Human civil liberties are constantly under threat in our day and age. Phone calls, Facebook, Emails, etc. can be influenced or monitored by the extension of the warrantless spying bill. On September 12, the House passed HR 5949 or the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2012. The measure carried 301-118. Seventy four Democrats joined 227 Republicans. Shocking to some, Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Howard Berman, Brad Sherman, Gary Ackerman, Nita Lowey, and Marcy Kaptur voted Yea to this bill. Now, it is clear that even some Democrats don't care about human civil liberties just like some the Republicans. This is evidently clear on how both parties have advanced the agenda of war for centuries. It is true that some liberals feign piety, but they use a progressive mantra as a means to contain or strife revolutionary changes in society. The Senate executed a similar support of the bad warrantless wiretapping bill too. The Senate overwhelmingly renewed warrantless spying 73-23. Thirty Democrats and even Independent Joe Lieberman joined 42 Republicans. There was little debate on how the Senate passed the bill. There was little courage from political figures in Congress in opposing such a nefarious bill. The future Secretary of State John Kerry voted Yea. The Democrats Reid, Levin, Conrad, Cardin, Mikulski, Feinstein, Stabenow, and Schumer voted Yea. The President may sign the bill into law. He called the measure a national security priority. A year ago, indefinite detention under certain circumstances became law on December 31, 2011. That was a disgrace. Even U.S. citizens and permanent residents had their rights violated since when the rights of one man is threaten, then all of our rights are threatened. On many weekends and holidays, the government regularly attempt to pass unjust laws since on most days, human beings will be more vigilant against these evils. If warrantless spying is extended another five years, then overseas phone calls, emails, and other communications of US citizens and permanent residents may be monitored without court authorization. Probable cause isn’t needed according to the supporters of this legislation. Electronic eavesdropping will look for “foreign intelligence information.” Virtually anything qualifies. Vague language is all-embracing. The EFF or the Electronic Frontier Foundation is one of the greatest groups out there disagreeing with warrantless spying & violations to our human privacy in general. Now, key FISA Amendments Act provisions were challenged before the Supreme Court in the Clapper v. Amnesty International case. Months after 9/11, George W. Bush secretly authorized the NSA to eavesdrop on Americans lawlessly. Some of these surveillance policies came about without court approved warrants. Times are worse now than then even with our violations of constitutional protections. The Supreme Court, in October 29, 2012, witnessed oral arguments about warrantless spying. The Supreme Court will decide if lawyers, journalists, labor, media, human rights organizations, and other entities may challenge the constitutionality of warrantless spying. One victory came about in March 2011 according to ACLU spokeswoman Rachel Myers. The victory was about when the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled they and others the law affects have legal standing to challenge. The ruling said that parties do not have to prove that they have been spied upon in order for folks to challenge an unlawful spy act. The proponents of warrantless spying believe that emails and other communications can be monitored without corroborating evidence. That is why political and human rights activists are opposed to this injurious policy. Even the Senate rejected stricter transparency and oversight amendments. Even the Senate rejected Senator Ron Wyden's (D-OR) amendment would force intelligence agencies to report on how their actions would affect ordinary Americans. Even Senator Jeff Merkley from Oregon wanted the Attorney General to declassify some of the secret FISA court opinions. It failed. The current President is continuing national security spying as the previous administration did. Everyone knows that NSA spying blatantly violates the concept of being against unreasonable searches and seizures. Even ACLU legal director Jameel Jaffer said: "...If the government is engaged in surveillance that violated the Fourth Amendment, that is something that ought to be disturbing to not just legislators, but to the American public more generally..." Wyden wants constitutional protections of human liberties and oversight of these laws. Even Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is correct to say that the Fourth Amendment and our independence go hand and hand. He wants personal emails to be protected from warrantless searches and seizures. We have to see how the Supreme Court will rule on this issue. We have to have accountability for our government. We need oversight of the government without warrantless wiretapping at all. Carte blanche spying is immoral point blank period.
