To the Investigators

Hey guys, just remember the oath of office you took. America is the Constitution. It is not just the executive branch. Hope you like the site.

Patrick Henry Democrats

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com...
"
A party that is described as fumbling, confused and scared is unlikely to win elections even if they endorse the wholesale round-up of hippies and the nuking of Mecca. People will listen to us if we can first convince them that we know who we are and what we believe in.

I'm of the mind to adopt "give me liberty or give me death" as my personal motto. If I have to kowtow to a bunch of childish Republican panic artists who have deluded themselves into believing that fighting radical Islam requires turning America into a police state, then it's just not worth it.
"
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com...

Did Ya' Ever Wonder...

[From a Friend:]
"
..where is the 757 <http://no757.batcave.net/>that supposedly hit the Pentagon? And apparently all 3 WTC buildings were clearly pulverized <http://www.reopen911.org/Core.htm#freefall> and fell at the speed of gravity, as opposed to "pancaked" floors, but no one wants to talk about it anymore. Why is that?
"

Back Conyers in Ramp-up to Impeachment:

Let's start saving our republic by demanding Accountability and Justice:

http://www.johnconyers.com/index.asp...
"
Join me to demand censure for Bush and Cheney in addition to the creation of a Special Committee to investigate impeaching the Bush Administration for its widespread abuses of power.
"
http://www.johnconyers.com/index.asp...

Huh?

This is a re-post from August:

(image courtesy of http://www.commoncause.org)

Military Corporatism video by Knife Party

I found a link to this movie on the St. Pete for Peace Website:

http://www.knife-party.net/movs/barry.mov

Thought Provoking.

ACLU Calls For Special Counsel: Add Your Voice

https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?...
"
...
"President Bush’s disregard and disrespect for the Constitution are evident, but in America, we are all bound by the rule of law," said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director. "The president took an oath to ‘preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States.’ He cannot use a claim of seeking to preserve our nation to undermine the rules that serve as our foundation. The Attorney General, who may have been involved with the formulation of this policy, must appoint an outside special counsel to let justice be served."
...
Use the form below to send an email to your senators telling them to insist that the Department of Justice appoint a special counsel to investigate and prosecute any and all crimes committed. For extra impact you can also call the Senate directly at (202) 224-3121.
"
https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?...

Ohio: The New "Fatherland"?

As Americans, we should all be concerned when our freedom is threatened in any of our States:

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/5580743/detail.html
"
...
Bill Would Allow Arrests For No Reason In Public Place
Citizens Would Also Have To Show ID

UPDATED: 7:22 pm EST December 19, 2005

CLEVELAND -- A bill on Gov. Bob Taft's desk right now is drawing a lot of criticism, NewsChannel5 reported.

One state representative said it resembles Gestapo-style tactics of government, and there could be changes coming on the streets of Ohio's small towns and big cities.

The Ohio Patriot Act has made it to the Taft's desk, and with the stroke of a pen, it would most likely become the toughest terrorism bill in the country. The lengthy piece of legislation would let police arrest people in public places who will not give their names, address and birth dates, even if they are not doing anything wrong.
...
"
http://www.newsnet5.com/news/5580743/detail.html

True Conservatives say "Enough"!

Conservative, in a good light, means "Careful regarding Change". It is a quality traditionally prevalent in the halls of power. In its best sense, it is a safeguard against reckless endeavors. True Conservatives are now realizing the constitutional mess that this radical corporatist administration has gotten us into:

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Barrons...

"
...
Putting the president above the Congress is an invitation to tyranny. The president has no powers except those specified in the Constitution and those enacted by law. President Bush is stretching the power of commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy by indicating that he can order the military and its agencies, such as the National Security Agency, to do whatever furthers the defense of the country from terrorists, regardless of whether actual force is involved.

Surely the "strict constructionists" on the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary eventually will point out what a stretch this is. The most important presidential responsibility under Article II is that he must "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." That includes following the requirements of laws that limit executive power. There's not much fidelity in an executive who debates and lobbies Congress to shape a law to his liking and then goes beyond its writ.

Willful disregard of a law is potentially an impeachable offense.
...
"
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Barrons...

Rebuttal for a Dittohead Chain-Letter

Recently somebody left a printout in our Break-room. It was a political editorial allegedly printed in a local newspaper.

It was the general "false revolutionary" ideology in a nutshell. Some of its points were:

· If you don't like the flag, leave.
· If you don't speak English, leave.
· Political Correctness killed Christmas.
· People who question the current administration's policies are whiners.
· If you are a whiner, leave.
· America is Christian according to documented proof.
· Immigrants are a threat to America.

The general feeling of the article was that immigrants are bad, that somebody is attacking Christianity and Christmas, that people complaining and whining is bothersome, that the only acceptable culture in America is Cowboy Hats, Pickup Trucks, guns and Nascar, (and that we should all shop at Wal-Mart and be happy with the pitiful non-union wages we are earning nowadays, being as most of those union jobs moved overseas to China when our own government sold us out by "deregulating").

What that printout didn't have was ANY kind of solutions. It contained griping about non-existent problems that have been dreamed up by such geniuses as Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'reilly, with the eager backing of the corporate elite (who want to further lower our wages and benefits, further weaken our system of education and healthcare, and further drive us towards slavery; and conscript us into corporate colonial wars overseas whose only benefactors will be that corporate elite, and whose victims will be us, with increased risk of terrorist attacks in retaliation here and abroad and a major degradation of our economy).

What that printout was chock full of was malice toward the poorest people in our country. "Blame the weak" is cowardly. You blame the weak, while the leaders of Enron, Halliburton, Exxon-Mobil, Chevron and Wal-Mart fleece you and destroy your own communities.

What that printout contained was a sales - pitch for the virtual corporation called the Church. Don't try to force your religion on me. Jesus himself is reported to have said that we should attend to spiritual matters in private; and that those who put on airs of “holiness” while they do evil (or are complicit in it or condone it) are hypocrites.

I say, anyone who professes to be a Christian, and yet backs campaigns of plunder and murder overseas, bigotry here at home, and hatred of ANYONE, is an outright phony.

The First Amendment contains language intended to prevent anyone from forcing their religion on us. This is so we all can worship (or not worship) as we see fit.

What that printout attempted to do, was to sell the idea that criticizing the status quo is un-patriotic. It also attempted to sell the idea that conformity and compliance with the corporate power-structure is the only acceptable form of patriotism. It is Not. It is cowardice.

What that printout completely ignores is the spirit of American citizenship. You can't just wave a flag and go along with whatever lies the robber-barons are selling you and expect to be able to keep the freedom our ancestors worked so hard to achieve for us. Do you think that the rich gave us those good paying jobs in the 1950's and 1960's? Think again. It was Labor Unions. It was the Blood of the Labor Movement. What did the rich do regarding Labor Unions? They launched an all out war against them. They combined that campaign with the Cold War against the Soviet Union. Now they call anyone who talks about Unions a "communist". Ever wonder why?

Whoever wrote that dittohead chain-letter does not want you to wonder about such things. He wants you to hate immigrants, hate liberals, hate dissent, renounce democracy, which is YOUR SOVEREIGNTY in this America (rants about "political correctness" are the beginnings of this) and he wants you to walk in lockstep with the rest of the brainwashed herd like a bunch of stupid lemmings.

I say, don't be a lemming. Question authority. They're only in it to fleece you like a sheep.

Oh, I almost forgot. I think that it was an excellent idea to leave that dittohead chain-letter in the break-room. People need to be talking (and debating) about stuff like this.



Find out what YOU can do as a Citizen. www.AmericanWisdom.org

Senate Saves ANWR for now

Kudos to Sen. Ted Kennedy, Russ Feingold, Diane Feinstein, Maria Kantwell, all others who voted this bill down. The fact that ANWR was slipped into this bill in the first place should make the whole ideas of omnibus bills and virtual omnibus bills a subject for debate.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051221/ap_on_go_co/arctic_drilling
"
The Senate blocked oil drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge Wednesday, rejecting a must-pass defense spending bill where supporters positioned the quarter-century-old environmental issue..
"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051221/ap_on_go_co/arctic_drilling

Bush Spying on US, DNC Freedom of Information Act Request

Sign on to this FOIA request to Pressure them to 'fess up:
http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/12/did_george_bush.php
"
George Bush is using the National Security Agency to conduct surveillance on American citizens without the consent of any court. After initially refusing to confirm the story, the President has admitted to personally overseeing this domestic spying program for years and he says he intends to continue the program.
"
http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/12/did_george_bush.php

Cowardly Democrats Keep losing

If more democrats had spoken out against the terrorist lies regarding potential mushroom clouds over Manhattan, had spoken out against the Executive Power-grab in 2002, relinquishing Congress' authority to declare War against Iraq, had spoken out against these things during the 2004 campaigns, the People of the United States would have a government that better represented, judged and executed policy in their best interests today. We would have a government that more truly supports and defends the Constitution.

