Creeping Gradualism

I am so shocked by the following series of articles, yet I have heard barely a ripple of conversation, news reports or pundit discussion concerning its content.

It feels very much like a deep black hole in the information age.

The below articles provides the missing pieces to a very complex puzzle that causes one pause.

Presidential Assassinations of U.S. Citizens
Last week, Glen Greenwald of Salon.com wrote about a shocking revelation buried in a Washington Post article by Dana Priest which described how the Obama administration has adopted the Bush policy of targeting selected American citizens for assassination if they are deemed by the President to be "terrorists". As The Washington Times' Eli Lake reports, Adm. Dennis Blair was asked about this program at a Congressional hearing Tuesday and he acknowledged its existence:

The U.S. intelligence community policy on killing American citizens who have joined al Qaeda requires first obtaining high-level government approval, a senior official disclosed to Congress on Wednesday.

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair said in each case a decision to use lethal force against a U.S. citizen must get special permission. . . .He also said there are criteria that must be met to authorize the killing of a U.S. citizen that include "whether that American is involved in a group that is trying to attack us, whether that American is a threat to other Americans. Those are the factors involved."

Where have we heard words like those before?

It is quite a dangerous situation the American people find themselves in, although as a whole, we just don’t know it yet. I am going to do my best attempt to explain why.

It's bringing the frog to a slow boil.

In 1930’s Austria they called it "Creeping Gradualism".

We used to be against tyranny in this country. We fought and won World Wars against it. We fought and won the Revolutionary War for the same reason.

We are a nation completely blind to what is to become of us, what danger awaits us, but I believe that before we know it we are all in danger of being deemed "a threat to other Americans" simply because we don't like the loss of our freedoms and we are organizing to push against this monolithic governmental empire they are creating.

Flashback: We were already identified as potential terrorists in the DHS directive last April. The (U//FOUO) Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment document clearly states " the threat posed by lone wolves and small terrorist cells is more pronounced than in past years. In addition, the historical election of an African American president and the prospect of policy changes are proving to be a driving force for rightwing extremist recruitment and radicalization."

My concerns run deep on this issue and although it has constantly nagged me for nearly a year, I just couldn’t put my finger on what was bothering me so deeply - besides the obvious, of course. I knew something was drastically wrong, but I didn’t have all the pieces.

Adding the revelation of presidential directive to the puzzle last week and this newest article today, “Obama Admin wants to track cellphones; 'Americans enjoy NO reasonable expectation of privacy', I feel a chill so deep that no Florida sun can penetrate. All the pieces have tumbled into place in my mind.

This President will try Abdulmutallab the pantibomber, KSM of USS Cole fame (whose tribunal he stopped after his admission of guilt at the military trial), and Hasan the infamous soldier slayer in US Civilian Courts.

Obama via Holder will afford them constitutional protection. He has mirandized them. They have just finished trying Pakistani Scientist Aafia Siddiqui and found her guilty of two counts of attempted murder of US Soldiers in Civilian Criminal Courts - yet he ORDERS assassinations on US Citizens without benefit of trial?

At least Bush was consistent in his directive (if that can be considered a plus at all) - but this president acts without the equality of the thing and orders the murder of Americans at the same time he fiercely protects terrorists. Not only that, but he calls it racism to do otherwise.

Do we at all understand what this means to those of us born and raised in America? To the everyday natural citizens of these United States?

Do we know what criteria they are using to determine these American citizens are "terrorists"?

Is it just the newly granted citizens, those who are now known to be terrorists but who somehow made it through citizenship without detection - or is it something far more insidious, something that we only got a whiff of in last April’s DHS missive?

What are the criteria Mr. President? List it out for us, please.

Inquiring minds want to know.

Is it simply okay to give admitted terrorists access to our Constitutional Rights, yet not afford our own citizens those same rights?

Apparently that is our brave new world of hope and change.

The Freedom Stealing Trifecta and One Party Rule

4 Patriot Act
4 Executive Decisions/Directives
4 Congressional Pseudo-Wars


The Patriot Act has effectively suspended the Writ of Habeus Corpus for American Citizens.

It allows them to search us at will and detain us indefinitely under "suspicion".

It affords us NO access to speedy trials or even an attorney on the "assumption" that we are a threat.

Apparently it also allows them to assassinate us.

Yet they afford admitted terrorists fair trials with our tax dollars even when they are caught trying to set off a bomb in their panties on a planeload of Christmas Vacationers! SCOTUS stripped us of our right to have an attorney present in May of last year, but this apparently doesn’t apply to terrorists.

The entire purpose of habeas is to say, “Look at me! I’m being detained/abused/disenfranchised contrary to law”. If there’s no writ available, the result is that the government can hold you “against the law”. Since the writ encompasses the full scope of our Constitutional rights, it’s a logical conclusion is to say that while it’s suspended, Americans currently have NO exercisable constitutional rights.

My heart is heavy and my mind is boggled by this as I witness and hear of case after case against our Constitutional and God given rights. Fathers denied their children, children on no fly lists who cannot find recourse to be removed, citizens who are subjected to unlawful search and seizures, and the list goes on and on.

