The Dark Side of The Patriot Act

The USA Patriot Act is an acronym for the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (Public Law Pub.L. 107-56). I believe the USA Patriot Act is both unAmerican and unpatriotic, as it has removed the basic human rights for which our founding fathers, and every generation since, have fought and died.

Benjamin Franklin once said, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." (Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, November 11, 1755.—The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Leonard W. Labaree, vol. 6, p. 242 (1963).) The following quotation, a paraphrased and more frequently quoted version of Franklin's quote, is inscribed on a plaque in the stairwell of the Statue of Liberty: “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

The United States Constitution and Bill of Rights, along with Lady Liberty, are respectively, the rule of law and symbol of the United States of America. How dare President Bush and members of Congress, who all swore an oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution, so quickly, easily and readily gut the fundamental protection of our rights in our Constitution. Honestly, all who voted for and signed the Patriot Act most certainly did not represent me when they did this, nor did they protect and defend our Constitution.

We've already seen what the lack of oversight and regulation have done to our country's mortgage and financial industries. Ask the millions of unemployed, those whose homes have been foreclosed or whose home values have significantly dropped, and those whose retirement accounts have evaporated down to next to nothing whether or not the Bush Administration's reduced and/or altogether removed oversight policies and regulations have protected them, while the rich and powerful made trillions of dollars.

The USA Patriot Act is the type of ultimate, purposeful removal of oversight and protective regulations for citizens' rights that governments use to get rid of those who oppose them. How easy this can also be for them now, when the media, who are the Fourth Estate, the watchdog over the government, will no longer be granted access to any information about those who are being investigated. The United States of America is not supposed to create the types of laws that can be found in a dictatorship, in which police powers have been augmented, and with which people can be "disappeared," held without charge, representation, or due process. So much for the rights of the 'tired, the poor, and the huddled masses yearning to breathe free' who struggled to make it to this country of hope, freedom and opportunity.

Many people are concerned this country is treading on very dangerous ground that may cause some political leaders to slip and fall down the slippery slope of greed and dictatorship. If that doesn't happen, the Uniting and Strengthening America Patriot Act, may very well still be the downfall of our country by creating a rift between citizens who either support or oppose this Act, and by weakening its moral foundation. So now we will wait and see how the results of the current lack of oversight and regulation in our fundamental rules of law will affect American citizens. While we wait, I am one citizen who is on the record to demand that the President and Congress rescind the USA Patriot Act, reinstate our Constitutional rights, and create a new Constitutional amendment that firmly prohibits the removal of our citizens' fundamental rights by anyone in power!

Teachers Should Not Be Held Accountable for Society's Problems

I believe that we need to get children into school earlier for pre-K and full-day Kindergarten. Many parents work 2 jobs just to make ends meet, so they don't have enough time to work with their children. Many students are coming to school without knowledge of the alphabet, letter sounds, basic number sense, ability to count from 1 to 10, or even understanding directionality of print. Instead, parents are relying more and more on teachers to teach early literacy, math and life skills to their children in 1/2-day Kinder and in 1st grade classes. This late start puts these children at a distinct disadvantage, where many spend the rest of their academic lives playing catch-up.

I don't see society and our economy rolling back to the time when one parent can afford to support the family and the other parent, mom or dad, can stay home to work with the children. I would, however, like to see it roll back to a time where people earn a living wage so that they only need to work one job. At least, then, parents will have more time to spend with their children and teach them life skills, early literacy and numbers, to read to them, and help them with their homework.

I truly hope the next President will realize that the problem with education is a problem that originates in the basic structure of society, the family and the economy. I think we blame teachers because they are scapegoats for these much deeper and more difficult problems to solve; problems without one, easily identifiable "go-to" person or group to hold accountable.

"To Coup or Not To Coup?" Asked a Little Boy

Here's a story that may or may not be true. You decide. You react to it how you will.

