Max: Brain Dump 10011

More than once in my life I have been called "paranoid." On this blog I was called "paranoid" because I saw through Shrub's lies about Iraq's supposed WMD. I saw through the lies when few people did, so I was "paranoid". However, I don't just buy into conspiracy theories. I am a big fan of proof. A lot of my friends buy into the "Bush was behind 9/11" thing. I say, "Show me the proof." By the way, "Oh come on! Open your eyes!" is not proof. It's only because I have a near pathological level of skepticism that I didn't buy them Shrub's lies. In the past, lack of skepticism led me into making more than a few bad judgments. Now I apply it quite rigorously to any idea presented to me. Shrub had no proof of WMD. My friends have no proof that Shrub caused 9/11. That said, I am now going to engage in rank paranoid ranting. I have no reason to believe what I am about to say. In fact, if I believed it I would be heading to Canada right now.

It's Wednesday, November 8, 2006. You wake up to find your internet connection is dead, your phone is dead and the only thing on radio or TV is a looped message stating that a state of emergency has been declared and that anyone on the streets without authorization will be shot on sight. Overnight, you have gone from living in a democracy to an autocracy. How has this happened?

It started in 1992. Bill Clinton was elected President and from that day on, everything he had ever done was put under scrutiny. The Republicans didn't care what impropriety was found, as long as it was found. The R's used these investigations to swing the 1994 election their way. They then set about destroying the President. They dug up the most unpleasant details about the President's personal life and put them on display. They forced the President's penis on the public and made a mockery of the Presidency, insuring that the American were more than fed up with having to hear about the President's personal life.

Then along came Shrub. The neocons and the Bush family used their money, power and influence to insure that Shrub was installed in the White House after a tainted election. Why would they want a tainted election? Because voters want clean elections. The US is the greatest Democracy on the planet and the 2000 elections made us look like a banana republic. The entire country would be ready for election "reform". This so-called reform came in the form of unsecure, buggy electronic voting machines put out by a company with obvious Republican ties. Instead of building the public's confidence in our elections, they ever so slowly undermined it.

While that was going on, the neocons were working behind the scenes to find a way to sell a war in Iraq. Saddam was a dangerous, violent, evil dictator. All that was needed was to make him out to be a threat. At this point, some might be thinking that this is why we should believe that Shrub was behind 9/11. There is plenty of evidence of plans to sell the war being put together prior to 9/11, but no proof of involvement in 9/11. One would think they would be inextricably linked if both were true. 9/11 certainly made selling the war in Iraq easier, but that there is no proof that this was anything but cynical opportunism by the Shrub administration.

There is nothing like good war unite the people behind the President, insuring that his administration went unscrutinized and that he got reelected. People who would have never voted for Shrub under any other circumstance voted to reelect him. War is always a good excuse to undermine liberties. Shrub was hardly the first. Add some panic resulting from 9/11 and the majority of the American people were willing to sacrifice some liberty for promises of security. At first the intrusions were minor, not likely to upset the average American. These were merely the start. Other steps needed to be taken before it would be put into the next gear.

First, the President and Congress had to lose the support of the American people. With the help of plainly idiotic legislation, rising gas prices (thanks to the House of Saud) and a rising tide that was swamping more boats than it was lifting, voters were guaranteed to call for a change. Looking at the polls it seemed clear that the Dems were destined to take over Congress and Shrub was to be sidelined, his power shrunk to the power of the veto. Or so it would seem.

You have heard about the Military Commisions Act. It was one of two essential pieces of legislation passed just before the 2006 "elections". It gave the President the power to imprison anyone for any reason and deny that person any legal recourse. What you did'nt hear about was The John Warner Defense Authorization Act. A few blogs and news sites tried to call people's attention to it. The San Francisco Indy Media website said that "Public Law 109-364, or the 'John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007' (H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th, 2006, in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a 'public emergency' and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to 'suppress public disorder.'"

It would seem that Yesterday's elections caused some disorder. "Voting" machine were screwing-up throughout the country. Millions of frustrated Americans left polling stations not knowing whom they had voted for or if they had even voted at all. Small pockets of protest and rioting popped up here and there. But Americans on the whole are not given to rioting and protest. At the end of the day, we went home and went to sleep not knowing what could be done about a deeply flawed "election".

We woke up today to find we are all prisoners in our own homes. We are cut off from the world, from neighbors, friends and family. The only thing we know is that people with guns are patrolling the streets with orders to shoot on sight. Do we dare venture out? Can we rise up? Is there already an uprising? We know nothing except that the USA we knew is dead and that what comes now is out of our hands.