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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: DH
Date: Sunday, March 18, 2012
Subject: [SouthernDemocrats] Meghan McCain to Playboy: "I Love Sex"
To: SouthernDemocrats@yahoogroups.com
Cc: bigraccoon1@verizon.net
What a filthy whore. If this is the way McCain raised his daughter, imagine how little he would care for the country. The repukeli-baggers keep ragging about him being a "war hero," but his fellow soldiers tell an entirely different story -- and now his daughter proves what a scumbag he really is. Hopefully the idiots who voted for him will be disgusted enough to not do it again.
Meghan McCain to Playboy: "I Love Sex"
http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/meghan_mccain_to_playboy_love_sex_izbd1Uw0DnqDG8g7bqk4IL?utm_campaign=OutbrainA&utm_source=OutbrainArticlepages&obref=obinsite
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Gay Kiss During Santorum's Rally - YouTube#
The Kissers were thrown out of the rally.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=o6c3U4HXKFc#!
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Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
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Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
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Who decided that it would be a good idea for the Federal Reserve to pay banks not to lend money to U.S. businesses and U.S. consumers?
Who decided that it would be a good idea to become so dependent on foreign oil? The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States is now $3.80.
Who decided that it would be a good idea for the United States to have the highest incarceration rate in the entire world?
Who decided that it would be a good idea to allow private companies to run many of our prisons?
Who decided that it would be a good idea to put large amounts of "pink slime" into the school lunches of America's school children?
Who decided that it would be a good idea to require barbers and beauticians in Iowa to receive 2,100 hours of education before they are allowed to cut hair?
Who decided that it would be a good idea for the United States to have the most lawyers per capita in the entire world?
Who decided that it would be a good idea to allow the notional value of the global derivatives market to grow to more than 20 times the size of the entire global economy?
Who decided that it would be a good idea for the U.S. to produce more pornography than any other nation on the planet?
Who decided that it would be a good idea for Americans to take more prescription drugs than anyone else in the world?
Who decided that it would be a good idea for the Republicans to try to defeat Barack Obama with the man who came up withthe blueprint that Obamacare was based on?
Who decided that it would be a good idea to arrest people that are just trying to feed the homeless?
Who decided that it would be a good idea for police to drag women around by their hair and shoot pepper spray directly into their faces?
Who decided that it would be a good idea to allow our scientists to create "spider-goats" and other really weird genetically-modified creatures?
Who decided that it would be a good idea for Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State?
Who decided that it would be a good idea to unilaterally slash the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal by another 80 percent?
Who decided that it would be a good idea for the Department of Homeland Security to help arrest prostitutes?
Who decided that it would be a good idea to sell off our highways, water treatment plants, libraries, parking meters, airports and power plants to foreigners?
Who decided that it would be a good idea persecute farmers for selling raw milk? The following is how Natural Newsdescribed the hell that 65-year-old farmer James Stewart was put through recently….
65-year-old senior citizen James Stewart, a raw milk farmer with no criminal history, was nearly tortured to death in the LA County jail this past week. He survived a "week of torturous Hell" at the hands of LA County jail keepers who subjected him to starvation, sleep deprivation, hypothermia, loss of blood circulation to extremities, verbal intimidation, involuntary medical testing and even subjected him to over 30 hours of raw biological sewage filth containing dangerous pathogens.
Who decided that it would be a good idea to put an ingredient derived from human hair into our bread?
Who decided that it would be a good idea to run a 560 billion dollar trade deficit with the rest of the globe in 2011?
Who decided that it would be a good idea for the federal government to put thousands of guns into the hands of Mexican drug gangs?
Who decided that it would be a good idea "to accelerate fertility decline in the least developed countries"?
Who decided that it would be a good idea to put the Federal Reserve in charge of our money supply? Since the Federal Reserve took over, the U.S. dollar has lost more than 95 percent of its value.
Who decided that it would be a good idea for the U.S. government to spend so much money? If the U.S. government taxed corporate profits at 100% and taxed all income above $250,000 at a 100% tax rate it would still not even come close to covering all of the government spending that is going on.
