Will Maintaining an Empire Cost us our Freedom? »
Posted by: populist 10 months agoThis didn't just start when Bush came into office. No, this erosion of the Rule of Law and the Warmongering really began to gain momentum after WWII. The potential rewards of war encourages the Elites, Corporations, and the Government to join together to impose their rule, outside the Constitution. This kind of rule offers no incentive for peace
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Charlson10 months ago
Empires need it's slaves and/or cheap labor to survive. Our empire is just converting the lower and middle class to the level of slaves in order to ensure the survival of the ruling corporate oligarchy. And to do that, freedoms must be sacrificed.
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NoSpinDave9 months, 4 weeks ago
Un-Populist....
You have to be the most naive person on Libscape. If you dont think China or someone else would fill the power vacuum should America bow out ofthe "world leader" business you are sadly (and tragically for Americas people) mistsken.
Maybe we are not perfect, but we DAME SURE are the best option.
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MichaelRhodenteComment removed: User banned.6 Replies
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getreal110 months ago
Populist it's hard for me to find the words today. It states in the Bible, somewhere in proverbs I think, that, One should take care of their home first and help others when the home is secure. Our Government forgot about We The People. We The People are still here. We The People are the home. They don't think that the blood and spirit of 76 is still around. Very Truthful article you have there. Right now I have one picture waterproofed and in my toilet. Since misery loves company it will probably get crowded before too long.
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ProudBlueTexan9 months, 4 weeks ago
The Government knows that it has divided and conquered!
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Spadecaller10 months ago
AS Eisenhower described this in his farewell address; he explained that the world had changed after WWII. A permanent armament industry had become dangerously powerful.
Eisenhower's warning was the most important speech ever delivered to the American people. Unfotunately, his guidance was not heeded.
Our soldiers are losing thier lives and limbs in Iraq to satisfy a corporate agenda that thrives on conflict.
Our government has been taken over by the Military Industrial Complex.
The American people must demand an end to allowing special interest groups ANY exchange of money with our elected officials. We need to hire bull dozers to flatten K Street.
I do not see the possibility of restoring the constitution and fair representation in this country until the lobbyists are driven out of Washington.
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populist10 months ago
you've got that right. Eisenhower's positions against empire were no secret. There's an excellent film covering much of that - called "Why We Fight" I think it's one of the best I've seen:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FBH3W2/104...
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DanJ2210 months ago
Sadly I do not think the American people will move to stop this cancerous growth in our politics until it is too late. We have hit the tipping point, now things will move faster in the next ten years, mark my words. Presidential power is almost limitless now..and both Democrats and Republicans will do and say anything to seize that power not for their party..but for personal and monetary agendas to boost their own influence and power...and of course..the almighty(plummeting) doller.
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hyperbola9 months, 4 weeks ago
Perhaps Eisenhower was expressing regret for the insidious results of his own administration - e.g., how easy it is to get sucked in. Just think of all the places where the Eisenhower administration interfered and we later ended up with bloody wars (Iran, Guatemala, Vietnam,...).
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texangelwings10 months ago
FTA, "we are becoming a Corporatocracy" pretty well defines our current government!
We are all going to have to maintain close tabs on our Representatives and take great care in who we elect as our next President!
WOW, this morning while waiting at the hospital for my neighbor to complete her colonoscopy, people in the waiting room were discussing this very subject!
Thanks pop, good article!
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ML2007Comment removed: User banned.
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canadianrancher5710 months ago
As a Canadian I had not really studied much American history and after reading many comment on this site I decided to read Eisenhower's Farewell address and wondered how a person could so clearly see the future. That address is one that I read often and it gives clarity to many events of the present times. My question is why today we, in your country and mine elect people who are so narrow and cannot see the future at all. These people now do not have the interests of the nation or its people on their minds and it shows clearly by their contempt of history and the laws of the land. I would in an instant change by voting habits if just once I had the choice of a truely great leader, one who was honest and would not sell out once elected.
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blowback10 months ago
Politicians, leaders included, are handled in much
the same way as we handle other countries with our
foreign policy. Money buys favors, favors are to
be repaid ten-fold. If favors are not repaid or
if the offer of money to buy favors is not accepted,
there is retribution.
