Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Why I’m Suing Barack Obama | Truthout

Why I’m Suing Barack Obama | Truthout.

Why I’m Suing Barack Obama



by: Chris Hedges, Truthdig | Report




A guard in a cell block at Camp 6, Camp Delta, located at the Guantanamo Naval Station in Cuba, in October, 2007. (Photo: Todd Heisler / The New York Times)





Attorneys Carl J. Mayer and Bruce I. Afran filed a complaint Friday in the Southern U.S. District Court in New York City on my behalf as a plaintiff against Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to challenge the legality of the Authorization for Use of Military Force as embedded in the latest version of the National Defense Authorization Act, signed by the president Dec. 31.


The act authorizes the military in Title X, Subtitle D, entitled “Counter-Terrorism,” for the first time in more than 200 years, to carry out domestic policing. With this bill, which will take effect March 3, the military can indefinitely detain without trial any U.S. citizen deemed to be a terrorist or an accessory to terrorism. And suspects can be shipped by the military to our offshore penal colony in Guantanamo Bay and kept there until “the end of hostilities.” It is a catastrophic blow to civil liberties. 


I spent many years in countries where the military had the power to arrest and detain citizens without charge. I have been in some of these jails. I have friends and colleagues who have “disappeared” into military gulags. I know the consequences of granting sweeping and unrestricted policing power to the armed forces of any nation. And while my battle may be quixotic, it is one that has to be fought if we are to have any hope of pulling this country back from corporate fascism.


Section 1031 of the bill defines a “covered person”—one subject to detention—as “a person who was a part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners, including any person who has committed a belligerent act or has directly supported such hostilities in aid of such enemy forces.”


The bill, however, does not define the terms “substantially supported,” “directly supported” or “associated forces.”


I met regularly with leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. I used to visit Palestine Liberation Organization leaders, including Yasser Arafat and Abu Jihad, in Tunis when they were branded international terrorists. I have spent time with the Revolutionary Guard in Iran and was in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey with fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. All these entities were or are labeled as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. What would this bill have meant if it had been in place when I and other Americans traveled in the 1980s with armed units of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua or the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front guerrillas in El Salvador? What would it have meant for those of us who were with the southern insurgents during the civil war in Yemen or the rebels in the southern Sudan? I have had dinner more times than I can count with people whom this country brands as terrorists. But that does not make me one. 


Once a group is deemed to be a terrorist organization, whether it is a Palestinian charity or an element of the Uighur independence movement, the military can under this bill pick up a U.S. citizen who supported charities associated with the group or unwittingly sent money or medical supplies to front groups. We have already seen the persecution and closure of Islamic charity organizations in the United States that supported the Palestinians. Now the members of these organizations can be treated like card-carrying “terrorists” and sent to Guantanamo.


But I suspect the real purpose of this bill is to thwart internal, domestic movements that threaten the corporate state. The definition of a terrorist is already so amorphous under the Patriot Act that there are probably a few million Americans who qualify to be investigated if not locked up. Consider the arcane criteria that can make you a suspect in our new military-corporate state. The Department of Justice considers you worth investigating if you are missing a few fingers, if you have weatherproof ammunition, if you own guns or if you have hoarded more than seven days of food in your house. Adding a few of the obstructionist tactics of the Occupy movement to this list would be a seamless process. On the whim of the military, a suspected “terrorist” who also happens to be a U.S. citizen can suffer extraordinary rendition—being kidnapped and then left to rot in one of our black sites “until the end of hostilities.” Since this is an endless war that will be a very long stay.


This demented “war on terror” is as undefined and vague as such a conflict is in any totalitarian state. Dissent is increasingly equated in this country with treason. Enemies supposedly lurk in every organization that does not chant the patriotic mantras provided to it by the state. And this bill feeds a mounting state paranoia. It expands our permanent war to every spot on the globe. It erases fundamental constitutional liberties. It means we can no longer use the word “democracy” to describe our political system.


