REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Return of The Fear.

POSTED BY: FREMDFIRMA
UPDATED: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 02:41
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009 7:44 AM

FREMDFIRMA



Since I am dredging out and backing up certain very old editorials written under a different pen-name, I stumbled across a couple well worth sharing.

This was written Dec 12 2001.
==================================
Return of "The Fear."

by XXXXXXXX

It doesn't take much effort, for those with long memories watching the events that have unfolded since Sept 11th, to feel the rise of an unquiet spirit, apparently back from the grave to haunt us once again.

Being that this is the Christmas season, lets view this in a format more appropriate for the holidays, say....from the viewpoint of ole Ebeneezer Scrooge....

THE GHOST OF McCARTHY PAST.

Most of you have little, if any idea who Senator Joe McCarthy was, but as those who do not remember history are eternally doomed to repeat it....you'd best be finding out.

"Tailgunner Joe" as he was known, was a nearly fanatical man, rising to power in a way all too common in history....pick an enemy, doesn't matter what it is, just pick one, and inflame everyone against them - then ride to power on the tide of the manipulated mob, it worked for Hitler, right?

The target picked by McCarthy back in the 50's was the "Red Scare" - Communism, a belief that history has since shown us isn't really even effective, but it was useful as a bludgeon to keep he and his cronies in power.

Even worse was the dread accusation "Un-American Activities"......enough fervor for this term was generated that the House of Representatives formed HUAC - the House Un-American Activities Committee.

HUAC and it's originators then set to performing a modern-day crusade, inquisition included. Federal Agencies, whom before were limited in power and mandated to obey the law, were given free reign within our borders, enforcing the will of the men in Washington, regardless of the Constitutional rights of those set upon by them, framing, planting evidence, rigged trials, all manner of chicanery was allowed them. A heavy price was paid by many; in fact, these agencies went so far rogue that new laws had to be created just to regain and maintain control of them, and their names would be forever blackened by those who remember just how low they could stoop.

The trial of Alger Hiss was a classic example; it no longer mattered if one was innocent or guilty, the mere presumption of guilt demanded a conviction - at any cost.

Soon to follow were the infamous "Hollywood Ten", a group of individuals in the film industry who dared exercise their Constitutional rights in the courtroom. They were summarily cited for Contempt, and thrown to the wolves.

The McCarran Immigration and Nationality Act was passed - a nightmare of red tape and restrictions on entering, or visiting the "Land of the Free". It was blasted by a 1953 letter relative to the issue.

Blacklisting and Greylisting became commonplace. "Loyalty Oaths" were demanded.

It became a witch-hunt, a hysteria, where the only safe place to be was on the delivery end of the accusation, rather than the business end. Countless numbers of otherwise decent American folks were caught up in this whirlwind.

It was a great relief to the nation and it's people when McCarthy was blisteringly censured, and an even greater one when he expired, convinced even on his deathbed that the supposed "Communists" he saw behind every tree, under every rock - were out to get him.

One of his main co-conspirators, Richard Nixon, later achieved the office of the Presidency, only to disgrace it by using the same tactics that fed HUAC in his campaign for office, and being caught in the doing.

At last the tide was turning.

The end result was 20 years of fear and loathing, of ourselves, and each other. It wasn't till 1960 that people again felt comfortable to even mildly dissent from the official "party line". Even then, due to COINTELPRO, "The Fear" was still there.

THE GHOST OF McCARTHY PRESENT.

Since Sept 11th, much has been done in the name of fighting "Terrorism", but a good bit of what has been done is quite disturbing.

The PATRIOT Act passing is just a taste of things to come. Unfortunately, it serves to remove the controls placed on certain Federal Agencies after HUAC. Obviously, the end-result of letting these mad dogs off their leashes has been forgotten by the majority of the public at large (and if you think we'll be getting those freedoms back in four years, ask Stalin or Lenin how long a "state of emergency" can last.)