Think Godfather 2 and the Senator from Nevada.
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ProudBlueTexan9 months, 4 weeks ago
This country was built on greed. See The Grapes of Wrath; read The Jungle. Look out your window. And mark my word, this country will never fully recover from the bush years.
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markoller10 months ago
The article never mentioned Israel, and I suspect that corporate profiteering, oil, fascism and most ridiculous of all: the New World Order (NWO), are all diversions. The USA is now Israel's prison bitch, and all Americans are required kiss our Israeli master's ass. If any Americans complain about their new station in life, they are anti-Semitic Nazis!
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fempatriot10 months ago
Two forces are at work. Since ca. the 14th century Ashkenazi European Jews have been rich merchants & bankers to the world. The other group are the non-Jews who are the super rich. In 1954, top representatives of these 2 groups met @ Bilderberg Hotel, Belgium for the purpose of creating a one world government. They're nicknamed the Bilderbergs. Each year they meet at a secret spot in the world and plan further strategy to reduce the majority of us to peasants and which nations to subdue and plunder. Secrecy is paramount & security is tight. These meetings are never covered by the main media. American Free Press reporter Jim Tucker has a book about them: BILDERBERG DIARIES THE 13th TRIBE by Arthur Koestler tells the history of the Ashkenazi Jews who converted en masse to Judaism in 740 A.D. Not Semitic, they make up ca. 90% of today's Jews, the Semitic Sephardic ones the other 10%. (Arabs are Semitic also.) The Ashkenazim rule Israel.
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Spadecaller10 months ago
"The truth will set your free" ... to realize that you are not. Awareness is the prerequisite for responsible action.
Before the founding fathers revolted against England, they had to first admit the truth. When they realized that they were the subjects of a totalitarian state without fair representation, they united and established their sovereignty.
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populist10 months ago
Good point Spade! Reminded me of a great quote from John Adams:
"The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution."
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simonsez10 months ago
Pop's articles are always extreme exaggeration's extrapolating the worst possible outcomes. I can never take his BS seriously.
What better environment to discuss this article than a waiting room for colonoscopy recipients. Poetic justice ...
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baddad59Comment removed: User banned.
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markoller9 months, 4 weeks ago
Alexander Hamilton is believed to have said, "The masses are asses." It is the best suppressed quote of all time. If it were well known, these four words could destroy democracy and what is left of communism.
I just discovered a great website: "the masses are asses," at http://massesareasses.blogspot.com/ It begins by quoting Voltaire, "The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity."
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markmawn210 months ago
America stopped being a major oil producer in the early 70's. Essentially we ran out of Primary extracted sources. We used to actually get a lot of our domestic oil from Pennsylvania.
Then things hit the fan, with threatening oil embargos. It was bad, really bad. Imagine waiting 10 hours in line for a couple gallons of gas.
http://cr.middlebury.edu/es/altenergylife/70's.htm
Carter gave a speech that we will no longer be slave to foreign oil and made a declaration that we would turn into a solar nation by 2000.
Then Raygun was elected with Oil money buying him. He pulled the solar panels off the White House and started spending like no Pres has ever spent before. In the meantime, the plans were being drawn to capture the Oil producing nations by shifting political alliances in foreign countries (too numerous to list). Now as we are consuming more than anyone else in history, and China and India are catching up, we have to become an Empire to own the production.
In a nutshell
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CatholicRedneck9 months, 4 weeks ago
I agree with your summary, markmawn2. But look on the bright side - peak oil will (please, God!) put an end to this evil empire.
Oh, and one more thing. The US has actually been an imperial republic since the end of the Civil War. The Kingdom of Hawaii was conquered for the sake of American sugar planters sometime in the late nineteenth century, for example.
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AOL-my-crater9 months, 4 weeks ago
It is not bad - to be an oil-eater, as well as bread-eater, f.ex. But looks really bad is a basic willingness to be a owner of the oil-producers as well as bread-producers, f.ex. Everyone is a slave when someone is in slave. Exept Emperor, may be. Not you. http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/index.html
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kedirian10 months ago
The American people mistook the real and deserved accolades for their fathers' and grandfathers' efforst and sacrifices in WWII and later conflicts as their own accomplishments - not realizing that prosperity breeds laziness! And now the fat and happy masses, earnestly waving the flag and beating their breasts have fooled themselves into following sly and dishonorable "Deciders" and their henchmen, first being promised a quick and short war with "Mission Accomplished" as the apotheosis...
