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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 9/10/08

How the GOP Turned the US Into a Hideous Police State

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When laws become unjust, tyrannical and stupid, everyone becomes a terrorist. The GOP 'national convention is a picture of the continuing GOP police state. Otherwise peaceful demonstrators, exercising free speech guaranteed them by the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights were arrested, roughed-up, jailed, and accused of being terrorists! Under GOP supported laws, opposition to Bush is a 'terrorist' act.Patriot Act II laid the ground work!

Like Hitler's enabling act, Patriot II made opposition to Bush an act of terrorism, giving Bush the 'authority' to define US obligations to the Geneva Convention as he saw fit. Those 'deemed' to be 'enemy combatants are, thus, prohibited from fighting back and, of course, 'fighting back', defending one's country, then becomes an act of terrorism. I have news for Bush: 'deeming' is not 'due process' which is guaranteed in the US Constitution.
At home, hot dogs, most police departments, self-appointed Bushies, have taken it all to heart in a wave of often fatal tasering, rarely seen even in the US. More worrisome is that a wave of arrests of peace protesters are then charged with being 'terrorists'. It follows, that if one is deemed a 'terrorist' under the Patriot II, being an American citizen will not prevent your being water boarded. In other words, 'terrorism' is whatever Bush doesn't like.

The rule of law and Due Process mean absolutely nothing to this administration or the GOP. Silence gives consent. John McCain has, therefore, signed off on tyranny! McCain represents Bush's 'third term'; therefore, Bush need not declare a national emergency to assume dictatorial powers. He he exercises them already. The wholesale arrests of peaceful demonstrators is just the tip of the ice burg.
This wave of abuse proves that McCain's GOP, the Bush administration specifically, has turned the US into a fascist police state! Whenever you are 'deemed' by the Bush administration to be a 'terrorist', you can kiss the protections of the Constitution, and possibly your ass, good bye. The 'authorities' may deem the following acts as 'acts of terrorism:
  • Destruction of any property, which is deemed punishable by any means of the military tribunal's choosing.
  • Any violent activity whatsoever if it takes place near a designated protected building, such as a charity building
  • A change of the definition of "pillaging" which turns all illegal occupation of property and all theft into terrorism. This makes squatters and petty thieves enemy combatants.
In the wake of Patriot II, journalist Greg Palast has been hounded by Homeland Security, accused of giving terrorists information about 'US critical infrastructure' and film of Exxon's Baton Rouge refinery! This is information that they could have gotten with a google search and goggle earth! It's just an excuse to harass and intimidate a reporter.
There is a fascist chill in America. As I have often stated: Bushco (and that includes McCain Palin) is a clear and present danger. Bush, his minions and material support, are traitors who have betrayed the people of the US even as they worked to subvert the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, indeed, the very 'rule of law', replaced by decrees, signing statements, signed by Bush.
(WSWS) -- On Wednesday eight members of the anarchist prof est group the Republican National Convention Welcoming Committee (RNCWC) were charged under provisions of the Minnesota a state version of the Patriot Act with "Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism."The eight charged are all young, and could face up to seven-and-a-half years in prison under a provision that allows the enhancement of charges related to terrorism by 50 percent. They are: Monica Bicking, Eryn Trimmer, Luce Guillen Givins, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor, Robert Czernik, Garrett Fitzgerald and Max Spector.

...

