Archive for the Military Commissions Act Category

Joint Base Fort America (July 28, 2014)

Posted in Bush, Civil Rights/Civil Liberties, Freedom / Liberty, Military, Military Commissions Act, National Defense Authorization Act / FY 2012, O'Bama, Security State, USA PATRIOT Act, War on July 28, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

5          “America is now one gigantic fortified military base.”

7          “Joint Base Bush O’Bama.  JBBO.”

5          “Or Joint Base O’Bama Bush.  JBOB.  What’s the difference.”

7          “We are in the fourth term of the Bush Administration.  Or during the first term of the O’Bama Administration, President Cheney and Vice President Bush invaded Iraq without provocation or plan based on lies and deception.”

. . .

5          “A locked compound on lock down.  And too many Americans are not locked on to this development.  The government is locked and loaded and ready to lock up dissidents or the downtrodden.”

7          “The authorities have us locked with stock and barrel.  The new USSA – the United Security State of America – is not much different than the old USSR.”

5          “The area along a nation’s border has always been a region where liberty is more constricted and civil liberties are constrained.  The band of land, however, was narrow and circumscribed the border.  The heart of the country was free. Today, the southern border of America is moving north while the northern border is moving south while the western border is moving east while the eastern border is moving east west.”

7          “The only free area may be the geographic center of the contiguous United States.  The town of Lebanon, Kansas or thereabouts, but that may only be the last place to be enveloped.  The plate tectonics of the security state are shifting ominously.  A big collision is in the works.”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

I wasn’t using my civil liberties anyway

 

Leave a comment »

Brave 1984 Farm: The Best Of All Possible Worlds (March 19, 2012)

Posted in Civil Rights/Civil Liberties, Consumerism, Facebook, Google, Internet, Military Commissions Act, Move To Amend, National Defense Authorization Act / FY 2012, Occupy Movement, Pogo Plight, Privacy, Society, Solstice, USA PATRIOT Act on March 19, 2012 by e-commentary.org

. . .

C1          “All I really needed to know I learned in junior high school.  Three junior high school standbys provide the road maps delineating our current collision course.  Brave New World chronicles a craven world sated and sotted with diversions and divertissements.”

C2          “Some say the phrase ‘bread and circuses’ captures the contemporary zeitgeist.  But bread will soon cost a lot more bread.  And a day at the circus may cost a month’s wages at the job lost by the breadwinner last May.”

C1          “And 1984 is the ‘how to’ manual for the emerging police state in America.  The USA PATRIOT ACT and the NDAA of 2012 provide the ‘legal’ cover.”

C2          “Some are concerned.  For over a century, the thinking set has struggled with the emerging notion of privacy.  An academic treatment in 1890, a judicial pronouncement in 1965 and a trenchant comment or two today raise real and troubling concerns.  However, without a real debate, discussion, plebiscite or referendum, we surrendered our privacy a few years ago.  It appears to be over.”

C1          “So now we good citizens can watch our favorite gladiators invade another town and vanquish fellow citizens on plasma tv while the government videos us on closed circuit video tv and Google and Facebook monitor us on our home monitors.  We should heed the warning in Animal Farm and the advice in the Old Farmer’s Almanac and make the sojourn back to the farm and the garden.”

C2          “The Occupy Movement and Move To Amend are the Black Swan taking slow flight and moving us off the couch and into the streets.  Six months ago, a few kids looked around and concluded that something is wrong and something must be done.”

. . .

[See the Fresh Air radio program on drones and the threats to privacy at http://www.npr.org/2012/03/12/148293470/drones-over-america-what-can-they-see]

[See the “e-ssay” titled “USA PATRIOT ACT (April 4, 2005)”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

T For Truth; J For Justice

Panem et Circenses

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.  We must cultivate our garden.  Candide, Voltaire

Do something different on the Equinox

Leave a comment »

Iraq: AGFPT. Iran: AGFPT II? (January 2, 2012)

Posted in Bush, Foreign Policy, Iran, Iraq, Military Commissions Act, National Defense Authorization Act / FY 2012, O'Bama, USA PATRIOT Act on January 2, 2012 by e-commentary.org

. . .

S          “Most members of the uniformed military are leaving Iraq, but America is never leaving Iraq.”

T          “The troops may only be able to take a two week R & R before invading Iran.”

