Dubya Watchdog's topics - tribe.net

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-14, NKJV).

2007-09-27T12:55:45Z

http://www.messiahlutheransterling.org/symbol24.asp

The symbol of ST. JOHN is the eagle, because from first to last his Gospel soars on eagle's wings to the very throne of heaven. The figures near the bottom of each window are merely decorative.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-14, NKJV).

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” (John 20:17, NIV).

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WMD

2006-08-28T00:17:23Z

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_and_Biological_Warfare

Weapons of Mass Destruction link.

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what the Tao Te Ching says about War and Agression

2006-08-11T03:20:38Z

the Tao Te Ching should be at the top of President Bush's list. Careening from crisis to crisis with approval ratings drooping, the president should consider the opening lines of chapter 80. “If a country is governed wisely, its inhabitants will be content.”

Tao Te Ching
Well known by its Chinese title, Tao Te Ching can be translated many different ways, including Book of the Immanence of the Way or simply Book of the Way. It is a 2,500 year old, essay-length poem about the Nature of Things. To those conversant in Chinese, it should be obvious the book is really a compilation of sayings, aphorisms, and pieces of wisdom passed down in oral tradition.

The Tao Te Ching divides roughly into two parts. The first is mostly about spiritual wisdom while the second, seemingly addressed to political leaders and their advisers, centers on social issues. An important lesson to be drawn from the book is that the character and beliefs of the people and their leaders are an integral part of good society and good government.

The teachings of the Tao Te Ching are available in many translations, but with one exception, I rely here on Stephen Mitchell's contemporary version. The wisdom of the Tao has also been applied to many disciplines: The Tao of Leadership, The Tao of Physics, and The Tao of Pooh. There is not yet a Tao of Bush. Making the Tao Te Ching required reading for President Bush could rescue the nation from the corruption, despair, and waste his administration has visited upon it.

On War
The Bush way was to initiate a war in Iraq which three years later shows no sign of abating. American military deaths in the war are over 2,200, and by the president's own admission, Iraqi civilian deaths exceed 30,000 with independent estimates as high as 100,000. The American occupation has brought civil war—not peace—to Iraq.

Instead of initiating a war, and then justifying it on discredited intelligence, what if the president had followed the path outlined in chapter 31 of the Tao. “Weapons are the tools of fear; a decent man will avoid them except in the direst necessity and, if compelled, will use them only with the utmost restraint. Peace is his highest value.” And many translations of the Tao add this warning: “And anyone who delights in killing people will come up short in the world.”

Elsewhere, the Tao makes clear the wise leader only resorts to force to prevent aggression or to restore order. Even then, it should be no more than a temporary action. The wisdom of China is that something is wrong when military force becomes a permanent social need. War, by its very nature, puts a nation out of harmony with the Tao.

When a country is in harmony with the Tao,
the factories make trucks and tractors.
When a country goes counter to the Tao,
warheads are stockpiled outside the cities.

On Civil Liberties
The Bush way is to bypass the system of judicial supervision established by law and order a secret wiretapping program to monitor international calls by U.S. citizens suspected of links to al-Qaida. Arguing the U.S. Constitution gives him the right to do so, the president accuses those who leaked details of the clandestine spy program of “threatening national security.” No matter that past and present government officials confirm the volume of information harvested by National Security Agency eavesdropping is much larger than the White House admits.

Most recently, President Bush asserted he retains the right to authorize abuse of detainees under extreme circumstances, despite agreeing to legislation in December 2005 explicitly prohibiting such treatment. In a recent statement, the White House said it would construe a ban on “cruel, inhumane, and degrading” treatment in the defense spending bill “in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the president” and his powers as commander-in-chief.

The Tao Te Ching has strong advice in chapter 75 for those who would seek to stifle civil liberties.

When taxes are too high,
people go hungry.
When the government is too intrusive,
people lose their spirit.

Act for the people's benefit,
Trust them; leave them alone.

Newly disclosed records also indicate counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been conducting surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations involving advocacy groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal rights, and poverty relief.

Turning to the wisdom of the Tao, this time in chapter 17, “If you don't trust the people, you make them untrustworthy.”

On the Imperial Presidency
The Bush way is to bristle over challenges to executive authority in the so-called war on terror. In the midst of the growing scandal created by the National Security Council's wiretapping program, the Bush administration readily admits the decision to eavesdrop without warrants is part of a broader effort to reassert the powers of the presidency. The Tao way is to govern in moderation, following the will of the people.

If you want to govern the people,
you must place yourself below them.
If you want to lead the people,
you must learn how to follow them (chapter 66).

Chapter 68 adds in part, “The best leader follows the will of the people” while chapter 59 opens as follows, “For governing a country well there is nothing better than moderation.” Finally, chapter 60 begins, “Governing a large country is like frying a small fish. You spoil it with too much poking.”

On Fear
John Adams observed in his Thoughts on Government (1776) that “Fear is the foundation of most governments.” Taking this maxim to new heights, the Bush way is to trade on fear, invoking national security concerns to justify acts ranging from the invasion of Iraq to scrapping the Geneva Convention to spying on Americans. In his December 2005 Oval Office address, the president again suggested we had a choice between invading Iraq or risking a terrorist nuclear attack at home while fighting terrorists in Iraq meant we weren't fighting them at home. On his secret program of spying on Americans, he implied we must make a choice between saving lives or following the law. Chapter 46 of the Tao concludes:

There is no greater illusion than fear,
no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself
no greater misfortune than having an enemy.

Whoever can see through all fear
will always be safe.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt reflected on the Tao approach when he cautioned in his first inaugural address, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

On Tax Cuts for the Rich
The Bush way is to push through tax cuts for the wealthy and pay for them with cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and student loans. The Tao way as found in chapter 53 is the center where things are in balance.

When rich speculators prosper
while farmers lose their land;
when government officials spend money
on weapons instead of cures;
when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible
while the poor have nowhere to turn—
all this is robbery and chaos.
It is not in keeping with the Tao.

A December 2005 study suggests working-age Americans earning $50,000 to $100,000 are two to six times more generous in the share of their investment assets donated to charity when compared to Americans earning more than $10 million a year. This pioneering study of federal tax data was completed by the NewTithing Group, a San Francisco-based philanthropic research organization encouraging the most prosperous Americans to give more.

When temptation arises to leave the Tao,
banish temptation, stay with the Tao.

When the court has adornments in profusion,
the fields are full of weeds,
and the granaries are bare.
It is not the way of nature to carry a sword,
nor to over-adorn oneself,
nor to have more than a sufficiency
of fine food and drink.

He who has more possessions than he can use,
deprives someone who could use them well. (chapter 53).

Religion and Government
The Bush way is to mix government and religion, pandering to the religious right and breaking down the division between church and state. The Tao way as found in chapter 72 is instructive.

When they lose their sense of awe,
people turn to religion.
When they no longer trust themselves,
they begin to depend upon authority.

Therefore the Master steps back
so that people won't be confused.
He teaches without a teaching,
so that people will have nothing to learn (chapter 72).

Conclusion
Can President Bush learn from the Tao Te Ching ? The Master is not optimistic.

My teachings are easy to understand
and easy to put into practice.
Yet your intellect will never grasp them,
and if you try to practice them, you'll fail (chapter 70).

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Impeachment Forum across the Nation 7/19

2006-07-18T16:23:26Z

Signed up at the official Constitution Summer website:http://www.constitutionsummer.org/?q=node/15

Do you want to know how to impeach a President? RSVP NOW!

You're Invited. Please RSVP NOW!

Who: You ALL are invited
What: to an impeachment teach-in near you (nationwide)
When: July 19, 2006
Where: check your local listening for time & place
Why: "We've had enough. This President has ruined this country. Let's impeach him."
How: "Register your dessent" and RSVP NOW!

To view the ENTIRE documentary; RSVP NOW! to a teach-in. These screenings are part of a nationwide series of impeachment teach-ins based on the book, Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush , written by attorneys at the Center for Constitutional Rights and published by Melville House .

HAVE YOU RSVPed YET? Which city? Let us know? Join Constitution Summer on myspace:

To RSVP:
http://www.articlesofimpeachment.net/

To visit the Constitution Summer website:
http://www.constitutionsummer.org/

to buy the book, articles of impeachment against George W. Bush:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933633085/ref=ase_constitutions-20/104-8273108-3999125?s=books&v=glance&n=283155&tagActionCode=constitutions-20

to visit the Center for Constitutional rights website:
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/home.asp

to visit the Melville House publishing website:
http://www.mhpbooks.com/

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CONSPIRACY tribe

2006-07-04T00:58:09Z

http://tribes.tribe.net/conspiracypureevil

Take it to the limit, one more time.

