Duty to Warn
Sensible, intelligent Americans are furious over the recent Supreme Court 5-to-4-decision referred to as Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that struck down limits on corporate spending in presidential and congressional elections. Those of us who wail against the corpocracy with its corruption of government could hardly believe that this decision could in any way be justified. A major reaction has been a number of groups calling for a constitutional amendment to fix the problem.
It helps to know that three current constitutional amendments resulted because of Supreme Court decisions that needed remedial action: the Eleventh Amendment (shoring up states’ legal immunity), the Sixteenth Amendment (authorizing a federal income tax), and the Twenty-sixth Amendment (assuring eighteen-year-olds the right to vote).
Among the current efforts MoveToAmend.org has already received nearly 50,000 signatories to support is plan, particularly: Firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.
It helps to know that three current constitutional amendments resulted because of Supreme Court decisions that needed remedial action: the Eleventh Amendment (shoring up states’ legal immunity), the Sixteenth Amendment (authorizing a federal income tax), and the Twenty-sixth Amendment (assuring eighteen-year-olds the right to vote).
Among the current efforts MoveToAmend.org has already received nearly 50,000 signatories to support is plan, particularly: Firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.
In 2008, the ACLU estimated the US 'No Fly List' to have grown to over 1,000,000 names -- heck, even Cat Stevens and the late Senator Ted Kennedy were on it -- and it continues to expand. But, suspected terrorist Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was curiously able to obtain military-grade high explosives --80 grams of PETN (Gee, where'd he get that?) -- managed to escape airport security and detonate his underwear bomb!
In April 2009, American authorities reportedly refused an Air France flight from Paris to Mexico entry into US airspace because a left-wing journalist writing a book on the CIA was on board. Hernando Calvo Ospina, who works for Le Monde Diplomatique and has written on revolutionary movements in Cuba and Colombia, figured on the US authorities' 'no-fly list.' Air France said the April 18 flight was forced to divert to the French Caribbean island of Martinique before continuing its journey (telegraph.co.uk).
In April 2009, American authorities reportedly refused an Air France flight from Paris to Mexico entry into US airspace because a left-wing journalist writing a book on the CIA was on board. Hernando Calvo Ospina, who works for Le Monde Diplomatique and has written on revolutionary movements in Cuba and Colombia, figured on the US authorities' 'no-fly list.' Air France said the April 18 flight was forced to divert to the French Caribbean island of Martinique before continuing its journey (telegraph.co.uk).
In ten years of a new Century, U.S. systemic dysfunction became more dramatic. The government responded by retreating down the ancient Egyptian River. Millions of Americans drink “unhealthy” water; military suicides escalate; schools erode and health programs collapse. -- The New York Times
The Senate passed a $626 billion “defense” budget without discussion. Since 1947, when the War Department became the Defense Department, Congress has allocated trillions of dollars, but all for offense and with dubious results: Korea (1950-53), Vietnam (1964-74), Iraq and Afghanistan. None of those countries attacked or threatened us.
In Copenhagen, Obama reflected the denial mood of Congress, banks and corporations and offered platitudes to reduce global warming while admitting the perils of growing climate change. Raising unpleasant future scenarios signifies unacceptable political pessimism. The press, predictably, abdicated on all issues not connected to celebrity scandal.
The Senate passed a $626 billion “defense” budget without discussion. Since 1947, when the War Department became the Defense Department, Congress has allocated trillions of dollars, but all for offense and with dubious results: Korea (1950-53), Vietnam (1964-74), Iraq and Afghanistan. None of those countries attacked or threatened us.
In Copenhagen, Obama reflected the denial mood of Congress, banks and corporations and offered platitudes to reduce global warming while admitting the perils of growing climate change. Raising unpleasant future scenarios signifies unacceptable political pessimism. The press, predictably, abdicated on all issues not connected to celebrity scandal.
In the past I have alluded to Panetta and the Seven Dwarfs. The reference is to CIA Director Leon Panetta and seven of his moral-dwarf predecessors—the ones who sent President Barack Obama a letter on Sept. 18 asking him to “reverse Attorney General Holder’s August 24 decision to re-open the criminal investigation of CIA interrogations.” http://tinyurl.com/my4jc5
Panetta reportedly was also dead set against reopening the investigation—as he was against release of the Justice Department’s “torture memoranda” of 2002, as he has been against releasing pretty much anything at all—the President’s pledges of a new era of openness, notwithstanding. Panetta is even older than I, and I am aware that hearing is among the first faculties to fail. Perhaps he heard “error” when the President said “era.”
Panetta reportedly was also dead set against reopening the investigation—as he was against release of the Justice Department’s “torture memoranda” of 2002, as he has been against releasing pretty much anything at all—the President’s pledges of a new era of openness, notwithstanding. Panetta is even older than I, and I am aware that hearing is among the first faculties to fail. Perhaps he heard “error” when the President said “era.”
1. Remove Cloudmark Authority from all email servers.
2. Really investigate 9/11, beginning with the truth about WTC-7.
3. Repeal the Patriot Act, and restore our Bill of Rights.
4. Repudiate all wars for profit, and recall our troops.
5. Require single-term limits, and RE-ELECT NOBODY.
2. Really investigate 9/11, beginning with the truth about WTC-7.
3. Repeal the Patriot Act, and restore our Bill of Rights.
4. Repudiate all wars for profit, and recall our troops.
5. Require single-term limits, and RE-ELECT NOBODY.
Can people become so broken that truths of how they are being screwed do not “set them free” but instead further demoralize them? Has such a demoralization happened in the United States? Do some totalitarians actually want us to hear how we have been screwed because they know that humiliating passivity in the face of obvious oppression will demoralize us even further? What forces have created a demoralized, passive, disCouraged U.S. population? Can anything be done to turn this around?
