tagged w/ Thomas Jefferson
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In this week's infoMania Conor takes a look at the Oscars and the economy, Sarah Haskins examines the Jolie-Aniston showdown at the Academy Awards, Sergio counts down the top 5 rap tracks on Billboard, and Ben talks to a woman whose boobs and brains made her famous.
infoMania is a half-hour satirical news show that airs on Current TV. The show puts a comedic spin on the 24-hour chaos and information overload brought about by the constant bombardment of the media. Hosted by Conor Knighton and co-starring Brett Erlich, Sarah Haskins, Ben Hoffman, and Sergio Cilli, the show airs on Thursdays at 10 pm Eastern and Pacific Times and can be found online at current.com/infomania. And make sure to check out our facebook profile for special features at http://infomaniafacebook.com.In this week's infoMania Conor takes a look at the Oscars and the economy, Sarah... more
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I just finished watching "The Day The Earth Stood Still" and it just seems like another one of those conditioning movies. I watched "Cloverfield" yesterday, it was the same way. Panic, taking away of rights, riots, quarantines, invasion of privacy, murder of civilians, authorities abusing their powers, etc...These movies are meant to condition you people for the future. You might think Obama is here to "change", but he's being used for his image. It's working...
He's being used as mind candy to keep the ignorant blind and pacified. While he does absolutely nothing, the elite are propagating your destruction. Malcolm said "the white power structure is just as interested in perpetuating slavery as they did 100 years ago, but now they use modern methods to do so". And that was in 1963. They use methods like "go to school, get good grades, go to college, get good grades, then get a job working for someone else". You're not taught how to do for yourself, you're taught to be workers. They also use methods like these so-called "black" civil rights leaders we have today that just use tragedies to make a dollar. If there were no tragedies for these people like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to get profit from, how would they eat? Do you think they want to work as bag-boys for wal-mart? These puppets are playing the game and getting payed, they don't care about you. The biggest one yet is Obama. First off, he's not the first president to be mixed with African. Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Warren Harding, and Calvin Coolidge were all mixed with African. That's 5 not including John Hanson who was the first president under the articles of confederation. It's sad you've been spoon fed the lie that Obama is the first.
Obama isn't the first of anything. He's not "black", "black is a color and not a nationality. That's another way you people are kept down. You've been given a fallacious race dichotomy. "Black", "white", "brown", are these really races or colors? If you look at your skin, it's not even black. You are not black, you're not African, you're not African American. For one, your race isn't depicted by what land mass you live on or born on. If I'm born on a ship in the ocean, does that make me part pacific ocean? If my parents were both 100% pure African but I was born in Ireland, would I be Irish? No...Your nationality is that of which bloodline your family traces back to. The so-called "blacks" and "negroes" here in this country according to biblical genealogy are from the seed of Shem. Shem through bloodline begot Judah. What's really funny is when I ask a light skinned person what's their nationality, hearing "I'm black" cracks me up every time. What you are is ignorant and blind if you think you're the color black. If skin pigmentation truly depicted race, would you really be "black" since your skin color represents white more than black? If so, what about Michael Jackson? What is his nationality? Obama is pro-choice (baby killing) and pro gay marriage, how much of a so-called christian can he be?
Wake up from your ignorant delusions and come to the truth! I play a lot but I won't allow myself to succumb to the mindset of these "swag" saying, taking pictures of shoes which worth is only what you're willing to give up for them, self proclaimed trendsetting original unoriginal, sheeple...I could care less if you respond, just try to learn from what I've said. If you would like to learn more, send me a message. Good marrow...I just finished watching "The Day The Earth Stood Still" and it just seems... more
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Read some of the many things Thomas Jefferson said about how Banks controling money is very bad.
Remember the Federal in "Federal Reserve" is no different than the
Federal in "Federal Express"
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If the American People ever allow the banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers occupied. The issuing power of money should be taken from the bankers and restored to Congress and the people to whom it belongs. I sincerely believe the banking institutions having the issuing power of money are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies.
We are completely saddled and bridled, and the bank is so firmly mounted on us that we must go where they ill guide.
The dominion which the banking institutions have obtained over the minds of our citizens...must be broken, or it will break us.
(Letter to James Monroe, January 1, 1815).
