CNN: Genuine dissent is crazy, dangerous, or both

“I think people need to start sitting down, taking a deep breath, and understanding that we’re all concerned about what’s going on in this country.  Everyone can feel it.  People are hungry, people are scared, and we need to start working together as human beings, and stop labelling and dividing.

There you have it.  The ravings of a wacky, conservative, conspiracy theorist tea bagger.

Just imagine the chaos that would ensue in this country if we all took a serious look at what’s going on and realized that we all need to work together as human beings.  And do I even have to mention how treasonous it is to suggest that we stop labeling and dividing?

If the above sentiments were taken seriously by even 50% of the population, it would most likely spell DOOM for the system as it is currently constructed.

Wait, that doesn’t sound like such a bad thing, unless, of course, you’re one of the corporo-militarist leeches who has been exploiting the current system, while profiting off of war and misery.  In that case, it IS a terrible thing. Thank goodness we have the corporate lamestream media to tell us all how crazy it is to investigate what’s going on, and to try to unite in the interests of people who are hungry and scared.

By the way, the quote at the top of the page is from Catherine Bleish, a leader of the Liberty Restoration Project.

What does the Liberty Restoration Project stand for?

Well, it’s easy enough to find out.  Here’s what the about page on their website says:

The Liberty Restoration Project is composed of a politically diverse group of concerned citizens who have decided to throw down the arbitrary barriers (such as political parties) that divide us and work together as American Citizens to improve our country, starting as locally as possible.

The Liberty Restoration Project believes the only way to facilitate positive sustainable changes to our socioeconomic, cultural, and political sphere is to empower the general public through education. We provide the citizens of our local community with relevant information through training classes, sign waves/rallies, literature distribution, video blogs, and a newsletter to name a few.  Our top priority is communicating with members of the general public as well as elected officials and candidates in a direct, face to face, environment about the Constitutional role of government.

The list of issues they are fighting for is long.  In the interest of brevity, I’m not going to list it in its entirety, but you’d be hard pressed to find any of it to be anything other than sensible.

Food Sovereignty is the idea that all people should have access to a dependable and nutritious supply of nourishment close to where they live.  This is the foundation on which a healthy and productive society is formed. Today we suffer from a corporate controlled food industry with ties to the military-industrial complex. Small family farms cannot compete with the government-subsidized mega-corporations who have industrialized the very things which give us life.

The presence of troops in 120 Countries around the globe is unsustainable and should be reevaluated in light of realistic security concerns. We also call upon our fellow citizens to join us in helping our veterans by strongly encouraging State Representatives to provide much needed medical help and assistance.

ANY legislation that violates the Constitution and the Bill of Rights is an assault against the civil liberties of Americans and cannot be tolerated in a nation that purports to uphold the Natural Rights of its citizens.

We oppose the power of the President to issue executive orders that have the force of law. We see this as a violation of the separation of powers that potentially allows the Executive to unilaterally “legislate” to the detriment of and without regard to the wishes of the citizenry.

We believe the “War on Drugs” is an unnecessary intervention by the Federal Government, the same as any other ill-conceived and undeclared war.  We believe that drug addiction is a medical issue and should be treated as such.

I know, I know.  Crazy stuff, right?  Especially if you agree with George W. Bush and believe that the constitution is just a goddamned piece of paper.

But it doesn’t end there.  Have you heard about this nutcase named Stewart Rhodes who founded the wack job organization called Oath Keepers?

Like the Liberty Restoration Project, the Oath Keepers have the temerity to call themselves a non-partisan association.  Can you believe that?  How the fuck are we supposed to know if they’re on our side or not if they won’t even choose a freaking side?

As their website clearly states:

The Oath Keepers are made up of currently serving military, reserves, National Guard, peace officers, fire-fighters, and veterans who swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic … and meant it.  We won’t “just follow orders.”

Did you catch that sly Nazi reference about following orders? VERY subversive, I know.  But not nearly as alarming as the idea that when a person swears an oath to uphold the Constitution that they should, you know, UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION.

The Oath Keepers have drafted something they call the Declaration of Orders We Will Not Obey.  You can view the entire list at their site, but here are just a few of them:

We will NOT obey any order to disarm the American people.

We will NOT obey any order to conduct warrantless searches of the American people, their homes, vehicles, papers, or effects — such as warrantless house-to house searches for weapons or persons.

We will NOT obey any order to detain American citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants” or to subject them to trial by military tribunal.

We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.

We will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.

Scandalous!  Simply scandalous.

But enough about the Oath Keepers.  Have you heard about Bob Shultz?  He’s been trying to explain to people for over thirty years that the Federal Reserve is a cartel of private banks, accountable to nobody, that has usurped Congress’s Constitutionally granted power to coin money and to regulate the value thereof.  He’s also been trying to inform the public that the Federal income tax was created specifically to service the debt that the United States owes to this private banking cartel, since it gave up its Constitutionally granted power to coin its own interest free currency.  After all, why do that when you can borrow money, at interest, from private banks????

But apparently, that’s all just kooky conspiracy theory.

He’s also trying to establish a Continental Congress in order to discuss our Federal government’s multiple violations of the Constitution.

Again…….kooky with a capital KOOK.

