We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Supplanting the United States Constitution: War, National Emergency and the "Continuity of Governement"

by Peter Dale Scott from Global Research. 

Scott, a retired English professor at U. of California, has a long career of digging up the dirt on many secret, or covered up enterprises of the US government. His research ranges from the Kennedy assassination to Iran-Contra, to CIA drug running, to 9/ll. He always presents an abundance of references to support his suspicions. And I emphasize suspicions because what he assembles does not usually constitute proof. I sampled some of the references and found mostly what, I believe, is called enabling legislation--authorization to make all kinds of emergency plans, with emergencies broadly defined. The broad language could allow for almost anything. As they say, the devil is in the details which are secret. 

But what he has done is exposed a lot of lies and mis-representations of facts by government officials. He is careful to avoid making any sensational allegations. He merely assembles the information that he can dig up, and he digs up a lot, then leaves it for the reader to reach his own conclusions. Given that the government has such a propensity for secrecy and damning revelations come out only many years later, who can fault him for his suspicions?