"Paper is poverty,... it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself." --Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1788. ME 7:36
"The trifling economy of paper, as a cheaper medium, or its convenience for transmission, weighs nothing in opposition to the advantages of the precious metals... it is liable to be abused, has been, is, and forever will be abused, in every country in which it is permitted." --Thomas Jefferson to John W. Eppes, 1813. ME 13:430
"I now deny [the Federal Government's] power of making paper money or anything else a legal tender." --Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1798. ME 10:65
"The incorporation of a bank and the powers assumed [by legislation doing so] have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States by the Constitution. They are not among the powers specially enumerated." --Thomas Jefferson: Opinion on Bank, 1791. ME 3:146
"[The] Bank of the United States... is one of the most deadly hostility existing, against the principles and form of our Constitution... An institution like this, penetrating by its branches every part of the Union, acting by command and in phalanx, may, in a critical moment, upset the government. I deem no government safe which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any other authority than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries. What an obstruction could not this bank of the United States, with all its branch banks, be in time of war! It might dictate to us the peace we should accept, or withdraw its aids. Ought we then to give further growth to an institution so powerful, so hostile?" --Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, 1803. ME 10:437
============ ofcourse now its the other way round - it dictates the war we should be accepting ================
"Certainly no nation ever before abandoned to the avarice and jugglings of private individuals to regulate according to their own interests, the quantum of circulating medium for the nation -- to inflate, by deluges of paper, the nominal prices of property, and then to buy up that property at 1s. in the pound, having first withdrawn the floating medium which might endanger a competition in purchase. Yet this is what has been done, and will be done, unless stayed by the protecting hand of the legislature. The evil has been produced by the error of their sanction of this ruinous machinery of banks; and justice, wisdom, duty, all require that they should interpose and arrest it before the schemes of plunder and spoilation desolate the country." --Thomas Jefferson to William C. Rives, 1819. ME 15:232
Read some of the many things Thomas Jefferson said about how Banks controling money... more
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Some choice quotes from the paper. We should NEVER forget history, try hard people.
The National Debt
"I sincerely believe... that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale." --Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1816. ME 15:23
"I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government; I mean an additional article taking from the Federal Government the power of borrowing. I now deny their power of making paper money or anything else a legal tender. I know that to pay all proper expenses within the year would, in case of war, be hard on us. But not so hard as ten wars instead of one. For wars could be reduced in that proportion; besides that the State governments would be free to lend their credit in borrowing quotas." --Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1798. ME 10:64
The Limits on Contracting Debt
"The term of redemption must be moderate, and at any rate within the limits of [the government's] rightful powers. But what limits, it will be asked, does this prescribe to their powers? What is to hinder them from creating a perpetual debt? The laws of nature, I answer. The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead. The will and the power of man expire with his life, by nature's law." --Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 1813. ME 13:169
"Then I say, the earth belongs to each of these generations during its course, fully and in its own right. The second generation receives it clear of the debts and incumbrances of the first, the third of the second, and so on. For if the first could charge it with a debt, then the earth would belong to the dead and not to the living generation. Then, no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1789. ME 7:455, Papers 15:393
"The conclusion then, is, that neither the representatives of a nation, nor the whole nation itself assembled, can validly engage debts beyond what they may pay in their own time." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1789. ME 7:457, Papers 15:398n
"[The natural right to be free of the debts of a previous generation is] a salutary curb on the spirit of war and indebtment, which, since the modern theory of the perpetuation of debt, has drenched the earth with blood, and crushed its inhabitants under burdens ever accumulating." --Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 1813. ME 13:272
Saddling Posterity with Debt
"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world." --Thomas Jefferson to A. L. C. Destutt de Tracy, 1820. FE 10:175
Some choice quotes from the paper. We should NEVER forget history, try hard people.... more
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John Adams, HBO's prestige historical drama about one of America's founding fathers, swept up 23 Emmy nominations today, the largest number of any program in any category.
Among the nominations was a lead-actor nomination for Paul Giamatti, who played Adams in the adaptation of David McCullough's Pulitzer-prize winning biography of the second president, who was born in Braintree in an area now part of Quincy.
In addition to recognition in several technical and artistic categories, Laura Linney also garnered an Emmy nomination for lead actress in the role of Abigail Adams. Supporting nods went to three actors portraying Founding Fathers: David Morse as George Washington, Stephen Dillane as Thomas Jefferson, and Tom Wilkinson as Benjamin Franklin. The star-studded, seven-part HBO series is co-executive produced by Tom Hanks.
The three-hour debut of the John Adams miniseries was seen in 2.7 million households nationwide, according to the Nielsen Co., the best series debut HBO has seen since 2004.
