Report: American Library Assn. Takes Up Resolutions in Support of WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning
Friday, June 24, 2011
By Susan Jones

(CNSNews.com) – At its annual convention in New Orleans, the American Library Association is expected to vote on a resolution calling on the U.S. military to release Bradley Manning, the American soldier accused of leaking more than 250,000 classified diplomatic memos to Wikileaks, Fox News reported.

The ALA resolution reportedly compares Manning’s leak to the “courageous action” of Daniel Ellsberg, who in 1971 released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret study of U.S. government decision-making about the Vietnam War, to The New York Times and other newspapers. Ellsberg himself is scheduled to give a presentation at the ALA conference on Sunday afternoon.

Fox News reported that resolution is based on the American Library Association’s strong support for “the principle of government accountability and the protection of whistleblowers.”

Read more.

1) MOVEMENT TO INVESTIGATE CLARENCE THOMAS GROWS:
http://www.santamonicadispatch.com/2011/06/movement-to-investigate-clarence-thomas-grows/

2) Jonathan Turley on Clarence Thomas

3) Corrupt Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas?

4) Clarence Thomas Faces Ethics Questions
http://www.theroot.com/buzz/clarence-thomas-faces-ethics-questions-0

5) Clarence Thomas crosses ethical line
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/article1177141.ece

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Tell Congress: Call for a House Judiciary Committee investigation of Clarence Thomas

Nearly 200,000 people have signed our petition calling for the resignation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. And we’re making waves in Washington. Thanks to your activism, momentum is building behind an effort to hold Clarence Thomas accountable for his blatant disregard for the Judicial Code of Conduct.

Just yesterday, Congressman Chris Murphy penned a “dear colleague” letter, asking his fellow Members of Congress to sign on to an urgent request to Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith. This letter, spurred by the recent New York Times expose of Clarence Thomas’ unethical relationship with rightwing funder and activist Harlan Crow, urges the House Judiciary Committee to hold hearings on escalating reports of unethical behavior by Supreme Court Justices.

Tell your representative: Sign Rep. Chris Murphy’s letter asking the House Judiciary Committee to investigate recent actions of Clarence Thomas and to consider extending the Judicial Conference Code of Conduct for all federal judges to members of the U.S. Supreme Court.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/murphy_letter/

Report: Prosser Accused Of Grabbing Fellow Justice By Neck
Prosser Defeated Kloppenburg In April Election
Updated: 1:00 pm CDT June 25, 2011

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser grabbed fellow Justice Ann Walsh Bradley around the neck in an argument in her chambers last week, according to three sources cited in in a story written by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism and Wisconsin Public Radio.

The report cites unnamed sources that said an argument occurred before the court’s release of a decision last week upholding the publication of a bill that cut nearly all collective bargaining rights of most public employees. During the alleged argument, a physical altercation between Prosser and Bradley occurred in the presence of other justices, the report said.

The report said that Bradley asked Prosser to leave her office and that was when Prosser grabbed Bradley by the neck with both hands.

Read more.

Be there to make him feel at home!

MCM

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=231492043541473

Thus he “argues” much the way he “wins” elections.

MCM

Prosser allegedly grabbed fellow justice by the neck
Posted on June 25, 2011 by WisconsinWatch

Sources say authorities are looking into altercation in Supreme Court chambers
By Bill Lueders
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser allegedly grabbed fellow Justice Ann Walsh Bradley around the neck in an argument in her chambers last week, according to at least three knowledgeable sources.

Details of the incident, investigated jointly by Wisconsin Public Radio and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, remain sketchy. The sources spoke on the condition that they not be named, citing a need to preserve professional relationships.

They say an argument that occurred before the court’s release of a decision upholding a bill to curtail the collective bargaining rights of public employees culminated in a physical altercation in the presence of other justices. Bradley purportedly asked Prosser to leave her office, whereupon Prosser grabbed Bradley by the neck with both hands.

Read more.

Trial Begins: Did New Orleans Media Contribute to Police Violence After Hurricane Katrina?
Friday 24 June 2011
by: Jordan Flaherty, Truthout | News Analysis

Jury selection began June 22 in what observers have called the most important trial New Orleans has seen in a generation. It concerns a shocking case of police brutality that has already redefined this city’s relationship to its police department, and radically rewritten the official narrative of what happened in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina. Five police officers are facing charges of shooting unarmed African-Americans in cold blood, killing two and wounding four, and then conspiring to hide evidence. Five officers who participated in the conspiracy have already pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against their fellow officers.

The shootings occurred on September 4, 2005, as two families were fleeing Katrina’s floodwaters, crossing New Orleans’ Danziger Bridge to get to dry land. Officers, who apparently heard a radio report about shootings in the area, drove up, leapt out of their vehicle and began firing. Ronald Madison, a mentally challenged man, was shot in the back at least six times, then reportedly stomped and kicked by an officer until he was dead. His brother Lance Madison was arrested on false charges. James Brissette, a high school student, was shot seven times and died at the scene. Susan Bartholomew, 38, was wounded so badly her arm was shot off of her body. Jose Holmes Jr. was shot several times, then, as he lay bleeding, an officer stood over him and fired point blank at his stomach. Two other relatives of Bartholomew were also badly wounded.

