The Patriot's Way

Fearings, nothing more than fearings...

First Chertoff's "gut feeling" tells him that there is a high risk of the US being attacked again. Then his gut gave him a more specific detail later, where he told some university students that; dirty-bombs will hit LA & San Francisco simultaneously (and watch, if it does happen; the administration will say that it was our own fault because we were warned but didn't leave - then they'll call to order the buses to "rescue" us).

About ten days ago, Bush started getting busy with the business of blurring the line between Osama's Al Qaeda, and Iraq's Al Qaeda (who thought it would be best to use a name with some notoriety), whose correct name is Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia". At first, he mentioned it with somewhat careful vocabulary, calling them Al Qaeda without clarifying. Then today I heard a clip on the radio from Bush speaking at a university, and he flat-out said that the one in Iraq is exactly the same as Osama's Al Qaeda.

Boy, they sure do like to dish it out to the college students! That's where they can get crazy with the lies, and take a lesser chance of it actually going public.

Speaking of liars...Gonzales was on the stand today, doing it again to Congress. First he said that he did not approach Ashcroft at his ICU-bedside in order to discuss the surveillance program renewal. Then he turned around and said that the documents he had in his hands that night (which just happened to be the night before the renewal was due), he said they were the renewal documents! Hello perjury? Obstruction of justice? Furthering conspiracy? Enough already.

At any rate, I have been watching the fear-machine crank-it-up ever since the all-nighter that the Senate pulled, and it just keeps repeating more frequently and feverishly. I expect plenty more of it, and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if there was a big announcement very soon about how they caught the terrorist before he could strike. Fearings...nothing more than fearings...

Fear the Inable, Support the Unstable

Chertoff's "gut feeling" has reportedly given him some specifics all the sudden. While speaking at a university yesterday, he said that LA and San Francisco will be simultaneously hit by dirty bombs.

Now that the fear has been put back into us, thanks to our current Faith-Based Intelligence, I guess we can consider ourselves safe, and all go shopping! As for the rest of us, expect the worst and suspect it ALL. It's not that I doubt there may be an attack on American soil. It's just that I doubt it will come from those that our government will blame, and I doubt that it will be the "unpreventable event" I expect they will present it as (if it does happen). Brace yourself for a whole lot more "fight them over there" rhetoric to come, especially since it will be reported that the surge hasn't even had a chance to work yet (as we can see they have already begun to do).

It's just amazing to me that there aren't more Americans waking-up to the fear-mongering tactic this administration utilizes to manipulate the public. Fool them once...and they will gobble up all the rest of the fear served-up for years to come! I think it may be largely due to not wanting to admit they were ever wrong. A little unsolicited advice for those people: Pride looks better on honesty, than it does on stubbornness. (i.e. You look worse in your willingness to defend fear and LIES, than you ever will by admitting the war was wrong!)

This so-called "war on terror" has nothing to do with holding any terrorists accountable for their actions. If it was about terrorism, the US would be mainly in Afghanistan, not Iraq; we would also be keeping a better eye on, and working closer with Pakistan (instead of planning to attack our "ally"). It's not like we've ever retaliated against the Saudis; not for their involvement in 9/11, nor do I expect they'll ever be even chastised for their current attacks on US troops in Iraq.

Why won't Bush hold the Saudis accountable for anything? It's as clear and as simple as a song.

US Oil in Iraqi Soil

One of the 18 key benchmarks to be met in September is to have the oil divisions settled in Iraq. Apparently, our administration is using their interests as a measurement of success in Iraq's progress. According to a recent Intelligence report that benchmark won't be met, and it goes on to say that no foreign company would be able to invest in 2008 - unless the US government backs it. Good news for the Corprotacracy; they will monopolize Iraqi oil!

I thought the Iraqi Parliament had already voted against selling-off oil to foreign interests (in lieu of their state's interests), as well as the US-authored plan to divide the population up. Perhaps they are still voting on the division issue, on creating provinces. However, I think that even just doing that, would better serve the oil companies to "divide and conquer." What if the oil was divided amongst the Iraqis? If each province actually owned a certain portion of the oil, then wouldn't they also have the right to sell-off any part of their share to foreign interests?