Anyone who doesn’t just grin and bear it while eating their government issued shit sandwich is insane, dangerous, or both.  Questioning authority is bad.  Just ask the Germans of the 1930’s and 40’s.

Do as you’re told by your betters.  It’s disrespectful to question your Lords and King.

Follow orders.

So anyway, now that you’ve read a little bit about these people, I’d like you to watch this CNN clip from the Anderson Vanderbilt, oops, I mean the Anderson Cooper show.  The story is titled ‘Patriots’ dangerous to government?, but the tone and dishonest smear of the piece make it absolutely clear that the question mark is merely aesthetic, and that you are supposed to be very, very afraid of these people.

So let’s analyze this clip, shall we?

CNN’s Drew Griffin introduces us to Catherine Bleish, who is described as a leader of an “anti-war, pro-community garden, extremely anti-Obama, conservative movement.”

Anti-war seems like a good thing to me, but I’m insane, so we’ll give him that one.

Pro-community garden? Well, I can’t believe that she’s walking the streets a free woman with views like that.

Extremely anti-Obama? Considering he presents no evidence to support that claim, I won’t present any evidence to refute it.

Conservative? Again, he presents no evidence of that, but her group’s web site clearly states that “the Liberty Restoration Project is composed of a politically diverse group of concerned citizens who have decided to throw down the arbitrary barriers (such as political parties) that divide us and work together as American Citizens to improve our country, starting as locally as possible.”  I’m really not sure how that can be classified as “conservative,” so I’m just going to call a liar a liar.

Moving on…

He says that “she believes that we the people are being unfairly taxed, illegally spied upon, and more and more controlled by a Federal government that’s starting to look like other governments (cut to the following book covers: “Overthrowing Fascism,” “Conscientious Objections,” “Wars of Mass Deception,” “Year of the Rat.” and “Unlimited Access, An FBI Agent Inside the Clinton White House”.

Unfairly taxed: See my comments above about the Federal Reserve, and think long and hard about the trillions spent on what is now continuous war.  Suddenly, taxation without representation is far more than a Schoolhouse Rock song.

Illegally spied upon: Obama has done nothing to put a stop to the warrantless wiretapping program begun under George W. Bush.

More and more controlled by a Federal government that’s starting to look like other governments? Again, he presents no evidence to back up this extremely vague claim (other than the sweeping shot of the book covers), so I really don’t think there’s a need to refute it.

Moving on…

He notes that “Bleish is not a militant, is not violent, but she is a tea partier, a patriot, and sees nothing wrong with the number of gun-toting militias in this country.”

To which she responds: “If you look around in this society, who is actually committing acts of violence right now?  Is it the people who are advocating individual gun ownership (a second amendment right, incidentally), or is it our government?”

I’ll let two wars of aggression, lasting going on nine years, a “war on drugs” that guarantees the same sort of organized crime as prohibition did, extrajudicial assassination of American citizens, and the almost daily reports of police brutality answer that question.

At this point, I’ve only gone through 1:40 of the 5 minute clip, but you’ve watched it too, and I really don’t want to be too pedantic about this.  Suffice it to say that the remainder of the clip is so chock full of the same type of misleading generalities and outright lies that CNN should be embarrassed to call itself a news organization, and Drew Griffin should be embarrassed to call himself a journalist.

It’s crystal clear to me that the purpose of this piece was to conflate genuine, justified disapproval of our government with the wingnut racism and potential for violence (gun owners, militias) that exists on the fringes of the tea party movement, and if we’re being honest with ourselves, EVERY single political movement known to man.

This is all part and parcel of the media/think tank generated echo chamber of phonyness that I touched on here, here, and especially here, where I said the following:

“The tea party movement started out as a bipartisan grass roots movement, by people for whom the multi-trillion dollar “bailouts” and Obama’s continuation of most of the Bush administration’s empire expanding policies and civil liberties destruction were the last of many straws.  I was at the first event in NYC, and it was mostly people who understood that the phrase “too big to fail” really meant socialism for the rich while screwing the poor and the middle class, which really means corporatism, which was Mussolini’s definition of fascism.

Many of them were extremely bright, well informed people who have had it with both existing parties because they understand that they are both complicit in the destruction of this country’s poor and  middle class at the expense of international corporations, while killing and maiming millions of innocent civilians in foreign countries in order to expand corporate profits and power.

The movement was quickly co-opted by the GOP though, and the corporate media jumped on the “all tea partiers are wack-job right wingers” meme because they understood that a real grass roots bipartisan movement of people who had figured out that the real game is militarist empire expansion for the sake of international corporate profits, was dangerous to their system.”

This CNN “news” story is the perfect example of the phenomenon that I described above.  Unfortunately though, it is only one of many.  Just turn on any of the corporate “news” programs and leave it on for more than 30 minutes and you’re almost certain to come across one or more propaganda hit pieces exactly like this one.  You need to either turn off your TV, or do your own research to confirm or deny what it is that they’re feeding you, because there’s always an agenda, and unless you’re a multinational banker, a politician, or a corporate bigwig, it isn’t for your benefit.  It is to misinform you in ways that allow the current system to continue raping the masses for the profit and power of the few, and understanding that is the first step towards changing it.

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