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Please help

2006-04-08T02:30:40Z

please go to this website to send a fax to the related US
congress and senate members to Request a Congressional Hearing on the
Sujiatun case. it's a very easy to Fill out form, With just a click, the fax will be sent.
thank you,
joshua

here is the link:
http://publicpetition.unvcc.com/UN/index.php

there is more information about Sujiatun on the website:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/211,111,,1.html

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Existence of Chinese Concentration Camp, Says Organs Removed from Live Prisoners

2006-03-25T02:29:51Z

Please help us to end this horrible persectuion. knowledge is our greatest weapon, so please share this information. together in peace we can make a difference.

Falun Dafa is a peaceful meditation practice that teaches putting others before yourself, kindness, always telling the truth and being tolerant of others. We are literally being killed for being good people. The national media has done very little to help us because of trade issues with China. It is up to us to let the world know. Please help us.

By Ji Da
The Epoch Times Mar 17, 2006
www.theepochtimes.com

The witness, a former employee at the Liaoning Thrombosis Treatment Center of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, and says the bodies of Falun Gong practitioners are cremated immediately after the organs are removed. (The Epoch Times)
[High-resolution image ] A former employee of Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine told The Epoch Times during a recent interview that the Sujiatun Concentration Camp in China was actually a part of a hospital. The concentration camp has engaged in taking organs from Falun Gong practitioners when they were still alive and selling the organs. Since 2001, the concentration camp has secretly detained approximately 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners, none of whom have been able to leave the camp alive. The hospital removed many kidneys, livers, and corneas from the practitioners. After the organ removal, the practitioners were thrown into an incinerator, which was converted from a boiler. Their ashes were dumped together with burned charcoal.

Organs from Three Quarters of the 6,000 People Were Removed
Those whose organs were removed were in various states of health. Because many of the victims were illegally detained, there was neither an arrest warrant nor identification as to who these people actually were. Often after their organs were removed, nobody claimed the bodies. Sometimes their bodies were picked up by crooks who pretended to be their family members.

About three-quarters of the 6,000 people died after their hearts, kidneys, corneas, or skin was removed; their bodies were then burned. This witness, whose family member participated in the removal of Falun Gong practitioners' organs, said that approximately 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners remain in the hospital. She was afraid that the authorities would kill all of them to destroy evidence.

The Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine is located at 49 Xuesong Road, Sujiatun, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, China. It was the first hospital in China to specialize in the heart, the brain, and surrounding blood vessels. The hospital is composed of several organizations, including the Liaoning Traditional Chinese Medicine College Teaching Hospital and the Shenyang Thrombosis Treatment Center.

Concentration Camp Details
The hospital site is 21,087 square meters, with 17,564 square meters of building area. It employs 460 people in 24 departments and 20 specialized offices. Information from the Chinese government shows that the hospital was established in December 1988, and was formerly named the Shenyang Research Institute of Thrombosis and Liaoning Province Thrombosis Treatment Center of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine. In June 1998, it was renamed China Traditional Medicine Thrombosis Treatment Center.

The Chinese Business Morning View said in a story on July 4, 2004, that a farm worker died of abnormal causes in Sujiatun, Shenyang and was later cremated. The death certificate was provided by the Chinese Medicine Thrombosis Treatment Center in Sujiatun. The news caused a stir in China.

Epoch Times: Did the hospital's medical staff inside the concentration camp know about this?

Answer: This hospital has a small number of officials and some doctors involved secretively in the operation of organ harvesting. Some other staff in the hospital knew about this, but this is absolutely a taboo [to talk about]. They all are afraid of being killed or courting trouble, so they all avoid the issue. Only those highly trusted doctors could be chosen to be the surgeons for organ harvesting operations.

ET: Were Falun Gong practitioners alive when their organs were harvested? Did their families know about this?

Answer: Falun Gong practitioners who were imprisoned there came mostly from Dabei Prison, Masanjia Labor Camp, and other prisons in Shenyang, or they were Falun Gong practitioners arrested in parks or residential homes. Because they refused to denounce Falun Gong, they were arrested without formal warrants, and their families did not know their situation. Many did not even have their names [recorded]. In addition, since the Chinese authority exercises a policy of "not being responsible" for killing Falun Gong practitioners, the death of Falun Gong practitioners is not a very big issue for prisons. The Chinese Communist Party persecutes Falun Gong, [but] these medical personnel were told Falun Gong practitioners were facing death because they killed people, or they were sentenced to death because of crimes, or they had become insane from practicing Falun Gong.

Those Falun Gong practitioners whose organs were harvested came from several types.

Organs harvested from live bodies are worth far more than organs taken from dead bodies. Many Falun Gong practitioners were still alive when their organs were taken. After their organs were cut out, some of these people were thrown directly into the crematorium to be burnt, thus leaving no evidence. For some others, after their organs were stolen, the doctor sewed up the wound and asked the family or family representative to give a signature for cremation. Family members did not know at all that the dead had their organs taken out.

Furthermore, there were some healthy Falun Gong practitioners in prisons in other areas who were injected—without their knowledge—with psychoactive drugs that made their minds confused. They then were transferred to Sujiantun concentration camp to suffer further torture, till in the end their organs were harvested and their bodies were cremated in secret.

Among the Falun Gong practitioners whose organs were harvested, some were weak and some were healthy. Since most of them were illegally arrested, there were no arrest warrants or identification cards. After their organs were taken out while they were still alive, no one came to claim their bodies; or [sometimes] people using fake identities claimed their bodies.

None of these people have come out [of the concentration camp] alive; three-quarters of these 6,000 people have died, having their hearts, kidneys, retinas, and skins harvested and their bodies disposed of. I think now about 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners are still in this hospital, and I am afraid now that the authority will destroy all evidence and kill them.

Question: How did you know these things? Were you yourself a doctor involved in organ harvesting?

Answer: I worked at the Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, Shenyang. This is exactly where this concentration camp is located. One of my family members was involved in the operation to harvest Falun Gong practitioners' organs. This has brought great pain to our family.

Question: Please tell us what you knew about.

Answer: From 2001, our hospital started to detain Falun Gong practitioners. At the beginning, these people were detained in the single-storey houses in the back yard of the hospital. Later, the hospital authorities demolished the single-storey houses, and it was unknown where in the hospital the Falun Gong practitioners were transferred. Many staff of the hospital discussed in private that these Falun Gong practitioners had been secretly transferred to the underground chambers of the hospital. According to some people working inside the hospital, the hospital has a huge system of secret underground chambers.

At the time when we went to work there, the person in charge of logistics and purchasing in the hospital said that the quantity of disposable sterile gloves used for operations and daily supplies that the hospital authorities asked to be purchased had increased dramatically. The logistics people estimated based on the scale of purchases at that time that there were at least 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners detained in this hospital.

These Falun Gong practitioners were not detained in the 4-story building under the in-patient department and administration at the front of the hospital, in order to keep the hospital staff from seeing them at all. We only occasionally saw Falun Gong practitioners being sent on a mobile intensive care bed to the first floor for physical examinations. These people were very weak. For the majority of the Falun Gong practitioners, nobody knew where they were being secretly kept. While they still did not know where these people were kept, some staff inquired to the hospital authorities about why so much food and so many sterile gloves and daily supplies were purchased. The hospital authorities said, "You only need to do your job well. There is no need for you to ask any other questions."

Starting in 2001, a family member of mine participated in organ-harvesting operations. My family member tried to keep me from knowing about this at the beginning. The hospital authorities selected doctors they trust in different aspects to perform the secretive operations. After a period of time, I found that my family member was in a lot pain, often had nightmares, and appeared panic-stricken. After repeated inquiries, this family member told me the truth. The leader of the hospital had asked my family member to participate in the organ harvesting operations on Falun Gong practitioners as early as 2001. It was 2003 when my family member confessed. A few years after, my family member felt so much pain from participating in this incident that it was impossible to continue with the evildoing. My family member decided to go abroad to get away from this matter.

My family member also told me: "you don't understand my suffering; those Falun Gong practitioners were alive. It might be easier for me if they were dead, but they were alive."

Question: Were there any other doctors from the hospital taking part in the operations of cutting out Falun Gong practitioners' organs?

Answer: I know there were some. All these things have been carried out secretly. Many doctors at our hospital involved were practicum doctors transferred from other hospitals. Because the government does not want to be responsible for Falun Gong practitioners' bodies and lives, their lives are treated as garbage by the regime, and their bodies were used in experiments by new doctors doing their practitcums.

Many doctors came and left the hospital because they suffered a lot after having been involved in these kinds of things. They either requested to be transferred to other places, or changed their names. Some might have been killed to eliminate the evidence, their identity files were taken out from the hospital's filing system, or their names were changed. Nobody knows where the doctors have gone.

The hospital staff all know that the rear part of the hospital is forbidden. It is always watched. The staff avoids talking about the place.

Question: It is said the hospital is equipped with an incinerator. The person whose organs were removed will be burned when he or she is still alive. Is that true?

Answer: The employees in our hospital call this place "the incinerator." Actually, it is a boiler room. Some poor farmers from nearby places were hired to work in the boiler room. They were penniless when they first came here. But they could scrape up some watches, finger rings, necklaces, and so on. The amount is not small. It is said by the employees in the hospital these jewelry and watches were collected from the Falun Gong practitioners whose organs had been removed when they were about to be thrown in the boiler to be burned. It is also said by the employees in the hospital, some were still alive when being thrown into the boiler.

Question: Do they get injection of anesthetic when in surgery?

Answer: Yes. There is a cap to the anesthetic quantity used in mainland China's hospitals. Generally, the supply of anesthetic was determined according to the accommodation of the hospital. To the public, the number of patients in our care appears to be very small, and publicly reported number of surgical procedures performed is quite low. But the equipment and articles used in surgery are abundant. Because the amount of anesthetic is limited, these secret surgeries could not use the normal anesthetic doses. In order to save anesthetic, they economized on the anesthetic used in surgeries on these Falun Gong practitioners. The amount of anesthetic used was very small. However, many whose organs were removed were still alive. You can imagine the pain suffered by the Falun Gong practitioners whose organs were removed.

Question: Are there any survivors among the 6,000 people detained since 2001?

Answer: Nobody has come out alive. The number of them gets smaller and smaller. The Falun Gong practitioners detained at Sujiatun are fewer now than before. But I believe that the sin of removing the organs of the Falun Gong practitioners is still continuing.

Question: Where are these organs usually sold to? Do the higher authorities in the government know about this?

Answer: They are mainly sold to Thailand, but I believe they are also sold to other regions of the world. Nowadays, there are many patients in China who need human skin, corneas, and kidneys for organ transplant surgeries. Many patients have to wait in line to purchase organs. Currently, a kidney can be sold up to the price of 30,000 to 100,000 U.S. dollars. The profit from selling organs is simply too great. The people who benefit from this are not only the top leaders of hospital and the officials of the Chinese Communist Party's Heath Department. This is a crime present across the entire nation. People ranging from government officials to doctors to organ sellers are all involved in this and are profiting greatly.

Question: Why did they target Falun Gong practitioners as the source of organs?

Answer: Because relatives of many Falun Gong practitioners don't even know that their family members were arrested. So if the Falun Gong practitioners are killed, there will be no one to come and claim their dead bodies.

Question: Why did you want to expose this? This may bring great danger to you.

Answer: I know that there are many Falun Gong practitioners who are currently detained at the hospital. I would like to expose this to the international community, so those who are not yet killed can be saved. Also, I would like to expose this as an atonement for my family.

I am not a Falun Gong practitioner. But as a former staff member of the hospital, I have the responsibility to expose the truth, and let the world to save those Falun Gong practitioners who are still alive. Organs of some Falun Gong practitioners are still living on patients' bodies. I would like to call on all society to pay attention to this issue and stop this shocking crime.

you can find out how you can help at www.fofg.org

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Sam Alito Supreme Court Nominee Heavily Invested in Slaughterhouses

2006-01-13T17:29:14Z

Sam Alito Supreme Court Nominee Heavily Invested in Slaughterhouses

Sam Alito twice broke his promise to recuse himself from
Vanguard lawsuits in which he is heavily invested. Vanguard is perhaps of publicly investigated mutual funds the one most heavily invested in several kinds of slaughterhouse operations.

One way to find in what investments a corporation, mutual fund
etc. holds... go to finance.yahoo.com type in the symbol
for that entity, and then scroll down on left to 'major holders'.

MSN has such a service too with more listings.

Slaughterhouse, safari hunt and other money has in some cases gone underground with private equity funds. The British are less forthcoming
about stockholders than Americans.

www.senate.gov
202 224 3121
God defeat this nomination.

VANGUARD: INVESTED IN ANIMAL SLAUGHTERHOUSES

Vanguard manages more than US $700 billion and has
more than 5000 institutional investors. It is invested
in many slaughterhouse and war operations.
1 It is the major investor in the world's most corrupt bank,
Citibank whose chairman helped jailed Bernie Ebbers buy Canada's
biggest cattle ranch with stolen MCI customer money.
2 It is a major investor in McDonald's (and since NPR has 200 million
in McDonald's stock,
... the 'public radio' network promoted Vanguard)
28,385,755 2.24 $883,932,410 31-Mar-05
3. It is a major investor in Yums, owner of the boycotted KFC
www.kfccruelty.com and of Taco Bell which finally settled with
unions.
4. It is a major investor in Lonestar Steak House which causes
cancer, heart disease, slaughterhouse agony, and deforestation.
(THE) 409,292 1.99 $11,832,631 31-Mar-05
5. It is a major investor in Triarc (Arby's beef)
6. Wendy's Vanguard is a major investor in the world's
3rd largest cowslaughter fast food chain
7. Vanguard is invested in SBC, a pricegouging conglomerate illegal
in Teddy Roosevelt's days
8. It is invested in Dominion, a gas company which has
been pricegouging the poor with doubling of charges.
9. It is a major investor in ConAgra.. 'butterball' turkeys
and other slaughterhouse items.
10. It is invested in Goldman Sachs, neocon warmonger.

John Bogle its CEO has been touted on NPR
because both are heavily invested in McDonald's. NPR was
allegedly left 200 million in McDonald's stock by Joan Kroc.
It is indeed humorous that Bogle would write a book on
business ethics.

Some of the other funds heavily invested in animal agony: Barclay's, J P Morgan Chase,
Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, Charles Schwab

------
Those who are not vegetarian or vegan might consider that
the incubation period of Mad Cow, Mad Deer, Mad Pig, Mad Chicken,
Mad Fish etc is 50 years according to Dr David Heymann of the CDC
speaking on the CBC... Heymann is one of the few truthtellers
at the pharmaceutically dominated CDC. Any investment in animal
flesh is unwise.

The British are less forthcoming
about stockholders than Americans.
Quote:

Republicans always find it hard
to get out the numbers... in some
cities they hand out tickets to Democrats
when their high paid speakers paid for
with public money come
to town.. in order to swell the audience

Yesterday, as unelected Bush nominee
Sam Alito was questioned by senators,
there were Rent A Republican mobs
outside. It was a hastily done affair..
virtually
everyone with the same sign.

Neocon CNN owned illegally by Neocon
Time Warner... gave frequent flash coverage
to this small group of people.

Poster saw this standing in line
at a grocery store.

www.senate.gov

God end now all violence to any being.
St Francis and Leonardo, two animal rights activists, want
this nomination defeated.

_________________
www.worldanimalnet.org
www.alitosamerica.org
www.internationalanswer.org
www.network54.com/forum/460325
news108.forumup.org

With the string of state murders in the US ratified by the 'Supreme' Court,
one can only describe the 5 judges who have executed with their
pens... 'serial killers'. They have ratified torture, installed an unelected
pawn of war profiteers, ravaged our earth.
The Supreme Court is the only 18th Century institution unchanged.
Since 1776, the Senate has become popularly elected (in theory..
although Diebold ESS Sequoia Pacific Triad etc. have changed that
www.whatreallyhappened.com/vote...html)
The US is one of the few socalled democracies not electing its high court.
Reformers have suggested an 18 year term, with 1 justice elected

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Hurricane Katrina, Bush and Martial Law - it almost happened!

2005-12-06T05:39:01Z

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/12/05/katrina_documents_highlight_political_standoff/

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Why republicans win

2005-12-04T23:32:12Z

From this weeks' Washington Post column by Gene Weingarten:

A new poll shows that just under 4 percent of the American public approves of the job that President Bush is doing. Gasoline process have fallen all the way down to $5.45 per gallon because of the news that we have begun drilling for oil in the Grand Canyon. We have started sending people to secret CIA torture camps in Liberia on suspicion of being "foreign." The vice president and entire Cabinet have been indicted on charges ranging from loan-sharking to convenience-store robbery. To most of the rest of the world, America is regarded as a rogue state in the control of a wild-eyed madman, like Uganda under Idi Amin, who actually ate human flesh. The Republicans will still win the next Presidential election because . . .

. . . the alternative will be a Democrat, chosen after a spirited, wide-open, unbrokered, egalitarian, grass-roots, fair-and-square, completely suicidal primary process that inevitably guarantees that the last person standing will be someone with all the personality and character of a bunion.

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Today's Speech

2005-11-30T22:50:18Z

Weeellllll....?!? Anybody hear it?

