LIBERTAS - In the Name of Liberty

There are freedoms you have and freedoms you don't. Positive freedom is the freedom 'to do' something. Negative freedom is freedom 'from' something. Every choice has meaning.

The government is US. Your money, your time, your life is yours to spend as you wish. Choose to be free.

Where is the constitution? Is it in your mind? In your house? In the public hall?
I believe the constitution transcends our individual existence. The US Constitution is our 'social contract', the very mortar that binds our individual blocks of freedom into a solid foundation, upon we build everything else.

With the complexity of problems we now find ourselves facing; public transportation, voting machines, campaign finance reform, immigration, health care, climate change, the national debt, the failure of public schools, the economy, the wars, all of which are interconnected. We are faced with a desperate need for leadership. Yet, we are stuck with a limited set of redundant choices, all competing with each other, tearing one another down uselessly.

It is time for a fundamental change.

We need to stop this failing system of competing politics. Instead we need a COOPERATIVE Paradigm Shift. We need to use ALL OF OUR RESOURCES to deal with the scope of the problems we face. Why not give the next President the ability to use all of the ideas, the strengths, the capabilities of their opponents.

We accept that the world is not always the way we wish it to be, but how come we can't accept the fact that our competitors are our peers, that they have strength we could use?

Choose to work together, stop choosing a personality, choose the issues. Vote on the issues democratically and we will all be better off.

Open the pandora box, allow us to amend the constitution every twenty years by constitutional convention. One-thousand random US Citizens, give them two years, with pay, to study the issues, to hear the complains, to write out their opinions, and to vote to amend or change the constitution.

What would probably happen? Would it become illegal to burn the flag? Would abortion become illegal again? Would the electoral college be disbanded? Will there be term limits, on congress, the senate, the supreme court? Would the people become part of the democracy again?

Will we ever be able to trust each other again? Liberty demands we try.

Rep. Robert Wexler (FL-19) and two other Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee - Luis Gutierrez (IL-04) and Tammy Baldwin (WI-02) - today called on the committee to begin impeachment hearings for Vice President Cheney.

They declared, "The charges are too serious to ignore. There is credible evidence that the Vice President abused the power of his office, and not only brought us into an unneccesary war but violated the civil liberties and privacy of American citizens. It is the constitutional duty of Congress to hold impeachment hearings."

The three Democrats wrote an op-ed to announce their position, but none of the nation's leading newspapers would publish it - just as they refuse to include impeachment in their polls, and just as they refuse to publish their own investigations of the crimes of the Bush Administration. Why?

The Letter:

As a person who supports holding this Administration accountable for their deceptive actions, you may be interested to know about the recent votes in the House regarding H.Res. 333, "Impeaching Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors."

I share your belief that Vice President Cheney must answer for his deceptive actions in office, particularly with regard to the preparations for the Iraq war and the revelation of the identity of covert agent Valerie Plame Wilson as part of political retribution against her husband. That is why I voted against the motion to table debate on H.Res. 333. Along with only 85 other Democrats, I opposed tabling the measure and supported beginning immediate debate and a vote on the Cheney impeachment resolution. The vote on tabling the Kucinich resolution was rejected, and the House subsequently voted to refer the matter to the Judiciary Committee.

Vice President Dick Cheney and the Bush Administration have demonstrated a consistent pattern of abusing the law and misleading Congress and the American people. We see the consequences of these actions abroad in Iraq and at home through the violations of our civil liberties. The American people are served well with a legitimate and thorough impeachment inquiry. I will urge the Judiciary Committee to schedule impeachment hearings immediately and not let this issue languish as it has over the last six months.

Only through hearings can we begin to correct the abuses of Dick Cheney and the Bush Administration; and, if it is determined in these hearings that Vice President Cheney has committed High Crimes and Misdemeanors, he should be impeached and removed from office. It is time for Congress to expose the multitude of misdeeds of the Administration, and I am hopeful that the Judiciary Committee will expeditiously begin an investigation of this matter.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions or concerns. I sincerely appreciate your input and hope that you will feel free to contact me anytime I may be of assistance to you.

