Will Neocon Fanaticism Destroy America?

[mrmom2]

Paul Craig Roberts

Will Neocon Fanaticism Destroy America?


The “cakewalk war” is now two-and-a-half years old. U.S. casualties (dead and wounded) number 20,000. As 20,000 is the number of Iraqi insurgents according to U.S. military commanders, each insurgent is responsible for one U.S. casualty.

U.S. troops in Iraq number about 150,000. Obviously, U.S. troops have not inflicted 150,000 casualties on the Iraqi insurgents. U.S. troops have perhaps inflicted 150,000 casualties on the Iraqi civilian population, primarily women and children, who are the “collateral damage” of the “righteous” and “virtuous” U.S. invasion that is spreading civilian deaths all over Mesopotamia in the name of democracy

What could the United States have possibly done to give America a worse name than to invade Iraq and murder its citizens?

According to the Sept. 1 Manufacturing & Technology News, the Government Accountability Office has reported that over the course of the cakewalk war, the U.S. military’s use of small caliber ammunition has risen to 1.8 billion rounds. Think about that number. If there are 20,000 insurgents, it means U.S. troops have fired 90,000 rounds at each insurgent.

Very few have been hit. We don’t know how many. To avoid the analogy with Vietnam, until last week the U.S. military studiously avoided body counts. If 2,000 insurgents have been killed, each death required 900,000 rounds of ammunition.

The combination of U.S. government-owned ammo plants and those of U.S. commercial producers together cannot make bullets as fast as U.S. troops are firing them. The Bush administration has had to turn to foreign producers such as Israel Military Industries. Think about that. Hollowed-out U.S. industry cannot produce enough ammunition to defeat a 20,000-man insurgency.

U.S. military analysts are beginning to wonder if the United States has been defeated by the insurgency. Increasingly, Bush administration spokesmen sound like “Baghdad Bob.” On Sept. 19, The Washington Post reported that U.S. military spinmeister Maj. Gen. Rich Lynch declared “great success” against the insurgency that had just inflicted the worst casualties of the war, including a three-day mortar attack on the “safe” Green Zone.

Anthony Cordesman, a military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., says: “We can’t secure the airport road, can’t stop the incoming (mortar rounds) into the Green Zone, can’t stop the killings and kidnappings.” The insurgency controls most of Baghdad and the Sunni provinces.

With its judgment lost to frustration, the U.S. military has 40,000 Iraqis in detention—twice the number of estimated insurgents. Who are these detainees? According to The Washington Post, “Many of the men detained in Tall Afar last week were rounded up on the advice of local teenagers who had stepped forward as informants, at times for what American soldiers said they suspected amounted to no more than settling local scores.”

Obviously, the United States, not knowing who or where the insurgents are, is just striking blindly, creating a larger insurgency.

The Iraq government, despite being backed by the U.S. military, is unable to control movements across the Iraqi-Syrian border. So the Bush administration has passed the buck to Syria. Puny Syria is declared guilty of not doing what the U.S. military cannot do.

Adam Ereli, the demented U.S. State Department spokesperson, denounced the Syrian government for “permitting” insurgents to cross the border. The U.S. government cannot prevent a steady stream of 1 million Mexicans from illegally crossing its border each year, but Syria is supposed to be able to stop a couple hundred foreign fighters from sneaking across its border.

Ereli misrepresents Syria’s inability to be “an unwillingness,” which indicates that Syria is consorting with terrorists, not only in Iraq but also in Lebanon and Palestine. Does this sound like Syria being set up for invasion?

According to news reports, at Ted Forstmann’s annual meeting of movers and shakers last weekend, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad predicted that U.S. troops will soon enter into Syria. Simultaneously, the Bush administration is desperately trying to orchestrate a case that it can use to attack Iran.

Stalemated in Iraq, the White House moron intends to attack two more countries.

At the Human Rights Conference on Sept. 9, the former prime minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, described Americans as “people with blood-soaked hands.”

“Who are the terrorists,” asked Mahathir, the Iraqis or the Americans?

The entire world is asking this question. 8O

 

[Gonzo]

Will Neocon Fanaticism Destroy America?
Already has.

 

[mrmom2]

U.S. troops have fired 90,000 rounds at each insurgent.
8O The military industrial complex is loving these stats.Anybody think there making money :?

 

[Ocean Breeze]

think that this might fit here...

While commenting on the Delay indictment on MSNBC, David Gergen (former presidential advisor) commended the Republican leadership on how scandal free the Republicans have been over the past 5 years. Scandal free? Is he living in the same world that I am in? They have been investigation free, accountability free, penalty free, but the Bush White House was founded on scandal!

Does Mr. Gergen remember how Bush took office? Can you say election fraud? Can you say election fraud 3 times? Can you say CIA operative cover blown? Can you say 9/11? Can you say war based on lies? Can you say Project for a New American Century? Can you say torture and human rights violations? Can you say Patriot Act? Can you count the Iran Contra felons who found their way back into government (Bush appointees)? Can you say forged evidence (Niger uranium)? Can you say John Bolton? Can you say religious right wing fundamentalist lunatics making policy? Can you say ear piece at the debates? Can you say AWOL Bush who can’t even remember his last 2 years of military service and can’t name his commander at the time? Can you say Karl Rove? Can you say missing billions in Iraq funding? Can you say Halliburton and no bid contracts? Can you Can you say Dick Cheney?

Holy cow…this is the dirtiest bunch in our history! Is Gergen on drugs? Is he on a steady IV heroin feed? Has he had a lobotomy?

Gergen’s made a point that he did not intend to…he proved that the American public is comfortably unaware of these scandals thanks to our criminal news media! The only way Gergen could get away with a comment like that about a bunch of thugs and criminals like these is with the help of the media to keep the lies alive! Think about it!

answer to original question. Seems it already has......and with the degree of fear induction.......willingly accepted by the masses.

