- EverVigilant.net - "The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt." - John Philpot Curran
Don Bacon, in his latest column, calls our attention to the Dept. of Homeland Insecurity's ridiculous color-coded scare chart. The terrorist threat level is currently at yellow for the nation at large and orange for all domestic and international flights. But according to the government watchdogs themselves, "At this time there is no credible information warning of an imminent, specific threat to the homeland."
Writes Bacon: "Does that make sense? Don't ask. Actually, it's not supposed to make sense except to make it clear to Americans that the government is in charge."
He goes on to explain the sobering implications this has for you, me, and every other American citizen.
Cal Thomas is irked that the dreaded, liberal mainstream media isn't reporting all the positive stories coming out of Iraq. In his latest column, he bemoans the fact that while the New York Times did mention (albeit reluctantly) that overall violence in Iraq is down since 2004, it completely ignored the news of the Iraqi government awarding contracts to 41 foreign oil firms.
You see, imperialism does have its perks. Forget for a moment that suicide bombings were non-existent in Iraq before we invaded. Forget that widespread sectarian violence, the imposition of Sharia law in Iraqi communities, and the mass exodus of Christians are also post-invasion occurrences. The real sign of progress is that the puppet regime we installed has kindly agreed to allow us to further meddle in the internal affairs of the nation -- you know, just as we would do if someone were to invade our country, overthrow our government, and maintain a permanent military presence.
Thomas believes the biased reporting on the part of the media will have implications on the upcoming election. He concludes, "Since journalists never acknowledge errors of judgment or wrong predictions and are never held accountable when they err, that job must fall to John McCain." Yes, I'm sure that old war horse will prove to be every bit as much of a conservative savior as George W. Bush.
I will say that Thomas gets it half right: Media coverage of the war in Iraq has been lacking. But the problem isn't that it has been too critical; it's that it hasn't been critical enough.
It's so weak that even Iran's psychotic dictator, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, understands the global economic implications:
"I again repeat my previous proposal; [OPEC] should have a basket of different international hard currencies as the basis or the member countries should come up and produce a new hard currency for petroleum contracts," he stressed.
"They get our oil and give us a worthless piece of paper," Ahmadinejad said earlier after the close of the summit in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. ...
... "As you know the decrease in the dollar's value and the increase in energy prices are two sides of the same coin which are being introduced as factors behind the recent instability," Ahmadinejad added.
Keep in mind that Ahmadinejad's push to dump the dollar will be, in the eyes of the Bush administration, as much of a justification for war as Saddam's non-existent WMD.
If hurricane Katrina taught us anything, it's that a natural disaster area is the perfect breeding ground for police state tactics. Perhaps the most blatant example was the illegal confiscation of guns in and around New Orleans.
While it hasn't quite escalated to the same level, there are similarities in the aftermath of the recent flooding in Iowa:
Police set up checkpoints to keep people away from the affected neighborhoods, deemed unsafe after weeks of heavy rain forced the Cedar River from its banks, leaving much of Iowa's second-largest city underwater.
Evacuees waited in line at the checkpoints Sunday to receive special wristbands that allowed them to go home and gather their belongings. Authorities set a curfew and asked the residents to stay out of the neighborhoods between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., so people stuffed what they could into plastic bags and returned to the checkpoints.
One resident, however, grew angry when he was not allowed to pass a checkpoint Monday, according to a news release from the Cedar Rapids Police Department.
After being denied re-entry to a flooded neighborhood, Rick Blazek, 53, returned to his vehicle as a state trooper used his police vehicle to block the checkpoint, according to the news release.
"Blazek drove his vehicle toward the state trooper and struck the state trooper three times with his vehicle," the release said.
Police told Blazek to get out of his vehicle, and when he refused, "the driver's window was broken out because the doors were locked and Blazek was removed from his vehicle," according to the release.
The trooper was not injured. Blazek, who was arrested and charged with assault on a peace officer with a deadly weapon, could not be immediately reached for comment.
I'm not excusing Blazek's actions, but people have a tendency to get a little testy when they're being forced from their own property.
