Journal 3: "DECIDER"
1.26.7
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The following transcription is from the movie-documentary Good Night & Good Luck:
(G. W. Bush is another “escalating” McCarthy.)
“Good night and good luck.” – Edward R. Murrow
To tell a story of an era; it’s real powerful for younger people to be aware of.
“Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit.” – Edward R. Murrow
“I love to be around people who (can) stick their neck out; I love it; (they) who were scared and did it anyway. I love being around that; it’s heroic, and they got nothing for it, you know. They don’t end up rich, they don’t end up in some mansion, somewhere, they do it because it’s the right thing to do.” – George Clooney
Fred was caring, he did every story as if his life depended upon it. He went from one life to the next life, regularly, with full blast. Each film: he worked on hard, it became a crusade. No matter what he demanded of you, you did it because you believed in what he was doing; he believed in it and you believed in it. We, all, layed our lives down for Fred.
“No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.” – Edward R. Murrow
It was a (very) different era, where people were fearful. In elementary, in New York City, every day, I wore dogtags (to school) because of the assumption that there would be a nuclear attack. Every kid in NYC would do that
It was a fearful time; everybody knew that; what could you say or couldn’t you say? And that’s hard to translate into today’s world!
This was real; people were terrified of the nuclear bomb, they were terrified of losing their jobs, and to have somebody step up and call for everybody to walk out of the shadows, that were not afraid, right now, and so many people stepped out; it was like 70% of the country, and they had no idea.
“Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn’t mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.” – Edward R. Murrow
Up until then, there hadn’t been a controversial program, no shows like this.
Their lives and their futures were at stake, but more important than that was that they knew what was at stake for the country, and that if they missed, that they would be subjected to 15 more years of escalating McCarthy’s.
If we miss, our near future will be filled with escalating McCarthy’s.
They were collecting film on McCarthy, wherever he went, and it’s when do we have enough, when is it alright to go
WHEN WE GO AFTER THE MCCARTHY, IT’S DO OR DIE.
“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, (I think) the soul of America dies with it.” – Edward R. Murrow
(The soul of America dying is inevitable.)
Ed agonized for a long time over whether or not he had the right to use this tremendous engine of power to go against one man, and I think that he resolved that by saying that this man who had been running roughshot over American liberties has all the protections that he needs from the constitutional rights he was trampling on.
And there was the question, why haven’t you done something about it, already, and so they were getting it from both sides.
“Our job is to question authority; it’s our duty, our patriotic duty to question.” – George Clooney
“No government ought to be without censors and where the press is free, no one ever will.” – Thomas Jefferson
“There are two (truly) great moments/points in (television) history:
Walter Cronkite stepping/coming out from behind his desk, just coming back from Vietnam, pointing at Vietnam, and saying that Vietnam (just) does not work, that it’s a civil war that’s been going on for a thousand years and that we cannot win it.
The other:
Murrow said it aloud, taking on McCarthy; when a lot of people were against McCarthy, but you needed it said out loud; Murrow said it out loud, when nobody was doing it, but writers were doing it, and broadcast journalists that were doing it, and it had immediate impact.” – George Clooney
When that show was over; actually, when Talbert, the Secretary of Defense reinstated Redoulavich, that really made them realize the power that was instrumental. They knew that it would have a huge impact. Actually, they didn’t have much time to think about what impact it would have on (the evolution of) television and broadcast journalism.
If television is not allowed to do investigation as well as entertainment, that television will distract, delude, entertain, and insulate us from realities of the world. –
The overall environment, today, in the environment of television and the news is pretty frightening, and we ought to be horrified by that.
“We are in the same tent as the clowns and the freaks – that’s ‘show business.’” – Edward R. Murrow
The initial responsibility given to the FCC to (initially, the two networks, and then) the three networks was: “we’re going to give you 30 minutes that belonged to the people, we’re going to lease them to you.”
“And your job is, every six hours, you owe a half an hour news just to give back to society,” and for 30 years or so, that worked out well.
There always was this sort of this trying to balance the news, making money, and the news never really did make money, and they did realize (somebody realized) that they could make money on the news, and in doing that, they decided that they had to flash it up and make it more about entertainment. All of a sudden, news content went out, and suddenly, we’re watching stuff that has (absolutely) no news value on the news, not just local news
Television news has diminished very considerably, and that’s very sad because some of the people who are still in the industry, from its beginning, want to tell it straight, real, and important rather than watering it down with entertainment tidbits.
We can be unhappy with the state of television, and (very) disenchanted.
In 1965, or 1966, after the Senate Vietnam hearings, when CBS refused to air the Vietnam hearings, in favor of a fourth rerun of an “I Love Lucy” episode, at that time, it’s clear to everyone that this medium was making too much money at doing its worst to do its best.
The media: it’s making too much money at doing its worse to do its best.
It’s about speed, and competition; it’s a rush to get the story out there, to beat other people to it. It was the same problem in 1958; Corporate (still) has the money, and money (still) has some connections, here.
The fall of media and the role of broadcast journalism: it’s about capitalism; (the point is) we have to be better than that (capitalism).
They didn’t just come out and say that McCarthy is a terrible man; they put his words on the air, what he was saying, what was the truth, and everything was researched (fairly) well, but they could not be caught being careless with the facts; today, everybody is careless with the facts.
“The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.” – Edward R. Murrow
We need an open discussion about responsibility (of the truth). People (journalists) came to the set, and they kept trying to politicize this, saying, ‘oh this is all about today,’ Guantanamo Bay, and the right to face your accuser, and the truth is, that is absolutely, there is a fact that there are parallels that are (truly) amazing, but it’s also about a responsibility for the truth.
This film is a reminder to a generation who doesn’t remember or care much about broadcast journalism, about the potential and the power of the medium.
Watching it happen and it being done very well is not ad equated, it’s not old, it doesn’t seem wrong to me.
“We cannot make good news out of bad practice.” – Edward R. Murrow
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American gov’t is evil
American media is complicit
American public is idiotic
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Read The Nation
http://www.readthenation.com/
The reality keeps going (carries on), regardless of what G. W. Bush says!
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No one “goes” alone; we’re born alone, no one dies alone – (Psychic) Sylvia Browne
We have angels and spirit guides, in our lives; we never become angels; we don’t have ghosts – (Psychic) Sylvia Browne
“Be who you are, and say what you feel,
because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”
– Dr. Seuss
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I wont go down in history as having, ever, voted for or supported George W. Bush and his ways! And I wont go down in history as, ever, having supported the troops.
Dissent is the American way!
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Speaking of levers, Archimedes famously said, "Give me a place to stand, and I can move the earth." Over the centuries, many people, from Descartes to Thomas Paine, have mined the line for meaning, but none as movingly, to my mind, as Robert F. Kennedy, in describing obstacles to change: "First is the danger of futility; the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills -- against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation... It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and 32-year-old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. 'Give me a place to stand,' said Archimedes, 'and I will move the world.' These men moved the world, and so can we all."-- from RFK's DAY OF AFFIRMATION speech (well worth reading once you get past the preamble).
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1.25.7: Pass a Clean Miniumum Wage Bill
Yes, they did it again. The Senate defeated a clean minimum wage increase that is nearly 10 years overdue.
A majority of senators—54—voted to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 without handing out more business tax breaks. But the mostly Republican opponents of a clean minimum wage increase filibustered the measure, and it takes 60 votes to end debate on a filibustered bill. Now the Senate will take up a minimum wage bill that includes tax breaks and other giveaways President Bush wants—and it’s expected to pass.
So, once again, millions of minimum wage workers have to wait for a raise while the House (which passed a clean minimum wage increase) and Senate work out the differences between their versions of the legislation.
Low-wage workers have been at the back of the line long enough.
Tuesday night, in his State of the Union Address, President Bush claimed the economy “is on the move” and growing. Not for minimum wage workers, that’s for sure. The real buying power of their paychecks is at the lowest point in more than 50 years. Today, a full-time minimum wage worker makes just $206 a week, $10,712 a year—far below the poverty line for even a small family.
Businesses have gotten $300 billion in tax breaks since the last time minimum wage workers got a raise. It’s time to demand a clean minimum wage increase.
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http://www.now.org/
NOW CALLS FOR END TO WAR IN IRAQ; READY TO MARCH ON SATURDAY
NOW encourages its members and supporters to come to Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Jan. 27. The Bush-Cheney administration apparently did not hear the voters' message; they are doing exactly the opposite of what the voters called for. So we are coming to visit them, right here on their doorstep, knocking on their door, voicing our opposition to their plan to escalate and continue to occupy Iraq.
BUSH'S STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH: CAREFUL WORDS OBSCURE OLD AGENDA: NOW President Kim Gandy responds to Bush's State of the Union speech: "He didn't extend his conciliatory tone to the programs he offered, or to the ones he didn't offer. And warm words can't change the sorry shape the country is in, after six years of Bush and a Republican-led Congress in charge."
BOTTOM LINE: LOW MINIMUM WAGE MEANS MILLIONS OF WORKING POOR: The minimum wage is a women's issue. Women are twice as likely as men to be working at minimum wage, and that rate is even higher for women of color. Today over nine million women are at the bottom of the wage ladder, paid less than $7.25 per hour.
LOOKING FORWARD TO THE 110TH CONGRESS
New faces, new leadership, and renewed hope for equality, fairness, peace and prosperity are on the horizon, and NOW has our "to do" list ready.
HOUSE APPROVES FEDERAL FUNDING FOR STEM CELL RESEARCH
The House passed, by a bipartisan vote of 253-174, a bill that would allow federal funding of stem cell research utilizing donated human embryos, and would have the effect of greatly expanding the number of stem cell lines available to researchers. "Congress is finally dealing with important issues concerning women's health and economic survival," says NOW President Kim Gandy.
