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It’s going to be a big day on FDL. Pam’s House Blend officially joins us starting today — give a big welcome to Pam and her co-bloggers Autumn Sandeen, Alvin McEwen, Scott Wooledge and Laurel Rameseyer. They are some of the most talented and insightful bloggers around, and we are thrilled to have them here.
I’ll also be in court today with Lt. Dan Choi, who is being put on trial by the Justice Department for protesting against DADT in front of the White House last November. At a pre-trial hearing earlier this year, Judge Facciola tried to get the Assistant US Attorney — Angela George — to reduce the charges, but after conferring with the Justice Department she refused to do so.
You can read the exchange between George and Judge Facciola here: Court Transcript.
The Judge thought that the charges the government is bringing against Dan were excessive relative to what actually happened, and suggested that there were First Amendment issues involved. For more on that hearing, read the excellent account of PHB blogger Scott Wooledge, who wrote about what happened. Both Scott and Autumn were arrested with Dan at the time. Dan refused to take the deal offered by the government, however, because it involved an admission of guilt.
The 38 minute tape above was taken by the Park Police at the time of the arrest, and was turned over to Dan’s attorneys by the Justice Department. His lawyers will be calling the Park Police officers who roughed Dan up when they were arresting him, and arguing that they have rather arbitrary standards for enforcing traffic regulations (witness them closing the park when they wanted to keep journalists away from Dan and others protesting at the White House April of this year, vs. standing there while drunken revelers tried to climb the flag pole after Osama bin Laden was killed).
Bill McKibben, who was arrested along with Dan and me on August 20, will be at the White House for Day 10 of the 14 day Tar Sands sit-in and then coming over to court to support Dan. I can’t have electronic devices in the court room but I’ll be posting updates on Twitter and here at FDL as I can throughout the day.
Jane’s tweets from the courthouse:
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Welcome to the Blender Baristas! Many thanks to all who accomplished the tough work of migrating PHB’s archives to our site. This is a kick-ass team, who will fit in here just great: witness the dustup over Pam’s Solmonese-resignation scoop, uncredited initially by The Washington Blade and the source of “discomfort” within HRC itself.
Just imagine: a blogger making her story’s subject uncomfortable. Where’s those FDL smelling salts? — we’ll need them with these new troublemakers onboard!
Good luck to Dan today, and thanks to Jane, Scarecrow and Bill McKibben for bearing witness to his first amendment battle. Looking forward to hearing how this plays out today.
Hi Jane, wishing you a good outcome for all these efforts. Hope you have an attorney with you and that the treatment you all receive is not abusive. if they arrests you will they give a ticket or hold you? The plan is to comply, so they won’t have cause right.
Big FDL welcome to everyone from Pam’s blend.
Look out for Pam’s House Blend in our masthead this afternoon!
At courthouse w dan. Trial should start soon.
Welcome Baristas !
fyi — Climatologist James Hansen and a contingent of clergy are scheduled to stand at the White House Fence today
I do wonder how many Regent University types are still in the DOJ.
That business of allowing the park police to decide what is acceptable “free speech” and what isn’t is deeply disturbing.
Good luck, Jane!
I’m drinking Pam’s blend right now ;^)
Thank you, Brian. I’ve been waiting for this. Good job. Lots of hard work, I imagine. Much appreciated.
Shuttles worth SCOTUS case was mentioned by Judge Facciola previously, so I imagine it will come up today.
Sending lots of strong thoughts and vibes for justice!
Welcome to PHB and baristas.
Free speech and open service aside, this trial is a tremendous waste of federal resources. It’s absurd. Don’t the Park Service have better things to do?
thanks! i apologize for the long wait. we basically had to invent a way to import Pam’s content to FDL, so it took some work, but I’m so happy we’re finally welcoming them to the family.
Yes, they do.
Doesn’t the DOJ have better things to do??
Oh, no need to apologize. I sit in awe of you techies. I hope Pam and Crew will be very happy here. Great addition to an already fabulous community.
Not the least of which could be to help stop the Pipeline. Protecting on the one hand and destroying on the other.
