Wisconsin Anti-Due Process Bill Is Unhinged

Update: Bizarre Republican amendment would still cut out appellate deliberation, but would allow clerical paperwork by appellate courts, (WisPolitics). Equal Protection and Due Process problems remain.
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Madison, Wisconsin — Suppose you and friends in the legislature know someone from Taiwan and henceforth you would like $3 billion in public subsidies lavished onto your comrade.

Crazy, but legal.

But so enthralled are you with your Taiwanese friend, you propose special legal status of a class-caste power of privilege that would have made C. Wright Mills recoil in surprise.

And laws protecting the people and Wisconsin communities? Forget it, you say.

Equal playing-field in the marketplace. Cute.

The Wisconsin Republican-Peter Barca project in service to Foxconn Technology Co Ltd, aka Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd., now proposes perverse and privileged legal status for this single corporate actor along the lines described above.

Putting aside the fiscal and macro-economic cat-five disasters being courted, not much objection is voiced publicly from Wisconsin on the proposed abandonment of settled Equal Protection and Due Process doctrine, and state Judicial power and discretion establishing guarantees under which all litigants are equal in the eyes of the Judicial branch.

Notes Matt Rothschild:

When the Joint Finance Committee voted, along party lines, to give Foxconn the right to directly appeal any lower court order straight to the Wisconsin Supreme Court and to have that order suspended until the high court rules on it, the legislature was entering very dubious legal waters.

First of all, there is a separation of powers problem. The legislature is letting Foxconn skip the entire appellate court process. Where does the legislature get off telling the judiciary how it will function?

Secondly, there is an equal protection problem. Why should other businesses, or individuals, have to go through the potentially costly appellate process when Foxconn doesn’t have to? And why can only Foxconn get an instant and automatic stay on any lower court’s decision when every other party in the lower courts has to ask a judge for a stay?

The reason why the Joint Finance Committee carved out the exception for Foxconn is pretty obvious: The Wisconsin Supreme Court is reliably in the hands of a conservative and business-friendly majority.

This judicial exemption that the GOP-dominated Joint Finance Committee has carved out for Foxconn puts in sharp relief the utter corporatization of Wisconsin politics.

We don’t have a democracy in Wisconsin today. We have corporate rule.

That this abandonment of equality before the law is openly mused is an embarrassment for Wisconsin, much less seriously proposed in the Wisconsin Legislature's 2017 Special Session, Assembly Bill 1.

I doubt this anti-Constitutional legislative initiative will be included in the final Foxconn bill.

Yet, so unhinged and uneducated about Constitutional protections are Republicans and a couple of Democratic Party bed-fellows that this latest proposal could ring unfair and unjust around the state and become a political scandal, if only the Wisconsin Dems will begin strategic communications to this effect.

In any event, federal litigation will predictably commence with Gov. Scott Walker signing this legislation into law, so what Walker and Republicans are doing is betting they can present this madness as productive public policy better than critics can point out its numerous defects.

War Infects Unthinking Minds

"If Memorial Day is to have any meaning and content whatsoever, it should not simply and solely be burgers on the grill, or even worse some stars-and-stripes patriotic praise for the empire. …We should be honoring those who fought for freedom, for democracy, and against fascism. Consider the ‘premature’ anti-fascists (those fighting for the Spanish Republic) who gathered from all over the world to fight the beast at that time. The continuities today all over the world are stark once you cut through the fog and the globaloney," said Allen Ruff, a member of Jews for Equal Justice, (CounterPunch, (2002)).

It's Memorial Day, 2017 and for too many this means: No thinking and if you must think please do it quietly, (Isthmus).

Love the Holiday, good to see grunts now-gone get some recognition and public service and sacrifice hailed.

Yet, our collective display of no-think this weekend shows allegiance not to the memory of the fallen, rather to ritual reenactment of myth that in itself becomes the object of Memorial Day.

Is this really what service and sacrifice are about? The "increasingly parochial culture that celebrates the virtues of ignorance, promotes a cult of stupidity, and extols the present as a process without an alternative," as Tariq Ali poses heretical thoughts in his The Clash of Fundamentalisms, (Verso Books, 2002).

Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.

Questions should be asked before Trump decides invading and bombing someone, somewhere need to escalate.

From 15 years ago, Memorial Day 2002 in Madison, Wisconsin at James Madison Park, (CounterPunch), the year after 911. History matters.
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Madison, Wisconsin, (2002) — Clarence Kailin, age 87, is a surviving member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and still tirelessly works for peace and justice. "Our fight for economic and social justice, for peace and freedom is a struggle that is just as important today as it was in 1937 and 1938," said Kailin describing what the Memorial Day event represents. "This will be more than memories of the past. Our immediate fight must be against our own militarism and for the struggle for peace and equality."

