In “1984,” the novel that most baby boomers read in high school, George Orwell creates a theoretical modern-day government with absolute power — a state in which government, called the Party, monitors and controls every aspect of human life to the extent that even having a disloyal thought is against the law.
On Sept. 26, a federal judge in Eugene ruled that crucial parts of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow federal surveillance and searches of American citizens without demonstrating probable cause. U.S. District Judge Ann L. Aiken said the federal government would “amend the Bill of Rights, by giving it an interpretation that would deprive it of any real meaning.”
Ruling in favor of an Oregon lawyer who challenged the act after he was mistakenly linked to the 2004 train bombings in Madrid, Spain, Aiken stated: “A shift to a nation based on extra-constitutional authority is prohibited, as well as ill advised.”
Earlier in September, another federal judge, this one in New York, ordered the FBI to stop obtaining e-mail and telephone data without first securing a warrant. The secrecy provisions are “the legislative equivalent of breaking and entering, with an ominous free pass to the hijacking of constitutional values,” U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero wrote.
In “1984,” the Party barrages citizens with psychological stimuli designed to overwhelm the mind. The giant telescreen in every room monitors behavior. People are continuously reminded of government’s surveillance, especially by omnipresent signs reading, “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.” Individuals are encouraged to spy on each other, even children on their parents, and report any instance of disloyalty to the Party — i.e., government.
“1984″ is happening in 2007.
Signs along interstate highways urge citizens, “Report Suspicious Behavior.” Cameras mounted at strategic locations monitor our everyday movement (just as in the novel). Red, orange and yellow are no longer just bright, pretty colors: They now represent levels of national security alerts. Intelligence agencies now define “chatter” as “terrorist speak.”
The Party in “1984″ uses psychological manipulation to make citizens “doublethink” — hold two contradictory ideas contrary to common sense.
Back to 2007: The Patriot Act by its very name defies individuals to disagree with it, for to do so would be “unpatriotic.”
The Patriot Act was passed hastily in October 2001, under a cloak of fear in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Some of the fundamental changes to American’s traditional legal rights include:
Establishing a huge surveillance system on millions with no court approval, without probable cause.
Holding citizens indefinitely without access to the courts or counsel.
Monitoring library withdrawals and Internet communications.
Taping attorney-client communications.
Creating a national system for citizens to monitor and report on each other, regardless of reason, including paranoia or ethnic bias.
Developing a massive computer system to monitor every purchase.
Creating a national identification card.
The new federal court rulings are a step forward against threats to our freedom — as were other recent court rulings against the Bush administration’s contention that the Geneva Conventions prohibiting torture were “obsolete” and “trite” and against our secret holding of prisoners abroad without due process.
9-11 was real, as the recent videos by Osama bin Laden confirm now more than six years after he attacked us. However, that fact does not allow playing on our fears and increasing our paranoia about our personal safety. Sen. Joseph McCarthy tried that with Communism in the 1950s. The administration has tried to condition the American people, just as Pavlov did with his dogs.
Congress is now revisiting the legality of the Patriot Act, warrantless surveillance programs, torture of prisoners in secret prisons and barring detainees from counsel and knowing the charges against them. By law, in the next few months, Congress must renew, change or end the Patriot Act and surveillance programs.
Congress must act quickly or the courts should permanently strike down these presidential fear-based abuses. Americans’ trust of the federal government is now lower than during Watergate, according to a Gallup poll released Sept. 26.
Al-Qaida hates Americans of all creeds and races and will do whatever it can to destroy us and our way of life. James Madison warned, “If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.” With the mightiest military and strongest technology on Earth, democracy can stand up to terrorism without becoming the mirror of our enemies.
Robert Weiner was a Clinton White House public affairs director and spokesman for the U.S. House Government Operations Committee.
© 2007 The Oregonian
Uh, gee whiz, it took you all this time to get it?
1984 was of course written as a critique of communism. About the same time Huxley wrote “Brave New World” as a critique of capitalism. The country we live in is now an amalgam of both, i.e. the excesses of a totalitarian state and rampant consumerism at the same time. In many ways the Brave-New-Worldism enables the 1984ism.
A totalitarian corporate state: I believe that’s called Fascism.
Since 1968 and the “Silent Americans” one can have said its like “1984.”
Ah, but perhaps since 1948 might be better.
How soon we forget the “Blacklisted workers,” the purged union leaders, the hounded government workers and the quiet “free press.”
“Freedom of speech comes for speaking without fear. Recognizing free speech comes from listening without fear.”
