...According to this online article by Doug Thompson, President Bush is reported to have said, in regards to the Patriot Act:

“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

I’ve talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all confirm that the President of the United States called the Constitution “a goddamned piece of paper.”

This article is totally biased as the Anti-Bush position bleeds from every article, verb, and pronoun in it. But this is a direct quote within the article and if the President said it, I can't begin to express my disappointment.

This man took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, not denigrate and subvert it. I pray this isn't true.

If you only listen to one podcast in your daily routine, I urge you, beg you, implore you, to listen to Skepticality.

One of the co-hosts, Derek, recently had some pretty major health issues which left him in a coma and in some pretty extensive rehabiliation upon waking up.

But he's now been back for two episodes, and while his voice is challenged and strained, the same old brilliant thinker is finally back behind the microphone.

I'm a skeptic in some aspects and a believer in others but the conversations and interviews that Derek and Swoopie get into are some of the loftiest and high-brow intellectual exchanges that I've come across either online or offline.

In their latest episode, Tom Flynn, absolutely skewers the tradition of Christmas in our culture. He is an atheist and what Bill O'Reilly would no doubt call a General in the War Against Christmas.

And while I agree with everything he said, I'm still a practicioner of Christmas rituals (besides going to church); this is because Christmas to me is much more about family and exchanges of gifts and well-wishes than anything else. This may change in the future, but at any length you will be doing yourself a disservice if you don't listen to this half-hour podcast that will no doubt leave you feeling different about the origins and practice of this national holiday.

Welcome back Derek--you were sorely missed!

TAGS: Skepticality, Tom Flynn

January 20, 2009

The following is an advance copy of the 44th President Elect's Inaugural Address. The speech has been moved from outside the Capital to the Jefferson Memorial.

My fellow Americans...

First, let me thank you for the overwhelming support that has made me the youngest US President in the history of our great country. This has been a whirlwind campaign.

I am very pleased to report to you that, while I received millions in campaign donations, this successful four-year bid for the Presidency has cost me only a few hundred thousand dollars. In fact, after expenses, my campaign is still in the black some 35 million dollars, all of which will be donated to the new Public Education fund which I will start as my first act in office.

The Public Education Fund will not support lower schools, public or private. Nor will it fund the bloated and ridiculous collegiate system which has grown fat and lazy on the government's teat. My Public Education Fund will directly support libraries across this nation as that is the true source of public education.

When I was a young man, searching for a purpose in life; I was able to walk into a public library and follow my passions to that purpose. Without a public plethora of information and art, I would not be standing before you today and that is why as my first act as President, I will cut the apron strings between education and government and in doing so, will open the coffers of government to the will and desire of the many millions of individual citizens looking for a better way of life.

After all, this is what has made America strong despite the volcano of African slavery, the genocide of the American Indian, and the unprovoked invasion of foreign countries to secure land and resources that the sword of our precious democracy has been forged in. We will be working closely with our Canadian and Mexican friends to ensure that all three countries are safe from foreign invaders.

That being said, we still want to encourage talented, passionate, and worthy immigrants to enjoy the present and contribute to the future prosperity of our great nation. There will likely be some growing pains as we secure these borders, so I am going to ask in advance for your patience and understanding and willingness to change in order to secure ourselves. And expect stricter regulations and inspections of interstate shipping via train, truck, airplane, or cargo ship.

I will also continue the previous administration's policy of analyzing the information flow within and outside of our country. I absolutely adhere to and believe in the fourth amendment and I will be working with lawmakers and judges to ensure that your fourth amendment rights are protected while still allowing this government to protect your civil security through knowledge of what is being talked about online and offline.

When I said we stand at a moment of great choice regarding fossil fuels, here is what I meant. We live in a world of scarce resources and these fossil fuel resources drive our economies, our armies, and our future progress. And instead of focusing on truly developing technologies and methodologies of energy power beyond fossil fuels, which would allow us to terraform into space, colonize other worlds and begin extracting their fossil fuels for future use, past administrations have engaged in a global board game to secure what's left of the present at the expense of the future of our species.

This was not only incredibly short-sighted; it was arrogant and plain stupid.

So now we have a choice to make--either we pull back on our consumption and model of energy use or we continue on the Godless campaign to secure the world's fossil fuels while starving and murdering at least 1/3 of it's population in order to balance supply and demand.

I'm sure that you're not used to public officials speaking to you with such candor but I assure you that there is no time to mince words because this choice has to be made yesterday.

On top of this, consider that if we pull out of Middle East politics and release our military claim to their oil resources, there is a very real possibility that a nuclear conflict will erupt between the Arab states and Israel. It is likely that Israel will not survive and that a mega-conglomerate Islamic nation will arise who has America in its cross-hairs.