And in going into the fifth year of that misbegotten adventure, we are now, falsely, I swear, led into believing a "surge" will lead to unconditional surrender of the enemy and the final realization of some ill-conceived "strategy"...
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david_nwpa10 months ago
"When one says A, one must not necessarily say B. One can realize that A might be wrong."
Bertolt Brecht said these words in response to the gullibility of the people of Germany to blindly follow their leaders. Just because Bush or Cheney say they have found WMDs, does not make it so. Just because our elected officials in Washington tell us that a situation is as they see it, does not make the situation so. We must be independent, critical thinkers, or we will forever lose our freedoms.
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TonyByron9 months, 4 weeks ago
What a steaming load of paranoid, conspiracy-addled rambling.
I believe We are being Controlled by Aliens in a Cosmic game of Chess. I pity the poor, ignorant masses who don't have my Ability to see the Truth. One day they will see the Light and Rise up against their Galactic Overlords!
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getreal19 months, 4 weeks ago
There are a lot of the elected that are waking up to the fact that they are mere human beings, no matter how much money they have, they can loose it, just like the ones they used and walked all over to get their fortune. There are people out here and it's not like the people can't stage a revolt. The water bill for the lakes and such Bush Vetoed and They overrode his VETO. Let's hope this isn't the first and only in an attempt to white wash the People. I'm not going to give up my freedoms. They have a lot of work to do and they have better get some logic and practically.
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hyperbola9 months, 4 weeks ago
Here is something you could support to try to stem the totalitarian tide.
Restoring Rights
If leading spokespersons of both the right and the left in America enthusiastically back passage of any piece of legislation, there should be headlines in the various elements of the mass media. Anything attracting that kind of bipartisan support must certainly be dramatically important รข;; so weighty that all conscious Americans ought to examine it. Claiming to be among the "conscious," we hereby provide a serious look at H.R. 3835, the American Freedom Agenda Act of 2007. It was introduced in the House of Representatives by Texas Republican Ron Paul on October 15, 2007.
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hyperbola9 months, 4 weeks ago
cont'd
If enacted, H.R. 3835 would:
repeal the 2006 Military Commissions Act that denies habeas corpus (the right to face criminal accusations in a court of law);
ban confessions gained through torture or coercion;
insist on adherence to the provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to gain intelligence;
challenge the president's practice of disregarding portions of laws with presidential "signing statements";
ban torture and arbitrary kidnapping or imprisonment;
protect journalists who receive information from the executive branch from prosecution for airing it "unless the publication would cause direct, immediate, and irreparable harm" to our national security;
and
put a stop to any use of secret evidence against any individual or organization.
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hyperbola9 months, 4 weeks ago
cont'd
Support From Left and Right
For much of the year 2007, the concerns addressed by H.R. 3835 attracted the attention of both conservatives and liberals concerned about the unconstitutional accumulation of powers by the executive branch. Last March, a group of nationally recognized conservatives announced formation of the American Freedom Agenda (AFA), a campaign seeking restoration of the Constitution's protections against the Bush administration's attacks on civil liberties. Led by former Reagan administration Deputy Attorney General Bruce Fein, the group includes former Congressman Bob Barr, legal scholar John Whitehead, and other conservative activists....
In July, prominent liberals launched the parallel American Freedom Campaign (AFC),.. The liberal AFC has produced its own "American Freedom Pledge" which parallels the AFA pledge. ...
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hyperbola9 months, 4 weeks ago
cont'd
If you have the opportunity to speak to a candidate for the nation's highest office, be sure to ask him or her to sign one of these pledges. Additionally, all liberty-cherishing Americans should approach incumbents and candidates for House and Senate seats about this incredibly important matter. House members should be asked to cosponsor H.R. 3835. Senators should be requested to introduce and support a companion piece in their chamber.
.. The very healthy joining of forces by the left and the right in America on this issue could pave the way for further togetherness in restoring the entire U.S. Constitution.....
http://www.thenewamerican.com/node/6152
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Submitted By:
populist
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