Independent research and analysis, essays in politics and philosophy.
Monday, February 04, 2008
HEY YOU! Lefties, liberals and progressives – Listen up
I know Obama is the darling of many of you, and I realize that some even like Hillary, but let us consider this most crucial fact. There were only three candidates in the US presidential race with demonstrated integrity in terms of that most essential criterion for becoming the next president of the world’s most powerful nation state – or any other nation for that matter: upholding civil rights and the rule of constitutional democracy during a time when these are under escalating and highly deliberate attack. Many of you will know immediately who I mean. Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, and Ron Paul. These were the only three candidates with proven records of defending constitutional rights and freedoms, as well as the rule of democracy, against the by now undeniable assaults on the same. Mike Gravel, honorable as he is, I do not believe has a chance of winning. Dennis Kucinich has now dropped out of the race. This leaves us with only one serious candidate – that is, one serious candidate if we are serious about protecting civil rights and constitutional democracy. He is US Congressman Dr. Ron Paul.
If we look beyond the rhetoric for a moment, it becomes undeniable that the commitment of the others to upholding or even abiding by the Constitution, is highly questionable, at best. Obama and Hillary both voted in favor of the Patriot Act, which strips away critical liberties, nullifies much of the Bill of Rights, and is an abomination to democracy and the Constitution. Not only did these two chameleons vote in favor of the Patriot Act, but they voted a second time to make 14 of its provisions permanent. Hillary and Obama both voted in favor of the Military Commissions Act, voting in favor of making torture legal in the United States. These are not the actions of democrats. These two are not democrats: they have chosen to side with an assault on democracy. In the now unfolding battle between the corporatocracy and the people, they have shown where they stand. And it is not with the people, however pleasing their slippery rhetoric may appear.
Obama and Hillary have both shown their allegiance, moreover, to the military-industrial complex, to the on-going wars of empire – despite high-sounding words – and to unremitting deaths and destruction in support of global imperial ambition. They have both said, in regards to Iran, “Everything is on the table.” So pre-emptive war and nuclear attack are on the table. This is not only pro-empire, it is dangerous in the extreme, and risks an ecological and humanitarian disaster of the greatest magnitude.
Both Obama and Hillary voted in favor of the war in Iraq – repeatedly, voting to fund it every time Congress was asked. Now they talk of peace. This is sheer hypocrisy. Only Kucinich and Gravel on the Democratic side showed genuine integrity on the issue of war. Obama and Hillary will most likely become a united love-in ticket for the military-industrial complex, and I would advise you in the strongest of terms to re-examine them, and most crucially, their demonstrated records of action, their voting records, before endorsing Mr. and Mrs. corporate war establishment.
If you still have some doubts as to Hillary and Obama, consider also who they have chosen as their key advisors. It will reveal, if we are willing to look, a portrait in imperial criminality. Each of them have chosen as their key advisors, long standing establishment figures, all with blood on their hands, all with grave records of war crimes, crimes against humanity or mass murder. This is not the peace ticket, my friends. This is the ticket to a deepening hell of empire-fetish.
Hillary has named Madeleine Albright as a key advisor, the woman who single-handedly blocked the efforts to halt the genocide in Rawanda, endorsed the sanctions against Iraq, and when questioned on the fact that the sanctions had by that time killed half a million women and children in that country, coldly responded, “We think it’s worth the sacrifice.”
Obama has publicly named Zbigniew Brzezinski as his key advisor – the man who bragged of having created the band of militant extremist Muslims that later became Al Queda – with CIA funding, weapons and training, when he was Carter’s National Security Advisor – in order to lure the Soviet Union into a destabilizing war, “their own Vietnam.” Obama’s right hand man is thus one of the most cold-blooded as well as pre-eminent of Machiavellian strategists for the empire, co-founder of the Trilateral Commission, and chief intellectual in residence to the US business elite. In light of this, Barack Obama should gives us chills – and not of inspiration.