While it is somewhat hopeful to see judicial correction finally taking place, I fear that we are but one contrived attack/catastrophy away from martial law and the end of this experiment in self-government. The detention centers are waiting…
“Congress must renew, change or end the Patriot Act and surveillance programs.
Congress must act quickly or the courts should permanently strike down these presidential fear-based abuses.”
This makes no sense. Why must the Congress act quickly? Given a choice I would prefer that the Congress not act at all and just let it expire.
Lobo Gris
My medical and banking records were seized without court review, phone conversations recorded and mail interdicted. Armed volunteers from Citizens Patrol have conducted search and surveillance on my property. SWAT entered my home shot dogs and destroyed my house with tear gas. There was no crime and no court review. In a Federal tort concerning civil rights violations the judge ruled that the police are exempt from excessive force and exempt from illegal search due to their use of private contractors and secret information sources. The take home message is you are on your own for protecting your home and family in our new fascist police state.
“Al-Qaida hates Americans” sounds like newspeak to me.
Doesn’t anyone remember the fact that it was America and Europe that created Al Quaida and similar terrorist organizations and that it continues to do so today? The Pakistani based ISI is a perfect example. Despite having passed the Big Brother Act of 2001 with another hastily passed Big Brother Act II in 2003 STEALTHILY during Saddham’s capture when citizens would be distracted the most similar to the 20 hijackers preparing to BOMB WTC during the Condit vs Levy goosechase in summer 2001, Al Quaida has not only recouped everything it lost, but it is now 5 times STRONGER than it was before 9/11/2001. Don’t believe me? Get your butts off the chair and visit Pakistan and Afghanistan and see for yourselves !
This article is like most liberal hogwash — it makes some truthful remarks, then gets on its knees and surrenders abjectly to the far right.
Look at the last paragraph: “Al-Qaida hates Americans of all creeds and races and will do whatever it can to destroy us and our way of life. … With the mightiest military and strongest technology on Earth, democracy can stand up to terrorism without becoming the mirror of our enemies.”
- Al-Quaida was CREATED by the CIA & financed by them for many years. Al-Quaida’s public statements adduce 3 justifications for their actions — US policy in the Israel-Palestine conflict; US actions to shatter & devastate Iraqi society; and US stationing of troops on Muslim lands. Even if one disagrees with Al-Quaida’s methods, an honest person must admit that these 3 rationales have plenty of merit. More importantly, the things the US has done to many 3rd world countries over the years are vastly more murderous & despicable than what Al Qaeda (allegedly) did to us on Sept 11.
Therefore, the statement that “Al Quida hates Americans…& will do whatever it can to destroy us and our way of life: — this is a priceless example of Western hypocrisy. The writer then immediately follows up on his refusal to acknowledge American crimes by yapping about our “mighty military” and referring to us as a “democracy.” That shows the West’s true colors — when you get right down to it, the US & its little pals are all about brandishing their “mighty military,” while ignoring our own crimes, dishonestly glorifying ourselves as a “democracy,” and dishonestly demonizing our enemies…. who, if you look at it with an open mind, have viewpoints more grounded in truth than our own.
ADEL: Your personal account is beyond chilling. Many of us on CD post “unpatriotic” opinions, and many of us have attended protests, etc. Can you think of any qualifying action on your part (this is not any attempt to ‘blame the victim,’ it’s more in the line of trying to locate where the trip wire is so that the rest of us can avoid it, if possible) that may have brought on the dogs?
Wake up, Weiner…If you believe the recent tapes of Bin Laden confirm that 9/11 was “real”, I would advise you to do a bit more research. Writing something like that without any true research is not the sign of a serious journalist. I totally agree with your comparisons to Orwell’s 1984. But, you did not take it far enough. 9/11 was a false flag operation if ever there was one and Bin Laden is Goldstein. The sooner 9/11 is TRULY investigated and THE TRUTH revealed, the sooner we can get the war trials started. Sometimes I understand the lethargy of the American public, but once they know what REALLY happened, they will demand proceedings against this administration, Silverstein, Giulianni and the rest of the cabal. This cannot and will not go they way of JFK!
Most Americans have no idea what has been happening to this country since the stolen election of 2000, nor do they care. ‘Old Glory’ has been reduced to toilet paper…one-ply at that.
Throughout most of the twentieth century, if you disagreed with the bigshots, you were labeled a communist Now, if you find fault in their actions, you are called a terrorist.
“The more things change, the more they stay the same”.
Much appreciation and gratitude to all commenters for your clarity and courage.
misanthrope October 7th, 2007 12:51 pm
“A totalitarian corporate state: I believe that’s called Fascism.”
