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House Passes Bill Authorizing Worldwide War As Momentum Builds Against It
Defense Bill Also Contains Several Other Troubling Provisions
WASHINGTON - May 26 - The House today passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which contains a dangerous provision that authorizes a worldwide war against terrorism suspects and against nations suspected of supporting them. The bill includes several additional troubling provisions, including one that would needlessly delay the implementation of the repeal of the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and another blocking all federal criminal trials of suspected terrorists who are not U.S. citizens. The American Civil Liberties Union strongly opposes the authorization for worldwide war and many other provisions in the bill.
Earlier this week, President Obama threatened to veto the legislation, citing concerns with the worldwide war provision and provisions limiting the executive branch’s authority to transfer terrorism suspects to the United States for prosecution or for release to other countries. An amendment to strike the worldwide war provision failed despite a strong bipartisan vote.
“The tide has begun to turn against the worldwide war proposal,” said Laura W. Murphy, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “Two weeks ago, very few people even knew this dangerous worldwide war provision was being considered. Yet today, a bipartisan group of 187 members voted to try to block its passage and the president has issued a veto threat against it. The Senate should now build on today’s momentum and kill off this dangerous unlimited war proposal. A new authorization of worldwide war will mean unrestricted powers to use the military at home and abroad at a time when the majority of Americans want limits on U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts. Not only will this authority make America less safe, it is unnecessary and will undermine our values and change us as a nation.”
The worldwide war provision was added to the bill by the committee's chairman, Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), and goes much further than the current authorization of war. The new authorization would last as long as there are terrorism suspects anywhere in the world and would allow a president to use military force in any country around the world where there are terrorism suspects, even when there is no connection to the 9/11 attacks or any other specific harm or threat to the United States.
The NDAA’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” provisions would delay repeal implementation by expanding the repeal law’s certification requirements to include each service chief for each branch of the armed forces and deny lesbian and gay service members equal access to federal facilities on the basis of their sexual orientation.
“Trying to throw a roadblock up to derail ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal at this point is a desperate attempt to postpone the inevitable,” said Murphy. “For nearly 20 years, lesbian, gay and bisexual service members have been forced to hide who they are and who they love in order to serve their country. It was with the will of the president, the uniformed and civilian leadership of the military and Congress itself that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ was repealed and its implementation will continue to move forward successfully despite the attempts by some House members to disrupt it.”
An important reproductive rights amendment, however, was not even considered for debate. The amendment, offered by Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.) and five other co-sponsors, would have ended the current unconscionable ban on insurance coverage of abortion care for servicewomen and dependents in cases of rape and incest.
“It is indefensible that the House would decide against voting on an amendment to benefit our women in uniform who become pregnant as a result of rape. Women who join the military face shocking levels of sexual assault and this current ban on abortion coverage is both unfair and disgraceful,” said Murphy.
An amendment to create a new, costly school voucher program was defeated. The ACLU opposes school vouchers because they allow taxpayer dollars to go to religious schools and undermine the separation of church and state. The defeated amendment would have forced students who used the vouchers to forfeit many of the protections guaranteed to them in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
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61 Comments so far
Show AllComrades, I wish to recant everything I've ever posted on Common Dreams. I now fully support the use of force for any reason whatsoever against people who aren't me. I think the capitalist system is perfect and that nirvana will only be reached when the last fish is caught and the last tree sold. The corporation I work for is particularly nice and friendly, and I appreciate their concern for my well being when they monitor what I say online and what I do at work (extra kudos to the guys who came up with the adult diapers that let me work a full 12 hour shift without needing to go to the bathroom. Not to mention the nice company that provides nicotine patches so I don't lose valuable productivity time to smoke.)
Of course we should support the rich, they inherited their wealth and so they were chosen by god to rule over us all. I now believe in an all powerful creator god that blesses the USA and it's brave and heroic partner against world terror Israel. I would like to take this time to denounce all those who still practice their evil ...
/ok, me again. How long do you think it's going to be before we are all writing things like the above to avoid a bomb falling on our heads and a claim that we were evil terrorists who had planned a wedding and were doing something ebil?
I will never write things like that saturnalia. Death can come in slow mortifications of the soul in a hopeless quest for safety.
