With our beloved Constitution under attack, and new legislation (H.R. 1955 and S. 1959) that will further usurp our freedoms, Americans are reaching back into history for the familiarity of their Revolutionary past. American freedom fighters, determined to reNEW their democracy, are digging into the fashion of their Founders, donning tricorn hats, and preparing to reNEW their Constitution.
The New American Revolutionaries are here!
Even before the Patriot Act was whisked into being on October 26, 2001 by an uninformed and over zealous Congress, true American patriots knew it would shred the Constitution. Respected Constitutional scholars like Irwin Chemerinsky (formerly of USC & Duke), Jonathan Turley (George Washington University), the ACLU, and numerous legal experts, forewarned Americans of the infringements on their freedoms by this pernicious act. Concerned citizens rose up in protest, but never in sufficient numbers to force Congress to repeal the act.
Of course, had there been an informed American electorate, MILLIONS would have protested this purging of their rights. But the corporate-owned media had accomplished its task. It had dumbed down Americans so drastically that Survivor was their reality, and the threat to their democracy was unreal.
In October of 2002, the Iraq War Resolution passed, granting George W. Bush the authority to take what actions HE deemed necessary against Saddam's Iraq. Concerned citizens rose in protest. Women held constant vigil at the White House. But mindless reality television held a vigil of its own. Americans were minor interested and major uninformed - as filmmakers Danny Schechter, Robert Greenwald and Norman Solomon have clearly shown.
On February 15, 2003, millions around the globe stood in solidarity against the war. The greatest numbers were in Europe. Rome had 3 million strong. Across America, pro-peace patriots marched in large numbers - but not large enough. Corporate media had again done its job. This time Survivor had company. Fear Factor, and Big Brother were added realities, and The Osbournes took the nation by storm.
For America's media-deluded nation, the war eventually became a reality on March 20, 2003, when it was broadcast as Shock and Awe. Americans chomped popcorn and drank beer to their war. It was the ultimate video extravaganza.
The corporate media had sold Americans a war. Americans bought it, financed it, staffed it, and now owned it. Their hard earned taxes had bought George Bush's war.
When will they finally stop paying?!
On March 9, 2006, George W. Bush signed the newly reauthorized Patriot Act into law. Patriots bemoaned their inability to protect the Constitution. Corporate media-conned Americans paid it no mind. The New York Times front page didn't cover it, concentrating instead on the Dubai ports debacle, which bolstered domestic fear. With the scrawl of a pen, Americans' freedoms and privacy were again signed away.
By 2006, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were still raging on. Thousands of troops had been killed. Tens of thousands had been grievously wounded. Bush had suspended habeas corpus. Houses began to foreclose. More jobs were shipped overseas. More workers became unemployed. More health benefits were denied. More widening of the economic divide.
With this further decline in quality of life, more Americans awakened to their decaying democracy. Still not in sufficent numbers. Corporate media dumbed on. Peace marches weren't televised. Progressive leaders weren't interviewed. American Idol and Dancing With The Stars rated high. Britney's marriage was rocky and French-hating Americans were ga-ga for Paris.
And now, as 2007 moves toward its end, the wars continue, the economy further dies, and Congress sucker-punches the Constitution once again. Meet the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (H.R. 1955), and its Senate companion, S. 1959 - the government's newest weapon against its own people. Its latest tool to identify and control "homegrown terrorists," and in the process suppress dissent.
Thanks to California's ever disappointing Bush-Dog Democrat, Jane Harman, Congress pushed through yet further legislation to erode First Amendment rights. Harman's H.R. 1955, which passed the House overwhelmingly with a 404 to 6 vote, presents such a vague definition of "homegrown terrorism," that any American who dissents is subject to government reprisal. Per H.R. 1955, "homegrown terrorism" is defined as "the use, planned use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual born, raised, or based and operating primarily within the United States or any possession of the United States to intimidate or coerce the United States government, the civilian population of the United States, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives." click here.
When considering that individuals and organizations who oppose government policy regularly plan the actions needed to force government change, Jane Harman's bill is antithetical to democracy. H.R. 1955 dissuades citizen participation in government, and is an extension of the disastrous Homeland Security Department - the same Homeland Security Department that used its resources in 2003 to track down Texas state legislators at the behest of former Republican Congressman, Tom Delay.
The Founders of this nation surely didn't foresee, or prescribe, the tyrannical rule set forth in H.R. 1955, in Senate bill 1959, or in the Patriot Act. Thomas Jefferson, perhaps this nation's most vocal proponent of participatory democracy, made many statements in support of citizen involvement in government.