With warm regards,

Congressman Robert Wexler


WHY WE NEED HEARINGS
I was serving in Congress and on the Judiciary Committee for the ridiculous and politically motivated impeachment hearings of President Clinton. During that witch hunt Newt Gingrich, Tom Delay, and Ken Starr wasted a year and a half on investigations and hearings about President Clinton's personal relations. However, this attempted coup d'etat by Republicans against President Clinton was not and should not be the standard of impeachment that was enshrined by the Founders in our Constitution.

First, impeachment hearings are only proper when significant allegations exist that the President or Vice-President, or others civil officers, committed actions – within their official duties – that constitute 'High Crimes and Misdemeanors.' The allegations against Clinton – involving a personal affair - never reached this threshold. The serious charges against Cheney involve alleged crimes that are central to his duties of Vice-President; namely war and peace, the widespread violations of civil liberties, and the security of the United States and our covert agents.

Unlike the show trial put on by Republicans against President Clinton, a proper impeachment hearing would involve a fair and objective presentation of the facts without hyperbole or political gamesmanship. The hard evidence that is presented at the hearings will be judged fully both by Congress and the American people. The evidence alone will determine the outcome, and if it is determined that Vice President Cheney committed "High Crimes and Misdemeanors" he should be properly impeached and put on trial before the Senate.

After the Democratic Party regained control of Congress, many – myself included – thought that it might be possible to meet President Bush half-way on the large issues facing our nation. Unfortunately, Bush has been nothing more than an ideological obstacle. He has vetoed stem cell research. He has vetoed efforts to bring our troops home from Iraq. He vetoed children's health care. So, the idea that we are somehow inhibiting Congress from passing our agenda by holding impeachment hearings – unfortunately – is a false argument.

Instead, I believe that we can both live up to our Constitutional obligation by holding hearings and pass a Democratic agenda. If President Bush perceives that the Democratic Congress is weak and unwilling to aggressively push our agenda – he will continue to veto legislation, such as children's health care – that is supported by a majority of Americans. The only way to move a progressive Democratic agenda is by acting through strength and following through on our core principles. A Congress willing to stand up to the abuses of the Bush Administration through impeachment hearings will demonstrate a strength of will that will more likely convince Bush to accommodate on issues such as Iraq, health care, and energy and environmental issues.

It is the duty of Congress to investigate the actions of Vice President Cheney and the Bush Administration. Our Constitution mandates that the House of Representatives hold Presidents and Vice-Presidents accountable when they commit High Crimes.

Serious and substantive allegations have been made against Dick Cheney that relate to the precise powers of the Vice-Presidency and executive branch – namely War and Peace – safeguarding the civil liberties of Americans – and protecting the safety of our covert agents. It is Congress's constitutional role to inquire -- to determine the truth.

It is time for the House Judiciary Committee to hold impeachment hearings for Vice President Cheney. We have an obligation to ask questions -- to determine whether in fact the Vice President purposefully manipulated intelligence, bringing us into war;

...whether he knowingly ordered the illegal use of torture;

...whether he knowingly exposed covert agents for political purposes;

...whether he obstructed federal investigations.

These charges are too serious to ignore. Hearings will put the evidence on the table, and the facts alone will determine the outcome. We owe it to history to investigate and record the many abuses of this Administration. We cannot allow the unlawful actions of President Bush and Vice President Cheney to be become precedent for future administrations.

I have heard from thousands of concerned citizens throughout the nation who understand the importance of these hearings, both for today and for history.

Accountability and the rule of law are not partisan; they are American. They supercede politics and strategy. We must hold all of our leaders accountable. No exceptions.

Join this effort by signing up at WexlerWantsHearings.com. Together, we can make a powerful statement in support of truth and accountability.

Bob Garfield Podcast - from the host of NPR's "On The Media".
http://www.comcastmustdie.com/
Aparently this is the only way to deal with big corprate monopolies is with powerful internet blogs.

The problem with Henry is that he is not some common criminal forced to steal to provide food for his children.

