Having deployed surface-to-air missiles, readied a 100,000-strong anti-terrorism force and instituted a series of security checkpoints, Beijing is adding Chinese residents as another layer in its shield to protect Olympics venues against possible attack.

But rights groups say that China is using Olympic security as an excuse to crack down on internal dissent.

Fears of a ‘no-fun’ Olympics in Beijing

The Age
July 18, 2008

FEARS of a “no fun Olympics” are growing as security restrictions increase and become more bizarre with less than 20 days to go until the opening ceremony.

Read Full Article Here

James Kirkup
London Telegraph
July 18, 2008

Read Full Article Here

From: Conyers: Hearing For “The Imperial Presidency Of George W. Bush And Possible Legal Responses”

In a release Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) announced he will hold a hearing July 25 examining “the imperial presidency of George W. Bush and possible legal responses.”

The word “impeachment” was not mentioned in the announcement...

Why not?

Under the Constitution, the House of Representatives can instigate impeachment procedings. It cannot do that if the Constitution has been suspended. This is the case if COG (Continuity of Government Plans) are implemented. This was done on 9/11 and it has been argued (see my previous post) they have not been rescinded.

Indeed, it has further been argued that Bush didn't need to declare a state of national emergency. It was declared by FDR in 1933 and never rescinded. You can read about this in more detail at War and Emergency Power Act Portal to Dictatorship. In 1933, Congressman Beck, speaking from the Congressional Record, states,

"I think of all the damnable heresies that have ever been suggested in connection with the Constitution, the doctrine of emergency is the worst. It means that when Congress declares an emergency, there is no Constitution. This means its death. It is the very doctrine that the German chancellor is invoking today in the dying hours of the parliamentary body of the German republic, namely, that because of an emergency, it should grant to the German chancellor absolute power to pass any law, even though the law contradicts the Constitution of the German republic. Chancellor Hitler is at least frank about it. We pay the Constitution lip-service, but the result is the same."

26,000 Pastors for Martial Law Continuity of Government

Video compilation about continuity of government plans for martial law including the KSLA News report of the 26,000 pastors recruited for handling the people during a martial law take over.

There are over 800 camps throughout the United States. Recently 26,000 pastors were recruited by FEMA(Federal Emergency Management Association) to instruct their congregations that in case of an emergency they are to peacefully hand over their arms and their children and go to the camps. In a case like Hurricane Katrina, people were starving, and had no home. They had no choice but to go to the FEMA camps or die of starvation. Is this the choice you want to be left with in the event of a local or national emergency, or might it be smarter to prepare now with emergency food, water and supplies?

Richard Clarke Discusses the Continuity of Government Plan

This was an interview CBS News's Leslie Stahl conducted with counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke in 2000, which was broadcast on the evening of 9/11, where Clarke discussed the U.S.'s secret Continuity of Government (COG) plan. During the attacks that morning, COG was implemented for the first time.

Continuity of the US government.. TOP SECRET!

Rep. Peter DeFazio gives a speech on the house floor to fellow members discussing the fact that Bush Administration has denied the entire Dept of Homeland Security Committee access to the so called detailed plans that the White House has drafted to ensure the continuity of government in case of a major terrorist attack.

Continuity of Government Plan

Martial law is coming -- one city at a time
http://www.proliberty.com/observer/20...

Marines on Main Street
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.ph...

Marines hit beach in Kentucky today
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.ph...

'Gunslinger 2000' military exercises begin
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.ph...

How the USA PATRIOT Act redefines "Domestic Terrorism"
http://www.aclu.org/natsec/emergpower...

FEMA Preparing for Mass Destruction Attacks on Cities
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/a...

Foundations are in place for martial law in the US
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/0...

Will military enforce domestic law?
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/art...

FEMA's Plan for Mass Destruction Attacks: Of Course It's True
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/a...

Camps for Citizens: Ashcroft's Hellish Vision; Attorney general shows himself as a menace to liberty.
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/a...
Full Article:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/camps_for...

General Ashcroft's Detention Camps
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0236,hentoff,38006,6.html

Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003 (Patriot Act II)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic...

From Tommy Franks, a doomsday scenario
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/12/07/Col...

Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive WMD Attack
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/a...

Mission Creep Hits Home; American armed forces are assuming major new domestic policing and surveillance roles.
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/a...
Full Article:
http://www.infowars.com/print/ps/cree...

The US military: A creeping civilian mission
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Pa...

Is Military Creeping Into Domestic Law Enforcement? (Wall Street Journal)
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines...

Nuke terror to strike U.S. by this weekend?
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/art...

War Plans Drafted To Counter Terror Attacks in U.S.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...

U.S. Can Confine Citizens Without Charges, Court Rules
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...

What of 'Posse Comitatus'?
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?p...

Bush Advisor Says President Has Legal Power to Torture Children
http://www.mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?...

Halliburton Subsidiary Gets Contract to Add Temporary Immigration Detention Centers
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/04/nat...

10-Year U.S. Strategic Plan For Detention Camps Revives Proposals From Oliver North
http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view...

Bush's Mysterious 'New Programs'
http://www.alternet.org/rights/32647/

Bush Junta "Tools Up" To Fight Americans With Civil Suppression Bill
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/...

Bush grants presidency extraordinary powers
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/art...

Emergency detention plan: 'This way to the camps!'
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/art...

Rule by fear or rule by law?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article...

FBI program alleged to prepare businesses for martial law
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2008/FBI...

Former Congressman Warns Of Martial Law Camps In America
http://www.infowars.net/articles/febr...

The Showdown
Congress, the Bush Adminstration and Continuity of Government Planning
http://www.counterpunch.org/scott0331...

