The fascist takeover of the US has required, and received, collaboration from the legislative and judiciary branches. Impeachment would be a good thing, I am for it, but make no mistake, with Pelosi and Feinstein and Lieberman et al in congress, the fascists have deep inroads...not to mention the stacked supreme court a la Hitler.

WHILE IMPEACHMENT AND HEARINGS ARE COMMENDABLE, IT DOES NOT STRIKE AT THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM; AS BUSH,CHENEY AND THEIR CRONIES IN CONGRESS ARE JUST PUPPETS OF THE INTERNATIONAL,FINANCIAL, ELITE. UNTIL THIS BECOMES NASCENT TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, NOTHING WILL CHANGE.

As usual Naomi speaks truth to power. Her insightful articles are a joy to read in these trying times.

I no longer love the USA. Neither should you.

So just by default, in 10 years 1 out of 100 US citizens will not be able to fly... Not counting those who can't afford it and any hypothetical increase in these numbers...

Naomi says:"those who got out before the borders closed and those who waited a moment too long." As a cultural Jew, I also have this fleeing gene hardwired, but I recognize that fleeing no longer is a possibility, given the ways this international system has been set up. We need to stand our ground, speak truth to fear, and conjure up as much creativity and love to pull down this very psychopathic house of cards. It will implode if we believe in the power we each have in our connection to one another and the natural world. We have allies we have yet to discover, both among those who appear to be enemies and among those we have stereotyped as "other." Remaining grounded in our compassion is the key (as well as educating others to use their critical thinking). Artists, writers, educators, healers, citizens, rise up. It's time.

a joy to read? oh, not at all.

This article has me sitting here with a huge knot in the pit of my stomach. It is really difficult to believe we are having this discussion about the country that I believed for so long to be a place where anyone could grow up to be anything they dreamed of being. Now I realize that was just a house of cards. It does seem that we may be too late to replace the fascists without a huge revolution. "Utopic's" posting does, however, give me some hope. It is true that only love and compassion for all sentient beings will be able to save us. When this horrible time is looked back on from 100 years, I hope that we come out okay...

I may be wrong but I think you all woke up too late.

Think of 9/11 and the Iraq War as nothing but distractions and justifications for the building of a Nazi-like fascist state through the politics of fear and intimidation.

Look at the new fence along the southern border as a means to keep us in, not others out.

Soon the boat people will be leaving Fla for Cuba and elsewhere.

Think about it.

Naomi is, if anything, understating the truth.

How else do you explain the inexplicable rollovers by seemingly sane and intelligent individuals?

I know of many people who either heard from their parents or observed what happened in Germany after 1934 and are leaving to live elsewhere in the world.

Usually when critics recall IBM and the Nazi's it is in reference to the banality of evil of corporations in general. I don't think Wolf is helping civil society by leaving out critique of corporations.

Her whole thing is to increase fear so that people will vote for Corporate Capitalist Party #2 (the Democrats) rather than for Corporate Capitalist Party #1 (The Republicans). And in doing so, she glosses over what is really wrong with the US - the corporation.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. (Note: the original hand-written text ended on the phrase "the pursuit of property" rather than "the pursuit of Happiness" but the phrase was changed in subsequent copies in part because it was broader. The latter phrase is used today).

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

[quote]jobson November 5th, 2007 1:23 pm -- Usually when critics recall IBM and the Nazi's it is in reference to the banality of evil of corporations in general.[/quote]

Wolf is hardly alone in her apparent inability (unwilllingness?) to extrapolate based on such cases -- or, indeed, to draw logical conclusions from broader longer-term observations of the American experience in general.

The tendency to expect different results from repeated switching between red and blue party banners appears to be endemic, not only with public commentators, but amongst the people themselves. Although less prevalent than on the Daily Kos site (as just one example) that particular form of willful blindness isn't entirely absent here.

As long as they can get American Idol on their TV's while they drink themselves into a fat stupor, the American Sheeple care not.

Maybe we should stop giving Mexican illegal immigrants so much crap. They'll be the only ones who can help us develop an underground railroad to smuggle people OUT of the country once the door slams shut.

