Is Fascism Really that Popular in Arkansas?

 

  Things are still rosey, because its not fascism when we do it!

I have already demonstrated from the text of the law itself, that the 2012 "National Defense Authorization Act" laid the legal framework for martial law in the United States.    It replaced habeas corpus with a meaningless new "corpus light" and violated about four of the first ten amendments from the bill of rights.  "Obamacare" has people in a tizzy, and it should because its an awful piece of legislation, but of the two bills, the NDAA is clearly the more tyrannical.    Yet all four congressmen from Arkansas, R and D alike, either acted in ignorance or disregarded their oath of office and voted for this travesty. 

In an all-to-rare occurrence,  the Federal Courts did their job and ruled the act unconstitutional.  The government should not be able to lock up someone without a trial just on the Executive Branch's assertion that they are a terrorist.  That ruling did not phase our Congressional delegation.   They all voted to renew the act, which basically gave Resident Obama a blank check to arrest American citizens without trial and detain them as military prisoners.   Obama claimed authority to do this under the "authorization for use of military force" that was voted on prior to our invasion of Iraq!  Think back to when that was voted on.  Did you think that the purpose of that act was to allow the military to arrest people here at home?

Is fascism really that popular among my fellow Arkansans?   I define fascism as a form of government where individual rights are subsumed by a desire for "national security", usually as a part of some drive for "national greatness."     Our forefathers held to the belief, which I still hold, that the greatest nation is not the one whose military is the most powerful or whose security apparatus is the most comprehensive, but rather the greatest nation is the one whose people are the most at liberty.   Its the one where the people live their lives with the least fear of their government, and with the least interference from it.   How did we get from there to here?

It appears that President (and General) Eisenhower was right.  He warned us to beware of the military industrial complex, which now includes the security-industrial complex.   The military-industrial complex has teamed with big government and along with big media have joined together to induce such a permanent state of fear and insecurity in the population that many people are willing to surrender their heritage and fund a security apparatus which can, is, and will, be turned on them.

How did we become so fearful?  How did we become such sheep?     Many if not most of the "terrorist plots" uncovered by this growing security apparatus wind up being instigated by a government agent or informant!   They find some mentally deficient young social outcast and fill their head with crazy ideas, hand them a dummy bomb switch, and then grab the headlines for stopping another "terror plot" that never would have happened without their choreographing.   They were doing the plotting!   Meanwhile they loudly insist on the right to lock us up in violation of the clear text of the Constitution.

It does not amaze me that the Military-Industrial-Security Complex arranges these sorts of incidents in order to keep the dollars flowing.   It does not amaze me that a corporate media complex owned by some of these same interests which are hungry for sensationalist reporting keep pumping up a grossly disproportionate fear of terrorism.    It does not amaze me that our power-hungry ruling class relentlessly moves forward with implementing a police state, because that's what control freaks do even when they rule well (which our ruling class definitely has not).    None of that amazes me, because it all boils down to special interest groups of fallen human beings acted in their own interests even if it is against the interests of the nation as a whole.   I find it disgusting, but it does not surprise me.

What amazes and alarms me is the non-response from my fellow citizens.   What amazes me is that otherwise intelligent and reasonably virtuous people actually cheer this nightmare on.       What amazes me is their willingness to exchange their heritage of freedom for the false promise of security from a political class that they know is corrupt.   It makes no sense to anyone who dares to sit down and think about it for even a single hour.  Maybe that's the problem. Our lives are so full of noise that few of us have ever had such an hour.

Our Congressmen gave the finger to the federal judge who ruled the act unconstitutional, but they did vote for a fig-leaf provision by Rep. Louis Gohmert.   The provision said that persons detained by the military "when legally in the United States" had the right to file a petition for habeas corpus within 30 days.   So you can be locked up on the basis of an anonymous informant for up to 30 days before you are even allowed to file a petition to ask a federal judge to review the case and see if there are any grounds for holding you!   Current U.S. law, which conflicts with the NDAA, says that we have the right to file such a petition basically right away.

But hey, they might be able to water board you, and starve and sleep deprive you enough in 30 days that they can wring a "confession" out of you, because the NDAA authorizes them to do all that.   Some of you may be thinking "well, at least within 30 days we can still file a petition to let a judge look at our case."  Well, our ruling class is taking care of that one too.   You see, this "protection", as sorry as it is, only applies to persons "lawfully in the United States."   No worries you say, because that includes you and me right?  Not if Senator Joe Liberman has his way.  He is currently sponsoring a bill that would allow the State Department to strip you of your citizenship if they thought you were somehow connected to "terrorists." 

So problem solved!   Once this bill passes the same federal government who arrested you by mistake does not have to admit their mistake or let word of it get out in federal court. Thinking like a bureaucrat, they can simply strip you of your citizenship- thus removing your "lawful" status as a citizen entitled to a habeas corpus hearing!   They can then just stack you in Guantanamo with all the Afgan "mistakes" they made, when warlords kidnapped innocent civilians and claimed they were "insurgents" in order to collect on the bounty that the U.S. was offering.

The coming police state never makes mistakes (that you are allowed to hear about)!   Are we going to keep electing congressmen who vote for such legislation?  Is that the kind of people we are?  Do we really support the idea that if the executive branch of the federal government says someone is a terrorist then they must be a terrorist?   You cannot sacrifice freedom for security because once your freedom is lost the people you gave it to will then become the biggest threat to your security.