I wrote it as a bit of a joke, most of it has already happened and I don't think the PTB give a damn about what we say. It's only in the more crude form of a totalitarian state that the state cares at all about what the people with no power say. Here is one place where the USA truly is 'exceptional'; they've built a police state where you can protest without being shot at once.
China is like paradise compared to the future of the US. You really are far, far too optimistic.
We are Gandhi's "ignore" or "ridicule" stage. They tolerate protest because they have assurances that the press will not cover them and three blocks away people will be shopping. We will see what happens if we somehow begin to be effective.
I liked it, I got it, you made a great edgy stab into the heart of the matter, Saturn. You honor your tag name. You have much talent.
That bumper sticker about paying attention?...I think you have, and barely anyone else has. You spell outrage in a spellbinding manner.
I think it happens incrementally Saturnalia.
For lots of people in the US,it's been going on since the 1950's McCarthy era terrorism. Only a few have escaped the subconscious self-censorship.
Then there are the legions of corporate ass-kissers out there who attempt to climb the income ladder by serving their masters' agenda.
Then there are the people like you Saturnalia and many others here at CD who don't take their freedom, such as it is, for granted. We protect one another. The MINUTE we cease to do that, the chains come out.
Thanks for your powerful words my friend.
hey, I laughed.
I think the best approach is to say your piece, and then, in the last sentence, type in the addendum--"but that would be wrong..." just to cover your tracks.
Yes, I feel that fortunate too! I'm so proud that our now universal war machine can get us all the oil we need to take our KIDS to the mall while we shorten their future. Meanwhile we can begin to dock the working classes pay and convince them it will make us ALL rich in the long run.
Then we can scrounge up that last fish and declare ourselves winners of this mad rush to bleed the earth. We can stand proud, quite alone, in a wasteland covered in oil sludge. Yay! We win! Now we can't grow food, but who gives a fuck? WE WIN! USA! USA! Least now we can torture people legally when we get in a pissy mood!
This is going to codify into law the unspoken mission of the US since its beginning - we will kill anyone, anywhere, anytime upon whatever whim we decide and the people better just cheer and wave the cross and flag or they might be labeled a terrorist or enemy combatant, subject to the provisions in this and earlier Patriotic legislation. Is there no stopping this government from killing the whole world?
So - the Constitution and internal US Law are no longer tools for those who want to stop these endless berserker invasions and bombings that kill so many and bankrupt all but the weapons industry. Perhaps international law will be invoked by more mature and responsiblie nations and bodies. When you destroy lawful checks and balances, legal avenues toward peace, then you force us to use civil disobedience and rebellion.
Today I attended a rally against closing a local firehouse here in Brooklyn. Firefighters actually protect us against the real and daily terror of fires, heart attacks, etc. Yet they are being cut back because we have bankrupted ourselves by giving tax breaks to the plutocrats and corporations and by fighting the "War on Terror" against mostly conjured enemies. I hesitate to say this word "conjured" because perhaps if too many say it, it increases the possibility that someone will arrange for an event that will show there are really terrorists in order justify further spending on weaponry and security contracts.
Today at the rally, some local mainstream politicians mentioned that they had been arrested several years ago protesting the closing of a firehouse. That action was not successful. They invited all of us to sign up for training to be arrested, lest it become necessary this time. Last time there were seven, I think. This time our local firehouse alone could get, I believe, ten times that many volunteering to be arrested. This is how it is going to be. Any politician who is not ready to go to jail for peace and justice will get no support from me.
I am afraid that likeitornot is not correct in saying that "only fools cut services and the service personnel that go wtih them and retain superfluous political or social dictrates in their stead."
Those bastards in Congress are not fools. They are working for their paymasters and doing a fine job for them (and against us) but that does not make them fools. They know what side their bread is buttered on and they love the 'donations' (corporate bribes) that give them lots of well buttered bread and lots of time on the boob tube at campaign time. They like their posh jobs with all the perks and power and they don't give a damn about democracy or the people in their districts. Greed and avarice rule in this land---and that is the problem.
We have developed a culture that is with out morals or ethics. With out a moral compass anything is permitted. We must change this situation. We must learn to care for one another and share the bounty of the earth. We are social animals and need the companionship of other people. Our intense focus on ME, ME, ME is our problem. We pride ourselves on being independent beings---but we are not. We are members of a community and we need each other. Most working class people know this -- the problem is the very wealthy. It is perfectly all right for them to cheat, lie and steal---and they get away with it. Look at the banksters. Profits are still going up for them as our nation crashes into a deeper depression.
