All:

Check THIS out!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/opinion/28farmer.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

The claim that the SARI will “keep us safer without sacrificing civil liberties” is bogus: it will do nothing of the sort: there will be no balance. Even the ACLU, which initially supported the SARI, now believes it will not work.

Consider also the source of this piece: John Farmer, who was senior counsel to The 9/11 Commission.  And we KNOW what THAT was about!

I will tell you what the SARI is. It is the lead-up to the re-introduction of the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Act (VRHTA), which passed the House in 2006 with only a few votes in opposition. As I have noted before, the VRHTA will make the Patriot Acts look like child’s play. It would make certain acts and speech actionably “treasonous.” Indeed, it is so ambiguously written that one could be accused of treason for publicly reading the second paragaph of the Declaration of Independence (the one about “abolishing “destructive” government).

This needs to be watched carefully.

Arabian Sinbad:

1.  Yes, I read that outrageous piece of news about thrill killing.  But re your comment that Obama “is in the same league of his evil predecessor, G.W. Bush,” I would say he still has a way to go to even come close to the evil of 9/11.

2.  The Fox News/candidate connections are actually old news, but I’m glad it’s getting “play” again.

3.  Re the Venezuelan elections, Chavez certainly won the plebiscite, but there were SOME gains for opposition leaders.

4.  Although Netanyahu has not continued the moratorium, the peace talks have not yet been scuttled, and there is hope that he will continue the moratorium, if not in whole than in large part.

5. As a minister whose primary ministry is outreach to and advocacy for the homeless, I absolutely know what you mean.  I am with them every single day, and their numbers are growing, largely as the result of the economic crisis.  Absolutely unconscionable!

Peace.

News Flash for 9/27/2010

1. US Soldiers in Afghanistan kill civilians for sports; they claim to have been hooked on hashish and opium; an excuse to exonerate themselves! In my opinion, Obama owns this latest crime. He is in the same league of his evil predecessor, G.W. Bush.

2. 5 GOP Hopefuls are on the payroll of Fox News! I will not list their names intentionally, so if you’re curious, do some search to find out who they are.

3. Chavez Hugo’s party of Venezuela wins overwhelmingly despite all the money pouring from American fascists to destabilize his regime.

4. The six-month moratorium of the fascist Israeli government on building illegal settlements in occupied Palestine has expired and the terrorist and fanatic settlers celebrated and resumed their building with vigor. Remember that this moratorium was put in place under pressure from the world community who paid untold huge amounts of money and supplied Israel with with large quantities of weapons as bribe and enticement to agree to this short-term moratorium. After they got the money and weapons, Israel, as usual, gives the whole world the middle finger!

5. Today I cried as I handed the last dollar I had in cash to a poor old man standing under the rain on the intersection of two streets close to where I live. The man looked so weak and fragile with protruding bones through the little flesh left on his face and hands. I was overcome with both sadness and anger that in America in plain twenty-first century one can see these scenes while billions of dollars are spent on perpetual wars half way around the world.

Today, I just became convinced that the proverbial American dream has turned to be the American nightmare for almost fifty percent of Americans according to a program on Public Radio!

Sad! Sad! Sad!

The Times takes on the FBI:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/opinion/27mon2.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

Peace.

Here we go - as it gets worse!:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/us/27wiretap.html?sq=wiretaps&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=print

Peace.

By JamesMichie, September 26 at 11:40 pm Link to this comment

Oh yeah!  These FBI folks are putting J. Edgar Hoover to shame.  And where the hell is the “transparent” President Obama in all of this?
==================================================
It is my humble educated opinion that both the FBI and the CIA are the two real institutions that run this country. They are two governments within the Federal Governments and they are the proverbial sacred cow! And since they are the ones that protect the President and those with political power, no president in his own mind would be able to challenge them or stand in their way.

So don’t count on Obama to question their dirty work! And just pray for a miracle that would protect our nation from becoming a full fledged police fascist state! Wasn’t it to bring us to this sad state that the 9/11 event was planned and executed as false flag operation?!