Making money in itself is not a bad thing, what is at question here is HOW you EARN it. It seems obvious to me that people like Henry do not EARN money at all, they "invest" money and then reap the interest. Of course, it's not usually their money that gets invested. They borrow money, and buy things that are valuable, like successful companies, and sell off the parts for more than what they borrowed. The employees loose, the customers loose, but Henry gets the difference.

Yet, with Henry there is the added problem, that he doesn't just accumulate interest, he actively leverages influence to buy and sell entire companies, hell entire industries, apparently sacrificing the living standards of the workers in those companies to maximize his profit return. He is reaping the profit from the value of the labor of people who earn it, yet he provides nothing of value in return.

If Henry did something like invent a cure for cancer, or write software that changed the world for the better, or even ended a war, or something equivalent, then one could make the valid argument that he actually EARNED his $450 Million Dollar personal income. You might argue that people like Henry provide more value than they take from their investments, that they act like vultures, cleaning up the dead bodies of industry, but they do not. Usually, what they do is use their financial influence to 'modify' the rules, buy governments, and change the law to allow themselves more freedom, and avoid any responsibilities, they need to gut businesses and reap reward.

Unfortunately, we can not blame the rich. The fact is that we let them do this, that we are culpable, because we accept the low salaries, and work for people like Henry. We allow our governments to become influenced and corrupted by big money. We fight wars that profit these parasites and cannibals.

So, do not blame Henry for the things he does. It is we who allow him to do them. Look in the mirror, and know that you are responsible for your choices to give away your life, you labor, your government, you nation, the laws, the justice system, everything that makes American's free has been sold to people like Henry. And it is YOUR fault.

Perhaps like Bill Gates and others, Henry will eventually realize that he exists in a society, and that any meaning his life has comes from his relationships to other beings, then give his wealth away to humanity (instead of his 'children'). Yea, right. Some will argue that my statement sounds like Marxism or Socialism, but that is not what I'm advocating. Communist theories are based upon ideas of community, and the American ideal is the individual, not the collective. I just want to limit the inequalities caused by money.

1) Let's just take Money out of Politics. - No corporation should be allowed to make ANY contributions to any campaign. Companies are not PEOPLE, Companies do not have rights. PEOPLE have the Right to VOTE, not corporations. Corporations are legal entities that allow PEOPLE to avoid accountability (liability), they influence the laws that regulate them, and we need to end it. Campaign finance laws limit individual contributions to $2300 per campaign, but corporations are allowed to form not-for-profit PACs and then use unlimited funds to advertise, and attack their opposition with propaganda. We should eliminate that, no corporation should be allowed to buy our government.

2) End Inheritance - the rich call it the DEATH TAX, and it used to take the wealth of the super rich and redistribute it upon their demise. Just Fifty Percent of the wealth would be TAXED and taken by our Federal Government. the rest would be left to the children or the beneficiary of their will. Not the wealthy can pass on all of their money to their kids. We should end this. RETURN the tax on INHERITANCE to at least 50%! The rich will continue to find loop-holes to hide their wealth, transfer it overseas, and escape loosing control of their accumulated wealth, as they always have, but we need to set the standard. This is not a country of KINGS.

3) Eliminate foreign ownership of companies that do business in America. - This is the dirty secret behind our corporations, most of the people who own them, and own the largest percentages of their stock, don't pay taxes, because they are not living in the USA, they are not citizens, or hold dual citizenship. They transfer wealth overseas, where they can protect it from IRS scrutiny. Just ask HALIBURTIN why they moved their Headquarters to DUBI?

Henry is just an example of a rich sociopath. The solutions are simple, but the majority of US Citizens would rather be bought off by the owners of these rich compainies, than earn their own way in life. The fact is that most of the people can not support themselves, they lack the ability to survive on their own. So, with everyone owning a vote, they have something valuable to trade for their survival, and the system is set up to pay. With a two party system, the rich only need to buy 1% of the vote to sway any election, and so increase their influence. With real elections, multiple parties, and accountability, we might someday begin to take back control. But with corporations paying various lobbying groups, and financing political action committees, we can't see the forest for the trees.

