Banning Guns Threatens Survival

By Jim Kirwan
11-21-7

Given that the point of having a constitution was that it was supposed to give the people of the US a guiding doctrine, by which to navigate the years ahead. Foremost among its departments were the three branches of government that were supposed to balance and check one-another in order to keep peace and order among the initial colonies, and later to attempt to bring continuity to the expanded version of that colonial model that lies in ruins today.





The three branches have lost their individual identities and become one vast collection of lobbyists, politicians and power brokers-all loosely following the dictates of something called "the decider." And underneath all these corrupt and self-appointed owners of this society lies that first casualty whose corpse is barely still visible amid the debris that Empire has made out of a once functioning Republic.

BACKGROUND: "WASHINGTON (Nov. 20) - The Supreme Court said Tuesday it will decide whether the District of Columbia can ban handguns, a case that could produce the most in-depth examination of the constitutional right to "keep and bear arms" in nearly 70 years.

City officials said the law is designed to reduce gun violence, noting that four out of every five homicides this year was committed with a gun. Opponents of the ban pointed to the level of violence to make their case that Washington residents should be allowed to have guns to protect themselves in their homes."

What is at risk in this coming decision by the US Supreme Court is not only the survival of the Second Amendment of the Constitution, but the right of individuals to protect themselves, in this new criminal environment where traditional police departments have largely deserted their traditional role of "Protecting & Serving" the public, to becoming an armed force that too often fails to protect victims while they often contribute to the criminal nature of that inherent violence that is pivotal in the national psyche now.

In simple terms, those people who are not protected by the laws are still responsible for their own protection; whenever individuals are attacked. Traditionally the police have always lobbied against this philosophy, but the right of an individual to survive ultimately lies with each person-and their own abilities to overcome any real threat to their lives.

This idea of gun ownership was born in the run-up to the American Revolution as a legitimate way to resist the occupation forces in the colonies. As that fledgling government had no real resources, individuals needed to have and maintain their own weapons, hence the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which emphasizes its importance by being the second out of ten amendments.

However the "Ban" over the ownership and use of guns in Washington D.C. violated The Second Amendment, at least in principle, if not in fact. The wider issue has now become whether or not people without the influence necessary to have police protection currently, are entitled to protect themselves-or if these future victims are to be disarmed in the face of the reality; that the Legal and the Criminal Justice Systems both deny as a fact of everyday life today. (1)

This aspect of life is what will really be 'on trial' in this decision by the US Supreme Court, because there are at least two Americas, one for the rich and the other one where chaos tends to fill in all the cracks, in what remains of the infrastructure. . .

The depths of this problem are illustrated clearly in our threadbare foreign policy and its ramifications for those that have lost their jobs and their safety nets, along with most of what used to be part of their future-all of which was consumed by illegal and unilaterally declared invasions that the Cheney-Bush-Bandits are still calling 'the War-on-Terror.'

Those wars cost huge amounts of treasure, in both blood and money, not-to-mention the promises deferred and the dreams denied. The money was lavishly spent, poured out by the literal ton into that black hole of fear and terror that has yet to be even remotely substantiated.

The actual body count according to the VA since Gulf War 1 in Iraq is 73,846. http://www.rense.com/general78/since.htm

So-what did we get for all that blood & money? Nothing ­ except more privation, far-less security, and the near total collapse of the entire infrastructure-not to mention the loss of our own Constitutional Rights, coupled with the wholesale loss of political representation at every level of government.

"What can you get for a trillion bucks? Or make that $1.6 trillion, if you take the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as tallied by the majority staff of Congress' Joint Economic Committee (JEC). Or is it the $3.5 trillion figure cited by Ron Paul, whose concern about the true cost of this war for ordinary Americans shames the leading Democrats, who prattle on about needed domestic programs that will never find funding because of future war-related government debt."

"Given that the overall defense budget is now double what it was when Bush's father presided over the end of the Cold War, at a time when we don't have a militarily sophisticated enemy in sight, you have to wonder how this president has managed to exceed Cold War spending levels. What has he gotten for the trillions wasted? Nothing, when it comes to capturing bin Laden, bringing democracy to Iraq, or preventing oil prices from tripling and enriching the ayatollahs of Iran while messing up the American economy.

