Monday, July 23, 2007

Here's what I think...

Just to start things off, I'll give you an overview of what I see as a few current critical issues, with links and comment throughout.

Things are lively but inconclusive and frustrating on the impeachment front. And as usual, Nancy Pelosi is spouting more apologist nonsense, this time with a whole new talking point about how the party could become fragmented over impeachment and, as a result, fail to win super-majorities in 2008.

That's nice, Nancy, but please don't expect me to buy into yet another clichéd argument on the heels of such brilliant ones as: He's going to be gone anyway so why bother (even though a couple of recent presidential directives [not subject to congressional vote or review] set the stage for martial law and cancellation of the '08 elections, along with the seizure of assets of anyone disagreeing with BushCo's Iraq policies, assuming any exist).

Or how impeachment wouldn't leave enough time to do the peoples' business (even though impeachment is the ONLY valid way to serve the people right now, unless bombing and possibly nuking Iran, continuing the Iraq genocide, and escalating domestic repression and voiding the Constitution are now regarded as great ideas by our slack-jawed, Fox-poisoned idiot citizenry).

Or how we should give the investigations time to work, even though BushCo simply laughs at the subpoenas and orders his subordinates not to honor them -- for which he should be indicted for obstruction of justice, yet another impeachable offense that carries serious criminal penalties unless you're a republican named Scooter Libby -- or any other republican, for that matter.

There are at least four really good reasons to impeach Bush and Cheney right now, along with the rest of this hideous administration:

1 Simple justice says they must be held accountable for their crimes, and punished to the full extent of the law.

2 Their totalitarian agenda must be exposed so that the American people understand the magnitude of their unprecedented criminality.

3 Somebody has to put a stop to their murderous agenda before they can nuke Iran or shed any more blood in Iraq or Afghanistan.

4 They must serve as an example of what will happen to the next right wing cabal if it tries to replace representative democracy with fascism.

And then there’s impeachment as the last means of self-defense. It’s getting a bit urgent, and all the pieces are in place to install a pure fascist dictatorship. Below are links to the presidential directives mentioned above, an excerpt from a particularly odious provision within each of them, and articles or blog postings explaining their significance.

This is the most recent, and sanctions property and liquid asset seizure for pretty much anyone BushCo deems a pain in the ass. Here's the text of the directive:

How to legally steal your stuff

Here's a particularly awful part:

"(c) the term "United States person" means any United States citizen, permanent resident alien, entity organized under the laws of the United States or any jurisdiction within the United States (including foreign branches), or any person in the United States. (NOTE: Corporations aren’t exempt, unless they’ve recently donated large sums to GOP campaigns,)

(B) undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people; (NOTE: this means anyone at all who's pissing them off, including anti-war protesters and those who donate to leftist political organizations)

Sec. 5. For those persons whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order who might have a constitutional presence in the United States, I find that, because of the ability to transfer funds or other assets instantaneously, prior notice to such persons of measures to be taken pursuant to this order would render these measures ineffectual. I therefore determine that for these measures to be effective in addressing the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 and expanded in Executive Order 13315, there need be no prior notice of a listing or determination made pursuant to section 1(a) of this order." (NOTE: which means they snatch your stuff and you don't know about it until, say, you stick your card in the ATM and find you have zero balance)

And here’s comment on what this actually means in real life:

Outlawing the anti-war movement


The following is a link to two earlier directives, signed May 9, 07, both of which provide the framework and excuses for implementing martial law (which is what declaring a national state of emergency means to these swine). Note that Bush is to be the sole guarantor of the continuance of Constitutional law under these conditions, and that he’s the only one who gets to define what constitutes grounds for declaring a state of emergency.

Lock up the usual suspects

A couple of looks behind the curtain:

“(b) "Catastrophic Emergency" means any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions;“ (NOTE: which means Katrina, a Calif. quake, a flood in the Midwest, a massive power outage, etc. could all trigger the marvelous plans that comprise most of the rest of the directive.)

“(18) The Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall provide secure, integrated, Continuity of Government communications to the President, the Vice President, and, at a minimum, Category I executive departments and agencies.” (NOTE: This would be making sure the usual shadow government entities have uninterrupted access to Il Duce and his puppet masters in the secure white house.)