The supine and gutless Democratic Party, which would have feigned outrage if George W. Bush had put this into law, appears willing, once again, to grant Obama a pass. But I won’t. What he has done is unforgivable, unconstitutional and exceedingly dangerous. The threat and reach of al-Qaida—which I spent a year covering for The New York Times in Europe and the Middle East—are marginal, despite the attacks of 9/11. The terrorist group poses no existential threat to the nation. It has been so disrupted and broken that it can barely function. Osama bin Laden was gunned down by commandos and his body dumped into the sea. Even the Pentagon says the organization is crippled. So why, a decade after the start of the so-called war on terror, do these draconian measures need to be implemented? Why do U.S. citizens now need to be specifically singled out for military detention and denial of due process when under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force the president can apparently find the legal cover to serve as judge, jury and executioner to assassinate U.S. citizens, as he did in the killing of the cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen? Why is this bill necessary when the government routinely ignores our Fifth Amendment rights—“No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law”—as well as our First Amendment right of free speech? How much more power do they need to fight “terrorism”?


Fear is the psychological weapon of choice for totalitarian systems of power. Make the people afraid. Get them to surrender their rights in the name of national security. And then finish off the few who aren’t afraid enough. If this law is not revoked we will be no different from any sordid military dictatorship. Its implementation will be a huge leap forward for the corporate oligarchs who plan to continue to plunder the nation and use state and military security to cow the population into submission.


The oddest part of this legislation is that the FBI, the CIA, the director of national intelligence, the Pentagon and the attorney general didn’t support it. FBI Director Robert Mueller said he feared the bill would actually impede the bureau’s ability to investigate terrorism because it would be harder to win cooperation from suspects held by the military. “The possibility looms that we will lose opportunities to obtain cooperation from the persons in the past that we’ve been fairly successful in gaining,” he told Congress.


But it passed anyway. And I suspect it passed because the corporations, seeing the unrest in the streets, knowing that things are about to get much worse, worrying that the Occupy movement will expand, do not trust the police to protect them. They want to be able to call in the Army. And now they can.


SEE:


The text of Hedges' legal complaint


NDAA official text





 

51 comments:

  1. Yes...been reading about this story this morning...

    Well, you just know there are going to be rulings on, "standing" with this case.

    I admire Hedges, he's got guts. The media will try to ignore it, or turn it into a circus - they certainly have the clowns.
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  2. "Adding a few of the obstructionist tactics of the Occupy movement to this list would be a seamless process. On the whim of the military, a suspected “terrorist” who also happens to be a U.S. citizen can suffer extraordinary rendition—being kidnapped and then left to rot in one of our black sites “until the end of hostilities.” Since this is an endless war that will be a very long stay."

    Clues from the transmitters.

    Until Chris Hedges or Alex Jones wind up in Gitmo or Mihail Kogalniceanu air base, I'll continue to follow the freqencies of another hook,line and sinker triad.

    Obviously I feel these Ex-Renditions are hapopening all the time and are for the real whistleblowers only. The rest is another distortion and deflection designed to divide the masses into the ultimate spectrum camps of certain extraordinary colour.

    The next war is at the borders of our reality and our country.

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  3. Weird storm last night here...thunder and rain...not a single flash of lightning.
    And the thunder sounded fake, like it was coming out of speakers, rather than real....like 'special effects' - but they forgot the light show part.

    It was very strange, you woulda had to been here to know what I mean.
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  4. I read this yesterday morning. Way to go Chris Hedges. I feel it's useless because afterall, who runs the courts? but someone's gotta do SOMETHING.

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  5. Will, something is definitely up I know exactly what you mean by "fake sounding thunder". There is weird stuff going on all over the world. My strange sounds article, as of right this minute, has 1,026 hits just for today! What's that tell ya?

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  6. Yea Pudster...I agree.

    Frankly I don't give a shit about phony American political theater.

    Has any of these characters stood up and told the people the truth? That there is no nation, that this is all a charade put on by the Public Relations regime.

    You think a "president" is going to fix anything? You think the "courts" are going to fix anything?

    Not in this system, the whole paradigm is bullshit.
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  7. Yea Jayjee, I thought of you and that article as I was laying in bed listening to this last night.

    It got very warm too...[WTF?] I had the sliding glass doors open cuz I was cooking, all the covers thrown off too...in the middle of January. There was still spots of snow on the ground yesterday afternoon.

    I'd say that all those hits from all over the planet on that article tells us that people are noticing some weird sonic woowoo that doesn't sound 'natural'.