If more Democrats begin standing up and speaking for truth and integrity, the organism called America will begin recovering and healing from the corruption and cronyism of Corporatism. The American People are waiting for the Democratic Party to produce leaders of integrity and courage.

The lack of courage and the selling-out of the democratic party by the DLC, and the selection of a boring, insincere presidential candidate (Clark or Dean could have won) (Kerry laughing off Bush's "need some wood?" retort during the debates was visual proof that the whole thing was a sham), assured that the Democrats would lose in 2004.

Elected Democrats! Stand up! Call the crooks out on their BS! Demand Accountability! Expose the corruption! Millions of former dittoheads will take notice and return to the true "Party of the People". They will turn around and crush those who lied to them. Lying to us is not wise.

There should be a GIANT SPOTLIGHT on the Democratic Party right now. There should be direct mailings direct to the homes of any Populists, Libertarians, Dittoheads, Rugged individualists. The rallying point for America right now should be to effect a major cleanup and strengthening of the Democratic Party, exposing such Corporatists in its Ranks as Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton for the Elitist Tories that they are, and clearing the way for true representatives of the people to take the reins of leadership in America, as they rightly should. Jim Hightower says the Party Motto should be "We're on Your Side". I think this is a good idea. We can use that motto and simultaneously expose and debunk the corporatist lies of the so-called Republican Party. I'm a republican (but not on the side of the fascists who call themselves "republicans" today). I'm a republican who stands for the support and defense of the Constitution that is sworn in the oath of office of every person serving in our Federal Governent.

What is our rallying point? The Democratic Party. Through it, we can begin to rescue our Constitutional Democratic Republic, which has been hijacked. Let's take it over, NOW.

Demand Censure Pending Impeachment.

What begins with Censure could end with Impeachment.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/
"
CONYERS INTRODUCES BILLS TO CENSURE BUSH AND CHENEY

CONYERS INTRODUCES BILL TO CREATE A SELECT COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE POSSIBLE CRIMES AND MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT
"
http://www.opednews.com/articles/

Bush on the Constitution: 'It's just a goddamned piece of paper'

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7779.shtml
"
Last month, Republican Congressional leaders filed into the Oval Office to meet with President George W. Bush and talk about renewing the controversial USA Patriot Act.

Several provisions of the act, passed in the shell shocked period immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, caused enough anger that liberal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union had joined forces with prominent conservatives like Phyllis Schlafly and Bob Barr to oppose renewal.

GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.
"
“I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”

“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7779.shtml

With all due respect to the position of the Office of the President of the United States, you swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Breaking that oath is a betrayal of the public trust, and is an impeachable offense. I urge you, in all good conscience, to step down.

I urge the legislature to initiate impeachment proceedings based on this and other obvious offenses.

U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
Senate Toll-Free Number: [IF FUNCTIONAL] (877) SOB-USOB [yes, this is right] or 888-818-6641 or 888-355-3588.

War on Citizens

Being as these yahoos like to pull out the "We're at War" excuse for wiping their butts with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, How 'bout we schedule legislative debates on the subject of a proposed declaration of war? This "We're at War" BS is just an excuse for tyrants to inflict their tyranny on us.

"And I'm telling you that when you hire a lobbyist, you hire the guy who gives you the most bang for your buck."

Other terms that should be used to replace the euphamism "lobbying" are bribery, influence-peddling, corruption, graft and conspiracy.

Here's a candid look at some business-as-usual lobby activity in Florida recently:
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/special_reports/

Big Bush is Watching You

http://www.mtv.com/news/
"Bush Gave U.S. Agency Authorization To Spy On Americans"
http://www.mtv.com/news/

------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/
"Defense Department calls South Florida peace groups `threats'"
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/


Can you Say "CoIntelpro"? No? How about "Gestapo"? "Stasi"? "KGB"? This is a direct attack on the Bill of Rights.

Speak out against the Patriot Act and other Police-State measures.

U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
Senate: 888-818-6641 or 888-355-3588

Pro-Life = Opposed to Death Penalty

Our governments are too corrupt to be entrusted with the death penalty. The death penalty should be unconditionally abolished in all courts, civil, criminal and military.

"The plane is in Trouble. What will you do to speak to the pilot?"

"Race is often the language class speaks."

Real Audio
Transcript

Support or Participate in Wellstone Action Activist and Candidate Training

What do Al Franken, Bill Bradley, Russ Feingold, Jim Hightower, Robert Reich, Robert Redford, Peter Yarrow and Walter Mondale have in common? They are all founding members of Wellstone Action.

Wellstone Action, created by the surviving sons of the late Senator Paul Wellstone (a former college professor who pioneered modern grassroots organizing and outreach), is dedicated to training political organizers and future candidates who believe in living wages, fair taxes, affordable health care, protecting the environment, retirement security, civil rights and preventing domestic violence.

If you're serious about taking our republic back from the corporate aristocracy, about returning our republic to the principle of rule by the people and not rule by the lobbyists; if you're determined to help return our marketplace to a situation of fair commerce instead of the current system of corrupt cronyist cheating and stealing (how else can you explain the Monopolized "Mainstream" Media, Halliburton, Enron, Worldcomm and their Ilk); If you're serious about making a difference, involvement with Wellstone Action should be one of your tools.

Senator Paul Wellstone, an outspoken critic of the Bush Administration's planned upcoming invasion of Iraq, would have done a lot more for us, the citizens of the constitutional republic known as the United States of America, had he, his wife and daughter (along with five other people) not been killed in December, 2002.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/10/25/plane.crash.minn/
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1027-03.htm

His legacy lives on.

Make a difference! Get involved!

Wellstone Action
P.O. box 14386
St. Paul, MN 55114
www.wellstone.org

Marks of a True Patriot

http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5771057.html
"
I will do everything I can, including a filibuster, to stop this Patriot Act conference report, which does not include adequate safeguards to protect our constitutional freedoms,'' said Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who was the only senator to vote against the original version of the Patriot Act.
"
http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5771057.html

To restore legitimacy to the Democratic Party, I encourage people to take a good look at Russ Feingold. He co-sponsored the BCRA with John McCain for campaign finance reform and he was the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act and the War in Iraq. To preserve the legislative branch, which is under a severe attack from "radi-cons", we need men of courage. They are rare in Congress. Feingold stands out as such a man.

Hillary Clinton Attacks Free Speech

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=3&aid=55396
"
Clinton is co-sponsoring a bill that would make it a crime to destroy a flag on federal property, intimidate anyone by burning a flag or burning someone else's flag.
"
http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=3&aid=55396

Posturing or not, I don't trust ANYONE who would support an incipient attack on the First Amendment. What other reason could there be for this law, which is completely un-necessary in view of all the other laws on the books that protect property.

Soldiers died for the CONSTITUTION and BILL of RIGHTS that the Flag represented, Including Freedom of Speech.

This Bill is in keeping with the DLC's tradition of selling out the country, resulting in a mass-exodus of millions of populists and libertarians (today's Lumpenproletariat) from the Left to the Right. This incident is further evidence that Hillary Clinton is clearly NOT a viable candidate for the People of the United States of America (unless your faith and hope are so low that all you wish for is four years of additional corporatism with a smiley-face hastily painted on).

Hillary, DLC, Sell-outs! Have a nice day :>

My Current pick: Russ Feingold '08 (and a LOT of additional activism)

This one's good:

from www.workingforchange.com

Seeds of your Oppression

From the book "The Sorrows of Empire" by Chalmers Johnson:
"
During the summer of 2002, the Bush administration directed lawyers in the Departments of Justice and Defense to review the Posse Comitatus Act and any other laws that might restrict the military's ability to participate in domestic law enforcement. At the time, the Defense Department was creating a new regional command to defend North America, comparable to those for Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Pacific. The Northern Command, based at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, is intended to better position the military to respond to terrorism close to home and to prevent the introduction of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons into the United States. (Even during World War II, the federal government did not create a centralized command for the American mainland, because of concerns that it could become the basis for a military dictatorship.)
"

More on Northcom:
http://www.oilempire.us/northcom.html

I highly recommend "The Sorrows of Empire" by Chalmers Johnson.

Hey DLC: Grow a Pair! Go with Murtha!

Go with Murtha. Stop selling us out! Get us out of this mess. We can't afford to be trying to set up colonies in the Middle East. Turn it Off!

