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12 Aug 2005 @ 14:05, by swanny. Government, Public Sector
AFTER THE BOMB
by a.g. jonas
Who won the cold war? Well I heard some say that the cold war wasn't necessarily won but successfully avoided and only by "luck" as it were.
I suppose it really doesn't matter somehow. The problem though was that the current state of affairs was never anticipated. No one anticipated the avoidance of the catastrophe it demanded. It perhaps was not even considered probable to arrive at our current situation so it was not planned for. No one anticipated the current reality. No one could see past the bomb, No one could even "imagine" past the bomb. John Lennon? well hmmmmm
None the less here we have arrived without a plan and without a vision and I suppose some opportunists ie: terrorists, have taken advantage of this lack of vision, leadership and foresight to impose their agendas of confusion. Thats perhaps how strong the enigma of the "bomb" was. It was perhaps a potential and power so vast that we somehow could not contain it and the imaginings it purported in us.
But here we are, like lost sheep in a post cold war, post bomb reality, a reality that defied and still seems to defy the odds. The bomb has been relatively contained or somewhat half heartedly accepted and we have in a sense transcended it for lack of a better sense but now we sort of aimlessly wander from day to day.
The Internet, that somehow was not anticipated either, even in the visionary annals say of "Startrek" and such, we have no precedence for this means of communication and whatever.
So what is this.... Is it perhaps a "success" of sorts a "mutual success" a mutual "compromise" a mutual reality. And where do we go from here. It is perhaps a blank canvas of sorts and a second chance of sorts for humanity. And an unprecedented one at that. Yet where are the visionaries, the poets with there pens, did they all take the last plane to the coast the day the planet died and they were singing bye bye miss american planet, took my chevy to the levy but the levy was....
Hmmmm just food for thought.... Nothing comes to mind at the moment except perhaps enjoying the passage of time.... and..... More >
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5 Aug 2005 @ 20:00, by gsosbee. Government, Public Sector
I hear much talk today from the president and his stooges (such as Rumsfeld) who proclaim that we Americans are fighting for world freedom; world freedom is exactly what the United States government seeks to end in order to tighten the stranglehold on the globe. See:
[link] .
Indeed, most nations of the world now begin to recognize that the United States offers no effective leadership that would give assurances that the people may realistically expect to live free of government sponsored wars, terrorism, and fascist tactics against the civilian population . John F. Kennedy sought to stop inhumane and unconstitutional killing and torturing both here in the U.S. and around the globe; he was *shot dead by elements of this nation that want to keep the people in chains; the mentality of the assassins who shot Kennedy (and who covered it up, or failed in their responsibility to get to the bottom of the murder) is the same as that mind set which rules today: the atrocious and flawed thinking by current officials of the U.S. government may be seen in the criminal activities of both the fbi and the cia as set forth in My Story In Detail at :
[link]
*On November 11,1963, James Reston of the NY Times captured the awful tone that dominated America then and now as he wrote: " America wept tonight, not alone for its dead President, but for itself; the grief was general, for somehow the worst in the nation had prevailed over the best. The indictment extended beyond the assassin, for something in the nation itself, some strain of madness and violence, had destroyed the highest symbol of law and order."
The strain of madness and violence mentioned above in the 1963 article can be seen unfetterd today and speeding in high gear as shown in the hideous and criminal antics of the fbi and the cia at home and abroad.
See Also:
[link]
_________________________________________________________
See Also:
[link]
from which the following data is noted:
America convicted of being a war criminal in 1986
Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2001 - From: Richard - Subject: Did you know this?
Did you know that in 1986 the World Court convicted America of being a war criminal for its crimes committed in Nicaragua in '83 and '84? They insisted that America face the music, and the American government refused. And the only reason that no one could enforce the decision that the World Court came to is because America is currently the foremost superpower in the world. If that wasn't the case though, maybe America would have been bombed, and some of the people in other countries would have felt that we deserved it, just like many Americans now feel that it's unfortunate but necessary that innocent Afghani civilians are killed in the current bombings if it means that maybe bin Laden and the Taliban will be killed in the process.
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For more on fbi murderers see:
[link]
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2 Jun 2005 @ 21:31, by vaxen. Government, Public Sector
“The National Security Act of ‘47 gave us the National Security Council. Never have we had a National Security Council so concerned about the nation’s security that we’re always looking for threats and looking how to orchestrate our society to oppose those threats. National Security was invented, almost, in 1947, and now it has become the prime mover of everything we do as measured against something we invented in 1947."
-- U.S. Navy Admiral Gene La Rocque in PBS Documentary "The Secret Government" (view free [link] ) More >
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 16 May 2005 @ 21:36, by spells. Government, Public Sector
They Said It Couldn’t Happen Here
(But It IS)
(by anonymous author)
I was told at the age of five by my German refugee Grandmother, “Don’t you ever believe that it can’t happen here”. In the pre-Nazi era my family believed, like the majority of others, that because we lived in a democracy that was founded in a civilized world, that nothing like what was to come could even be imagined, let alone expected. They had all seen the warning signs of insanity and blind hatred, stirred to a war-fever pitch, but had chosen to deny them for the most part, until it was too late. The Germany of that time was a place of hopes for the future, as a nation amongst many peaceful neighbors in the world community. The first World War, the one that was supposed to, “end all wars”, was now a memory from which the world had supposedly learned its lessons. But that was not to be the case, as history proves. The attention span of the public is short, and memories are even shorter.