It used to be called Fascism before the Party ordered the MSM to send it down the Memory Hole. Now it is called it Democracy. For those that disagree there is always the Ministry of Love where Big Brother Does Not Torture People…
whatfools,
Thankfully now, Fascism can only exist in the University, where freedom is currently prohibited by intellectuals.
Siouxrose -
I have been widely reported in AP, WSJ, NBC, CBS, local tv and papers, etc. I was planning a press conference on the economics of energy, oil, and global warming on the eve of the Iraq war. I was warned and ignored those warnings. Many bizarre things happened. When you get fascist warnings - that is a trip wire.
I really don’t know what to call articles like this that attempt to support one argument on the surface (against the Patriot Act), but are actually supporting quite another (that we know for sure what 9/11 was all about, that we know what al-Qaida is all about).
Doublespeak, maybe?
I think that Mr R. Weiner writer has some deep cognitive problems, contradicting his Clintonesque marketing technique by misusing Orwell.
1. Extremist Paranioa.
“Al-Qaida hates Americans of all creeds and races and will do whatever it can to destroy us and our way of life.”
This sort of unjustified fear can be used to justify any crime. Its a kind of statement right out of 1984. It cannot disguise the fact that it is the citizens of USI (United States of Israel) who are doing most of the destroying around the world, and are destroyed by their own way of life.
2. No weapon or concentration of power is too powerful.
“With the mightiest military and strongest technology on Earth, democracy can stand up to terrorism without becoming the mirror of our enemies.”
Lets just blow up the earth. I thought democracy was up as a manifestation of the peoples will, as shown by rising up under oppression, as in Burma. If you need massive technology, you are not for real. Democracy comes from the peoples will, from societies strength, not from military might. It is the sustainment and turning inwards of the military mind onto society that destroys democracy. If you want Democracy, restrain the implements of death and apocalypse and enable Society. Fear of your weapons will not buy you any respect with the rest of the world. The fascism so much feared by the author is merely the turning inwards of how the USI has already treated the world over the last hundred years. If you want democracy, put down the sword, the army , the concentration camp, tortore, and the nuclear warhead, in your dealings with all people. Learn to live with others. Leave Iraq and Afghanistan now. Otherwise, forget it, you are a complete deluded fake. Live by the sword, die by the sword.
“Excuse me,” the interviewer asked, “what you’re trying to say is sometimes a decision of war — you have to take a decision of war in order to achieve peace.”
“That’s exactly right,” Bush said.
War is Peace.
BTW, the anti Patriot Act also changed “probable cause” to “reasonable cause.” You know, a whim instead of actual evidence…
For info on the 9/11 Citizen’s War Crimes Tribunal - check out Exopolitics.com and the work of Alfred Webre, JD.
This article may have had some merit until the author wrote this piece of newspeak himself…
“Al-Qaida hates Americans of all creeds and races and will do whatever it can to destroy us and our way of life.”
And where exactly, Mr. Weiner, did you obtain this notion, spoken with such absolute certainty? The last “Bin Laden” speech certainly implied nothing of the sort - In fact, I recall it was a rather ecumenical statement that brought up quite a few good points regarding the threat of US imperialist power and the global corporate interests that back it. He even mentioned the threat of global warming these corporate interests are causing.
Or, going back to Orwell, might this Bin Laden’s be serving as our Emmanuel Goldstein?
Adel, are you serious? Did those things really happen to you? Have you called the ACLU?
jazzhead, same thing that I said the other day.
peaceman, “Most Americans have no idea what has been happening to this country since the stolen election of 2000, nor do they care. ‘Old Glory’ has been reduced to toilet paper…one-ply at that.”
— That’s a damned lie, peaceman. Most Americans do Know what’s happening by now. And where do you get that they don’t care? Have you taken surveys and can you substantiate these accusations? Please give us a link so we can all check it out.
Adel,
Please keep posting on CommonDreams. Most of us are sideliners who have tangiential experience with fascism. You can further open our eyes to what is going on right now, right here. Please keep us informed.
It’s quite clear that the template articulated in 1984 simply works. That is, for any elite.
Doublethink works:
“See and fear Islamofascists lurking Out There,” say the Christofascists at home.
As magiciams, the current folks in power have used sleight-of-hand masterfully. At least give them that much.
Examples from the home front:
1) Set up Dan Rather with false documents about Bush’s time in the national guard, create a media furor about Rather and his channel leading to his demise. Goal: Go on the attack regarding a huge weak spot in Bush’s narrative about his life. Plus, get rid of Rather, an old thorn in the Bush’s family’s side.