The Man Who Would Be K...President

Years Ago
Once upon a time, there was a little boy. This little boy listened attentively to his grandpa, Prescat, tell stories about taking over and running a country. They'll make so much money that they'll never want for anything and they'll live like kings! They'll control the lives of all their subjects, take over their subjects' lands and money. They'll run the corporations and be all-powerful! The boy dreams...maybe I could be king...or maybe I'll just call myself president so I can fool the people...

Some years later...
The little boy has become a man, and recollects the stories his grandfather once told him. He considers how his family can best convert them from fiction into reality...

To begin with, my father has finally become President of the United States and we'll build more wealth during his tenure when my uncle and our other cronies create a savings in loan scandal. This will enable our family to make a dry run at putting into place some of the elements of our plan and provide some capital with which we can put our precious plan into full action during my reign, oops, I'd better say tenure, as President. We're doing to this to test what the American people will allow, and will wait until the time is right to make our move.

January 20, 2001
News Release: Small Streets Journal
A new President takes the Oath of Office saying, "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Today
News Release: Small Streets Journal
After the other barn failures, bailouts and takeovers, Woo Moo, the nation's largest savings and loan cow, was seized by the Federal Barn Insurance Cowporation. This is, not only the second savings and loan cow scandal, it is the largest cow failure in US history, and the history of the entire world. Right after that, it was rescued by a Morgan horse that Chased and caught it's assets at a discownt. Now the Morgan owns the mortcowges of a huge amount of US citizens.

The man thinks, we're almost ready for a complete takeover. The best thing to do is to hide in plain sight. Confuse the public with partial truths. We must deal with that blogger. I know, I'll just tell the people that there's a terrorist, a blogger who is trying to spread disinformation to undermine the government and that we have the terrorist in custody. Everything is under control. Well, time to make my address to the nation.

"Good morning, friends. The government is secure and our economy is fundamentally sound. In an effort for my administration to remain transparent, I must disclose the words of a blogger the FBI and Department of Homeland Security have identified as a terrorist bent upon inciting panic in the populace. As you read the blogger's words, you'll be able to see for yourself that this terrorist has a very active imagination. My friends, the terrorist is already in custody thanks to the rapid response, sharing of information and teamwork between agents in both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. So, now, all will be fine, so long as we quickly pass the Bailout Legislation. If we don't, I'm certain that the collapse of our economy is imminent!

Friends, here is the entirely erroneous statement that the Blogger published:"

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A Government in Shadow is Rising Up to the Light of Day


The United States is under attack. With elections coming in November and their free reign of power and money acquisition in jeopardy, they have pulled out all stops to implement their final power and financial-grabs, get all they can without a fight, and fully take over our country! Yes, I am saying their coup is almost complete.