I've pretty much learned to listen to what he says, and then turn around 180 degrees to find what's really going on. I found the whole thing so contrary from what I've been hearing and reading for the past two+ months, and still so void of any "plan" that I can't believe anyone will say, "oh, okay then; let's go ahead and just stay for as long as you want...." It'll be fun to see how it is digested in the press....

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The "Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005"

2005-11-06T18:00:31Z

Be not intimidated... nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice.

-John Adams

GIVE ME LIBERTY OR THEY MAY GIVE ME DEATH

We are, I am sorry to tell you, facing a uniquely dangerous moment in our history. An industry with more money than sense and a government with more greed than patriotism are conspiring to take away your right to control your body, keep it safe and, if harmed, seek recompense from the corporation which harmed you.

I often write to you to alert you to important health and health freedom issues. This letter is an urgent notice about an immediate threat to your well-being and your liberty. If you do nothing else to safeguard your health freedom, I urge you to take action on this issue, pass this email to everyone you know and become a source of information and strength to everyone you know. If there ever was a time for activism, this is it.

The Threat's Name? S 1873

Senator Richard Burr, burr.senate.gov/, of North Carolina has introduced a bill which, if passed, means the end of health freedom, possibly the end of your health and most certainly the end of your right to a trial by a jury of your peers in the all-too-likely event that you or your child have been harmed by a vaccine. The "Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005" also takes away your right to know what you have been injected with (no disclosure, no Freedom of Information Act suits, none!) and your right to be compensated if that vaccination harms you or a loved one.

The bill is cosponsored by Lamar Alexander, Elizabeth Dole, Michael B. Enzi, Bill Frist and Judd Gregg. The House version of this bill Shame on them.

The House version of this bill, introduced by Daryl E. Issa and co sponsored by Robert E. Andrews and Randy J. Forbes, is virtually identical and, therefore, equally bad.

I am writing to you to ask you to take all three types of action listed below:

1. Write to your Congressmen/women, tinyurl.com/d3wwp, to let them know that both the Senate S 1873 thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query and House (HR3970), thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z , these versions of the bill must be defeated,

2. Call Congress. The Congressional Switchboard is 1-202-225-3121. The operators will connect you with your congressional delegation when you tell them your zip code.

3. Call the White House. Their number is 1-202-456-1414.

Tell the people you speak to that you are adamantly opposed to S1873 and HR3970 since vaccines are dangerous and compulsory vaccination violates your personal rights to self determination. Further, you flatly reject the creation of a secret agency which would operate without public oversight to created and compel the use of vaccines whose composition, side effects and hazards are not only unknown, but would be kept permanently hidden from the public.

Let them know you will not tolerate:

The loss of compensation for harm

The loss of a trial by a jury of your peers to determine the nature and extent of any such harm to you or your loved ones from vaccines and other "pandemic" measures imposed upon you

A vote for these bills -- or others like them -- is completely unacceptable if the member of Congress wants to stand for re-election.
Make no mistake about it: Bird flu vaccines do not exist and cannot exist for some 6-18 months. Whatever you are vaccinated with will be experimental and therefore dangerous. With no liability to deter them, the vaccine makers can try anything they want or use any shoddy techniques they like and you cannot claim any harm has been done to you for the purposes of compensation. Not only that, the contents of these forced vaccinations for who-knows-what are secret! So whether the vaccines contain

Stealth viruses (which many now do)
Squalene (a major threat to life and health as many a Gulf War Veteran knows to his/her endless distress)
Mercury
Formaldehyde
Aluminum or other known toxins
Live viruses which should have been killed or
Other contaminants,

not only will you never know, you can be forced to submit to vaccination and accept whatever comes next.

Here, with thanks to The Global Eye Express, tinyurl.com/awn8x, is a list of Congress People backing this dangerous legislation. If these are your Congressional Delegates, I strongly suggest that you organize everyone you know in your area to bombard your Congressional Delegates with emails, tinyurl.com/d3wwp, letting them know how very strongly you object to their support of this deadly and un-American legislation and demand that they immediately abandon support for this and similar legislation.

REPUBLICANS
Gregg, Judd (R - NH)
393 Senate Russell Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3324
Fax: (202) 224-4952
gregg.senate.gov/sitepages/contact.cfm

Frist, William (R - TN)
509 Hart Senate Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3344
Fax: (202) 228-1264
frist.senate.gov/index.cfm

Enzi, Mike (R - WY)
379A Senate Russell Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3424
Fax: (202) 228-0359
enzi.senate.gov/email.htm

Burr Richard (R-NC)
217 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3154
Fax: (202) 228-2981
burr.senate.gov/index.cfm

Isakson Johnny (R- GA)
120 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-3643
Fax: (202) 228-0724
isakson.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Alexander, Lamar (R-TN)
302 Senate Hart Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4944
Fax: (202) 228-3398
alexander.senate.gov/index.cfm

Bond, Christopher (R - MO)
274 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-5721
Fax (202) 224-8149
bond.senate.gov/contact/contactme.cfm

Roberts, Pat (R - KS)
109 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4774
Fax (202) 224-3514
roberts.senate.gov/e-mail_pat.html

Ensign, John (R - NV)
356 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-6244
Fax (202) 228-2193
ensign.senate.gov/forms/email_form.cfm

DeWine, Mike (R - OH)
140 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2315
Fax (202) 224-6519
dewine.senate.gov/

DEMOCRATS
Kennedy, Edward - (D - MA)
317 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4543
Fax: (202) 224-2417
kennedy.senate.gov/index_high.html

Dodd, Christopher (D - CT)
448 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone (202) 224-2823
Fax (202) 228-1683
dodd.senate.gov/webmail/fo...pinion.html

Harkin, Tom (D - IA)
731 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone (202) 224-3254
Fax (202) 224-9369
harkin.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm

Mikulski, Barbara (D - MD)
503 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4654
Fax (202)224-8858
mikulski.senate.gov/contactm...form.html

Bingaman, Jeff (D - NM)
703 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone:(202) 224-5521
Fax (202) 224-2852
senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov

Murray, Patty (D - WA)
173 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2621
Fax: (202) 224-0238
murray.senate.gov/email/index.cfm

Reed, Jack (D - RI)
728 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone:(202) 224-4642
Fax (202) 224-4680
reed.senate.gov/form-opinion.htm

Clinton, Hillary (D - NY)
476 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4451
D.C. Fax (202) 228-0282
NY Fax (631) 249-2847
clinton.senate.gov/contact/webform.cfm

The issue here is two fold: your health and your health freedom. These Congressmen and women either do not get the issue or are not thinking about your wellbeing but, instead, about what is good for their pharmaceutical friends. It is easy to not get it, however, since we have been carefully inculcated with what turns out to be either a myth or brilliant, but inaccurate, marketing. Vaccines, we have been told, are effective, safe and necessary fro public health. Well, the reality appears to be very far from that comfortable truth. And clinging to a fantasy about this treatment could very well kill us and our children.

Would it shock you to know that serious scientists question the very premise of public health through vaccination? That the sacred cow of “herd immunity” (diseases go away because all of us have been vaccinated) is not very good science and, because of the dangers of vaccines, terrible medicine?

Vaccination is neither effective nor safe although we have been told that both are true for so long that their effectiveness and safety seems self-evident. The truth, however, is far more disquieting. And for untested vaccines, the story is worse. Much worse. Here are some sites to which you can go to get in-depth information about this troubling question:

EDU.au

tinyurl.com/duosz
Educate-Yourself
educate-yourself.org/vcd/%20%20
Vaccination Information and Choice Network
www.nccn.net/%7Ewwithin/vaccine.htm

Vaccine Dangers
tinyurl.com/bw2ee
Vaccination Dangers
tinyurl.com/9hrh3
Deep Down Wellness
tinyurl.com/c2nqa
NCOW
tinyurl.com/d66d3
Rense.com
www.rense.com/general25/drlenblasts.htm

The Vaccine Page
vaccines.org/

National Vaccine Information Center
www.909shot.com/

Calling the Shots
callingtheshots.info

Even if you believe in vaccines for you and yours, the idea of a compulsory vaccine program administered by a secret agency with zero accountability to you and the same legal liability for the companies who make potentially lethal injections (zero once again) is a major threat to your liberty and mine. I urge you to take action and ask your circle of influence to do the same.

Yours in health and freedom,

Rima E. Laibow, MD

Medical Director

PS: I testified before the FDA today on the overuse of psychoactive medications in children and adolescents. It was fascinating. I'll tell you about it in my next email to you. In the meantime, please support our work defending health and health freedom for all of us! REL

PPS: Oh, yes, please give, www.healthfreedomusa.org/donate/, generously to the Natural Solutions Foundation, www.healthfreedomusa.org, and help us keep on keeping our freedoms alive! REL

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THROW OUT THE FASCISTS

2005-10-07T07:30:35Z

www.worldcantwait.org/

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URGENT!!!!! SNEAK ATTACK ON ORGANIC STANDARDS!!!!!