Effectively, they are saying they have all power to do all things because Congress has given the powers of Military License and Force to "protect" citizens, while in reality they take away ALL our liberties in the Patriot Act.

The President, by saying “I can kill you at will because I am the President of the United States and I believe you to be a "terrorist" threat.”, literally means you have a "free for all" from the government’s perspective.

The door has slammed shut on your freedoms.

Creeping gradualism is no longer creeping, my friends, the serfdom has arrived.

What is considered our most basic liberty, our writ of habeas corpus, was finally and completely removed between the trifecta of the AUMF of 2001, the Executive Directive of assassination, and The Patriot Act. All of this because of the very terrorists we are mirandizing right now.

We The People vs The Machine

The Constitution of the United States very clearly states:

1) Congress has the power to declare war.

2) Constitutional provisions cannot be altered by statute.

Based on those 2 points, it is interesting to note that Congress has not actually declared war since Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania on June 5, 1942. They have however, declared many Military Engagements and AUMF's (Authorizations of Use of Military Force) as the functional equivalent of a declaration of war.

In Point 2, nothing in the Constitution can be reasonably construed to allow Congress to reallocate powers to themselves in a more palatable or politically expedient manner. Yet that is precisely the effect the War Powers Resolution, by which "AUMFs" are passed, has done.

It has given them all encompassing political power.

In a time such as this with One Party Rule, this use becomes especially apparent as it did in the late 70’s, the early 90’s, the early to mid 00’s and now again this past year. The problem is that without the checks and balances, soon you become a single party system as seen in the 30’s and 40’s Austria, Germany, China, and are witnessing in Venezuela today through Chavez and his "istas".

Additionally, that is exactly how those currently in Congress intend to continue to use it to order to remain in power with the recent (Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey and the rise of the TEA Party) threats to their One Party Rule status. See Will Obama Play the War Card?

The War Powers Resolution limits Presidential authority in the use of force without an official resolution or declaration of war by Congress.

The controversial question then becomes, "Where the provisions therein are consistent with the Constitution". According to Wikipedia, in an argument for the unconstitutionality of the War Powers Resolution by Philip Bobbitt, it states that


"The power to make war is not an enumerated power" and the notion that to declare" war is to "commence" war is a "contemporary textual preconception". The Framers of the Constitution believed that statutory authorization was the route by which the United States would be committed to war, and that 'declaration' was meant for only total wars, as shown by the history of the Quasi-War with France (1798–1800); in general, constitutional powers are not so much separated as "linked and sequenced"; Congress's control over the armed forces is "structured" by propriation, while the president commands; thus the act of declaring war should not be fetishized."
Bobbitt also argues that "A democracy cannot ... tolerate secret policies" because they undermine the legitimacy of governmental action.”

Based on the in depth analysis of this explanation, the Constitution authorizes Congress to declare war, but it does not authorize Congress to declare Military Force, License or pseudo-wars whether or not they are politically expedient. The “preconception” is actually a misconception and a severe one at that.

3) In light of points 1 and 2, regardless of what Congress may have done, purposed or purports to do in the way of authorizing force, the AUMF is constitutionally a “brick short” of a war declaration.

This leaves the question of whether we have a need to consider or obey the war-time powers of the President - as they have not actually been constitutionally activated.

Logic dictates that the Executive Decision of the President to Assassinate US Citizens is then simply a legal loophole to authorize sending out “hit men” on American Citizens because he (or any of the organizations that he may empower) arbitrarily deem them to be terrorists.

In light of the DHS directive, secret watch lists and any number of things the American public cannot possibly know about, this indeed is a very dangerous position to find ourselves in as average Americans.

4) The Due Process clause of the 5th Amendment states quite clearly that government shall not deprive any person of life without due process of law.

A secret, unilateral, unreviewable determination that an individual is a “terrorist” by the President doesn't in any way, shape or form constitute "due process".

The Door Slamming Shut

The problem we face with this directive doesn't lie with shooting an enemy combatant who is shooting at us, regardless of whether that person is a US Citizen, nor does it include fighting true terrorists. It certainly doesn't concern capturing them, imprisoning them, interrogating them, or killing them before they kill us as those are all "normal" war time activities.

No, the problem lies with effectively calling out a "hit" on an American Citizen whom they arbitrarily determine is a risk, without due process, without a jury of our peers, without known proof or warning, while at the same time securing those same constitutional rights to known enemy combatants and war criminals they have just denied the newly declared American citizen “terrorist”.

Here are two very specific stances of our most recent President's:

1) Targeting specific individual citizens whom they believe have ill intent and ordering them shot on sight, presumably “in other countries”, although Blair didn’t actually use those parameters in his description of the directive.

2) The fact is that they view the world as their battlefield in this AUMF, including hits on citizens of the US, sending drones, secret or pseudo secret actions in Yemen, Pakistan and any other country they damn well please, without concern to collateral damage or definitive proof.

There is war, then there is just playing dirty. I understand that sometimes during war, playing dirty is collateral - it's called strategy - but this is beyond that. This is simply playing dirty most of the time, more so on American Citizens than on the actual enemy. An enemy who consistently breaks the rules of engagement no less: who has no uniforms, no marching orders, just murderous intent regardless of the collateral damage it may cause. In fact, they delight in murdering innocent citizens on their way to work or home for the holidays.