My administration will do our best to build up civil defense measures by providing all communities in this country with bomb shelters and funding, supporting, and encouraging local militias to be organized who can work with the National Guard and reestablish communications as well as provide armed civil defense should any enemy be foolish enough to strike within our borders.

This is a moral decision that the American people have to make because the previous administration staked our claim on the world with the statement that the American way of life is non-negotiable and this way of life is fueled by oil. So either we secure these assets through threat of force and invasion or we seriously undertake a willing paradigm shift into a new way of existence that is not dependent on fossil fuels.

It is one way or the either, there is no more time to stand any longer waiting to make a decision at the crossroads.

What I am talking about here is a fundamental transformation in the way we shop, how we work, and even how we spend our leisure time. Unfortunately, either path we choose will mean a significant reduction in the population of our species on this planet. The United States will simply be unable to continue to supply the world with food and other resources after we move to a new paradigm emphasizing virtual rather than physical communication and travel and alternative fuels as opposed to traditional carbon-based fossil fuels.

It is my sincere hope that our earnest endeavors to replace our dependence on these limited resources will yield technology which will allow us to terraform into outer space and seize additional resources in the form of asteroid, comet, moon, and planet mining operations which will allow us to rebuild the population of our species well beyond even the current level here on Earth.

But in the short-run, this unfortunately means that many millions will likely starve to death or perish as a result of tyrannical dictatorships armed with weapons of mass destruction and hell bent on destroying the populations of their own countries.

My fellow Americans, this is a time where we must make selfish decisions for the future sake of all mankind. We stand upon a moored vessel and are waving at the legions left on the shore. We don’t have to feel good about departing from their company, but this is a journey that must be made lest we all descend into the madness that our rape of the environment and our search for the quick and easy solution has wrought for our entire species.

This will be a period of great change, great struggle, and great sacrifice for our species; but these undertakings are nothing new to this country and the great men, women, and children who inhabit these bountiful towns, cities, and states.

And I am calling upon that collective strength, wisdom, and compassion to do the hard thing because it is the right thing. I will be a rock for you all to lean upon but I need you to be the gravity that keeps the rock in place between the hard earth and the open sky.

We begin making the future today, this moment and each that follows after it. Thank you for your trust in my leadership. I will not let you down.

As an independent thinker, I believe in giving equal voice to both sides. My core values dictate economic and social freedom on the individual level and are, at the same time, very suspicious of governments, institions or groups of people united under any agenda whatsoever (this includes churches and civic groups as well).

I realize that a lot of social good has come from these social structures and that the general living standard of the average human being (especially the average American citizen) has been improved greatly because of these types of social networks, but I still live under the umbrella maxim that I would never be a member of any group that would have me.

In the spirit of giving equal voice to both sides, and in my fascination for conspiracy theories, I have sought out the liberal Bible which explains 9/11 and answers the question of what is driving their worldview to overthrow the Bush presidency and what exactly they would do with the country (hence the world) should they ever seize the platform of world power.

I believe I have found this book, which is titled Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil (affiliate link) by Michael C. Ruppert. I am only 41 pages into it and I am absolutely scared shitless. The author lays his cards on the table on the first page of the introduction when he calls 9/11 a "homicide" and states the results of his investigation:

With respect to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, that critical litmus test for anymurder prosecution--means, motive, and opportunity--has never been fully applied. In a capital case each of these components would require demonstration "beyond a shadow of a doubt." Regardless of whom the suspect(s) turns out to be, these are the basic questions every homicide investigator must seek to answer in the course of the investigation. In the end, the only "suspects" found to meet all of these criteria will not be al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. They will instead be a group of people operating within certain government agencies, including the White House, for the benefit of major financial interests within the United States and in other countries. This group will specifically include parts of the administrations of George W. Bush and, before it, the administration of William Jefferson Clinton. However, the only possible unifying thread will be the intelligence community and, in particular, the United States Secret Service and the Central Intelligence Agency. I realize that this is a frightening statement. I submit that by the end of this book it will be the only statement that encompasses and reasonably explains the facts as documented.(1)

So there it is, nothing we haven't heard before from Michael Moore or Al-Jazeera. This isn't what concerns me, even if it's true. Bill Hicks said it best when he said, "All governments are lying cock-suckers."

What worries me is the last section of the introduction and the first chapter on oil, titled "Petroleum Man." It worries me because it connects my fears about the true nature of our government's (seemingly) failed War on Drugs and the rising costs and dwindelilng global supplies of hydrocarbon fuels.

Any free-thinking and intelligent individual can ascertain that the US government's War on Drugs is the biggest bullshit foreign and domestic policy abuse against American citizens since the passing of the Amendment banning the sale and production of alcoholic beverages and before that the levying of the income tax in an immoral meaure of class warfare.