Asked why he wasn’t out attending a conventional parade or waving an American flag, Kailin answered, "We’re waving our own flag today. The destruction of the World Trade towers was the best opportunity that could happen to Bush. So he could use it as a scare tactic–‘the world is full of terrorism and we have to go after it. And we will lose a few civil liberties along the way, but we have to do this and have a bigger military budget.’ Our whole foreign policy is based on solving things by force and violence."

We’re very wealthy here. But at least one half of the world is living on a dollar or two a day; it’s a terrible situation. In Iraq, we have undermined the whole structure there. A half a million children there have died–all absolutely unnecessary. We won’t give up the fight. This is simply a military government (in Washington) and we are going to pay a hell of a price if we don’t find a way to put a stop to it."

Following is the text from which Mr. Kailin read as the opening speaker at the Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade event:

***
One month ago, on April 28, I was in New York with my daughter, Julie. We attended the annual affair of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade held at New York University. This was in celebration of the 66th anniversary of the Volunteers for Liberty. There were 900 people there, and among others, we heard the San Francisco Mime Troupe who sang many songs from the Spanish Civil War. That was the emotional high point of the day.

However, we were there for more than memories. At this time of international crisis, we find an urgent need to carry on the spirit of struggle in which we, along with the Spanish people, were involved sixty some years ago when fascism was threatening the world, when Spain was the only country to stand up to Hitler, and when the democracies betrayed the Spanish Republic, giving Hitler and Mussolini everything they wanted. This was when the International Brigades were formed. Spain and the Volunteers made that period one of the most unusual and unique in history.

Today, with the United States having become the dominant world power and seeking to extend its empire to every part of the globe, the danger is much greater than at any other time. Almost total control of information by the monopolized news media has made our work that much more difficult.

I want to quote from the latest edition of The Progressive magazine. This is in Matt Rothschild’s column. He quotes from Tariq Ali, an editor of the New Left Review. In the prologue of his latest book, The Clash of Fundamentalisms, he (Ali) criticizes our ‘increasingly parochial culture that celebrates the virtues of ignorance, promotes a cult of stupidity, and extols the present as a process without an alternative.’

‘The virtual outlawing of history by the dominant culture has reduced the process of democracy to farce. The result is a mishmash of cynicism, despair and escapism. This is precisely an environment designed to nurture irrationalisms of every sort. Over the last fifty years, religious revivalism with a political edge has flourished in many different cultures. Nor is the process finished. A major cause is the fact that all other exit routes have been sealed off by the mother of all fundamentalism: American imperialism.’

American capitalism is the common denominator, the main reason why we want to encourage the many single-issue organizations in this area to come together in common cause–but without asking them to giving up their own important work. … This is the work of lifetime. But I always see the fact that we outnumber them by a thousand to one. So one should never despair. So, again, seeing you here tells me that in the long run the people can win.

(clinched fist in the air) Salud, everyone!

Mega Factory Farms Contribute $100,000-plus to Buy, Deplete and Pollute Wisconsin Water

Pollute-and-Deplete Attack on Water Backed by Full-spectrum Dominance of Political Culture

The United States Department of Homeland Security, (DHS), maintains a vigilant commitment to protecting our water and wastewater systems sector.

We take clean water and the safe elimination of sewage for granted, a mark of a first-world country.

As the DHS explains: "Safe drinking water is a prerequisite for protecting public health and all human activity. Properly treated wastewater is vital for preventing disease and protecting the environment. Thus, ensuring the supply of drinking water and wastewater treatment and service is essential to modern life and the Nation’s economy."

Not all see protecting water the same way as DHS.

The threats to safe drinking water are here, industrialized agriculture or Big Ag.

Big Ag is without conscience, and almost every politician has their hands out for its money and support, and don't look for DHS to do anything.

Industrial special interests have no qualms about poisoning private water wells, and surface and ground water aquifers. Lost your safe drinking water, your infant is hospitalized? Dead areas in Lake Michigan? What are you going do about it? Call the EPA, the DNR?

In rural regions in Wisconsin, and not just Wisconsin, industrial agricultural operations (CAFOs or Confined/Concentrated Animal/Agricultural Operations), are annually dumping 100s of millions of gallons of untreated animal feces mixed with water into the environment to often tragic consequences, and it's getting worse.

Wisconsin Republicans, and many Democrats such as State Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa, (D-Milwaukee), are happy to take the money and endorsements of Big Ag and sell out our clean and safe water. Zamarripa has a safe near-southside Milwaukee assembly seat, so why not take any a few hundred bucks from ag interests and get an endorsement?

By Don Ystad of Adams County in central Wisconsin

Concerned Citizens,

While I don't want to politicize this issue, the following article points out the power play of the large ag concerns in our central sands area.  We saw it firsthand with the WPVGA, (Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association), junk science groundwater blitz of our county boards recently.  And, from the article, further evidence that the rush is on: "Most of these contributions, about $106,350, were also made during the last six months of 2016 after the GOP-controlled legislature failed to pass bills last spring aimed at loosening rules for controversial high-capacity wells".