NO, Freedom is NOT Free

I recently saw a poem entitled "Freedom is not Free". When I read it I felt a pull at my heart regarding the ultimate sacrifice noble soldiers and victims have made. I could not wish such a thing as death on anyone. A second or two later, I felt the anger. I hate to see death and destruction. I have seen it up close and it saddens me. It bothers me to no end when it is for stupid reasons, and it enrages me when it is for lies and corruption.

So here we go:

Freedom is not free, you say, while attempting to justify the needless sacrifice and slaughter currently raging overseas? No, Freedom is not free and it will be stripped from us if we stand by idly while those in power further rig the game, leech our industry to China, bankrupt our system of government, trash the Bill of Rights and make a mockery of our flag. Freedom is certainly not free. The price is in our duty to demand accountability and justice.

There are forces in the world that would like to see our republic destroyed. There are forces that would like to make slaves of us. Our forefathers knew this and they gave us a republic ("If you can keep it" -- Franklin) in which, by our attentiveness, our liberty would be protected.

For this liberty a free Press is needed, to monitor our own government. With our taxes we pay for three constitutionally-defined, intentionally-balanced branches of federal government including an executive administration which now features a "department of defense", whose alleged purpose is to protect us from attacks by malevolent forces.

Much of our previously free press has succumbed to the collusion of lobbies such as the National Association of Broadcasters, with the armaments industry. Its bias is in favor of wars and a domestic police-state.

The "Department of Defense" failed in 2001, resulting in the 9/11 attacks. The leaders of that department, as well as the leaders of the Executive branch, remain in power as of this writing (November, 2005).

The administrators of our republic failed again in 2004 by conducting corrupt, un-verifiable national elections. This is an affront to, and a theft from, every American.

It failed yet again in 2005 when it couldn't mobilize local militia for hurricane-relief in New Orleans. Those citizen-soldiers, meant for domestic emergencies, had been shipped overseas to a corporatist campaign of imperial conquest in the Middle East, as had been the monies originally earmarked for maintenance of the levees that could have prevented the disaster in the first place. As a result, private mercenaries, "locked and loaded", roamed the streets of that struggling American city while a complicit broadcast industry dusted off such time-tested devices as racism and class-hatred to ensure that the victims were blamed for their misfortune. Yet another division of our Executive Branch, Our Federal Emergency Management Administration, headed by inept, incompetent and carelessly-chosen political appointees, failed to provide the most basic support for the people there, and even hindered voluntary efforts by other concerned citizens to take up the slack.

No, freedom is not free. The cost of freedom is vigilance. The cost is the careful election of, and the responsible scrutiny of, those we endow with power. The cost of freedom is to monitor the activities of our governing organizations and officials, to ensure that they don't become corrupt or ineffective. In a republic that is being sold out to moneyed interests (I.E. "privatized"), and with a press that has been monopolized and maligned largely beyond any true usefulness, our duty as American civilians is to seek out the facts, to learn and organize, and to effect reform. As the citizens of this republic, we are charged with returning our hired government to its original purpose: to support and defend the Constitution.

Silence is complicit consent. To stand by, idle, and accept the lies foisted upon you through the megaphones of corrupt power, while your nation's overall financial and physical security are compromised due to reckless and un-necessary campaigns of plunder overseas as well as rampant theft by deception here at home, is not only irresponsible and juvenile: it is outright contemptible. It is entirely un-American. To avoid, discourage or try to silence the earnest exchange of ideas between citizens, regarding matters of public concern, is also entirely un-American.

You're grown up now. It's your country now. No more excuses. Do your job as a citizen. Seek out the truth and help your neighbors rescue your republic before it's too late. Do it for the people you love. Don't think for a minute that it is wise to passively endorse the lies you get from the corporatist press, when living human beings will be sacrificed for it. You owe, to those who serve in uniform in your defense, a thoroughness of consideration. This is your true duty as a civilian citizen in the world's first true democratic republic. Democracy requires more than just voting and it is not a spectator sport. Putting a magnet on your car, like a flag cheering your favorite football team, is a sorry excuse for the true discussion, debate, consideration and communication with your public officials that should go on at any time we consider sending our young in uniform out to kill and be killed. Don't shirk your duty. Mindless compliance is killing our soldiers and countless other victims AS YOU READ THIS. It is bankrupting our republic, it has made a mockery of our electoral process, and it is further endangering our physical safety and our future as a nation.

Open your Eyes! Defend your constitutional republic and DEMAND JUSTICE! Be a REAL American!

Mark Frankenberg
Former Noncommissioned Officer and Combat Veteran

Find out what YOU can do to truly serve your country
www.AmericanWisdom.org

Contemptible

The issue is Dumb Capital versus Righteous Human Beings. "Corporate Persons" have seized our former republic, which is now violating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Nurnberg Charter.

Watch the Documentary: Fallujah - The Hidden Massacre
(Caution: Contains graphic images and disturbing subject matter)

A Double Standard, and What's good for the Goose:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/08/1516221
"
The Internal Revenue Service has warned one of Southern California's largest churches it could lose its tax-exempt status because a priest gave a sermon criticizing the Iraq war two days before last year's presidential election. The IRS has sent the All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena a warning that the federal tax code prohibits tax-exempt organizations, including churches, from intervening in political campaigns and elections.
"
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/08/1516221

Oh Come ON, Gimme a Break..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5394682,00.html


What do you guys take us for? Sad part is, there are suckers across the land who will swallow this:
"
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush, reacting to the indictment of a high-level White House aide in the CIA leak case, has ordered his staff to get a refresher on ethics rules.
...
"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5394682,00.html

An example of collusion between corporations and government

Halliburton (Dick Cheney’s [and Lyndon Johnson’s, in effect] company) and its subsidiary, KBR are a textbook example of corporatism. View a detailed chronology of their pursuits over the last decade or so here:
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/about_hal/chronology.html

Ayn Rand and the Angels of Industry

I enjoyed "Atlas Shrugged"; particularly the "money speech" in it.

Ayn Rand is an object of worship for many corporatists and even some honest business-people, due to her focus on self-interest and the reduction/elimination of government and the idea that institutionalized altruism can be a cover for oppression. Her heroes are inspiring and "Atlas Shrugged" is one of the best books I've ever read.

That said, Ayn Rand focused on the good guys among captains of industry, and paid scant attention to cronyism, collusion between corporations and governments, monopoly and other forms of large-scale lying, cheating and stealing. A refugee from the turmoil resulting from the Russian Revolution, and useful to those in the United States who wanted to increase powers of the corporate elite while reducing the influence of the unionized working class, Ayn Rand paints a wonderful picture of un-regulated capitalism.

The flaw I percieve in this puristic portrayal is that she fails to account for the fact that all men are not angels, and that if there is no referee in the business-game, capitalism will naturally tend towards such forms of destruction as monopoly, much in the same manner that an un-contained nuclear reaction in a power-plant will result in disaster. There must be an effective, fair, regulatory referee to ensure that productive competition is maintained. This should be the purpose of our government, not oppression under the disguise of altruism or security. Thomas Jefferson said we should have "...a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned."

With no constitutional democratic republic, we are doomed to corporate feudal slavery and wars. I think Ayn Rand tended to ignore that truth, but I still highly recommend "Atlas Shrugged".

Slide Presentation and Book Signing, St. Petersburg, FL

Mark Frankenberg, author of "Just Say NO to Fascism: A Fable" will give a slide presentation and talk at Panera Bread Restaurant, 1908 4th St N, St Petersburg, FL 33704 (across from Sunken Gardens, parking behind the restaurant) on Tuesday, December 6th, 2005 at 7:30 pm.  Admission is free and signed volumes will be available for $13.00 each.  You can let us know you're coming HERE.

Some Common Ground

First of all, let me be clear: The current corporate oligarchy represented by today's "Republican" party (as well as many of the "Democrats") is a danger to the free world. That said, I like the following article, as would other REAL democratic-republicans:

http://www.friesian.com/errors.htm#note-2

The Left, of course, has every reason to turn against Jefferson. He would have
absolutely despised modern Big Government social welfare "liberals" and
all their works. It is also obvious that the present federal government
would retain no legitimacy whatsoever in his eyes, and that he would never
regard anyone as morally bound to obey the decrees of the sort of dictatorial bureaucracy, with pseudo-legislative and pseudo-judicial authority, that has been spawned in government at all levels. As Jefferson did say [Notes on
Virginia, 1784]: "An elective despotism was not the
government we fought for..."