Who decided that it would be a good idea to run up yet another federal budget deficit well in excess of a trillion dollars in 2012?
Who decided that it would be a good idea for the U.S. government to spend $175,587 "to determine if cocaine makes Japanese quail engage in sexually risky behavior"?
Who decided that it would be a good idea for the U.S. government to spend $750,000 on a new soccer field for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay?
Who decided that it would be a good idea for Americans to spend more money on elections than anyone else does in the world by a very wide margin?
Who decided that it would be a good idea for TSA agents to strip-search elderly women and grope their private parts in the name of airport security? Does seeing and feeling the private parts of elderly women actually make us all safer?
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Today, March 18, marks the 175th anniversary of the birth of Stephen Grover Cleveland, America's 22nd and 24th President. He stood for sound money, free trade and limited government, and opposed the welfare state. Three cheers for Grover! -- Lawrence Reed
Grover Cleveland: One of America's Greatest Presidents
By Brian Aitken
Published: 2 September 2011
You may have recently heard FEE's president, Lawrence Reed, on FOX Business or radio programs across the country discussing the tremendous character of former President Grover Cleveland.
Larry has compiled this list of resources especially for viewers and listeners who would like to learn more about Grover Cleveland, the hard decisions he made, and the uncommon courage that made him the man he was.
Grover Cleveland, The Last Libertarian President by Paul Whitfield
Why Grover Cleveland Vetoed the Texas Seed Bill by Robert Higgs
Grover Cleveland: A Study in Character by Lawrence W. Reed
Was Grover Cleveland Freedom's President? by Lawrence W. Reed
Grover Cleveland, The Veto President by Burton Folsom
Realignments to Remember by Lawrence W. Reed
My Kind of President by Lawrence W. Reed
Clinton vs. Cleveland and Coolidge on Taxes by Lawrence W. Reed
Just Say No to Farm Subsidies by Burton Folsom
Presidents and Poverty by Lawrence W. Reed
A Supreme Court to be Proud Of by Lawrence W. Reed
U.S. Presidents and the Money Issue by Greg Kaza
Grover Cared by Lawrence W. Reed
Grover Cleveland: Could He Be Elected Today? By Lawrence W. Reed
The Silver Panic by Lawrence W. Reed
VIDEO: The Panic of 1893 by Lawrence W. Reed
http://www.fee.org/news/grover-cleveland-one-of-americas-greatest-presidents/
Friday, March 2, 2012
What about the Debt Ceiling?
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Let's not forget the big debate several months ago over whether the debt ceiling should be raised. It's important that we periodically revisit this issue before the new ceiling is reached in couple of years from now, at least to show the fraud that U.S. officials and the mainstream media engage in each time the ceiling is reached.
First of all, why the ceiling? What's its purpose?
The debt ceiling is an acknowledgment that when the government incurs too much debt, that is not a good thing for the country. By setting a debt ceiling, public officials are essentially saying that the amount of debt now owed by the government will be so large that the government will be prohibited from incurring any more debt on top of the existing debt. The ceiling sets the maximum amount of debt that the government will be permitted to incur.
Thus, when the debt ceiling was reached several months ago, the government was prohibited from adding more debt onto the amount of the existing debt. That would necessarily have required the government to make massive spending cuts to match the amount being collected in taxes, which would have enabled the government to avoid borrowing any more money.
So, the debt ceiling is an acknowledgment and a protection an acknowledgement that the government has already incurred an excessively large amount of debt and a protection for the American people that the government won't go over that amount of debt.
But we all know it's just a fraud. After all, a ceiling is a ceiling. If it's going to be raised each time it's reached, then it's not really a ceiling at all.
Yet, that is exactly what happens every time the debt ceiling is reached it's raised and a new debt ceiling is then set. Everyone knows that when the new ceiling is reached in a couple of years, the ceiling will be lifted again.