In reality, what highlights an American Citizen as a "terrorist"? Do we know?

We have no idea their criteria, but we have hints to what it might be that constitutes a "terrorist".

4 We have the Terrorist Watch list. Many of us left-titled "right wing extremists" (who are actually just natural and patriotic citizens) are probably teetering on the brink of being on that one because this president doesn't like dissent for his policies. In fact the DHS report says as much.

We may very well reside there simply because we are either Veterans, don't believe in abortion, do believe in the Second Amendment Right to Bear Arms, or we “cling” to our bibles. What of those who act as recruiters to community organizing conservatives, are bloggers, tea partiers, or any other ludicrous thing they can think of to include to marginalize and attack us?

4 We have the "No Fly List" (which houses untold natural US citizens), and

4 We have recent “questionable” citizenships they examine – unless, of course, they are Muslim – for that would be racist profiling.

4 Furthermore we have no access to any of the above lists, nor do we know if we, as an individual sit on either of the first two “lists”, and if we do, why we are there. We apparently can't find recourse to be removed from said list as recent revelations by those who find themselves on said list can attest.

This leads to the very real conclusion that anyone on a no fly list, a government deemed “right wing extremist” or virtually anyone the government targets could realistically be shot on sight or meet some other fatal event, even though he may have no prior knowledge of being on some list somewhere. The question that follows this conclusion then is: would that include his or her traveling companions as well? What if there are children around this big bad townhall attendee, veteran or tea partier?

Who’s to say since the world is the administrations battlefield, that regular people couldn’t meet with some “unfortunate accident” in their own backyard or driving to work one day? Who’s to say it couldn’t be one of us? Will we be shocked then?

The meaning of this executive directive is simply too broad, too secret, too arbitrary and far too outside the confines of the Constitutional boundaries under which our leaders rule. When considering we have 8 year olds who have been battling to be removed from the no fly list for 3 years, who are surely no danger to the US, it is highly likely there are other innocents who have been deemed dangerous to the US. I can easily extrapolate that list could include those of us who disagree with this president’s policies, whom he has already called out as “extremists”, and of which the DHS has further extrapolated the term to mean “terrorists” - or at the very least “terrorists in the making”.

The fact is that individual citizens have no chance to defend themselves against such a charge and it is a charge unbeknownst to them in most cases. They are a target and the President can simply say “just take them out”. That quickly. POOF! You are no more.

Combine those facts with the newly revealed adjacent "policy" that tells us the government has purposely allowed known terrorists into the US for Surveillance purposes. A policy which obviously has the potential to foment war upon the citizens of these United States, since such a one could escape surveillance easily enough in order to do the dirty deed they came here to do.

For good measure add in the loss of our economic freedoms that has been proven to have been brought upon us through a combination of congress, President’s (CFR and redistribution initiatives), cabinet appointees (deregulation of SEC trading rules), and the purposeful, proven “negligence” of the Federal Reserve. It becomes clear that we now have quite a dangerous stew of policies going on in this country today. Policies that should deeply disturb all of us.

We can’t fight it, we don't know exactly what it is. Even if we did, they won’t listen because it contains their belief in superiority, their political expediency to remain in control, and entitled elitism. Nor do we have the funds left to flee or to protect ourselves against it, which is exactly the definition of our "economic freedoms".

They are playing quite dangerously with the rights afforded us by our constitution: our safety, security, privacy, redress, petition, protest, due process, economic freedom, and our personhood rights - those of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They are manipulating with their pseudo-war time activities. They are playing in such a way as to endanger ALL US Citizens, not just those deemed “bad seed” - and they dare say we the people are the threat to this country?

Are we a threat to their policies through peaceful resistance? I certainly hope we are.

Are we a threat to their plans to stay in power through the web of campaign contributions, States of Emergencies and further pseudo-war actions they themselves have built? We had better be.

Are we a threat to their ever increasing credit lines and their license to makes us all serfs?

If we aren’t, we might as well hand over our property and simply lie down in the coffin now, for we can all be labeled “terrorist serfs” now.

Additional Recommended Reading: "They Thought They Were Free" by Milton Mayer. A study of the takeover of a people by Nazi Germany.

When Will We Believe?

We always think.... "that will never happen in America"

1. What if I had told you in October 2008 before the last presidential election, that before Barack Obama's first 100 days in office the federal government would be in control of both the mortgage and the banking industries? That 19 of America's largest banks would be forced to undergo "stress tests" by the federal government which would determine that they were "insufficiently capitalized" so they must be supervised by the government?

Would you have said, "C'mon, that will never happen in America"?

2. What if I had told you that within Barack Obama's first 100 days in office the federal government would be the largest shareholder in two of the US Big Three automakers - GM, and Chrysler? That the government would kick out the CEO's of these companies and appoint hand-picked executives with zero experience in the auto industry and that executive compensation would be determined not by a Board of Directors but by the government?

Would you have said, "C'mon, that will never happen in America"?

