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Poison wanted me to post this, and I must admit I regret not reading it in its entirety last night before bed.

Wikinews, Bush deploys military in the US for active duty as federal response force

Naomi Wolf, The Battleplan III: Deployment and its Dangers


I'm conflicted on this issue. On the one hand, I am skeptical, but on the other I'm not at all. I can completely see someone doing this and then it scares the s**t out of me. It's like they know that someone is planning a revolution and they're going to stop it before it can start. It will be much harder for us to accomplish anything if even Congress is getting arrested.

As a member of the military and a lover of history I know that there are times when martial law could be necessary, but I don't think this is one of them. Poison sent this to me saying "this could be you", and it can't be guys. It's infantry and I can't be infantry. But if this unit were to grow (especially to national guard) it could be. I don't know if my "non-deployable" status applies when it's on home turf.

I don't know that I agree with all of Naomi's ways to try to stop this. What good would more laws do if President Bush is breaking them in the first place? I wonder why he would do this at the end of his presidency as well. It seems out of place, like he can't really do much with it. Poison said that some people are afraid he'll try to make himself stay president, but I highly doubt that. He's not Putin, he wouldn't be able to pull that off. Even people who aren't communist would revolt against such an action.

I do agree however when she says that as the citizens it's our job the respond, the founding fathers expected us to. I don't know about you, but I really like the foundation that the founding fathers laid down, I just don't like the twisted interpretations it's been forced to take. They do expect us to revolt if our government were to become oppressive. Spread the word.

-EDIT- This just strengthens my belief that we need to have the military on our side...

To what are you referring to?

It was against the constitution, against freedom, and dictatorial. I suggest reading Naomi Wolf's writings--she points out how post-9/11 America has all the right signs of heading towards a closed society.

As someone who is in training to become a journalist, I'm a bit terrified--because journalists, reporters, war correspondents, etc, are being arrested simply for reporting. Amy Goodman is the best example, there's a video of her being arrested while trying to report on the mass arrests around the RNC.

And I think she is right of this being a sort of coup: I for one am donating some of my much-needed college funds to the ACLU and Nader who I think will be two huge voices speaking out about this kind of thing.

My fiance's very freaked out (they don't have the same sort of denial we have in America that America can never lose it's freedom) and he's insisting I leave the country--probably him being too protective but the guy has a high IQ and is brilliant, which only makes me worry more.

I'm not sure if I'm the kind of journalist who would speak out no matter what (as I wrote the wikinews article and have been reporting on the administration's actions and trying to bring them to larger audiences...but it's not like I'm a big voice or anything) or if I'm the kind of person who would shush up and be quiet.

Anyways, please be careful and watchful you guys. We may see as the election nears, some sort of emergency (as has been theorized numerous times and is seeming more and more possible) which will mess with our democracy. We may see mass protests, mass arrests, as Bush seems suspiciously to anticipate, and this on top of the economy. Now's probably the time to do your research, make sure your friends know what's going on, even if it's not a big deal: we should be paranoid, because being naive is worse.

And try to donate even a little money to places like the ACLU, as Wolf suggested: they're the ones who're going to be fighting court battles for people.

An ED argument on the subject, if anyone is interested in helping me out:

http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/extended-discussion/bush-deploys-troops-in-the-us-your-thoughts/t.44211839_31/#39