In the meantime, the amount of debt owed by the government continues to grow, which, as the debt ceiling acknowledges, is not a good thing for the country.
Recall all the angst displayed by the mainstream media during the last debt ceiling debate. The world would collapse, the media cried, if the debt ceiling wasn't raised. They were making all sorts of dire predictions as to what would happen if the debt ceiling wasn't raised.
Of course, each time the ceiling is approached some Republicans promise that they're not going to vote to raise the ceiling. Every time, they assure us that they are "fiscally conservative" and that they're not going to break their promise. But everyone knows that that's precisely what they are going to do. They back down every single time, especially when the mainstream press starts screaming at them to raise the ceiling.
The whole process is nothing but a sham a charade. The statists want the federal government to continue spending as much as it has been spending plus more, both on the warfare state and the welfare state. Oh, sure, they're hoping for "growth," which means they're hoping for more tax receipts, but if that doesn't happen their position is spend and borrow and spend and borrow.
Consider the mainstream media's position since the debt ceiling was raised the last time. Do you see them calling for massive reductions in federal spending in preparation for the new debt ceiling that will be reached in a couple of years from now? Do you see them saying, "Look, we were lucky that the Republicans caved the last time but now we have a real debt ceiling in place, one that cannot be raised the next time"?
Of course not. In fact, most of the mainstream media is telling us how important it is that the federal government continue spending and borrowing no matter what. They're saying that it's the key to economic prosperity. And they know that the Republicans will cave again under the pressure of the mainstream media.
What's going to happen in a couple of years from now, when the new debt ceiling is reached? The whole charade will start all over again. There will be tremendous angst, and the mainstream media will once again pull out all their dire predictions and exclaim how urgent it is to raise the ceiling again. Never mind that they didn't give a whit about reducing federal spending for the previous 2-3 years. And of course, the Republicans will promise that this time they're not going to raise the ceiling even though everyone knows they will end up folding and do precisely that.
If truth be told, the statists, both in office and in the private sector, would love nothing more than to abolish the debt ceiling and then just let federal officials continue spending and borrowing to the heart's content. After all, don't forget that the debt ceiling is an express acknowledgement that too much debt is a bad thing. Each time it's reached, Americans are reminded that public officials, with the full backing of the mainstream press, are doing something really bad to our country.
Just ask the Greeks. They'll be happy to talk about the consequences of too much government debt.
http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2012-03-02.asp
Not So Fast On That Whole Economic Recovery Thing
Not so fast. Those that are publicly declaring that an economic recovery has arrived are ignoring a whole host of numbers that indicate that the U.S. economy is in absolutely horrendous shape. The truth is that the health of an economy should not be measured by how well the stock market is doing. Rather, the truth health of an economy should be evaluated by looking at numbers for things like jobs, housing, poverty and debt. Some of the latest economic statistics indicate that unemployment is getting a little bit worse, that the housing market continues to deteriorate, that poverty in America continues to soar and that our debt problem is worse than ever. If we were truly experiencing the kind of economic recovery that the United States has experienced after every other post-World War II recession we would see a sharp improvement across the board in most of our economic statistics. But that simply is not happening. Sadly, this is about as much of an "economic recovery" as we are going to get because soon the economy will be getting much worse. So enjoy this period of relative stability while you can.
The Obama administration would have us believe that unemployment in the United States has declined, but the truth is that the percentage of working age Americans that are employed has stayed very, very flat for more than two years and now there are some measures of unemployment that are actually getting worse.
For example, according to Gallup the unemployment rate in the United States has risen from 8.5% in December to 8.6% in January to 9.1% in February. The Obama administration would have us believe that it is actually going the other direction.
Initial unemployment claims are rising again. For the week ending March 3rd, they increased by 8,000 over the previous week to 362,000. This is not the kind of good news that people were hoping for.
What the U.S. economy could really use are millions of good jobs. But those are being shipped out of the country at a staggering pace.
Right now there are millions of Americans in their prime working years that are sitting at home wondering what to do with their lives. The average duration of unemployment in the United States continues to hover near a record high, and if we were truly experiencing an economic recovery it should have been falling by now.