Notice just how fast the definition of "Terrorism" is broadening. It seems these days any dissent is too much, it's almost...*gasp* UN-AMERICAN! (add hysteria, screaming, running around, etc..)

What, didn't anybody learn a damn thing from the chaos HUAC plunged our nation into?

A sad and tired irony is that the McCarran Act, formed out of one witch hunt, is now rather useful in serving as another convenient springboard for paranoiac politicians to jump to power on.

I cannot dismiss the image of Joe McCarthy rising from his grave like some kind of evil vampire to gloat over a nation, once again, so full of "The Fear" that it turns upon itself and claws it's own heart to shreds, falling into the kind of shouting, fingerpointing and accusation-slinging that would be more appropriate on Jerry Springer than in the populace and government of a civilized nation.

Up yours Osama, you don't scare me and never did, and those waving you in my face to frighten and cow me into allowing undue curtailing of my Constitutional rights and freedoms can kiss my star-spangled ass.

Ah yes, and now we have a new Alger Hiss, too - this Walker fellow, who's apparently on a one-way ride to a rigged trial at the ole "Rocket Docket", a court known to do what the government wants, regardless of the evidence. Why not just shoot him down in cold blood like the barbarians we are?

It doesn't make any sense to throw up a pretense of giving the poor schmuck a trial if we've already decided the verdict and punishment in advance. It just mocks all that we believe in. If he's renounced his citizenship, the charge of treason does not apply, and he should be tried with the rest of the Taliban.

When those in charge of enforcing our laws violate those laws, which they swore a solemn oath to uphold and enforce, it spits in the eye of everything that is America. It becomes the strong oppressing the weak, the police become gun-toting thugs (like Rampart, for example). The rule of Law is replaced by pure, rampant Darwinism of the most vicious stripe.

Yes folks, "The Fear" is back, with a new name, and a new game. Lets just hope that it doesn't take another 20 years to recover.

THE GHOST OF MCCARTHY FUTURE.

This one's up to you folks. If you are willing to surrender your freedom just because it's dangerous to be free then you never deserved it in the first place.

Life has risks, and some of those risks do come from other people, but that's no reason to hide in a cage, no matter how gilded it is.

Now before you dare call me Un-American, Treasonous, Disloyal or what have you, understand something else. I don't buy the fiction of "America" as the beauty queen she's being made out to be, but I love the old bitch, warts and all. I don't have to buy into some polite fiction of us being "The Good Guys" in order to care greatly about our nation, and neither does anyone else.

In fact most of these "Dissenters" are not blasting the "America" you hold so dear at all!

What folks are blasting is the unthinking, ignorant, robotic, yes-man loyalty of the type that spawned Adolf's brown-shirt party and later led to bloodshed beyond imagination - something no one wants a repeat of.

If you are going to be patriotic, have a little sense in the doing. You know most of those flags you folks are waving? Well, turn em over - what do they say ? MADE IN CHINA....oh, that's realllll patriotic, ain't it now.

Please remember that the flag is based on something. It is based on a set of beliefs laid down in our Constitution and it's Bill of Rights. However - when you wave that flag over an act against those beliefs, you spit on all it stands for, and damned if I will accept that laying down.


Related Linkage

A 1953 Letter Blasting McCarthyism:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/lehsuite/lehman_mccarthy/Creepin
g_McCarthyism.html


Timeline of events for those too young to remember:
http://www.duke.edu/~iszeman/lec12.html

An alternative viewpoint on the relative events:
http://www.moderntimes.com/palace/blacklist.htm

Remembering the Blacklist:
http://www.sag.com/blacklist.html

Ashcrofts emulation of McCarthy:
http://www.spinsanity.org/columns/20011210.html

A Taste of things to come:
http://www.progressive.org/0901/roth0102.html
http://www.progressive.org/webex/wxmc120801.html

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Tuesday, November 24, 2009 12:45 PM

DREAMTROVE


Thanks,

It hadn't occurred to me that there was a political reason for rebranding attacks like Ft. Hood as "Terrorism." School shootings too will now be terrorism. The reason: To spread the "War on Terror" onto US soil.

