Tag: Liberty

Bring Back HUAC!

About now there is a wealth of readers going…HUH?

The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, investigated allegations of communist activity in the U.S. during the early years of the Cold War (1945-91). Established in 1938, the committee wielded its subpoena power as a weapon and called citizens to testify in high-profile hearings before Congress. This intimidating atmosphere often produced dramatic but questionable revelations about Communists infiltrating American institutions and subversive actions by well-known citizens. HUAC’s controversial tactics contributed to the fear, distrust and repression that existed during the anticommunist hysteria of the 1950s. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, HUAC’s influence was in decline, and in 1969 it was renamed the Committee on Internal Security. Although it ceased issuing subpoenas that year, its operations continued until 1975.

Me?  I was born too late to suffer through stupidity of HUAC…I was unfortunate enough to be troubled by COINTELPRO…..but I have already covered that assault on my civil liberties….but since I was a radical it was all so much good from the point of view of the micro-brains on the Right…..I was in great company….H. Rap Brown, Huey Newton, Berrigan and many other radicals of the day.

I bring up HUAC because that “great” American mouthpiece, Newt Gingrich, seems to think we need that intrusion into our privacy…..yet again….

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich proposed the creation of a new version of the controversial House Un-American Activities Committee to root out American citizens who plan to commit terrorist attacks in the U.S.

“We originally created the House Un-American Activities Committee to go after Nazis. We passed several laws in 1938 and 1939 to go after Nazis and we made it illegal to help the Nazis. We’re going to presently have to go take the similar steps here,” Gingrich said in a Monday appearance on “Fox and Friends.”

Originally founded in 1938, the committee investigated suspected threats of Nazi subversion and anti-government propaganda. During the Cold War, its activities sprawled, leading to the blacklist of Hollywood stars and left-wing activists, writers, and academics accused of having Communist ties.

In 1959, former President Harry Truman infamously called the committee “the most un-American thing in the country today.”

Gingrich also suggested that the U.S. will inevitably “declare a war on Islamic supremacists” living here due to the number of terrorist attacks that have been committed by American citizens, such as those in San Bernardino, California and at the Fort Hood military base.

“We’re going to say, if you pledge allegiance to ISIS, you are a traitor and you have lost your citizenship,” Gingrich said.

Under current law, the U.S. cannot revoke the citizenship of natural-born U.S. citizens against their will.

(talkingpointsmemo.com)

Just another assault on your civil liberties……but who cares….right?

Toward a Theory of Peace

This election has had a plethora of rhetoric about the possibility of the US once again moving toward war footing……is that really necessary?

With all the violence worldwide the very thought of a peaceful world is merely a dream…..a dream that few speak of these days…..most of the rhetoric is about how to defeat, subjugate or destroy our enemies…..nothing is being said of ways to end our conflicts without killing massive amounts of people, including our own troops.

If we are truly honest with the American people then we need to tell them the fact that there is NO military solution for the conflict in Syria……but we know that will not happen….why?  Not popular.

Longtime UN diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi talks about how to end the tragedy, and when you really need diplomacy.

Source: There Is No Military Solution for Syria | The Nation

If there is no military solution for Syria….then why not try a unique solution…..try to find a peaceful solution to the problem?

Peace is the keystone of liberty and prosperity. To completely understand why, it will be important to develop a theory of peace.

Most arguments against war at least partially rely on empirical evidence. Anti-war literature tends to draw from past calamitous consequences of foreign interventionism. Here I will endeavor to make the case for peace using only theoretical incentive analysis.

Source: Toward a Theory of Peace – Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com

Peace is not a popular concept in these days of bravado of the election process…..but unless this country wants to remain on a “war footing” for generations then maybe it is time for some serious thought of trying to help build a more peaceful world.

I realize that war is good business…..but to someone that has lived through such obscenities I say it is time to learn and build a theory of peace…..for the sake of our country and the world.

Any thoughts?

Or maybe this should be said more often……..

America: Time For A Change?

With the approach of the 2016 US election….one might assume that this post is about the possibility of a political change in government…..that is just silly if that is what one is thinking…….. you are mistaken.

As I watched a town hall meeting that Trump had in New Hampshire I got to thinking about what was happening in this country….he decided to have a Q & A session with his supporters to explain some of his ideas….a good idea if that was what had happened……

Donald Trump, apparently forgetting about the time he pressured the president of the United States into producing his birth certificate, failed to correct a man at a town hall event last night who claimed President Obama is a Muslim—and not an American. The questioner at the Rochester, NH, event described Muslims as a “problem” and went on to say, “Our current president is one. We know he’s not even an American. We have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That’s my question: When can we get rid of them?” Trump responded: “A lot of people are saying that and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening out there. We’re going to be looking at that and a lot of different things,” Politico reports.

When another man stood and said he wanted to “applaud the gentleman who stood and said Obama is a Muslim born abroad and about the military camps,” Trump said, “Right” before moving on, the Hill reports. Hillary Clinton calls Trump’s failure to denounce the remarks “disturbing,” while DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz calls the candidate’s behavior “horrendous” but “unsurprising,” saying “Trump’s racism knows no bounds,” CNN reports. Trump’s campaign manager tells CNN that Trump didn’t hear the remark about Obama being Muslim, and that the real issue is the president’s “war on Christianity.” (A recent poll found that 43% of Republicans still think Obama is a Muslim, which rises to 66% among Trump supporters.

It had not crossed my mind that he may still be one of those “birthers”……I know….silly me.

His lack of a response lead me to start thinking about maybe it is time for a change…..was this person an example of the average Trump supporter?

After all I have read by people writing on Trump….my conclusion would be….yes it is the average.

With that said here is my ideas for an American change……since immigrants will bring down the country because of their demands for the “good life” then why not take down the Statue of Liberty……a bit too extreme for the patriots?   Probably is too extreme I mean we do have and need our symbols………Then at least remove the plaque from the statue…..(not sure of what I am referring)…….let me help the mental process for you…..

The famous plaque attached to the Statue of Liberty is a sonnet…….

New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

That one line is probably the only part that most Americans will know…….”Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,…….”

Remove that plaque and replace it with a sign that reads….”Closed ‘Til Further Notice”….or maybe “Go Away”…….or maybe “Filled To Capacity”……something along that line…….

A bit extreme?  Not really.  This is the perfect cover for the hatred of immigrants/refugees……….since some Americans do not want the country to be all inclusive….it is the perfect solution……the Statue is a symbol of liberty and freedom….take away the temptation for others to want such rights.

You may scoff at this post….but take a look around and listen to the people you encounter……..it is sad…..it is scary…..it is shameful!  At least I am willing to go beyond the echo chamber and do some original thinking….can you?

Dear Conservatives, Please Help Us Understand

From time to time I have mini posts…..stuff that I need to ask and hopefully clarify……..

I have always asked questions about politics…..and seldom do I get an accurate answer especially from the Right wingers…..day after day conserv sites, TP sites and damn right whack-a-doodle sites are accusing Obama and his admin of work to limit our liberties or taking away our freedoms……

I want to take this opportunity to ask my readers and followers to help me with this post.  So I ask my readers to submit this question to any right wing sites they may know of with the attempt to find out the answer so I may stop trying to figure it out…….

Would someone please explain to me just what freedoms and/or liberties the Obama admin is eliminating?

It is hard for me to grasp what they mean……if I look at most red state governments I see women’s rights and voting rights, to mention a few, being crapped on and NO says anything…..but yet Dems are accused of the very thing that the Right is doing……

There has been enough confusion…..NOW is the time to be specific and set the record straight.

I ask again…..just what freedoms are we, as Americans, losing?

Please help me get to the bottom of this issue……..

Jefferson’s “Tree Of Liberty”

There are many that use this quote to justify whatever position they are trying to hang on to…..but was it said?  To whom was it said?

Let me help………

“I do not know whether it is to yourself or Mr. Adams I am to give my thanks for the copy of the new constitution. I beg leave through you to place them where due. It will be yet three weeks before I shall receive them from America. There are very good articles in it: and very bad. I do not know which preponderate. What we have lately read in the history of Holland, in the chapter on the Stadtholder, would have sufficed to set me against a Chief magistrate eligible for a long duration, if I had ever been disposed towards one: and what we have always read of the elections of Polish kings should have forever excluded the idea of one continuable for life. Wonderful is the effect of impudent and persevering lying. The British ministry have so long hired their gazetteers to repeat and model into every form lies about our being in anarchy, that the world has at length believed them, the English nation has believed them, the ministers themselves have come to believe them, and what is more wonderful, we have believed them ourselves. Yet where does this anarchy exist? Where did it ever exist, except in the single instance of Massachusets? And can history produce an instance of a rebellion so honourably conducted? I say nothing of it’s motives. They were founded in ignorance, not wickedness. God forbid we should ever be 20. years without such a rebellion.[1] The people can not be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had 13. states independant 11. years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century and a half for each state. What country ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure. Our Convention has been too much impressed by the insurrection of Massachusets: and in the spur of the moment they are setting up a kite to keep the hen yard in order. I hope in god this article will be rectified before the new constitution is accepted.” – Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, Paris, 13 Nov. 1787[2]

The words were written between colleagues, one in Paris the other in London….it appears to be a private correspondence not meant for public consumption….and my research tells me that this is the only place that such a comment was made………

Now you can quote the entire quote and not just a line or two…….I am sure there are thoughts…..let ’em rip!

Detention Without Representation

WE have heard this person or that person compared to Marxists, socialists and even the biggest prick of all, Stalin….but you know there seems to be a movement that smacks a bit like Stalin and his gulags and that is in the country that “democracy” so loves……

Yesterday I wrote about the new cybersecurity bill that has all the earmarks of Big Brother deciding what you can say, read or associate with in the future…..and as the year draws to an end there is more really disturbing news that we as Americans really need to keep our eyes on….

The Congress has passed a bill that will make free speech, right to association and the right to privacy will be things of the past….all it will take is one abusive SOB, and Washington is full of them, to decide who is and who is not a “terrorist”….do you want them to have that power?  I do not…they abused it unmercifully with COINTELPRO and now you are giving them even more power…….

The US Senate’s approval Thursday of legislation allowing the indefinite military detention of US citizens without charges or trials marks a new stage in a decade of uninterrupted assault on the most fundamental democratic and constitutional rights.

The Senate’s 86-to-13 vote in favor of the legislation followed its approval in the House of Representatives Wednesday. It also came after the announcement by the White House that President Barack Obama would not exercise his power to veto the measure, which is included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a $662 billion package to fund Washington’s war machine.

The bill mandates that anyone accused of being a terrorist be “detained without trial until the end of hostilities” in a military prison. While it requires such treatment for non-citizens, it authorizes it for citizens arrested on US soil, if the president decides they merit this extra-constitutional punishment.

This piece of legislation enshrines in law the worst of the crimes carried out under the Bush administration and provides legal sanction for an American military-police state. The sweeping bipartisan support it received in both houses of Congress has provided definitive proof that there exists no constituency for the defense of democratic rights within the American political establishment and its two big business parties.

For that matter, the passage of a law that shreds the founding principles of the American republic has raised barely a murmur of concern from the corporate-controlled mass media. They have no intention of making this a matter of public debate. For millions of American working people, however, the action is of the gravest importance.

The Senate’s vote came precisely 220 years to the day after the passage of the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the US Constitution, on December 15, 1791.

This could have made Stalin proud….This just sucks!

I like my rights, do you?  Then for God sake speak up before it is too late!  We Americans are notorious for sticking our heads in the sand until it is too late….this time with our butts exposed we WILL be humped and humped HARD!