Julian Assange sues the US military [#geekgirl]

[Image of Bradley Manning and Captor via RT.com]

“Julian Assange and a coalition of activists and journalists filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the military judge overseeing Army Pfc. Bradley Manning’s trial in a bid to open access to the secretive proceedings.

During the trial both access to transcripts and prosecution and defense motions have been virtually inaccessible.

Bradley, who faces a life sentence over the leaking of more than 700,000 sensitive military documents published by Wikileaks, is currently being tried by a military tribunal. The trial is expected to begin on June 3, 2013.

The judge overseeing Manning’s court-martial announced this week that she will close portions of the trial to the public in order to protect classified material. Prosecutors are expected to call 150 witnesses to testify against Manning, while two dozen witnesses may be able to provide their testimony in closed sessions.”

#Abbott Schmabbott: Playing Politics with #Sick #Children [#geekgirl]

It’s not often I take to my high horse and let loose with political-based criticism here on Geekgirl [at least not directly]. I’ll make an exception for the case outlined below, as it illustrates the exact duplicitous nature of the Liberal Party  – one part of Australia’s aggressively-regressive Federal Opposition Coalition Party – which is headed up by the hypocritical master of back-peddling and slimy media manipulator, Tony Abbott.

As ABC News Australia reports:

“The Federal Opposition has agreed to grant a Labor MP leave to return to Sydney to look after her sick child, after initially turning down the request.

Michelle Rowland says she asked the Opposition for a pair on Tuesday and was knocked back yesterday with no reason given.

“Quite frankly I think we’ve become a bit mean,” she said.

“When people are ill or they have legitimate reasons for why they need to take leave I would have hoped that a bit of common sense would have prevailed.

“I’m a regular contributor to Parliament. I’m not a slacker. I simply wanted to leave at the suspension.”

This morning Coalition frontbencher Christopher Pyne said the request for a pair simply said Ms Rowland has a sick family member.

But the ABC has a copy of a letter which shows the Coalition whip knew she had a sick child.

Mr Pyne insists the Opposition did not have enough information.”

What makes me gag about this particular incident is the u-turn by the Opposition [Liberal Party] only *after* the media had taken the story and run with it [nothing new about this in terms of the general political sphere, but it does highlight the see-through flimsiness  of such a backflip]. If the story had languished behind the Federal Budget media frenzy that the Liberal Party has been frantically churning instead of anything akin to an actual workable policy agenda, then it’s possible no further action would have been taken and Ms Rowland would have been forced to sit through Abbott’s election-year-faux-sweetner-laden Budget Reply Speech, rather than looking after her unwell daughter.

As the Daily Telegraph further reports:

[Ms Rowland says] “The only item of business I would have missed on Thursday night was Tony Abbott’s Budget reply speech.

“It’s disappointing that the so-called party of family values wouldn’t grant this very reasonable request for a mother to be with her baby.”

The Daily Telegraph has obtained the letter Mr Entsch sent to the government chief whip Chris Hayes, giving no reason for not granting the pair.

Last night the Opposition was accused of lying about one of its own MPs. Alex Somlyay – reportedly absent from Parliament due to an illness – was seen in the parliamentary corridors before a vote.”

[The above-mentioned letter - click the link to see what the Daily Telegraph says is an image of the original - clearly states that the Opposition was aware that the "pair", or leave of absence, was requested to look after her sick child despite Christopher Pine, the Liberal Party's "chief strategist", stating otherwise.]

Tony Abbott and Christopher “Spineless” Pine: you may think you have the Australian Public fooled, but beware: come the 2013 Federal Election in September, working mothers will *actually* be able to vote against you and your sham rhetoric.

“We cannot ignore this #corruption anymore…” [#geekgirl]

“There is a corruption at the heart of American politics, caused by the dependence of Congressional candidates on funding from the tiniest percentage of citizens. That’s the argument at the core of this blistering talk by legal scholar Lawrence Lessig. With rapid-fire visuals, he shows how the funding process weakens the Republic in the most fundamental way, and issues a rallying bipartisan cry that will resonate with many in the U.S. and beyond.

Lawrence Lessig has already transformed intellectual-property law with his Creative Commons innovation. Now he’s focused on an even bigger problem: The US’ broken political system.”

“All She Did Was Join Twitter…” [#geekgirl]

Careful, She Might Just Be a Witch Science-Lover

…when Elise Andrew, the brain behind the popular Facebook page I F**king Love Science, posted her Twitter profile picture there last week, some of the page’s 4.3 million fans were shocked to learn her gender—even though Andrew’s identity as a woman was no secret.

“Bills Seek End to Farm Animal Abuse Videos” [#geekgirl]

…yep, unfortunately you did read that title correctly. Only in ‘Murica would potential advocates of animal torture certain sectors of the agricultural and farming community seek to stop the *documentation* of animal abuse, not the abuse itself:

“…state legislators across the country are introducing laws making it harder for animal welfare advocates to investigate cruelty and food safety cases. Some bills make it illegal to take photographs at a farming operation. Others make it a crime for someone such as an animal welfare advocate to lie on an application to get a job at a plant.