Three States Subjected To "Martial Law Sweeps"
http://www.infowars.net/articles/apri...

Supreme Court restores habeas corpus, strikes down key part of Military Commissions Act
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwal...

Those who think that the election of Barack Obama will save the nation from its many foreign-policy/civil-liberties woes got smashed and dashed with a cold dose of reality. Flip-flopping in the finest political tradition, Obama voted in favor of President Bush’s wiretap/immunity bill, after promising to filibuster it before he secured the Democratic Party nomination.


Presumably, Obama’s thinking goes like this: “Now that I’ve secured the nomination of my party, liberals will vote for me regardless because they won’t want John McCain in power. So, I can now flip flop and taken different positions on foreign policy and civil liberties so that John McCain won’t be able to tell people that I’m soft on terrorism.”


Reminding people of what happened in 2002, when the Democrats unconstitutionally and cowardly delegated the power to declare war on Iraq to President Bush because of fear that the president would accuse them of being soft on Saddam Hussein, congressional Democrats voted to give Bush everything he wanted plus more in the wiretap/immunity bill, including civil immunity to private telecom companies for apparent felony offenses committed against their customers.


For an excellent analysis of the cowardly and craven cave-in by Obama and his fellow Democrats, see Glenn Greenwald’s blog and Jonathan Turley’s television interview, which is included in Greenwald’s June 9 blog. (Both Greenwald and Turley delivered terrific speeches at our recent conference “Restoring the Republic 2008: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties.”)


Meanwhile, the president and his associates continue to threaten Iran with a military attack without even pretending that they’re going to first ask for a declaration of war from Congress, which the Constitution requires. Keep in mind that the Constitution is the law that we the people impose on the president and the Congress. That’s the law that the president feels that he can violate with impunity.


The fact is that Americans are living under a lawless regime, one in which the president feels that constitutional constraints are illegitimate during his “war on terrorism,” which he says will last indefinitely given that there are still so many terrorists and potential terrorists in the world. Never mind that the U.S. government’s own policies generate the terrorist threat against the United States, which is then used as the excuse for the president to operate in an omnipotent and extra-constitutional manner.


That’s what his signing statements, illegal wiretaps and other searches, enemy-combatant designations, torture and sex abuse camps, cancelation of habeas corpus, wars of aggression, indefinite detentions, and kangaroo military tribunals are all about — the power to ignore constitutional restraints — omnipotent power.


The battle over the wiretap/immunity bill demonstrates a critically important point, one that every lover of liberty must ultimately confront: It is not sufficient to fight every assault on civil liberties that comes down the pike. The infringements are endless. Even if one civil-liberties battle is won, there are always three more battles to wage.


Suppose, for example, that civil libertarians succeed in getting the Pentagon’s torture and sex abuse camp at Guantanamo Bay closed down. Would that end the torture and sex abuse? Of course not. They’ll simply start sending detainees to torture and sex abuse camps in Afghanistan or to friendly terrorist regimes, such as Syria (which they still claim they don’t talk to despite the fact that the CIA somehow or another made the arrangements with Syrian torturers to torture an innocent man on its behalf).


Thus, what every American who thirsts for the restoration of a normal, free society must recognize is that there is one — and only one — solution: the dismantling of America’s standing army, especially the military-industrial complex and the CIA, which are the center of the rot of the U.S. Empire. This is what should have been done when the Berlin Wall fell and it’s what should be done today.


That’s the root of the weed. That’s what needs to be pulled out of the ground. It’s not sufficient to simply continue trimming its branches.


That would mean the closing of every U.S. military base around the world — Europe, Asia, South America, and everywhere else. It would entail bringing all those troops home and discharging them into the private sector. It would entail closing the multitude of military bases all across the United States. It would entail the abolition of the CIA. It would include the repeal of the deadly and destructive war on drugs. It would entail the end of all foreign aid. It would mean the end of the U.S. government’s meddling in the affairs of other nations. It would entail the repeal of all the taxes that fund these people and their deadly, destructive, and nefarious operations.


Barack Obama’s cowardly flip flop should remind every American that the key to our future lies not in electing different people to public office. Instead, the key to our future lies in a shift in paradigms — from one of big government in foreign (and domestic) affairs to one of limited government in foreign (and domestic) affairs.


The time has come for the American people to do what Americans in 1787 were doing: reflecting upon the principles of liberty and limited government on which this nation should be based. The time has come to end the U.S. government’s role as the world’s policeman, intervener, interloper, aggressor, welfare provider, and sole remaining empire. The time has come for the American people to restore the principles of liberty and limited government that our ancestors bequeathed to us.


Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.

Obama’s poll numbers plummet: Apparently betraying Americans does not pay

Newsweek
July 11, 2008

A month after emerging victorious from the bruising Democratic nominating contest, some of Barack Obama’s glow may be fading. In the latest NEWSWEEK Poll, the Illinois senator leads Republican nominee John McCain by just 3 percentage points, 44 percent to 41 percent. The statistical dead heat is a marked change from last month’s NEWSWEEK Poll, where Obama led McCain by 15 points, 51 percent to 36 percent.

Read Full Article Here

Stephen Colbert last night gave Bush props for wrapping up last week's G8 summit with the words " Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter" and then punching the air while grinning widely.

"For far too long the president has been forced to do a terrible job of pretending to care what people think of him. But not anymore, folks," Colbert said. "It is going to be so sweet when he pops by the World Court in the Hague and screams: 'Adios, from waterboard central! Then he can drop by the stock exchange, ring the bell, and scream: 'Goodbye from the world's weakest currency!' And then he can head over to Iraq, and as he's leaving, shout out: 'I break it, you bought it!'"