--RNC in Twin Cities: Eight prof esters charged with terrorism under Patriot Act
In what appears to be the first use of criminal charges under the 2002 Minnesof a version of the Federal Patriot Act, Ramsey County Prosecutors have formally charged 8 alleged leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee with Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism. Monica Bicking, Eryn Trimmer, Luce Guillen Givins, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor, Robert Czernik, Garrett Fitzgerald, and Max Spector, face up to 7 1/2 years in prison under the terrorism enhancement charge which allows for a 50% increase in the maximum penalty. Affidavits released by law enforcement which were filed in support of the search warrants used in raids over the weekend, and used to support probable cause for the arrest warrants, are based on paid, confidential informants who infiltrated the RNCWC on behalf of law enforcement. They allege that members of the group sought to kidnap delegates to the RNC, assault police officers with firebombs and explosives, and sabotage age airports in St. Paul. Evidence released to date does not corroborate these allegations with physical evidence or provide any of her evidence for these allegations than the claims of the informants. Based on past abuses of such informants by law enforcement, the National Lawyers Guild is concerned that such police informants have incentives to lie and exaggerate threats of violence and to also act as agent provocateurs in raising and urging support for acts of violence. --Bruce Nestor, Information Clearing House, RNC 8 Charged as Terrorists Under State Patriot Act
Stupid, asinine and unjust laws inspired by the original stupid law, the Patriot Act, make a mockery of our Constitution and the principles of our founding.
The charges represent an abuse of the criminal justice system and seek to intimidate any person organizing large scale public demonstrations potentially involving civil disobedience. --Bruce Nestor, president of the Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild
--Real violence is trivialized with transparent attempts to put on 'trial' the political views of the defendants. This tactic is un-patriotic and un-American. In another case, Joe Previtera, 21 of Boston College was charged with felonies after he dressed up in a hooded Iraqi prisoner 'dress' as seen in the iconic Abu Ghraib torture photo. Apparently, a man in a dress is a threat to the military grunts in the recruitment center in Tremont St., downtown Boston. He was arraigned and bond was set at $10,000. -- Boston Student Joe Previtera Gets Felony Charges For Iraq Prof est Only the naive still believe that the various police forces throughout the nation take seriously their oaths to 'protect and serve'. Rather, the police have become a Praetorian Guard of entrenched power and elite, monied interests. It's the GOP way! I wonder how many 'cop shops' are directly controlled by Bush's 'Homeland Security".
...[it] Seems almost inarguable but it leads to lesser military effectiveness in a myriad of situations, but nowhere more than in anti-insurgency operations where the willingness of American troops to blow away civilians if there is even a miniscule chance that might make troops safer has actually lead to troops being less safe, because it has increased the number of people who have reason to want to kill American troops.
The US has an image of itself as a country of the brave. Perhaps George W. Bush was the perfect President for the US as it now is. A country of hollow, self righteous showmen. I certainly hope not, but --looking at McCain's polling numbers-- it may be so. In which case the US will get what it deserves --and Heaven Help the rest of us.

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Certainly, there's a balance between foolhardiness and courage and between safety and responsibility. In US police enforcement that balance has skewed to the point where all a police officer needs to justify the shooting, the electrocution, the punching, the stomping, the battering of the citizens and visitors of this country is to state they were afraid for their safety. That excuses all. The job of US Police Officers is to keep themselves safe. The citizenry do not matter. There is no longer any pretense that the police forces in the US are here to serve the community. They are in the business of control. They protect the very rich and powerful. We have come full circle to police as enforcers for the rich in a feudal-like system of economic serfs and masters.--Authoritarian Police Forces we have in the US
The GOP has been taken over by Bush-like neo-nazis, particularly John McCain and his mentally constipated running-mate --Sarah Palin, a Stepford Wife on speed! Merely making plans to blockade traffic or disrupt the GOP is now considered to be 'terrorism'. This is absurd. Authorities say they want to put the defendants views on trial. I submit that it is time we put Bush, McCain, Palin views on trial. And later, war criminals are to be put on trial at the Hague.

It is time that the Bush administration be charged with violations of its own terrorist act. [See: CIA Leak May Violate Patriot Act ] It is time that Bush be charged with violations of US Codes, Title 18, Section 2441, capital crimes. It is time that Bush be charged for his own violations of Patriot Acts I and II. It is time that we held both Bush and McCain to their own standards. It is time that we expose the GOP to be the fascist, terrorist party in a nation that had been --at one time --free! See: YouTube Activists charged with Terrorism In the meantime, America's last growth industry is the surveillance of the domestic population. As home prices were taking a beating and GDP struggled, US government wiretaps remained bullish with 'eavesdropping' boasting an increase of 14 percent over 2006 levels. In 2007, some 4,580 state and federal wiretaps were OKd by judges. That's up from 4,015 in 2006.