 

[mrmom2]

Hey Ocean ever see Alex Jones interview of Gergen about the Bohemian Grove .Its quite the eye opener

Check it out

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Hey Ocean ever see Alex Jones interview of Gergen about the Bohemian Grove .Its quite the eye opener

Check it out

watching it now..... thanks mom2.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

another one that seems to fit here too. ......(all part of the deterioration process)

Forecasting Mass Destruction, from Gulf to Gulf

Sheila Carapico

September 29, 2005

(Sheila Carapico, an editor of Middle East Report, teaches political science
and international studies at the University of Richmond.)

While internally displaced Americans were piled into an unequipped New
Orleans sports stadium, the question on everyone's lips was: where were the
Louisiana National Guard and its high-water trucks when Hurricane Katrina
struck? One answer, obviously, was that at least a third of the Guard's
human and mechanical resources were deployed to Iraq. Anti-war protesters
demonstrating in Washington on September 24, 2005 as a new storm battered
the Gulf coast turned the question into a new slogan: "Make Levees, Not
War."

Pundits and protesters shared a gloomy sense of connection between the
seemingly unrelated storylines of catastrophe along the Gulf of Mexico and
the no less catastrophic US military intervention in the Persian Gulf.
Linked to the Iraq war by repugnant pictures and abject forecasting
malfunctions, and converging with the war's impact on the American
pocketbook via soaring government expenses and gas prices, the
weather-wrought calamity simultaneously revealed and concealed US mishaps in
the Middle East.

CINEMA VERITÉ

First, there was the sheer, horrifying spectacle of it. The scale and
duration of destruction and death and the feelings of vulnerability and
sadness associated with the hurricane recalled the attacks of September 11,
2001. But the video itself was more extensive and less telegenic. Katrina
unleashed a torrent of unsightly visual images Americans hardly ever see on
television, so many close-ups of the feeble and the dispossessed, the angry
and the unkempt, people who live in slums, trailers and nursing homes. The
gritty cinema verité on the 24-hour news channels was vaguely evocative of
the vile photos from inside Abu Ghraib prison, in that case snapshots of a
ghostly, humiliating reality captured on handheld phones and delivered
uncensored and disembedded from the dominant narrative. Now the normally
invisible American poor -- so invisible that evacuation plans overlooked
them -- literally stretched out their hands to the cameras.

On the scene days before the federal government's relief convoys, camera
crews offered relief neither to their hapless subjects nor to the sickened
audience. The running commentary offered no soothing undertone of triumph
over adversity, no climax wherein heroes race to the rescue. Katrina was not
the Asian tsunami of 2004, with self-congratulatory coverage of care
packages air-dropped efficiently and effectively by the US Air Force to
those left alive, but endless footage of those left to die. People who stuck
it out or swam their families to safety were presented not as plucky
survivors but as pathetic refugees or rowdy rabble. The New Orleans story
conjured the discomfort of the Abu Ghraib photos because the pictures
themselves were ugly, raw and unedited, and because, unlike on September 11
when New York firemen charged into the towering inferno, there were really
no good guys in sight, not even a poster child. Jean Baudrillard, the
intellectual inspiration for the films in The Matrix series, might call it
"hyper-real." What was captured on camera failed to simulate the simulation.

UNPREDICTABILITY

The New Orleans deluge washed up epistemological questions about how we know
what we know, what events or circumstances can be foreseen, and the
differences among possibilities, probabilities, predictions and scenarios.
How did this happen after four years of talking about "preparedness" for
melodramatic emergencies centered on terrorist sabotage of vital
infrastructure? How could the vast new Department of Homeland Security have
failed to absorb the engineering reports, meteorological studies and flood
simulations that were both ample and amply available, and failed to make
adequate preparations for a storm predicted for days whose effects had been
foretold for decades?

The dissonance between assurances of preparedness and the discombobulated
response to Katrina was deeply disconcerting to the US national psyche.
Again government failed to anticipate and respond to danger, whether from
terrorists, rogue nations or the weather. Al-Qaeda was already on the radar
screen of intelligence analysts and specialized academics in 2001, and
evidence that the organization was actively planning a major attack on the
United States was arguably overlooked. But the stunning hijackings and crash
landings of September 11 had certainly not been mapped onto a trajectory
with the accuracy found in the Army Corps of Engineers' projections of the
impact of a Category 5 storm surge upon the Crescent City's soup bowl. In
this sense, the collapse of the World Trade Center towers was a complete
surprise. Katrina felt "as big as 9/11" to many Americans, except that this
time the national protectors had no excuse for being caught off guard. The
president's self-exculpatory bleat notwithstanding, plenty of experts had
"anticipated the breach of the levees."

It is bad enough that the nation's soothsayers failed to foresee the two
episodes of actual mass death and destruction in US cities. Now juxtapose
those blind spots with the Bush administration's pseudo-scientific evidence
of illicit weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the fatal consequences
thereof.

The story of the wild WMD chase went beyond faulty interpretation of aerial
photography. It involved the systematic discrediting of the professional
arms inspectors who had halted the Iraqi nuclear program and then spent a
decade destroying what remained of Saddam Hussein's chemical arsenal and
biological weapons research. It required the methodical sidelining of
dissenting expert opinion on the uses of aluminum tubes. Rather than
champion the findings of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and
Research, former Secretary of State Colin Powell showed the world satellite
photos and diagrams as he wove a phantasmagoric narrative about substances
hypothetically manufactured in lab-mobiles or Saddam's basement and then
passed off to terrorists and smuggled into the US in suitcases. It involved
transforming the notion of "mass" from a quantitative measure of scale to a
quality that inheres in a substance even in miniscule amounts, as if a sarin
gas attack in Tokyo were the equivalent of an atomic bomb in Hiroshima.
Along with the most serious news outlets like the New York Times and the PBS
NewsHour, a majority of Congressional representatives took this narrative at
face value, and a defeated, disarmed and dilapidated dictatorship was
magnified into a genuine threat to US national security. The delusions of a
handful of Iraqi exiles who expected to be showered with roses during their
triumphant homecoming atop US tanks were preferred over the sober
assessments from inside the Pentagon. The perpetually surprised Bush
administration embodies Americans' missing danger monitor, but the failure
was epistemic. There is now a great, gaping credibility gap.