So, let's build on the momentum from our Feb 8th statewide Citizens Water Lobby Day in Madison.  We need to be our own lobby, large enough to challenge the efforts of the big ag grower lobby.  Five hundred of us showed up on the 8th.  Join us and reach out to your friends and tell them to go to the link for the new Citizens Water Coalition of Wisconsin.

Be a part of this citizens lobby. We may not be able to outspend them, but we do have the votes!

From Matt Rothschild, of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign

Several large farms with an interest in the issue of high-capacity wells have been throwing tens of thousands of dollars over to Republican legislative campaign committees.

Until the drastic rewrite of Wisconsin’s campaign finance law in November 2015, it was illegal for farms or other corporations to give money directly to legislative campaign committees. But the new law allows them to give up to $12,000 in a so-called segregated account, which isn’t supposed to go toward electing specific candidates.

During the second half of 2016, several large potato, vegetable and cranberry farms made corporate contributions totaling $56,250 to the four legislative campaign committees, which are used by legislative leaders to milk special interests for campaign cash to spend on elections. Those contributions included:

• $28,000 to the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee;
• $21,200 to the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate;
• $4,950 to the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee;
• $2,100 to the State Senate Democratic Committee.

Several of the owners and employees of these farms also gave personal donations to the legislative campaign committees, including $27,200 to the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate and $12,900 to the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee. The two Democratic legislative campaign committees received a combined total of $4,900 from large farm owners or employees. Last month, GOP Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, of Juneau, said he wants to approve a bill that would let high-capacity well owners repair or replace existing wells without a permit.

A review of the individual and business contributions to the legislative fundraising committees and legislators shows:

• Most of the contributions, about $133,750, went to Republican lawmakers, and $12,450 went to Democrats. Republicans control the Assembly and Senate by margins of 64-35 and 20-13, respectively;
• Most of these contributions, about $106,350, were also made during the last six months of 2016 after the GOP-controlled legislature failed to pass bills last spring aimed at loosening rules for controversial high-capacity wells;
• Nine officers and board members of the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association, their families, workers and businesses made about $78,500 in contributions to legislators and legislative fundraising committees;
• In addition to campaign contributions from its officers and board, the Vegetable Growers Association spent about $183,600 during the 2015-16 legislative session lobbying on high-capacity well, groundwater, wetlands, shore land zoning and other measures.

Topping the list of contributors to legislators and legislative fundraising committees were:

• The Wysocki family, of Bancroft, their businesses and employees, $38,800;
• Jeremie Pavelski, of Wisconsin Rapids, co-owner of Heartland Farms, $23,625;
• James Mortenson, of Wisconsin Rapids, and Mortenson Brothers Farms, $17,750.

The farms want looser rules governing controversial high-capacity wells and groundwater that already allow them to draw 100,000 gallons of water a day for irrigation. But as the number of large farms has grown, the huge volume of water drawn by high-capacity wells has become a major concern, as rivers and streams throughout Wisconsin shrink or dry up during the summer.

Matt Rothschild Calls for Resignation of Chancellor Blank and UW System President Cross

Matt Rothschild calls for resignation of Chancellor Blank and
UW System President Cross in the face of Scott Walker and
the Republican Party's attacks on the UW System. From
For the Record Show with Neil Heinen (WISC -TV)

Matt Rothschild, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, is calling for UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca M. Blank and UW System President Ray Cross to resign.

Said Rothschild in response to a question that UW faculty tenure and related faculty governance issues such as academic freedom can be protected by the UW System Board of Regents [dominated by politically vetted Scott Walker appointees]:

"I think it's hard to sift and winnow if you're a professor if you got the Board of Regents breathing down your back constantly. I was really kind of shocked and appalled that President Cross and Chancellor Blank didn't do do more to defend the University of Wisconsin System and tenure. Because when the decision came down from the Joint Finance Committee that they were to cut five/sixths of what they said they were going to cut, $250 million, and when they came down with, 'you know, we're going to get rid of tenure,' what did they get from the president and the chancellor? Statements of gratitude to the Joint Finance Committee! That was I think appalling to people who are in the University System, I actually think they should resign."

Rothschild made his comments on the For the Record Show with Neil Heinen, also to be televised on Sunday morning at 10:00 (WISC TV- Madison).

After Rothschild's call for the resignations, Heinen tried to make an argument that this unprecedented attack on the UW System by Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Republican Party's elected legislators was really bipartisan and begun under Walker's predecessor, Gov. Jim Doyle.

Rothschild will be making several appearances in the coming days including on Monday morning on the Joy Cardin Show on WPR at 7:30 talking about the Legislative Audit Bureau, and in La Crosse, speaking this coming Monday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. at the north end of Copeland Park about saving "democracy in Wisconsin."

Rothschild is also a former editor at the The Progressive Magazine based in Madison.

Walker is expected to sign the state budget in the coming days, and then announce his candidacy for the presidency in the coming weeks.

