Sunday, October 12, 2008
Linguistics prof. George Lakoff dissects the "war on terror" and other conservative catchphrases
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Kennedy Warns America of New World Order
YouTube - President John F Kennedy Secret Society Speech ...
JFK Secret Society Speech Re-edit. 05:23 From ...
5 min -
Rated 4.9 out of 5.0
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhZk8ronces
"Ladies and gentlemen,
the very word secrecy is repugnant, in a free and open society, and we are as a people, inherently and historically, opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and secret proceedings.
We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweigh the dangers which are cited to justify it.
Even today there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating it's arbitrary restrictions.
Even today there is little value in ensuring the survival of our nation, if our traditions do not survive with it.
And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious who wish to expand it's meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment.
That I do not intend to permit, to the extent that it is in my control.
And no official of my administration whether his rank as high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight, as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle dissent, to cover up our mistakes, or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know.
For we are opposed, around the world, by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy, that relies primarily on covet means for expanding it's fear of influence,
on infiltration instead of invasion,
on subversion instead of elections,
on intimidation, instead of free choice,
on guerrillas by night, instead of armies by day,
It is a system which has conscripted, vast material and human resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific, and political operations.
Its preparations are concealed, not published.
It's mistakes are buried, not headlined.
Its dissenters silenced, not praised.
No expenditure is questioned. No rumor is printed. No secret is revealed.
No president should fear public scrutiny of his program.
Because from that scrutiny comes understanding. And from that understanding comes support or opposition, and both are necessary.
I am not asking your newspaper to support an administration.. But I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people..
For I have complete confidence in the response and the dedication of our citizens when they are fully informed.
I not only could not stifle controversy from your readers I welcome it. This administration intends to be candid about its errors. For as a wise man once said, "an error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it".
We intend to accept full responsibility for our errors and we expect you to point them out when we miss them. Without debate without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed. And no republic can survive.
That is why the Athenian law decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the first amendment, the only business in America specifically protected by the constitution,
not primarily to amuse or entertain,
not to emphasize the trivial and sentimental,
not to simply give the public what it wants,
but to inform, to arouse, and to reflect
to state our dangers and our opportunities,
to indicate our crises and our choices,
to lead, mould, and educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.
This means greater coverage and analysis of international news, for it is no longer far away and foreign, but close at hand and local.. it means greater attention to improved attention to greater understanding of the news, as well as improved transmission, and it means finally, the government at all levels, must meet its obligation, to provide you with it's possible information, outside the narrowest limits of national security.
And so it is to the printing press, to the recorder of man's deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the carrier of his news, that we look for strength, and his assistance, confident that with your help, Man will be what he was born to be..
Free and independent."
Count Down to REAL ID
452 days, 01 hours, 11 minutes, 04 seconds
Following the deadline of May 11, 2008, state driver's licenses and identification cards were not to be accepted for federal purposes unless the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) determined that a state was compliant with the REAL ID or a state had been approved for an extension by the Secretary of DHS. All 56 U.S. jurisdictions have received an initial extension from the Secretary of the DHS. The initial extension is valid until December 31, 2009.
DHS estimates the costs for states to implement the REAL ID will not exceed $3.9 billion."
Propaganda: unseen mechanism of society
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits
and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic
society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society
constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power
of our country.
We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas
suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a
logical result of the way in which our democratic society is
organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this
manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning
society.
Our invisible governors are, in many cases, unaware of the
identity of their fellow members in the inner cabinet.
They govern us by their qualities of natural leadership, their
ability to supply needed ideas and by their key position in the
social structure. Whatever attitude one chooses toward this
condition, it remains a fact that in almost every act of our daily
lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our
social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the
relatively small number of persons—a trifling fraction of our
hundred and twenty million—who understand the mental processes and
social patterns of" the masses.. It is they who pull the wires
which control the public mind» who harness old social forces and
contrive new ways to bind and guide the world,
It is not usually realized how necessary these invisible governors
are to the orderly functioning of our group life. In theory, every
citizen may vote for whom he pleases. Our Constitution does not
envisage political parties as pan of the mechanism of government;
and its framers seem not to have pictured to themselves the
existence in our national politics of anything like the modern
political machine. But the American voters soon found that without
organization and direction their individual votes, cast, perhaps,
for dozens of hundreds of candidates, would produce nothing but
confusion. Invisible government, in the shape of rudimentary
political parties, arose almost overnight. Ever since then we have
agreed, for the sake of simplicity and practicality; that party
machines should narrow down the field of choice to two candidates
or at most three or four.
In theory, every citizen makes up his mind on public questions and
matter on private conduct. In practice, if all men had to study
for themselves the abstruse economic, political, and ethical data
involved in every question, they would find it impossible lo come
to a conclusion without anything. We have voluntarily agreed to
let an invisible government sift the data and high-spot the
outstanding issue so that our field of choice shall be narrowed to
practical proportions.