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Author, historian and political commentator Noam Chomsky. (photo: Ben Rusk/flickr)

Noam Chomsky: The Amazing Rise and Fall of Presumption of Innocence

By Jan Wellmann, JanWellmann.com GOP: We've Been Lying All Along
David Sirota, Salon
18 March 2013

19 March 13

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Robert Parry, Consortium News

he most bizarre part of Section 1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is that almost no one has heard about it. And whoever has heard about it, doesn't want to talk about it. It's almost as if someone took Dr. Goebbels' "The bigger the lie, the more it will be believed" - dictum and mutated it into a 21st century super weapon:

17 March 2013

"Tell the truth, but make it so shocking that no one wants to hear about it." No one wants to hear about the military having the power to detain you on American soil, without due process, indefinitely, at the discretion of the President. It sounds too Stalin. It reeks of conspiracy theory. Besides, it's clearly unconstitutional. So let's go get some lunch. That's why on December 4, 2012, the new NDAA passed the Senate with a 98-0 vote. Almost everyone was out to lunch. Except seven individuals who decided to sue Obama instead. But other than that, the resulting rumpus was minor. Since February 13th, "The Seven" are on their way to the Supreme Court. But no one wants to hear about it. A few individuals against the United States government sounds too Matthew McConaughey, unless you're a natural-born activist. Chris Hedges, the leading plaintiff in the case against Obama and former New York Times war correspondent, writes about "NDAA and the Death of the Democratic State." But no one wants to really read about it. Most aspiring journalists and independent minds who become curious about NDAA find that there is a deafening silence around the topic. When they try to raise questions, the silence deafens them further. Then there are the conspiracy buffs. They distance the problem from the main stream audience even further. No one wants to be associated with folks who think that the President could be a reptile. And then there is Noam Chomsky. He looks at the situation from the orbit, comfortably snug in his multidisciplinary mental space station, focusing on the connections between events rather than the events themselves. It's a long journey from the concept of "freeman" to "NDAA." And there is probably only one man who can explain it.
Marches Of Folly
Paul Krugman, The New York Times
18 March 2013

Noam Chomsky: The Amazing Rise And Fall Of Presumption Of Innocence

Jan Wellmann, JanWellmann.com
19 March 2013

The Pope And Argentina's Dictatorship

Annette Langer, Spiegel Online
17 March 2013

Feminism Is The F-Word

Laurie Penny, New Statesman
17 March 2013

Patriarchy Dominates Media's Steubenville Coverage

Carl Gibson, Reader Supported News
19 March 2013

Comments

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+23 # Uranus 2013-03-19 19:34 The military commission or tribunal is now History's Most Sacred Cow. It's the most touchy issue about which I've ever written. After denouncing this fauxpseudo legal system in writing, I've had my phone and internet service turned off mysteriously, three times. Care to make it four? Isn't it curious NDAA passed unanimously? It leaves you with the same question we asked after the overwhelming passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006: who would vote for this piece of plop, and why did everyone vote for it yet offer no explanation? The other day I heard a guy say that after 99% of us are exterminated, a military tribunal form of world government will be implemented. You must admit, it all

makes perfect nonsense. I have a new theory of what's to come, pieced together from things people have told me, that is so far out it's a revelation. The good news is it doesn't include a justice system, especially a really ridiculous one like suggested by NDAA. +4 # tpmco 2013-03-19 22:06 Only the present has sacred cows. The 1% will allow the continued survival of the willing slaves--laundry still needs done. +8 # ritaague 2013-03-20 03:35 In my humble opinion, Uranus, it's frightening more than curious that NDAA passed unanimously. So thankful I am for the great (and then some) plaintiffs in Hedges, et. al. v. Obama et. al.. The legal team representing said plaintiffs, again, great and then some. And then, last but absolutely not least, the great jurist who not merely heard the case, but gave a brilliant analysis when ruling in plaintiff's favor of why this Fascist style, POLICE STATE AIN'T GREAT power grab violates Constitutional law/rights. I, like you, seek truth, listen, question, then form theories of what's very likely to come. But, I confess, hope I still do that we the sheeple can and will evolve somehow into a Star Trek world, where greed and need for power and control over all has gone bye bye, and is replaced instead with virtue (i.e. humility) and assistance giving to any and all in need of assistance. More love, more caring, more giving, more sharing. And, to hell with evil greed and power addiction. I do so hope, work and pray that NDAA will go away. +5 # DaveM 2013-03-19 20:23 In 1971, filmmaker Peter Watkins created "Punishment Park", a pseudo-document ary portraying a sort of "alternative present" (it is very clearly set in the time it was made). Draft dodgers, anti-war protesters, and similar are dragged in front of military tribunals and given a choice between long prison sentences or "Punishment Park". The latter is a desert-based version of "capture the flag" in which the defendants, as "players", are to reach a particular location without being captured by police and National Guard personnel who are pursuing them. Made on a shoestring budget which makes its supposed filming by a British news crew almost believable, the movie follows a group through the "park" while another is filmed facing the tribunals that will determine their fate. Innocence is not an issue. Defendants are told that their guilt has been predetermined and that the only thing they are allowed to do is attempt to prove their innocence (without attorneys, preparation time, or evidence) or choose their punishment. While dated in many respects, 42 years later the film looks suspiciously like prophecy. It has never been easy to find, but I highly recommend it. Should it vanish from store shelves or rental outlets....perhaps its grim predictions about the future of American authoritarianism will indeed have come true.

