Health Insurance Crisis

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Why Obama Will Be Worse Than Bush

by W. Grigg

To my substantial delight, a movement is already coalescing to impeach President-Elect Obama.

My reaction doesn't simply reflect my opinion that Obama is uniquely unsuitable to the office he will acquire next January.

I'm of the view that all presidents should be simultaneously inaugurated and impeached, and that there should be a streamlined procedure to expedite their conviction and removal from office upon each president's first documented violation of his constitutional oath.

Read the rest at this link: http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2008/11/why-obama-will-be-worse-than-bush.html
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Where's My Bailout?

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Rebutting Obsession

The film, Obsession, purports to be about national security issues; but it does not offer the kind of careful analysis that such crucially important topics deserve. Instead, it offers an agenda-driven combination of emotionally laden images, distortions, omissions and, deliberately or not, outright misstatements.

It is our assertion that this film's title, Obsession, works as a command as much as a description. We believe that the attitudes and ideologies appearing to drive the film are mirror images of those that the makers of Obsession impute to what they dub "radical Islam:" a unifying, objectifying fear and hatred of a collection of disparate countries, religious orientations, ethnicities and political cliques that combines them into one powerful, inexplicable, alien enemy — one that, the film hints ominously, includes our Muslim fellow citizens and recent immigrants to our country. At a time of transition and economic pain for the United States, Obsession builds an epic narrative that allows the viewer to project all of his or her real and various fears and anxieties onto one externalized, hated foe.

Most dangerously, the film is structured to belie its ostensible disclaimer of any intention to portray the entirety of Islam as a violent and hateful religion. Stock footage of Muslims bowing in prayer or circling the Ka'aba at Mecca are interspersed with frightening images of gun-wielding youths and speakers who misuse traditional Islamic concepts such as jihad to incite violence. Eerie, "Middle Eastern"-sounding world-beat music sets off both sets of clips.

The frankly anti-Islamic message of Obsession is most apparent when the viewer is being warned about the "danger at home." Undercutting the narrators' assurances that the masses of peaceful, "good" Muslims are not to blame and ought not to feel insulted by any insinuation they might infer from Obsession, is the repetition of the word "infiltrated," and the frightening message that the saboteurs among us may be indistinguishable by dress, manner or any outward sign — save that they are Muslim. To understand why this is dangerous, one need only remember the situation, during World War II, of Japanese Americans and the stigma faced earlier in the 20th century by non-Anglo-Saxon immigrants, including Jews1. Anyone needing reassurance after viewing Obsession might find it in remembering the degree to which all of those groups have, after all the fuss, helped to shape and become shaped by the culture of our country.

Read the rest and see the slide show here.

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Two More U.S. Military Units Assigned For Homeland Security

Northcom has announced that two more U.S. military units will be assigned for domestic homeland security missions, bringing the total number of combat ready service members operating inside the U.S. to around 4,700, as fears grow about the increasing militarization of law enforcement.

The announcement follows the controversy surrounding a September 8 Army Times report (revised on September 30), which revealed that the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, fresh from combat duties in Iraq, would be operating inside America for tasks including “civil unrest and crowd control,” a detail that was later denied by Northcom despite the concession that forces would be armed with both non-lethal and lethal weapons as well as having access to tanks.

“In the next three years the military plans to activate and train an estimated 4,700 service members for specialized domestic operations, according to Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, commander of U.S. Northern Command, which was created in 2002 for homeland defense missions,” reports the Colorado Independent.

“It’s to help us manage the consequences of a large-scale event,” said Renuart. “We have one [unit] now trained and equipped and assigned to the Northern Command. We’ll grow a second one this calendar year of 2009 and a third one in the calendar year 2010 so we can provide the nation three sets of capabilities that could respond to an event of the size of 9/11 or larger.”

But as Mike German, national security counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union’s legislative office in Washington., D.C., points out, “This isn’t a military police brigade or a civil affairs brigade. This is actually a combat brigade being assigned a domestic mission.”