Marty Beil Calls for First Amendment and Union Support of Solidarity Sing Along

The Progressive's Matt Rothschild
Arrested for practicing journalism

Scott Walker's project to impose intimidation and fear—a dangerous political engineering project

Calls sound for workers to support First Amendment against Scott Walker's crackdown on the Constitution

Judith Davidoff reports, Labor leader Marty Beil speaks on the Wisconsin Solidarity Sing Along: "Over the last three weeks the Capitol Police have arrested over 200 singers... but the noon-hour protest continues. These brave women and men sing songs of solidarity and collective action. Songs of unions and protest. They have become part of our history. They have assembled every day since March of 2011. It's time for union members and leaders, public and private sector, to join in and vocally and visibly speak out. It's time for union shirts and union songs."

Fascism-free Zone—Not Our Wisconsin State Capitol

The reverence toward the officious is a defect to be overcome in a classical liberal democracy

by Jackie Captain

Over-reliance on officiousness is a hallmark of fascism.

"Just doing my job," won't cut it for the Capitol police.

The black-booted thugs at the Capitol who are arresting protesters -- the elderly, veterans, and journalists -- know what they are doing is wrong.

They are violating the civil rights of Wisconsin citizens -- the very people who paid for the construction and restoration of the chapel of democracy wherein their representatives do work on behalf of those same citizens. One of the great pleasures of living in Madison was the ability to walk through the Capitol and show it to visitors -- no longer.

Grabbing hold of the notion that citizens need to file a permit to assemble at their own State Capitol is a product of little minds and malicious spirits. The lockstep following of this ludicrous directive is belittling everyone involved. I am ashamed of my state government.

The right to assemble peacefully and protest political policies are central tenets in the Wisconsin State Constitution. Transparency in government had been enshrined in Wisconsin via the open meetings and open records laws. Why then has the Department of Administration declared that citizens cannot gather in their own Capitol?

What Scott Walker's police are doing is a violation of civil liberties, raising the question what recourse do we have when the police in the People's House turn against us?

Certainly not petitioning the Wisconsin Department of Justice; they stand with Walker on this and in fact are perpetrating the prosecutions of Wisconsin citizens arrested for walking, talking, and singing, or as the police say, "obstructing."

Is a class-action civil lawsuit an answer?

Can an emergency petition for injunctive relief (a judicial order to halt the police targeting and arresting citizens in this instance) be filed in federal court?

Do we call the Lawyer's Guild, the ACLU, Madison civil liberties attorney Jeff Scott Olsen?

To be candid, I don't what to do when someone in my household wants to visit our state representative in the Capitol because I can't have someone arrested and detained for watching, posing a question, or as Matt Rothschild is aware, shooting a picture or trying to report on these events, when we have domestic responsibilities that demand attention at home.

I am proud of those who have been at the Capitol and have stood up for all our rights even at great risk to their own freedom and financial stability.

So who let Scott Walker turn the Capitol into an armed camp that subverts our civil liberties?

We cannot stand complacently by and let our rights be eroded. Leaders are going to rise up out of this movement (Rep. Chris Taylor?) -- perhaps even the next governor -- but where are they now? Why aren't they standing together against these violations?

There has been much commendable social-psychological research of obedience to authority in the 1950-60s trying to come up with some ideas how the rise of twentieth-century fascism could have happened, and how do we in the United States of America prevent it from happening here.

When Capitol police began telling people that they are subject to arrest for "spectating," watching the videos online I wondered if and when someone would speak up and how far the police would go.

Where will they stop?

I have no answers, but I do know that more people of good will need to stand up and speak out against the officiousness of the weak-minded.

Wisconsin Democratic Legislative Caucus Needs to Stand up for Free Speech

Update: Democratic Party cheerleaders excuse the bystanding posture of most Democratic legislators as arrests continue within the radius of a football field outside legislators' offices. 

Exceptions abound of course: Reps. Pope, Taylor; Sens. Risser, Erperbach, ... several more. 

Yet, pointing out that the rights and liberties of Wisconsin citizens— per the Wisconsin and United States constitutions— are being violated by Scott Walker's Capitol police for the GOP's political motives is in the views of Blogging Blue, to live in a "bubble."

One wonders what has to befall Wisconsin before Blogging Blue recognizes the extent of the social engineering project and power grab by this most radical and authoritarian of Wisconsin gubernatorial administrations.

I guess most Democrats will assume the we-didn't-know defense after tragedy occurs.

For the denial of liberty, intimidation, detaining and mass arrests are the work the GOP's cops acting as agents provocateurs, and the policy comes from Walker and DoA Sec. Mike Huebsch.  

For now, Matt Rothschild, Ed Kuharski and 100s more are cited and arrested for obstructing officers to silence from the Democratic Party. 

This is why I contend group-think and careerist Democrats veer into the GOP's area in too many respects—timid and unthinking silence.
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Scott Walker's Capitol Police Arrest 14-year-old Teenager, Grannies, Journalist and Sitting Councilman for Being in Same Place as Walker Criminalizes Dissent Against Policies He Refused to Campaign on

It's high time the Wisconsin Democratic Legislative Caucus, and every officeholder is Madison trek over the Capitol and see in person what Scott Walker is doing to non-GOP political expression.