But that money could have paid for a lot of things we could have used here at home. As Paul points out, for what the Iraq war costs, we could present each family of four a check for $46,000 - which exceeds the $43,000 median household income in his Texas district. He asks: "What about the impact of those costs on education, the very thing that so often helps to increase earnings? $46,000 would cover 90 percent of the tuition costs to attend a four-year public university in Texas for both children in that family of four. But, instead of sending kids to college, too often we're sending them to Iraq, where the best news in a long time is they aren't killing our men and women as fast as they were last month."(2)

However what's really been lost in all these surges, both military and economic is the realization that the country has undergone a total makeover in virtually every area. We make and export almost nothing except jobs. We have no functional Immigration protection for American jobs or for purposes of population control, hence the nation is being overrun with ever-increasing numbers of people that drive up the cost of everything and reduce wages to minimums that no longer cover daily life.

We've lost our freedom to challenge the government on their policies, and our right to speak freely. Our control over the airwaves has been stolen from us by the criminal actions of the FCC and the major multinationals that seek ever greater control over everything we hear, read or see. Consequently: There is no longer any mechanism for people to demand redress for their grievances, except the courts, which are completely beyond the means of most people. (3)

"Everybody knows the system's busted" but nobody gives a damn-in this environment people need the right to protect themselves from government as well as from common criminals. The government has contributed to the dangers of everyday life here in direct proportion to the amount of money and blood that they've wasted overseas and now it appears that the last threshold of protection might also be taken away-but that can't happen unless the public and the ordinary people continue to remain silent!

kirwanstudios@sbcglobal.net

1) Supreme Court to hear Gun Ban Case
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/supreme-court-to-hear-gun-ban-case/ 20071120162109990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

2) The Surge in Bush War Spending
http://www.trueblueliberal.com/2007/11/21/the-surge-in-bush-war- spending/

3) Bill Moyers on Media Consolidation
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/www.alternet.org/68295/???

http://www.rense.com/general79/banst.htm

The Farce of Veteran's Day; A Holiday For Everyone Except Veterans

This is an excellent OPED piece:

How's your day going? Are you off from work or school? Do you get to spend a three day weekend enjoying yourself? Perhaps you are traveling or you took the kids to Disney? Well, on this Veterans Day 25% of the homeless in American are veterans who don't give a damn about having a holiday of their own, they just want the country that they served to simply treat them like human beings.

You know it is very hard to be proud of being American these days unless you have an extraordinary ability to live in a pretend world. Or unless you really believe that you live in the pretend world that is depicted on our TVs, news networks included. Today America claims to celebrate those who have served our nation by applauding them at baseball games and by watching draft dodgers and AWOL brats who conducted an electoral coup of our nation (Bush & Cheney), give speeches in their honor. What a tragic place America has become.

America is a land where a baseball player can earn $1.4 billion yet we have people, human beings, families, children and veterans alike living on the streets with no home, no food and no hope. Tell me how great our nation is. This is not my America.

We live in a nation where for some reason the soldier is supposed to be our greatest hero. The soldier, we are told, is protecting us from our enemies and we are told to “support” them. Well I have news for you, todays soldier does not protect us from our enemies and we do not support them. The enemies of Americans and American soldiers today are the very people who send our soldiers to unnecessary wars while they stay home and work hard to destroy our nation from within. While they aim our soldiers at foreign enemies, real or promulgated, they destroy our Constitution, our freedom, our protections, our ability to provide for ourselves and all the while they do to nothing to support our soldiers. “Supporting the troops” has become nothing more than code speak for funding the war profiteers and the patriots who point this out are demonized.

Well demonize away because I am saying what needs to be said. This nation does not need a holiday, it needs a revolution. It needs representative leadership. It needs to live up to its own rhetoric. It needs a military that protects the people from enemies, foreign AND DOMESTIC. It needs leaders that do more to actually support our troops than give a once per year speech to canned pre-screened audiences of troops who do nothing to protect our freedoms while they participate in presentations where the freedom of speech they supposedly are fighting to protect is suspended and restricted to little “free speech zones”. How they hell is that protecting me or you?

Anyway for me, until the phrase “homeless veteran” no longer accurately describes any American, I won't be celebrating the great American farce that we call Veteran's Day. Think about it! Jesse Richard – Editor, TvNewsLIES.org

Lest We Forget: Declaration of Independence

Sinking Currency, Sinking Country

By Patrick J. Buchanan

11/04/07 -- -- - The euro, worth 83 cents in the early George W. Bush years, is at $1.45.

The British pound is back up over $2, the highest level since the Carter era. The Canadian dollar, which used to be worth 65 cents, is worth more than the U.S. dollar for the first time in half a century.