John Adams, HBO's prestige historical drama about one of America's founding... more
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According to history, There have already been five African American presidents already in the United States of America. Little known historical facts cite evidence that five U.S.presidents had atleast one parent that was of "Negro" desent. That being said, what is all of the hoopla about today ? Maybe because it's been so long. This is not an atricle of ridicule, nor is it written to excite anger or controversy. These are actually historical facts of African American history that are not taught in American history. Hmm......
According to history, There have already been five African American presidents... more
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Al Gore joined with then Republican Bob Barr to bring us a stark truth: Our Democracy is in grave danger. On this July 4th I remember this landmark speech delivered by a great statesman, Al Gore. And like our founding fathers whose words are still prescient today, so are the words and warnings presented in this eloquent speech describing truthfully the abuses committed against our Constitution by the Bush administration and the enabling by both parties. And though I am displeased that neither Mr. Gore nor any prominent Democrat has specifically called for impeachment, I thank Mr. Gore with all of my heart for speaking truth to power here and for giving us a chance to share in a Democratic dialogue.Al Gore joined with then Republican Bob Barr to bring us a stark truth: Our Democracy... more
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To me this is what the Fourth of July is all about. Remembering the men who sacrificed all they had to take the journey to a more perfect union... a free union. We don't truly have that today, and the main reason why is because we as a people have to really want it. I question now if we really do, and that is sad. These words of wisdom and warning from men who though flawed were brilliant and who knew something themselves about slavery of the mind and soul are words to be reflected on. As John Adams said, "Liberty once lost, is lost forever." We as a people are allowing liberty to slip away as we distract ourselves and lose our focus on these words. How I wish we had men of such courage and brilliance as these to once again point us in the right direction. However, their words can be the inspiration we need to now do that. The question is: will we?
To me this is what the Fourth of July is all about. Remembering the men who sacrificed... more
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Can you imagine what this campaign would have looked like on tv? I thought this was a cute illustration. Though we know that Alexander Hamilton was behind trashing both Adams and Jefferson, his preference was for Adams even though they disagreed about war with France. Personally, if I could vote and lived in that time period, my vote would have been solidly with Jefferson. Sigh if only... someone to vote FOR.Can you imagine what this campaign would have looked like on tv? I thought this was a... more
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From the HBO Miniseries, John Adams. John Adams (Paul Giamatti,) Ben Franklin (Tom Wilkinson,) and Thomas Jefferson (Steven Dillane,) discuss the Constitution. Jefferson's sentiments are truly those of a freethinker. Which is why I have always loved his writings and agree wholeheartedly with his sentiments. Which is more than likely why the Constitution is open ended in that it gives the American people the opportunity to change their form of government if it should not suit the needs of the people or turn towards tyranny... that is, if they are not too distracted or fearful to notice.From the HBO Miniseries, John Adams. John Adams (Paul Giamatti,) Ben Franklin (Tom... more
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The framers considered political parties to be self-serving factions that cultivated dissent and were ultimately detrimental to good government. Though the framers had not written provisions into the Constitution dealing with political parties, by the end of George Washington's second term, the issues of national government had divided the nation into two distinct and hostile factions: the Federalists and the Republicans.
The Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, advocated strong central government. Concentrated in the northeast, they preferred a system under which the population would choose their government officials based on merit and reputation rather than politics, and in which elected officials would rule without the direct influence of the people. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and others who found Federalist thought offensive, developed a markedly different view of good government under the Washington administration. With their stronghold in the South, Republicans claimed that liberty could only be protected if political power were rested firmly in the hands of the people and those government officials closest and most responsive to the people
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In the midst of building hostilities, Washington decided to resign from office after his second term. On September 19, 1796, the American Daily Advertiser published Washington's Farewell Address to the nation. The basic premise of the address was a condemnation of political parties. Washington warned that the development of parties would destroy the government, and worried that special interest groups and foreign nations would easily dominate the factions. On this note, he implored future generations to avoid embroilment in the affairs of other nations, and concentrate on the development of "efficient government" at home, free from foreign influence. Washington left office in March 1797, leaving the nation still very much divided.
Commentary
As of the early 1790s, most Americans remained convinced that political parties were a detriment to good government. The framers had neither desired nor planned for the rise of political divisions. In fact, in Federalist No. 10 of the Federalist Papers, James Madison, one of the leaders of the Republican party, had argued that one of the strong points of the Constitution was that it would prevent the formation of political factions. It was commonly assumed that should factions rise to a position of political power, they would act to achieve selfish goals at the expense of the public good. However, this concept of political parties began to crumble as opposition arose to Hamilton's initiatives as Secretary of Treasury. Many political leaders began to view an opposition party as necessary to check the power of the ideological majority in the national government, and as a means to provide a more fully encompassing examination of the issues presented to the national government. Thus, gradually, political parties took their place as an integral part of American government.