The Plan: Overthrow the United States in 8 Years

Steps to Takeover:
1. Place your people in positions of power, such as Governor, so you can steal elections through fraud, voter disenfranchisement, corrupt officials, and funny math.
2. Use fear and terror to create panic and strip the people of their Constitutional freedoms, including their right to privacy and habeas corpus. (US Constitution, Article I The Legislative Branch, Section 9 Limits on Congress: The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.)
3. Use intimidation and harassment to prevent demonstrations and written and visual communications in protest of oue actions, including H.R. 1959.
4. Use unconstitutional domestic spying to intimidate citizens, create lists of opponents, and create files on Americans, including their personal and financial information.
5. Take control of the press by creating corporate monopolies and use the threat of withdrawal of advertising dollars to influence editorial policy and truthful reporting of the facts. Example: Fox News report on Monsanto - see YouTube for video.
6. Arrest journalists and photographers, brand them as terrorists, and put some on the "No Fly" list, preventing them from doing their jobs. http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=24025
7. "Encourage" the largest private army in the world to be formed and remain on US soil. Hire them, as a test run, to occupy and patrol New Orleans fully armed and with orders to shoot to kill, after Hurricane Katrina. Hire them, paying them much higher wages than your own country's soldiers, to fight alongside those soldiers in your illegal war. Make certain this army is in three locations in your country, forming a triangular pattern from which they can deploy to enforce marshal law, when it is declared.
8. Steal power away from the Legislative Branch and put people in the Judicial Branch to create the greatest imbalance of governmental power in American history.
9. Appoint people to high positions in such Departments as FEMA, FDA, OMB, and EPA who refuse to recuse themselves while, essentially still-working for their former private-sector employees (as they go right back to working for them after they complete their task of influence-wielding) to pass/influence policies and legislation favorable to private-sector employers. These same policies were unfavorable, unhealthy, and downright dangerous to the health and security of the American people and their environment. Some of these private-sectors companies include chemical companies that create genetically modified seed and food, chemical companies that still remain unsecured from terrorist infiltration and attack, oil and financial companies that have fixed prices and speculated to further drive up prices.
10. Continue to provide subisidies and tax relief to major corporations making record-breaking profits, to transfer public US dollars into the private sector.
11a. Create an illegal war based upon false information.
12b. Give cost-plus, no-bid contracts to our friends and former co-workers.
13. Take the budget surplus and create the largest budget deficit in our country's history, essentially transferring billions of dollars of government money, the people's tax dollars, into "corporate" hands.
14. Refuse to follow, and break the rule of law of the USA.
15. Refuse to follow/break international law, the Geneva Convention, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
16. Create a second, false "bubble" in oil prices, creating fear and panic in the population (for the third time), creating the false "want" that has the unsuspecting public pressure legislators to "Drill, Baby, Drill." This will open more public lands (on- and off-shore) to private sector corporate control and more profits, when these same corporations haven't been drilling the lands they already have, and knowing full well that it won't reduce the price anyway (since we own less than 4% of the world's oil supply and don't have any say in setting the price - that would be under OPEC's control).
17a. Manipulate the law, regulations, and the financial markets to create widespread foreclosures, corporate and financial institution failures.
17b. Through widespread foreclosures, strip American citizens of private property ownership, putting their private property into the hands of the Executive Branch of the government and our friends in the private sector.
17c. Transfer over $1 trillion dollars of United States citizens' money into private-sector hands through already completed bailouts and takeovers.

What they're doing right now...
18. Force legislation through Congress, using the same-old terror and fear-based panic by saying demise is imminent, to transfer further Constitutional and Congressional power and another $1 trillion to the Executive Branch/Treasury, where it will be placed into private-sector hands, including foreign governments and foreign companies, without any oversight.

The Resistance:
Citizens far and wide call, write and visit the offices of their legislators to oppose the Bailout. They take to the streets, en masse, to protest. Journalists, photographers and videographers of local, state, national, and international press organizations widely report this groundswell of protest. Citizens demand impeachment of top leaders (US Constitution, Article 2, Section 4 - Disqualification. The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.) and the arrest of those responsible for the collapse. People march on the Capitol, as was done in the '60's in protest of the Vietnam War. The people work together, as one, to put a stop to this.

The next steps, if The Resistance loses:
19. Take control of American's savings, retirement and investment accounts, making it impossible for citizens to have the money to fight back, buy essential goods and services.
20. Declare marshal law and institute country-wide curfews.
21. Confiscate all private weapons.
22. Shut down internet communications.
23. Require citizens to carry and show government identification cards.
24. Limit travel of all citizens.
25. ID chip citizens, instead of tattooing them, as did the Nazis.
26. Round up all those who protest.
27. Send protesters to waiting FEMA detention camps. (See YouTube videos.) They're surrounded by barbed wire pointing inwards to prevent escape and are situated along major interstate, rail, and/or airline routes - and, yes, they really DO exist. Question: Why are there millions of FEMA coffins stored alongside roads? Look for them in YouTube videos, again - yes, REALLY!
28. Reconstitute the government, rewarding cronies and friends and detaining opponents (see #27).
29. Figure out what to do with all those people (see #27), because, GOSH they cost A WHOLE LOT OF ALL OUR NEWLY ACQUIRED MONEY to transport, keep fed, watered, clothed, housed, and guarded!
30. Perhaps use all of those coffins. After all, we wouldn't want our hard-earned money going to waste on those people, just average citizens, would we?
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The President thinks, "If only the people really knew how close that blogger is to the truth! Where are we in our plan now? Hmmmm...
Habeas corpus...gone
Right to privacy...gone
Freedom of press...reduced
Freedom of speech...reduced
Universal Declaration of Human Rights...ignored
Geneva Convention...ignored
Extension of Executive Powers, including over other branches of government, thereby increasing control over the people...done
Disregard for US Constitution and rule of law...done
Control over the peoples' finances through the largest transfer of wealth in human history...to the tune of now over 2 trillion dollars over the past two weeks and completed today!
Takeover and control of private property...continuing.
Our plan is almost complete!"

