Note: We here at the OPOL Report have no real claim to journalistic integrity. We make no bones about it. Do we have an ideological axe or two to grind? We most certainly do. Pardon us while we take a whack at it.
P.S. We're also perennially short-handed and the editor is a pothead (but God doesn't care, see our lead story).
God Doesn't Care If You Smoke Weed; Pastors Focus On Decriminalizing Unjust Drug Laws
A network of pastors is speaking out against the so-called "war on drugs" and the devastating effect it has had, particularly on the black community.
At a conference called "View from the Pulpit: Faith Leaders and Drug Decriminalization," held at American Baptist College in Nashville, religious leaders focused on the moral injustice of the drug laws, rather than the morality of drugs themselves.
Source
I'd like to think that Bob would be pleased. Yah mon!
Everyone's a Terrorist to the USA
Someone at the GOS recently told me, “So what if some people are being called terrorists, boo hoo!”
Apparently that person has missed the fact that being labeled a terrorist is often prelude to some very ugly shit. One of the bigger assholes in Texas called Wendy Davis a terrorist for standing up for women's rights. Politicians calling other politicians terrorists. That's not fucking crazy. We've now sunk to the point that dissidents and activists of all stripes are being called terrorists. And they're not just being called terrorists, they're being treated as if they actually were. Some are being hounded to their graves, others are being jailed or threatened with prison for such egregious offenses as expressing dissent by writing it on public sidewalks in water-soluble chalk. Lord have mercy on your soul should you offend an anti-health care governor or a giant gangster bank. Greedy assholes must be protected from the rabble by the full might of the State. It's like they never even heard of the First Amendment.
AJ Marin, Pennsylvania Activist, Arrested For Writing Pro-Health Care Message In Chalk
Late last night, the demonstrators were escorted out of the capitol, and afterwards some of the demonstrators went back to governor’s mansion to continue their demonstration. However, while at the governor’s mansion, a health care activist -- AJ Marin -- was arrested for “chalking” on a public sidewalk. According to his citation, he was arrested for writing a “derogatory remark about the governor on the sidewalk.”
The “derogatory” comment that AJ was arrested for stated: “Governor Corbett has health insurance, we should too.”
Source
This is what the dastardly dude wrote:
I mean, OMG! The horror!
And they're threatening this next guy with thirteen years in prison for offending the giant organized crime family known as the Bank of America, and for the exact same thing: chalk-based dissent expressed on public property that will wash right off with water. That's 13 years more than Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Yoo, et al. got for wrecking our economy, lying the country into war, the illegal invasion of a sovereign nation and torturing helpless prisoners to death.
Jeff Olson, California Man, Faces 13 Years In Jail For Writing Anti-Big Bank Messages In Chalk
Jeff Olson, a 40-year-old man from San Diego, Calif., will face jail time for charges stemming from anti-big bank messages he scrawled in water-soluble chalk outside Bank of America branches last year.
The San Diego Reader reported Tuesday that a judge had decided to prohibit Olson's attorney from "mentioning the First Amendment, free speech, free expression, public forum, expressive conduct, or political speech during the trial."
With that ruling, Olson must now stand trial on 13 counts of vandalism, charges that together carry a potential 13-year jail sentence and fines of up to $13,000.
"Oh my gosh," Olson said on his way out of court on Tuesday. "I can't believe this is happening."
Source
So that judge has heard of the 1st Amendment but won't allow it to be mentioned in court or used as a defense. Nothing out-fucking-rageous about that, right?
And now a note on the domestic spying debacle from Digby:
This Really Is Big Brother: The Leak Nobody's Noticed
When the free free press, explicitly protected in the bill of rights becomes equivalent to an "enemy of the United States" something very, very bad is happening.
Source
Something very, very bad is happening, indeed.
And speaking of the Executive branch and killing people...
World's Most Evil and Lawless Institution? The Executive Branch of the U.S. Government
All told, U.S. Executive Branch leaders – Democrat and Republicans, conservative and liberal—have killed wounded and made homeless well over 20 million human beings in the last 50 years, mostly civilians.
U.S. leaders have never acknowledged their responsibility for ruining so many lives, let alone apologized or made proper amends to the survivors. Those responsible have not been punished, but rewarded. The memory of it has been erased from national consciousness, as U.S. leaders endlessly declare their nation’s, and their own, goodness. Millions of civilian lives swept under the rug, forgotten, as if this mass murder and maiming, the destruction of countless homes and villages, this epic violation of basic human decency—and laws protecting civilians in time of war which U.S. leaders have promised to observe—never happened.
Source
We go on merrily acting like we're a great force for good in the world while blithely ignoring the hideous and shameful reality. What do you think they're trying to hide with all of this massive secrecy, the vicious attacks on whistleblowers, activists and the 1st Amendment? We, as a nation, have blood on our hands, and plenty of it. We at the OPOL Report would love to see that changed. What would it be like to actually
be a great force for good in the world?
Some folks call us pessimists (or worse) for pointing out all that is going so horribly wrong in the USA. What would they call us if we didn't? I suppose Paul Revere should have shouted, “The British are coming, the British are coming, but don't worry, I'm pretty sure they mean well. I'm very optimistic.”