"Alicia Forrest {CODE PINK ACTIVIST} has just been released from jail, where she has spent the greater part of the day. Her charge was "Interference." Her bail was in excess of five hundred dollars. As Alicia explained to me this evening, the sheriff actually hit her twice with the baton - the first time off camera - the second time on. I've personally witnessed the abrasions on Alicia's wrists from the tightly fastened plastic restraints. To the credit of the Denver Sheriff's Department, this incident is currently under investigation by their Internal Affairs Department."
Filmmaker, Tony Valenzuela, creator of 2009TrueStory.com, has combined some of the most aggravating constructs in segmented television to patch together a series about a 2009 military coup in America. He drives viewers nuts with the use of “TO BE CONTINUED” episodes, incomplete alternating sequences of imperiled circumstance, and elusive camera trickery, illustrated in films like Blair Witch Project. But they will keep clicking for more.
What is most remarkable is that it has no contemporary comparison. For some, the interests lies in how such a big government will manage to land on them.
The new viral video series based on the now, seriously plausible, worst-case scenario of martial law enactments in a 2009 post-election setting is drawing more interest for those can’t ignore what’s happening with the irrational expansions of U.S. Executive powers. Let’s not forget the public has watched the repeated exemption of the Bush Administration from prosecution at the behest of voters, activists and it’s own leaders. The series, crafted for the advent of YouTube, will sit better with those who can’t tolerate sitting through hundreds of 90 minute documentaries. However, after watching it, they may look into it further.
We have been talking with Ms. McKinney who reported recently, most specifically, "I am against Real IDs!"
It's really too bad we couldn't hear more on the subject from her. In honor of citizens opposed to Obama, we decided to publish this.
We propose that she is a better alternative for voters who would vote Democratic in the 2008 Presidential election on the platform of civil liberties, global warming, foreign policy and universal healthcare.
Our reasons? The Democrats' recent voting records on the Patriot Act, FISA, and extending the imbalances of both executive powers and those of appointed officials leave those with privacy and U.S. sovereignty issues out in the cold.
The Green Party's platform on adding limitations to commercial expansion for the sake of conserving the environment and human posterity is not popular with conservatives. However, it may steer us away from oil dependency. Including the environment in debate conversations are keys to Green Party policy, giving the honest American "a break", and not insulting our intelligence about the state of domestic affairs or how we arrived at that place.
We now turn to understanding the McKinney campaign and the U.S. struggle to redeem itself from the road to imperialized commercial extremism while trying to balance a rebound for the U.S. Constitution, a corroded infrastructure and a deadbeat economy.
Ms. McKinney is Georgia's first African American Congresswoman. Her ascension in the Executive chain of command has been frought with ..politics. We, the people who vote, share her contest with random demands on the American identity and our legitimate place in American politics.
Presidential Candidates steeping in their own hype at the DNC and upcoming RNC appeared to miss the Texas filing deadline yesterday, August 26th.
"Unless the state of Texas violates their own election laws, Congressman Barr will be the only presidential candidate on the ballot," says Russell Verney, campaign manager for the Barr Campaign and the former campaign manager for Ross Perot. "Texas law makes no exceptions for missing deadlines."
Well, maybe the other Presidential candidates didn't really miss the deadline. Maybe they are just faking.
According to an unnamed afterhours source, both Republican and Democratic parties have what is called a "placeholder ballot" until their party officially selects a candidate at their national convention. If Barack Obama, presumptive nominee for the Democratic party, accepts the party's nomination this week at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO, the Texas Secretary of state will remove the dummy ballot and replace it with Barack Obama.
Republicans will officiate their presumptive nominee John McCain at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN next week and then remove their Texas dummy afterward.
The Barr campaign complained of longtime inequities and special rules for the top 2 parties.
"Republicans and Democrats make certain that third party candidates are held to ballot access laws, no matter how absurd or unreasonable," says Verney. "Therefore, Republicans and Democrats should be held to the same standards."
"We know all about deadlines," says Verney. "We are up against them constantly in our fight to get on the ballot across the nation. When we miss deadlines, we get no second chances. This is a great example of how unreasonable deadlines chill democracy."
Here is Barr describing another chilling example of democracy gone south.
