(TheGuardian) “The feminist collective hit the headlines when three members were arrested after an anti-Putin protest. Now they face up to seven years in jail, a prospect that has shocked and radicalised many Russians. On the eve of their trial, some of the women speak exclusively.”

“Pussy Riot aren’t just the coolest revolutionaries you’re ever likely to meet. They’re also the nicest. They’re the daughters that any parent would be proud to have. Smart, funny, sensitive, not afraid to stand up for their beliefs. One of them makes a point of telling me how ‘kindness’ is an important part of their ideology. They have also done more to expose the moral bankruptcy of the Putin regime than probably anybody else. No politician, nor journalist, nor opposition figure, nor public personality has created quite this much fuss. Nor sparked such potentially significant debate. The most amazing thing of all, perhaps – more amazing even than calling themselves feminists in the land women’s rights forgot – is that they’ve done it with art.”

” ‘We show the brutal and cruel side of the government,’ says Squirrel. ‘We don’t do something illegal. It’s not illegal, singing and saying what you think.’ .. Because they are so young. Because they have children. Because what they have done is so unimportant and silly and has all of a sudden become so huge because of this disproportionate reaction. Because it touches so strangely on so many things, and this is where it becomes an event of almost historic proportions. It touches everything: the church and the state, believers and non-believers, the judge and the tsar, and this Russian thing that never ever ends.”

“And it’s that level that is so scary, that has scared so many people across Russia. ‘The Khodorkovsky trial demonstrated that Putin would go after the oligarchs,’ says Pyotr Verzilov. It sent a very clear, unmistakable message to the oligarchs. And what the Pussy Riot trial is showing is that they’ll go after anybody. Nobody is safe.”

Hmmm… sounds like critics of the US government right here at home are also being silenced as well, not that anyone cares all that much about it (well not yet at least, until it more directly affects them)… “A political website that contained stinging criticism of the Obama administration and its handling of the Fast and Furious scandal was ordered to be shut down by the Obama campaign’s ‘Truth Team’, according to private investigator Douglas Hagmann, who was told by ISP GoDaddy his site contained information that was “maliciously harmful to individuals in the government.” — ‘Obama Truth Team’ Orders GoDaddy To Shut Down Website

“The crime in question occurred on 21 February and took precisely 51 seconds. The five women and a film team, plus various supporters and a couple of journalists, entered the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, jumped over a gold rail, stood on the steps of the pulpit (a place where only men may stand) and performed the opening bars of a punk song. You can watch it on YouTube. It starts out as a religious hymn, then mutates into something Sex Pistols-esque, the women kneeling, genuflecting, crossing themselves, jumping up and down and, after a few seconds, being intercepted by security guards and led away.”

“After being ejected by cathedral guards, ‘the police came and they didn’t even open a case,’ says Verzilov. It was only after it appeared on YouTube under the name ‘Virgin Mary Chuck Out Putin’ and got all this attention – Patriarch Kirill watched it and, so the investigators told us, rang Putin and the head of the Moscow police – that it became this great big deal, that they decided that it was some sort of crime.”

“In the press, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, called it ‘blasphemous’, saying that the church was ‘under attack’ and that ‘the devil has laughed at us’. ”

“The church’s spokesman, Vsevolod Chaplin, said: ‘God condemns what they’ve done. I’m convinced that this sin will be punished in this life and the next, God revealed this to me just like he revealed the gospels to the church. There’s only one way out: repentance.’ ”

“More than this, though, is how the church has started to act as if it is the propaganda wing of the government. Before the election, Patriarch Kirill said that it was ‘un-Christian’ to demonstrate. And then he said that Putin had been placed at the head of the government ‘by God’. No one was talking about this before. And now everybody is.”

“But the tide is turning. It’s the severity of the penalty that has shocked most Russians. Even conservative, religious Russians who thought their act was silly or offensive. Very few defendants are imprisoned pre-trial. Certainly not ones with young children accused of non-violent crimes. More than 200 well-known public people signed an open letter condemning the trial, including many Putin supporters, and another 41,000 rank-and-file Russians have added their signatures.”

