Local and national elections
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Monday November 5, 2007 11:30:28am




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hoosiermama
Comments: 401
Joined: 11/14/2007
01/07/2008 06:21:25 PM
I must admit that I am more excited about this election than many in the past. I am pleased that both the media and the candidates are utilizing the internet via Myspace and Facebook to get their ideas to the younger voters. Now whether younger voters are inspired enough to actually show up at the polls in November remains to be seen.

I like a number of the candidates (both Dem and Rep). Huckabee, McCain, Edwards....I like all of them. I am intrigued with Obama, but I don't feel like I fully understand his platform yet.

I want to hear all of the candidate's ideas without them resorting to a lot of mudslinging, but I'm resigned to the fact that this one will probably get very nasty. Yes, rome, I think you are spot on with your statement concerning Obama's muslim ties. I guess time will tell, though.


 
romegasir
Comments: 1608
Joined: 03/14/2007
01/07/2008 05:20:34 PM
leaning guiliani or mccain.....

I believe the repubs are praying that obama is the choice so that they can bring up all of muslim ties.

 
TimeTraveler
Comments: 930
Joined: 04/18/2007
01/06/2008 10:08:33 PM
rome makes a case for allowing the hyperlink within the body of a SOUNDOFF comment...

TT

 
fixem
Comments: 100
Joined: 11/16/2007
01/06/2008 09:14:15 PM
you go rome sir!!!!!!

 
msla
Comments: 570
Joined: 12/29/2005
01/06/2008 06:57:37 PM
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

 
romegasir
Comments: 1608
Joined: 03/14/2007
01/06/2008 12:33:09 AM
I'd like to answer with an equally meaningful comment:


History of the World

Homo sapiens first arose on the Earth between 400 and 250 thousand years ago during the Paleolithic period. This occurred after a long period of evolution. Ancestors of humans had been using simple tools for many millennia, but as time progressed tools became far more refined and complex. At some point humans had begun using fire for heat and for cooking. Humans also developed language sometime during the Paleolithic. During this period all humans lived as hunter-gatherers who were generally nomadic.

Neolithic

A major change occurred around 8,500 BC in the Fertile Crescent area of the Middle East when humans adopted agriculture. Soon after it was developed independently or spread to China, Egypt, and the Indus Valley. Several millennia later agriculture developed in Africa and in the Americas. Some areas such as Australia did not use agriculture until relatively modern times, although in some areas of Australia, fish-based farming was practiced by the aboriginal population which is thought to have arrived 50,000 years before the present.

Agriculture led to several major changes. It allowed far larger population densities. It also created, and allowed for the storage, of food surpluses that could support people not directly involved in food production. The development of agriculture allowed the creation of the first cities.

The development of cities has led to what has been called civilization. First in the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates and soon after along the Nile, Yangtze, and Indus evidence of elaborate cities with merchants and rulers is found. At this same time developments such as writing, currency, and extensive trade were introduced.

Bronze and Iron Age

The agricultural settlements had until this time been almost completely dependent on stone tools. In Eurasia around 3000 BC copper and bronze tools, decorations, and weapons began to become commonplace. Some areas of the world, including all of the Americas, never developed metal tools, however.

The rise of large organized religion is a notable element of this period. Over time a great variety of religions developed around the world with Hinduism and Buddhism in India, Zoroastrianism in Persia being some of the earliest major faiths.

After bronze the Mediterranean region and China saw the introduction of iron tools and weapons. This accompanied the rise of some of the world first empires. The most potent of these became the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean region and the Chinese Empire in the East. India and Persia produced their own empires in this period as well.

A noted cultural development was the development of philosophy in both east and west. The Roman Empire and its successor states were heavily influnced by the Ancient Greeks and their philosophers. In India a number of noted Buddhist scholars arose, while China saw Confucius and Lao-Tzu laid down the foundations of new religions.

In America the first large empires began to form around 1200 BC with the Olmec and Maya civilization creating large ceremonial structures. These states produced many great monuments and showed signs of great learning.

Age of Kingdoms

Throughout the temperate zones of Eurasia and North Africa large empires continued to rise and fall. While the Roman Empire collapsed it was replaced a few centuries later by a number of powerful Catholic states. In China dynasties would similarly rise and fall. The most remarkable, if short lived, of these was the Mongol Empire which seized almost all of Eurasia's landmass, missing only western Europe and Japan.