Virginia DMVs prepare for Long Lines -c/o WVRA.com The REAL ID act will require all Virginians to go to the DMV once their driver's licenses expire to get a more "secure" card. The federal government is pushing the change so that driver's licenses can be used as de facto national ID cards.
ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGES FOLLOW REAL ID
Border Fence Provisions Questioned
Tucson flooding blamed on fence construction with poor enviromental oversight. (AP)
In the last several days, there have been numerous reports about border fence construction damaging the environment. These findings are putting pressure on the DHS to uphold their bargain to include strict environmental oversights to their expeditious construction. The incomplete border fence is an issue not just affecting environmental lands, but land owners fighting with emminent domain claims. The expansion of the Border Fence was greenlighted as a provision in the Real ID Act of 2005. SAN DIEGO : Duncan Hunter Amended Real ID Act to Include Border Fence c/o San Diego Times
“If people want to come here, they are going to come,” he said. “I see it as a barrier that needs to lead to a solution. That's the only way I can face it.” - Mike McCoy, Estuary Activist.
At first, the two agreed on the idea of a border fence to stem illegal immigration traffic through Imperial Beach. From Hunter's point of view, the fence would keep undocumented migrants and drug smugglers out of the country. From McCoy's, it would keep the estuary from being hammered by foot traffic.
For Duncan Hunter, who lives in Alpine and leaves Congress after an unsuccessful bid last year for the Republican presidential nomination, it's the achievement of a goal that became a personal crusade. SEE THE FRUIT OF HUNTER'S WORK HERE
“It became clear that we would never get permission,” he said. “So we wrote the waiver language into the Real ID Act.”
The purpose of the Real ID Act of 2005 was to impose federal security standards on state identification cards. Hunter added language that would allow the Homeland Security secretary to supersede laws stopping fence construction.
“The security of the country is the primary interest,” he said. “In carrying out that interest, the environment can be accommodated.”
Hunter said ponds and structures can arrest silt that results from the operation. McCoy hopes there will be such protections but isn't confident.
His best hope, McCoy said, is that if the fence comes down some day, what damage occurs can be repaired. He also has given quite a bit of thought to the fences he once thought were a good idea.
“We ask our policy makers and public officials to visit Friendship Park, and witness the gash the border inflicts on the environment and the people of the San Diego and Tijuana communities.” - Christian Ramirez, Border visitor detained for filming at Friendship Park
For generations, friends and families from San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, have gathered peacefully in Friendship Park at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Now Border Patrol agents threaten this tradition by questioning and detaining people who visit this special public space. On Aug. 5, I was detained and then arrested while filming there. Later that night, I was released with no charges filed against me.
On June 23, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a case presented by environmentalists, who argued that the continued construction of the border wall along the international divide between Mexico and the U.S. violated nearly 40 federal laws and regulations, including the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act. A few days later, construction began immediately along an area adjacent to the Tijuana River Estuary, which was declared "a wetland of international importance" by the United Nations Ramsar Convention in 2005.
The American Friends Service Committee has been documenting the impact of the border wall construction along the Tijuana River Valley area, just west of the San Ysidro International Port of Entry. The Friends are also tracking incidents of harassment against visitors to the park.
Environmental advocates had their concerns tabled when Congress passed the REAL ID Act, which allows the secretary of Homeland Security to set aside all environmental laws that could impede building the border wall. MISSION, Texas - Environmentalists Warn of a Future Where Laws No Longer Apply c/o Brownsville Herald
"In the past, environmental laws have enabled us to work out compromises (with federal authorities)," said Jim Chapman, chairman of the Sierra Club's Lower Rio Grande Valley Chapter.
National representatives of the Sierra Club warned on Friday that the Bush administration's proposed relaxation of the Endangered Species Act could lead to an ongoing disregard of environmental laws, with results echoing construction of the U.S.-Mexico border fence.
Under the new provisions, federal agencies would have the authority to independently determine whether construction projects will impact endangered species, advocates warn.
On Friday, after spotting the rare Mexican bluewing and Malachite butterflies in the North American Butterfly Association Park, Sierra Club members visited a border fence construction site near Donna, where bulldozers unearthed vegetation and replaced shrubs with metal girders. The construction illustrated their concerns.