MOUNTING COSTS

If these mismatches between "preparedness" and preparation have induced
national trauma, the anxiety is heightened by the double whammy of
disaster-area reconstruction costs and spiraling gas prices.

Just how will the United States pay for rebuilding along Gulf coast beaches
and shoring up the Persian Gulf beachhead simultaneously? With bills from
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita still being totted up, Bush has already quietly
taken his top domestic priorities -- making his tax cuts permanent and
privatizing Social Security -- off the table. The 2001 and 2003 tax cuts
translated into $225 billion in lost revenue. According to a tally released
on August 31 by the Institute for Policy Studies, the Iraq war has cost US
taxpayers $204.4 billion and counting. That is well over $400 billion worth
of red ink to drench the federal budget. Reconstruction in Louisiana,
Mississippi, Alabama and Texas could rival those expenditures.

And where, exactly, will those billions go? So far two Iraq war profiteers,
the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root and Bechtel, are among
the 22 companies the Corps of Engineers awarded no-bid "indefinite
delivery-indefinite quantity" contracts to rebuild the region devastated by
Katrina. These contracts have drawn critical attention from the Government
Accountability Office and Congress because they are open-ended and
insufficiently specific about the work to be performed. (In Iraq, for
instance, an indefinite delivery-indefinite quality contract for
"information technology" was used to hire the Virginia-based company called
CACI to supply interrogators for Abu Ghraib.) KBR, which had to repay the
government millions overcharged in Iraq, was allocated $16 million to repair
the New Orleans levees before Rita damaged them further.

Not only the national pocketbook, but also the household checkbook, will
take a hit. The twin typhoons' damage to rigs, refineries and shipping in
the Gulf of Mexico drove gasoline and heating oil costs to new highs. This
gives us good reason to reconsider the fuel-profligate policies of the past
15 years of economic growth in the United States. That growth has been led
by domestic consumption, especially mall-and-McMansion "development" in
exurbs accessible only by automobile and the related markets in
housing-lending and gas-guzzling vehicles. Ironically, today's SUVs are the
descendants of the high-end, heavy-duty, off-road, four-wheel drive luxury
jeeps, such as the Toyota Landcruiser and the Chevy Suburban, that were
developed in the 1970s, at the peak of the oil boom, for the Saudi Arabian
market. The suburban cowboys who are the Republican base will feel higher
gas prices more than cuts in either taxes or social services. Along with
other middle Americans, they may begin to wonder whether US Persian Gulf
policy, which in the subliminal popular imagination is connected to the
American "way of life" via the gas pump, is working. In short, the American
way of life is getting a great deal more expensive as the costs of the war
mount and the $50 tank of gas threatens to become not only the norm, but a
fond memory. Evacuations in advance of Rita that wasted all the gasoline in
Texas were but another shocking symptom of hydrocarbon addiction.

Perhaps, along the lines of the New Deal or the Marshall Plan, massive
government deficit funding and tax incentives for shoreline, rural and urban
redevelopment will lead to a new era of prosperity in one of the poorest
regions in North America. It is possible that the Ninth Ward, totally
swamped twice in one month, will rise again as McOrleans, with a
reproduction French Quarter mall surrounded by houses with porches like Sen.
Trent Lott's, and that the Mississippi delta of the future will look more
like South Florida, and that Houston will build new roads to alleviate
traffic jams in future evacuations. For that matter, Galveston could imitate
Dubai, crafting islands in the shape of world maps and palm trees in the
Gulf. Or a more environmentally sound coastal policy could be pursued. But
none of this can be done with Monopoly money; the government must tax more,
borrow more or slash spending drastically in other areas. Moreover, whether
the policies of burning off fossil fuels with little thought to
conservation, ignoring global warming pessimists' dire prophesies of
low-land inundation and waving off the Kyoto protocols are contributing to
the frequency and intensity of biblical floods or not, the era of
"development" and "security" both pinned to the premise of endless supplies
of plentiful cheap petroleum is probably behind us.

SEEING THE UNSEEN

Storm stories pushed Iraq news off US front pages even as the mayhem there
took an even more ominous turn, with record deaths a month before the
yea-or-nay vote slated for October 15 on the deeply flawed draft
constitution. Homeland destruction became the proxy for what Americans don't
see in Iraq coverage. Both stories lack a heartwarming metanarrative. Abu
Ghraib notwithstanding, heavy censorship has so far kept the public from
viewing much of the human and material wreckage wrought upon Iraq in the
last two and a half years. In ten days, there were more portraits of corpses
in New Orleans, abandoned in wheelchairs or floating in muck, than 30 months
of Iraq war coverage has yielded. Americans saw no pictures of the
internally displaced of Falluja in November 2004, nor of the people forcibly
evacuated from Tall Afar during the week of the New Orleans emergency. Many
Americans readily buy the official myth that people in Iraq are better off
despite displacement and shaky access to electricity and running water, but
when former First Lady Barbara Bush tried that cynical line on Katrina
evacuees in a Texas shelter, she prompted sneers of derision.

The tide of US public opinion has turned: a majority of Americans now think
homeland security begins at home. The story about democratizing Iraq,
including the current chapter on constitutional-referendum-as-panacea,
increasingly reads like a fairy tale.

Abroad, in the Arab and international media, the waters crested over the dam
and have sought a new level. US imperialism is projected via a reputation
for omniscience and omnipotence, intelligence and power of epic proportions,
great wealth and ultimate invincibility. The teleological conspiracy
theories so rampant in the Arab world linking the September 11 attacks to
the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, fed by the outright lies
about WMDs -- the US must have known, even planned, how things would turn
out -- are built on this parable of indestructibility and foolproof
information. Now it turns out that it is not only Asian nations that lack
early warning systems to sound the alarm before disaster strikes; it is not
only Asians who have to smell the stench of death in the streets for weeks
or have to beg for basic necessities. On al-Jazeera, the coverage has been
respectful and sympathetic, but not without a few tastes of irony, both
whimsical and bitter. The pan-Arab satellite channel reported Fidel Castro's
offer of a Cuban relief package as if it might be accepted. It also
broadcast pictures of uniformed and armed Americans bypassing corpses that
would be familiar to regular viewers of its photojournalism from Iraq. The
bankruptcy of US promises of "security" in both Gulfs lies devastatingly
exposed.