Islam, which began in Arabia in the eight century, was also one of the most remarkable forces growing from only a few followers to becoming the basis of a series of large Empires in India, the Middle East, and North Africa.

This period was marked by slow, but steady, technological improvements with developments of extreme import such as the stirrup and printing arriving every few centuries.

Vast societies also began to be built up in Central America at this time with the Inca in the Andes and the Aztecs in modern Mexico being the most notable.

Rise of Europe

Through a combination of factors the far western edge of the Eurasian land mass began to have a technological edge on the rest of the world by 1500, and over the next few centuries this process began to accelerate. Advancing seafaring technology allowed Christopher Columbus in 1492 to create a lasting link between the previously unconnected Americas and Eurasia. This had dramatic effects on both continents. The Europeans brought with them diseases the Americans had never before encountered, and over 90% of them were killed in a series of devastating epidemics. The Europeans also had horses, steel, and guns that allowed them to hold a decisive military advantage over the Americans.

The Aztec and Incan empires were destroyed, as were many of the cultures of North America. Gold and resources for the Americas began to be shipped to Europe, while at the same time large numbers of European colonists began to emigrate to the west.

The Spanish Empire was at first predominant, but soon the more northern French, English, and Dutch began to dominate the Atlantic. In a series of wars fought in the 17th and 18th centuries, culminating with the Napoleonic Wars Britain emerged as the most powerful nation in the world. It controlled an empire that spanned the globe.

While the Americas were the first areas to fall to the Europeans soon they also had a technological advantage over the people of Asia as well. In the 19th century Britain gained control of the Indian subcontinent, Egypt and Malaysia, the French took Indochina while the Dutch occupied Indonesia. The British also occupied several of the areas still populated by neolithic peoples including Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, and as in the Americas large numbers of British colonist began to emigrate to these areas.

This era also saw the Industrial Revolution a major transformation of the world’s economies. It began in Britain and used new modes of production such as the factory, mass production, and mechanization to produce a wide array of materials faster and for less labour than previous methods. The world economy became based on coal. New methods of transport such as railways and steam ships made the world a smaller place.

Twentieth Century

The twentieth century saw the domination of the world by Europe wane, and the United States and the Soviet Union rise as superpowers. After 1990 the Soviet Union collapsed, however, and the United States became what some have termed a hyperpower.

The century saw the rise of unprecedented totalitarian ideologies. First with Communism in the Soviet Union after 1917, which spread to Eastern Europe after 1945, and China in 1949, and scattered other nations in the third world during the 1950s and 1960s. The 1920s saw militaristic dictatorships gain control of Germany, Italy, Japan, and Spain.

These transitions were evinced through wars of unparalleled scope and devastation. The First World War destroyed many of Europe's old monarchies, and weakened France and Britain. The Second World War saw most of the militaristic dictatorships in Europe destroyed, but saw Communism advance into Eastern Europe and Asia. This led to the Cold War, a forty-year stand-off between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and theirs. Human civilization was put into jeopardy by the development of nuclear weapons. After out-spending the Soviet Union on weaponry, the US saw a collapse in the Soviet state, with fragmentation of the former republics, some rejoining Russia in a commonwealth, others reaching out toward Western Europe.

The same century saw vast progress in technology, and a large increase in life-expectancy and standard of living for the majority of humanity. As the world economy switched from one based upon coal to one based on oil, new communications and transportation technologies continued to make the world more united. These developments produced their own concerns, however, such as environmental degradation


 
ATLANTABURNING
Comments: 58
Joined: 05/13/2007
01/06/2008 12:05:30 AM
Tell Senators Hell No to H.R. 1955
January 4, 2008

Jane Harman and Liberty's Lost Light
Thinking for Yourself is Now a Crime
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

What was the greatest failure of 2007? President Bush's "surge" in Iraq? The decline in the value of the US dollar? Subprime mortgages? No. The greatest failure of 2007 was the newly sworn in Democratic Congress.

The American people's attempt in November 2006 to rein in a rogue government, which has committed the US to costly military adventures while running roughshod over the US Constitution, failed. Replacing Republicans with Democrats in the House and Senate has made no difference.

The assault on the US Constitution by the Democratic Party is as determined as the assault by the Republicans. On October 23, 2007, the House passed a bill sponsored by California Democratic congresswoman Jane Harman, chairwoman of a Homeland Security subcommittee, that overturns the constitutionally guaranteed rights to free expression, association, and assembly.

The bill passed the House on a vote of 404-6. In the Senate the bill is sponsored by Maine Republican Susan Collins and apparently faces no meaningful opposition.

Harman's bill is called the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act."When HR 1955 becomes law, it will create a commission tasked with identifying extremist people, groups, and ideas. The commission will hold hearings around the country, taking testimony and compiling a list of dangerous people and beliefs. The bill will, in short, create massive terrorism in the United States. But the perpetrators of terrorism will not be Muslim terrorists; they will be government agents and fellow citizens.

We are beginning to see who will be the inmates of the detention centers being built in the US by Halliburton under government contract.

Who will be on the "extremist beliefs" list? The answer is: civil libertarians, critics of Israel, 9/11 skeptics, critics of the administration's wars and foreign policies, critics of the administration's use of kidnapping, rendition, torture and violation of the Geneva Conventions, and critics of the administration's spying on Americans. Anyone in the way of a powerful interest group--such as environmentalists opposing politically connected developers--is also a candidate for the list.

The "Extremist Beliefs Commission" is the mechanism for identifying Americans who pose "a threat to domestic security" and a threat of "homegrown terrorism" that "cannot be easily prevented through traditional federal intelligence or law enforcement efforts."

This bill is a boon for nasty people. That SOB who stole your girlfriend, that hussy who stole your boyfriend, the gun owner next door--just report them to Homeland Security as holders of extreme beliefs. Homeland Security needs suspects, so they are not going to check. Under the new regime, accusation is evidence. Moreover, "our" elected representatives will never admit that they voted for a bill and created an "Extremist Belief Commission" for which there is neither need nor constitutional basis.

That boss who harasses you for coming late to work--he's a good candidate to be reported; so is that minority employee that you can't fire for any normal reason. So is the husband of that good-looking woman you have been unable to seduce. Every kind of quarrel and jealousy can now be settled with a phone call to Homeland Security.

Soon Halliburton will be building more detention centers.

Americans are so far removed from the roots of their liberty that they just don't get it. Most Americans don't know what habeas corpus is or why it is important to them. But they know what they want, and Jane Harman has given them a new way to settle scores and to advance their own interests.

Even educated liberals believe that the US Constitution is a "living document" that can be changed to mean whatever it needs to mean in order to accommodate some new important cause, such as abortion and legal privileges for minorities and the handicapped. Today it is the "war on terror" that the Constitution must accommodate. Tomorrow it can be the war on whomever or whatever.

Think about it. More than six years ago the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked. The US government blamed it on al Qaeda. The 9/11 Commission Report has been subjected to criticism by a large number of qualified people--including the commission's chairman and co-chairman.

Since 9/11 there have been no terrorist attacks in the US. The FBI has tried to orchestrate a few, but the "terrorist plots" never got beyond talk organized and led by FBI agents. There are no visible extremist groups other than the neoconservatives that control the government in Washington. But somehow the House of Representatives overwhelmingly sees a need to create a commission to take testimony and search out extremist views (outside of Washington, of course).

This search for extremist views comes after President Bush and the Justice (sic) Department declared that the President can ignore habeas corpus, ignore the Geneva Conventions, seize people without evidence, hold them indefinitely without presenting charges, torture them until they confess to some made up crime, and take over the government by declaring an emergency. Of course, none of these "patriotic" views are extremist.

The search for extremist views follows also the granting of contracts to Halliburton to build detention centers in the US. No member of Congress or the executive branch ever explained the need for the detention centers or who the detainees would be. Of course, there is nothing extremist about building detention centers in the US for undisclosed inmates.

Clearly the detention centers are not meant to just stand there empty. Thanks to 2007's greatest failure--the Democratic Congress--there is to be an "Extremist Beliefs Commission" to secure inmates for Bush's detention centers.

President Bush promises us that the wars he has launched will cause the "untamed fire of freedom" to "reach the darkest corners of our world." Meanwhile in America the fire of freedom has not only been tamed but also is being extinguished.

