Barack finds a purse!

We don't care if it his color, Barack needs to let the little girl keep her clutch.

Quick Quiz!

Which of these three are really on a phone call?



Only two had calls, the third felt left out so grabbed the phone and pretended.  Can you pick out who's talking to no one?

What a fascist video looks like (Deirdre Griswold)

Repost from Workers World:

What a fascist video looks like

By Deirdre Griswold on March 26, 2014

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Shouldn’t a moving picture be worth even more?


Take the video that spread widely across the Internet for a while — until someone claimed it was copyrighted and it got pulled off a lot of websites.


But not all of them. You can still find it on several sites if you google “Ukrainian fascists attack television director.”


The six-minute video shows half-a-dozen burly men from the Svoboda Party in Ukraine attacking Oleksandr Panteleymonov, the acting director of NTU, the state-run television.


The leader of this March 18 attack was Igor Miroshnichenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament’s new committee on “freedom of speech.” His Svoboda Party clearly wants to intimidate anyone not under their thumb: it filmed the attack.


This party has five key ministerial posts in what the West calls the “democratic” new Ukrainian government, including those of vice prime minister and minister of defense, in addition to the position of prosecutor general.


In the video, Miroshnichenko calls the TV director an “animal” while he and several others push him, punch him in the head and face, and grab him around the throat. They demand that he sign the letter of resignation that they shove at him. According to several published accounts of the incident, after they got the letter signed they took him out of the building, bundled him into an SUV and drove off. His whereabouts are unknown, as of March 24.


Yes, this was a real fascist attack by the new “defenders of freedom” in Ukraine. They are vital to the pro-West, unelected government, which got in through a coup that depended a great deal on street fighting by fascist groups like Svoboda and the Right Sector — as well as support from the U.S. and NATO.


The U.S. government knew exactly what Svoboda was. For example, in December, while these groups were leading the violence in the streets of Kiev that brought about the collapse of the elected government, Miroshnichenko himself was in the news — for defaming Hollywood actor Mila Kunis.




[photo of Mila Kunis by Gage Skidmore]



He wrote on his Facebook page that although Kunis was born in Ukraine, she wasn’t really Ukrainian because she’s a “zhydovka” — a very offensive term used by anti-Semites to describe Jewish women. Many of her relatives died in the Holocaust when Germany invaded Ukraine during World War II.
The Svoboda Party is descended from a group that fought alongside the Nazis at that time until they were defeated by the Soviet Red Army.


The U.S. government supports Israel because of the pro-imperialist role it plays in the Middle East, but Washington is totally silent about its anti-Semitic friends in Ukraine.


And don’t look for news of this outrage on prime time. Don’t expect the talking heads or columnists to admit it happened. Ditto for the great “freedom-loving” politicians who are railing at Russia right now for allowing the people of Crimea to separate from the thug regime in Kiev.


Nor is there anything on the website of the Committee to Protect Journalists about the fascist assault on the TV director. Although this committee claims to be “Defending Journalists Worldwide,” it has an agenda that mirrors Washington’s.

Articles copyright 1995-2014 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Al-Sweady inquiry: Did British soldiers shoot dead their Iraqi prisoners? (Simon Basketter)

Repost from Great Britain's Socialist Worker:

Al-Sweady inquiry: Did British soldiers shoot dead their Iraqi prisoners?

The Al-Sweady inquiry has heard clear evidence of torture at Camp Abu Najah in Iraq, writes Simon Basketter

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Soldiers in Iraq (Pic: The U.S. Army on Flickr)

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Lawyers representing Iraqi relatives at the Al-Sweady inquiry said last week that there was insufficient material to establish if civilians were unlawfully killed in the custody of British troops at Camp Abu Naji.


Responding to the news, the Sun newspaper declared, “What a disgraceful waste of time and money. And a terrible slur on so many brave soldiers.”


The inquiry is examining allegations that British troops unlawfully killed more than 20 prisoners and mistreated nine others after a battle near the Danny Boy base.

The inquiry is named after Hamid Al-Sweady, one of those who died.


There is clear evidence of torture in the camp and on the battlefield. An International Committee of the Red Cross doctor found injuries on the prisoners “indicating excessive force in manhandling them”.


What there isn’t is clear evidence that Iraqi prisoners were killed in the camp. The inquiry isn’t investigating whether Iraqis were killed lawfully on the battlefield.


In 2008 Mark Keegan, a British soldier, described what happened to one young prisoner Hamza Al-Maliki.
Keegan said, “All the blokes were running past and punching him in the head and there was a massive ditch and he was on his knees in there.


“Every time he kept crying out he was knocked to the floor with his hands tied behind his back.


