JAG

In Nigeria, the coming trial of Wiwa vs. Shell promises, if anything, a disturbing look at a microcosm of Big Oil’s influence on governments around the world, particularly our own under eight years of Bush and Cheney and the Democratic leaders who enabled them. Did events that transpired in Nigeria back in the 1990s foreshadow the outright seizure of government in the United States by oil interests today? […]

One of the first things you learn about investigative journalism is that the most important stories the world needs to know, the ones you want to write, are the last thing any publisher wants to touch. In the bad old days, that meant those stories wouldn’t be written because they would not be seen, and of course you would not get paid. The internet changed that. Now you had an audience even if it meant you had to write for free. All writers should be paid. It’s not fun being broke. But all writers have a civic responsibility that trumps personal gain. That means covering stories the corporate media will never touch because they threaten the establishment, or because those stories condemn them. […]

For your sake above all else, the suspected terrorist deserves rights; all rights that an American citizen enjoys simply because “suspected terrorist” does not mean “convicted terrorist” yet both terms are now legally equated; in full mockery of justice and reason. […]