America is Running Out of Time

[pisshead]

not for the neo-cons though...they love big government tyranny...or they'll love it until some guy with a D next to his name starts doing everything lord bush is doing now...

America is Running Out of Time

Paul Craig Roberts | September 27 2005

George W. Bush will go down in history as the president who fiddled while America lost its superpower status.

Bush used deceit and hysteria to lead America into a war that is bleeding the US economically, militarily, and diplomatically. The war is being fought with hundreds of billions of dollars borrowed from foreigners. The war is bleeding the military of troops and commitments. The war has ended the US claim to moral leadership and exposed the US as a reckless and aggressive power.

Focused on a concocted "war on terrorism," the Bush administration diverted money from the New Orleans levees to Iraq, with the consequence that the US now has a $100 billion rebuild bill on top of the war bill.

The US is so short of troops that neoconservatives are advocating the use of foreign mercenaries paid with US citizenship.

US efforts to isolate Iran have been blocked by Russia and China, nuclear powers that Bush cannot bully.

The Iraqi war has three beneficiaries: (1) al Qaeda, (2) Iran and (3) US war industries and Bush-Cheney cronies who receive no-bid contracts.

Everyone else is a loser.

The war has bestowed on al Qaeda recruits, prestige, and a training ground.

The war has allied Iran with Iraq's Shi'ite majority.

The war has brought soaring profits to the military industries and the firms with reconstruction contracts at the expense of 20,000 US military casualties and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilian casualties.

The Republican Party is a loser, because its hidebound support for the war is isolating the party from public opinion.

The Democratic Party is a loser, because its cowardly acquiescence in a war that is opposed by the majority of its members is making the party irrelevant.

The latest polls show that a majority of Americans believe the US cannot win against the Iraq insurgency. The majority support withdrawal and the redirection of war spending to rebuilding New Orleans. Despite the clarity of the public's wishes, the Republican Party continues to support the unpopular war.

With the exceptions of Reps. Cynthia McKinney and John Conyers, Democrats fled the scene of the Sept. 24 antiwar rally in Washington DC. The cynical Democrats are apparently owned by the same interest groups that own the Republicans and are refusing the mantle of majority party that the electorate is offering to the party that will end the war.

The Bush administration is churning out red ink in excess of $1 trillion annually. The federal budget deficit is approaching $500 billion. The US trade deficit is approaching $700 billion.

The budget deficit is being financed by foreigners, primarily Asians who now hold enough US government debt to exercise power over US interest rates and the value of the dollar whenever they decide to use the power that Bush has placed in their hands.

The trade deficit is being financed by turning over the ownership of US assets and future income streams to foreigners, making Americans forever poorer from the loss of accumulated wealth.

For the time being, China is willing to accumulate US assets as a way of taking over our consumer markets, attracting US manufacturing industry with cheap labor subsidized by artificial currency values, and gaining our technology. China's strategy is to over-value the US dollar in order to encourage the transfer of US economic capabilities to China. China's strategy gives artificial value to the dollar and keeps US interest rates at an artificial low.

The values of US stocks, bonds, and real estate depend on the support that Asians' economic strategies provide the dollar and US interest rates. As Asia achieves its goal of preeminence in manufacturing, innovation, and product development, the strategy will change. Once China completes its acquisition of US capabilities, it will no longer have a reason to support the dollar.

When the dollar goes, it will affect costs, profits, interest rates and living standards in dramatic ways. Costs and interest rates will soar, and profits, living standards, equity values, bond prices and real estate will plummet.

These unpleasant events await only Asia's decision to curtail its support for US red ink. That will happen when this support no longer serves Asia's interest.

When Asia pulls the plug on the dollar, the US government will find that monetary and fiscal policy are powerless to offset the consequences.

Compared to US budget and trade deficits, terrorists are a minor concern. The greatest danger that the US faces is the dollar's loss of reserve currency role. This would be an impoverishing event, one from which the US would not recover.