All You Need 2 Know 2-Day

Bush just expanded his "unitary executive powers" to include denying the Congress' constitutional right to work with the Judicial Branch/Grand Jury when he claims executive privilege.

In other words, Bush claimed today that if he wants to keep something a secret, not even our justice system can decide differently. If Congress subpoenas somebody for an investigation, but Bush doesn't want them to talk, Bush thinks he can decide that they won't, even without a legal basis.

"If the government has nothing to hide...why are they hiding everything?"

Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF ret.
* Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret. is President of the Institute for Space and Security Studies, Executive Vice President of Millennium III Corporation, and retired Presiding Archbishop of the United Catholic Church. He flew 101 combat missions in Vietnam and directed all the “Star Wars” programs under Presidents Ford and Carter. He is the recipient of the Eisenhower Medal, the George F. Kennan Peace Prize, the President’s Medal of Veterans for Peace, the Society of Military Engineers' ROTC Award of Merit (twice), six Air Medals, and dozens of other awards and honors. His Ph.D. is in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering from Caltech. He chaired 8 major international conferences, and is one of the country’s foremost experts on National Security.

New Classified Cover-ups by Our Rogue Exec. Office

What do you do when you're a nation at war, several of your officials are about to be busted on a variety of felonies, and the secrecy-card is about to expire?
When is doubt...VACATION-IT-OUT!!!
va-ca-tion...all I ever wanted...va-ca-tion, GOT to get away...
Yep, since everything is going soooo well in Iraq, it's time to put it on the back burner and let it simmer. Our entire Congress and the Rogue Executive branch are going to do exactly what the Iraqi Parliament is going to do about the war - go on vacation for the entire month of August! It's beyond me how our government has the nerve to scold the Iraqi Parliament for not meeting benchmarks and going on vacation, when our Congress intends to do the very same thing! Not that the move is shocking, or strays at all from the hypocritical M.O. of this administration or anything...


Packing everything up over the last week, to try to take it with them and possibly disappear-it all with public forgetfulness?...
Here are just some of the things they have in their classified suitcase:

---1) Despite Cheney's assertion that his office doesn't require oversight in the handling of classified documents, a second person has been convicted of passing classified info (originally pleaded guilty). He sent strategic information to the Philippines, to a group that was planning a political-coup to over-throw their president. The classified documents were sent by one of Dick's former aides, via Dick's office phone/fax. He worked as a military aide for both Gore and Cheney, then was an intelligence analyst for the FBI - he was just sentenced to prison for ten years.

---2) Not only has Cheney refused oversight from the Intelligence Security Office since 2002 and suggested having it abolished. but now the Justice Department admitted that the oversight board responsible for identifying intelligence abuses didn't report a single thing for the first five and a half years of this administration! They literally ignored hundreds of claims from the FBI, determining nothing about the validity of the alleged abuses. Their first report was filed last year and I haven't looked to see if they covered anything more than 2005, but I doubt it.

---3) Cheney's Energy Task Force: There was finally some coverage of the notorious meetings; however, it was severely played-down by the negligent press. The press has generally taken the position that there was nothing to be so secretive about. The press made the release trivial, reporting; Cheney met with the environmental agencies for consultation (that he said he had) after the policy-making meetings. Instead, he consulted in at least 40 meetings with energy producers' special interest groups. I don't think the public is as concerned with the environmental groups (that Cheney didn't even bother to show up for), at least not as concerned as we are with having information as to who his consulting team consisted of, and what was said in those 40 other meetings. The press pretended that the people involved were pretty non-sequential, burying the names way in the back of articles - when it should have been front-page, screaming headline, NEWS!