“It’s extraordinary what Pussy Riot have done. How they have taken feminism to one of the most macho countries on Earth. How they have revealed the faultlines at the heart of the Russian state, the moral bankruptcy of the Putin regime. It’s hard to reconcile that with the women I met, with their skinny shoulders and thin wrists and lack of any weaponry bar guts and wit. The word absurd has been worn thin with use, but there’s no other way to describe what is happening in Russia today.”

” ‘Putin is scared of us, can you imagine?’ says Squirrel. ‘Scared of girls.’ “

” ‘The most important dictator, Putin, is really afraid of people,‘ says Squirrel. ‘More specifically, he’s afraid of Pussy Riot. Afraid of a bunch of young, positive, optimistic women unafraid to speak their minds.’ ”

Full Story: Pussy Riot: will Vladimir Putin regret taking on Russia’s cool women punks? (TheGuardian)

As Senator Gracchus said in the movie Gladiator, “I think he knows what Rome is. Rome is the mob. Conjure magic for them and they’ll be distracted. Take away their freedom and still they’ll roar. The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the senate, it’s the sand of the coliseum. He’ll bring them death – and they will love him for it.” Uh oh, is the mob awakening…?

UPDATE: Pussy Riot Found Guilty in What Looks like a 21st Century Witch Hunt (Slate)

“This video is looped and then slowed down and it clearly identifies a police officer tossing the flash-bang directly at the disabled vet on the ground when the protesters attempt to come to his aid. It detonates literally right next to him. None of the protesters are committing any act of violence – they are assisting a man who has just been shot with a rubber round in the head.

THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THIS ACT. EACH ACT OF EACH PARTY STANDS ALONE – NO PROTESTER CHARGED THE FENCES OR OTHERWISE ASSAULTED AN OFFICER. THIS WAS A PREMEDITATED ASSAULT BY THE POLICE UPON A PRONE AND INJURED MAN AND THOSE ATTEMPTING TO ASSIST HIM.” – Dateline Oakland: FELONIOUS ASSAULT By Police? (TheMarketTicker)

Perhaps Sergeant Shamar Thomas, a decorated Marine who stood with the “Occupy Wall Street” protest, said it best when he directed the following discourse towards police officers: “It takes a coward to harm an unarmed civilian…This is not a war zone, these are unarmed people. It does not make you tough to hurt these people… If you want to go fight, go to Iraq and Afghanistan… Leave these people alone, they are U.S. citizens…Why are you doing this to our people? I’ve been to Iraq 14 months for my people and you come here to hurt them, they don’t have guns… It doesn’t make any sense… How do you sleep at night? There is no honor in this…you’re here to protect them, protect us.You’re all walking around in riot gear like this is a war, these people don’t have guns.” Semper Fi, Sir!

One can only hope there is a special place in hell for police officers, judges, prison guards, and prosecutors who have sworn an oath to protect and serve the people, yet choose to use their “special powers” not only for the simple motive of personal gain, but even worse… to inflict tyranny over those they swore to defend, as if they get thrills from pulling the wings off a helpless fly…

And as Benjamin Franklin has said, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Those who wish to trample over another group’s rights and succeed, better know that it’s just a matter of time before they’re next in line…

Historically, all empires eventually fall due to the corruption of the “Rule of Law“. All accumulated wealth can be attributed to the fair and balanced application of the Rule of Law. If people don’t know what to expect because laws are selectively applied or perverted by the government, there will be flight of capital. In America, the judicial branch is considered untouchable even by the senate. Our justices are unelected officials who are held to no standards. They are immune from prosecution, and hold their positions for life.

If you’ve ever fought a speeding ticket and you know you were in the right, you’ll know that “Rule of Law” is blatently disregarded. Martin Armstrong’s written about it for years from prison. Good luck figuring out what his crime was – so much for a trial by jury. And just a few years back, could you imagine the outrage and outcry we would have seen over an agent groping children at an airport? Look at the ruckus caused just by Don Imus saying “Nappy-headed Ho” (2007 seems like oh so long ago)… “Lock up those damn pedophiles, and throw away the key” would have been the mantra of the day. Today, it’s “business as usual”…

And now, there have been so many outright disgusting and disgraceful acts of unneccessary violence perpertrated by police during the “Occupy Wall Street” movement it’s mind boggling. I myself have been threatened and harrassed by police for standing in front of my own apartment building in NYC — the night before the Thanksgiving Parade no less. While I may have been left feeling helpless and disheartened, these “minor” incidences don’t hold a candle to the violent video footage captured during peaceful protests. The policemen know they’re being recorded, yet they couldn’t even care less anymore – they know they’ll be “protected”.