And the same intelligent individual can see that the rapidly rising cost of fuel and the dependence on foreign sources of energy mean, not only that the American fuel supply isn't enough to sustain the country, but that the global fuel supply isn't enough to sustain the world for any more than 30-40 more years if we're lucky.

The author is basically saying that the global drug trade is in the hands of the United States intelligence agencies and has been their primary focus for over thirty years, representing billions and billions of dollars in liquid capital which is being allocated to securing the little remaining planetary hydrocarbon fuel in an effort to marginalize and to eradication a siginificant portion of the world's human population to a more sustainable level.

Thinking on this level and in this direction is like Oliver Stone's brain on steroids and I don't know how people who agree with this weltanschauung don't put a pistol in their mouth immediately. Still, I find the idea fascinating and worth reading further into.

Please don't think I'm putting words in the author's mouth, because here is another passage from the end of the introduction:

Now look at the barrel of oil and realize that the earth is a closeed sphere, and that without the oil and natural gas, the financial system is doomed. There is nothing on our horizon--other than wishful thinking--that can completely replace hydrocarbon energy. The surest way to see this is to realize that, as the human race starts down the inevitable slope of shrinking oil and gas supplies, we have seen no hydrogen-powered F 18 Hornets or M1 Abrams tanks. We have seen no vegetable oil-powered Bradley fighting vehicles or solar powered guided missile frigates.

There are many factors that the rulers of the American empire now have to manage as they read their own delusional map of the world. They have to:

• Apportion dwindling resources among competitors, some of whom posess nuclear weapons;

• Maintain and expand their control over enough of the oil and gas remaining to ensure their global dominance and maintain order among the citizens of thei Empire;

• Simultaneously manage a global economic system, made possible by hydrocarbon energy, that is collapsing and in which the growing population is demanding more things that can only be supplied by using still more hydrocarbon energy;

• Acknowledge that they cannot save their own economy without selling more of these products;

• Control the exploding demand for oil and gas through engineered recessions and wars that break national economies;

• Hide the evidence that they are systematically looting the wealth of all the people on the planet--even their own people--in order to maintain control;

• Maintain a secret revenue stream to provide enough off-the-books capital for the purposes of providing themselves a distinct economic and military advantage, improving their technological posture, and funding covert operations;

• Repress any dissent and head off any exposure of their actions;

• Convince the population that they are honorable;

• Kill off enough of the world's population so that they can maintain control after oil supplies have dwindled to the point of energy starvation.(19-20)

Here is what I need: I need Antimdia, JD, Michelle Malkin, Anne Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Neil Boortz and all the experts to prove why this guy's argument is wrong. Notice I didn't say prove why this guy is wrong because I don't really care about the personality behind the argument; I care about the solidity of the facts within the argument. Too many on the right and left resort to ad hominem attacks to discredit the argument of their opponent. I won't allow that here when it concerns the lives of 3,000 of my fellow countrymen and women and how many others in the War on Drugs and the War on Terror that followed it.

I'm honestly asking to prove why the argument in this book is wrong because if they can't do that, and if there is even a small element of truth to this, then the human race would go down into own destruction with the shame of having could have been so much more but failing the ultimate test of character and vision.

We would have spent the little remaining resoruces the earth possesses in fruitless squabbles instead of focusing our minds and our spirits into developing the means with which to travel to new worlds and harness new sources of energy from the countless planets, asteroids, comets, and moons that are just waiting to be annexed.

I'm begging you guys to please help me from throwing in with liberals because if this is true and all the debates and speeches are just smoke and mirrors, then it's time to buy a few firearms, move my family to the woods and practice hunting and shooting so that when we are forceably returned to an agrarian lifestyle in the absence of hydrocarbon fuel, I and my family won't starve.

Help...


TAGS: 9/11, Crossing the Rubicon, Michael C. Ruppert, War on Drugs, War on Terror, Conspiracy, Oil

Anything is possible, but as Willisms points out and as Antimedia was trying to say on this forum the other day; the market does run in cycles.

This is not a matter of belief.

It is possible that this record windfall of profits in an industry where many Americans had to begin paying siginificantly higher prices as a result of damaged supply and higher demand is but the colliding of a high point in the market with a low point in consumerism.

It's possible but as we all know, there is a great leap between the economic wisdom of the day and the political actions being taken in the name of good economics.

I believe that Congress is going to levy a tax against the energy industry which is going to be passed along to consumers through even higher prices and that a lot of us are going to begin speaking to one another again as we're forced to car pool in the mornings and take more walks in the park instead of driving these damned expensive vehicles we keep filling up the world with.