brutality At...



Undercover COPS dont like being FILMED in Chicago because of TERRORISTS ...



American War Veterans Renounce The Wars They Fought In By Throwing Their...



Chilling Effect : Police and FBI concocted imaginary terrorists plots in the USA

It seems that just before any major protests the police or FBI in the USA conveniently expose some terrorist plot thereby putting doubts in the minds of the public about the real intentions of all those planning to take part in protests.
This becomes a means to scare the public at large so the police can use more aggressive techniques and tactics to harass even peaceful protesters.
The police therefore are guilty of demonizing otherwise peaceful legal protests and /or acts of civil disobedience.
Civil Disobedience and Non-Cooperation include tactics such as blocking traffic ; refusing to leave a designated area thereby Occupying that public or private space ; passively non-violently resisting arrests ie going limp or locking arms while seated on the floor ; and of course videotaping recording the event itself and the physical acts of arrests by police without protesters resorting to violent acts.

Those in authority if acting with a genuine concern for the safety of non-protesters and to protect property the usual means is that the police try to identify any protesters who are or intend to use violence as opposed to those who do not.
Because a few individuals or small group use violent tactics this doesn't give the police the right to treat all protesters as a threat and can therefore be harassed with beatings and the uses of massive amounts of pepper spray or other chemicals .

Using deceptive techniques the FBI and police urge a group of activists to agree to use violence to achieve their goals.
If these undercover agents are the ones encouraging violent actions then this becomes a case in which the police acted illegally and unethically .
If the undercover agents encourage violence then this is a case of entrapment.
In this recent case in Chicago the police are accused of setting up these alleged terrorists.
The police in the media exaggerated the threat for instance by calling home made Molotov Cocktails "bombs" and by claiming the targets included the Mayor of Chicago's home and and an Obama election campaign headquarters.
The lawyer for the defendants in this case argues that the initiatives concerning violence all originated from the undercover police or agent provocateurs. So it is the police who pushed these protesters to consider using violent tactics.
There is also the accusation of planted evidence that it was the police who brought the Molotov Cocktails to the residence of the alleged terrorists.

Chicago police accused of planting evidence in 'Molotov cocktail' plot from Guardian.co.uk, May 20, 2012

Police say men planned to target Obama election HQ but supporters of the men say they intended to protest at the Nato summit


Lawyers for three protesters arrested on terrorist-related charges ahead of the Nato summit have accused police of entrapping them and encouraging an alleged bomb-making effort.

The three were arrested on Wednesday night when members of the Chicago police department battered their way into an apartment in the Bridgeport area of the city.

According to court documents released on Saturday, the three men considered targeting Barack Obama's re-election headquarters and the home of Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The Chicago police department said the men, described as self-proclaimed anarchists and members of the "Black Bloc" movement that has disrupted international gatherings in the past, were arrested on Wednesday and charged on Friday with conspiracy to commit terrorism, providing material support for terrorism and possession of an explosive incendiary device.

The three men charged were listed as Brian Church, 22, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Jared Chase, 27, of Keene, New Hampshire, and Brent Betterly, 24, from Massachusetts.

At a hearing on Saturday bail was set at $1.5m for each of the three. Their next court appearance is on Tuesday.

...Deutsch, the attorney representing the suspects, said at the hearing that police had planted weapons at the scene of the arrests.

"This is a way to stir up prejudice against a people who are exercising their First Amendment rights," Deutsch said. "There were undercover police officers that ingratiated themselves with people who come from out of town."

In a case earlier this month five self-described anarchists were charged with plotting to blow up a bridge near Cleveland after planting fake explosives underneath that federal agents had sold them.

Natalie Wahlberg, a member of the Occupy Chicago movement protesting against income inequality, said: "The charges are utterly ridiculous. CPD [Chicago police department] doesn't know the difference between home beer-making supplies and Molotov cocktails."

The National Lawyers Guild, a group of volunteer lawyers representing the protesters, said on Facebook that police "broke down doors with guns drawn and searched residences without a warrant or consent".

Whose Firebombs? Inside the Alleged "Conspiracy" By Curtis Black, NewsTips.org | News Analysis, May 20, 2012

...Chicago police have a long history of infiltrating peaceful protest groups and fomenting violence – it’s one reason the Red Squad was banned by a federal court order (later lifted at the request of Mayor Daley) – and infiltration of protest groups seems to be standard operating procedure for “national security events.”
And nationally since 9/11, an embarrassing proportion of “anti-terrorism” cases have involved plots proposed, planned, and enabled by police agents. That seems to have been the case – in just the past month — with the Wrigley bomber as well as the alleged bombing plot of a group of Cleveland anarchists who supposedly “discussed” disrupting the NATO summit. Sometimes you wonder whether such efforts are directed at keeping us safe or “putting points on the board” – or, when big protests are planned, generating scare headlines.

“This is just propaganda to create a climate of fear and to create this public perception that protests are violent,” said Michael Deutsch of the National Lawyers Guild.

Given our history, it’s as plausible a theory as any. Certainly some skepticism is in order. And hopefully no one will be scared out of exercising their First Amendment rights on Sunday.

...But it’s also worth remembering what Don Rose said on the 40th anniversary of Chicago 68, when asked if there were anything the protestors should have done differently:
“The only thing in retrospect is, it would have been better to have teased out some of the police spies in our own organization. As it turned out…much of the violence [by demonstrators] was perpetrated by police moles. I suppose if we’d been more vigilant about who might be the moles and traitors among us, it might have been different.”

Men accused of plotting attacks around NATO summit
By MICHAEL TARM, Associated Press –May 20, 2012

CHICAGO (AP) — Three activists who traveled to Chicago for a NATO summit were accused Saturday of manufacturing Molotov cocktails in a plot to attack President Barack Obama's campaign headquarters, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's home and other targets.

But defense lawyers shot back that Chicago police had trumped up the charges to frighten peaceful protesters away, telling a judge it was undercover officers known by the activists as "Mo" and "Gloves" who brought the firebombs to a South Side apartment where the men were arrested.

"This is just propaganda to create a climate of fear," Michael Deutsch said. "My clients came to peacefully protest."

On the eve of the summit, the dramatic allegations were reminiscent of previous police actions ahead of major political events, when authorities moved quickly to prevent suspected plots but sometimes quietly dropped the charges later.

Outside the courtroom, Deutsch said the two undercover police officers or informants were also arrested during the Wednesday raid, and defense attorneys later lost track of the two.

"We believe this is all a setup and entrapment to the highest degree," Deutsch said.

The suspects were each being held on $1.5 million bond. Six others arrested Wednesday in the raid were released Friday without being charged.

The three who remained in custody apparently came to Chicago late last month to take part in May Day protests. Relatives and acquaintances said the men were wanderers who bounced around as part of the Occupy movement and had driven together from Florida to Chicago, staying with other activists.

Court records indicated no prior violent behavior.

Longtime observers of police tactics said the operation seemed similar to those conducted by authorities in other cities before similarly high-profile events.

For instance, prior to the Republican National Convention in 2008 in St. Paul, Minn., prosecutors charged eight activists who were organizing mass protests with terrorism-related crimes after investigators said they recovered equipment for Molotov cocktails, slingshots with marbles and other items.

The protesters, who became known as the RNC Eight, denied the allegations and accused authorities of stifling dissent. The terrorism charges were later dismissed. Five of the suspects eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, and three had their cases dismissed altogether.

Molotov cocktails are dangerous weapons, but it "kind of stretches the bounds to define that as terrorism," said Michael Scott, director of the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.