This latest vote in Congress for war for ever and further loss of civil rights is just a further step on the path we have been traveling for decades. Off to fascism and a neo/fuedal state where Big Brother watches us all the time. The rich are in their gated communities and feel so secure with all the police and private security forces to keep us (the rabble) out of their sights.
Time for rebellion. We must stop the plutocracy now, it is only getting stronger by the approval of those corrupt bastards of both of the corporate political parties. No one is worse than the other. The stench of the two of them is more than I can stand. It is class warfare. Past time to fight back.
Well, at least when you protest in favor of firefighters, it's not likely the police will beat you bloody.
Well the Spanish judge Garzon went after Bush's attorney enablers, and after a couple of personal visits with Oilybomber and the Spanish PM judge is now fighting to stay out of Spanish prison himself.
" The new authorization would...allow a president to use military force in any country around the world..."
nemmine what the unfortunate other country thinks.
The vote was 322 Ayes 96 Noes, with 13 not voting, http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.asp?year=2011&rollnumber=375
So 3/4s of the House voted for unlimited 24/7/365 War. Anyone voting for this bill is an enemy of humanity--a Terrorist. Check the link above to see if your congresscritter is a Terrorist.
I should add that this just formalizes what's been "secret" policy for decades.
According to AP (http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/House-bars-US-ground-forces-in-Libya-1396547.php) you're right on the vote. I wonder where ACLU got that business about a "bipartisan group of 187 members voted to try to block its passage".
If it makes it through the Senate, what do you think the chances are that Obama will carry through on his threat to veto it?
I don't have to check the link. My congresscritter is Ros-Lehtenen. Her vote representing my interests is as predictable as the sun rising in the west.
Just 7 minutes prior to its passing, a rollcall vote to recommit (to committee) with instructions failed 185-233, which is the only related rollcall vote with numbers close to what ACLU cited, http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.asp?year=2011&rollnumber=374 Note that 1/2 those voting to recommit changed tune and voted for passage 7 minutes later. Now, it is possible that a voice vote was held regarding an amendment to strike the 24/7/365 war clause, but the Clerk's website doesn't provide voice voite results, so the only way to find out is to read the congressional minutes, which won't be published until tommorrow at earliest. As with everything Obama says, he does the polar opposite, which is to say he won't veto as it's really just what he and his superiors want. And yes, you have a real dangerous Terrorist representing your district.
and in the words of the great and eloquent philiosopher, G.Bush: you either agree with me or you agree with the terrorists and thus are yourself a terrrorist. or something like that. We have all witnessed what happens to those who threaten the staus quo.
How far does the rabbit hole go?
"The worldwide war provision was added to the bill by the committee's chairman, Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), and goes much further than the current authorization of war. The new authorization would last as long as there are terrorism suspects anywhere in the world and would allow a president to use military force in any country around the world where there are terrorism suspects, even when there is no connection to the 9/11 attacks or any other specific harm or threat to the United States.'"
Real meaning - "We want to make sure there isn't a single Muslum left on the planet?"
Part One
excerpted from the book
A Century of War
Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order
by William Engdahl
Pluto Press, 2004, paperback (original edition 1992)
War in Iraq was about the very basis of America's 'national security,' of future American power. America's role as the sole hegemon was the unspoken reason for the war, and for this reason neither of the major presidential candidates offered an alternative to American military occupation of the vast oilfields of Mesopotamia.
px
[After WWII] the combined power of its military dominance and monetary dominance allowed the United States the enviable luxury of printing endless paper certificates, its dollars, and giving them to the rest of the world in exchange for well-engineered cars, machinery, textiles and every imaginable product. It was the greatest confidence game the world had ever seen. Americans bought the imports with more dollar debt, creating an edifice of dollar debt on which the entire world was dependent. This special hegemony also allowed the United States to become the world's largest debtor, to run endless trade imbalances, to inflate its currency beyond imagination, to create a buildup of private and public debt unprecedented in world history. So long as other nations depended on American markets for their trade, and on American military protection for their national security, the game appeared endless. Japan's role as 'lender of last resort' to the U.S. was supplemented at the turn of the century by China. Hundreds of billions of dollars in Japanese, Chinese and other foreign purchases of U.S. Treasury debt, U.S. real estate debt, and other assets, propped up the American economy long after it made any economic sense.
