June 22, 2012 journal, people are judged by their wealth from their cradle to their grave. Look out across the fields to see the working men and women whose lives are judged by the hour. Could I be one of them I ask myself? I find it difficult praying because it seems to be repetitive therefore I offer Psalm 55 as my prayer today. I am nothing but God is everything. Psalm 55 New King James Version "Trust in God Concerning the Treachery of Friends-To the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. A Contemplation of David. "55 Give ear to my prayer, O God, And do not hide Yourself from my supplication. 2 Attend to me, and hear me; I am restless in my complaint, and moan noisily, 3 Because of the voice of the enemy, Because of the oppression of the wicked. For they bring down trouble upon me, And in wrath they hate me. 4 My heart is severely pained within me, And the terrors of death have fallen upon me. 5 Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, And horror has overwhelmed me. 6 So I said, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. 7 Indeed, I would wander far off, And remain in the wild-erness. Selah 8 I would hasten my escape. From the windy storm and tempest." 9 Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, For I have seen violence and strife in the city. 10 Day and night they go around it on its walls; Iniquity and trouble are also in the midst of it. 11 Destruction is in its midst; Oppression and deceit do not depart from its streets. 12 For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; Then I could hide from him. 13 But it was you, a man my equal, My companion and my acquaintance. 14 We took sweet counsel together, And walked to the house of God in the throng. 15 Let death seize them; let them go down alive into hell, For wickedness is in their dwellings and among them. 16 As for me, I will call upon God, And the Lord shall save me. 17 Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, And He shall hear my voice. 18 He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, For there were many against me. 19 God will hear, and afflict them, Even He who abides from of old. Selah. Because they do not change, Therefore they do not fear God. 20 He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him; He has broken his covenant. 21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, But war was in his heart; His words were softer than oil, Yet they were drawn swords. 22 Cast your burden on the Lord, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved. 23 But You, O God, shall bring them down to the pit of destr-uction; Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; But I will trust in You". O Lord! You know our hearts, please make our ways perfect before Thee and man. "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has requested political asylum from Ecuador. British courts recently rejected Assange's appeal against extradition to Sweden. Assange has good reason to fear extradition to Sweden: many believe it likely that Sweden would extradite Assange to the United States to face charges under the Espionage Act of 1917 for his role in publishing leaked US diplomatic cables, charges that could carry the death penalty. The treatment of Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of providing US diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, suggests the treatment that Assange might expect in US government custody. Manning has been subjected to repeated and prolonged solitary confinement, harassment by guards and humiliating treatment such as being forced to strip naked and stand at attention outside his cell. If the US government succeeds in prosecuting Assange under the Espionage Act for helping to disclose the WikiLeaks cables, it will likely intimidate future potential whistleblowers, making it harder to reveal important secrets about US foreign policy in the future and, therefore, making it harder to reform US foreign policy in the future. That's why I'm urging Ecuador's President Rafael Correa to grant Julian Assange's request for political asylum. Glenn Greenwald writes today in The Guardian UK: If one asks current or former WikiLeaks associates what their greatest fear is, almost none cites prosecution by their own country. Most trust their own nation's justice system to recognize that they have committed no crime. The primary fear is being turned over to the US. That is the crucial context for understanding Julian Assange's 16-month fight to avoid extradition to Sweden, a fight that led him to seek asylum, Tuesday, in the London Embassy of Ecuador. The evidence that the US seeks to prosecute and extradite Assange is substantial. There is no question that the Obama justice department has convened an active grand jury to investigate whether WikiLeaks violated the draconian Espionage Act of 1917. Key senators from President Obama's party, including Senate intelligence committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, have publicly called for his prosecution under that statute. A leaked email from the security firm Stratfor - hardly a dispositive source, but still probative - indicated that a sealed indictment has already been obtained against him. Prominent American figures in both parties have demanded Assange's lifelong imprisonment, called him a terrorist and even advocated his assassination. As Greenwald notes: Assange's fear of ending up in the clutches of the US is plainly rational and well-grounded. One need only look at the treatment