According to the Sierra Club, the Rio Grande Valley is home to the third largest number of endangered species in the country, with 21 species federally listed as threatened or endangered.
TUCSON, AZ - Border fence design blasted as cause of floodingc/o Austin Statesman "While the Bush administration may claim it's taking environmental impacts of the border wall into consideration, building wire mesh fences across washes prone to debris-laden floods is fundamentally flawed," said Robin Silver, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity.
Flooding blamed on a border security fence in southwestern Arizona shows the structure is being built too quickly and without regard for the environment, critics say.
Debris and water backed up at the fence during a storm July 12, leading to flooding at the port of entry at Lukeville, Ariz., and Sonoyta, Sonora, and at the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
"One of the reasons for it was the debris that accumulated on the fence itself," said Lee Baiza, superintendent of the monument.
Environmental groups have criticized how the Army Corps of Engineers and federal contractors have designed and built a range of fencing and vehicle barriers along the Arizona-Mexico border.
In particular, they've denounced Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's waiver of environmental laws to hasten construction of the 670 miles of fences and other barriers planned by year's end along the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.
Defenders of Wildlife spokesman Matt Clark said what happened at Organ Pipe validates the warnings voiced to Homeland Security before construction started.
"It doesn't take an expert hydrologist to anticipate the potential for these walls to become like dams," Clark said. IN OTHER NEWS:
BTC - HUMOR We here at BeatTheChip at times have been called on the mat for being a bit irreverent and prone to being distrustful of our government.
Our response to this is that we do not negotiate with fascists, at least not with any diplomatic skill, and the wet noodle lashings will continue until levity ensues. Anything is better than watching CNN today.
In this year of declared political allegiances - we have come up with some creative terminology for recent outbreaks of mass hysteria.
1) "Drinking the Kool-Aide"- This term applies to the person who blindly follows any line of rhetoric without question or stopping for the occasional grain of salt. The phrase has been used interchangeably with people who follow cult leaders. A proper use of this phrase might be, "Aunt Mabel, has been drinking the Kool-Aide. I can't get a word in edgewise about any other political perspective other than her candidate."
2)"Hope-mongering"- This is a gerund phrase for the incessant media blanketing for overkill mention of the words "Obama", "Barack Obama", and now the new dead-horse they are pulverizing, the Vice Presidential nomination of Joe Biden. You may count for every 36 Obama mentions there is a McCain mention. Not that we care. We just want variety and parity and ..maybe some of the other news we are missing. A proper use of the words Hope-mongering might be, "Jesus, Mary & Joseph, can't I get any news on a concrete economic or a civil liberties plan from either of these people? A few months ago this was a bit of smooth jazz for Democrats. Now, all I'm getting is Hope-mongering!! "
It's like going to the grocery store and being told you can choose from 5 different flavors: Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate and Vanilla. I think I'll have the Alka-Seltzer.
3)"Dirty Sanchez Bastard"- c/o UrbanDictionary.com- use this mace sparingly at TSA agents when they steal your laptop and grope your wife. Or when a Border Patrol Checkpoint pops up in you're rear view when you're out shovelling snow in the driveway.
n. A derogatory term used only in the most extreme situations as to where you are yelling during an unrehearsed fit toward any communistic authority figure. i.e. a principal, president, boss, etc.
(Random conversation until random sighting of school principal.) EX: Brit: Freeman! You took away my freedomyou Dirty Sanchez Bastard!!!
KIDS - DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME Here's a story about a Dirty Sanchez Bastard, getting punked by some not-so-nice hackers here. A hacker broke into a Homeland Security Department telephone system over the weekend and racked up about $12,000 in calls to the Middle East and Asia.
Highlights from Gizmodo Comment Board:
"Human Bomb -- says Everyone point and laugh at the DHS!"
" sam_i_am -- says Hacking the FEMA phone system - clever. Hacking a phone system to call the Middle East - clever. Hacking the FEMA phone system to call the Middle East - death sentence."
" bms -- says FEMA = F*cking Emergency My Ass! ..." More colorful reverie on Gizmodo.com.
TOKEN REAL-ID PROPAGANDA FOLLOWS Here's a really cool art show inspired by those batsh*t crazy conspiracy debunked theorists. God.. where do they get this stuff ? I swear they are so EMBARASSING sometimes.
