As the time nears for the Democratic Congress to take office, debate is beginning to rage about whether the Pelosi approach is the correct one and it is more prudent for the Congress to launch investigations to hold responsible certain individuals in reverse chain-of-command fashion, dealing with rapscallions on each level in order to obtain testimony against those higher on the food chain or whether the direct attack would be more immediate and productive and follow the leadership of outgoing-Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and others of like mind and go directly to impeachment. It is the opinion of this writer that both approaches to haltering the rampant adventurism of this administration are too little and too late.
This is not your old-fashioned game of political niceties that is being played here. It's a combination of Texas Hold-Em with all guns on the table and the world's greatest chess masters with behind-the-scenes coaches who now find themselves in check. The ploy that will win means to take all the chips at once, permanently, and they are down to their last hole card. The last draw is for the very future of the entire world or its possible destruction and the devil will take the hindmost.
First, since the only thing that has been constructed in Iraq on a permanent basis are fourteen permanent military bases and an "American Embassy" the size of The Vatican and of a scope of grandeur, fortification, and defensibility that would have been envied by the glory-loving sheiks of old, it appears that withdrawal in any fashion at any time has been ruled out. This glorious city has not been built for the purpose of leaving the area, no matter how badly beaten and raggedy-assed the once-proud American Eagle may become. This is not about patriotism or even about democracy. It is about raw power and world control and nothing less.
Please note that work is rapidly being completed on the Guantanamo Bay complex of "Court Houses" and their support facilities offshore. Ostensibly, this location is to exempt the administrators of "justice" who practice there from the limitations of the American Constitution, despite the fact that few of the prisoners who have been held there for years of agony and brutality will ever be tried there. (As an aside, they have mis-read the Constitution which states that the legal caveats apply "anywhere in the jurisdiction of the United States.". As a property which is owned, operated, and administered by the government of the United States, even a casual reader would assume that it is within the jurisdiction of American law, but nobody has seen fit to challenge the opinions of the White House legal "scholars".) Nonetheless, the "court complex" will be completed and the hierarchy will gather there with all the comforts of home to watch the pronouncement and performance of punishment upon the rebellious malcontentss who refuse to bow to total control.
Throughout the United States, multi-national contractors are hard at work on "relocation camps" to be used in case of "national emergency" so that large numbers of people may be confined there for long periods of time. A "shadow government" has been formed outside the Washington area to be safe from any possible "invasion", peopled by hand-picked official who are poised to take control of all governmental functions if and when the legitimately-elected Representatives of The People should be rendered incapable of functioning. It is now being planned that increased military might may be obtained by the "selling" of American citizenship to foreign nationals who would have no compunctions against arresting and interning ordinary Americans, probably with no knowledge even that such actions should be illegal. Executive Orders and Justice Department opinions have prepared the access to power to allow the arrest of lawfully-elected officials as well as civilian resisters, "deport", try, convict, and execute as many as necessary to discourage any further resistance by the hoi polloi, and continue on track to become, as they feel they are entitled, "the Rulers of the Universe."
Investigations? Impeachment? It does not matter at this late stage. Either is too slow and ponderous. Nothing short of a secret grand jury indictment for treason and the immediate arrest of the highest officials in the Executive, State, and Justice branches now in office will be able to save our United States, restore it to its former status as a beacon of freedom in a troubled world and save all our sorry asses. Throughout this whole takeover of the United States, from the initial electoral blitzkreig through the unilateral initiation of two separate wars, the shredding of the civil rights that have been granted by the Constitution, the draining of the Treasury through no-bid contracts with hand-picked multi-national corporations, and the assumption of absolute power of the Executive, the Neo-Con cabal have been two jumps ahead of those in Congress who might attempt to bring it under control. By the time Congress determines that there us a "problem", it is already too late to do anything about it and, meanwhile, the next step in the coup d'etat has been solidified and another initiated.