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Washington's Farewell Address was a direct response to the fractioning of the American people. From a clearly Federalist point of view he extolled the virtues of neutrality. He pleaded for American political neutrality, that citizens not be forced to choose between political alternatives, but rather choose their leaders on the basis of merit and reputation. He further pleaded for international neutrality, exhorting Americans to avoid "political connection" with Europe, hoping such avoidance would remove the divisiveness of foreign policy from the American political dialogue and allow US leaders to concentrate on domestic goals. While he could not stop the rise of political parties, which had already become a fact of American political life, his plea for neutrality and vision of an isolated America would inform American foreign relations into the twentieth century. The framers considered political parties to be self-serving factions that cultivated... more
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"Shake off all the fears and servile prejudices under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear."Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 1787. ME 6:258 Papers 12:15
The above words spoken by the greatest American statesman, Thomas Jefferson, are very important words regarding American Democracy today. And as Mr. Gore so aptly and eloquently illustrated in his speeches in January 2006 and October 2005, they are words that have slowly been eroded in the ever present atmosphere of government/corporate ownership and manipulation of our airwaves, our newspapers, and our thoughts.
This proliferation of corporate ownership (used to send out propaganda messages to the public ever so subtly while freezing out free thought and important information essential to sustaining true free and balanced Democratic thought not only in the marketplace but in our communities,) has also spawned a society more concerned with distractions for entertainment rather than the preservation of our Democracy. Even today we see that a vast number of Americans have been brainwashed by subliminal suggestion to think that anything they see on TV has to be true. They think the government would never do anything to hurt or lie to them and that no matter how many elections are stolen that the process is still fair and sound. And as a result of this blind trust and in many cases fear brought on by this propaganda they do not then take it upon themselves to research, to read, to analyze, and to then think with their own reason to form their own opinions.
These are the exact types of people George W. Bush and his Neocons look to target, and unfortunately to the detriment of this Democratic Republic they have to date been successful. And to be honest this has been going on for decades.There have also been many scientific studies done over the years on the affects of television viewing amongst the masses. Those who are involved in the political end of it know about these studies as well and that television is a medium that can be manipulated to give the desired effect regarding propaganda. They then use it well, and their mantra is if you control the media you control the masses. And to a great extent it is true.
However, this is not being governed by the Rule of Reason, this is being governed by people the likes of characters in a George Orwell novel. And it has not only eroded colorful and passionate political discourse in this country as well as truth, it has eroded the very Democratic Republic Jefferson and the Founding Fathers so passionately envisioned all those years ago.
The Rule of Reason was also the guidepost used by our Founding Fathers as they searched for the freedom they did not know under King George III. They had then come from an aristocracy, a government ruled not by reason but by divine right. And it was this rule by divine right, the presupposition that wealth and absolute power trumped reasonable free thinking men (and most certainly women) that prompted these seekers of truth and freedom to birth the United States of America.
And now in this age of technology those who hold absolute power have so many more mediums with which to exert that control besides the written word. In one of his speeches regarding media, Al Gore spoke of "digital brown shirts." This phrase seems to have ruffled the feathers of some at the time, but I believe it is accurate. For there is no better example in my opinion of a modern digital brown shirt than Clear Channel Communications which has been in the pocket of the Bush administration as it slowly gains more and more control over the airwaves.
more at the link"Shake off all the fears and servile prejudices under which weak minds are... more
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Jefferson's design of the University of Virginia is a dialogue with sunlight and landscape. As the landscape architect Anne Spirn wrote, the lawn "linked two sources of knowledge: books and nature."
When I served as the dean of the school of architecture at the University of Virginia, I had the privilege of living in a house designed by Thomas Jefferson. Had I simply inhabited a singular Jeffersonian home, the experience would have been a source of profound and inspiring pleasure, but the house was only one part of a magnificent whole. Known as Pavilion IX, one of 10 classical pavilions facing each other across the university lawn and linked by colonnaded walkways to Jefferson’s domed Rotunda, the house is part of a unified “academical village” widely considered the greatest piece of architecture in America. So to live in Pavilion IX was to be immersed in an exquisite essay in architecture, and to feel a deep appreciation for the legacy of design.