An intelligent government sincerely concerned with homeland security would find a way to halt the global labor arbitrage that is stripping the American economy of high value-added jobs and manufacturing capability, thereby causing the US trade deficit to explode. The loss of tax base that results when US companies outsource jobs and relocate production abroad makes it ever more difficult to balance a budget strained by war, natural disasters, and demographic impact on Social Security and Medicare.

Global labor arbitrage is rapidly dismantling the ladders of upward mobility and thereby endangering American political stability. This threat is far greater than any Osama bin Laden can mount.

Time is running out for Republicans and Democrats to escape from the distraction of a pointless war and to focus on the real threats that endanger the United States of America.

Paul Craig Roberts has held a number of academic appointments and has contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. His graduate economics education was at the University of Virginia, the University of California at Berkeley, and Oxford University. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: [email protected]

pisshead Reviewed by pisshead on 09-27-2005. America is Running Out of Time not for the neo-cons though...they love big government tyranny...or they'll love it until some guy with a D next to his name starts doing everything lord bush is doing now... America is Running Out of Time Paul Craig Roberts | September 27 2005 George W. Bush will go down in history as the president who fiddled while America lost its superpower status. Bush used deceit and hysteria to lead America into a war that is bleeding the US economically, militarily, and diplomatically. Rating: 5

[pisshead]

who needs posse comitatus anyway? you're not free unless your military is enforcing your laws and taking your guns away, then you're free!

Special Report:Katrina/Rita Fallout
Martial Law: Police State America - We're So Close Now

Steve Watson / Infowars | Sept 27 2005

For years we have warned that the police state is coming, how Martial Law will become the norm, how ancient laws, rights and freedoms are being overturned and replaced with repressive mechanisms of control.

For years we have presented the evidence, the Army War College documents, the domestic military takeover drills, the draconian legislation, officials left right and centre calling for more centralized military control domestically.

For years people refuted the evidence, or passed it off as being intended for something else, or simply refused to believe it. Now everything we warned you about is happening.

In the wake of the recent natural disasters on American soil, dangerous precedents have been set. We have been forced to watch how in times of crisis we must submit and follow the orders of Federal Commanders, no matter whether they deny us basic human rights or not.

Whether it be a state attack, a terrorist attack, an accident or a natural disaster matters not anymore, the outcome will be the same. We are just one event, ANY event away from Martial Law.

Getting rid of Posse Comitatus - Setting the precedent

â??In a police state the police are national, powerful, authoritarian. Inevitably, national governments yield to the temptation to use the military to do the heavy liftingâ?¦.once the military is used, however minor initially, the march toward martial law â?¦ becomes irresistible.â?� - Representative Ron Paul of Texas - June 25 1997.

The Posse Comitatus Act is a recognition that the framers of the Constitution had a deep distrust of centralized power, particularly centralized military power that might be used against the people. State militias were preferred over a national army. In times of major disaster or emergency, it has been state governors - not the president - who call out that state's contingent of the national guard.

We have witnessed over a long period of time how Posse Comitatus is systematically being erased. After 9/11 this was particularly accelerated. All the so called "experts" were calling for changes to long standing laws, in order to "protect" us. This led to scores of lower level Government officials pleading for exactly what the criminal elements higher up wanted all along.

Take the following AP report from November 2001:

"Our way of life has forever changed," wrote Sen. John Warner, R-Va., in a letter last month to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "Should this law now be changed to enable our active-duty military to more fully join other domestic assets in this war against terrorism?"


So let's get this right, "terrorists" attack us because they "hate our freedoms" and the answer is to get rid of our freedoms?

Here's another mainstream report from 2002 documenting a senators call to abolish Posse Comitatus and let troops arrest US civilians.

Here's former Homeland Security dictator Tom Ridge saying the same thing.And here he is saying it again.

But before the war on terror it was clear that there was preparation afoot for such eventualities. Nothing is under review, this has always been the agenda. They were erasing Posse Comitatus 14 Years Ago. In 911: The Road to Tyranny Alex Jones presents footage of troops training to put Americans into Concentration Camps. This footage includes interrogations and a retired Marine admitting that in 1988 he was kicking down doors in Norfolk, Virginia. The Marines would be ordered to the local Police station where they would don Police uniforms. They would then go to the local gun shop or dealers home and "Take Them Down."