Fight or Flight? That is the question.

I'm going to go down and apply for a passport today. Right after I call my congress critter AGAIN to suport HR333 and the impeachment of Darth Vader........

H.R. 1955, lest we forget. Congress has a hand in this coup and police state too.

We're screwed.

We're going to lose our right to travel?
Judge finds no right to travel - UPI.com
This case was about a couple who tried to leave New Orleans on foot during Katrina. That was not allowed. In case you don't know, would-be travelers to New Orleans during Katrina were turned back by armed men also. I don't know if they were police, military, or private mercenaries, but no one was allowed to go to New Orleans to help.
The Red Cross was told that they could not go to the Superdome to feed people, because "then they will not leave".
Katrina was not incompetence. It was the smooth depopulation of a city. I believe that everything was in place, just waiting for the inevitable hurricane. Remember, the poor were totally out of New Orleans, AND out of the stadium in Houston within a week after Katrina.
Smooth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_Weapons

Police State weaponry...here's what they plan to use on us to keep us in line.

Thank you mastershake!

The Declaration of Independence came alive to me where before it was just an artifact of a bygone age.

mastershake didn't reprint the whole thing. The rest is worth reading. A couple sentences later is:

"The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states." Substitute "King George" (Bush) for the "King of Great Britain". The holy war on terror has been the Bush Administration's excuse to undermine the Bill of Rights and terrorize the American people into obedience. Bush's signing statements are very much usurpations of power.

The rest of the document includes a list of grievances. Some don't apply, but others are chillingly familiar:

"...quartering large bodies of armed troops among us." (The Defense Authorization Act of 2007 effectively gave the President the right to use US troops against the people of the US.)

"...protecting them ... from punishment for any murders which they should commit..." (Think Blackwater)

"He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation." (Think the war in Iraq, Abu Ghraib, Beltram AFB, torture, Blackwater)

"...depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury" (Failure to grant habeas corpus rights to "enemy combatants", a totally new category made up by the Bush Administration but sanctified by a subservient Congress. As I understand it, Bush has the power to call any of us enemy combatants.)

"...transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses" (Think rendering)

Leave? I'm not leaving. This is MY country too! I was born here, and by dog I'm going down swinging here! If it's going to take an underground resistance to stop this coup, then sign me up. I've already contemplated buying a legal assault rifle (thank you right-wing gun nuts for leaving this a possibility for those on the left not totally committed to non-violence). I've avoided getting arrested in any of the anti-administration protests because there need to be some of us who are "clean" when it comes to police records. I can buy just about anything legal I want. I've never been fingerprinted, or eye scanned, or had any other kind of bio-metric procedure done. I also have a valid passport that will be good longer than most pre-911 issued ones. I may not be a young-gun leader of the resistance, but I am willing to put my life on the line for the only thing that would ever move me to do such a thing - bringing down these bastards.

The major question is, how do we organize a resistance that will not be broken by the snooping government spooks and their telecom coconspirators?

Tonight Kucinich has the nationwide call-in prior to the attempt tomorrow to introduce impeachment articles on Cheney.

If we don't have a fully-functioning fascist state in 16 months, the job of any democratically-minded government would be to abolish the office of Chief Executive in its entirety. No polite "review of accumulated powers".

It's time to finish what the original American revolt began.

Americanized 2007 version [in full digital color] of Nazi Germany circa 1930's....replete with leadership[sic] absolutely certifiably psychiatric....

PS: Another excellent article from Naomi Wolf

Thank you utopic!

We must speak and act in truth to fear. Power is only powerful if there is no countervailing force. Fear can stop both actions and thoughts. With courage we can turn that negative energy of fear into direct action.

For a government to turn it's people against themselves someone has to obey orders. If there is mass refusal to obey orders in critical sectors of society (Generals,citizens making bridges mass parking lots and the like) then fascist dictates would go nowhere and the enemies of progressive and compassionate world would be seen for what they are.

Peace and love to all

Truly terrifying stuff. I'm sure the detention centers that have been built around the country - anyone have any idea yet where those are??? - and waiting; with Blackwater's 700+ acre bases and private troups in training in two known states, and another in the works, everything seems to be in place for any kind of resistance, even if enough people can be mobalized to try one.

