I woke with the strangest thoughts. Are the views that I hold “extremist”? Are they dangerous to America? Am I a terrorist?
Now, normally I would simply attribute thoughts of this nature to way to much free time and simply take the dog for a walk and then go play tennis, and these improper thoughts would simply melt away into where the day takes me. Normally.
But we live in different times; by no means normal. After all, everything changed on 9/11, or haven’t you heard?
Let’s face it; the Executive Branch is no longer our own. Republican or democrat it really doesn’t matter. When standing in the way of the Unitary Executive’s agenda, we are all truly equal in the eyes of the law.
And since we are all pretty much in agreement as to what is going to happen when the Senate finally considers S. 1959 and the formation of the “Center for Excellence”, lets just go ahead and start getting ready for that inevitability.
So, with that eternally optimistic view in mind, I thought it would be a good idea for me to go ahead with a little pre-emptive strike of my own; some unilateral sucking-up to the “Center’s” members by easing their collective burden a bit (shit. That didn’t sound too Socialist, did it?)… by interrogating myself!
That’s right; they are going to find my name on one (or more) of their suspicious “conspiracy theory sites” soon enough, so in the true vein of Kent Brockman of the Simpson’s, when, upon learning that a Master Race of Ants had hijacked the Space Shuttle and were speeding toward their inevitable overthrow of all humanity here on Earth, Kent uttered the now classic line “And let me be the first to Welcome our new Ant Overlords! Hail Ants!”
So, I have mustered up the purest self-serving, sycophantic, and self-centered plan that I could think of in order to prove to the members of “The Center” that I really am a Friedman Capitalist, and therefore a true American! Hail Stocks!
To that end, I will interrogate myself, nay, I will waterboard myself to see if I am that violently radicalized homegrown terrorist you will be looking for.
After all, it will save you the time and the trouble of doing it yourselves, and since you are a government agency (or soon will be), that will just save valuable tax dollars that could be better spent on a new No-Bid Halliburton contract, right? (that didn’t help.)
So let’s get to it. Am I a terrorist?
Well, I have been known to suggest that a new investigation is needed for the events of 9/11. That is true.
But, to my own defense I would offer many, many reasons to support the idea that the official story does not hold water. And what would be my rationale for holding this “radical belief system”? Well, the foundations of the official story themselves; the NIST Report, the FEMA Report and the 9/11 Commission Report themselves.
Let’s just take one questionable issue; the collapse of Building 7.
Now the FEMA report tries to explain what happened to cause that building to collapse symmetrically into it’s own footprint on 9/11/2001, but what they come up with they themselves suggest “has a low probability of occurrence”. What kind of scientific evaluation is that?
The NIST report promised a thorough and detailed explanation for Building 7’s demise… nearly three years ago…. And we are still waiting to see it.
The 9/11 Commission Report put them both to shame by showing us how to deal with Building 7 and any questions that have really difficult answers…. They ignored it. They never even mentioned its collapse.
So, with regard to my association with the “conspiracy theory sites”, I have to say that I wanted so desperately to hang onto the official stories (there have been a few now), but alas, in the end, I made the mistake of reading them. And so, quite naturally, I began to question their validity as scientific studies.
Yes, I know; evaluating the evidence that supports the most important attack on American Soil in history, can be considered an extreme view by some (hail Ants!). So, it looks like I am off to a bad start…
Let’s get down to it. Are my views “extremist” because I…
Don’t believe we should be importing goods from China that are made by forced prison labor and not subject to quality controls like we impose on those made here?
Believe that every vote must count and that the Supreme Court has no right to call an election while there is one left that hasn’t been?
Believe that our right to collective bargaining will improve the quality of life for most Americans, and that is, in the end what is best for All Americans?
Believe that Health Care should never be subject to profit and loss analysis and is a birth-right to all citizens of a civilized country?
Believe that elected officials should stay the hell out of the pockets of the lobbyists in order for a true Representative Republic to work?
Believe that a President who has clearly sold us out to corporate and foreign interests should be impeached and tried for treason?
Believe that the Constitution is the core of our very society and must be protected from a rogue administration?
Believe that our involvement with Iraq, that was initially based purely on lies, must end without our forcing permanent military bases and a Hydrocarbon Law upon the people of Iraq?
Because I do not believe that nation building or conquering is in the best interests of America?
Because I do believe that the billions of tax dollars lost or misappropriated should be investigated and returned?
Because I do not think the founding fathers meant for the leaders of this country to be serving the best interests of corporations at the detriment of its civilian population.
Because I agree with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s statement:
“The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.”
Because I agree with John F. Kennedy’s statement:
“the very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society. And we are, as a people, inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago, that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it.”
And, finally because I agree with Martin Luther King’s statements:
“Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movements and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.”
“And some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak.”
Am I a terrorist with extreme beliefs because I remember a time when when Americans reached out to each other to pull each other up for the betterment of us all? Am I a terrorist because I can still hear these speeches resounding in my mind, each time George Bush talks about Sept. 11th?
Am I a terrorist because I know the difference between a great leader and a shill?
Well, if those be the determining factors, then yes, you will find my beliefs a bit extreme. I still believe in the America of King and Lincoln and Kennedy and even of Roosevelt. I believe we stand for more than just ‘our interests in the region” or some wall street guru on CNBC screaming and crying for the Federal Reserve to drop the Prime once again to bail out the investment class profit machines.
So if that extreme belief system is what determines a ‘terrorist” in America these days then I will save you the time and effort; I am a terrorist.
And I am Spartacus.
I couldn’t tell if this was really from 2007 because it seemed so “today”.