Has anyone since gone after the Bush national guard story? I don’t think so.
2) John Kerry, who, no matter what you think of him, chose to serve as a soldier in war, risked his life, and probably aquitted himself with honor. At the start former Navy man Kerry was looking Pretty Good as someone to “protect our country.” And Bush?
“Swiftboating” Kerry, quickly turned him into a Doofus, while The President, who avoided the deadly dangers of Vietnam, remained above the fray, smirking. Attack right where you have a weakness. It’s brilliant.
Given the crises ahead - ecological and social/values - were you were a member of the Elite, wouldn’t you want to “prepared?”
No doubt many of us wiil crave “order at any price.” And the elites are ready to provide just that.
Wait a minute, PowerofLove, “‘See and fear Islamofascists lurking Out There’, say the Christofascists at home.”
I thought the Jews were the bad guys. Or was that last week?
This article is another odd pick by Common Dreams –
1984 vs 1984 . . . . with 1984 winning.
Only to those paying absolutely no attention to details would 9/11 myth stand up. Or one of the many fake Osama Bin Laden tapes–!!!
This is another STINKER in the Common Dreams line up –
Thanks, anyway, Common Dreams — !!!
I wish I could be more helpful. One can not call the ACLU. The only method is by snail mail. We wrote back and forth. Because I was not charged with a crime there was little more to do but file a tort for civil right violations. Private lawyers will do that for free and the ACLU was suddenly flooded with civil rights issues from the early victims of Bush. Many were on an old war resistors list from COINTELPRO. I was not a civil rights activist. I had bigger fish to fry. My focus was on the corruption of our government by oil interests. I was not targeting fascists, they targeted my family. It was a shock, that was their mission, maximum shock. If you expect shock troops then the surprise of shock is less effective. Thirty paramilitary soldiers can look very scary with black full body armor, large assault automatic rifles, helicopters landing, and were completely unexpected. Anyway, I feel that the PNAC have failed their primary objective of global influence via control of Middle East oil and are now in full retreat. I also think they had an inflated view of the efficacy of the press (Jo Wilson, Valerie Plame, et al.) and also underestimated the power of the Internet. One thing we can be sure of - fascism is not sustainable. I feel like the main character of 1984 at the end of the book - battered and isolated from the common experiences of others.
Adel,
That IS dreadful.
If you only had the money to prosecute, I bet you could force them to compensate much. As you may well know, America has the best justice system that money can buy. But if you dont have lots of money then you cant buy justice. Its only for the rich.
this article is a fraud. its given away by this line;
9-11 was real, as the recent videos by Osama bin Laden confirm now more than six years after he attacked us.
————-
liar
liar
liar
no surprise from the clinton team.
liar - i did not have sex with that woman, miss lewinsky.
for the record (and without lying) - there has never been any proof WHATSOEVER (and i don’t often use caps) that osama bin laden has ever attacked the united states.
everything that you think you know about bin laden is pure fiction, worthy of the finest big brother fantasy.
(what you don’t know about bin laden perhaps is that they (the family) do mega-business (and always have) with the other cia asset - the bush family)
don’t let clinton scum try to slip that lie by you.
no proof. not a shred.
only the words of bush, cheny, rice, powell et al.
osama, like saddam, was nothing more than a loyal cia asset. turned patsy.
he is a figment of your imagination inculcated by the very big brother this article talks about.
9/11 is a false flag event, bro, and there is no denying it any longer.
we all know it.
Adel, God Bless you, what you have been through is horrendous. It’s accounts like yours that make me want to start taking pot shots at the Bush Boys. I’m amazed that no one has yet.
One thing, though, you are not alone. I know lots of people that will be on your side if they can only read your story.
Send me a note and I can get your story published on the web.
danielshays_right_to_rebel at yahoo dot com
milesofmusic, 9/11 was the final stage of a coup d’etat.
And, Adel, you can remain anonymous if that’s what you want.
for me
“1984″ is the book length version of
“Who’s on First?” by Abbott and Costello
when in doubt ask yourself
‘who exactly is on first’
well yes of course!!
is no way to frame the question that
will bring an answer other than ‘yes’…
i love this knowledge
ken
Adel:
Call Dan Stormer in Pasadena, California. He’s a great lawyer and may take your case pro bono. Check him out on the Web. He’s a great lawyer and loves fighting for the little guy.
Daniel Shays wrote :
Wait a minute, PowerofLove, “‘See and fear Islamofascists lurking Out There’, say the Christofascists at home.”
“I thought the Jews were the bad guys. Or was that last week?”