"Something Big is Happening"

Statment - 9 July 2008

By Rep. Ron Paul, M.D.

16/07/08 "ICH" -- - Madam Speaker, I have, for the past 35 years, expressed my grave concern for the future of America . The course we have taken over the past century has threatened our liberties, security and prosperity. In spite of these long-held concerns, I have days--growing more frequent all the time--when I'm convinced the time is now upon us that some Big Events are about to occur. These fast-approaching events will not go unnoticed. They will affect all of us. They will not be limited to just some areas of our country. The world economy and political system will share in the chaos about to be unleashed.

Though the world has long suffered from the senselessness of wars that should have been avoided, my greatest fear is that the course on which we find ourselves will bring even greater conflict and economic suffering to the innocent people of the world--unless we quickly change our ways.

America , with her traditions of free markets and property rights, led the way toward great wealth and progress throughout the world as well as at home. Since we have lost our confidence in the principles of liberty, self reliance, hard work and frugality, and instead took on empire building, financed through inflation and debt, all this has changed. This is indeed frightening and an historic event.

The problem we face is not new in history. Authoritarianism has been around a long time. For centuries, inflation and debt have been used by tyrants to hold power, promote aggression, and provide “bread and circuses” for the people. The notion that a country can afford “guns and butter” with no significant penalty existed even before the 1960s when it became a popular slogan. It was then, though, we were told the Vietnam War and the massive expansion of the welfare state were not problems. The seventies proved that assumption wrong.

Today things are different from even ancient times or the 1970s. There is something to the argument that we are now a global economy. The world has more people and is more integrated due to modern technology, communications, and travel. If modern technology had been used to promote the ideas of liberty, free markets, sound money and trade, it would have ushered in a new golden age--a globalism we could accept.

Instead, the wealth and freedom we now enjoy are shrinking and rest upon a fragile philosophic infrastructure. It is not unlike the levies and bridges in our own country that our system of war and welfare has caused us to ignore.

I'm fearful that my concerns have been legitimate and may even be worse than I first thought. They are now at our doorstep. Time is short for making a course correction before this grand experiment in liberty goes into deep hibernation.

There are reasons to believe this coming crisis is different and bigger than the world has ever experienced. Instead of using globalism in a positive fashion, it's been used to globalize all of the mistakes of the politicians, bureaucrats and central bankers.

Being an unchallenged sole superpower was never accepted by us with a sense of humility and respect. Our arrogance and aggressiveness have been used to promote a world empire backed by the most powerful army of history. This type of globalist intervention creates problems for all citizens of the world and fails to contribute to the well-being of the world's populations. Just think how our personal liberties have been trashed here at home in the last decade.

The financial crisis, still in its early stages, is apparent to everyone: gasoline prices over $4 a gallon; skyrocketing education and medical-care costs; the collapse of the housing bubble; the bursting of the NASDAQ bubble; stock markets plunging; unemployment rising; massive underemployment; excessive government debt; and unmanageable personal debt. Little doubt exists as to whether we'll get stagflation. The question that will soon be asked is: When will the stagflation become an inflationary depression?

There are various reasons that the world economy has been globalized and the problems we face are worldwide. We cannot understand what we're facing without understanding fiat money and the long-developing dollar bubble.

There were several stages. From the inception of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 to 1933, the Central Bank established itself as the official dollar manager. By 1933, Americans could no longer own gold, thus removing restraint on the Federal Reserve to inflate for war and welfare.

By 1945, further restraints were removed by creating the Bretton-Woods Monetary System making the dollar the reserve currency of the world. This system lasted up until 1971. During the period between 1945 and 1971, some restraints on the Fed remained in place. Foreigners, but not Americans, could convert dollars to gold at $35 an ounce. Due to the excessive dollars being created, that system came to an end in 1971.

It's the post Bretton-Woods system that was responsible for globalizing inflation and markets and for generating a gigantic worldwide dollar bubble. That bubble is now bursting, and we're seeing what it's like to suffer the consequences of the many previous economic errors.

Ironically in these past 35 years, we have benefited from this very flawed system. Because the world accepted dollars as if they were gold, we only had to counterfeit more dollars, spend them overseas (indirectly encouraging our jobs to go overseas as well) and enjoy unearned prosperity. Those who took our dollars and gave us goods and services were only too anxious to loan those dollars back to us. This allowed us to export our inflation and delay the consequences we now are starting to see.

But it was never destined to last, and now we have to pay the piper. Our huge foreign debt must be paid or liquidated. Our entitlements are coming due just as the world has become more reluctant to hold dollars. The consequence of that decision is price inflation in this country--and that's what we are witnessing today. Already price inflation overseas is even higher than here at home as a consequence of foreign central banks' willingness to monetize our debt.

Printing dollars over long periods of time may not immediately push prices up--yet in time it always does. Now we're seeing catch-up for past inflating of the monetary supply. As bad as it is today with $4 a gallon gasoline, this is just the beginning. It's a gross distraction to hound away at “drill, drill, drill” as a solution to the dollar crisis and high gasoline prices. Its okay to let the market increase supplies and drill, but that issue is a gross distraction from the sins of deficits and Federal Reserve monetary shenanigans.

This bubble is different and bigger for another reason. The central banks of the world secretly collude to centrally plan the world economy. I'm convinced that agreements among central banks to “monetize” U.S. debt these past 15 years have existed, although secretly and out of the reach of any oversight of anyone--especially the U.S. Congress that doesn't care, or just flat doesn't understand. As this “gift” to us comes to an end, our problems worsen. The central banks and the various governments are very powerful, but eventually the markets overwhelm when the people who get stuck holding the bag (of bad dollars) catch on and spend the dollars into the economy with emotional zeal, thus igniting inflationary fever.