Since most people don't know or care what Jefferson, or any
other architect of American government, actually said or thought, it is
easy for the Left to ignore the reality of his sentiments (just as the
Right can ignore his Unitarianism and Epicureanism) -- fraudulently
speaking in his name when the fraud is unlikely to be uncovered.
Nevertheless, the more knowledgeable and honest are liable to be
uneasy. A sign of how this can occur comes in a new book, The Long
Affair, Thomas Jefferson and the French Revolution, 1785-1800, by
Conor Cruise O'Brien [U of Chicago Press, 1996].

O'Brien seems to have suddenly realized how far "progressive"
opinion has drifted from Jefferson's ideals. The basic attack, of
course, must be from the nuclear arsenal of leftist rhetoric:
Jefferson's racism discredits everything about him. This kind of attack is usually enough to dispose of contemporary political enemies. Its grotesque anachronism alone would not disqualify it. But the target is rather too large even for this weapon, so more substantive and revealing arguments must be
used. These seem to be along the lines that, were Jefferson alive
today, he would probably side with "extremists" and the "Militia"
movement, i.e. all those (who are probably racists anyway) who are
willing to use force against governmental Authority, even as Jefferson
sympathized with Shays' Rebellion (1786-87) and remarked that something
of the sort could be hoped for every 20 years or so.

Such a complaint is far more revealing about people like
O'Brien than about Jefferson. The American institutional Left, having
achieved so many of its political goals, has clearly come to advocate
the sort of blind obedience to Established Authority that used to be
associated more with the Catholic Church. This is the crowd willing to
chant, "We are the government," even while we are mercilessly
jerked around by every unaccountable and megalomaniacal bureaucrat and
judge in the country. Thus, anyone who, belatedly enough, comes to
perceive that the Constitution has been grotesquely twisted into
justifying just the sort of government that it was intended to prohibit,
and that this development, together with the practice of courts,
legislators, and executives, actually contradicts the purpose of
government as stated to justify the American Revolution in the
Declaration of Independence, now may be seen as "extremists" who simply
put themselves beyond the pale of reason and good will, whether or not
they think that armed resistance is called for.

This is an all too familiar leftist rhetorical strategy: What
they have gained is off limits, but what we retain is open to
negotiation. Thus, a centralized government of arbitrary and nearly
absolute powers is a fait accompli, while there is still a
problem with my remaining property rights and personal liberties.

O'Brien's book, then, is at least honest in the sense that it
mercilessly applies all the politically correct sophistries of current
debate to Jefferson. This would be salutary if it disillusioned
Americans with the faithfulness of current politics and practices to
the ideals of the Founding Fathers. Were the United States to be
explicitly transformed into a People's Republic, and the Constitution
discarded, then at least people could see that a rupture had taken
place. As it is, "moderate" opinion is suspicious of O'Brien's book,
perhaps because the policy of deception and misdirection, intentional
or not, has been so successful.

Return to text

http://www.friesian.com/errors.htm#note-2

New Wal-Mart documentary

Find a screening near you:
http://www.walmartmovie.com/watch.php

PBS also did a show about Wal-Mart, which can be viewed HERE.

My letter to the ACLU regarding "corporate personhood":

Given that the Bill of Rights was created for the protection of people (natural persons), and given that "corporate personhood" is based on a false legal precedent (the erroneous record of the court case Santa Clara County versus Union Pacific Railroad, 1886), why do you defend corporate power from accountability to the people of the United States? Are you infused with corporate funding? I'm new to the ACLU, and may not be long for it if you are defending corporate power from the right of the citizenry to obtain justice (Nike v Kasky comes to mind). Our rights are certainly at stake in this neo-McCarthyist era. Seems to me that defending an inhuman entity such as a corporation would be shooting ourselves in the foot. Hope we can come to a meaningful solution to this. Looking forward to your reply. -- Mark Frankenberg

The trouble with death is that you can't click "New Game".

Those who committed treason against the American people to start this unconscionable war, kill our young and bankrupt our republic, must be brought to justice. Those who are complicit with such traitors through willful inaction or ignorance, those who forfeit responsible thought in order to walk in lockstep with their partisan "team", should repent. You don't get to heaven through denial or through conspiracy to murder.
http://theunitedamerican.blogs.com/Movies/2000A/2000.html

Coming soon: "Eating from Garbage cans: The U.S. citizen's guide to survival after China stops buying our Debt." -- Produced by the Corporate Elite

Wake up! These idiots are heading us for a brick wall (a bathtub?) at 90 miles per hour.

Who will govern us after we ourselves are no longer able to?

Write a letter to a newspaper. Call a radio station. Talk to someone. Be a patriot.

" Modern-day Ness gunning for Rove"

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/
"
WASHINGTON: He has been likened to Eliot Ness, the fearless Prohibition-era prosecutor who brought Al Capone to justice. Like Ness, Patrick Fitzgerald hails from Chicago and has a reputation for being meticulous, impartial and relentless.

But independent special prosecutor Mr Fitzgerald, 44, is not investigating an underworld godfather. He has spent almost two years probing the highest levels of the US Government in an investigation that threatens to land some of the most senior figures at the White House in court.

During his inquiry into the leak of a CIA agent's name to the media, Mr Fitzgerald has privately interviewed President George W. Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney and a host of their officials.

Washington is abuzz with speculation that, before the deadline for his grand jury expires on October 28 and perhaps as soon as this week, Mr Fitzgerald could indict Karl Rove - Mr Bush's most senior adviser - and Mr Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Charges could come under espionage laws that prohibit the identification of a secret agent, or perjury laws covering obstruction of justice.
...[whole article at link]
"
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/

See something familiar in the top of this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_the_Rights_of_Man_and_of_the_Citizen
"
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (French: La Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen) is one of the fundamental documents of the French Revolution, defining a set of individual rights and collective rights of the people. It was adopted August 26, 1789, by the National Constituent Assembly (Assemblée Nationale Constituante), as the first step toward writing a constitution.
"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_the_Rights_of_Man_and_of_the_Citizen

Goebbels would have loved this sellout:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/17/1422250
"
Should The New York Times Fire Judith Miller and Apologize to Readers?
"
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/17/1422250

Church of Hate going Broke?

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/print.cfm?story=93369&ran=72372
"
The Christian Coalition, the onetime powerhouse of the religious right founded by Pat Robertson, is struggling to stay afloat.

The group’s annual revenue has shrunk to one- twentieth of what it was a decade ago – from a peak of $26 million in 1996 to $1.3 million in 2004 – and it has left a trail of unpaid bills from Texas to Virginia. Among the creditors who have sued the coalition for nonpayment are landlords, direct-mail companies, lawyers and at least one former employee seeking back pay.
"
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/print.cfm?story=93369&ran=72372

Sorry, this is too much..

Another "Tidbit":

">>Democracies don't have their freedoms taken away from them by some

> external

>>>> >military force. Instead, they give their freedoms away, politically

> correct

>>>> >piece by politically correct piece."

Hate to tell you bud, but America is a Democracy. America is a republic (a representative democracy). It is not a dictatorship based on hatred of whole groups of human beings. It is not an empire, according to the Constitution. It has become a virtual empire due to the undermining of that Constitution. I wonder, was the guy who wrote this stuff one of those guys in Toledo?

A call for learning

Something I ran across:

"2. Why were we attacked?
>> >
>> >Envy of our position, our success, and our freedoms."

I recommend reading "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins, or "Blowback" or "The Sorrows of Empire" by Chalmers Johnson. Then test your retention by looking at the above tidbit and see if your reaction to it is anything but disdain.. anything but a sorrowful sense that ignorance is taking a firm hold in our "advanced" society.

Oh, did I mention that the war in Iraq is a criminal act of aggression? Almost forgot.

Wannabe-Nazis instigate riot in Toledo

Watch how this story will get spun. The bottom line will be an outcry for more police power in the streets. This will be wrong. The outcry should be for social justice. When you create conditions of misery for large numbers of people, then resort to force to subdue those people, you are wrong. Good leadership will work to improve the conditions of their constituents. Good leadership will not try to bankrupt their own republic.
Wannabe-Nazi Instigator story here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051016/ap_on_re_us/nazi_march

Impeachment for Betrayal of the Public Trust and for Violation of the Nurnberg Charter, is essential to the preservation of American honor.

The fact that Articles of Impeachment based on Betrayal of the Public Trust, Crimes against Peace, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity (as outlined in the Nurnberg Charter) for Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld have not yet been drawn up makes every member of Congress complicit. In order for truth and justice to assume their rightful place in history, impeachment and trial are the only correct course of action. We urge our elected representatives and senators to do the right thing and defend justice for the sake of our beloved republic.