# Johnny 2013-03-20 06:49 The Hunger Games, too.

+3

+10 # Anarchist 23 2013-03-19 22:34 9/11; 9/11; 9/11-All of this would have been unthinkable except for 9/11. That false flag operation put the final nail in the coffin that has been being nailed shut ever since ( in my lifetime at least) the Kennedy assassination. As the gov. has taken more and more egregious actions-the lie that was the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that green-lighted the widest war in Viet Nam was the first of many to follow, changing us from a democracy into a nation that considers it has a god given right to make preemptive strike against countries that 'might' become our enemy, we have finally morphed into the super-state that Nazi Germany could only dream of being. Now comes the repression of our own populace on a much larger scale

while the 'Good Germans' ignore what is being done to minorities and dissenters. Don't believe me? All just conspiracy theory? Wait! +7 # Jerome 2013-03-19 23:08 Just reading or listening to the good professor about this loss of freedom messes up my mind for days. It is like a mantra or a childhood tune that keeps repeating over and over. There must be something we can do to stop this headlong plunge into police/military state. How do we get the public's attention and keep their attention long enough to get them to awaken? Awake and spurred to action. But action that does not trigger those in control to use their control methods and tools to discredit, disrupt, or destroy those taking the action. A demonstration, a peaceful demonstration of 100 is met by a tenfold force, congregate 1000 and the controllers send 10,000 armed, ready and willing to fracture sculls, pepper spray the already immobilized, arrest for no reason. What are we to do? +1 # robcarter.vn 2013-03-20 00:21 Thus I can find no Basis in law or civil rights & Liberties law of Australia, why as PM Gillard says she would extradite Julian Assange an Australia to a 3rd country USA for indicted USA crime not committed by that Australian citizen. Then in the light of this "Material assistance to terrorists" USA can avoid trial just murder Assange as he gets into their police or Interpol custody in Sweden or UK or Australia as they did to Binh Laden. I can agree international EU sex law agreement may allow extradition from UK to face trial on that and due process, but to answer mere suspicion investigators in Sweden is a no-no. They can go to UK to d that questioning on safer Ecuador amnesty land, as Assange has 0offered. Clearly Sweden is playing the USA summary murder game also. Just using rape fabricated charges to get custody falsely. Ander that system No citizen of any country in any country is safe from USA breach of Magna Carta civi;l rights, +3 # RLF 2013-03-20 02:58 I've been reading Chris Hedges and about him. NDAA is why I voted green. I think the intelligence community forced this because of the country being on the edge of economic collapse and they were afraid of the civil unrest that would ensue. This will be one of the infamous laws ever passed. It is right up there with incarcerating the Japanese americans in WWII. And to URANUS...what good is a justice system if it is filled with geniuses like Obama and Holder! Way to go Harvard! +3 # tuandon 2013-03-20 03:12 I am probably setting myself up for a stint in a concentration camp by sayin this, but...Sieg Heil. We are goose-steppin towards a Nazi state at high speed. The Obama I voted for has betrayed us all...I will not support him again even if he runs for dog catcher. +1 # wantrealdemocracy 2013-03-20 07:39 We have not been betrayed by Obama. If you had studied his voting record you would not have been so full of hope for change. Obama is a puppet of the top 1% same as all the elected officials of the two major political parties. Don't vote for either a D or an R for that position as dog catcher or any other position in any level of the government of the United States---especially if you don't wqnt "Sieg Heil" to be our national mantra. +5 # kyzipster 2013-03-20 04:51 All true. Is it also possible we're experiencing apathy and helplessness, a sort of shell shock? Eight years of Bush and his wars gave me mental exhaustion. Seemed like there was at least one shocking revelation every single day, year in and year out. It's not like people didn't protest, the media ignored it for the most part but it did help to turn the tide. It's difficult to get a movement going against a more liberal president when the alternative is still so extreme and frightening but that is no excuse. We can support some of his efforts while protesting this inexcusable

and unconstitutional law.