Silence and sitting in the state legislative offices—while the rights and liberties of Wisconsin citizens (and constituents) are being violated right outside the Democratic Legislators' representatives' office—is complicity. (See State Senators and State Representatives (Assembly).

Notable exceptions exist from legislative complicity and effective collaboration with Scott Walker, but they are just that, exceptions.

As my friend asked last night, what are they waiting for? See also Journalist, Madison alder arrested as Wisconsin Capitol police broaden crackdown

Rebecca Kimble writes in The Progressive:

(P)eople who sing in the rotunda at noon do so to express dissent against a government that has taken away many fundamental rights or workers, women, low-income people, public school students, among many others.

Participants in the gathering don’t necessarily agree on every policy issue, but they do agree on one thing: that their right to assemble and express political views is protected by the U.S. and Wisconsin Constitutions and should not require that the government against which they are dissenting should regulate their speech and assembly by an administrative permitting process.

Shortly before noon on Wednesday, Edward Kuharski of Madison was arrested for obstruction and resisting arrest for asking Capitol Police officer Mitch Steingraeber about who applied for the permit. He was taken to Dane County Jail and released after paying $600 in bail. This brings to eight the number of misdemeanor charges leveled against people gathering at the capitol at noon since July 24, 2013.

The Capitol Police have issued 223 citations that come with a $200.50 fine in that time period as well. Last week people began receiving “long form” legal complaints authored by Assistant Attorneys General detailing multiple violations of the State of Wisconsin Administrative Code that occurred months ago.

The complaint against Barton Munger contains 18 counts of chalking the sidewalk with a penalty of $500 for each incident stretching back months. This intensified crackdown on and criminalization of political speech comes weeks before the fall legislative session begins, when more controversial bills concerning private school vouchers, women’s reproductive rights and restriction of voting rights are expected to be taken up by lawmakers.

It seems that the Walker Administration is doing everything it thinks it can get away with to create a hostile environment for people to express their concerns publicly about these highly unpopular hot button policy issues.

Matt Rothschild, Editor of The Progressive, Arrested for Reporting from the Capitol

Update: Allen Ruff writes, "Do you think this cop would have understood the word 'putz,' and if so, tacked on an additional charge of assault with a descriptive expletive? Bonnie Block, interestingly, had a very decent column in the State Journal the morning of her apprehension. Clearly a case of retribution, targeting her for making critical comments on an opinion page (of a conservative paper, no less)!"

Longtime editor of The Progressive Magazine, Matthew Rothschild has been arrested today for reporting on the mass arrests at the Wisconsin state capitol by Scott Walker's capitol police.

Writes Rothschild:

They hauled me off in a squad car to the Dane County jail just three blocks away, where I was frisked again, booked, fingerprinted, had my mug shot taken, and kept in a holding cell with three other inmates for an hour and twenty minutes before being released.

The paper they gave me on the way out said, under 'Charge,' 946.41(1) Resisting or Obstructing.'

 Anybody still believe this is not Scott Walker, GOP hack Mike Huebsch, and the other GOP hack David Erwin pushing a political agenda—specifically violating and repressing the rights of citizens?

Mark Clear, a Madison Common Council Alder, was also arrested.

Updated: Richard Falk Is Right on 9/11—Will Obama and Friends Forsake Falk for Telling the Truth

Richard Falk, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Occupied Palestine, is under fire for writing what is obviously true about the U.S. government and the media. Calls for his firing abound from the usual suspects.

Such commitments to truth as Falk possesses can pose problems for prospective careerists, but the 80-year-old human rights activist and scholar likely doesn't care all that much about resulting slander.

Update: The level of McCarthyite hysteria directed at Richard Falk is astonishing. "UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s office condemned Richard Falk, a retired Princeton professor and a member of the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, for questioning in a recent blog posting" the official version about the 9/11 terror attacks. ... The secretary-general’s spokesman, Vijay Nambiar, wrote that Falk’s remarks were “an affront to the memory of the more than 3,000 people who died in the attack.” (Horn, Jerusalem Post)

In fact, Falk wrote: the "media ... [is] unwilling to acknowledge the well-evidenced doubts about the official version of the events [of 9/11]." And that author David Ray Griffin is of a caliber of "other devoted scholars of high integrity."

That's it. Why is the Lobby and its supporters so enraged by Falk's rather banal comments?

By Michael Leon

The truth will set you free. How about the editorial boards of The Nation and The Progressive where Falk has long served? When will the statements of support come out? Falk's story is an excellent candidate for The Progressive editor Matthew Rothschild's exellent McCarthyism Watch. [To contact Matt Rothschild about Richard Falk.]