3. What if I had told you that Barack Obama would appoint 32 "Czars", without congressional approval, accountable only to him - not to the voters - who would have control over a wide range of US policy decisions? That there would be a Stimulus Accountability Czar, an Urban Czar, a Compensation Czar, an Iran Czar, an Auto Industry Czar, a Cyber Security Czar, an Energy Czar, a Bank Bailout Czar, and more than a 20 other government bureaucrats with unchecked regulatory powers over US domestic and foreign policy? And that the “Regulatory Czar” (The new gatekeeper between the President and HIS CABINET) believes that it is ok to “abort” children up to the AGE OF TWO (or until they understand that “a tomorrow” existed)? Or that Animals should be given the right to appear in court and that a well trained BORDER COLLIE is more valuable to the country than a retarded child (Read his book “Nudge”)?

Would you have said, "C'mon, that will never happen in America"?

4. What if I had told you that the federal deficit would be $915 billion in the first six months of the Obama presidency - with a projected annual deficit of $1.75 trillion - triple the $454.8 billion in 2008, for which the
previous administration was highly criticized by Obama and his fellow Democrats? That congress would pass Obama's $3.53 trillion federal budget for fiscal 2010? That the projected deficit over the next ten years would be greater than $10 trillion? Or that if all the promises made in the stimulus packages were to come due at once, we would be in hock to the tune of $23.7 TRILLION Instantly? http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25164.html#ixzz0LtdQfpgl

Would you have said, "C'mon, that will never happen in America"?

5. What if I had told you that the Obama Justice Department would order FBI agents to read Miranda rights to high-value detainees captured on the battlefield and held at US military detention facilities in Afghanistan? That Obama would order the closing of the Guantanamo detention facility with no plan for the disposition of the 200-plus individuals held there? That several of the suspected terrorists at Guantanamo would be sent to live in freedom in Bermuda at the expense of the US government?

Would you have said, "C'mon, that will never happen in America"?

6. What if I had told you that the federal government would seek powers to seize key companies whose failures could "jeopardize the financial system"? That a new regulatory agency would be proposed by Obama to control loans, credit cards, mortgage-backed securities, and other financial products offered to the public?

Would you have said, "C'mon, that will never happen in America"?

7. What if I had told you that Obama would travel to the Middle East, bow before the Saudi king, and repeatedly apologize for America's past actions? That he would travel to Latin America where he would warmly greet Venezuela's strongman Hugo Chavez and sit passively in the audience while Nicaraguan Marxist thug Daniel Ortega charged America with terrorist aggression in Central America? That he would diss Israel and not make a fuss over Iran building nukes, killing freedom fighters or N Korea blowing up missile after missile? Or that Hillary Clinton would go to India this week and tell them that “global warming” was all our fault?

Would you have said, "C'mon, that will never happen in America"?

8. What if I were to tell you that the Supreme Court threw away your Miranda Rights in May of this year? http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE54P47120090526

Would you say, "C'mon, that will never happen in America"?

9. What if I were to tell you that the Cap and Trade Bill passed in Congress says that in order for you to sell your house, you must upgrade anything that is not energy starred to the current standards and that you would have to have a government employee enter your home for inspection, and certification to sell your home? What if I told you these upgrades can include your roof, your appliances, your windows and your plumbing and that they MUST be done BEFORE you put your house on the market?

Would you say, "C'mon, that will never happen in America"?

10. What if I were to tell you that the Healthcare Reform bill now in committee says on Pg 22 that the Government will audit books of ALL EMPLOYERS that self insure, that on PG 50 Section 152, Health Care will be provided to ALL non US citizens, illegal or otherwise and that on Pg 170 Lines 1-3 it states that any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay)? Or that on Pg 239 Line 14-24 it says that government will reduce physician services for Medicaid (Seniors, low income, poor affected) or that on Pg 354 Sec 1177 – it says they will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs persons and that on PG 427 Lines 15-24 it says they have even the right to mandate programs on orders to end your life. The Government has a say in how your life ends. Or that on Pg 59 HC Bill lines 21-24 it states the Government will have direct access to your banks accounts for funds transfers? Here's the full Health Care bill that sits in the House.

Would you say, "C'mon, that will never happen in America"?

11. Okay, now what if I were to tell you that Obama wants to dismantle conservative talk radio through the imposition of a new "Fairness Doctrine"? That he wants to curtail the First Amendment rights of those who may disagree with his policies via internet blogs, cable news networks, or advocacy ads?

Would you say, "C'mon, that will never happen in America"?

12. What if I were to tell you that the Obama Justice Department wants to limit your Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms? That the federal government wants to reinstate the so-called "assault weapons" ban which would prohibit the sale of any type of firearm that doesn't require the shooter to pull the trigger every time a round is fired? That Obama's Attorney General also wants to eliminate the sale of virtually all handguns, which most citizens choose for self-defense?

Would you say, "C'mon, that will never happen in America"?

13.. What if I were to tell you that the Obama plan is to eliminate states' rights guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment and give the federal government sweeping new powers over policies currently under the province of local and state governments and voted on by the people? That Obama plans to control the schools, energy production, the environment, health care, and the wealth of every US citizen?

Would you say, "C'mon, that will never happen in America"?

