From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. In her book The End of America - A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, Naomi Wolfe lays out her reasons for beliving why and how George Bush and his administration appear to have followed them (pardon my idiom) to a tee.
Through extensive research and documentation Wolf explains how in her estimation, the actions of the Bush Adminstration parallel the steps taken in the early years of the 20th century‚'s worst dictatorships such as Germany, Russia, China, and Chile. Her account cuts across political parties and ideologies to speak directly to those who are concerned about the stripping of our liberties and dismanteling of our constitution. The book became a best seller and her documentary has seen as much success. I find it interesting that the Obama administration has done nothing to restore our liberties taken from us via the Patriot Act but has, in my opinion, continued down the same path as the Bush Administration (queue up scary music -- wink wink) by signing the Patriot Act Extension and playing off the fears generated by the so aptly named War on Terror.
I have not read the book, but I must say I enjoyed watching this documentary and have every intention of reading the book because I watched the documentary. With that said, I like the content and the message but by no means do I endorse or denounce the organizations promoted at the end of this film....enjoy!
"We need to look at history and face the "what ifs". For if we keep going down this road, the "end of America" could come for each of us in a different way, at a different moment; each of us might have a different moment when we feel forced to look back and think: that is how it was before - and this is the way it is now. " - Naomi Wolfe
"The loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad." - James Madison
- be the change you want to see in the world -
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There are those attracted to less government & there are those attracted to big government. Fortunately, the fathers of the U.S. Constitution believed in limited government and maximum individual liberty.
CHANGE: NOT SO HOT
Plainly stated, an elite group rules no mater which political party appears to be in power. The elite always has a monetary system of debasing the currency. They do this to transfer wealth from the workers and producers to themselves.
The most attractive government to power seekers is some form of collectivism. It can be any name, but it must be collectivism. Collectivism is ideal for government expansion at the expense of the people. They care not one wit about constitutional government & the rule of law. They only care about a political facade to hide their chicanery.
I know this to be true-- Look where America is now,today, so I can honestly feel America is in the final stages of a very complete meltdown. Believe the media? for the last 6 months they have been telling us it will get better, or, it is getting better, today, 8/9/11 can you honestly say you/we are better off than last yr. or 6months ago?? Go grocery shopping today, gas up your vehicle, today. I'm not better off today or are any of my family members, today-out of 6 well educated people, only 2 of us are working.
You think this started w/the Bush administration(s)?? Dear carverchick, you need to start 10yrs.(or more), before #1 Bush. These events do not transpire within a time line of 3 administrations.
Money buys power, power is corrupt. The political system is bribery, corruption, and lies.
I,(excuse the term), bet you already know this from dealing w/the American Indian owned casino's,& one of the most corrupt Federal agencies, the BIA.
Thank you for listening. Will be watching for your next blog w/anticipation.
"After order & liberty, economy is one of the highest essentials of a free government.
.....Economy is always a guarantee of peace."
Calvin Coolidge
(speech, 1923)
Dear Anon 6:15....please go to the comments of my last blog where I clearly state that this goes much farther back than Bush...much farther. Clinton is the President who signed NAFTA which IMO was the beginning of the end for real manufacturing and producing of goods in this country. Gore was, IMO, a super fraud hiding behind "global warming" and "king protector of the environment" when the real agenda as I see it was to promote and sell carbon taxing on us to "protect" us from the evils of industrialization....Bush signed the Patriot Act which essentially gives the government the right to spy on any one of us for any reason at any time under the guise of homeland security (insert rolling eyes here)...I can go back further, but will save it for another day.
Change is definitely not so hot. I too hear popular newscasters saying we are better off than we were 5 or 10 years ago and all I can think is WTF....in 2004, the average price of gas in the nation was a whopping $1.89 a gallon...in 2008 it reached a super scary high of $3.29 a gallon and people were outraged! Outraged at Bush...I ask, where is the outrage now?? I just paid $3.83 a gallon today...no outrage, at least not according to the media. You are right...we are so much worse off than we were even 4 years ago and it is sad. It is wrong and we the people are the only ones who can take it back...we Americans need to remember the declaration of independence -
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Are we safe and happy? No...and we haven't been for too long.
In God We Trust
Be the change you want to see in the world
"NAFTA was the beginning of the end of manufacturing"
You can't be serious. How many jobs has the U.S. lost to Canada or Mexico? American jobs have gone overseas - first to the Pacific Rim and more recently to China. NAFTA had nothing - absolutely nothing - to do with our current economic hardship. It started at least 20 years before NAFTA with "Made in Japan".