Fantastic addition of PHB to FDL! More fine reportage/commentary in one place!! Thanks you Jane!!
The protestors did not tell anyone they were going to chain themselves to the fence? That was kept secret and yet park Police knew via an email from SS?
Man, that Rupert Murdoch just taps EVERYONE’s phone for governments’ sake.
Ya know, the lyrics to Santa Claus Is Coming To Town could be changed for this occasion.
They see you when you’re sleeping…
They know when you’re awake…
They know if you’ve been bad or good…
SO don’t protest for goodness sake.
Hard to keep all the USG lies straight.
The real problem with being brought before the court on any FEDERAL charge is that it will dog you for the rest of your life. Apply for a job with any large employer and it will appear on your background check. Need a security clearance for your job? The charge will be there. Want to buy a gun? You will be put on the 3-day wait list. Seeing the Federal charge, no matter the adjudication–including dismissal, will mean an automatic “no hire” from many companies. A Federal charge is guaranteed to complicate your life.
How much more un-American can the US DOJ get? This is so depressing. I hope the judge remembers the Constitution and all that when making her rulings.
Being gay already complicated his life, dog. So, he complicates it some more by doing the right thing. Power to the lieutenant, he’s got way more balls than our CINC.
Welcome Pam! Welcome Baristas!
No argument with that, whatsoever. But what I’ve stated is FACT, and I’m speaking from experience, here. 1970 anti-Vietnam war protest, and with the new computer synchronization a Federal trespass charge is now showing up on every check that is done on me. This is NEW, and is a result of the DHS changes that have taken place recently. In the past, the question was “Have you ever been convicted of a crime?” That answer is “NO” in my case (because the charge was dismissed by the judge). But, with the new program, answering “NO” isn’t the end of it. If you have ever been arrested by a Federal officer (in my case it was Park Service), that arrest will show on your record. How it was adjudicated probably will not, which triggers a further review.
Be aware, if you plan on being arrested in a protest. The New Police State is in force.
Lt. Dan is a terrorist, I tell you, a terrorist. That is why big brother felt justified in bugging and reading his e-mails. Anyone that would possibly exercise their constutional rights of freedom of speech or freedom to peacefully assemble is a terrorist. King Chaos is not going to allow his authority to be questioned. You can bet anyone protesting now or on FDL is probably also being watched and bugged. King Chaos is not going to allow you to have rights, not on his watch.
At the moment Chrome and Firefox send one to PHB’s old site – not to a FDL site, and indeed one can not comment.
watched, bugged and audited….can’t forget the IRS….
Also true for IE
I’m not disputing the fact of what you’re saying, either. I’m sure Mandela has a black mark on his permanent record, too. There are those who would back down for rear of marring their record, and there are people who will do what’s right, regardless. Lt. Dan is doing the courageous thing.
per Jane’s recent tweet: “Park police say @ltdanchoi & #getequal protesters given Federal charges at suggestion of solicitor Randolph Myers dept Interior”
a quick google search brings up this tidbit: at their 2000 awards ceremony, DOJ recognized Randolph Myers for “INTERAGENCY COOPERATION IN SUPPORT OF LITIGATION”.
Good find
Just so everyone knows, I personally plead guilty to the charges associated with the November 15, 2010 direct action on the White House fence for two reasons.
The first was solidarity with the others who handcuffed themselves to the White House fence — I went to the fence with a group, and was going to act in pleading guilty or not guilty with the majority of the group. The decision was to plead guilty and accept the plea deal, so I went with the group decision.
The other defining reason I plead guilty is the limited resources of GetEqual. I’m on the GetEqual Board of Directors, and I’m so aware of the limits of the resources available to the organization for direct actions (and court afterwards).
I fully intended to break the law in handcuffing myself to the White House fence — I did it as a matter of conscience. I personally had no issue with pleading guilty to the direct action I fully meant to do before we did it, then actually followed through with the direct action.
I’m immensely glad though that Lt. Choi is fighting his case — I very much appreciate what he is accomplishing by challenging the charges against him. I so hope he prevails too.
