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ORIGINAL: dcnovice

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And who is telling anyone to shut up if they disagree with the government?

Ari Fleischer, then President Bush's press secretary (in)famously told a reporter who'd asked a critical question that in the post-9/11 world we all need to be careful of what we say. That comes pretty close.

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the video of their captives can't be aired

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Hey Julia, isn't this exactly the sort of thing Winston Smith did for a living in 1984?   


    Funny world, ain't it?   Ironic even

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ORIGINAL: Masternslave07

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ORIGINAL: selfbnd411

It's easy to die for your country.  Just join the army, go to Iraq, and someone will help you with that.

The real patriots are the ones who fight for freedom when everyone else is telling them to sit down and shut up.  When the machinery of an entire government is brought to bear in an attempt to force conformity.  When family members beg you to stop for the sake of your children.  When your friends disown you.

Who is more brave?  The solider who fights alongside his countrymen and is shot in the process, or the civil rights activist who is harassed everywhere he goes, gets beaten up in public and on television by the police, is arrested for disorderly conduct when he tries to register to vote, has his home and those of his family and friends vandalized, and eventually, is found hanging from a tree?

And who is telling anyone to shut up if they disagree with the government?

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ORIGINAL: Sinergy

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ORIGINAL: selfbnd411

The real patriots are the ones who fight for freedom when everyone else is telling them to sit down and shut up.  When the machinery of an entire government is brought to bear in an attempt to force conformity.  When family members beg you to stop for the sake of your children.  When your friends disown you.

Who is more brave?  the civil rights activist who is harassed everywhere he goes, gets beaten up in public and on television by the police, is arrested for disorderly conduct when he tries to register to vote, has his home and those of his family and friends vandalized, and eventually, is found hanging from a tree?

Well put.

Pastor Martin Neimoller said it best.

In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me —
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

Sinergy

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ORIGINAL: Masternslave07

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ORIGINAL: dcnovice

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And who is telling anyone to shut up if they disagree with the government?

Ari Fleischer, then President Bush's press secretary (in)famously told a reporter who'd asked a critical question that in the post-9/11 world we all need to be careful of what we say. That comes pretty close.

And that was so chilling that no one criticizes the government anymore. Lol. Give me a break.

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The directive loosely defines "catastrophic emergency" as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions."

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ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

      Does the name Nick Berg ring any bells? 

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ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

Does the name Nick Berg ring any bells?

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ORIGINAL: dogthing

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The directive loosely defines "catastrophic emergency" as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions."

If the Republicans look likely to lose the next election, all it takes is for one administration employee charged with hiring mercenaries for Iraq to to flip through his address book and make a few calls and outlay a couple of hundred grand, and a team of his ex-employees will blow up a bridge or a power station or something (he can leave all the details to them). Then Bush and his entourage get to stay in power until Bush thinks that "threat" is over. Which may be never.

I think the neocon organisations are now a major threat to the US' national security. They have access to money, and mercenaries, and they may be getting desperate. It only takes one.

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ORIGINAL: farglebargle

Do you have any other reason the felony charges haven't been brought, OTHER THAN all the United States Attorneys are Politically Reliable Party-Whores?

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ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

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ORIGINAL: dcnovice

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And who is telling anyone to shut up if they disagree with the government?

Ari Fleischer, then President Bush's press secretary (in)famously told a reporter who'd asked a critical question that in the post-9/11 world we all need to be careful of what we say. That comes pretty close.

But the media ARE very careful in what they say DC. They are so afflicted with the condition cited in the OP, they think we can succeed with public opinion on the other side.

We can see Abu Graib a million times, but the video of their captives can't be aired...

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ORIGINAL: dogthing

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The directive loosely defines "catastrophic emergency" as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions."

If the Republicans look likely to lose the next election, all it takes is for one administration employee charged with hiring mercenaries for Iraq to to flip through his address book and make a few calls and outlay a couple of hundred grand, and a team of his ex-employees will blow up a bridge or a power station or something (he can leave all the details to them). Then Bush and his entourage get to stay in power until Bush thinks that "threat" is over. Which may be never.

I think the neocon organisations are now a major threat to the US' national security. They have access to money, and mercenaries, and they may be getting desperate. It only takes one.

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ORIGINAL: dcnovice

Beheaded journalist, right? Should they have shown that on U.S. television?

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ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

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ORIGINAL: dcnovice

Beheaded journalist, right? Should they have shown that on U.S. television?

     That was Danny Pearleman.  Nick Berg was the dumb-ass 22 year old kid who (like many I'm talking about here) thought that the freedoms and civilized culture he grew up in were simply the norm of the world, and went looking to be an entrepeneur in Bagdad.

     If you haven't ever seen one of these, send me an addy on the other side and I'll e-mail it to you.  Educational, but not fun.

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ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

    I've had a strange thought this morning, reading the 'US troops are terrorists' thread.  It could be a result of neglecting to buy coffee when I went for the steaks and corn yesterday, but it's been percolating longer than that.

  Could it be that those who are perfectly willing to denigrate and attack this country and administration at every opportunity, to spout filth about our troops in the field, are in fact the most convinced of the automatic superiority of the American Way?  The most confident of our invincibility?  The most optimistic that freedom is inevitable?

    They must believe us to be so powerful as to go to war as a divided nation.  They must believe our triumph so inevitable that they can casually help the enemy propaganda campaign.  They must believe so deeply in the universal truth of our values that it doesn't matter that the enemy despises them.

  How unshakeable must their faith be to wail about the ones we catch needing lawyers, while refusing to acknowledge what the enemy does to captives?


   Or are they just completely fucking ignorant?

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ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

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ORIGINAL: dcnovice

Beheaded journalist, right? Should they have shown that on U.S. television?

Nick Berg was the dumb-ass 22 year old kid who (like many I'm talking about here) thought that the freedoms and civilized culture he grew up in were simply the norm of the world, and went looking to be an entrepeneur in Bagdad.