But a lot of Americans have bought into the propaganda about an economic recovery and they are out running up huge amounts of debt once again. In January, consumer credit increased by much more than expected. The following is from a recent Reuters report....
- Nonrevolving credit, which includes auto loans as well as student loans made by the government, rose $20.723 billion during the month. That was the biggest increase in dollar terms since November 2001, when credit was surging in the wake of the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.
Don't do it.
The U.S. housing market continues to deeply struggle as well. If we were really in an economic recovery housing would be bouncing back. But that is not happening. Just consider the following facts....
*The number of new homes sold in the United States continues to hover near a record low.
*U.S. home prices in the 4th quarter of 2011 were four percent lower than they were during the 4th quarter of 2010.
*According to CoreLogic, 22.8 percent of all homes with a mortgage in the United States were in negative equity as of the end of the 4th quarter of 2011. That was an increase from 22.1 percent in the third quarter.
Why are things still getting worse for the U.S housing market?
That is a really good question.
We should have seen some improvement by now.
But it isn't happening.
Also, poverty in America continues to explode.
For example, the number of Americans on food stamps has increased to 46.5 million - a brand new all-time record.
If we really were in an economic recovery, wouldn't that number be going down?
We should be thankful that the U.S. economy is not declining as rapidly as it was during 2008 and 2009. But what we are experiencing right now is not an economic recovery. It is simply just a bubble of false hope.
The big problem is that our nation is covered in an ocean of constantly expanding debt.
U.S. consumers are drowning in debt, U.S. businesses have pushed debt levels to the red line, and the U.S. financial system is massively overleveraged.
Of course government debt is our biggest debt problem of all.
All over the nation, state and local governments are on the verge of financial ruin.
If we were in the middle of an economic recovery, so many states would not be in crisis mode. A recent article in the Los Angeles Times declared that " California could run out of cash in March". As the economy continues to crumble we are going to hear a lot more of this kind of thing.
A lot of local governments around the nation are on the verge of total financial collapse. Stockton, California has announced that they will be defaulting on some debt payments, and Suffolk County in New York recently declared a fiscal emergency after discovering that it would rack up more than 500 million dollars of debt between 2011 and 2013.
Keep your eyes open for more news items like this in the months ahead.
Of course the biggest problem of all is the U.S. national debt and it continues to rapidly get worse.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. government had a budget deficit of 229 billion dollars in the month of February. That is the worst one month budget deficit in the history of the United States.
The Congressional Budget Office also says that the U.S. government is now borrowing 42 cents of every single dollar that it spends.
Ouch.
The U.S. national debt has gotten more than 59 times larger since 1950.
The U.S. national debt is now more than 22 times larger than it was when Jimmy Carter became president.
Are there any words in the English language that are strong enough to describe how foolish we have been?
Of course we won't be able to accumulate so much debt indefinitely. At some point the trillion dollar deficits will stop and our false prosperity will disappear.
If you want to get an idea of what happens then, just take a look at Greece.
But Barack Obama and most members of the U.S. Congress don't really care about what they are doing to our future.
What they care about is winning the next election so that they can continue living their fabulous lives.
Barack Obama is supposed to be taking care of the American people, but instead he has been very busy taking care of the people who helped him get elected. Politics in America is all about money. Just check out the following very short excerpt from a recent article in the Washington Post....
- More than half of Obama's 47 biggest fundraisers, those who collected at least $500,000 for his campaign, have been given administration jobs. Nine more have been appointed to presidential boards and committees.
- At least 24 Obama bundlers were given posts as foreign ambassadors, including in Finland, Australia, Portugal and Luxembourg. Among them is Don Beyer, a former Virginia lieutenant governor who serves as ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
- At least 24 Obama bundlers were given posts as foreign ambassadors, including in Finland, Australia, Portugal and Luxembourg. Among them is Don Beyer, a former Virginia lieutenant governor who serves as ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
The federal government is not going to save you.