ROE V. WADE AT 34: A PILLAR OF REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM
NOW President Kim Gandy says, "We have endured more than three decades of challenges and roadblocks from a well-funded opposition, and our rights are more tenuous than ever -- but we are determined to fight."
BELOW THE BELT: REIGN OF CONTEMPT IS ALMOST OVER
In her biweekly Below the Belt column, Kim Gandy writes: "Decades from now, when this country finally catches up with the rest of the developed world with regard to women's rights, we will look back on the Bush presidency as a temporary detour from our long history of building democracy one right and one freedom at a time. The eight years of mis-rule by this President will be seen as a profound embarrassment that was eventually overcome. I guarantee it."
Democrats Are Not Deductible For Federal Income Tax Purposes!
http://www.now.org/
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“Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.” – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Environmental groups urge Honduran government to solve
killing of activists
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/22/america/LA-GEN-Honduras-Slain-Environmentalists.php
http://www.ran.org/ Rainforest Action Network
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras: Eleven environmental groups announced Monday that they have sent a letter to President Manuel Zelaya demanding a full investigation into the killing of two Honduran activists.
Activists Heraldo Zuniga and Roger Ivan Murillo Cartagena were fatally shot on Dec. 20 in the central Honduran town of Guarizama, 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of Tegucigalpa in the province of Olancho, a region being rapidly deforested near the Nicaraguan border.
The two men were local leaders in the Environmental Movement of Olancho, or MAO, which opposes logging by timber companies.
The organization alleged in a news release that Zuniga and Murillo Cartagena were shot by four police officers in front of several townspeople. Both men reportedly had received death threats from logging companies in the nearby town of Salama, MAO said.
The letter, signed by 11 environmental groups including the Center for International Environmental Law, Global Witness and Greenpeace Spain, said that eight environmental activists have been killed in Honduras since 1995, including five in Olancho.
The letter said the Honduran government needs to case of the two men's slaying "the thorough attention and due process it requires to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice, and do everything in your power to prevent this from ever happening again."
Julio Cesar Marin, Zelaya's spokesman, said the president "was very busy" and had no comment on the case.
Upon taking office last year, Zelaya, who is from Catacamas in Olancho province, vowed to put an end to illegal logging.
About 50 percent of timber in Honduras is illegally harvested; the U.S. is the primary market for its pine and mahogany products, the letter said.
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1.2007
6.6 million American workers currently earn the minimum wage -- and more than 80% of them are adults.
1.15.7
(U. S. Census Bureau):
Single Life89.8 million Number of unmarried and single Americans in 2005. This group comprised 41 percent of all U.S. residents age 18 and older.
54%: percentage of women (in America) without a husband; single; unmarried; live without partner!
60%Percentage of unmarried and single Americans who have never been married. Another 25 percent are divorced and 15 percent are widowed.
1.2007
“I ask the American people to ‘sacrifice’ every time they turn on their television sets, sitting on their couch, eating a donut, and they see the images of the Iraq war.” – G. W. Bush
What the hell is the President thinking?
He’s a coke-head
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* “There never was a good war or a bad peace.” – Benjamin Franklin
* Mommy, I’m Scared of the Government!
* Bush Lied, Thousands Died
* They may call it
Democracy for Iraq;
I call it
Killing for Oil
* Dumb & Dumber: George H. W. Bush, & George W. Bush
* Back Off! I’m Allergic To Republicans
* How about We Keep Democracy & Export Bush
* Impeach the Bastards: Bush, & Cheney
* STUPID PEOPLE DESERVE A STUPID PRESIDENT
*Screw War
*Screw Cheney, & The Stupid One, Too!
http://www.progressivetalk1260.com/
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1.18.7
Bush say’s that it’s American’s fault for the lack (or failure) of “security,” lack of “success” in the country;
that if the troops had more “advanced-weaponry,” that the result would, then, be fewer troop & civilian death/casualty in Iraq, “security,” & “success!!!”
1.18.7
A $9 Trillion war debt/deficit, thanks to the fear monger’s, & warmongers!
1.18.7
Bush is above Congress!
Bush is above the Geneva Accord!
Bush is above the Constitution!
…to make an illegal war!
1.17.7
Bush has “reversed” on the Domestic Spying, Phone-Wire-Tapping Program, (now) giving it over to the Federal Courts to “authorize!”
And, now, Bush is going to “focus” on “health-care,” another apparent reversal!
1.12.7
It’s Bush’s mess, with our kids, and our money!
It’s called “playing the home game!”
We must “go forward,” not backward;
upward, not backward;
forward, forward, upward, upward, swirling, swirling;
swirling toward “human liberty,” & “freedom.”
Blowing each other up, killing each other, giving the President & his cronies & the neo-cons & the Corporatists their billions & billions & billions & billions of $ in their pockets, their wallets, their kitchen cabinets, their drawers, their freezers, & their bank accounts;
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!
OIL, OIL, OIL, OIL, OIL, OIL, OIL, OIL!
BILLIONS, BILLIONS, BILLIONS, BILLIONS, BILLIONS, BILLIONS, BILLIONS!
1.12.7
A 26% approval rating on the war in Iraq! Who are these stupid “approvers” & “supporters” of the President? It’s because of those who live by fear, are brainwashed, & who bring us all to our own decimation & death, living by “advanced-weaponry,” weapons of mass destruction, killing, & fear!
1.12.7
We are “escalating,” & starting WWIII, Bush’s psychotic WWIII “plan,” an illegal war, a war planned & manufactured by the “Unitary Executive Power/Branch” of the Oval Office!
No one can stop Bush; he does what he wants to do, gets the billions of $ that he wants for the war that he wants!
A Top Quote of 2006:
“I’m the ‘Decider,’ and I decide what’s best!” – G. W. Bush
1.12.7
Condoleezza Rice
CondaLIEza Rice
CondaLIAR Rice
CondaSLEEZA Rice
1.12.7
Troop boost means longer tours!
This is supposed to keep/make us safer!!!???
It’s (completely) against logic & common sense!
1.12.7
IMPEACH BUSH; HE IS SO OUT OF CONTROL!!!!!!!
1.11.7
“There were 744,000 homeless people in the United States in 2005, according to the first national estimate in a decade.” A majority of the homeless were single adults, but about 41% were in families.
On the day of President Kennedy’s assassination, George H. W. Bush was in Dallas!
On 9.11.01, George H. W. Bush was in Washington, DC, with Osama Bin Laden’s brother!
Good News: The Bush Administration, on 1.10.7, eased post-9-11 security restrictions that have been used to prevent thousands of asylum-seekers and refugees from gaining entry to the United States.
1.11.7
Health care: Wide split in access to health care, with poor, minority, and uninsured patients, generally, receiving the poorest care.
1.11.7
Media matters: Bill Krystol: “I wish Bush had said a little more about ‘winning’ and a little less about ‘helping the Iraqi’s’!”
1.11.7
Gawker: Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice (caught on tape): “my FOX Guys, I love every single one of them!”
1.11.7
Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY), will filibuster any resolution against Iraq escalation.
It’s all an agenda of moving beyond Iraq & into everywhere; terror, terror, terror; made/manufactured out of America!
1.11.07
Think Progress: Chris Matthews battles White House Press Secretary Tony Snow over Iran attack, says he fears “extra-constitutional war.”
http://www.thinkprogress.org/
1.11.7
Economy – Congressman who complained about five-day workweek tells poor Americans to work longer hours: Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) made headlines, last month, after complaining about Congress’ new schedule (defending the 109th Congress’ three-day work week) that required members to work five days a week: “keeping us up here eats away at families,” Kingston told the Washington Post! “Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families – that’s what this says!” Yet, on Wednesday, 1.10.7, Kingston offers this advice to Americans living in poverty: “work longer hours!” During House debate over the minimum wage, Kingston said raising the minimum wage would do nothing for poor Americans. Instead, if people marry & work longer hours, “they would be out of poverty,” he said! “It is an economic fact!” Kingston is wrong. The annual salary for full-time workers earning the federal minimum wage “still leaves a family of three about $6000.00 short of the poverty threshold.”
1.10.7
If 140,000 troops in Iraq cannot solve the “problem,” how can 161,500 (21,500 troop increase) be the “resolution?”
Bush wants a 21,000-24,000 troop increase!
1.10.7
On The View television “talk” show, Barbara Walters referred to Donald Trump: “that poor, pathetic man!” And Rosie O’Donnell high-fived Barbara!
Donald Trump has “lost it!” He wont stop his rants & raves!
Ratings of The View have gone up, while ratings of The Apprentice are falling!
Rosie & Barbara are giving Donald a terrible wedgy, and “the girls” are winning!
1.10.7
The Conservatives & Republicans are inept between the ears!
Rather than “on board,” I’m “off ship” when it comes to the President’s “plans.”
1.10.7
The government (Department of War, or Defense Department) boosting U. S. Military strength, planning a 92,000 military troop increase over the next 5 years. Military recruiters, for the future, will be swarming every High School and College Campus & University, “heaving in the dough; raking in the young, naïve, & brainwashable!”
1.10.7
(what’s termed) “Patriot missiles” being used; FOR WHAT!!!??? Shooting “something” out of the sky!!!???
Bush didn’t win Ohio; he stole it! He stole both Elections (2000, & 2004)!
1.10.7
Republicans & Bush didn’t want to make the world “safer,” they don’t want to make America “safer,” and they haven’t ever cared about “security!” They refused to implement any of the conditions of the 9-11 Commission;
now, 128 Congress “persons” voted against making the world safer; voted against the implementation of the conditions of the 9-11 Commission!
1.10.7
I can see Bush’s & Conservative’s “agenda:”
sending troops
“escalating” Iraq war
moving on to Iran war, & on to wars everywhere else, too!
Wow, they’re so “compassionate!”