So Sorry Dan, but the meaning of your statement and/or joke eludes me. Please clarify.
Adel:
Can you be more explicit about what you were trying to do and what happened to you?
Dan,
Was it perhaps a reference to the constantly changing climate in ‘1984,’ in which the “State’s” enemies kept on changing, but the war “that will not end in our lifetimes” went on and on and on?
For the safety of my family I intend to remain anonymous. Our Orwellian White House was all about oil. I think the worse of that is behind us. The next big problem is global warming. God help us and good night — Adel.
Bah. If we’re going to make 1984 comparisons, then Al Quaeda is definitely “Goldstein.” A semi-mythical entity of questionable existence used purely for inciting fear, hatred, suspicion, and stifling dissent. Every attack, every accident, every bump in the night is blamed on Goldstein.
This thing where we’ve allowed the insurgents in Iraq to be called “Al Quaeda” when in reality they’re nothing but shopkeepers turned bombmakers is typical bullshit. They’re NOT AQ, you know why? Because unlike AQ, they weren’t TRAINED BY OUR CIA to fight Russia, that’s why. IT works for Bush & the media though, because the scarier-seeming the enemy, the less we think.
Fear is the mindkiller.
“Fear is the mindkiller.”
9/11 was the designer mindkiller courtesy of the Bush regime.
PowerofLove, I apologize. I did something no one should do. I assumed because there were many that were making certain comments that everyone here would make such comments.
There has been a lot of very racist remarks made lately about the Jews. You obviously were not one of the ones to make such remarks. And for making such an unfair assumption I apologize to you, PowerofLove.
Al Qaeda DOES hate america as is evidenced by their constant attacks on our civil liberties here at home. If Al Qaeda LOVED america, it’s #1 operative would have extended health benefits to the nation’s poor.
It obvious that the REAL Al Qaeda operatives are trying to decieve us by pretending to be patriotic americans.
When will we deal with these terrorists???
How do we deal with these terrorists?
“Swiftboating” Kerry, quickly turned him into a Doofus, while The President, who avoided the deadly dangers of Vietnam, remained above the fray, smirking. Attack right where you have a weakness. It’s brilliant.”
Not so much brilliance as lazy-thinking or worse yet non-thinking on the part of many American voters.
” I believe in the sanctity of life therefore no stem-cell research… I believe in the sanctity of life;1 million Iraqi lives is collateral damage and the price of freedom . To those fuzzy-thinking or no-thinking America voters who do not question this contradiction , you deserve and will get all the “benefits” of the imminent police-state. Happy 1984
Daniel Shays: Call me a liar, that’s fine. You are entitled to your opinion. Do I take surveys? No. Not official ones anyway. But I talk to many people every week and bring up the issues confronting our nation and the world in general and the majority are still complacent and think things are ‘okay’. There are, and here I agree with you, a rising number of folks getting involved by becoming informed, and willing to do their part in restoring our government to at least the way it was prior to the Bush Crime Family’s usurpation of power.
Time will tell, Daniel.
Even if the Congress revokes the Patriot Act, it still does not make any difference unless those who violated the established laws before the passage of the Patriot Act are publicly tried and punished. Otherwise, they will keep violating the law as before,
regardless.
Here is something for those who look to America for democracy:
“In the middle of the night a burglar broke into a poor man’s home. No matter how much he looked, he couldn’t find anything worth taking. The poor man who was awake said, “Man, you must be the stupidest burglar there is. What you’re looking for in the dark, I can’t even find during the daylight hours.”
You’re going to want to read this as well:
ORWELL’S TRIUMPH: There is no van full of explosives reported at the George Washington Bridge
Further press reports:
Corroborating a van full of explosives reported at the G.W. Bridge
A forensic video expert analyzed the Bin Laden tape referenced in the article and concluded it was faked: pieced together from multiple audio sources with numerous edits. Read for yourself:
Blackbeard Rising (From the Grave Again)
Expert: Bin Laden tape is fake, from multiple audio sources
And Weiner does his own doublespeak by repeating the Bush canard verbatim in an obvious attempt to ‘frame.’
“Al-Qaida hates Americans of all creeds and races and will do whatever it can to destroy us and our way of life.”
Dan, thanks for your reply. If people are being racist, anti-semitic, shame on them! In such cases folks are mirroring the sickness of “dominator culture” without taking responsiblity for their own pain and ignorance.
Also, historically, “the Jews” have been the scapegoat of choice in the west for literally thousands of years. So, like “dark-skinned people,” if one is looking for folks to blame, they’re a no-brainer.
