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You said it! If heath care was a gun, Regan Emptied it!!!!!
In California, you can just go vote. They just want your signature.
Obama is a republican in democrats clothing. And, yes, the democrats aren't any better...they just have different 'enemies' for you to be afraid of.
Back to the subject at hand.
Someone correct me on this point if I'm wrong.
Hasn't the swing in this kind of random madness spiraled upward since our esteemed President Reagan mandated that the feds would no longer fund states for care of the mentally ill? Meaning of course they (the ill) were either on the street or in prison.
Oops, looks like I stepped in that cow pie called health care.
If that was bait, I'll rise to it.
Whatever President Obama has or hasn't done with his tenure, the visceral reaction in this country from day one of a black man elected as commander and chief has been very telling......
Can't say it was a real surprise to me, but it was more than disappointing. I had higher hopes for the country at large.
Adding words to a yes or no always seems to be words that make each biased to whomever is posing the question.... shame on you, Thom
1922 Kansas City, May 1 " "There isn't a. secret service in the world as large as this one. Thousands of eyes are watching..."
"1922 Kansas City, - Kan., May 1. — The merits of the Ku Klux Klan were debated at the London Heights Methodist Episcopal Church here this morning by Dr. Harry Graham, Boston, Mass, announced as international organizer of the Ku Klux Klan, and Mayor Harry B.Burton of this city, an announced opponent of the organization.
Dr. Graham pictured the klan as working for social purity, white supremacy. the welfare of the nation and upholding the constitution of the United States.
Mayor Burton declared the Klan was un-American. cowardly and oppressive... Dr. Graham said that ...public morality had slumped and that this letdown in public morals "threatened the supremacy of the white race."
Mlayor Burton asserted that the supremacy of the white race was a matter to be proven by its own actions;...
The organizer said he spoke as a medical man and as a scientist. ... "We don't want riff-raffs.
"We investigate candidates for membership and take only men of high Christian principles....
"Men in Washington have told me it will not be more than ten years before civil -war breaks out in this country. Our organization is riding this wave. The more is said in the press against us, the more men come to us to Join.
"There isn't a secret service in the world as large as this one. Thousands of eyes are watching your every move. We have been criticised for secrecy, That is all right. Secrecy was essential to the preservation of Christianity in the early days of Roman persecution...
"The city of Tulsa, Ok.. has been a cleaner citv than ever in its history since the work of the Ku Klux Klan."
You think Republicans are the only culprit? Obama has instituted more repressive policies than the Republicans did for 8 years. And he has continued and expanded on all the Bush authored civil rights suppression. Get your head out of that hole you've buried it in. Left wing hypocrisy is almost comical if not for the fact that it is despicable. A bigger pox on Democrats.... they used to be better folks. Now they are all entirely evil.
Yeah yeah, blah blah blah.
Once again, it was ceded for the people by the people.
Rather reminds me of the FBI files Hoover collected. You did absolutely nothing if you weren't in a file somewhere in the basement.
We the people turned that shady business around for a few years till guess what, it was given WILLINGLY back...........So start taking your right of privacy back with no mambe bambie excuses about big government whine. You want to talk about an entrenched status quo? Go back to the 60's. Go back to our grand fathers walking the picket lines with loaded guns just for protection. Go back to our veterans of WWI shot down on the capital steps for demanding benefits promised and not delivered.
No more preaching and whinning to the choir folks, time to get out and stand up to that neighbor, friend or family member, give them the facts. Trace the line for them if you have to.
Dirty and as sweaty as it is, it always starts at the ground level folks.
Most people have NO CLUE this is happening while they defend their right to carry guns that murder as many people as possible and the politicans cry crocodile tears.
So your arguing we take up arms and over throw the government? Toward what end?
By the way this is the government we deserve because few has been paying attention for the last 40 years. Nay I say, except for narrow parameters, they have been fighting against the blue collars fair share for the last 100 plus years. The monied class have been fighting on multi-fronts for as long as child labor curtailment and public education was 'the law' of the land.
And now they clearly voice their issues with showing facts.......they rant that facts are not necessary or relevant and when not ignoring them completely, rail against the facts when shown the light of day.
And here's the best part. At least 45% of America believes it. Unbelievable.
It starts at the town consules folks. It starts at the school board. It starts at the state legislature. Look around you don't think the mayhem we witness everyday is a product of just the last 10 years do you?
Democracy Now - video and transcript.
Friday, April 20, 2012 Full Show
Exclusive: National Security Agency Whistleblower William Binney on Growing State Surveillance
In his first television interview since he resigned from the National Security Agency over its domestic surveillance program, William Binney discusses the NSA’s massive power to spy on Americans and why the FBI raided his home after he became a whistleblower.