Oil is over $90 a barrel. Gold, down to $260 an ounce not so long ago, has hit $800.

Have gold, silver, oil, the euro, the pound and the Canadian dollar all suddenly soared in value in just a few years?

Nope. The dollar has plummeted in value, more so in Bush's term than during any comparable period of U.S. history. Indeed, Bush is presiding over a worldwide abandonment of the American dollar.

Is it all Bush's fault? Nope.

The dollar is plunging because America has been living beyond her means, borrowing $2 billion a day from foreign nations to maintain her standard of living and to sustain the American Imperium.

The prime suspect in the death of the dollar is the massive trade deficits America has run up, some $5 trillion in total since the passage of NAFTA and the creation of the World Trade Organization in 1994.

In 2006, that U.S. trade deficit hit $764 billion. The current account deficit, which includes the trade deficit, plus the net outflow of interest, dividends, capital gains and foreign aid, hit $857 billion, 6.5 percent of GDP. As some of us have been writing for years, such deficits are unsustainable and must lead to a decline of the dollar.

A sinking dollar means a poorer nation, and a sinking currency has historically been the mark of a sinking country. And a superpower with a sinking currency is a contradiction in terms.

What does this mean for America and Americans?

As nations realize that the dollars they are being paid for their products cannot buy in the world markets what they once did, they will demand more dollars for those goods. This will mean rising prices for the imports on which America has become more dependent than we have been since before the Civil War.

U.S. tourists traveling to the countries whence their ancestors came will find that the money they saved up does not go as far as they thought.

U.S. soldiers stationed overseas will find the cost of rent, gasoline, food, clothing and dining out takes larger and larger bites out of their paychecks. The people those U.S. soldiers defend will be demanding more and more of their money.

U.S. diplomats stationed overseas, students and businessmen are already facing tougher times.

U.S. foreign aid does not go as far as it did. And there is an element of comedy in seeing the United States going to Beijing to borrow dollars, thus putting our children deeper in debt, to send still more foreign aid to African despots who routinely vote the Chinese line at the United Nations.

The Chinese, whose currency is tied to the dollar, and Japan will continue, as long as they can, to keep their currencies low against the dollar. For the Asians think long term, and their goals are strategic.

China -- growing at 10 percent a year for two decades and now growing at close to 12 percent -- is willing to take losses in the value of the dollars it holds to keep the U.S. technology, factories and jobs pouring in, as their exports capture America's markets from U.S. producers.

The Japanese will take some loss in the value of their dollar hoard to take down Chrysler, Ford and GM, and capture the U.S. auto market as they captured our TV, camera and computer chip markets.

Asians understand that what is important is not who consumes the apples, but who owns the orchard.

Other nations that have kept cash reserves in U.S. Treasury bonds and T-bills are watching the value of these assets sink. Not fools, they will begin, as many already have, to divest and diversify, taking in fewer dollars and more euros and yen. As more nations abandon the dollar, its decline will continue.

The oil-producing and exporting nations, with trade surpluses, like China, have also begun to take the stash of dollars they have and stuff them into sovereign wealth funds, and use these immense and growing funds to buy up real assets in the United States -- investment banks and American companies.

Nor is there any end in sight to the sinking of the dollar. For, as foreigners demand more dollars for the oil and goods they sell us, the trade deficit will not fall. And as the U.S. government prints more and more dollars to cover the budget deficits that stretch out -- with the coming retirement of the baby boomers -- all the way to the horizon, the value of the dollar will fall. And as Ben Bernanke at the Fed tries to keep interest rates low, to keep the U.S. economy from sputtering out in the credit crunch, the value of the dollar will fall.

The chickens of free trade are coming home to roost.

Mr. Buchanan is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of "The Death of the West," "The Great Betrayal," "A Republic, Not an Empire" and "Where the Right Went Wrong."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18675.htm

America’s Road to Tyranny

By Vincent L. Guarisco

'John Adams wrote, 'Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.' We stand at a defining moment for America. If we do not act now, we risk the freedoms that sweat, blood, sacrifice, and loyalty to inalienable rights have earned us over the past two-hundred thirty-one years.' ~Naomi Wolf Author of ‘The end of America: letter of warning to a young patriot.’ (A citizen’s call to action)


11/06/07 "ICH" -- -- -It's weird how old quotes like the one penned above still hold true even today. Indeed, yes it is, and that's why this article is written with you in mind. I guess we’re not all born into this world to be the brightest 'candle' at the alter of democracy, now are we? Nope, because not even hardly a 'flicker'of tenacity for truth seems to remain these days. In fact, most of the 'free' world rightfully sees America as an old melted heap-of-wax whose bright light burned out long ago when we morphed into a military state dictatorship.