An the other hand, journalist Mike Ruppert, in Crossing the Rubicon, alludes to some disturbing, not-so-very-pretty-facts about the country known as Isreal… This data which suggests that Isreal is playing the role of “Executive Vice-President in charge of Middle Eastern Affairs” in the company currently known as BushCo.
And, as has often been asserted in these pages, the prominent theme is that of a “transnational” elite pulling the strings in strategic times and places. Final goal? Essentially… world domination.
Even without his material, Isreal’s behavior is enough to cause any thoughtful person to wonder if “there isn’t something fishy in Denmark.”
Ronald White noted,
” I believe in the sanctity of life therefore no stem-cell research… I believe in the sanctity of life;1 million Iraqi lives is collateral damage and the price of freedom. To those fuzzy-thinking or no-thinking America voters who do not question this contradiction , you deserve and will get all the ‘benefits’ of the imminent police-state.”
Great example of Orwell’s “Doublethink.”
(So, too, Bush’s love of executing people when he was Texas governor, all the while proclaiming his fervent loyalty to an anti-abortion “culture of life.”
I found one definition that describes D-think as:
“illogical or deliberately perverse thinking in terms that distort or reverse the truth to make it more acceptable.”
Meanwhile, Orwell defined doublethink as:
“the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”
Ah, the art of befuddlement! Many believe it is the key to holding those cherished reins of power - forever.
Daniel Shays wrote :
“I thought the Jews were the bad guys. Or was that last week?”
It may have been last weak, but it wasn’t about the Jews. It was about Zionist lobby groups.
What CD is doing here is exposing one group of SOB rascals at a time. Get used to it.
Also, I found your response to PowerofLove as vague and masked as your intention.
Daniel Shays wrote:
“I thought the Jews were the bad guys. Or was that last week?”
It may have been last weak, but it wasn’t about the Jews. It was about Zionist lobby groups.
What CD is doing here is exposing one group of SOB rascals at a time. Get used to it.
Also, I found your response to PowerofLove as vague and masked as your intention.
To Robert Weiner: I do like the ending of this article “With the mightiest military and strongest technology on Earth, democracy can stand up to terrorism without becoming the mirror of our enemies.” I would love the framing of this issue to be turned around in a positive way, one that draws on our strength of character rather than our fear. Oh, only if the 3rd parties got airtime, or the Democratic National would get this. Oh well…
Also, I do not beleive that everyone knows much about what is happening now, many might have a glimpse- but most a feeling of utter distrust and disappointment. Even those more ‘in the know’ feel angry… but powerless.
Of course, I’ve always said freedom takes constant struggle and dillegence. This can mean that even if you win, you don’t feel like you did… the winning is over a lifetime but the defeats are everyday.
Robert, I would like to read more 1984 comparisons (it was my favorite book in school) and it should be part of mondern history class curiculum.
Does anyone agree that since the powerfull are going to all this trouble to control the masses it can be deduced that the masses do indeed have power?
Though things have changed since the French Revolution- I do not have a tank.
It’s too bad some people see only their own agenda no matter what the subject of an article. The point of this was the Patriot Act as a precursor to a 1984 type future and NOT Osama bin Laden who was referred to in all of one short sentence in this piece.
Americans are fighting for their freedoms and rights and all these people can do is what? Defend bin Laden? Who are they kidding? They see only what they prefer to believe. So we will fight for OUT rights without them and their drivel. It is obvious that they do not feel the committment to those rights and freedoms as they pretend they do.
The author only points out that Bush has used bin Laden’s attack as an excuse to trample on our rights. They (it’s a small group under different screen names) trot out their agenda and repeat it anew (almost daily actually).
Instead they ought to scrutinize just who triggered this. Osama did. Al Queda kills innocents and that provided the excuse for Bush/Cheney to trash America’s constitution and the catalyst for military intervention in the mid east as well. Yes Bush had used it as an excuse against our freedoms at home and for war. Their muddled thinking doesn’t want to blame the death cultist for his throwing the world into this chaos.
Get it straight. Bush took advantage to head towards 1984 but Osama triggered it. He and some posters didn’t expect the results which have come to pass. A child can play with matches and later whine they didn’t mean to burn down their own house but Osama wasn’t a child.
Bush didn’t do 9/11, Osama did. Osama didn’t take away our freedoms, Bush did. Get it straight.
And please try sticking to the point of an author’s article …try! You’d embarrass yourselves less often if you do and sane people would appreciate it.
“9-11 was real, as the recent videos by Goldstein confirm now more than six years after he attacked us.”
“Goldstein hates Americans of all creeds and races and will do whatever he can to destroy us and our way of life.”
