Civilianism News for July 8th

News for July 8th

• Defense Department Personnel Policy To Regard Lawful Protests As “Low-Level Terrorism” – At least once a week I hear something on a podcast or radio show that makes me say “WHAT??” out loud.  This was one of those things.  It’s actually news from about a month ago, but many people have still not heard about it.  I first heard about this on the Mike Malloy show and was incredulous.
  

  “Among the multiple-choice questions included in its Level 1 Antiterrorism Awareness training course, the DoD asks the following: “Which of the following is an example of low-level terrorist activity?”  To answer correctly, the examinee must select “protests.”

  A protest is a terror activity?  Since when?   A few days later I looked this up and sure enough, it was true. According to the “freepers” once wind of this got out the question was pulled from the training.  What is most disturbing is that protest and dissent are EVER considered as anything but patriotic by our government because they are our guaranteed rights by the Constitution of the United States.   Label that “terrorism” and it’s time for a big “uh oh….”.   It is absolutely vital in this country and others that dissent and protest are protected and even encouraged.  Look at China and Iran recently.  We don’t have a free country unless free speech is protected.    Follow that logic to this question:  If we are not a free country that values dissent and protest, then what were we fighting for in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and in any war we have been in?  Gee, I think we’re fighting for their resources.  That “freedom” stuff was just a way to get some public support and to desensitize us all to the fact that people are dying there every day because of our greed and need for resources that don’t belong to us.

  The fact remains that protesters (which I have been myself on numerous occasions) are considered by the U.S. government to be “low-level terrorists”.  That means they can jail us and hold us indefinitely.  If you have ever protested anything, thought of protesting anything, talked about protesting anything, or have ever talked to anyone who has protested anything, even called for a boycott; and if you live in the U.S., that means your government considers you a “low-level terrorist”.  Read the letter sent by the ACLU.

  The Pentagon has monitored at least 186 anti-military protests.  The FBI has surveilled protesters, and when I attended the Republican convention last fall I saw riot police and tear gas and nearly everything you saw on TV during the Iran voter protests of a few weeks ago. What is the difference?

  The United States has no business telling other countries they can’t supress dissent when the United States government itself does the same thing, and it does.  ANY country that considers protesters “low level terrorists” is not a free country.  Even after Bush has left office, we still have to get our country back.  (If we ever had it to begin with, that is.)

• Rove deposed in U.S. attorney probe – John Bresnahan and Josh Gerstein – “Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove was deposed Tuesday by attorneys for the House Judiciary Committee, according to Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the panel’s chairman.” What’s the point, it’s nearly certain that he lied during those hours. Rove wouldn’t know the truth if it bit him on the butt.
• Climate battle moves to the Senate – President Obama’s landmark energy and global warming bill squeaked through the House only after the White House made dozens of concessions to coal, manufacturing and other interests.
  Now, as the battle moves to the Senate, Obama faces demands for even more concessions — including pressure to open the nation’s coastlines to offshore oil and gas drilling.” So why even bother? This is the Republican energy plan, not a climate bill.
• Sarah Palin Speaks about Fishing and Department of Law – Palin said there is a difference between the White House and what she has experienced in Alaska. If she were in the White House, she said, the “department of law” would protect her from baseless ethical allegations.
  “I think on a national level, your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we’ve been charged with and automatically throw them out,” she said.

  
  

  There is no “Department of Law” at the White House.

• New ‘Electronic Glue’ Promises Less Expensive Semiconductors – Researchers have developed an “electronic glue” that could accelerate advances in semiconductor-based technologies, including solar cells and thermoelectric devices that convert sun light and waste heat, respectively, into useful electrical energy. Cool!
• Sarah Palin Called GOP Leaders Before Quitting – ABC News – I’m starting to think she was just seriously sick to death of politics, and that combined with her financial situation, will put her on radio or TV with a talk show.

• Massive Cyber Attack Knocked Out Government Web Sites Starting On July 4 – Yikes–A widespread and unusually resilient computer attack that began July 4 knocked out the Web sites of several government agencies, including some that are responsible for fighting cyber crime, The Associated Press has learned.
• Palin Hit With Another Ethics Complaint – A conservative government watchdog from the governor’s hometown of Wasilla and an oilfield worker on Alaska’s North Slope — asserts in a letter to Alaska Attorney General Daniel S. Sullivan that Palin has “been charging and pocketing per diem to live in her home and has used the process for a personal gain since being elected.” And she has been found guilty of at least one ethics complaint, the first and biggest one. She claims she has been found innocent of all ethics violations but that is a big fat LIE.