The Bush administration chose this moment to send its new Undersecretary of
State for Public Diplomacy, the inveterate spinstress Karen Hughes, on a
"listening tour" of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. As she deflected pointed
questions with platitudes and promises, her audiences responded with growing
incredulity. The credibility gap is felt there, too.

 

[jjw1965]

Bohemian Grove Employee Blows the Whistle on Inside Events

Steve Watson & Alex Jones | September 29 2005


Yesterday Alex Jones was joined on air by a guest who worked inside Bohemian Grove and got up close and personal with the macabre rituals of the elite and their homosexual tendencies. These new revelations have been heard nowhere else.

"Kyle" has worked at the Grove for their Spring Jinx for the "neophytes", the newcomers or outsiders, and for the official fifteen day Summer encampment festival.

The Grove is a private 2,700 acre redwood retreat on the Russian River in Sonoma County, California. Described as the "Greatest Men's Party on Earth," the members of the Bohemian Club and international elites have been gathering in their redwoods for over 100 years. Regular visitors include the Bushes, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, Newt Gingrich, whilst past luminaries have included Former Presidents Regan and Nixon, together BEFORE they had even taken office.


The most famous ritual that occurs at the Grove every year is the Symbolic Pagan Worship of Molech–the ‘god’ of Child Sacrifice. A bound effigy is burned in a "Cremation of Care" ceremony under a 40ft Stone Owl. Remember that political figureheads from around the world attend this sacrifice ceremony. German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt wrote of his fondness for the Grove ceremonies in his Biography "Men and Power". If your neighbours were doing this in their back yard wouldn't you be slightly concerned? These people are making decisions that have global repercussions.

The Camp at the Grove is riddled with imagery of death, sacrifice, skulls and Owls, as is the Club's Headquarters in San Francisco.


This all sounds bizarre and incredible, you couldn't make it up. Yet we have seen again and again how elite figures are obsessed with these kinds of activities. We have a full archive and Alex has infiltrated and made a full length feature film on the occult rituals that take place on an annual basis at the elite hideaway at the Bohemian Grove.

There are many offshoots of the Bohemian Club, The most famous US branch is the "Brotherhood of Death" known as Skull and Bones, members of which include Both Bushes and recent Democratic nominee John kerry.

In the past members have bragged about how far reaching plans are hatched and policies set within the grove, such as the Star Wars defense initiative and the Manhattan Project.

"Kyle" went on record as saying he witnessed Colin Powell, Justice Clarance Thomas, Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson all in attendance at this year's encampment.


The most honored guests reside in one of 119 camps known as Mandalay and rarely venture down to the dining circle of the Grove. Even other Grove members are not allowed to go near this camp without an invitation.

"Kyle" entered the Grove, without knowing anyone else in there, after an interview at the Grove in April. Immediately he took the chance to sneak around by driving in beyond the security gate which was at the time unattended. At this point the security was not overwhelming as there were no luminaries inside.

"Kyle" then described driving up to the lake area and getting a close up view of the 40ft Stone Owl.





Upon returning to begin work at the annual "Spring Jinx" "Kyle" witnessed the extensive use of biometric scanning equipment. Employees now have to hand scan to gain entry and to leave the Grove. It seems that security has been stepped up since Alex Jones infiltrated over five years ago. The members are able to forego this scanning and simply have ID cards.

Alex snook in through the undergrowth before the main entrance to the grove. "Kyle" stated that there are now motion sensors all over that area to prevent any new would-be intruders.

"Kyle" described how the employees at the Grove are segregated in separate areas and have to wear different color coded badges.

He then went on to describe how as one of the younger men in there, he was approached numerous times by men in their 50s, 60s and 70s and asked if he "slept around".


We have previously exposed how members of the grove have both male and female prostitutes and even gay porn stars flown in for the Summer camp. Former President Richard Nixon is on record questioning the activities at the Grove, making reference to the debase, decadent attitude as well as the homosexual activity there.


"Kyle" went on to reveal how as well as containing lots of Satanic themed imagery, the Grove is also very Pagan in nature. There is a large statue of the Godess Diana, the main Circle is named Diana, there are buses named Diana, Old Druid and hamadryad (From Greek/Roman mythology - A wood nymph who lives only as long as the tree of which she is the spirit lives or a King Cobra) which is one of the high priests in the Cremation of Care ceremony.



Cremation Of Care Ceremony

"Kyle" described how he managed to find the building in which garb for the main Cremation of Care ceremony was housed. He filmed inside with his small camera with two hands but was so on edge that you can see he is physically shaking.






"Kyle" described how he saw multiple "effigies" for use in the Cremation of Care Ceremony in addition to the one inside the Hollow Stone Owl. There is a body that they drive in on a hearse, one that is rowed across the lake by the grim reaper and a third that is burned in the Molech Owl.

He also described how prior to the ceremony he managed to get inside the Owl and witnessed electrical equipment presumably for use during the ceremony for fireworks or to light the fire and burn the effigy.

According to "Kyle" the Cremation of Care ceremony has altered only slightly since Alex caught it on video. There were some new effects and a different voice over for "care". Previously the voice had been reported as Walter Kronkite, yet "Kyle" reported that Kronkite, one of the "Hillbillies" along with the Bushes was there but was not in good health.



"Kyle" has managed to get around five hours of video and 50 photos in the Grove with the use of a pen camera. This footage will be included in a re-release of Alex's Dark Secrets Inside Bohemian Grove. The first showing of this will be at the Downtown Alamo Drafthouse in Austin on the 9th of October, with a follow up the day after.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

IS IT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, G.W. BUSH, OR BOTH?