14. What if I were to tell you that the president, the courts, and the federal government have ignored the US Constitution and have seized powers which the founders of our country fought to restrict? That our last
presidential election may have been our last truly free election for some time to come? That our next presidential election may look similar to the one recently held in Iran?

I know, I know what you say, "That will never happen in America".

15. What if I told you that there will be even more of this to come in the next few years?

I know what you’d say, "That will never happen in America”.

Well, I’ve got some really bad news for you: It did happen and more of it will happen!!

Please wake up America! Please start now and realize that although it might be too late, we still have a fighting chance if we all get involved! Write and Call your representatives. Go to tea parties. Join a group. Cry out from the rooftops! The camps are next and if we do not believe that, we did not learn our history very well.

Evan Thomas of Newsweek Gives US 1984 in Real Time

A few days ago Evan Thomas, editor of Newsweek magazine, in a stunning display of revisionist history and heretics stated that Obama “was sort of a god”. Now there is an interesting comparison. Wrong, heretical, revisionist, but never the less interesting. Here it is for your viewing pleasure.



As we see in this over the top interview where Chris Matthews surely felt the tingling up his leg (an oh-so-gross word picture that never fails to give me the heebie jeebies) as he was declaring "Yeah!", a new comparison was made to ‘the one’ - this time comparing him to God and to President Reagan, all in a 37 second time slot. In this grandstanding, Thomas says "that in 1984 America was ‘still the good guy’, Reagan’s message was different, it was all about America. Obama has a different task", he says, now we are the "bad guys" and he needs to make people love us again, to bring all sorts of people together, to be above America and above the world…"as sort of a god".

Oh man, Evan did you have to spoil my week that way? I might add, I'm not sure that the despots (who aren't Obama) in the world are liking that analogy much either!

Let’s break this down politically first, bit by bit to find out where all the ideas in this little world you imagine come from, Mr. Thomas.

President Reagan came into his own starting back in the late 40’s where the real threat to the Republic was the infiltration of the various forms of totalitarianism. A time when the Socialist, Communist, Progressive, Trotskyist, Labor, and Bolshevik Parties inserted themselves into the Celebrity crowd. Ronald Reagan was on the board of the Screen Actors Guild at the time. It was established as a union for Actors meant to protect them against abuse of the movie houses prior to the start of WWII. It has since turned into a platform for far left leaning socialism - at best - ever seeking the promised Utopia where they are assured of continuing status in the public eye and on the political scene regardless of how dead their career might now be (think Janeane Garafolo here).

Then Reagan, a Reservist from the US Calvary, was called to duty after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He developed (as Second Lieutenant on stateside duty) a new and important method of preparing the bombardiers and pilots for their mission by recreating the Tokyo and Japanese coastlines on a soundstage. By using a camera on a derrick, his team would film what the crew of the plane would see.

Additionally, there were classified films that were made by the troops on the frontlines for the Generals; these were “on location” films of our troops overtaking death camps. Ronald Reagan was one of the first people in the US (through his role as filmmaker) to view these early death camp films. It was through these films that he first experienced the visual and visceral horror of the death camps and it was that experience that horrified and haunted him, no end, until the end of his days. He never forgot those scenes, the sole arm reaching out in death throes from a sea of dead bodies, and it was that remembrance that drove much of what he did after the war. In fact, he kept that particular film and brought it out to show anyone who ever approached him with revisionist history concerning the death camps, giving them lessons on reality. A lesson from which you yourself might benefit, Mr. Thomas.

His movie career was diminished immediately after the war, but public policy and politics had taken root in his heart because of the films he witnessed. He was still a Democrat at that time, but an old school Democrat. He hated Fascism in all its forms because of the very thing he saw that it caused, which led soon to his hating other "isms" in all of their forms just as deeply. He joined many different groups in Hollywood and he became a speaker. His did so out of a deeply held conviction, not for fame or fortune, for surely it hurt his career as an actor.

In a speech to one of the groups, he spoke eloquently against fascism to roaring applause, then as he ended his speech, he said,

“There is another ‘ism’ and if I ever find evidence that communism represents a threat to all we believe in and stand for, I’ll speak out just as harshly against communism as I have fascism.”

He was met with utter silence as he exited the stage. Soon after that moment was when he realized that communism was deeply entrenched into the heart and soul of Hollywood. He began then resigning many groups which he had joined, started his own crusade against those party lines along with several other big screen names. Eventually his passion helped him become our President, one of the greatest President’s in modern history.

Reagan believed in freedom and in liberty. He believed everyone should join in to declare freedom and liberty including anarchist, monarchists, Wobblies, and whomever. He despised Secretism in all its forms, believing that if you refuse to come forward publicly with your ideals and your goals, then you are pursuing power by guile and deception, silently overtaking institutions, companies, and organizations to move for power through force. In his mind, that is what Nazi Germany did and that is what Fascists and those who support Dictators do. It was simply un-American! He was not anti-union, he was anti-fascism, anti-socialism, anti-communism, anti-liberalism, and anti anything that takes away life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He came out hard against organized labor because he saw that secretism take away the will of the people in many ways, including the electoral process through strong-arm tactics.

