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Fifty years later: What would King say now?

On August 28, 1963, some 250,000 people marched on Washington, DC. The platform for the speakers and singers program was set up on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, looking out on the Reflecting Pond with the Washington Monument in the distance. The thousands and thousands of participants – at the time the largest crowd ever to march on the nation’s capital – showed clearly that a century after the Civil War far too many Americans, especially black Americans, were still deprived of their fundamental rights as citizens.

A. Philip Randolph’s call for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom showed the political leaders of America that the time for change was at hand. As Bob Dylan would sing the following year, “The Times They Are a-Changin’” – whether white America was ready or not.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. took the stage for remarks listed as item 16 on the official program. Yet his “I Have a Dream” speech is probably what is best remembered from that momentous day. From the moment he began to speak, the crowd was rapt, many chanting in response to his words.

Another day, another dark website, another journalist silenced in fear

Citing the decision by the secure email provider Lavabit to close rather than install NSA spying hardware and/or software directly on its servers, an important and long lived legal news blog groklaw.net shuttered this week. The founder of the blog, Pamela Jones or PJ, had collaboratively covered major intellectual property lawsuits, anti-trust suits and issues around open source software for 10 years with both programmers and lawyers, bridging the gap between the two professions in a masterpiece project of investigative citizen journalism. The owner of Lavabit, Ladar Levison, claimed he was threatened with arrest several times while being dragged through court in order to compel him to spy on his customers. Sources quoted by NBC have said that the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia is now considering charging Levison for shuttering his business.

Tell Congress to say NO to a War on Syria

The neocon war criminals who took the U.S. into an illegal and disastrous war in Iraq are back - and demanding a Syria War.
The Shock and Awe bombing of Baghdad in 2003 that launched the disastrous Iraq War. We say No!
Attacking Syria won't reduce the violence - it will only escalate it with devastating consequences for Syrians and Americans, as we learned so painfully in Iraq.

The U.S. invasion of Iraq killed 100,000 to 600,000 Iraqi civilians. For Americans, the invasion killed 4,486 U.S. troops and wounded 32,223. Of the 2.3 million U.S. troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, roughly 20% suffer from PTSD or Traumatic Brain Injury, and hundreds commit suicide each year. For returning troops and their loved ones, the war is never over.

Tell Congress: No Syria War!

Economically, the U.S. absolutely cannot afford war with Syria. The Iraq War cost the U.S. economy $3 trillion and helped cause the Great Recession of 2008, which has not ended.

British secret agency destroys Guardian files

David Miranda was traveling from Berlin to Brazil on business. He is Glen Greenwald's partner and also an employee of the Guardian. He was carrying a laptop, USB drives, a camera and gaming consoles. He was traveling between meetings with Greenwald and his co-lead journalist on the Snowden project, Laura Poitras. At his stopover in London, he was detained, allegedly at the behest of United States, based on the special relationship between the two nations and their secret police forces.

Two months earlier, at the beginning of the Guardian's revelations of Edward Snowden's leaks, Britain's Tory government began pressuring the newspaper to give up or destroy its files. According to Guardian Editor-in-Chief Alan Rusbridger, “A little over two months ago I was contacted by a very senior government official claiming to represent the views of the prime minister. There followed two meetings in which he demanded the return or destruction of all the material we were working on. The tone was steely, if cordial, but there was an implicit threat that others within government and Whitehall favored a far more draconian approach.”

Solidarity movement forces Columbus Diocese to settle with discharged teacher

After a hard fought four month campaign, the Columbus, Ohio Catholic Diocese has been forced to reach agreement with discharged 19 year gay teacher, Carla Hale. She had been fired by the Diocese when she returned to work after burying her mother, because her mother’s obituary stated that she “was survived by Carla and her partner!”

The undisclosed settlement is believed to include substantial backpay and an official clearing of Ms. Hale’s record.

