an old woman calls CSPAN and says WE Gotta do What we GOTTA DO

So afraid of "terror" she is, that she has murdered her own conscience.

Post under "cost of war":

Move decimal place 4 positions to left to see how many families could be fed for a year.
Move decimal place 5 positions to left to see how many homes could be converted to run forever on solar power.
Move decimal place 6 positions to left to see how many people could have basic health coverage without deductibles or co-pays for a lifetime.
For roughly twice the number above, the United States could replace its entire liquid fuel needs from wind power, and could do it in less time than has elapsed since it invaded Iraq.

Eventual Cost
Scott Wallsten, senior fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation, AEI-Brookings and American Enterprise Institute, former economist at The World Bank, and staff economist at the U.S. President's Council of Economic Advisers, argues for a figure of $1 trillion in today’s dollars. Linda Bilmes, at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate and former Clinton administration adviser, put a total price tag of more than $2 trillion.

I understand the Bush Dynasty's War on Iraq has cost more than a million Iraqi lives.
For what?

I understand super sensitive superpatriot Americans are still referring daily to September 11.

"Parallels" a.k.a. Vietraq
Big Brother makes Universal Soldiers of our sons to stoke the corporate war machine.



But (irony alert) I guess these young men are "fighting over there so that they don't have to fight someone over here". As in... WHO would they be fighting?

And they are "fighting for my freedom to say what I think." (Just be careful what you say, and who you say it to, and how you say it, even in what used to be called the privacy of your own home. Because if you wear a Casio watch, that could be proof enough for the Gonzales Star Chamber to declare you a terrorist, and you could be disappeared.)

That old woman with the pragmatic view of the valuelessness of the Bill of Rights just put ZERO value on the lives of the boys fighting over there.
Unless she meant we have to have them there so she can fill her tank on her Wallymart paycheck and still have something left to pay for food.
We're No. 1!

In the movie we say "This isn't Us."
Isn't it?

bang the pots and pans

ECFS Received your Submission/Request at Mon Jul 9 14:54:42 EDT 2007
Eastern Time.

Your filing will be available for viewing online one (1) business day after the receipt of this confirmation. Filers are encouraged to retrieve and view their filing by going to http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/ecfs and clicking on the "Search for Filed Comments" link.
My Comment:

the final frontier for full information supression
Net Neutrality is essential to free speech, equal opportunity and economic innovation in America. Since the FCC removed this basic protection in 2005, the top executives of phone and cable companies have stated their intention to become the Internet's gatekeepers and to discriminate against Web sites that don't pay their added tolls.

This fundamental change would end the open Internet as we know it. It would damage my ability to connect with others, share information and participate in our 21st century democracy and economy. The FCC must ensure that broadband providers do not block, interfere with or discriminate against any lawful Internet traffic based on its ownership, source or destination.

Now it's your turn...

Keith hits another one out of the park

guaranteeing crooked elections by law

Dear Senator Leahy

Subpena them (the Bush Crime Gang)?

Heck, why wait? Just do what THEY do, snoop.

They data mine their fellow citizens phone, email, snail mail, library records, credit card purchases... what sets them above their fellow citizens?

Time for some fairness.
Equality under law(lessness.)

They don't want to show up to answer questions: how about some extraordinary rendition?
They'd do it to us in a New York minute.


They don't want to swear their testimony?
Waterboards.
It's not torture.

What's good for the goose...

Knitting away, beneath the guillotine...

your rights under the torture regime

Paranoid or Prophet?

So... why DID the FBI have a file-full of his mail?
Project Artichoke?

And it all begs the big question of our day... if they can spy on American citizens, then why can't American citizens read their e-mails, read their mail, listen to their phone calls?

A "handful" of staff in Karl Rove's office destroyed 5,000 pieces of e-mail, thereby breaking the law (don't make me look it up, it's something like the Whitehouse Communications Act)and our representatives still have to wait around for subpenas?

Hey, Senator Pat Leahy, how about dashing off a National Security letter?

It's long, but worth every minute...

more more more, mahr

Dear Representative Kildee

Dear Representative,

I’m writing you today as your constituent, to urge you to cosponsor the Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007 and the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007 , both of which were introduced on Thursday by Representative Jerrod Nadler. These bills would restore the right of habeas corpus to the almost 400 detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and other noncitizens held in U.S. custody without trial. The Restoring the Constitution Act would also undo much of the damage done by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA).