Do you work for the Ministry of Truth, Mr. Weiner? (Ha ha… I thought your statements were a bit ironic!)
And now, Hillary Clinton is supposed to take over the thrown, with her marketing guy taking over from Karl Rove.
Garbage by any other name still stinks, and some P.R. aimed at hoodwinking the public is still treason, no?
Nice that a court acknowledged the obvious - i.e. that elements of the Patriot Act are unconstitutional. Unfortunately, that has very little practical effect as the Bush administration has shown itself completely unwilling to be bound by the law, the Constitution or the courts. The only act which would bring this criminal adminstration to heel and restore the rule of law would be the impeachment and trial of the criminals. Unfortunately, the Congress - charged by the Constitution with responsibility for reigning in the executive branch’s execesses - has been its chief enabler. Our government - much like Humpty Dumpty - is broken, and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men aren’t going to put it back together again. When Bush leaves office in ‘09, expect cosmetic but not substantive improvement.
I don’t know where people get the idea that 1984 was written as a “critique of communism.” Orwell got most of it while working in the English government’s propaganda department.
Animal Farm, okay. 1984, like the rest of Orwell’s work, is outside ideology. That’s what gets him criticised to this day. He had a nasty habit of telling the truth which endeared him to no one.
there are posts above still holding to the myth that osama bin laden attacked the united states.
from a cave in - well who knows where? but he did it - because he hates our freedoms.
stop and think that silly fable over for a moment.
it does not (as the evil alan dershowitz might say) “pass the giggle test.”
the bbc has pointed out that there have been 4-5 different osamas in the various videos presented over the years. should we be afraid of them all, or is this like “let’s make a deal” where we should be trying to find the big prize, behind door number 3 perhaps?
unknown to the controlled media prior to 9/11 - within 30 minutes the osama myth was being rolled out on abc, cbs, cnn, and all the other networks via “experts” (of dubious expertise) all rhyming off in tone deaf harmony - the exact same story.
yada yada yada. as if reading from the same script. giggle giggle. (hush evil mr dershowitz)
how foolish do we have to be to play our roles as the frightened reactionaries, begging for martial law and praying for security.
not unlike the jfk assassination where oswald was rolled out as the perfect patsy within 20 minutes of the assassination. based, the fbi said, on an eye witness who saw him through the sixth floor window of the bookstore.
oswald himself said he was a patsy.
then he gets popped in the basement of a police station, while on national tv.
the lone crazed gunman who shot the president was himself shot by a lone crazed gunman, in a police station no less.
he was, as the fbi explained, a crazed, lone gunman. (i am not sure which one i am talking about - forgive me, there are so many it is confusing)
in a repeating theme from all of the state sponsored terrorist fantasies, he was “a lone crazed gunman”.
offered once again as: the guy who shot bobby.
the guy who shot martin.
the same as the guy who shot rabbi kahane.
one thing about the secret government - when they find a good story line - they stick to it.
if it aint broke - don”t fix it.
like charlie brown trying to kick the football lucy is holding - we go for it every time, as if each time is the first time.
giggle giggle (shut up dershowitz)
in the finest orwellian tradition - good is bad, bad is good, war is peace, peace is war.
merry christmas mr lawrence and mr dershowitz shut your trap!
Thanks purvis ames, maxpayne, stepfour, richm:
my sentiments exactly…seems like he’s trying to jump on the bandwagon (or however that saying goes)
BugsBBunny III wrote:
“It’s too bad some people see only their own agenda no matter what the subject of an article. ”
“They see only what they prefer to believe.”
BB3:
It’s always a bit dicey to point one’s finger at others. Try doing it right now. Point your finger. See those other three pointing back at you? They say - “You Gotta Look At Yo’Sef!”
You, too, my friend, appear to “see only what you prefer to believe.”
You also wrote:
“Instead they ought to scrutinize just who triggered this. Osama did….the death cultist for his throwing the world into this chaos.
“Bush didn’t do 9/11, Osama did.”
As said in an old orange juice commercial: “Wrong again, honey.”
Or so it appears.
Double plus ungood.
I have been mentioning this book when it was pertinent these the last couple of days since I heard about it through a few posts here on CD and have now read it. The book is called: The Iron Heel, written by Jack London.
If George Orwell (one of my favorite writers) was prescient, Jack London was even more so in this novel.
For those of you who can get it, please read it. It describes what is happening today almost exactly. I was amazed and never would have imagined Jack London writing such a novel.
I think what the BushCo neocon noise machine has been doing — with the help of our corporately-owned Big Media (BM) — is even more insidious and subtle than “1984.”