The people in this video who complain about Henry's wealth, are responsible for their own unjust circumstances. They are sheep, led easily to shear and slaughter. People who live off the labor of others are afraid to shun the powers that control them, they wouldn't know how to live without being controlled.

Why is it that the only person with the balls to stand up and speak truth to power is a 110 lb, nerd from Ohio!
Un-Fracking Believable!



Go Dennis Kucinich!

Sun Tzu and Machiavelli have nothing on the Wolf.

1) Create Fear: Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy. Use fake documents to hype a real threat into a hyper-threat. intimidate the voters, use sub-rosa agents to create a tone of false public outrage in favor of your cause. People are weak, fear is natural, opportunity abounds.

2) Establish Secret Prisons: Create a gulag, use torture without accountability, alienate the people at the margins of society. Your enemies will censor themselves. At first, the people who are sent there are seen by citizens as outsiders: troublemakers, spies, "enemies of the people" or "criminals". Initially, citizens tend to support the secret prison system; it makes them feel safer and they do not identify with the prisoners. But soon enough, civil society leaders - opposition members, labour activists, clergy and journalists - are arrested and sent there as well. Anyone want a free trip to Cuba, or Syria?

3) Develop a Paramilitary Force: Create a thug caste. Groups of angry young Republican men, dressed in identical shirts and trousers, menaced poll workers counting the votes in Florida in 2000. If you are reading history, you can imagine that there can be a need for "public order" on the next election day. Say there are protests, or a threat, on the day of an election; history would not rule out the presence of a private security firm at a polling station "to restore public order".

4) Watch Citizens: Set up an internal surveillance system. The NSA, CIA, FBI, ATF, and others record and search our communications without warrant. The equally secret Counterintelligence Field Activity (Cifa) agency of the Department of Defense has been gathering information about domestic organizations engaged in peaceful political activities: Cifa is supposed to track "potential terrorist threats" as it watches ordinary US citizen activists. A little-noticed new law has redefined activism such as animal rights protests as "terrorism". So the definition of "terrorist" slowly expands to include the opposition.

5) Infiltrate citizens groups: Harass citizens' groups. It can be trivial: a church in Pasadena, whose minister preached that Jesus was in favor of peace, found itself being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, while churches that got Republicans out to vote, which is equally illegal under US tax law, have been left alone.

6) Arbitrarily imprison and release citizens: Engage in arbitrary detention and release. In 2004, America's Transportation Security Administration confirmed that it had a list of passengers who were targeted for security searches or worse if they tried to fly. Anti-war marcher? Potential terrorist. Support the constitution? Potential terrorist. History shows that the categories of "enemy of the people" tend to expand ever deeper into civil life.

7) Target Key Individuals: Target key individuals - Threaten civil servants, artists and academics with job loss if they don't toe the line. Use their family as leverage. You can loosen the bolts on their breaks, or create potential accidents.

8) Dissent equals treason: Cast dissent as "treason" and criticism as "espionage'. Every closing society does this, just as it elaborates laws that increasingly criminalize certain kinds of speech and expand the definition of "spy" and "traitor".

9) Control the press: You won't have a shutdown of news in modern America - it is not possible. But you can have, as Frank Rich and Sidney Blumenthal have pointed out, a steady stream of lies polluting the news well. What you already have is a White House directing a stream of false information that is so relentless that it is increasingly hard to sort out truth from untruth. In a fascist system, it's not the lies that count but the muddying. When citizens can't tell real news from fake, they give up their demands for accountability bit by bit.

10) Suspend the rule of law: Suspend the rights of citizens, change the law to free your forces. The John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007 gave the president new powers over the national guard. This means that in a national emergency - which the president now has enhanced powers to declare - he can send Michigan's militia to enforce a state of emergency that he has declared in Oregon, over the objections of the state's governor and its citizens.


The U.S. experiment in democracy could be closed down by a process of erosion. "The Price of Liberty Is Eternal Vigilance"

The End of America - Naomi Wolf