News Release: Small Streets Journal
Economic Collapse Requires Government Reconstruction
As citizens of the Homeland struggle to pay their bills while corporations and financial firms collapse, the government has made a bold move to restructure itself. The newly restructured government has declared marshal law and restricted all travel for the safety of all citizens. Citizens who have lost their homes or who cannot pay their bills will be taken to FEMA camps that will provide for their daily needs until they can, once again, stand on their own two feet. The Homeland will be implementing further changes as necessary.

And the few of the coup lived happily ever after.

THE END

Is this patently pathetic paranoia or tyranny's terrifying truth?

Does the fact that the final steps in the coup happen in a leap year and the year with the most auspicious date in the Chinese calendar of 08-08-08 serve to guarantee it's success? Okay, now I'm getting silly, but one has to look for humor of any kind wherever one may find it, in order to keep one's chin up.

Check out the Fourteen Defining Characteristics of Fascism:
http://www.rense.com/general37/char.htm
http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm
and the economy of Fascism:
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Fascism.html

Since it may have been a while since you've read it, here is the link to The Declaration of Independence, in which our founding fathers explain why they revolted against the King of England in order to form a new nation. I think you'll be surprised at the similarities between the experiences of the British subjects over 200 years ago and those of the American people today.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html
Or...
http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/document/index.htm

In addition, here are the links to the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html

Clean, Renewable Energy or Drill, Baby, Drill?

Drill, baby, drill? Yes, lots of people have been drilled by Big Oil; literally, employees at the US Department of the Interior and, figuratively, the American people these past eight years under the Bush administration! Big Oil receives billions of dollars in royalties for drilling, this is in addition to their subsidies and record profits, all taken from millions of hard-working American citizens struggling to keep a roof over their heads, food on their tables and clothes on their backs! Drill, baby, drill! Boy, have they ever drilled and found lots of oil money to grease their pockets, while keeping hard-earned money out of ours!

Angry? Do I sound angry? At this point, I'm a hunka burnin' love for clean, renewable energy! I attended the first National Clean Energy Summit and know that oil is not our energy saviour. It's going to take a combination of energy efficiency improvements, an increase in use of natural gas, extensive use of renewable solar, wind, and geothermal energy, as well as a huge investment to improve the speed, capacity and size of our nation's energy transmission power grid to help make the United States a clean energy-based and secure nation. Oil is NOT, and has never been, the solution to this problem!

The Merriam Webster Online Dictionary defines clean as a transitive verb "1 a: to make clean: as (1): to rid of dirt, impurities, or extraneous matter (2): to rid of corruption." Their definition of dirty, an adjective, is "1 a: not clean or pure b: likely to befoul or defile with dirt c: contaminated with infecting organisms d: containing impurities <dirty coal> 2 a: morally unclean or corrupt ... 7: having considerable fallout <dirty bombs>."