    I know how hard it is to explain the synthetic sense of it...EVERYTHING sounded weird, even the sounds of the traffic off the distant FWY sounded like it had been run through some sonic filter. And I swear you could almost hear 'voices' mixed in with it - or like the sounds were put through a vocorder with articulation software in it, lending vowel effects and such.

    Being a sound designer myself for years now - I feel like I can speak as an "expert witness" on such things.
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  8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMG1qjpzNPg

    PSYCHOPATHS
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  9. Something yells me all is not on the up and up when i read this:

    The supine and gutless Democratic Party...

    and this.......

    Osama bin Laden was gunned down by commandos and his body dumped into the sea.

    Because it seems to me that when it is expedient, Truth Out will just take and throw the truth out. I see they still drive the left/right paradigm bus and, c'mon... Osama gunned down... really? Are they saying that Osama's 10 years dead body was dragged in and gunned down... cuz otherwise, it is a lie... that didn't happen.

    Who is it that is supine and gutless again?

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  10. Will, did you ever see the movie "the Truman Show"? Well, I saw this video on youtube a couple of months ago where this guy was disputing the position of the moon in the sky. He was basically saying the sky is fake..a mere projection...just like the Truman show. I have no clue what the video was called but I'll try to find it again. Strange but interesting stuff .

    It's weird you mentioned "voices" mixed in. In that video I posted with the mountain climbers in Canada, I swear I heard voices in the beginning of the video as well.. WTF???

    What do you think is going on out there?

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  11. Wanda... I agree. I really like Chris Hedges but like Matt Taibbi, he refuses to see through 9/11 and the Osama Bin Laden bs. Come on, these guys are too smart for that which leads me to believe like you something is just not right here. I feel the same about Chomsky.

    Let's just say, one by one all the people I have admired over the years are biting the dust.

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  12. Good vid Will. Damn, Rockefeller looks as evil as the Pope and VERY reptilian-like and don't get me started on crazy eyed Hitlery !

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  13. Yes Deb,

    ...I saw the film the Truman Show.

    The moon a projection? The sky is fake?

    In the sense that the whole universe is just waves, and our perception of it is all in our heads...yes. In the sense of material reality that we share? The [moonless] guy is another fliptard on a buzz channel. I might allow for a lot of maybe's, but that would be way at the end of my list.

    Now, I might mention 'Banshees', the sound of the wind, and the psychology of anthropomorphism. You know how you see images in the clouds, certain types of tile, even wood-grain...
    Humans have the same tendencies in all their senses, sonic as well.

    This is a 'scientific view'. There is the 'magical view' as well, which is more 'real' will depend on the era you live in. Most 'magical' phenomena in a paradigm of the 'scientific' is going to be 'stagecraft', ie, artifact.

    So I have to state the bardo - or plane I speak from occasionally.
    Last night, what I sensed was 'stagecraft', but there is the chance there was some anthropomorphism taking place in my own psyche.

    Cha cha?
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  14. Yes...those gloating scenes of Hillery on the death of Qaddafi...
    REVEALING in caps.

    I wonder if she gets how bad she blew her cover. Like Madlady Albitch admitting her psychopathy as she did. Once you pop out of your veiled enclosure and show the reptile grin...you can never go back again.
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  15. I see the same thing you and Jayjee see here. I think what it is, is that all three, Taibbi, Hedges, Chomsky, are hamstrung from 'academia'.
    No matter how they stretch towards the light, they are tethered to the conditioning of the acadamiacs.

    They should all try Ayawaska. It is said to have profound effects on such people.
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  16. Well, dirtsquiggles. I too, don't know why the insightful adepts also flaunt that they're inept, when it comes to THE OBVIOUS...

    Leaves us chagrined and scratching our tallest follicles. Whatz up with that? All I can assay is that I've heard/seen intellectuals miss the most obvious conclusions with huge whiffs of 1,2, strike 3 and you're out!

    Apparently, its some kind of cerebrum faux pas that crosses the blood brain barrier ricocheting across the cerebellum, impacting the frontal lobes for an everlasting gobstopper redux, bouncing off the foul pole into fair territory momentarily, while still maintaining enough velocity to strike the medulla oblongata with a Wampum strong enough to impress the 3rd base umpire to call the ball "in play", the runner scoring from first, and the crowd going WILD!