Regain your Sovereignty

Come hear author Mark Frankenberg discuss his novel, "Just
Say NO to Fascism" at Panera Bread, 1908 4th St N, St Petersburg, FL
33704 on Wednesday, October 26th, 2005 at 7:30 pm. 
Admission is free and signed copies of the novel will be
available for $13.00.  Walk-ins are welcome or you can let us know
you're coming HERE.

Why our Democracy is only 4.6 Percent of what it Used to Be:

660/30=22. 100/22=4.55.

Article I, section 2 of the Constitution says, "The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand".

http://www.thirty-thousand.org/
"
Today, each Representative represents over 660 thousand people (on average).
...
In 1804 the House was comprised of 142 Representatives. Every decade it grew larger until it reached 435 Representatives in 1913; the same size it is today.
...
The historical shift towards oligarchy was formally institutionalized in 1941 when Congress passed a law permanently fixing the number of House seats at 435. In doing so, the members of the House unconstitutionally arrogated to themselves a permanent and growing power base by unilaterally freezing the number of districts and thereby creating the most elite & powerful private club in the history of the planet (other than the Senate).
"
http://www.thirty-thousand.org/

This needs to be changed. No Wonder we're getting screwed.

New watchdog group

http://www.citizensforethics.org/

Could it be that Southwest Airlines doesn't believe in Free Speech?

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=158314852&p=y583y5558
"
A US woman was booted off a flight for wearing a T-shirt with an expletive and images of President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Lorrie Heasley of Woodland, Washington, said she planned a civil rights complaint against Southwest Airlines
...
"
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=158314852&p=y583y5558

When I see things like this in the news, they affect my decisions as a consumer. How 'bout you?

"Fascism: The Bloody Ideology of Darwinism"

An excellent exploration of Fascism, its roots and causes:
http://www.harunyahya.com/fascism3.php

Tom Delay Indicted

My question is, why did the Corporatists keep him until now? Oh, never mind. I just answered it. He is charged with using Corporate money in his campaign. I would suggest that you mention this to everyone you see for a couple weeks. I will.

Delay's replacement is Roy Blunt.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5309443,00.html
"
His district in southwestern Missouri includes Branson, a town of a few thousand residents that draws millions of country music fans each year to its performance stages.
...
In 2002, Blunt helped insert a provision benefiting United Parcel Service and FedEx Corp. into a spending bill for the Iraq war. His son, Andrew Blunt, is a lobbyist for UPS in Jefferson City, Mo.

Blunt also tried to help tobacco giant Philip Morris in the 2002 homeland security bill by amending the measure to stop the smuggling of contraband cigarettes.

At the time, Blunt had a personal relationship with a lobbyist for the company, Abigail Perlman, who later became his wife. The congressman denied any undue influence and said neither his son nor Perlman ever lobbied him on the issues.

A second son, Matt, was elected governor of Missouri last fall.
"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5309443,00.html

Phil Donohue Shames Bill O'reilly on .. (ahem) .. Fox News (spit..)

(View in Windows Media Player):
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/fox_of_donahue_sheehan_050921a.wmv
(courtesy of http://www.crooksandliars.com)

Some say it wasn't just Hijacked Airliners on 9/11

A janitor was wounded by explosions in the basement of one of the towers before the plane hit. He is a witness in a RICO lawsuit filed against Bush and his cronies. Judge for yourself.
http://www.911forthetruth.com/

How can politicians draw their own district boundaries?

Because, in Florida, we LET them. This is how they keep their seats even if they don't do anything for us. Make them STOP. Sign the petitions at:
http://www.committeeforfairelections.com

Some pictures and remarks 26sept05

Click Here

Kirwan Art

This guy's political cartoons are some of the best:
http://www.kirwanesque.com/politics/intro.htm
http://www.kirwanesque.com/politics/2005/2005.htm

But, remember, you have work to do...

Tell your Government, "Bring the Troops Home Now"

America was not intended by our founding fathers to be a militaristic empire. It was intended to be a free democratic republic. Please participate in this letter campaign and referendum to stop the imperialistic land-grab and mass murder in Iraq:

(click on "Join the demonstration from home!")
http://www.answercoalition.org/

It's about Global Warming ...

"Super-powerful hurricanes now hitting the United States are the "smoking gun" of global warming, one of Britain's leading scientists believes."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0923-01.htm

Hear Rush Limbaugh sing "I'm a Nazi"

http://bootnewt.tripod.com/imanazi.htm

The King's Kangaroo Kourt threatens dissenters with 6 years for vandalism

St. Patrick's Four Trial: Civilian Resisters Face Federal Conspiracy Charges
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/22/1334211

Nationwide Protests this Saturday 24 September 2005

Saturday is the Day. Go to a protest. Hold a Sign up. Tell your neighors. Show America you care about her. Whatever you are doing Saturday, you can contribute to saving lives by speaking out against Rich Men's Wars, oppression, corporatism, lying, cheating, stealing, injustice. Saturday is the Day.

Just Do it.

There will be demonstrations across the U.S.
http://impeachbush.meetup.com/

There will be a demonstration of record proportions in Washington, D.C.
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=6140

"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism".
-- Thomas Jefferson

Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches

News from a reputable, independent journalist in Iraq:
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/

They want to Take your Vitamins Away

"They" is the Codex Alimentarius Commission (the UN Codex Commission).  "They" succeeded in making Vitamin C, St. John's Wort, and countless other
supplements available by prescription only, in Germany.  "They" want to outlaw organic foods, and they want to raise the legal limits on industrial poisons in your food.

"They" (the corporate health industry and the pharmaceutical companies
who support Codex) stand to make a lot of money, while "We" stand to
lose key elements of our personal health maintenance.

"We" don't want a bunch of rich crooks in back rooms further
endangering our health by mandating polluted foods and taking away our
vitamins and food supplements (a large factor in preventive health
maintenance).

Contact your representatives and tell them that Codex will degrade our food
supply and further restrict our freedom of personal health
choices.  Urge them to arrange a Congressional Briefing on Codex
Alimentarius, a UN Trade Commission.
http://www.house.gov/writerep/

U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121. 

Contact your representatives and tell them that Codex will degrade our food
supply and further restrict our freedom of personal health choices. Urge them to arrange a Congressional Briefing on Codex Alimentarius, a UN Trade Commission.
Senate Toll-Free Number: (877) SOB-USOB [yes, this is right]
http://www.senate.gov

Sign the petition:
http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/



http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/freedom.htm
"
Health Freedom is Under Attack

• Worldwide pharmaceutical interests have launched a secretive
  global attack to limit access to information on health choices & restrict the right to obtain dietary supplements. 


• Pharmaceutical interests would gain financially if supplements
  are strictly controlled and so they are pushing for the US to adopt Codex
  Alimentarius, an international code of standards that would force us to "harmonize" with France & Germany's restrictive rules. 


• In Europe, The EU (European Union) Vitamin Directive threatens to
  destroy consumer access to therapeutic doses of vitamins & minerals, except by prescription.


• In the U.S., Americans who write to Congress to demand an Oversight Hearing on Codex are being told that a Federal Statute already protects their rights. This is misleading.


• Current pressure to set arbitrary "safety standards" for vitamins
  (UL's or Upper Levels) in the US could set the stage for harmonization. 
  It has begun..

"If Codex Alimentarius has its way, then herbs, vitamins, minerals,
homeopathic remedies, amino acids and other natural remedies you have taken for granted most of your life will be gone. The name of the game for Codex is to shift all remedies into the prescription category so they can be controlled exclusively by the medical monopoly and its bosses, the major pharmaceutical firms. Predictably, this scenario has been denied by both the Canadian Health Food Association and the Health Protection Branch of Canada (HPB). The Codex proposals already exist as law in Norway and Germany where the entire health food industry has literally been taken over by the drug companies.
...
"
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/freedom.htm

Contact
your representatives.
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202)
224-3121. 
Ask for your
congressperson or senator and talk with their staff.

Contact your Senator
Senate Toll-Free Number: (877) SOB-USOB [yes, this is right]
http://www.senate.gov

Sign the petition:
http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/

Looking Ahead, consider Feingold in '08:

For a general cleanup of our electoral process, and to put an end to yet another unjust war, we might consider Russ Feingold for president in 2008. America needs a thoughtful, straight-up guy instead of another DLC corporatist robot. A REAL president. This could be him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russ_Feingold

Song "New Orleans" by David Rovics

http://www.soundclick.com/pro/?BandID=111310

Racial Segregation at Tyson Foods

I will not buy anything from Tyson Foods. I will tell others.
http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/bawnews/tysonfoods831

Oil, Hemp and Nazis

Ever think there was something fishy about the drug war? This article brings up some interesting points:
http://www.serendipity.li/wod/nsmith_forew.htm

This American was Killed by her Government today

(image courtesy of http://lawprofessors.typepad.com)

Read about Frances Newton here:
http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0912-08.htm

Keep your Armageddon to yourself

"Draft US Defense Paper Outlines Preventive Nuclear Strikes"

This administration has demonstrated incompetence across the board. Now they want to start fooling around with nuclear weapons. Who, with any sense of reason at all, would support this?