1.10.7
Military “experts” are saying that the Iraq & Afghanistan “wars” are “not right,” and that troop increases are not the answer! BUT THE MILITARY “EXPERTS” ARE “WRONG,” AND THE PRESIDENT IS (ALWAYS) “RIGHT!”
President G. W. Bush doesn’t need Congressional authority/support for the war in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Iran, and all wars everywhere else!
President G. W. Bush doesn’t need Congressional authority/support to get what ever he wants!
There’s more “madness,” & death, & destruction; there’s more than ever!
1.10.7
An increase or 20,000 (or whatever) troops only means more of the same “terror,” more of the same death & destruction, more of the same violence & madness!
AND BUSH DOES NOT MIND, OR CARE, AS LONG AS IT’S NOT HIS DAUGHTERS & SONS (AS TROOPS); AS LONG AS IT’S NOT CONGRESSPERSONS SONS & DAUGHTERS (AMONGST THE TROOPS)!
1.10.7
SUGGESTIONS, from “the boots on the ground” & military experts, MEAN NOTHING to Bush & his cronies & neo-cons! Suggestions are not listened to!
1.10.7
Nanci Pelosi say’s, NO MORE SMOKING IN THE SPEAKERS LOBBY!
1.10.7
The Federal Minimum Wage Increase: moving on up from 5.15 (hrly), to 7.25 (hrly); a $2.10 raise! NOT ENOUGH!
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1.9.07
Unless 2/3 of the Congress disapproves of G. W. Bush’s plans to increase the military troops in Iraq (in the next couple of weeks) by at least 20,000, Bush is going to do it anyway. There is no doubt that, even if the majority of politicians and Americans are against Bush’s wishes, Bush will do what he wants, and he listens to no one but to those who think like him and support him. Even if Congress doesn’t give him any money, he already has the money going to “his war;” he will do what he wants, and he will get what he wants, until the end of 2008; then, he can pass it all onto the next President, give it all to the next President, and blame it all on the next President!
This Iraq war, from its beginning, has (always) been “planned chaos!”
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1.07
An “escalation” of war, and an “escalation” of troops!!!???
Why not an “escalation” of teachers & educators & education (in America, in Africa, everywhere)!
Why not an “escalation” applied to (universal, accessible):
social services
health care
employment
food
clothing
shelter
environmental care & nurture
wildlife & endangered wildlife care & nurture
Why not an “escalation” applied to seeking an end to:
Defense
living by guns, & living by weapons of war and mass destruction
terror
ignorance
naivety
stupidity
greed, gluttony, & ego
violence, destruction
disease, death
homelessness, hunger
privatization
the sale of our nation
marketization, & consumerism
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1.07
True-Conservatism, neo-cons (neo-conservatives), fascists, the religious-right-wing, & Corporatism have taken over the Republican Party!
Who was fired the day after the (November 7th, 2006) Election?
Donald Rumsfeld!
Republican Congress didn’t do their job; there was no oversight!
Now, with a new Congress, there will be oversight!
Government-sponsored terrorism & war was born on the wings of lies!
1.07
It’s about the Unitary Executive Power, about what the Bush crime family wants, about what the Bush’s will get because it’s what they want. And they are in power. Screw the people & those who (really) care! The Bush administration will listen to no one but themselves.
It’s about a developing dictatorship!
(CMS) Critical Mass of Stupidity: G. W. Bush
What the Bush’s fear is the possibility of the military men & women turning on the gov’t!
The only “national security” is the respect of oil, power/control, $, authoritarianism, and a developing dictatorship!
I’ve been waiting for a “civil war” since 2001, and it hasn’t happened!
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Is to conspire a problem? Is seeking the truth a problem? The problem that there is with conspiracy theorists is that people can’t handle the truth.
Do we (all) want the lies, continuously, or shall we have the truth!?
Do we want the facts, or not!?
Do we want justice to be inevitable, predictable, expected, foreseeable, to be expected, to be anticipated, usual, unavoidable, certain, or NO!?
Do we want the truth of 9.11.01, or the truth of any tragedy!?
“The truth can set us free!”
Do we (all) want the:
G. W. Bush Administration & “This War:”
unlawful (illegal, banned, illicit, illegitimate, criminal, dishonest,
unauthorized, unconstitutional, undemocratic, prohibited)
activity,
atrocities, aggression, antagonism, annihilation, abhorrence, attack,
animosity, absurdity,
bloodbath, bloodshed, baseness, bribery, brutality, bring shame on,
badness, bad judgment, blow,
callousness, cold-bloodedness, corruption, cruelty, carnage,
carelessness, crookedness, crime, craziness, con, circus, chaos,
charade, corruptness, catastrophe, confusion, cataclysm,
collapse,
damage, debacle, deficient, deficit, degeneracy, deluge, decadence,
deceit, deceitfulness, deception, degradation, detestation,
depravity, deprivation, devastation, deviation, digression,
dirtiness, disagreement, disgust, disgrace, dishonesty, dishonor,
dissipation, dissoluteness, disruption, disorder, disorderliness,
display, disarray, disaster, duplicity,
enmity, evil, excess, evilness, embarrassment,
fraudulence, falsehood, fabrication, felony, fault, futility, folly, failure
foolishness, fiasco, fruitless, farce, fraud,
hostility, heartlessness, hatred, heedlessness, haste, humiliation,
hopeless, hardship,
ill will, inducement, irresponsibility, inconsistency, insensitivity,
inattention, indiscretion, injudiciousness, iniquity, idiocy,
irrationality, illogicality, ignominy, impiety, insanity,
ineffective, indignity, imprudence, ignobleness, immorality,
killing,
licentiousness, lack of remorse, lawbreaking, lunacy, ludicrousness,
lacking,
malevolence, malice, massacre, mass destruction, murder,
mercilessness, misconduct, misdemeanor, madness, mental illness, mess, materialization, manifestation, mockery, mendacity, misfortune, mayhem,
negligence, nonsensicality,
opposition, obliteration, offense, outrageousness,
profligacy, pitilessness, pointlessness, preposterousness, pretense,
recklessness, ruin, rivalry, repugnance, ruthlessness,
sleaze, self-indulgence, slaughter, spite, squandering, shamelessness,
sham, stupidity, scarce, sordid details, squalor, short, shambles, sickness, shame, spectacle, simulation, show, senselessness, sin,
thoughtlessness, travesty, transgression, trouble, tragedy, terror,
unreliability, unruliness, unscrupulousness, useless, unkindness,
unsuccessful, unproductive, untruthfulness, unpleasantness, upheaval
violence, vain, vice, vileness,
wickedness, wastefulness, wantonness, wrongdoing, wreckage,
Do we want the particulars, details, specifics, information, the whole story, essentials, data, truth, or don’t we?
Do we crave, covet, yearn for, seek, desire, fancy, imagine, picture, conjure, consider, visualize the truth of any disaster!?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………..
“The truth can set us free!”
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………..
1.07
“…I encourage you (all) to go shopping more.” – G. W. Bush
What planet is he (Bush) on?
He wants to send more of us to war (for him) in Iraq, &, also, he wants us to not think about it (so much, or at all), & shop more!
Bush has had no interest, ever, in meeting with the family members or relatives or friends or anti-war advocates of those military men & women who have either died or have been injured in the Iraq war. He has never once met with Cindy Sheehan or any one else who really cares, because he doesn’t care!
Our gov’t is blood-soaked, & oil-soaked.
Democracy is for the gov’t, by the gov’t, screw the peoples. Screw Democracy; it’s yours, if you can find/keep it!
“And I encourage you (all) to go shopping more.” – G. W. Bush
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………..
1.07
A black man is more likely to become the next President, or to get elected President, than a woman, & a women is more likely to become the next President, or to get elected President, than a Mormon; a Mormon’s rating’s are (real) low!
1.07
Hey, Congress:
Impeach Bush!
War is not the answer!
Bush lied, thousands died!
Save the Bill of Rights!
Save the Constitution!
Fund education & schools & universities, not war!
Fund health care, not war!
Fund social services, & the social net, not war!
Fund the economy, not war!
Fund environment, & wildlife, not war!
1.07
News station provides fitting caption at the bottom of television screens all over the country:
Breaking News:
Bush: One Of The Worst Disasters To Hit The U. S.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Protests/rallies I’ve attended:
Sunday, August 30, 2004, NYC (about 1 million in attendance)
Anti-war
Anti-Bush
Saturday, September 24, 2005, WA DC (about 750,000 in attendance)
Gather on the Mall
Anti-war
Anti-Bush
Tuesday, February, 2006, 7 pm WA DC (about 1,000 in attendance)
http://www.worldcantwait.org/
Gather at the Capital
Impeach Bush
Saturday, April, 2006, 11 am, NYC (about 500,000 in attendance)
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/, United For Peace & Justice
Anti-war
Anti-Bush
Thursday, January 4, 2007, 12 noon, WA DC (about 700 in attendance)
http://www.worldcantwait.org/
Gather at Upper Senate Park (Delaware & Constitution, just North of the
Capital)
War crimes, torture, crimes against humanity, treason, fraud, corruption, murder:
reasons for impeachment
Bush Must Go; Impeach Bush
Voices for Impeachment
Bring the troops home, now
Anti-war
Congress reform
Saturday, January 27, 2007, WA DC (about 500,000 in attendance; estimated by peace
group organizers)
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/, United For Peace & Justice
Gather on the Mall
Impeach Bush
Bring the troops home, now
Anti-war
Congress reform
Saturday, February 17, 2007
http://www.troopsoutnow.org/, 212.633.6646
This month (or in March), Congress will vote on Bush’s request for more than
$100-billion-plus for war; we must force Congress to vote NO; it’s time to
move from protest to resistance.