Our politicians are not going to save you.
You better figure out how you are going to take care of yourself and your family in the years ahead because this is about as good as things are going to get.
This "economic recovery" is about to end and more pain is about to begin.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/not-so-fast-on-that-whole-economic-recovery-thing
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"The reality is that Iraq is not a paradise. It is an absolute disaster. It is a wasteland of death, destruction, depression, and impoverishment. And it is headed by a dictatorial regime that is doing all the things that the Saddam Hussein regime was doing -- killing people who resist the dictatorship, incarcerating people without trial, torturing them, and executing them. Worst of all, from the standpoint of the interventionists, the regime is more pro-Iran than it is pro-U.S.
"It's no different in Afghanistan. That country is another wasteland of death, destruction, impoverishment, and depression. The Karzai regime is nothing but a crooked, corrupt, brutal pro-U.S. dictatorship."
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
The Time for Soul-Searching Has Arrived
by Jacob G. Hornberger
How ironic. Countless American Christians supported the U.S. government's war of aggression on Iraq, and now consider this headline from last Sunday's New York Times: "Exodus from North Signals Iraqi Christians' Slow Decline."
And now we learn that an American soldier went on a killing rampage in Afghanistan, walking into people's homes in a brutal shoot-up that ended up killing 16 people, including women and children.
How come so many Americans still can't recognize that the U.S. invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan have been disasters? Why must they feel compelled to support some type of mythical, delusionary picture that has nothing to do with reality?
Look at Iraq. At first U.S. officials convinced Americans to support an invasion of the country under a principle of preventive self-defense. Recall that U.S. officials said the same thing about Iraq that they're now saying about Iran. Saddam Hussein is on the verge of producing a nuclear weapon. He intends to attack the United States. We have to attack now. The smoking gun might be a mushroom cloud rising over American cities.
All too many Americans simply deferred to authority, as they had been taught to do in the government-approved schools they were forced to attend. U.S. officials have access to information that we don't have, they said. They would never lie to us. They don't want to go to war against Iraq. They're just protecting national security.
How many Americans even considered the possibility that this was all a charade, one designed to oust Saddam Hussein from power and replace him with a pro-U.S. dictator? It wasn't that difficult to see. Don't forget that that's what those 11 years of brutal sanctions were all about -- the sanctions that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children. The invasion of Iraq was intended to achieve what the sanctions had not achieved. It wasn't difficult to frighten Americans into falling for anything after 9/11.
Indeed, what happened after it was determined that there were no WMDs in Iraq? Did Americans feel bad about having supported a war in which countless people had been killed and maimed, given that the U.S. government was wrong in its WMD assessment? Did soldiers have crises of conscience for having killed and maimed innocent people -- that is, people whose government never intended to attack the United States with WMDs -- people who were entirely innocent of the 9/11 attacks. Wouldn't that have been the time for a massive congressional investigation into whether U.S. officials had intentionally deceived the American people regarding those WMDs?
Nope. Instead, people simply deferred to authority when U.S. officials shifted to the alternative justification for invading Iraq -- that U.S. officials actually loved the Iraqi people so much that they wanted to bring them freedom and democracy through a deadly military invasion and occupation. And to prove their love of the Iraqi people, U.S. officials made it clear that they were willing to kill and maim as many Iraqis as necessary to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq.
What a crock. If they loved the Iraqi people so much, how come there was never an upward limit on the number of Iraqis they were willing to kill and maim to achieve regime change? How come they treated Iraqis in Abu Ghraib prison the way that Saddam Hussein treated them? Is that the way you treat people whom you love?
And look at the result in Iraq. U.S. officials, along with their loyal interventionist supporters, continue to tell the American people that Iraq is now a paradise of freedom, democracy, and prosperity.
Oh? If Iraq is now such a paradise, then why is there an exodus of Christians from Iraq?