By Pastor Chuck Baldwin

September 30, 2005

NewsWithViews.com

The Republican Party professes to stand for less government and more freedom. It claims to be a conservative party. However, ever since assuming control of the entire federal government, it has revealed itself to be something entirely different.

For example, since the White House and both houses of Congress have been under Republican Party domination, the federal government has increased federal expenditures and deficits to levels never before seen. Beyond that, individual liberties have come under federal assault in ways that would make even old King George seem tame.

The latest example of the Republican Party's seeming insatiable desire to eviscerate constitutional liberties is the announcement by President Bush that he seeks to federalize domestic emergencies. According to The Washington Times, "President Bush yesterday [September 26] sought to federalize hurricane-relief efforts, removing governors from the decision-making process."

The Times reports that Bush is seeking to change federal law to create "a new, direct line of authority that would allow the president to place the Pentagon in charge of responding to natural disasters, terrorist attacks and outbreaks of disease."

According to the Times report, President Bush wants to shift power and authority to deal with domestic emergencies from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and give it to the Department of Defense (DoD).

However, as the Times notes, "tabilizing a crisis might require federal troops to arrest looters and perform other law-enforcement duties, which would violate the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. The law was passed in the wake of the Civil War and Reconstruction to prevent the use of federal troops from policing elections in former Confederate states.

"The White House wants Congress to consider amending Posse Comitatus in order to grant the Pentagon greater powers."

Before the American people allow their congressmen to yield to the president's thirst for greater and greater federal expansion into the affairs of states and local communities, however, they need to realize that the end result of this power-grab will only prove to be an unmitigated disaster for liberty! In fact, it would literally undo the American experiment and turn our country into a monarchy at worst or an oligarchy at best.

Military personnel are not trained (and should not be) for domestic law-enforcement. They cannot worry about Mirandizing suspects or waiting for search warrants. Their concern is not about the right of Habeas Corpus or the laws against searches and seizures. To them is committed the waging of war. They are trained to kill and destroy. Do we really want to send soldiers and Marines into our own streets and neighborhoods with their guns turned on American citizens? God forbid!



The reason freedom has survived more than 200 years of history is due to the American people's lawful access to firearms and to the preservation of our republican form of government. It appears that President Bush is determined to undo the latter. And if the way in which the Republican Party quickly passed an egregiously flawed Patriot Act is any indicator, the GOP seems poised to support Bush in this quest, also.



The Republican Party needs to do some serious introspection. Are these despotic machinations the personal foibles of a fumbling Chief Executive or are they the innate desires of the entire party? The GOP's recent love affair with burgeoning government and shrinking liberties makes it necessary for every lover of freedom to seriously ponder that question.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

AMERICA UNDER THE IMPERIAL ROMAN EAGLE


Dorothy A. Seese
October 2, 2005
NewsWithViews.com

There is no doubt that the rise and fall of the United States of America bears a close resemblance to the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, from its days as a representative republic to the final collapse in its own debauchery, too weak to fight even if inclined so to do. The imperial eagle is the emblem used by both Rome and the United States, a bird of freedom and power, but also a bird of prey. How fitting.

A television series I recently watched on Rome's technological advances, engineering excellence, and moral perversion made a direct comparison between the USA and Rome, something that surprised me just a little since it was shown on a rather popular educational channel. Rome's arches made possible engineering feats centuries ahead of their time. Roman roads still exist, in part, centuries after the fall of the empire. America's transcontinental railroads, automobiles and airlines, use of laser technology and nuclear capability have made possible a republic wealthier than any since Roman times, stronger than its neighbors around the world, and now more to be feared. Sadly, the corruptive seeds inherent in the possession of power have made it a target for a fall equal to or greater than that of Rome.

While New York symbolizes the financial strength of the US, more fictional than real due to our enormous debt and interdependence on other nations, a precalculated condition brought about by the modern Visigoths who control international finance and demand cooperation from the US, Las Vegas symbolizes Pompeii, the riotous living capital of the Roman empire. Millions of people, American as well as foreign tourists, flock there to indulge themselves in every vice and leave behind billions of dollars for the luxury of such an experience. The exotic hotel complexes, more lavish than anything Pompeii could have offered, showcase restaurants where dinner for two costs the revelers over $300. And that's just dinner. It isn't difficult to drop ten to twelve thousand dollars for a single weekend in Las Vegas.

Romans also lost their identity in the growth of the empire. Roman citizenship became conveyed on any and all who would swear allegiance to, or contribute money to, the emperor's treasury. Being a "Roman" came to mean being a non-slave or a non-barbarian (generally those who spoke Slavic or Germanic languages). By so diluting the identity of Romans as being what we today regard as Italians, the empire grew weaker as it grew larger, and each language group became minimally bilingual ... Latin for business, the native language for all other purposes. This cultural dilution was encouraged by the Roman emperor and his court for the purpose of gaining finances to protect their extensive borders, but every time they succeeded in gaining money, they lost power and became bankrupt. When they could not pay their huge standing army, it deserted. In the US, we're cutting and have cut our military strength, yet our military is still efficient if allowed to be so. It's being used up, decimated in fact, by useless foreign wars in places where we are accomplishing nothing. Not even Rome began a campaign with nothing more in mind than to lose!

However, not all is lost in our wars-for-nothing, other than the lives of soldiers who are as expendable as Roman soldiers or worse, the gladiators who died in the arenas of public entertainment. The US has a multinational military/industrial complex that benefits financially, at the expense of the American taxpayer, from supplying the military and gaining large contracts for "rebuilding" devastated areas, at best a ridiculous notion from an imperial standpoint. But, this is a different age and has been since the Marshall Plan. The presence of US troops is a hollow shadow of the protection once offered, and our armies are expendable if they accomplish a presence that allows the construction contracts to proceed. That isn't capitalism, it is tyranny and tyranny at its worst, disguised as capitalism. Huge monopolies form an elite that has allied itself with the global governance elite of bankers and financiers at the expense of human lives and the destruction of the Republic.