As it turns out, Cheney's Energy Task Force was made-up of some lobbyists, and oil baron-types, some who later cashed-out as environmental agency workers (Dept. of the Interior), and they all helped author the US energy policy. Three of them have already been convicted in the Abramoff case, and this is the detail that Cheney is REALLY hiding. Three convicted officials that Cheney consulted with to legislate national energy policies, now convicted felons serving time for taking bribes.
PRESS: "There you go, secret revealed, strange that they fought so hard to cover this up...Move along! Nothing to see here!"

---4) While the Democrats in the Senate were holding an all-night session to get some sort of benchmark for troops withdrawal into the Iraq plan, the Republicans and pundits were busy misconstruing it as "political theater" and a "stunt." The fact that people are actually believing this, just goes to show how invested Americans are in this war/occupation; not at all. An all-night Senate session is the very least of which can be sacrificed for our troops! To call an attempt to do the will of the growing-majority of the people, and to get the business of wartime dealt with in a timely manner (as should be)...to call this a "stunt" shows absolutely no understanding of how Congress works (or is at least, a show of the belief that viewers don't understand). The press was also reporting that "Democrats couldn't achieve a simple majority"; an out-right LIE. The Republicans' filibuster required MORE than a simple majority to have it passed, and had there not been the filibuster the closure vote would have passed. The vote that didn't pass was to blocked an "up or down" VOTE, it was just a vote to end the debate; not an actual vote on the measure itself. We obviously need more action in Congress in order to get anything done thee days, and I can't understand why anybody would be so reluctant to support Congress. that amendment was far from spectacular, but it would have been the first real legislation for an exit-strategy!

Let the records show: Republican Senators have absolutely no intentions whatsoever to even allow a vote on a plan to bring the troops home.

---5) Harriet Miers (former council to Bush) is currently in contempt of Congress' subpoena in regards to the US Attorney purge scandal - on Bush's dime. Bush has not officially asserted his executive privilege - yet - nor have the documents been specified as to what may or may not be released (according to Bush). Regardless, her required testimony is being contested by Bush on this basis. Miers will be cited in contempt if things don't change soon. Chairman Conyers of the Judiciary Committee sent/released a letter today addressed to Bush's attorney to inform them that their claims of executive privilege have been deemed invalid and the committee insists upon Miers appearing - as well as the requested documents.

---6) The same judge that ruled Cheney could keep his Energy Task Force meetings secret, has now dismissed a civil suit against Cheney, filed by former covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. Plame's attorney is going to appeal the judgment of course, and I hope she looks to recuse the judge that dismissed the case on a prejudicial basis!

It seems to me that the ruling that has kept those energy meetings classified was the precedent that created the path to secrecy in which this administration has depended upon so heavily.

---7) The Executive branch found yet another opportunity to use its executive privilege, in the "friendly-fire" case of Corporal Pat Tillman; the story of how fratricide was first showcased by the government as a great American hero's sacrifice for his country, only to discover that the Pentagon knew what happened all along and had attempted to completely bury the story.

If you are unfamiliar with Tillman's story, there is a really great 7-part expose that is authored by a military man that has done several interviews with Tillman's mother. There has been some speculation that the Pentagon had decided to capitalize on Tillman's service and death, to encourage enlistments and bolster American support for the war. Some say it may have even been the purpose for his murder in the first place. That is the only thing that could possibly explain why the rest of his records are being held secret under executive privilege now. In response to a committee's request for all documents and records concerning Tillman, they received "10,000 pages" - of newspaper clippings. Upon reasserting the request for military records etc...they were refused on the basis of executive privilege, and told, "We already gave you ten thousands pages worth of documents!" Seriously, what other possible reason could Bush have for covering-up and obstructing the investigation into Corporal Tillman's tragic death?

---8) Cheney will most likely claim executive privilege AGAIN for his involvement in the illegal wiretapping program (despite his recent claims not to actually be part of the Executive Branch). Cheney's legal advisers asked for the same extension given to Bush for complying to subpoenas for documentation, and it was granted. The only real problem with the extension was that there was no rescheduled mandatory date for compliance.