“No More $$$ for War” Day
Congress Vote “No!” To More War Funds
$$$ For Jobs, Housing, Healthcare, Education, NOT WAR!
End The Occupation; Bring The Troops Home, Now!
Saturday, March 17, 2007, 12 noon, WA DC (about 000,000 in attendance)
http://www.answercoalition.org/
http://www.troopsoutnow.org/, 212.633.6646
Gather at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Constitution Gardens – 21st St.
& Constitution Ave. N. W.)
March On The Pentagon (on the 4th Anniversary of the war)
Time To Move From Protest To Resistance; Force Congress To Vote No To War
Funding
Immediate, unconditional, & complete withdrawal from Iraq; U. S. OUT NOW!
End Colonial Occupation & Imperialist Aggression from Africa to Asia, from Iraq
to Palestine, to Afghanistan, to Haiti, to the Philippines, to Puerto Rico
No New Wars Against Iran, Syria, Somalia, or North Korea, & everywhere
Hands Off Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, & Lebanon
Solidarity with Immigrant Workers & Katrina Survivors
Stop The War At Home
Stop Racist Police Terror
Stop ICE Raids
Military Recruiters Out Of Our Schools, Universities, & Communities
No Draft
Education, Not War
Fund people’s needs, not the war machine
Anti-war
Shut down Guantanamo
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
http://www.votetoimpeach.org/
Save the Bill of Rights & the Constitution: Impeach Bush, Now!
http://www.impeachbush.org/
1.07
$400 billion cost of Iraq war, & G. W. Bush wants another $100 billion (for the Iraq war, in 2007, as well as an increase of up to 50,000 more troops)!
3000 American troops dead
650,000 Iraqi’s dead
The Democrat Congress have taken off of the table any interest in impeaching Bush & Cheney! Democrat Congress, moreover, have warmed to the idea of increasing troops in Iraq!
12.2006
The democratic party, & being liberal, is the main stream!
What's more, the majority support stem cell research!
Pandering to the religious right-wing & waco’s is what G. W. Bush does best! Of coarse, moreover, cutting taxes benefiting the top 1 and 2 percent (those who make more than $1,000,000.00, annually) will benefit him, furthermore!
12.2006
“Conservatives” fear Nancy Pelosi & her work in San Francisco! After all, San Francisco is known for the Spirit of St Francis! For San Francisco is known for being about inclusion, diversity, generosity, caring, giving, health care, small business, human/civil/equal rights. What Nancy Pelosi has done for & with San Francisco, conservatives & the religious right-wing fear she could do for all of America and for the world!
12.2006
Our President has done everything in his assembly & power to construct/craft America & the world utmost unsafe, including putting up a record deficit, and the ruination of the U. S. A. Treasury!
The Bush administration & the republicans can’t manage finances!
A $400 billion budget deficit, & moving on up to half a trillion $ budget deficit!
It’s treasonous to cut taxes (that has benefited the richest 1% & 2%) in a time of war!
http://www.airamericaradio.com/, where truth & common sense rule!
12.06
After all, what are we, as a nation, all about, without the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, which G. W. Bush (and the Bush administration) has (entirely) ignored, unobserved, disregarded, overlooked, & trashed! Under Bush and his stupid, ugly cronies, the Constitution, & the Bill of Rights, is without being seen!
G. W. Bush knows nothing.
G. W. Bush is nothing.
G. W. Bush does nothing.
G. W. Bush gives nothing.
G. W. Bush thinks nothing.
G. W. Bush reads nothing.
12.06
Hey, listen up:
THE “MORAL” VOICE GETS A LITTLE LOUDER!
THE “MORAL” VOICE GETS A LOT LOUDER!
12.29.2006
$400 billion spent in the Iraq war, so far; $9 billion unaccounted for!
Steven Baldwin called into Air America Radio, on 12.29.6, at about 10:35 pm, and he explained his perspective of how the Devil/Satan is the “God” of this world/earth! Contemplate (& be perplexed on) that perspective!
12.29.6
According to three Arab networks, Saddam Hussein was executed, tonight; 10:20 pm, EST, by hanging!
Saddam Hussein was Caucasian/white.
Let me tell you:
Sit on something sharp, & rotate!
Jesus was against state-sanctioned capital punishment!
Jesus was against state-sanctioned execution!
Jesus was against, violence, warring, & killing!
Can people follow the being/life of Christ!? He was a liberal!
12.2006
Presidential contenders for 2008, in order of popularity:
Barrack Hussein Obama
Hillary Clinton
John Edwards
12.27.06
Currently, there are more euros circulating than American dollars.
What does it mean?
Americans are getting poorer, as the world is getting richer!
12.2006
The most feared & dangerous person, in the world, is G. W. Bush.
Bush outpolled the Devil (or Satan), as biggest villain (of the world)!
Bush is a bigger villain than the terrorists of the world; Bush is THE TERRORIST of the world!
Despotism will fail! Despots make the worse decisions rather than the best decisions.
12.2006
We are, now, not supposed to know the age of the Grand Canyon. In any circumstance, tourists of the grand canyon should not be told the age of the grand canyon because the Bush administration wants people to believe in the “creation” hypothesis, or that the grand canyon was, supposedly, formed by the floods of the time of Noah & his ark. Forget about geological forces! And forget about the fact that the earth is a living organism! No, there are no geological forces, and no, there is no science, according to the Bush’s & right-wingers!
12.2006
This global-warming x-mas (this year):
the Spanish bears are not hibernating
the polar bears are drowning
and, by the year 2048, sea life will die
Most republicans, today, are authoritarian. Militarism is authoritarian, destructive, & evil.
Hideous, heinous right-wingers, Republicans, & Corporatists, want to nuke the whole world.
12.28.7
After having retired from the military (army), a couple of years ago, today, Steve Henderson was ordered, by letter, to report for duty in Iraq. He refuses to report for military duty, again (especially, in Iraq), and he is appealing the order.
12.27.7
Today, 12.27.6, a 28 yr old (army) man was killed by military police, after refusing to report for duty in Iraq; he committed a “death-by-cop.” After serving in Afghanistan and returning home in 2005, the military was making him, now, go to Iraq, and he refused to come out of his father’s house & report for duty in Iraq. Even while the police knew that he didn’t volunteer his self to go to Iraq, they (military police) were going to gas him out of his fathers house, but he turned his gun on a military police officer, and he was shot dead. Apparently, he was willing & would rather die than go to Iraq.
Currently, somewhere between 500-1000 military troops have gone AWOL (during this war in Iraq)!
G. W. Bush & Dick Cheney have broken law after law, and have committed crime after crime against the American Constitution, time after time, repeatedly; they have broken down & dismissed/trashed every avenue of the Constitution,, they’re trashing the Bill of Rights, and (both of them) are deserving of impeachment. They are guilty of treason, fraud, corruption, murder, etc.
G. W. Bush is an illegal & illegitimate President. And as a cocaine snorter/addict, he’s got a permanent straw stuck up his nose!
It’s “old news,” that our current (U.S.A.) President is a coke-head!
Bill Clinton has said that he has never “inhaled.”
Senator Barrack Hussein Obama, Presidential candidate/contender, has said that, as a kid, he (frequently) inhaled.
12.2006
Discovered/found in questionnaire’s & survey’s done over the years:
88% of women born in the 1940’s had engaged in pre-marital sex.
91% of women born in the 1950’s, 1960’s, & 1970’s (as well) engaged in pre-marital sex.
Pre-marital sex goes way back, & (you can determine that) anyone, in particular, can not control (what is) “human nature,” and “human behavior!”
12.2006
The biggest “cash crop” in the world is pot (also called marijuana, 420, weed, wild plant, wild flower, tidy, hoe, pick over, dig over, quarry, prepare, grass, grassland, lawn, meadow, prairie, pasture); $35 billion, (annually) yearly (anyone want to give some of that “profit” to “good causes!?”).
Why don’t we (all), just, legalize marijuana (and medical marijuana), after all the pain & suffering “hypocrites” have caused human lives, in addition!? Legalize weed.
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12.2006
Yes, I (Scott), can (proudly) admit that I have tried (a single, very small, microscopic, little, miniature puff of) pot (marijuana, 420, weed, or grass, in other “terminology”), once, in college (at Abilene Christian University), and I coughed; so I am not a “druggie!”
I, once, tried a tiny, minute, minuscule infinitesimal, diminutive portion (one puff) of a cigarette, back in 6th grade (1982, roughly), and I coughed! Thus, I am not a “cigarette junkie/ho!”
And I can (proudly) admit that I have never, ever, tried any other drug in my entire life, nor ever will! Yes, I am not a druggie!
And I can (proudly) admit that I have (only) tried drinking beer or a margarita, (maybe) a dozen times in my life (socially, at a party here and/or a party there), & I have only been drunk (to the point of wanting to throw up my “gluts”), once (1 time, at the age of 26; spring of 1995); so I am not an alcoholic!
And I am not a heterosexual; thank Creator!
I’m not “straight!”
I’m not a murderer!
I’m not a warrior!
I hate sports!
I hate football!
I don’t play violent video games!
I don’t watch horror films!
I don’t watch violent films!
I don’t watch Hollywood-made films!
I love Independent film!
I love stage theatre (plays), & musicals!
I love art galleries & museums!
I’m, now, none other than a (practicing &) happy vegan!
I’m not for unending war, or war after war, or any war!
I’m not a supporter of the Bush (Crime) Family/Regime,
I’m not a gun owner, & never will be! And I’d like a country without guns &
weapons!
I’m not a segregationist!
I’m not a Ku Klux Klan member!
I’m not a skinhead!
I’m not an excluder!
I’m not a supporter of another “Berlin Wall,” such as a wall to keep out immigrants or non-American citizens!
I’m not for ignorance, naivety, ruin, death, poverty, hunger, homelessness, famine,
disease, & drought!