2005-09-23T19:48:28Z

URGENT!!! CONGRESS VOTES NEXT WEEK!!!!! SEND A LETTER TO YOUR CONGRESSPERSON VIA www.organicconsumers.org/sos.cfm !!!!! PASS THE WORD ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!

Background of the Sneak Attack

After 35 years of hard work, the U.S. organic community has built up a multi-billion dollar alternative to industrial agriculture, based upon strict organic standards and organic community control over modification to these standards.

Now, large corporations, such as Kraft, Wal-Mart, & Dean Foods--aided and abetted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and members of the Organic Trade Association, are moving to lower organic standards by allowing Bush appointees in the USDA National Organic Program to approve a broad list of synthetic ingredients and processing aids that would be allowed in organic production. Even worse these proposed regulatory changes will reduce future public discussion and input and take away the National Organic Standards Board’s (NOSB) traditional lead jurisdiction in setting standards. What this means, in blunt terms. is that USDA bureaucrats and industry lobbyists, not consumers, will have near total control over what can go into organic foods and products. (Send a quick letter to your Congresspersons online here)

During the next week, acting in haste and near-total secrecy, the U.S. Congress plans to vote on a rider in the House/Senate Conference Committee to the 2006 Agriculture Appropriations Bill that could take away control over organic standards from the National Standards Board and put this control in the hands of federal bureaucrats in the USDA (remember the USDA proposal in 1997-98 that said that genetic engineering, toxic sludge, and food irradiation would be OK on organic farms, or USDA suggestions in 2004 that heretofore banned pesticides, hormones, tainted feeds, and animal drugs would be OK?).

For the past week in Washington, OCA has been urging members of Congress not to reopen and subvert the federal statute that governs U.S. Organic standards (the Organic Food Production Act: OFPA), but rather to let the organic community and the National Organic Standards Board resolve our differences over issues like synthetics and animal feed internally, and then proceed to a open public comment period. Unfortunately most Senators seem to be listening to industry lobbyists more closely than to us. We need to raise our voices. (Send a quick letter to your Congresspersons online here)

In the past, grassroots mobilization and mass pressure by organic consumers have been able to stop the USDA and Congress from degrading organic standards. This time Washington insiders tell us that the "fix is already in." So we must take decisive action now. We need you to call your U.S. Senators today. We need you to sign the following petition and send it to everyone you know. We also desperately need funds to head off this attack in the weeks and months to come. Thank you for your support. Together we will take back citizen control over organic standards and preserve organic integrity.

Call the Capital Switchboard here: 877-762-8762, and tell your Congresspersons not to support any ammendments to the ag appropriations bill that would lower organic standards. You can send a quick letter to your Congresspersons online here: www.organicconsumers.org/rd-ofpa.htm

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IMPEACH BUSH RALLY ON SATURDAY 9/24/05

2005-09-21T06:55:10Z

Check your city for Impeach Bush rally info. And check out these articles - it will give you nightmares

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=DAV20050712&articleId=666

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=RAI20050802&articleId=790

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=JAM20050118&articleId=378

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Flynt's Hustler runs 9/11 truth expose

2005-06-06T00:57:25Z

Hustler asks "What if Everything You Know about 9/11 is Wrong?"

by Bruce David and Carolyn Sinclair
Hustler magazine
August 2005

We all know what happened on September 11, 2001 - Osama bin Laden inspired 19 Muslim extremists to hijack commercial airplanes and fly them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. But what if it didn't happen that way at all?

David Ray Griffin is a professor of theology, a well-respected scholar and author of more than 20 books, including The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions and The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11. Griffin maintains that the evidence contradicts the government's official story and that, so far, nobody's come up with a theory that can account for all of the facts.

At HUSTLER we believe the murder of 2,986 innocent people demands hard questions and digging deeper. We're especially troubled by the collapse of Building 7, but we're determined to keep an open mind. As such, we sit down with Griffin to discuss what appear to be disturbing inconsistencies with the government's story.

HUSTLER: You've compiled a record of the facts-but are they beyond dispute?

DAVID RAY GRIFFIN: I simply gather research that has been done by others, a lot of it based on mainline stories from The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Guardian and so on. These reports tend to, more or less, contradict the official theory.

You say there's reason to question the government's official position on Osama bin Laden.

One problem with the official theory of the attacks being pulled off entirely by the 19 men named as al Qaeda terrorists is that six of them have, subsequently, shown up very much alive. This has been reported in the BBC, but not in the American mainstream press. One guy even walked into the U.S. Embassy and asked what was this nonsense about his having died on 9/11?

What are some other problems with the official story?

The government had every reason to know this was going to happen. There were some 52 warnings of the attack, many of which the Bush Administration didn't see fit to have released until after the inauguration. A little bit came out during the 9/1 1 hearings. For example, Condoleezza Rice-who had been describing the famous August 6, 2001, memo from British intelligence as merely historical in nature-was forced to admit that the title of it was "Bin Laden Determined to Strike within the United States." Many people have thought that was the strongest evidence of foreknowledge-but not at all.

Another example involves David Schippers, the attorney who prosecuted Bill Clinton and is highly thought of in Republican circles. Schippers says he called up Attorney General John Ashcroft repeatedly to tell him that FBI agents were warning of an attack, that they knew the date and said it was going to be in Lower Manhattan. Schippers couldn't get the Attorney General's office to call him back. The New American, a conservative political magazine, interviewed these FBI agents and confirmed their story.

Further evidence of foreknowledge involves the Secret Service's seeming to not only know the attacks were coming, but know who was targeted and who was not. That morning [of September 11], Bush was in a classroom in Sarasota, Florida, publicizing his education program. After the second building was struck, there could be no doubt the country was under attack. Yet Bush just sat there for about ten minutes.

Many people have criticized the President for not getting up immediately and going into commander-in-chief mode, but really, the Pentagon handles these things. Standard operating procedure dictates the Secret Service should have sprung into action and whisked Bush out of the classroom, into a car and away to some secure location.

The Secret Service should have assumed that the President would be the next target and at least take action as if that might be the case. The head of the FAA had just reported that there were 11 planes unaccounted for; and so there might have been 11 hijacked planes at that time. Yet the Secret Service did nothing. Bush went on national TV at about 9:30 for a prescheduled talk, and then they got in the limousine and went in the caravan on the normally scheduled route to the airport. When they got to the airport, they hadn't even called ahead to make sure there was jet fighter cover for Air Force One.

What are some of the contradictions involving the attacks?

One involves the story about the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings. We had three buildings collapse there, the North Tower [WTC I], the South Tower [WTC 2] and Building 7 [WTC 71. Each was a high-rise steel-frame building. Now, steel-frame high-rise buildings have never in the history of the universe been brought down by fire. And yet on this day, three of them were allegedly brought down by fire. There have been experiments with buildings raging with fire. In the experiments, fire made them sag a little, but never caused them to collapse. [See Madrid high-rise fire, page 34.] And yet on 9/11 these three buildings, which had relatively small fires in them, collapsed.

People have the image of the South Tower in their minds, and they think, Oh, these were towering infernos. But most of the jet fuel exploded outside of the South Tower, which produced the really dramatic effect. But you have to remember, that effect only lasted for a few seconds, and the fuel burned up very quickly. In the South Tower there was relatively little fuel to feed the fire inside; so it would have had to be feeding on carpets, on desks and things like that. And yet the South Tower collapsed in less than an hour after it was hit.

The collapse of Building 7 is particularly unusual, and yet the 9/11 Commission never mentions it once in their report. Somehow fire got started in Building 7, which is two blocks away and was never hit by a plane. There was no jet fuel inside to feed the fire. There are photographs that show only small fires on floors 7 and 12 of this 47-story building. And yet at 5:20 in the afternoon it comes collapsing down in exactly the same way as the other buildings.

Now I stress in the same way because they all came straight down into their own footprint for the most part. They collapsed very quickly, within about ten seconds. That's amazing when you think about it, that fire could produce that kind of effect, just like controlled demolition. In fact, on that very night, Dan Rather-viewing the collapse of Building 7-blurted out, "It looked just like one of those controlled demolitions."

Further evidence of Building 7 being brought down by controlled demolition came from Larry Silverstein, the man who had recently taken a lease on the entire complex. In a PBS documentary from September 2002, Silverstein said he told the fire commander that the smartest thing to do was "pull it." Next, he says, they "made that decision to pull" and watched the building collapse. Pull is a term commonly used to describe using explosives to demolish a building. Silverstein allegedly made almost $500 million in profit from the collapse of Building 7.

If the Twin Towers did come down by controlled demolition, wouldn't they have to be wired for the event well in advance of the attack?