The Washington Post has recently commented on a very strange phenomenon: the political right is joining in a chorus of warmth toward Obama. One voice from the right has said, “We can work with him.” Given Obama’s adoring words toward Reagan, maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. But what does it mean when the political right in America says, “We can work with him.” I would contend that it means the obvious, as outlined above: he is no threat to the present establishment of power. Alan Greenspan has said that Bill Clinton was the best Republican President we’ve had in a long time. I think it’s safe to say that Hillary and Obama would be there, right next to that glorious legacy.
In a comment to Jim Hightower’s excellent article on the dismal state of the Democratic party, one writer said, “If something does not happen, very soon, we are going to have a laughable choice between two Republicans come November for President of the United States.” I’m afraid this is only too true. The only thing progressive about Hillary and Obama is their zeal for serving the corporate empire - it is a progressively demeaning form of treason to the people of the United States, and the Constitution, rights and freedoms upon which their future stands or falls.
I realize it is difficult to even consider voting for someone who is running under a Republican ticket, but remember, the Republican party machine hates him, so he can’t be all bad. Ron Paul has been asked if he is running for the wrong party, to which he replied, he is running for the party that used to be opposed to excessive executive powers, that used to be opposed to interventionist wars – that he is running for what the Republican party used to stand for, long before the emergence of the neoconservatives.
You may not agree with Ron Paul on every point, as I do, being a progressive; you may even disagree with him on some very important points, but you cannot help but agree with him on the most essential points: end the wars of empire, and stop the assault on democracy and civil rights.
Get with the program. This man is going to help save our collective behinds: he is the only candidate we can trust to stand with the people, and not the empire or its corporate backers. Check him out. A great deal rides on the outcome of this election. As the venerable Mike Gravel has said about the US 2008 Presidential race, “We have to get this one right.”
Money, Banks and Democracy: The reality beneath the ideological fantasies and spin
"Power follows property."
The Golden Rule, as cynically applied by the financial elite: "He who holds the gold makes the rules."
Of course, if you can dispense with the need for gold, and still make the rules, that's even better.
I think the evidence is enormously strong that democratically elected governments need to have greater control over their national currencies, not less. The "independence" of a privately owned central bank means economic policies which benefit the private bank's shareholders, rather than the people of the nation.
There is simply overwhelming evidence to support this view. Without democratic control of national currency, via democratically elected bodies such as Congress, sovereignty becomes an impossibility. We need to be dealing with reality here, not ideology.
Central banks that are privately owned - that is, controlled by large corporations or small groups of financial elites - tend to damage national economies while benefiting the financial elite, and more critically, undermine all ability of democratic governments to hold real power on behalf of the people, giving power to the bankers and corporations, and removing effective power from parliament or Congress.
Allowing private empires, such as those who control the FED, to "manage" the nation's money is pretty much letting the wolves guard the hen house. Democratically elected governments have the right, the mandate and the power to print and control the nation’s currency.
To forgo this right and pass this power to highly concentrated financial dynasties, is both unwise and highly dangerous. Jefferson, Jackson and Lincoln knew this, and fought to prevent the handing over of control of the nation's currency to a private bank. They were far more prescient than most people or politicians today. Their advice on keeping the central bank public and democratically controlled should have been heeded. Having failed to heed their warnings, we must today correct our mistake. The issue of control over national currency is absolutely central. All talk of freedom or democracy is meaningless and hollow if this is not addressed.
William Lyon Mackenzie King
Once a nation parts with the control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes the nations laws. Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation. Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of parliament and of democracy is idle and futile.
Thomas Jefferson
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.
“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world - no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.” -President WoodrowWilson
Lord Acton
The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.
James Madison
History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling the money and its issuance.
Mayer Amschel Rothschild
Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes the laws.
Napoleon Bonaparte
When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson.
Lord Acton
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear.
David Rockefeller writes on pages 404 and 405 of his memoirs: "The anti-Rockefeller focus of these otherwise incompatible political positions [across the political spectrum] owes much to Populism. 'Populists' believe in conspiracies, and one of the most enduring is that a secret group of international bankers and capitalists, and their minions, control the world's economy. Because of my name and prominence as the head of the Chase for many years, I have earned the distinction of 'conspirator in chief' from some of these people…Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure - one world, if you will. If that is the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it."
