GO TO THE LIGHT!

Folks at the White House stay pretty busy these days just trying to untangle the lies George Bush keeps telling every time he opens his mouth. For example, back in April 2004, Bush explained to a cheering audience and an unchallenging press corps in Buffalo about "eavesdropping" on Americans -- "When you think 'Patriot Act,' constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because," he said earnestly while leaning over the podium, his hand on his heart "--because we value the Constitution."

Bush? Value that (insert Lord's name in vain) piece of worthless paper? I think not. From his actions and manner of speech, it is doubtful that Bush has read either the US Constitution or the holy book upon which he placed his hand twice and swore to preserve, protect and defend it.

After the New York Times reported last week that Bush authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to cast a wide net to spy on American citizens' e-mail and phone calls without seeking warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court, Bush went on the offense, saying yeah, he did it, and he was gonna keep on doing it, cause he was the president and -- like he told Washington Post's Bob Woodward -- that means he doesn't have to explain to anybody why he does anything...

That apparently includes the FISA court, which has the audacity to require "probable cause" before approving wiretaps on American citizens. In Bush's defense, when you're huntin' and chasin' and smokin' out evil lurkers and plotters and planners, you don't have time to stop and fill out two or three million pieces of paper. Like Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says, the (insert Lord's name in vain) Constitution is a quaint little thing, but we live in a new world order now, and any constraints on "this president" are just too cumbersome.

In an October speech, Bush said, "Our country is at war, and the executive branch has an obligation to protect the 'Merican people. We are aggressively doing that. We are finding the terrorists and bringing them to justice," he said, pausing for effect, then added, "and anything we do is within the law..."

Vice President Dick Cheney agrees. He says they must have complete control and flexibility and unlimited power, even if this means they have to make up the law as they go along. While speeding home from the Middle East in time to break a Senate tie on a bill that raises Medicaid payments for the poor and elderly while, at the same time, allowing states to cut their Medicaid services, and cuts child-care payments for social bottom-feeders, Cheney snarled that there "is a hell of a threat" out there, and the president's authority under the (insert Lord's name in vain) Constitution must be "unimpaired."

Cheney says "the vast majority" of Americans support Bush spying on them, and warned that any "backlash" would not be against Bush, but against the critics who dared question Bush's illegal and quite possibly treasonous bits of derring-do. Cheney is adamant that he, er -- Bush -- is above any court and outside any law. Those who disagree can just go (insert word depicting doing the sexual "wild thaing") themselves.

Besides, Cheney might have added, they've been doing it for four years -- collecting information on American citizens by tapping directly into the US telecommunication system's main arteries without first getting warrants -- and nobody seemed to care. According to the Times, these corporate behemoths supported and assisted the spying operation -- storing information on citizens' calling patterns and giving it to Bush since 9-11.

Got that, sports fans? Since 9-11. And the NSA is not the only one. According to Capital Hill Blue's Doug Thompson, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and "dozens of private contractors are spying on millions of Americans 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year." A former NSA agent who quit in disgust over use of the agency to spy on Americans, told Thompson, "We're no longer in the business of tracking our enemies. We're spying on everyday Americans."

And, when there's treason afoot, one can hardly leave out the vicious and wacky Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. A couple of years ago, Rumsfeld had this great idea for not only spying on Americans, but building a profile on every citizen who travels, uses credit cards, talks on the telephone or works or plays on a computer.

He called his new toy the "Total Information Awareness" (TIA) Program, and put the disgraced Iran-Contra felon John Poindexter in charge of it. When a furious Congress killed the program, Rumsfeld said, "Fine. They can have the name." He then moved it to the Pentagon's covert "black bag" program, out of Congressional sight or oversight, and renamed it the "Terrorist Information Awareness" (TIA) system and Thompson says the program is "alive and well and collecting data in real time on Americans at a computer center located at 3801 Fairfax Drive in Arlington, Virginia."

It's difficult to gauge either the height of awareness or the depth of outrage of the American public because the corporate media steadfastly refuses to shed even a glimmer of light on the myriad of scandals this administration is hiding out there in plain sight. The shock of 9-11 thrust the people of this country into a depressing twilight zone, a "loyalty-oath" atmosphere where they stumble around in the dark, afraid to speak -- afraid to think. Any anger they feel about the president of the United States committing an impeachable offense by covertly spying on them and openly admitting it will fade as the media psycho-flogs them into believing the criminal here is the whistleblower who shone the light on the illegal surveillance, not the traitor who broke the law.

The irony of Bush, the NSA and Gonzales whipping up a criminal investigation into who dared tell the public that they were breaking the law will be lost on far too many Americans. Those who do understand, yet choose to stand mute and hope for the best should weigh the loss of their civil liberties against the violence, murder, vicious lies, and especially the sheer animosity Bush feels toward all but the wealthiest Americans.

They should take a look at the backgrounds and goals of the beady-eyed war vultures who control Bush; who are urging him to destroy everything in his path -- not the least of which is the (insert Lord's name in vain) US Constitution. They should ask themselves what they would do if they woke up in the middle of the night to find an invader in their bedrooms, pawing through their personal belongings. Would they silently bow their heads, or would they turn on the light and scream bloody murder at the top of their lungs?

Truth doesn't just radiate light -- it IS light. If Americans would raise their heads and look around, they would see there are flashes of it everywhere, especially on the Internet.

Americans have come to a fork in the road and, like the great philosopher Yogi Berra once said, they need to take it. They need to go to the light.

Then, those (insert Lord's name in vain) (insert word depicting one born out of wedlock) will get what they so richly deserve.

CORNERED BY THE TRUTH

By Sheila Samples

Elwood Bush: It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses!
Jake Blair: Hit it!
Elwood Bush: They're not gonna catch us! We're on a mission from God!