pxi
The power of the dollar and the power of the U.S. military had been uniquely intertwined with one commodity, the basis of the world economic growth engine, since before the First World War. That commodity was petroleum.
p28
In 1912, the United States produced more than 63 per cent of the world's petroleum.
p29
Why would Britain risk a world war in order to stop the development' of Germany's industrial economy in 1914? The ultimate reason she declared war in August 1914 lay fundamentally "in the old tradition of British policy, through which England grew to great power status, and through which she sought to remain a great power", stated German banker Karl Helfferich in 1918. "England's policy was always constructed against the politically and economically strongest Continental power," he stressed.
Ever since Germany became the politically and economically strongest Continental power, did England feel threatened from Germany more than from any other land in its global economic position and its naval supremacy. Since that point, the English-German differences were unbridgeable, and susceptible to no agreement in any one single question.
p29
Many in the British establishment had determined well before 1914 that war was the only course suitable to bring the European situation under control. British interests dictated, according to her balance-of-power logic, a shift from the traditional 'pro-Ottoman and anti-Russian' alliance strategy of the nineteenth century, to a pro-Russian and anti-German alliance strategy.
p45
On November 2, 1917, in the darkest days of the Great War, with Russia's war effort on behalf of the Anglo-French alliance collapsing under economic chaos and the Bolshevik seizure of power, and with the might of America not yet fully engaged in Europe as a combatant on the side of Britain, Britain's foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, sent the following letter to Walter Lord Rothschild, representative of the English Federation of Zionists:
Dear Lord Rothschild, I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet:
'His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours for the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.' I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation. Yours sincerely, Arthur James Balfour.
The letter formed the basis on which a post-1919 British League of Nations mandate over Palestine was established under whose guiding hand territorial changes of global consequence were to be wrought. The almost casual reference to 'existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine' by Balfour and the cabinet was a reference to the more than 85 per cent of the population &ho)were Palestinian Arabs; in 1917, less than 1 per cent of the inhabitants of Palestine were Jewish.
It is notable that the letter was an exchange between two close friends. Both Balfour and Lord Rothschild were members of an emerging imperialist faction in Britain, which sought to create an enduring global empire, one based on more sophisticated methods of social control.
Also notable is the fact that Lord Rothschild spoke, not as head of any international organization of Jewry, but rather as a member of the English Federation of Zionists, whose president at the time was Chaim Weizmann. Rothschild money had essentially created that organization, and had subsidized the emigration to Palestine of hundreds of Jews, fleeing Poland and Russia since 1900, through the Jewish Colonisation Association of which Lord Rothschild was president for life. Britain was generous in offering lands far away from her shores, while in the same period she was far from open-armed in welcoming persecuted Jewish refugees to her own shores.
But more relevant than the evident hypocrisy in the Balfour-Rothschild exchange was the British Great Game, which lay behind the Balfour note.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/American_Empire/Part_One_ACOW.html
thank you EZEFLYER for posting engdahl's elucubrations in part 1 of A CENTURY OF WAR. the entire book should be required reading in every secondary school's history and govt. curricula throughout europe and north america, and should have been since 1992. the reality is, however, that one would have to be a hopelessly oneiric pollyanna to entertain such a cockatrice. that is why pyrrhonism prevails among so many of us who have abandoned our long-frustrated dreams of neutralizing the war-mongering US empire; it is the path of least resistance for us craven poltroons who are now in our senectitude. as mark twain exhorted well into his declining years, "growing old ain't for sissies"....yet neither is 'growing old' for the once-puissant, who, like so many of my now senescent consociates, have retired in defeasance from decades as peace activists.
thank you EZEFLYER for posting engdahl's elucubrations in part 1 of A CENTURY OF WAR. the entire book should be required reading in every secondary school's history and govt. curricula throughout europe and north america, and should have been since 1992. the reality is, however, that one would have to be a hopelessly oneiric pollyanna to entertain such a cockatrice. that is why pyrrhonism prevails among so many of us who have abandoned our long-frustrated dreams of neutralizing the war-mongering US empire; it is the path of least resistance for us craven poltroons who are now in our senectitude. as mark twain exhorted well into his declining years, "growing old ain't for sissies"....yet neither is 'growing old' for the once-puissant, who, like so many of my now senescent consociates, have retired in defeasance from decades as peace activists.