The Manhattan Project was one of the most important and controversial actions of World War Two. The whole project came about in early 1939. This was when the scientific community including Albert Einstein told the White House that German physicists had learned the secrets of splitting an uranium atom. Many scientists were afraid that the Nazis could potentially develop energy that could produce a bomb that could create unspeakable destruction in the world. Albert Einstein fled Nazi persecution including other scientists. Ernico Fermi escaped from then fascist Italy. They were living now in America. They agreed that the then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt must learn about the dangers of atomic technology if it were in the hands of the Axis Powers. Fermi went into Washington in March to express his concerns to government officials. Few in that time shared his concerns or uneasiness. Even Einstein wrote a letter to President Roosevelt about the need to develop an atomic research program. Roosevelt agreed to it, but he wanted to accomplish this mission slowly. In late 1941, the Manhattan Project was created. It was a secret job whose goal was to establish the atomic bomb. The research was based in universities nationwide in Columbia, the University of California at Berkeley, etc. By December of 1942, Fermi led a group of physicists to create the first controlled nuclear chain reaction. It was done under the grandstands of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. Funds were expunged more freely. The projected advanced at a huge pace. There were nuclear facilities being built at Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Hanford, Washington. The main assembly plant was created of course in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The leader at Los Alamos who made sure that the actions were in order for the project to be completed was named Robert Oppenheimer. He quoted from Hindu Scriptures when the successful test of the nuclear test came along. 2 billion dollars were spent on this endeavor. The whole plan employed 120,000 Americans. There was huge secrecy in the completion of the Manhattan Project indeed. Only a few scientists and officials knew of the details. Churchill and Roosevelt did not want Stalin to understand about the secret atomic bomb program. Stalin was an ally of the Allied Powers during WWII, but they were not in agreement with all of Stalin’s ideologies. American leaders figured out that the Soviet spy named Kllaud Fuchs had penetrated the inner circle of scientists. In fact, Vice-President Truman had never heard of the Manhattan Project until he became President Truman. The first bomb test came in the summer of 1945 on July 16, 1945. It was tested at the Trinity site near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The device was on a 100 foot tower and discharged just before dawn. A blinding flash immediately came being visible for 200 miles. It lit up the morning sky. The mushroom cloud developed and it reached 40,000 feet. The explosion had blown out the windows of civilian homes up to 100 miles away. The bombing test in New Mexico caused half mile wide crate metamorphosing sand into glass. A bogus cover-up story was quickly released, explaining that a huge ammunition dump had just exploded in the desert. Soon word reached President Truman in Potsdam, Germany that the project was successful. The bomb was nicknamed "'Gadget." There was even a pretest of the bomb in May of 1945 to check the monitoring instruments. This started the nuclear age. There is other interesting information about the Manhattan Project as well. It was J. Robert Oppenheimer who, upon viewing from a distance the gigantic mushroom cloud and fiery chaos of that initial explosion, declared, "I am become the destroyer of worlds." That was a quote from the Hindu scriptures, the Bhagavad Gita. Later, he was a chief advisor to the United States Atomic Energy Commission and wanted to control the proliferation of nuclear power in the globe. Folks accuse him of being a Communist. What we do know is that he was a liberal on some issues. He interacted with many Communist Party members, but there is a dispute on whether he a full member of the Communist Party. He was stripped of his security clearance back in 1954. He was gifted in the study of the Universe since he was a theoretical physicist. The Bohemian Grove is famous for housing a Manhattan Project meeting that took place in September 1942. The folks in the meeting include personages like the military officials, Ernest Lawrence, the President of Harvard, representatives of Standard Oil, and representatives of General Electric. It is a historical fact that the Bohemian Grove hosts some of the most powerful and wealthiest men in the world to talk about various political subjects. The Grove is protected by various police agencies. Every Republican President since the 1960's attended the Grove. There is a pyramid monument built at Trinity Site to this day.