 “I see him have massive rocks thrown at his head, and yeah his face must have been pissing out with blood underneath that sandbag.”


Keegan told the inquiry he now can’t remember what happened. However, his witness statement to the inquiry in January repeated the allegations. That he now can’t remember is not down to intimidation, he assured the inquiry.


In other evidence, Sergeant Paul Kelly said he may have shot and killed Iraqis who were seriously wounded.


“What I’m saying is when I lifted my weapons up to fire, I possibly swept across those bodies that were on the floor and if they are people who were alive I could have killed them. I don’t know,” Kelly said.


Ex-army Private Duncan Aston told the inquiry that Kelly, “put a full magazine of bullets into both bodies that had been twitching but he also fired into the bodies of the other dead gunmen in the ditch. The bodies of the two twitching gunmen stopped twitching.”


Aston also said that Privates Steven Wells and Scott Barlow punched and kicked an Iraqi on “different parts of his body, including his face, shins and ribs”.


The inquiry came about because the army and the then Labour government attempted to cover up what happened.


The Royal Military Police was supposed to have investigated. But it appointed unqualified detectives, lost evidence and failed to interview witnesses.


The court ruling that forced the inquiry said Colonel Dudley Giles, who was deputy head of the military police, “was overall a most unsatisfactory witness”.


The judges found that civil servants working for the treasury solicitor had repeatedly lied to the court.


They found that the then defence secretary Bob Ainsworth “consistently and repeatedly failed to comply” with the obligation to disclose documents to the Iraqis’ lawyers.


The Al-Sweady inquiry is due to conclude on 16 April and will report in the autumn.


There are over 2,000 legal claims against British soldiers for abuse during the Iraq war.


As the Sun put it, a terrible slur on “our boys”.

Payments © Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original.     

Senator Ron Wyden's office issued the following on Friday, March 21st

Wyden Statement on Majority Leader’s Letters Regarding CIA’s Unauthorized Access of Intelligence Committee Computer Files

Friday, March 21, 2014


Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) released the following statement in response to letters sent by Majority Leader Harry Reid to CIA Director John Brennan and Attorney General Eric Holder expressing concern over the CIA’s searches of computers designated for the Senate Intelligence committee and allegations of misconduct against committee staff.



“Senator Reid’s letters are right on point, and it’s incredibly valuable to have the Majority Leader standing up for congressional oversight at a time when the CIA leadership is working to undermine it.  Senior CIA officials are continuing to defend the CIA’s unprecedented search of congressional files even while the CIA Director is publicly suggesting that the search didn’t happen.  The public deserves clear answers about the CIA’s actions and the authority under which it acted.  And while the suggestion that Senate staff somehow hacked into secure CIA computers is clearly absurd, if confirmation from the Sergeant-at-Arms will help put that allegation to rest, I appreciate Majority Leader Reid’s call for the Sergeant-at-Arms’ involvement.”

Ron Wyden ‏@RonWyden Mar 21

CIA allegations Senate staff hacked into computers are absurd. Glad @SenatorReid stood up for congressional oversight http://1.usa.gov/OF2HFR 

View summary

Monday, the House Veterans Affairs Committee issued the following:

HVAC Webpage To Track How VA Stonewalls the Press

For more information, contact: Curt Cashour, (202) 225-3527

Mar 24, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, Chairman Jeff Miller launched VA Honesty Project, a new web component of Veterans.House.Gov designed to highlight the Department of Veterans Affairs’ lack of transparency with the press, and by extension the public. View the page here.


Because the Department of Veterans Affairs is a taxpayer funded organization, it has a responsibility to fully explain itself to the press and the public. Unfortunately, in many cases, VA is failing in this responsibility, as department officials – including 54 full-time public affairs employees – routinely ignore media inquiries.


VA Honesty Project documents nearly 70 recent instances in which VA has failed to respond to reporters’ requests for information or refused to answer specific questions. The department’s apparent disregard for the press has become an object of reporters’ scorn, leading some to openly accuse VA of “thumbing their nose at us” and others to write entire articles focusing on VA’s stonewalling tactics. VA Honesty Project will be continually updated with new examples of VA refusing to respond to the press as they arise.
Following the launch of VA Honesty Project, Chairman Miller issued the following statement.