The reality is that Iraq is not a paradise. It is an absolute disaster. It is a wasteland of death, destruction, depression, and impoverishment. And it is headed by a dictatorial regime that is doing all the things that the Saddam Hussein regime was doing -- killing people who resist the dictatorship, incarcerating people without trial, torturing them, and executing them. Worst of all, from the standpoint of the interventionists, the regime is more pro-Iran than it is pro-U.S.
It's no different in Afghanistan. That country is another wasteland of death, destruction, impoverishment, and depression. The Karzai regime is nothing but a crooked, corrupt, brutal pro-U.S. dictatorship.
Sure, it's horrible that that U.S. soldier killed those 16 people, but that's what U.S. forces have been doing ever since they invaded the country. Just think about all the wedding parties they've bombed and killed. Think about that Wikileaks video showing that helicopter gunship firing at people who were doing nothing more than rescuing people who had been injured from a U.S. attack. Think of all the people who have been killed, maimed, tortured, and incarcerated -- that is, people who had nothing to do with 9/11 and whose worst crime wastrying to rid their nation of an unlawful invader and occupier. Think about all the people who have been languishing in Bagram prison for years without trial.
Oh, but we're not supposed to think about such things. We're supposed to blindly accept the government's pronouncements. We're supposed to support the troops. We're supposed to turn a blind eye to the reality of U.S. foreign policy. We're supposed to suppress our consciences and simply look down, remaining silent or, better yet, supportive of whatever the government is doing.
Speaking of the law, where are the congressional declarations of war against Iraq and Afghanistan that the U.S. Constitution requires? Interventionists can rail against that requirement all they want, but the law is the law. If they don't like the law, they have a remedy -- get it changed through constitutional amendment. As long as it's the law, it is supposed to be followed. If it's now, that makes the U.S. government the law-breaker.
The law wasn't followed, not in Iraq and not in Afghanistan. That makes both wars illegal under our form of government. The U.S. government is a lawbreaker in both instances. The invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, which have killed and maimed so many people and destroyed both countries, have both been conducted in violation of the highest law of our land, the Constitution, the law that we the people have imposed on our public officials.
And look at what these illegal wars, together with U.S. foreign policy before 9/11, have done to freedom in our country. We now live under the iron umbrella of a massive national security state, one that resembles that of the Soviet Union. The U.S. government now wields the authority to monitor and spy on Americans, in the name of national security and the war on terrorism. That's what the KGB and, for that matter, the Gestapo did too.
The government also now wields the authority to round up Americans, incarcerate them for life without trial, torture them, and even execute them. The Gestapo and the KGB had the same authority.
Indeed, the government now wields the omnipotent power to assassinate Americans and everyone else in the world. Did the KGB and Gestapo have that authority? I would assume so but I'm not sure.
Meanwhile, Americans continue singing about how free they are. They continue praising the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for "defending our freedoms." No people in history better exemplify the words of Johann Goethe than the American people of our time: None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
The endless question for "national security" has destroyed all sense of morality and freedom in America. While the national security state continues to plunge our nation into moral debauchery through its antics overseas -- in the name of "national security" -- it continues to tighten the noose here at home with respect to our freedom. The tighter the noose is drawn, the more Americans sing about how free they are.
Meanwhile, the Empire is bankrupting us. Most Americans are struggling to make ends meet. At the same time, federal spending and debt continue to soar, with the Federal Reserve doing what it's done since its founding in 1913 printing the money to pay off the government's ever-increasing debt -- the decades-long process of monetary debasement. Nonetheless, while Americans lament the spending and debt, they continue celebrating the warfare state, which is in large part responsible for America's fiscal problems.
How long will the American people permit this to go on without finally putting a stop to it? How many more Afghans must be killed before Americans say enough is enough? How many more infringements on our freedom at home must be implemented before Americans say enough is enough? How many angry, murderous rampages by U.S. troops must U.S. soldiers undertake before Americans say enough is enough? How many more suicides of U.S. troops before American say enough is enough. How many Christians must exit Iraq before American say enough is enough.