The light of liberty has gone out in the United States.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com

Posted by Mark Earhart at 9:01 PM 0 comments

Labels: concentration camps, habeas corpus, hate speach, political correctness, thought crime


McCain the Imperialist
http://www.truthnews.us/?p=1520

This link will take you to a video and news story with quotes from McCain showing his true self.

The man makes me sick!!!

Posted by Mark Earhart at 9:13 AM 0 comments

Labels: corporatism, death, globalism, McCain, murder, occupation, war


Contacting Bluffton
To the Town of Bluffton
To everyone who supports the decision to fine or jail citizens for political signs I am forced to say YOU ARE A GOD DAMN FASCIST. GO FUCK YOURSELVES!!!

Contrary to popular belief, this is still the land of the free, and some of us are still brave. We will defend freedom of speach and civil liberties to the death.

I will never spend a penny in your town, and I will discourage my readers on line to refrain from doing so as well.

http://www.townofbluffton.com/link.php?link=contact

GIVE THEM HELL!!!

Posted by Mark Earhart at 8:26 AM

Posted by Mark Earhart at 8:38 AM 0 comments

Labels: activism, contact, fascism, first amendment


To the Town of Bluffton
To everyone who supports the decision to fine or jail citizens for political signs I am forced to say YOU ARE A GOD DAMN FASCIST. GO FUCK YOURSELVES!!!

Contrary to popular belief, this is still the land of the free, and some of us are still brave. We will defend freedom of speach and civil liberties to the death.

I will never spend a penny in your town, and I will discourage my readers on line to refrain from doing so as well.

http://www.townofbluffton.com/link.php?link=contact

GIVE THEM HELL!!!

Posted by Mark Earhart at 8:26 AM 0 comments

Labels: corporate whores, fascism, first amendment, free speach, political signs


Jail For Political Signs?
Political signs can lead to fines, jail

The Island Packet
Saturday January 5, 2007

Illegal political signs are popping up along the highway rights of way in the town of Bluffton. Approximately three weeks ago, town staff removed at least 10 Ron Paul presidential campaign signs. Last week, we removed a Mitt Romney sign that was not only illegal, but which also had profanity scratched across the front of it. This week, we removed two John McCain signs.We will remove any others we find, including those attached to telephone or utility poles, fence posts, and trees.

Campaign staffers who erect signs are subject to a $500 fine and/or 30 days in jail per violation.

(Article continues below)


Bluffton's town ordinance says political signs cannot be located on public property or in public rights of way, such as along the shoulders of highways. Political signs must be confined to private property, and must have the permission of the property owner. Signs cannot be erected earlier than 60 days prior to the election and must be removed within five days after the election. Signs cannot exceed six square feet per sign face and cannot exceed a height of 4 feet.

Please call the town at 706-4580 if you have any questions.

Tim Bennett

Assistant town manager for operations,Town of Bluffton





I, Mark Earhart, think we all need to call Mr. Bennett and tell him to GO FUCK HIMSELF!!!

Posted by Mark Earhart at 7:17 AM 0 comments

Labels: activism, fascism, first amendment, free speach, GET OFF YOUR ASS


Patriotic Ron Paul Advertisement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qVmVJJaLkM

Posted by Mark Earhart at 7:01 AM 0 comments

Labels: freedom, liberty, patriotism, Ron Paul, troop support


Bill O'Reilly is Full of Shit!!!
http://digg.com/world_news/Bill_O_Reilly_is_Full_of_Shit

He makes excuses for the exclusion by his network of Ron Paul from Presidential debate.

Posted by Mark Earhart at 6:28 AM 0 comments

Labels: debates, fascism, O'Reilly, Primaries, Republican, Ron Paul


 
ATLANTABURNING
Comments: 58
Joined: 05/13/2007
12/23/2007 01:25:41 AM


I agree very much with most of what Joel has to say. I have only two objections. First, I respectfully submit that everyone learn the difference between democracy and a Constitutional Republic, which is what we are, and always have been. Second, I am equally outraged by the Democrats and Republicans with the exception of one man. That man is Ron Paul, who is the only candidate I will vote for in the primaries and then the Presidential election of 2008. I firmly believe that he is the only honest patriotic American remaining in Congress, and think he would be an ideal candidate for the restoration of our lost liberties.
Mark Earhart 12/23/07