They would have had to be wired, and then closer to the time [of the attack] the explosives would actually have to be placed. Several people who worked in the towers reported that there were times [shortly before the attack] when a certain part of one tower or the other was sectioned off for several days, and no one could go there except these special workers who were called "engineers." So it does appear that there could have been this kind of advance planning and that there would have been time to do this.

Also, because of terrorist alerts, they had been taking bomb-sniffing dogs through the buildings, checking for explosives. There is a report that the bomb-sniffing dogs were called off the weekend prior to 9/11.

Are there also inconsistencies involving the hijacked aircraft?

Let's start with Flight 77, which is credited with crashing into the Pentagon. There are many problems with the official story, which is that it took off from Washington, D.C., went west, then got hijacked, then turned around and came hack. Somehow it flew through American airspace, toward the Pentagon for about 40 minutes, without being detected.

Our multi-trillion-dollar defense system proved to be worthless. Even more striking, whatever hit the Pentagon hit the West Wing. These terrorists are supposedly so brilliant that they defeat this trillion-dollar system, and yet they didn't know that the West Wing was the worst part of the Pentagon to hit because all the top brass and Rumsfeld, whom you would presume they would want to kill, were in the East Wing.

Secondly, the West Wing was being renovated. It had been reinforced; so fire would not spread from the West Wing to the other parts, causing much less damage. Furthermore, very few regular workers were there because of the renovation. Most of the people killed were civilian workers, not Pentagon employees. We were told that the facade of the West Wing was hit by this Boeing 757, which weighs 100 tons and was going 300 miles per hour. Yet the facade of the West Wing didn't collapse until a half hour later. Photographs taken by a Marine and an AP photographer show there was a relatively small hole in the facade. And we're supposed to believe the 757, with a 120-foot wingspan and 40-foot-high tail, went through there. The wreckage should he out on the yard, but the photographs show no Boeing visible.

Were aircraft parts ever found in the Pentagon wreckage?

'There is clearly good evidence that plane parts were photographed in the Pentagon. But that they were parts from a Boeing 757 is highly and vigorously contested by many students of 'this event. What passes for the official story is that somehow this airplane hit the building, went into this tiny hole, which forced the wings back, and so they folded up and slipped inside the building.

The fire chief in charge of putting out the fire was asked if he saw any plane parts inside. He said no big pieces, no fuselage, no engine, nothing like that. So the people who try to defend this story respond by saying the fire was so hot it vaporized the plane. It not only melted the steel and the aluminum, but it vaporized them; and that's why they disappeared.

We've since learned that a lot of the bodies in the WTC were so destroyed that they were not able to identify them using any modern techniques. Yet this fire in the Pentagon that was hot enough to vaporize steel and aluminum left the bodies so they could be identified.

If the government did allow or enable the 9/11 attacks, what is the motivation?

The September 11 attacks are being used as the excuse for virtually everything the Bush/Cheney Administration is doing. Although Iraq had nothing to do with it-everybody agrees on that now-9/11 was used as the basis for this war. These guys had been champing at the bit to attack Iraq since 1992.

In 1997 some of them formed The Project for the New American Century, a think tank that claims to promote American global leadership. This organization involved Cheney, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld and many others who became central members and ideologues of the Bush Administration. In 2000 the group produced a report titled "Rebuilding America's Defenses" that outlines transforming the military and points out that this will be very expensive.

Since the Cold War is over, the report said, we don't have that excuse to keep military spending up. Many were talking about cutbacks on defense, i.e. military spending. Americans won't be willing to pony up money for defense unless there's an event that makes them feel insecure and threatened by external forces. Therefore, according to the report, any transformation of military affairs will go rather slowly, "absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event-like a new Pearl Harbor."

You've suggested that we will know what happened on 9/11 when those in power are arrested or forced to give sworn testimony. Who should that be?

Cumulative evidence would seem to suggest that it was people such as Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and General Richard Meyers who probably would have led the activities. Somebody had to give stand-down orders. Standard FAA operating procedures involve contacting the military if there's any sign a plane may have been hijacked, if a plane goes radically off course and they can't call it back, or if it loses radio contact or the transponder's turned off.

The FAA calls the military, which calls the nearest Air Force base, which sends out jet fighters. They typically scramble a couple of fighters; and they have a regular routine where they tell the pilots you've been intercepted, follow me. If they won't comply, then the military pilot requests permission to take more drastic action. None of that happened on September 11. Not a single plane was intercepted. Normally, this occurs within about 15 minutes after signs of problems. In the case of Flight 77, after almost 40 minutes, there's no jet fighter on the scene.

But it gets more problematic. In the-first few days we got three different stories about why there were no interceptions. The first story Meyers and NORAD [North American Aerospace Defense Command] told was that we didn't send planes up until after the Pentagon was hit. In other words, an hour and a half went by before any planes were scrambled. That story created lots of questions, and so they immediately changed it. On September 18, NORAD came out and said we did send up fighters, but the FAA was slow in contacting us, and we tried to get there in time, but didn't make it.

Then researchers examined the timelines. Those jets can go from scramble order to 29,000 feet in 2.5 minutes and fly 1,850 miles an hour, which means they should have arrived in time, even if the FAA was late.

With the 9/11 Commission, we get a third story from the military, which is the FAA didn't notify us late; they didn't notify us at all. More precisely, they had only nine minutes notice with Flight 11, the first flight, and no notice about the other three flights until after they had crashed. Of course, this ignores the fact that the military has a radar system by their own account that is far superior to that of the FAA. But for now this is the official story.

Are there also inconsistencies regarding Flight 93, the airliner that crashed in Pennsylvania?

With the first three flights the question is, why weren't they intercepted or possibly shot down? With Flight 93 the question is, why does it seem the government shot this plane down after it appeared the passengers were about to wrest control of it? There was a certified pilot aboard as a passenger who would have been able to bring the plane down safely. You would have had live people, presumably live hijackers, to interrogate.

There's an enormous amount of evidence that Flight 93 was shot down. The government denied it. It's strange that they did, because they could have said, "This plane was heading toward the Pentagon or the White House, and we were protecting Washington, doing our job." For some reason they chose to deny that they had shot it down; and that became the official story. In the 9/11 Commission Report they do big-time damage control and remove the possibility that it could have been shot down by changing the timelines rather drastically.

Everybody knows and agrees that Cheney gave the shoot-down order. Prior to the 9/11 Commission Report, we were led to believe that permission was given at about 9:45. Many news reports suggest that the shoot-down order was given before 10 a.m. By his own testimony, Cheney was in charge, down in the underground bunker-the emergency operation center.

Norman Mineta, Secretary of Transportation, testified that when he got down to the underground bunker at about 9:20, Cheney was already there and had been there for some time. That supports the view that he got down there at least by 9:15. The 9/11 Commission ignores that evidence and says Cheney didn't get there until almost 10 a.m. and issued the order after 10:lO a.m. They conclude the military couldn't possibly have shot down Flight 93 because it went down at 10:03 or 10:06.

Standard operating procedures don't require a call from the President; the Pentagon chain of command can do it. So Rumsfeld, Meyers or a subordinate could have done it. In any case, they created the idea that only the President or the Vice President could order it. This is one of the biggest lies in the 9/11 Commission Report.

Do you think the truth will ever come out?

It is extremely difficult to get the truth to come out in America because the mainstream media are not only co-opted, but accomplices in these matters. This is understandable because we have a corporate-owned media.

Take NBC, for example, which is owned by General Electric, one of the major producers of military equipment in the world. It's very unlikely you're going to get some reporter on NBC to expose this stuff. Thus far we've seen nothing about this in any mainstream magazine, newspaper or television show in this country.

An international commission with prestigious people would be able to command attention-so much so that even the American press would be unable to ignore it.

------------------------------

Among the many Web sites devoted to this topic are 911Research.com, WTC7.net and 911Truth.org.

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Demand Bush Response to Memo

2005-06-03T21:14:04Z

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) is sending a letter, along with a petition, to Bush about the Downing Street Memo in an attempt to force him to address the issue. Please sign his petition at:

http://johnconyers.campaignoffice.com/index.asp?Type=NONE&SEC={456ECCD5-4EAC-4C6D-8A17-89728B250AE2}

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Bush's plan to shut down GPS to prevent terrorist attack

2004-12-16T18:51:35Z

Um, isn't GPS depended on by most military hardware for guidence purposes? Not to mention many other systems that would be affected by such a shut down, such as our entire telecommunications infrasturcture (which relies on GPS to synchronize clocks), and much of our transportation network...

----------
Bush Prepares for Possible GPS Shutdown

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush has ordered plans for temporarily disabling the U.S. network of global positioning satellites during a national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the navigational technology, the White House said Wednesday.

