I Do Not Want Mercy, I Want You To Join Me

[trickpony]

I Do Not Want Mercy, I Want You To Join Me | Common Dreams

Tim DeChristopher's address about the 2008 BLM controversy... for anyone who doesn't know the back-story...
The week before leaving office, President Bush kicked one more backdoor deal to Big Oil. He tried to auction off 130,000 acres of redrock desert lands right outside of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks for oil and gas development. A local college student and former wilderness guide named Tim DeChristopher went to the auction, registered as “bidder #70″, and successfully bid on and won over $1.7 million worth of fossil fuel leases. This action prompted a federal court to review the auction and ultimately deem it to be illegitimate.

Worth a read... it's long, but deep.

[marko]

Thanks for posting this, trickpony! I read his statement the day he was sentenced. His words are powerful and right on the money.

The saddest part about this story is that so few people in the US have heard about this story. About 98% of the people I have talked to about this don't have a clue about this story. Tim's story and this court case clearly - i am mean with absolute clarity - show us that the US gov't does NOT represent the people anymore. The fact that the mainstream media hasn't uttered a word about this also shows us that they are NOT interested in informing the citizens - the 4th estate is DEAD and is no longer the guardian of democracy, but the watchdog of the oligarchy.

Support your grassroots news sites and journalists!!! Both left and right alike.

[jbolson]

Interesting, I hadn't heard about this case. I agree with Marko on the media.

[blutzski]

I hadn't heard about it either. Good read. Agreed that the government and media don't represent us anymore. Of course I don't watch the "news" or subscribe to the newspaper anymore. Make me want to vomit.

Curious what the judge decided?

[Rich]

Heard about it when it happened, but the main stream media has not given any coverage to this story and the way he was railroaded.

Great speech, glad there are still some with unshakable principles!

[cayo 2]

Yes miscarriages of justice such as railroading,slander ,and even assassination are the consequences for those who speak truth to power,whistleblow,pursue populist policies,or engage in civil disobedience in any appreciable way.These indicate a clear slide towards authoritarianism. A more subtle way to disempower ordinary people is to simply neglect to report very relevant stories.I had not heard of this case.For more examples of this and how it got this way look up some of the following-

Don Siegelman case

Bunny Greenhouse


Assange prosecutor ties to Cuban CIA operatives

Danilo Anderson assassination

K Street Project

to name just a few.

Holder shows no inclination to do jack squat about it. The government is broken .We need to fix it not weaken it further by giving freer reign to those who deliberately broke it. Honest people from both left and right seem to have some level of agreement on campaign finance reform,as a start.

Marko i have moved another notch in your direction,but if you paid attention to the recent debt ceiling debacle it should be painfully obvious who the greater culprits are .At least some dems tried to stand up for the public interest,they are unfortunately pretty weak. The up coming Wisconsin recalls will be a good indicator of the level of fight in the populist citizen dogs .