thank you EZEFLYER for posting engdahl's elucubrations in part 1 of A CENTURY OF WAR. the entire book should be required reading in every secondary school's history and govt. curricula throughout europe and north america, and should have been since 1992. the reality is, however, that one would have to be a hopelessly oneiric pollyanna to entertain such a cockatrice. that is why pyrrhonism prevails among so many of us who have abandoned our long-frustrated dreams of neutralizing the war-mongering US empire; it is the path of least resistance for us craven poltroons who are now in our senectitude. as mark twain exhorted well into his declining years, "growing old ain't for sissies"....yet neither is 'growing old' for the once-puissant, who, like so many of my now senescent consociates, have retired in defeasance from decades as peace activists.
thank you EZEFLYER for posting engdahl's elucubrations in part 1 of A CENTURY OF WAR. the entire book should be required reading in every secondary school's history and govt. curricula throughout europe and north america, and should have been since 1992. the reality is, however, that one would have to be a hopelessly oneiric pollyanna to entertain such a cockatrice. that is why pyrrhonism prevails among so many of us who have abandoned our long-frustrated dreams of neutralizing the war-mongering US empire; it is the path of least resistance for us craven poltroons who are now in our senectitude. as mark twain exhorted well into his declining years, "growing old ain't for sissies"....yet neither is 'growing old' for the once-puissant, who, like so many of my now senescent consociates, have retired in defeasance from decades as peace activists.
thank you EZEFLYER for posting engdahl's elucubrations in part 1 of A CENTURY OF WAR. the entire book should be required reading in every secondary school's history and govt. curricula throughout europe and north america, and should have been since 1992. the reality is, however, that one would have to be a hopelessly oneiric pollyanna to entertain such a cockatrice. that is why pyrrhonism prevails among so many of us who have abandoned our long-frustrated dreams of neutralizing the war-mongering US empire; it is the path of least resistance for us craven poltroons who are now in our senectitude. as mark twain exhorted well into his declining years, "growing old ain't for sissies"....yet neither is 'growing old' for the once-puissant, who, like so many of my now senescent consociates, have retired in defeasance from decades as peace activists.
thank you EZEFLYER for posting engdahl's elucubrations in part 1 of A CENTURY OF WAR. the entire book should be required reading in every secondary school's history and govt. curricula throughout europe and north america, and should have been since 1992. the reality is, however, that one would have to be a hopelessly oneiric pollyanna to entertain such a cockatrice. that is why pyrrhonism prevails among so many of us who have abandoned our long-frustrated dreams of neutralizing the war-mongering US empire; it is the path of least resistance for us craven poltroons who are now in our senectitude. as mark twain exhorted well into his declining years, "growing old ain't for sissies"....yet neither is 'growing old' for the once-puissant, who, like so many of my now senescent consociates, have retired in defeasance from decades as peace activists.
thank you EZEFLYER for posting engdahl's elucubrations in part 1 of A CENTURY OF WAR. the entire book should be required reading in every secondary school's history and govt. curricula throughout europe and north america, and should have been since 1992. the reality is, however, that one would have to be a hopelessly oneiric pollyanna to entertain such a cockatrice. that is why pyrrhonism prevails among so many of us who have abandoned our long-frustrated dreams of neutralizing the war-mongering US empire; it is the path of least resistance for us craven poltroons who are now in our senectitude. as mark twain exhorted well into his declining years, "growing old ain't for sissies"....yet neither is 'growing old' for the once-puissant, who, like so many of my now senescent consociates, have retired in defeasance from decades as peace activists.
yikes! what's happening? my response to EZEFLYER has been replicated multiple times... my sincere apologies, but the ionosphere between here [ratanakiri, cambodia] and there [CD's editorial HQ] has been in a jitterbug frenzy ever since the monsoon season began in earnest..... so sorry.
Our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, says that we have the right (and duty) to stand against this sort of tyrany. Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of sanity.
all this does is codify what's been happening anyway. the silver lining is that with each day the mask drops more and more. in th end, this will make us stronger since it makes the enemy much more obvious, and we need that so we can move people past the electoral fairy tales that dominate dicussions of change.