The passage of the MCA was a dark moment in our nation’s history, and some of it most egregious effects are that it:

• Strips detainees of the right to challenge their indefinite detention through a writ of habeas corpus;
• Limits the ability of citizens and noncitizens to rely on the Geneva Conventions to challenge abuses committed by U.S. government officials;
• Allows for evidence obtained through torture and coercion to be used in military commission prosecutions in some instances; and
• Drastically widens the definition of “unlawful enemy combatant,” and, denies noncitizens who are or might be classified as unlawful enemy combatants from having a fair hearing.

These provisions blatantly violate our obligations under domestic and international law and need to be repealed. Please show your support for the rule of law and human rights by co-sponsoring or supporting the Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007 and the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007.

Your support is critical to ensure that justice is served for the Guantánamo detainees and, as importantly, for the American public and our respect for the rule of law.

(text from: Center for Constitutional Rights, you can send an e-mail to your Congressional Representative too...
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/home.asp

More on Crony Contractor

Dick DeVos' brother-in-law, Eric Prince.

Blackwater Represents the Privatization of Our Military, Accountable to No One.
Bush Has Created a Mercenary Army.

Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army
(Hardcover)
By Jeremy Scahill
BuzzFlash.com's Review

(excerpt) From Nation Books:
Meet Blackwater USA, the powerful private army that the U.S. government has quietly hired to operate in international war zones and on American soil. Its contacts run from deep inside the military and intelligence agencies to the upper echelons of the White House. Blackwater is the elite Praetorian Guard for the “global war on terror,” with its own military base, a fleet of twenty aircraft, and 20,000 soldiers at the ready.
Run by a multimillionaire Christian conservative who bankrolls President Bush and his allies, its forces are capable of overthrowing governments, and yet most people have never heard of Blackwater.
Blackwater is the dark story of the rise of a powerful mercenary army, ranging from the blood-soaked streets of Fallujah to rooftop firefights in Najaf to the hurricane-ravaged US gulf to Washington DC, where Blackwater executives are hailed as new heroes in the war on terror. This is an extraordinary exposé by one of America's most exciting young radical journalists.

“Jeremy Scahill’s exposé of the Blackwater mercenary firm forcefully demonstrates the grave dangers of outsourcing the government’s monopoly on the use of force.” --Joseph Wilson, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq

“Jeremy Scahill skillfully chronicles the birth of America's frightening Praetorian Guard, one that has been unleashed--25,000-strong--in Iraq. These hired guns, with their black uniforms and automatic weapons, appeared on the streets of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. They operate, at home and abroad, beyond the bounds of legal constraints and are controlled by secretive puppet masters, such as Erik Prince, who have close ties to the radical Christian Right. Should our nation enter a period of instability following another terrorist attack on American soil, an economic collapse or a series of environmental disasters the tyranny that groups such as Blackwater impose on others could become the tyranny they impose on us. The rise of this unchecked mercenary force, as Scahill understands, could presage the final stage in the collapse of American democracy.” --Chris Hedges, former New York Times Middle East Bureau Chief

“If the Republicans lose in 2008, they will leave office armed and dangerous. Blackwater is the utterly gripping and explosive story of how the Bush Administration has spent hundreds of millions of public dollars building a parallel corporate army, an army so loyal to far right causes it constitutes nothing less than a Republican Guard. The most important and chilling book about the death throes of U.S. democracy you will read in years and a triumph of investigative reporting.” --Naomi Klein, author No Logo

"Of all the insane Bush privatization efforts, none is more frightening than the corporatizing of military combat forces. Jeremy Scahill admirably exposes a devastating example of this sinister scheme."--Michael Moore, Academy Award Winning Director

This engrossing investigative piece exposing, in shocking detail, a U.S. government-outsourced Frankenstein replete with helicopter gun ships may leave you incredulous. But you better believe it, for it poses a grave and gathering danger to the future of our Republic."--Ray McGovern, CIA veteran and former intelligence briefer for George H. W. Bush

“In this terrifying and thrillingly written book, Jeremy Scahill introduces us to the shape of things to come, and to the kind of people and corporations who are likely to govern our lives if we don't do something about it pretty quickly.” --Arundhati Roy, author The God of Small Things

“Jeremy Scahill's comprehensive research and reporting lifts the veil off the ever-tightening relationship between the federal government and unaccountable private military corporations such as Blackwater USA. . . .” --U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)