    Or something like that.

    Brain Power does not equate (apparently) to consistent insightful interpretations of data. Buggers! We have to figure it out for ourselves! Yaahhh -- History repeats, and tells us in the "Land of the Free", there didn't used to be TV's telling everyone what to think. The people were savvy to the way of the world, the winds of change blowing across their land. They had experience with the creatures of the forest, the critters of the cities, the snakes that sold the snake oil! And when they didn't like the "feel" of the deal, they simply didn't buy IT. Such are WE and everyone should be, should they determine, ultimately, I, YES I, am responsible for Myself, and My Family, and My Inner Circle. By degrees we obtain experience, without sacrificing intelligence, nor our unalienable rights.

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  17. Speaking of psychopaths...
    Here's a video clip of George Bush announcing the first invasion of Iraq back in the 90's.

    Start at 3 min 42 seconds, just need to watch about 20 seconds or so.
    Listen to his words, think about the emotional content...
    Watch very closely his facial expressions. Replay it several times...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFrnQHaQWoA

    Now, do his facial expressions match the emotional content of his words?

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  18. Yea Boom, something VERY MUCH like that...Lol
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  19. Yea Eyes,

    I caught that watching it live - he is just barely containing a giggle fit. I wonder how many people could see this?

    Mr. Rogers in a lizard suit...
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  20. Yeah Rogue1, I also wonder how many can see it...proof positive there's something a bit off with the old Bush...

    Oh well...back to watching the pathocracy reach its natural conclusion...

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  21. Well, dirtsquiggles. I too, don’t know why the insightful adepts also flaunt that they’re inept, when it comes to THE OBVIOUS…

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That says it............

    And i think they know why they do it... but it ain't truth if it's not truth...

    Truth Out has been playing it that way for years. I used to read it, now i avidly avoid it. I pointed that out there a couple times before i left... some wise-acre invited me to stop contributing... i obliged.

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  22. America, Welcome to the Fourth Reich

    From the beginning of the Republic, the Federalists conspired for the illegal passage of their central government constitution in order to form a competing world empire with their British cousins. Their leader was Alexander Hamilton, who championed making individual states subservient to the original crony capitalists. When the Father of our Country, George Washington admonished about the dangers on entangling alliances, the world was warned that the drive towards independent liberty was compromised under this new Federal system.

    The significance of the War of Northern Aggression is that the principle of independent sovereign states under the precepts of constitutional law died. With the prevention of secession, the liberty of a voluntary union was betrayed for the rule, under a loyalty oath, to an Amerikan Reich.~SARTRE

    http://batr.org/gulag/011512.html

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  23. Thanks for that lizard display Eyes. The pitiful part is, a great many sheep didn't see, and still cannot see what seems obvious -- this old satanic goat is one of the most heinous pieces of goat shit ever to hit the trail.

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  24. Force or Freedom. The rhetorical question is "Do WE even get to choose?". The uncompromising answer can only be, "If I do not choose, I will lose...My Freedom".

    The other side of the coin is, to meet Force, to maintain Freedom, one will have to use Force.

    If you know another way, fill me in. I'm all for the Sun Tsu "Art of War" tactics to create peace while vanquishing force with "more intelligent strategy". What's the trick to that card?

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  25. "What’s the trick to that card?"

    Sorry, I heard the announcement over the PA, that card has left the auditorium...
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  26. HERE IS SOME JINGOBERRY BULLSHIT FOR YA:
    Yea this is the type of tripe going around warmonger Amerika these days...

    __________________________________
    A lesson that should be taught in all schools . . And colleges

    Back in September, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies school teacher at Bobcaygeon (north of Peterborough Ontario ) public school, did something not to be forgotten. On the first day of school, with the permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building supervisor, she removed all of the desks out of her classroom.

    When the first period kids entered the room they discovered that there were no desks.

    'Ms.. Cothren, where're our desks?'

    She replied, 'You can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn the right to sit at a desk.'

    They thought, 'Well, maybe it's our grades.'

    No,' she said.

    'Maybe it's our Behaviour.'
    She told them, 'No, it's not even your Behaviour.'