"Whose fault is this?" you may well ask. It is yours and mine, Mr. and Mrs. John Q! We allowed our franchise to govern to be stolen away by the spectacle of national elections that have become no more and no less than popularity or beauty contests. The handsome face or the well-cut suit will win every time over the rumpled shirt and the great mind topped by a homely countenance. Abe Liccoln would not have stood a chance in modern-day America! And it is "inconvenient" for us to devote the needed time to the health of our democracy in order to keep up-to-date on current events. We refuse to believe that politics is anything more than a game where we pit sides against each other and the only prize is the glory of knowing that we are a bit better than the other guys.
Well, this time it is not a spectator sport. This time it is, most literally, a contest for all the marbles. The winner WILL take all. They already have your good-paying job; your house, your car and your pension are in the pot and the only thing you have left will be your freedom of self-determination. You're down to your hole card. Raise, fold, or draw!
The author is a very "with-it" old lady who aspires to bring a bit of truth, justice, and commom sense to a nation that has lost touch with its humanity in the search for societal "perfection".
but how else to get out of trouble if not by proving to these scoundrels and usurpers of our democratic process that crime does not pay, that transgressors will be tried, convicted and sentenced?
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Friday, December 29, 2006 at 4:09:41 PM
Mary, this is THE absolutely best summation of our situation that I've seen, and I read a lot and have written some myself.
I'm going to pass it along to friends, link it on other sites, and recommend it as highly as possible.
The traitors who are running our government expected us to rebel long before this, and prepared well for any such eventuality.
If Congress attempted impeachment or even an investigation, they'd probably all be anthraxed.
A secret grand jury indictment with immediate arrests might still save us, but I'm not holding my breath. I've signed petitions for exactly that, however.
But as Rob pointed out elsewhere, the partisan brain isn't open to facts or reason. Even on a supposedly progressive board like this one, there are many who will not recognize the simple truths you expressed so lucidly.
Thank you!
--Mark
by
Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments)
on Friday, December 29, 2006 at 4:33:49 PM
I think you're right. I want my NeoCon Senators, Jim De Mint and Linsay Grahm toknow that you are both going to hell for supporting this war. (I don't believe in hell, but they do, and if there really is a hell, they are a shoo-in).ou too there "Bob" Inglis.
by
Timothy V. Gatto (348 articles, 177 quicklinks, 38 diaries, 574 comments)
on Friday, December 29, 2006 at 4:50:11 PM
Perhaps if the current winners of the "Beauty Contest" were held accountable for their actions then the future contestants might take note. Generally speaking, the president, his cabinet, and a good percentage of congress are currently guilty of treason against the Constitution of the United States. Treason is punishable by hanging. Game over.
by
Steve (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 27 comments)
on Friday, December 29, 2006 at 5:42:08 PM
Things are as bad as you say, and likely will get worse. Things were also bad when slavery was legal, when dispossessed native Americans were herded into reservations, when we had race riots, Palmers raids, McCarthyism, internment camps, and on and on. There has been nothing approaching Democracy in the US in living memory. The lesson here is not to be complacent in the face of a long history of social injustice. It is rather to recognize realistically how bad things really are so as to be in a position to take a true measure of what's required to fix things.
by
Kuzminski (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 73 comments)
on Friday, December 29, 2006 at 7:03:43 PM
While there have always been bad people and wrong thinking in our nation, as in all others, never has there been so open and obvious an attempt at total takeover of this and other nations arising from this continent. Those who sit back and harp on individual pet peeves about events of our history are merely part of the crowd who refuse to acknowledge that democracy, itself, is in greater danger than ever before. With nations, as with individuals, the fact that we have never been quite perfect does not absolve us from striving to become better. Turning our backs and mincing words over such a serious situation can only lead to a repetition of history. Those who refuse to acknowledge this are merely tempting fate.
by
Mary Pitt (65 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 177 comments)
on Friday, December 29, 2006 at 8:28:19 PM
Very eloquently put, Mary. I fear you are right. The only thing that might have saved us is enough curiosity about the 2000 election and the "good fortune" that befell the Neocons on 9/11. When that passed into history without disturbing the American Idol-obsessed public, then the 2004 election wasjust another nail in the coffin of our democracy. It is now conventional wisdom that anyone who questions the government is a conspiracy theorist and not worthy of further notice except as a curiosity. Why are so few people even sad about it?
