Court Allows Torture Suit Against Former Defense Sec't Rumsfeld

CHICAGO – Federal Judge Wayne R. Andersen issued an historic ruling today allowing a suit charging former Defense Secretary with authorizing torture. Rumsfeld asked the court to dismiss the case because he is a high-placed governmental official and argued that he was immune from suit even for allegations of torture. Mr. Rumsfeld also argued that due to his position, the Constitution permitted him to order interrogation techniques that are widely considered by human rights experts to be torture. The Court rejected both of Mr. Rumsfeld's arguments and held that high-placed placed cabinet officials can be held personally liable if they authorize the use of torture. While many previous civil suit attempts to prosecute Bush-era cabinet officials for authorizing...
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STAY HOME FOR THIS ONE, KIDS: Dems' Front Groups Readying "Citizens' Mass Arrest" of Health Insurance CEOs in DC, March 9

FEAR & LOATHING AT DUPONT CIRCLE? DONKEYCRATIC ASTROTURFERS GEAR UP FOR ANOTHER TIMEWASTER Folks, cast your minds back to about a year ago: the PowerShift feel-good "go green" event featuring Democratic Party honchos, the creepy-looking rally of college kids in toy green construction helmets in front of the Capitol — and, most distasteful of all, the CCA and their phony civil disobedience which was all civil and no disobedience, just a big fat photo op so they could say "hey, look at us blockading the Capitol Power Plant" before going back to their rally and leaving all the real direct-action activists twisting in the wind. Well, gang, it looks like the same kind of crowd is going to...
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No Guantanamo In DC

"We don't want a Guantanamo in the Nation's Capital" said Johnny Barnes, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area, before a packed audience during yesterday's community dialogue at the University of the District of Columbia on the "Secure Communities" program. The controversial program, recently implemented by the Metropolitan Police Department without community consultation, runs the fingerprints of everyone arrested in the District of Columbia through the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) database.
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California On Notice: March 4th Strike

Students and Education Workers Gear Up for March 4th In anticipation of the statewide strike and day of action on March 4th, activists have stepped up their actions with a renewed round of occupations in California. In the East Bay, strikes and walkouts are planned to converge in downtown Oakland and an evening rally is planned for San Francisco. Other actions are planned at universities, colleges, and high schools across the state. After several months of protests, occupations, walkouts, due to mandated tuition hikes of over 30%, layoffs and cuts affecting all schools and all services in California, the Berkeley campus again has become a focal point. Indybay || Berkeley Pre-Game Communiqué (That's Not The Sky,...
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DC City Council Considers Banning the Wearing of Masks While Protesting

On February 4, 2010, Councilmember Mendelson held a hearing on Bill 18—63, the Residential Tranquility Act of 2009, aka the "Mask Prohibition Act of 2009" (pdf), making it illegal to wear a mask at a protest, due to frequent animal rights protesters demonstrating at individual DC resident's homes. Councilperson Cheh is a sponsor of this bill. Voices of Washington, Masked Choral Group Video Wearing a Mask Is Not Illegal (pdf)
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