Long before NAFTA the home electronics industry was given to the east - particularly Japan - lock, stock, and barrel, in exchange for their tacit approval of our misadventures around the globe.
Let me put on my tin foil hat and accept that Gore's real agenda "was to promote and sell carbon taxing on us to "protect" us from the evils of industrialization". Why would he do such a thing? How did/would he benefit? What about the 97% of climate scientists who think that global warming is real.
I truly believe the human race is doomed.
THE AMERICAN WAY
"Manafacturing is the backbone of the middle class. Manufacturing jobs pay higher wages & stabilize communities."
(Nicole Y. Lamb-Hale, assistant U.S. secretary of Manufacturing & Services)
FOOTNOTE: What would my immigrant grandparents have done without the factories? These industries made it possible for my family to obtain the "American Dream" They worked & bought their own home(s).
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"This used to be country where you could have a job with a high school degree and be set. Those jobs don't exist anymore."
(David Huether, chief economist, Nations Assoc. of Manufacturers)
FOOTNOTE: Let's be honest, not everyone is college material.
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"American businesses need consumers to buy U.S.-made products to be able to add jobs and to obtain recovery."
(Mark Zandi, chief economist, Moody's Analytics)
FOOTNOTE: China owns us. Try today to find a U.S. made product.
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carverchick, you call it the way you, we, the real world sees it.
"Made in Japan" that was my generation. However the bulk/majority of products you used/needed was stamped, "Made in USA" as today it's the other way around.
HUMAN RACE: Keep the faith, you don't prove God, you find him. Faith is the force of life.
Keep blogging carverchick, the beautiful & ever so faithful.
Peace&Love
My dear friend Mark…I have obviously upset you so let me break this down so maybe you can try to understand my point of view. You ask…how many jobs have been lost in the US to Canada or Mexico….
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, net job loss figures directly related to NAFTA from export/imports during the years of 1993 – 2002 range from a low of 719 in Alaska to a high of 115,723 in California. Other hard hit states include New York, Michigan, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, New Jersey, MASSACHUSETTS, Wisconsin, Georgia and Tennessee, each with more than 20,000 jobs lost. The interesting thing to note here is that all these states have, or should I say…had…high concentrations of industries where a large number of plants have moved to….Mexico. These plants were motor vehicles, textiles and apparel, computers, and electrical appliances. It is also interesting to note, that again according to the BLS and the Census Bureau, manufacturing industries were responsible for 78%of the net jobs lost under NAFTA, an estimated total of 686,700 manufacturing jobs. So yes Mark….I am serious…and I hope I answered your question adequately. For the sake of keeping the peace, I won’t get into the long term stagnation and growth inequality NAFTA has contributed to in this country.
Next….if you stayed current on the (insert scary music here) global warming crisis, you would know that NASA recently has blown a gaping hole in the…errr…whole global warming alarmist agenda.
NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth's atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted, reports a new study in the peer-reviewed science journal Remote Sensing. The study indicates far less future global warming will occur than United Nations computer models have predicted, and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed. – Forbes July 27, 2011As far as 97% percent of the climate scientists who think that global warming is real….well, perhaps that number is so high because of apparent efforts to make sure that reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations group that monitors climate science, include their own views on global warming and exclude others. In fact, there was this really interesting article about emails from researchers in the US and UK that took issue with climate research at odds with their own findings, and they apparently discussed ways to rebut what they saw as disinformation using articles in scientific journals and popular web sites. And it was also reported that in these emails, there were references to attempts to delete data that does not support human caused global warming. Huh…interesting….so much for impartial science.