“It’s fine for the general to say that,” said counter-terrorist operations specialist German. “But we want to know what the policies actually are, what the roles are and what the regulations are to see whether this is actually complying with the law.”

The ACLU has filed a Freedom Of Information Request demanding more information on the purpose and scope of military assets under Northcom control being deployed domestically.

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Ron Paul on the Elections

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Mortgages & Economic Stimulus

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We're Screwed

Well, we're definitely screwed now!

Now that [insert McCain/Obama] has been elected President and since the [insert Democrats/Republicans] have taken firm control of the Congress, we can look forward to four more years of gang rape and pillaging in our nation's capital.

Great job, America. You've managed to blindly follow the worthless two-party leadership system AGAIN and have once more committed yourselves to a continued trek down Orwell Road. The Constitution is proven to be so much toilet paper without the People to support it.

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Nov. 4, 2008: National Buy a Gun Day!

I've declared November 4, 2008, not to be "Election Day" but instead it's

NATIONAL BUY A GUN DAY!

Let's send the right message to these jackasses in D.C. and stop voting for their lame duck candidates. Let's instead "Vote With a Bullet" (as the song says) and purchase guns and ammunition! This will tell them that we're tired of their bullshit tactics and the crappy "choices" they offer us while fleecing our nation for all they can take.

Let's show them that we're ready to defend what freedoms we've got left and will fight to get those we've lost back! Let's vote at the gun store instead of the ballot box!

So go out tomorrow, drive past your designated voting place, and instead go directly to the sporting goods store and buy a gun. Together, we can double gun ownership in this nation in A SINGLE DAY! They fear nothing more than the People getting wise and telling them, with no ambiguity, to go home and leave US alone. They fear our guns and our resolve to use them.

Tell McBama to take a hike tomorrow! BUY A GUN!

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Don't Forget To Vtoe!

by Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers

Well, I guess, yesterday I lost a friend.

I was at work and I saw my buddy, Paul, filling out some official looking form. At first glance, it looked like a US government form for taxes or a passport. I asked him what he was doing.

"I'm absentee voting," he said.

"Oh, don't do that," I warned.

"Why not?"

"If you absentee vote, then when you submit this document, you'll have to submit proof that you paid taxes. It's too much trouble to provide the paperwork." I answered.

He got angry and seemed very agitated. "I've got to vote this time. It's too important." He glared at me. He was almost shaking.

"Why bother? One vote is not going to matter." I dismissed.

Trying to hold in his impatience, he dropped his pen and looked me straight in the eye. "Well, no matter what you say, I'm voting."

I already knew who he was voting for. He's been very vocal about it at work to everybody while promoting his candidate. He already knows that I am an anarchist and I think the entire American political system, as is the Japanese political system, is a farce.

Paul gave a sigh of frustration. "Obama is the best chance we have to recapture American freedom. He'll fix the economy, end the Iraq war, and put the necessary regulations on the banking system that we need to stop the corruption."

"Goldman Sacks – or was it Morgan Stanley? – I can't remember – was Obama's biggest financial donator, you know." I calmly added.

His blood pressure shot up 20 points. "That's not true. Rogers, where did you hear that?" Now he was mad.

"Look it up on the Internet yourself." I offered him a cookie.

He scowled at the cookie, shook his head in frustration and waved me off. He was really getting – how do you Americans say – pissed off at me.

"Well, who would you vote for? You wouldn't vote for McCain, would you? What's wrong with Obama?" He steamed.

"Dude, they're two sides of the same coin. Obama's biggest plus is that he's black, so maybe he understands the problems of being lower on the totem pole in society, but I doubt it. Fact of the matter is that, if I did vote, I'd probably vote for McCain. At least that way the Democrats wouldn't have control of both congress and the Whitehouse. If McCain was president, then maybe we could have a government in deadlock so they couldn't pass any laws or do too much bad to us. Also, McCain is a geezer so maybe he'll grace us with a "William Henry Harrison" while in office and that Palin chick would be president. She's so discredited that perhaps, God willing, the government would come to a grinding halt like the Wehrmacht at Stalingrad." I said that last part in my best, "Mein Furhrer, it's verking" accent.