Jefferson said:
Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.
Left in the despotic hands of Bush-Dog Harman, and her 404 colleagues in the 110th Congress, Mr. Jefferson's America will collapse into disrepair. The great leaders of this nation have always understood that its salvation rests squarely in the hands of THE PEOPLE, who love it more purely than electeds who succumb to ambition and corporations that succeed through greed.
After enduring nearly seven years of the Goebbels' fear tactics of George W. Bush, and the dumbing-down tactics of corporate media, the American people are slowly waking to the perilous state of their union. Still, many fail to realize how severely their Constitution has been shredded by their ruthless President and reckless Legislators.
For most Americans, few historical symbols are as recognizable as the clothing worn by the Founders they learned about as children. In a non-partisan effort to assist Americans in reclaiming their nation, the New American Revolutionaries will don the duds of their forefathers and go forward to re-teach the Revolutionary principles of justice and humanity upon which this nation is based.
On January 1st at the Pasadena Rose Parade, Revolutionary garbed patriots from the White Rose Coalition will move amongst the crowds to spread the message that its time to reclaim our democracy. It's time to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's time to bring our heros home. It's time to make peace with the world. It's time to end corporate dominance of a society steeped in greed. It's time to impeach Bush and Cheney, and restore our nation to its original creed.
Here's to a most Revolutionary New Year!!
Follow Linda Milazzo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LindaMilazzo
I fear that the Senate version S. 1959 will be quietly linked to the omnibus bill this week and passed in the middle of the night. The president signs it and we get a police state for Christmas. If you folks know about the essschelon system, purposely misspelled: Most people don’t know how powerful big brother has become already. Democracy is gone in America.
The government, using the internet thought police, will likely be censoring the internet within a year. It is already being done on a small scale. This situation is really, really dark and I am discouraged. Enjoy what you can find on this issue now. I will disappear very soon!
400 plus Congressman are the real homegrown radicals. Collins and Harman ought to be asked to step down for even proposing the legislation.
Don't expect our Fearless Leader to be George Bush. He's more analogous to Rohm, the leader of the SA. The real powers behind the throne; the lurkers who deem it imprudent to show their faces at present will reveal themselves. When this happens it will be too late.
So you have to ask yourself, “Do I Feel Lucky?” A better question to ask yourself is:
Do I Enjoy Watching these Machiavellians use My Constitution for Toilet Paper?
Well; Do You?
Media Consolidation in America is presently undermining our political process. When Media Consolidation reaches critical mass it will be easy to do away with any meaningful political discourse through the tactic of Media Blackout of any information deemed detrimental by the individual(s) in control of the Media Empires. When this happens there will be legislation to consolidate and institutionalize that control:
The Law against the Formation of Parties declared the Nazi Party the only political party in Germany. All other parties were banned, and their leaders were put in prison.
With that control institutionalized there will be a weeding-out of any idealogical concepts or practices not in direct support of what the ultimate leader (ringleader) of the Powers that Be, deems to be correct. At this juncture no-one will be spared. Many who supported these policies and this leadership will find themselves at the wrong end of the gun. All it will take is any original idea; any concept or precept other than those given by the leadership:
The SA were the thugs who Hitler had used to help him come to power. They had defended his meetings, and attacked opponents. By 1934 there were more than a million of them.
Historians have often wondered why Hitler turned on the SA. But Hitler was in power in 1934, and there was no opposition left - the SA were an embarrassment, not an advantage. Also, Rohm, the leader of the SA, was talking about a Socialist revolution and about taking over the army. On the night of 30 June 1934 - codeword 'Hummingbird - Hitler ordered the SS to kill more than 400 SA men.
At this juncture it's, “Game, Set, Match.” It's, “Checkmate,” in the Fiat d'Accompli. America as we know it . . . ? Party-Over; Turn Out the Lights.
When Hindenburg died, Hitler took over the office of President and leader of the army (the soldiers had to swear to die for Adolf Hitler personally). Hitler called himself 'Fuhrer'.
Regarding the, “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act.”
Senate Bill 1959 is nothing less than Fascism Incarnate. By definition, Senate Bill 1959 is Unconstitutional. It's the exact tactic the Nazis in Germany used in the 1930's to topple the Weimar Republic:
After he became Chancellor in January 1933, Hitler transformed his democratic position into dictatorial power. Calling an election - and taking advantage of the Reichstag fire - he got the Reichstag to pass the Enabling Act. Then, using the power this gave him to make his own laws, he set up the Gestapo, banned Trade Unions and opposition parties and (on the Night of the Long Knives, July 1934) removed even the opposition within the Nazi Party . . . When Hindenburg died, Hitler declared himself Fuhrer.