Pardon me for the metaphors, but our dark days are quite painful to most others living in distant foreign lands. They have felt the burning, scorching heat from our foreign policy for a very long time. As a result, It has left hundreds of thousands of dead, decaying bodies lying rampant across many landscapes with countless others left displaced and homeless. On a religious note -- maybe Bush’s casualties of war are kinda like God decorating the earth with daisies and nuts...except His handiwork looks, smells and tastes much better.

So, Patriot, what are we to do? Are the 'born-again' Christians among us supposed to support what our government does -- in our name -- regardless of the death and destruction? Earth to George, are you hearing this? What is God going to tell you to destroy next? Will He whisper in our ears too and tell us how to stop you? God speed my Lord, we await with open ears...

Actually, I am an average, honest, hard-working agnostic dude who loves his country as much as anyone, but in the same breath, I am being honest when I admit I’m ashamed and appalled at what our leaders are doing. In addition, I am a loving father, blessed to have two beautiful daughters (ages18 and 21). In placing high value on 'patriotism and country,' I have just finished placing an order for two copies of Naomi Wolf’s new book, 'The End of America,' which is a searing political call to arms to save democracy...

As a Christmas gift, I am giving each of my lovely daughters a copy of this powerful book. Sadly, I wish I did not have to do so. But duty calls in the wake of duplicity, and that’s what separates a real parent from a dysfunctional wannabe. See, I am not afraid to tell my kids 'we screwed-up.' Printed by the socially conscious Chelsea Green Publishing House, 'The End of America' describes the 'ten classic steps dictators take when closing down an open society.' Wolf makes it abundantly clear that 'each of those ten steps is now underway in the United States today.'

I want my children to read this book (along with other pertinent information) and develop a real evolving wisdom concerning false flag operations at home and abroad, the true meaning of war and hostile occupation carried out with lies, shrewd nation building geared to profit the military industrial complex, the human cost of holocaust politics, why government scandals continue unabated, how scorched earth policy is destroying the planet, and the effects of state-sponsored news propaganda that fills every crevice of the America blowhole.

Yes, I have decided to give my children Wolf’s new book, disregarding my usual habit of giving inspirational gifts during the holiday season. And I highly recommend you do the same. So what, if the hair on our collective heads is standing at full attention just because we screwed everything up for them. Screw it, the little tots deserve to know how our generation is destroying both the free world and the planet. It’s better than sticking their innocent heads into sand with their butts high in the air for all to gleefully assault. Best scenario, they may actually become appalled enough to grow a real backbone (even from weak genes) to actually do something about it!

At this late point in time it’s a little redundant for me to comprehensively attempt to explain how it is we came to be in this disheartening place. Surreal as it may be, my only concern now is that a small flicker of hope can be rekindled in order to fix this bloody mess, and the younger generation is our best bet.

The truth is, those we entrusted to lead us have miserably failed us at every turn. Very few members of the House have their hearts in the right place in Washington today. I’m sure Paul Wellstone is rolling in his grave after watching our Democratic congress bathe in campaign squalor as they sold us down the Potomac river.

After Wellstone's death, his staff released a transcript of his last 2002 midterm election campaign commercial, which had been slated for airing just before the November election: 'I don't represent the big oil companies,' Wellstone said. 'I don't represent the big pharmaceutical companies, I don't represent the Enrons of this world. But you know what, they already have great representation in Washington. It's the rest of the people that need it. I represent the people of Minnesota.' Five years ago we lost the man dubbed 'the soul of the Senate. A sad day indeed. May a new beacon for truth emerge...

In the spirit of truthfulness, not every old fool sat on his rump doing little or nothing while believing every lie uttered from political hacks and pundit pie-holes! When I was a young boy, my father used to tell me, 'son, the truth is the hardest thing you’ll ever find.' Indeed, father was right, he truly was a wise man. Navy Veteran Anthony Guarisco paid his dues long ago and learned his lesson well when he served during WWII and Korea. With the ashes of Hiroshima caked on the bottom of his combat boots and the smell of genocidal nuclear death still lingering in his nose, he was surreptitiously used as a guinea pig in 'Operation Crossroads,' the largest atmospheric test ever conducted by the U.S. in the Marshall Islands, in 1946.