over the last decade of foreign nationals accused of harming American national security to know that's true; such individuals are still routinely imprisoned for lengthy periods without any charges or due process. Or consider the treatment of Bradley Manning, accused of leaking to WikiLeaks: a formal UN investigation found that his pre-trial conditions of severe solitary confinement were "cruel, inhuman and degrading," and he now faces capital charges of aiding al-Qaida. WikiLeaks has made a tremendous contribution to exposing US foreign policy to public scrutiny. The importance of transparency and public information to reforming US foreign policy cannot be overstated. Recently, I worked with the offices of Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Rep. John Conyers to support a letter signed by 26 members of Congress to President Obama pressing the administration to disclose more information about its drone strike policy, particularly concerning civilian casualties and so-called "signature strikes" that target unknown people based on (often faulty) intelligence of suspicious activity. Polls have suggested that the drone strike policy is popular in the US (while very unpopular outside the US), but the popularity in the US stems from ignorance: the American people don't know what they are supporting, because the reality of the policy has been hidden from public scrutiny. That's why it's so important to press the US government to disclose more information about the drone strike policy. Therefore-in addition to our concern for Assange's individual human rights - people who are working to reform US foreign policy have a big stake in what happens in the Julian Assange/WikiLeaks case. If the US government succeeds in intimidating whistleblowers, it will be harder to reveal information about US foreign policy in the future and, therefore, it will be harder to reform US foreign policy in the future. That's why it's so important for President Correa - who has legitimate reason to be concerned about possible retaliation from the United States - to hear from Americans urging that he grant Assange's request for political asylum. I once had the opportunity to meet President Correa. We share an alma mater - the University of Illinois, where Correa, like me, was a graduate student in economics. Like me, President Correa was a member of the Graduate Employees Organization, the union of teaching assistants at the University of Illinois. I know that President Correa believes in the Illinois values of free inquiry and fair play. I'm confident that if President Correa hears from Americans who value free inquiry and fair play, he's going to do the right thing." Robert Naiman is policy director at Just Foreign Policy and president of Truthout's board of directors. WikiLeaks Cable Casts Doubt on Guantanamo Medical Care By Carol Rosenberg, McClatchy Newspapers | Report WikiLeaks and First Amendment By William Bennett Turner, Truthout | News Analysis WikiLeaks, Julian Assange Win Major Australian Prize for "Outstanding Contribution to Journalism" By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! Good question Hahna-How can an Australian be convicted in America for a crime not committed in America - and for something that's not a crime in Australia or the country in which he committed that "crime?" You bend the law? Badly? How can anyone who is not an American citizen be subject to American law?Has American might become right -all around the world? Has Australia lost all sense of own national identity - and pride? Are they now merely "Australia-according-to-America?" We keep this up and soon 'unbelieving' citizens from all over the world will be getting the death penalty for blasphemy in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia. On the upside, Americans will then learn from personal experience just how ridiculous this whole idea is. "I am a humane rights advocate who was born, bred and raised in Sacramento, California. I truly believe in liberty and justice for all. Yes, we need to protect Julian Assange from the US Gov't. I hope President Correa does the noble deed of protecting him in Ecuador. However, the US Gov't is not 'my' government and does not even govern as a functional entity. It is controlled by the Corporate Fascist Elite of the 1%, so we should not be naive about it all. We must go a lot further than pressing for the reform of US foreign policy. We must criticize and condemn US foreign policy in general, along with its Fascist Fuhrer Barback Obama.In the short run, we want to see Brother Assange safe in Ecuador, In the long run we need to work together to transform the unjust and unfair 'status quo'. We need to overturn unjust rogue regimes as the USA Gov't operates now as we continue to exhaust legal peaceful methods of struggle. I know this can seem too extreme a position for many White liberals and reformists, but we need to understand that Global Liberation is the ultimate solution as we continue to bring about the humane reforms we can do now. The ideal we should strive for is a total transformation of power relations between the less than 1% and the most than 99% of the general population. We must not be under any delusions. Namaste! Peter S. Lopez AKA @Peta_de_Aztlan ~ Sacramento, California, USA c/s socialite-President. Correa, will do the right thing. He is a humanitarian unlike the capitalist monsters here in the United States. Ecuador is a Free and Sovereign nation, which should be respected. Here in the U.S. we have