Binney served in the NSA for over 30 years, including a time as technical director of the NSA’s World Geopolitical and Military Analysis Reporting Group. Since retiring from the NSA in 2001, he has warned that the NSA’s data-mining program has become so vast that it could "create an Orwellian state." Today marks the first time Binney has spoken on national television about NSA surveillance.
WILLIAM BINNEY:
So—but after 9/11, all the wraps came off for NSA, and they decided to—between the White House and NSA and CIA, they decided to eliminate the protections on U.S. citizens and collect on domestically. So they started collecting from a commercial—the one commercial company that I know of that participated provided over 300—probably, on the average, about 320 million records of communication of a U.S. citizen to a U.S. citizen inside this country.
AMY GOODMAN: What company?
WILLIAM BINNEY: AT&T. It was long-distance communications. So they were providing billing data. At that point, I knew I could not stay, because it was a direct violation of the constitutional rights of everybody in the country. Plus it violated the pen register law and Stored Communications Act, the Electronic Privacy Act, the intelligence acts of 1947 and 1978. I mean, it was just this whole series of—plus all the laws covering federal communications governing telecoms. I mean, all those laws were being violated, including the Constitution. And that was a decision made that wasn’t going to be reversed, so I could not stay there. I had to leave.
WILLIAM BINNEY: Well, I made that—I reported the crime when I was raided in 2007. And it was that Bush and Cheney and Hayden and Tenet conspired to subvert the Constitution and violate various laws of the—that exist in the statute at the time, and here’s how they did it. And I was reporting this to the FBI on my back porch during the raid. And I went through Stellar Wind and told them what it did and what the information it was using and how they were spying on—or assembling data to be able to spy on any American.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to a clip of Congress Member Hank Johnson—he’s the Georgia Democrat—questioning National Security Administration director, General Keith Alexander, last month, asking him whether the NSA spies on U.S. citizens.
REP. HANK JOHNSON: Does the NSA routinely (intercept*) American citizens’ emails?
(* note: that the word "intercept" was used in the same way as "sexual intercourse" was made by Bill Clinton. What precisely is meant by "intercept"...hence Alexander was able to answer in the negative. Remember that the next time you are questioned.)
GEN. KEITH ALEXANDER: No. ("I did not have sexual intercourse with that woman!")*
REP. HANK JOHNSON: Does the NSA intercept Americans’ cellphone conversations?
GEN. KEITH ALEXANDER: No. ("I did not have sexual intercourse with that woman!")*
REP. HANK JOHNSON: Google searches?
GEN. KEITH ALEXANDER: No. ("I did not have sexual intercourse with that woman!")*
REP. HANK JOHNSON: Text messages?
GEN. KEITH ALEXANDER: No. ("I did not have sexual intercourse with that woman!")*
REP. HANK JOHNSON: Amazon.com orders?
GEN. KEITH ALEXANDER: No. ("I did not have sexual intercourse with that woman!")*
REP. HANK JOHNSON: Bank records?
GEN. KEITH ALEXANDER: No. ("I did not have sexual intercourse with that woman!")*
AMY GOODMAN: Is he lying? Is General Keith Alexander lying?
WILLIAM BINNEY: I wouldn’t—you know, the point is how you split the words. I wouldn’t say "lying." It’s a kind of avoiding the issue.
AMY GOODMAN: Jacob Appelbaum, how does this relate to you? And how powerful is General Keith Alexander?
JACOB APPELBAUM: I was saying to Bill that I think he’s probably the most powerful person in the world, in the sense that—
AMY GOODMAN: More powerful than President Obama?
JACOB APPELBAUM: Well, sure. I mean, if he controls the information that arrives on Obama’s desk, and Obama makes decisions based on the things on his desk, what decisions can he make, if—except the decisions presented to him by the people he trusts? And when the people he trusts are the military, the military makes the decisions, then the civilian government is not actually in power.
AMY GOODMAN: Bill Binney, you’re nodding your head.
WILLIAM BINNEY: Yes. I mean, well, for example, their responsibility is to interpret what they have and report up echelon. So, I mean, that’s the responsibility of all the intelligence agencies. So, they basically filter the information to what they believe is important, which is what they should do, because, you know, they’re occupying—it takes time for leaders to review material to make decisions. So they have to boil it down as best they can. So it’s a function of their processing, but it is important that they do it correctly to make sure the information that gets there is correct and complete as it can.
AMY GOODMAN: Is General Alexander more powerful than President Obama?