by
Maturin42 (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 18 comments)
on Friday, December 29, 2006 at 10:11:38 PM
I just finished reading your article so I know you would very, very much appreciate this story of mine, if I do say so myself. It's set in the context of a teacher discussing with his adult students all the evidence that the Bush administration is as corrupt as they are incompetent. I took the liberty of writing in comedians and our favorite political commentators to play the students, so it's very funny despite how infuriating it is. ....and every day since I wrote the first draft Bush keeps making it more relevant than the day before. I've had Bush suppporters change their minds about him and had a WWII vet say, "You made me feel guilty for not paying attention to Clark in 04!"
Someone from Daly Kos read it recently and wrote back: "Whoa! That is some story! Infuriating doesn't even cover it! How the heck did I manage to forget some of that stuff? I'm now suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder!"
I hope you'll take a look at it soon, because it very forcefully does what your most recent article does: it drives home the notion that it's time to put up or shut up....otherwise our collective goose is cooked.
it's at clarkvsbush.com which goes to the file at my geocities page
by
Jay Foster (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 23 comments)
on Friday, December 29, 2006 at 10:13:19 PM
== Chapter 54. Soldiers Speak -- to Deaf Ears in Congress and to Blind Eyes at the White(wash) House ==
By Larry W. Bryant
[Author's Note: "As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq. Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U. S. troops to come home." -- from a petition signed in late 2006 by more than 600 active-duty servicemembers. In their public dissent from the official U. S. policy governing Iraqnam, these soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines are braving the inevitable scorn and condemnation of much of Amerikan society. By doing so, they choose to confront, simultaneously, two enemies of our constitutional democracy: the foreign one, on the distant battlefield of theocratic strife; and the domestic one, amidst the perennial minefield of theocratic reproach here at home. These true, outspoken patriots-in-uniform are letting their voices echo the moral outrage of their Vietnam-era predecessors. They jump into these troubled political waters with two tenuous life rafts: the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution; and something called the Military Whistleblower Protection Act of 1998 (the latter by which they've crafted their petition as an "Appeal for Redress"). If you think that's enough legal protection to shield them from official retaliation for such questioning of authority, you may be right. But the military hierarchy has become a master at meting out UNOFFICIAL retaliation. Or at applying a mixture of both means for reining in dissidents/"troublemakers"/mavericks -- as in the landmark 1960s court-martial case of Army Specialist 4th Class Gerald L. Schmidt. In its April 8, 1966, issue, Time magazine reports on the Schmidt case's unanimous decision by the U. S. Court of Military Appeals. The article, titled "See Here, Specialist Schmidt," recounts how the Fort Riley, Kan.-based soldier had written his senator to complain about the post's chow quality and overcrowded quarters. When his letter ended up in the hands of his first sergeant (surprise!), Schmidt found himself facing extra duty peeling potatoes and scrubbing the unit's mess-hall grease trap. His ensuing complaint to the company commander came with his warning that, should the persecution persist, he'd notify the press. The commander construed that prospect as a "wrongful communication of a threat" and "extortion." The resultant general court-martial saw the end of Schmidt's military career. In its March 1966 ruling overturning the conviction, the court found that the young soldier's warning of exposing to public view "the unlawful and unjust measures which have been taken against him does not amount to an unlawful threat or an extortionate communication." Judge Homer Ferguson conceded that "Military discipline, harsh as it may seem, is essential to the efficient functioning of our armed forces. But when it is perverted into an excuse for retaliating against a soldier for doing only that which Congress has expressly said it wishes him to be free to do, this court would be remiss if it did not condemn the effort to persecute him." Today, given the unpopularity of Iraqnam, Ferguson's successors might add that military justice, narrow as it's drawn by Congress, is essential to the MORAL functioning of our armed forces. So, in the end, the command hierarchy has a vested interest in refraining from any form of retaliation against these courageous soldiers' overt act of dissent.]