I can think of one group. It is represented by such hypocrites as Pat Robertson, who can be seen on his television show praying for the deaths of publicly-elected officials, encouraging those of weak character to commit murder. It is represented by a misled sect of suckers who have let con-men pervert whatever faith and hope they might have once had into a morbid longing for a global human die-off referred to as "End-Times".

I say this to such fools: Keep your Armageddon to yourself. I say this to any public official who might subscribe to this morbidity: please resign. We don't need your death-wish infecting our civilization.

Corporatists continue their attack on the Constitution

When you lose your free speech and a press intended to keep power in check, will you still be able to say you live in the United States, or should it be called something else then?

This article shows why the radical right is attacking our judicial branch:

http://japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=348797
"
WASHINGTON — CNN television has obtained a court order allowing its journalists to cover the operation to retrieve bodies of those killed in Hurricane Katrina, a spokeswoman for the U.S. cable network said Saturday.

The federal agency dealing with disaster recovery efforts had earlier said it would ban media from reporting on the recovery of those killed, saying it wanted to preserve the dignity of the dead and avoid distressing relatives.
...
"
http://japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=348797

Denial is Cowardice.

You cannot deny that Americans were left to die in New Orleans while the president played guitar, while the Vice President shopped for a house, while the secretary of state saw a Broadway show and shopped for expensive shoes. You cannot deny that truckloads of vital fuel and water were turned away from a city that desperately needed it.

You cannot deny that we have illegally invaded and destroyed another country.

You cannot deny that our Constitutional system of government is being undermined (an impeachable high crime) by the highest officials in the executive branch.

You cannot deny these things, unless you are a coward.

Corporatist / Federalist Lie: “I swear to support and defend the Constitution.."

Only about half of all voting-age Americans (54%) voted in 1996. By 2000, voter registration was at an all-time low.[1] Most Americans don’t write their legislators either, or sign petitions. If you ask people why they don’t participate in their government, many will tell you it is because they think the system is a sham, a lie. A joke. They will tell you that they believe politicians are crooks and that money and greed are the real drivers of national affairs.

Much of this cynicism comes from the suspicion that the people in charge aren’t playing by the rules. The rules for our system of government were established after careful (and often heated) debate when the Constitution went into effect in 1789. Since then, many of these rules, in fact, have been and are being, broken.

(see entire article at http://markfrankenberg.com/Mark_Frankenberg_Const.html)

Call your Governor

I just called Jeb Bush in Florida and recommended he close our schools and send our school-buses to New Orleans to assist in the evacuation. His number is 850/488/7146. I found it by typing "governor florida" in google. Try Your State. Then call the Red Cross at 1-800-HELP-NOW. This would be a good time to bring our National Guard Troops home from Iraq. What are they doing overseas, anyway? Hey George, put down that goat book and turn in your resignation, please. Hey FOX Viewers, Limbaugh Listeners. WAKE UP! YOUR CONSTITUTION IS UNDER ATTACK and YOUR FELLOW AMERICANS in NEW ORLEANS NEED YOUR HELP!

This just in from the Church of Hate:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050823.wrobertc0823/BNStory/International/

"
U.S. televangelist calls for assassination of Chavez
...
Pat Robertson has called on-air for American operatives to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying it would be “cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop.”
"

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050823.wrobertc0823/BNStory/International/

'06 Senate Race outlook Thru Democrat Eyes

http://www.dscc.org/2006races/
(Note: We here at American Wisdom wish to express to the Democratic Party our opinion that if they try playing "Republican Lite" again, they will lose, again. The Democratic Party is the "Party of the People" and when the Democratic Party stopped listening to the People, the People started listening to Rush Limbaugh (had to pause to spit. ahem). I charge the Democratic Party with the task of direct outreach to the citizenry, bypassing the corporatist media. That is the basis for a genuine rebirth and the re-attainment of the Democratic Party's rightful place as the ONLY REALISTIC ALTERNATIVE for any and all thinking, courageous people in America, in view of the corporatism that is taking over our republic. FIGHT THE LIES IN THE CORPORATE MEDIA. Everyone is beginning to suspect the lies on TV and Radio. Spend the money in direct outreach, public demonstration, public speakers in addition to candidates. An authentic, genuine party that represents CITIZENS, not CORPORATIONS, will WIN. GIVE 'EM HELL, HOWARD. 20 million dittoheads (former, dissillusioned Limbaugh listeners) are waiting out there for us to teach them how to vote Democrat. But you must field real candidates. No more Kerrys! DEAN COULD HAVE WON. Have a nice day.)

Eminem pre-04-election video "Mosh"

http://www.gnn.tv/videos/video.php?id=27

MacArthur tried to Bury Hiroshima Story

Amy Goodman uncovers a previously silenced story:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0805-20.htm

Amy Goodman's daily news show, Democracy Now, can be heard at http://www.democracynow.org.

"Halliburton Secretly Doing Business with Key Member of Iran's Nuclear Team"

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0806-21.htm

Maybe the fact... that their stupidity might get us all killed... would be enough to spur you to action:

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0806-25.htm
"
[Robert McNamara, Former President John F. Kennedy's defense secretary] regards "current US nuclear weapons policy as immoral, illegal, militarily unnecessary and dreadfully dangerous", creating "unacceptable risks to other nations and to our own", both the risk of "accidental or inadvertent nuclear launch", which is "unacceptably high", and of nuclear attack by terrorists. McNamara endorses the judgment of William Perry, President Bill Clinton's defense secretary, that "there is a greater than 50 per cent probability of a nuclear strike on US targets within a decade".
-- Noam Chomsky
"
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0806-25.htm

Intelligence Community to "investigate itself" regarding new evidence of Pre-9/11 Indifference

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5200975,00.html
"
U.S. defense intelligence officials identified ringleader Mohammed Atta and three other hijackers as a likely part of an al-Qaida cell more than a year before the hijackings but didn't forward the information to law enforcement.
...
the men were identified in 1999 by a classified military intelligence unit known as ``Able Danger.''
...
``The 9/11 commission did not learn of any U.S. government knowledge prior to 9/11 of surveillance of Mohammed Atta or of his cell,''
...
mistakes that allowed the hijackers to succeed. Among them was a failure to share intelligence
...
Able Danger identified Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Khalid al-Mihdar and Nawaf al-Hazmi as members of a cell the unit code-named ``Brooklyn''
...
in September 2000 Able Danger recommended that its information on the hijackers be given to the FBI ``so they could bring that cell in and take out the terrorists.'' However, Weldon said Pentagon lawyers rejected the recommendation
...
The prohibition against sharing intelligence on ``U.S. persons'' should not have applied since they were in the country on visas
...
Rumsfeld said he was unaware
...
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the 9/11 Commission looked into the matter during its investigation into government missteps leading to the attacks and chose not to include it in the final report.
"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5200975,00.html

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=qw1123650549811B226&set_id=
"
2004 final report examining the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington contained no information suggesting that the US government knew the hijackers were operating inside the United States as early as 2000.
...
[Lee Hamilton, the commission's former vice chairman] insists he personally told September 11 commission staff members about Atta in Afghanistan, and offered to supply them with documents upon his return to the United States, only to be rebuffed.
...
panel's former staff [will] review internal memos and other documents to make sure information about Atta was not overlooked.
...
"We will know by the end of the week whether we missed something," Felzenberg said.
...
"Able Danger", now disbanded, was a small classified military operation engaged in data-mining analysis of "open source" information, including media reports and public records through the use of massively powerful computer systems.
...
government lawyers advised the military's Special Operations Command, which oversaw "Able Danger", not to forward the information apparently because the four were in the United States legally on visas
...
Weldon said he may ask for a formal inquiry into the issue after Congress returns from its August recess
"
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=qw1123650549811B226&set_id=

Things to Do: encourage Congress to look into this Pre-9/11 indifference, along with ROVE/PLAME/TRAITORGATE and along with the DOWNING STREET MEMO.

Watergate was NOTHING compared to this.

This is our town. How is yours?