Paul's disgust showed in his eyes that were, by now, as wide as eggs. "Rogers, you are certifiably crazy."

I took that as a compliment and offered him a cookie again. "These are pretty good, dude. Try one."

Paul was definitely upset. No, he was angry. But we were at work so he couldn't make a scene. I hadn’t chuckled like that since the last time I got to the mailbox to pick up the new Victoria’s Secret catalogue before my wife did.

He began to ignore me and continued to fill out the form while I sat and watched. He kept sneaking irritated glances at me from the corner of his eye. When he finished he smugly smirked at me and signed his name. As he was folding the form up and about to put it in the envelope, I stood up and gave him a few friendly pats on the shoulder and I walked away. Just before I stepped out the door, I said, "Paul?

Gritting his teeth, he said in exasperation, "Yes, Mike."

"Hate to mention this to you, but you misspelled the name. There's a 'C' in Barack. You spelled it Barak... But I guess it doesn't matter."

From: http://www.lewrockwell.com/rogers/rogers225.html

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Censored For Wearign a 9/11 Shirt To School

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CIA officers could face trial in Britain over torture allegations

Senior CIA officers could be put on trial in Britain after it emerged last night that the Attorney General is to investigate allegations that a British resident held in Guantanamo Bay was brutally tortured, after being arrested and questioned by American forces following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.

The Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has asked Baroness Scotland to consider bringing criminal proceedings against Americans allegedly responsible for the rendition and abuse of Binyam Mohamed, when he was held in prisons in Morocco and Afghanistan.

The development follows criticism of US prosecutors by British judges who have seen secret evidence of torture committed against Mr Mohamed, including allegations his torturers used a razor blade to repeatedly cut his penis. The Attorney's investigation is expected to include allegations that MI5 colluded in Mr Mohamed's rendition. Mr Mohamed, 30, an Ethiopian national and British resident, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002, when he was questioned by an MI5 officer.

On Tuesday, Government lawyers wrote to the judges hearing Mr Mohamed's case against the UK government in the High Court. In the letter they said "the question of possible criminal wrongdoing to which these proceedings has given rise has been referred by the Home Secretary to the Attorney general for consideration as an independent minister of justice". Baroness Scotland has been sent secret witness statements given to the court and public interest immunity certificates for the proceedings.

Mr Mohamed, 30, accuses MI5 agents of lying about what they knew of CIA plans to transfer him to a prison in north Africa, where he claims he was subjected to horrendous torture. Mr Mohamed, who won asylum in the UK in 1994, has been charged with terrorism-related offences. He awaits a decision on whether he is to face trial at the US naval base. He is officially the last Briton at Guantanamo. Last night his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, said: "This is a welcome recognition that the CIA cannot just go rendering British residents to secret torture chambers without consequences, and British agents cannot take part in US crimes without facing the music. Reprieve will be making submissions to the Attorney General to ensure those involved, from the US, Pakistan, Morocco, Britain, are held responsible."

Richard Stein, of Leigh Day, representing Mr Mohamed in the High Court proceedings, said: "Ultimately the British Government had little choice once they conceded that a case had been made that Binyam Mohamed was tortured. The Convention Against Torture imposes an obligation on signatory states to investigate torture."

In August two judges ruled allegations of torture were at least arguable and that MI5 had information relating to Mr Mohamed that was "not only necessary but essential for his defence".

The judges have read statements and interviews with Mr Mohamed between 28 and 31 July, 2004 when he says he was forced to confess to terrorism. The judges said: "This was after a period of over two-and-a-half years of incommunicado detention during which Binyam Mohamed alleges he was tortured."

He was first held in Pakistan in 2002, where a British agent interrogated him; he was then sent to Morocco by the CIA and allegedly tortured for 18 months. He was rendered to the secret "Dark Prison" in Afghanistan, where his torture is alleged to have continued. Since September 2004, he has been in Guantanamo Bay.

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Woman Stripped Naked By Officers and Videotaped

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Stossel: American Hero

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