Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

Got your attention yet? Hope so. Remember a while back when I made that post about how IrregularTimes is fixating on just a handful of topics and letting a lot of other important things fall by the wayside? Well, this is another of those things, but I can’t rightly fault the staff here for failing to catch wind of it before now. But this is something that I really, honestly, truly wish would be added to the List of Things To Cover Until Doomsday. This is regarding the systematic torture of United States children. But no, it’s not by the government.

It’s at the request of the parents.

Confused? Appalled? I don’t blame you, I was too when I first heard about this. But I want to give (most of) the parents the benefit of the doubt and say they’re well-meaning, if naive. See, what happens is, for whatever reason, they’ll find out about these schools for “troubled teenagers” run by a group calling themselves the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs (WWASP) and go their their website. They’ll read, see nothing wrong, then take a quiz to see if there are warning signs that their kids are in danger of becoming out of control. Through a series of loaded questions which a “yes” answer would, for the average parents, just say “typical teenager” the website says your kid is at risk and to send them there to get help.

Also, send them there if the kid is/might be gay and/or bisexual. See, these schools are run by fundamentalist Mormons.

As I said, for the most part, the websites will sell you a story of a fairly easy going place rather than the reality which is that it’s little more than a concentration camp (yay for Godwins!) on the far side of the River Styx. The warning bells should be going off when they tell you (either through the phone, in person, or on the fucking website) that your child will lie to you about what is going on at that school. When anyone, even a school or corporation, has to poison the well with regards of what is going on there, you should know something is up.

And if that isn’t enough, the “emergency teen escort service” (no, it’s not a door-to-door brothel) that will wisk your child away from their bed at 2 or 3 in the morning should. These are people who’ll enter the home in the early hours, terrorize the kids, kidnap them and transport them to one of the WWASP’s schools either in the USA or overseas. Here, I could sit and type all these things out, but I want to share a story from someone who’d gone to one of these place. A wonderful little school called Cross Creek.

From Reddit.

On May 10th of 2007 at around 2:30 in the morning two strangers barged into my bedroom. I started screaming and crying, as in my mind I was sure that these two strangers had broken into my house and were going to abduct me, rape me, kill me, or in some way harm me. They immediately told me that if I did not shut up that they would handcuff me. I was not being in any way violent or threatening. I was reacting in fear for my life by being vocal and hoping that someone would come to help. I had no idea what was going on. I stopped screaming, still in fear for my life. They started going through my closet digging out clothes as I was only in a night gown. They still had not explained what was going on. I asked, frightened, what the wanted from me, trying to see if I could in some way appease them and get them to leave. They then explained that they were going to take me to a school. It took me a second to understand what they meant by this, as this was an extremely bizarre way to introduce a child to a new school. It then occurred to me that this was what my mother had arranged for my brother several years ago when she had him shipped away to Cross Creek. The two strangers were from Teen Escort Service, a for-profit company that transports teenagers, usually by force, to WWASP (World Wide Association of Specialty Programs) facilities.

I was extremely upset and cried the entire trip, but I obeyed all of their orders. Even though I was being cooperative they said it was their policy to put a belt around the bust of the child and hold the belt so that there would be no chance of attempting to run. It was so humiliating to be led around like a fucking dog around the airport. It was also extremely uncomfortable to have this strange older male putting his hand so close to my breast. I never understood how any of this was legal but definitely knew that none of it was ethical. To this day I feel extremely angered, disturbed, and violated by this entire experience. In addition to this they “forgot” all of the psychiatric medication I had been on at my house. It’s not that I am for psychiatric meds, but it certainly did not feel healthy or normal to go from taking this medication regularly, to just not having it and stopping with out tapering off of it.

From the moment I arrived at Cross Creek, I was treated as though I was broken, dirty, and inhuman. During my stay I saw many others treated this way. I had never spoken to R., the program director, before and my first experience with him was horrible. He asked me why I was there, and I told him all of the things I’d done that I could think of that could possibly be perceived as “bad”. He yelled at me, saying that I was lying and that I didn’t love or care about my parents. I was shocked and confused, unsure of what I had done to deserve this treatment from someone I had just met. To this day, the only thing I can think of that I possibly could have left out was my attraction to other females. In one of the Parent-Child seminars we were made to attend, my mother shared with me that this was one of the biggest “issues” that caused her to send me to Cross Creek. Not the drugs, not the sex (she told me she had no knowledge of me being sexually active prior to being forced to disclose it to her), not the issues with school, but just the fact that there was a possibility that one day I might fall in love with a female. Sorry for not realizing what a horrible, broken child this made me, R.