When I think of clean energy, I think of energy sources that do not have "dirty" byproducts, extraneous matter or corruption. Oil, as a form of clean energy, loses on all fronts of this definition, especially since members of the Bush Administration's Department of the Interior have been caught in corruption involving bribes, sex and drugs. The alleged oil companies involved are Shell, Chevron Corp., Hess Corp., and Gary-Williams Energy Corp. I'm sure this is only the tip of the iceberg involving this administration's eight years of being in bed with Big Oil. No wonder why our gasoline prices have risen steadily as they continue to cry "Drill, baby, drill!" and when experts across the board have proven American citizens won't see this new oil in their gas tank for seven to ten years, even if we drill today. Why don't we put this time, energy and money into clean, renewable energy, instead?

Why are we still talking about drilling for oil when we know the United States sits on only 3% of the world's oil? How we think drilling here and drilling now will change world oil prices is amazingly stupid - OPEC sets the prices and they have most of the oil! Drilling all three percent of the world's oil supply is also not enough oil to make us energy independent. Whatever happened to common sense? Drilling in ANWAR will only produce an extremely small amount of oil, relative to our demands, help the income of Palin's State of Alaska (of course she's for this - although she has reduced earmarks by 35% over the previous administration, her state still receives more earmarks per capita than does any other) in the near future and forever pollute a pristine, protected, untouched wilderness. Drilling our limited offshore resources will only risk polluting our beaches and the security of part of our national food supply: fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and kelp.

This "Drill, baby, drill!" mantra is yet another example of this administration's and McCain/Palin's fear-mongering, sabre-rattling use of artificially increased prices by a corrupt industry and allowed by a Big Oil president and his cronies, in order to create a false emergency need to expand their operations and further increase their record corporate profits, subsidies and royalties. The call to "Drill, baby, drill!" is simply a pathetic last-minute attempt for Big Oil and its cronies to get in their last licks before Bush is out (and in case McCain/Palin never get in) and their free ride on top of the American people is over. If you'd like to see which politicians take contributions from Big Oil, go to http://oilchangeusa.org/ While there, you'll see which politicians have been paid the highest oil dollars to promote Big Oil's "Drill, Baby, Drill!" campaign, which is running concurrently with the US Presidential campaign.

This is also a "more of the same" attitude about oil that got us into this mess in the first place! No more oil! No offshore drilling! No drilling in ANWR! Say NO! We should be saying "No More Oil! No Way! Only Clean Energy!" If you don't believe me, do your research. Don't buy into all the false ads spouting disinformation that you see on television, which were paid for by the record oil profits, subsidies and royalties of the past eight years of corruption, money taken out of the pockets of American citizens (another way in which we're still being drilled).

As for nuclear or coal being clean forms of energy...no way! Nuclear is so clean that we have byproducts that must be guarded by our military so they don't fall into the hands of terrorists, who wish to use these byproducts to make dirty bombs. The water used to cool the towers becomes heavy, too. These byproducts don't have a normal decomposition time, their decomposition is measured in nuclear half-lives. Then when people think about where to store these byproducts, they absolutely don't want them in their own backyards. If nuclear energy is so clean, why doesn't anybody want the waste in their own backyard? Why are people worried that the nuclear and hazardous wastes in holding tanks are leaking at Hanford Nuclear Power Plant on 585 square miles along the Columbia River in southeastern Washington? Hanford is also near the Pacific Ocean and upstream of the cities of Kennewick, Pasco and Richland. Then, think about the safety of transporting this nuclear waste across the United States of America via truck, rail and barge. Have you ever heard of accidents on the road, rail or water? I'm writing this a couple of days after the nation's worst rail accident in 15 years took place in Chatsworth, CA, with 25 dead, 135 injured, 34 of them still critical. What if the freight train involved had been carrying nuclear waste?

Coal is not clean, either. Miners' deaths, gaping holes in the earth, waste pools, polluted water from cooling the processing machinery that will kill freshwater ecosystems, mountain topping (this is cutting off the tops of beautiful mountains, with the resultant erosion, landslides, pollution of streams and rivers, and possible deaths of wildlife and human residents, and possible alteration of micro- and macro-climates), and byproducts that invade our lungs (causing allergies, asthma, and lung cancer), increase carbon dioxide emissions, thereby increasing global warming.