+6 # fredboy 2013-03-20 05:04 Looking at this from the orbit of the last 20 years clearly validates his premise: Americans have been intentionally dumbed down by such influences at hate radio and TV, evangelical and political absolutism, and related factors that they can no longer even consider objective analysis. And that's what the presumption of innocence requires. Teach logic, critical thinking and reasoning, objective analysis and related thinking approaches in our schools--every year, if possible. Otherwise, we'll all be led by drooling fanatics in the future. Let's face it, we've already had a taste of that, and the taste was wretched. +2 # mrbadexample 2013-03-20 06:22 The people in charge have made it pretty clear that there will be no discussion of certain topics. None of the presidential debates touched on the drone strike program or the NDAA or FISA because the two candidates were in lockstep support of them, and no other candidates were invited. It's even clear what is offlimits for discussion on the ten-year anniversary of invasion of Iraq--I've seen a few street protests, but if I hadn't been subscribed to lefty news services, I would have never known about them. The problem with progressives and leftists is that they have to spend an inordinate amount of their time explaining that these things are happening. We are in a period of a-history, where the Civil War is whatever the guy on talk radio said it was. If we can't agree on what is fact and fiction, how can we agree on what is needed to revitalize the country? +1 # Poet1964 2013-03-20 06:30 Scary times we live in and how I wish that things were far healthier and with more transparency and with the true best wishes of our whole population. God help us all. # da gaf 0

2013-03-20 08:34

Quoting Poet1964: Scary times we live in and how I wish that things were far healthier and with more transparency and with the true best wishes of our whole population. God help us all. DON'T COUNT ON A MYTHICAL GOD TO COME IN AND TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS..UNLESS YOUR UNDERSTANDING IS THAT GOD IS THIS WHOLE EXISTENCE AND WE ARE INCLUDED...NOT-TWO..IT IS WE THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE TO CORRECT THESE PROBLEMS AND IT IS OUR BEING UNCONSCIOUS AND ASLEEP THAT ALLOWED THIS COUNTRY TO GET IN SUCH A HORRIBLE SITUATION. +1 # Johnny 2013-03-20 06:46 "Conspiracy buffs?" You will have to do better than name calling if you want your argument to carry any intellectual credibility, Ms. Wellman. Are you claiming that the ugly things the government does happen merely by accident, rather than by plan? Fredboy says "intentionally dumbed down." Tell us, please, how he is mistaken. +2 # kitster 2013-03-20 07:50 (to paraphrase) "they came for x because he/she was an x...and because i was not an x i did nothing. (so on and so forth). and then they came for me."

has it become "darkness at noon" in amerika? the rich get richer, the people suffer, and big brother gets bigger. "war is peace. ignorance is strength. slavery is freedom." did george orwell really mean 2013? 0 # da gaf 2013-03-20 08:26 DON'T YOU PEOPLE UNDERSTAND- THIS IS NOT THE LAND OF DEMOCRATIC ..IT IS THE LAND OF HYPOCRISY!..THIS UGLY EVIL GOVERNMENT DURING THE REAGAN ADMINISTRATION ARRESTED AN ENLIGHTENED SPIRITUAL MASTER WITHOUT AN ARREST WARRANT AND POISONED HIM IN JAIL..FOR WHAT? AND THEY GOT AWAY WITH IT! and what are all these FEMA CAMPS ABOUT? WHY ARE THEY BUILT WAY OUT IN THE WOODS? THE PEOPLE HERE IN AMERICA HAVE BETTER WAKE UP...AND UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS THE REAL "PLANET OF THE APES!" AND THIS GOVERNMENT IS PROOF OF IT! 0 # Edwina 2013-03-20 09:22 Orwell's "1984" has been happening since 1984 when Reagan began to take back the gains of the civil rights movement, the women's movement, and the environmental movement. And the dirty wars in Central America and the Carribean should have been a wake-up call. Not that many people didn't sound the alarm. But it seems it happened slowly enough that most people were like the proverbial frog in hot water: they didn't get it until it was too late. People and communities are again organizing: against police brutality, for civil liberties, against environmental destruction like mountaintop removal and the Keystone XL pipeline. Refresh comments list RSS feed for comments to this post

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