Occupy Cleveland (OH): OC’s May Day Rally was canceled after the FBI made 5 arrests of some slow witted black block-ers in an alleged “bomb plot”. The FBI affidavits described the individuals involved attending an OC event and “moving through the group expressing displeasure at the crowds unwillingness to behave violently.” The initial plot described in the affidavit was a smoke bomb used as a distraction for the group defacing a downtown a billboard. However after investing months of time, assigning undercover FBI Agents and paying thousands of dollars to a Confidential Informant they were able to start May Day off with an Occupy “Bomb Plot” Bust!

To add insult to injury, the City of Cleveland has now stated that they will not renew the permit for Occupy Cleveland’s encampment.

[cont'd.]

Journalist Madiha Tahir

Over the weekend, I attended a summit on drones co-organized by CODEPINK, CCR, and Reprieve. I had the opportunity to speak and hear from people from countries where the US has carried out drone attacks. I also spoke with journalists who have covered and spoken to people who are victims of the US covert drone war.

Madiha Tahir, an independent journalist who was based in Pakistan for two years, spoke to me in an interview. She said in listening to people one of the things she has heard primarily is that Pakistanis “want to stop having bombs dropped on their heads and that is the main issue for them.”

She compared their concerns to the concerns of human rights advocates in the United States:

When I come to the United States and I talk to human rights advocates, the main concern about drones with respect to Pakistan is that drones in Pakistan are being controlled by the CIA instead of the military. So, the logic and demand is that drones should be shifted from the CIA to the military and this would create more transparency and accountability. And, so, there’s a lot of rhetoric about transparency and accountability as if that is the endgame. But, that is not the endgame.

First of all, it’s not clear that if having JSOC, which is an arm of the military, would be more transparent and accountable. But aside from that, this is a legal problem and an abstract problem from the point of view of survivors and families of drone attack victims. They simply want to stop having the bombs dropped on their heads and it doesn’t matter if the bombs come courtesy of the CIA or they come courtesy of the military. That is really the issue that the antiwar movement has to be dealing with if it is a movement that cares about and claims to stand in solidarity with the people who are on the receiving end of American militarism.

This is what Human Rights Watch (HRW) is doing. In response to the lack of transparency and the fact that the program violates human rights law, HRW is advocating that the military take full control of the drone program. However, transparency and openness will not necessarily take care of the inhumanity that stems from regular drone attacks. If the program is legitimate and normal to officials, there is no reason for Americans to be outraged and no reason for people to put pressure on the government to stop bombing people in Pakistan. Handing it over to the military would not decrease war crimes or ensure operations are more “lawful” and human rights organizations that engage in this advocacy are mistakenly using their authority by suggesting what entity should handle a program that clearly violates human rights.

Additionally, what Tahir says reinforces what Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz recently said on whether drones are less ethical than manned aircraft. He suggested it is “irrelevant” whether “pilots launch weapons when they are so far removed from the battlefield” because, “whether they are in a cockpit or flying a remotely operated aircraft in front of a computer screen on the ground,” they are following the same orders. [cont'd.]

A couple, three weeks ago, the news broke that Scott Walker was already going deep into his own pockets for a change and owed a considerable amount of money to his attorneys. I guess cooperation doesn’t come cheap anymore.

Now Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel pretty much confirmed the news again, but then added a few twists.

One twist was that Walker found enough people, or one of his big donors, that agreed to allow $60,000 to be transferred to his legal cooperation fund.

That’s not too surprising. Not only is he trying to keep himself out of prison, but he is reportedly paying to keep one of his top county staff/campaigners, Kelly Rindfleisch, free as well. And her attorney, Franklyn Gimbel, and his appeals motions, don’t come cheap either.

Another twist is that his campaign, which hired former US Attorney Steve Biskupic, has brought in more than $170,000 for the law firm he works for, Michael Best & Friedrich. Walker’s campaign is claiming that the bulk of it went to fight the recall, which so far consisted of getting the taxpayers, as opposed to his campaign, to fund the challenge of signatures.

That leaves about $52,000 left which the campaign labels as going for “compliance issues.” That’s a whole lotta complying going on.

But take note of the tone that his spokeswoman, Ciara Matthews, takes when questioned:

Walker campaign spokeswoman Ciara Matthews declined Tuesday to identify the governor’s donors who authorized using their money in this way.

“Governor Walker’s disclosures have been made in accordance with, and as required by, the law,” she said.

[...]

Matthews declined Tuesday to be more specific about the recent payments to Biskupic’s firm.

“Again, as I have told you before, the campaign contracts with Michael Best & Friedrich for legal services to handle various compliance issues on our behalf,” Matthews said.

Apparently, the media savvy spokeswoman isn’t so savvy after all. Otherwise, she’s have realized that obfuscating to the media is only going to make them dig deeper and find the things that Team Walker doesn’t want us to know.

If one takes the defensive song and dance from Team Walker, the increasing shrillness of squawkers like Charlie Sykes and the propagandists, one could start believing that we may get to see something for the Guinness Book of World Records.