Samuel Adams
If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of Almighty God, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.
Charles A. Lindbergh
This Act (the Federal Reserve Act, Dec. 23rd 1913) establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the President (Woodrow Wilson) signs the Bill, the invisible government of the Monetary Power will be legalised... The worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking and currency Bill.
H. L. Birum, Sr.
The Federal Reserve Bank is nothing but a banking fraud and an unlawful crime against civilization. Why? Because they "create" the money made out of nothing, and our Uncle Sap Government issues their "Federal Reserve Notes" and stamps our Government approval with NO obligation whatever from these Federal Reserve Banks, Individual Banks or National Banks, etc.
Grace Commission
100% of what is collected is absorbed solely by interest on the Federal Debt ... all individual income tax revenues are gone before one nickel is spent on the services taxpayers expect from government.
Henry Ford
It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.
Robert A. Heinlein
Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.
Lord Acton
Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.
Thomas Jefferson
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
Samuel Adams
How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words!
Thomas Jefferson
Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction.
Buddha
Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings -- that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.
John Adams
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.
Samuel Adams
The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.
"The ultimate authority ... resides in the people alone." - James Madison
"It is more honorable to repair a wrong than to persist in it." - Thomas Jefferson
John F. Hylan
The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy legs over our cities states and nation. At the head is a small group of banking houses generally referred to as 'international bankers.' This little coterie... run our government for their own selfish ends. It operates under cover of a self-created screen...[and] seizes...our executive officers... legislative bodies... schools... courts... newspapers and every agency created for the public protection.
Justice Felix Frankfurter
The real rulers in Washington are invisible and exercise power from behind the scenes.
Charles-Louis De Secondat
There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.
Major L. L. B. Angus
The modern Banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented. Banks can in fact inflate, mint and unmint the modern ledger-entry currency.
"Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the Field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere -- so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive -- that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it." - Woodrow Wilson
Carroll Quigley
The powers of financial capitalism had (a) far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank...sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world.
“They must find it difficult…those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority.” – Gerald Massey
“Where is the knowledge that is lost in information?
Where is the wisdom that is lost in knowledge?”
- T.S. Elliot
“Put fear behind and save the country.” – Simon Bolivar
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt.
“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.” – Thomas Jefferson
"If there is anything which it is the duty of the whole people to never entrust to any hands but their own -- that thing is the preservation of their own liberties and institutions." – Abraham Lincoln
"The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution." - Abraham Lincoln
A diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty. - James Madison
"I have the Confederacy before me, and the bankers behind me, and for my country I fear the bankers most." - Abraham Lincoln.
Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day. – Thomas Jefferson
HR 1955: The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act
What is HR 1955, and why should we be interested? Here is a short introduction. More than we may imagine rides on the peoples' response to this newest development in the war on democracy.
Passed by a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives with a vote of 404-6, October 23, 2007.
Freedom of speech, association and assembly will be illegal in the US once the Senate and President sign on – and neither oppose it. With this law, dissent will be illegal. The unmistakable import of this new law is the criminalization of dissent.
The FBI’s infamous Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) stated clearly, in documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, that, “through counter-intelligence, it should be possible to pinpoint potential trouble makers (sic) and neutralize them.” J. Edgar Hoover said of his COINTELPRO operation that his intent was to “neutralize political dissidents.” The FBI’s COINTELPRO operated illegally. HR 1955 now makes legal the mechanisms for neutralizing dissent. Expressing an opinion or view that is not favourable to the current ruling powers may be met with repression. America is now officially a fascist state.
The bill is moving rapidly through Congress, and may be signed into law by February. Dissent and debate in the US House of Representatives was virtually non-existent. The media networks have been silent. Spread the news: the internet and face to face communication seem to be the only means to get this critical information out.