WILLIAM BINNEY: In the sense of making—of presenting information for decision making, sure.
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/4/20/exclusive_national_security_agency...
Did you ever have a fake photo ID?
Let's agree with the goal, Prevent voter fraud. One person, one vote. But how is requiring a photo ID going to prevent this fraud? There is a whole industry of providing fake ID's. If you want to vote illegally, get a fake ID (of a dead person, etc.?) It can't be hard, especially if you are part of an organization wanting to subvert the outcome of an election.
Want to prevent voter fraud? I think Iraq has the perfect solution--as you vote, dip your finger in purple ink. Personally, I think a "purple finger" is preferable to those "I voted" stickers my voting place passes out.
Purple Finger
Stop adding your words to a yes or no vote! I don't like you putting words in my vote! It will keep illegals and those not allowed to vote out of the voting place or they might fight to get their voting rights the legal way!!!!
Christopher Markowski "the Watchdog of Wall St") over the weekend accused Thom Hartmann viewers & listeners of making threats against him and his family (he made a point of mentioning that his wife is of Greek origin, for some reason).
He of course said that he didn't agree with Thom's side of the discussion, but his main point was when he goes on 'Liberal' shows that he and his family receive threats. It was an odd rant on his part and I can't imagine it being completely true on the facts & details (perhaps from his point of view, being called out on the substance of what he said on the show was reason to feel threatened).
And all this was meant to happen when they planned 911. For years..decades...the ruling elite were getting even richer by their various scams (housing, derivatives, illegal bonds, etc) and they knew that one day it will all collapse and they would be brought to task for their criminality. They needed a false flag to scare people so badly that they would be willing to give up any form of freedom for protection. Not a new story...it has happened before in history. It worked during Pearl Harbors and since Pearl Harbor they seriously thought about doing Operation Northwoods. The Gulf of Tonkin false flag lied us into the Vietnam war.
These people knew that Americans could be scared and manipulated. After operations like MKULTRA, Guns For Drugs, various other horrible things against American citizens, these evil conspiracists not only planned to stage the 911 false flag operation killing thousands but they carried it out.
It allowed them to commit an illegal and immoral war against people who didn't deserve to be murdered. And the drones that flew over the Middle East murdering innocent civilians are now flying in America's skies...some not only spying on us but some are armed ready to kill anyone they want.
Until you stop blocking and fight your cognitive dissonance and look at the evidence of 911 you will not be able to understand how totally useless it is to try to change the crooked system when you play by their rules. It should be easier for someone who has sufficient knowledge of architecture and building and the laws of physics...many have finally joined Architects and Engineers for Truth...some said that they were bothered by the inconsistencies of what they saw and what they heard at first but finally, had to realize that we have been lied to about 911. If you don't know the laws of physics then you may be more susceptible to believe in the lies that the government has told us.
Right after 911, when people were told that we were attacked by 19 Muslim box-cutter wielding terrorists...sent over by Osama bin Laden..the people got riled up and incensed against anyone who would do such a thing to us. The plotters fed us scare stories of possible crop dusters raining down poison gas...and people bought gas masks or taped up their windows.
It was easy to see Muslims as the bad guys...and some people were so riled up they physically reacted to it. I doubt many people, now, if they finally learned the truth about 911, would react in the same way. But that is the way we need to react against the real bad guys that have corrupted our system and devised and carried out these treasonous offenses against us.
Exceptionalism? Rule by laws? Democracy? Would be nice if they weren't now manipulated and defined by right-wing wackos and their wealthy corporate ruling elite. They had democracy in Nazi Germany too and Hitler was popularly elected too. They, too, had a nation of laws that they transformed in the idealistic images of their exclusivist minds.
Many countries, you wouldn't want to live in, have laws. Laws are not holy writ blessed by The Flying Spaghetti Monster or Raptor Jesus. They can, and have been, manipulated by those who now hold the power over us all to serve the selfish needs of the criminal class...the top echelons of the economic pie. They have rigged the game in Washington and your vote doesn't mean sh!t.
We either get the right-wing wacko Republican who screws us overtly or we get the fake "left-wing" front for the ruling elite in the Democrat....who also screws us... covertly.
The Democrat only serves the ruling elite as the panderer of false hope that keeps the people from rioting in the streets...for a while anyway...until the people realize that he was nothing like the candidate they voted for. Let's face it...money does rule in Washington and the only people with the most money rule Washington...Republican or Democrat..makes little difference.
If money has bought off our Democracy then it is not really Democracy anymore...the system is broken...quite possibly beyond repair. The only solution is NOT to think that voting matters anymore..you have to go way beyond that smoke-and-mirrors illusion.