Any shutdown of the network inside the United States would come under only the most remarkable circumstances, said a Bush administration official who spoke to a small group of reporters at the White House on condition of anonymity.

The GPS system is vital to commercial aviation and marine shipping.

The president also instructed the Defense Department to develop plans to disable, in certain areas, an enemy's access to the U.S. navigational satellites and to similar systems operated by others. The European Union is developing a $4.8 billion program, called Galileo.

The military increasingly uses GPS technology to move troops across large areas and direct bombs and missiles. Any government-ordered shutdown or jamming of the GPS satellites would be done in ways to limit disruptions to navigation and related systems outside the affected area, the White House said.

``This is not something you would do lightly,'' said James A. Lewis, director of technology policy for the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. ``It's clearly a big deal. You have to give them credit for being so open about what they're going to do.''

President Clinton abandoned the practice in May 2000 of deliberately degrading the accuracy of civilian navigation signals, a technique known as ``selective availability.''

The White House said it will not reinstate that practice, but said the president could decide to disable parts of the network for national security purposes.

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Sermon: Living Under Fascism

2004-11-18T17:37:43Z

Living Under Fascism

Davidson Loehr
7 November 2004
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
512-452-6168 • www.austinuu.org

SERMON: Living Under Fascism

You may wonder why anyone would try to use the word
“fascism”
in a serious discussion of where America is today. It sounds like cheap
name-calling, or melodramatic allusion to a slew of old war movies. But
I am serious. I don’t mean it as name-calling at all. I mean to
persuade you that the style of governing into which America has slid is
most accurately described as fascism, and that the necessary
implications of this fact are rightly regarded as terrifying. That’s
what I am about here. And even if I don’t persuade you, I hope to raise
the level of your thinking about who and where we are now, to add some
nuance and perhaps some useful insights.

The word comes from the Latin word “Fasces,” denoting a
bundle of sticks tied together. The individual sticks represented
citizens, and the bundle represented the state. The message of this
metaphor was that it was the bundle that was significant, not the
individual sticks. If it sounds un-American, it’s worth knowing that
the Roman Fasces appear on the wall behind the Speaker’s podium in the
chamber of the US House of Representatives.

Still, it’s an unlikely word. When most people hear the word
"fascism" they may think of the racism and anti-Semitism of Mussolini
and Hitler. It is true that the use of force and the scapegoating of
fringe groups are part of every fascism. But there was also an economic
dimension of fascism, known in Europe during the 1920s and '30s as
"corporatism," which was an essential ingredient of Mussolini’s and
Hitler’s tyrannies. So-called corporatism was adopted in Italy and
Germany during the 1930s and was held up as a model by quite a few
intellectuals and policy makers in the United States and Europe.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago (in “The Corporation Will Eat
Your Soul”), Fortune magazine ran a cover story on Mussolini in 1934,
praising his fascism for its ability to break worker unions, disempower
workers and transfer huge sums of money to those who controlled the
money rather than those who earned it.

Few Americans are aware of or can recall how so many Americans and
Europeans viewed economic fascism as the wave of the future during the
1930s. Yet reviewing our past may help shed light on our present, and
point the way to a better future. So I want to begin by looking back to
the last time fascism posed a serious threat to America.

In Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel "It Can't Happen Here," a
conservative southern politician is helped to the presidency by a
nationally syndicated radio talk show host. The politician - Buzz
Windrip - runs his campaign on family values, the flag, and patriotism.
Windrip and the talk show host portray advocates of traditional
American democracy — those concerned with individual rights and
freedoms — as anti-American. That was 69 years ago.

One of the most outspoken American fascists from the 1930s
was economist Lawrence Dennis. In his 1936 book, The Coming American
Fascism — a coming which he anticipated and cheered — Dennis declared
that defenders of “18th-century Americanism” were sure to become "the
laughing stock of their own countrymen." The big stumbling block to the
development of economic fascism, Dennis bemoaned, was "liberal norms of
law or constitutional guarantees of private rights."

So it is important for us to recognize that, as an economic
system, fascism was widely accepted in the 1920s and '30s, and nearly
worshiped by some powerful American industrialists. And fascism has
always, and explicitly, been opposed to liberalism of all kinds.

Mussolini, who helped create modern fascism, viewed liberal
ideas as the enemy. "The Fascist conception of life," he wrote,
"stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only
in so far as his interests coincide with the State. It is opposed to
classical liberalism [which] denied the State in the name of the
individual; Fascism reasserts the rights of the State as expressing the
real essence of the individual." (In 1932 Mussolini wrote, with the
help of Giovanni Gentile, an entry for the Italian Encyclopedia on the
definition of fascism. You can read the whole entry at
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/mussolini-fascism.html)

Mussolini thought it was unnatural for a government to
protect individual rights: The essence of fascism, he believed, is that
government should be the master, not the servant, of the people.

Still, fascism is a word that is completely foreign to most
of us. We need to know what it is, and how we can know it when we see
it.

In an essay coyly titled “Fascism Anyone?,” Dr. Lawrence
Britt, a political scientist, identifies social and political agendas
common to fascist regimes. His comparisons of Hitler, Mussolini,
Franco, Suharto, and Pinochet yielded this list of 14 “identifying
characteristics of fascism.” (The following article is from Free
Inquiry magazine, Volume 23, Number 2. Read it at
http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/britt_23_2.htm) See how
familiar they sound.

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism

Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans,
symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as
are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights

Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in
fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in
certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way
or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long
incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause

The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need
to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or
religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists,
etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military

Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given
a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic
agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism

The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively
male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are
made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and
anti-gay legislation and national policy.
6. Controlled Mass Media

Sometimes the media are directly controlled by the government, but in
other cases, the media are indirectly controlled by government
regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives.
Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security

Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined

Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in
the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric
and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major
tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's
policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected

The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are
the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually
beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed

Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a
fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are
severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts

Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher
education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other
academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts
is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment

Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to
enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses
and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is
often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist
nations
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption

Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and
associates who appoint each other to government positions and use
governmental power and authority to protect their friends from
accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national
resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen
by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections

Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times
elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even
assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control
voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of
the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to
manipulate or control elections.

This list will be familiar to students of political science.
But it should be familiar to students of religion as well, for much of
it mirrors the social and political agenda of religious fundamentalisms
worldwide. It is both accurate and helpful for us to understand
fundamentalism as religious fascism, and fascism as political
fundamentalism. They both come from very primitive parts of us that
have always been the default setting of our species: amity toward our
in-group, enmity toward out-groups, hierarchical deference to alpha
male figures, a powerful identification with our territory, and so
forth. It is that brutal default setting that all civilizations have
tried to raise us above, but it is always a fragile thing,
civilization, and has to be achieved over and over and over again.

But, again, this is not America’s first encounter with
fascism.

In early 1944, the New York Times asked Vice President Henry
Wallace to, as Wallace noted, “write a piece answering the following
questions: What is a fascist? How many fascists have we? How dangerous
are they?”

Vice President Wallace's answer to those questions was
published in The New York Times on April 9, 1944, at the height of the
war against the Axis powers of Germany and Japan. See how much you
think his statements apply to our society today.

“The really dangerous American fascist,” Wallace wrote, “…
is
the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what
Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would
prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of
public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to
present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive
the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more
power.”

In his strongest indictment of the tide of fascism he saw
rising in America, Wallace added, “They claim to be super-patriots, but
they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They
demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested
interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is
directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the
state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the
common man in eternal subjection.” By these standards, a few of today’s
weapons for keeping the common people in eternal subjection include
NAFTA, the World Trade Organization, union-busting, cutting worker
benefits while increasing CEO pay, elimination of worker benefits,
security and pensions, rapacious credit card interest, and outsourcing
of jobs — not to mention the largest prison system in the world.

The Perfect Storm

Our current descent into fascism came about through a kind
of
“Perfect Storm,” a confluence of three unrelated but mutually
supportive schools of thought.

1. The first stream of thought was the imperialistic dream
of
the Project for the New American Century. I don’t believe anyone can
understand the past four years without reading the Project for the New
American Century, published in September 2000 and authored by many who
have been prominent players in the Bush administrations, including
Cheney, Rumsfleid, Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Donald Kagan to name
only a few. This report saw the fall of Communism as a call for America
to become the military rulers of the world, to establish a new
worldwide empire. They spelled out the military enhancements we would
need, then noted, sadly, that these wonderful plans would take a long
time, unless there could be a catastrophic and catalyzing event like a
new Pearl Harbor that would let the leaders turn America into a
military and militarist country. There was no clear interest in
religion in this report, and no clear concern with local economic
policies.

2. A second powerful stream must be credited to Pat
Robertson
and his Christian Reconstructionists, or Dominionists. Long dismissed
by most of us as a screwball, the Dominionist style of Christianity
which he has been preaching since the early 1980s is now the most
powerful religious voice in the Bush administration.

