Naomi Wolf, author of The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot and Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries, was interviewed on RT and she shows us how things are really no different with Barack Obama than when George W. Bush was President of the United States.

Watch the RT Video:

Barack Obama inherited the same powers that allow him to detained anyone indefinitely without trial, he has failed in his promise of more transparency, Gitmo isn’t going anywhere, Iraq and Afghanistan Wars aren’t going to end anytime soon, he supported FISA, and on and on it goes.

It is refreshing to see someone like Naomi Wolf, who is usually regarded as being on the left, stand up for what is right and call out Barack Obama.

Be sure to check out these other videos of Naomi Wolf:

Interview with Naomi Wolf – “Americans are facing a coup”
Talk by Naomi Wolf – The End of America
Naomi Wolf – “There hasn’t been a real investigation of 9/11″

Police conducted a raids in Minneapolis/St.Paul where the Republican National Convention is to take place starting September 1st. Police in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, raided the homes of those suspected of planning protests during the RNC.

Here is video from CNN of the police’s version of events:

Were the police exaggerating what they thought protesters were going to do and just making stuff up?

From Crooks and Liars:

Glenn Greenwald:

Protesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets. Last night, members of the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff’s department handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public venue to plan a demonstration, charging them with no crime other than “fire code violations…”

It was quite similar at the Democratic National Convention for protesters.

Welcome to The Police States of America.

Denver police used pre-printed forms to issue charges, misled arrestees

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Saturday, August 30, 2008

The ACLU has accused the Denver Police Department of violating the constitutional rights of protesters arrested in the vicinity of the Democratic National Convention by denying them access to lawyers, forcing them to plead guilty to inappropriate charges and placing some of them in leg shackles.

The charges are detailed in a letter (Click here for PDF) which at time of writing is yet to appear on the website of ACLU Colorado but has been obtained by alternative news website Raw Story.

The letter summarizes how basic facts of law and criminal justice were either ignored or turned on their head by the police in the absence of legal counsel for arrestees, itself a violation of the Constitution.

The ACLU alleges that police effectively forced some protesters into pleading guilty, by tricking them into believing they had to do so in order to post bond and gain access to a phone call.

In addition it is thought that some arrestees were led to believe that only they could post bond, rather than having a third party do it on their behalf.

“This meant that no one was allowed to make a phone call unless they plead guilty, thus making it impossible for arrestees to even call a lawyer until admitting guilt.” Raw Story writer John Byrne comments.

Furthermore, the letter charges that some of those in custody were told that pleading not guilty would result in a “double sentence” if convicted.

The ACLU also states that police used “pre-printed” charge forms and had to scrub out charges that did not apply to some protesters. According to the letter some were erroneously charged for offenses they did not commitsuch as “begging, loitering and throwing stones and missiles,” simply because cops failed to remove them from the forms. In addition the letter also states that extra charges were written in to some forms by hand, leading to duplications of charges. In one case an arrestee seemed to be facing six charges when in reality there were only two separate ordinance violations listed.

Not content with issuing false charges, police also mislead those arrested into thinking that any conviction stemming from the charges could lead to “years in jail”, according to the ACLU, when in reality no such penalties exist for municipal court violations.

The letter states that the only time arrestees got to consult lawyers was in front of the jury gallery or in open court in front of the judge, a blatant transgression of the most basic legal rights.

One section of the letter, written by Taylor Pendergrass, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Colorado, intimates that protesters were rounded up in mass arrests and were not given the opportunity to back off by police:

“It is not clear whether any order to disperse was given. No Legal Observer [sic], witness or arrestee on the scene we’ve debriefed heard any order to disperse… Numerous persons, including Legal Observers, asked to be able to leave the blockaded area and were refused.” the letter states.

“After the arrests, attorneys from the People’s Law Project and the ACLU arrived at the [Temporary Arrestee Processing Site to conduct confidential attorney-client consultations,” Pendergrass continues. “The City refused to provide any access to allow these persons to meet with attorneys.”

Pendergrass also charges that those who could not make bond spent up to eight hours at the holding facility before being taken to court. Many were not given any food and were refused blankets or extra clothing to keep warm. He also states that arrestees were flexi-cuffed to each other in painful positions and were not even allowed to go to the bathroom individually.

He also reveals that protesters were kept barefoot and in leg shackles:

“Arrestees were kept barefoot at TAPS. I personally saw one such arrestee later at the City and County Building. I saw her marched from the elevator to the courtroom in bare feet and leg shackles. I saw her appear in bare feet and leg shackles.”

Two weeks ago reporters discovered the huge city owned warehouse holding facility in Denver, consisting of steel cages topped with barbed wire, ready to receive thousands of protesters.

On seeing footage of the facility one local political organizer told the crew it resembled a “concentration camp”, while another described it as a “meat processing plant”. The facility has since been dubbed “Gitmo On The Platte”.

On Monday Alex Jones and the Infowars crew obtained exclusive footage outside the holding facility.

Last week a police bulletin was leaked which advised officers that potentially violent protesters may be identified from their use of hand held radios, bikes, maps and “camping information.” The ACLU called the bulletin “unnecessarily provocative” and warned, “It has the potential to get police officers all amped up and looking for a confrontation at a time when what we need is cool heads and restraint.”

The ACLU has demanded that arrestees be allowed access to attorneys and that all other discretions and violations listed in their letter be corrected by the city during the last two days of the convention.

“Now that the Democrats were nice enough to fold up on FISA, the issue is all contained now. Right? Not exactly.” Keith Olbermann said on the August 18 episode of Countdown.

The Justice Department has proposed changes that would ease the transfer of information about citizens to federal intelligence agencies, who would then keep the information for at least 10 years.

“The point of this? To increase our security and counter terror threats?” Olbermann asks, as he answers his question with “Nah, to pass these changes before Mr. Bush leaves office so the next president can’t do a damn thing about unraveling this disaster, which is, appropriately enough, an embryonic police state.”

Watch the YouTube video clip:

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In something that is similar to what you would have seen in Nazi Germany, police have set up check points in a neighborhood in Washington D.C., just 4 miles east of the White House.

The police set up the check points to try to fence out intruders and stem an increase in violence in the neighborhood.

It has stirred mixed reactions from the residents…

Watch the CBS report from July 18, 2008:

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