PJD,

The rapid decline in effective activism, in my opinion, is that very little activism is effective unless it creates a dramatic impact on the corpo-fascist's machinery, support networks, income, life-blood, or some combination of all four.

For years I took part in various areas of activism. Other than for making one's own identity better defined, furthering self-definition, or buffing one's own ego, I came to the conclusion that the only effective protest is that which takes more effort from the opposition to deal counter, than it takes energy from those protesting.

Stop the presses, fill the roadways with abandoned automobiles (as the Italians have done), refuse to off-load the boats (as the longshoremen have done), link arms with chains to shut down traffic, and business (as some others have done), etc..

Only when tyrants feel the impact in their wallets or their arteries do thay care a rat's butt about what slogan someone chanted in the street, and the average automaton working stiff doesn't have time or patience to get involved more often than not... until it's directly and unarguably creating concern in their own tiny world.

If activism and protest are simply a way of making the self feel as though they've done something, anything, then fine. But it rarely changes the world until there are enough persons on-board that the world was changing anyway.

My own path now is one of socially-conscious anarchy; respectful of others' natural boundaries, but acknowledging that as long as the constitution and Bill of Rights means nothing to those who make the laws, then their laws mean absolutely nothing to me, other than more hurdles to remain vigilant of the location of as I circumvent them..

Only the ultimate battle for individual self-determination remains to be fought, and pray that day doesn't come too quickly. The rest is merely window dressing, and for a long time now it has been.

I have written this before and I will write it again.

Never confuse short term tactics with middle and long term objectives. You need to vote for Obama anyway, because the spctacle of his hypcracy and complete lack of principles will drive many more people out of electoral politics and into organizing the streets, thus moving left objectives forward.

Putting it another way, Electing a democrat and still not seeing progress, will provide the necessary end-of-the-road for 2-party electoral politics. In contrast, McCain will be exactly the fascist that people elected him to be - thus leaving people to continue with their false hopes for salvation by electing a democrat, and moving the dead-end barricades further into the future.

The power of this dialectical dynamic should not be underestimated. Look at how slick Willy Clinton's comparable so-called "centrism" led to rapid growth of the global economic justice movement culminating in Seattle, DC, Quebec and other places. This movement rapidly diminished with the election of Bush. Some of this was due to diverson to antiwar efforts - but this does not explain all of rapid post Clinton decline in effective activism.

Then Toast YOU are WASTING your vote! Write it in, vote third Party, just vote please.

No disrespect, but I do not need Naomi Wolf or any novel to tell me what the Constitution and Bill of Rights already has. I abide by, not the Murderer's redacted version, that. They can cart me off, I listen to THAT and only THAT.
My 31 year old was talking the other day, phone 'cos she's 3,000 miles away, about me harping on the Fourth Amendment, she is a writer but is unfamiliar with many things, she said, "Mom, who would tap your phone, trap your email, you are not that important. This government wouldn't waste the money!", I said, "My sweetie, not that. It is my Fucking Fourth Amendment that is being redacted, that is why I am so enraged!!!". She understood without really knowing the all about it thang she understood.

I am an Independent who has actively supported Obama's campaign. I can no longer do so. His integrity has been tapped out. His lies and deceits can no longer go unchallenged.

I have only had the opportunity to vote once for a Presidential candidate in the past 40 years. It wasn't apathy that prevented me from doing so. I do NOT vote for the lesser of two evils. I had hoped that Obama was a man of principle and honor. He has failed the test miserably.

Although I have never voted in protest nor have I ever voted for a Republican, I am considering that option, in the sense that sometimes things have to get much worse before they can get better. We'll see. In any case, I will NOT vote for Obama. Progressives have a new home… under the bus.

He had me at hope and change. He lost me with lies and deceit.

Neither mainstream party gives a rat's behind about the constitution. GW's comment pertianing to it just being "a GD piece of paper," was likely more aptly interpretted as a moment when his special variety of tourette's syndrome simply permitted him to say what many/most bureaucrats believe anyway.

As to Amerika giving a moment's thought to lofty principles such as those enumerated in the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution, various state constitutions, etc., I doubt it more than ever.

This country sat passively through the suspecnsion of attorney-client privledge. sat passively through the various suspensions of the 4th amendment contained in the USA PATRIOT ACT and other Bushie documents, sat passively through the suspension of habeas corpus, sat passively through the violations of the Geneva Convention, and is preparing to sit passively through retroactive immunity for the telecoms who allowed for splitters and routers to copy their telephone calls and e-mails.