This time--since there are so many dollars and so many countries involved--the Fed has been able to “paper” over every approaching crisis for the past 15 years, especially with Alan Greenspan as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, which has allowed the bubble to become history's greatest.

The mistakes made with excessive credit at artificially low rates are huge, and the market is demanding a correction. This involves excessive debt, misdirected investments, over-investments, and all the other problems caused by the government when spending the money they should never have had. Foreign militarism, welfare handouts and $80 trillion entitlement promises are all coming to an end. We don't have the money or the wealth-creating capacity to catch up and care for all the needs that now exist because we rejected the market economy, sound money, self reliance and the principles of liberty.

Since the correction of all this misallocation of resources is necessary and must come, one can look for some good that may come as this “Big Event” unfolds.

There are two choices that people can make. The one choice that is unavailable to us is to limp along with the status quo and prop up the system with more debt, inflation and lies. That won't happen.

One of the two choices, and the one chosen so often by government in the past is that of rejecting the principles of liberty and resorting to even bigger and more authoritarian government. Some argue that giving dictatorial powers to the President, just as we have allowed him to run the American empire, is what we should do. That's the great danger, and in this post-911 atmosphere, too many Americans are seeking safety over freedom. We have already lost too many of our personal liberties already. Real fear of economic collapse could prompt central planners to act to such a degree that the New Deal of the 30's might look like Jefferson 's Declaration of Independence.

The more the government is allowed to do in taking over and running the economy, the deeper the depression gets and the longer it lasts. That was the story of the 30s and the early 40s, and the same mistakes are likely to be made again if we do not wake up.

But the good news is that it need not be so bad if we do the right thing. I saw “Something Big” happening in the past 18 months on the campaign trail. I was encouraged that we are capable of waking up and doing the right thing. I have literally met thousands of high school and college kids who are quite willing to accept the challenge and responsibility of a free society and reject the cradle-to-grave welfare that is promised them by so many do-good politicians.

If more hear the message of liberty, more will join in this effort. The failure of our foreign policy, welfare system, and monetary policies and virtually all government solutions are so readily apparent, it doesn't take that much convincing. But the positive message of how freedom works and why it's possible is what is urgently needed.

One of the best parts of accepting self reliance in a free society is that true personal satisfaction with one's own life can be achieved. This doesn't happen when the government assumes the role of guardian, parent or provider, because it eliminates a sense of pride. But the real problem is the government can't provide the safety and economic security that it claims. The so called good that government claims it can deliver is always achieved at the expense of someone else's freedom. It's a failed system and the young people know it.

Restoring a free society doesn't eliminate the need to get our house in order and to pay for the extravagant spending. But the pain would not be long-lasting if we did the right things, and best of all the empire would have to end for financial reasons. Our wars would stop, the attack on civil liberties would cease, and prosperity would return. The choices are clear: it shouldn't be difficult, but the big event now unfolding gives us a great opportunity to reverse the tide and resume the truly great American Revolution started in 1776. Opportunity knocks in spite of the urgency and the dangers we face.

Let's make “Something Big Is Happening” be the discovery that freedom works and is popular and the big economic and political event we're witnessing is a blessing in disguise.

Ron Paul is a Republican Congressman from Texas. He was the 1988 Libertarian Party candidate for President.

http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2008/cr070908h.htm

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20290.htm

Estudiantes de varias casas de estudios parte de la autopista Francisco Fajardo a la altura de la Universidad Central de Venezuela, como medida de protesta para exigir el pronto esclarecimiento de la muerte del estudiante merideño Douglas Rojas.

Con cruces y ataúdes de anime, los jóvenes protestaron pacíficamente en contra de la inseguridad que se vive en Venezuela."Nosotros estamos en contra de la impunidad. La impunidad es el motor que está provocando mayor inseguridad en el país", dijo Galo.

Lo que el viento se llevó

Miguel Iturria Savón

LA HABANA, Cuba, julio (www.cubanet.org) - De los derechos sociales, tal vez el más caro sea la atención a la salud en cualquier parte del mundo. Garantizarlo implica un costo para el Estado, las instituciones sanitarias y para los propios pacientes y sus familiares. El gobierno de Cuba lo sabe y trata de garantizarlo a todos los niveles, pero no dispone de los recursos financieros recibidos desde la antigua Unión Soviética hasta 1990. El problema se acrecienta con la exportación de miles de profesionales que trabajan para el Estado en más de veinte naciones, lo cual desestructura los servicios médicos dentro del país, pues tan “humanitaria tarea” sacrifica a nuestros ciudadanos y multiplica los problemas del sector.

Read Full Article HERE.

From the Economist:

NINE years ago, Ahmad Batebi appeared on the cover of The Economist. He was a 21-year-old student, one of thousands who protested against Iran’s government that summer. He was photographed holding aloft a T-shirt bespattered with the blood of a fellow protester. Soon afterwards, he was arrested and shown our issue of July 17th 1999. “With this”, he was told, “you have signed your death warrant.”

During his interrogation he was blindfolded and beaten with cables until he passed out. His captors rubbed salt into his wounds to wake him up, so they could torture him more. They held his head in a drain full of sewage until he inhaled it. He recalls yearning for a swift death to end the pain. He was played recordings of what he was told was his mother being tortured. His captors wanted him to betray his fellow students, to implicate them in various crimes and to say on television that the blood on that T-shirt was only red paint. He says he refused.

(...) He suffered a partial stroke that left the right side of his body without feeling. He needed medical attention. The regime did not want to be blamed for him dying behind bars, he says, so he was allowed out for treatment. Three months ago, on the day of the Persian new year, he escaped into Iraq. On June 24th he arrived in America.