Today we witness the modern America with its supposed reputation for being a haven of “peace, justice and democracy” taking the foremost role as aggressor, tyrant and world bully. All this talk of “keeping world peace”, “defending freedom and democracy” through warring ways and the disintegration of our Bill of Rights and Constitution, amounts to one single endpoint…things are not as we are told on our televisions. Today we find that the world is not a very peaceful place, and this is largely, if not primarily due to the constant threats issued, and wars of aggression waged, by the United States. The entire world community is up in arms. Nervous fears of wars and grave international instability abound. World War III looms large on the immediate horizon. Open talks of nuclear attacks of one nation upon another, boasted by world leaders like the bold promises of retaliation made by any grade school bully, are the common rhetoric of international relations. The proliferation of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons is skyrocketing, as every country on Earth looks to the examples of Afghanistan and Iraq, and sees the possibility of their own demise, and are thus convinced that if they are not properly armed with such weapons, they will have no means to deter wars of aggression by imperial super-power governments. Once again the people of the world are faced with the dilemma of their own support for governments which flaunt their ability to end the human race forever. Once again the same plea by intellectuals and progressive people the world over go basically unheard, while madmen race to destroy each other for the sake of imperial ambitions of world domination, and the filling of bank accounts.
The parallels between Nazi Germany and the current United States are just too striking to ignore. Yet most people seem bent on ignoring them. This too is a parallel between 1933 and 2003. Many people ask of history and of the German people, “How could a population of people have allowed such an evil as Hitler to arise, when they saw it happening, step by step”? The answer is being re-written by history in this present day, right before our eyes. Because millions of people didn’t WANT to believe what was happening in Nazi Germany they didn’t live to see 1945. They didn’t offer any significant resistance to the Nazi party as it rose to power, preferring instead to cower helplessly at each new imposition of civil liberty erosion, arbitrary arrests, and martial law. They believed that they were citizens of a great country, one that was based on democratic principles and which would balance itself politically and socially, by not allowing extremists and fascists to take it over. But they were wrong. Those that stayed were either killed in their homes, died in concentration camps or hid in attics and basements for the duration of the war. Others simply joined the Nazis and became the oppressors, so that they in turn might not be oppressed. Neighbor turned against neighbor, children against parents, man against wife, sword against reason. Then it was called “the Jewish Problem”. Now it’s called “the War on Terror”, a conflict that is literally scheduled to last decades.
Those that did escape before the era of the concentration camps were forced to leave everything behind, assuming they were lucky enough to obtain a passport. All their possessions, titles, lands, homes and personal histories were wiped out. This was the plight of the German Jews and millions of others throughout Europe, and it is one of those moments in time which has repeated itself over and over again throughout recorded history. Yet through all these travails and trials at the hands of oppressors, how much did the people learn regarding the wrong use of power? How much did they learn from the holding of materialistic and ideologically selfish values, the very ones which have brought about most wars throughout the world? How many people have actually changed their values as reflected in an honest appraisal of society and a real change of lifestyle? Almost no one. If the present norms of American living and the actions of modern Israel are any indication, people have learned almost nothing. In the short span of 50 years, people have already forgotten the lessons history has to teach, and they fall yet again for the very same ploys of fascists and government criminals, who give excuses for war and injustice.
Even in the time of the Roman empire, Caesar was quoted as saying,
“Beware the leader who bangs the drum of war,
In order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor,
for patriotism is indeed a double edged sword.
It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind.
And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch
And the blood boils with hate
And the mind has closed, the leader will have no need of seizing
the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism,
will offer up all of their rights unto the leader, and gladly so.
How do I know? For this is what I have done.
And I am Caesar.”
What had the people learned from the Nazi era? Almost nothing other than to say a great tragedy was committed, yet without any bother to explain WHY it happened to start with. Even at the age of five I could see that my family, which had remained Jewish, had not changed their values or their lifestyle in any way. In fact they held onto it even more. Their main focus was, as ever, the making of money and the holding of social status in a materialistic society, which values possessions and bank accounts far more than people or life. My family was quite wealthy in pre-Nazi Germany, with house servants, a mansion-like house, artwork, silver, jewelry, fine furniture and china, fur coats and all the modern conveniences. Rather than learning some needed life lessons about how greedy and selfish values are the very foundations for fascism and war, my family went about seeking another fortune soon after they arrived in the United States. Spiritual values were never sincerely discussed, only traditional, shallow rituals and obligatory motions. Never did they ever speak of WHY the Nazis rose to power, or how they held it despite their obvious levels of corruption, fraud and abuse. Never did they speak of what THEY did to prevent Nazi-ism from gaining and keeping its power over a large portion of the world. In essence, they did nothing at all to prevent it, and yet went on and on about what a horrible tragedy the whole affair was. They spoke of how much they lost, but rarely spoke of the reasons why so many suffered, or how many died, or what social changes were needed to keep it from happening again. To me these attitudes were and are tantamount to being uncaring about preventing or solving anything, and only engaging in more selfishness, by emphasizing what victims the poor Jews were.
