Monday, November 22, 2010

The American Gestapo, Homeland Security, and the The Bill of Rights


Bought this at an estate sale for a reasonable price, I guess, because it's soiled. torn and rolled up. It's not worth a lot of money, but I like the way it is done. It dates from about 1916, and is a chromolithograph done in the art deco style. It is still readable if you click on the picture to enlarge it.

We've all read the message here when we were in school, but  if  you are like me it was an abstract concept with very little meaning. I guess, what I mean is that in the 1940's and 1950's we really weren't concerned much about our rights. Everybody could pay their rent, eat three square meals a day, and most families owned property. Some even had their property homesteaded, which meant that it was your home, and nobody, including the government could take it away from you. This was real security, if you owned it and lost your business or your job, you still had a place to stay. The family homestead.

As far as I can see, the Bill of rights is, now, pretty much history and I don't see a single one of these that hasn't been transgressed since the initiation of the Homeland Security bill. The following article, written eight years ago, is also history, and we are beginning to see the effects of it.

Welcome to the American Gestapo


Published on Wednesday, November 20, 2002 by Capitol Hill Blue

by Doug Thompson

Wonder if any of the vast sums of money approved Tuesday for the new Department of Homeland Security are set aside for black uniforms with knee-length boots and black leather trench coats?

Should be. Since we've gone to all this trouble to create the new American Gestapo we might as well let them look the part.

Excuse me if I don't join in all the senseless celebration over creation of yet another mammoth bureaucracy of the federal government. Pardon me if I don't go ga-ga over a federal agency that has been given unlimited powers to spy on Americans, trample all over the First and Fourth Amendments, ignore the privacy of anyone it chooses and violate the rights of every man, woman and child who used to live in the Land of the Free.

Our own paranoia has accomplished what Osama bin Laden and his minions could not with hijacked airplanes and vague threats about future attacks these fears have forced America to abandon its principles and create a police state.

This new Department of Homeland Security has the power to wiretap any American it wants, without a court order, without cause and without justification to any higher authority. Homeland Security goon squads will have the power to enter any American home, without a search warrant, without probable cause, simply because someone somewhere says, hey, this guy might be a threat. No checks and balances, no due process. Nothing.

Video cameras at ATMs, convenience stores, department stores and office building lobbies already record Americans living in urban areas 75-100 times on any given day but that isn't enough for the new American Gestapo. They plan to erect video cameras on streets, along public highways, in neighborhoods and deploy them on helicopters and police cars to record everything you and I do every day of the year.

We are entering a new era of domestic surveillance, says retired FBI agent Franklin Postel. One where the constitution is secondary to the cause. The new department has the power to document the day-to-day actions of any American it chooses.

A secret court decision last May already gives the Justice Department expanded powers to wiretap phones, spy on Americans and share information with other law enforcement agencies.

These powers, granted under a dangerous piece of legislation called the USA Patriot Act, allow Attorney General John Ashcroft to sign away the normal rights and protections that Americans used to enjoy  little things like probable cause, due process and the now forgotten belief that any accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Those who support these expanded powers say the system has "safeguards" where law enforcement personnel must get a judge's approval before wiretapping an American family but those who have studied the law said the "safeguards" are, in fact, "carefully worded loopholes."

"The law only requires an 'administrative review' by the very department that wants to spy on Americans," says retired federal judge John Macklin. "Most judges would not approve such wiretaps but the law is engineered to make sure that most judges never see the request."

Ashcroft says he will implement the new powers immediately and is already increasing surveillance of Americans.

Look closer at the powers granted under the act and you will find things that would make Hitler proud.

They include provisions to allow private citizens to spy on other private citizens without fear of prosecution if the Department determines their actions were conducted in the national interest.

I've read some of the abstracts on the new law and they take the handcuffs off people like me, says private detective Andrew Burlingame. I can tap anyone I damn well please. All I have to do is claim I thought the guy was a terrorist.

Under the new law, an agent of the Department of Homeland Security can walk into your bank, flash a badge and demand to see your checking and saving account records. No court order. All they need is the presumption of guilt. They can stop you in your car without cause and search it and you. They can hold you in jail for 30 days or more without filing any charges or allowing you to make any phone calls.

They can call up America Online and put a trace on all your Internet activity without a court order. They can require Visa to turn over all your credit card activity records without notice.

"Again, the process only requires an internal administrative review and not the involvement of any independent judicial authority," says retired judge Macklin. "It violates all previous standards for due process and probable cause."

In other words, they can do any damn thing they want and there isn't a thing that any of us can do about it.

Some may argue the current terrorist threat requires such drastic measures. But what happens when that threat is met? The Department of Homeland Security and its draconian powers will still exist. Who will determine the new threat? Who will decide who becomes the enemy?

"An evil exists that threatens every man, woman and child of this great nation," the leader of another country once wrote. "We must take steps to ensure our domestic security and protect our homeland."

That was Adoph Hitler, writing about creation of the Gestapo in Nazi Germany.

Wecome to the American Gestapo. Be careful what you say and do. They are watching and they will be watching from now on.