(...) He is cagey about how exactly he escaped. But he says he used a cellphone camera to record virtually every step of his journey, and will soon go public with the pictures and his commentary. Meanwhile, he seems to be enjoying America. He praises the way “people have the opportunity to become who they want to be”. Shortly after he arrived, he posted a picture of himself in front of the Capitol on his Farsi-language blog, with the caption: “Your hands will never touch me again.”

Thank God!

NYT:

in Iraq, his former captors had one more chilling message for him. Not long after his arrival in Erbil in March, the new cellphone provided by United Nations officials rang. Mr. Batebi was shocked to hear the familiar voice of the chief interrogator at one of Iran’s notorious prisons.

“We know where you are,” the interrogator, a man known by the prison pseudonym Javad Javadi, said. “You must turn yourself in.”

More in Gateway Pundit via Myrtus, from whom I have taken his photo above.

Technorati Tags: Ahmad+Batebi, Iran, Mullahcracy, dictatorship, torture

Before going into any further discussion on the End of History let us first deconstruct what we know, or think that we know about the beginning of history. There are 2 prevailing schools of thought on the origin of the human race and both of them are absurd and only in a unity between the two do i find any reasonable argument. But these two schools of thought will fight each other tooth and nail of the other sides' perceived flaws and errors. Some say God , a divine entity, created the Earth in literally 6 days , this was the Christian Earth Science that I was taught at a Baptist private school in the eighth grade. However the secular Geology that I took 8 required credit hours of at a secular public university put forth a different argument. Is it not the slightest bit ironic that the same people that tell you that The Apocalyptic Beast represents something also believe the world is 6000-12,000 years old? I have since found a solace between the two polar opposite creation theories. There is a greater other story to every issue or topic your mind can conceive that is not present in the medium of television alone but only through the internet. Television is a limited in its understanding of the human condition as the teachings of a Baptist school in the rural suburan south. However the big secular university of the internet will throw so many obscure ideas at you that ultimately leads to mass confusion. In the end both lessons are important to ascertaining a greater understanding, for wisdom is the solace between experience and knowledge. In my thoughts I have dismissed the literal interpretation of the creation story that I learned so long ago as a notion is ultimately a materialist approach to a spiritual end but the other guys aren't right either and I shall pick on them next. For there is a paradox in Physics where one cannot solve a philosophical question with science. That is you must be spiritual to understand spiritual and you cannot solve it with materialistic ends, what was important was the lesson and not the history. It was not meant to be taken so seriously as neither was life itself.

There is that other more secular notion that's general acceptance comes along more recently in our Earth's history and it teaches us that things evolved over time, there is no divine hand in any of this world we see before us. The television with all of its fury, violence and degradations of solemn morality is such a great illustrator for all of this. For this secular notion to work you have gravity crunching together particles over time then eventually they become more complex particles. Billions of years later you have planets. Then because of gravity's force you have life. But I implore anyone to prove this. It doesn't have to be anything big. Take two grains of salt or any other inorganic particle, let's mash them together and see if the smallest microbe comes out of it. And it simply won't because DNA doesn't just write itself. A theory remains a theory until it has proven and this is a very old idea that has still never been proven.

But the private school and the university continue to debate never once considering that both of their notions are absurd, neither are the truth and both are based on materialistic impressions about the universe that merely seek to justify human being's wants and desires for material things of this world. What I believe is a compromise between the two. I believe in God and I believe in The Bible but I do not believe in a literal, materialistic interpretation of it. Materialism is a fact of life of the human condition, but by no means should we ever base our lives and values on it. Both philosophies, creationism and evolution, only give us material based choices that we can see with our eyes and not with our souls.

For in my quest to unravel the tragedy of history I have found no greater enemy to mankind than outright materialism itself. Regardless of what you believe in philosophically there is one thing you should know and understand about economics. Capitalism itself is based on materialism and it is necessary for our daily lives.There seems to be no way around this and this is an accepted fact of life in the Western World. Both notions of creation were important toward reaching this point that we are at in history and neither should ever be forgotten. One system gave us morality, the other gave us an ambition to explore the larger world. However over time a society believing that is was evolved will evolve into the very monster it is most afraid of, for if people believe they are but mere animals than it is animals they shall portray. An analog to this is the corporate world as the huge corporations devour the mom and pop shops in an all consuming survival of the fittest. All is good and well as long as the market is regulated. But see capitalism is based on being ever expansive, a Tyrannosaur in a world of sheep also analogous to the empires of the Old World. Alexander the Great didn't need to try to conquer the India, but there was more money in it. I was taught in World Civilization at the University of Tennessee that Wal-Mart was now the largest economy in the world (2004), which would in turn make them among the greatest of all empires. As the world changed, warfare changed. The Old World notions of rape and pillage were not forgotten but they were transformed into a legacy of underdevelopment. When one rapes and pillages everyone that participates in the raids get a little bit, but when one underdevelopments only the investors that paid for the raid reap any reward.

As we press forward in the 21st century, capitalism continues unabated. The markets become closer together and the people themselves become close together through the internet. This could be a good thing, but the fact remains that the means do not justify the end. The people of the world cannot be conquered by hostile takeover but only through mutual understanding. The internet taught me that and that is why it will one day be shutdown. There is no money in mutual understanding and a rejection of materialistic means that have kept us blind from such for so long. Even hip-hop artists tried to warn us of this. Tupac Shukar said that we needed to make some Changes and he got shot. Biggie Smalls said 'Mo Money, 'Mo Problems and he got shot as well. Their messages left unheard as the next generation rapped on and on about Gold Chains and spinning rims all the while proclaiming that Tupac and Biggie inspired them. Our problems are still here and they are still bigger than hip-hop. This isn't a new concept or without precedent, the same thing happened in the 70's when music devolved from social philosophy into disco. This sad tale is but an analog with a thousand other dead heroes because there was just no profit to be had in pointing out that profit was ultimately pointless. In the modern world we believe we can buy happiness, but we feel like we are missing something in the end.