It is more than noteworthy to realize that in these modern times, those most prone to agreeing with and paying for unprovoked wars of aggression, such as with Iraq, are those “good” religious people in the Jewish and Christian traditions. Just like abused children who become abusive parents, the descendants of concentration camp inmates and Roman persecution have become the proponents of mass murder, so long as they think that might benefit them in some selfish way. If this were not so, then these religious communities would have long ago expressed their extreme discomfort and outrage at the moral and spiritual atrocity being contemplated in the Middle East. And just like the Jews and Christians, American “patriots” imagine that they are in many ways better than anyone else, that they are the “chosen” people to rule the world. Like the Nazis’, many Americans think that God is clearly on their side, and that whatever they want as the, “superior race” is what the world should immediately give, or face the consequences of war and mass death. Like early 1940’s Germany, America imagines that it can both make the rules by which the world should live, and simultaneously break them whenever it is convenient.
It’s a tried and true tactic of dictators everywhere, to pose false or even self-created threats to, “justify” the slaughtering of millions, to corrupt the due process of law, to excuse torture, the arbitrary cancellation of international treaties, the daily telling of the most bald-faced lies in the media and the imprisonment of anyone who might disagree. But people refuse to learn. In time they themselves become the aggressors and the fascists, through the holding of those very same corrupt and greedy values of, “my advantage before yours” mentality. Through their fear and their narrow minded selfishness they create yet again the repetition of the tragedies of history, in the name of patriotism and national self-protection.
In Nazi Germany fascism started with the public persecution of intellectuals, thinkers, artists and those of alternative politics, with the government doing everything in its “legal” power to sweep away all resistance to its own corruption and hypocrisy. Then there was the passing of legislation which increasingly made dissent of all kinds a grave offense against the, “best interests of the people” and in the name of, “patriotism”. In this way fascism was “legalized”. After this there was the ominous build-up of both military and domestic police forces to “enforce” the “law” and discourage anyone “radical” and “unpatriotic” enough to voice any significant opposition to government policy. At the end Nazi facism engaged in the widespread round-up, imprisonment and extermination of the Jews and anyone else who opposed them. What is the relevance of this to the modern day? These are exactly the trends we see set in motion through such legislature as the Patriot Act, the Department of Homeland Security, the gutting of the national treasury for the sake of private, corporate benefit, widespread government corruption, utter contempt for real democratic process, the rigging of elections, the huge enlargement of the prison system and population, the continuous erosion of civil liberties and the due process of law. Worst of all, we find that the American public has become too brainwashed by the media, (and particularly the television which the Nazis didn’t have) to understand what is really going on, or even really care.
To quote the proposed articles of “Patriot Act 2” the following provisions are likely to be pushed through congress;
From [link],1250,BDC_2489_1738465,00.html
Whereas the First Patriot Act only gutted the First, Third, Fourth and Fifth Amendments, and seriously damaged the Seventh and the Tenth, the Second Patriot Act reorganizes the entire Federal government as well as many areas of state government, under the dictatorial control of the Justice Department, the Office of Homeland Security and the FEMA NORTHCOM military command. The Domestic Security Enhancement Act 2003, also known as the Second Patriot Act is by its very structure the definition of dictatorship. I challenge all Americans to study the new Patriot Act and to compare it to the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence. Ninety percent of the act has nothing to do with terrorism and is instead a giant Federal power-grab with tentacles reaching into every facet of our society. It strips American citizens of all of their rights and grants the government and its private agents total immunity. Here is a quick thumbnail sketch of just some of the draconian measures encapsulated within this tyrannical legislation:
SECTION 501 (Expatriation of Terrorists) expands the Bush administration's "enemy combatant" definition to all American citizens who "may" have violated any provision of
Section 802 of the first Patriot Act. (Section 802 is the new definition of domestic terrorism, and the definition is "any action that endangers human life that is a violation of any Federal or State law.") Section 501 of the second Patriot Act directly connects to
Section 125 of the same act. The Justice Department boldly claims that the incredibly broad Section 802 of the First USA Patriot Act isn't broad enough and that a new, unlimited definition of terrorism is needed.
Under Section 501 a US citizen engaging in lawful activities can be grabbed off the street and thrown into a van never to be seen again. The Justice Department states that they can do this because the person "had inferred from conduct" that they were not a US citizen. Remember Section 802 of the First USA Patriot Act states that any violation of Federal or State law can result in the "enemy combatant" terrorist designation.
SECTION 201 of the second Patriot Act makes it a criminal act for any member of the government or any citizen to release any information concerning the incarceration or whereabouts of detainees. It also states that law enforcement does not even have to tell the press who they have arrested and they never have to release the names.
SECTION 301 and 306 (Terrorist Identification Database) set up a national database of "suspected terrorists" and radically expand the database to include anyone associated with suspected terrorist groups and anyone involved in crimes or having supported any group designated as "terrorist." These sections also set up a national DNA database for anyone on probation or who has been on probation for any crime, and orders State governments to collect the DNA for the Federal government.