Danziger is one of at least nine recent incidents involving the New Orleans Police Department being investigated by the US Justice Department, several of which took place in the days after the city was flooded. Officers have recently been convicted by federal prosecutors in two other high-profile trials. In April, two officers were found guilty in the beating of death of Raymond Robair, a handyman from the Treme neighborhood. In December, a jury convicted three officers and acquitted two in killing Henry Glover, a 31-year-old from New Orleans’ West Bank neighborhood, and burning his body.

Read more.

Good evening, Mark,

Although the mass media coverage is long gone, millions of progressives are still following the Wisconsin struggle and wishing us on to final victory. One of the questions I’ve been hearing most in the past several weeks has been, “How can we support the recalls?”

The short answer is that the best way to support a change in Wisconsin’s legislature is to directly support those progressives running in these elections. As you know, I am a longtime member of the Green Party. But for me, as with many who are members of other parties, I am progressive first, and will support progressives when they run, regardless of party affiliation. I can’t speak to all the candidates running for election this summer, but I can tell you that Wisconsin’s progressive movement will be greatly advanced if Jess King, Shelly Moore, Fred Clark, and Andy Heidt are elected to the legislature.

• Attorney Jess King is running for the State Senate in the Fox Valley. I served with Jess for several years on the board of the Young Lawyers Division of the State Bar of Wisconsin. She is a progressive attorney in the tradition of former Attorney General Peg Lautenshlager.  To donate or volunteer: http://www.jessicakingforsenate.com/
• Shelly Moore is running for election in northern Wisconsin’s 10th Senate District. I last knew Shelly in the late 1990s, when she  was a leader in the UW-Stevens Point student association, and a strong activist and ally in the student movement against tuition hikes and for student power.  To donate or volunteer: http://mooreforwisconsin.com/
• Rep. Fred Clark is running the 14th Senate district, just north of Madison in the Baraboo Hills. As a member of the Assembly, he has been one of Wisconsin’s most effective and stalwart advocates for ecology and conservation. To donate or volunteer: http://www.clarkforwisconsin.org/
• Labor leader Andy Heidt is running in a special election in Madison’s 48th Assembly District. In a Democratic primary in which every candidate scrambles to call themselves “progressive,” Andy is in a class of his own. I met him over twenty years ago when I was a student at Madison West, and he was already a veteran activist in Madison’s progressive community. Andy is another person who puts progressive politics ahead of party affiliation.  To donate or volunteer: http://www.andyheidtforassembly.com/

Beyond direct support for candidates, there is a need to insure that the outcome of the election reflects the actual will of the electorate; that these elections are not stolen. The Wisconsin Wave, among other organizations, will be making an effort to protect election integrity this summer. Please stay tuned for ways you can help protect our elections from fraud. And please do what you can to help our progressive allies in their camapaigns.

In Solidarity,

Ben Manski

Note how Sun Moon’s Washington Times portrays this righteous effort to get honest types elected as Secretaries of State—types like Mark Ritchie, Minnesota’s SoS, who really does believe in counting every vote.

MCM

Soros and liberal groups seeking top election posts in battleground states

By Chuck Neubauer
The Washington Times
9:00 p.m., Thursday, June 23, 2011

A small tax-exempt political group with ties to wealthy liberals like billionaire financier George Soros has quietly helped elect 11 reform-minded progressive Democrats as secretaries of state to oversee the election process in battleground states and keep Republican “political operatives from deciding who can vote and how those votes are counted.”

Known as the Secretary of State Project (SOSP), the organization was formed by liberal activists in 2006 to put Democrats in charge of state election offices, where key decisions often are made in close races on which ballots are counted and which are not.

The group’s website said it wants to stop Republicans from “manipulating” election results.

Read more.

The Lie Behind the Afghan War

By Robert Parry
June 24, 2011

In Official Washington, there’s one “fact” about the Afghan War that nearly everyone “knows”: In February 1989, after the Soviet army left Afghanistan, the United States walked away from the war-torn country, creating a vacuum that led to the rise of the Taliban and its readiness to host al-Qaeda’s anti-American terrorists.

It is a point made by senior administration officials, including incoming Ambassador Ryan Crocker and departing Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who once summed up the conventional wisdom by saying: “We will not repeat the mistakes of 1989, when we abandoned the country only to see it descend into civil war and into Taliban hands.”

And Gates was there at the time, as President George H.W. Bush’s deputy national security adviser. So, he should know.

Read more.

Conservatives Fight to Let Corporate Bosses Break Laws Protecting Their Workers
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Posted on June 23, 2011, Printed on June 24, 2011

Working America labors under the weakest protections from abusive management in the developed world, by far. We take it as a given that our bosses can fire us for any reason (with a few exceptions like discrimination on the basis of race or gender), or no reason at all – a notion that would shock and appall working people in most advanced economies.

But corporate America doesn’t want the very modest protections that do exist in this country to be enforced. Even as companies lay claim to many of the Constitutional rights of citizenship, they want to be held above the rule of law when it comes to their employees.

This desire lays at the heart of a recent barrage of assaults on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a New Deal agency that for over 75 years has been tasked with enforcing the very modest protections for organized workers afforded by the National Labor Relations Act. The agency, according to former NLRB general counsel Fred Feinstein, “has the stated purpose of encouraging private-sector collective bargaining, protecting employees’ right to form a union to improve working conditions and preventing retaliation for exercising these rights.” He adds that passage of the law “helped the U.S. climb out of the Great Depression and encouraged the growth of a vibrant middle class for much of the last century.”

Read more.