St. Petersburg, Florida is becoming a focal point regarding free speech and public spaces. As more and more people are taking to the streets, the city government is hindering the efforts of war-protesters (for the benefit of the Sembler Company, a shopping-center corporation) by using barricades to disrupt anti-war protests and to arrest citizens who step around the barricades. The first amendment guarantees Americans the right to peacably assemble in order to petition our government (which begins with All Other Americans, in our "Government Of the People {Abraham Lincoln}") for redress of grievances. It also specifically prohibits government from reducing (abridging) our freedom of speech. Thomas Jefferson said, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism".

More info on the protest-restriction events in St. Petersburg HERE.

If the St. Petersburg Police are honestly concerned about pedestrian safety in this issue, then maybe they should consider closing Second Ave. N. on the block south of Baywalk between First street and Second street to automobile traffic on Saturday nights. A band or two in the street would actually bolster the business being done in the Baywalk too. There are those who consider the protesters an attraction and point of interest, if only for the Americanistic "authenticity" they lend the place. Many tourists from Europe and elsewhere visit the area as well.

Across the country, more and more people are realizing that it's up to YOU to tell your neighbor of the danger we're in. No one else is going to do it for you. Go make a sign.

What's happening in YOUR town?

The best man we could find in the whole world, for the job:

Aren't you proud?

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A//onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/002261.html&ei=J3T3Qsn3B5fO4QHa2M2JDg

Lotta Class there.. Buddy..

Bob Novak didn't much want to stick around and answer questions about ROVE/PLAME/TRAITORGATE:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200508040004

"...for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy..."

I'm not prepared to accept the idea that a bunch of greedy morons are a gift from the all-knowing; and any attempt to profess that they do the work of the Diety is downright disgusting. Nonetheless, they Could get us all incinerated and are apparently planning to attempt to do just that:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=RAI20050802&articleId=790

"
[According to] intelligence analyst Philip Giraldi:
...
The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney's office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons.
...
As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States.
...
no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections.
"
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=RAI20050802&articleId=790


Isn't it about time you wrote that letter to congress and the newspapers, and made a sign for the next protest?

Your Choice: Peace and Security or Orwellian Nightmare

"...we escape from the trap that the terrorists have set us...Only by recognizing that the war on terrorism cannot be won by waging war. We must, of course, protect our security; but we must also correct the grievances on which terrorism feeds....Crime requires police work, not military action." -- George Soros

What I sent to the newspapers today:

Placing Party before Country.

When scraping for justification to go to war with Iraq, the Bush Administration used a phony story alleging that Iraq attempted to obtain Nuclear Materials from Niger. They used forged documents (one of which was on 20-year-old letterhead but dated October 2000, and even had the "signature" of an official who hadn't been in office for 14 years). The former U.S. Ambassador to Niger, Joe Wilson, went to Niger to investigate, then "blew the whistle" on this scam.

In retaliation, and possibly to put a smokescreen around the issue, Karl Rove in another one of his classic devious acts, leaked the identity of "Wilson's Wife", (Valerie Plame), an undercover CIA agent, to the Press. This disclosure, which is in direct violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, put Valerie Plame and any and all of her contacts in danger, it wasted 20-odd years of intelligence-network development around a covert agent, it blew countless sums of our taxpayer money, and it betrayed the National Security interests of the United States.

(Acting) President Bush, Anxious to go to war and gain "Political Capital" (Bush said in 1999, "My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it... If I have a chance to invade, if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed...) ignored the warnings of his advisors not to use the flawed "Niger Uranium" story in his State of the Union Address, and lied to Congress and to the People of the United States of America on January 28, 2003, saying, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

Someone seems to have forgotten that we pay these people to serve the United States of America, NOT just the Corporatist, Federalist "Republican" Party.

All eyes of the nation should be squarely on Washington. Why have none of the goose-stepping, complicit "Republicans" in our legislative branch demanded that the acting President be held accountable for the treasonous acts he committed in order to get us into a war for his own political purposes? This is outright dereliction of duty on the part of all those legislators.

Also, why has the acting President AGAIN not kept his word and fired Karl Rove for leaking the identity of Valerie Plame, as he said in June, 2004 that he would fire anyone involved in leaking her name?

And YOU. You in the Press. WHY DO YOU KEEP BURYING THESE STORIES? Have you forgotten the crucial responsibility the Press bears in a democracy? Are you as cowardly as the filthy people in Washington who are bent on destroying our republic? I CHALLENGE YOU to do the right thing: to establish your place on the list of those who will be remembered as the ones who SAVED AMERICA at the beginning of the new millennium. HOLD THESE PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE!

Stop Karl Rove Cover Up

Hold the acting President to his word. He said he'd fire whoever leaked Plame's identity. Now we know who did.
Sign the petition:
http://www.stopthecoverup.com/

It's Time for YOU to Join the ACLU

"I Refuse to Surrender My Freedom"

Learn and act Downing Street Memo Sat 23 July 05

These things work. Look what we did with Fox News. Notice they don't call their propaganda "Fair and Balanced" anymore. Now wer'e going to flank those who would hide the facts about the Downing Street Memo. Find out how to participate here:
http://johnconyers.com/

Like Sellout.. like Sellout

"Wal-Mart hires Justice Scalia's son for whistle-blower suits"
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/07/10/MNGHADLKRV1.DTL

Nine Thousand (9,000) Dead?

http://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/display/10554
"
U.S. Military Personnel who died in German hospitals or en route to German hospitals have not previously been counted.
...
only soldiers actually killed on the ground in Iraq are reported. The dying and critically wounded are listed as en route to military hospitals outside of the country and not reported
...
Bush personally ordered that no pictures be taken of the coffined and flag-draped dead under any circumstances
...
Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany
...
already seen over 24,000 wounded
"
http://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/display/10554

Rove Outed Valerie Plame?

It's beginning to look like it (sure smells like it):
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000972841

When scraping for justification for going to war with Iraq, the Bush Administration used a phony story about Iraq getting Nuclear Materials from Niger. Our former ambassador to Niger, Joseph Wilson, publicly accused the Administration of using this fake Niger "Yellowcake Forgery".

Then, for some odd reason, Wilson's wife's identity as a covert CIA agent was mysteriously leaked to the press (kind of like mysteriously having your office bugged with fresh batteries so you can accuse your political opponents of doing it... uh... ahem ...). This leak sure smells like retaliation, it put Valerie Plame in Danger, and it betrayed the National Security interests of the United States.

Someone seems to have forgotten that we pay these guys to serve the United States of America, NOT just the corporate aristocrats who have hijacked the Republican Party.

Text of the Downing Street Memo

View the Text of the Downing Street Memo at:
http://www.AmericanWisdom.org/docs/downingstreet.htm

Tell your Legislators to demand answers regarding Downing Street Memo

Here's what I sent MY congressman:

Dear Sir.

The High Crimes and Treason defined by actions such as lying to congress and to the American people in order to illegally invade a sovereign country constitute a threat to our republic.

I encourage you to DO YOUR JOB and Demand that those responsible be held accountable. Call on the President to explain the Downing Street Memo.

Contact your representatives.
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121.
Ask for your congressperson or senator and talk with their staff.

Contact your Senator
Senate Toll-Free Number: (877) SOB-USOB [yes, this is right]
http://www.senate.gov

Lean about and contact your legislators ref. Downing Street Memo

This site provides background information and a contact conduit for legislators regarding the Donwing Street Evidence:
http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/

Send a letter to President Bush asking for answers:
http://johnconyers.com/downingstreetminutes

Dictator for Life?

These zealots want to repeal the Constitutional amendment limiting a standing president to two terms!
Read Here:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.J.RES.24.IH:
or Here:
http://www.americanwisdom.org/docs/hjr24.htm

Lying to Congress and the American People to Justify and then carry out an Illegal Invasion of a Sovereign Country

This warrants impeachment and trial for treason and war-crimes for Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and possibly others. More information about the Downing Street Memo can be found in this video clip:
http://www.iwilltryit.com/downingstreet1.htm

Beware, Winston Smith

John Conyers is a True American Patriot

Hear John Conyers' Hearing on the Downing Street Memo at:

HERE

or if that link doesn't work, go to this site:
HERE

Dear Sir. Be Straight with us. Stop BS'ing us. Please!

On President Bush’s Speech, June 29th, 2005, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina

It was a pretty weak sales pitch the oil-company CEO made tonight (28 June 2005). Pay no attention to the man behind the .. uh.. Podium.

Dear Sir. Be Straight with us. Stop BS'ing us. Please!

We are in Iraq to control the Middle Eastern oil supply. These guys (represented by our President) won't own up to that because they know OIL is actually a bad plan and the American People won't buy it, with good reason. Global Warming is why it's a bad plan; but they stick to it because in many cases OIL money got them into office and still holds their puppet-strings, and they're not looking into the future more than a couple years anyway. They deny global warming, forcing scientists WE employ to alter the reports of their undeniable, sinister conclusions on the subject. How about an overheating Armageddon, courtesy of Pharisees and Moneychangers? Corrupt reasoning could cost us dearly, soon enough for us all to see it.