I’m not for a mind of greed, marketization, & consumerism!
I’m for alternative fuel!
I’m against environmental destruction!
I don’t believe in such “places,” or “seats,” or “chairs,” or “spaces,” or “sitting rooms,” as “Heaven,” or “Hell!” I do not believe in such a place after death being, either “Heaven,” or “Hell!” To be more clear, I do not believe in either “Heaven” or “Hell!” I do believe in our personal choices of either making “heaven,” or “hell,” for others’ lives, during our time (on earth)! And what we sow is what we reap.
I no longer celebrate x-mas, or Easter, or holidays (for that matter), or valentine day, or my own b-day.
I don’t buy McDonalds, or Exxon-Mobil, or CVS; evil, evil, evil!
My employer being Wal-Mart, I only buy (from Wal-Mart) what I absolutely need (&
not what I want!), like detergent (for clothes), energy drinks, dental floss, etc. I
shop Wal-Mart as very little as possible.
YES, I’m, now, a practicing vegan, as of 1.1.2007; only eating what is “good for the body,” healthy, natural, & organic; no more carbonated sodas, no more (or not much) breads, not much pasta!
I contribute, with all my heart & mind, to recycling everything (that I can recycle), without contributing to land-fills, as much as possible; I’d rather “collect” what’s recyclable then throw it in the trash can, which I never do!
I am for libertarianism; I can consider myself not only a liberal, but also a libertarian!
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Avoid, ax, asphyxiate, assassinate, avert, annihilate,
banish, bowl, batter, break down, barricade, break up, bind, bring an end to, blotch,
blow apart, bang, bump off, bang, break, blemish, blot, blight, bludgeon, blow
up, beat, bulldoze, ban, bar, bring to a standstill, bring to an end, bring to a
close, bring to a halt, block,
contract, clog, cause the downfall of, crack, curb, condemn, conquer, crash, chuck,
contain, clout, cuff, cast out, cut down, close, carve, cut, conclude, counterfoil,
constrict, choke, cease, cut a swathe through, chop, confiscate, conquer, crush,
compress, cut to strips, cut up, criminalize,
drop, detach, disengage, dissolve, disunite, disorder, disband, drive away, deny,
detonate, draw to a close, dwindle, divorce, disconnect, drive around the bend,
dribble away, dry up, depose, dissipate, defeat, divest, deprive, dissociate from,
disfigure, demolish, diminish, decrease, deface, desecrate, douse, drudge,
destroy, despoil, douse, drag down, decimate, devastate, demolish, do away with,
damage, delay, deter, drive down, demolish, destroy, disallow, defeat,
discontinue,
ebb, expel, emit, evict, eject, exile, expel, eliminate, exasperate, ease, explode, end
execute, eliminate, end, eradicate, exterminate, extinguish, eliminate,
encumber,
fritter away, fissure, flay, flog, fix, foil, finish off, fling, fracture, finish, flush out,
forbid, flatten,
gash, garrote, grind, grate, get rid of,
hang, hold back, hew, hurl, heave, hammer, hack up, hash, hodgepodge, hold back,
hamper, hamper, heave down, haul down, hinder,
impede, impound, interdict, inhibit,
jam, junk,
kill, knock, knock down, knock over,
lift, lacerate, loosen, liquefy, limit, let fly, lob, lash, lessen, lay waste,
minimize, mallet, melt, mar, muddle, mash, make ineffective, make illegal, mess up,
macerate, mince
obstruct, oust, oppress, overthrow, overshadow, overwhelm, obliterate, obstruct, outlaw,
overcome, overpower,
part from, put a stop to, puree, put to death, prevent, pitch, pummel, put to death, push
down, plod, pound, pound, punch, pulverize, pull down, purge, prohibit,
prevent, proscribe,
quench,
recede, resign, repress, rope, rip apart, red mark, reduce in size, restrain, reduce to
pulp, ravage, rupture, rid, remove, rise above, reduce to rubble, remove, rip,
remove, reduce, reject, raze, ruin, roll out, ravage, rule out, rid, rout,
stop working, shut, send away, sever connections with, smudge, stem, stifle, sink,
sluice, strike, suspend, slash, sever, strangle, stifle, suffocate, slake, snuff out,
shrivel, suppress, spank, sledge hammer, swill out, separate from, seize,
sequester, strip, scythe, scrap, shrink, smash up, smash to smithereens,
suffocate, stop, slaughter, slash, satiate, squash, subdue, strike, shatter, smash,
stamp out, slice, snuff out, smother, stub out, sever, shred, spoil, stall, shred,
slow down, stop,
topple, thrash, terminate, tarnish, throttle, throw away, trounce, tack hammer, tramp,
take away, trim down, throw, trample, trudge, thump, thrash, tear up, take out,
trounce, turn off, take away, tear down, trash, thwart,
unseat, undo, unfasten, unknot, unfasten, untie, unbutton, unwrap, undo,
veto,
withdraw, whip, wallop, wash out, whittle, wreck, wipe out, wreak havoc on, wash out,
yank:
the Bush Regime,
the criminal justice system,
the prison system,
the death penalty,
the police system,
the Department of Defense,
TSA (Transportation Security Administration),
National Security,
Homeland Security,
the “Patriot Act”!
American government,
the Bush administration,
the Pentagon,
the IRS,
the FBI,
the CIA!
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
IMPEACH, ACCUSE, BRING TO COURT, BRING BEFORE THE COURT, INDICT, PROSECUTE, ACT AGAINST, TAKE LEGAL ACTION, ARRAIGN, HAVE UP, CHARGE, ALEGE, INCRIMINATE, CAUSE TO LOOK GUILTY, CULPABLE, RESPONSIBLE, BLAMEWORTHY, ACCOUNTABLE, AT FAULT, IN THE WRONG, ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE LAW, IMPLICATE, LINK, CONNECTION, RELATION, ASSOCIATION, RELATIONSHIP, LINKAGE, TIE, BOND, CONNECT, ATTACH, FIX, UNITE, HOOK-UP, ACCUSE, LAY THE BLAME ON, DROP SOMEBODY IN IT, GIVEAWAY, CONVICT, CRIMINAL, CROOK, OFFENDER, PRISONER, VILLAIN, FIND GUILTY, SEND DOWN, CONDEMN, ACCUSATION, ALLEGATION, INDICTMENT, CLAIM, BLAME, FINGER-POINTING, PUT ON TRIAL:
THE BUSH CRIME REGIME
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………..…… !!!Heaven: !!!where is it, !!!and how do we get there?!!! ………………...
If heaven is, supposedly, about love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, gentleness, no more suffering, being like Christ, knowing only good, “milk,” “honey,” etc, then why (on earth) do the religious right-wing, conservatives, fundamentalists, & ignorant – in their ever increasing/growing “religious” fervor – inflict (directly or indirectly, through voting or not voting) so much:
harm,
suffering,
segregation,
exclusion,
closed-ears,
naivety,
ignorance,
narrow-mindedness,
elimination of equality,
annihilation of human/civil rights,
eradication of health care,
obliteration of education,
homelessness,
hunger,
disease,
ruin,
demolition,
damage,
violence,
America’s (chemical & biological) WMD (weapons of mass destruction),
pain,
war,
death,
hatred,
revenge on others of the earth,
(including) environmental destruction,
famine,
disease,
hunger,
homelessness,
selfishness,
greed,
jealousy,
envy,
marketization,
consumerism, etc!
And to think that they (the “anti-Christ”) can speed up the (so it seems) “return of Christ” by destroying the earth, and destroying the peoples and all of life/creation on the earth! So, again, what’s heaven!? It’s (a living) hell that people create, bathe, & envelope themselves in!
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12.22.6
Currently, just 12% of the American people support G. W. Bush with his attention to increasing the number of American military troops in Iraq. Things are not quite right at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, WA DC; G. W. Bush is “nuts,” crazy, insane, negligent, idiotic! He will not listen to the American public, he will not listen to his cabinet members, he will listen not to his Administration, he will not listen to Congress, he will not listen to the press, he will listen to no one. At the “push of a button,” he can & will end life on earth (for he does not care for anyone but his self)! He has only 12% of American support behind him, currently, and he does not care & will not listen to others. 100 Billion more dollars will go to increasing/“supporting” the troops (now), we’ll be far further in debt, many thousands more men, women, & children will lose their limbs and/or lives, many thousands more will commit suicide, & no justice will be seen!
Military troops are not allowed to get/receive psychiatric or psychological help, or else they will be seen as weak, losers, or incapable to do/be what they’re supposed to do & be! In every past war, and of all military men, the men have had to “toughen up,” be strong, not let it get (so much) to them! Thus, everyday, military troops are committing suicide, jumping off of the Brooklyn Bridge (or other objects all over the country)! Some of them are stopped from hurting or killing themselves, but far too many are not allowed to receive help, and commit suicide because they are not allowed to get help & because of what they have to go through. It seems to be human nature to shun those people who are seen to be ill, weak, suffering, dying, hurt, mangled, unattractive, and send them to their death! Often, in a brief moment, they wonder why they are doing what they are doing (committing suicide), but they have no where else to turn because no one ever cares, anymore!
The republicans have never, anymore, wanted full count of all votes (of voters), and they want to intimidate voters, harass voters, and deny access to voters’ ability to vote. And we know all about voter fraud, the tampering of electronic voting machines, votes being electronically switched from democrat votes to republican votes!
Democrats, (at least) we know, always want a full count of the votes (of all voters); democrats want everyone to have their chance & right to vote, without being intimidated or harassed, without the possibility of their vote being (electronically) changed to republican, and without being denied access to voting! Democrats always want a full count, and they want honesty, integrity, equality, justice.
