Category: United States

US politics

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All Bridges Closed!

This just in!

KNOXVILLE (Rooters) The Department of Homeland Insecurity (DHI) has re-enacted the Local Militia Act of 1775 to close all bridges across the country. Head of DHI’s Transportation Division, Mr. Jack A Sinine, explains, "we have over extended our National Guard so calling upon local militia to barricade our bridges and protect the public’s safety is cost effective and a boon to the local economy. Instead of having starving farmers on their porches with shotguns they will sit in front of the bridges acting as transportation routes officials limiting logistical security. After collecting a toll which helps pay for their services, these TROLLS will steer people to the nearest airport preventing them from crossing the dangerous bridge and allowing us to take the traveler’s fingerprints, naked pictures with our x-ray scanners, and document their every move around the country for their own safety. They are still free to travel anywhere in the country as long as they do not cross a bridge. For their own safety!"[Source]

My wife should feel much better now!

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We are going to war!

The squirrels have been sent in!

A few weeks ago, 14 squirrels equipped with espionage systems of foreign intelligence services were captured by [Iranian] intelligence forces along the country’s borders. These trained squirrels, each of which weighed just over 700 grams, were released on the borders of the country for intelligence and espionage purposes. [Source]

I can’t get the squirrels out of my attic. How do you capture trained spying squirrels?! Perhaps Boris and Natasha were on contract! "We’v ‘ave Moose on our side now as doolble agent." Thank you Ray Kurzweil!

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GW Needs to See Sicko

Democratic lawmakers in Washington say they’re drafting a health care reform bill that would expand coverage for low-income kids. President Bush says he’ll veto any such legislation, warning that it would lead the nation "down the path to government-run health care for every American."
…
What’s particularly galling about Bush’s position is that it’s coming from a man who just underwent a colonoscopy performed at the taxpayer-funded, state-of-the-art medical facility at Camp David by an elite team of doctors from the taxpayer-funded National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
[Source]

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Dear America

Please be America again.

So, on July 4th, on your birthday, this is my wish for America and for Americans – that you remember that the right thing to do morally is almost always the right thing to do pragmatically. There is no choice between "freedom and safety"; there is no choice between prosperity and massive inequality; there is no choice between generosity and fiscal prudence and there is no such thing as "managed free speech".

Be the America the world loved. Be the America you can be proudest of – the one that does not torture, that treats all men as equal and with unalienable rights. Be the America that rebuilt Europe and that lends a helping hand to countries like Afghanistan. Be the America that would never invade a country that had not attacked you first. Be the America that is about lifting all boats and not just a few.

Be that America, and we will all be Americans.

[Source]

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So, you call yourself Libertarian

You might want to read this essay derived from the official Libertarian platform adopted July 2, 2006.

The majority of you Libertarian converts have no freaking clue what Libertarians actually believe. All you know is that they aren’t Democrats, they aren’t Republicans, and they seem to have this thing against taxes. A lot of new Libertarians were recently Republicans, until the Republican Party got hijacked by a bunch of crazy Bible thumpers. Before that, I daresay a lot of you were Democrats, before the Democrats became a bunch of spineless wimps scared of their own shadows. [Source]

The parts that disturbed me the most were "Libertarians also believe in “full market ownership” of the airwaves and abolishing the FCC." and the property rights stance. I could see full market ownership of the airwaves leading to a single company or entity owning everything broadcast. It would be lousy to get only one style, viewpoint, or genre over the airwaves. HAM radio would be destroyed. Under Libertarian property rights, only the wealthy could enjoy our natural resources (if any remained). Most likely, we would see our national parks developed into exclusive resorts and gated communities.

So, are you really Libertarian?

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Wag the Dog

[Update 25-Jan-2017]: And so it is happening.

I joke about conspiracy theories a lot. They are fun to make up. But, getting serious for a minute, first the dog food and now the toothpaste! (direct link to toothpaste story) In January of 2005, I noted that The CIA reports that China and India will be world super powers by the year 2020 and the United States will take a backseat as well as China has forecasted the demise of the United States in reports from the early 1980s and again in 1991 citing the same timeframe that the CIA is now releasing. The year 2020 is just around the corner! N.B. That also means The Singularity is almost here!

THE latest Central Intelligence Agency report mentioning that India will be a super power by 2020 is more amusing than true. Nevertheless, it should prompt introspection. The CIA’s aim is to prepare the US for future economic challenges from China and India. [emphasis added] The spurt in growth in the two countries is credited to the IMF-World Bank’s reform agenda, which aims to push privatisation, deregulate trade and open up markets. [Source]

Aren’t we currently trying to get the right person in charge of the World Bank? So (here comes some opinionated conspiracy theory) Wolfowitz didn’t want to cooperate with Bush’s agenda of destabilizing the Indian and Chinese economies and got replaced!.

India’s richest man builds 60-storey home [for his 6 person family and their 600 full-time staff]…The Indian economy is soaring: yesterday it posted annual growth of 9.4%. Friends of the Ambanis told the Guardian that the billionaire’s new home was "comparable to those owned by friends such as Lakshmi Mittal". [Source]

Want to read some incredible stuff with quotes like According to some Chinese military authors, the United States already knows China can defeat it in 2020 and the idea that U.S. strength is weakening and that its policies will no longer be effective throughout the world is not new in the 1990s. Using internal Chinese documents, Professor Robert S. Ross has shown it was alleged in the early 1980s. This document, packed with citations and references to support its data, is sobering in it explanation of what was to come and is happening now.

Another analyst at that time argued that U.S. "position of strength is declining" and U.S. policy will "lead to failure everywhere." [emphasis added] [Source]

What’s this got to do with dog food and toothpaste? Our dog is being wagged! This is the beginning of a play to grow dissension toward the Chinese and sway public opinion to place economic sanctions on China. Decisions by the president of the World Bank will further help to corrupt and destabilize the Chinese economy. China is ahead of the United States in preparing for a digital war as predicted in the National Defense University Press’ January 2000 publication China Debates the Future Security Environment.

China’s military is preparing for electronic warfare by setting up information warfare units that are developing viruses to attack enemy computers and networks, according to the Department of Defense’s annual report to Congress. …the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) has also established tactics to protect its own computer systems and networks and those of friendly states. Since 2005, the PLA has been including offensive network attacks into its exercises… [Source]

General Pan Junfeng states that the United States will not have formed a full information warfare force until the middle of the 21st century. He explains three ways that in future wars American computers can be very vulnerable. "We can make the enemy’s command centers not work by changing their data system. We can cause the enemy’s headquarters to make incorrect judgments by sending disinformation. We can dominate the enemy’s banking system and even its entire social order." [Source]

The moves our government is making match the predictions in the article which references some scary realities.

  • The United States barely won the Gulf War.
  • Saddam could have won with a better strategy.
  • The United States today cannot “contain” Chinese power.
  • The United States is unable to execute its military strategy of two major regional contingencies.
  • U.S. munitions cannot damage deep underground bunkers (like those in China).

    • [Source]

Maybe there was really nothing wrong with the dog food and toothpaste. Perhaps dog food and toothpaste was the United States’ first, preemptive, strike in the Chinese war. Blind faith in your leaders, or anything, will get you killed. (Brice Springsteen) [Author: Jack Bungart Date: August 22, 2005 Publication: Times-Herald (Vallejo, CA) Article ID: 2963260 ] How’s your Kanji?

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Told you so! – most imcompetent White House

Having not voted for Bush Jr ever (Senior got my vote), it is difficult for me not to shout, "Told you so!"

"This is the most incompetent White House I’ve seen since I came to Washington," said one GOP senator. "The White House legislative liaison team is incompetent, pitiful, embarrassing. My colleagues can’t even tell you who the White House Senate liaison is. There is rank incompetence throughout the government. It’s the weakest Cabinet I’ve seen." And remember, this is a Republican talking.[Source]

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Let me tell you about Boston

The Terrorists Won

On September 11, 2001 terrorists (for the conspiracy minded, domestic; for all others, foreign) set out to change the lifestyle of the American people. Now we send people to prison for half their lives (5 years per count times 9 counts) over a little non-permanent, vandalism.

Mayor Menino said, "It is outrageous, in a post 9/11 world, that a company would use this type of marketing scheme. I am prepared to take any and all legal action against Turner Broadcasting and its affiliates for any and all expenses incurred during the response to today’s incidents. …" [Source]

I’m sorry. If you are that stupid, maybe you should not be mayor! Fear mongering over something harmless is an outrage. The threat of terrorism today is not that much different than it was in the 1970s. (modern international terrorism started in 1968)

Terrorism has not changed since the 70s

Although the terrorist threat was known and understood in the 1990s, spending on national security went down during that decade, which affected both counterterrorism and intelligence. With limited resources, there were other intelligence failures, such as the sarin gas attacks in Japan. At the time of the attack, the Aum Shinrikyo cult was “simply not on the radar” because there were not enough intelligence analysts to research potential Asian terrorism. [Source]

So instead of bringing down the iron curtain…

"Why are you travelling so often to Canada?" the tough U.S. border guard barked. I was on Amtrak, going from New York to Montreal, as I’d done dozen of times before over several decades. This was my first experience (summer 2006) of the increasingly standard and intrusive "U.S. Exit Interviews" on trains crossing the border. Source

…and making American’s prisoners on their own soil, shreading the Constitution, hassling people instead of being nice, wasting time and money on useless security tactics (at the airports) for the sake of show, and stealing away the freedoms that have made this country great, we should be giving the intelligence community more analysts and resources to do their job (and their job is NOT to randomly stop teenagers in Maine).

Summary

Blindly following our leaders, not protesting for our rights, couch potato voting, forgetting to love our neighbors, and simply neglecting to use common sense has radically changed the American lifestyle. The terrorists won! And unless the American people stand up and take charge the American way of life will continue to deteriorate until a new revolution comes.

The only thing that the employees of Interference Inc should be charged with is littering!

You know. Maybe the people that are running our government are just too old. Perhaps we should change things to be "if you are OVER 35, you cannot hold an elected office." The more I watch and read, the more I am convinced this is no different than the bands that cover telephone poles and sides of buildings with flyers and bumper stickers, or the guys that pull over at an intersection, extend a 20 foot ladder, and put up a sign for their yard cleaning service, except that these signs had blinky lights.

More video responses:

News and responses:

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The United States of Switzerland

Universal National Service Act of 2007 (Introduced in House)

So, in your busy lives, do you have time to pay attention to what your Congress is doing? If not, you may find that you have to take time out of your busy life to spend two years in the military unless you are under 18 or over 42. This is straight from The Library of Congress.

H. R. 393 To require all persons in the United States between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform national service, either as a member of the uniformed services or in civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, to authorize the induction of persons in the uniformed services during wartime to meet end-strength requirements of the uniformed services, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to make permanent the favorable treatment afforded combat pay under the earned income tax credit, and for other purposes. [Source]

This bill was introduced by Charles B. Rangel who, according to wikipedia, has "repeatedly called for the government to bring back the draft" with his justification being that a draft would make our military more representative of the American people rather than consisting of the poor and minority groups.

Rangel, "There’s no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm’s way[.]" Source

So, is HR 393 a sellout or a genuine belief that 7 out 10 people are missing the concept of the benefit of the draft?

Rangel is generally thought of as an ideologically committed liberal, but also someone who can be a pragmatic deal-maker. …Rangel is also noteworthy for his willingness to risk arrest for participating in political protests. [Source]

Interestingly enough, the last time Rangel proposed the draft, he voted against his own bill.

In 2003, Rangel introduced HR 163; legislation that would draft both men and women between the ages of 18-26 starting as early as June 2005. It was defeated 402-2 the following year in the House of Representatives, with Rangel voting against his own bill. Source

For more information see this AP article from November 19 and commentary at Knoxviews. Contact your representative and let them know you views. Contacting your representative is about as easy as reading this post.