No, Maslowe's Hierarchy is alive and well. Amerika will be ready to properly revolt against these maniacs and carpet-baggers -not- when the Gulags are full of Her sons and daughters (they're ALREADY full of Her sons and daughters), but rather when there is no more stale bread crust to eat, they're living under a damp cardboard box in a local alley, and the house has long since been seized by the bank.

Even then, they will try to find a way to let mindless nationalism, disguised as patriotism, convince them that the government is still their friend.

"The revolution will not be televised." Mostly because by the time it takes place, most persons' televisions will have long-since been repossessed for an inability to pay off their debt. Ironically, the same phenomenon that keeps many of them from revolting now; fear of the loss of limited resources.. loss of jobs, etc.

It's a mercenary nation now, folks; as in, "I'll do what ever the man pays me to do.... Lock up my neighbor, spy on him, etc., etc." So much for principles and integrity, huh...

Obama is loosing me on this and other issues. He is loosing his luster and perhaps his place in history, not to mention retaking our democracy. I truely thought he was different; I was wrong.

Somewhere across an ocean and a desert, hiding in his cave, a man of hate named Osama bin Laden is laughing up the sleeve of his dirty robe at the thought that he and a small handful of fellow fanatics could tie a great nation in knots - knots of fear stoked by our own leaders.

You could substitute Osama bin Laden's name with Karl Rove, and it would still ring true, and his sleeve would still be as dirty.

WHAT FOOLS: It's mor than studying people--they like to invest in what creates the breaking point for the human MIND *(i.e. all the torture techniques actually studied, or supervised by those with backgrounds in psychology). Similarly, the amount of $ invested in weaponry, now robotics and potentially genetically oriented killer tactics, bio-weapons, etc. The depravity tests the limits of imagination, and it's such utter waste as the same money projected into what is right & good & artistic & creative about people could change this world mangled by so much unnecessary suffering.

KERNEL: The best social studies teacher I ever had went to great lengths to explain the difference between true CAUSES for war and the EVENT that triggered them. We may not recognize karma until a specific trigger event, but it IS in progress... as far as I see it, the tragedy in OUR Gulf was a cosmic wake-up call alerting those with eyes to see about a spiritual parallel with what was being done to destroy land, lives and livelihoods in the Gulf War.

More recently the fires in CAL (as we put Iraq to flames), and the floods in the MidWest, where so many vote against their own interests, and by extension, sentence others to death (they support Bush)... the housing implosion and the loss of value in the thing that constitutes the so-called American dream: home ownership. The list goes on. The U.S. is fraught with more violence than many other nations, imagine the pain to families on the receiving end of gun accidents, or our infamous highway statistics that road rage undoubtedly fuels.

The endless pursuit of more, bigger, faster, "better" has led to a dissatisfied society. That of course is a blessing to advertisers, for those who lack peace and satiety (or the capacity to KNOW when they have enough) are the PERFECT consumer caste!

All of God's creatures need a little privacy. Even a goldfish in a bowl needs a shell to hide behind. Privacy is more than a human right it is a necessity. Even Heisenberg knew that total knowledge of only one quantum particle is impossible and yet our corporate controlled government is trying to 'study' people to death. Where is Freedom?

As a infamous well known immortal once said " power comes from the barrow of a gun'.

Siouxrose___It is beginning to look as if the law of karma that you often mention may be about the only thing left to straighten out this miserable situation our "leaders" have gotten us into.

By now, it it is obvious that none of the people we are going to end up with after the next purchased election will do much to turn our country back in the right direction.

Actually, thanks to the fearmongers and warmongers, the 9-11 stunt won the terrorist`s battle for them. With any decent kind of leadership, it could have solidified our country to pull together and keep what was a great nation,

Bring on the karma!

JACOB FREEZE: Comparing atrocities is unproductive. The bottom line is we like to think that via expensive education and a supposedly intelligent media we can LEARN from the past, inclusive of the repugnant policies of leaders. If duping the public merely need follow a reliable recipe, then what is the point of either education or the illusion of an informed electorate, a representative democracy?

