[Peace-discuss] Obama's responsibility

[E. Wayne Johnson]

In the past, government activism against citizen activism has been the 
bishoprick of the F.B.I.
and included all manner of tactics.  No doubt the names have been 
changed to confuse the innocent.

"The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society;
and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed
to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings."
(attributed to JFK, he did speak the words.)

For me the very notion that one should file a request to get information 
from a
public agency is absurd, and intolerable, not merely repugnant in a free 
and open society...

I once worked for a U of I department that was subject to FOIA requests 
from time to time.
(CGE was a higher level of "Observation" in the same building.)
It was incredible to me  how the department reacted to such requests.  
They really hate FOIA
requests.  Perhaps nothing torments them so much as being subject to a 
FOIA request.
Indeed the tormenting of them is a damn good reason to file a FOIA request.

Such bureaucratic vermin know how to fight back.  They charge for the 
photocopying but not for the Magic Marker
that is used to redact the materials.  They black out the info with the 
zeal of a Nazi censor
at a prisoner's love letters. What is left after the censoring, as Mason 
Williams said, is a "doily for your mind".

Of course, if you want the real stuff, you need to do what the FBI 
does.  Infiltrate the bastards and
get copies of the real thing.  Then it's fun to see what they decided 
should be redacted in their cowering fear and stupidity.

*

The Censor sits
Somewhere between
The scenes to be seen
And the television sets
With his scissor purpose poised
Watching the human stuff
That will sizzle through
The magic wires
And light up
Like welding shops
The ho-hum rooms of America
And with a kindergarten
Arts and crafts concept
Of moral responsibility
Snips out
The rough talk
The unpopular opinion
Or anything with teeth
And renders
A pattern of ideas
Full of holes
A doily
For your mind

(Mason Williams, "The Censor")


On 11/22/2011 4:17 AM, Carl G. Estabrook wrote:
> *National Lawyers Guild Files FOIA Requests Seeking Evidence of 
> Federal Role in Occupy Crackdown*
> by: Dave Lindorff - Fri, 11/18/2011
>
>  With Congress no longer performing its sworn role of defending the US 
> Constitution, the National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Committee and 
> the Partnership for Civil Justice today filed requests under the 
> Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) asking the Department of Justice, 
> the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the CIA and the National 
> Parks Service to release "all their information on the planning of the 
> coordinated law enforcement crackdown on Occupy protest encampments in 
> multiple cities over the course of recent days and weeks"...
>
> ...the Occupy Movement is developing plans for a national occupation 
> of the National Mall, the big park that runs between the Capitol and 
> the Lincoln Monument that has been the scene of many historic rallies 
> and occupations in decades past. A national General Assembly is being 
> planned for April 1, which will focus on " the failure of the 
> Democrats and Republicans in Congress to represent the views of the 
> majority of people, the Supreme Court for allowing the Constitution to 
> be perverted and for ignoring the rule of law and the Chamber of 
> Commerce and lobbyists on K St for dominating the political process in 
> favor of the 1% at the expense of the 99%."
>
> This thing ain't over. It's just getting going.
>
> /http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/910/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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