Read The Full Review >>>http://www.buzzflash.com/store/reviews/524

average Americans

the good old days are gone, when Rights were Sacred and Due Process was Law

Mayberry Patriots

ordinary citizens



Youtube, Added March 17, 2006
A series of drawings and paintings of the faces of victims of Stalins terror. These faces are based on photographs taken while these people were being interogated by the secret police and are the last record of these people. I first saw these pictures in a Sunday Times article by David King a few years ago. David King has subequently written a book, Ordinary Citizens, that details how these people were arrested under trumped up charges ,hearsay and falsified evidence. Interestingly some secret police themselves became victims.
The animation morphes the drawings and paintings together and is set to an original sound track that I wrote and recorded, called 'A theme on Gorecki. And is similar in style to that composer ...danbohane

War may come sooner than you think, enjoy your cheap gas

Thom Hartmann said something ironic and chilling on his program a few days ago.
Remember how in the form of gallows humor we used to say, 'well, at least we still have the third amendment, we still are safe from having to keep British soldiers in our homes...'?
Not so funny any more... Dubya's Baghdad Clear and Hold plan involves billeting soldiers in Iraqi homes to facilitate clearing the neighborhoods. No joke.
We continue with the Freedom Agenda.

I think they're setting up the playing pieces. They've moved a third battle group into the theatre, they're building those 14 permanent bases as fast as they can (maybe that 9 billion didn't vanish into thin air?), they're playing word games with Israel like they did with Saddam in 91, they're setting up Iran with provocations like kidnapping their diplomats, drones invading sovereign Iranian airspace, the propaganda about nuclear war is flying fast and furious in the corporate media. When they drop the bunker busters on those undetectible unknown unknowns as a Presidential perogative to preemptive invasions we'll all breathe a sigh of relief that "at least it wasn't radioactive weaponry." I hope. Killing a million people in a week from nuclear fallout is a heavy sin to commit and bear, just because we want our oil.
We've been in Iraq for a few years and it took us that long to kill over 600,000 of their citizens, to spread democracy.

Goodbye Old Boss Saddam, Hello New Boss Dubya

Gated communities, "islands of security", flushing out insurgents...
I once read in holocaust literature of such things happening in Europe in the 30's.
They were called ghettos, I believe.
The Fascists did that to Jews.

Now we think peace will come to Iraq if we repeat history.
What's Next, "Work" Camps?
Arbeit macht frei.
It all fits. Yes America, my friends, we are sliding into fascism.

It worked for Hitler for a while.
It didn't work in Vietnam.
Will it work in Vietraq?
Will it bring Victory?
What will be the face of that Victory?
Orwell described it as a boot smashing a human face.
Dubya's "America" will have an iron fist, like Saddam.
Tell me again, Why did Dubya's "America" invade Iraq?
Goodbye old boss, hello new boss.

A wise old hippie protestor once wrote on a sign, No Justice, No Peace.
If you keep repeating the old failing solutions, you MUST be asking the wrong questions.

Oh, shit, I just read this from the LA Times...
We have the camps already, I'd forgotten...

"I would rather die than stay here forever, and I have tried to commit suicide many times. The purpose of Guantanamo is to destroy people, and I have been destroyed. I am hopeless because our voices are not heard from the depths of the detention center.
If I die, please remember that there was a human being named Jumah at Guantanamo whose beliefs, dignity and humanity were abused. Please remember that there are hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo suffering the same misfortune. They have not been charged with any crimes. They have not been accused of taking any action against the United States."

So, I should revise my What's Next? question.
What's Next? Ovens?

I saw "Road to Guantanamo" a few weeks ago and had to go in the women's bathroom to weep.
I am not a weeping person. It has to be a special occasion for me to weep.
Then by coincidence, in the next news cycle the story about the effect of hands-off torture on Jose Padilla surfaced. It made me sick.
Even a backsliding Christian like me who has lost her faith must in times like this ask, where is God? Don't try to answer, He doesn't. I already know what you'll say, and my answer to you is: baloney. You would rather have cheap oil and kill millions and sell your grandchildrens' birthright than face the truth about our nation and your religion.
Go shopping.
Watch television.

The New World Order

Whoever says we're not living in a fascist state has some 'splainin' to do.
Dubya is presenting a direct and emphatic middle finger in the face (in other words, "the shot across the bow") to the new Democratic Congress, and if they let it slide, they are part of the problem.
Simple As That.
Dubya The Decider has added signing statements to more than 750 bills, more than all of the other past presidents combined. What happened to the U. S. Constitution along the way? It should have been a clue when he called it "a goddamn piece of paper."
Reprehensible, and indicative of a deep cluelessness of history and civics on the part of the leader of the so-called free world. How can serious people support this bastard?