Romans, in the period of the Republic, were quite religious folks, dedicated to several deities borrowed from Babylon by way of Greece. While this is no endorsement of their pagan deities, at least the people did have some higher authorities, capricious as they were, to please. In America, founded by devout Christians seeking religious freedom from the Anglican church (those Mayflower folks), churches were built, universities and theological seminaries built to teach the essentials of the Christian faith, doctrine and practice. Whatever criticisms we might have of their intolerance for other practitioners of the Christian faith, this nation was most certainly colonized by those who were devout believers in the Christ, the Bible, and the simple Christian life.

The founders who organized, fought and won the American Revolution had respect for if not total belief in the Holy Scriptures. The idea that the vast universe just "big banged" itself into existence would have been called heresy or worse. The intricacies of design obvious in all things, and the interdependence of climate, crops, pollenization, growth cycles and times of restoration were sufficient to satisfy most colonists that man is not an accident but a direct creation of a personal God who demands accountability from His creation. While cigars were tolerated, homosexuality was absolutely forbidden by law and punishable by that law.

However, just as Rome tired of its deities and began to ignore them, Americans of the late 19th and 20th centuries tired of God's absolute rules, considered them restrictive and regressive, and thus began to chip away at the foundational Christian principles of our founders' government. The Supreme Court was used/misused to end prayer in schools, approve of abortion as a woman's "constitutional right" and is now faced with whether it shall redefine marriage to include any union. Even Rome, with its rampant homosexuality and pedophilia, never attempted to redefine marriage! While marriages were often matters of money and convenience, they were always between man and woman. In that regard, the Romans were just one baby step ahead of the United States and its redefinition of marriage.

Christianity thrived in the Roman empire, so much so that Nero found it convenient to pin his little bonfire on this "new sect" of religionists and use Christian captives as human torches to light his patio parties.

In America, we are not far from having our Bibles banned as "hate literature." Why? Because it condemns fornication, adultery, pornography and homosexuality. To condemn such can be construed as "hating" or "propagating hatred" of those involved, which happens to be a growing segment of Americans or persons living in this country. The supposed 80% of Americans who declare they are "Christian" is either a totally skewed figure or the pollsters selected their samples from the American midwest and the South. If 80% of our people were Bible-believing, obedient Christians, this nation would have had a revolt at the first Supreme Court decision in 1962 removing prayer from the schools. Only weak, careless, pew-warming churchgoers who attend for the sake of appearances would have allowed such an attack on the practices of our nation since it was a British colony to prevail.

Instead, our church are figuring out how to "get with the program" and bring in more people for more money, more offerings in the plate. Rather than serving the poor, they build grandiose buildings to "honor" God, but they are honoring the god of mammon, not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not the Great "I AM."

Thus, the United States, with the Imperial Eagle at the forefront, marches straight into the abyss with Rome and its predecessors that have been left in the dust by history. Babylon, or the "spirit of Babylon" jumps from one empire to another seamlessly, with its greedy commerce, false religion and corrupt politics.

Just as it was with Rome, is with the United States, so shall it be with the One World Government, the final age of human government that will incur the final judgment on man's inability to govern himself or live apart from the evil nature within him.

I have loved my country. My government lost my respect in 1965 and thereafter, a-whoring after other nations for the sake of a few unscrupulous millionaires claiming "free trade" in the stead of what should have been called treason. America's resources were great, they have been wrongfully exploited and much of our land is owned by those outside the United States, non-citizens, whose interests are to take and not give, to ruin what we built before non-citizens were permitted to own property in the United States.

Many patriots want to take back the United States, thinking that we need only fight the present government. That is limited thinking. Patriots would have mercenaries from all over the world, courtesy of the United Nations, ready to kill any American who rises up against this unjust and debauched system.

hmm. Interesting parallels......

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Bunker-days with Reichsfuehrer George
Mike Whitney




October 8, 2005

Bush's speech to the National Endowment for Democracy was a long and tedious journey through the shadowy world of terrorism. It was loaded with the same wearisome phantoms and dreary evil-doers that have appeared in every Bush speech since September 2001. Bush is beginning to sound like the three wheeled ox-cart trundling down the road emitting the same shrill screech with every rotation. The man needs some new material.

His dismal performance on Thursday further demonstrated his inability to grasp reality or to deal with the mess he's created. He dredged up the lackluster imagery of 9-11 to cobble together a 40 minute monologue that excluded every topic of national interest except terrorism. Even his audience, which was chock-full of flag-waving jingoes and "democracy-spreading" zealots, appeared dumbstruck.

"Recently our country observed the fourth anniversary of a great evil, and looked back on a great turning point in our history," Bush said. "We will confront this mortal danger to all humanity. We will not tire, or rest, until the war on terror is won."

9-11; 9-11; 9-11, ad infinitum.

Bush's penchant for repetition would leave Joseph Geobbels wincing. It's simply impossible to reiterate the same mantra for 4 years without producing a jaw-dropping silence among one's audience. That's especially true given the latest polls that show that only 7% of Americans think that terrorism is the most important topic on the national docket. For Bush, however, terrorism is the last flimsy bit of straw that holds his presidency together.

"Our nation stood guard on tense borders; we spoke for the rights of dissidents and the hopes of exile; we aided the rise of new democracies on the ruins of tyranny," Bush boomed."In this new century, freedom is once again assaulted by enemies determined to roll back generations of democratic progress."

Bush's delusional ravings are increasingly reminiscent of his German forebears in the waning "bunker-days" of the Reich.

Is there someone in the crowd who hasn't heard of Bush's threat to veto a Defense Dept spending bill to preserve his inalienable right to torture prisoners? And yet, even while the bombs are falling on far off Tal Afar, or thousands of America's poor and huddled masses have been shunted off to relocation centers, or hundreds of skeletal prisoners in Guantanamo waste away under Bush's approving glare; the imposter-in-chief still rattles on about "freedom and democracy".