All war, but most particularly war funded by monetary inflation, bleeds a country in multiple ways. Obviously, many of the young people who are in the military literally give their blood, and sometimes their lives, fighting in wars of this type. Meanwhile, those who do not fight the war, but fund it, are forced to pay both the immediate costs, as well as seeing their long term purchasing power erode, as the twin pillars of debt and inflation are foisted upon the backs of current taxpayers and future generations. Neither conspiracy nor coincidence explains steep increases in the price of gas as the war drags on. No, this is simply a reality of the inflationary policies that, among other things, make this war possible.
Remember those infamous 16 words Bush used to justify his planned invasion of Iraq? Kid stuff. This is going to be the story to watch. From the Washington Post:
An international smuggling ring that sold bomb-related parts to Libya, Iran and North Korea also managed to acquire blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon, according to a draft report by a former top U.N. arms inspector that suggests the plans could have been shared secretly with any number of countries or rogue groups.
The drawings, discovered in 2006 on computers owned by Swiss businessmen, included essential details for building a compact nuclear device that could be fitted on a type of ballistic missile used by Iran and more than a dozen developing countries, the report states.
The computer contents -- among more than 1,000 gigabytes of data seized -- were recently destroyed by Swiss authorities under the supervision of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, which is investigating the now-defunct smuggling ring previously led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
But U.N. officials cannot rule out the possibility that the blueprints were shared with others before their discovery, said the report's author, David Albright, a prominent nuclear weapons expert who spent four years researching the smuggling network.
"These advanced nuclear weapons designs may have long ago been sold off to some of the most treacherous regimes in the world," Albright wrote in a draft report about the blueprint's discovery. A copy of the report, expected to be published later this week, was provided to The Washington Post.
The A.Q. Khan smuggling ring was previously known to have provided Libya with design information for a nuclear bomb. But the blueprints found in 2006 are far more troubling, Albright said in his report. While Libya was given plans for an older and relatively unsophisticated weapon that was bulky and difficult to deliver, the newly discovered blueprints offered instructions for building a compact device, the report said. The lethality of such a bomb would be little enhanced, but its smaller size might allow for delivery by ballistic missile.
What are we to make of this? It's my suspicion that we are supposed to believe that just about any nation poses an imminent threat to America. In other words, the next war won't necessarily be limited to Iran.
I received the following e-mail earlier this morning:
Over the past 17 months you and I delivered a message of freedom, the likes of which American politics has not seen in decades. With the primary season now over, the presidential campaign has come to an end. But the Revolution has only begun.
Today I am happy to announce the official launch of the Ron Paul Campaign for Liberty. Please visit our new website and join us: www.CampaignForLiberty.com.
Over the next few months I will be developing a program, assembling a team, and announcing new and exciting projects. We will have a permanent presence on the American political landscape. That I promise you.
Right now, I need your patience and support. I want the Campaign for Liberty to be a grassroots campaign; so your energy, your creativity, your feedback, and your participation are essential.
Together, we will educate our fellow Americans in freedom, sound money, non-interventionism, and free markets. We will write commentaries and broadcast videos on the news of the day. And I'll work with friends whom I respect to design materials for homeschoolers.
Politically, we will expand the great work of our precinct leader program. We will make our presence felt at every level of government. We will keep an eye on Congress, and lobby against legislation that threatens us. And we will identify and support candidates who champion our great ideas.
"In the final analysis," I wrote in my new book The Revolution: A Manifesto, "the last line of defense in support of freedom and the Constitution consists of the people themselves. If the people want to be free, if they want to lift themselves out from underneath a state apparatus that threatens their liberties, squanders their resources on needless wars, destroys the value of their dollar, and spews forth endless propaganda about how indispensable it is and how lost we would all be without it, there is no force that can stop them."
Our time has come to act on these words.
May future generations look back on our work and say that these were men and women who, in a moment of great crisis, stood up to their politicians, the opinion-makers, and the establishment, and saved their country.
For liberty,
Ron Paul
P.S. Please join me. Go to our website, www.CampaignForLiberty.com, and become a member of the Campaign for Liberty. Our goal is 100,000 members by September. Can we reach it?
Well, Dr. Paul, you're now one member closer to that goal.