In the early days after the war, as a member of the Screen Actors Guild, he was asked as a part of a group to research the strikes to ensure they were really about wage or working conditions abuse. He and others in this group found that they were not at all about abuse, they were about who actually was hired to do the work. This led to not honoring the strikes and it placed Reagan roundly in the crosshairs of fascism, literally and figuratively. It was found that Moscow had in fact orchestrated the unrest and this began the Reagan Revolution that was nearly another 30 years in the making. I say all this out of historical fact, not out of a sense of deification of the man Ronald Reagan. He was a great man, a far sight better orator than Obama (he didn't require the POTUS II Teleprompter in order not to um and ah)and he made our country strong and proud again in spite of mistakes. That is all we the people really require from a President, to keep us strong and safe and to use the Constitution as it stands, as he swore to uphold, as his guideline.

Enter Norman Thomas

Although the differing far left parties were weakened by FDR’s policies of the New Deal, they were regrouping under the tutelage of none other than Norman Thomas, six times Socialist Party of America Presidential candidate loser, and the one who declared,

"The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without ever knowing how it happened."

Norman Thomas was the ipso facto leader of the new Socialist Party of America. His leadership goal in this new party was to attempt to bring all these various labor and fascist groups together under one set of common platforms. He quit running for President after the new deal, and rumor says that he stated it was because he no longer needed to run for office as the Democratic Party was carrying forward his agenda just fine.

Norman Thomas studied under Woodrow Wilson at Princeton before Wilson was President. He continued schooling at Union Theological Seminary after a stint traveling and he became a Presbyterian Minister. He was Editor of the “The World Tomorrow” publication, the leading voice in the Christian Socialist movement, he was also a member of the Marxist Party, the Assistant Editor of “The Nation” magazine, and was Grandfather to none other than Evan Thomas of Newsweek fame - the comparer of Obama to God and the rewriter of 1984 history, not to mention quite possibly the book! Are we really surprised?

Remember, Reagan began to get his footing as a political leader in those same days. He saw the likes of Norman Thomas, he watched these groups get funding from Leninist's and Stalinist's. He watched as they gained footing in the youth movement to gobble up our youth in great gulps, promising dreams of a utopia where there would be no war, only equality and fraternity with State-owned everything, freely handing it out like candy. He supported birth control, saying essentially that to not would be to support the white man's way of populating the earth with little mini-me's. Reagan listened to radio addresses by Thomas where he talked about things like; the Socialist Party has the desirability of unions, not to live with a rigid creed, but like good Marxists.

Was that simply to encourage the youth to join? This promise of, even though we know the State owns everything, we promise to provide you equality in your personhood, in all your material desires and a fraternity in all your whims and beliefs without creed? As if to make them believe that absolute power does not corrupt absolutely and Freedom from Want is all they need?

Ronald Reagan spoke out against all of that and Norman Thomas personally as it relates to another issue that is bigger today than it was even then, and that is the issue of socialized medicine.



Thomas stated in a 1958 radio address in Chicago,

“I think that the socialism of the future has to be increasingly a socialism that is based on the common interest of all of us as consumers. The common interest of all of us in liberty, equality, fraternity and a decent material life, a common interest of all of us in owning the diminishing supply of natural resources. Now this isn’t to deny the existence of class conflicts and this isn’t to deny the tremendous importance of the organized workers, but it is to affirm that the socialism that is going to win in an age in which increasingly the job has to think in consumer’s terms. It has to think in terms well, as the abundance of housing and the equality of what women and men are made of. Of course I am for the largest possible unity of democratic socialists and not on a sectarian basis, but very frankly, I do not think we would accomplish very much, we democratic socialists, in unity unless we get a whole lot more with us pretty soon. They are terms of meeting our problems now in the language of press. They are terms of dialogue to use a now popular term “a dialogue with the realities of the press”. This is what concerns us and we shall, I think, have to work out partly because of our political institutions being presidential rather than parliamentary. We shall have to work out difficult techniques because we can’t get as far as we used to by nominating candidates for almost all offices. You younger people, of whom I am glad to see so many, will have to work this out with vigor, with imagination and with determination.”

Right there in that 1958 Radio address, Norman Thomas got it all started. A mixture of State owned everything except certain services left open for competition, but as he also stated in that very same speech,

“an ability to control everything through taxation and labor legislation”.

Here in the America I know: Reagan saw this movement was afoot, a movement to socialism in the extreme, just as it is today. We had just come off the Carter years when Reagan came to power and by 1984 he had begun the great turnaround in this nation, a turnaround that lasted nearly 30 years. A turnaround that caused the socialists to slink back to whatever rock they crawled out from under, after another failed attempt at socialism.

Americans ushered in a man who got it, who understood that free markets and low taxes were what brought the people liberty, that the right to choose for them even included the right not to work, but it meant they would then remain poor. He understood that the Constitutional Culture is one of strong independence and personal accountability, not one of Freedom from Want. He screamed it from the rooftops, “If you want it, go get it, I'll even help you. But don’t you dare take mine without asking me first!” He was not parochial, he was not provincial, and he was certainly not chauvinistic, nor are we Americans. Is that really what you believe being a true Constitutionalist means, Evan?