"Legislation such as this demands heavy-handed governmental action against American citizens where no crime has been committed," Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul stated to the House in December, after missing the vote while campaigning. "It is yet another attack on our constitutionally protected civil liberties. It is my sincere hope that we will reject such approaches to security, which will fail at their stated goal at a great cost to our way of life."
"It will no doubt prove to be another bureaucracy that artificially inflates problems so as to guarantee its future existence and funding," Paul predicted in his House speech. "But it may do so at great further expense to our civil liberties." It is, he concluded, an "unwise and dangerous solution in search of a real problem."
"If you understand what his bill does, it really sets the stage for further criminalization of protest," said Dennis Kucinich. "This is the way our democracy, little by little, is being stripped away from us."
“There is no way to overstate how crucial this piece of legislation is. We are at a turning point, and without the restoration of the rule of law the "blueprint" for what I have called a "fascist shift" -- the closing down of democracy -- calls for scarier recriminations against citizens, greater tightening of social controls -- the ever-growing, disturbingly political TSA watch list is, alarmingly, due to go from the airlines' administration to that of the TSA itself -- and more corruptions of the electoral process. Blackwater is a truly terrifying wild card. Without the rule of law we will be powerless as each of these assaults on liberty continue to escalate. With it we can fight back.” – Naomi Wolf, author of The End of America, and American Fascism, in 10 easy steps.
“The most pressing liberty Ron Paul, the ACLU, Dennis Kucinich and pretty much most left- and right-leaning organizations fear outright is a restriction on the right of internet access, since the House Subcommittee hearings and text of the resolution seized upon it with almost draconian intent. "The Web as a Weapon?" The question begs another: How do you disarm that weapon?” - Punishing Thought Crime: Would New Bill Make YOU a Terrorist?byScott Thill, AlterNet. January 17, 2008.
Look at the definition of terrorism in this bill. It is defined "the use, planned use or threatened use of force or violence by a group or individual to promote the group or individual's political, religious or social beliefs." Note that the bill states that terrorism may be the use of violence or force to advance political goals. The bill then specifies that the use of “intellectual force” by way of “compelling logical argument” falls under the definition of terrorism. This should make us all shudder. Thought crime. This is the destruction of democracy, civil rights, the constitution and freedom of speech.
It is important to remember that violence is already illegal, and therefore this bill is not about dealing with violence. Hence, this bill is about the use of non-violent “force” – the force of opinion, intellectual force, the force of a logical argument. In short, the bill is designed to combat free speech, and further, to suppress any form of protest, through association, assembly or expression. There is no other way to describe such legislation in any milder terms: this is fascism.
HR 1955 marks the beginning of the police state in America. When this bill is signed into law, dissent will be punishable by arrest without trial, and indefinite incarceration in the detention centers which Haliburton is busy constructing across the “homeland,” not to mention torture, which the Military Commissions Act of 1996 already made legal. Speak now, while you can. (See Homeland Security Contracts for Vast New Detention Camps and YouTube - Olbermann: the beginning of the end of America.)
Write, speak, blog, send letters to your representatives, email the news outlets and let them know that this critical unfolding of events, designed deliberately to destroy democracy and constitutional rights and freedoms, including this latest and most heinous of fascist legislation.
Here are some contact listings for getting the word out.
People of America, here is a coalition, across right and left, that is working to defend freedom, democracy and your constitutional rights. You might want to get involved. The hour is late.
“This is the answer both to those who say "What we can do?" and to those who claim (actually, sometimes whine) "there is nothing we can do." And if we don't act on this now we will get the democracy we deserve -- which is no democracy at all.
“Put aside your partisan ideal world -- sometimes issues simply transcend partisanship -- and if ever there is an issue that is above and separate from party politics, it is the restoration of the democratic system we inherited. There are good people and passionate patriots across the political spectrum.
“Let's do it. There is no excuse now. The restoration of democracy is up to you -- as the Founders intended it should be.” – Naomi Wolf
Get informed, get involved. There is much to be done, and little time.