Oh yeah!  These FBI folks are putting J. Edgar Hoover to shame.  And where the hell is the “transparent” President Obama in all of this?

Tobysgirl: Howard Fast—a name long remembered! It may have been one of his books I clutched in my sweaty palms to give me courage to face down the local American Legion on restrictive covenants years and years ago! And the three neighbor guys— one wearing a bear mask and clawing the window screen—and feisty little self-appointed Ms. Storm ranting away in the Super’s office about “Communism in the schools” of a very conservative—not to say reactive—suburb.
What?  Again?  Please God, not again!

And this time with tear gas and tasers, yet!  And police fresh from the tender-mercy killing fields of Iraq and Afghanistan! 

Time for the Raging Grandpaws to join up with the Raging Grannies and sing us all awake—once more, with feeling!

Glenn Beck disagrees with the current, elected government, but that’s not who runs the surveillance state RICO. Obama’s FBI? Nice try. The FBI is not Obama’s anymore than the military industrial complex is . They answer to no one except the Fascist elite and they are unelected and unaccountable and Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin and the Tea Party are on their side. The Republican Party is just their political wing: it’s the covert, unelected wing you need to worry about. They are Libertarian to the point of anarchy and wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice and wield secret, absolutely corrupt power. I’m assuming you think because you’re right wing none of this is your problem. A lot of people in Nazi Germany thought that too but it didn’t work out for them.

gerard, I think you might like Howard Fast’s Being Red. His history of the McCarthy era (he served 3 months in prison for refusing to give the names of donors to the Spanish Refugee committee to HUAC) is excellent, and his perception of the general public’s indifference is probably fairly accurate.

My father’s name was in the newspaper for being called before HUAC (he did not go), and the neighbor would walk with my mother to the PTA meeting, but would not sit with her. My mother slept on the sofa at night with a baseball bat to protect her children.

So, rico, when you make fun of my feelings about teabaggers who yes, ma’am, me, you might consider that my family and my sister’s family (FBI harassment, including trying to force their way into her apartment when her husband was absent and she was alone with small children; phony drug charges) both experienced the nasty side of authoritarian/fascist America.

I still think there is a way an ordinary citizen can get out of this control by big
money : refuse to take part in the ever escalating drive for more materialistic
goods and services.  If everyone stops spending frivolously, the big business will
feel the pinch.  That would be the first step.

I’m simply flabbergasted that it’s all so simple—like Fat Freddy says.  How could I have been so stupid as to suppose that it was much more complicated than that?  Get rid of the government and we won’t have any more problems.  Let people die without health care and public education. Let the banks forclose on people who don’t know any better than to buy a house to live in.  Down with rent control! The homeless don’t have to be that way. They chose their way of life!  And as for all those aliens, terrorists and third-worlders—“kill them all. God will no his own!”  Global warming?  Poof!

Hank-  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Reacting to the FBI’s totalitarian methods with a libertarian rant against “big government” is exactly what the real power behind the FBI’s oppression, the business elite, wants.  By undermining collective action through participatory governance, libertarians effectively seek to eliminate the only institution that can protect human rights and individual freedom - collective action through government to set and maintain liberal economic, social, and political standards.  Without a well-designed and maintained participatory government, we are now disintegrating into a free-for-all, mafia-like, state in which the rich and powerful have gained virtually all political and economic power.  We have corporate-controlled government because we have lost interest in a people-controlled government.
Don’t you libertarians see that we the people stand no chance against the FBI or any other group of goons if they are employed by a business-controlled government?  The FBI goons will not go away if we reduce government; they will just act exclusively on behalf of the elite that has full control of an even bigger totalitarian government. 
Eliminate democratic government, and we get warlords and mafias.  Free markets and free individuals need a very strong set of institutions and regulations to prevent warlords and mafias. 
We need government! 
No civilized society can exist without a governing structure that not only limits the power of the rich, but explicitly limits the economic power of the rich.  Economic power equals political power, and it always has, and always will be, abused unless government institutions explicitly prevent it.  Getting rid of government, the only institution through which people can collectively act in an organized fashion, gives all power to the concentrated economic power.  Freedom requires a strong government that, yes, bans trans fats and provides basic rights like healthcare.  Without those economic rights, we lose our political rights and become dependent on the monopolistic business elites - who will milk us dry.
Libertarians are so clueless on this issue - they play right into the hands of the corporate tyrants who are now pushing the FBI to finish off what we have left of political freedom.  In fact, see who is funding libertarian causes, from the Cato Institute to the Tea Party - it is big business!  Who is loudest in demanding government leave them alone while taking away individual freedom: big business!  How can anyone claiming to be for individual rights or free markets really want to eliminate a strong government, which is the only thing that can protect those rights and markets?!