The people in Egypt put their criminal ruler in a cage and urinated on him....and he deserved much worse. In fact, many of the elite in Egypt needs to be hauled out in the streets and dealt with.
Our system has been corrupted to such an extent that there is just no way it can be turned around no matter how much people banter about trite ideas of changing things at the polls or changing the laws.There are many laws on the books already that are being constantly violated and p!$$ed on by the wealthy ruling elite. There are very few politicians who are brave (or foolish enough) to go against the powers of money.
So, how do you take money out of politics? You can't through the current corrupt system. The voting masses have no teeth anymore...they cannot change the system as it is unless they go way beyond the normal, polite, but crooked channels that money has bought.
When it is noted by the NSA chatter scatologists (and I wouldn't be surprised that they may have a few proctologists on that task as well), who monitors the internet, social media, and every other form of communication that the majority of the people are so upset and willing to take to the streets, boycott, strike, obstruct business as usual...and when the billionaires and multimillionaires feel threatened and very afraid...only then will there be changes for the good of the majority of Americans.
The ruling elite are not scared, in the least, with what has been done so far...except maybe from the few demonstrations so far. As long as you keep playing their rigged game of pretend democracy and vote for either a Republican or a Democrat they will continue to laugh at their little dirty peon suckers all the way to their offshore banks. What is it now? Something like $27 trillion is currently stashed away by wealthy Americans in these tax-shelter hideouts?
The police in this country have more power (willingly) given to them then at anytime I can remember since the early/mid 60's. We have now what is arguably a mercenary national army along with a sanctioned straight ahead large mercenary force in place. What more needs to be said? We the people handed it to 'the powers that be'.
If the conspirancy theorists be it the liberal left or the reactionary right are really worried about the government they need to face an uncomfortable fact; we need conscription into the military for every able bodied man and women.
We have always had a professional army. In my day, they were called lifers. The number of lifers depended on what the status was enre to what war may be going on.
In this age I'd argue that if we still had our national service filled with everyday people we wouldn't have all this running around shouting nonsense about government take over. We wouldn't have had at least one senseless war and that the one war that could be somewhat supported would be long over by now.
When and how did America become so chicken shit that we've got all these people running around toting guns yelling about the sky falling? Why is anyone even listening to the BS?
Paul Ryan's Swiss-bank contributors are bad enough. I'm really concerned about Mitt Romney going overseas to raise money from British bankers who want to buy themselves an American President who won't investigate the LIBOR scandal. This should be front page news and the topic of political ads.
Why go to the extremes when you talk of gun regulations? No one wants to take your guns away from you. I am a liberal and so wasn't my father and he always kept a rifle in the TV room closet. Can't we just keep them out of the hands of the mentally ill? Can't we have background checks at gun shows? Why can't we track ammunition over the internet? Gosh, they know about most everything I do on the internet. Are you planning on attacking the US government? Why? We have democracy to change things we don't like, it just takes will from our elected leaders. We are almost at Totalitarianism now, because there is no much money in our elections. Ordinary citizens are out moneyed. But if we stick together we can make changes. It is the will of the people that is important, but unfortunately, the Right wing insists in electing the very people that are putting our rights in jeopardy. Sorry, I am not going to start a war with my country. I love the US and believe in it's exceptionalism. I also believe in the rule of law, which makes this country great.
It's one of the oldest methods of controlling people - "Rule By Fear". Keeping the people afraid of something - anything - makes it easier to decieve them and commit injustices against them. It worked for Hitler; it worked for Musolini; and now it's working for American republicans.
I think what is missing from the "violence" conversation is the fact that many bright and intelligent people feel isolated and ostracized; this social outcasting or rejection of a person's, what should be honored as helpful and benefitical, gifts can be devastating mentally--and, as we have seen in CO, dangerous and injurious. We have seen this in the stories of many gifted people through history--it is not new news.
We celebrate the "stupid" over the "smart" in this county.
Why are we not asking ourselves how the gifts of intellegent people could not be put to more useful occupations? Why are intelligent people not nurtured and honored and protected and seen as the answers to the world's problems? Why is it that we think that highly intelligent people cannot have problems? That they are unworthy of help? That they are unworthy of productive occupations that help society? Why are we not putting this valuable resource to its best use?
A bit of misdirection there . Fact guns kill people and cars kill more people. Cars also do monstrous environmental damage and are a far greater threat to our well being than guns.