Indeed, I think Jefferson saw himself first and foremost as a designer. Among all the achievements of his productive life, he wanted to be remembered for three things, inscribed on a stone obelisk over his grave at Monticello: “Author of the Declaration of Independence, Of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, And Father of the University of Virginia.” This from a man whose distinguished career included eight years as president of the United States. For Jefferson, his activities were less important than the things he designed, suggesting a mind keenly attuned to the ways in which the poetic ordering of things could create a vital legacy.
And it is a vital legacy. In the things Jefferson made—from Monticello to the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, which matured into the Bill of Rights—we see a design sensibility that speaks to us today. We see balanced composition subtle enough to include tradition and invention, science and aesthetics, nature and culture, freedom and responsibility. We see a breadth of interest that took in politics, economics, natural history and an agrarian’s attention to the living earth, and rendered them visible in actions that changed the world. We see an architect, embracing both the practical and the poetic. We see a man who, were he with us today, would likely be calling for “Declarations of Interdependence” that recognize that our ability to pursue wealth, health and happiness is dependent on other forms of life, and that the rights of one species are linked to the rights of others.
"TODAY Jefferson would be calling for "Declarations of Interdependence" that recognize that our ability to pursue wealth, health and happiness depends on other forms of life."
William McDonough, FAIA
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Simply inspiring, and a legacy we must continue.Jefferson's design of the University of Virginia is a dialogue with sunlight and... more
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This letter arrived on my doorstep today. I was shocked but pleasantly surprised when I read it!This letter arrived on my doorstep today. I was shocked but pleasantly surprised when... more
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From the fantastic HBO series, 'John Adams.' Inspiring yet sad to see this spirit is now lost in our Congress. It will be up to us to bring it back. We cannot fail these men and women who gave all they had to birth this country.From the fantastic HBO series, 'John Adams.' Inspiring yet sad to see this... more
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The life of John Adams and the struggle for American independence are the themes of this magnificent depiction that premiered on HBO last night. I was riveted by it. It is the most authentic production I have ever seen of the time period and the men and women who shaped our country. I highly recommend it to everyone and to have their children watch it with them. It is a seven part miniseries, the first two parts being presented last night to be continued next Sunday.
It was so emotional to watch as well. To see Americans who truly put laws above men and who truly appreciated what it meant to fight for freedom brought me to tears thinking of where our country has gone since then. Where are the Jefferson's, Franklin's, and Adams's, of today?
This program also explores the relationship betrween John and Abigail Adams, which to me was the love story of the Revolutionary period, and also showed that women of that time were just as passionate and involved in this fight as the men.
It was surely fortunate for all of us today that these men and women lived at that particular time. Had they not, it is hard to tell where we would be today.The most wonderful part of this is that you see them not as Gods, but as humans with faults. Humans who through this grand experiment were just as scared as we are today.
While I weep for the future of this country today, after watching this I still have some hope that the spirit that lived in them lives in us just a little bit today. However, I shudder to think what these men would say if they came back and saw what Washington DC has become. I do not believe there is one man or woman in our Congress today who has the spirit and courage of conviction they had.
Question: If there were a new Continental Congress held, would you go as a delegate knowing what you would be sacrificing? I would.The life of John Adams and the struggle for American independence are the themes of... more
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http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h1955/show
Something else you won't see in the "mainstream media" while they distract Americans now with more Natalie Holloway stories and what Britney Spears did for Thanksgiving, as if I give a damn. This bill is sweeping in its vagueness regarding how it will and can be enforced and is something we should be crying out loudly against. Will environmental groups now be branded as "homegrown terrorists?" When are the hearings going to start in branding Americans subversives now for opposing this "war" or wanting a cleaner planet? Rep Harmon should be ashamed of herself for this bill. It does absolutely nothing to fight "terrorism" but everything to strip an already bare Democracy of the last vestiges of freedom of speech we thought we had. I will state this, however: No piece of paper is going to stop me from expressing my views or standing up for what I believe in because this bill is not only the antithesis of all Americans have died for to preserve this nation, it is an embarrassment to Democrats. To think a Democrat would even think of this is appalling. I can then only presume that Thomas Jefferson, and those who stood up to the first King George would have also been considered, "homegrown terrorists." Seems like we are going backward instead of forward. And pay very close attention to it regarding the Internet and the subtle language used in criminalizing free speech here.http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h1955/show
Something else you won't see... more
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