It's extraordinary.

Bush's soliloquy contained all the shrill invective and empty-headed rhetoric we've heard a thousand times before; the same bedraggled metaphors the same fusty platitudes, the same scripted delivery.

"While the killers choose their victims indiscriminately, their attacks serve a clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs and goals that are evil, but not insane. Some call this evil Islamic radicalism; others, militant Jihadism; still others, Islamo-fascism. This form of radicalism exploits Islam to serve a violent, political vision: the establishment, by terrorism and subversion and insurgency, of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom."

Bush has joined fellow-travelers Hitchens, Friedman, and Blair in pushing the errant theory that terrorism arises from an "evil ideology". The assumption has been discredited by experts like Robert Pape, who have proved beyond a doubt that more than 90% of all terrorist attacks are a response to occupation not ideology. They hate our soldiers garrisoned in their countries not "our freedoms".

"Figures show that Al Qaida today is less a product of Islamic fundamentalism than of a simple strategic goal: to compel the US and Western allies to withdraw combat forces from the Arabian Peninsula and other Muslim counties." (Robert Pape; NY Times 7-9-05)

Still, we can't expect Bush or his dissembling cadres to abandon their last frail shred of legitimacy.

No way.

If Bush was serious about "evil ideologies" he'd direct his attention to the neocon dogma that has already killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, with millions more entering the imperial crosshairs every day.

Who are the real terrorists?

"We know the vision of the radicals because they've openly stated it," Bush averred. "The militant network wants to use the vacuum created by an American retreat to gain control of a country...The terrorists regard Iraq as the central front in their war against humanity. And we must recognize Iraq as the central front in our war on terror."

Blah, blah, blah. There's nothing here but pure, unalloyed fear-mongering; 5 years of blather neatly wrapped in one fatuous paragraph.

What a pathetic creature Bush is; a tattered coat-on-a-stick waving his finger in the air in false bravado with head bobbing like it's on a spring. What a poseur, a flimsy, cardboard cut-out of a man, slapped on a TV screen in a blue suit, or with sleeves rolled up for a Crawford photo-op. If you could get close enough you could pass your hand through this pasty-gray hologram; this vacuous political light-show that appears like an apparition and then vanishes into thin air; its 100% fakery from stem to stern.

How apropos that Bush would proffer his terror-fantasies to the NED, that amalgam of global warriors who are under contract to spread the neoliberal message to the four corners of the earth; the modern-day Trostkyites who siphon money from the public till to topple regimes and bring in the corporate parasites from Halliburton, Bechtel and Blackwater. How convenient to have the forces of empire assembled under one blood-stained banner to reaffirm their lifelong commitment to pilfering the world's oil and grinding the great mass of humanity into endless, crushing poverty.

Bush's terror-speech will do nothing to boost his popularity. The latest polls all show Bush and Co. headed for the bottom of the political fish-tank. Don't expect a change in tactics though, Bush will ride bin Laden's coattails to the bitter end. Terrorism is the grand deception; the "Big Lie" that animates the war machine and breathes life into the crusade of wanton destruction.

"The murderous ideology of the Islamic radicals is the great challenge of our new century... It's like the ideology of communism.and explains their cold-blooded contempt for human life.

Like the ideology of communism, our new enemy is dismissive of free peoples, claiming that men and women who live in liberty are weak and decadent... Those who despise freedom and progress have condemned themselves to isolation, decline, and collapse. Because free peoples believe in the future, free peoples will own the future".

Yup; 4 years later and they still "hate our freedoms". They're not seeking relief from the American soldier who has a boot on their neck, or who shoots them at check-points, or who humiliates them in their own home in front of their children, or who tortures them in Saddam's prisons, or who bombs their wedding parties, or who poisons their land, or who steals their resources, or who savagely kills over 100,000 of their brothers and sisters. Nope; it's "our freedoms" they hate.

The people who tuned in to Bush's speech thinking they'd hear something different, some willingness to change direction and put the ship-of-state aright, must have been sorely disappointed. The Bush loyalists are radicals to the core, unable to accept responsibility for their actions and incapable of reason. The speech was the culmination of 5 years of unrelenting deception and demagoguery. Nothing has changed. It's futile to hope that fanaticism can be tempered or mitigated. It's either rooted out or it spreads.

 

[Kellen]

Bush's little power trip has definately damaged the U.S's economy and it's standing in the international scene, but will it destroy America? :roll: Wishful thinking on your part I guess.

 

[unclepercy]

Will Neocon Fanaticism Destroy America?
Already has.

No, it hasn't. Today I went to the grand opening of a new mall and spent 8 hrs. walking around looking at the people.

First of all, I did not see any discontent. Mostly there were Caucasian people with children, but there were a few Orientals,
a few Mexicans, and a few blacks - and even a few Muslims. Everyone was getting along well. Relatively few were fat. The beautiful sunny day provided a great setting for this event. The shop owners were polite and attentive. The shoppers were
friendly with one another.

America is happy and prosperous. I felt safe alone. Everyone was enjoying themselves and buying heavily. We have not been destroyed - don't jump to conclusions.

Uncle

 

[JomZ]

Ok Uncle, I'll play along.

Has Neoconservatism destroyed America, the answer is No. Yet, it has modulated your perceptions of reality in America.

One of the core essence's of the Neoconservative Ideology is that America is the force of good in the world. Therefore, for Neocons to survive they need a force of evil, and they must convince the populace that in fact these enemies are real and threatening. First was the Soviets and now its Islamic radicals.

In your statement:

First of all, I did not see any discontent. Mostly there were Caucasian people with children, but there were a few Orientals,
a few Mexicans, and a few blacks - and even a few Muslims.

You seperately addressed the muslim people from that of all other ethnicities at your mall opening, and subconciously infer that they are infact partaking in a capitalist society (and not that radically either).