SCHMOE [adjusting his red-white-and-blue xmas ascot]: Well, well, Bob -- I see that you're finally able to accept our invitation. And we all know you've got your hands full with cleaning up the mess left by Ronnie Dumsfeld, so we'll try to keep today's session brief.
GRATES [glancing at his watch]: Uhm . . . call me ROBERT, please.
CHEEZEY [trying to manage a sneerless smile]: "Robert" it is, pal. Did you get in a round or two down there in Williamsburg last week?
GRATES: Yes, I did. But only one round. It's been a while, you know, since the last time I was on that particular golf course. They've renovated the place quite a bit -- but I still like the way it was laid out during my senior year at William and Mary. I did manage, though, to sink a 20-footer on the 10th green.
BU$CH: Yeah. We can't wait to have you join us at the McNair or Belvoir course. How about next month?
GRATES: Sure. Check with my public affairs chief a week in advance. Maybe I could arrange a pep talk with some of the local troops just before we hit the links.
TROVE: Say, Bob -- er, ROBERT: on this matter of pumping up the troops . . . did you read the cover story of the Nation magazine for January 8/15, 2007?
GRATES: Yep, if you mean that article titled "About Face: The Growing Antiwar Movement in the Military," by Marc Cooper. Someone in a group known as Iraq Veterans Opposed to Iraqnam had faxed me a copy the day before it hit the newsstands. We've got our personnel-ethics folks looking into our options on how best to handle this blatant contumacy. And we're asking the F.B.I. to recommend that every member (and fellow traveler) of that IVOI outfit be placed on the commercial airlines' no-fly list.
CHEEZEY: So, what do you think we can do about the prospect that this antiwar petition drive -- their so-called "Appeal for Redress" -- will blossom into something bigger, Roberto?
GRATES: Right now, we're drafting a presidential executive order that'll require all servicemembers to have their intended complaint letters/petitions to Congress screened by each unit commander's chief censor -- so as to filter out any language that the censor views as unbecoming, threatening, seditious, embarrassing to the chain-of-command, unprofessional, disrespectful, disruptive, etc. We can do this by citing the extraordinary requirements for maintaining national security in wartime, of course.
BU$CH: Isn't that sorta treatin' all the troops like prisoners? And won't Congress balk at the severity of such a safeguard?
GRATES: Tsk, tsk -- now, now, Dubya. Fear not -- we've got so much dirt on the House and Senate leadership that they'll cave at the first hint of a challenge from us. And you're right: these ungrateful upstarts ARE our quasi-prisoners, and they DID sign up for such prisonerhood, didn't they?
TROVE: Does the Nation piece say how and when the ingrates' petition will be delivered to Congress?
GRATES: It says that a delegation of 'em plans to hand-deliver it some time during observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day '07.
SCHMOE [standing up and moving toward a window to check the weather]: Well, it shouldn't be hard to get a listing of those deliverers so that we can cancel their leave and ship 'em back to Iraqnam before they can make that delivery. Assign NSA's Gen. Walbomb to that task, ASAP, will ya, Bob -- uh, Robert? And fax us a report on the results. See ya next week.
[As SecDef Grates hastily departs the scene, Karl Trove slaps Bu$ch on the right shoulder, saying: "See, Dubya, nothin' to worry about, with Robert now in charge of the Pantygon. He instinctively knows -- especially after the gauntlet of the Iran-Contra scandal -- how to keep us ALL outa trouble."]
Never too late, but.......How did we get to this state??
Great article. I have been posting items like that for over five years, never could bet the papers to print them.
It seems to me we cannot just beat our breasts and tear our hair, we have to understand how the entire public, with few exceptions, was flim-flammed. I woke up in the 1980s when I found Reagan was a crook. I have tracked the Right Wing since. Know the enemy! Yes, we were dumb, but we were up against one of the most powerful and well financed conspiracies in history; a combination of high finance, big business, concentrated media propagana all on message. Add to that the Christian Nationalists (good description).