9/11 Truth Manifesto
Joel S. Hirschhorn
Online Journal
Friday December 21, 2007
For evidence that America’s political system is a criminal conspiracy, open your mind to piles of new analyses that prove beyond doubt that the official 9/11 story is a lie. Years of a bipartisan cover-up of 9/11 lies make it much more than one horrendous past event. It endures in infamy as a symptom of a corrupt and dishonest government.
Every day we pay for what 9/11 and its cover-up have burdened us with, including the costly Iraq war and the erosion of the rule of law and constitutional rights. Power elites have suppressed the truth because they fear what will happen when the public understands that 9/11 was not accomplished solely by foreign terrorists.
Technically sound analyses of what happened at the World Trade Center have unequivocally shown that the official 9/11 story is not credible (www.ae911truth.org). Truth seekers have met their burden of proof; the government has not met theirs. Simply put, controlled demolition brought down three buildings, not fires from the impact of planes on two of them. Not only was the US government involved, it has also conspired to hide the truth from the public. Why? Republican and Democratic politicians and power elites fear that 9/11 truth will remove what little public trust remains in government. The truth will produce political instability, perhaps breaking the two-party stranglehold on our political system. And it should. And it must, if we are to finally obtain the deep political reforms our nation desperately needs.
(Article continues below)