WOOO HOOO! Only this administration gets ALL of the powers with NONE of the responsibilities! Well, and the next one will too, and the next...but only if we let them get away with it this time.

In the words of Lt. Col. Bob Bowman:

"If the government has nothing to hide, why is it hiding everything?"

Iraq "Progress" Impeders Punished

Dissenters Beware

The Republicans in the Senate had filibustered a vote; apparently, it's NOT so "outrageous" for them anymore. The all-night session there last night was called because of the filibuster, that was blocking a (formerly demanded) "simple up or down vote." the vote was for an actual plan to leave Iraq by next spring. I hope all the Senators that have been saying they are for an end but didn't vote that way last night are catching-it GOOD from their constituents today...Yesterday while the Senate was preparing for a long night, Bush was busy making a law to strip anybody of all their money and property if an attempt is made to disrupt or impede his stay-the-course mission in Iraq.

According to the Executive Order signed yesterday, anybody that is considered to be, "threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq" may have ALL their property and assets seized! Come on, by this standard Bush should have everything taken from him for undermining the Iraqi Parliament's legislation to begin removing foreign troops and another refusing to sell their oil!

If you read this order carefully, you'll notice there aren't many specific qualifying factors (numerous loop-holes to reach anybody anywhere); it's just a generalization that could easily include protesters, peace organizations, unions, and any other entity or organization that seeks to end the occupation of Iraq. It will be determined by the three the Secretaries; of State, Treasury, & Defense. Here are some of the ways a person could be implicated; "materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, logistical, or technical support for, or goods or services in support of,..." It barely provides for the protection of humanitarian efforts, but if they show any discord that is a considered a political view on how to maintain "peace or stability," then I suppose they may be subject to losing everything as well. I shudder to think how this will be abused abroad...

Now combine yesterday's constitutional-atrocity, with the two following things that have already been passed;

1) National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD) 51 / AKA: HSPD 20 on 5/9/7.

2) The Military Commissions Act (MCA) 2006 , just before the midterm elections.


1) The NSPD 51 or HSPD 20, was passed two months ago (May 9th).

This directive basically gives Bush the responsibility to manage everything in cases of "catastrophic emergency," and to declare things as such. It claims its purpose is to make everything as efficient as possible under these circumstances, but actually puts all our response agencies (such as FEMA) ultimately under the thumb and management of the president (the new shadow-government structure!).

Here are some of the more disturbing pieces of NSPD 51:

A) Definition 2b) - "Catastrophic Emergency" means any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions;"
* It clearly says that any location qualifies, so it could be nationally, or internationally. Meaning that any of these things could be considered "effecting the US": an earthquake in the Middle East, another Katrina or other natural disaster, a stock-market crash, another metro-bombing in London, or a protest that distracted Congress or blocked traffic in a major city. Added under another definition, the following are listed as emergencies; "...including localized acts of nature, accidents, and technological or attack-related emergencies;"

B) When you circle your around to get through definitions 2c, 2d & 2h you come to understand that the president works in concert with Congress & the Judicial Branch - only as a courtesy ("comity"), because he is the ultimate Decider in all major emergencies.
* The Decider also gets to decide what is and is not, a "Catastrophic Emergency."


2) It was about eight months ago when the Military Commissions Act passed (9/27/6). Inside you find that anybody labeled an "enemy combatant" can loose their right to habeas corpus. An enemy combatant status can be given to anyone considered a threat, at the sole discretion or determination of the president (and a few other select high-ranking officials).

Some say that it's "debatable" as to whether or not the right to habeas corpus that is usually accompanied by indefinite imprisonment without a trial, can be or may not be applicable to Americans (who can, of course, be considered "enemy combatants"). I'd say this makes it completely plausible, and it hasn't been defined otherwise or more clearly since it passed. Honestly, today, I'm disgusted that I'm able to say I wouldn't be surprised if somebody told me there are Americans that have already disappeared as "enemy combatants."