Falk's lifetime commitment to the truth puts him beyond the reach of McCarthyite slanderers and cowards who see Falk and other human rights activists and truth-tellers as betraying the cause—that is, America and Israel right or wrong and don't make waves. Liars cannot erase a lifetime with one lie. It's been tried with Helen Thomas and it failed.

So what's the hubbub that has U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, demanding that Falk step down from his UN position and saying, "In my view, Mr. Falk's latest commentary [a paragraph on the media and 9/11] is so noxious that it should finally be plain to all that he should no longer continue in his position on behalf of the U.N."? (Reuters, Charbonneau)

Falk's Blog January 11, 2011 Commentary [Full text posted below]

Turns out Falk has the temerity to suggest that the mainstream media refused to accept "well-evidenced doubts about the official version of the [9/11] events: an al Qaeda operation with no foreknowledge by government officials." (Reuters, Charbonneau)

We thought this was axiomatic. But the American Jewish Committee and various crusaders for truth in the U.S. Congress want Falk fired.

The 9/11 Commission member and staff is composed of the sort of insiders Washington elites wanted on the blue-ribbon committee to prevent accountability and disclosure to the American people 0f what their government knew and when its many agencies knew it.

Remember when George W. Bush made his over-the-top appointment of Henry Kissinger to the 9/11 commission in late November 2002. (CounterPunch, December 17, 2002; Leon) Even then those—like the 9/11 victims' families—who doubted the would-be chair Kissinger's commitment to investigate the truth of the events leading up to 9/11 were smeared as conspiracy theorists and un-American radicals.

Kissinger's appointment as chair was withdrawn as too obvious a choice for a cover-up. And Kissinger gave away the store on the Lou Dobbs Moneyline show (CNN, December 16, 2002) in a laugh-a-minute interview excerpted below. Said Kissinger:

I hope that everybody has his partisanship out of his system now. And that people remember that this [9/11] was an event that was totally unexpected to the American public; that it came from a direction that nobody had ever thought of. And that it was the first attack on the continental United States ... . (Dobbs quickly interrupts)

As for Falk, here is his commentary crime:

The arguments swirling around the 9/11 attacks are emblematic of these issues [of secrecy in government]. What fuels suspicions of conspiracy is the reluctance to address the sort of awkward gaps and contradictions in the official explanations that David Ray Griffin (and other devoted scholars of high integrity) have been documenting in book after book ever since his authoritative The New Pearl Harbor in 2004 (updated in 2008). What may be more distressing than the apparent cover up is the eerie silence of the mainstream media, unwilling to acknowledge the well-evidenced doubts about the official version of the events: an al Qaeda operation with no foreknowledge by government officials. Is this silence a manifestation of fear or cooption, or part of an equally disturbing filter of self-censorship? Whatever it is, the result is the withering away of a participatory citizenry and the erosion of legitimate constitutional government. The forms persist, but the content is missing.

Did we miss something? What's the problem here?

Of course, the official 9/11 version of events is a lie.

As the great journalist I.F. Stone once wrote: "All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed."

Falk knows this truism about governments; most everyone does. He dare speaks this truth? Thank you, Richard Falk.

Regarding David Ray Griffin, I am going to make a point to read:

• Cognitive Infiltration: an Obama Appointee’s Plan to Undermine the 9/11 Conspiracy Theory


• The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11 (2002)


• 9/11 Contradictions: An Open Letter to Congress and the Press.

Interrogating the Arizona Killings from a Safe Distance

by Richard Falk, Jan. 11, 2011

I spent a year in Sweden a few years after the assassination of Olaf Palme in 1986, the controversial former prime minister of the country who at the time of his death was serving as a member of the Swedish cabinet. He was assassinated while walking with his wife back to their apartment in the historic part of the city after attending a nearby movie. It was a shocking event in a Sweden that had prided itself on moderateness in politics and the avoidance of involvement in the wars of the twentieth century. A local drifter, with a history of alcoholism, was charged and convicted of the crime, but many doubts persisted, including on the part of Ms. Palme who analogized her situation to that of Coretta King who never believed the official version of her martyred husband’s death.

I had a particular interest in this national traumatic event as my reason for being in Sweden was a result of an invitation to be the Olaf Palme Professor, a rotating academic post given each year to a foreign scholar, established by the Swedish Parliament as a memorial to their former leader. (after the Social Democratic Party lost political control in Sweden this professorship was promptly defunded, partly because Palme was unloved by conservatives and partly because of a neoliberal dislike for public support of such activities)

In the course of my year traveling around Sweden I often asked those whom I met what was their view of the assassination, and what I discovered was that the responses told me more about them than it did about the public event. Some thought it was a dissident faction in the Swedish security forces long angered by Palme’s neutralist policies, some believed it was resentment caused by Palme’s alleged engineering of Swedish arms sales to both sides in the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, some believed it was the CIA in revenge for Palme’s neutralism during the Cold War, some believed it could have criminals in the pay of business tycoons tired of paying high taxes needed to maintain the Swedish maximalist version of a welfare state, and there were other theories as well. What was common to all of these explanations was the lack of evidence that might connect the dots. What people believed happened flowed from their worldview rather than the facts of the event—a distrust of the state, especially its secret operations, or a strong conviction that special interests hidden from view were behind prominent public events of this character.

