Government and Police under fire for beating up Brian Haw
Tue, 01/15/2008 – 13:00 – Wire Services
The British government and London’s Metropolitan Police came under heavy criticism today for mercilessly beating up Britain’s iconic peace protester Brian Haw over the weekend.In an unprovoked attack by a police officer, Mr. Haw was assaulted in the face with his own camera and arrested while observing a demonstration against the ban on unauthorised protest under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) which was taking place outside Downing Street.
Mr. Haw, who was bleeding from the assault, was then dragged into the police van where he was further assaulted by policeman, according to witnesses.
“I utterly condemn the aggressive mishandling of Brian Haw during Saturday’s demonstration, and his subsequent treatment while in the custody of police,” Green MEP Caroline Lucas said. “He is a passionate and peaceful campaigner, and a popular hero following his outstanding efforts to publicly oppose the Iraq war.”
According to other protesters arrested along with Mr. Haw, the peace protester was once again badly assaulted before being strip searched and charged under the SOCPA.
“This incident provides yet more proof that police actions taken under the terms of SOCPA are putting a stranglehold on civil liberties and threatening the right to gather in peaceful protest,” Lucas added. “It is a sad day for this country when the face of modern democracy is frightened and bloodied and peering out of a police van on a Saturday afternoon.”
Now, I’m starting to think that those “prevailing ideas in society” prevail only in the media. I was one of those campaigning for this vote, and was surprised at what a positive response I got from people. A lot of those who weren’t students or who were unable to make the meeting expressed sympathy with the Palestinian cause, and only a very few times did I have to explain the hypocrisy of equating Palestinians with terrorists, or put the violence of the oppressed in the context of, um, violent oppression.
One girl even marched up to me, with a leaflet in her hand supporting the Zionist motion, saying “this is all wrong!” and asking what she could do about it. More generally, while explaining the content of the motion, I rarely got to say the words “renounce terror” without provoking a tut or a rolling of the eyes. What really struck me at the meeting – aside from the necessary logistical nightmare that is democracy – was how on the defensive the Zionists were. “We’re not denying the Palestinians’ right to resist, but …”, “no-one wants to end the twinning, but…” – actually, I’ve spoken to these people in the past and they do deny the suffering of the Palestinians, they do oppose the twinning and have since its inception, but didn’t consider it politically viable to say so.
The Invisible Librarian‘s describing Presidential candidate Ron Paul, who I’ve been meaning to do a post about. But I’ve had real trouble getting a handle on the man other than that from what I’ve heard of him so far, he seems a bit of a crackpot libertarian.
Nevertheless he seems to be hitting a sweet spot with many Americans of all political stripes, sick as they are of the permanent folie a deux of a two party system and an entrenched media-political elite.
Even know sensible liberals like Glenn Greenwald are giving him credence:
…Glen Greenwald had to jump in and defend Ron Paul’s honor:
A “principled conservative” is someone who aggressively objects to the radicalism of the neocons and the Bush/Cheney assault on our constitution and embraces a conservative political ideology. That’s what Ron Paul is, and it’s hardly a surprise that he holds many views anathema to most liberals. That hardly makes him a “fruitcake.”
Ron Paul views women as baby making machines. He wants to overturn Roe v. Wade. He wants to put us back on the fucking Gold standard! The Gold standard! And just because misogyny, sex-phobia and Jesus are planks of the GOP platform doesn’t make them reasonable areas of dispute. That we accept it as such just illustrates how far around the bend we’ve slid when it comes to acceptable discourse in politics.
That says that, despite the official GOP trying to put a lid on his coverage, that he has a lot of potential votes in the Republican pimary.He’s not a nothing, or a nonentity and if he isn’t a nutter (though the omens don’t look good), well he certainly knows how to attract ’em.
These two Wired articles may give you some idea of the depth and scope of the NSA unauthorised wiretapping scandal: yet again (although they think it is) it’s not just about Americans.