Bills pending in California, Nebraska and Tennessee require that anyone collecting evidence of abuse turn it over to law enforcement within 24 to 48 hours — which advocates say does not allow enough time to document illegal activity under federal humane handling and food safety laws….Patterson’s bill, sponsored by the California Cattlemen’s Association, would make failing to turn over video of abuse to law enforcement within 48 hours an infraction punishable by a fine.

Critics say the bills are an effort to deny consumers the ability to know how their food is produced.

“The meat industry’s mantra is always that these are isolated cases, but the purpose of these bills is to prevent any pattern of abuse from being documented,” said Paul Shapiro, vice president of farm animal protection for the Humane Society of the United States, which conducted the California and Vermont investigations.

In Indiana, Arkansas and Pennsylvania it would be a crime to make videos at agricultural operations….Formal opposition to the California bill comes from the ASPCA, the Teamsters, the HSUS and dozens of others. They say these attempts by the agriculture industry to stop investigations are a part of a nationwide agenda set by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative think tank backed by business interests.”

Just how an institution like the American Legislative Exchange Council can justifiably label people who document extreme and unnecessary animal abuse as “terrorists” is anyone’s guess: “ALEC has labeled those who interfere with animal operations “terrorists,” though a spokesman said he wishes now that the organization had called its legislation the “Freedom to Farm Act” rather than the “Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act.”

In this age of accessible whiz-bang-internet-info, I occasionally stumble across a news item [like the above] that makes it past my rigorous internal “do-not-simply-react-affectively-and-let-these-idiots-get-to-you” filter. This particular news item has me broiling in my own anger juices shaking my head in flabbergasted frustration. I’m also left confounded at just how the advocates of such Bills can see themselves as providing any type of reasonable moral compass when it comes to ethical issues: perhaps instead all they see are dollar signs.

Wealth #Inequality in America [#geekgirl]

[Jebus X Christ-on-An-Inequality-Crutch - even if *half* of the stats shown here are accurate, it paints a truly horrific picture. We need an Australia version created so we can compare our f$cked-uppedity situations, but in all honesty Oz probably ain't much better. Watch the entire reality-wake-up-call video below.]

Elizabeth Warren: “Too #Big to #Fail has become Too Big for #Trial” #geekgirl

Elizabeth Warren Kicks The Collective Arses of US Federal Bank Regulators

“Senator Elizabeth Warren asks federal bank regulators why no banks were taken to trial in the aftermath of the financial crisis…” and no-one can give her any type of reasonable answer.

When the #Zombie #Apocalypse was mentioned in the #HouseofCommons #geekgirl

[That's it, I'm moving to Canada.]

Blog Action Day: 2012 #blog #powerofwe #getready #geekgirl

Hello Bloggers & et al, please note:

1. Blog Action Day will be held on October 15, 2012,
2. Our theme is The Power of We – you can use the #powerofwe hashtag, and
3. Registrations for Blog Action Day are now OPEN. –> http://blogactionday.org/register-to-take-part/

Digital tools like blogs, social networks and mobiles, or meeting face to face in local community halls, neighbours house, and public streets. Greater numbers of people have been coming together to make change, either for their own communities or the world at large.

For the team at Blog Action Day, we see The Power of We as a celebration of people working together to make a positive difference in the world, and we hope you take part and register your blog for Blog Action Day.

For Blog Action Day, you might profile a person or a group who inspires you, talk about your own efforts to make change, or highlight a cause that has been successful for using people power to make a difference.

There are hundreds of examples you could choose from such as; fighting for healthier meals for kids in schools, protecting people’s rights in countries far away, stopping practices in industries that hurt the environment and communities, challenging authorities to listen and act for the people.

Or, you may want to focus on historical social change movements such as the Suffragettes movement, campaigns against slavery or civil rights.

#Punk has always been political – Reading: coverage of Pussy Riot trial in Russia. #art #pussyriot #putin #politics #music #geekgirl

Trial of Pussy Riot punk group

Pussy Riot: ‘Russian courts are boring … but this week it’s been like an American movie’.

Three female members of Pussy Riot, a Russian punk band, face prison on hooliganism charges. Here, Pyotr Verzilov, the husband of one of the women, gives his diary account of five extraordinary days in a Moscow court.

Source: Guardian

Image: Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina at their trial. Photograph: Yuri Kochetkov/EPA

 Putin vs Punk: Pussy Riot trial continues

After storming a Moscow cathedral and performing an anti-Putin song last March, three female members of punk band Pussy Riot have been held in a Russian prison awaiting the trial which finally began earlier this week.

The three women have revealed that their time in prison has deprived them of food and sleep, and have even asked to submit a formal request pleading that the trial be put on hold until they can recover from their ordeal.

Source: Arts Hub Australia 

More research
Who is Pussy Riot? 
How you can help Pussy Riot
Art and the Human Manifesto of Nadia Tolokonikovoy