The decline started before George W. Bush and his criminal co-conspirators accelerated it with their blatant disregard for the rule of law and our Constitution. It will continue, even with a Democratic administration, unless we reform our political system. We must remind Americans that our nation was born in an insurrectionist, populist rebellion against political tyranny -- and that 9/11 teaches us that we need a Second American Revolution. We must destroy the domestic Axis of Arrogance of our plutocracy more than fear a foreign Axis of Evil. How?
A vast nationwide grassroots 9/11 truth movement is ignored by the mainstream news media. Its success will be the catalyst for renewing American democracy. It will produce a shock wave that rattles the brains of all Americans: Shock therapy from a truth so powerful and unsettling that Americans finally see the decline of American democracy that allowed 9/11 and its cover-up.
Make no mistake, the 9/11 truth movement holds the future of the United States. We are not subversive “conspiracy theorists” or enablers of foreign terrorism. We are patriotic warriors working to nullify group delusion produced by government propaganda. Dozens of books and websites reveal countless technical contradictions and inconsistencies with the official government 9/11 story and the laws of physics. The weight of the evidence supports one painful verdict: Our federal government played a role, probably through a large “black op.” The “why” is obvious: To justify an unjust war to serve corporate interests and greed.
Here is our opportunity: To make 9/11 the tipping point for American democracy renewal. Our enemies fear that if this movement succeeds, their plutocratic, elitist cabal -- the Axis of Arrogance -- run by the two-party duopoly will collapse. Corruption keeps our political system stable -- truth must clean it up. Instability is the necessary price for restoring democracy.
A paradigm shift
9/11 lies have sustained the ruling terrorism-threat paradigm. 9/11 truth must energize a new political-reform paradigm. Patriotism framed as defending the nation against terrorism must be replaced by patriotism focused on repairing American democracy.
Already, status quo protectionists lie about us to defeat our movement. Things will get worse as our movement draws closer to bringing down the corrupt political system. And we are getting closer. Only 16 percent of Americans believe that members of the Bush administration are telling the truth about what they knew about terrorist attacks on the US prior to 9/11, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll. But what people say in polls is not the same as coming out publicly and vociferously for 9/11 truth, or seeing the roots of 9/11 in the decay of American democracy, not merely the actions of a few evil people.
The deceived public must be re-educated to see the arrogant power elites running our national plutocracy as worse than radical Islamic terrorists. Paul Craig Roberts captured the essence of the problem: “Americans think their danger is terrorists. They don't understand the terrorists cannot take away habeas corpus, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution. . . . The terrorists are not anything like the threat that we face to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution from our own government in the name of fighting terrorism. Americans just aren't able to perceive that.”
9/11 is a history lesson to inform the nation about democracy's decline. As John McMurtry asked, “So which goes -- the faith in America’s greatness and goodness in the world, or the facts which disclose the opposite at the very top?” We must always remember that Americans are better than their government. They do not get the government they deserve. They get the government that the rich and powerful impose. That must end.
We confront more than power elites. There is psychological resistance of millions of Americans to painful 9/11 truth -- a shameful, “unthinkable” truth about their elected government. Even if they have doubts about the official story, they instinctively recoil and erect mental barriers to block out the full truth. They want to keep believing that they live in a great democracy. They want to believe that when the Bush administration is replaced our democracy will be in good shape again. Hard to accept that 9/11 truth could not have been suppressed this long without the tacit or explicit approval of Democratic politicians and power brokers.
It is as if we are telling children that their parents are mass murderers. Distracted, time-poor, depressed, politically disengaged, cynical and insecure Americans do not want to hear that their government had a hand in 9/11. That for years their two-party-controlled government has blatantly lied to them. That thousands of good Americans have died and been terribly injured in a war propped up by the false-flag 9/11 fiction. In sum, that despite elections a vast criminal conspiracy has been so successful for so long. Such thoughts hurt.
Also, political instability is scary to ordinary Americans. But stability based on corruption and lies is destructive. Only when Americans see 9/11 as a political attack (by Americans on Americans) -- not solely a terrorist attack (by foreigners on Americans) -- will they understand that revealing 9/11 truth must lead to major political reforms. Instability is the cost of democracy renewal.
Here are powerful messages: The collapse of the rule of law is more important than the collapse of buildings. Countless more have died because of 9/11 than on 9/11. The events of 9/11 ultimately are less important than the reasons for and consequences of 9/11.
As John McMurtry said, “[9/11] allowed an illegitimate administration to transmute into America’s patriotic champion at war -- above accountability and the rule of law. ‘defending America from another terrorist attack’ became a political blank check for corporate corruption of government expenditures with impunity, war criminal acts and threats across the Islamic and alternative Third World, and attacks on civil rights and commons at home.” All this persists as 9/11 lies persist.
Despite record-low levels of public trust in Congress and the president, too many Americans still believe that elections are the path to major political reforms. Despite a solid history of campaign lies from politicians, and overwhelming belief that the nation is on the wrong track, Americans keep hoping that they can vote their way into a better future. Most Americans do not have a Boston Tea Party mentality. They are unready to revolt despite revolting conditions. Our truth movement must help Americans accept painful truth and its political fallout. We must put all the technical truth discovered by reputable scientists and engineers to work for systemic reforms.
We must do more than oust the official story and obtain a new 9/11 investigation that now has wide support by hundreds of respected Americans (www.patriotsquestion911.com). We must guide Americans into a more patriotic and courageous mental state. We must help Americans become outraged and rebellious, yet also optimistic about major political reforms.
Political strategy
Success against the power elites running and ruining our nation requires building an army of Americans openly revolting against the two-party corporatist state now in control. The 9/11 truth movement must use political strategies to defeat the status quo political establishment. Here are three actions.
First, with detailed technical analyses unequivocally proving that the official story is false, the movement can draft a bill that might be titled The 9/11 Truth Act of 2008. This proposed federal legislation should be delivered to every member of the House and Senate early next year. It would clarify the investigation: What its scope and objectives must be. What reliable entity, public or private or a combination, must be used. How the public must be given opportunities to present information. What resources must be provided and what time frame must be adhered to.
We must take the initiative and specify exactly what kind of new official 9/11 investigation is necessary, recognizing that professionals in the truth movement have limited resources and cannot address all questions. The 9/11 truth movement itself must define exactly what the first real credible and comprehensive government sponsored investigation must consist of. We can have no confidence in anything that the political establishment might devise to silence our movement. We must tell the public, the media and the political world what is required to reveal the total truth as to what caused, for example, the collapse of three World Trade Center buildings, especially building 7 not even hit by a plane.
Developing and submitting this legislation must then be followed up by all 9/11 groups urging their supporters to bombard Congress with demands for hearings and passage of the bill. This is the way to engage more Americans politically to obtain full 9/11 truth.
However, few politicians’ comments support the truth movement. A rare statement came from presidential candidate Ron Paul. In a radio interview last January, he said that the 9/11 investigations to date are “more or less cover-up and no real explanation of what went on.” However, later in the year when he became more visible he was asked about the possibility of the official story being orchestrated by the government. He said emphatically “absolutely not.” In another interview, when asked whether he thought 9/11 was an inside job that our government made happen, he responded forcefully “No.” So apparently Paul sees a cover-up but not about the involvement of our government. Would he support legislation for a new investigation?
Thus the second critical political action is this: Proclaim that only politicians that actively support passage of our legislation will earn support in the 2008 elections from the millions of Americans doubting the official 9/11 story. This threat is an absolute necessity. If the legislation is not passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush, then we must aggressively support a boycott on voting for all Democrats and Republicans in the 2008 federal elections.
Third, all those committed to 9/11 truth should honor what the framers gave us in our Constitution in case some day Americans lost confidence in the federal government, especially in Congress. That day has arrived. 9/11 was that day. They gave us the option in Article V for a convention of state delegates to propose constitutional amendments. We must see SYSTEM reforms as only achievable through constitutional amendments that Congress will never propose nor achieve through normal legislation.
Congress and the entire elitist political establishment have intentionally denied us a convention for over 200 years. The one and only requirement in Article V has more than been satisfied by over 500 state applications from all 50 states. Enough is enough. Our truth movement should join the effort of Friends of the Article V Convention at www.foavc.org by urging truth group members to join FOAVC. The political establishment fears both 9/11 truth and an Article V convention. We must grasp that 9/11 truth can bring us to the brink of political reforms and the convention is the process to obtain them.
Conclusion
The 9/11 truth movement must also be a political movement -- but not in any partisan sense. 9/11 truth can help Americans take back their country. 9/11 truth can end the criminal, corrupt and conniving plutocracy that stole our government and mutilated our democracy.
We must transform 9/11 from a catalyzing event for imperialistic war-mongering to one for democracy renewal. We must convert terrorist-transfixed fear into political reform enthusiasm.
The pursuit of truth is not always the pursuit of happiness -- not when the truth hurts. The 9/11 truth movement is not about finding immediate happiness. It is about rebooting American democracy and, after accomplishing that, earning happiness