    And so, they came and went, the first period, second period, third period. Still no desks in the classroom.

    By early afternoon television news crews had started gathering in Ms.Cothren's classroom to report about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room.

    The final period of the day came and as the puzzled students found seats on the floor of the deskless classroom, Martha Cothren said, 'Throughout the day no one has been able to tell me just what he/she has done to earn the right to sit at the desks that are ordinarily found in this classroom. Now I am going to tell you.'

    At this point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it.

    Twenty-seven (27) War Veterans, all in uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they would walk over and stand alongside the wall. By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in place those kids started to understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how the right to sit at those desks had been earned.

    Martha said, 'You didn't earn the right to sit at these desks. These heroes did it for you. They placed the desks here for you. Now, it's up to you to sit in them. It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an education.
    Don't ever forget it.'

    By the way, this is a true story.

    Please consider passing this along so others won't forget that the freedoms we have in this great country were earned by War Veterans.
    ______________________________

    Gawblesmarka
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  27. Yep- that's jingoberry bullshit on its steamy stinking level. There are quite a few young veterans in my akadekik gruppen... they are mercenaries and THEY KNOW IT. Since this sem is new. very few have approached after class-- but think they will... the others have. Maybe it's because they're college students... but they don't buy into this "fighting for freedom" shit ONE BIT.

    They needed a "job." There were no "jobs." So they joined the military... for 3 hots and a cot... for percs and bennies. One told me that the "fighting for freedom" dummies were dangerous fucks likely to get people hurt because they would do overly-dangerous unnecessary shit to go after "Haji." Then Haj gotta get paybacks... then we gotta get paybacks... etc..

    we the occupiddles have found a voice in Chris Hedges. The only difference between us and the teapotters is that the pots seem to be still obsessing on "taxes" and most of us are too fucking poor to pay any on the federal level... but we pay plenty on the state level with sales taxes property gas etc ad infinitum. fuck "taxes," it's about being controlled... and it aint about "munny," it's about brute force-- which most of the potters have not seen... first hand... YET.

    Hedges is hip to the fact that NDAA is not for "terrorists" (who the potters seem to think are real)... it's for US... piddles and potters alike. Eye wish the potters would stop waving the consti-too-shun and the "bible" around like props and fucking READ THEM.

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  28. Wait, this happened in a school in Ontario, Canada?

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  29. I'm sure you all have seen this closeup of his Reptilian eyes??

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9rpjVvnSJ0&feature=watch_response

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  30. Perhaps an essay on "how to bleed a nation dry literally & figuratively" should be written?

    Here's one of the largest "operations":

    "America’s troops may be returning home from Iraq, but contrary to President Obama’s assertion that “the tide of war is receding,” we’re far from done paying the costs of war. In fact, at the same time that Obama is reducing the number of troops in Iraq, he’s replacing them with military contractors at far greater expense to the taxpayer and redeploying American troops to other parts of the globe, including Africa, Australia and Israel. In this way, the war on terror is privatized, the American economy is bled dry, and the military-security industrial complex makes a killing—literally and figuratively speaking".

    "That translates to a loss of $12 million a day since the U.S. first invaded Afghanistan. To put it another way, the government is spending more on war than all 50 states combined spend on health, education, welfare, and safety".

    From: http://njtoday.net/2012/01/16/privatizing-the-war-on-terror-americas-military-contractors/

    Let us count the ways of the wicked, multiply by the X Factor, and then exponentialize it to get closer to the true figures. The "opportunity cost" of war has set back civilization and the environment perhaps millenia. Go figure...

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  31. Does this information ring true concerning the real reasons for the ramp up to war with Iran? Good info at http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/01/17/iran-signs-own-death-warrant/

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  32. Speaking of reptilians..check out this guy

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0lioM1cOtI&feature=related

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  33. It's poop on SOPA day at a lot of web sites today.
    Closed in protest. The VetsToday article you linked to above be one of those at the momento and pimento and reddish radish by hadish.
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  34. Speaking of poop on sopa... what does it mean when google and wikipedia get on the band wagon? To me, that spells bullsh*t.

    I have always contended that they will not take away the internet because that is the way they check our temperature and it is also the way they plant our ideas into us and control us. There is no threat... and they simply take down anything too honest for their liking.