12.14.6
All of the problems that we have today, & the war in Iraq, it’s because (and the fault ) of the democrats and the liberals and the press, according to Tom Delay, the republicans, and the conservatives. Bush’s unpopularity (& peoples hatred for Bush); it’s the fault of liberals & democrats! It’s the liberals & democrats to blame for all of the problems that we have today!
“Conservatives,” meet Responsibility; Responsibility, meet “Conservatives!”
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...………………….
11.27.6
Christmas was, originally, a pagan celebration, so I hear! The Christmas tree was a pagan tradition. The burning of the yule log was a pagan tradition. Christians (Christianity) incorporated it into being about the birth of Christ, and about decorations, Santa Claus, elves, gifts (presents), greed, and marketization/consumerism. “Christmas,” now, is (ultimate) self-destruction!
I’m through with “Christmas;” I’m done with the living by the consumeristic, materialistic, destructive, brain-washing, marketization cycle of it; not to live by its strangulating grip/death-hold, anymore! Now (in my personal life), there’s no more Santa & elves & reindeer, no more songs, no more x-mas tree, no more ornaments, no more lights, no more spending of money, no more candy, no more “stupidity!” Now, I’m free to celebrate the life of Christ without being brain-washed into having to purchase gifts for others, (now) no longer forgetting all about what Jesus was and is all about (in his life of not being held captive by the ways of the “world;” loving the poor, caring for the poor & homeless & hungry, giving to the outcast/despised/hated/reviled, living for those who are sick & ill & have experienced funding cuts in healthcare & funding cuts in education & cuts in human/civil rights & cuts in the social service network). What 90% of Americans have made of “Christmas” & who celebrate “Christmas,” I do not participate in! War on “Christmas.”
http://www.waronxmasmanual.com/
X-mas is about shopping being the national hobby for “Christians.” People make it a capitalist holiday. It, in essence, is nothing about Christ, but about Santa, trees, garland, gift-swapping, pretty lights, etc! At least, this is so for those who love x-mas!
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Interesting information:
Asthmador cigarettes: a cure for asthma (by smoking cigarettes)!
The slave trade was a crime against humanity, and the prison system is crime against humanity.
11.28.6
60 million people in America make $7.00 hrly, according to taxes and economics
11.28.6 News:
The Australian Wheat board, during “oil for food:” $1.8 billion in illicit funds
11.2006
John Kerry meant (in saying about education and studying hard and doing good) that G. W. Bush is intellectually lazy, stupid, and (completely) uneducated, only caring about secret prisons, torture, war, death, destruction of democracy, destruction of peace, destruction of civil/human rights, social injustice, and murder, rather than caring about & building up education, health care, social services, human rights, and social justice.
Kerry’s statement:
“Make the most of education, study hard, do your homework; otherwise, you end
up in war & Iraq!”
Books to purchase:
Between Two Worlds
The Other Side of War
11.28.06
On the internet (& all over the world), the most hated, the most despised, the most reviled, the most dangerous person in the world: George W. Bush!
According to the republicans, neo- conservatives, Corporate, and religious-right-wing, it’s the fault of the democrats, liberals, and the press!
Don’t blame me, I voted democratic; I’ve always voted democratic, since 1989 (high school graduation)! – Scott Burbridge
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From "The Speeches of Adolph Hitler Vol. 1"
"The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the head of our country.We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press--in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during the past few years." (more here)
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Nutball Insane Christians Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird (.962)
WEEK OF JULY 16, 2006
LEAD STORY
The Texas insanity-defense law requires that a delusional person acting under "orders" from God be judged not guilty by reason of insanity, but that a delusional person acting under "orders" from Satan be considered sane, according to prominent forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz (according to a June USA Today story). Thus, Dietz believed that Andrea Yates (at press time being retried in Houston) knew that drowning her kids upon command of someone "without moral authority" (such as Satan) was wrong and thus that she did not qualify for insanity-law protection. Dietz later concluded the opposite in another Texas child-killing case because God had supposedly assured that mother that her kids would be better off dead. [USA Today, 6-20-06]
Can't Possibly Be True
· During his 17 months' federal incarceration in Atlanta, Wayne Milton sneaked out nights at least 50 times in order to continue the high-stakes mortgage-fraud business that had landed him in jail in the first place. In May, he received a fresh, 20-year sentence for having bribed the prison guards who allowed his freedom. The smooth-talking Milton (who deftly quoted the Bible, preying on small-town preachers in the South) is such a relentless promoter that within days of his re-incarceration, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitutional report, he was secretly recorded on a prison phone lining up another mortgage loan. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 5-31-06]
· Inexplicable: (1) The Rhode Island Supreme Court in June affirmed a $400,000 judgment for Charles Lennon, 68, who had sued the now-bankrupt Dacomed company after his Dura-II penile implant remained constantly erect for 10 years. Lennon said embarrassment had forced him to become a recluse. (2) In Waupun, Wis., in June, a 36-year-old man filed a police complaint against a female bartender at the Alcatraz Pub because she injured him by aggressively nuzzling him to her bosom during horseplay at the bar. [Tampa Tribune-AP, 6-23-06] [Fond du Lac Reporter, 6-19-06]
The Continuing Crisis
· Speaking to an international medical meeting in Prague in June, Israeli fertility doctor Shevach Friedler said his research team had found that women exposed to brief entertainment by clowns were successful at in-vitro fertilization at almost twice the rate of women who had no clown exposure. Friedler, who is also a trained mime, attributed the difference to greater stress reduction. [MSNBC-Reuters, 6-21-06]
· In June, three protesters dressed in clown suits broke a lock at a supposedly secure North Dakota missile facility and attacked the top of the underground housing that holds a live Minuteman III missile by beating it with hammers and painting anti-nuclear slogans on it. They were arrested within minutes, but publicly, the government seemed unalarmed that the trio had broken in so easily. [Minot Daily News, 6-30-06]
Unclear on the Concept
Joseph Weir, 23, who confessed to New York City police in May to forcibly licking the feet of as many as 70 women, said he didn't mean to hurt anyone but just wanted "to make them laugh and smile and open to talk to me." "I get on my knees, grab their feet and bow," he said (according to a New York Post story). "I compliment women, I bow to them." [New York Post, 5-11-06]
The Meek Win a Few
(1) In June, British worker Mr. Sivanadian Perananthasivam was awarded three months' paid leave plus medical expenses after proving that a supervisor had used two colloquial terms for the man's posterior during an angry office exchange. (2) The Supreme Court of Canada affirmed in June that a woman divorced seven years ago is still so fragile from her husband's leaving her that she should continue to get spousal support (in spite of Canada's no-fault divorce law). (3) Two New Jersey schoolboys separately complained recently that in yearbook sports photos, a tiny portion of their genitals can be seen up the legs of their shorts. (A Colts Neck High School student's lawsuit was dismissed in June, and a Phillipsburg High School student is pondering a lawsuit, even though a school official ordered the offending page ripped out of all books.) [News Ltd. (News.com.au), 6-14-06] [Globe and Mail-Canadian Press, 6-20-06] [Express Times (Easton, Pa.), 6-13-06]
Fine Points of the Law
(1) The Michigan Supreme Court ruled in June that a marijuana user need not actually be intoxicated to violate the state's "operating (a vehicle) under the influence" law if the prosecutor can prove that the psychoactive ingredient THC was still in his system. (2) A federal judge in Albany, N.Y., dismissed a state prisoner's lawsuit that claimed that housing two inmates in a cell designed for one was cruel and unusual punishment. The judge rejected the petitioner's toilet-smell argument by using the Pythagorean Theorem to show that the odor-wafting-distance difference was minimal. [South Bend Tribune-AP, 6-23-06] [ABC News-AP, 6-5-06]
People Different From Us
(1) Enrique Mora of Montclair, Calif., said that within a few days of his gold detector's having sounded in his front yard, he had dug a hole six stories down (but had come up empty). He said he had only planned to dig three or four feet, but got "carried away," according to a June Associated Press report. (2) Martinsburg, W.Va., physician John C. Veltman, 52, was arrested in May after he (likely intoxicated) commandeered a backhoe and hit a building and a tree and crashed through two fences. Veltman allegedly told an arriving police officer, "I am a (expletive omitted by the Martinsburg Journal) medical doctor, and you are below me." [KNTV-TV (San Jose, Calif.)-AP, 6-14-06] [Martinsburg Journal, 5-16-06]
Least Competent People
A 25-year-old American from Boston, in Hanover, Germany, for World Cup matches, was forced to report sheepishly to police that he had no idea which hotel he had checked into or where it was. According to a Reuters report, the man, reportedly sober, remembered being driven past a park and a Mercedes dealership, but since there are several of those in Hanover, police had to drive him around town for an hour until he finally recognized the building. [Reuters, 6-23-06]
Update
In December, News of the Weird reported on a Welsh inventor's sound device called the Mosquito, which takes advantage of young people's greater audio range and emits a sound annoying to them but which most adults do not notice, which the inventor used to drive young hoodlums from their hangouts without disturbing adults. Recently, the inventor, Howard Stapleton, introduced a youth-friendly spinoff: a cell phone ringtone ("Teen Buzz") that is audible to most young people but not noticeable to most adults (who might prefer ringtone silence). [The Times (London), 6-12-06]
Chutzpah!