“(6) The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government.” (NOTE: You may have noticed BushCo’s ongoing respect for Constitutional law, and may assume that such respect will continue after the dictatorship is in place.)

Comment on this blueprint for totalitarianism includes this article detailing the rise of fascism under Bush:

Imperialism and fascism are on the rise in the USA

This one is specific to the DHS and National Security directives:

Bush anoints himself ensurer of Constitutional government in emergency

And this one is the best of the bunch and deals with fabricated “terrorist” attacks (more on that below) as pretext for nuking Iran:

Bush directive for a "catastrophic emergency" in America: Building a justification for waging war on Iran?


So we’ve already seen that the events that would trigger these security state actions are pretty arbitrary, and are defined by Little Lord Hissyfit himself. Meanwhile, there has been a great deal of “buzz” about upcoming terrorist activities against “the homeland.” Predictably, our free press is all over this one, since it gives them yet another opportunity to wave their pompoms and cheer on the Bush Death Machine.

DHS head Michael Chertoff spoke of his “gut” feelings about an impending attack last week (although most attributed it to a pastrami and swiss sandwich of questionable vintage). Here’s Keith Olbermann’s take on Chertoff’s intestines:

Al Qaeda in Michael Chertoff's Stomach: The Terror of a "Gut Feeling"

However, unlike Chertoff, whose resume includes his utter uselessness during the Katrina aftermath, this guy might be worth paying attention to. A former Reagan administration insider credited (?) with the invention of “Reaganomics,” author and national syndicated columnist Paul Craig Roberts is no flaming lefty propagandist. And if he’s concerned, then so am I.

My wake-up call: Watch for another 9/11-WMD experience

A “false flag” operation is an extreme act of governmental propaganda that can consist of mass violence like 9/11, or a manufactured incident – such as the Gulf of Tonkin "attack" – perpetrated by elements in the US security apparatus and blamed on the contemporary US whipping boy and his shadowy band of swarthy evil doers. So Osama was immediately identified as the chief 9/11 perp -- although the entire 9/11 myth is seen by most of the world as a convenient fairy tale to enable BushCo's resource and power grabs, while the North Vietnamese leadership was blamed for the Gulf of Tonkin incident -- which history now tells us never happened.

The intent is to create consent for the next governmental outrage du jour -- like bombing Afghan or Vietnamese civilians -- further demonize the designated bad guys, scare the hell out of the public, encourage rabid unquestioning patriotism, and provide popular support for actions alleged necessary to prevent similar atrocities in the future -- which generally means a military attack on the usual disposable brown people, along with suppression of dissidents at home. Roberts says this about the possibility of BushCo pulling off another one of these false flag black ops:

“Alternatively, false flag “terrorist” strikes could be orchestrated in the US. The Bush administration has already infiltrated some dissident groups and encouraged them to participate in terrorist talk, for which they were arrested. It is possible that the administration could provoke some groups to actual acts of violence.”

In the case of the 9/11 “attacks,” reprisals included invading Afghanistan and Iraq, occupying both, causing massive civilian casualties and incidentally providing the muscle for the US to deploy a huge, permanent military presence in the heart of oil country.

So… still think impeachment isn’t appropriate? Martial law, end of the great democratic republic experiment, asset seizures, terror terror all the time everywhere...

“It Can’t Happen Here,” as Sinclair Lewis titled his novel that demonstrates the opposite, and chronicles the rapid US devolution from representative democracy to fascist dictatorship.

Oh sure it can. In fact, the whole thing is spelled out in the right wing think tank Project for a New American Century's (PNAC) 2000 manifesto called "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century." You can download it as a pdf file by clicking on that link. Before you read it, it might be interesting to look at the signatories at the back of the document. You'll recognize quite a few names.

So just give these maniacs time to put a few more minor pieces in place and we'll suddenly find our thoughts enclosed by virtual razor wire, our savings donated to the GOP, our houses sold to pay for the voracious war machine, our jobs exported, our families broken up -- and Orwell's vision will finally be realized: As O'Brien says to Winston Smith near the end of 1984, "If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever."

Then imagine your face and some BushCo fascist thug's boot. Think maybe it's time to fight back?

wp

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