State police applications for wiretaps were up 27% in 2007 over 2006. Ninety-four percent targeted cell phones. In 2007 --according stats released by the US Courts' administrator --state judges approved 1,751 criminal wiretap applications without turning any of them down. [See: report (.pdf).] That's about a three fold increase since 1997.
Tyrants Snooping on Americans (TSA) have installed a naked X-ray machine at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia.

"Whole body imaging" machines treat Security Screeners to a peep show featuring passengers' moles, scars, sores, sweat, nipples, and genitals. However, the scanners cannot see through plastic or rubber materials that resemble skin, Peter Siegel, a senior scientist at the California Institute of Technology, told USA Today. "You probably could find very common materials that you could wrap around you that would effectively obscure" weapons or bomb parts.

TSA snoops are already enjoying the naked X-rays at airports in Baltimore, New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, and Albuquerque. The peep show also travels to Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas, and Miami this month. --Naked X-Rays at More U.S. Airports
As the corrupt establishment abuses both law and its enforcement on behalf of a partisan position, the Taser is increasingly used against innocent citizens to injure, kill, or deprive them of their rights under the US Constitution. To insist upon treatment within the Constitution is often enough to enrage a hot dog who is out to prove he knows how to 'subdue' or use a Taser! What idiot doesn't? The abuse of tasers has become epidemic, an outrage, a threat to the rule of law, an overt violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, and, in many cases, it's use is a felony violation of US Codes, and state laws. It the worst cases, it is murder! The epidemic of taser abuse is characteristic of fascist police states run riof when those sworn to uphold the law become not hing more than thugs and/or murderers.
We have serious concerns about the use of electro-shock devices in law enforcement, both as regards their safety and their pof ential for misuse. Portable and easy to use, with the capacity to inflict severe pain at the push of a button without leaving substantial marks, electro-shock weapons are particularly open to abuse, as our organization has documented in numerous cases around the world. While in the United States police operate under professional standards,(8) we are concerned that many US police departments are using Tasers to subdue non-compliant or disturbed individuals who do not pose a serious danger to themselves or of hers. As our reports have documented, there are many cases where we believe use of Tasers has contravened international standards which require that police use force only when strictly necessary, in proportion to the threat posed, only for as long as the threat exists and in a manner designed to minimize pain or injury. We have documented disturbing instances where we believe that Taser use has amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment which is absolutely prohibited under international law. (Emphasis added)The UN Committee against Torture has called on the United States to deploy Tasers only as a non-lethal alternative to using firearms. We are particularly concerned about the capacity of Tasers to be used in close contact situations as a stun weapon Â- including in situations where individuals appear to be already effectively in custody Â- and to inflict repeated shocks over a relatively prolonged period. While we believe the drive-stun mode is especially open to abuse, we not e that in dart-mode also there have been instances of alleged abuse, with officers able to inflict repeated shocks once the darts have taken hold.We are also concerned that Tasers are being widely deployed in the United States before the results of rigorous, independent and comprehensive testing of their safety and pof ential health risks.--USA, Amnesty International's concerns about Tasers: Statement to the US Justice Department inquiry into deaths in custody
The manufacture of tasers should be banned by law, their use made a felony, and the moronic hot dogs who get their jollies tasering folk should be locked up for life or, in those cases in which the victims dies, the taser freaks, taser crazy cops, should be charged with capital crimes, tried, found guilty and given a dose of Texas ol' sparky! Tasers have become a symptom of the modern police state --atrocity 'lite'.It would appear that a 'shot heard round the world' had been fired. Bush/McCain, their minions and kiss up Nazi wannabes have thrown down the gauntlet. Simply --if you object to Bush's treasonous and arbitrary, unauthorized re-write of the US Constitution, you may be charged with terrorism. This administration is not behaving as if it plans to leave office at the end of the term.
Clearly --this is Bush/McCain/GOP strategy, the strategy of brownshirts! A first step in this direction was taken in the year 2000 when GOP 'brownshirts' stormed recount rooms in Florida, physically attacking those who were counting the very votes that most certainly would have made Al Gore President of the United States. Had that happened, this nightmare of nearly eight years might have been avoided! There is no choice but to crush the GOP, a hate-filled pseudo party characterized by its thinly veiled bigotry, provincialism and eitism. There are lessons to be found in our recent past. The Civil Rights movement was an incipient revolution. Martin Luther King's 'dream' was a revolutionary manifesto. He was murdered! John F. Kennedy pledged "New Frontiers". Because JFK promised to smash the CIA into a thousand pieces and abolish the oil depletion allowance, and, in other less dramatic ways, subvert the ruthless, selfish power of a tiny, un-elected elite, he was gunned down in the streets of Dallas, arguably the most conservative and reactionary city in America. I know who killed JFK! He was killed by those who later covered up their crime as Bush has covered the crime of 911.