In Alex Jones' feature Police State 2000 he covers Operation Urban Warrior where actors posed as American citizens who were Unconstitutionally seized from their homes by the military and police. These "Americans: were rounded up and confined behind barbed-wire.

The actors were told to demand to be let free and state that they had rights. They were also told to demand food and water. The troops in turn were taught to ignore them and to order them to behave in an orderly fashion. "Civil disobedience will not be tolerated" was one of the many disturbing statements heard to emanate from the military's loud speakers.

Over the years there have been countless drills of this nature. The media simply reports them as training for dealing with foreign enemies, yet the volunteers and the participants are always told differently.

Here's a report on another urban warfare drill entitled "The Millennium Challenge 2002". This drill was conducted secretly across 26 States in 2002.




Earlier this year details of just one of many Military operations on American soil was exposed in the run up to Lord Bush's coronation. A secret counterterrorism program code-named Power Geyser. A small group of super-secret commandos were hidden among 13000 police and troops and "stood ready with state-of-the-art weaponry to swing into action.".

There have been literally hundreds of these kind of operations in the planning and going on for years now. Many designed to use the military on the streets of American cities in direct violation of Posse Comitatus. The Pentagon has a full Command in operation working on these activities, the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).

Whilst Studying US COIN (Counter Insurgency) doctrine at University I was subjected to weekly showings of videos where military operations were carried out in purpose built mock American towns and cities. We were also informed of how future Counter Insurgency would be predominantly conducted from Military bunkers as they had developed the technology to map out entire cities to pinpoint accuracy from satellite images. The cities in the prototypes were of course all American cities.

I remember asking the lecturer what the point was in developing this technology for use in foreign insurgency wars in places such as the mountains of Afghanistan, and why were the drills and testing of the technology being carried out purely in American towns and cities. The answer was of course that in the event of a major terror attack on US soil these types of things would go into operation. The Pentagon does indeed have "War Plans" drafted in the event of any type of terror attack, which would be coordinated by Northcom in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security and would involve Martial Law and thousands of troops on the streets.

According to respected military affairs analyst William Arkin, Northcom has defined three levels of operations, each of which triggers a larger set of authorized activities. The levels are "extraordinary", "emergency" and "temporary". During emergencies, the military can provide similar support, mostly in response to specific events such as the attacks on the World Trade Center. It is only in the case of extraordinary domestic operations that the unique capabilities of the Defense Department are deployed. These include not just such things as air patrols to shoot down hijacked planes or the defusing of bombs and other explosives, but also bringing in intelligence collectors, special operators and even full combat troops.

But as Arkin's article makes clear, Northcom is doing more than mere coordinating. "Under the banner of 'homeland security', the military and intelligence communities are implementing far-reaching changes that blur the lines between terrorism and other kinds of crises and will break down long-established barriers to military action and surveillance within the US."


He also said the Pentagon reviewed the Posse Comitatus Act and determined that it would not be a violation to deploy the National Guard to protect critical infrastructure in some circumstances. He said he expects more presidential directives in the future to expand the military's homeland defense role.

Then of course we have General Tommy Franks stating that a major terror attack on Us soil would mean the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government.


Some say this is nothing new. In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in January, former US senator Gary Hart said American founders "created such an army and called it the militia: citizen-soldiers under the immediate command of the various states that can be deployed in times of emergency. Since the late 19th century these militias have been known as the National Guard, and they were created and given constitutional status as the first responders and the first line of defense in the case of an attack on our homeland".

This is clearly an alteration of reality. The reason why the founding fathers employed militias and later created Posse Comitatus was that they knew a centralized national army could be used in a future environment to take over the country and take away the rights of everyone.