Can we pray for global warming and/or 2012 to save us?

Its not just BlackWater that's armed to the teeth and on alert to come defend the "homeland", from the domestic enemies of the "right".

Local law enforcement is up-armoring too. Saw a segment last night, how police in Palm Beach, FL are getting M15's, because "the bad guys have more fire power then we do".

Iraq may be insurgent training group central, but our military and the Blackwater types are getting familiar with urban warfare, like never before.

They will be ready for the AMERICAN insurgency, when we finally wake up.

I wouldn't bet on the liberals holding their ground for long though, after Homeland security declared open season on anyone holding an anti-bush placard.

We'll lose.

What A Surprise !!!!

These are some quotes from George Orwell in his appendix to "Animal Farm":

"Defending Democracy involves destroying all inedependence of thought."

"If one loves Democracy, the argument runs, one must crush its enemies by no matter what means."

"There is a new widespread tendency to argue that one can only defend Democracy by Totalitarian methods."

"If you encourage Totalitarian methods the time will come when those methods will be used against you instead of for you."

Men like Aldous Huxley and George Orwell saw American Capitalist Imperialism coming and tried to warn us through novels. We did not heed their warnings.

Is it too late?????

The "Shock and Awe" Technique used by the "American Puppet" Musharraf of Pakistan is an experiment.....Benazir Bhutto had warned the United States, in the Mid 90´s, "You are creating a monster and you will lose control" She was referring to Osama Bin Laden and the joint CIA/ISI operation, "Operation Cyclone".

Benazir Bhutto knew who had attempted to take her life last week. She knew that it was Pakistan's ISI and she stated that. One only has take the one step further, "What ISI does, the CIA approves !"

When that assasination attempt failed, the next step was "Shock and Awe". The list of opponents to Musharraf was made with the help of the CIA and they have been rounded up the same way the CIA helped in Indonesia, Chile, and too many countries to list.

If there is a Homeland Security Executive Order for Extreme Emergency use of Martial Law.....Then, what happens in Pakistan will happen in the United States and Democratic Senators like Schumer and Feinstein will approve of such Executive Rule, they are part of the Corporatist Capitalist System......

Naomi Klein is right. Daniel Estulin is right.

The only people that can save the United States are the people in the United States Senate and they have continued to approve of the Cheney/Bush agenda..........

Who cares that American Taxpayers have paid to steal the oil from the Iraqi people and that over 4,000 Americans have died in that theft? Who cares that over 1 million Iraqis have lost their lives (British Study)? Who cares that over 4 million Iraqis are in refugee camps in other countries? Not Corporate America, their profits have skyrocketed. Not Israel, their profits from International Defense and Security Contractors have skyrocketed.

Why has 9/11 been so important, when 48,000 to 100,000 people die from mistakes made in hospitals every year? (American Medical Institute 2000 Study) That means that since 2001 as many as 288,000 to 600,000 people have died from mistakes made in hospitals.......Do you know how many deaths from car accidents involving drunk drivers since 2001? Do you know how many people have been murdered since 2001?

The Reality is that there has never been a complete independent investigation of 9/11, no connections between terrorists and who paid for their training and plane tickets, no connections with who let them in the
country, no investigations of the Israeli Mossad that had been living blocks away from some of the terrorists.....There is more to the cover up, but, when the FBI actively participates in the cover up, Who can you turn to.

As Justice Scalia said to a group of law students when they asked about the 2000 decision, "Get use to it, you lost !"

Everyone, from senators to justices should resign for failing to fulfill their oath of office, "I swear to support and defend the U.S. Constitution".

I guess, "Get use to it, we´ve lost!"

mastershake November 5th, 2007 1:36 pm

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,..."

Amen, but who reads it anymore?