In a way, this process of reflection is natural, even inevitable, but it leads to faulty conclusions. We tend to process information against the background of our general worldview and understanding, and we do this all the time as an efficient way of coping with the complexity of the world combined with our lack of time or inclination to reach conclusions by independent investigation. The problem arises when we confuse this means of interpreting our experience with an effort to provide an explanation of a contested public event. There are, to be sure, conspiracies that promote unacknowledged goals, and enjoy the benefit of government protection. We don’t require WikiLeaks to remind us not to trust governments, even our own, and others that seem in most respects to be democratic and law-abiding. And we also by now should know that governments (ab)use their authority to treat awkward knowledge as a matter of state secrets, and criminalize those who are brave enough to believe that the citizenry needs to know the crimes that their government is committing with their trust and their tax dollars.

The arguments swirling around the 9/11 attacks are emblematic of these issues. What fuels suspicions of conspiracy is the reluctance to address the sort of awkward gaps and contradictions in the official explanations that David Ray Griffin(and other devoted scholars of high integrity) have been documenting in book after book ever since his authoritative The New Pearl Harbor in 2004 (updated in 2008). What may be more distressing than the apparent cover up is the eerie silence of the mainstream media, unwilling to acknowledge the well-evidenced doubts about the official version of the events: an al Qaeda operation with no foreknowledge by government officials. Is this silence a manifestation of fear or cooption, or part of an equally disturbing filter of self-censorship? Whatever it is, the result is the withering away of a participatory citizenry and the erosion of legitimate constitutional government. The forms persist, but the content is missing.

This brings me to the Arizona shootings, victimizing both persons apparently targeted for their political views and random people who happened to be there for one reason or another, innocently paying their respects to a congresswoman meeting constituents outside a Tucson supermarket. As with the Palme assassination, the most insistent immediate responses come from the opposite ends of the political spectrum, both proceeding on presuppositions rather than awaiting evidence.
On one side are those who say that right-wing hate speech and affection for guns were clearly responsible, while Tea Party ultra-conservatives and their friends reaffirm their rights of free speech, denying that there is any connection between denouncing their adversaries in the political process and the violent acts of a deranged individual seemingly acting on his own. If we want to be responsible in our assessments, we must restrain our political predispositions, and get the evidence. Let us remember that what seems most disturbing about the 9/11 controversy is the widespread aversion by government and media to the evidence that suggests, at the very least, the need for an independent investigation that proceeds with no holds barred.

Such an investigation would contrast with the official ‘9/11 Commission’ that proceeded with most holds barred. What has been already disturbing about the Arizona incident are these rival rushes to judgment without bothering with evidence. Such public irresponsibility polarizes political discourse, making conversation and serious debate irrelevant.

There is one more issue raised, with typical candor and innocence, by the filmmaker, Michael Moore. If a Muslim group has published a list of twenty political leaders in this country, and put crosshairs of a gun behind their pictures, is there any doubt that the Arizona events would be treated as the work of a terrorist,, and the group that had pre-identified such targets would be immediately outlawed as a terrorist organization. Many of us, myself included, fervently hoped, upon hearing the news of the shootings, that the perpetrator of this violence was neither a Muslim nor a Hispanic, especially an illegal immigrant. Why? Because we justly feared the kind of horrifying backlash that would have been probably generated by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Sarah Palin, and their legion of allies. Now that the apparent perpetrator is a young white American, the talk from the hate mongers, agains without bothering with evidence, is of mental disorder and sociopathology. This is faith-based pre-Enlightenment ‘knowledge.’

What must we learn from all of this? Don’t connect dots without evidence. Don’t turn away as soon as the words ‘conspiracy theory’ are uttered, especially if the evidence does point away from what the power-wielders want us to believe. Don’t link individual wrongdoing, however horrific, to wider religious and ethnic identities. We will perish as a species if we don’t learn soon to live together better on our beautiful, globalizing, and imperiled planet.

Madisonians Rayburn and Rothschild Break Major Story on Secret US Gov Program

Update: FBI Response to The Progressive Article Alleging the FBI Authorizes InfraGard Members to “Shoot to Kill” [- this is what is called a long non-denial denial -]

Lee Rayburn, one of the most engaging radio hosts in America - The Mic, 92.1 FM (Madison, Wisconsin) - talked to an acquaintance some months back who told him that a U.S. government agency was involved in deputizing businesses' principals in a secret program to be activated in the event of a national emergency.

Rayburn has an ear for a good story; and the source seemed credible, so he mentioned the bare facts on his morning radio show broadcast out of Madison.

Rayburn said he wondered about the facts and treated the matter with due skepticism; but he was disturbed by one aspect: The civilian shoot-to-kill with immunity element of the program. Smells like ... fascism.

