There’s lots and lots of articles and commentary about what happened at the May Day Rally in California on Tuesday. I think the very best report though is this video I found on YouTube. I am, in fact, commanding that everyone WATCH IT and turn up the volume and listen to what the reporter is telling you.
I will tell you with all honesty, it made me cry. What I saw happening in that video is not America, or at least it isn’t the America I want to live in. It’s an example of the America I have been afraid we are turning into, and it appears I wasn’t afraid in vain.
Video also available here from its original source.
What the hell?!
F’ing dystopia. Women’s rights to their own bodies are being eroded, Big Brother is watching us, and we’re fighting a war that has no end in sight.
We’re reminded at the airport that “security is everyone’s responsibility,” the current administration distrusts journalists and academics, soldiers can’t post blogs or send uncensored e-mails, and May 1, a day traditionally celebrating the pro-labor movement, has been declared Loyalty Day by W.
And now cops are beating up camera crews and reporters? Where’s the outrage, people?
“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” indeed.
Sorry to hijack your rant.
Hijack away. We should all be ranting about all of this stuff and more!
I just heard about the new censorship requirements for military personal today. While I could see commanders sort of keeping an eye on what soldiers are posting publicly on a blog, because sometimes people don’t think and important troop movement info or such could get out and shouldn’t, asking permission before sending an email? Having to have it read first? Excuse me?!?!
I have so many rants lined up I need to get out, it could take weeks to get caught up. No wonder I can’t sleep anymore. Too much pent up aggression.
Within less than free countries it is the mandate of a Police Society to stem the flow of Free Press. Sometimes to the point of the actual murdering of Journalists. The reason being is they don’t want anyone to witness their crimes of Police Actions.
Although no Journalists actually lost their lives in L.A. we can consider the Police Action as being a prelude to the murder of Free Press in America.
Even without the open hostility that took place in L.A. America’s Journalists have long endured control by corporate HQ who in turn are controlled by governmental mandates that dictate the finished product before it reaches the viewing audience.
If not for the post on this website I would have not seen it at all. Should we take note on the possibility that the web may indeed be the last stronghold of Freedom?
As for Gun Control it would appear from the footage of what transpired in L.A. that if no one has guns except the criminals and the Police then what happens next. Do they become one in the same? Where does that leave the American people? To be controlled by a Police State that has the mandate of a criminal action where Freedom of Speech no longer exists?
As for Iraq we are spending Billions in trying to help a culture of people that don’t want our help in the first place. All the while our Government is cutting Medicare Benefits to the point that our disabled and our Senior Citizens are forced to either chose to buy food or their medications.
As for immigration Charlie Daniels said it best.
“I don’t blame anybody for wanting to come to America , but if you don’t respect our immigration laws why should you respect any others? I am not against immigration – just come through like everyone else.
Get a sponsor; have a place to lay your head; have a job; pay your taxes;
live by the rules; and LEARN THE LANGUAGE
as all other immigrants have in the past and GOD BLESS AMERICA!
Seems as though if the immigrants do the right thing then there wouldn’t be any form of protests going on in the first place. This doesn’t mean that what happened in L.A. is right, but it doesn’t mean that the immigrants are right either.
What it does mean is that America is in Deep Shit up to it’s neck because there are lot of very high paid politicians that can’t do a damn thing about either one, but set on their fat ass. The Hippies of days gone by had more backbone than any current politician we have in office.
If not for the post on this website I would have not seen it at all. Should we take note on the possibility that the web may indeed be the last stronghold of Freedom?
I think, for now, it is. I never saw anything on the TV about the LA rally. Nothing at all, and I started looking as soon as I read about it on the internet. Obviously, since I have found some footage from TV stations, someone covered it, but it seems to have only been more local outlets and nothing much nationally. Something like that is a national story!
Same with the pet food recall. I heard a little bit about in when it all started on my local news, and there was a tiny report or so on a few of the national news channels, but then they dropped it even as it was ongoing and getting bigger. I even had trouble finding current information about it at on line news sources. I had to spend hours poking around and reading to find everything I have found, which is why I keep posting new info as I discover it. It’s the sort of new people should be getting rather than who got voted off American Idol (which shouldn’t really even BE news — if you are interested, watch the damn show). Now some major news outlets are getting interested in the recalls, but not because thousands of pets have gotten sick and died but because they finally realized that people could be eating nasty crap from China too. The whole thing is still not getting the coverage it should though.
I was disgusted by all the footage from LA that I watched yesterday, but a few scenes stick out most in my mind this morning:
The police advancing and shooting at people who were running away from them, a pregnant woman falling to her knees and her husband shielding her with his body.
A young boy of about 8 to 10 being knocked down by a cop and having a riot gun pointed directly at him at close range.
A policeman raising his nightstick and hitting a television camera-person and then grabbing his camera and throwing it to the ground as the person scrambled to protect it and the video it held.
Sad things to see in the USA. What really, REALLY disgusted me (and there was a lot that did just that) was how calmly the cops were standing around casually firing off their riot guns, reloading and firing, not stressed at all … because no one was attacking them, there was no riot, and they weren’t in any danger. Just standing there reloading and firing as though they were enjoying an afternoon at a shooting range, but instead of paper targets, they were firing at unarmed people, of all ages young and old, who were RUNNING AWAY. Disgusting.