REAL terrorist, walking around scott free. Our President is a war criminal, killing people at will, violating international law and nothing is being done to stop him. Gw Bush and his entire administration are traitors to the U.S. population and constitution, yet they play golf on a daily basis. We have people in Florida who have committed acts of terrorism against the sovereign nation of Cuba. Coralles Posada ,who was involved in the bombing of a Cuban airliner in the seventies killing several passengers including a team of young fencers, yet he is given free reign of the country. Assange is correct in fearing for his life. Look at what is happening to Pvt. Bradley Manning. Granting Assange political asylum is the Morally correct thing to do. If taken to Sweden he will for sure be extradited to a living hell here in the land of the psychopaths and sociopaths, that his brilliant reporting has exposed. I'm sick of the double standards! FREE PVT. BRADLEY MANNING NOW! HANDS OFF OF JOURNALIST JULIAN ASSANGE! He should receive the Nobel Peace Prize, not prison and torture! Take Pres. Obama's prize away and give it to the two of them, they deserve it more than the killer President! Can you locate Ecuador on a Map? Assange did an interview with Correa last month on Russia today. Before you make childish remarks, check it out. Every body is not corrupt like the U.S.A.! roland-The swedish government is another rightist puppet playing the international rightist agenda. Assange will not receive a fair trial there or here. If one plays with some nominal data (categories, not hard data), it can be observed a high correlation between "accusation of rapes and sexual abuses" and the character of "dissident or critic" of the person being accused of these "crimes". It may be pure chance. But it's worth to note. If "whistle blowing" and "leaking reserved information" is so serious why many members of the former administration, like Rove, were not prosecuted? Why some member of congress and the SC have not been prosecuted, for similar allegations of sexual harassment? Do not give me the answer that it wasn't proved. I know it. Some "prosecutors" are never satisfied with the "evidence" or reject "evidence, when the alleged "harasser or the abuser" is one of those who uses to destroy other people reputations. Julie-Wake up and smell the coffee. This has NOTHING to do with sex and everything to do with sending him to the United States to rot if he is lucky. I, a U.S. citizen, urge Ecuador to grant him assylum. Well then. As Assange has already answered all these questions prior to his leaving Sweden and had the then pending charges dropped.... why didn't the Swedes take up the offer to question him via Skype or the offer to have the Swedish prosecutor visit Britain and question him there? Surely questioning via Skype or in person in Britain would have "helped their investigation" and would have made more valid a claim of "We need him to to come to Sweden because it's even more likely now that we are going to charge him." ? o dear pisgone,If you had even two functioning brain cells, you would have enough information to know that your "reality" is merely a wishful dream. Now go back to fox news, you troll. The way the Obama administration has treated Bradley Manning and its continuing attempt to extradict Julian Assange are sufficient reasons in and of themselves not to support Obama's reelection. Since they are part of a larger pattern of violating the Constitution and attempting to crush dissent by the administration there are several other reasons as well for wanting to see Obama retired to private life. Long live both Bradley Manning and Julian Assange. ophah Kingweigh-Right on! I decided a couple days ago that I will not support Obama anymore. No, I won't vote for Rmoney; I just can't bring myself to vote for the Impotent Emperor Obama. Bicfj-Voting for Romney would be disastrous compare with voting for inadequate Obams. A BETTER PLAN would be to VOTE ALL OF THE NO-SAYERS OUT OF CONGRESS, including the dinos, democrats in name only. The UK has very strong extradition laws. It took the United States over six years, for instance, to get Gary McKinnon extradited from Britain (he was accused of hacking into the FBI's computer network in search of information on UFOs).http://www.4ni.co.uk/northern_.... Sweden, despite its (generally deserved) reputation as a beacon of Social Democracy, its a very small (7 million people), trade-dependent country with a history of subservience to US empire. In 2001, Sweden handed over two asylum-seekers to the CIA, which rendered them to Egypt, where they were of course tortured.http://www.salon.com/2012/06/1.... It's not a conspiracy theory to suggest that the US wants Assange extradited to the US. There's rather conclusive evidence that the US has already convened a grand jury in Virginia for the purposes of prosecuting him and has questioned other Wikileaks higher-ups about him. They can't prosecute him from Sweden or the UK; they need to first get him to the United States. The sex crimes allegations against Assange (at this point they are merely allegations; he's yet to be formally charged) are doubtlessly serious. His heroic efforts to expand transparency and accountability around the world do not exempt him from culpability for these allegations. I certainly understand why many people, particularly women, want him held to account for these allegations but it's wrong to dismiss concerns over extradition to the US as mere "conspiracy."