Shortly after I arrived, my “HOPE buddy” (the student they assign to “mentor” you and teach you the rules in your first few weeks) started asking me about my past, why I was there, and what issues I needed to work on. I talked briefly about my experimentation with soft drugs, my issues with depression (something I’m pretty sure most teenagers experience), and the abusive relationship I had been in with my first girlfriend. As soon as I said the words “girl” and “relationship” in the same sentence she said “STOP! STOP! We can’t talk about that.” I was filled with shame regarding my sexuality simply from the fact that I was not even allowed to talk about homosexuality in any way shape or form. Shortly after this incident I started talking to the therapist they assigned me to there about this abusive relationship I had experienced, and how it bothered me that I was not allowed to talk about a part of me that I have no control over. His response was that I DID have a choice over whether or not I was attracted to females and that I should just deal with these thoughts of same sex attraction. His opinion was that this was probably a result of some anger I had toward men, particularly my dad and that I probably just wanted to be with females because they were “safer” (even though I had been with an abusive female before!!!) He also said that ultimately this was probably just a phase and a result of my crazy teenage hormones. He believed that if I tried hard enough and ignored these thoughts and feelings one day I might marry a nice boy.

I had no interest in having a relationship with anyone there, but when other girls formed relationships with each other, the repercussions were pretty extreme. I understood why it was not allowed, as relationships are generally distracting no matter the gender of either partner, but the way people were treated was pretty unnecessary in my opinion. It usually involved lots of yelling, ostracizing, and shaming. I remember one R. meeting where two girls were being confronted about this and R. was yelling about how stupid they were being and how no one would be able to trust them now. He went on to say that he had “nothing against homosexuality, but it was not the way God intended things.” and that the Bible definitely did not condone it. These “God” and bible references were used on a regular basis, along with religious videos, praying, etc. even though Cross Creek claimed that they were not in any way religious. The rule book and protocol also appeared to be directly based off of the Mormon religion (no caffeine etc.) The program reprimanded children for telling their parents about this religious influence and regularly tried to hide it from parents. I am in no way against people having their own beliefs and following what ever religion is right for them, however I think that it’s completely and totally immoral to lie to parents about what they are getting. More on this later.

The queer shaming was present in nearly every aspect of the program, including the language used. We were not allowed to use curse words such as “shit”, or “bitch”, but I never saw anyone reprimanded for saying “fag” or “faggot.” This fostered an environment in which teasing and bullying for all sorts of things were fully tolerated. I even remember a facilitator in a seminar trying to trigger a girl by calling her a “dyke.” And no, before you say something, I really don’t care about breaking confidentiality of seminars at this point because I am fed up. What these people said and did broke me down and created so much shame inside of me.

In addition to shaming people on basis of sexual orientation, they taught children that sex was evil and damaging outside of marriage, another blatantly religious notion. We were forced to regularly watch videos involving horror stories of abortions gone wrong, shown gruesome pictures of STDs that had been left unattended for long periods of time, and told that if we had sex before marriage we would likely die or get some horrible ailment. Rather than promoting safer sex methods, we were shown that abstinence was the only option that would not result in death or unwanted pregnancy.

Rigid gender roles were also a big part of the Cross Creek way of life. Many of the rules were extremely gender based. Boys were allowed to crack their backs and knuckles, though girls were not because it was “unladylike”. Boys got meal portions double the size of girls. Boys were allowed to use more curse words than girls were. The list goes on.

I remember when they moved the girls from Center 1 to Pro 1 (these are all names of the dorms we stayed in.) The boys had been living in Pro 1, and when they moved the girls in the dorms were extremely messy. Rather than having the boys come back and clean up this mess, they made the girls clean all day. This was completely, and totally humiliating. What a great way to build confidence and teach girls how to be independent and stand up for themselves.

This is just part one of three parts, the rest of which can be read by following the links. Some of the replies are from others who have gone to one of these places or who knew someone who’d gone to one. The one thing that’s always the same from the latter group is how the people they knew were never the same as they were before they went.

SkyOne news also did a short little article on these places. It’s short, just around ten minutes of your time, but it’s worth a watch.

Teen Rendention

The things that go on in these places are nothing short of psychical and mental torture, and it’s all perfectly legal because the USA still hasn’t signed on to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The conspiracy theorists who just aren’t able to accept the fact that Barack Obama was indeed born in Hawaii are latching themselves onto a new claim they say “proves” a hoax. Here’s their new claim:

Obama born in hospital that did not exist yet

This I just found and it seems to be a smoking gun. There are all kinds of reports about fraud coming out, but this is a blatant error that frauders would easily miss!

“I just checked the official web site for Kapiolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital and according to the information there, the name of the hospital at the time of his birth should have been Kauikeolani Children’s Hospital. According to the web site the name didn’t change to Kapiolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital until Kauikeolani “Children’s Hospital merged with Kapi‘olani Maternity Home in 1978. So how could his official long form birth certificate that was generated in 1961 have the name of the hospital that wasn’t created until 1978?”

Wow. Look at all those hyperlinks! With so many “sources,” it must be true!

Or not. The first thing you should do if you want to see if it’s true is to check those links. Two of them connect to wikipedia articles defining the words “website” and “birth certificate.” A third link connects to a wikinvest encyclopedia article describing what a “hospital” is and does. Only one link connects to any information about Kapiolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital — and that link is to the Wikipedia page for that hospital. As we all know, crowdsourced Wikipedia pages often contain incorrect information.

Let’s check for some independent sources on this. How about a search through the world’s largest book archive, Google Books?

Here’s a result from 1955, American journal of obstetrics and gynecology, Volume 69:

Here are a few excerpts from Social service in Hawaii, a book by Margaret Mary Louise Catton that was published in 1959, two years before Barack Obama was born:

Here’s a reference to Kapiolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital in a Digest of court cases from 1934:

There’s even a court reference there if you want to look it up.

Clearly, Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital existed long before Barack Obama was born. No “hoax.”

A couple nights ago when pointing out that IrregularTimes.com seems to be focusing so much on just a handful of topics like Americans Elect (good lord, look at all those entries) that we seem to be missing other topics of interest. Well, here is one of those topics that seems to have been missed.

Michigan Republican Senator Bruce “Douchebag” Casswell has introduced a proposal that would ban children in foster care from using their state clothing allowance to buy cloths from any place other than thrift stores. What is Senator Douchebag’s reasoning?

“I never had anything new,” Caswell says.

He gave some more reasoning, but when all is said and done, this is what it boils down to. I’ve seen this with so many parents that it makes me want to weep. Instead of wanting better for their kids they figure “I didn’t have it that good, why should they?” Only, with Senator Douchebag, instead of doing this to his kids, he’s doing this to the most downtrodden kids we have; those who for whatever reason have biological parents who have given them up. These kids have next to nothing and now Senator Douchebag wants to give them even less. And note, he’s trying to justify his douchebag move by claiming it’ll save the state money, only, it won’t. These kids are getting a state clothing allowance; the only way he’d be able to honestly say it’d save the state money is if he cut the amount the kids were getting. Telling them they can only shop in thrift stores won’t do dick because the same amount of money is being spent, regardless of where they go to spend it.

All he’s doing is telling these kids; “we can’t give you a stable home to call your own with a family who wants you aside from your Foster Parents who you can be taken away from at any time, and now we’re not even going to let you have nice cloths.”

This is a post aimed at the IrregularTimes.com blog writers; Jim Cook, JClifford, Peregrin Wood, ect.

You all know I am a long time poster and an even longer time reader. I have nothing but respect for the news you bring and the corrections of falsehoods you can give, but what I have noticed lately is a case of Tunnel Vision. The sum of the articles I’ve been seeing have been aimed at just a few subjects such as the war in Libya, No Labels, Americans Elect, and the Military Commissions Act. Now, I won’t debate the merits of these subjects, they’re important and need to be covered by someone. But they should not be covered at the expense of so many other important stories on both a national and a local level.

