Blogs Closed, Bill Proposed: Wake Up

[A special Jenius Thanks (they're all special, right?) to Nicholas Laughlin of Global Voices Online for picking up My post on the ongoing Games and Frames We have now.]

Turn your eyes north, for a moment. We do it anyway, but We don't really see what's going on. We see what what We want to see, Our own hair-thin niche of interest, whether it's political, social or economic. But two events, separated in many ways yet connected in ugly fundamental ways, have an impact on Us. They have to, since they are happening in the land of Our owners and We keep believing We are "free."

The first may seem merely technological: the closing of the Blogetery.com website that provided service to over 73,000 blogs. The closing was ordered by the U.S. of part of A. government...only the order and the order-giver are unknown.

Just step back a minute and take that in. Some 73,000 blogs are taken off-line, censored, shut down, by the ostensibly-democratic government We live under, for NO stated reason. Why should you care? Because if they could do it once, they could do it again.

"Sure, Jenius, you're just looking out for your own self-interests here." Bingo. But My self-interest happens to be yours as well: the difference is I'm willing to protest about this. There is NO way in hell that 73,000 blogs on one website could be ALL engaging in blatantly illegal action so heinous and treacherous to the common good that shutting them down together--at once--is acceptable under Our Constitution. That would be like arresting a whole passel of neighborhoods for the actions of one terrorist cell or even several living in the same general area. Or like bombing a series of villages to kill just 1 or 2 suspected enemies. (Bad example: the U.S. of part of A. practically patented that crime.)

Closing down 73,000 blogs can be seen as an example of "Not Me, so I don't care" thinking, reminiscent of an apocryphal Nazi Germany "joke," where the average German didn't care that Polish people were being rounded up. "Not Me, so I don't care." The same response was given when Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, Communists and Catholics were being rounded, each time a shrugged "Not Me, so I don't care." But when the Nazis started seeing enemies everywhere outside the party's core and they started rounding up "average" Germans, the response became "I wanted someone to protest and help Me...but there was nobody left."

I've been saying it for years: The U.S. of part of A. is goose-stepping, in its own way, into fascism. Even under Obama.

You don't care. Here's more.

From the mind and pen of career politician (a synonym for "lifelong thief") Charles Rangel, a "friend" of Puerto Rico like Brutus was a "friend" to Julius, comes this gem of a proposed bill. Here's the relevant text:

"To require all persons in the United States between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform national service, either as a member of the uniformed services or in civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, to authorize the induction of persons in the uniformed services during wartime to meet end-strength requirements of the uniformed services, and for other purposes."

This, people, is called  a draft. Not as "to be edited,'" but as in "military." 

Now I have advocated, in the footsteps of writer Robert Heinlein, that all citizens should give 1-2 years of public service as part of their citizenship duties. But this is not the Heinlein model: this is a war draft, a government decree of reduced freedom, a heavy-handed clamp on present and future generations of potential opponents to government actions.

Proof? "...(A) member of the uniformed services or in civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security." That means you are either a soldier or a law enforcement agent, an order-taker for whom disobedience is punishable, has to be punishable, and the ultimate punishment for disobedience--often called "treason" in these organizations--is death.

Still don't care? Here's a thought. Until the Army jury-rigged its TO, the most-decorated unit in U.S. Army history was the 65th Infantry, composed almost exclusively of Puerto Rican soldiers. Its unofficial nickname in the Army was the Spic Squad. How did it get to be the most-decorated unit in U.S. Army history? Because it was made up of brave men and women that weren't white, and thus they were thrown into the worst battle sectors at the worst times and under the worst conditions. That's how you win the most medals, by bleeding, by losing body parts, by dying, supposedly to serve your own, but actually to serve the interests of others.

And the 65th Infantry was made up of volunteers. Do you want Our Brethren, your children, to be drafted and forced to serve a master who doesn't care about them except as tools for their own self-interest?

Rangel is crooked [Update: 23 July 2010: He's facing more ethics charges...] 1 August 2010: And increasing pressure to resign...], but he served in the Korean War, earning a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. He may be a warmonger, most likely is trying to be war profiteer, but the aphorism that "Young men fight wars that old men start" is as true as the day the first cowardly leader convinced others to endanger themselves for his benefit. Rangel is old and cowardly, but greed is ageless.


