The Death of the American Republic

[Michael Tee]

http://original.antiwar.com/bphillips/2011/10/23/welcome-to-the-new-america/

WELCOME TO THE NEW AMERICA

Very good article by Dr. Brian Phillips.  The open defiance of the Constitution in regard to the power of Congress to declare war was a long-standing open sore on the body of the Republic.  The article goes into the Patriot Act powers to obtain warrantless searches of the records of US citizens in which it is a crime to even report to the citizen of the government's invasion of his privacy.  But the line was really passed with the executive branch's murder of American citizens without bringing any charges against them, let alone trying and convicting them in a proper court of law.  The article goes on to describe the level of public support that these unconstitutional actions have received from the public and it's absolutely astonishing.  That the executive and legislative branches have shat all over the Constitution is more or less to be expected - - the lack of public outcry (IMHO, solely the result of media consolidation under corporate control) is the real death-knell.

That was the gist of the article, but I think everyone should read it.  It's really the end of an era.

[Kramer]

http://original.antiwar.com/bphillips/2011/10/23/welcome-to-the-new-america/

WELCOME TO THE NEW AMERICA

Very good article by Dr. Brian Phillips.  The open defiance of the Constitution in regard to the power of Congress to declare war was a long-standing open sore on the body of the Republic.  The article goes into the Patriot Act powers to obtain warrantless searches of the records of US citizens in which it is a crime to even report to the citizen of the government's invasion of his privacy.  But the line was really passed with the executive branch's murder of American citizens without bringing any charges against them, let alone trying and convicting them in a proper court of law.  The article goes on to describe the level of public support that these unconstitutional actions have received from the public and it's absolutely astonishing.  That the executive and legislative branches have shat all over the Constitution is more or less to be expected - - the lack of public outcry (IMHO, solely the result of media consolidation under corporate control) is the real death-knell.

That was the gist of the article, but I think everyone should read it.  It's really the end of an era.

Liberals have always looked at the Constitution with disdain, and a roadblock to implementing their radical agenda, where as Conservatives hold it to the highest regard. I don't think Obama has any regard for human life. His stand on late term abortions was the first clue.

[BT]

Interesting article. I'm all for dismantling Homeland Security. Have been since its inception.

[Michael Tee]

<<Liberals have always looked at the Constitution with disdain, and a roadblock to implementing their radical agenda, where as Conservatives hold it to the highest regard. >>

Kramer, this can't be a liberal/conservative divide any more.  The trashing of the Constitution goes on with the approval of large percentages of the American people.  They can't ALL be "liberals."  The Patriot Act with its warrantless invasions of citizen's privacy was a present from Dubya.  (with bipartisan approval)  Bradley Manning sits in jail denied habeas corpus and denied his Fifth Amendment rights - - and who's screaming about it?  The liberals?  The conservatives?  A so-called "liberal" administration PUT him there.

[Kramer]

<<Liberals have always looked at the Constitution with disdain, and a roadblock to implementing their radical agenda, where as Conservatives hold it to the highest regard. >>

Kramer, this can't be a liberal/conservative divide any more.  The trashing of the Constitution goes on with the approval of large percentages of the American people.  They can't ALL be "liberals."  The Patriot Act with its warrantless invasions of citizen's privacy was a present from Dubya.  (with bipartisan approval)  Bradley Manning sits in jail denied habeas corpus and denied his Fifth Amendment rights - - and who's screaming about it?  The liberals?  The conservatives?  A so-called "liberal" administration PUT him there.

You are correct except Dubya wasn't a Conservative but yes a Republican.

[sirs]

I'm not terribly keen on it myself, though the intention was noble, while the execution and shady end around of the Constitution, on CERTAIN aspects of the PA, are indeed questionable.  Like, the wiretaps of foreign calls from suspected terrorist locations coming IN to America.  I'm largely ok with that.  The attempt to better communicate between agencies, tearing down walls that had been built up between the likes of the CIA and FBI, again, don't have a problem with that

[Michael Tee]

I'm pretty certain that this has gone past the point of no return.  Homeland Security  is like BATF, in that it's just too big to be dismantled.  Too many vested interests at stake.  The fear-mongering has jacked up public support for both programs to such levels as to make them virtually bullet-proof.

[sirs]

Disagree.....its a Government program.  It can be streamlined, with the more appropriate intentions strengthened, and any extraconstitutional actions removed or made to be consitutional

[Michael Tee]

<<Disagree.....its [Homeland Security] a Government program.  It can be streamlined, with the more appropriate intentions strengthened, and any extraconstitutional actions removed or made to be consitutional>>

I don't see any real indication that any of this is in the works.  Cost-cutting is about the only practical form of "streamlining" that I can see, not on civil liberties grounds, but simply as part of an overall deficit-reduction program. 

As far as making the system more constitutional, that's a non-starter, particularly in view of the polls referred to in the article itself, showing minimal public concern over the loss of constitutional rights.  If the general public doesn't give a shit, and Wall Street and the corporations don't give a shit, what's in it for any politician?

[sirs]

<<Disagree.....its [Homeland Security] a Government program.  It can be streamlined, with the more appropriate intentions strengthened, and any extraconstitutional actions removed or made to be consitutional>>

I don't see any real indication that any of this is in the works.  

And don't expect any with this President.  There's never been a Government program that wasn't worth making bigger and more bloated, outside of the military

If the general public doesn't give a shit, and Wall Street and the corporations don't give a shit, what's in it for any politician?

Watch & learn

[Plane]

  The second admendment is there to enforce the first , and apparently the fifth too.

    The BATF never did seem fond of the constitution as it is.


      I don't think that fugitives on the run have ever been safe tho.

[BT]

I don't see any real indication that any of this is in the works. 

Did you see Occupy Wherever coming?

Sharpton on Daily Show: OWS! has already changed the national conversation.

[Michael Tee]

<<Did you see Occupy Wherever coming?>>

Personally, no, because I don't follow the social media such as twitter and facebook.  I knew that Adbusters had called for this but I never thought it would go anywhere because Adbusters is a Canadian magazine.

And, as I said, I was in New York for the first two weeks of Occupy Wall Street! which received minimum coverage in the daily newspapers, most of it along the lines of "Well they said thousands would come but only a couple of hundred showed up."  AFTER the cops arrested 700 demonstrators on the Brooklyn Bridge, when I was already back in Toronto, all the MSM began to treat it seriously but still dismissively, but I read one MSM article claiming that the MSM had missed the story because they were concentrating on head-counts, while anyone who was monitoring the social media devoted to this event would have seen the big buildup coming

[BSB]

The death of the American Republic and other hysterical crap.

We'll decide whether Anwar al-Awlaki needed to be taken out not antiwar.com or some Canuck. We're the target.

Homeland? 9/11 could have been stopped. Both the CIA and the FBI operated vertically. Homeland was designed to insure horizontal cooperation. Of course it went to far. That's what happens when you threatened like that. Thank God we haven't been hit by another successful attack because things would have gone even further. Homeland will get dismantled at some point baring another attack. In the mean time not all the recomendations of the 9/11 commision have been completed.


BSB