This piece just tells me that things are even more dire than I had realized in my little cocoon here in rural paradise. Don't know about the rest of you, but I have one thing to suggest, " Calling all you angels!" We need help and we need it right now! Peace and love needs to be amplified big time to jam the hate and fear curcuits! It can be done. I gotta believe it, otherwise I might as well leave this earthly plane, and I don't want that karmic burden. " Come forth angels of the blue flame and do battle with these forces of darkness. We need you now, more than ever before."

I wrote the following to my two Senators this morning. I imagine I'll receive no answer yet again.

Dear Senator,

This letter primarily concerns "H.R. 1955: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007"

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1955

It has already passed the House and I never even heard of it. Read the fine print. If this passes, citizens, and even Congressmen and Senators' right to demonstrate or protest against government policy, your right to write and publish, may become a thing of the past. Code Pink, MoveOn, Common Cause, Veterans for Common Sense, CommonDreams and many others could become "Violent Radicalizers and Homegrown Terrorists." At the very least, Bush's new executive order that allows the government to seize the assets of anybody interfering with government policy, i.e., the war, or the imposition of martial law, could be used against any individual or organization that gets classified as the above.

I read yesterday that identifiable members of Code Pink are barred from entering the Capitol buildings. Perhaps that is what you folks want, for protest to stop, or be carried out only in "Free Speech Zones" far away behind wire with no press present?

We the People want our Constitution and Bill of Rights returned, intact and functioning, to the Halls of Government. With that in place, there is no crisis we cannot overcome. Without them, we become no more than a particularly dangerous banana republic dictatorship.

The Cheney/Bush Gang has done its best to destroy the Constitution, with the mis-named PATRIOT Act, the Military Tribunals Act, the FISA modernization Act, the destruction of habeas corpus, and other Acts; to criminalize the populace with secret no-fly lists and border crossing lists that no one can find out why they are on, (National Security) but cannot get removed from, either. To wiretap and spy on individuals with no checks and balances.

I am an historian and have studied what happened to Germany in the thirties. We are following the same path, with the same arguments. We all know where that led.

And, of course, never forget the no-bid Halliburton Concentration Camps.

Please, vote NO on H.R. 1955: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 and any other of this type of draconian legislation that is brought up. This is too important and great a nation to go down the tubes to feed Cheney/Bush's ambitions and the War Machine's bottom line.

I have sent you dozens of e-mails regarding the erosion of the Constitution and Bill of Rights and requesting their return. This seems to be the one thing that I never receive an answer to. If you have valid and solid reasons for ignoring your oath of office to "protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC," I'd like to hear them. Perhaps you can convince us that a fascist state is the way to go, but I doubt it.

Yours for peace and sanity in our time,

I wonder if I'll get an answer this time? I won't hold my breath.

"If you encourage Totalitarian methods the time will come when those methods will be used against you instead of for you."

Thanks for this quote...was this from Orwell or Huxley? I've read both, but can't remember.

Otherwise more poetically expressed,

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And when you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
-Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

mastershake, I know that what I resist persists, but how can we turn our backs on these "monsters"? Will it cause them to evaporate? I ask you this in all sincerity. I do not want to help create such a formidable and destructive reality with the enrgy of my attention, but I feel powerless to discreate it, too. That's why I feel we need help from other dimensions and realms much more evolved than we are. Is that escapism or wisdom? I am not always sure but no not what else to do.

Perhaps this is inevitable, like the tides rising and falling, the ebbing of one age, giving birth to the next. We are at the edge of a new dawning, and what we are seeing and will be witnessing further is that the night will not go quietly.

If one were to look at the Indian's long term view, the ages of the Yuga's, we are leaving Kali Yuga, the low point of light reaching the planet, the dark, heavy, dense, materialistic age - and we have entered into the age of energy; electricity, atomic power, information available to the masses - like never before.

As this new age is energized, which is now Dwapara Yuga, its excitations stimulate the last vestiges of darkness, and thus the agents of the status quo, will fight for their rule, imposing whatever means they can muster to not lose to the forces of light.

But the universe can no more stop this onward march to the light, then she can stop our sun from rising in the East, or prevent the tides from rising and falling with the rythmes of moon, circling the planet.

Fear not fellow travelers, the darkest hour is just before the dawn. But be forwarned, that dark hour - is just about upon us.