It's time for Americans to do some serious soul-searching. It's time they look deep within themselves for answers rather than to the supercilious pronouncements of their government officials. It's time for Americans to challenge what their government is doing to people over there and what it's doing to Americans here at home. It's what genuine patriotism is all about. It's what genuine morality is all about. It's what individual responsibility is all about. It's what conscience is all about. It's what a free society is all about.
http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2012-03-13.asp
"It's no different in Afghanistan. That country is another wasteland of death, destruction, impoverishment, and depression. The Karzai regime is nothing but a crooked, corrupt, brutal pro-U.S. dictatorship."
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
The Time for Soul-Searching Has Arrived
by Jacob G. Hornberger
How ironic. Countless American Christians supported the U.S. government's war of aggression on Iraq, and now consider this headline from last Sunday's New York Times: "Exodus from North Signals Iraqi Christians' Slow Decline."
And now we learn that an American soldier went on a killing rampage in Afghanistan, walking into people's homes in a brutal shoot-up that ended up killing 16 people, including women and children.
How come so many Americans still can't recognize that the U.S. invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan have been disasters? Why must they feel compelled to support some type of mythical, delusionary picture that has nothing to do with reality?
Look at Iraq. At first U.S. officials convinced Americans to support an invasion of the country under a principle of preventive self-defense. Recall that U.S. officials said the same thing about Iraq that they're now saying about Iran. Saddam Hussein is on the verge of producing a nuclear weapon. He intends to attack the United States. We have to attack now. The smoking gun might be a mushroom cloud rising over American cities.
All too many Americans simply deferred to authority, as they had been taught to do in the government-approved schools they were forced to attend. U.S. officials have access to information that we don't have, they said. They would never lie to us. They don't want to go to war against Iraq. They're just protecting national security.
How many Americans even considered the possibility that this was all a charade, one designed to oust Saddam Hussein from power and replace him with a pro-U.S. dictator? It wasn't that difficult to see. Don't forget that that's what those 11 years of brutal sanctions were all about -- the sanctions that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children. The invasion of Iraq was intended to achieve what the sanctions had not achieved. It wasn't difficult to frighten Americans into falling for anything after 9/11.
Indeed, what happened after it was determined that there were no WMDs in Iraq? Did Americans feel bad about having supported a war in which countless people had been killed and maimed, given that the U.S. government was wrong in its WMD assessment? Did soldiers have crises of conscience for having killed and maimed innocent people -- that is, people whose government never intended to attack the United States with WMDs -- people who were entirely innocent of the 9/11 attacks. Wouldn't that have been the time for a massive congressional investigation into whether U.S. officials had intentionally deceived the American people regarding those WMDs?
Nope. Instead, people simply deferred to authority when U.S. officials shifted to the alternative justification for invading Iraq -- that U.S. officials actually loved the Iraqi people so much that they wanted to bring them freedom and democracy through a deadly military invasion and occupation. And to prove their love of the Iraqi people, U.S. officials made it clear that they were willing to kill and maim as many Iraqis as necessary to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq.
What a crock. If they loved the Iraqi people so much, how come there was never an upward limit on the number of Iraqis they were willing to kill and maim to achieve regime change? How come they treated Iraqis in Abu Ghraib prison the way that Saddam Hussein treated them? Is that the way you treat people whom you love?
And look at the result in Iraq. U.S. officials, along with their loyal interventionist supporters, continue to tell the American people that Iraq is now a paradise of freedom, democracy, and prosperity.
Oh? If Iraq is now such a paradise, then why is there an exodus of Christians from Iraq?
The reality is that Iraq is not a paradise. It is an absolute disaster. It is a wasteland of death, destruction, depression, and impoverishment. And it is headed by a dictatorial regime that is doing all the things that the Saddam Hussein regime was doing -- killing people who resist the dictatorship, incarcerating people without trial, torturing them, and executing them. Worst of all, from the standpoint of the interventionists, the regime is more pro-Iran than it is pro-U.S.