Ironically, it may very well be these most blatant injustices that will fuel this rising movement more than any other. People can only be pushed and taken advantage of so far, and those in power know this.* The less people feel they have to lose, the more likely they are to take to the streets. And no where else has it been so blatant that those in control now completely follow their own set of rules.

“I don’t care if you hail from the left or right, or what your particular view of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement is.  The fact of the matter is that we no longer have the foundational principle of this nation underlying our nation: The Rule of Law. ” – Well, We Know Who The Felons Are – They Wear Badges (TheMarketTicker)

“Restore the Rule of Law. We’re a Constitutional Republic, not a Democracy. In a Democracy the 51% enslaves everyone else. Are you black, hispanic, or some other minority? In a democracy you’re a slave. Recognize this or make a huge mistake supporting any such move. A Constitutional Republic is governed by the Rule of Law, which says that nobody gets to infringe your fundamental liberty interests, no matter who they are: Rich, poor, white, black or Martian. Everyone who breaks the law is punished and for like crime one gets a like sentence. If I rob you of $50,000 whether I do it with a gun or briefcase is immaterial. Whether I take it one penny at a time or all at once is immaterial too. In each case I must go to prison for doing it and what I stole must be returned to the maximum extent possible.” – The Bottom Line On All The Frauds (TheMarketTicker)

* “I think he knows what Rome is. Rome is the mob. Conjure magic for them and they’ll be distracted. Take away their freedom and still they’ll roar. The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the senate, it’s the sand of the coliseum. He’ll bring them death – and they will love him for it.” – Gracchus (movie Gladiator)

This is an excellent must-watch video of Ron Paul testifying before Congress on freedom, truth, transparency, and Wikileaks…  Ron Paul always seems to find just the right words to say it: “Regardless, we have blundered into a war which no one seems willing to end.  Julian Assange, publisher of the Wikileaks memo, is now considered an enemy of the state.  Politicians are calling for drastic punishment and even assassination, and sadly, the majority of the American people seem to support such moves.  But why should we so fear the truth?  Why should our governments lies and mistakes be hidden from the American people in the name of patriotism?  Once it becomes acceptable to equate truth with treason, we can no longer call ourselves a free society.”

One of the crown jewels of secret pre-Gulf War negotiations was unveiled tonight when the notorious Glaspie Memo, or as it is now known 90BAGHDAD4237, was released by WikiLeaks.

The cable, whose official title was “Saddam’s Message of Friendship to President Bush” details the meeting between US Ambassador April Glaspie and Saddam Hussein on July 25, 1990, just a week before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

The meeting has long been a matter of speculation, as it had long been speculated that comments by Glaspie had led Saddam to believe that the United States was giving them the green light to invade Kuwait if diplomacy failed.

The memo reveals indeed Hussein expressing concern about the Bush Administration’s position on Iraq owing to its participation in military exercises with the United Arab Emirates and pledges to “defend its allies” in the region. He complained the US pledges were making Kuwait and the UAE refuse to negotiate with Iraq. He also expressed concern about negative media coverage in the US, which Ambassador Glaspie assured him did not reflect US policy and singled out a Diane Sawyer report on “nuclear bomb triggers” for condemnation.

Rather Glaspie assured Saddam of Bush’s friendship and expressed support for the negotiations being set up by Hosni Mubarak for the weekend of July 28-30. She also explicitly said the United States took no position on the border dispute between Iraq and Kuwait, though the summary also mentions that she made clear the US wanted the move solved peacefully. Hussein assured that no action would be taken against Kuwait if the negotiations showed some progress, which seemed to suit the US at the time.

But the talks didn’t accomplish anything and by August 2 Iraq was invading Kuwait. Within hours the mutual friendship was completely torn up and US officials were railing against Iraq. A few months later the US invaded for the first time, sparking invasions, decades of enmity, sanctions which killed massive numbers of Iraqi civilians and, eventually, a full US occupation which continues to this day.