Katherine Yurica, who transcribed over 1300 pages of
interviews from Pat Robertson’s “700 Club” shows in the 1980s, has
shown how Robertson and his chosen guests consistently, openly and
passionately argued that America must become a theocracy under the
control of Christian Dominionists. Robertson is on record saying
democracy is a terrible form of government unless it is run by his kind
of Christians. He also rails constantly against taxing the rich,
against public education, social programs and welfare — and prefers
Deuteronomy 28 over the teachings of Jesus. He is clear that women must
remain homebound as obedient servants of men, and that abortions, like
homosexuals, should not be allowed. Robertson has also been clear that
other kinds of Christians, including Episcopalians and Presbyterians,
are enemies of Christ. (The Yurica Report. Search under this name, or
for “Despoiling America” by Katherine Yurica on the internet.)

3. The third major component of this Perfect Storm has been
the desire of very wealthy Americans and corporate CEOs for a
plutocracy that will favor profits by the very rich and disempowerment
of the vast majority of American workers, the destruction of workers’
unions, and the alliance of government to help achieve these greedy
goals. It is a condition some have called socialism for the rich,
capitalism for the poor, and which others recognize as a reincarnation
of Social Darwinism. This strain of thought has been present throughout
American history. Seventy years ago, they tried to finance a military
coup to replace Franlkin Delano Roosevelt and establish General Smedley
Butler as a fascist dictator in 1934. Fortunately, the picked a general
who really was a patriot; he refused, reported the scheme, and spoke
and wrote about it. As Canadian law professor Joel Bakan wrote in the
book and movie “The Corporation,” they have now achieved their coup
without firing a shot.

Our plutocrats have had no particular interest in religion.
Their global interests are with an imperialist empire, and their
domestic goals are in undoing all the New Deal reforms of Franklin
Delano Roosevelt that enabled the rise of America’s middle class after
WWII.

Another ill wind in this Perfect Storm is more important
than
its crudity might suggest: it was President Clinton’s sleazy sex with a
young but eager intern in the White House. This incident, and Clinton’s
equally sleazy lying about it, focused the certainties of conservatives
on the fact that “liberals” had neither moral compass nor moral
concern, and therefore represented a dangerous threat to the moral
fiber of America. While the effects of this may be hard to quantify, I
think they were profound.

These “storm” components have no necessary connection, and
come from different groups of thinkers, many of whom wouldn’t even like
one another. But together, they form a nearly complete web of command
and control, which has finally gained control of America and, they
hope, of the world.

What’s coming

When all fascisms exhibit the same social and political
agendas (the 14 points listed by Britt), then it is not hard to predict
where a new fascist uprising will lead. And it is not hard. The actions
of fascists and the social and political effects of fascism and
fundamentalism are clear and sobering. Here is some of what’s coming,
what will be happening in our country in the next few years:

* The theft of all social security funds, to be transferred to
those who control money, and the increasing destitution of all those
dependent on social security and social welfare programs.
* Rising numbers of uninsured people in this country that already
has the highest percentage of citizens without health insurance in the
developed world.
* Increased loss of funding for public education combined with
increased support for vouchers, urging Americans to entrust their
children’s education to Christian schools.
* More restrictions on civil liberties as America is turned into
the police state necessary for fascism to work
* Withdrawal of virtually all funding for National Public Radio
and
the Public Broadcasting System. At their best, these media sometimes
encourage critical questioning, so they are correctly seen as enemies
of the state’s official stories.
* The reinstatement of a draft, from which the children of
privileged parents will again be mostly exempt, leaving our poorest
children to fight and die in wars of imperialism and greed that could
never benefit them anyway. (That was my one-sentence Veterans’ Day
sermon for this year.)
* More imperialistic invasions: of Iran and others, and the
construction of a huge permanent embassy in Iraq.
* More restrictions on speech, under the flag of national
security.
* Control of the internet to remove or cripple it as an instrument
of free communication that is exempt from government control. This will
be presented as a necessary anti-terrorist measure.
* Efforts to remove the tax-exempt status of churches like this
one, and to characterize them as anti-American.
* Tighter control of the editorial bias of almost all media, and
demonization of the few media they are unable to control – the New York
Times, for instance.
* Continued outsourcing of jobs, including more white-collar jobs,
to produce greater profits for those who control the money and direct
the society, while simultaneously reducing America’s workers to a more
desperate and powerless status.
* Moves in the banking industry to make it impossible for an
increasing number of Americans to own their homes. As they did in the
1930s, those who control the money know that it is to their advantage
and profit to keep others renting rather than owning.
* Criminalization of those who protest, as un-American, with
arrests, detentions and harassment increasing. We already have a higher
percentage of our citizens in prison than any other country in the
world. That percentage will increase.
* In the near future, it will be illegal or at least dangerous to
say the things I have said here this morning. In the fascist story,
these things are un-American. In the real history of a democratic
America, they were seen as profoundly patriotic, as the kind of
critical questions that kept the American spirit alive — the kind of
questions, incidentally, that our media were supposed to be pressing.

Can these schemes work? I don’t think so. I think they are
murderous, rapacious and insane. But I don’t know. Maybe they can.
Similar schemes have worked in countries like Chile, where a democracy
in which over 90% voted has been reduced to one in which only about 20%
vote because they say, as Americans are learning to say, that it no
longer matters who you vote for.

Hope

In the meantime, is there any hope, or do we just band
together like lemmings and dive off a cliff? Yes, there is always hope,
though at times it is more hidden, as it is now.

As some critics are now saying, and as I have been preaching
and writing for almost twenty years, America’s liberals need to grow
beyond political liberalism, with its often self-absorbed focus on
individual rights to the exclusion of individual responsibilities to
the larger society. Liberals will have to construct a more complete
vision with moral and religious grounding. That does not mean
confessional Christianity. It means the legitimate heir to
Christianity. Such a legitimate heir need not be a religion, though it
must have clear moral power, and be able to attract the minds and
hearts of a voting majority of Americans.

And the new liberal vision must be larger than that of the
conservative religious vision that will be appointing judges, writing
laws and bending the cultural norms toward hatred and exclusion for the
foreseeable future. The conservatives deserve a lot of admiration. They
have spent the last thirty years studying American politics, forming
their vision and learning how to gain control in the political system.
And it worked; they have won. Even if liberals can develop a bigger
vision, they still have all that time-consuming work to do. It won’t be
fast. It isn’t even clear that liberals will be willing to do it; they
may instead prefer to go down with the ship they’re used to.

One man who has been tireless in his investigations and
critiques of America’s slide into fascism is Michael C. Ruppert, whose
postings usually read as though he is wound way too tight. But he
offers four pieces of advice about what we can do now, and they seem
reality-based enough to pass on to you. This is America; they’re all
about money:

* First, he says you should get out of debt.
* Second is to spend your money and time on things that give you
energy and provide you with useful information.
* Third is to stop spending a penny with major banks, news media
and corporations that feed you lies and leave you angry and exhausted.
* And fourth is to learn how money works and use it like a
(political) weapon — as he predicts the rest of the world will be doing
against us. (from
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/110504_snap_out.shtml)

That’s advice written this week. Another bit of advice comes
from sixty years ago, from Roosevelt’s Vice President, Henry Wallace.
Wallace said, “Democracy, to crush fascism internally, must...develop
the ability to keep people fully employed and at the same time balance
the budget. It must put human beings first and dollars second. It must
appeal to reason and decency and not to violence and deceit. We must
not tolerate oppressive government or industrial oligarchy in the form
of monopolies and cartels.”

Still another way to understand fascism is as a kind of
colonization. A simple definition of “colonization” is that it takes
people’s stories away, and assigns them supportive roles in stories
that empower others at their expense. When you are taxed to support a
government that uses you as a means to serve the ends of others, you
are — ironically — in a state of taxation without representation.
That’s where this country started, and it’s where we are now.

I don’t know the next step. I’m not a political activist;
I’m
only a preacher. But whatever you do, whatever we do, I hope that we
can remember some very basic things that I think of as eternally true.
One is that the vast majority of people are good decent people who mean
and do as well as they know how. Very few people are evil, though some
are. But we all live in families where some of our blood relatives
support things we hate. I believe they mean well, and the way to
rebuild broken bridges is through greater understanding, compassion,
and a reality-based story that is more inclusive and empowering for the
vast majority of us.

Those who want to live in a reality-based story rather than
as serfs in an ideology designed to transfer power, possibility and
hope to a small ruling elite have much long and hard work to do,
individually and collectively. It will not be either easy or quick.

But we will do it. We will go forward in hope and in
courage.
Let us seek that better path, and find the courage to take it — step,
by step, by step.

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