SECTION 312 gives immunity to law enforcement engaging in spying operations against the American people and would place substantial restrictions on court injunctions against Federal violations of civil rights across the board. SECTION 101 will designate individual terrorists as foreign powers and again strip them of all rights under the "enemy combatant" designation.
SECTION 102 states clearly that any information gathering, regardless of whether or not those activities are illegal, can be considered to be clandestine intelligence activities for a foreign power. This makes news gathering illegal.
SECTION 103 allows the Federal government to use wartime martial law powers domestically and internationally without Congress declaring that a state of war exists.
SECTION 106 is bone-chilling in its straightforwardness. It states that broad general warrants by the secret FSIA court (a panel of secret judges set up in a star chamber system that convenes in an undisclosed location) granted under the first Patriot Act are not good enough. It states that government agents must be given immunity for carrying out searches with no prior court approval. This section throws out the entire Fourth Amendment against unreasonable searches and seizures.
SECTION 109 allows secret star chamber courts to issue contempt charges against any individual or corporation who refuses to incriminate themselves or others. This sections annihilate the last vestiges of the Fifth Amendment.
SECTION 110 restates that key police state clauses in the first Patriot Act were not sunsetted and removes the five year sunset clause from other subsections of the first Patriot Act. After all, the media has told us: "this is the New America. Get used to it. This is forever."
SECTION 111 expands the definition of the "enemy combatant" designation. SECTION 122 restates the government's newly announced power of "surveillance without a court order."
SECTION 123 restates that the government no longer needs warrants and that the investigations can be a giant dragnet-style sweep described in press reports about the Total Information Awareness Network. One passage reads, "thus the focus of domestic surveillance may be less precise than that directed against more conventional types of crime." *Note: Over and over again, in subsection after subsection, the second Patriot Act states that its new Soviet-type powers will be used to fight international terrorism, domestic terrorism and other types of crimes. Of course the government has already announced in Section 802 of the first USA Patriot act that any crime is considered domestic terrorism.
SECTION 126 grants the government the right to mine the entire spectrum of public and private sector information from bank records to educational and medical records. This is the enacting law to allow ECHELON and the Total Information Awareness Network to break down any and all walls of privacy. The government states that they must look at everything to "determine" if individuals or groups might have a connection to terrorist groups. As you can now see, you are guilty until proven innocent.
SECTION 127 allows the government to takeover coroners' and medical examiners' operations whenever they see fit. See how this is like Bill Clinton's special medical examiner he had in Arkansas that ruled that people had committed suicide when their arms and legs had been cut off.
SECTION 128 allows the Federal government to place gag orders on Federal and State Grand Juries and to take over the proceedings. It also disallows individuals or organizations to even try to quash a Federal subpoena. So now defending yourself will be a terrorist action.
SECTION 129 destroys any remaining whistleblower protection for Federal agents.
SECTION 202 allows corporations to keep secret their activities with toxic biological, chemical or radiological materials.
SECTION 205 allows top Federal officials to keep all their financial dealings secret, and anyone investigating them can be considered a terrorist. This should be very useful for Dick Cheney to stop anyone investigating Haliburton.
SECTION 303 sets up national DNA database of suspected terrorists. The database will also be used to "stop other unlawful activities." It will share the information with state, local and foreign agencies for the same purposes.
SECTION 311 federalizes your local police department in the area of information sharing.
SECTION 313 provides liability protection for businesses, especially big businesses that spy on their customers for Homeland Security, violating their privacy agreements. It goes on to say that these are all preventative measures - has anyone seen Minority Report? This is the access hub for the Total Information Awareness Network.
SECTION 321 authorizes foreign governments to spy on the American people and to share information with foreign governments.
SECTION 322 removes Congress from the extradition process and allows officers of the Homeland Security complex to extradite American citizens anywhere they wish. It also allows Homeland Security to secretly take individuals out of foreign countries.
SECTION 402 is titled "Providing Material Support to Terrorism." The section reads that there is no requirement to show that the individual even had the intent to aid terrorists.
SECTION 403 expands the definition of weapons of mass destruction to include any activity that affects interstate or foreign commerce.
SECTION 404 makes it a crime for a terrorist or "other criminals" to use encryption in the commission of a crime.
SECTION 408 creates "lifetime parole" (basically, slavery) for a whole host of crimes.
SECTION 410 creates no statute of limitations for anyone that engages in terrorist actions or supports terrorists. Remember: any crime is now considered terrorism under the first Patriot Act.
SECTION 411 expands crimes that are punishable by death. Again, they point to Section 802 of the first Patriot Act and state that any terrorist act or support of terrorist act can result in the death penalty.