Definitely something to gnaw over.

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Tuesday, November 24, 2009 1:22 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Dream: NOW you're thinking! Yes, you got it.

Now keep walking down that road. WHY must these "terrorists" be tried in military tribunals, where Constitutional rights and the rules of evidence need not apply, and where they can't face their accusers and cross-examine them? Why set that precedent, unless it's to set into law the precedent that our court system isn't up to the challenge of dealing with dissidents, who then must also be tried by the military?

And the very first thing they'll tell you about this kind of shit?

"Oh, we'd NEVER do that to American citizens."

I'm old enough to remember when the DPS said it was NEVER going to pull people over just for not having a seatbelt on. Now they run entire campaigns on it, calling it "Click it or Ticket".





Mike

Work is the curse of the Drinking Class.
- Oscar Wilde

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Tuesday, November 24, 2009 4:59 PM

BYTEMITE


Quote:


Now keep walking down that road. WHY must these "terrorists" be tried in military tribunals, where Constitutional rights and the rules of evidence need not apply, and where they can't face their accusers and cross-examine them? Why set that precedent, unless it's to set into law the precedent that our court system isn't up to the challenge of dealing with dissidents, who then must also be tried by the military?

And the very first thing they'll tell you about this kind of shit?

"Oh, we'd NEVER do that to American citizens."

I'm old enough to remember when the DPS said it was NEVER going to pull people over just for not having a seatbelt on. Now they run entire campaigns on it, calling it "Click it or Ticket".



Don't forget the army regiments stationed here and equipped with riot gear and training manuals defining protestors as low-level terrorists!

http://www.infowars.com/dod-training-manual-describes-protest-as-low-l
evel-terrorism
/


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Tuesday, November 24, 2009 4:59 PM

BYTEMITE


Aw, doubled. :(

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Tuesday, November 24, 2009 5:14 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


What, you mean the pain beams and dazzle-lights that were never going to be used on Americans, Byte?

Yup, your point is well taken.


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Tuesday, November 24, 2009 5:50 PM

DREAMTROVE


Mike,

Yes I'm getting that now. The question is not are you paranoid, but are you paranoid *enough*?

Clever trick, making the first case an American muslim extremist. Of course, that doesn't mean they staged the incident, though they could have, all they really had to do was wait.

Now it will be interesting to see what happens. He's going to a regular court and pleading insanity. If that works, people will be outraged, and the govt. will step in, call him a "terrorist" and retry him in a military tribunal. Or some form of mock justice. The more I see of justice the more I understand why Lao Tse has such a serious problem with the concept

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Wednesday, November 25, 2009 2:41 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Quote:


Yes I'm getting that now. The question is not are you paranoid, but are you paranoid *enough*?



And isn't THAT a sad commentary on our country...

Quote:


Clever trick, making the first case an American muslim extremist. Of course, that doesn't mean they staged the incident, though they could have, all they really had to do was wait.



Yeah, I don't really go for the "staged" stuff, because I don't think our people are really that clever. But they sure as hell know how to exploit a situation for their own gain and to push their agenda, don't they?

Quote:


Now it will be interesting to see what happens. He's going to a regular court and pleading insanity. If that works, people will be outraged, and the govt. will step in, call him a "terrorist" and retry him in a military tribunal. Or some form of mock justice. The more I see of justice the more I understand why Lao Tse has such a serious problem with the concept.



I havy my doubts that it will work. There seems to be an awful lot of premeditation involved with him "snapping" like that, which is going to make an insanity plea pretty tough. And if the feds don't get him, I'm sure the state of Texas will ask for its bite of the apple, and they will absolutely, 100% positively go for the death penalty given half a reason. Or no reason at all.

I don't think there's any doubt that he's going to be convicted.

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