free speech zones?

yeah, ya bunch of jackasses.

here, we just call it "america", and our manual is the constitution.

try reading it before you take an oath to defend it.

Peter Dale Scott, in his new book The Road to 9/11, links the development of Cheyney and Rumy's Continutation of Government Plans developed from the early days first Nixon Administration all the way up through 9/11.

Here are what some reviewers have said about this book

"Scott's brilliantly perceptive account of the underpinnings of American governmental authority should be made required reading. The book vividly depicts the political forces that have pushed this country toward an abyss, threatening constitutional democracy at home and world peace abroad. Its central message can be understood as an urgent wake-up call to everyone concerned with the future of America."--Richard Falk, author of The Great Terror War

"Peter Dale Scott is one of that tiny and select company of the most brilliantly creative and provocative political-historical writers of the last half century. The Road to 9/11 further secures his distinction as truth-teller and prophet. He shows us here with painful yet hopeful clarity the central issue of our time--America's coming to terms with its behavior in the modern world. As in his past work, Scott's gift is not only recognition and wisdom, but also redemption and rescue we simply cannot do without."--Roger Morris, former NSC staffer

The importance of this publication should not be underestimated. Published by the University of California Press, Scott's new book goes further than any other book so far published about 9/11, to identify and establish through unimpeachable documentary evidence the historic factors that have made the crime of 9/11 and its cover-up possible. Much more than this, The Road to 9/11 demonstrates exactly how it has happened over the past half century that American democracy has been fundamentally undermined, and, vitally, how it can be re-established.

Most of the book documents key points in this "para-political" history. It's treatment of the actual crime of 9/11 is brief relative to the space given towards establishing the hidden political structures and context which allowed 9/11 to happen. This is not a book detailing all the legitimate questions about the 9/11 event; rather, it focuses on some of the most pertinent - and damning. More importantly, and this is its most significant offering, it establishes the underlying context by which to accurately understand the current historical predicament.

The fact that UC Press has published this book - even though it names sitting politicians as being likely of having committed criminal, even treasonous acts - is a testament both to their courage, and especially to the impeccability of Scott's research. Reportedly, the relevant editorial department at the UCP Berkely decided to publish the book only after commissioning two independent peer reviewers, who each recommended publication, and after one of the longest debates in their history. As bold and disturbing as it is, they apparently decided it was too important to decline or delay publication of this material, once the accuracy of its sources had been vigorously confirmed.

Style-wise, it's academic, to be sure, but it's a great one to give to judges, journalists, police officers, lawyers, professors, religious leaders, politicians, military officers, students, concerned foreigners, and, well heck - any caring citizen with a brain.

This book will surely become a cornerstone for present and future historians to understanding the current epoch. If you care about our democracy, The Road to 9/11 is a book you must read. Soon.
http://www.amazon.com/Road-11-Wealth-Empire-America/dp/0520237730

Ha, if we allowed those protestors to speak we'd all be aware the Emperor is buck ass nekid...

Hitler had well run rallies, too.

When the copy of the Presidential Advance Manual was released a couple of months ago it was placed on the internet as a pdf file that I downloaded. After the title page with the seal of the office of the Presidency and the table of contents pages 2 through 11 were redacted, page 12 had only one paragraph that had not been redacted then pages 13 through 31 were redacted.

Pages 32 through 36 cover ticketing polices and offer strategies for republican event volunteers to minimize any impact that protesters at an event might have on media coverage including having teams of young athletic republicans physically obstructing the line of sight between protestors and the official press platform with signs and banners.

Pages 36 through 66 were redacted.

Page 67 noted that there are two types of presidential events, official and political. Costs for official events are paid for by the Federal government, costs for political events are paid by the Republican National committee.

Pages 68 through 103 redacted.

Presumable the Presidential Advance Manual had only 103 pages.

The cowardice of our war time president apparently has no bounds.

During America's last declared war, W. W. II, my mother worked in Washington D.C.

It was not at all uncommon for FDR to be seen in public going in and out of government buildings with only his secretary, a couple of staffers and one Secret Service agent. No motorcade, no closed streets, no rooftop snipers.

Well, it's Bush's brain that's wheelchair bound.

So much time and effort spent by an administration that ignores all dissent anyway. Like the infamous, by invitation, super-screened for loyalbushies "town hall" meets, the only reason the PAM exists is to thwart any media that might accidentally report someone isn't pro-Loonitary Decider. Image protection, the by-product of which is a repression of free speech.

Freedom of expression is one of the pillars of democracy. If this is curtailed through various means, including using threat and force, how such a country can be called a democracy.

Since this basic human right and the US corporate companies' interests are linked, I think the following article on freedom and democracy in the US is appropriate. The US government is curtailing the basic human rights of the US citizens, because it represents the corporate companies, and the latter want the citizens only to be the VOICELESS PRODUCTIVE MACHINES to produce profit.

What Freedom? What Democracy?
By Siv O'Neall
26 August, 2007
Axis Of Logic

The idea that the United States is the freest and most democratic country on the planet has forever been force-fed into the minds of Americans. In fact, there are really no other countries in the world that can even closely approach the level of freedom and democracy enjoyed by the American people. Americans are unique.