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  35. Yes this is a good article to give some sense of how deep and complex the whole problem has become with the promotion of war as business...about the only business left in Amerika.

    Entrenched, is I think the operative word today, the symbiosis between the parasite and the host is so complete that killing the one necessitates killing the other.
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  36. Time to break out the tapeworm medicine

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  37. Well Veri, I think it's worse than a tapeworm and more like a virulent cancer that has reached terminal stage. It will probably undergo "radiation therapy" in some not too distant future...as "all options remain on the table."

    ~O'Doomy Gloomy Big Red Moony
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  38. Radiation Therapy:

    Currently, within the last week or so, the following battle forces have been assembled by NATO in the Middle East. A massive war armada is sitting just south of the Strait of Hormuz, it consists of THREE US Navy super-carrier battle groups: the USS Carl Vinson; the USS John C. Stennis; and the USS Abraham Lincoln. Each battle group generally has four or five Ageis air defense cruisers and destroyers, and usually one to three other destroyers and/or frigates, plus a large support ship and one or two hunter-killer nuclear submarines.

    Additionally, there are up to three other large flat-tops, US Navy assault carriers and their battle groups. These include the USS Makin Island with its USMC Harriers and various Marine attack and assault helicopters. The Makin Island has the capability to off load Marine amphibious assault crafts and its battle group is accompanied by the USS New Orleans and the USS Pearl Harbor, both very powerful assault ships capable of launching large numbers of Marine amphibious crafts.

    Additionally, the French Navy has brought in its top-of-the-line nuclear carrier the Charles DeGaulle with its battle group. The British Royal Navy has added to its local fleet its most powerful warship the Type 45 Air Defense Destroyer the HMS Daring. The combination of the French carrier and the US super-carriers means that fully one-third of all the nuclear powered aircraft carriers on Earth are now assembled near the Strait of Hormuz!

    http://www.rense.com/general95/natodrills.html

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  39. In addition to all of this, the US Army has rushed into Kuwait THREE combat brigades. Two are powerful mechanized brigades (one from the First Calvary Division; the other from the MN National Guard) and the third is a Army aviation brigade with its vast numbers of attack and assault helicopters.

    Thousands of USAF troops were airlifted into Israel along with the most advanced anti-missile technology that America has over the last two weeks.
    ___________________________________

    Again I must ask, is one to suppose that all of this is now put in place for a game of Patty-cake?
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  40. Somewhere recently, I posted a link to a story about 1 Million + Rabies Vaccines being dropped over Texas to combat some varmint problems. (I can't find where I posted that). It seems like a BAD IDEA. Then, I just found this: http://www.infowars.com/polio-vaccines-now-the-1-cause-of-polio-paralysis/. This would be a good reason why it is a bad idea.

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  41. "The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America . Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president."
    ~Author Unknown {he or she is no fool}
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  42. When you consider the survival rate after radiation treatment and chemo, doesn't seem so good does it.

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  43. The dynamics of knowledge do not allow this, since cognition is constantly undergoing modification.
    The modern phenomenon of normative ‘expertocracy’ (leadership by the experts) constricts the scientific perspective in an inadmissible way. Common sense is formally more comprehensive than the so-called ‘scientific’ findings of experts. Arguments based on reason are more important and more often correct than statistical ‘proofs’ and ‘significant’ curves. The most recent international economic and financial crisis has provided evidence for this.
    Expertocracy modifies scientific opinions and results into norms, standards, and laws. By this, it transforms knowledge of communication into knowledge as an instrument of power.

    The adage of the philosopher Bacon that “knowledge is power” paves the way for corruption and crime. The philosopher Paul Feyerabend rightly introduced the term of “science mafia” as a new dimension of contemporary epistemology (comp. Feyerabend, P. Widerstreit und Harmonie (Conflict and Harmony), Vienna 1996, p. 78). Progress by science is not the only way of development; it is often used as mere justification of interests.

    Mankind has to give up the idea of dominating over nature and has to aspire after reconciliation and dialogue with nature. In this way the idea of ethics and of morality in science and research will regain their particular importance.

