Brazil: the perfect freedom of expression?

"I don't agree with only one of the words you say, but I will defend to the death your right to do so!"(Voltaire),

It is controversial the relationship between freedom of expression and the degree of development of societies.

Many seek to justify the repressive character of the current regimes as a price that must be paid for achieving progress.

Throughout history, however, people fought and died for the right to speak, to question, to publish.

Specifically we found, to our great relief, that the more developed societies are precisely those who managed broader and unquestioned freedom of expression.

However, there are difficulties everywhere, because everywhere there are those who use free speech as a weapon of war, war itself, political war and commercial war.

It is no coincidence that in many countries today, people debate legislation on the subject. This is the case of our neighboring republic, Argentina, to name just one instance.

In Brazil we have a history of abuse and arbitrariness: from the most vile censorship, like that practiced during the "military dictatorship*", even dishonest and virulent attacks carried out by sectors of the press, against institutions, citizens and even banks.

Who does not remember the school closed in São Paulo, for alleged sexual abuse against children? Or a known and respected politician who had his reputation soiled and took years and many slow lawsuits to reestablish the truth? And a certain large bank, labeled as "broken" by a magazine of great circulation, to then face really great difficulties caused by those malicious news and to end (badly) sold?

To its credit DGR does a wonderful job of analyzing the problems with civilization and synthesizing various forms of resistance taking place in the world today. Using this information the authors attempt to consolidate various autonomous and collaborative actions of many individuals and groups under their label with their leadership, and following their ridged code of conduct. None of these conditions would be allowed to manifest in any real anti-authoritarian group had they been so blatant and transparent. The problem arises in the subtle and manipulative ways authoritarian principles arise in this book, which at times are paralleled in our movement.

The first example is the constant use of metaphor to silence criticism and push for more extreme action. The metaphors also detract from the actual reality of the situation.

I think the most contested point in the book is its acceptance and promotion of hierarchy. Fortuity the authors devoted a whopping 3 pages to a vague justification. It appears that their only argument is in an "emergency" their is no time for consensus (like there's no time to fight against privileged in a revolution lulz). They share this point with many authoritarians attempting to take power away from the people. Maybe the authors are not aware that hundreds of people have made consensus decisions in a matter of minutes or maybe they are not aware of the fact that in a riot/"battle" situation that large groups have made a serious of autonomous and collaborative attacks to win strategic victories, or perhaps they think it impossible for groups to divide and both produce complementary strategies that work out better in the end.

The White House Tuesday rebuked Israel for officially endorsing 1,500 new Jewish residences in Arab East Jerusalem, saying the action makes suspicious Israel’s pledge to peace talks and an independent Palestinian state. A number of European Union countries also condemned the Israeli move.

“We are deeply disappointed that Israel insists on continuing this pattern of provocative action,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, according to the Washington Post. “These repeated announcements and plans of new construction run counter to the cause of peace. Israel’s leaders continually say that they support a path toward a two-state solution, yet these actions only put that goal further at risk.”

The Palestinians recently said that they expect all of the UN Security Council members, excluding the US, to denounce Israel's fresh announcements of constructing new homes in East Jerusalem.

The Obama administration’s statement delivered an unusual but hard blow to Israel, its top Midle East ally. However, Israelis think the US would not support a Security Council resolution or statement.

"(T)he confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive, and costly -- to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities. That trade-off is simply not worth it to our country." -- Susan RiceSusan Rice, letter to President Obama

CNN is reporting that Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has “voluntarily” withdrawn her name from consideration as Hillary Clinton’s successor as secretary of state.

Rice has been under heavy, repeated, unrelenting, and unwarranted criticism from Republicans and right wing media over statements she made following the September attacks on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. Those attacks took the lives of the Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other CIA operatives.

Her withdrawal came in the form of a letter dated Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012 to President Barack Obama. Here is the complete text of Rice's letter to the President. Obama promptly described Rice as "an extraordinarily capable, patriotic, and passionate public servant."

Clinton has said in the past that she would relinquish her office immediately upon the confirmation of a successor.

Come to Durango, and take a ride in one of Animas Transportation's cabs with a driver who is ostensibly from Philadelphia. Ask him where an interested party could obtain cocaine. This driver served seven years in canon City for dealing cocaine while a taxi driver in Aspen. after being paroled, he moved to Durango, and immediately began selling cocaine here. He made the mistake of losing his wallet near me one night: I looked through it and saw that he has innumerable high limit credit cards. Taxi drivers don't normally qualify for 100,000 dollar limit cards...Do they?

Watch him. Buy coke from him. Better yet, rip him off or blackmail him. Who's he gonna tell? The cops?

Coloradans, can you help Mainers fend off a Denver-based Big Gas attack on Penobscot Bay? DCP Midstream LLC, a BIG natural gas port, pipeline & megatank operator, is close to getting its OKs to transform and industrialize our bay's estuary, heart of the lobster ecosystem, by establishing the east coast's biggest Liquified Petroleum Gas terminal in the our bay's brackish estuary. Can you help us with actions in Denver?

The People of Maine's biggest bay, have been resisting fiercely, using every tool in the nonviolent handbook available. Demonstrations, confrontations, litigation, state/federal/local permit opposition, public hearings etc, etc have been ongoing for more than a year.

We must confront Power at its lair. But we cannot afford to send a delegation of Mainers to Denver to shame DCP outside their 25th floor corporate headquarters in the Republic Plaza building at 370 17th St. Suite 2500, Denver.

Coloradans, can you help Mainers fend off a Denver-based Big Gas attack on Penobscot Bay? DCP Midstream LLC, a BIG natural gas port, pipeline & megatank operator, is close to getting its OKs to transform and industrialize our bay's estuary, heart of the lobster ecosystem, by establishing the east coast's biggest Liquified Petroleum Gas terminal in the our bay's brackish estuary. Can you help us with actions in Denver?

The People of Maine's biggest bay, have been resisting fiercely, using every tool in the nonviolent handbook available. Demonstrations, confrontations, litigation, state/federal/local permit opposition, public hearings etc, etc have been ongoing for two years.

We must confront Power at its lair. But we cannot afford to send a delegation of Mainers to Denver to shame DCP outside their 25th floor corporate headquarters in the Republic Plaza building at 370 17th St. Suite 2500, Denver.

Coloradans, can you help Mainers fend off a Denver-based Big Gas attack on Penobscot Bay? DCP Midstream LLC, a BIG natural gas port, pipeline & megatank operator, is close to getting its OKs to transform and industrialize our bay's estuary, heart of the lobster ecosystem, by establishing the east coast's biggest Liquified Petroleum Gas terminal in the our bay's brackish estuary. Can you help us with actions in Denver?

The People of Maine's biggest bay, have been resisting fiercely, using every tool in the nonviolent handbook available. Demonstrations, confrontations, litigation, state/federal/local permit opposition, public hearings etc, etc have been ongoing for more than a year.

We must confront Power at its lair. But we cannot afford to send a delegation of Mainers to Denver to shame DCP outside their 25th floor corporate headquarters in the Republic Plaza building at 370 17th St. Suite 2500, Denver.