SECTION 421 increases penalties for terrorist financing. This section states that any type of financial activity connected to terrorism will result to time in prison and $10-50,000 fines per violation. S
ECTIONS 427 sets up asset forfeiture provisions for anyone engaging in terrorist activities. There are many other sections that I did not cover in the interest of time. The American people were shocked by the despotic nature of the first Patriot Act. The second
Patriot Act dwarfs all police state legislation in modern world history. ---
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On top of all this, the current national debt now runs at the astronomical figure of 6.4 Trillion dollars. See this excerpt from;
[link]
demonstrating the criminal and unaccountable nature of the current American regime. A total lack of accountability on the part of state and federal law makers as to the reasons WHY the budgets are so indebted and imbalanced, is considered common place. Not only do government officials offer no logical explanation why the richest economy in the world is so in debt, they rarely offer any explanation at all. Nor do a sheep-like American public demand one…
Government Hits $6.4 Trillion Debt Limit
Thu Feb 20,11:18 AM ET
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON - Replaying a drama from last year, the government is once again bumping against the debt limit of $6.4 trillion and the Treasury Department (news - web sites) has begun taking evasive actions to prevent an unprecedented default on the national debt.
Treasury Secretary John Snow informed leaders of Congress on Wednesday that the government would reach the borrowing limit on Thursday and he would begin pulling investments out of a $48 billion government pension fund to make room for normal public borrowing auctions.
In a reference to the looming possibility of a war with Iraq, Snow urged Congress to act without delay to raise the borrowing limit.
**********
In a contemptuous and completely routine manner, President Bush effectually stated that the protests of the people mean nothing to him, and wont change his policies of aggression in the slightest. This is not democracy, it is dictatorship.
Bush Shrugs Off Global Antiwar Protests
By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) on Tuesday shrugged off global protests against a possible U.S.-led war with Iraq and the White House said a new U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing military force could be proposed this week.
In a huge wave of demonstrations not seen since the Vietnam War, more than 6 million peace protesters took to the streets in 600 towns and cities from Cape Town to Chicago on Saturday.
Bush told reporters that "democracy is a beautiful thing and people are allowed to express their opinion" but that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) is a risk to peace.
"Evidently some in the world don't view Saddam as a risk to peace. I respectfully disagree," Bush said.
********
Additionally, the current U.S. government works to;
1) continually erode all environmental protections and international treaties for the sake of corporate profits.
2) Provide arms and weapons of mass destruction to countries around the world, as the biggest supplier of these materials the world has ever known. [This includes Iraq in the 1980’s, which the U.S. supplied such materials to during the Iran-Iraq war.]
3) Encourage cut-throat economic practices that are designed to strangle the third world with debt, and create sweat shop labor for the sake of corporate profits. To undercut the economies of developed nations, rather than seeking to cooperate with them.
4) Threaten the international community with war or economic measures in the event that they seek to act in any way that is contrary to Washington’s demands, through the use of “pre-emptive” war, nuclear weapons and trade sanctions. Recent dealings with NATO and the UN prove this point beyond a doubt.
5) Bribe foreign officials with the tax money of American citizens, so as to achieve their political and imperial aims, such as in the case of the “foreign aid package” now being offered to Turkey, in exchange for its’ compliance as an Iraq battle-front.
6) Usurp and otherwise install puppet regimes throughout Central and South America, for the sake of exploiting those country’s natural resources.
7) Silencing dissenting voices through the cancellation of funding to universities and other public institutions, who express their discontent with foreign and domestic policy. This includes the making of death threats and firing of professors, and the disbanding of student groups who are vocal about opposing imperialism. It also includes a strong measure of increasing police brutality at peacefully organized protests.
8) Pass legislation which is transparently geared to give free handouts, such as enormous tax breaks and legal loopholes to big business, even in the midst of the biggest national budget crisis in history, while simultaneously forcing states to raise their taxes as a burden to the people.
9) Impose an increasingly police-state version of martial law, in the huge bloating of “law enforcement” beaurocracies, such as the DEA, Homeland Security, the FBI, the CIA and a whole host of minor agencies, all working to keep the public under their imperial thumb. The United States already has the largest per capita prison population in the world, and there is every indication that they intend to build even more prisons, and imprison even more people.
10) Maintain a nearly air-tight control of the major media, on television, radio, magazines and newspapers.
11) Spend by far the most money for the military than any country ever known, and whose total exceeds the military budgets of the next 12 largest countries in the world COMBINED. This expense is in excess of 500 billion dollars a year, and constantly growing.
12) Create laws designed to be followed only by the great mass of the working public, who are under that threshold of economic status known as, “the ultra rich” or “wealthy elite”. Such laws do not apply to the rich, nor do they apply to the United States government. This government has made it perfectly clear that it is bound by no laws at all, or only those which are deemed momentarily convenient, for the sake of domestic or international advantage.
13) Creating programs like “TIPS” which encourage people to spy on each other, to report any “suspicious behavior”. This where the guy who reads your electric meter can look into your window and report you for having politically incorrect books on your bookshelf, or where the person sitting next to you on an airplane doesn’t like the comment you just made about the government, or that you simply “look nervous”.
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It takes no great leap of logic or intuition to conclude that the American government has been taken over by big-money interests, who are little more than glorified mobsters. These ring leaders of organized crime create laws that seem to justify their criminal negligence, but which any logical analysis of their activities will reveal as quite illegal. The current “budget deficit” is a perfect example. Although the average person is required to show where and how they spend their money, and to balance their books in order for taxes to be paid, no such requirement is made of the government. In fact, the U.S. government couldn’t possibly show an honest account of its books, since it’s spending practices are thoroughly illegal and fraudulent. How else can one conclude, given that we are supposedly strongest economy and richest nation in the world, but at the same time have the biggest public debt ever known, to the tune of 6.4 Trillion dollars? Where has all this money been squandered? No one can clearly say, least of all the corrupt politicians running the show.