Regardless of what social, theological or philosophical school of thought that you subscribe to, material means all meet the same ending. Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. The scales of justice themselves tipped in strong favor of the overwhelming mass of the bottom line as the governments corrupt in favor of the greater wealth of the commercial empires. One by one the nations fall into the same supermarket checkout line, the end result of the works of greed and deceit all the while the secular authorities teach the children that they are but the descendants of mere apes. As entire cultures are consumed in this vacuum, national sovereignty erodes to the point where this no longer any checks and balances, nor is their consumer advocacy, nor any form of oversight. At this point the safety net was long destroyed, crushed under the weight of the bottom line of a one world consumer society's misguided ambitions and desires and the entire social order is left to plummet into the abyss of absolute darkness. This such is the hypothetical blizzard of the world that will only result in the winter of our discontent when all of the great words of the heroes, the philosophers, the poets, the prophets and the honest historians are ultimately forgotten.

And inevitably there will be this day, when all of the resources of the world have been plundered to the point that the wealth of the nations all sit together in the same vault, the capitalists now content to become communists . At which point the new emperors shall fancy themselves as gods, just as the emperors of old once did, for their materialistic accomplishments of conquering the entire world. When this has come to pass, these emperors will then want slaves and become interested in human souls themselves. And they are going to come to you and attempt to brand you as their slaves. An entire generation truly believing itself to be the descendants of mere apes and completely ignorant of the glorious past that came before this point. That cursed day when everyone is asked to sellout, the finality of a cruel world built on betrayal in the name of fattening the bottom line. The circle now completed since the new emperor's of the world's constituents are no longer in demand of rights, history erased, the dissidents repressed eternally and the next generation shall only know what they are allowed to. The whole of society reduced to mere animals by their own designs and excuses, all beliefs degenerated into pure atheism where there is no longer any intelligent question since everyone truly believes that they are nothing more than the descendants of mere apes. The eerily humbled remnants of a once great world civilization reduced to but mere automatons oblivious to the true culprit of their real ancestor's vanity. The tragedy of history forgotten now complete and ironic of its own tragedy.

This is the world view that I am left with for majoring in English rhetoric and writing and minoring in Business. I tried to find a solace between the two and came up with this.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2699800300274168460]

And, don't miss the eye witness report about the 2006 Demonstrations.

And now, more impressions from Belarus / Minsk:

And this is me infront of the National Library in Minsk (it's all mine!!!):

Of course, the Government Palace photos are from 2006, when construction was still going on infront of it. Next to this building for Belarussian dictator is the beautiful red church, in whichs cellar, people met in 1986 to inform each one about the explosion in the atomic reactor. A thing not many people know - and I've got this information from the BAG Tschernobyl Germany.

Life-Upgrade.com

These plans include:
- Control over the UK's assets
- More control over the military
- More control over Britain's borders
- Control over emergency law enforcement units
- Control over civil protection operations
- Foreign criminal friendly policies
- Expanded propaganda activities
- Using climate change to expand its foreign policy powers
- More green stealth taxes
- More control over energy policy
- Control over beauty products

Wake up! It is nothing more than a massive power grab by the Commie Scum in Brussels over YOUR country. The Lisbon Treaty, apart from being self-amending, has primacy of law over your nations sovereign laws (remember, the Lisbon Treaty removes sovereignty, transferring your governments powers to Brussels.)

Read this to find out.

As we look at the way our country is governed now and compare it with the situation around the time of the Second World War, we can see many changes and none for the better.

In this paper it is explained how successive British governments have surrendered our democracy to layers of international bureaucracy which have acquired completely unaccountable power over our legal, political, economic and social decisions. The largest of these transnational bureaucracies is the United Nations and the most powerful is the European Union, whose aim it is to turn itself into a post-national state.

This process has, Kenneth Minogue argues, deprived our elected politicians of real power and taken away their opportunity to behave in a genuinely statesmanlike manner, leaving them to become involved in make-believe changes to society, expenses manipulation and general nest-feathering.

Professor Minogue analyses the transnational bureaucracies that add to the burden of regulation and increasingly control so much of our lives. This increased meddling, he argues, is creating a feedback loop where ever more regulations are required in an attempt to undo the damage caused by the initial unnecessary state interference.

At the heart of the matter, Professor Minogue argues, is the curious form of idealism that disdains pride in Britain and British culture, preferring to give allegiance to a far more vaguely defined ideology of internationalism. This rejection of national sovereignty, and the subsequent embracing of unaccountable transnational institutions, as advocated by our political establishment, has led to the British people submitting to more and more authority which comes dressed as virtue.

Download the publication here.

Part 2

New York Times

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/7/16/headlines#1

Court: US Can Jail Civilians Indefinitely

A federal appeals court has ruled President Bush can order the indefinite jailing of civilians imprisoned in the United States. The five-to-four decision effectively reverses last year’s ruling that the administration cannot label US residents “enemy combatants” and jail them indefinitely without charge. The ruling came in the case of the only person still held as an enemy combatant on US soil. Ali al-Marri was arrested six years ago at his home in Peoria, Illinois, where he lived with his wife and five children. He was initially charged with credit card fraud and lying to federal agents. But in June 2003, President Bush declared him an enemy combatant and ordered him into military custody. He has spent the last four years in solitary confinement at a Navy brig in Charleston, South Carolina. Al-Marri’s attorney Jonathan Hafetz said, “This decision means the president can pick up any person in the country—citizen or legal resident—and lock them up for years without the most basic safeguard in the Constitution, the right to a criminal trial.”

