The freedom that Lincoln gave to the slaves is the classic

case, and I will not give a lengthy discourse of it, for it

is what we all know and understand. But this is only one

variation of the definition of "freedom".

Consider the experience that we all have had - being

robbed or mugged or burglarized. Did the Police do

anything more than take a report? Did they actively

investigate and pursue the perpetrators? NO. Their

excuse would be, of course, that they cannot devote

detectives to every small crime that is reported. And

we all accept that. "Buy some insurance and get back

to your TV." The point is that people are actually free

to live a life of crime.............. until they get caught

red-handed.

But look at the other extreme of the criminal world.

Look at the corporate criminals. People like Michael

Milken, Fastow, Ebbers, etc. etc., and ask yourself -

Do these types of criminals get the justice they deserve?

Milken was the only one of dozens of shysters who

was even taken to court, and his punishment was a

laughable 18 months in minimum security and a fine

of 0 million - when he and his gang ripped off

close to BILLION from the public and the

Government.

Now your starting to see the definition of freedom

that is cemented in the minds of our elected officials.

At a press conference during the massive looting in

Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld was being grilled with questions

when he put his head down, began shuffling his papers

getting ready to walk away, and said "These people are

free now. Free to become criminals."

The freedom to be bad......and receive a slap on the

wrist is a wonderful freedom. Billion in Iraq totally

vanishing is a pretty good example, but a much more

lucrative game is the corporations gaining complete

control of the Federal Government (and proof is out

there that they did it with the control of the E-voting

machines).

The corporate world is becoming free to do anything

they want - destroy air quality, poison the water

supply, not be sued for harm to citizens, etc. They are

having Congress pass laws that take rights away from

citizens that have been in place for over 200 years. And

they are having Congress REMOVE laws that took

decades to get passed (deregulation). And a funny thing,

Congress is not updating the punishments for crime that,

nowadays, amounts into BILLIONS of dollars in theft.

Having the freedom to own a post office box in the

Cayman Islands and avoid hundreds of millions of

dollars in taxes, the freedom to buy into shady tax

shelters and avoid hundreds of millions in taxes, the

freedom to move operations to a communist dictatorship

and avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in wages and

benefits, the freedom to pay themselves astronomical

salaries and options, the freedom to shovel profits into

off-shore accounts, the freedom to keep the white collar

criminal code 100 years behind the times, the freedom to

decimate communities with Walmarts while sending sons

and daughters off to fight in illegal wars, the freedom to

break long-standing nuclear arms treaties with 180 nations

of the world, the freedom to break conflicts of interest rules,

the freedom to give mega wealth to your family and friends

for war profiteering, the freedom to keep the people in

turmoil over threats to their social and physical security

in order to keep their minds off of all of the above.....

these are the freedoms that the neo-cons love. And if you think

the Democrats are the answer.......think again.......they feed

from the exact same trough as the Republicans. (Just check

your Democrat's voting record to be sure.)

The really sad part is that these "freedoms" are being handed

over to them by a complaisant electorate that has a remote

control in their hands and would much rather watch a good

game on TV than stay informed about the sadistic game

being played on THEM! And the neo-cons are banking on it,

because they are quite aware that there are very tough times

ahead!

See the Pratap Chaterjee presentation about corruption in Iraq this Sunday (May 1st, 2005) on C-SPAN 2 via the following URL:



http://www.booktv.org/schedule/index.asp?schedID=343

http://www.booktv.org/General/index.asp?segID=5577&schedID=343

Theologian Calls for Response to 9/11 - C-Span 4/30/05





http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=33855





Los Angeles Times Reporter courageously admits that US Middle East Policy Motivation for 9/11 Attack (on C-SPAN 2 this Saturday - April 30th, 2005):



http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=33754

What the hell are you smokin?

Labor Unions ..........dangerous to democracy?

You had best check out the meaning of Democracy, child.

The Democratic Party.......dangerous to democracy?

Well, this democratic party that bows to Bush like a frightened slave.......ok.......won't argue the point.

But, BA, please try to articulate just what it is in the above paragraphs that you don't agree with.

This troll is one of the major reasons the 'ignore' feature was installed.

The new readers are taken in with this obvious baiting technique.

Just one of many trolls whom infest this page and chant in unison about leftists or even Democrats, as if there were some kind of dividing line between the rulers and always provoking wedge issues. Get the picture?

Don't take BA seriously. He's the kind of guy who thinks that nurses unions threaten democracy but Dr. James Dobson, the CIA, and the crackpots and fanatics around Bush do not.

you wrote this

-non-productive members of society (who conveniently happen to outnumber the productive members)-

The majority of people are the ones you consider " non productive"?

Seek help.

All national polls indicate that the liberal views detested by Bush Admirer's select group of 'pullers' what ever that means, like social security, care for the young, the old, the sick and even the poor are in the vast majority. Hence the great effort to demonize the 'liberals' in order to manufacture a perception of marginalization with in fact does not exist. In other words BA's in the minority. Like insane people.

Without the blood suckers of the Fed and all the criminals in this administration we might be able to do all of those things.

...you're a fool.

it used my nick.

Must scrub myself well with a disinfectant in a long hot shower.

eeeooowwww!

Now that was a very well crafted and stunningly clever retort.

You still got it my man.

Dear Mr. Bush Admirer,

The task was not to disrupt the Mayday march. The task was to show what our banner said, "dignity and respect for the working class". Thank you for your opinion, I guess. (A)

Because the United States never experienced full-scale feudalism or absolute monarchy, all kinds of evils are defended in the name of "freedom" and "liberty" rather than in the name of hereditary privelege - even if the latter is the real explanation. The following have all been defended here in the name of liberty:

the freedom to own slaves

the freedom to beat one's wife

the freedom to abuse one's children

the freedom to pay workers poverty-level wages

the freedom to deny California farm workers toilets in the fields

the freedom to discriminate against Blacks and other minorities in hiring, education, business services, hotel accomidations and other matters

the freedom to force Christian religious practices on believers of other religions or upon athiests and agnostics

the freedom to subject one's employees to unsafe working conditions

the freedom to sexually harass women

the freedom to persecute gays and lesbians

the freedom to make obscene profits at the expense of the rest of society and of Third World peoples

the freedom to steal land from the Indians

the freedom of the US and Israel to flout UN resolutons and decisions of the World Court but to insist that other nations obey them

the freedom to pollute the atmosphere and water

the freedom to drive other species into extinction

the freedom to hunt or torture animals

the freedom of private individuals to own machine guns or even tanks.

Look BA, if there's one thing I've learned mixing it up with the lefties, it's that you can't get even two of them to agree what a "neocon" is.

They don't know!!

It just sounds ominous plus there's that 'con' at the end.



It's as meaningless a term as when civil rights moron cum talk show host Leo Tyrrell cries, "Red meat Racism!"