90-percent
90-percent's JournalColbert has the solution to the NSA problem
I got this from the attached video.
Obama should simply take out Snowden with a drone strike.
Then we can all forget about this and move on to the next shiny object.
Might take some intensive spin to remove the FASCIST TOTALITARIAN POLICE STATE aroma from such a move, but we have a very short attention span and the drone would kill this story in 48 hours after the strike. Move on, nothing to see here.
-90% Jimmy
Reason and Rational Thought
Did the President take an Oath to keep us safe?
No, Absolutely not. The Oath he took states: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."[61]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_office#Federal_Executive_and_Legislative_Branch_Oaths
The crux of the biscuit with privacy since 9-11 is the utter lack of PROPORTIONAL RESPONSE to the tragedy of 9-11. I am presuming that keeping us safe also means helping us avoid death. So the most of our resources should be brought to those areas that cause the most deaths.
From a post on DU, someone has estimated that America has lost perhaps 50 lives to muslim terrorists since 9-11. In the same amount of time, we lost approximately 20 million lives from preventable causes. Heart Disease, diabetes, suicides, accidents, etc. My data can be found in this post:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1017&pid=123706
We created this self-perpetuating state of TOTAL INFORMATION AWARENESS in the hopes of turning that 50 dead to zero? Why instead aren't we working more diligently on where it would do the most people the most good and work on the stuff that caused the 20,000,000 deaths instead? This is a ratio of 400,000 "normal"/preventable deaths to 1 terrorism death.
Fighting the war on Terror, based on the concept of proportional response, should be lower on the national priority list than outlawing Donald Trumps hair, fer chrissakes!
Therefore, it's my conclusion that the primary purpose of the "War on Terror" was to justify a bloated and self perpetuating national security state. Something that history shows is always done on the road to a totalitarian fascist police state.
"It can't happen here" in the present is now "It has happened here"
Restoring our Constitutional Rights would do a hell of a lot more for attainment of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" than a police state ever would!
-90% Jimmy
Math, logic, facts and reason as applied to NSA Constitutional crimes
So “THEY” want to protect us from the nasty dangerous world? Well, being a democracy almost by definition means our government should do the most good for the most people. Our government should prioritize their “protection” of us all based on the magnitude of the threat. Here’s some American mortality stats from 2011 (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm)
Number of deaths for leading causes of death:
Heart disease: 597,689
Cancer: 574,743
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 138,080
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 129,476
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 120,859
Alzheimer's disease: 83,494
Diabetes: 69,071
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 50,476
Influenza and Pneumonia: 50,097
Intentional self-harm (suicide): 38,364
This seems to add up to approximately 1.85 million deaths per year for the above causes of death. Rounding down to 11 years since 9-11 and assuming about the same death toll per year since 9-11, that’s 20.35 million US dead since 9-11. I know almost all of the above is preventable, but we don't have the technology in all of the sciences to bring the above numbers down to zero, but we are making inroads continuously in lowering the preventable death rates.
The number that died in the 9-11 attacks is approximately 3,000 (http://www.statisticbrain.com/911-death-statistics/)
So our government has been aggressively nullifying our Constitution in the name of fighting terrorism?
To prevent the deaths of a hypothetical future 3000 people vs not giving a rats ass about the 20,350,000 preventable deaths since 9-11. Either our elected reps have misplaced priorities or “they hate us for our freedoms”, which are being nullified daily in the name of the war on terror.
I thought these people took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, not destroy it in front of our very eyes. Aren’t these people violating a pretty damn sacred oath to uphold the Constitution simply traitors?
I want all of America to enjoy the same Constitutional Rights we all used tp enjoy thirty years ago. In terms of magnitude, destroying the Constitution to save us from terrorists is like "treating dandruff by decapitation"*.
-90% Jimmy
* - Frank Zappa at the 1985 PMRC Congressional Hearings
Awe Inspiring!
The USA is spying on the entire planet! I wonder what THE ENTIRE PLANET has to say about that?
The treasonous seditious rape of the Constitution is one thing, but what about the multi-national corporations? Considering Corporations have purchased our entire system of government and all our institutions, wouldn't they be interested in the TRADE SECRETS of their corporate competitors?
The possibility there are no more secrets in business seems core enough to bring about the economic collapse of the entire planet! Yet another set of Institutions we depend on for a civil society bites the dust.
The only good thing is the USA will start at the top of possible manufacturing and design technology if we decide to make washing machines and electric appliances again. Woe to all of us if China's main TRADE SECRET is slavery, pollution, and unsafe workiing conditions!
-90% Jimmy
Simple question
Is there no other legal mechanism to hold GW Bush, et al, accountable for their treason besides President Obama?
A Nuremberg kind of trial or the World Court or the United Nations?
Or along the lines of Vincent Bugliosi's book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, published May 2008. It was a recipe for Attorney's General FROM ANY STATE to bring GWB to court if that state lost a soldier in Iraq.
I just recalled in the middle of writing this post, that I sent a modest campaign contribution to somebody running for AG (in perhaps Vermont or New Hampshire? Somewhere in New England not CT, MA, RI or ME)? that pledged to prosecute GWB. It was a woman, independent? green? Dem primary? I forget. 2006-2009 time frame.
Could all this be an Obama LBJ/FDR classic play; "I AGREE WITH YOU. NOW MAKE ME DO IT."?
Bush's treason is just as rotten in the present as it was ten years ago. I don't think you can run out the clock on treason?