“With 54 full-time public affairs employees, VA’s media avoidance strategy can’t be anything other than intentional. What’s worse, the tactic leaves the impression that department leaders think the same taxpayers who fund the department don’t deserve an explanation of VA’s conduct. VA Honesty Project is dedicated to showing America’s veterans, American taxpayers and department leaders how VA’s media avoidance strategy is doing the public an extreme disservice while damaging VA’s reputation in the process. By keeping a running record of VA’s attempts to stonewall the press, we hope to convince the department to put a renewed focus on being responsive and transparent with the media so America’s veterans and taxpayers can get the answers they deserve.” – Rep. Jeff Miller, Chairman, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs

UN Committee Issues Scathing Report U.S. Government's Human Rights Record (CCR)

This is from the Center for Constitutional Rights:

UN Committee Issues Scathing Report U.S. Government's Human Rights Record  

press@ccrjustice.org


March 27, 2014 - Today, the UN Human Rights Committee issued highly critical concluding observations on the United States’ compliance with international human rights requirements. CCR had submitted several detailed reports to the committee in advance of its hearings March 13-14, and much of their substance was reflected in both the committee’s questioning and its conclusions.  The committee expressed deep concern over:

• the U.S. “targeted killing” program;
• the lack of progress in the closure of Guantánamo, urging the U.S. to expedite the process of transferring detainees out of the prison, including to Yemen, and reiterating its position that the U.S. must end its practice of indefinite detention without charge or trial;
• the secrecy and lack of accountability around Bush-era abuses, including the limited number of investigations, prosecutions and convictions of contractors and high ranking U.S. officials for killings and torture of detainees;
• the imposition of the death penalty in a racially discriminatory manner and the conditions on death row;
• reports of criminalization of people living on the street for everyday activities such as eating, sleeping, and sitting in particular areas, raising concerns of discrimination and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment;
• the use of prolonged solitary confinement, particularly for at-risk people and those in pretrial detention, urging the abolition of solitary for people under 18 and for people with serious mental illness, and strict limitations on its use, overall; and
• the targeting of Muslims by the NYPD, and racial profiling overall (while underlining its support for recent plans to reform the use of stop and frisk).

CCR applauds the UN and the international community for holding the US accountable to its international obligations and shedding a necessary light on areas where it is falling short. However, we regret the HRC failed to question the U.S. government on the devastation the invasion and occupation of Iraq has brought to both Iraqi civilians and U.S. veterans.

The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.

Highlights

This piece is written by Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Kat of Kat's Korner, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Ruth of Ruth's Report, Marcia of SICKOFITRADLZ, Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends, Ann of Ann's Mega Dub, Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Wally of The Daily Jot. Unless otherwise noted, we picked all highlights.

"Be concerned when the US government 'cares'" -- most requested highlight of the week by readers of this site.


"Iraq snapshot," "Iraq snapshot," "Rural veterans (Wally)" and "When stupid talks to stupid (Congressional hearing)" -- C.I., Wally and Kat report on a Congressional hearing.


"scandal - the worst," "TV thoughts," "Arrow underwhelms," "Good for Jimmy Fallon," "Another show bites the dust,"  "The 100," "A ginger? For a ginger?," "does shonda rhimes have a thing for bad boys?," "revenge - the good,"  "The Following continues to sink," "Alicia and Peter are in the clear (The Good Wife)," "The Tomorrow People," "revenge - the bad and also the fiery," "Another show bites the dust,"  "Star-Crossed," and "A sitcom is coming" -- TV coverage in the community.



"The dickless Robert Parry"  -- Mike calls out the whore.

"Noah -- the flood, the earthquake," "Did you love The Parallax View?," "Noah" and "X-Men: Days of Future Past" -- Betty, Ruth, Stan and Kat go to the movies.



"Peter Berg, comb your f**king hair!" -- support.

"Trina left a great comment" and "Yea for Ms! (I'm not being sarcastic)" -- Ann and Trina on using your voice.


"Where is the love?" and "THIS JUST IN! THE LOVE NEVER ARRIVED!" -- ObamaCare still has not won the people.


"Hiding Behind The Leg Of Her Pantsuit" -- Isaiah dips into the archives.


"Barack's illegal spying 'reform'," "About that PATRIOT Act?," "The lies of reform," "The A.C.L.U. misses the damn point (how very sad)," "It's all smoke and mirrors" "James Clapper Sweeps the Rosemarys!,"
"Whistle-blowers and reporters" and "The lack of coverage about the withheld documents" -- illegal spying coverage in the community.



"Barry the b.s.-er" and "THIS JUST IN! MEAN GIRL GOES TO THE VATICAN!" -- Barack needs a blessing.


"Remember when IVAW mattered?" -- Stan remembers the good old days.


"Inbred Earl" -- Betty explains how a gasbag flaunted his ignorance.




"Nouri called out at the Arab Summit," "Tell us the fairy tale one more time" and "THIS JUST IN! ONCE UPON A TIME . . . !" -- Iraq coverage.