We in Europe are also being spied on as though we were enemies: but unlike them we don’t have even the figleaf of the Fourth Amendment to protect our nakedness in the eye of the US’ paranoid, unchecked security services. As if Echelon wasn’t bad enough…
After reading that, you may be concerned that the NSA is spying on you. Want to find out? Then read The Newbie’s Guide to Detecting the NSA, which shows you how.
Here’s our own traceroute back to nsa.gov from Amsterdam. (munged slightly to protect our privacy):
Traceroute from RRC00 to nsa.gov.
traceroute to nsa.gov (12.110.110.204), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets
1 gw.dev.nsrp.ripe.net (193.0.0.14) 0.937 ms 0.891 ms 72.475 ms
2 GigabitEthernet3-2.core2.ams1.level3.net (195.69.144.110) 14.957 ms 11.381 ms 18.267 ms
3 ae-0-54.mp2.Amsterdam1.Level3.net (4.68.120.98) 15.807 ms 25.059 ms 14.290 ms
4 ae-0-0.bbr2.NewYork1.Level3.net (64.159.1.42) 89.496 ms as-0- 0.bbr1.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.68.128.106) 84.947 ms ae-0-0.bbr2.NewYork1.Level3.net (64.159.1.42) 93.431 ms
5 ae-43-99.car3.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.68.16.197) 96.202 ms ae-33-
89.car3.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.68.16.133) 77.086 ms 75.008 ms
6 ggr2-p360.n54ny.ip.att.net (192.205.33.93) 75.179 ms 77.331 ms 75.146 ms
7 tbr2.n54ny.ip.att.net (12.123.0.94) 77.908 ms 77.606 ms *
8 gbr5.n54ny.ip.att.net (12.122.11.26) 76.793 ms 75.358 ms 75.558 ms
9 ar4.n54ny.ip.att.net (12.123.214.57) 75.155 ms 76.423 ms 76.305 ms
10 12.126.221.90 (12.126.221.90) 84.946 ms 12.126.221.94 (12.126.221.94) 86.016 ms
“YO! MS Raps!” Remember when 45 whole k of memory was like woah, dude? Happy days. Here’s a very silly rapping Microsoft training video for the MS-Dos 5.0 upgrade.
Thinking about a kitchen update? You can keep your Corian and your hand-hewn granite: this interactive LED-loaded worktop is what I want in my kitchen.
Are you against the Iraq War? Hate Bushco? Nonviolent protestor? Hoping you’re going to escape to Canada if it all goes to shit? Well, think again:
FBI Puts Antiwar Protesters on Criminal Database; Canada Uses It To Ban Protesters From Entry
“The FBI’s placing of peace activists on an international criminal database is blatant political intimidation of US citizens opposed to Bush administration policies,” says Colonel Wright, who was also Deputy US Ambassador in four countries. “The Canadian government should certainly not accept this FBI database”
Awwwww. A stray 6-week-old calico kitten accidentally traveled from New Jersey to New Hampshire in a spare-tire compartment.
“Our mission is to enlist the U.S. business community in actions to improve the standing of America in the world with the goal of once again, seeing America admired as a global leader and respected as a courier of progress and prosperity for all people.”
What’s their solution for the US’ dire international diplomatic position? Kick out Bush perhaps, stop being such gungho assholes maybe, possibly change the system? Of course not, don’t be silly. It’s not what they do that’s the problem, it’s how we perceive it… so they’re going to rebrand America. Yes, seriously. They’ve got a real job on their hands.
Double awww: “Mom, is that you? Orphaned kitten is nursed by local dog ”
Twenty years ago, televangelist Oral Roberts said he was reading a spy novel when God appeared to him and told him to raise $8 million for Roberts’ university, or else he would be “called home.”
Now, his son, Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal.
Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors’ expense, including numerous home remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter’s senior trip to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay.
She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as “underage males.”
What kind of parent names a kid Oral, anyway? You’ve got to wonder.
UPDATE: For perplexed UKians, Sara Robinson has a good overview of the Robertses, Oral and offspring, here.