It was bizarre at first; even amusing in a hideous little way. When George "Elwood" Bush and Tony "Jake" Blair scrambled up on the international stage shortly after 9-11 and broke into their frenzied Blues Brothers routine, I fully expected the US Congress, the UK Parliament and citizens on both sides of the Atlantic to snort in derision and get up and walk out of the theater. I mean, c'mon...

"Saddam's comin' after us! He's a grave and gathering danger -- a horror like we've never known before!" Elwood Bush yelled, while gandy-dancing across the stage. "Saddam's the evilest evildoer in the world. He's got smokin' guns 'n mushroom clouds 'n torture chambers 'n rape rooms 'n he hates our freedom! He has stacks and piles of WMD! They're scattered all over the desert -- Colin's got pictures of 'em. They --"

"--They'll be here in 45 minutes if we don't attack!" Jake Blair screeched, his knees hitting his chin. "Stand back! Stand back!" he cried, shaking a sheaf of papers at the audience. "I have a dossier -- and I'm not afraid to use it!"

"Yes! Yes!! Fuck Saddam! We're takin' him out! Remember September the 11th!" Bush roared before leaping high in the air, making a perfect "split" landing then, with one hand on the floor, skittered around in circles, smirking at the cheering mob.

"JESUS H. TAP-DANCING CHRIST!!!" Blair screamed as he rolled his eyes and moon-walked around the twirling Bush -- "I have seen The Light!! Let's do it!"

And so they did it. Spurred by hyper-imagination and carried aloft on the shoulders of a corporate media war machine, they thundered off on their great adventure -- a two-headed, modern-day Orson Welles -- whipping up mass psychological terror by relentlessly shrieking that a new, more horrible "War of the Worlds" is upon us. They did it by trashing legislative bodies, trampling legions of anti-war protesters, and twisting facts to fit a tangle of lies.

They did it because fear foments chaos and disorder. People either streaming into the streets in terror or cowering under their beds in anticipation of impending disaster are easily manipulated into a dysfunctional public mass which accepts death and destruction as the new norm. As Hermann Goering said, it is a simple matter to control the people in any country. "All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger..."

Who knows what the truth is anymore? Each time the truth threatens to emerge, the dancing duo whomps it back into the shadows with a false-flag terror alert and, with the help of a treasonous media, we soon forget what it was that "almost" penetrated our consciousness. No truth has fought more valiantly to break free nor sent Bush and Blair into more strenuous dancing spasms than what actually happened on 9-11. We know the truth, but cannot, or will not, wrap our minds around it lest we be forced to stare aghast at ourselves in the mirror.

But the truth of that disastrous day will out, because anybody with half sense and one eye who has seen video of the WTC buildings imploding knows their miraculous freefall could be nothing short of a controlled demolition. Truth is, controlled demolitions all look alike -- if you've seen one of those suckers, you've seen 'em all. That's the truth. Forget the bouncing Bushball tale that jet fuel turned massive chunks of concrete to powder and brought towering buildings to earth at the speed of light, including one that wasn't even hit by an airplane.

The truth is out there in plain sight, and we must come to grips with it or Bush is correct -- we're not gonna catch them. Bush believes he is on a genocidal mission from God, and Blair makes his political decisions only after channeling "The Light," and cleansing himself by journeying to Mexico's fake Aztec pyramid, stripping down to swim trunks, gazing at "phantom animals" in a stream before slathering melon, papaya and mud over his body and emitting a primal scream of psychic rebirth."

What could be more terrifying than suddenly realizing these two madmen, driven by arrogance, lust for power and insatiable greed are waging war on anything that moves, including their own citizens, in order to achieve the unachievable goal of seizing control of the world and all its resources? One is a bloodthirsty bully who would rather destroy the world than admit he's wrong. The other, an ambitious fop -- in over his head -- has no recourse but to cling to their "special relationship" [*] and hope for the best.

The best they have to distract our attention from the truth and to whip us back into submission -- one of the two options left on the table -- is the false-flag terror weapon, which has evolved from startling announcements of terrorists moving freely among us with bombs in their shoes, to absurd calls for plastic sheets and duct tape, to more deadly attacks wherein many innocents are maimed and killed. To succeed, this option depends on the final one -- the willingness of a dishonorable and treasonous media to roil the bloody disinformation waters until truth is lost in chaos.

Later we will be asked -- will ask ourselves -- how two such raging mad, desperately absurd fools managed to get away with such carnage. The only possible answer is they did it -- because they could. Because we allowed it. They cannot turn back because they know, as do we, that invading Iraq was the mother of all war crimes, and they are the terrorists who will be brought to justice in the International Criminal Court. The truth has them cornered and, unless they are stopped, they will keep doing their ghoulish dance of death until the mushroom cloud that so fascinates them covers planet Earth like an umbrella. The skulls and bones of the innocent will continue to pile up unless we shake free of the evil spell cast across this land.

We can combat the two-pronged onslaught of Bush and Blair's War on the World by waking up and paying attention to what they are doing, by remembering the lies and deceit of the warmongers that catapaulted us into this bloody mess. We can stop them if we resist as individuals -- a vast, outraged sea of individuals who are mad as hell and flatly refuse to take any more. As Samuel Adams once said, "It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush-fires in people's minds."

And that's the truth.


[*]The Special Relationship

The bombs go off
The legs go off
The heads go off

The arms go off
The feet go off
The light goes out

The heads go off
The legs go off
The lust is up

The dead are dirt
The lights go out
The dead are dust

A man bows down before another man
And sucks his lust

Harold Pinter
August 2004

Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety of Internet sites. Contact her at: rsamples@sirinet.net. © 2005 Sheila Samples