After knowingly being exposed to radiation by the uncaring lunatics of his day, he went on and founded and directed The Alliance of Atomic Veterans (AAV), a national non-profit organization providing valuable resources and needy health guidance to sick veterans and their families, filing service-connected disability claims for medial treatment and financial compensation. My father devoted most of his life to this endeavor. He also fought hard for nuclear disarmament and worked tirelessly to end all atomic testing. In addition, he was a strong proponent for the peace movement and gave much effort on other important social issues. Most people (myself included) can only dream of doing all the things my father accomplished in his life experience (a very long bio indeed). I may attempt to write about news-worthy topics, but brave patriots like my father 'made the news.'

And there are many other brave souls doing their part too. I also would like to take a moment to honor another true American patriot, her name is 'Sibel Edmonds.' She is the famed FBI whistleblower who went public after the attacks of September 11, 2001. And to date, she is the most gagged individual in the history of United States. After 9/11 Edmonds was gagged by the rarely-invoked 'States Secret Privilege,' compliments of the Bush administration and other higher-ups performing 'damage control.'

Since 2002, her testimony has been banned from any and all investigations to date. She is forbidden to say anything about the criminal penetration of the FBI where she worked as a FBI translator. Silenced at the Departments of State and Defense; Edmonds cannot discuss everything she heard concerning the corruption and illegal activities of several well-known members of Congress; everything she's aware of concerning information omitted and/or covered up in relation to 9/11. All of the information gleaned from her time listening to and translating wire-taps made prior to 9/11 at the FBI are not allowed to escape her lips.

But yet, this brave girl is prepared to risk everything, including her freedom or even her life to inform the public about everything she knows. Sibel exclaimed

'Here's my promise to the American Public: If anyone of the major networks --- ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, FOX -- promise to air the entire segment, without editing, I promise to tell them everything that I know.'

Edmonds recently said, 'I can tell the American public exactly what it is, and what it is that they are covering up. I'm not compromising ongoing investigations,' Edmonds explained, because 'they've all been shut down since.' The Supreme Court refused to hear her whistleblower lawsuit, even in light of the Department of Justice forcing the removal of both her and her own attorneys from the courtroom when they made their arguments concerning why it was that she still had to remain gagged under the 'States Secrets Privilege.' What a sham job!

In fact, an interview 60 Minutes aired on CBS with her in 2004, was later retroactively classified by the Department of Justice under the same 'privilege.' But enough is enough. Edmonds is now ready to tell the public everything she knows. She’s willing to speak to any broadcast network that would have her. 'I have exhausted every channel.' she said. 'If they want to, they can bring criminal charges against someone who divulges criminal activity, and see how far they're going to get.'

But will any of the corporate mainstream networks take her up on the offer? It would certainly be an explosive exclusive. 'I don't think any of the mainstream media are going to have the guts to do it,' she dared them. 'You put me on air live, or unedited. If I'm given the time, I will give the American people the exact reason of what I've been gagged from saying because of the States Secrets Privilege, and why it is that I'm the most gagged person in the history of the United States.'

So whaddaya say 60 Minutes? Will you be smart enough to take this on? If Sibel Edmonds is lucky enough to find a major network to air her story on national TV, you can bet the farm my family and I will be there watching it!

Bottom line -- America wants to feel proud once again, we want to be able to sing the National Anthem and truly feel the warmth of patriotism. We long for this. However, right now our hearts are filled with betrayal and rage. We’re dismayed at how under-educated and totally disconnected from reality a large portion of the public truly remains. We’re blown away at how quickly our fellow citizens roll over and believe the many lies that are told to us. And many of us feel cheapened by this same segment of people who have a very short memory span for the many important events that have transpired ...But most of all, we despise the talking heads who covertly sell and peddle the political propaganda and official control tactics that keeps everyone at bay -- docile and compliant for the ruling elite. Those who do this are the most ruthless enemy within our grasp, because they sold-us-out for far LESS than those individuals who make bank while manipulating the puppet strings at a safe distance.

So, Patriot -- let's tell our children to save us from our miserable mistakes. America’s road to tyranny is no future worth living. Let the words of Paul Wellstone echo in the youth of tomorrow: 'If we don’t fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don’t really stand for them.'

