22 June 2010

Free speech?

Once upon a time, Americans had the Constitutional right to freedom of speech. Wait a minute you say. What do I mean, "once upon a time"?
Well, we no longer have that right. Just go and read about the latest "decision" by the US Supreme Court. The case is Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project.  With this "decision", the majority have told us all that it is now illegal to even offer to teach people how to make peace with their adversaries.  Yes, even teaching the Palestinians to try to make peace with the Zionist entity is now considered "material support" to a terrorist organization. If we protest against the war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity being perpetrated every day by the Zionist entity, well, those are no doubt now illegal acts as they provide "material support" to supposed terrorists.
That may even mean that the very act of writing this entry is illegal now. It may even mean that by your reading this post, you could be prosecuted for giving "material support" to a terrorist.  How so? Well, by extension, as I am against this new abuse of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights by this "decision" I am probably damn close to being labeled a "terrorist". Does that sound "far fetched" to you?  With what has happened to America since 9/11 I would not be so sure.
The phrase that "9/11 changed everything" seems to be more true that anybody would admit. Since then, our Constitution has been run through the shredder. First by the Cheney/Shrub gang, and now continued by the Go-bomb-them crew.
This administration won the last presidential election by giving the people the illusion of "hope" and "change". Well, this just shows how very little hope we have left. It also shows just how much change we got from that election.
e still have the same wars going that we had in 2008. We still continue to give total, blind support to the Zionist entity. We have even increased the number of countries that we are fighting in. Yes, we have added military "actions" in Yemen, Somalia, and greatly increased our "strikes" in Pakistan. In fact, in his very first week in his new job, Go-bomb-them authorized drone aircraft  strikes in Pakistan. In his very first week on the new job. Well, no doubt he wanted to "assure" us all that he was a macho tough guy. This president has authorized more drone strikes against Pakistan in his one and a half years on the job than Shrubbie did in eight. And you all thought that this guy was an "anti-war" candidate? Fooled us all, big time.
This latest "decision" by our(??) Supreme Court is going to make for some very interesting times for us all. How long will web site and blogs be allowed to speak out against war crimes? How soon before many of them, including sites like Wikileaks, be allowed to continue? I might even wonder if this little "corner" of the net will be shut down. Well, if they decide to do so, it will get done I suppose. Whatever comes, well, I'll deal with things as best I can. No, I refuse to get paranoid about it. They can call me whatever they wish. Hell, I spent four years in the Marines, I have been called just about everything and anything you can imagine. Just ask any one who has been through Marine Corps boot camp about what the drill instructors call the recruits. Not many of the names used are acceptable in "polite" company.
All this "decision" does for me is make me even more disgusted at what passes for leadership in this country. This court case did not have to ever get to this point. In my opinion, it should never have even gone to trial at any court level. How can the act of trying to teach people to act peacefully be considered any sort of "aid" to terrorists? What the hell was the government thinking in even taking this case to trial in the first place? Have our rights to freedom of speech been flushed down the old toilet without letting us know? Apparently that seems to be the case.
Well, screw that shit! The following is exactly word for word, the first amendment to the Constitution.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for redress of grievances.
Copied, exactly, from my pocket copy of the Constitution.
In MY opinion, this "decision" is not valid. It is un-constitutional. Maybe the ACLU or some other group will mount a challenge to this crap. Maybe.
One more rant for today. Both governor Bobby and senator Vitter want Go-bomb-them to lift the moratorium on drilling in the Gulf. Yep, these guys want to "drill baby drill" right now. They claim to be "concerned" about the loss of jobs for the folks who work on the drill rigs in the Gulf. Well, I also share that concern for those folks. They will not have jobs for six months under this drilling ban. That is not a good thing for them and their families. BUT in my humble opinion, until they know just what went wrong to get us into the current mess, they should not drill any more wells.
Now, remember, I never have worked in the oil industry, but, it just seems to my old brain, that until you figure out why you have this huge mess, you don't just go on with "business as usual". The fact that a good number of people will be unemployed for a few months does not, to me, out weigh the need to understand why this well has failed. Hell, this probably makes me guilty of providing "material support" to some terrorist or other.
America, what a country.