Protect And Serve?

I was pleased to see Amy Goodman interviewed by David Brancaccio last Friday on the PBS program NOW.



Amazingly, some of the comments on the YouTube.com page showing this video take the side of the police. They imply that Amy Goodman overstepped her bounds. Simply flabbergasting. All she was doing was inquiring about her co-workers and expressing concern for their safety. For this she was actually charged and arrested. Why? How can her behavior in this situation possibly be threatening to all those goons in full riot gear?

Would the goons have treated Rush Limbaugh like this?

Amy Goodman Explains Her Arrest

Following Orders

The Nuremberg Defense comes to mind. It also comes to mind when I think of how it is possible for illegal wars to be carried out.

From Pig Nation by Dennis Perrin:

…when it comes to police academies, it's clear that the war is domestic, the population The Enemy. At least, that's the impression I get after Denver and currently in St. Paul. What goes through these cops' minds when they bash a CodePink activist to the ground, calling her "bitch," which happened in Denver, or when they manhandle someone as small as Amy Goodman, which just happened in St. Paul? Not to mention all the anonymous people beaten, pepper sprayed and arrested in between? I mean, these big bad Alpha pricks dressed in riot gear, backed by massive force, beating the shit out of women? What the fuck is wrong with them? Obviously, they feel it's okay, as their superiors make excuses, citing "security risks," and St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman -- a Democrat -- brags about police "restraint."

Welcome to Pig Nation, a bi-partisan production that will receive more of our money regardless who wins the White House.

Just know that I write my ass off for zero money, still perform blue collar work to pay the bills, and that my book, while selling well, has yet to net me a dime. The advance was laughably low, and already spent on gas. Meantime, I see others making a living writing socially acceptable, even "edgy" prose for larger outlets. So why the fuck am I wasting my time doing this for free?

Oh yeah. Because I care. For what that's worth.

Mr. Perrin:

If you had a comments section on your blog I would write to you and encourage you to continue writing your blog. While I don’t agree with everything you write, your blog demonstrates some of the most independent thinking that I have come across on all of the web. I for one appreciate that. For what that’s worth.

Hopefully, independent thinking will become contagious. Independent thinking coupled with independent actions on the part of a few police people and a few soldiers could help to put an end to some of the current atrocities that anger so many of us.

We all need to stand up for what's right.

Freedom Of The Press?

“There can be no press freedom when journalists exist in conditions of corruption, poverty and fear.” Aidan White

“If in other lands the press and books and literature of all kinds are censored, we must redouble our efforts here to keep them free.” Franklin D. Roosevelt

The revolution may not be televised, but it might be YouTubed.

Amy Goodman Arrested at RNC:


From Update: Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar Released After Illegal Arrest at RNC:

Goodman was arrested while questioning police about the unlawful detention of Kouddous and Salazar who were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Goodman’s crime appears to have been defending her colleagues and the freedom of the press.

“The press is like the peculiar uncle you keep in the attic - just one of those unfortunate things.” G. Gordon Liddy

From PZ Myers (Writing about Amy Goodman):

She has been charged with "conspiracy to incite a riot".

She's a well-known peace activist, people. Non-violence and all that. And now the cops are claiming that she is working to incite riots? Be honest: the police are just trying to silence democratic voices.

Little Bush Dreaming Of War

From Legendary Author Gore Vidal on the Bush Presidency, History and the “United States of Amnesia”:

AMY GOODMAN: And what about Dreaming War?

GORE VIDAL: Well, same thing. They were dreaming war. You can see little Bush all along was just dreaming of war, and also Cheney dreaming about oil wells and how you knock apart a country like Iraq and of course their oil will pay for the damage you do. For that alone, he should have been put in front of a firing squad.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you believe in the death penalty?

GORE VIDAL: No. But in their case, yes.

Amy Goodman And The Silenced Majority

From Amy Goodman Interview by Elizabeth DiNovella:

Amy Goodman: We have a special responsibility as American journalists. We live in the most powerful country on Earth. Yet there is probably a level of ignorance about our effect in the rest of the world because the media doesn’t bring it to us. It’s much more difficult for people at the target end to forget, to be oblivious, because they are right there living it every day. We have a responsibility here to understand what it feels like, because we are the ones who are creating that situation, whether we like it or not.

We’re constantly hearing from the small circle of pundits in Washington who know so little about so much, explaining the world to us, and getting it so wrong. Every network is the same. Unfortunately, sometimes public broadcasting sounds the same way.

The United States has the potential to have tremendous power for good. Right now, it just doesn’t have that position. But there are many, many people who make up a pro-democracy movement in this country, just like in other countries, people who really do deeply care. If we want to be safer here, we have to extend those voices to the rest of the world. That’s going to increase our national security.

Those who are for peace are not a fringe minority. They are not a silent majority, but a silenced majority, silenced by the corporate media.

Let's Change Our Reputation

From A Torture Debate Among Healers by Amy Goodman:

Imagine, a candidate for president who, a year or so ago, no one would have considered electable. Now the person is the front-runner, with a groundswell of grass-roots support, threatening the sense of inevitability of the Establishment candidates. No, I’m not talking about the U.S. presidential race, but the race for president of the largest association of psychologists in the world, the American Psychological Association (APA). At the heart of the election is a raging debate over torture and interrogations. While the other healing professions, including the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association, bar their members from participating in interrogations, the APA leadership has fought against such a restriction.

Frustrated with the APA, a New York psychoanalyst, Dr. Steven Reisner, has thrown his hat into the ring. Last year, Reisner and other dissident psychologists formed the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology in an attempt to force a moratorium against participation by APA members in harsh interrogations. During the initial phase of this year’s selection process, Reisner received the most nominating votes. He is running on a platform opposing the use of psychologists to oversee abusive and coercive interrogations of prisoners at Guantanamo, secret CIA black sites or anywhere else international law or the Geneva Conventions are said not to apply.