Many folks don't agree with the filmmaker Oliver Stone on every issue. Yet, he is accurate to present his book about real U.S. history along with the historian Peter Kuznick. Even today, a lot of human beings don't know about the untold history of the nation of America. Some American history has been positive and some of it has not been so positive. You have to show all of the complex nature of U.S. culture and history in order for us to be honest with ourselves. The lessons learned in the past and the present can allow America to be better politically and socially in the future. Oliver Stone's and Peter Kuznick's book outlined a phenomenally important aspect of U.S. history. The title of the book is called "The Untold History of the United States." The book outlines the stories of popular movements and key figures of power. It exposes the myths of U.S. history. A documentary about this subject is also found in the Showtime network. The book has documentation in all of its words, so it outlines very credible information. It heavily talks about foreign policy especially like WWI. The work outlines the honest truth. The truth can be easy like a summer breeze or it can be politically incorrect or even harsh at time. Sometimes, the truth hurts and America can improve itself and make amends from its mistakes or errors. Numerous Presidents and political leaders created policies that harmed human life. The book makes the claim that Harry Truman is the worst President we have seen. I don't know about that, but Truman is definitely a stone cold murderer with his unprogressive act of allowing atomic bombs to drop in 2 cities of Japan. These bombings killed almost 1 million innocent human beings. The book talks about WWI, the New Deal, the Wall Street Putsch of 1934 or the Nye Committee hearings on war profiteering. It describes great information on the droppings of nuclear bombs in Japan. The book outlines careful research of the Cold War. The Cold War is a complex historical era. We know the evils of McCarthyism, the Mossadeq coup, and other topics. You know that the literature talks about the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Eisenhower presidency, the Guzman overthrow, and other subjects. Oliver Stone discusses the Kennedy assassination, the Korean War, and other issues. The book outlines more information than the documentary film. The book claims that the U.S. should enter WWII and claimed that Pearl Harbor was a surprise or it was not abetted by the U.S. government. The authors can believe that if they want, but the truth is that the U.S. knew that a conflict with Japan could be inevitable before the Pearl Harbor attack came into the scene. Even Stone and Kuznick’s account makes crystal clear Roosevelt’s desire for some such war-beginning incident. The book is excellent and it shows real history. The book exceeds the documentary in documentation, but the documentary on the nuclear bombs is great as well. Regardless if you agree with all of Oliver Stone's politics or not, people have the right to know about the untold history of the United States of America.
The fiscal cliff is still upon us. If real changes don't come, then a second Great Depression could come in the world. Among the poor, the cliff is already here. Our economic condition is still very poor in the close of 2012. These economic issues are worldwide. We have the threats of poverty, illiteracy, disease, unemployment, homelessness, inadequate sanitation, low social mobility, and exclusion in our world. As high as 27,000 children have died from needless poverty each year in the world. Some children die from starvation, malnutrition, and diseases like diarrhea. Pennies can end a lot of these maladies in the world. 1 billion children out of 2.2 billion children live in poverty. These facts alone condemn the mainstream existing economic systems in the globe. The policies of the IMF, the World Bank, the Bank for International Settlements, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the international system of privatized central banks, and similar groups haven't solved our economic complications at all. Now, 3 billion human beings in the Earth live on less than $2.50 per day. This is incredible. This is almost half of the world's population. These events relate directly to the situation of globalization. There has been a growth of the middle class in parts of the world, but 80 percent of the human race receives less than $10 per day. At the other end of the scale, the most prosperous 20% of the world’s population account for 75% of total world income, and this distribution becomes even more extreme when permanent assets are considered. Almost 1 billion human beings are malnourished worldwide. 50 million Americans rely on food stamps. According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization in Rome, there are in 2012 some 925 million persons experiencing hunger and malnutrition. Some 578 million of the hungry live in the Asian and Pacific countries, followed by 239 million malnourished in sub-Saharan Africa. The FAO lists 19 million hungry in the developed nations. We have huge unemployment and lack of clean water in the world. Many of these issues came from the austerity imposed by the IMF and other central banks. In America, we have the fiscal cliff issues. Austerity plans have been proposed by reactionary Republicans and the Wall Street token centrist Democrats. The recessions in Europe have influenced the marked downturn of the Chinese economy. The imperialists exploited the legitimate grievance of being opposed to authoritarianism in the Middle East as a means to cause destabilization campaigns in Libya via NATO, and Syria. We know about the neo cons and the crimes of NATO. Sometimes, we need to learn about the IMF since they cause much of the economic instability in the world via bribes and threats of economic harm. We have tried Austrian economics before. It doesn't work, because allowing the free market nearly unlimited powers will not deal with the social safety net or real public resources at all. Free trade that doesn’t have regulations or limitations can increase environmental damage, low wages, and economic exploitation. The shift of the recovery should be placed into making the hands of the international bankers accountable that caused the recession in the first place. There is nothing wrong with cheap, long term loans and bond purchases for the reason of building up a nation's resources. Even some Democrats want to be anti-New Deal and pro Wall Street with their pro-austerity proposals. Individuals like Erskine Bowles want massive cuts in our economy to exist. The elitists want austerity as a means to harm the working people to pay taxes for the crimes of the elite. The reactionaries believe in the lie that it is immoral for the super-rich to pay even one cent of increased taxation. Many networks will talk about crimes, but not the crimes of parasitical bankers and hedge fund players at all. That is why we need to reject austerity measures, have real banks to provide help, and revive our infrastructure as a way to end a casino type of economic system that witness in 2013.