Well, what did I tell you? The puppy-tossing Marines seem to be getting more press coverage than the "Heroes" of Haditha.
According to the AP, the Marine Corps is expelling Lance Cpl. David Motari and disciplining Sgt. Crismarvin Banez Encarnacion. Both men have also received unspecified "non-judicial" punishment.
UPDATE: This story garnered some interesting responses from our neocon friends at FreeRepublic.com. Some were glad to see disciplinary action taken, but many sought to excuse the behavior. One member said, "A cruel thing indeed. But men do cruel things in war zones." Another said, "I say cut them some slack, no puppy is worth a career, these were men willing to do things that 299 Million Americans have not and WILL not do." This was the most "macho" of the bunch. He later went on to say, "I don't give one whit what 'animal lovers' think about it. As far as what they did, IMO the only thing that bugs me the slightest is that they put it on YouTube. Stomp the puppies heads (sic) in for all I care, in truth wild mongrel dogs are vermin."
Some saw the need for at least a slap on the wrist: "While some punishment is merited, it should certainly not end his career. Next, we'll find that shooting a rodent will get you kicked out."
Some kind of got it: "What they did to this puppy is disturbing, but there are many abjectly repulsive acts that soldiers in war are forced to do, and get medals for doing."
Still others just didn't seem to have a clue: "The Marine Corps isn't about being cruel. It's about defending our country and showing the willingness to close and destroy our enemies in a disciplined manner. That's what set Marines apart, it's an 'honor' thing. It's not a 'killing for giggles like little punks' thing." Another chimed in, "The helpless little puppy was not the enemy, and we have no use for people in our armed forces who have that much difficulty differentiating between enemies and non-enemies."
As you might have guessed, not one word about Haditha in the entire thread. It just reinforces my original assertion that in our twisted American worldview, a cute puppy is worth more than 10 or even 10,000 Iraqis.
Having pistols strapped around their waists made Shel Anderson, 67, and his wife, Kaye, 63, feel more secure. Longtime recreational shooters, they began to carry their pistols openly after a spate of home-invasion robberies in their neighborhood. The firearms can serve as a warning to predators, they said.
"I decided I want to have as much of an advantage as I can have in this day and age," said Kaye Anderson, a retired schoolteacher.
Nearby, Scott Thompson picked over the remains of a salad, his Springfield Armory XD-35 sitting snugly in his hip holster.
The gangly graphics designer grew up in a home without guns and didn't think of owning one until he started dating a woman -- now his wife -- who lived in a rough neighborhood. One night last year, a youth had his head beaten in with a pipe outside her bedroom window. The next day, Thompson got a concealed-weapons permit.
Thompson found out about open carry last month while reading gun sites. He's become a convert. He likes the statement it makes.
Glancing around the restaurant, as armed families like the Jensens dined with men in cowboy hats and professionals like himself, Thompson smiled.
"I love this," he said. "I want people to be aware that crazy people are not the only ones with guns. Normal people carry them."
When: September 2, 2008, during day two of the GOP convention. Where: Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. Who: Dr. Ron Paul and about 11,000 supporters. Why: Because freedom of speech hasn't been officially outlawed yet.
And they're hoping the National Football League will help. From Dave Zirin:
The NFL has seized on Pat Tillman as another way to connect with the red, white and blue sports fan. Earlier this year, former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue brought together the NFL and the United Service Organizations to build the Pat Tillman USO Center at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. And the league just opened an exhibit dedicated to Tillman at its Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
Now the Tillmans want the NFL to help them speed up the latest congressional hearing into Pat Tillman's death.
The league certainly seems to have the clout to get things moving. Owners of professional football teams are some of the wealthiest and best-connected people in the United States. In the 2004 election cycle, NFL and other sports teams owners gave $14.6 million to Democrats and Republicans, as well as to independent political committees. San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos gave a $4-million donation to the Progress for America Voter Fund, which backed Bush.
NFL officials haven't responded yet, and I doubt they will. They have too much invested in Pat Tillman's death to care about the surviving family members, much less the truth.
The assaults of the Bush regime on civil liberty, the Constitution, and the separation of powers are more determined and more successful than its military assaults on the Middle East, which provide the "war time" justification for the attack on civil liberty in the United States. The regime and its supporters are determined to raise the president to dictatorial powers, at least in times of war, the initiation of which is being turned into a presidential prerogative.