LEAH: As for the inane comment, " I have nothing to hide," how easily the dimwit forgets the McCarthy hearings just about a half-century ago. If some paranoid government big whig decides a certain ilk is against the best interests of the land, a threat to some leader's autocratic agenda, then intelligent dissenters become the targets. It's not like our own nation doesn't OWN evidence of this dark shadow; thus the reprehensible naivete in the face of what looms now as the dark inevitable.

I remember the film "Closet Land" produced by Amnesty International in which a female children's book author is abducted from her home and given the treatment of the unfortunate one in Kafka's "The Trial." We're not so far from not knowing the potential charges against us as proven by the litmus test of Quantanimo and the near deletion of Habeas Corpus. Still, when the 3 branches fuse together like obedient knaves behind ONE Unitary Executive cum dictator, the interpretation of ANY law is up for grabs... just the way the neo cons prefer it. This is why I often chant that human law may be fallible, but Divine law/karma is not. Of course when time feels of the essence, this Truth does not make for easy comfort.

Joey G says:
"Osama bin Laden is laughing up the sleeve of his dirty robe."
Wrong. Guarantee: Osama's robe is clean, and he is cared for by people who love and respect him.
It is a great weakness to denigrate your enemy.

Nothing much that Bush has done is worse than sacrificing 58,000 Americans and millions of Vietnamese for nothing, but the bosses who made that war never paid for any of it, and that's why the new bosses "dare" to do what they are doing now.

I have heard people say "I have nothing to hide, let them look in my emails & monitor my phone calls." I'm thinking of Elizabeth Hasselbeck, one of the women on The View, as I write this. The majority of Americans have nothing to hide and hiding something or not hiding something is NOT the point. As Americans, we have a consitutional right to privacy and this administration is threatening our rights, using fear mongering to do so. The Patriot Acts? Read them and weep. How can any American hide behind fear & fear mongering when the Constitution is at risk? When our Bill Of Rights are at risk? How American is anyone, any politician when they are willing to repeal any part of our Constitution or Bill Of Rights? Isn't this in itself "anti-American" activity? Isn't this some kind of terrorist activity hidden in political rhetoric? Yet.....for the most part....Americans are quiet on these subjects...or, like Elozabeth H from The View....."Why not if it will keep us safer"? Safer from whom I ask? There is not a terroist hiding behind every tree in the USA....but I dare say there are politicians right out in the public eye who are willing to do more damage to our freedoms than any terrorist could hope to do.......yet......America remains.......quiet! SHHHHH...don't rock the boat.

If you read the Treaty of Paris 1783 you will realize we are a defacto Commonwealth Nation, the end of the war and our sovereignty was conditional. The American and French Revolutions both were arranged by the Illuminati. Of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, 50 were Masons (not all Illuminati, although they infiltrated Masonry). Jefferson was Illuminati.

The ILLUMINATI is behind globalization (end of nations) and the end of religion. Today, our leaders serve the Queen as we march toward the Illuminatis dream of Totalitarian One World Government. Those who serve well get knighted by the Queen. America as taught in the schools has largely been a myth. Lincoln and JFK tried to make it a reality, and were punished accordingly.

There are no freedoms in Totalitarian Governments, just permissions.

The only fear we need fear...

is the fear of our own freedoms.

The French Revolution and even the American Revolution were started by the Middle Class and only continued by the Lower Class. The wealthy elites learned that lesson and have already found ways to wipe out the Middle Class in America right under its nose the same way Adolph Hitler and his gang did to the German middle class back in the 1920s and 1930s. By getting the Middle Class voters to gleefully vote against their own economic interests by distracting them with hot button issues such as guns, abortion, god, gays, flag-burning, terrorism, patriotism, etc ..., there will be no Middle Class to start a critical revolution because a two tiered system of Rich vs Poor will almost certainly guarantee that the Poor, former middle class or poor from birth, will continue to eradicate each other with all the DIVIDE AND CONQUER strategies the Rich will continue to drop on the Poor to keep them from gaining knowledge and possibly uniting against them. So, if you all want to reverse the damage, you better get your gear back in line before it's too little too late.

Speedtheplow is right, and Naomi Wolf's book is a must read. Speaking for myself, Obama's reversal of his previous position leaves me heartsick.

"Surveil Ordinary Citizens" is Naomi Wolf's forth step out of ten steps she says take place during a fascist shift in which an open society is closed . Bush/Cheney are following all 10 steps exactly.Wolf's book "The End of America" really puts our current situation in historical perspective.