to be continued.... :)
For the record, I never said global warming doesn’t exist…of course it exists…I just have always had serious doubts that it was as bad as – oh…mainstream media (shocker!) would make you believe. I also question why it became such a big deal to Gore…all I know is he was and is for carbon taxing…for what reason or gain?…no idea…guess you will need to ask him yourself. One thing I DO know is that carbon taxing is real and it is right here in the good ol’ USA. Boulder City Colorado was the first city in the US to implement a carbon tax on electricity consumption in 2006. Today, they are considering doubling the tax because it is not bringing in as much revenue as anticipated. Huh….and here I thought carbon taxing was about saving the planet from evil human activities….nope, turns out it is just another revenue source. Shall I continue? Okay…in 2008 San Francisco was the first city to approve a carbon tax on businesses. Under the new regulation, businesses are required to pay 4.4 cents per ton for the carbon dioxide they emit. Doesn’t sound like much but it adds up quickly. British Columbia has a carbon tax of $10 per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent….Sweden has a carbon tax on carbon fuels for domestic travel. Other countries with some type of carbon tax….Finland, Netherlands, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Costa Rica and South Africa. Oh yes…there is a lot of money to be made with the carbon tax scheme. IMO…hold on, let me adjust my tinfoil hat here…Gore saw an amazing opportunity for the Federal Government to tax American businesses and probably even citizens for their carbon footprint….his gain? Political power would be my guess.
But then again, I am just a crazy tinfoil hat wearing chick so what does my opinion matter ;)
And thank you Anon 10:35 for the kind words. I can only call things as I see them through my eyes.
CC - by your own statistics you're looking at numbers from almost a decade ago(2002). Other stats on NAFTA's affect aren't so dire and some even show a net gain. But for the sake of argument, let's say those old one-sided numbers are correct.
That 700K to 1M jobs seems like a lot, but in the scheme of things it's not. The biggest loss to American business happened in the 60's and 70's when the consumer electronics market was taken over by Japan. TVs, stereos, mp3 players(exept iPods), CD players, DVD players, etc, etc - all dominated by Japanese companies. During that time, Japanese Corporations were (and still are) rife with unfair trade practices and the United States did nothing. Even if you're NAFTA numbers are correct, had they not gone to Mexico in the latest 90's they would have gone to China in the early 2000's.
And I saw that article on the increase in Earth's heat loss. The study that produced it is far from conclusive. The scientist - Spencer - is a borderline professional global warming debunker who describes himself as a "global warming optimist" and a believer in Intelligent Design. It is one study that is highly speculative from a possibly impartial source and whose significance was exagerrated by Fox News and other even more nutty right-wing blog/sites. If you look at an unbiased report of the study and it's methodologies, you'd have to agree that rolling it out as conclusive evidence that global warming isn't happening is a real strtch. It's one study that is using one source of data - from a single satellite - to draw an overreaching conclusion about a highly complex system.
Back to the jobs. I don't like that we *might* have lost jobs due to NAFTA but I like even less that we gave away our consumer electronics industry. I also don't like that we unionized our steel industry away. In the 70's our crappy quality and high labor costs opened the door to first Japan then other automobile manufacturers.
America has lots of problems with it's economy and I don't have the foggiest idea how to keep jobs from flowing from our borders.
Mark -- I haven't even gotten past your first two sentences...NAFTA has not seen a net gain. I was on the website today looking at those numbers and NAFTA is in a deficit....okay...going back cuz I really want to read what you have to say. Sorry about the older data but the BLS is slow on this stuff :)
Second paragraph....I agree with you on Japan, no arguement there, however I will give you my word - the NAFTA numbers are correct and once I can get more up to date data, I will post it. Look -- China and Japan is a whole other piece of pie in this picture and one I don't want to confuse with the NAFTA issue even though the two are pretty much conjoined twins. Do I have problems with NAFTA? Yep...even Clinton admitted it was the wrong thing to do which I think was a very patriotic thing for him to admit. Don't get me wrong...I have nothing against free trade - thaqt is, unless it is detrimental to the people of our country.
Again...never said global warming doesn't exist. I am merely bringing to light that there does exist data that does not support human caused global warming. Our own Science community obviously cannont be unbaised regarding this issue as it apparently is "unpopular" to do so and have actually attempted to dismiss or erase data that doesn't support what the UN and the masses say must be true - well, then it isn't science to me...just manipulation. Sorry, but I believe in the scientific method and the last time I checked, data that doesn't support the hypothesis cannot and should not be swept under the rug. And yes, I will read the link you gave me....I like to learn and if you prove me wrong and I cede...I will buy you a beer :)
I can't agree with you more regarding jobs. In the mid 90s I was working at an electronics company as their Environmental, Health Manager....great company....closed down and moved to China. Needless to say, it was a bad time for all of us who worked there. I honestly don't know very much about the steel industry - only that it is pretty much gone as far as I can tell.
I too have no idea how to keep jobs flowing from our Country either...but I wish they would come back.
I know there is a solution for this...I just no idea what it is and am angry because I have zero faith in republicans, democrats and tea partiers alike. Our Country has turned into a big business run by banks and too many of us are getting pink slips.