"If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest." - Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) 3rd American President
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." - Robert Frost
"As an American who long ago realized that the US military is used as a corporate security force to protect globalist assets and interests overseas, and the "wars" and "police actions" are mounted whenever global capital interests are threatened, I felt Dr. Paul deserved further investigation as a viable candidate." You might think this is the statement of a liberal or leftist, but this is a voice from conservative America. Wherever you are on the political spectrum, if you oppose the war in Iraq, if you would not like to see the further escalation and spread of war across the cauldron of the Middle East, would like to see the body count, on both sides, end, or would like to see America stop acting like the world's policeman, and stop wars of empire and aggression, or even if you would simply like to see the US avoid bankruptcy through $1 trillion a year in imperial warfare expenses, then please Google Ron Paul. If you are American, look at this long shot who just might win. If you are not from the United States, tell your American friends to Google Ron Paul.
Key words: Ron Paul, US, war, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, preemptive war, aggression, empire, CIA, Mossadegh, Mujahadeen, Brzezinski, Musharraf, ISI, blowback, bankruptcy, dollar crisis, Middle East, foreign policy, election, 2008, YouTube, Ron Paul 2008, constitution, voting record, freedom, non-intervention, republic
Ron Paul: Basic principles - first things first:
Stop the use of US military as global corporate security force. Restore civil liberties and constitutional rule at home.
In a nutshell: Save the republic, renounce empire.
My American friends, there approaches a fork in the road. The choice is becoming increasingly clear: empire or freedom. Everyone talks of freedom, democracy - like mom and apple pie, such words bring nods of approval, and everyone wants to be associated with them. But words can be hollow, even deceptive, as Orwell warned. In terms of freedom and democracy, one would expect a political candidate to support and adhere to the Constitution, and in practice, not just in speeches. Yet leading Democratic Presidential candidates (Clinton and Obama) voted for the Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act, which together nullify the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and in fact, abolish the 800 year old foundation of all rights under the rule of law, habeas corpus, allowing arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, without trial, indefinitely and without recourse to a lawyer or defense, and allow torture and extra-judicial execution by order of the executive or his representative. Only Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, among the US Presidential candidates, voted to protect the Constitution and Bill of Rights, to protect freedom and civil rights, and to protect democracy from excessive and arbitrary executive power. The other candidates literally voted in favour of demolishing the Constitution, Bill of Rights, civil liberties, freedom, democracy and the Republic, and in favour of arbitrary rule by Presidential decree. America has entered a terrifying new phase of its history. Only Paul and Kucinich among the candidates speak to the truth of this new reality, and only these two men speak and also act to defend the freedom, rights and democracy that are fundamental. Orwell would be nauseous over the rest. Many speak of peace, few have shown their words have any substance. Only Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul have shown action on opposing and reversing the historical pattern of US imperial warfare and wars of aggression. Look at the candidates voting records, not just their sound bite rhetoric. (See www.Vote-Smart.org)The rest are either unabashed pro-war hawks, ardent fence-sitters, or politicians who talk out of both sides of their mouths, saying one thing to win votes, but showing the complete opposite in their actions - and this includes Clinton, Obama and Edwards. (Mike Gravel seems a genuinely honorable and highly informed man of integrity, like Kucinich and Paul, but he is the long shot of long shots, hence I have focused here on the other two decent candidates, as I believe one of them, particularly Ron Paul, could actually win - could become the next president.)
As the insightful and prescient political essayist Gore Vidal put it, the United States has always had two very different currents running throughout its history as a nation: the Great Empire, and the Great Society. Unfortunately, it has been the Great Empire that has been the predominant pattern (my apologies to those who are fond of the American fantasy of sublime and pure history prior to Bush and company). There have always been strong anti-imperialist voices within American society as well, including those of Thomas Jefferson, Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain, Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr. and Noam Chomsky. Ron Paul follows in this most noble of American lineages. These are my American kindred. And I would suggest they are more kindred to the great majority of Americans than citizens of the United States tend to realize. Most Americans want a great society, in peace and in freedom, not a great empire. The fact that nearly 70% of Americans now oppose the war in Iraq is but one indication of such basic common sense and the basic decency of the American people. But the presidential candidates, with the exception of Paul and Kucinich, speak only in PR spin - doublespeak, as Orwell called it.