This asset-grab in Iraq, prescribed by the Project for the New American Century, could actually bankrupt the United States of America, and that could very well result in the Balkanization of our own "homeland". Those in power lied about weapons of mass destruction in order to justify the attack on Iraq. The Downing Street memo, along with other documentation, demonstrates the motive for this pre-meditated war crime (invasion of a non-threatening sovereign nation) that was in nebulous planning YEARS before 9/11/01. Tell your co-workers and your customers about the Downing Street Memo. Just say the words "Downing Street Memo". The Press will have no choice but to address it as more and more, the word gets out.

If the purpose of the Iraq Quagmire was sincerely to nation-build (something Bush said he would NOT do, while he was campaigning), to spread the freedom of democracy and remove weapons of mass destruction, why didn't we attack someone like North Korea? They don't have OIL. That's Why. If our President honestly wants to nation-build, we have one nation right here that's needing some serious work. Do you wear Chinese clothes too? Did YOUR job go to Bangalore?

When the President this evening said, "As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down." he was describing a modern-day Vietnamization. If you follow this logic then, like in Nixon's Vietnam, gradually there will be more and more air strikes, more civilian casualties and more resulting resistance. Also, regarding "standing down", why are we buying and building permanent bases in Iraq now?

Once again, the President used his number one cash cow: the murder of thousands of working people in buildings in New York City in 2001. It enabled him to secure the office of the Presidency for a while longer (until enough people wake up). This is in keeping with Goering's strategy: of keeping "the masses" in fear in order to keep them under control. Rove knows about that kind of stuff.

Maybe some of the time wasted behind the podium, justifying this oil-grab, could have gone to explaining why the FAA air-traffic control tapes on 9/11/01 were destroyed and scattered.

The fact that a great deal of energy has been expended by the current power-structure and their pundits to stifle the information presented by John Perkins ("Confessions of an Economic Hit Man") and essays by college-professor Ward-Churchill, that demonstrate how incidents like 9/11 are basically "blowback" resulting from pseudo-colonial economic policies spanning generations, should be enough for anyone with half a mind to suspect ANY claims from the current Administration and their cronies.

On the idea that they "hate freedom": .. gimme a break. Show me a single human being who "hates freedom". Whaddya take us for?

When our President said, "every generation has produced patriots willing to serve a cause greater than themselves" I was reminded that in World War II, our grandfathers and great-grandfathers went and fought to protect themselves individually, their homes and their families. It was clear that the corporatist puppet Adolf Hitler had designs on Europe and on America too. There was no choice but to stop that fascist machine or risk being overrun by it. The Nazi soldiers our troops defeated had been trained to place their state and the "master race" above their own individuality. This is a principle of Socialism ("National Socialism" in that case). We are NOT socialists. We are a democratic republic of (sometimes rugged) individuals (or we WOULD be if we still had enough brave, honest people in the press to cut through the lies they’re being fed, so that the American people could see for themselves that those who have been bought into office are no longer working to support and defend the constitution of our own country, OR our civil liberties as individuals). Many of those who falsely claim to be "Republicans" today are more akin to the elitist, Federalist Tories who passed such laws as the "Alien and Sedition Act", prohibiting dissent, in the infancy of our country, and deserve to be recognized as such in the press. Serve the Truth.

As the President finished his speech with the usual "God Bless America", those words prompted me to reflect that Abraham Lincoln once said, "...my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side". In my opinion that means doing what is right. I strongly urge those in power to begin doing that. I say, bring our children home, and figure out how to transition our oil-based economy into one based on hydrogen. Save our planet and our descendents.

Unless, of course, what you really want is Armageddon. I don’t.

This Site deserves a Look:

Political Commentary hosted by two PHD's, Ernest Partridge and Bernard Weiner. Kudos.

http://www.crisispapers.org/topics/crisis.htm

http://www.crisispapers.org/topics/fascism.htm

http://www.crisispapers.org/

Speaking of Torture, this "rendition" nonsense has to Stop

I'd be interested to hear someone try to justify the act of flying a human being to a place where torture is common, for the purpose of subjecting that human being to it. The Italians just arrested a bunch of our CIA agents for allegedly doing just that.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/11984444.htm

Downing Street Memo film and petition by DFA

http://democracyforamerica.com/memo_movie.php

PBS NPR CPB Deserves our Attention for a While

They'll try to corrupt it, they'll try to starve it, they'll try to destroy it. We need to work together to ensure that no-one succeeds in turning our last corner of the public airwaves into a latter-day version of Pravda.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/24/1349205

"
If approved, the current budget reduction would amount to a 25 percent cut for public broadcasting - far less than the 46 percent originally proposed.
...
Yesterday, the CPB board announced they had tapped former Republican party co-chair, Patricia Harrison, to lead the organization.
...
What they're trying to do is use this to cloak efforts to create a more government-friendly news business. They have been very successful in co-opting commercial news, you see, in co-opting, embedding commercial reporters. Now they're marching on the non-commercial media system.
...
[Is it possible that] the move to cut the funding was actually to some degree an attempt to take the heat off the actual move to put Harrison in, and in essence, get the public concern about restoring funding more than Harrison getting into office?
...
[(Sounds like classic Rove to us)]
...
you should go to Free Press [(http://www.freepress.net/index.php)] to learn more about this.
"
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/24/1349205

Haven't we gotten dumb enough already?

One thing I find very frustrating when I engage some people in conversation about public affairs, is a tendency for folks to deny a plain truth by attempting to focus the discussion on irrelevant particulars. I see it whenever I tune in to C-Span too. Here's what I mean: when CBS found information that demonstrated that George Bush was derelict in his duties in the National Guard, a thunderous outcry was sounded across the land regarding the medium on which the information was transmitted. This was in order to shift attention from the fact that George Bush WAS derelict in his duties in the National Guard, to evidence that documents were re-created (but still based on facts). The public bought it (or so much of the corporate media would have us believe). I saw this when Congressman Sensenbrenner stood in plain contempt of the facts, then declaring them irrelevent (before storming out of the room), when numerous credible witnesses with irrefutable evidence demonstrated beyond a doubt to anyone listening that the Patriot Act provisions that are scheduled to sunset this year pose a severe threat to the civil liberties of the people of our beloved republic. I see it whenever I hear someone (citizen, newsreader or public servant) referring to the torture of human beings simply as "abuse". Please explain to me how being attacked and bitten in the genitals by trained dogs, being "waterboarded", or beaten to death, is not torture. Then pull your head out of your butt and take a look around.

When you sense that you are wronged by a person in business, and their only reply to your claims is on the level of, "well, you signed right here...", without any consideration of the overall circumstances, you are experiencing an encounter with a corporatocrat: one of those who has given up on humanity and is resigned to merely "getting mine" in a system that values balance sheets over the lives of human beings. I will venture here to say that many of those in our federal legislative branch who call themselves republicans (but are NOT.. we would not be going broke if they were) have succumbed to this corporatocratic malady. They have lost the ability or the INCLINATION to recognize plain truths EVEN WHEN THOSE TRUTHS ARE OBVIOUS TO US ALL, and instead will focus on minute details to support their arguments.

It has gotten us into another failed war. It has drained our treasury. It is destroying the American dream of social mobility: the ability to climb higher than the hights to which ones parents may have reached. It has destined millions of Americans to never realize the independence of spirit that comes only from being a rugged individualist, and not from being on someone else's payroll.

It's as though a stupidity has seeped into the conciousness of the collective American Mind. It is frightful. Stupidity kills. It kills teenagers who drink themselves giddy, then operate automobiles. It kills innocent working people in skyscrapers when the policies of their government cause those living in third-world countries to take desperate measures. It kills centuries of educational development when certain states forbid the teaching of evolution in the schools.

Stupidity kills countries when those who resent elitist power vote to keep elitist power in office.

Stupidity kills countries when those in power run the treasury into the ground.

And now Stupidity wants to kill a public service that is devoted to reducing stupidity.

They're going after PBS and NPR! They've already put one of their lackeys in charge of it in the same manner that they've placed their other officials: put someone who opposes the entity in charge of it, who will engineer its destruction. Now they want to cut the funding.

Let your legislators know that you've had it up to HERE with the stupidity coming out of Washington. Sign the petition to save PBS and NPR here:

http://www.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/

A Glimmer of Hope:

from  http://www.isecorp.com



We should have these everywhere.



Cars Next!