Fat Freddy:

Best post in a long time. Thanks.

gerard

I didn’t mean to be “threatening”. I’ve lived on both sides of the tracks, so to speak,. My use of language is meant to accentuate, nothing more.

The problem, as I see it, is people ask the government to protect them, and to give them things. Then, when the government uses that power in ways that they don’t like, they complain. Examples:

People: Protect our children from the evil drugs.
Government: SWAT team raids, and a failed War on Drugs.

People: Protect us from insolvent banks.
Government: Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

People: Give us free healthcare.
Government: Mandatory coverage.

People: Protect us from the terrorists.
Government: Patriot Act.

People: Protect us from obesity.
Government: Ban toys in Happy Meals, trans fat, and cupcakes.

People: Give us affordable housing
Government: Fannie and Freddy

People: Protect our farms.
Government: Farm subsidies.

People: Give us renewable energy.
Government: Energy subsidies to companies like GE and Siemens.

People: Make the world safe.
Government: War, foreign aid and subsidies.

When people constantly ask the government to do, they give the government power. The top two percent didn’t give the governemnt the power. The government didn’t take the power from the people. The government derives its just powers from the people. We the people, gave it to them. Sure, they have abused their power. Governments always do. That’s why, people like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison wanted to limit the power of government, in the first place. If the government has nothing to sell, there’s nothing for the top 2% to buy. When we give the government more power, for whatever reason, even with the best intentions, the wealthy will buy that power. We are giving power to the wealthy, and the government is just the middle man.

Dr. Lawrence Britt’s “14 Characteristics of Fascism, #12: Obsession with Crime and Punishment.”

Naomi Klein’s “Fascist America in 10 Easy Steps, #5:Harass and Infiltrate Citizens Groups.”

Diamond:

It is not just the two Patriot Acts, BOTH of which are already in force.  It is the upcoming Senate vote on the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Act (VRHTA) that will REALLY “seal the deal” on this kind of outrage.  The House passed the VRHTA in 2006 by an overwhelming majority.  If the Senate passes it, and Obama signs it (which, sadly, he almost certain will), not only would this type of tactic be “covered” pretty thoroughly, but the number and types of words and actions that could be seen as “treasonous” will grow.  Indeed, having read the VRHTA (it is available online), it seems “elastic” enough that if you were to stand on a corner and recite the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence (the one about altering or abolishing “destructive” government), you could be arrested for treason.  I kid you not.

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

Look out, kiddies, it’s about to get worse…

Peace. (..in our time…)

Fat Freddy, in this case we are both right.  My term “small” government in no way exonerates the vast injustices practiced by our present “security” forces at home or abroad.  My point was that those who control these unjust and intrusive forces are commanded by relatively few persons in actual number compared to the size of the population they control. In the days of McCarthy I contend that there were proportionately more active, politically aware citizens than there are today. I may be wrong, but that’s my assumption based on limited personal experience. 
  However, the same dilatory attitudes were present then and now:  the relulctance to “get involved” with government, the willingness to let others suffer injustice and not intercede, the overwhelming influence of fear on the public mind.
  More power is in the hands of fewer people now than then. That’s my conclusion. How to influence that 2% at the top who buy and control political policy is the problem, I think. I don’t think decreasing social welfare or firing public employees or refusing to fund public education (as examples frequently promoted by the Right) are the way to go.
  Your threatening attack vocabulary is unnecessary.

bpawk:

“So this is what happens when you disagree with your government - “

Well, not always. Glenn Beck disagrees with his government, vehemently in fact, and Obama’s FBI isn’t breaking down his door. Why do you think that is?