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I now appreciate what the NRA has been trying to safeguard for all these years. Sadly, it may well come down to taking up arms to preserve what is left of our way of life, for the sake of our children and those of the world. It's not a very palatable option, nor is it for the squeamish, but neither were the American Revolution or the Civil War, yet we came through those apocalyptic events as a united people and became a stronger nation.

A sobering article and one we should heed. Whether here of in Pakistan I think a good response to such an imposition of martial law is a national strike. While it is important to block streets and shut down the country, staying home from work and commerce is also a vital tool and something many more people are likely to do.

A paper coup is just that -- a paper tiger if everyone opts out by staying home. No government can rule through force alone.

"The Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a contract worth up to $385 million for building temporary detention centers to Kellogg Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary... for immigrants or to support the rapid development of new programs" in the event of other emergencies."

"Rex 84, short for Readiness Exercise 1984, was a plan by the United States federal government to test their ability to detain large numbers of American citizens in case of massive civil unrest or national emergency."

"The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush's Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression."

Now read "IBM and the Holocaust."

JJPETER: Good posting. The Indian view of the Yugas dovetails of course with Mayan Prophecy, the prognostic offerings of the Hopi Medicine Men/Sun Bear, and the astrological count of age phase transitions. I think we ARE swimming in the darkest... though it may get even more intense in the next 7 years. 2020 seems to be the re-emergence of LIGHT, and I intended to use the title: 2020 Vision for a futuristic novel, until I realized the military is using that same euphemism for some space-based weapon's program. Nothing like synchronicity, when the dark side beats you to the proverbial punch-line!

[quote from article]: "I am hearing about them, even across the globe. Here in Australia I hear from the nation's best-know feminist activist ..."

Thank you Naomi! I was wondering what was meant by this clause in HR 1955: "`(9) Certain governments, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia have significant experience with homegrown terrorism and the United States can benefit from lessons learned by those nations."

Now I know - it's those homegrown G*d - D*&ed feminist terrorists that have given the Australian government such significant experience. OK then, we've been warned.

thanks liberatus fugit for bringing up hr 1955 violent rtadicalization blah blah act.
it's shocking how much gets under the radar- why do we now have to try to repeal military cmmissions and restore habeas corpus? how did that monstrosity ever get passed? now the same thing is happening with this one. they could rebrand it the new american fascism act and it would still pass. the house was 400+ for, 6 against.

jjpeter and siouxrose,
Thanks for your words of encouragementto all who post hear. For those who have ears to hear.... And please don't give up this thread of talk. We who long for and try to be points of Light, need to stand with each other and offer support. I, for one, am often in tears because of all the suffering that seems a necessary precursor of what will eventually come. I do not cry for myself who has a relatively easy life, but for the countless others on the Planet, who must endure this darkness. It doesn't help much to believe that as souls, we choose our paths freely and gladly for any number of reasons. It is still hard to be here on Gaia, our great bountiful mother and witness the matricide, which parallels the numerous genocides. Just keep telling me that the Light will prevail. In these dark times, it is hard to hold fast to that belief.

Have you noticed that Blackwater shoot mostly old men women and kids? They are Bush and Cheneys shock troops as hitler had his SS troups.Now in the event they are shooting our elder people and babies we need to arm our nation and fight back. Wipe them out as Bush and Cheney should be. We should make sure no neo-nazi idiots such as these K street whores ever be in power again.Just watch the pardons hitler jr and sr will sign.Forget the laws of this country as they have.Disregard the pardons and HANG THEM ALL.

A lot of people are already fleeing the US. I have friends that have left for the Netherlands, Mexico, France, and Canada. This reminds me of the Reagan years, a proto-fascist time when a lot of Americans also left to escape repression. As more people are realizing, we're in the midst of true fascism now.

"Jews in America have hardwired into their DNA a sense of the distinction between those who got out before the borders closed and those who waited a moment too long."

I am not Jewish but this statement was EXACTLY my reasoning for leaving America just over one year ago. I asked myself "what did smart Germans do in the early 30's?" They got the hell out.