First, I strongly recommend a couple of books: "One Party County" Hamburger and Wallsten, then and: "The Great Risk Shift" by Jacob Hacker.
"one Party Country". page 168 on, summarizes it perfectly, showing the build up by business and Republicans dedicated to having ONE party for this century! Louis Powell, then corporate lawyer, wrote a letter to all of business and told them to organize, put their money in one pot and build, build, build-set up think tanks, endow chairs, develop academic sounding stuff to justify what business wants. And, lo it came true, brutally. So now all the devils in hell are loose, uncontrolled, aggregated into multinational combines and corporations -- all dedicated to reducing us to pawns, and of course in our own intersts.
Jacob Hacker, on the other hand, talks about the ongoing shift of "risks" (health, personal, financial, social, etc.) from corporate sector and government to YOU, under the name of "personal responsibility" and other catch phrases I hear constantly.
One book shows how we got here and what is going on. The second looks at the financial and social underlay, what is crawling around under the rug - and you not noticing.
I have spoken and written about this process for years, always to rejection - "No way", "can't happen", "you are stupid", etc. Wrong, it did and is. These people are deliberately after all of your civil rights, pushing all risks onto you while cutting your incomes, denying you health care and insurance (all save the healthy ones at
high prices). This movement has produced the absolutely
worst congress since 1856, and not getting better. Not one of those lovely young Dems elected has said one damned word about revoking the Patriot farce and amendments, the Military Commissions Act, the Bankruptcy Act. and wll the things done to immobilize us.
The question of the day is how to depose immediately of a virulent, violent delusional tyrant who has blocked all the doors and windows, and set the house afire. At this point, this language is probably thought seditious - it not, but it could get one picked up for some rough questioning. And think your local constabulary will help you, hell no, they are busy buying new toys, SWAT gear and black hoods to care.
Yeah, its that damned scary.
I absolutely congratulate Mary on a long but concise statement of where we are NOW. Oh, and to make it worse, they own all the media, except internet, and they are trying to change that. I spent some time (24 years) in the government (Army) and worked in the Pentagon also. I also spent 24 years as a defense contractor. Yes, there is a continuity of government, with its players all staked out, with secret locations and transport - probably all designed to survive nuclear war--something designed and built in Reagan's time - surely improved since.
So, for those who care, send Mary's article, with this attached to anyone you know who is vaguely concerned. Republicans still have no idea of the horror they have visited on the country, and if they do, they have no shame. To hell with the, run them down - ignorance is as bad as malign intent. Go get'em Mary, but don't be so quick to give up. Guage Democrats on how much and fast they move to take back our civil liberties -- or continue to use the thumbscrews and tasers built into the current sytems.
by
frankbunc (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Saturday, December 30, 2006 at 12:34:14 AM
The basic asssumption seems to be that the Democrats genuinely oppose the criminal endeavors of the Republicans.
The evidence does not support this thesis.
So, I'm not sure where "Mary" is going with this.
A criminal oligarchy vies for power. The deluded minds of American ignoramuses are their main battlefield. Some sit in awe of this pathetic state of affairs and call it "chess."
What I see is a global criminal protection racket. Democrats protect Republicans, becuase sooner or later, they will be perpetrating the same exact crimes. Many of these crimes are top secret, and should not be exposed to the mooing morons. Those secrets (such as the ongoing narco-trafficking by CIA) remain taboo, and those bringing them up are called "conspiracy nuts" by the appropriate media.
As to the title, "too little too late", I still don't get it. The US Constitution mandates that lawmakers defend the rule of US law from enemies foreign and DOMESTIC. The fact that this new Congress refuses to defend the US Constitution from an outright fascist and unlawful assault on our liberties tells me all I need to know.
The Democratic Party is not protecting the interests of the American People. The Republican Party is destroying the freedom and liberty of the American People. And WE the Ameriican People need new options, and fast.