I almost feel like I should say "sorry!" for you having gone to see Koh at a talk. Not sure anyone deserves to sit through that.
See, you're still civilized sister Jill....:) I'm an old warhorse, and I think my reaction would have been to just go after the shit right then and there. It's why I stay away from meetings with pols....:)
As always, great to see you hanging around.
You are welcome, Jill. Your thanks are much appreciated.
They must be stopped. They must be relieved of their positions.
The People never agreed to this shit.
This is way beyond elections or civility.
The time for action was yesterday.
Who's gonna do it? Anybody? Anyone in the media gonna call a spade a spade? Moore? Olbermann? Or will they be content to work for the status quo and their bank accounts?
We don't have the stomach for civil wars. That's why you're asking who will do it. But that's ok because we have a lot of intrinsic power in our buying power. That is all they care about. Don't buy anything but food. Delay all spending. For say a month. Take your savings out of the big banks that got the bailouts. If we do this on a massive scale, can you imagine how their corporate earnings are going to look for the month! That is all they care about. We may have to go a while, to show we are stronger than them.
Congratulations America.
Well it seems that odubya can't lie straight in bed with a hooker on top of him.
Havn't you heard obomber, if you decide to use force on a lot of these so called terrorist countries...Pakistan mainly, there is a lot more to worry about...namely CHINA. You simpletons in office have decided you are better than the rest, when the rest of the world are laughing at you.
China and Israel own America and if you think they will let you get away with even more cold blooded murder, you are wrong. Israel only care about there backyard, China cares about there allies...see the difference. America care about themselves and maybe thats whats wrong with the picture.
GOD BLESS AMERICA CAUSE NOONE ELSE WILL.
So "it had to come from a sick Republican mind"? Please tell me, Lashe, what is the difference between the mind of a corrupt Democrat and a corrupt Republican? They are both working for the same pay master and neither corporate party cares one bit for you or me. You have to learn this before we have any chance of changing things. Face the facts! Don't give us that 'lesser of two evils' excrement.
But you are totally correct to say that we are the worst terrorist state on earth. We are the bad guys. But here I mean 'we' as our government---not the people -- IF they start a rebellion. If we accept what our government is doing, we too, are evil.
Does this 'worldwide war proposal' ditch posse comitatus?
Separation.
The inhabitants of the houses of government are insane. Hear the forced crazy adulation, for of the address of Netanyahu. Note the rejection of climate change. Words supporting a war on the world. Not so much a collection of wise dignified legislators, but a bunch of deluded crazies that think to continue on their world domination path against all evidence of harm and other possibility.
On another note, Greenwald's short blog prior to the vote on a related topic had this to say as well as a few other gems, and provides good grounds for my reasoning that Obama will not veto the bill:
""'We killed the Patriot Act,' boasted Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, to cheers from a crowd at a political rally after the vote." To say that Harry Reid and the Democrats have now fully adopted Bush and the GOP's fear-mongering tactics -- on exactly the same topic -- is to understate the case. And to say that Harry Reid -- who previously demanded that the Park51 Community Center be moved and that Guantanamo detainees not be tried in the U.S. -- is a duplicitous, soul-less, craven, worthless politician is also to understate the case.
"UPDATE III: Mike Riggs argues, persuasively, that when I wrote that the White House is echoing Reid's fear-mongering talking points, I "have the order of influence wrong" because, he writes, "these talking points are coming from the White House, not the other way around." Marcy Wheeler provides ample documentation to support his point."
the word fascist is overused at times, but the right wing in the us certainly is fascist. while they try to privatize programs that benefit people because of a supposed lack of funds, they basically declare war on the world which is surely a step up in military spending, and we are already spending insane amounts. we are a stupid, illogical bully. we can't afford doing this if we want to hold onto whatever democracy we have left and we are dangerously close to losing that.
"A new authorization of worldwide war will mean unrestricted powers to use the military at home and abroad at a time when the majority of Americans want limits on U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts."
The US Congress cannot authorize worldwide war because the US Congress does not have the authority. The people didn't give the US Congress any authority. You tell me if you can think of any citizen who authorized the US Congress to set US government policies. At most, the people have delegated certain tasks to the congress but with that delegation comes the clear and obvious implication that if the people don't approve, then the congress hasn't the authority. The ACLU is treading on dangerous territory here in failing to point out the fundamental authority of the people over their government. What's next? Will the ACLU help herd the people into the pens when the elite thugs occupying Washing-town say go?