Those who murdered JFK worked assiduously to propagate the mindless 'Warren Commission Report', a report whom no one of even modest intelligence believes. Innocent people have no crimes to cover up. The guilty, by contrast, always do. We know who JFKs killers were. It is because this crime is still covered up and the nation has not yet come to grips with the ugly beast that was unleashed that we are stuck with the likes of Bush, McCain, Palin and similar evil and repugnant ilk!
Where's the sense - where's the profit in all the artificial fear, all the hate and all the aggression? Recently they've begun to destroy the very instruments of dialogue and discussion. In their haste to attack Iraq, they destroyed the Atlantic Alliance, did major damage to the United Nations, and managed to severely wound the NATO alliance. How can they hope to triumph against such a background of belligerence and destruction? What's left to crush or threaten once we've finished declaring ourselves to be the Supreme Rulers of the World?

It turns out that most of the above has only been a side-show, an 'introductory video' of what will happen to the United States and to all its citizens if we should fail to comply with every command on the Bushwhacker's hit list of rights to be taken, property to be stolen, or dreams to be denied. It seems there is a plan beneath all this after all.

This little nightmare called FEMA - The Federal Emergency Management Agency - was brought to us by Richard Nixon. And over the years each consecutive president has contributed to its continuing health and viability - until we got to '41,' bullyboy's daddy. GWH Bush saw to it that this weapon against the people was armed and ready - the only thing not in place was a sufficient excuse to implement it.

What exactly is FEMA, in terms of its powers, once it is activated?

"EXECUTIVE ORDER 11921 allows the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency to develop plans to establish control over the mechanisms of production and distribution, of energy sources, wages, salaries, credit and the flow of money in U.S. financial institution in any undefined national emergency. It also provides that when a state of emergency is declared by the President - Congress cannot review the action for six months."

A complete explanation is here: http://www.sonic.net/sentinel/gvcon6.html

Then came the events of 9-11. Here was the beginning of the real possibility to make the transition from a science fiction fantasy to living reality. http://www.rense.com/general36/hoax.htm

To facilitate the onset of civil unrest in the United States, a number of actions by the executive branch of government have been undertaken with the complicity and collusion of both the Congress and the courts under the direction of a loosely defined coalition of the eager that involves both the USA and a faction of extremists within the government of Israel. All of this is being financed by you and me through the monetary choices we have allowed this government to make since the ascension of the Bush Crime Family to their executive posts in Washington D.C.

--The Fema Plan to Kill America
Our strategy in response is this: we will put the Bush/McCain 'dictatorship' on trial! We will organize to challenge in court every unlawful arrest! We will organize to file class action lawsuits seeking millions against all corporations that have materially supported and, in other ways, facilitated this police state and its attentdent atrocities upon the American people and the world! We will organize to boycott the MSM and its sponsors. We will shop and buy green! We will peacefully obstruct and oppose! We will throw a spanner into the works and gum up the evil machine. When millions are so motivated, the underpinnings of this dictatorship of less than one percent of the nation will collapse. The whole rotten edifice will come crashing down! We will wage revolution and win!
This flash video was removed for security reasons
Revolution: Cure for Tyranny?
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Len Hart is a Houston based film/video producer specializing in shorts and full-length documentaries. He is a former major market and network correspondent; credits include CBS, ABC-TV and UPI. He maintains the progressive blog: The (more...)
 

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