We can expect harsh reactions by the corporate security state, but there is also the astute observation offered by the late Howard Zinn in A Power Governments Cannot Suppress:

As Occupy Wall Street expands and opens a great awakening, as more and more citizens withdraw their consent to a government that long-ago abandoned the constitutionally recognized purpose of government --- "to promote the general welfare"-- those, like Rahm Emanuel, who cling to the old structure of power may well find themselves on the outside, looking in to a new, genuine, egalitarian democracy.

Ernest, your comments sure encouraging. I hope democracy returns to the United States with no harm or bloodshed.

Seeing fascism take hold in the US is frightening. It is hopeful that some police aren't willing to wage war on their own citizens for exercising their rights as clearly defined in the US Constitution.

When US citizens are arresting for practicing their "right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances," and the US media supports this violation of citizens' constitutional rights, that is bare-faced fascism.

It is ironic that RawStory reports in apparent support of a movement that is about justice and freedom of expression, but itself will arbitrarily shut down commenters due to erroneous software on RawStory's side and their apparent desire to assert authority for the sake of asserting authority.

Adam8 (arbitrarily banned from commenting on RawStory and slandered due to their erroneous software)

Adam, I do not think RawStory is arbitrarily shutting down commenters. The site has undergone a couple of format changes recently, and that may require you to modify the security setup of your pc to access the site. You may want to try logging in from a different pc to verify that it's a machine issue and not an account issue.

FYI, I am unable to access BradBlog from the pc in my office because the security there blocks "social networking" sites. However, I am able to access RawStory and almost every other sites with no problem.

Brad, you must have a pr problem with corporate America.

... ghostof911

Adam, I do not think RawStory is arbitrarily shutting down commenters.

In my case, RawStory did cut out adam8 because software its using mistakenly associated my IPs with other trolls. Now, they're cutting me off because, after I was slandered via cc to several RawStory staff, I dared question the honesty of said party who had such faith in their mistaken software (disqus I think it was), one would think it was a US election official. So, for them, it is OK to wrongly accuse someone of a crime they didn't commit and publicly slander me with no apology for it, but a great sin to question their authority.

Now, they'll stick to their bad decision for ego reasons or something but not reason or fairness. Thus, RawStory is hypocritical in practicing the same kind of authoritarianism that they criticize in others. RawStory editors do not practice what they preach.

Adam8 (wrongly cut-off and slandered by RawStory).

Wow, ghost. How did The BRAD BLOG go from a source of independently verifiable news to a "social networking site"?

GhostOf911 said:

Brad, you must have a pr problem with corporate America.

I can't imagine why.

Hit me via email, and let's figure out which corporation is blocking us now, and why. (Did they give you a reason when you asked about it?) Did you tell them we are a source on Google News for cryin' out loud?

And, of course, Ernie is correct. We are a news site. Hardly a "social networking" site. Good lord.

Brad Friedman wrote...

Did you tell them we are a source on Google News for cryin' out loud?

Ah, yes, Google News. That's another backstory

When in Rahm, do as the Rahmans ...

History repeats itself, but in a far more dangerous time:

This is my favorite scene from the directors cut of Woodstock:

ABC Reporter: What do you think about {Woodstock}.

Police Officer: From what I've heard from the outside sources for many years, I was very, very much surprised and I'm very happy to say that we think the people of this country should be proud of these kids, notwithstanding the way they dress or the way they wear their hair; that's their own personal business, but their inner workings; their inner selves and their self demeanor cannot be questioned. They can't be questioned as good American citizens.

ABC Reporter: That's kind of surprising, coming from a cop.

Police Officer: I'm not a cop; I'm a Chief of Police.

They labeled the generation just before me as "hippies, yippies and yuppies" and the one following me as "bloggers". They were forced to use those names, because nobody would know what they were talking about otherwise, but the current generation refuses to be labeled with a silly name, so they call themselves the 99%.

Brilliant!

This story is the most inspiring of all Occupy Wall Street stories so far. Thank you Ernest A. Canning, for the wonderful Howard Zinn quote.

I am taking the opportunity to use the comment section of the Brad Blog do to a little social networking because that is precisely what this movement is all about - interaction between the movements of the Arab Spring, demands for change that are going on in Iceland, Spain, Greece, Chile (we are talking about sustained movements involving hundreds of thousands of people)

I was inspired to write these two post that I hope will inspire others:
http://connectivelyspeak.../label/Eduardo%20Galeano

Typical Marxists, free speech is great till they get power. This is a calculated,controlled, and manipulated operation. Just like the 1960's, Cloward-Piven, Alinsky and the rest of the Frankfurt School jews. The solution was formulated and written up ib the 1990's, sits in a drawer waiting for you to beg for it.

i admit i am computer illiterate but something odd is going on with raw story(comments section),2 days in a row ,no comments available

since there are several articles there that very controversial(medical mj crackdown by feds in cali,police brutality in oakland) it just makes me wonder

so again thank you brad for practicing what you preach and being one of the most open blogger,news sites available

I can't even access Raw Story. Alert for viruses. Maybe Raw is being attacked.

molly,
i can not access raw this afternoon either,google is blocking them for some reason...i could access them from their facebook page at first but now it is being glitchy too