The hidden truth
Where is the democracy in a country and in a world that is being run by transnational corporations? Where even the Congress is tied down by bonds of dependency to Corporate America, Republicans and Democrats alike. Where the rulers have not even been freely and honestly elected by the people? Where the ruling clique consists exclusively of men and women representing Big Money, business executives who have no understanding of what it is like to go sick and hungry? Who have no humility, no compassion, no understanding of how all the cogs in a machinery are important in the process of making the engine run. The voices of the poor have been silenced for so long that the power people have forgotten their sound.

Where is the democracy in a country where nobody can be sure that his vote is even counted in a fair election? Where is the democracy in a country where the children of the poor have no right to a quality education? Where people are kept illiterate so as to be blindfolded and led down a path to nowhere, where there is no hope, no light, no future. Where people are kept half starving and half strangled so as to be cut off from any possibility to revolt in great force and number. Keep the masses weak, ignorant and hypnotized by patriotic propaganda about how we are the best, we are the leaders of the world. Make the people believe that they just have to apply themselves and they will be able to get out into the light and become leaders of people, make the big buck and prove that this is a free country.

What freedom?
What is freedom if there is no right for poor people to get decent healthcare, no right to get a proper education, no right to feel secure in their daily needs, no right to be treated fairly by bosses and security agents? What is freedom if people have no right to trust their own safety and feel confident in their modest dreams for a better tomorrow?

What is freedom in a world of greedy capitalism where nothing matters except the grabbing of the money of the underdog? What is freedom in a world where you have to buy at great expense your drinking water from big corporations that have no other concern but to screw you out of what you have managed to scrape together under inhuman working conditions? What is freedom when you are not even free to breathe clean air because it's gotten polluted by big industry, not free to drink clean water because chemical companies have dumped toxic waste upstream into the water that runs by your house? What is freedom when the resources in your part of the world are claimed by huge corporations in a far-away country?

What is freedom if it takes volunteering to fight an illegal and immoral war and risk your life and your health to get a chance to one day get a good education?
What is freedom when you don't even have the right to get your voice heard in matters that concern you directly? When you are in essence nothing but a slave to your bosses, to the people who run your community, to the people who take your money in taxes to spend on an illegal war and for the obscene enrichment of corporate bosses?

Big Money
The world is not run by common sense. The world is not run by thoughtful politicians. It is run by greed and ruthlessness. A total lack of compassion is the trade mark of the ruling elite. And a total lack of vision, since the only thing that matters is instant gain. Today counts, tomorrow is beyond their attention span.

All the talk about bringing democracy and freedom to Iraq is the most obscene lie, since nobody in the war-crazy clique in Washington had any thought whatsoever of doing a good deed for Iraq. Control and domination were the goals that kept the war machine going. Control of oil and domination of the people so as to subdue them to inaction. Vain and shortsighted goal since in the long run nobody can dominate a people who is set on keeping the country that is theirs for themselves. Thoughtlessly plundering and, absent any firm plans, the U.S. neoconservative junta had nothing else in their field of vision but to gain access to Iraqi oil and ultimately to control the whole region. Shameless hubris, mindless arrogance.

The world is well on the way of losing any semblance of democracy under the active undemocratic force of the big corporations that dictate the finances of the planet without the slightest consideration of what is good for the people. The invisible people who make up the base of all the activity that underlies the world of Big Business. The invisible people who are powerless in this world of greed and urge to dominate and control. Political power is for those who pay; the lobbies buy influence and all the rest is hypocrisy and lies.

The future of the U.S. empire
The American empire, however, may well one day soon find itself in an impasse, since they are not as mighty and overpowering as they seem to think. Their simplistic way of setting out to conquer the world will certainly, in one way or another, be thwarted by other great powers who want their share of the booty. The Russian-Chinese cooperative, brought together by their common wariness of the U.S. empire, and even docile India will not sit by and watch the U.S. take over the whole Middle East and Central Asia region. The neocon junta in Washington thought it would be child's play to take over the running of the world, they had visions of invincibility and of everlasting Republican rule, but at this very moment they are in a tight spot and the future will tell how stable or unstable the U.S. empire actually is. The ever increasing need for energy, and thus for a piece of the pie, in the emerging great nations makes it highly unlikely that the United States will be allowed to dominate the world scene and the oil supply unilaterally for ages to come.

The question left open is whether one day we will be able to take back our democracy and our freedoms and build some form of an equitable world where wide-spread hunger is not the cancer on our society that it is today.

"So much time and effort spent by an administration that ignores all dissent anyway"

Dissent leaves the source of the corruption unchallenged; there is no difference between 'dissent' and 'complaint'.

"The question left open is whether one day we will be able to take back our democracy and our freedom"

We have never had our democracy; little drips and bits of the Constitution have occasionally been put into force, largely through some New Deal & post-WWII changes & the decisions of the Warren Court, and then only for a small window of a few decades.

Keep in mind that the Dem '04 convention also featured free speech caging.

This isn't a Bush problem, this is a D.C. and national politics problem.

"In an effort to control political space, the manual asserts, "Homemade signs are not allowed at events."

Notice: Dissent is perfectly acceptable by our corporate president as long as you get your protest signs made by professionals who can make a profit from your desire to be a pesky nuisance. Homemade signs will not be allowed!

My mind is like an echo chamber visualizing the raids against the "illegal aliens," or the raids against non-violent drug offenders, or the raids against those that would protest, etc. A society all about armed guards and the controls they are given license to police. Yeah, ain't freedom grand.