S. 1867 + H.R. 1540 = 1984

WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT THIS “TREACHEROUS LEGISLATION?”

by Doretta Wildes, ©2011, blogging at Doretta Wildes

(Dec. 7, 2011) — Sorry about my dithering over the possible removal of Sec. 1031 from the NDAA (Senate Bill 1867) this weekend. The despot-enabling 1031 is still in there.

In response to my query, journalist Madison Ruppert removed any doubt:

“It’s there, you have to look at the GPO PDF. They removed it from the table of contents apparently.”

I did, and it is. Too bad. (For one of Ruppert’s incisive articles on this subject, please go here.)

Now the senators and congressmen in favor of this treacherous legislation are meeting in secret, according to the ACLU, to merge S. 1867 and H.R. 1540:

“Their main focus? Legislation authorizing this president and all future presidents to order the U.S. military to pick up and imprison people, including U.S. citizens — without charging them or putting them on trial.”

I strongly urge you to sign their petition against it.

Keep in mind that our Connecticut senators, Lieberman and Blumenthal, both signed S. 1867. This is a very bad sign. However, perhaps one of them can be brought to his senses. The other long ago struck a deal with the Devil.

A lot of people, including myself, believe that this legislation will be used to intern peaceful protesters, such as those involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement. This is not an unreasoned response. The Department of Defense’s annual anti-terrorism training instruction manual actually defines lawful protest as “low-level terrorism.” On June 10, 2009, the ACLU sent a very pointed letter to DoD about this. Excerpt below:

“For the DoD to instruct its employees that lawful protest activities should be treated as “low-level terrorism” is deeply disturbing in and of itself. It is an even more egregious insult to constitutional values, however, when viewed in the context of a long-term pattern of domestic security initiatives that have attempted to equate lawful dissent with terrorism.”

It’s clear that the term “terrorism” is wide open to interpretation by presidents, bureaucrats and military police. This is exactly what the diction-defying oligarchs did in Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty-Four, defining peace as “war,” ignorance as “strength,” and freedom as “slavery.” When language fails as common currency, as it has in this and many other instances (sit in a corporate conference room for just 15 minutes to witness some of the most egregious examples of verbal fog), everything fails. An abusive strip search of an 85-year-old woman in a backroom becomes an “administrative process.” The whole culture becomes a lie. That point is so trenchantly made in Orwell’s work that I can add nothing to it apart from urging you to read his famous novel.

On a positive note, I learned last night that the female finch we rescued two weeks ago is going to make it. She’s singing again, eating well and the eye infection has been cured. The aviary is the next stop. Soon, she’ll arrive home and join her fellow finches in the trees. Freedom is freedom.