Roger's Observations & Comments

All comments on this page, unless otherwise noted, are those of Roger and not necessarily those of other precinct committee persons. To contact this web site or to post a comment, call Roger or send e-mail to ourdems@yahoo.com  Go home to ourdems.org

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"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. " -- Dr. Martin Luther King

 

Great video information from John Good's Left In Aboite:

Naomi Wolf - The End of America
Senate Bill 1959 to Criminalize Thoughts, Blogs, Books and Free Speech Across America

Stopping this bill from becoming law is the single most important thing all Americans can do right now. If this becomes law, all free speech about health freedom, the crimes of the FDA, the crimes of the Bush Administration, America's role in global warming and any other topics could all be criminalized. YOU could be labeled a terrorist, kidnapped by government thugs, taken from your home, thrown in a secret prison, denied access to legal representation, denied due process and essentially "disappeared" into a system of such corruption and evil that it now begins to blatantly mirror Nazi Germany.

Think it couldn't happen here? It's happening right now! This is exactly how it happened in Nazi Germany. First, burn the Reichstag and blame it on the "enemy." Pass new police state laws. Disarm the people. Spread fear. Erect secret prisons and secret police. Call anyone who disagrees with you a "traitor." Control the mainstream media. Sound familiar? This is all happening right now in the United States of Amerika, and if we don't work to stop it, this nation will rapidly devolve into a fascist police state where no one is truly free.

We are but a few small steps away from it right now. All it would take is one dirty bomb in a major U.S. city. Bush would declare Martial Law and take over the National Guard. Troops on the streets. Anyone who writes a blog against the government would be arrested. Authors of "alternative" books would be kidnapped and have their books burned on the street. It could all happen at the stroke of a pen. The infrastructure for tyranny is in place right now, just waiting to be invoked.

Since you are here, you can read this . . More new stuff added below.

Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and George W. Bush went to a fitness spa for some fun. After a stimulating, healthy lunch, all three decided to visit the men's room and they found a strange-looking gent sitting at the entrance.

He said, "Welcome to the gentlemen's room. Be sure to check out our newest feature, a mirror that, if you look into it and say something truthful, you will be rewarded with your wish. But, be warned: if you say something FALSE, you will be sucked into the mirror to live in a void of nothingness for all eternity!"

The three men quickly entered and upon finding the mirror, Bill Clinton stepped up and said, "I think I'm the most intelligent of us three," and he suddenly found the keys to a brand new Bentley in his hands.

Al Gore stepped up and said, "I think I'm the most aware of the environmental problems of us three," and in an instant, he was surrounded by a pile of money to fund his next Presidential Campaign.

Excited over the possibility of finally having a wish come true, George W. Bush looked into the mirror and said,
"I think...," and was promptly sucked into the mirror.

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You Gotta Read This:

There is a voice of reason in Washington, and his name is
David M. Walker, the
U.S. Comptroller General.

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Video Of The Week

Are U.S. Funds Being Funneled To Al Qaeda?

New Yorker columnist Sy Hersh says the “single most explosive” element of his latest article involves an effort by the Bush administration to stem the growth of Shiite influence in the Middle East (specifically the Iranian government and Hezbollah in Lebanon) by funding violent Sunni groups.

Hersh says the U.S. has been “pumping money, a great deal of money, without congressional authority, without any congressional oversight” for covert operations in the Middle East where it wants to “stop the Shiite spread or the Shiite influence.” Hersh says these funds have ended up in the hands of “three Sunni jihadist groups” who are “connected to al Qaeda” but “want to take on Hezbollah.”

Hersh summed up his scoop in stark terms: “We are simply in a situation where this president is really taking his notion of executive privilege to the absolute limit here, running covert operations, using money that was not authorized by Congress, supporting groups indirectly that are involved with the same people that did 9/11.” Watch it:

Thanks to John Good - Left In Aboite

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I got this from a friend. Pretty scarey if true. Does any one else know about this?

Subject: Kiss your freedom "Good-bye!"

In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law (1). It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President's ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions.

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."

President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act of 2006. In a sense, the two laws complement one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad, while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home, preparing to order the military onto the streets of America. Remember, the term for putting an area under military law enforcement control is precise; the term is "martial law."

Section 1076 of the massive Authorization Act, which grants the Pentagon another $500-plus-billion for its ill-advised adventures, is entitled, "Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies." Section 333, "Major public emergencies; interference with State and Federal law" states that "the President may employ the armed forces, including the National Guard in Federal service, to restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when, as a result of a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition in any State or possession of the United States, the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of ("refuse" or "fail" in) maintaining public order, "in order to suppress, in any State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy."

For the current President, "enforcement of the laws to restore public order" means to commandeer guardsmen from any state, over the objections of local governmental, military and local police entities; ship them off to another state; conscript them in a law enforcement mode; and set them loose against "disorderly" citizenry - protesters, possibly, or those who object to forced vaccinations and quarantines in the event of a bio-terror event.

The law also facilitates militarized police round-ups and detention of protesters, so called "illegal aliens," "potential terrorists" and other "undesirables" for detention in facilities already contracted for and under construction by Halliburton. That's right. Under the cover of a trumped-up "immigration emergency" and the frenzied militarization of the southern border, detention camps are being constructed right under our noses, camps designed for anyone who resists the foreign and domestic agenda of the Bush administration.

An article on "recent contract awards" in a recent issue of the slick, insider "Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International" reported that "global engineering and technical services powerhouse KBR [Kellog, Brown & Root] announced in January 2006 that its Government and Infrastructure division was awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in the event of an emergency." "With a maximum total value of $385 million over a five year term," the report notes, "the contract is to be executed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers," "for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) - in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs." The report points out that "KBR is the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton." (3) So, in addition to authorizing another $532.8 billion for the Pentagon, including a $70-billion "supplemental provision" which covers the cost of the ongoing, mad military maneuvers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places, the new law, signed by the president in a private White House ceremony, further collapses the historic divide between the police and the military: a tell-tale sign of a rapidly consolidating police state in America, all accomplished amidst ongoing U.S. imperial pretensions of global domination, sold to an "emergency managed" and seemingly willfully gullible public as a "global war on terrorism."

Make no mistake about it: the de-facto repeal of the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA) is an ominous assault on American democratic tradition and jurisprudence. The 1878 Act, which reads, "Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both," is the only U.S. criminal statute that outlaws military operations directed against the American people under the cover of 'law enforcement.' As such, it has been the best protection we've had against the power-hungry intentions of an unscrupulous and reckless executive, an executive intent on using force to enforce its will.

Unfortunately, this past week, the president dealt posse comitatus, along with American democracy, a near fatal blow. Consequently, it will take an aroused citizenry to undo the damage wrought by this horrendous act, part and parcel, as we have seen, of a long train of abuses and outrages perpetrated by this authoritarian administration.

Despite the unprecedented and shocking nature of this act, there has been no outcry in the American media, and little reaction from our elected officials in Congress. On September 19th, a lone Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) noted that 2007's Defense Authorization Act contained a "widely opposed provision to allow the President more control over the National Guard [adopting] changes to the Insurrection Act, which will make it easier for this or any future President to use the military to restore domestic order WITHOUT the consent of the nation's governors."

Senator Leahy went on to stress that, "we certainly do not need to make it easier for Presidents to declare martial law. Invoking the Insurrection Act and using the military for law enforcement activities goes against some of the central tenets of our democracy. One can easily envision governors and mayors in charge of an emergency having to constantly look over their shoulders while someone who has never visited their communities gives the orders."

A few weeks later, on the 29th of September, Leahy entered into the Congressional Record that he had "grave reservations about certain provisions of the fiscal Year 2007 Defense Authorization Bill Conference Report," the language of which, he said, "subverts solid, longstanding posse comitatus statutes that limit the military's involvement in law enforcement, thereby making it easier for the President to declare martial law." This had been "slipped in," Leahy said, "as a rider with little study," while "other congressional committees with jurisdiction over these matters had no chance to comment, let alone hold hearings on, these proposals."

In a telling bit of understatement, the Senator from Vermont noted that "the implications of changing the (Posse Comitatus) Act are enormous". "There is good reason," he said, "for the constructive friction in existing law when it comes to martial law declarations. Using the military for law enforcement goes against one of the founding tenets of our democracy. We fail our Constitution, neglecting the rights of the States, when we make it easier for the President to declare martial law and trample on local and state sovereignty."

Senator Leahy's final ruminations: "Since hearing word a couple of weeks ago that this outcome was likely, I have wondered how Congress could have gotten to this point. It seems the changes to the Insurrection Act have survived the Conference because the Pentagon and the White House want it."

The historic and ominous re-writing of the Insurrection Act, accomplished in the dead of night, which gives Bush the legal authority to declare martial law, is now an accomplished fact.

The Pentagon, as one might expect, plays an even more direct role in martial law operations. Title XIV of the new law, entitled, "Homeland Defense Technology Transfer Legislative Provisions," authorizes "the Secretary of Defense to create a Homeland Defense Technology Transfer Consortium to improve the effectiveness of the Department of Defense (DOD) processes for identifying and deploying relevant DOD technology to federal, State, and local first responders."

In other words, the law facilitates the "transfer" of the newest in so-called "crowd control" technology and other weaponry designed to suppress dissent from the Pentagon to local militarized police units. The new law builds on and further codifies earlier "technology transfer" agreements, specifically the 1995 DOD-Justice Department memorandum of agreement achieved back during the Clinton-Reno regime.(4)

It has become clear in recent months that a critical mass of the American people have seen through the lies of the Bush administration; with the president's polls at an historic low, growing resistance to the war Iraq, and the Democrats likely to take back the Congress in mid-term elections, the Bush administration is on the ropes. And so it is particularly worrying that President Bush has seen fit, at this juncture to, in effect, declare himself dictator.