The fact is, the United States is already broke, and that it’s money has been siphoned off in leech-like fashion by private interests, such as the major corporations of the world. The treasury of America is basically insolvent, since it owes more than it can realistically repay for decades to come. No business could hope to operate in such an inefficient and fraudulent manner, but since the government is little more than a parasite infecting the labors of the people, it carries on, and with each year that passes more debts are added to the backs of the working class. When will the last straw break the camels’ back, both here at home, and abroad in foreign policy? Who knows. But what is certain is that this current state of affairs cannot possibly last much longer, and MUST simply collapse due to sheer corruption and wrong spending values.
The fact that America is already broke is not the main issue in the minds of the international community at present, which is why foreign nations still treat the dollar as a valid form of exchange. The dollar is essentially worthless. But what goes as a surrogate for worth is the fact that the world views America’s international influence as the standard for the world economy. Why is this so? It’s because the U.S. military still holds the primary power-position in world events. Given this, the world fears what the international bully might do to THEM next, and so, is intimidated into complying with the idea that the dollar is the standard currency by which all things monetary are judged. This is the true and underlying reason behind the U.S. military build-up and the “War on Terror” that has been carried to the world. It is also the secret reason why the Department of Homeland Security has been so amplified, so as to keep the probable revolts of the American citizenry in check, as more and more needed social services are removed. Government leaders behind the scenes know that the whole economic mess is on the verge of collapse, and only military intimidation of the world can keep it from faltering completely.
Like pre-Nazi Germany, American corporate interests are on the verge of collapse, while the economy is being held up by the thread of an illusory “recovery”. Only the toils of the vast majority of wage-slave employees, are keeping the current machine sufficiently oiled to get by one more year at a time. Corporate America knows this and has invented the War on Terror as an excuse to invade and occupy one country after the next, particularly those with special resources and strategic positioning. And just like the Nazis they plan to destroy one country after the next in the most cold blooded fashion, all in the name of “national security” and “freedom”.
If you enjoy the thought of contributing to World War III, then by all means remain silent like the Jews were, prior to 1940. Or better yet, continue to be deluded by the idea that changing the system through “getting out the vote” or writing letters to Congress people is going to do any good, when the voting machines are rigged and most Senators are on the corporate payroll…
“Beware the leader who bangs the drum of war”….. More >
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 31 Aug 2004 @ 12:46, by scotty. Government, Public Sector
The Philipino Government capitulated in the face of terrorist threats to kill one of their citizens - it seems that France is now facing this same dilema - how can we judge whether they are right or wrong !
"...under what circumstances may the State justly place its welfare above that of a citizen?"
"A genuine moral dilemma arises when a wrong must be committed, not just for any purpose, but unavoidably for a genuinely good purpose. If the purpose of a prince or leader is simply his own personal or dynastic ambition, regardless of the cost to his country or its citizens, this is not a worthy purpose, and we have an evil, not a dilemma. Machiavelli does say that "it is often necessary to act against mercy, against faith, against humanity, against frankness, against religion in order to preserve the state," which does seem to say that the state, and not personal or dynastic ambition, is the proper end of statecraft. Perhaps so, but this also depends on what the state is supposed to be. If the state is an end in itself, then a dilemma does not arise if some individuals must be sacrificed to it. This again turns "raison d'état" into an amoral principle, using real individuals for the sake of an abstract, collective entity. But if the state is not an end or a good in itself, but an instrumental good to some truly moral end, then a genuine dilemma can arise, as the service of the moral end of the state may conflict with the means that become necessary for its pursuit."..... { http://www.friesian.com/machiav.htm}
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8 Jun 2004 @ 12:50, by bkodish. Government, Public Sector
Twenty years ago, when he was president I was one of the scoffers who considered him an "amiable dunce." Since then, I've left the 'left' (l call myself a "classical liberal"), consider myself more 'open-minded' than I used to be, and have realized that though he was indeed amiable, Ronald Reagan was not a 'dunce' at all, at all. More >
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 8 Jun 2004 @ 01:25, by jazzolog. Government, Public Sector
The simplest questions are the hardest to answer.
---Northrup Frye
Deep in their roots,
All flowers keep the light.
---Theodore Roethke
all the high flying birds are gone
the last cloud leaves as well
but we two aren't bored
me and Ching-t'ing Peak
---Li-Po
Cartoon by Kirk Anderson [link]
Get into some others at his site, if you don't know him.
Thanks to Quinty for turning me on!
The Death of Reagan
Bedtime for Bonzo
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson
06/06/04
Well, we all knew when Reagan died, we would get hit by an amazing tidal wave of bullshit from the right, and sure enough, we are. Mind you, the right had been trying to erect a cult of personality around the "Great Communicator" from the day he left office. Even before the meat stopped twitching, the right was promoting a scheme where every state would have a town renamed after Reagan ("Reagangrad", anyone?) and they wanted Reagan to replace FDR on the dime. They had renamed an airport after him (obsolete and often shrouded in fog, which was apt) and there is an aircraft carrier named for him. No space shuttles or Marine barracks, though. More >
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 14 May 2004 @ 15:35, by ferre. Government, Public Sector
The following is a summary of the experiences of a representative of the European NGO Council on Drug Policy while attending the conference called "The Way Forward", on a new European Union strategy on illicit drugs, which was held in the Hotel Conrad, Dublin, Ireland, on 10 and 11 May, 2004.