As we well know by example now, Bush considers almost anybody with a differing opinion a threat. Some of the examples we have of his arrogant righteous dominance shown are; firing people (we're up to our 6th or 7th Commander on the Ground, also 9 US Attorneys removed), imprisoned dissenters (many conscientious objectors, i.e. Lieutenant Watada), put lives in danger (Plame, the CIA, Americans, & Middle Easterners), severely diminished capabilities needed for security (CIA, FBI, FEMA), disembodied or disenfranchised bodies of government (Congress and Judicial Branch), or just plain ignored them (70%+ Americans that want out of Iraq, Intelligence reports). There is no prejudice when it comes to Bush dispelling a person or entity, they only have one thing in common; dissent, a disagreement that amounts to disloyalty in Bush's mind.

Many of the people that were willing accomplices, the Yea-sayers have also been willing scapegoats, and they were sent on their way with a Medal of Freedom, freedom from prosecution, or other "rewards" for their kicked-dog loyalty. Bush is not prejudice in this regard either; even if you are a complete failure or totally destructive and disastrous you can be promoted (or further your career otherwise), financially rewarded, awarded, and sheltered beyond the reach of the law...so far anyway... Anything goes as long as you exhibit your loyalty as a consistent Yea-sayer, and an occasional scapegoat.

Libby was the last straw, because it was an act of over-riding the Judicial Branch - it was so obviously unequal, self-serving "justice." And the Republicans have the nerve to balk about "activist judges" and be mute now! That happened the same week the Executive Branch refused to recognize Congress' subpoenas.

America, WAKE UP! We have a Rogue Branch of Government on our hands!

It's not "us against them" anymore, it's "us against HIM" (or those two). I have certainly been no fan of all the ridiculous, tiring, partisan-crap but this is not even a matter of party, far from it. If we can't all come together for the sake of what is constitutionally correct, then we have nothing left to come together on. The bottom line is that I don't care exactly who it is that's violating, rewriting and dismembering our Constitution currently; I want it to stop, and I don't want anybody to do it ever again! It doesn't matter who you allow to power-grab & abuse, it would get to just about anyone and damage everyone. Imagine if your candidates' "arch enemy" got into office and had this kind of dictator-like power. If that bothers you, then you should also consider protecting your candidate from potential corruption by removing the temptation. We are all only human after all. Aside from all the other temptations (campaign funds, etc...), the only difference between our representatives and ourselves, is that they all swore an oath to protect the Constitution and we are only assumed we would do the same (even though it's technically our duty).

Calling all PATRIOTS for DUTY! IMPEACH THEM NOW!!!
Join over a million Americans; sign the petition that will deliver your message of impeachment on July 23rd.

Bush Admits Treason

Bush is asked what his position on the the fact that a covert agent's name was released by a member of the administration. Bush says he is aware of treasonous officials in his office, but he thinks it's a waste of time and money to pursue it, or even talk to anybody about it.

BusHitler’s New Data Base

Smokin’ ‘em outa their caves, with a tekniclogical hit list!

Invading our own neighbors too.

Meanwhile, right here at home, they are creating a privatized police state by way of labeling pot-growers terrorists. They have 17 different "agencies" working on this effort.

Lest We Forget he said...

"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"
--- George W. Bush Nov. 2005:
While meeting with GOP congressional leaders about the renewal of the Patriot Act; in response to somebody stating there was a valid case that the [new] provisions undermine the Constitution.
*Capitol Hill Blue article, 12/09/05 "Bush on the Constitution"

I've had a bit of "writers' block" since the Libby commutation, due to my freshly-renewed serious concern for that "piece of paper"...

Privitized War

Well, it's official:
There are now more private contractors in Iraq than there are members of our military.

US Military: 160,000+
Private Contractors: 180,000+

The film below is about Blackwater (possibly the number one US private contractor), but the film, "Iraq for Sale" is one of the most comprehensive films on the topic overall.


Online Videos by Veoh.com

To the "Victor" Goes the Spoils...