S          “The American populace simply wanted and wants the Iraq quagmire to disappear.  Everyone in positions of influence dutifully obliged and rarely brought it up.  The invisible war.  Out of sight; out of mind.”

T          “Those in power in America seem inclined to maintain at least two wars.  Where next?  Iraq was and is America’s Greatest Foreign Policy Travesty, yet the failure can still be topped.”

S        “Will anyone remember?  Will anyone learn?  History is being written not by historians but by publicists and spin doctors.”

T          “Everything about the invasion was a lie.  Who realizes that the surge was not a surge of troops but rather a splurge of bribes to buy a temporary cessation of violence?  When the funds disappeared, the violence returned.”  

S          “To his credit, Bush seemed to learn something from the Iraq nightmare and didn’t invade Iran and trigger World War III.  It looked close for a few years.”

T          “That could have emerged as the new AGFPT.  However, Iran sporting nuclear weapons is not a pretty sight.  The sanctions sound tidy and elegant, yet they may be as provocative as a missile strike.  The major nations have engaged in clear acts of war.  And no one in power has adequately described America’s fundamental national interests in the region.”

S          “There should be a serious national debate before embarking on World War III.”

. . .

[O’Bama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2012.  His signing statements will not bind or limit future presidents.  See the “e-ssays” titled “Vaclav Havel – Plato’s “Playwright President” (December 19, 2011)“, “Republicans are Enemy Combatants? (May 10, 2010)” and “Gun Control, NRA Style (January 9, 2006).”]   

Bumper sticker of the week:

The “Dirty Half Dozen.”  Let’s never forget:  George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith

Leave a comment »

Vaclav Havel – Plato’s “Playwright President” (December 19, 2011)

Posted in Civil Rights/Civil Liberties, Military Commissions Act, National Defense Authorization Act / FY 2012, Political Parties, Politics, USA PATRIOT Act on December 19, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

C          “The American republic elects showboats and con artists to political office.  The Czech people elevated Plato’s ‘playwright president’ to office to aid in creating a democratic republic.”

D          “Someone from the world of movies and television could succeed in American politics but not someone from the world of arts and letters.  He straddled the worlds of poetry and politics.”

C          “Our politicians should be in prison for the crimes they commit in our land every day.  Havel went to prison for years to protest the crimes committed by the politicians in his homeland.”

D          “And fostered the Velvet Revolution.  America needs to foment a Velvet Revolution.”

C          “Our revolution will not be as smooth.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Vaclav Havel – Nobel Peace Prize Recipient in ?

European is lost; Europe is lost

Run that by me once again.  Why would Congress send to the President the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that makes possible the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens suspected of terrorist activities without due process in situations authorized by the President?  The 13 senators who voted against the bill: Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).

[See the “e-ssays” titled “Republicans are Enemy Combatants? (May 10, 2010)” and “Gun Control, NRA Style (January 9, 2006).”]

Leave a comment »

Republicans are Enemy Combatants? (May 10, 2010)

Posted in Civil Rights/Civil Liberties, Military Commissions Act on May 10, 2010 by e-commentary.org

. . .

U          “I noticed on the Internet a few minutes ago that all registered Republicans have been deemed enemy combatants and will be rounded up on Tuesday at 3:00 a.m. and taken to undisclosed locations.”

R          “No way.”

U          “It’s your call.  I believe that I’m safe.  I am registered as Unaffiliated.  But who knows today.”

R          “I’ll call my lawyer.”

U          “You don’t get to call your lawyer.  That quaint right protected by activist liberal Democrats has been expunged.  Your cell phone has been disabled and will be confiscated.”

R          “It isn’t working, . . . but they are installing a new tower.”

U          “Assume that you are able to contact a lawyer.  Then what?”

R          “I know a judge who owes me.”

U          “Owes a terrorist what?  That is bad press for him.  At best, you might get an answering machine and no answer.  What would he do for you?”

R          “Get me out.  Habeas corpus me.  It’s a legal way to get me released.  It means that the authorities must deliver the body to the court.”

U          “The authorities might oblige and deliver your body to the court.  The Republicans have you covered.  They suspended habeas corpus.  At least one Republican did.  Recall our good friend Abraham Lincoln who suspended habeas corpus.”

R          “What about Democrats?  They could be deemed enemy combatants.  They could be confiscated.”

U          “They could.  And they could.  And they might.”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

I wasn’t using my civil rights anyway.

Leave a comment »