That they're all crooks and wise people like you have always known it????? So what? We should all just throw up our hands, go back to bed, amd pull the covers over our heads? That is exactly what many of us have already done. You are not the only one who has had to stand helplessly by and shout, "No! No! Wrong way!", as our ship of state charged up onto the shoals. But even now is not the time for us to stand back, point our fingers and say, "I told you so." So long as we have voice to shout, it is never too late to try to wake up the sleeping sheeple and save their wooly behinds from the coming barbeque, because, if this nation should fall, its like never will be seen again and both man Nd God will pay the price.
by
Mary Pitt (65 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 177 comments)
on Saturday, December 30, 2006 at 3:26:15 AM
I, too, was puzzled by the premise of Mary's article. I was uncertain as to how she treats the law, as some political expediency to be enforced by a yardstick of current climates and tempers?
Ultimately I am of the opinion that our best interests are not being served by either political party, that the system itself has been corrupted, whether beyond repair or not is up to the electorate to decide.
Those who remain firmly loyal to the Democratic Party as the way out of this swamp refuse to deal with the various votes of Democrats and statements of the party leadership that prove, time and again, they seek to placate and appease the wealthy and not seek either justice or fairness for the majority of America.
As to any suggestion that we simply ignore the actions of those, in the past six years, who were supposed to lead us but chose to swindle us instead, I find that course unacceptable. It simply makes a mockery of the Law.
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Saturday, December 30, 2006 at 9:42:08 AM
If there is one thing that I agree with bush and his ilk with it's this: we're running out of resources fast. Like it or not we are in the first stages of what's going to be a major clash of civilizations around the world for control of those resources. And those that control the most will have the most to lose and meet with unmerciful and brutal force any that oppose them.
The dynasties, royal, industrial, political, and wealthy, often overlapping, that have controlled civilizations for hundreds, if not thousands, of years are trying to hold onto that control against the uprising that comes from the people they enslave. And what better way to enslave a people than to put them in uniform and use them against their own fellow slaves?
Can you blame them? If you were a Rothschild, Krupp, Morgan, Roosevelt, or any of the say 20 odd dynasties that control 90% of the wealth, and most likely won't be happy till they get 99%. Their dream of a "one world government" is almost, if not already here.
So, here's the crime – time. We're out of it. And even if bush and his farce followers of fools hadn't wasted so much time, we still would have been way beyond the point of no return. The dwindling of just basic resources like water and food will soon, even in the richest of countries will be scarce. America will suffer the most. Cities and suburbs will turn into war zones. Bush and his ilk know this. They want control. They will be that 1% behind the walls protected.
Or so they think. The 1% that will survive, if even possible in the damaged world we've produced, will be the tribes.
Hey, maybe that's why bush bought land in Paraguay?
by
Mr M (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 1442 comments)
on Saturday, December 30, 2006 at 9:02:44 AM
Face It Both George W Bush & Dick Cheney Are War Criminals!
It's time Americans face reality that both George W Bush &
Dick Cheney are War Criminals themselves and that thier
crimes against humanity and murderers and all kinds of other abuses of power and authority and high crimes and
misdeamoners,must be severely punished by the same means
as was Saddam Hussein,that they,Bush & Cheney be taken
out and hanged from a gallows,until in the words of one
famous American judge,"They be dead,dead,dead!"
So, hasn't anyone here,heard that we are doomed to repeat
the same mistakes over and over again,until we learn the
painful lessons,that history is trying to teach us? And so
by that I mean that we didn't learn from our failure to
Impeach President Richard Milhous Nixon,after Watergate and
even allowed another Republican President Gerald Ford to
Pardon Nixon,when both Nixon and Spiro Agnew deserved to
be locked up in jail for a very long time for committing
their own impeachable offenses,instead of being pardoned!
And so that is what lead to our current insane situation
in Iraq under the two biggest liars,power mad,out of touch
with reality,psychotics,George W Bush & Dick Cheney to ever
occupy the White House and who can only be stopped by thier
joint Impeachment and them also being tried and convicted
as International War Criminals & Murderers,for all their
own Crimes Against Humanity,so face it and accept it here!
by
Ralph (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 74 comments)
on Tuesday, January 2, 2007 at 1:13:45 AM
16 comments
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