An example of a neglected story would be the rise of Emergency Financial Managers. The Daily Kos covered a story involving the arrests of teen mothers and children after they conducted a sit-in in protest of Michigan’s Emergency Financial Manager closing down their highly successful school. Emergency Financial Managers have broad, unilateral powers, including the ability to dismiss elected officials, sell off public assets (like schools) to private interests and dis-incorporate entire cities. And aside from The Daily Kos, the only other person I’ve seen covering this story is Rachel Maddow.

Another example of a neglected story, one I’m really amazed you guys didn’t jump all over, is the Florida Senate Judiciary Committee approving (right along party lines of 5 – 2) SRJ 1218, a bill that actually funds Churches with state money. With such a blatant display of contempt for the First Amendment, how could IrregularTimes not pick this up and at least give it a glance?

Or, how about the story of how America has fallen so low that it is now cheaper for Ikea to build their cheap Swedish crap here in the USA than it is to build it in Sweden? That isn’t so bad, but what is bad is how Ikea is abusing it’s employees by forcing them to work overtime, ordering them to go to meetings where they’re “discouraged” from unionizing as well as other abusive policies.

And let’s not forget Texas establishing “Traditional Values Centers” because they’ve gotta protect their precious, innocent Gawd-fearing Christian students from the evil baby killing LGBT students.

And if you want to turn your gaze back to Florida, you’ll see the Governor cutting funding for the mentally disabled.

Or, if you want to pay attention to the national stage, how about the Supreme Court shielding prosecutors who convict innocent people, even if it’s proven that the prosecutor knew in advance that he was innocent, and even if that prosecutor hid or destroyed evidence of that suspect’s innocence?

As I said before, I love this website and have nothing but respect for it. But please, focus on some of these other stories that get little attention but have big consequences.

From MotherJones.com, The House GOP’s Plan to Redefine Rape

For years, federal laws restricting the use of government funds to pay for abortions have included exemptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. (Another exemption covers pregnancies that could endanger the life of the woman.) But the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” a bill with 173 mostly Republican co-sponsors that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has dubbed a top priority in the new Congress, contains a provision that would rewrite the rules to limit drastically the definition of rape and incest in these cases.

With this legislation, which was introduced last week by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Republicans propose that the rape exemption be limited to “forcible rape.” This would rule out federal assistance for abortions in many rape cases, including instances of statutory rape, many of which are non-forcible. For example: If a 13-year-old girl is impregnated by a 24-year-old adult, she would no longer qualify to have Medicaid pay for an abortion. (Smith’s spokesman did not respond to a call and an email requesting comment.)

Given that the bill also would forbid the use of tax benefits to pay for abortions, that 13-year-old’s parents wouldn’t be allowed to use money from a tax-exempt health savings account (HSA) to pay for the procedure. They also wouldn’t be able to deduct the cost of the abortion or the cost of any insurance that paid for it as a medical expense.

So what they’re saying is that girls and women who are either drugged up or under the threat of force or coerced would be ineligible for a government assisted abortion. A woman could be surrounded by fifteen guys and repetedly threatened with violence while being gang banged on the pinball machine and still not be able to get help terminating a resulting pregnancy. There is also a wonderful little tidbit in the article pointing out that there is no federally mandated term “forcible rape” and very few local laws use that term. So, taking this bill to it’s extremes, a woman could be ineligible for an assisted abortion unless she was shot or stabbed during the encounter. The language is just that vague and it doesn’t offer a definition for “forcible rape.”

Thank you, Republicans, I’m sure your constituents feel much better knowing you’re there to stand up for justice and common decency. Oh, and by the way? You SUCK.

Yesterday, Jim Cook made a post on the main blog listing a number of protests that fizzled out, one of which was the National Opt Out Day. However, I believe National Opt Out Day actually worked, but not in the way it was intended to. The facts of the matter are not as well known and so the full impact of the Opt Out Day protests have been lost on most of the general public.