My presence at the Conference followed an invitation of the organisers (Irish government, current EU-presidency together with the Dutch government, the next EU -presidency) to inform about the position of European NGO's working on drugs issues. The result was that some governments re-acted on this presence as if I had come to open the box of Pandora…
The audience consisted of about 200 people: mostly civil servants from all the 25 EU Member States, some from candidate countries Rumania, Bulgaria and Turkey, some representatives of European Institutions (European Commission, Europol, European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction EMCDDA, Council of Europe), some observers from third governments (Norway, United States) and two NGO representatives (TNI and ENCOD). More >
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 19 Apr 2004 @ 01:50, by spells. Government, Public Sector
Kerry on “Meet the Press:” Democratic candidate reiterates support for Iraq war
By Patrick Martin
19 April 2004
In an hour-long appearance Sunday on the NBC News program “Meet the Press,” the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Senator John Kerry, reiterated his support for the US war in Iraq, while suggesting that it would take the election of a new president for Washington to succeed in mobilizing additional foreign troops and resources to reinforce its grip on the conquered country.
Kerry underscored his solidarity with the Bush administration’s policy of crushing the mass uprising that has brought together Sunni Muslims in the west-central area of Iraq and Shiites in Baghdad and the south in a common struggle against the occupation forces. Saying the US should send in more troops if necessary to defeat the insurgency and prevent a failure of the Iraq occupation, the Democratic candidate declared, “Number one, we cannot fail.”
“Meet the Press” interviewer Tim Russert asked Kerry about an op-ed column he wrote for the Washington Post last week, in which he stated: “Our country has committed to help the Iraqis build a stable, peaceful and pluralistic society. No matter who is elected president in November, we will persevere in that mission.” Kerry replied by repeating his unconditional endorsement of the American occupation, leading Russert to respond, “That sounds exactly like George Bush.”
The program began with Russert asking Kerry, “Do you believe the war in Iraq was a mistake?” Kerry replied, “I think the way the president went to war is a mistake.” This set the tone for the entire interview, as Russert asked no further questions about the decision to go to war and focused entirely on Kerry’s prescriptions for fighting the war more effectively.
Kerry made repeated criticisms of Bush’s conduct of the war. He said, “This administration misled America,” and declared that Bush “broke faith with his own promises to the country.” He added, “Iraq had nothing to do with Al Qaeda.” But Russert did not ask how a war based on such lies could be legitimate, and Kerry did volunteer an opinion.
Instead, Kerry again voiced a theme first raised in a speech last week in New York City: that the criteria for a successful completion of the US intervention in Iraq would be the creation of a stable regime, not the establishment of a democracy. Following Kerry’s pronouncement that “we cannot fail” in Iraq, the following exchange took place:
Russert: How do you define failure?
Kerry: Well, I think failure is the lack of a stable Iraq. I think a failed state in Iraq is failure.
Russert: An Islamic regime similar to Iran would be acceptable?
Kerry: You could even go further than what I just said and suggest that if we are stuck for a long period of time in a quagmire where young Americans are dying without a sense of that being able to be achieved, I think most Americans will decide that’s failure.
Russert: Could you accept a Shiite theocracy running Iraq similar to what we have in Iran?
Kerry: I think that what is important is to have a pluralistic representation. It doesn’t have to be, at least in the early days, the kind of democracy this administration has talked about, though that’s our goal and we should remain there. But what is critical is a stable Iraq.
In other words, a President Kerry would scrap the messianic and increasingly ludicrous rhetoric of the Bush administration about democratizing Iraq and the entire Middle East, and get down to business: creating the stable conditions required for American capitalism to extract super profits from Iraq’s oil resources, under some form of clerical/military dictatorship propped up by American troops.
In the course of the interview, Kerry also declared that if he is elected, there could well be 100,000 or more American troops in Iraq a year from now. Kerry went on to say, “Tim, let me be very clear to you: We are united around our troops. We support our troops. They’re extraordinarily courageous. We have the best military we’ve ever had in the history of our country, and they deserve a strategy that’s going to minimize the risk to them. But I am united, along with everybody else, in knowing that we have to have a success in not having a failed Iraq. That we are united in.”
This declaration of unity is Kerry’s assurance to the American ruling elite that whatever criticisms he may make of the Bush administration’s tactics in the war—particularly its dismissal of the views of nominal allies like France and Germany, and its contempt for institutions like the United Nations—he is committed to maintaining US control of Iraq. With its strategic position in the center of the Middle East, and its vast oil reserves, a US-dominated Iraq has become a vital interest of American imperialism, and will not be given up lightly.
Reassuring the ruling class has been Kerry’s main focus all week. At a public forum at City College in New York, he seized on a question from a vocal critic of the war to underscore his support of the US occupation. Retired mathematics professor Walter Daum denounced the war in Iraq as imperialist, and warned that a President Kerry would quickly become as hated as Bush if he continued Bush’s policies in Iraq.