    By the Syrian med doctor and philosopher Dr. Nadim Sradj, MA

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  44. No Veri, it fills the imagination with large valleys of glass...
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  45. “Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives…. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends … and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.” John Lennon, Interview BBC-TV (June 22, 1968)

    "Put away"....yes, that is one way to say what happened to John. He was put away cold.

    And only the pitifully naive would believe that it wasn't because his very popular voice was expressing with such pin point accuracy the things said in the interview above.

    So...what does it mean to be well adjusted to a pathological society?
    I truly pity those who do not see that the answer is in the question.
    \\][//

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  46. SOPA ROPA DOPA. Me too.

    I call it a bait and switch Wanda. A cross or point between the best case worst case.

    Threats of the Worst Case Scenario and the First Amendment that will ultimately fall in the middle where the masses see it as a compromise.

    This is why the railroads and NRA will fight any case for any amount and never compromise. It sets the precedent and from there it's just a matter of degrees.
    It will end up being a tax levee and restrictive

    I've seen this recently in Obamacare. The best parts of any bill that the people want get thrown out in the compromise where the two parties get their payoff. Mandatory healthcare and govt power and the Private insurors get the policies premiums and increases.

    I thought the idea was to offer private insurors to be able to compete across state lines and have the government offer a more affordable plan in competition?

    Now it will be just a means to police and monitor the truth and make a nickel on a copyright usage fee.

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  47. Your question above is deep, Rogue1. As you know, for many years now, a minority have been on a quest for Truth...and subsequently mystified by the various degrees of ignorance, apathy, and outright belligerently foolish attitudes people harbor.

    Perhaps, a lot of the time people just cannot or will not grow in knowledge and understanding. An unfortunate human condition? Or blissfully ignorant. Perhaps even your pity is wasted...a response which will never strike a resounding chord in the pitiful.

    That is an awful lot of firepower in the Iranian theatre. A righteous cause to eradicate a perceived threat? The Iranian people are about to be "liberated". What form will this Freedom take?

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  48. Liberated from the planet as what happened to too many in Iraq, Afganistan, Pakistan, Libya, the beat goes on. The ones that didn't, get blasted back into the stone age. How's that for freedom and democracy so the ones at the top can rape them for their resources. Piracy by an evolved form but still piracy.

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  49. Yeah V, get a load of the mindwashed who think these foreign adventures are humanitarian based and make US safer. Yakety Yak!

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  50. http://politicalvelcraft.org/2012/01/19/breaking-montanans-announce-recall-of-ndaa-supporting-senators-max-baucus-and-jonathan-tester/

    http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/01/homeland-security-shreds-constitutional-right-to-anonymous-political-speech-not-to-protect-our-security-but-to-monitor-dissent.html

    I'm just damn glad that free speech is being done away with in the Homeland. Too many interpretations of Rights and Liberties causes internal dissonance, confusion, and more mental work to sort out what's real, what's common sense, what's the truth.

    "The Truth is what we say it is!" is such an energy-saving reality bucket. Boom! There it is! No more wondering or thoughtfulness required. A good example this morning on The Morning Express faux news show...or whatever it is. They briefly brought up the issue of the 2 old grannies who accuse (Not proven! Those are just allegations) the TSA of strip-searching them. They stated straight up in 2 separate video clips, that they were strip searched, and the TSA denials were "Lies". TSA apparently says "No, it didn't happen". Goodness, so early in the morning...now I gotta try and figure out, or make a decision who's really lying? A government agency created to "protect Americans from terrorists" or 2 grannies? Well, You know who you must believe because you are told that's who is looking out for your security. The 2 grannies ain't doing anything for me, right?

    Since this very important issue was presented before breakfast, and solved in the same 60 seconds or less video "bite", I was extremely relieved I didn't have to think about the implications the rest of the day. The immediate segue into a 3 minute segment on highlights from last nights American Idol -- erased any tension, dissonance, or dissent that might have been bubbling up in my brain, after hearing of 2 grannies being "strip searched" by the TSA to "keep Americans safe". What a relief! I tell ya, these new draconian agencies and laws leave me feeling "safe and secure from all alarms". I'm going to smile all day!

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  51. And you forgot to say, "and if you believe this can I sell you some land in Florida". Something real kinky in that strip search at the airport

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