Substance is what is needed. We must renounce empire in more than words. We must support freedom, democracy and peace in more than pleasing phrases designed to win votes or assuage discontent. We must seek action that is bold and strong, or democracy and freedom will be lost, peace will be an impossibility, and empire will eclipse all hopes for a truly great and free society. If bold and peaceful action is not taken, it will be the end of the republic, the end of freedom in America, and the beginning in a new chapter of global imperial terror for the world.
There must be a deep re-examination of the state of the union, the Republic, democracy, freedom and civil rights, in light of the now oligarchic and profoundly anti-democratic nature of extremely and increasingly concentrated corporate power. Anti-trust laws must be strengthened, particularly in the absolutely critical area of mass communications and media ownership, and election financing reform must gain some real teeth. But these things are not even possible unless the basics of Constitutional rule and civil rights are upheld, and the powers of the executive held in check. Presently, America is sliding rapidly into fascism. Its future will not only deeply affect the American people, but will also profoundly affect the rest of the world.
Ron Paul does not represent the answer to every problem America faces, but he does represent a definitive rejection of the notion of empire, the imperial warfare that goes along with it, and the destruction of civil rights, freedom and democracy which are now entwined with this late-phase imperial ambition. He represents a reinstatement of the Constitution and a restoration of the most basic foundations of the Republic. Without these things, it is hard to see any future for America that is not gravely dark. And if America is not averted from its present dark road, it bodes very, very ill for the rest of the world as well.
The question now, the question for America, is, does America continue along the tragic and failed path of empire, which is to say, rogue nation, disregarding its own constitution, international law and the sovereignty, independence and self-determination of nations and peoples around the world, at the probable cost of American bankruptcy, and the certain cost of many more lives, both American and other, and the inevitable cost of further and possibly more terrible blowback, reaping what it has sown, or rather, the American people, tragically, reaping what its political and business elite have sown; or does America embrace that other current of its history, that more noble current, which upholds the rule of law, respects and honours the freedom and self-determination of all nations and peoples, and sows freedom and democracy by its good example - which is the only thing that works - and not through the barrel of a gun?
Which will it be America? Empire, or great society? The two are now self-evidently mutually exclusive. It cannot be both. Choose wisely my friends. The world is watching. I would urge you, please, choose freedom over empire. Choose the great society, forgo the madness of the great empire, and show the world the true greatness of America, in peace, in brotherhood, and in sisterhood, with all humanity on Earth. This is the basis of a peaceful and harmonious family of humanity: mutual respect in freedom and self-determination, with solidarity and strength in unity - within diversity. Trying to impose uniformity on the world - the impulse to domination - leads to the destruction of both freedom and democracy. It is only through embracing diversity, and recognizing our underlying commonality, despite our differences, our common ground as human beings, and also by renouncing completely the wars of conquest for material gain or economic predation, that we can live in peace, or that freedom or democracy are possible.
Freedom and empire cannot coexist. We are forced to choose one or the other. If we choose empire, say goodbye to freedom - at home as well as abroad. The choices are becoming stark. Freedom and democracy, or empire and fascism?
It is not important that we agree on everything, nor can we. It is enough that we agree on certain essential basics, certain fundamental principles. No to imperial warfare. Yes to freedom and democracy. If the people of America can unite on these two most basic, most essential points of principle, then there will be a new day for America. America, which will it be? America, I hope you have some dreams left. Let they be of peace, of freedom, and of the end of empires.
"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." - Thomas Jefferson
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again." - Thomas Paine
America, a choice is at hand. America, what are your dreams?
This is not about right and left. This is about something more basic. This is about freedom versus empire. America, it is time to decide where you stand, and what you stand for. People of America, speak now. A moment of decision is at hand. There is a fork in the road ahead. Choose wisely. Your decision may be more momentous than you realize. America, this can be a time of rebirth, or the descent into further darkness. There is no time for apathy, no time for despair, no time for the paralysis of fear. Action must now be taken. Be brave: freedom is a powerful idea. Unlock the power of freedom. Restore the Constitution. Save the Republic. Renounce empire. The time is now. This is an historic juncture. It is time to decide.