Turns out Rayburn is on to something. The program is called InfraGard.

Rayburn also mentioned the story to Matt Rothschild, editor of Madison's The Progressive Magazine.

After a lengthy investigation and rigorous fact checking, Rothschild authored a piece entitled: The FBI Deputizes Business, the March cover story.

Writes Rothschild:

Today, more than 23,000 representatives of private industry are working quietly with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The members of this rapidly growing group, called InfraGard, receive secret warnings of terrorist threats before the public does—and, at least on one occasion, before elected officials. In return, they provide information to the government, which alarms the ACLU. But there may be more to it than that. One business executive, who showed me his InfraGard card, told me they have permission to “shoot to kill” in the event of martial law. InfraGard is “a child of the FBI,” says Michael Hershman, the chairman of the advisory board of the InfraGard National Members Alliance and CEO of the Fairfax Group, an international consulting firm.

During a period in American history unsurpassed in secrecy, political vindictiveness, corruption and erosion of civil liberties, I recommend giving Rothschild's piece a good read.

Finkelstein Resigns, Settles with DePaul.

Breaking - DePaul U. ends its disgrace in part; admitting no guilt.

Finkelstein resigns, settles with DePaul.

Well, Alan Dershowitz's campaign to prevent the publication of Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History failed, but his campaign to deny Finkelstein tenure succeeded.

No matter it's a big world, and the lies and militarism of Dershowitz and company are more clear than ever thanks to Finkelstein's work.

Smearing, the time-honored tactic of militarists, censors, and torture advocates ultimately dissipates in the light of truth.

Details coming at Norman Finkelstein.

From the International Herald Tribune:

Finkelstein, who is the son of Holocaust survivors, was denied tenure in June after spending six years on DePaul's faculty.

His remaining class was cut by DePaul last month.

His most recent book, "Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History," is largely an attack on Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz's "The Case for Israel."

In his book, Finkelstein argues that Israel uses perceived anti-Semitism as a weapon to stifle criticism.Dershowitz, who threatened to sue Finkelstein's publisher for libel, urged DePaul officials to reject Finkelstein's tenure bid.

Finkelstein said in the statement that he believes the tenure decision was "tainted" by external pressures, but praised the university's "honorable role of providing a scholarly haven for me the past six years."

Joint statement of Norman Finkelstein and DePaul University

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Finkelstein Fights on for Academic Freedom

Update: Finkelstein resigns, settles with DePaul.

Details coming at Norman Finkelstein.

DePaul University Professor Norman Finkelstein’s fight for academic freedom is far from over, though he was denied tenure this spring for his vociferous objections to Israeli and American militarism, among other published work.

A man dedicated to peace and precision in scholarship, who took on Israeli and American militarism met a Karl-Rovesque slime machine.

Finkelstein was denied tenure at DePaul this spring after Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz and supporters of Israeli militarism organized a campaign against Finkelstein's tenure appointment, supported in part by Madison’s The Progressive magazine’s editors, Matt Rothschild and Ruth Conniff, who ludicrously called Finkestein a Holocaust minimizer, though both of Finkelstein's parents are concentration camp survivors.

Dershowitz, a long-time supporter of Israeli militarism, maintains a special enmity with Finkelstein, not helped after Finkelstein exposed Dershowitz’ plagiarism.

Finkelstein’s supporters are legion, including Noam Chomsky and the late Raul Hilberg, respected as the dean of Holocaust historians and author of the classic The Destruction of the European Jews.

The Chicagotribune.com reports that Finkelstein and supporting students may “engage in civil disobedience at the start of the fall term Wednesday … “

"I am morally, mentally and emotionally depleted right now. But I will find the resources to fight this next battle. … It is rather regrettable that DePaul is carrying on the spirit of Chicago's Al Capone rather than St. Vincent de Paul," Finkelstein said in an interview with the Trib. "One of my heroes is Paul Robeson, who said, 'I will not retreat one-thousandth part of one inch. And I won't either."

As reported in Chicago Indymedia, DePaul took the unprecedented step of canceling Finkelstein's last year of classes and locking him out of his office. Professors who are denied tenure are traditionally given one more year to teach while they seek other employment.

Hilberg, before he passed away in early August, said in the Logos journal, “Well Finkelstein is now maligned all over the place. There were obviously lobbies who tried to dislodge him from his position.”

And Hilberg had expressed dismay about the ad hominem attacks against Finkelstein as a blow to academic freedom.

First-rate scholar, popular teacher, and prolific author, I doubt a man of Finkelstein’s contributions to humanity will have much problem finding a position befitting his stature, though his case illustrates perfectly how difficult it is for critics of Israeli militarism to survive in the American academy.

Such is the ideology in America, but were he working in Israel or England; Finkelstein would still be a controversial figure, but would also be widely perceived as heroic and righteous, provoking a needed debate of the ethics of American-Israeli militarism.

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