“We are happy to announce a settlement to this long dispute,” stated Tom Tootle, Carla's attorney. “Carla has been overwhelmed by the massive outpouring of support she received, especially from the students and alumni of Watterson, who have been so important in her life. Carla is just happy that she’ll be getting back to the classroom, which is where she always wanted to be. She appreciates the support given her by HaleStorm Ohio, Pride@Work and the AFL-CIO, without whose help this settlement would not have been possible.”

Peace activists commemorate 50th Anniversary of March on Washington with vigil and procession from Vietnam Veterans Memorial to MLK Memorial

Peace Activists Commemorate 50th Anniversary of March on Washington with Vigil and Procession from Vietnam Veterans Memorial to MLK Memorial

On August 23rd and 24th peace and anti-war activists will commemorate the historic March on Washington 50 years ago and give voice to Dr. Martin Luther King’s call to end racism, poverty and war.

On Friday night, August 23rd at 8pm United for Peace & Justice UFPJ, will Shine the Light of Peace in a candlelight procession, beginning with commemorative words and a wreath laying ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial followed by NYC Light Brigade offering visual messages at the Reflecting Pool (see examples at Facebook) on our way to the MLK Memorial for a closing ceremony.

On Saturday, August 24th, UFPJ and other peace and anti-war groups will also be participating in the March on Saturday. UFPJ will be distributing posters at 14th and Constitution to bring the message of peace to the streets.

Bradley Manning’s sentence: Another signal from the authoritarian Security State

Bradley Manning, whistleblower, leaker of "classified" information, who was held for about 3 years in pre-trial detention by the Obama government, over a year of which was spent in torturous conditions, has been sentenced to 35 years in prison. It is a travesty of justice.

Daniel Ellsberg of "Pentagon Papers" fame contends that "the Manning Conviction is the Beginning of a Police State" (Link to article).

Norman Solomon, whose article is also on commondreams.org writes that the government's incarceration of Manning is to break the spirit of Bradley Manning and submits "an open leader to President Obama."

Bradley Manning himself wrote an open letter describing his intentions in releasing hundreds of thousands of classified files. He did it knowing the possible penalties and personal costs, but acted anyway for the public good and against misbegotten government policies. You can find the letter on the internet at Common Dreams today (8-22-13).

Cameron's journalist intimidation defended by British press barons

After revelations that Glenn Greenwald's partner was detained and threatened by British security forces earlier this week, Britain's rightwing media moguls made sure to close ranks and shield Westminster from too much public criticism. Major news outlets including the usually libertarian Daily Telegraph have responded to the story by running an aggressive string of articles downplaying or smearing the Guardian's coverage of this abuse, and others, by Prime Minister David Cameron's government.

David Miranda, who lives with Greenwald in Brazil, was held at Heathrow Airport for nine hours under the Terrorism Act (2000), denied legal representation for the duration, and told repeatedly that he would be imprisoned if he failed to surrender the passwords to his personal accounts. Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, also revealed that two months ago "shadowy figures" from the government told him "you've had your fun" and demanded access to the newspaper's basement, where agents smashed hard drives thought to contain sensitive NSA and GCHQ data.

The tanning bed tax

Spy on me, I'm innocent!

You've heard people say they want to be spied on, as long as it means that other people will be spied on too. I know you've heard people say this, and which people it was, and how your face looked when you heard it, and what your next telephone call was. Or, rather, I could know all of that if I were one of the thousands and thousands of low-level snoops it will take for our government to accomplish its surveillance goals.

The logic is completely flawed, however. As FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley remarks, if you're looking for a needle in a haystack, adding more hay doesn't help. It makes you less likely to find the needle. A government that sucks up ever vaster quantities of useless information on innocent people actually hurts its own ability to investigate crimes. And the imagined intimidating effect of things like surveillance cameras in public spaces doesn't actually reduce crime; it merely makes us think of each other as potential criminals.

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