It's no different in Afghanistan. That country is another wasteland of death, destruction, impoverishment, and depression. The Karzai regime is nothing but a crooked, corrupt, brutal pro-U.S. dictatorship.
Sure, it's horrible that that U.S. soldier killed those 16 people, but that's what U.S. forces have been doing ever since they invaded the country. Just think about all the wedding parties they've bombed and killed. Think about that Wikileaks video showing that helicopter gunship firing at people who were doing nothing more than rescuing people who had been injured from a U.S. attack. Think of all the people who have been killed, maimed, tortured, and incarcerated -- that is, people who had nothing to do with 9/11 and whose worst crime wastrying to rid their nation of an unlawful invader and occupier. Think about all the people who have been languishing in Bagram prison for years without trial.
Oh, but we're not supposed to think about such things. We're supposed to blindly accept the government's pronouncements. We're supposed to support the troops. We're supposed to turn a blind eye to the reality of U.S. foreign policy. We're supposed to suppress our consciences and simply look down, remaining silent or, better yet, supportive of whatever the government is doing.
Speaking of the law, where are the congressional declarations of war against Iraq and Afghanistan that the U.S. Constitution requires? Interventionists can rail against that requirement all they want, but the law is the law. If they don't like the law, they have a remedy -- get it changed through constitutional amendment. As long as it's the law, it is supposed to be followed. If it's now, that makes the U.S. government the law-breaker.
The law wasn't followed, not in Iraq and not in Afghanistan. That makes both wars illegal under our form of government. The U.S. government is a lawbreaker in both instances. The invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, which have killed and maimed so many people and destroyed both countries, have both been conducted in violation of the highest law of our land, the Constitution, the law that we the people have imposed on our public officials.
And look at what these illegal wars, together with U.S. foreign policy before 9/11, have done to freedom in our country. We now live under the iron umbrella of a massive national security state, one that resembles that of the Soviet Union. The U.S. government now wields the authority to monitor and spy on Americans, in the name of national security and the war on terrorism. That's what the KGB and, for that matter, the Gestapo did too.
The government also now wields the authority to round up Americans, incarcerate them for life without trial, torture them, and even execute them. The Gestapo and the KGB had the same authority.
Indeed, the government now wields the omnipotent power to assassinate Americans and everyone else in the world. Did the KGB and Gestapo have that authority? I would assume so but I'm not sure.
Meanwhile, Americans continue singing about how free they are. They continue praising the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for "defending our freedoms." No people in history better exemplify the words of Johann Goethe than the American people of our time: None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
The endless question for "national security" has destroyed all sense of morality and freedom in America. While the national security state continues to plunge our nation into moral debauchery through its antics overseas -- in the name of "national security" -- it continues to tighten the noose here at home with respect to our freedom. The tighter the noose is drawn, the more Americans sing about how free they are.
Meanwhile, the Empire is bankrupting us. Most Americans are struggling to make ends meet. At the same time, federal spending and debt continue to soar, with the Federal Reserve doing what it's done since its founding in 1913 printing the money to pay off the government's ever-increasing debt -- the decades-long process of monetary debasement. Nonetheless, while Americans lament the spending and debt, they continue celebrating the warfare state, which is in large part responsible for America's fiscal problems.
How long will the American people permit this to go on without finally putting a stop to it? How many more Afghans must be killed before Americans say enough is enough? How many more infringements on our freedom at home must be implemented before Americans say enough is enough? How many angry, murderous rampages by U.S. troops must U.S. soldiers undertake before Americans say enough is enough? How many more suicides of U.S. troops before American say enough is enough. How many Christians must exit Iraq before American say enough is enough.
It's time for Americans to do some serious soul-searching. It's time they look deep within themselves for answers rather than to the supercilious pronouncements of their government officials. It's time for Americans to challenge what their government is doing to people over there and what it's doing to Americans here at home. It's what genuine patriotism is all about. It's what genuine morality is all about. It's what individual responsibility is all about. It's what conscience is all about. It's what a free society is all about.
http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2012-03-13.asp
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