-90% Jimmy
I LOVE CHRIS
but his predictions for the future of our democracy is as bleak as Orwell's Animal Farm or Terry Gilliam's movie Brazil.
And I happen to think he's largely correct.
And it does seem highly probable our own government is planning for the societal upheaval to come as a result of climate change and already has a bunch of "Camp Reagan's" in the planning phase.*
Don't those with Tea Party leanings also believe the government is going to inter them just like the Japanese Americans in WW2? And isn't this why they want their guns; to stave off the government when they come to take them away?
I'm a progressive liberal and on this point I agree with them. Except for the gun shoot out. I'll go willingly. I'm 59 and weary.
-90% Jimmy
*http://wiki.killuglyradio.com/wiki/Ronald_Reagan
Cheney
I think I got a bead on what he's made of.
He is nothing more than an archetypal corporate sociopath.
Can any one name anything good he contributed to our society and our world in his time of public service? Or the time when he was President of Dresser or Halliburton or any other company his ilk ends up running to their personal benefit?
He is the walking and breathing embodiment of modern American Fascism, the merger of corporation and state.
There’s prisoners with multiple life sentences that did about .001% of the damage Cheney has managed to inflict on his fellow human beings. Sending 4,500 American servicemen to their deaths based on lies he created puts him at least in the top ten political mass murderers of the last 75 years.
-90% Jimmy
The solution is to elect somebody named Roosevelt
When the Glided Age became engorged with the overly rich and powerful, Teddy R. busted the trusts.
When the great depression needed to be repaired by the damage done by the rich and powerful, Franklin Delano got in and cleaned it up.
The rich have spent the last thirty years gaming everything in their favor at the expense of the bottom 99%. They own the media, they get fairness acts over turned, they get Glass Steagal overturned, they underwrite hate radio, they set legal precedents that it perfectly fine to knowingly lie in your news broadcasts. They've stripped almost all democracy out of our legal infrastructure to work in their favor. They've turned American news broadcasts into Corporate Propaganda.
Mitt Romney gets to put in a half million a year into his 401K and we peasants are legally restricted to, what, $6K per year?
And now they turned money into speech and corporations into people. Those with the most money have the most speech. Just what our Forefathers envisioned!
The only hope I see is that the greedy and powerful will overstep the rights and well being of the bottom 99% so nakedly and obscenely that we the people will rise up in revolt. As we will by then have nothing left to loose but our lives.
-90% Jimmy
The magnitude of the West Tragedy
In historical terms, it should have a place in history in the same zone as:
THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE of March 25, 1911, in which 146 workers lost their lives.
14 confirmed dead, 60 "missing", the West Tragedy may be "one of the worst industrial disasters since The Texas City disaster of April 16, 1947" Wikipedia states this was "the deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history, and one of the largest non-nuclear explosions" (in history) This blast killed at least 581 people and was also in Texas and also involved ammonium nitrate.
I suspect the root cause of the West Texas Tragedy will be similar to the root cause of the Triangle Fire; Utter management indifference to anything besides making the maximum amount of money possible and risking your employees lives to do it. They also risked the lives of the people living very nearby, come to think of it.
Does any rational person think the 60 "missing" will eventually be found? "Missing" is merely a polite term for "blown to smithereens".
My prediction is the owners of the West Factory will be fined at least $50,000 and not greater than $100,000 for their industrial negligence. Merely the cost of doing business. And if the owners are found to be Republican political donors, you can cut my estimates in half.
Here's a link to my DU post about West vs. Boston, FWIW
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2720693
-90% Jimmy
PS - Will, you were mentioned on Thom Hartman's show a few days ago and he was referring to one of your DU posts. You've hit the big time! (Although there may be multiple "Will Pitt"s on DU?)
Our withering Constitutional Rights
We American's gleefully allowed many of our Constitutional Rights to be diminished or nullified completely after 9/11.
We were happy to do so, to allow our government to protect us from terrorists.
My question is, simply, how many more rights do we have to give away so our government can do it's stated job and "keep us safe"? What other Constitutional rights should have been sacrificed to prevent the Boston Tragedy?
Another question about the magnitude of the Boston Bombing; why is there much less media concern with the Texas explosion that killed at least 14 and rendered up to 60 others "missing"? In terms of magnitude, the Texas disaster perhaps caused 500% more human loss and misery than the Boston tragedy.
Why do Americans find certain types of death perfectly acceptable, but are totally horrified by acts of terrorism?
Terrorism is horrible and unjustified and should be eliminated from the planet, of course, but an American's chance of being a terrorist victim is perhaps the same as being hit by lightning and a meteor simultaneously, in terms of probabilities.
And the root cause of the Texas disaster seems to be lack of enforcement of existing regulations, and industries allowed "to regulate themselves". Should we not, as Americans concerned about the general well being, be completely up in arms and fighting every day for stronger enforcement of regulations as they apply to dangerous industries?
Judging by the recent gun debate, apparently not!
-90% Jimmy
PS - I am being facetious about the loss of rights after 9-11. I deeply resent my government diminishing my rights in the name of "fighting terra-ists". The dilution of our rights has more to do with growing corpora-fascism than it does with protecting us citizens, in my opinion
Profile Information
Name: JimGender: Male
Current location: Barkhamsted, CT
Member since: Sat Jul 3, 2004, 08:36 AM
Number of posts: 6,828