Vincent L Guarisco is a freelance writer from Bullhead City AZ., a contributing writer for many web sites, and a lifetime member of the Alliance of Atomic Veterans. Reprint permission is given as long as article content is not altered or changed and credit is given to the author. Replies welcomed at: vincespainting1@hotmail.com

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18670.htm

Olbermann: On waterboarding and torture

Special Comment - By Keith Olbermann

It is a fact startling in its cynical simplicity and it requires cynical and simple words to be properly expressed: The presidency of George W. Bush has now devolved into a criminal conspiracy to cover the ass of George W. Bush.

Part 1




Part 2



Olbermann: On waterboarding and torture

Olbermann: Bush may not observe the rules, but the country abides by them

SPECIAL COMMENT
By Keith Olbermann
Anchor, 'Countdown'
updated 6:42 p.m. PT, Mon., Nov. 5, 2007

It is a fact startling in its cynical simplicity and it requires cynical and simple words to be properly expressed: The presidency of George W. Bush has now devolved into a criminal conspiracy to cover the ass of George W. Bush.

All the petulancy, all the childish threats, all the blank-stare stupidity; all the invocations of World War III, all the sophistic questions about which terrorist attacks we wanted him not to stop, all the phony secrets; all the claims of executive privilege, all the stumbling tap-dancing of his nominees, all the verbal flatulence of his apologists...

All of it is now, after one revelation last week, transparently clear for what it is: the pathetic and desperate manipulation of the government, the refocusing of our entire nation, toward keeping this mock president and this unstable vice president and this departed wildly self-overrating attorney general, and the others, from potential prosecution for having approved or ordered the illegal torture of prisoners being held in the name of this country.

"Waterboarding is torture," Daniel Levin was to write. Daniel Levin was no theorist and no protester. He was no troublemaking politician. He was no table-pounding commentator. Daniel Levin was an astonishingly patriotic American and a brave man.

Brave not just with words or with stances, even in a dark time when that kind of bravery can usually be scared or bought off.

Charged, as you heard in the story from ABC News last Friday, with assessing the relative legality of the various nightmares in the Pandora's box that is the Orwell-worthy euphemism "Enhanced Interrogation," Mr. Levin decided that the simplest, and the most honest, way to evaluate them ... was to have them enacted upon himself.

Daniel Levin took himself to a military base and let himself be waterboarded.

Mr. Bush, ever done anything that personally courageous?

Perhaps when you've gone to Walter Reed and teared up over the maimed servicemen? And then gone back to the White House and determined that there would be more maimed servicemen?

Has it been that kind of personal courage, Mr. Bush, when you've spoken of American victims and the triumph of freedom and the sacrifice of your own popularity for the sake of our safety? And then permitted others to fire or discredit or destroy anybody who disagreed with you, whether they were your own generals, or Max Cleland, or Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, or Daniel Levin?

Daniel Levin should have a statue in his honor in Washington right now.

Instead, he was forced out as acting assistant attorney general nearly three years ago because he had the guts to do what George Bush couldn't do in a million years: actually put himself at risk for the sake of his country, for the sake of what is right.

And they waterboarded him. And he wrote that even though he knew those doing it meant him no harm, and he knew they would rescue him at the instant of the slightest distress, and he knew he would not die — still, with all that reassurance, he could not stop the terror screaming from inside of him, could not quell the horror, could not convince that which is at the core of each of us, the entity who exists behind all the embellishments we strap to ourselves, like purpose and name and family and love, he could not convince his being that he wasn't drowning.

Waterboarding, he said, is torture. Legally, it is torture! Practically, it is torture! Ethically, it is torture! And he wrote it down.

Wrote it down somewhere, where it could be contrasted with the words of this country's 43rd president: "The United States of America ... does not torture."

Made you into a liar, Mr. Bush.

Made you into, if anybody had the guts to pursue it, a criminal, Mr. Bush.


Waterboarding had already been used on Khalid Sheik Mohammed and a couple of other men none of us really care about except for the one detail you'd forgotten — that there are rules. And even if we just make up these rules, this country observes them anyway, because we're Americans and we're better than that.

We're better than you.

And the man your Justice Department selected to decide whether or not waterboarding was torture had decided, and not in some phony academic fashion, nor while wearing the Walter Mitty poseur attire of flight suit and helmet.

He had put his money, Mr. Bush, where your mouth was.