Far too often, we know about male civil rights heroes and activists. That is fine. We know about Dr. King, Malcolm X, Kwame Ture, and Medgar Evers. Yet, sometimes we forget about the female civil rights leaders that have taken a leadership role in promoting freedom, justice, and equality for all human beings in the world. So, we should research and respect any women of any background that is legitimately fighting for truth and seeking to develop revolutionary change in the world in general. For when you get older, we maturely see the great value of women in general in the lives of humanity. These females deserve our gratitude and respect. Now, it is a historical fact that women took a huge leadership role in the civil rights and human rights movement spanning the thousands of years of human history. We know about Harriet Tubman freeing thousands of slaves. Tubman was one of the greatest leaders of the abolitionist movement in North America. The deal is that we haven't heard too much about this interesting history of more female involvement in the human rights movement. Tons of pictures of the demonstrations and protests in America from the 1950's to the early 1970's witnessed a lot of women willing to go to jail for the sake of the advancement of true liberty. Ella Baker worked for decades in fighting for the freedom of not only black people, but for women and other ethnicities as well. Even Rosa Parks was already active in civil rights programs before the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Claudette Colvin was arrested even before Rosa Parks in 1955. Parks was an active worker in the NACCP. Even in the 1940's, she joined the Montgomery Voter League to encourage blacks to register to vote despite of white racist resistance. Jo Ann Robinson and Septima Clark worked with Rosa Parks in dealing with the course of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Septima Clark created the Citizenship School Program from 1956 as a means to advance human rights. Septima was born in Charleston, South Carolina back in May 3, 1898. She was a lifelong educator or teacher. She was one of the few women board members and director of education in the SCLC. Ella Baker was one of the strongest women in the civil rights movement in general. By 1943, she was appointed to the national director branches of the NAACP. She was the highest ranking female leader in the NAACP staff. She left the NAACP and worked to organize the SCLC's first project called the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in Washington, D.C. back in 1957. This action was a means to try to end segregation and racial oppression. Ella Baker set up the SCLC's national office by herself. She was a mentor for the Southern Student Movement. She was happy for the students, because Ella Jo Baker wanted the protesters in Greensboro, North Carolina and other places to not be controlled by big civil rights organizations. In other words, she wanted the sit ins to be completely independent. She supported SNCC even it was more radicalized from 1965 to 1972. Ella Baker believed that organization and reaching out to your neighbors plus others in order to make the fight for freedom more successful. Human beings have every right to fight for their liberation and human freedom. Therefore, we have the right to advance a green economy, to fight crime, to fight poverty, to work in our communities, to speak out about real issues, and to allow our elected officials to be held accountable for their specific policies. Life is never easy, but if we never give up and strive for improvement, then great changes can come. Even the most reactionary human beings can be transformed into being more reasonable and more progressive via education and inspiration. Fannie Lou Hammer dedicated her life also for justice, peace, and equality for all human beings. She worked with Malcolm X and other leaders in advancing the cause of black human liberation. Fannie Lou Hammer suffered taunts and police brutality, but the Sister stood strong for the interests of human life and human dignity. She is one of the greatest civil rights leaders of the 20th century along with Ella Baker. She opposed the Vietnam War and wanted the poor to achieve assistance and adequate care. So, without these Sisters, we would never have the gains that we have today. We still have a long way to go, but these Sisters then and now deserve our great appreciation.
Well, 2012 has been a great year and I can't wait until what 2013 will bring about.
By Timothy
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