America, who are you, and where are you going? The fog of delirium, the stupor of illusions, is wearing off. I can see the dawn light. Be clear, be brave, be decisive. Freedom or empire? Choose well my friends.
"The future holds ominous portent, and signs of great hope. Which result ensues depends largely upon what we make of the opportunities." - Noam Chomsky
Below is a collection of photos, quotes, videos and references. There are a lot of resources here, which together make for an excellent summary of where America now stands. You may want to bookmark this page and come back to it more than once.
"It's amazing what you can see - when you look." - Yogi Berra "Whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth." - Patrick Henry
"If the American people knew the blood that was on their hands [by acts carried out in their names] they would be appalled." - Noam Chomsky
"I have to believe that the American people are the most systematically lied to people on Earth; if I did not, I would believe they were the most evil." - Former Foreign Minister of Nicaragua
"We know what to do when someone is caught misappropriating funds, but when confronted with evidence of a systematic attempt to undermine the political system itself, we recoil, in a general failure of imagination and nerve." - Former National Security Council staff member Gary Sick
"Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it." - Robert F. Kennedy
"Somebody, sometime has got to take a stand and say democracy cannot survive, much less thrive with the level of big corporate and big government interference and intimidation in news." - Dan Rather
"In the size of the lie there is always contained a certain factor of credibility, since the great mass of people will more easily fall victims to a great lie than to a small one." - Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf
"If this were a dictatorship it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." - George Bush II
"Beware the military-industrial complex." - Dwight D. Eisenhower
"I wanted the American eagle to go screaming into the Pacific ...Why not spread its wings over the Philippines, I asked myself? ... I said to myself, Here are a people who have suffered for three centuries. We can make them as free as ourselves, give them a government and country of their own, put a miniature of the American Constitution afloat in the Pacific, start a brand new republic to take its place among the free nations of the world. It seemed to me a great task to which we had addressed ourselves. But I have thought some more, since then, and I have read carefully the treaty of Paris [which ended the Spanish-American War], and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem. It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way. And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land." - Mark Twain
"I am said to be a revolutionist in my sympathies, by birth, by breeding and by principle. I am always on the side of the revolutionists, because there never was a revolution unless there were some oppressive and intolerable conditions against which to revolt." - Mark Twain
"Our involvement in the [Persian] Gulf is not transitory. It pre-dated Saddam Hussein's aggression, and will survive it." - George Bush Sr., September 11, 1990
"What I’ve Learned About U.S. Foreign Policy. The basic message being that the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), the military-industrial-complex, the Pentagon, the multinational corporations, the media and the Government of the United States are responsible for the deaths of millions of people in the third world, not to mention the poverty and oppression of millions more. We support, arm, and train dictators and militaries that do these evil actions to their own people. All of this is to insure that we control the natural resources of these countries and their market place, use the people for cheap labor and keep the business of war (which is our biggest business) ongoing."
"Why do we do these grisly things broad? I believe strongly that until we have fundamental change in the United States, domestically, in the domestic system; until we have some kind of real democracy in this country, participatory democracy, where people have a say, and where we end the re-election of 95 to 97% of the incumbents at every election, [the Soviet Union only had a 92% re-election rate!] where there is a real political debate; until we change the domestic system, we're going to have elitist control of United States, we're going to have these foreign adventures, and grisly things that I mentioned that the CIA does abroad, so the real problem is here at home, in changing the domestic system, in bringing about a conversion of the economy to human purposes, solving the domestic crises, and getting the people out of office who are in there to back a continuation of the permanent war economy." - Former CIA Officer Philip Agee
By the way, the Bush family really does have a history of fascist sympathies and Nazi collaboration - something we might want to know:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D6fxyOtVeI
Check the facts. Do your own homework. Don't dismiss or believe anything based upon who said it. See for yourself.