Passage of this Orwellian law would be a Declaration of War upon the Civil Population of the United States of America:
The Nazis took over local government and the police. The Nazis started to replace anti-Nazi teachers and University professors. Hitler set up the Gestapo (the secret police) and encouraged Germans to report opponents and 'grumblers'. Tens of thousands of Jews, Communists, Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses, gypsies, homosexuals, alcoholics and prostitutes were arrested and sent to concentration camps for 'crimes' as small as writing anti-Nazi graffiti, possessing a banned book, or saying that business was bad.
Presently in America government is removing Freedom of Choice and institutionalizing the Captive Work Force and the Captive Consumer:
The Trade Unions offices were closed, their money confiscated, and their leaders put in prison. In their place, Hitler put the German Labour Front which reduced workers' pay and took away the right to strike.
Given that 70% of Americans are opposed to his war, plus we are funding pass throughs to his cronies, and are faced with the grim reality that there is NO EFFECTIVE OPPOSITION - you could say we have taxation without representation.
I'm dusting off my fife and drum as we speak.
It's funny how some people see the tricorn hat and construe this article as libertarian, while conservatives like Jonah Goldberg label Naomi Wolf a "leftist" for her new book, "The End of America".
Both of these women are writing about restoring freedom and democracy in America, an issue that's neither right- nor left-wing. Our founders' main concern in creating the Constitution was to prevent tyrants and dictators from taking over, which is exactly what we need to do right now. We have to learn to ignore all the media-spinning and think for ourselves.
This applies to ALL of us, left, right, and center, so let's work together, Americans! Get involved---join one of the many multi-partisan, patriotic groups who are putting these words into action, like the White Rose Coalition at www.BCImpeach.com, www.ImpeachBush.org, www.AfterDowningStreet.org, www.mediachannel.org, and www.mediamatters.org.
However, the sheer egregiousness of H.R. 1955 could well be sufficient to create something akin to a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If enough measures similar to this are enacted into law, increasing the pressure on an already beleaguered Bill of Rights, their increasing anti-democratic slant might be sufficient to create a backlash similar to an insurrection.
Our current crop of Congress critters on both sides of the aisle seem to have involved themselves in an ongoing criminal conspiracy with the Bush Administration, a slow-motion coup designed to fashion a police state in which they are the nation's top cops.
Individual Representatives and Senators, as well as future presidents, had better decide soon whether they wish to be part of the problem or part of the solution.
Another Dem who is supporting RP. I did not have the nuts to change parties, BUT I have purchased RP props, where I will hand out in the NH primary I have volunteered to help. I will vote for Kucinich, as a Dem,the closest to what I love. But with RP's immediate recognition of the immminent threat we face as far as the constitution, civil liberties, I have to let go by the wayside some of my other issues. I am very concerned about global warming and abortion rights, BUT the first and foremost threat to me is our Bill of Rights.
It's one thing to say 'no', however, without a way to back that up, it only means 'no' if the other party agrees.
Many here have covered economics and immigration and all of the individual issues we face. This is the first article that touches on the relationship that all of these have to the purposeful dissolution of our sovereignty. Bless you!
Finally, I want to let you know, that after some great consternation, but subsequent research, I have switched parties to support Ron Paul in the primary. I am awakened to the red and blue plutocracy on the Hill. They want us divided.
He represents what is good about our Nation and people, and his constitutional views and record speak to saving our sovereignty, economy, and freedom.
Here are what the revolutionaries are up to (conservatives, blacks, whites, dems, indies, greens, etc.). The rEVOLution is taking place.
http://www.infiniteronpaul.com/meetupmaps/
http://www.indedge.com/ronpaul.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07TVBLFroSM
www.teaparty07.com
www.youtube.com (search for ron paul)
www.ronpaul2008.com
www.dailypaul.com
www.whowouldtheworldelect.com
www.meetup.com (join us!)
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071108/NEWS08/311080111
http://media.newsreview.com/TearSheets/files/R/2007-11-08/0036.pdf
www.ronpaulgraphs.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF3NtEWj6ws
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur4hKqTikqM
p.s. I'm glad I could post this before 1955 is law.