PatrickHenry,

Why aren’t they kicking in the doors of the Wall Street banks, sorting out the derivitives con.

Read the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Then read the part of the Banking Act of 1933 which pertains to the Federal Open Market Committee.

Then after you read all of that, go to the Federal Reserve’s website, and look at all of the Board members of the Federal reserve and all of its regional branches. It will tell you their backgrounds. Many of these Board mambers are actively employed by the banks, or were at one time. Jamie Dimon is the CEO of JP Morgan, and he is on the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of NY. The Federal Reserve is the ultimate regulator of the banking system. How can we expect an institution to “protect” us, that is controlled by the very people that it is supposed to be protecting us from?????

Liberals like to say, “follow the money”. Well, all of the money in our economy comes from the Federal Reserve; every single penny, and they operate with almost no oversight, and absolutely no accountability. Oh they testify a lot. But they never really say anything. It’s all Fedspeak.

This may be direct fallout from the Supreme Court’s decision this summer in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, in which the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the law (18 U.S.C. § 2339B) which makes providing “material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations” a crime.  The term “material support or resources” is defined very broadly in § 2339A, and can be read to include an extremely wide variety of activities.  The government doesn’t even have to show that the anti-war protestors somehow provided support to the terrorists being fought by the US armed forces in Iraq and/or Afghanistan.  All the government has to do is argue that the anti-war protests were a form of material support for some group that has been designated as a terrorist organization, and it can bring a case under these statutes.

If you thought the First Amendment to the Constitution gave you the right to speak out and otherwise peacefully protest against government policies and/or actions with which you disagree, the Supreme Court’s recent decision, and these search warrants, should give you cause for concern.

There’s one more video I want you watch gerard. It explains the Philosophy of Liberty in terms that even a third grader and an emotionally unstable liberal can understand.

http://www.jonathangullible.com/mmedia/PoL.English.The.Philosophy.of.Liberty.swf

gerard

The term “big government” does not refer to the actual physical size of the government, it refers to the power of government, and the amount of control that they have over people’s lives. Whether it’s banning fish pedicures and trans fat, or waging perpetual war abroad, it is all big governemnt control. If you think that you can give the government more control and power in one area, and limit them in another, you are a damned fool, and you are part of the problem.

The fact of the matter is, the amount of government power, and control has steadily increased over the years. Both sides have tried to justify the expansion of government, and in most cases, succeeded.

These aren’t McCarthy tactics. These are Drug War, militaristic tactics. McCarthy tactics involved blacklisting, and censorship, and using baseless accusations to ruin peoples lives and careers. These raids are straight out of the playbook of the SWAT raids. Something that you obviously have not been paying attention to. The only difference in this case, a goldfish was killed, instead of a family dog, or an innocent child.

Watch this video, the entire thing, and tell me again that this is McCarthyism. Then get a fucking clue. It’s worse, much worse, and it’s not limited to “commies”. Just ask Mayor Cheye Calvo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbwSwvUaRqc&feature=player_embedded

Whether it is county SWAT teams, DEA, ATF or JTTF, it is all big government control. Wake the fuck up. It’s only going to get worse. The most vocal opponents to the Patriot Act have been Ron Paul and Judge Andrew Napolitano. Libertarians.

Listen to the Judge here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXzUL9KkgvA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35yhSifZ5jI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRukPp9Tq5k&feature=related

Watch, listen, learn.

Why aren’t they kicking in the doors of the Wall Street banks, sorting out the derivitives con.