Police State infrastructure - Already in place (and in use)

We have further exposed how the infrastructure for a Martial Law Police State is already in place, and in many cases is in use. We have a whole archive on the revelations that FEMA has Concentration camps set up and ready to go in the event of any emergency that is deemed suitable for their use. As we have also seen recently, these camps need not have barbed wire and observation towers, they can simply be well guarded sports stadiums.

We have also exposed the development of police State weapons that make Tasers look like water pistols. See this article on The Pentagon's Secret Scream Sonic devices that can inflict pain--or even permanent deafness. These type of devices that are routinely used in Iraq have recently been in use in New Orleans in the Katrina aftermath.

The use of Unmanned drone aircraft has also been documented recently in New Orleans. Again, such weapons are being used not only in foreign reconnaissance but also domestically for spying on "citizens" and controlling crowds. Industry representatives are enthusiastic about the drones' potential.

"I believe we will see Predator and Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) watching over major events, such as the Olympic Games and the Super Bowl, in the not-too-distant future," Brad Brown, then-president of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International wrote earlier this year.

Alex's most recent film Martial Law: Rise of the Police State also documents the use of huge corporate sponsored surveillance blimps. The Department of Homeland Security is developing 900 ft long so called "Super Blimps" for surveillance, intended to fly about 65,000 feet, well above commercial airliner traffic.


We have also documented the rise in use of the national guard to break up public events. On multiple occasions we have carried stories, photos and video of tanks and armed troops on the streets of America.

Part Two to follow...

[eg420ne]

The first one by Paul Craig Roberts is a good read. Yup it is sad that U.S. is becoming more of a police state sum say its not, but i have witness it first hand, but u will never know it if u listen to people who say they love you and dont resist like sum on this board think. This quote "Either your with us or against us." sum up the thinking of these mindless monkeys

[Psycho4Bud]

This quote "Either your with us or against us." sum up the thinking of these mindless monkeys

THATS exactly how you turkeys want to debate and then you spread this crap. Get a brain and a life!!!

[eg420ne]

THATS exactly how you turkeys want to debate and then you spread this crap. Get a brain and a life!!!

LoL, Going down 2 your level thats all it is man. If u can do it then we can do it...

[eg420ne]

But hey, I dont want 2 go down to your level psycho its a bad buzz kill. Mybad i b nice if u b nice, now 2 bring my buzz back up... peace psycho

[Psycho4Bud]

But hey, I dont want 2 go down to your level psycho its a bad buzz kill. Mybad i b nice if u b nice, now 2 bring my buzz back up... peace psycho

My level...LOL. I hold a killer buzz dude! All happy and conspiracy free. Try it, you'll like it! Toke a big one for me, and another, and another............

[eg420ne]

If u toke one up 4 me I toke one up 4 U, start tokin dude. im hittin some good green and its almost gone..

[hempity]

"Civil disobedience will not be tolerated"

Good Post,

Those who can hear will
the little masturbators already know everything, and so are really not worth talking with, nor responding to.

last night on public TV i saw a small debate between a professor that wrote a book on the policies of the protests over vietnam and a mother who lost a son in iraq (anti-war) and a mother that wanted her son to keep fighting.
It was really funny the way the pro-war mother kept fumbling and tripping over her disjointed words, really back peddling on all the issues, her only comeback to the anti-war mothers heartfelt words was, protest against the war was hurting her son. what total balderdash, absolute crap, it is her and people like her that should feel great shame having allowed this punk bush the authority to put them in a war over oil and money.
the professor said that the protests had happened much quicker, that the protest were gaining ground faster than the protest over vietnam.
that is good, just hope the protesters don't have to bleed as much, and you can bring your children home from this ridiculous farce much sooner.
I must say that if given the choice of either with or against these lies, I choose against with every fiber of my being.
The anti war mother said something that will stick with me, she said, "there is no right way to do a wrong thing".
there is no way that this war is not wrong, to profess that it is done in the name of freedom is absurd.

[Psycho4Bud]

If u toke one up 4 me I toke one up 4 U, start tokin dude. im hittin some good green and its almost gone..

10 more minutes at the slave pit then I'll be torchin' some white russian! Can you believe it, me, with russian weed!!! LOL