Censorship takes many forms. Closing down blogs, like spiking printing presses or closing stations, is one way. Maybe Global Voices is next on "the list," because it brings together the often anti-establishment words of citizens in repressive regimes, some of which are "vital" to U.S. of part of A. interests. Think it won't happen? Think again. The government is increasingly giving no stated reasons for its actions, and make no mistake, the U.S. of part of A. is a repressive regime.

For repression also means use of force. What's more forceful than to absorb the people into becoming government drones? "All people between the ages of 18 and 42" is what Rangel proposes. Not "able-bodied men": all people. You may feel like your boss holds terrible power over you, but all s/he can do is fire you. The government, under the guise of military or security "concerns," can fire at you.

Blogs shut down and a sweeping draft proposed. Look north, My Brethren. Those aren't storm clouds anymore. Those are buzzards.


The Jenius Has Spoken.



P.S.:  Remember this name: Shirley Sherrod. And remember that Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda vermin said that all a lie needs is to be repeated often and loudly to make it seem like the truth. The U.S. of part of A. is trapped in a process of lies repeated often, loudly and incessantly, as Keith Olbermann points out with incisive force.  [Update: 22 July 2010: Ms. Sherrod has received an apology from the White House and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who offered Ms. Sherrod a job in the department. And if you haven't heard, Ms. Sherrod was fired because of an edited tape of her remarks concerning a white farmer's case was blatantly, openly and libelously created by Fox News to protray Ms. Sherrod as racist. Be clear on this: Fox News is pushing its openly racist "fear blacks" agenda and stupid white Americans were falling for it. Now others are. Lies created and repeated often and loudly enough will seem like the truth...only if We allow it.] [Update: 23 July 2010: The thing that pushed the Sherrod highly-edited tape is the same cretinous vermin that pushed the highly-edited--and legally eviscerated--ACORN tapes. This tapeworm's name is Andrew Breitbart. This fecal-feeder is worse than scum. The day he and his kind are trampled into roadkill will not be soon enough.]

P.P.S.: And on this day (21 July), an Attorney General who clearly violates the law by firing Justice Department attorneys because they refuse to follow executive policy, fires these attorneys because of politics, not because they failed at their jobs or committed a crime, and yet this same Attorney General sanctions further violations of domestic and international law by approving the use of torture, even against citizens that have not been charged with any crime, this walking piece of rancid cow dung named Alberto Gonzales is...walking away, uncharged. It isn't just the Republicans, people: the Democrats are goose-stepping mightily as well.

[Update: 22 July 2010: On the blog shutdown issue, the following excerpt (emphasis and bracketed comments Mine) is from a BBC article concerning the matter:

"A web hosting company has said it shut down a blogging platform that was home to over 70,000 bloggers because a "link to terrorist material" and an al-Qaeda "hit list" was posted to the site. [The Jenius notes that 2-3 links do not merit the shutdown of 73,000 blogs.]

BurstNet said Blogetery.com also posted "bomb-making instructions". [Jenius: Which are available on hundreds of other websites. Do the search yourself and you'll see.]

The company said it acted after receiving "a notice of a critical nature from law enforcement officials".

But the move has angered bloggers who use the platform and say they were given no notice of the shutdown.

In response Blogetery.com said its server had been "terminated without any notification or explanation."

The site added that it is trying to resolve the situation.

BurstNet defended its position.

"The posted material, in addition to potentially inciting dangerous activities, specifically violated the BurstNet acceptable use policy" said the web host firm.

BurstNet also claimed that the site had a history of previous abuse.

The news blog Cnet.com reported that officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) told BurstNet on 9 July that al-Qaeda materials had been found on Blogetery's servers. [Jenius: "AlQaeda" is to Us what "communist" was in the 1950s: a buzzword aimed at inflaming the debate to "don't question" status. As such, fuck al-Qaeda and fuck the people who use it as cover for their abuses.]

It also claimed that material allegedly found on the server included "the names of American citizens targeted for assassination by al-Qaeda" as well as messages from Osama bin Laden and other leaders of the terrorist organisation. [Jenius: So shutting down the site--and tons of others--will HELP these idiots find the other idiots?]

BurstNet's chief technology officer, Joe Marr, said that the FBI sent a "Voluntary Emergency Disclosure of Information" request to the firm.

Sources have confirmed to the BBC that this was the case but FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said the bureau does not comment on active investigations.

However he did say that the FBI had not asked for any websites to be shut down.

The FBI does not have the power to remove content from websites or to take them down. That can only be done with the authority of a judge. [Jenius: But they and the government are working on this. Bet on it. Because the issue is no longer "protection"--if it ever was--it's "power over the people."]