It is not just the NRA that "deifies" the gun. Our military does that quite well, as well. They even hype up the military in the movies and in computer games. The military...hired assassins and murderers for the ruling elite...psych out and train recruits to become these assassins and murderers...and then expect them to come home and be good mentally stable citizens. Young brothers and sisters often look up to these older brothers and sister who join the military. They go to movies that play up the heroics of killing other people...the "bad guys". They play up the exceptionalism and "might is right" of the United States and their military exploits around the world. It helps when these "others" are Muslims and on the other side of the world.
Maybe if our military stops killing over there...it would set a good example for the people over here. If you want gun control...maybe you should start with our military and then our police.
I've noticed that, often, when they are playing a popular movie at the malls that includes some military theme (which usually includes lots of killing the "bad guys"), the recruiters are out in force, in those malls, trying to entrap young suckers to sign up. Just sign on the dotted line, sonny! No bother to read the fine print.
"To Palindromedary, (you really must be one bored guy to sit around and come up with your weird conspiracy theories) l would definitely require you to have a mental health examine before issuing you a permit to purchase a weapon. It seems that you have come up with every type of conspiracy theory in the book."
"..you need a really good therapist and some medications to stop your illusions or delusions of conspiracy around every corner."
But then you say:
"The elite already run this country with their money and illegal Wall St. banker loyalists doing their bidding, they don't need to over throw the government of the people, they already own it and you know it.........."
Careful there Ken...you might be accused of being a conspiracy nut by some other conspiracy nut who thinks he's not!
The biggest conspiracy nuts are the ones who believe in the official 911 conspiracy theory..that 911 was all caused by 19 Muslim hijackers directed by a bearded old (ex?)-CIA troglodyte sitting in a cave in Afghanistan. With all of the inconsistencies, non sequiturs, and proven lies of the official government conspiracy theory many conspiracy theory nuts avoid even thinking about, or reading about them...they believe the governments version. They have cognitive dissonance and are too molded by keeping their heads buried in the sands of official government deceit.
I agree that it would be pretty scary, at first, if everyone was carrying a gun..(it is very scary to be around cops with guns too)...but it is also very scary when you hear of stories like the one in that theater in Colorado.
Do you think the police are going to be there, every time, or even sometimes, in time to prevent someone like James Holmes from killing people? If you think that it is a good idea to take guns away from the citizenry, to protect themselves, or at least to feel more protected than having to rely on police who may shoot some unarmed individual in the back of the head (as recently happened in Anaheim) or unleash their dogs on a woman with a baby...or police that could never get there on time enough to save you, then who's the conspiracy nut?
Oh, but you think one should be able to have guns in the home for protection yet you state that in most cases people hurt themselves or are rarely effective in protecting you against an intruder. That, again, may be true...but there are some cases where it has saved people from being tied up, gagged, raped, tortured and killed while being robbed all in the "safety?" of their homes. And if the police are increasing their firepower to the equal of military even to the extent of flying drones to spy or even armed to kill in America's skies, then I guess we really have no other choice but to crawl up and cower in the corner and beg for mercy from the ruling elite who controls those police and/or military forces.
Our government is getting to be as paranoid as the Syrian or Egyptian governments. And if paranoia drives our government into accumulating sophisticated weaponry to use against it's citizens then our government is no better than that of any of those other countries that our government likes to hypocritically bash.
What do you do, as a citizen, when voting no longer works...when it is corrupt...and no matter what "leader" you get is either overtly a Corporatist puppet (or corporatist puppet master in the case of Romney) or a front for one (as in the case of Obama)? What chance do you think we have of reversing this course when you continue to play their rigged games?
The government is constantly monitoring "chatter". They assess the general mood of the country. The ruling elite want to keep abreast of just how far they can push us. And if they feel they can muster enough police and military force to put down a potential uprising, if they can't do it through media controlled propaganda, they will continue to screw us. I imagine they are very worried about how the uprisings in other countries might affect the US citizenry...maybe more and more might be thinking we need such an uprising here too. There must be some reason why the government is letting police use drones in America's skies. I think they are getting pretty nervous. And while some police or military (that might also be used to quell uprisings) may love the idea of bashing heads...there are others (I suspect the majority) would be very hesitant to be violent against their own mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters who may be in those crowds of dissension.
There is strength in firepower, for sure, but there is also strength in sheer numbers of people who believe they have been backed into a corner...."mad as hell"..and decided to not take it anymore. This "mad as hell", strength in numbers, worked back in FDR days but I don't know if it would work again...but what else can starving and medically needy people do when their families are dying of government/ruling elite neglect and unfairness? And although it is too late for some...many more will eventually come to realize that they have to do something...and not just vote for some ruling elite puppet in the White House...yet again.