Blackwater needs to be put out of business ASAP. Mercenaries are a threat to the state and people. If you don't believe me, read Machiavelli's Prince.

Environmentalists threaten Corporate control. So they are termed terrorists by the Corporate owned and operated Government, and harassed in these early stages.

Yeah, this is protofascism, a kinder gentler version, as Poppy would say...

JJPeter, Mr. Chersonsky, and all the others: Thank you. And a special nod and thanks to Naomi Wolf. Huxley, Zamyatin, Orwell, and others wrote cautionary utopian stories to warn us. Bush & Co. have taken those works, not as warnings, but as plans of action. If you want to compare B & C to nazi or fascist activists, you are correct, but only half-way to the prize.

Read Stalin's explanations of "terror." Read about Beria, who bears a remarkable resemblance to Cheney. Read about Yezhov. Read about Yagoda. Read about Iron Felix Dzerzhinsky.

And above all, run as fast as you can! They aren't only coming, they're already here.

>>Now in the event they are shooting our elder people and babies we need to arm our nation and fight back. Wipe them out as Bush and Cheney should be. We should make sure no neo-nazi idiots such as these K street whores ever be in power again.

Well put. Problem is, they've got the power. All we've got is the canned email replies.

I think the congress is lost. Naomi should not be still at a stage of "tell the congress." That's done with. They are a group of terrified rich people who don't want to die and will sell out the entire country to save themselves, or -- just as likely -- simply believe that by not "rocking the boat" they are somehow keeping everything intact and okay.

Meanwhile all of our powers are slipping away. Naomi brings up an important one -- the right to come and go from the country, control of the borders. And of course, the role of Blackwater to take over that control.

If you haven't passed this article onto a list or group of friends, do so now.

Siouxrose,starofthesea,jjpeter: Great posts.

conciousness will need to change now. All the political chess playing and analysis ends up in total fear and for me, feeling almost paralysed. It does bring up feelings of nazi germany, but postmodern in its expression. But this is definitely a different configuration in certain ways. We didn't learn. But, now it is the time that we either learn, or not.

We are the ones we've been waiting for. No one is coming to save us. I think this is a deep belief that is going to be changing fast, and it will be incredibly painful. But it is time for the human race to grow up.

I believe we need to be helping each other evolve as fast as we can now. We will need to use our inner senses, because the truth will not be 'out there', it will come from within...

Surely we're not actually comparable to Hitlers Germany, or Soviet Russia (yet). But does Bush mimic many Dictatorial traits? Surely yes. The problem is that American Democracy, as it has existed in my lifetime (i'm 25), has been slowly eroding, and the pace has certainly kicked it up a notch during the last 7 years. And how many times have the "experts", the observers been warning us "this is unprecedented..." seems like everyday now. I mean it when I say nothing out of this Government really shocks me anymore- not just Bush. I will not be shocked when they, democrat or republican, declare a police state or martial law... and someone will be right there to say "Well, Lincoln did it."

It's well documented that out in the midwest, they, companies like Halliburton go figure, are building massive "detention centers" for hundreds of thousands of "detainees."

Bush with his Executive Orders, Signing Statements, and Congress (such as H.R. 1955) have all but put the necessary "legal proceedings" in place to claim everything they do is withing the law, and Constitutional. Many who sign these things know that it's wrong, but a great many really believe in the "Unitary Executive" a nice Euphamism for Dictator, Authoritarian, Autocrat. Last I checked, according to the Constitution (the "Piece of paper" according to the administration) no one branch of the three in the Federal Government are stronger than the other, or trump the power of the other. And if you look at the Constitution, and the Decleration of Independence (look how earily the Colonists Grievances in the Decleration match what we're experiencing today) it was designed to prevent an autocratic authorian state.