Norman Thomas' ideas, with the persistent help of his grandson no doubt, has become the true direction of the progressive party we see today, from land grabs at the federal level, to UN initiatives like Agenda 21, the Global Warming mantra, to total control of the masses through taxation and labor in a planned not very Utopian utopia, to the very recent ownership by the Union majority shareholders of Chrysler and soon GM.

You are digging being "openly socialist" like your grandfather taught you, aren't you Evan? Those tingles are just rocking and rolling up your legs as you see your 'sort of god' using our taxes and our wealth to control us. To steal entire century old companies right out from under the true public's nose - you know, the true 'we the people' who have worked and saved and bought our shares as an investment - and which is now entirely worthless through the nationalization of these businesses? Are you quite happy to see these companies just handed over to organized labor after your 'sort of god' traded in all the preferred for common stock so that it could be done. I'll bet that just makes those tingles roll for you, doesn't it?

Obama apparently studied the message well, which is why Thomas Jr. is so happily sharing the tinglies with Matthews. They think they are winning this long awaited battle, and they are - for now - but once the people see that the utopia will never materialize, their pocketbooks are shrinking and the job market dries up, look out Mr. Apologist in Chief, because you will be kicked to the curb. But hey, while you are on your way out, would you do us one favor please? Would you take Mr. We Are All Socialists Now and Mr. Tingly Jeans with you?

To you Mr. Evan Thomas, grandson of the great social engineer Norman Thomas, that is exactly the reason that President Ronald Reagan spoke mainly about America. That is exactly why he gave back our tax dollars, put the world on notice, sought out panels for small business and local government to advice him, brought our country out of a near miss with 1930’s history, and made us “the shining city on the hill” again. Your revisionist history, while slightly entertaining, is not quite so true. Or do you so soon forget the difficulties Reagan faced with Iran kidnapping American hostages, Hezbollah, the Achille Lauro, the Sandinista, the Libyans, the West Berlin disco, and the Soviets to name a few?

You say Reagan’s was a time when America was well liked among the nations?

Hardly, sir!

Was it a time when we were well respected for our strength?

You bet your bottom dollar, sir!

Now today we have a man who has been dubbed “sort of like god” going on these perpetual self-aggrandizing campaign tours where he is obviously campaigning for Leader of the world, and who is systematically tearing down every special relationship and ally we have on this planet to do what exactly? Apologize? For WHAT?! Is it really for the thrill of quarter dipping before the King in Saudi Arabia? Or maybe Obama was just gauging his popularity with the King, you know, checking to see if he got the leg tingles too....

This president with a little p is out making nice with the people who drive planes into our building, who behead people at whim (as he weakly compares our women rights issues with theirs), and who are, as I write, busy building nuclear weapons. He supports a nation that has 1500 centrifuges churning this stuff out and who have declared their wish for the annihilation of Israel! We have European nations leaning considerably to the right in this past weekend’s election cycle, signally something quite loudly to the inexperienced one we now call our president with a little p. That should make you nervous all in itself, there, little mini-Norm.

And you dare to compare him to God?!

I find I can't even make an argument to this statement for that would be lending it the credence it does not deserve. But I will say this, thank God Obama is not "sort of like a god". The real God has it all over him every day of the week.

I'll bet that's what your grandaddy taught you starting “a dialogue with the realities of the press” meant, huh?

Well, Mr. Grandson of Socialism, I would be keeping an eye on the sky if I were you and I might be considering donning something myself for a while - like a rubber suit complete with booties? Otherwise those tinglies you share with Chris Matthews might just intensify for you with that big lightning strike that is heading your way from the real God, ya know? Yow! Wouldn't want to be you!

Oh Goody! Yet Another "Czar" Proposal

Czar - (n) an emperor or king, an autocratic ruler or leader, any person exercising great power or authority in any field.

Imagine my surprise when perusing today's Drudge Report, the announcement of a proposal for yet another "Czar", this one of the Cybersecurity sort!

Yes, it's true. As early as today we will see a new bill announced that would, are you ready for this one gang? Federalize Cybersecurity! Proposed by Rockefeller (D - WVA) and our dear RINO in sheep's clothing Olympia Snowe (R -cough- ME), the stated intent has far reaching consequences for all.

I would love to know what you think about this new proposal - especially if you are a small business owner, a blogger, or a taxpayer!

According to the Washington Post and I quote:

"Addressing what intelligence officials describe as a gaping vulnerability, the legislation also calls for the appointment of a White House cybersecurity "czar" with unprecedented authority to shut down computer networks, including private ones [italics mine], if a cyberattack is underway, the officials said."

They want to be able to shut down private networks? Hmmmm. Interesting.

Would that, better yet, could that be used to shut down private networks that possibly do not agree with them in the name of Cybersecurity?

Could this government imposed autocratic ruler possibly tell me that my blog, or my business for that matter, represents a National Security Breach to them and unilaterally decide to shut me down...leave my voice silenced...leave my customers in the lurch for my web SAAS product?

It amazes me how this group in government will use any excuse to steal more rights away. Wait, amaze just isn't a strong enough word. Astounds would be more appropriate. No. You know what? The mandate to make use of the "Opportunity of Crisis" has gone so far beyond the pale that I have no words for their audacity left in my vocabulary to express my OUTRAGE properly!