Source:
(1) http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200609/091906a.html and http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200609/092906b.html See also, Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, "The Use of Federal Troops for Disaster Assistance: Legal Issues," by Jennifer K. Elsea, Legislative Attorney, August 14, 2006

(2) http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill+h109-5122

(3) Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International, "Recent Contract Awards", Summer 2006, Vol.12, No.2, pg.8; See also, Peter Dale Scott, "Homeland Security Contracts for Vast New Detention Camps," New American Media, January 31, 2006.

(4) "Technology Transfer from defense: Concealed Weapons Detection", National Institute of Justice Journal, No 229, August, 1995, pp.42-43.

WHY I AM A DEMOCRAT: I care about Democrats, Republicans and Independents, but I choose to be a Democrat because they are more inclusive, more understanding with an appreciation individual ways of seeing the world. They are more interested in the common good, the rights of individuals and the benefits derived from diversity. Democrats do not expect everyone to believe exactly as they do and are more willing to listen to the ideas of others. Those I know do not sacrifice people's rights, jobs, health care or safety for the benefit of business. Don't get me wrong, Democrats support business, but the rights and needs of people and the health of our planet home have a very high priority. Lastly, Democrats encourage the use our minds to research, study and evaluate. They do not depend on shallow word labels for understanding complicated issues.

Everyone sees the world through their own eyes.
This is what I see and hear. I expect you may see it differently.
But maybe we are close in understanding on some things.
Most of us do really care about the same things.

Go home to ourdems.org

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Frustrations: People are so busy earning money, raising children and trying to enjoy their lives that they often devote little time to getting even a moderate understanding of political issues. What they usually get are news views of the packaged presentations of candidates, political parties and elected officials and their spokesmen. These are often filled with half truths, wedge issues that are more manipulative than important to understanding what is needed for our nation's health. We, as a society, spend relatively little time studying the issues and the candidates - those who make decisions that effect us all, our planet and future generations. I am amazed that so many people know more about professional sports figures and entertainers than they do about political figures. They know more about the rules of football than they do about the rules of our country. They discuss sports with intensity - but almost never get angry because someone else supports another team. In politics, our beliefs often exceed our knowledge, yet we can become very angry when others believe differently. The result is that many people just do not discuss it, don't really understand it and are frustrated by it and our nation suffers as a result. Share your ideas on how to correct this lack of involvement in politics? The Corruption of Labeling: While I generally try not to label things with a descriptive term or an epithet, it is difficult not to. We need to use them and they can be helpful in sharing understanding, getting ideas to be understood by others. Unfortunately, we seem to have corrupted the use of labels by creating new emotional attachments to words that really mean very little. The understanding of words change. That is why, as a psychology professor once told me, professionals change the words they use because other people adopt new meanings and attitudes that make some words less useful to the professionals. Some current examples are - left, right, liberal, conservative, tax and spend, throw money at the problem, cut and run, stay the course, healthy forests and my favorite, family values. When people try to understand issues by using labels, they accept a position based on a word picture without looking into any real understanding of the complications of issues. I often wonder if it is because we see so many TV commercials, hear so many radio sales pitches and read so many ads in newspapers and magazines that we have forgotten how to think critically. We seem to use these quick fix phrases that really mean nothing, but often condition our thinking and our beliefs. While both parties use them, the Republicans have used them with greater effectiveness, causing many people to think and talk in phrases rather than studying, evaluating and understanding issues. Labels or phrases are used that tell us absolutely nothing and do not help in our understanding. They only add to division with shallow understandings by hiding the truth. The pictures are often believed and we go on blindly accepting what is not. Let us try to avoid thinking with and having our understanding influenced by inappropriate interpretation of labels. Let us search for our own understandings through reasoning and information. Send thoughts to ourdems@yahoo.com Go home to ourdems.org

Differences

Shamelessly taken from the Third District Indiana Democrats website (and John Good's blog)

"The difference between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party is that everyone is welcome in the Democratic Party.

Because Democrats don't care if you are black, white, brown, or a nice shade of green.

We don't care if you pray in a church, a synagogue, a temple, a mosque, or just before a math tests.

We don't care if you are young, old, or don't want to tell your age.

We don't care what gender you are or what gender you want to hold hands with, as long as you want to hold hands!

We don't care about the size of your bank account, just the size of your heart; and we don't care where you are today, just where you dream you want to be tomorrow."

So come and join us, we think you will like the company.

Read the Allen County Democratic Party Blog for breaking news

 

 Go home to ourdems.org

 

Did You Know? Predicting Future Statistics
I believe that this was created by a teacher somewhere in Colorado named Karl Fisch.
This video gives information about the past, our own generation and assumes the future statistics
of the world and our own possible capabilities. The predections are mind boggling.

 

 

 

...... General Observations ...... Why I am a Democrat ...... Why people run for office ...... Thoughts...... Family Values ...... Gluttony - Good or Bad?