The TSA has made a big show about how next to nobody actually opted for a pat down. While that is true, it’s also a distortion of the facts. Nobody opted for a pat down because the TSA had turned off a number of the full body scanners on National Opt Out Day. What does this tell me? Either the TSA is so worried about making sure to have good public relations and save face, or the full body scanners aren’t needed and/or aren’t as effective as the TSA likes to tell us. It also seems that just the threat of people opting out was enough to scare the TSa into shutting things down.

Speaking of which, how effective are the full body scanners? That’s a good question and one which I have to say, it could be better. For example, the full body scanners failed to detect bomb parts hidden on one passenger’s person and in another case, Adam Savage blundered through a TSA full body scanner while carrying two twelve inch long razor blades. A lot of people like to point at Israel’s airports and wonder why we can’t be more like them. I, however, think that the Dutch have a better way of going about full body scans. It seems they have bought a number of machines (designed and made in the USA) for their airports which show contraband on a generic mannequin display and which doesn’t generate an image of the person being scanned. It seems these units also cost less than what the TSA has now.

There are a number of things we could be doing differently, but to say National Opt Out Day was a failure doesn’t do it justice.

Basically, this is a repost of a thread I started on another forum. I know I should have some grand thing to say after my long absence, but…I’m not sure how I could have said it differently.

—

To say I didn’t see this coming would be a lie. I saw it…because the Republicans have been doing this since Obama took office. But still, this reeks of a surprising amount of petulance as well as a willingness to fuck over the whole country just to get their way.

Republicans Want to Extend Their Tax Cuts, Will Hold Breath Until They Get Their Way

WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans threatened Wednesday to block virtually all legislation until expiring tax cuts are extended and a bill is passed to fund the federal government, vastly complicating Democratic attempts to leave their own stamp on the final days of the post-election Congress.

“While there are other items that might ultimately be worthy of the Senate’s attention, we cannot agree to prioritize any matters above the critical issues of funding the government and preventing a job-killing tax hike,” all 42 GOP senators wrote in a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. The 42 signatures are more than enough to block action on almost any item he wishes to advance.

The threat does not apply to a new arms control treaty with Russia that is pending, since it would be debated under rules that differ from those that apply to routine legislation. President Barack Obama has made ratification of the pact a top priority.

But it does threaten Democratic attempts to lift the Pentagon’s ban on openly gay members of the military, and a separate item to give legal status to young illegal immigrants who attend college or serve in the military. The tax and spending bills are likely to be the last to pass before Congress adjourns for the year.

Why don’t more people vote for the Green Party? That’s what radicals everywhere keep on asking.

Uh, could it be messages like this one, sent out today by New York State Green Party State Committee Member David Cyr, and now making the rounds as a forwarded email? In it, Cyr justifies the terrorist attack in Austin yesterday as a sane reaction to capitalism. Cyr writes:

“The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.”
— Possible last words of Joe Stack (1956-2010)

Full text of apparent suicide message posted by Joe Stack before burning his house and crashing his small plane into an IRS office:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35461747/ns/us_news-life/

Stack is being dismissed as a lunatic by the government media, and portrayed as a “right-wing” extremist by liberals. Read the full text of his post. His deep frustration is likely far more common than uncommon, and not particularly “right-wing” either. He just wasn’t able to compliantly cope any longer with an insane world. Stack’s final action said, “No Justice, No Peace!”

David J. Cyr
Delhi, NY
GPNYS SC member – Delaware County

Who is this Dave Cyr knucklehead? Is he on the Green Party’s electoral strategy committee? That would explain a thing or two about the Green Party’s inability to even get the support of most American liberals.

Joseph Andrew Stack flew an airplane into a building containing government offices. He committed an act of terrorism, plain and simple. He killed himself, and tried to kill others.

Yes, Davy Boy, Stack was insane – and so are you.

Recently, I was asked: What can I do today, to start to make a difference? What can the average American do to have their voice heard? I have given these questions a lot of thought, because they are questions I ask myself.  My conclusion: There are more average Americans than any other kind of American and as the dominate culture you would think we’d have some say in how our country is governed. 

 I am told: There has always been war, oppression, exploitation and there will always be.

 I have been told this behavior is human nature and we are incapable of escaping it.