(1) The Nigerian government began recently to warn its citizens traveling to Europe that those countries are full of scam artists. (The travel advisory mentioned pickpocket schemes, but apparently European e-mail scams are less of a problem.) (2) General Motors executives, trying to explain the dwindling stock market value of the company, have repeatedly complained of oppressive pension benefits owed under United Auto Workers contracts; however, according to a June Wall Street Journal investigation, GM's fund for worker pensions is "overstuffed with cash," while its fund for executive pensions is $1.4 billion in the red and getting worse. [Reuters, 6-22-06] [Wall Street Journal, 6-23-06]
Thinning the Herd
(1) A 23-year-old woman and her 27-year-old companion were accidentally run over and killed, apparently while standing in a far left lane of Interstate 10, arguing (Ocean Springs, Miss., June). (2) A 46-year-old man, breaking through a bedroom window in the home of his estranged wife in violation of a restraining order, accidentally slashed an artery and bled to death (Milwaukee, June). (3) A 51-year-old man, trying to drive around a traffic jam on Interstate 10 as he was fleeing a gas station where he had just pumped $60 worth of gas without paying, fatally struck another car (with only minor injuries to the other driver) (Welsh, La., June). [Biloxi Sun Herald, 6-27-06] [WLS-TV (Chicago)-AP, 6-17-06] [Baton Rouge Advocate, 6-22-06]
Thanks This Week to Lisa Rutter, Tim O'Rourke, David Horchak, Mike Berenshteyn, Jamie Anderson, Steven Passen, David Weiss, Emory Kimbrough, Michael Duhe, and Sarah Langmack, and to the News of the Weird Editorial Advisors
(Visit Chuck Shepherd daily at http://newsoftheweird.blogspot.com/ or http://www.newsoftheweird.com/. Send your Weird News to WeirdNewsTips@yahoo.com or P.O. Box 18737, Tampa, FL 33679.)
COPYRIGHT 2006 CHUCK SHEPHERD
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John Adams proclaimed the United States Government a secular one in the "Treaty of Tripoli" signed in 1797. "The United States is not a Christian nation any more than it is a Jewish or a Mohammedan nation."
http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/summer97/secular.html
Little-Known U.S. Document Signed by President Adams Proclaims America's Government Is Secular
by Jim Walker
Some people today assert that the United States government came from Christian foundations. They argue that our political system represents a Christian ideal form of government and that Jefferson, Madison, et al, had simply expressed Christian values while framing the Constitution. If this proved true, then we should have a wealth of evidence to support it, yet just the opposite proves the case.
Although, indeed, many of America's colonial statesmen practiced Christianity, our most influential Founding Fathers broke away from traditional religious thinking. The ideas of the Great Enlightenment that began in Europe had begun to sever the chains of monarchical theocracy. These heretical European ideas spread throughout early America. Instead of relying on faith, people began to use reason and science as their guide. The humanistic philosophical writers of the Enlightenment, such as Locke, Rousseau, and Voltaire, had greatly influenced our Founding Fathers and Isaac Newton's mechanical and mathematical foundations served as a grounding post for their scientific reasoning.
A few Christian fundamentalists attempt to convince us to return to the Christianity of early America, yet according to the historian, Robert T. Handy, "No more than 10 percent-- probably less-- of Americans in 1800 were members of congregations."
The Founding Fathers, also, rarely practiced Christian orthodoxy. Although they supported the free exercise of any religion, they understood the dangers of religion. Most of them believed in deism and attended Freemasonry lodges. According to John J. Robinson, "Freemasonry had been a powerful force for religious freedom." Freemasons took seriously the principle that men should worship according to their own conscious. Masonry welcomed anyone from any religion or non-religion, as long as they believed in a Supreme Being. Washington, Franklin, Hancock, Hamilton, Lafayette, and many others accepted Freemasonry.
The Constitution reflects our founders views of a secular government, protecting the freedom of any belief or unbelief. The historian, Robert Middlekauff, observed, "the idea that the Constitution expressed a moral view seems absurd. There were no genuine evangelicals in the Convention, and there were no heated declarations of Christian piety."
George Washington
Much of the myth of Washington's alleged Christianity came from Mason Weems influential book, "Life of Washington." The story of the cherry tree comes from this book and it has no historical basis. Weems, a Christian minister portrayed Washington as a devout Christian, yet Washington's own diaries show that he rarely attended Church.
Washington revealed almost nothing to indicate his spiritual frame of mind, hardly a mark of a devout Christian. In his thousands of letters, the name of Jesus Christ never appears. He rarely spoke about his religion, but his Freemasonry experience points to a belief in deism. Washington's initiation occurred at the Fredericksburg Lodge on 4 November 1752, later becoming a Master mason in 1799, and remained a freemason until he died.
To the United Baptist Churches in Virginia in May, 1789, Washington said that every man "ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience."
After Washington's death, Dr. Abercrombie, a friend of his, replied to a Dr. Wilson, who had interrogated him about Washington's religion replied, "Sir, Washington was a Deist."
Thomas Jefferson
Even most Christians do not consider Jefferson a Christian. In many of his letters, he denounced the superstitions of Christianity. He did not believe in spiritual souls, angels or godly miracles. Although Jefferson did admire the morality of Jesus, Jefferson did not think him divine, nor did he believe in the Trinity or the miracles of Jesus. In a letter to Peter Carr, 10 August 1787, he wrote, "Question with boldness even the existence of a god."
Jefferson believed in materialism, reason, and science. He never admitted to any religion but his own. In a letter to Ezra Stiles Ely, 25 June 1819, he wrote, "You say you are a Calvinist. I am not. I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know."
John Adams
Adams, a Unitarian, flatly denied the doctrine of eternal damnation. In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, he wrote:
"I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved -- the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!"
In his letter to Samuel Miller, 8 July 1820, Adams admitted his unbelief of Protestant Calvinism: "I must acknowledge that I cannot class myself under that denomination."
In his, "A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America" [1787-1788], John Adams wrote:
"The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.
". . . Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind."
James Madison
Called the father of the Constitution, Madison had no conventional sense of Christianity. In 1785, Madison wrote in his Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments:
"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."
"What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not."
Benjamin Franklin
Although Franklin received religious training, his nature forced him to rebel against the irrational tenets of his parents Christianity. His Autobiography revels his skepticism, "My parents had given me betimes religions impressions, and I received from my infancy a pious education in the principles of Calvinism. But scarcely was I arrived at fifteen years of age, when, after having doubted in turn of different tenets, according as I found them combated in the different books that I read, I began to doubt of Revelation itself.
". . . Some books against Deism fell into my hands. . . It happened that they wrought an effect on my quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a through Deist."
In an essay on "Toleration," Franklin wrote:
"If we look back into history for the character of the present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practiced it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England blamed persecution in the Romish church, but practiced it upon the Puritans. These found it wrong in the Bishops, but fell into the same practice themselves both here [England] and in New England."
Dr. Priestley, an intimate friend of Franklin, wrote of him:
"It is much to be lamented that a man of Franklin's general good character and great influence should have been an unbeliever in Christianity, and also have done as much as he did to make others unbelievers" (Priestley's Autobiography)
Thomas Paine
This freethinker and author of several books, influenced more early Americans than any other writer. Although he held Deist beliefs, he wrote in his famous The Age of Reason:
"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my church. "
"Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is no more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifiying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory to itself than this thing called Christianity. "
The U.S. Constitution
The most convincing evidence that our government did not ground itself upon Christianity comes from the very document that defines it-- the United States Constitution.
If indeed our Framers had aimed to found a Christian republic, it would seem highly unlikely that they would have forgotten to leave out their Christian intentions in the Supreme law of the land. In fact, nowhere in the Constitution do we have a single mention of Christianity, God, Jesus, or any Supreme Being. There occurs only two references to religion and they both use exclusionary wording. The 1st Amendment's says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. . ." and in Article VI, Section 3, ". . . no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."
Thomas Jefferson interpreted the 1st Amendment in his famous letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in January 1, 1802:
"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."
Some Religious activists try to extricate the concept of separation between church and State by claiming that those words do not occur in the Constitution. Indeed they do not, but neither does it exactly say "freedom of religion," yet the First Amendment implies both.
As Thomas Jefferson wrote in his Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom:
"Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would read "A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination."
James Madison, perhaps the greatest supporter for separation of church and State, and whom many refer to as the father of the Constitution, also held similar views which he expressed in his letter to Edward Livingston, 10 July 1822:
"And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion & Govt will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."
Today, if ever our government needed proof that the separation of church and State works to ensure the freedom of religion, one only need to look at the plethora of Churches, temples, and shrines that exist in the cities and towns throughout the United States. Only a secular government, divorced from religion could possibly allow such tolerant diversity.
The Declaration of Independence
Many Christians who think of America as founded upon Christianity usually present the Declaration as "proof." The reason appears obvious: the document mentions God. However, the God in the Declaration does not describe Christianity's God. It describes "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God." This nature's view of God agrees with deist philosophy but any attempt to use the Declaration as a support for Christianity will fail for this reason alone.
More significantly, the Declaration does not represent the law of the land as it came before the Constitution. The Declaration aimed at announcing their separation from Great Britain and listed the various grievances with the "thirteen united States of America." The grievances against Great Britain no longer hold, and we have more than thirteen states. Today, the Declaration represents an important historical document about rebellious intentions against Great Britain at a time before the formation of our independent government. Although the Declaration may have influential power, it may inspire the lofty thoughts of poets, and judges may mention it in their summations, it holds no legal power today. Our presidents, judges and policemen must take an oath to uphold the Constitution, but never to the Declaration of Independence.
Of course the Declaration depicts a great political document, as it aimed at a future government upheld by citizens instead of a religious monarchy. It observed that all men "are created equal" meaning that we all come inborn with the abilities of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That "to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men." The Declaration says nothing about our rights secured by Christianity, nor does it imply anything about a Christian foundation.