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/07/federal-appeals-court-upholds.php

The ruling overturned the Fourth Circuit's prior decision [PDF; JURIST report] holding that the military can seize and imprison civilians lawfully residing in the United States and detain them as "enemy combatants" [JURIST news archive].

But this time, it's all about an independet report from a person I know, who lives in Minsk. She was at the October Square in Minsk, during the brutal abatement of the peaceful April 2006 demonstrations by Belarussian Omon Police. Recently a bomb exploded there, in July 2008 - read about it HERE. Or have a look at the old Minsk from 1944 instead.

Here are the photos - plus an authentic report:

Eye witness - Demonstration in Minsk April 2006

I'm writing to inform you about important things which have happened in my country and with me these days. I should say that I lost all my scepticism during the last week. I couldn't believe that so many people are ready [b]to show their negation to the regime of Lukashenko. The hole week from the 19th - 24th of march people came to the October square to demonstrate their wishes. And all these days a group of activists spent their day and night time in the tends in front of the Republic Palace.

]It was the 24th of March, 3a.m. when the activists were arrested. Belorussion state TV channels told that these people where sitting in the tends drinking alcohol, taking drugs and doing sex, all together. Belorussion state journalists found there lots of empty syringes and porno-magazines. Among these people was my friend from Gomel who got into the prison for 10 days. She is a professional sportsman and she came to Minsk to show that people from other cities of our country support minskers. But I'm not sure that this is the end of her story.
So in the morning,  March,25  I came to the central park with my sister and two more friends from Gomel, where people decided to meet asking for the freedom of prisoners.

It was a sunny day. Common people of different age and status came to the demonstration with flowers and colorful balloons. People smiled. We listened to Milinkevich and his wife, Kozulin also had a word (these two men pretended to be a president of RB). After that people decided to go to the walls of the prison. All people moved down the streets of Minsk very organized, no one destroyed anything. But when we reach Derzinskij avenue the speed of the movement became lower. I couldn't understand what happens. We had to round the coner or to cross the street.  My friend Alex and I decided to cross the street to know everything. And when we appeared in the middle of the road I saw a rank of millitians who were making specific noise with their cudgels to frighten us.

I looked behind me and saw hundred of people who didn't want to run away. They had no weapon but they wanted to fight. I went straight on making photos. But when I understood that the millitians would be near me in a few seconds, honestly to say I lost courage. By that moment my sister was near me. We climbed up on the hill. Millitia climbed up too, to catch people, but they didn't beat us, because of my big camera they thought I was a journalist.
I'm sending you photos. You'll understand everything.

I saw with my own eyes how millitians threw the smoke bomb and trampled down a man who died in the hospital in the next few hours. And on the next day state TV told me that the opposition didn't know how to use the real bombs with the help of which they wanted to heart millitians. Can you imagine this?
Finally they let us go. There were too many foreign journalists. But if they wanted they could shoot all of us. They met us on the street which was surrounded by the hills and very high fences.
The leader of the demonstration Kozulin was arrested. One man died.

The next hour after that, millitians were catching young people with dirty boots and non uniform stile and took them into the prison. The boy-friend of my sister Denis was among them. He even wasn't on the demonstration. He came with his friends in the center to drink bear. Millitia didn't like his wear stile. You ask me why? When Lukashenko show Denis on TV, all his electorate, old people will agree that Denis with his bold head, tattoos and big black boots is a real extremist.
It's clear that Lukashenko will stay for the next 4 years. I hope, it'll be his latest.

PHOTOS:

We should never forget, that Dictator Lukashenko is a criminal - even German Television (Channel ZDF) called him a criminal in 2006. All the best to the Belarussian friends. Old Belarussian people call Lukashenko "Our second Chernobyl". Why? Have a look HERE

Life-Upgrade.com

Source: EU Observer

(Extract)

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said that Ireland will have to vote once more on the EU treaty, in a move bound to ruffle feathers in Dublin, which has yet to say publicly how it plans to react to last month's treaty rejection.

According to a report in the Irish Times, Mr Sarkozy told a meeting of deputies from his UMP party in Paris on Tuesday (15 July): "The Irish will have to vote again."

Reacting to the comments - which were downplayed but not denied by the French government - Irish foreign minister Micheal Martin said that Mr Sarkozy will listen but not "impose a solution" during the planned five-hour talks next week.

He stressed that Ireland would take its own decision on the matter but it was too early to speculate on what this would be, reports state broadcaster RTE.

Now now, own decision? Like the decision the People of Ireland have already made? I think we know what the Fascists in Brussels think of dissenting decisions.

Adding to his discomfort, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the Italian parliament on Tuesday:"There has only been one No to the ratification of the treaty, and I do not expect any more."

Bloomberg reports him as saying that Polish President Lech Kaczynski had told him his country would not block treaty ratification. Mr Barroso also said the Czech Republic would not pose a problem.

Meanwhile, an article in French daily Le Monde on Tuesday suggests that as a sop to Ireland, all member states in the future will continue to have a permanent EU commissioner - instead of the reduced commission planned under the Lisbon Treaty.

This, as well as reassurances that abortion, taxation and neutrality issues will not be affected could be debated as part of an Ireland package at the October summit and adopted by EU leaders in December paving the way for a possible second Irish vote next year.

According to the EU, you have freedom of choice so long as you make the choice the Brussels Politburo tells you to. The only reason all of our so-called leaders have been refusing us a referendum on this despicable Constitution Treaty is because we would say NO. Europe-wide polls show rejection rates of 88%. The people do not want the damned thing. The scum in Brussels care not for what you want, they only care that you do what you are told. Don't forget, it is the People who have the power, not the corrupto-crats.

In the wake of the Irish No Vote on the Lisbon Treaty…
Why Ireland (and the rest of Europe) should vote No to the Lisbon Treaty
The European Union Story

Soldiers, soldiers, everywhere, with no good wars to fight
How do you flex your muscles, the weapons of your might?
Where do you go to kill these days, false enemies in sight?
How do you earn the wages paid? Through false created blight?

Embroiled in eternally unresolved conflicts
That let you earn your daily bread through long established rifts
You are warriors for fatheads, for economic shift
Feathering their filthy nests, blindly turning tricks

Prostitutes of sordid death, paid to broker peace
Where peace would reign uneasily, without you at the feast
Marching out with weapons cloaked, bullying the meek
Masked behind a war machine we laymen can't unleash

Step back upon command from all injustice wielded
Run from the needless fight, within your barracks shielded
Draw guns to save yourselves alone, not innocents who yielded
Who raised stained hands, to bat away the missiles not being fielded

Remember when this world was pure and life counted for more
Remember somewhere, someone is eternally keeping score
Rise up my sons and represent the put upon, the poor
Destroy the progress of these filthy harbingers of war

Oh soldiers, soldiers everywhere, please see the things you do
The innocents who fall aside, not as strong as you
The unprotected, underfed, with skin of the wrong hue
Stand with honour, change their skies from darkest black to blue

Ignore the ghoulish, greedy cats who use you for their gain
Refuse to fight in unjust wars to satisfy their aims
Remember what your honour means, protect the weak and maimed
Fight only for freedom, or for justice, an end to power games

So soldiers, soldiers everywhere, lay down your bloodied arms
Come home to keep your families safe from needless harm
Smash the kings of industry who tell us all is calm
And deny the politicians who destroy our peace with charm ]]> http://therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com/?p=832 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:50:22 +0000 therearenosunglasses http://therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com/?p=832 Fear and the Garrison State

By Lowell H. Schwartz

Is this tightening of security the only prudent course for a nation facing the possibility of other deadly surprise attacks? And will the broad range of security measures designed to stop terrorists eventually threaten the United States' cherished values, institutions and liberties — turning the nation into a garrison state?

It is hardly surprising — with the Bush administration consistently saying the threat from terrorism is constant and overwhelming — that extraordinary, expensive and unprecedented security is now the norm for major public events.

President George W. Bush has said that government and the American people must be “on watch” at all times. In an effort to persuade the American people to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the president said two weeks before the invasion: “America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.” And in a speech in 2002 laying out his new national security policy, the president said: “… in defending the peace we face a threat with no precedent.”

But while the United States has never been threatened by an international terrorist organization like al-Qaida, this is not the first time in U.S. history that the fear of an attack from a foreign enemy has come to dominate the psychology of the nation. Looking back at how the United States dealt with such fear in the past can help us better understand how it can be dealt with today and tomorrow.

During the early years of the Cold War, the United States was gripped by the fear of an atomic attack by the Soviet Union that could kill tens of millions of Americans. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was nevertheless determined not to alter the basic civil liberties and democratic character of the United States to meet the Soviet threat.

The secretive and ruthless Soviet dictatorship of the 1950s was far more powerful and every bit as mysterious and frightening as al-Qaida. Policymakers and the general public had very little information about how many atomic weapons the Soviet Union had, where the Soviets might use the weapons, and under what circumstances. This fear generated a sense of paranoia that led to anti-Communist witch-hunts led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy, and a push for higher defense spending to meet the unknown extent of the Soviet military power.

However, major government figures — including Eisenhower — concluded there was a heavy price to pay for constantly discussing the Soviet threat in the most extreme terms. Eisenhower believed that an exclusive focus on the military potential of the Soviet Union would turn the United States into a garrison state, with an economy dominated by military spending and civil liberties eroded.

Early in his administration, Eisenhower alluded to the need for balance in creating national security policy. His 1953 national security policy — known as the New Look — began by asserting that the basic problems of U.S. national security were both “to meet the Soviet threat to U.S. national security” and “in doing so, to avoid seriously weakening the U.S. economy or undermining our fundamental values and institutions.” Eisenhower returned to this theme again throughout his presidency as the Pentagon and the Congress pressed for increased military expenditures.

The words that Eisenhower used in describing the threat the United States faced some 50 years ago are quite different than what we hear from government officials today. Eisenhower was no dove, and he spoke often about the dangers of Communism and the need to win the Cold War. However, he understood how fearful American society was in the early 1950s and that there was no need to overplay the danger the United States faced. In fact, Eisenhower did exactly the opposite — through his demeanor and decision-making he tried to calm the U.S. people.

Keeping the nation calm was not easy in the 1950s. Eisenhower confronted a series of crises across the globe, each of which posed serious dangers for miscalculation between the two superpowers. The president always portrayed things as well under control as he quietly reassured the American people that the man who commanded the D-Day invasion was on the job. In many ways the measure of his success is that the 1950s are remembered not as a period of acute crisis but instead as a period of prosperity and normality in the country's life.

If Eisenhower's example were followed today, the United States would re-establish a balance between meeting the threat posed by radical Islam and preserving U.S. values and institutions.

The United States has always prided itself on being an open and democratic society with its government institutions and policies being a reflection of those fundamental values. The new garrison mentality and state work against that historic image.

“Outside View” © 2005 United Press International