The Founding Fathers were not urban neurotics like so many of today's politicians. They were almost all outdoor people. Guns were to them just tools, like their axes or plows. You couldn't survive in the wilderness without firearms, and at the time of our Revolution, there were only about 3 million people from Maine to Georgia.
Nor were there any police forces. There was no Secret Service, FBI or any of the other alphabet law-enforcement agencies. If you decided to travel, you traveled at your own risk, and you can bet people traveled armed.
Why refer to these articles in the same post? Because they both remind us of what this country used to stand for: individual liberty.
The government used to exist to protect the rights of the individual. Now, with so much power concentrated in the hands of a few "urban neurotics," Americans no longer understand what it means to be free. As long as the trains run on time, they aren't worried about civil liberties. As long as they can still hunt, they don't concern themselves with the unconstitutional infringements on the right to keep and bear arms.
Our "representatives" in Washington have for decades been dismantling the Constitution and every other check on political power. I'm not talking about some secret Illuminati conspiracy to take over the world. I'm talking about human nature. As Lord Acton stated, "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely." Our freedoms are disappearing with every administration that assumes office. Republican, Democrat, it doesn't matter.
The only hope is for Americans to reclaim their country. Wake up and start paying attention before it's too late.
"I'm very proud of America giving me this opportunity," said Barack Obama. "It's a sign of enormous growth in this country."
Spoken like a true condescending member of Washington's ruling elite. I think people will soon find out that "change," at least as far as politicians are concerned, is only skin-deep.
Three seniors at Bloomington Kennedy High School have been barred from their graduation ceremony for committing genocide. Well, they might as well have committed genocide. They drove to school with Confederate flags flying from their trucks.
The enlightened school government-run indoctrination center believes "that the Confederate flag represents hatred, bigotry, intolerance, slavery, civil rights issues and discrimination." Forget the fact that slavery existed under the U.S. flag for 89 years (1776-1865) and under the Confederate flag for only four (1861-1865). I mean, a public school is the last place you'd expect to learn anything about history, right? It's all about keeping up appearances.
Thankfully, not everyone is intolerant when it comes to the Confederate flag.
If supporters of Barack Obama haven't seen through his thin facade by now, they never will, so don't expect much of a reaction to his recent remarks about Iran:
Democratic presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama vowed Wednesday he would work to "eliminate" the threat posed by Iran to security in the Middle East and around the globe.
"There's no greater threat to Israel or to the peace and stability of the region than Iran," he told the powerful pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Council (AIPAC).
"The danger from Iran is grave and real and my goal will be to eliminate this threat," he said, adding loudly to add emphasis that he would do "everything" to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Barack Obama is as pro-war as Clinton or McCain. If not, then he's one heck of a liar. Either way, I think it's safe to say that he doesn't offer much in the way of change.
Greedy, power-mad politicians are no match for a generation of strong marriages. Young people with character and courage trump purveyors of pretension any day. One principled champion -- trained and equipped by strong, stalwart parents -- will put a thousand moral weaklings to flight.
While Pharaoh built his monuments, a humble Hebrew mother taught and nurtured her son, a little boy miraculously drawn forth from the watery reeds. That little boy became the deliverer of his people. It was a Godly mother and father that produced the prophet who would anoint the greatest king of Israel. It was a Spirit-filled mother and father who produced the forerunner of the Messiah. And it was a virtuous, principled mother -- not a government agency, educational institution, or commercial enterprise -- whom God chose to bring the Savior of mankind into the world.
Do you want real change? Don't look to politicians. Strengthen the family.
That's what Michael Goldfarb, McCain's new Deputy Communications Director, would like to see. Thanks to Glenn Greenwald for drawing our attention to it.
Don Bacon, in his latest column, calls our attention to the Dept. of Homeland Insecurity's ridiculous color-coded scare chart. The terrorist threat level is currently at yellow for the nation at large and orange for all domestic and international flights. But according to the government watchdogs themselves, "At this time there is no credible information warning of an imminent, specific threat to the homeland."