So....when is that mandolin gig?
Ahhhhhh, Global Warming Put plain & simple.
What makes you think the global warming is real? Because you saw a movie that Al Gore who is a politician decided to promote and a hefty sum of profit to himself (assuming he was paid)? Is that your line of reasoning? Let's face it political parties and politicians always want you to fear something as a motivator to get you to vote for something or do something or believe something in order to promote their agenda. Why would this be any different?
For those who are truly concerned about the environment because we all have to live with in the ecological system and also we must breathe the air and drink the water it makes sense to do as little polluting as possible. It would be nice if everyone looked in the mirror and lived a carbon free life.
But if we are to lead the mindless masses into a giant fear that global warming will end life on Earth in an incredible apocalypse then obviously we have been pushing the wrong buttons for far too long. It is time to stop leading by fear and to lead by thinking and use the brains that we have and our minds to solve the problems of the species.
Global warming is not real just like Y2K was not real. Mankind is not going to blow them selves up with a massive nuclear war nor is Bird flu going to wipe out the human species. All these things had been perpetuated and now it looks like Chicken Little is on steroids, but do we have to clone our poultry and use the same tactics over and over again to control the people?
Global warming is not real and it should be obvious to anyone looking at the total picture
We can keep going.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/441795
Ahhhhh, NAFTA (THE DATA IS IN, NOT SO HOT)
NAFTA requires limits on the safety and inspection of meat sold in our grocery stores; new patent rules that raised medicine prices; constraints on your local government’s ability to zone against sprawl or toxic industries; and elimination of preferences for spending your tax dollars on U.S.-made products or locally-grown food. In fact, calling NAFTA a “trade” agreement is misleading, NAFTA is really an investment agreement. Its core provisions grant foreign investors a remarkable set of new rights and privileges that promote relocation abroad of factories and jobs and the privatization and deregulation of essential services, such as water, energy and health care.
Remarkably, many of NAFTA’s most passionate boosters in Congress and among economists never read the agreement. They made their pie-in-the-sky promises of NAFTA benefits based on trade theory and ideological prejudice for anything with the term “free trade” attached to it.
Now, over a decade later, the time for conjecture and promises is over: the data are in and they clearly show the damage NAFTA has wrought for millions of people in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Thankfully, the failed NAFTA model - a watered down version of which is also contained in the World Trade Organization (WTO) - is merely one among many options.
Public Citizen-Eye on Trade
First of CC - I was wrong in assuming that NAFTA had no negative effect on jobs. Looking at the data - the picture is not clear to me which way the data points. But I assumed there was no effect and that's not the case. Check out this Wikipedia entry as a starting point. It gives some of the arguments for both (net gain, net loss) and isn't a bad jumping off point for further research.
I'd also like to see some of the anti-global warming data. I've heard of this email scandal thing and so on but I haven't really looked into it. The data I've seen and the preponderance of scientific opinion makes me a believer in GW. I also have this belief that - even if GW is wrong, the benefits of clean, domestic, renewable energy makes the transition away from fossil fuels a win-win.
My gig is on Aug. 27 - Saturday night.
Of course you know that all this ripping back and forth on these issues is all good fun to me.
hahaha...Mark, all this ripping back and forth is super fun for me too! As I said before, it is awesome to be able to banter back and forth with someone who is intelligent and challenges what I say. Hell, I know I am not right all the time and it is really great when other opinions are brought into my warped little brain in a way that makes me want to learn more.
On that note...got any thoughts on UN article 21? Some believe it is a global agenda to strip us of our sovereignty by taking control of our property under the guise of "smart growth". Interesting stuff...I don't know much about it yet so am wondering if you or anyone else know anything about it.
Article 21:
I skimmed it and got the gist but didn't dig into. In general, I'm not a believer in conspiracy theories, and the bigger they are, the less I believe them. I don't think it likely that a global conspiracy is possible - since it requires that all (or most) governments, national, and local buy into.
Locally - smart growth would seem to be inspired by Article 21 and their does seem to be a trend in that direction. I guess I'm generally OK with our government having policies that discourage sprawl and indiscriminate destruction of our environment. Here in Middleboro the planning dept will often work with a developer so that they cluster the houses and leave as much of the acreage as open space.
I'd have to read more on Article 21 but in general, I don't think anyone enough gas in their tank to drive a global conspiracy.
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