Can people become so broken that truths of how they are being screwed do not “set them free” but instead further demoralize them?
YES. It is called the “abuse syndrome.” How do abusive pimps, spouses, bosses, corporations, and governments stay in control? They shove lies, emotional and physical abuses, and injustices in their victims’ faces, and when victims are afraid to exit from these relationships, they get weaker; and so the abuser then makes their victims eat even more lies, abuses, and injustices, resulting in victims even weaker as they remain in these relationships.
Can people become so broken that truths of how they are being screwed do not “set them free” but instead further demoralize them?
YES. It is called the “abuse syndrome.” How do abusive pimps, spouses, bosses, corporations, and governments stay in control? They shove lies, emotional and physical abuses, and injustices in their victims’ faces, and when victims are afraid to exit from these relationships, they get weaker; and so the abuser then makes their victims eat even more lies, abuses, and injustices, resulting in victims even weaker as they remain in these relationships.
On the 46th anniversary of the assassination of John F Kennedy, it would appear that the National Security State finds it necessary to kill the facts surrounding his death. The Discovery Channel aired three misleading shows in November, “Did the Mob Kill JFK,” “JFK: The Ruby Connection” and “Inside the Target Car.” I will focus on “Did the Mob Kill JFK.” “Did the Mob Kill JFK” is based on Lamar Waldron's book titled “Legacy of Secrecy (co-written or at least co-promoted by well respected Thom Hartmann) which concludes that the Mafia assassinated Kennedy.
Manassas, VA - Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, has written a blog on his Web site stating that conservative litmus tests for Republican candidates are "well intentioned," but "would do little to solve the two fundamental problems within the Republican Party: bad leadership and conservative acquiescence to bad leadership."
The article, at http://conservativehq.com/blog_post/show/470, states that liberal Republicans "are merely an annoyance."
Rather, Viguerie writes that the "current Republican leadership has consistently supported our national slide to socialism."
He cites Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader John Boehner, and former Bush White House political advisor Karl Rove as Republicans who "have consistently abandoned constitutional principles of limited government in favor of socialist-statist programs, all in the name of 'winning.'"
The article, at http://conservativehq.com/blog_post/show/470, states that liberal Republicans "are merely an annoyance."
Rather, Viguerie writes that the "current Republican leadership has consistently supported our national slide to socialism."
He cites Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader John Boehner, and former Bush White House political advisor Karl Rove as Republicans who "have consistently abandoned constitutional principles of limited government in favor of socialist-statist programs, all in the name of 'winning.'"
In response to President Obama's pending announcement of a major troop escalation in Afghanistan, Peace Activist, Cindy Sheehan, and other major anti-war groups and activists are announcing the formation of a new Peace Coalition that will seek to actively obstruct "business as usual" in Washington, DC, until Congress and the administration announce troop withdrawals from Iraq/Af-Pak.
"We've marched, we've signed letters and petitions, helped get candidates elected and called Congress and the White House, until we're literally blue in the face, and peace is even more elusive now then it was when Bush was president. I believe so strongly in peace and justice for all that I am, once again, uprooting my life, this time to move to our nation's capital until true change occurs. I am calling on people who love humanity and peace to join me in Peace of the Action, " Sheehan said from her California home.
The Coalition's demands are simple:
Troops, drone bombers, and mercenary contractors out of Iraq/Af-Pak and close permanent bases and give the people of Iraq-Afghanistan-Pakistan any reparations/help rebuilding their nations that they need.
"We've marched, we've signed letters and petitions, helped get candidates elected and called Congress and the White House, until we're literally blue in the face, and peace is even more elusive now then it was when Bush was president. I believe so strongly in peace and justice for all that I am, once again, uprooting my life, this time to move to our nation's capital until true change occurs. I am calling on people who love humanity and peace to join me in Peace of the Action, " Sheehan said from her California home.
The Coalition's demands are simple:
Troops, drone bombers, and mercenary contractors out of Iraq/Af-Pak and close permanent bases and give the people of Iraq-Afghanistan-Pakistan any reparations/help rebuilding their nations that they need.
As I slog through the debate, no, the debacle on Universal Health Care; As I watch while fellow Americans water down, no, piss on this most noble notion of our nation's history, my emotions evolve from shock, to sadness, to trying (without success) to tune out.
While the damned wars may be justified, however wrongly, with some misguided and misinformed altruism, there is nothing to misconstrue as moral ground in opposing Universal Health Care.
Good people can be fooled into supporting wars. Happens all the time. But people who oppose Universal Health Care just plain suck. They're usually the ones who happen to have healthcare for themselves and their families. But as their jobs disappear - and with it their insurance - they change their tune right quick.
Most opponents cite government incompetence or high cost as reasons to deny health care to all Americans. But beneath the cost and controversy lies an incontrovertable truth:
More Americans would remain alive in a United States with Universal Health Care.
Less Americans would die.
While the damned wars may be justified, however wrongly, with some misguided and misinformed altruism, there is nothing to misconstrue as moral ground in opposing Universal Health Care.
Good people can be fooled into supporting wars. Happens all the time. But people who oppose Universal Health Care just plain suck. They're usually the ones who happen to have healthcare for themselves and their families. But as their jobs disappear - and with it their insurance - they change their tune right quick.
Most opponents cite government incompetence or high cost as reasons to deny health care to all Americans. But beneath the cost and controversy lies an incontrovertable truth:
More Americans would remain alive in a United States with Universal Health Care.
Less Americans would die.