Lastly, and as a side note, I took to the fence as a transgender veteran — a member of the broader lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. With the repeal of DADT, very soon there will be open service of lesbian, gay, and bisexual servicemembers. There won’t; however, be open service for transgender service members coming anytime soon. I took to the White House in solidarity with my lesbian, gay, and bisexual siblings in community because we are part of a broader community. To quote Martin Luther King Jr.:
And to quote Cesar Chavez:
I stood with my lesbian, gay, and bisexual community siblings because I want to look beyond my own subcommunity of the LGBT community’s concerns, and think in terms of broader community…in terms of broader humanity.
And I asked this of my LGBT community last November:
Civil rights aren’t about you, and aren’t about me. Civil rights aren’t about your demographic groups or my demographic groups. Instead, civil rights are about us…All of us.
As I sacrificed for lesbian, gay, and bisexual people in the LGBT community, I would hope lesbian, gay, and bisexual people in the LGBT community would sacrifice for their trans community siblings. I wanted to set an example of how to treat others in broader community — to ask, with action instead of words, LGB members of the LGBT community to remember in the future that trans people have been there for their struggle for ordinary equality. I hope I accomplished that goal.
I choose to sacrifice for others in taking to the White House fence; Lt. Choi has chosen a similar path for his life — to sacrifice himself for others in his broader community…in broader humanity. It’s something worth remembering.
I’ll leave y’all with this Cesar Chavez quote:
I’m ready to do whatever it takes, within the bounds of non-violence, to change the social order. How about you?
Thanks so much, Autumn. No judgment meant about anyone whatever choice they made — having sat through court all day watching the video tape of the arrests over and over again, it was an incredible act of courage by everyone who took part. Mad props to you for standing up for your principles. It had an historic impact. You should be exceptionally proud.
I totally understand where you are coming from and you have my full respect for the decisions you made. Rawk on, Autumn. I’m also pretty sure the war-on-the-cheap plantation managers are freaked out about you as you are messing up their narrow-minded and rigid little world.
You also wrote:
Well then I am going to take this opportunity to ask folks to please pitch some money in the kitty for GetEqual.
I very much know you weren’t judging Jane. But for those who didn’t know, I filling in part of the story that most people don’t know anything about as no press covered it. I very much appreciate your warm props — thank you so much for those props.
So let me add some more to my portion of the story. I went to jail as a military retiree — that according to Article 2 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) — I was (and still am) subject to the UCMJ for the prohibition against protesting in uniform found in Chapter 10, section 61001 of the Navy Uniform Regulations. I could have lost part, or even all, of my future military retirement pay for protesting in uniform.
I also went to jail as a pre-operative transsexual — as a transgender woman. If one thinks about that a moment, how one would expect a pre-operative transsexual to be treated in jail is how I was actually treated in jail. I’m thankful though that I wasn’t sexually assaulted during either the April or November trips to jail — that was a real possibility.
Besides perhaps Lt. Choi during that April 20, 2010 protest — when he was still in the reserves — I potentially had the most to lose of any of the GetEqual 6 and GetEqual 13.
And again, repeal of DADT doesn’t mean transgender people can serve openly.
So yes, as you can imagine I am extremely proud of my participation, especially given I had the most to lose and the least to gain for even my subcommunity of the LGBT community. The experience leaves me; however, knowing that I very likely go to jail again at some point for what Alice Paul described as “ordinary equality.” What I saw in participation was that outsiders’ direct actions work to keep ordinary issues alive in the media — alive in the media in a way that gives insiders power to achieve community goals though the legislative process.
You are right; I am not judging Jane. Also I am really sorry for your mistreatment by people who are supposed to be peace officers and represent the community they serve as they are employed by We The People as part of the government of the District of Columbia. In my view they disqualify themselves from public service anywhere with their attitudes and behaviors which are anti-human. Further, the universe isn’t black or white, male or female, up or down, right or left. Their social training is remiss as they clearly have never seen a wíŋkte. Acting with derision is uncivilized; threatening or acting out violence is morally wrong and against the law they are supposed to uphold. I do not condone the hatred of everything “not male” that is considered almost fashionable in American society.