Sorry Fat Freedy:  McCarthy tactics are not primarily due to “big government” but to comfortable citizens not standing up for uncomfortable citizens’ rights to organize, learn, and take action to improve their situation. McCarthy “surveillance” tactics are fundamentally unconstitutional, but scared people would rather give up their rights than protect the constitution which guarantees—yes, guarantees all citizens the right to protest against government, whether it is big or little, when it oversteps its legitimate bounds.
  McCarthyism was supported by a minority of middle-class right wingers who were scared they might lose their private wealth and power if and when an imagined bugaboo, Communism, “took over.” The hysteria was finally defeated (really?) by common sense protests from some of the people it had abused
  McCarthyism survived for as long as it did only because the majority of Americans were too scared to speak out against it. It can be used by all governments, big or small, to help maintain a wobbly status quo, but it is not indigenous to, or pecuiiarly characteristic of “big” or “small” governments.  It is one of many scare tactics used to keep ignorant people scared.
  And by the way, this right wing cliche about “big government” strikes me as peculiarly inept these days, since the entire country is in the hands of fewer and fewer actual human beings and the number of those who actually have influence has shrunk to a tiny minority.
  The problem is not “big” government.  Rather, these few persons have the secret, pernicious power of huge amounts of money behind them and will do anything to keep ordinary citizens cowed. It’s actually the “smallness” of government that we have to address.  A handful of rich people (numerically speaking) hold half the world in thrall—and for no more reason except to further enrich and empower themselves. They could make things better in the blink of an eye if they cared to do so—and they know it.  Why do they do nothing humane and helpful?
What are they thinking of?  What do they fear? Who caused them to hate the human race? Huge unasked questions escape their attention—and ours. To what degree was Pogo right in saying “We have met the enemy and they are us!”(NcCarthy era cartoonist Walt Kelly)

Bear in mind: this is only what Patriot Act I allows them to do. They have Patriot Act II waiting in the wings and if the Republicans get back into government they’ll bring it in too and it will allow them to go after ‘liberals’ with a vengeance and put them in the same kind of detention facilities they currently only use for Muslims. I’ve warned you for some time that this was their real purpose and their real target. What they’ve done to Muslims and continue to do to Muslims was only act I, a kind of rehearsal for the real target of their revenge: the people who they still deludedly believe caused them to lose the Vietnam war.

Anti-war protesters’ homes being raided on account of “activities connected to the material support of terrorism!”

How can an anti-war protester be considered a supporter of terrorism when his or her activism is in fact against the worst form of terrorism, (i.e. large-scale state-sponsored terrorism?!

Unless our increasingly fascist government will be able to plant false evidence to indict those consciousnesses patriotic citizens, Ahmadinajad of Iran will be smiling all the way back to Iran from his visit to the United Nations, where in answer to questions about Iran’s harsh treatment of rioting protesters pointed out that criminalizing political activism is well alive in America and the West.

Shall we say, “Welcome to fascism in America in plain twenty-first century when we thought this was a sad memory of the twentieth century in other parts of the world!”

This is only the beginning, boys and girls. You want big government? This is what big government can do for you. Don’t forget, the government is here to protect us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK-QR88yfOE

Obama is about as much anti-war as Clinton is anti-blowjob.

So this is what happens when you disagree with your government -  nevertheless that’s why protesting works rather than just complaining/blogging - everyone, citizens, the media and the rest of the world - get to find out what kind of undemocratic country the US really is. Can you imagine if all 8 million unemployed people marched on Washington - the government can’t arrest everyone or shoot on their citizens (even though I’m sure there’s a few law enforcement people that would robotically do it in the name of patriotism). Protesting means your voice will be heard and you are putting the politicians on notice that you won’t be silenced and that you can effect change.

A reprise of the McCarthy act 1948-58? When will they ever learn?

Das Gestapo MUST be obeyed.
Hizbullah Hizbullah
HUZZAH!!!
Take that federal goons! I’ve got your “material support” hanging. Right here.
What bullshit.