So, your sleazy sycophantic henchman Mr. Gonzales had him append an asterisk suggesting his black-and-white answer wasn't black-and-white, that there might have been a quasi-legal way of torturing people, maybe with an absolute time limit and a physician entitled to stop it, maybe, if your administration had ever bothered to set any rules or any guidelines.

And then when your people realized that even that was too dangerous, Daniel Levin was branded "too independent" and "someone who could (not) be counted on."

In other words, Mr. Bush, somebody you couldn't count on to lie for you.

So, Levin was fired.

Because if it ever got out what he'd concluded, and the lengths to which he went to validate that conclusion, anybody who had sanctioned waterboarding and who-knows-what-else on anybody, you yourself, you would have been screwed.

And screwed you are.

It can't be coincidence that the story of Daniel Levin should emerge from the black hole of this secret society of a presidency just at the conclusion of the unhappy saga of the newest attorney general nominee.

Another patriot somewhere listened as Judge Mukasey mumbled like he'd never heard of waterboarding and refused to answer in words … that which Daniel Levin answered on a waterboard somewhere in Maryland or Virginia three years ago.

And this someone also heard George Bush say, "The United States of America does not torture," and realized either he was lying or this wasn't the United States of America anymore, and either way, he needed to do something about it.

Not in the way Levin needed to do something about it, but in a brave way nonetheless.

We have U.S. senators who need to do something about it, too.


Chairman Leahy of the Judiciary Committee has seen this for what it is and said "enough."

Sen. Schumer has seen it, reportedly, as some kind of puzzle piece in the New York political patronage system, and he has failed.

What Sen. Feinstein has seen, to justify joining Schumer in rubber-stamping Mukasey, I cannot guess.

It is obvious that both those senators should look to the meaning of the story of Daniel Levin and recant their support for Mukasey's confirmation.

And they should look into their own committee's history and recall that in 1973, their predecessors were able to wring even from Richard Nixon a guarantee of a special prosecutor (ultimately a special prosecutor of Richard Nixon!), in exchange for their approval of his new attorney general, Elliott Richardson.

If they could get that out of Nixon, before you confirm the president's latest human echo on Tuesday, you had better be able to get a "yes" or a "no" out of Michael Mukasey.

Ideally you should lock this government down financially until a special prosecutor is appointed, or 50 of them, but I'm not holding my breath. The "yes" or the "no" on waterboarding will have to suffice.

Because, remember, if you can't get it, or you won't with the time between tonight and the next presidential election likely to be the longest year of our lives, you are leaving this country, and all of us, to the waterboards, symbolic and otherwise, of George W. Bush.

Ultimately, Mr. Bush, the real question isn't who approved the waterboarding of this fiend Khalid Sheik Mohammed and two others.

It is: Why were they waterboarded?


Study after study for generation after generation has confirmed that torture gets people to talk, torture gets people to plead, torture gets people to break, but torture does not get them to tell the truth.

Of course, Mr. Bush, this isn't a problem if you don't care if the terrorist plots they tell you about are the truth or just something to stop the tormentors from drowning them.

If, say, a president simply needed a constant supply of terrorist threats to keep a country scared.

If, say, he needed phony plots to play hero during, and to boast about interrupting, and to use to distract people from the threat he didn't interrupt.

If, say, he realized that even terrorized people still need good ghost stories before they will let a president pillage the Constitution,

Well, Mr. Bush, who better to dream them up for you than an actual terrorist?

He'll tell you everything he ever fantasized doing in his most horrific of daydreams, his equivalent of the day you "flew" onto the deck of the Lincoln to explain you'd won in Iraq.

Now if that's what this is all about, you tortured not because you're so stupid you think torture produces confession but you tortured because you're smart enough to know it produces really authentic-sounding fiction — well, then, you're going to need all the lawyers you can find … because that crime wouldn't just mean impeachment, would it?

That crime would mean George W. Bush is going to prison.

Thus the master tumblers turn, and the lock yields, and the hidden explanations can all be perceived, in their exact proportions, in their exact progressions.

Daniel Levin's eminently practical, eminently logical, eminently patriotic way of testing the legality of waterboarding has to vanish, and him with it.

Thus Alberto Gonzales has to use that brain that sounds like an old car trying to start on a freezing morning to undo eight centuries of the forward march of law and government.

Thus Dick Cheney has to ridiculously assert that confirming we do or do not use any particular interrogation technique would somehow help the terrorists.