Notice I've mentioned water a few times, already. Fresh, potable water is less than 1% of all water found on earth. The United States has already been in a drought for years, now. We take for granted what many second- and third-world citizens have to walk for miles to get: life-giving, potable water with which they can cook and hydrate themselves. Many of these people, mostly women and children, actually risk their lives to get water, facing rape, torture and murder along their path to survival. Yet, here we are, wasting inordinate amounts of this precious resource to continue producing unclean, dirty energy.

Instead, we can say "YES!" to clean energy! We can continue to use and expand development of natural gas as an alternative source of power. We can use and continue development of solar and wind technology that already exists, yet has repeatedly been ignored in favor of oil. Instead of drilling for oil that would take 10 years to reach the pump, let's invest in solar and wind power, improve and extend our high-speed power transmission infrastructure, and use the Saudi Arabia of solar power - the Southwest USA - and the Saudi Arabia of wind energy - the Midwest USA - to power our own country. We can also expand our use of geothermal energy.

If we concentrate on truly clean energy, stop listening to corrupt, dirty energy companies who have had their day, and work together for a cleaner, brighter future with clean energy, we can make these changes! We can retool factories, retrofit our homes and cars to clean energy sources, grow green industries and jobs, improve our economy by going green, and recapture our national security by reducing our usage and dependence on foreign oil. If we get out of Iraq and stop subsidizing Big Oil, we can use this money, instead, to energize solar, geothermal and wind power and increase the energy transmission infrastructure in the United States. We can change our world into a more secure, cleaner place in which our children can grow and live healthier lives. We can do this!!!

Qualifications for President and Vice-President

If teachers are required by our President, the Federal government and our citizens, to be Highly Qualified, have a Master's Degree, pass at least 4 competency exams, and maintain minimum levels of continuing education, why aren't our Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates held to similar high standards? Many teachers run classes of less than 40 students. Our candidates will run a country of millions, yet they are not required to prove they are competent by some standardized method of measurement or educational attainment. I believe candidates should be required to achieve at least a Master's degree from an accredited university in the United States and pass competency tests on subjects including US Constitution, US History, World History, Federal and International Law, Public Policy, Transportation and Infrastructure, Environmental Science, International Affairs and Diplomacy, Conflict Resolution, Macro- and Micro-Economics, Public Speaking, Writing, and Ethics.

Teachers, who make much less money than do most politicians, are required to provide weekly lesson plans, document what they will teach, how much time they will spend on each subject, what strategies and materials they will use so their students will achieve mastery, how they will assess their students' progress, and what state and/or national education standards they are meeting through their instruction. Everything teachers do is required to be student-centered. Perhaps our politicians should also be required to do the same thing. Politicians should be required to provide weekly plans to their constituents, document which problems and issues they will handle for their constituents, how much time they will spend on each problem or issue, what strategies and materials they will use to achieve solutions for their constituents, how they will assess their progress on solving problems and issues for their constituents (political, environmental, economic, etc.), and what state and/or national standards they are meeting through their public service. Everything politicians do should be constituent-centered. Instead, many politicians state outright lies, break laws, and work for lobbyists and corporate interests, rather than their constituents. Then, they turn around and say that teachers are doing a bad job and need even more regulation and accountability.

If teachers were handled in the same way as has been Sarah Palin by the Republicans, then when they're hired, they would be able to hang out with a Master Teacher and watch them teach. They'd also smile, shake hands, wave and give a thumbs up, occaisionally give the same lesson prepared by someone else, and not be responsible to teach their own lessons to their own class, or answer questions from parents or adminstration. This candidate should not be allowed to get away with this! We the People need to stand together and demand accountability of and accessibility to all of our public servants and candidates, as well as minimum standards of education and competency levels of candidates for public service.