Treaty of Tripoli
Unlike governments of the past, the American Fathers set up a government divorced from religion. The establishment of a secular government did not require a reflection to themselves about its origin; they knew this as an unspoken given. However, as the U.S. delved into international affairs, few foreign nations knew about the intentions of America. For this reason, an insight from at a little known but legal document written in the late 1700s explicitly reveals the secular nature of the United States to a foreign nation. Officially called the "Treaty of peace and friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli, of Barbary," most refer to it as simply the Treaty of Tripoli. In Article 11, it states:
"As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
The preliminary treaty began with a signing on 4 November, 1796 (the end of George Washington's last term as president). Joel Barlow, the American diplomat served as counsel to Algiers and held responsibility for the treaty negotiations. Barlow had once served under Washington as a chaplain in the revolutionary army. He became good friends with Paine, Jefferson, and read Enlightenment literature. Later he abandoned Christian orthodoxy for rationalism and became an advocate of secular government. Barlow, along with his associate, Captain Richard O'Brien, et al, translated and modified the Arabic version of the treaty into English. From this came the added Amendment 11. Barlow forwarded the treaty to U.S. legislators for approval in 1797. Timothy Pickering, the secretary of state, endorsed it and John Adams concurred (now during his presidency), sending the document on to the Senate. The Senate approved the treaty on June 7, 1797, and officially ratified by the Senate with John Adams signature on 10 June, 1797. All during this multi-review process, the wording of Article 11 never raised the slightest concern. The treaty even became public through its publication in The Philadelphia Gazette on 17 June 1797.
So here we have a clear admission by the United States that our government did not found itself upon Christianity. Unlike the Declaration of Independence, this treaty represented U.S. law as all treaties do according to the Constitution (see Article VI, Sect. 2).
Although the Christian exclusionary wording in the Treaty of Tripoli only lasted for eight years and no longer has legal status, it clearly represented the feelings of our Founding Fathers at the beginning of the U.S. government.
Common Law
According to the Constitution's 7th Amendment: "In suits at common law. . . the right of trial by jury shall be preserved; and no fact, tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States than according to the rules of the common law."
Here, many Christians believe that common law came from Christian foundations and therefore the Constitution derives from it. They use various quotes from Supreme Court Justices proclaiming that Christianity came as part of the laws of England, and therefore from its common law heritage.
But one of our principle Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, elaborated about the history of common law in his letter to Thomas Cooper on February 10, 1814:
"For we know that the common law is that system of law which was introduced by the Saxons on their settlement in England, and altered from time to time by proper legislative authority from that time to the date of Magna Charta, which terminates the period of the common law. . . This settlement took place about the middle of the fifth century. But Christianity was not introduced till the seventh century; the conversion of the first christian king of the Heptarchy having taken place about the year 598, and that of the last about 686. Here then, was a space of two hundred years, during which the common law was in existence, and Christianity no part of it.
". . . if any one chooses to build a doctrine on any law of that period, supposed to have been lost, it is incumbent on him to prove it to have existed, and what were its contents. These were so far alterations of the common law, and became themselves a part of it. But none of these adopt Christianity as a part of the common law. If, therefore, from the settlement of the Saxons to the introduction of Christianity among them, that system of religion could not be a part of the common law, because they were not yet Christians, and if, having their laws from that period to the close of the common law, we are all able to find among them no such act of adoption, we may safely affirm (though contradicted by all the judges and writers on earth) that Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law."
In the same letter, Jefferson examined how the error spread about Christianity and common law. Jefferson realized that a misinterpretation had occurred with a Latin term by Prisot, "*ancien scripture*," in reference to common law history. The term meant "ancient scripture" but people had incorrectly interpreted it to mean "Holy Scripture," thus spreading the myth that common law came from the Bible. Jefferson writes:
"And Blackstone repeats, in the words of Sir Matthew Hale, that 'Christianity is part of the laws of England,' citing Ventris and Strange ubi surpa. 4. Blackst. 59. Lord Mansfield qualifies it a little by saying that 'The essential principles of revealed religion are part of the common law." In the case of the Chamberlain of London v. Evans, 1767. But he cites no authority, and leaves us at our peril to find out what, in the opinion of the judge, and according to the measure of his foot or his faith, are those essential principles of revealed religion obligatory on us as a part of the common law."
Thus we find this string of authorities, when examined to the beginning, all hanging on the same hook, a perverted expression of Priscot's, or on one another, or nobody."
The Encyclopedia Britannica, also describes the Saxon origin and adds: "The nature of the new common law was at first much influenced by the principles of Roman law, but later it developed more and more along independent lines." Also prominent among the characteristics that derived out of common law include the institution of the jury, and the right to speedy trial.
Christian Sources
Virtually all the evidence that attempts to connect a foundation of Christianity upon the government rests mainly on quotes and opinions from a few of the colonial statesmen who had professed a belief in Christianity. Sometimes the quotes come from their youth before their introduction to Enlightenment ideas or simply from personal beliefs. But statements of beliefs, by themselves, say nothing about Christianity as the source of the U.S. government.
There did occur, however, some who wished a connection between church and State. Patrick Henry, for example, proposed a tax to help sustain "some form of Christian worship" for the state of Virginia. But Jefferson and other statesmen did not agree. In 1779, Jefferson introduced a bill for the Statute for Religious Freedom which became Virginia law. Jefferson designed this law to completely separate religion from government. None of Henry's Christian views ever got introduced into Virginia's or U.S. Government law.
Unfortunately, later developments in our government have clouded early history. The original Pledge of Allegiance, authored by Francis Bellamy in 1892 did not contain the words "under God." Not until June 1954 did those words appear in the Allegiance. The United States currency never had "In God We Trust" printed on money until after the Civil War. Many Christians who visit historical monuments and see the word "God" inscribed in stone, automatically impart their own personal God of Christianity, without understanding the Framers Deist context.
In the Supreme Court's 1892 Holy Trinity Church vs. United States, Justice David Brewer wrote that "this is a Christian nation." Many Christians use this as evidence. However, Brewer wrote this in dicta, as a personal opinion only and does not serve as a legal pronouncement. Later Brewer felt obliged to explain himself: "But in what sense can [the United States] be called a Christian nation? Not in the sense that Christianity is the established religion or the people are compelled in any manner to support it. On the contrary, the Constitution specifically provides that 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' Neither is it Christian in the sense that all its citizens are either in fact or in name Christians. On the contrary, all religions have free scope within its borders. Numbers of our people profess other religions, and many reject all."
Conclusion
The Framers derived an independent government out of Enlightenment thinking against the grievances caused by Great Britain. Our Founders paid little heed to political beliefs about Christianity. The 1st Amendment stands as the bulkhead against an establishment of religion and at the same time insures the free expression of any belief. The Treaty of Tripoli, an instrument of the Constitution, clearly stated our non-Christian foundation. We inherited common law from Great Britain which derived from pre-Christian Saxons rather than from Biblical scripture.
Today we have powerful Christian organizations who work to spread historical myths about early America and attempt to bring a Christian theocracy to the government. If this ever happens, then indeed, we will have ignored the lessons from history. Fortunately, most liberal Christians today agree with the principles of separation of church and State, just as they did in early America.
"They all attributed the peaceful dominion of religion in their country mainly to the separation of church and state. I do not hesitate to affirm that during my stay in America I did not meet a single individual, of the clergy or the laity, who was not of the same opinion on this point"
-Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835
Bibliography
Borden, Morton, "Jews, Turks, and Infidels," The University of North Carolina Press, 1984
Boston, Robert, "Why the Religious Right is Wrong About Separation of Church & State, "Prometheus Books, 1993
Boston, F. Andrews, et al, "The Writings of George Washington," (12 Vols.), Charleston, S.C., 1833-37
Fitzpatrick, John C., ed., "The Diaries of George Washington, 1748-1799," Houghton Mifflin Company: Published for the Mount Vernon Ladies Association of the Union, 1925
Gay, Kathlyn, "Church and State,"The Millbrook Press," 1992
Handy, Robert, T., "A History of the Churches in U.S. and Canada," New York: Oxford University Press, 1977
Hayes, Judith, "All those Christian Presidents," [The American Rationalist, March/April 1997]
Kock, Adrienne, ed., "The American Enlightenment: The Shaping of the American Experiment and a Free Society," New York: George Braziller, 1965
Mapp, Jr, Alf J., "Thomas Jefferson," Madison Books, 1987
Middlekauff, Robert, "The Glorious Cause," Oxford University Press, 1982
Miller, Hunter, ed., "Treaties and other International Acts of the United States of America," Vol. 2, Documents 1-40: 1776-1818, United States Government Printing Office, Washington: 1931
Peterson, Merrill D., "Thomas Jefferson Writings," The Library of America, 1984
Remsburg, John E., "Six Historic Americans," The Truth Seeker Company, New York
Robinson, John J., "Born in Blood," M. Evans & Company, New York, 1989
Roche, O.I.A., ed, "The Jefferson Bible: with the Annotated Commentaries on Religion of Thomas Jefferson," Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1964
Seldes, George, ed., "The Great Quotations," Pocket Books, New York, 1967
Sweet, William W., "Revivalism in America, its origin, growth and decline," C. Scribner's Sons, New York, 1944
Woodress, James, "A Yankee's Odyssey, the Life of Joel Barlow," J. P. Lippincott Co., 1958
Encyclopedia sources:
Common law: Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 6, "William Benton, Publisher, 1969
Declaration of Independence: MicroSoft Encarta 1996 Encyclopedia, MicroSoft Corp., Funk & Wagnalls Corporation.
In God We Trust: MicroSoft Encarta 1996 Encyclopedia, MicroSoft Corp., Funk & Wagnalls Corporation.
Pledge of Allegiance: Academic American Encyclopedia, Vol. 15, Grolier Incorporated, Danbury, Conn., 1988
Special thanks to Ed Buckner, Robert Boston, Selena Brewington and Lion G. Miles, for help in providing me with source materials.
ARTICLE XI FROM THE TREATY OF TRIPOLI
SIGNERS OF THE TREATY OF TRIPOLI
According to the Constitution's 7th Amendment: "In suits at common law. . . the right of trial by jury shall be
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