Kerry did not try to interrupt his antagonist—evidently welcoming the opportunity to distance himself from antiwar sentiment. He then replied, “I have consistently been critical of how we got where we are. But we are where we are, sir, and it would be unwise beyond belief for the United States of America to leave a failed Iraq in its wake.”
Later he gave a speech to a fundraising event that netted nearly $3.5 million from Wall Street fat cats and other corporate executives in which he flatly declared his opposition to “redistribution of the wealth,” and pledged a Kerry administration to fiscal responsibility and deficit reduction.
On “Meet the Press,” Kerry gave other assurances of the right-wing foreign policy his administration would pursue. Asked about the Israeli assassination of Hamas leader Abdel-aziz Rantisi, he responded, “I believe Israel has every right in the world to respond to any act of terror against it. Hamas is a terrorist, brutal organization.” He also gave uncritical support to Bush’s decision last week to reverse four decades of American foreign policy by officially supporting Israeli retention of West Bank land illegally occupied by Israeli settlers.
Finally, Kerry made what amounts to a repudiation of the antiwar stance which first brought him to public attention during the Vietnam War. Russert played a tape of Kerry’s first appearance on “Meet the Press,” in April 1971, when the Democratic candidate was a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. The young former Navy lieutenant showed considerable personal courage by going on national television to admit his own involvement in actions—search-and-destroy missions, the burning of villages and other atrocities—which violated the Geneva Conventions.
More importantly, the antiwar veteran compared the leaders of the US government to Lt. William Calley, who was tried and convicted of mass murder in the My Lai massacre: “All of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down. And I believe that the men who designed these, the men who designed the free-fire zone, the men who ordered us, the men who signed off the air raid strike areas, I think these men, by the letter of the law, the same letter of the law that tried Lieutenant Calley, are war criminals.”
Thirty-three years later, as a senator who is auditioning for the position of war-criminal-in-chief, Kerry was called upon to make a public act of contrition. Under prompting from Russert, Kerry declared that “atrocities” was “a bad word ... an inappropriate word.” As for calling presidents Johnson and Nixon and their top generals war criminals, he told Russert: “It was, I think, a reflection of the kind of times we found ourselves in and I don’t like it when I hear it today.”
At the same time, Kerry tried to have it both ways. “There were breaches of the Geneva Conventions,” in Vietnam, he said. “There were policies in place that were not acceptable according to the laws of warfare, and everybody knows that.” He concluded: “I’m proud that I took the position that I took to oppose it. I think we saved lives, and I’m proud that I stood up at a time when it was important to stand up, but I’m not going to quibble, you know, 35 years later that I might not have phrased things more artfully at times.”
The issue, of course, is not artfulness, but truth. The young Lieutenant Kerry of 1971 gained national attention because he provided at least a glimpse of the brutal reality of imperialist war. The Senator Kerry of 2004 seeks to trade on his antiwar reputation to delude voters opposed to the current imperialist war in Iraq—a war, which, as the events in Fallujah are making clear, rivals Vietnam in its barbaric and wanton disregard for human life.
See Also:
Bush's press conference: evasions, lies and a promise of more bloodletting
[15 April 2004]
Socialist Equality Party US presidential candidate: "A vote for Kerry is a vote for war"
[14 April 2004]
The Democrats and "Bush's war"
[9 April 2004] More >
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 15 Apr 2004 @ 02:21, by jazzolog. Government, Public Sector
Cold geese calling in the sky.
Leaves tumbling over the empty hills.
Day is dwindling on the dark village road.
Alone, I carry my empty bowl home.
---Ryokan
Vast solitude
My thinning body
transparent autumn.
---Soen Nakagawa
Worldly acquisitions of wealth and the need of clinging to them, as well as the pursuit of the Eight Worldly Aims, I regard with as much loathing and disgust as a man who is suffering from billiousness regardeth the sight of rich food. Nay, I regard them as if they were the murderers of my father; therefore it is that I am assuming this beggarly and penurious mode of life.
---Milarepa
The picture is of Maureen Dowd receiving a Pulitzer for Commentary in 1999. Sometimes her columns in the New York Times are so insightful, precise, and brilliantly written that the reader actually is moved to take some responsibility for citizenship in this shaky republic. And in an age of Virtual Reality and It's All About Me, such an accomplishment is heroic.
I mean, I know a guy who recently spent $70,000 on a unique red Hummer. It gets 8 miles to the gallon. He spent $200 on gasoline just going to pick it up. He parks it where surveillance cameras provide an image of it at all times to his office---and remote screens at home. If anyone else drives it or fools around with it, computer codes let him know this has happened. He tells people he always wanted one, he had the extra money, so he bought it. Simple as that. I mean, there's a war on, so why not celebrate the advantages? I will not reveal what this man does for a living...unless you ask me privately.
But I digress: back to Ms. Dowd. To most conservatives she is among the most loathsome of individuals, and I must confess sometimes her work turns me off too. But not lately! She has been mightily up in arms about President Bush and his administration...and rarely more so than in her column this morning. More >
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