I vote no on any attempt to interfere with private enterprise matters unless said private business is not paying their taxes or treating their employees according to the laws already on the books.

In fact, I vote NO on this entire 111th Congress!

If you aren't Outraged...You. Aren't. Paying. Attention!

Awakening the Sleeping Giant

Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was portrayed in the film “Tora! Tora! Tora!” (circa 1970) as saying, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." after his attack on Pearl Harbor.

It is a matter of lore’s and legends. It is, from another Yamamoto saying, a matter of “kicking the sleeping rabid dog”.

I do not know if the first legend is true or partly true, the only thing I know is that it was an accurate description of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

It could also well be descriptive of the America we see today.

March 2008, we were a pretty happy crew here in America. We believed in our country. We did our jobs and [mostly] trusted our elected officials and bank officials to do theirs.

We saw the election gearing up but weren’t yet in the frame of mind to pay much attention. We were busy working and planning our summer vacations. We were enjoying the fact that we were seeing our nest eggs grow to along with the DOW to the 14,000 mark. More importantly, we felt safe again, safe to fly, safe from terrorism and safe in our homes.

We didn’t know a thing about CDO’s or CDS’s or the coming market crash. We didn’t understand Mark to Market accounting rules. We had a real life to live. We didn’t understand the army of volunteers that were being commissioned through ACORN.

We didn’t much like our gas prices or our housing starts slow-downs or our declining values in the housing markets, but we didn’t see what all that meant. No one was sounding alarm bells. We weren’t being told much.

We slept well at night.

Today, one short year later we have gone through some estimate a total of 20 Trillion Dollars in bailouts and promised bailouts. As a whole, this nation has lost $18 Trillion with a "T" worth of PERSONAL wealth.

We are facing the largest budget ever sent to Congress by the new President Obama – some say more than all past President’s combined! This weekend Obama placed 1,000,000 feet on the street to get signatures for petitions on that very same monstrosity he calls a budget, in the continuing campaign saga that has become Obama’s legacy. The Obama Forum has morphed into Obama 2.0. 2.0 is now being funded through our tax dollars, which are going through groups like ACORN to help him continue to beat his drum. He is raising money and he is making it work for him.



We are seeing bills that chip away at our Constitution being passed at an alarming rate. We are being threatened with being conscripted into a National Service Organization. Our Census has been taken AWAY from the Dept. of Commerce and put into the hands of the White House and one Rahm Emmanuel Chief of Staff. Our 401k’s are now better defined as 201k’s. The government doesn’t seem to care what we have to say on any matter as they rush through bill after bill without reading a single line.

Meanwhile, our tax bills are set to rise exponentially with a purported $168,000 additional debt to our government for each person in the USA. Per person is not to be confused with per WORKING person, it is every man, woman and child.

We felt lost. We felt alone. We marveled at the rock star status of this new President. We dealt with a “Get in their face” mentality from the left and an onslaught of media flagellation such as has never been seen before - during and after the campaign - it never ends.

Conservatives realized what Obama’s true message was really saying back about July or August. The left never got it, or if they did, they really wanted it, which is even more stunning.

Suddenly the group that houses mainly conservative pacifists find ourselves swiftly changing gears to become activist. A groundswell of various groups are popping up all over, Tea Parties, We Surround Them groups, even old school groups like CATO and The Heritage Foundation are gaining huge new momentum.

The media won’t cover us, but we are becoming our own media, learning to navigate the once spooky waters of the internet and to collaborate with other groups like Grassfire.org’s www.resistnet.com.

We are aiming for 2,000,000,000 feet on the street through Tea Party Demonstrations, word of mouth, Facebook and other group sites like Meetup and the Ning’s social networks. We are organizing seminars, training, education, and book clubs. We have Congressional Watch groups, are sending millions of emails, calling a thousand times, writing letters and faxes. We are learning to blog and twitter, and we are peppering the online publication articles through their comment sections with our opinions and good old common sense.

We are learning a bravery and courage we didn’t know we possessed on the ashes of the political graveyard of our great country.

From my little corner of the world, it appears that Obama has awakened that sleeping giant. He has kicked that proverbial sleeping rabid dog.

It is up to each one of us to make sure that this administration, this legislature and even this judicial system begins to understand that we truly are serious. We are mad as hell and we aren’t going to take it anymore. BTW, did you know that 1 phone is counted as 13,000 calls when you call your representatives. Your one little phone call suddenly became quite powerful!

It would be interesting to find out how many opinions or votes are changed by that one letter or fax....

To that end, my new blog ‘The Point’ is to remind us we do count. Some might be long blogs, some might be pithy, some even funny. I hope you will however read them and contribute to them. I want nothing more than to offer a place for us all to enjoy, to commiserate, to unite, and to destroy what this current government is doing to our country. I want to never give up and to never let up on them – equaling our ferocity to their ferocity of not letting up on us, not giving us a breather. This is musings from a fed up mind, pure and unadulterated. I hope you join me!

And by the way....This crisis Mr.’s Obama and Emmanuel is NOT your opportunity to destroy this country! Do to me what you may, Mr. Socialist Man, but I will NOT shut up. You kicked this rapid dog, now deal with it.