 My friends, there are more than six billion people on this planet and I guarantee you more than six billion people have no desire to wage war, murder, rape, maim, oppress, or cause suffering to their fellow human beings.  Most of us want to lead lives of love and spiritual fulfillment and to watch our children grow up healthy and happy. 

 So what can the average American do?

 First, we must find our collective voice through an ongoing dialogue with each other.  We must use our eyes, ears, and minds to draw our own conclusions from the facts and not adopt the perceptions of the popular media or the political and religious pundits.  Our political views and religious beliefs should guide us from within, not be defined by others whose agendas can never truly be known.  Once we have found our voice we must make it heard.  We must continue our dialogue with ever growing numbers of people.  To make the dialogue meaningful, we must take the risk of moving beyond our comfortable social groups and find out what we have in common with others

 Second, we must plan to act within our sphere of influence.  This means not focusing our frustration and collective energies on other nations’ governments.  We need to start pressuring our own.  Our Government would like us to focus on situations such as the Congo (a very important issue) and to leave them alone to pretend to nobility by issuing a few lines of disgust at the situation—disseminated by the official propaganda machine of the US Government known as the Fourth Estate or the so-called “free press” owned by the very corporations that not only support the atrocities that are inflicted on our brothers and sisters outside our borders, but profit from them.

 Let us take a brief look at our current “elected” officials.  They are liars and traitors.  This might sound like the rank and file liberal politician-bashing, but I ask you to stop and think. 

 Our “representatives” speak with soaring rhetoric promising the next “Great Society.” They speak of American values, “enlightened self interests, and our moral ascendency in the world. 

 We believe them. 

 They say they will not be controlled by the tax-dodging, multi-national corporations and special interest groups. 

 We believe them. 

 They tell us to vote for responsible change. 

 We do.

 And then. . . they get elected.

 And we hear words like “pragmatism.”  We are told of the culture of Washington, D.C. and how they must compromise to get things done. We are asked to trust them. We are told they are trying hard to do their best. Think on this – every last one of them claims victimization to this circumstance.  If they all agree—and I mean all of them—it is the culture of D.C. that will not allow change without pandering to the corporate interests, I ask: “What is the source of this culture?”  If it is not them, from where does it issue?  Having said that, it stands to reason our government is not in the hands of our elected officials, and it has been clear for some time we are not running it, then, I ask you: “WHO IS?”

 Perhaps it is the free market ideology. We are told that market forces are the purveyor of democracy.  We are told our choices are what determine and drive the market. We are led to believe every time we make a choice it is a vote for the continuation of the free market.  The free market corporations have stolen our democracy, for it is they who determine which choices are available.  If my choices are limited to Exxon or Chevron, Coke or Pepsi, McDonald’s or Burger King, Wal-Mart or Albertson’s, Democrat or Republican, Heads or Tails (it is all the same bloody coin), what choices do I really have? It is the media working hand-in-hand with corporations and marketing firms to present us with the choice of candidates for the government of the United States and the choice of perceptions and frames of reference we may consider when expressing support or dissention.   (Read more: The FCC’s Christmas Gift to Big Media)

 This is Democracy?

 There are circumstances where we are given impossible choices or no choice at all.  For example, with insufficient or non-existent alternative transportations, for the purpose of getting to work, seeking healthcare (for those who can afford it), or even gathering our food and clothing, many of us are forced to purchase and maintain cars.  Thus, we are forced to support the most sinister corporations on the planet.  Since I own a car, is it    my desire the rivers and lakes be polluted, human beings be exploited, displaced, poisoned, and sometimes even murdered?   Does this mean I willingly support criminal wars?

 No.

 However, I, not having fought to change the structure of my society and because my continuing lifestyle aids and abets these corporate monsters, I share a measure of the guilt, as do my American brothers and sisters, which, if there be a final judgment, no measure of charity and repentance can wash clean the stain of innocent blood from our clothes, our hands, our souls, unless we stand together now to end this madness and put people before profit and our own material comforts.

 The United States is, at present, involved in two wars, one in Afghanistan and the other in Iraq.  It is threatening a third with Pakistan, has made recent aggressive overtures toward Iran and Yemen.  Our closest ally, Israel, with our financial and military support is engaged in a slow genocide of the Palestinian people. I am amazed the most passionate American national dialogue other than Dancing with the Stars and the latest fad diet is whether or not popular television personality Ellen DeGeneres should be allowed to be married to Portia De Rossi.

 If we fail to reclaim our republic, we will lose it.  Each day it slips a little further away. 

 There is hope.

 If 300,000,000+ Americans demand change, it will happen. 

 However, if we are waiting for those in power to bestow benevolent change upon us, we will wait forever.  What will compel them to change?  Are we to assume they are truly the wisest among us?  Do we mistake them for the enlightened?  These are people who actually debate the value of assuring children a lunch at school. Do you believe that? I don’t even have to go into where they think that money is worth spending.  Have you heard of Depleted Uranium Devices? Cluster Bombs? Nuclear Missiles? Wall Street Bail Out?

 Look issues up on the internet, read opinions, sort through the garbage, do your homework, find the facts and draw your own conclusions.  NBC, ABC, FOX, CBS are all owned by the very corporations that benefit from providing good people with bad information to increase corporate profits exponentially into perpetuity.  We must no longer allow the corporations and businesses to present our representatives to us, to limit us to Coke or Pepsi.  We must find our representatives from amongst ourselves and assure they are beholden to none other than their constituents.

 We must avoid and end term limits.  Why should an excellent public servant not be allowed to devote his or her life to making America a better country?  Term limits can only serve big business.  Think about it.  Good public servants are ousted arbitrarily and people who are elected are concerned about their careers afterward.  Does this not open the door to “networking” prior to leaving office? With term limits, does it not benefit the politician to consider the needs of a large company or industry that will see to his or her future livelihood?  Someone doing the people’s work for life would be less inclined to seek out such a patron.

 Open the dialogue where ever you gather with people.  Talk to those at your church, synagogue, mosque, and political gatherings.  Talk about it in the pubs, coffee houses and AA groups, on blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. Start journals and newsletters.  The time to act is not far off, but we all must act together.

 We can fight for change or we can remain cowards hiding behind our own rhetoric of fear and powerlessness.  The government must be made to understand that if it continues to twist and ignore the Constitution, if it continues to stomp on the democratic rights of the People, it will be brought down!  It is the fundamental responsibility of all people living in a democracy to dissolve a government when it becomes unresponsive to the will of, or oppressive of, its people. 

 Make no mistake. We are not the government’s people – it is the People’s Government. If the Congress thinks differently, if the White House is offended, if the military, FBI and CIA don’t like it, they must be dismantled and replaced.

hoc opus, hic labor est

Erik. F. Kreis

 © 2009

An extremely cynical trick by the leadership of the Senate Judiciary Committee was picked up on today by That’s My Congress, our congressional research arm. It seems that Senator Leahy and Senator Feinstein thought that they could pull the wool over the eyes of America’s librarians.

America’s librarians have been ringing the alarm for years, noting that they are being served with huge numbers of National Security Letters enabling the FBI to keep records on the books being read by ordinary Americans who are not suspected of any crime. Leahy thought that he could placate them by throwing them a distraction.

Leahy put his support behind an amendment that would provide a few protections for libraries when it comes to Patriot Act Section 215 database seizures of records by the FBI. He said that ought to be enough for people who wanted restrictions of the Patriot Act. Sound good? Go read the previous paragraph over again, then, and think about it.

It’s not Section 215 seizures that are the problem when it comes to libraries. Senator Dick Durbin revealed today that the FBI has decided to use National Security Letters, not Section 215 powers, to seize private information about Americans’ reading habits from public libraries.

Guess how Senator Leahy arranged to get his bill, S. 1692, to extent the Patriot Act through committee – with no reform of National Security Letters in libraries. Leahy only put small reforms on a tool that the FBI doesn’t use anyway! The National Security Letters, the method that the FBI actually uses to run roughshod over the constitutional rights of people who use libraries, were untouched.

That he would engage in a tactic so transparently deceptive is a sign that Senator Patrick Leahy doesn’t have any respect for libraries, for the intelligence of the American people, or for our constitutional rights. Vermont voters, Patrick Leahy has embraced the dark totalitarian vision of George W. Bush. He doesn’t deserve to be re-elected to the United States Senate in 2010.