Look at every issue — from evolution, to Kerry’s war record, to global warming, to any true threat Iran may pose to the US or Israel — and the neocons have perfected the device of bringing up a ‘question’ to rebut any number of scientific or forensic experts or any amount of factual documentation; this doubt is then dutifully reported by the BM, even if it’s an issue that no sane person would logically argue: “Water is wet, say scientists, but critics disagree.”
The neocons try to present everything as a ‘he said, she said’ issue — as they did with the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas testimony, even though Hill’s case was supported by other women who had worked for Thomas — the better to plant the seeds of doubt and, eventually, try to use the crop to bury the opposition.
If they can’t completely ruin the opposition and make them ridiculous, at least this invented doubt will make most voters think that the subject has not yet been settled, such as the progress in Iraq or the worsening environment.
Confusing the public in this way, and perpetrating so many outrages it’s hard to keep track of them all, seems to be part of the neocon game plan for control. An unsettled public is one who desires a ’strong leader’ with ‘all the answers’ to lead them.
Fortunately, all of the current polls say that it’s no longer working — the neocons have worn out their welcome. If we have honest elections in 2008, the scourge of BushCo, the Christian theocrats, and the neocon empiricists should be stamped out — at least for a few generations.
BTW, The Iron Heel is a great and frighteningly prescient book, and it can be downloaded free from Project Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1164
Thanks for the tip, hybridoma2001.
Willybill, You said it all!
9/11 was definitively the “inside job” of the millenium. The Military Industrial Complex can not have wars without a boogeyman. Boo!
There is only one person who has actually shown that he HATES you and your freedoms,,
His name is George Bush
Good.
Adel is our first American Minute Man on this board. He had ridden his horse in here to say “the Nazi’s are coming, the Nazi’s are coming.” Good man you are, Adel to post here even though the Tory RedCoats have badgered you at close quarters. You, unlike the sniveling King George Loyalists and their Kangaroo Congress who passed the Stamp and Sedition Acts, are a real patriot.
It has begun.
And so has the outrage of real American patriots like Scott Ritter and many others to ring the Philidelphia Liberty Bell and rise to the occation.
We pledge our futures, our fortunes, and our sacred honor…….
Phuck em!
Quotes from Weiner’s essay, followed by my observations:
———————————
“The Patriot Act was passed hastily in October 2001, under a cloak of fear in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.”
That utterly Unpatriotic Act (Fascist Act is what it really is!) was passed into law on October 26, 2001. Hastily indeed! The breadth and scope, the content and the reach of this act are mind boggling. THEREFORE, it must have been written LONG BEFORE September 11, 2001. Now who would have had this voluminous Act ready to be presented to Congress for reading and voting on it, mere weeks after 9/11? Think about it.
Also, it’s called The U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act.
The official title of the USA PATRIOT Act is “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act of 2001.” Found here:
http://www.fincen.gov/pa_main.html
Talk about yer newspeak, eh!
——————————–
“9-11 was real, as the recent videos by Osama bin Laden confirm now more than six years after he attacked us.”
9/11 certainly was real. BUT as evidenced by the recent videos of Osama…?!? Hahahahaha Weiner, what a tool, liar, or chicken-shit you really are. Which is it? All of the above? You certainly aren’t a REAL investigator, researcher, or truth-teller. BECAUSE there has been absolutely ZERO EVIDENCE presented EVER which proves that Osama did it. BUT there’s been MOUNTAINS of circumstantial evidence that point to other, different perps. In fact… PERPETRAITORS…likely even within the U.S. government.
—————————
“Congress must renew, change or end the Patriot Act and surveillance programs.”
Hahahaha. Stop it Weiner, you’re killing us. No seriously, you and your ilk are killing us. You sonofabitch! You started with a good premise, then you turned it all upside-down, inside-out with your own DoubleThink, DoubleSpeak. Are you a Perpetraitor too Weiner?
——————————-
“Al-Qaida hates Americans of all creeds and races and will do whatever it can to destroy us and our way of life.”
Hahahah. See my comment directly above. What an asshat you are Weiner.
————————
James Madison warned, “If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”
Yes. Note the word *guise*. It is key to Madison’s statement. It means false appearance or pretence.
Furthermore:
“When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in an American flag and carrying a cross.” Sinclair Lewis
—————–
Weiner has Zero credibility. Pfft! No surprise given that he was a paid hack for another run-of-the-mill professional, murderous liar, Willy Boy Clinton. Pfft!
Thanks to all the awake, aware, enlightened people who’ve shared their comments with the rest of us.