One can't deny that over the past few decades this Government and the executive Branch have both been grabbing and grabbing for more power, and more control over our lives, while simultaneously asking (demanding) Americans forfeit their God given liberties and rights.

someone earlier quoted:
"There is a new widespread tendency to argue that one can only defend Democracy by Totalitarian methods.
If you encourage Totalitarian methods the time will come when those methods will be used against you instead of for you."
George Orwell

I mean, please people, this Government doesn't look at 1984 as a warning, they use it as a handbook...Remember, the Totalitarian Oligarchy in 1984 NEVER executed it's own capital criminals, or the very few who were "mentally ill" and stood against the Government. Hence "The well trained circus dog turns a sumersault when there is no whip." Orwell, 1984

The constitution to them is just an obstacle in their way- their closest advisors are all lawyers to come up with statements to "justify" bending the constitution, breaking it, and finding "legal" loopholes for a narrow agenda- which few Ameriacans support. The Government has the agenda, unconstitutional, authoritarian certainly, they don't shape the agenda around the Constitution, they shape the Constitution around the agenda. They have no respect for the laws, and they think they are above the law. They hold you and I accountable for "personal responsiblity," yet they think they can do whatever they want. They preach a nation where no man or woman is above the law, but make excuses of why they're above the law. The excuse of National Security, and Executive Priviledge, btw, no reads "i'm lying, i'm decieving you."

People seem to think that this Government, and this Autocracy, enabled by a Plutocratic Legislature, are just going to give up their power someday, and return our freedoms to us. It's the fantasy idea that we can just get back our freedom whenever we want, by the snap of a finger. This is a delusional view at best. They won't just give up their unconstitutional claims to power, and we can't just vote, petition, or even demonstrate to get our freedom back when the time comes- and by that time, Microwave Crowd Control Weapons and the like will be in place to perpetuate a permanent police state.

70% of this country thinks we're headed in the wrong direction. Another 75% thinks we need to move in another direction than the one Bush has led us into. 65-70% disapproves of this Government all around the board. People are fed up with the Government. And I don't have anything to back this, but I can guess that a significant portion of the 30% of people who approve of this Government approve so out of faith and support only- where they have hope that this Government will be better in the near future.

Most importantly is how ignorant and jaded they keep us with regard to information. They control the information. The News Media isn't independent. Nearly everything you hear, especially Newspapers and TV is not just biased, but flat out wrong- and deliberate disinformation. Americans are dumbed down to the simplest explanations for the war, for foreign policy, for any issue. For instance, the War in Iraq, the reasons, motives, and consequences/results of this War are so vast.... you have dozens of 600 page books written about it. You can't possible sum it up with "The world is safer without Saddam." Foreign policy, in general, we're largely kept ignorant of. It's beyond belief how narrow a view, and how biased the American corperate media is. America lives on an Island, in a bubble cast away from knowledge and the truth of most matters. Even i'm overwhelmed with it. It's so refined, the politiical and partisan propoganda, message control, manipulation and societal programming that, again, it's not a coincidence. I can't keep up. It's designed to we can't keep up with it. When corruption becomes commonplace, when oppression becomes normal... and justified, who can? What benchmark is there to compare it to?

Orwell and Huxley used novels, I use short stories to dramatize what might happen. Ms. Wolf mentioned the detention of Anne Summers at LAX, but that's not the only tactic already in use at our airports. TSA have been sporadically stopping whole groups of people at a time and yelling at them to stay still for 20 minutes with no explanation. That's a situation ripe for exploitation by anyone interested in creating an excuse for further limitation of our rights.

I laid out what might happen in a story called "Incident on Concourse B". It starts like this...
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Lendon Forrester, clattering bags of jumbled canned goods, ran up the steps and opened the door. "Did I miss it?"

"No," Frannie Jurdens called from the kitchen. "They're still in a holding pattern." She capped the jug she'd been filling, and placed it beside the others on the counter.

Len glanced at the reporter on the living room TV in passing. "…the ticket counter behind me, air travel in our city has ground to a halt. This same 'ghost-town' scenario is being played out at airports across the country, in the wake of this morning's thwarted terrorist attack in Cincinnati."

Frannie looked up as he entered. "I don't know, Len. The media's crawling with rumors."
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The rest is here:
http://klurgsheld.wordpress.com/2007/09/05/short-story-incident-on-concourse-b/

commander_n_chimp November 5th, 2007 12:21 pm
I no longer love the USA. Neither should you.

I Love this country and all it has done for me.