I don't assume that you did it on purpose, but I will point out that you did do it. This may be the result of Neocon propaganda that is subverted into the mainstream media (terror alerts, editorials on how terrorists can kill you, etc.), which covertly plants the notion of being astutley aware of Muslim's in your daily life, and possibly be suspicious of them (depending on your own personal views and experiences).

The question should be is the Neoconservatism Ideology a major factor in the deterioration of your American Dream? You know, Truth, Justice and Equality under the Law.

 

[Ten Packs]

The Neo-Con movement is on the verge of imploding.... people there are looking at what? going on 3 years in Iraq, and it's more out of control than ever? A General testified to a committee last week that there is ONE (count 'em - ONE!) Battalion of Iraqi soldiers that can handle things themselves. We will be seeing (sadly) #2000, of the American Dead, before they have THEIR Thanksgiving. The budget is already in the HUNDREDS of Billions for this farce, and way more to come - even though they swore up and down it would be 90, TOPS!

Bush's numbers (not that it matters, he's done in a little over three years anyway) are TANKING....


"Turn out the Lights - the Party's over!"

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Will Neocon Fanaticism Destroy America?
Already has.

No, it hasn't. Today I went to the grand opening of a new mall and spent 8 hrs. walking around looking at the people.

First of all, I did not see any discontent. Mostly there were Caucasian people with children, but there were a few Orientals,
a few Mexicans, and a few blacks - and even a few Muslims. Everyone was getting along well. Relatively few were fat. The beautiful sunny day provided a great setting for this event. The shop owners were polite and attentive. The shoppers were
friendly with one another.

America is happy and prosperous. I felt safe alone. Everyone was enjoying themselves and buying heavily. We have not been destroyed - don't jump to conclusions.

Uncle

with due respect......... the example you present does not portray a valid research study of the issue. Just looking around and seeing people "get along".......says very little. *pretty sure you would find this in any mall , in any city on this planet. One has to examine this much deeper.......and actually interview people for their thoughts on the matter ( for a public sampling)

the other thing is .......that someone on the outside, looking in is usually a LOT More objective .

In a way neocon fascism HAS already "destroyed" amerika. ....the true amerika that represented what the founding fathers had in mind. This has been happening for some time., but the currrent neo con administration has really tipped it over the edge. ......to the point there a limited checks and balances . Reality is that one might not notice the impact yet , in one's every day life.

 

[Reverend Blair]

The Neo-Con movement is on the verge of imploding.... people there are looking at what? going on 3 years in Iraq, and it's more out of control than ever? A General testified to a committee last week that there is ONE (count 'em - ONE!) Battalion of Iraqi soldiers that can handle things themselves. We will be seeing (sadly) #2000, of the American Dead, before they have THEIR Thanksgiving. The budget is already in the HUNDREDS of Billions for this farce, and way more to come - even though they swore up and down it would be 90, TOPS!

Bush's numbers (not that it matters, he's done in a little over three years anyway) are TANKING....


"Turn out the Lights - the Party's over!"

And yet we still see the basic tools of the neo-conservative movement, as defined by Leo Strauss himself, in use every day. Strauss promoted the use of extreme patriotism, basically jingoism, and a state religion, right wing Christianity, as a means of controlling the population. The Bush boys bought into Straussian theory, and not just his half-baked ideas on unfettered capitalism, and have been practicing it.

It hasn't lost its effectiveness either.

80% of Republicans still support Bush. That seems like a low number for within the Republican Party, but considering that Republicans are supposed to be conservative and the Bush regime is radical, that's really high.

The US press is still largely uncritical of the White House. Even Americans who don't like Bush still talk about supporting their president during war-time. Republicans still paint Democrats as godless heathens, even though most of them have the exact same god.

Neoconservatism is slowly losing its power, Ten Packs. What began as Rummy and a few pals telling lies under Nixon and Ford has grown to monumental proportions though and isn't going to disappear any time soon. The reason is that it isn't based on policy or fact, it's based on jingoism and religiousity.

 

[unclepercy]

Ok Uncle, I'll play along.

Has Neoconservatism destroyed America, the answer is No. Yet, it has modulated your perceptions of reality in America.

One of the core essence's of the Neoconservative Ideology is that America is the force of good in the world. Therefore, for Neocons to survive they need a force of evil, and they must convince the populace that in fact these enemies are real and threatening. First was the Soviets and now its Islamic radicals.

In your statement:

First of all, I did not see any discontent. Mostly there were Caucasian people with children, but there were a few Orientals,
a few Mexicans, and a few blacks - and even a few Muslims.

You seperately addressed the muslim people from that of all other ethnicities at your mall opening, and subconciously infer that they are infact partaking in a capitalist society (and not that radically either).

I don't assume that you did it on purpose, but I will point out that you did do it. This may be the result of Neocon propaganda that is subverted into the mainstream media (terror alerts, editorials on how terrorists can kill you, etc.), which covertly plants the notion of being astutley aware of Muslim's in your daily life, and possibly be suspicious of them (depending on your own personal views and experiences).

The question should be is the Neoconservatism Ideology a major factor in the deterioration of your American Dream? You know, Truth, Justice and Equality under the Law.

I suppose I separated the Muslims out because we have literally not seen any mixed in our general population until the last ten years. It is still an oddity.

What deterioration? You are making a BIG assumption, and you are not paying attention to what I said. I just told you that I saw prosperity, perfect social behavior in a very large crowd, MANNERS, smiles, and no lack of attendance because of gas prices.

You have created some perfect dream that no one here expects/we never said we were perfect. If there is a chink in our armour - you scream and point. I am telling you that from my experience, everything is JUST FINE here. Not perfect, but we are doing OK. You can quit crying "WOLF!" on our behalf.

Uncle

 

[peapod]

Bet ya there were some nice fuzzy warm apple pie pics coming out of germany in the da late thirties to....reminds me of styx...the grand illusion.

 

[Kellen]

Bet ya there were some nice fuzzy warm apple pie pics coming out of germany in the da late thirties to....reminds me of styx...the grand illusion.

:roll: