I love John Adams

John Adams 2008

House Democratic leadership (which is to say, Congressman Steny Hoyer) announced a "breakthrough" in discussions with the White House and the Republicans which would produce a "compromise" in the long fight over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. I have taken several days to look over the legislation and have some comments. First, the debate over FISA is of vital significance to our country. The issues are simple. They go to protection of our democracy, now under unrelenting attack by the Bush Administration. Repeatedly, official spokesmen for the administration have mischaracterized the FISA statute, misstated the import of their own proposals, and have used fear as a tool to try to ram through ill-considered legislation that would undermine one of the fundamental principles of the American republic: the notion that the Government's intrusion into the private dealings of its citizens can occur only after a check through the judicial branch. The debate raises many other issues. One of the most significant of them is the idea of immunity for telecommunications companies. The evidence at hand now shows that telecommunications companies facilitated criminal surveillance of their customers (i.e., surveillance that violated the limitations of FISA, and was therefore felonious) at the request of the Bush Administration's rogue Justice Department and National Security Administration. The telecoms have spared no expense lobbying in their effort to get out from under the liability that this presents. Their efforts are plainly paying off. In a sense, the entire experience with the FISA legislation works to demonstrate the darkest fears that James Madison articulated about war and fear-mongering and their ability to undermine the essential checks-and-balances of the United States Constitution. In 1798, at the height of the Quasi-War with France, which was shamelessly manipulated by the Federalists for partisan purposes, Madison wrote to Jefferson: The management of foreign relations appears to be the most susceptible of abuse, of all the trusts committed to a Government, because they can be concealed or disclosed, or disclosed in such parts & at such times as will best suit particular views; and because the body of the people are less capable of judging & are more under the influence of prejudices, on that branch of their affairs, than of any other. Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions agst. danger real or pretended from abroad. In a like manner, the Bush Administration's "war on terror" has provided a pretext to transform the American republic into a new form of state. In place of the Founders' carefully counterposed checks and balances, the Bush Administration offered a new, unfettered executive capable of unilateral action even when encroaching upon the hitherto guarded rights of the citizens. The Bush Administration's concept was of a National Surveillance State, in which a supposedly benevolent and protecting executive would move towards omniscience through the marvels of new and intrusive technologies. But the Bush Administration's secret constitution has another, potentially more worrisome aspect. It presented the president as ultimate interpreter—not guarantor—of the law. As the Stuart monarch who spawned the English Civil War, Charles I, said "rex est lex" (the king and the law are one), so President Bush and his followers enact Richard Nixon's famous statement, "when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal." http://harpers.org/archive/2008/06/hbc-90003151

House Democratic leadership (which is to say, Congressman Steny Hoyer) announced a "breakthrough" in discussions with the White House and the Republicans which would produce a "compromise" in the long fight over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. I have taken several days to look over the legislation and have some comments. First, the debate over FISA is of vital significance to our country. The issues are simple. They go to protection of our democracy, now under unrelenting attack by the Bush Administration. Repeatedly, official spokesmen for the administration have mischaracterized the FISA statute, misstated the import of their own proposals, and have used fear as a tool to try to ram through ill-considered legislation that would undermine one of the fundamental principles of the American republic: the notion that the Government's intrusion into the private dealings of its citizens can occur only after a check through the judicial branch. The debate raises many other issues. One of the most significant of them is the idea of immunity for telecommunications companies. The evidence at hand now shows that telecommunications companies facilitated criminal surveillance of their customers (i.e., surveillance that violated the limitations of FISA, and was therefore felonious) at the request of the Bush Administration's rogue Justice Department and National Security Administration. The telecoms have spared no expense lobbying in their effort to get out from under the liability that this presents. Their efforts are plainly paying off. In a sense, the entire experience with the FISA legislation works to demonstrate the darkest fears that James Madison articulated about war and fear-mongering and their ability to undermine the essential checks-and-balances of the United States Constitution. In 1798, at the height of the Quasi-War with France, which was shamelessly manipulated by the Federalists for partisan purposes, Madison wrote to Jefferson: The management of foreign relations appears to be the most susceptible of abuse, of all the trusts committed to a Government, because they can be concealed or disclosed, or disclosed in such parts & at such times as will best suit particular views; and because the body of the people are less capable of judging & are more under the influence of prejudices, on that branch of their affairs, than of any other. Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions agst. danger real or pretended from abroad. In a like manner, the Bush Administration's "war on terror" has provided a pretext to transform the American republic into a new form of state. In place of the Founders' carefully counterposed checks and balances, the Bush Administration offered a new, unfettered executive capable of unilateral action even when encroaching upon the hitherto guarded rights of the citizens. The Bush Administration's concept was of a National Surveillance State, in which a supposedly benevolent and protecting executive would move towards omniscience through the marvels of new and intrusive technologies. But the Bush Administration's secret constitution has another, potentially more worrisome aspect. It presented the president as ultimate interpreter—not guarantor—of the law. As the Stuart monarch who spawned the English Civil War, Charles I, said "rex est lex" (the king and the law are one), so President Bush and his followers enact Richard Nixon's famous statement, "when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal." http://harpers.org/archive/2008/06/hbc-90003151

Nomorenarcissism: Military, Industrial, Congresssional, Think-Tank Complex (MICC-TT) http://www.combatreform.com/militarismsucks.htm In this video the Leo Strauss fascist/failed marxist PNAC Think Tank looniecons spin their web of national survival-in-peril so they can con the American people for their imperialism and shamocracy by gunpoint. The sad part is they are not even good at war; full of their mankind-worship illuminist crap, they think we are in a "Revolution in Military Affairs" (RMA) and can gadgetize as per Orwell's 1984 and just drop guided munitions on anyone they dislike as if they were gods on Mount Olympus. Saddam and OBL easily dodge their "thunderbolts" to start a rebellion against us in Iraq/Afghanistan, but then again we need someone to fight to keep war profits up and yellow ribbon production going. http://www.geocities.com/transformationunderfire Firepower-bombardment alone doesn't work as evidenced in WW2 where German industrial production INCREASED because killing civilians pisses them off to support the regime we want defeated; later USAF strategic bombing failures in Vietnam are emulated today in Iraq, Afghanistan and the disastrous Israeli Air Force bombing of the Hezbo terrorists in South Lebanon. People live on the ground and decisions are won or lost by GROUND MANEUVER--not air firepower. Boxed in by the Russians in China and MacArthur's Army troops in the Pacific islands, Japan wanted to surrender but Truman wouldn't let them until we got to show off our atomic bombs and create mythology that USAAF aircraft bombing ended the war. "The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic." --President John F. Kennedy Our inability to CONTROL THE GROUND dates back to the Korean war and LTG James Gavin warned us we must develop the means to win these limited wars and keep them limited: http://www.combatreform.com/warandpeaceinthespaceage.htm However, as LTG Gavin points out, GREEDY CORPORATIONS want these quasi-war rackets to continue perpetually and to sell our military flimsy junk like wheeled LAV, Stryker, Humvee trucks, V-22s, UAVs, UGVs and lots of expensive guided munitions as part of the RMA firepower-bombardment egotrip and the result so far is Americans being bled with 4, 000 dead, 24, 000 wounded in Irag/Afghanistan immoral occupations being incompetently done from bloated FOBs and troops presence patrolling in wheeled trucks that are easily blown up on roads/trails/streets they depend on. To keep the Sunnis from blowing us up, we BRIBE THEM $$$. The TROOP surge failed; we are now in the CASH SURGE. Instead of paying gun and bombmen to do nothing, we should have HIRED THEM as we promised in May 2003 to get the Iraqi government back in operation--oh, wait we wanted to keep the reconstruction money to ourselves and our buddy contractors, so LTG Jay Garner's team was not funded. Funny how when Bush is going to go down in history as America's worst president the cash begins to flow to create a myth for his vanity's sake. We are trying to act like the Roman Army without the Roman Legions. We have the world's most expensive immoral, incompetent military money can buy. Emulating corrupt, incompetent Nero-emperors, we got down pat.

set game 3 of 5 die videokasette qauf der wir aufgenommen hatten zerbröselte danach quasi war ein 2stock von siruma^^ kam noch ein shcöner combo von ihm... (nächstesmal kauf ich mir nen neuen videorecorder endlich mal gescheite kämpfe und ZACK schwarz weiß keine ssbm musik und kämpfe gehen futsch..)