Doug Thompson is the founder and publisher of Capitol Hill Blue.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

The American Ruling Class




Rolling Stone feature discusses issues explored in The American Ruling Class

facebook July 16, 2009

by Alive Mind

The American Ruling Class has never been more relevant to the current news cycle or to the collective consciousness of the American public. Goldman Sachs is announcing record profits and it is the subject of a big Rolling Stone expose in which Matt Taibbi discusses "The Great American Bubble Machine," stating, "The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money." Does Goldman Sachs still rule the world? Find out the back story with the feature documentary, The American Ruling Class.


John Kirby , the director for this film, also posts on the Providence Journal and has done an article on "Building What". The ad and “Geraldo-at-Large” spot can be seen on the family-members’ campaign Web site, .buildingwhat.org.

The movie, about an hour and a half, can be seen on HULU

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Geraldo Rivera plugs Building What? & ae911truth on WTC 7 Investigation



wordgeezer
Nov. 17, 2010

This is a big story on Youtube and on the innernet in general, but is almost lacking any coverage by the main stream media. Tony Szamboti, of ae911truth.org shows over 5000 hits on a google search and was a hot subject on the JREF forums. His interview with Ronald Wieck, on Youtube, brought plenty of comments, mostly by the trolls, who jealously attack what they call twoofers, who bash any comments supporting what Tony had to say. Tony was serene and unruffled as he quietly listened to the blathering bag pipes and certainly had the upper hand in his discussions with the so called, according to Ronald Wieck, "rocket scientist"...G:

‘Building What?’ lands on Fox TV’s Geraldo At Large
By Jerry Mazza
Online Journal Associate Editor
Nov 16, 2010, 00:23


Miracle of miracles, memories of an even younger, crusading Rivera talking on his show, Geraldo at Large on Fox News about the “Building What?” TV ad campaign!

Geraldo began with the standard reference to all those edgy protestors who rallied in front of Larry Silverstein’s new Building 7, shouting “9/11 was an inside job.” He added “c’mon, get a life.” But then, lo, he turned the phrase to say perhaps these protestors weren’t so nutty after all.

Now, he said, there was evidence that Building 7 was taken down in a classic internal demolition. He then introduced his panel, Bob McIlvaine (who looked ready to jump out of his skin). Bob had lost a son in Tower 1 and still carried a deep grief that often, understandably turned to anger. Geraldo treated him with all due respect. He also introduced engineer Tony Szamboti to explain the technical aspect of the internal demolition. It was good to see Rivera willing to help explain the technical talk in TV speak to his audience.

The first was that “Building What?” had been the response of Justice Edward Lehner, who did not know about Tower 7 not being hit by airliner but being “pulled” instead at the request of its owner, Larry Silverstein, at 3 PM on 9/11/2001. See Silverstein’s YouTube film with his exact words, ending with we (the firemen and he) had decided to “pull it.” The truth is that the fires caused by any falling debris from Tower 1 were out. But the “pull it,” or internal demolition Silverstein was asking for occurred only two hours and 20 minutes later at 5:20 PM on 9/11. Experts claimed it was impossible to create an internal demolition like Tower 7’s in two hours and 20 minutes. You’d need more like two and a half months. So it clearly implies there was extended pre-planning before for the tragedy of 9/11.

The occasion for Justice Lehner making his “Tower What?” statement was his denial to a proposal from NYCCAN for a ballot initiative to ask NYC voters if they wanted a new investigation of 9/11’s events (beyond the 9/11 Commission of Omission Report, which did not even mention Tower 7). NYCCAN had delivered 81,000 signatures, more than originally required, which had been checked for accuracy, yet rejected by Justice Lehner because he felt the voting booth was not the venue for making the request. Either that or the authorities were frightened out of their wits that so many people had responded.

In fact, the affiliated organization, Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, led by architect Richard Gage, had gathered some 1300 plus signatures of engineers and architects from around the US and the world, and sent it with a signed petition for a new investigation to the United States Congress.

Cynics of course will argue that 81,000 out of 8 million New Yorkers (even discounting infants, children, teens, the infirm and non-voters) was a small percentage of the electorate. But considering that a working New York justice did not know what Tower 7 stood for was indicative of the huge gap in 9/11 knowledge, a gap that crossed the spectrum of class, age, education, profession, ethnicity, race, religion, and political parties. This general gap of hard data on what happened on 9/11 has largely been due to the lack of mass media presentation. This makes Rivera’s coverage, short as it was, more laudable and courageous.

The 30-second “Building What?!”TV spot goes a long way to triggering the interest of all those who need to need to know more. Tower 7’s takedown is the smoking gun, the paradigm for the internal and external explosions that had taken down Towers.

Building What?

ae911truth.org

Friday, November 12, 2010

WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN - Special Edition Recut



Won't Get Fooled Again

We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals when they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the foe, that's all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they'd all flown in the last war

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
No, no!

I'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky
For I know that the hypnotized never lie
Do ya?

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

There's nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are out-phased, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now parting on the right
And their beards have all grown longer overnight

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
No, no!

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss