Category Archives: Peace

Peace

Bush impeachment, Arrest, Iraq war, 1984, George Orwell, Minnesota, Liberal Democrats

I just received this comment from someone that is apparently associated with Minneapolis Minnesota and many left wing liberal groups. They actively promote ideas of impeaching President Bush, arresting Bush and that the president’s administration is involved in illegal activities such as wiretapping and torture. I would expect this kind of thought process in Minnesota just as I would in Vermont. Maybe the cold weather and indoor life affects their brains.

I went to one of their websites, and after scanning through their ridiculous comments, I came to the bottom where this appeared:
“I just want you to know that,
when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.”
-Bush, June 18, 2002

“War is Peace”
-Big Brother in George Orwell’s 1984

The real irony of this is that the democratic party, especially the left wing liberal segment, uses the tactics of Big Brother regularly. They constantly tell lies and distortions of truth that become reality to their cohorts. They are masters of doublespeak. Let’s address torture. The Iraq war is much more analogous to World war II than the Vietnam conflict. Real torture took place in World War II. The Japanese were masters of inflicting pain. Don’t whine to me about water boarding, you spineless wimps. World War II veterans are dying daily all around us. You insult them with your comments. If any of you have any thoughts of aggression toward President Bush, I suggest you come to NC, where the majority of the population will help you see the error of your way.

Here is the comment that was posted in it’s entirety:

Resolution on Impeachment of Bush and Cheney Whereas George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney: 1. deliberately misled the nation and doctored intelligence, as described in the Downing Street minutes, http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/memos.html about the threat from Iraq in order to justify a war of aggression and an occupation of Iraq, as further described in House resolution H. Res. 333 http://kucinich.house.gov/UploadedFiles/int3.pdfand as listed in House Resolution H. Res. 635 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=hr109-635 2. committed crimes against peace by initiating war against Iraq in violation of the UN Charter http://www.worldpress.org/specials/iraq/; 3. committed crimes against humanity in their conduct of the occupation of Iraq in which they killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians and created millions of refugees http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1892888,00.html and http://edition.cnn.com/2 006/WORLD/meast/10/13/iraq.main/index.html; 4. killed over 3700 American soldiers and severely wounded nearly 30,000 more in the pursuit of an illegal, immoral, and unjust occupation of Iraq. While Bush and Cheney have stated no truthful noble cause for the war, one of the central purposes appears to be to take control of Iraq’s immense oil reserves to financially benefit private corporate interests. See Bush’s benchmark listing fact sheet released the same day Bush announced the “surge” that expressly called on the Iraq parliament to “enact hydrocarbons law to promote investment . . . ” http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070110-3.html and http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/56672/; 5. committed further crimes against peace by threatening Iran in violation of the UN Charter, as described in House resolution H. Res. 333 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi- bin/query/z?c110:H.RES.333: and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6649053.stm; 6. detained thousands of prisoners without charges and without providing the ability to confront their accusers at a fair trial http://thereport.amnesty.org/eng/Regions/Americas/United-States-of- America; 7. condoned the torture of prisoners in violation of the Geneva Conventions, the US anti-torture statute of 1994, the US War Crimes Act of 1996, and the oath of office http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/05/24/usint8614.htm and http://thereport.amnesty.org/eng/Regions/Americas/United-States-of-America and http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/03/24/bush_shuns_patriot_act_requirement/. Bush’s refusal to faithfully execute the laws prohibiting torture and his declaration on February 7, 2002 that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to prisoners in Afghanistan and in Guantanamoset the stage for torture there http://hrw.org/reports/2004/usa0604/2.htm. The Rumsfeld approved Guantanamo torture techniques were then imported to Iraq in August 2003, where the International Committee of the Red Cross found “systemic” mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners in several facilities and where the Schlesinger Report confirmed in August 2004 that abuses were “widespread” and “serious both in number and in effect,” and that there is both “institutional and personal responsibility at higher levels;”
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8. approved at least two different illegal electronic surveillance programs of American citizens without a warrant in violation of the fourth amendment and in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, and repeatedly lied to the American people by stating that no surveillance was taking place without a court order. The first program includes intercepting phone and email conversations without warrants and was exposed by the NY Times on December 16, 2005 http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/CPC/NYT_15cnd-program.html. After that programwas exposed Bush said the program was carefully targeted to just include international calls and suspected members of Al Qaeda. Then, the second program was exposed by USA Today on May 11, 2006. It provides a wholesale attack on the fourth amendment by recording call identification information of tens of millions of purely domestic calls as well as international calls http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm; 9. attacked basic human rights protections in the constitution including habeas corpus, fifth amendment freedom from loss of life, liberty and property without due process of law, eighth amendment freedom from cruel and unusual punishment, and fourth amendment freedom fromunreasonable search and seizure; 10. attacked the separation of powers in an effort to consolidate power in the executive; 11. attacked the messenger who revealed that Bush “twisted” intelligence “to exaggerate the Iraqithreat.” Just as Nixon retaliated against former Pentagon analyst Daniel Ellsberg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg, according to papers filed in court by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in April 2006, there was “concerted action” by “multiple people in the White House” to “discredit, punish or seek revenge against” former Ambassador Joseph Wilson for his July 6, 2003 NY Times op ed piece http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/opinion/06WILS.html?ex=1372824000&en=6c6aeb1ce960dec0&ei=5007 that ripped the cover off of Bush’s false assertions in his 2003 state of the union address that Iraq was trying to buy uranium from Africa for building a nuclear bomb. In retaliation, and to silence other would-be critics, the White House collected information about Wilson and disclosed to reporters that his wife, Valerie Plame, was a covert agent in the CIA counterinsurgency division, putting her life, and the lives of her contacts, at risk in violation of a US law protecting intelligence personnel (The Impeachment of George W. Bush, by Elizabeth Holtzman); 12. as the sole person under the Federal Stafford Act with responsibility and authority to issue emergency orders to mobilize the military and any federal resources needed to aid and assist in a disaster (see Failure of Initiative, February 2006 report of the House Select Bipartisan Committee to investigate the Preparations for and the Response to Hurricane Katrina http://katrina.house.gov/), Bush failed to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, violated the public trust, and demonstrated reckless and inexcusable indifference to human life before, during and after Hurricane Katrina. Bush knew but did not act until too late, and then he lied about it on national TV. Footage and transcripts from briefings Aug. 25-31 demonstrate that Bush was personally told well in advance of the “unprecedented strength” of the hurricane, the “devastating damage expected,” and that “water shortages will make human suffering incredible,” according to highly accurate predictions by the National Weather Service. The Associated Press reported that “in dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans’ Superdome and overwhelmrescuers, according to confidential video footage,” http://www.truthout.org/cgi- bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/47/18079. Yet Bush failed to muster resources to evacuate residents in advance and failed to assist New Orleans residents after Hurricane Katrina hit. Then three days
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later Bush told Good Morning America, “I don’t think that anybody anticipated a breach of the levees.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2006/03/02/AR2006030202130.html In years before the storm Bush demonstrated inexcusable criminal negligence and violated the public trust by cutting the budget for hurricane defense, though the high probability of the breaching of the levees and the enormous risk to human life from a major hurricane hitting New Orleans were predicted and well known for years before the hurricane hit http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/03/katrina.chertoff/index.html; 13. failed to take care that the laws be faithfully executed by issuing signing statements that claim the authority to disobey laws based on the president’s own interpretation of their constitutionality, and then by taking action in violation of these laws, including the US law making torture a crime, laws regarding Congressional oversight that require providing information to Congress, laws regarding domestic spying, laws regarding civil liberties, and laws strengthening whistle blower protection, thereby expanding the president’s own power by stepping into the legislative and judicial functions at the expense of Congress and the courts, upsetting the balance among the three branches of government, and moving us away fromthe rule of law toward vastly increased executive power; http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/04/30/bush_challenges_hundreds_of_l aws/ and http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/03/24/bush_shuns_patriot_act_requirement/; 14. converted the Justice Department into an arm of the Republican Party by firing meritorious federal prosecutors who refused to base decisions on whom to prosecute on political considerations–to help Republicans win election, an offense James Madison discussed in a speech to the Senate on June 17, 1789, in which Madison said, ” The danger then consists merely in this, the president can displace from office a man whose merits require that he should be continued in it. What will be the motives which the president can feel for such abuse of his power, and the restraints that operate to prevent it? In the first place, he will be impeachable by this house, before the senate, for such an act of mal-administration; for I contend that the wanton removal of meritorious officers would subject him to impeachment and removal from his own hightrust.” http://www.gwu.edu/ffcp/mep/displaydoc.cfm?docid=fc11904http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/03/27/113/print/; 15. condoned criminal conduct and obstructed justice by commuting the sentence of convicted perjurer Scooter Libby to keep him silent and to demonstrate that Bush and Cheney will not allow high officials in the administration to be held accountable for their criminal acts;16. obstructed congressional investigations of these and other acts by the administration by defying subpoenas from Senate and House committees seeking documents and testimony under oath by administration officials and former administration officials; and Whereas the constitution requires the president to take the following oath of office: “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States;” and Whereas the constitution provides that the president “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed;” and
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Whereas the constitution mandates that “the President, Vice President and all civil Officers ofthe United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors;” and Whereas impeachment was so important to our founding fathers that it is mentioned six times in five different sections of the constitution; and Whereas George Mason, a primary author of the Constitution, said that impeachment was the single most important part of the entire document. “Shall any man be above Justice? Above all shall that man be above it who can commit the most extensive injustice?” http://gunstonhall.org/georgemason/constitution.html July 20, 1787; and Whereas “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” is a term of art that means a serious abuse of power, whether or not it is also a crime, that endangers our constitutional system of government, or an abuse of public trust. (See Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment: Report of the House Judiciary Committee, 1974, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/watergatedoc_3.htm, articles by Elizabeth Holzman who served on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment hearings of Richard Nixon in 1974 http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060130/holtzman; and http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20070212&s=holtzman, and the book, The Impeachment of George W. Bush, by Elizabeth Holtzman) Whereas each of the above listed acts meets or exceeds that standard; andWhereas impeachment is the only constitutional method to protect Americans from a president intent on abusing power, violating the constitution, violating the laws, and breaching public trust; and Whereas Bush and Cheney threaten further crimes, including launching a war of aggression against Iran, and whereas sufficient time remains in their term of office for them to commit thosecrimes so allowing either or both of them to remain in office for that remaining time will facilitate these crimes, and whereas pretexts for attacking Iran have been issued, as described by a former CIA Middle East field officer and current Time Magazine columnist http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1654188,00.html; and Whereas failing to hold Bush and Cheney accountable not only condones their crimes but facilitates a future president committing similar or greater crimes; and Whereas members of Congress swear an oath to “support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” and no part of this oath permits exception for partisan advantage, the next election, political expediency, whether it is distracting from other issues, or how much time they have left in office; and Whereas failure by Congress to initiate the one remedy–impeachment–provided by our founding fathers to protect the constitution from such serious abuses has put that constitution, the rule of law, civil liberties, our democratic form of government, the separation of powers, the lives of our men and women in uniform, and the lives of countless civilians at severe risk; and Whereas citizen pressure led the Vermont State Senate and 87 cities and towns around the nation to pass impeachment resolutions; and
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Whereas a poll conducted by http://www.americanresearchgroup.com on July 5, 2007 found that 54% of American adults want the US House of Representatives to begin impeachmentproceedings against Vice President Dick Cheney while only 40% oppose, and whereas the poll also found that 45% are in favor of the same thing for President George W. Bush while 46% oppose; and Whereas in view Congress’ ongoing complicity with the war, the torture, the lies, the warrantless wiretapping, and the imprisonment without trial, and its failure to protect rights and civil liberties, it is up to the people themselves to defend the constitution and our civil liberties by building larger grassroots movements, including a movement for impeachment; Therefore be it resolved that the National Lawyers Guild calls upon the U.S. House of Representatives to immediately initiate impeachment proceedings, to investigate the charges, andif the investigation supports the charges, to vote to impeach George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney as provided in the Constitution of the United States of America; and Be it further resolved that the National Lawyers Guild will establish an NLG Impeachment Committee open to all members to coordinate action by the NLG in support of impeachment, to work with national and grassroots impeachment organizations, and to provide legal assistance for those efforts to strengthen the national campaign for impeachment; and Be it further resolved that the NLG Impeachment Committee will help organize and coordinate events at the local, state, and national level to build public participation in the campaign to initiate impeachment investigation, impeachment, and removal of Bush and Cheney from office without further delay; and Be it further resolved that the National Lawyers Guild calls on NLG members to ask their respective member of Congress to support H. Res. 333 to impeach Cheney and to introduce or support other impeachment resolutions; and Be it further resolved that the National Lawyers Guild calls on all other state and national bar associations, state and local government bodies, community organizations, labor unions, and all other citizen associations to adopt similar resolutions and to use all their resources to build the campaign demanding that Congress initiate impeachment investigation, impeach, and remove Bush and Cheney from office without further delay; and Be it further resolved that the National Lawyers Guild will forward a copy of this resolution to the Speaker and the Clerk of the US House of Representatives, to Representative John Conyers, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, to the various state and federal bar associations, to other peace and justice organizations, and to the news media. Implementation: By the NLG Impeachment Committee established by this resolution, by interested local chapters, and by national officers. Submitted by: James Marc Leas, jolly39@juno.comThe resolution cosponsors are: Audrey Bomse, Marjorie Cohn, Laura Safer Espinoza, John Wheat Gibson , Eileen Hansen, Larry Hildes, Jim Klimaski, Jordan Kushner, Jim Lafferty, James Marc Leas, Kerry McLean, Bill Monning, Dorinda Moreno, Michael Ratner, Susan Scott, Jennifer Van Bergen, Aaron Varhola, Karen Weill

Mar 7, 2:44 AM — Brattleboro VT, Bush Cheney impeachment, indictment, arrest, Vermont, provide proof

1984, 2008, Big Brother, Housing Market, Recession, Thought Police, AOL, Charlotte Observer, NY Times

George Orwell was a brilliant writer and prophet, but much of the “handwriting was on the wall” regarding the direction of society and thought control. He had witnessed the propaganda of the Nazi Regime and Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels was famous for saying, “If  you are going to tell a lie, tell a big one.” Of course the Nazis crafted the big lie putting the responsibility for all of Germany’s woes on the jews.

In “1984”, Orwell portrays life in a society where all citizens are constantly told what to think and do. Every home has a screen that broadcasts production and war news and also instructions on how to live and what to think. The slight difference in that society was that each person was being monitored visually and auditorily. If you stop and think about it, we have been told for many years what to wear, how to act and what to think by television commercials and political parties. We now have computer screens doing the same thing through vehicles like AOL, etc.

For many months I have been watching the misinformation campaign emanating from AOL, the television and print media about the declining housing market in the US and then the imminent recession. I have been warning people to seek the truth and to be on the lookout for agendas of profit and political gain. This also applies to the misinformation campaign concerning “global warming.” Follow the money.

I urge everyone to revisit “1984” by George Orwell and ponder the influence on our lives from modern day purveyors of words. If you are unsure of this, just think about the products you buy or decisions you are currently making about housing, voting or other purchases.

Just today, in the Charlotte Observer, their doom campaign manifested itself again with misinformation about the economy. On the front page they are trying to correlate the relationship between food stamps in Mecklenburg County and the state of the economy. They use the “expert” word to imply that a recession is imminent. Here is an exerpt from the “experts” at the Charlotte Observer:

“Escalating food stamp requests is one sign that a recession is imminent, experts say.

Our office is the first indicator that the economy is headed south, said Peggy McCoy, economic services director for the Mecklenburg Department of Social Services.”

First of all, these people are not qualified to make this statement. Secondly, it is based on faulty data that does not account for the rapid general growth in Mecklenburg County and specifically the rapid growth in the illegal alien population. But what the heck, the facts have never gotten in the way of journalists and their agenda before. Consider the NY Times recent attempt to smear the reputation of a good man, John McCain.

Here are some excerpts from “1984”, however I urge you, your children, family and friends to read the book.

“Winston dialed “back numbers” on the telescreen and called for the appropriate issues of the TIMES, which slid out of the pneumatic tube after only a few minutes’ delay.  The messages he had received referred to articles or news items which for one reason or another it was thought necessary to alter, or, as the official phrase had it, to rectify.  For example, it appeared from the TIMES of the seventeenth of March that Big Brother, in his speech of the previous day, had predicted that the South Indian front would remain quiet but that a Eurasian offensive would shortly be launched in North africa.  As it happened, the Eurasian Higher Command had launched its offensive in South India and left North Africa alone.  it was therefore necessary to rewrite a paragraph of Big Brother’s speech in such a way as to make him predict the thing that had actually happened.”
“It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week.  Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours?  Yes, they swallowed it.  Parsons swallowed it easily, with the stupidity of an animal.”
“We control life, Winston, at all its levels.  You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do and will turn against us.  But we create human nature.  Men are infinitely malleable.  Or perhaps you have returned to your old idea that the proletarians or the slaves will arise and overthrow us.  Put it out of your mind.  They are helpless, like the animals.  Humanity is the Party.  The others are outside – irrelevant.

Read “1984”, question what you read and hear, seek the truth and follow the money.

Iraq War justification, Iraq War reasons, can we justify, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Barack Obama

Below are some of the justifications for the Iraq War. What are your reactions to these quotes with 20/20 hindsight? Were we justified to invade Iraq? Were these statements credible and based on credible intelligence? Did Saddam Hussein use weapons of mass destruction? Respond with your comments.

1.  “We must stop Saddam from ever again jeopardizing the
stability and security of his neighbors with weapons of mass
destruction.”  “The chemical weapons Saddam has used and the biological weapons we know he has tested pay no attention to borders and nationalities.”

2.  “If diplomacy runs out, we have reserved the right to use
force and if we do so it will be substantial.”

3.  “No one has done what Saddam Hussein has done, or is thinking of doing.  He is producing weapons of mass destruction, and he is qualitatively and quantitatively different from other dictators.”

4.  “What we are doing is so that you all can sleep at night.  I am very proud of what we are doing.  We are the greatest nation in the world and what we are doing is being the indispensable nation, willing to make the world safe for our children and grandchildren, and for nations who follow the rules.”

5.  “Saddam (Hussein) must not be allowed to threaten his neighbors or the world with nuclear arms, poison gas or biological weapons.”

6.  “If Saddam can cripple the weapons inspections sytem and get away with it, he would conclude the international community, led by the United States, has simply lost its will.  He would surmise that he has free rein to rebuild his arsenal of destruction.”

7.  “Earlier today I ordered America’s armed forces to strike
military and security targets in Iraq.  They are joined by British forces.  Their mission is to attack Iraq’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors.  While other countires also had weapons of mass desctuction, Hussein is in a different category because he has used such weapons
against his own people and against his neighbors.

8.  “Along with Prime minister (Tony)Blair of Great Britain, I made it equally clear that if Saddam failed to cooperate fully we would be prepared to act without delay, diplomacy or warning.”

9.  “The best way to end that threat once and for all is with a new Iraqi goverment — a government ready to live in peace with its neighbors, a government that respects the rights of its people.”

10.  “But once more, the United States has proven that although we are never eager to use force, when we must act in America’s vital interests, we will do so.”