 
ATLANTABURNING
Comments: 58
Joined: 05/13/2007
12/20/2007 03:29:24 PM
On Illegal Immigration and Border Security

Ron Paul
Prisonplanet.com
Tuesday December 18, 2007

Illegal immigration is on the forefront of many Americans’ minds lately and with good reason. The Center for Immigration Studies has recently reported that our immigrant population is now 37 million, up from 27 million in 1997. 1 in 3 of these immigrants are here illegally. We have a problem that has exploded in the last 10 years with no appreciable change in border security since September 11 when we were supposed to take a hard look at the problem.

We have security issues at home and our resources are running thin. Our education system is stretched, and immigration accounts for virtually all the national increase in public school enrollment in the last 2 decades. There is a worker present in 78% of immigrant households using at least one major welfare program, according to the same study. It’s no surprise then that often times these immigrants can afford to work for lower wages. They are subsidized by our government to do so.

Right now we are subsidizing a lot of illegal immigration with our robust social programs and it is an outrage that instead of coming to the United States as a land of opportunity, many come for the security guaranteed by government forced transfer payments through our welfare system. I have opposed giving federal assistance to illegal immigrants and have introduced legislation that ends this practice. In the last major House-passed immigration bill I attempted to introduce an amendment that would make illegal immigrants ineligible for any federal assistance. Unfortunately, that amendment was ruled "not relevant" to immigration reform. I believe it is very relevant to taxpayers, however, who are being taken advantage of through the welfare system. Illegal immigrants should never be eligible for public schooling, social security checks, welfare checks, free healthcare, food stamps, or any other form government assistance.

(Article continues below)


The anchor baby phenomenon has also been very problematic. Simply being born on US soil to illegal immigrant parents should not trigger automatic citizenship. This encourages many dangerous behaviors and there are many unintended consequences as a result of this blanket policy. I am against amnesty and I have introduced an amendment to the Constitution (H.J. Res 46) which will end this form of amnesty.

I have also supported the strengthening our border and increasing the number of border patrol agents. It is an outrage that our best trained border guards are sent to Iraq instead of guarding our borders. For national security, we need to give more attention to our own border which is being illegally breached every day, and yet the government shirks one of its few constitutionally mandated duties, namely to defend this country. Citizens lose twice with our current insecure border situation – we don’t have the protection we should have, and then taxpayers have to deal with the fallout in the form of overstretched public resources and loss of jobs.

The anger is understandable when it comes to illegal immigration and the problems with our borders. I will continue to fight in Congress for more effective ways to address these issues in keeping with the Constitutional mandate to protect America .


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