Statement May Allow Gov't to Open Mail
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press Writer
4 hours ago

WASHINGTON - A signing statement attached to postal legislation by President Bush last month may have opened the way for the government to open mail without a warrant. The White House denies any change in policy.
The law requires government agents to get warrants to open first-class letters. But when he signed the postal reform act, Bush added a statement saying that his administration would construe that provision "in a manner consistent, to the maximum extent permissible, with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances."

"The signing statement raises serious questions whether he is authorizing opening of mail contrary to the Constitution and to laws enacted by Congress," said Ann Beeson, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. "What is the purpose of the signing statement if it isn't that?"

Beeson said the group is planning to file a request for information on how this exception will be used and to ask whether it has already been used to open mail.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said there was nothing new in the signing statement.

In his daily briefing Snow said: "All this is saying is that there are provisions at law for _ in exigent circumstances _ for such inspections. It has been thus. This is not a change in law, this is not new."

Postal Vice President Tom Day added: "As has been the long-standing practice, first-class mail is protected from unreasonable search and seizure when in postal custody. Nothing in the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act changes this protection. The president is not exerting any new authority."

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who guided the measure through the Senate, called on Bush to clarify his intent.

The bill, Collins said, "does nothing to alter the protections of privacy and civil liberties provided by the Constitution and other federal laws."

"The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and our federal criminal rules require prior judicial approval before domestic sealed mail can be searched," she said.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized Bush's action.

"Every American wants foolproof protection against terrorism. But history has shown it can and should be done within the confines of the Constitution. This last-minute, irregular and unauthorized reinterpretation of a duly passed law is the exact type of maneuver that voters so resoundingly rejected in November," Schumer said.

The ACLU's Beeson noted that there has been an exception allowing postal inspectors to open items they believe might contain a bomb.

"His signing statement uses language that's broader than that exception," she said, and noted that Bush used the phrase "exigent circumstances."

"The question is what does that mean and why has he suddenly put this in writing if this isn't a change in policy," she said.

In addition to suspecting a bomb or getting a warrant, postal officials are allowed by law to open letters that can't be delivered as addressed _ but only to determine if they can find a correct address or a return address.

Bush has issued at least 750 signing statements during his presidency, more than all other presidents combined, according to the American Bar Association.

Typically, presidents have used signing statements for such purposes as instructing executive agencies how to carry out new laws.

Bush's statements often reserve the right to revise, interpret or disregard laws on national security and constitutional grounds.

"That non-veto hamstrings Congress because Congress cannot respond to a signing statement," ABA President Michael Greco has said. The practice, he has added, "is harming the separation of powers."

The president's action was first reported by the New York Daily News.

The full signing statement said:

"The executive branch shall construe subsection 404(c) of title 39, as enacted by subsection 1010(e) of the act, which provides for opening of an item of a class of mail otherwise sealed against inspection, in a manner consistent, to the maximum extent permissible, with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances, such as to protect human life and safety against hazardous materials, and the need for physical searches specifically authorized by law for foreign intelligence collection.

the goal of the Federalist Society

Someone wondered why I tag certain items as Federalist Society. This is my reasoning. Please, wake up. Find out who is a member. Read about their history. They are not an old club, but they are gaining powerful positions in our govenment, and they are a threat to democracy as we understand it.
They thought it was an insider's joke when they named it - but it reveals who they are. They claim their goal is to return to the original Constitution, self described "originalists".
Sounds worthy, doesn't it.
Sounds patriotic and Founding Fatherish.
Jefferson, Mason, and Madison are rolling in their graves.
The key is to think of the original Constitution, yes, but before it was amended with our
Bill of Rights.
The American Revolution was led by the upper merchant class, for business reasons, and sold to the mechanics and farmers with liberal platitudes.
After the bloody war was won, the men who fought were expected to return to their servant status but they instead demanded and, after becoming anarchistic, they won their Bill of Rights.
A Constitution as we have it, without our Bill of Rights, and especially with the Supreme Court having instituted "corporate personhood" is opening the door to totalitarianism.
The melding of corporate and state interests is the definition of fascism.

the slimy newt

The Slimy Newt wants to "reconsider" our First Amendment

August 1968
by W. H. Auden

The Ogre does what ogres can,
Deeds quite impossible for Man,
But one prize is beyond his reach:
The Ogre cannot master Speech.
About a subjugated plain,
Among the desperate and slain,
The Ogre stalks with hands on hips,
While drivel gushes from his lips.