"In the course of hundreds of interviews in the US, Europe and the Middle East, I've been told repeatedly that individuals associated with the Reagan-Bush campaign of 1980 met secretly with Iranian officials to delay the release of the American hostages until after the Presidential election. For this favour, Iran was rewarded with a substantial supply of arms from Israel.....From October 15th to October 20th 1980 events came to a head in a series of meetings in Paris....Accounts of these meetings vary. There is, however, wide spread agreement on a number of points. [One:] William Casey, Reagan's campaign manager, was a key participant. [Two:] Iranian representatives agreed that the hostages would not be released prior to the Presidential election on November 4th. [Three: In return] Israel would serve as a conduit for arms and spare parts to Iran.... At least five of the sources who said they were in Paris in connection with these meetings insist that George Bush [senior] was present for at least one meeting. Three sources say they saw him there....[Former President George Bush denied being in Paris.] Immediately after the Paris meetings things began to happen. Iran shifted its policy position."
- US Congressional testimony of former National Security Council staff member Gary Sick, author of October Surprise
(The American hostages were released the day Reagan - and Bush - took office; in fact, just minutes after Reagan was inaugurated as President.)
"a bias, malicious, deceptive, and manipulative tissue of lies and another reason for Americans to disengage from an establishment media empire that continues to hemorrhage viewers on a daily basis due to its ceaseless lies and propaganda." - An unnamed voice of honesty in a sea of spin and fabrication.
Democracy in the US being destroyed, media networks silent - Greg Palast & RFK in NY
"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
- Thomas Jefferson, 1816
"I have more fear for the banks than from standing armies." - Thomas Jefferson
"I have the South in front of me and the bankers behind me, and for my country, I fear the bankers more." - Abraham Lincoln
"The domination of government by corporate power is the essence of fascism."
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"Fascism, properly named, should be called corporatism, for it is the merger of business and the state. - Mussolini
"If you want to remain slaves of the bankers and pay for the costs of your own slavery, let them continue to create money and control the nation's credit." - Sir Josiah Stamp, 1880 - 1941
"Once a nation parts with control of its currency and credit…all talk of the sovereignty of Parliament and democracy is idle and futile." – Prime Minister of Canada Mackenzie King, 1935, creator of the publicly owned central bank, the Bank of Canada
"The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson." - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933
"The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes." - Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, 1952
"Those who would trade a little liberty for a little security deserve neither." - George Washington
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"- Patrick Henry
"Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth." - George Washington
"It ain't over `till it's over." - Yogi Berra
Ron Paul: Next President of the United States, 2008
Stop voluntarily subjecting yourself to propaganda, indoctrination and manipulation.
Cut through the spin. Switch off the corporate news.
Here are ten excellent resources for further information.
Examine things for yourself.
Democracy Now!
Online Independent TV & Radio
http://www.democracynow.org/
"The show that challenges presidents: For 12 years a radio and television news program, Democracy Now, has survived and even flourished on a cobbled-together broadcast network that reaches all of the United States and out into the world. It has almost no paid resources, yet daily defies the corporate and government agendas, and has sometimes forced mainstream media into picking up its stories, if not its attitudes."
People of America, your freedom is being attacked from within - from above; your democracy is being destroyed, your rights are in jeopardy. It is now time to act! Unite, and say no to empire, yes to freedom.
First, a few words about this blog: This site is dedicated to the pursuit of truth, the protection of living beings, to working for the benefit of all living beings, and to providing independent research and analysis on major issues affecting the world today in order to advance these goals.
About me:
I'm a 40-year old father of two beautiful children, writer, entrepreneur, social activist. How should I describe myself? A seeker of truth, unshakably optomistic, fiercely committed to facing our social and environmental realities, an ordinary man with a deep and abiding confidence in basic human goodness - despite everything - and one who believes a good life is one lived with compassion, and also enjoyment of simple pleasures. Hm. Talking about yourself feels a little wierd. Anyway, this is a bit of a profile, for anyone who is interested.