Thus Michael Mukasey, on the eve of the vote that will make him the high priest of the law of this land, cannot and must not answer a question, nor even hint that he has thought about a question, which merely concerns the theoretical definition of waterboarding as torture.

Because, Mr. Bush, in the seven years of your nightmare presidency, this whole string of events has been transformed.

From its beginning as the most neglectful protection ever of the lives and safety of the American people ... into the most efficient and cynical exploitation of tragedy for political gain in this country's history ... and, then, to the giddying prospect that you could do what the military fanatics did in Japan in the 1930s and remake a nation into a fascist state so efficient and so self-sustaining that the fascism would be nearly invisible.

But at last this frightful plan is ending with an unexpected crash, the shocking reality that no matter how thoroughly you might try to extinguish them, Mr. Bush, how thoroughly you tried to brand disagreement as disloyalty, Mr. Bush, there are still people like Daniel Levin who believe in the United States of America as true freedom, where we are better, not because of schemes and wars, but because of dreams and morals.

And ultimately these men, these patriots, will defeat you and they will return this country to its righteous standards, and to its rightful owners, the people.

© 2007 MSNBC Interactive

Full text of United States Constitution - thinksnack.com

Should be required reading for every citizen of the United States. The Bill of Rights are not included.

read more digg story

Senate Considering Treaty That Could Affect Gun Rights

Ask your Senators to support the "Second Amendment Protection" Amendment

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KUCINICH: Takes House Floor, Moves for Cheney Impeachment

Resolution 333 Referred to Judiciary Committee - AGAIN!

More cowardice on the part of the Democrats! Why did Americans put them in power in 2006? Oh yeah.. to stop the corruption, to bring our troops home, to IMPEACH these bastards! And what have they done so far? See how far they can bend over for a Bushivite reaming! It's all a game on how to keep the American people complacent.. just a little while longer. Tell us what we want to hear, get themselves elected, and then screw us over! People need to wake up and stop voting for these same idiots over and over again who care more about Lobbyists, Big Corporations, and the New World Order agenda than they do about the citizens of this Republic!


Resolution 333 Referred to Judiciary Committee

Wednesday, 7 November 2007, 11:24 am

Column: Peace In Space

House tied in knots over resolution to impeach Cheney: Refers Resolution 333 to Judiciary Committee

ICIS-Institute for Cooperation in Space

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, is trying to impeach Vice President Cheney for what he describes as "high crimes and misdemeanors" before the invasion of Iraq.

Right after the proposal was read on the House floor this afternoon, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer stepped forwarded and tried to convince lawmakers to table the bill.

"Impeachment is not on our agenda. We have some major priorities. We need to focus on those," Hoyer told Fox News.

Update at 3:39 p.m. ET: We thought that the vote to table was over -- the clock said 0:00 -- but lawmakers are still switching things around and Kucinich is within a few votes of getting his bill to come up for a vote.

Update at 3:43 p.m. ET: At least 149 Republicans have voted in favor of considering the impeachment resolution. Hoyer's motion, which would have blocked a vote, looks like its going to fail by at least 31 votes.

Update at 3:53 p.m. ET: The 15-minute vote began at 2:53 p.m. ET. It's been an hour, and they're still voting. The tally stands at 170-242 right now. Hoyer needed 218 votes to push the bill off the agenda. He's 72 votes short.

Update at 4:02 p.m. ET: Hoyer's motion failed 251-162. The House is now voting on whether to vote on whether the resolution should be sent to the Judiciary Committee.

Update at 4:25 p.m. ET: The vote to decide to vote (yes, you read that correctly) just ended. By a 218-194 margin, the House has to vote on whether to send the resolution to the Judiciary Committee. That's happening right now.

Update at 4:30 p.m. ET: Perhaps we should pause to explain. When most Republicans unexpectedly -- and on orders of GOP leadership, the AP is reporting -- switched sides and voted against tabling the measure, they essentially forced Democrats to keep talking about it on the floor. Tabling the measure would have killed it.

Debate over Cheney's impeachment is in direct opposition to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's wishes. She has repeatedly said an impeachment of Cheney or President Bush is off the table. Thus, failing to table this measure is a essentially a jab in Pelosi's ribs.

"We're going to help them out, to explain themselves," Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, told the AP of the impeachment's supporters. "We're going to give them their day in court."

Update at 4:32 p.m. ET: The House just voted, 218-194, to send the resolution to the Judiciary Committee. That should end today's debate -- but it does keep the resolution at least technically alive.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0711/S00134.htm