We have a lot of good people here. Many with kind hearts, generous. America is such a difficult place to live though. But it's because we're always first with things. The rest of the world still looks up to us. They are like the adolescents of capitalism, they are even more confused by its effects than we are. But many here have learnt too and with all that we have, technology, intelligence, infrastructure already built, we can change things around. These people ramming through the constant barrage, they are frightened like Daffy Ducks they are grabbing and snatching all that they can while they are able. They can see that the world is uprising against tyranny. They are too few the ones that have all the power and their world would be nothing if it isn't for us buying their stuff. But it always comes down to the wire. We need to be firm because this ruling class is just not getting it. Obama may be very alluring but he has not stood firm. That is what it must take now. Everyone must not dither. We have to be straight and work it out in the tussle. Sometimes saying what you really mean is enough. And we can make choices much clearer that way. But no one need to get hurt.
Martin Luther King Jr; "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
"All wars are lost except to the elite who plan and profit from them."
As the US once again this weekend pauses to ‘honor’ its pursuit of peace for the Nation by Memorial Day observances ,Chris Hedges is clear quite in objecting “to war memorials and their glorification of war while hiding the real nature of what war really is.”
Shouldn't Memorial Day should be used instead to teach our children that we can only truly honor the men and women in the Armed Services by making sure they don’t die senselessly on the battlefield ever again – that our role as “citizen” is to challenge and shape the decisions made by the government,not become a slave to it?
Or to put it much simpler let the words of the incomparable George Carlin remind you what war in the tradition of US is really all about….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDkhzHQO7jY&feature=related
Paul and Kucinich had some strong comments in Congress on this. The Republic is nearly dead, and only a few stand against the open declaration of an Empire on the very eve of its own bankruptcy.
It's gone too far.
Send the ALCU a hundred dollars right now, before we all wake up in North Korea.
TJ
Obama prepared us for his current military stand when he spoke of the need for war to bring peace during the acceptance speech for his Nobel Peace Prize. Ha! What a sick joke on us all...wonder how much his corporate sponsors had to wheel and deal or threaten to procure that hypocritical badge for their man.
Many in this world, particularly delusional men (and women it seems) of power in the US, are suffering from some sort of mass hysteria...a collective disregard for life (other than their own). They are unapologetically arrogant...driven to engage in acts of aggression and violence that defy logic and ALL professed American/Christian moral standards and ethics. Their desire to dominate everything and everyone has mushroomed as large and lethal as any bomb that has been or will be dropped.
I think it is very true what has been stated here by many as to why we aren't collectively outraged and flowing into the streets in protest...even those of us who seem to be at all aware. For me, it is hard to fully grasp the magnitude of all that is finally coming to a head. How do we begin to halt or change this beast that has become so powerful...that no longer sees the need to hide behind its facade as benevolent christian and lover of freedom...finding it no longer necessary to cover the lies and intentions, so completely does it see itself as omnipotent and invincible...fully believing God is somehow on its side in Empire building and waging war against manufactured enemies.
Even scarier...the broad definition of terrorist describes most of us here. I have wondered how big a show of solidarity against our particular beast will it take before its fury and weapons of mass destruction are turned on us. I honestly don't think our president or congress would hesitate for a moment to order the paid mercenaries to do what's necessary to put us in our places if we got too demanding of the changes WE want to see...especially if our numbers were big enough to really get their attention.
Not that I am unwilling to physically join in a mass protest...even at the risk of injury or incarceration...I am, for now, choosing the path of non-participation as my starting point. I rarely buy new, I buy locally produced food and produce, I've found ways to barter when possible, I DO NOT participate in the commercial Christmas/holiday shopping frenzy and am attempting to eliminate the use of my vehicle except when unavoidable. Not being the typical American consumer isn't a bad place to start. Anything that disrupts the steady flow of money into their coffers might actually get some attention.
Despite his speech making ability Obama has the same mindset as Bush when it comes to reinforcing the totalitarian reach of the American government at home and abroad. I am sure that most democratic party members will just go along with this like the sheep they are.