How dare they? A better question is "How can they get away with it?"

The answer is easy: not one US citizen in 100,000 understands what the Fourth Amendment means thanks to the almost useless American educational system.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Question to average US Citizen: "Sir (or Madam), here is the text of the fourth amendment to our Constitution. What does it mean?"

AUSC (after scratching testicles - or pubic area - before belching or farting and taking his or her finger out of his or her nose): Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh - I can have paper?" (Farts again).

The business leadership has for more than a century done its best to keep our system of public education as ineffective as possible. They've succeeded.

jj

Even a veteran journalist like Joseph Galloway is writing about this with a sense of disbelief, as in 'How can this be heppening?' The aliens have landed! And they are eating our children while we are being primed to watch Greatest American Dog.

Bow-wow, arf-arf.
-30-

Re: Edward1793.

It's worse than "people now are more concerned with keeping afloat". Before the Great Depression people had nothing to begin with. They were, for the most part, keeping themselves afloat. Today, people are drowning in debt which they acquired in order to purchase (borrow) the good life being marketed to them day in and day out. It was good for the Corporations, the stock market and the already filthy rich.

Today, in order to stay afloat you have to afford more than you can afford to afford. You have to pay off (down or just the interest) all that debt. In addition, the Government has saddled you with even more debt by purchasing (borrowing) all those neat weapons we need in order to invade defenseless good-for-nothings and have all that expensive weapons research and those nice tax breaks for the folks who could actually afford to do without them.

So, how do you keep from drowning when you first have to stand on a ladder in order to be able not to drown while you try to tread water while you find some way to bale out the flood of debt? Tricky and near impossible!

"The fact that British troops ... were kicking in the doors of ordinary Americans ... in search of smuggled, untaxed goods was a prime reason why our ancestors rebelled against their king and went to war."

Sounds a lot like what we're doing in Iraq. At least the British labeled us as a Colony of the theirs. We keep saying the Iraq is sovereign and a new democracy or some other pile of lies. We are occupiers just the way the British were since they never had a right to own us except through conquest and economic servitude because of our raw materials and their need for trade (hmmm. just like oil).

If you look at where the revolutions start, it mostly with the middle class, until the middle class becomes the poor class. When the corporations declared war on the U.S. middle class, people now are more concerned with keeping afloat rather than the way the country is being mismanaged. The rich only want 2 classes...the poor and them. That way they can keep a hold on you and have you do their bidding while buying and spending whatever they want. Oh sure, they have to let a few token folks into their club to keep the 'amerikan' dream alive but overall...it's them and everybody else. Reagan the scum, coined the phrase; "Trickle Down". As far as the rich are concerned, that's the way it should continue, they buy stuff and expect their spending to be enough to support everybody else.

I really didn't know that you could amend the Constitution through legislation. Now I realize the Supreme Court, as presently configured, can work that out in their feeble minds but there is a process for amendments. The problem seems to be that they are not really repealing it ... they're just setting up rules for how those little things called "warrants" can be issued. So, not needing a warrant is simply viewed as just another condition for issuing warrants.

Weird isn't it!

I'm old and will be long gone before the real horror of all this fascist crap hits the fan. To those I leave behind I wish you the best of luck. As a nation and, in fact, as a form of government, we have hit the stops. The many and frequent compromises of the Founding—plus the evolution of the "entertainment society"—have brought the chickens home to roost.

This system has been patched and compromised so often and so recklessly that it will never find its way back to the spirit of '76. Time to erase; call time out; cry "do over"; and stop meddling with what is so obviously and fundamentally defective.

Once again: no other democratic society has implemented the "American Model" of self government. That is not an accident and they are not stupid. We were first in trying to create "a more perfect union" and it was a only "more perfect" for a limited time. We need to once again attempt to create that "more perfect union" with the benefit of over 200 years of experience with the Original Model and the many others tried and tested.

Short of armed revolution--which is a dead end (Pun intended)--this country is sold out, packaged, and delivered to the Corporations and foreign interests. The Fat Lady has already sung. Fatalistic? Nah...REALISTIC if you remove the rose-colored glasses of terminal hope.

forget the shopping...

yes, how dare they? They act like they think the constitution is just a damn piece of paper. And they
(congress/president) won't stop until we stop them.
Maybe when we get done shopping, we'll devote a little
time to taking our country and our government back.