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Column
Of The Americas
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520-743--0376
PO BOX 41552, Tucson, AZ 85717. |
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Macehual |
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| 2007.12.18
The Silence of the 999 Monkeys |
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In
order to tell a big lie to the American people, it is not necessary
to fool 300 million Americans. To govern by deceit, it is not
necessary to fool 151 million people. All that is required to run
a
dishonest government is to fool but 999 people, otherwise known
as the
nation's decision-and-opinion-makers. In truth, in order to run
an
outlaw government, one does not even need to fool 51 percent of
these
999 monkeys.
All that is required to destroy a healthy democracy are seven
ingredients: lots of fear, plenty of ignorance, raging hysteria,
secret government, plenty of deception, a special language in which
words are twisted to mean whatever government wants them to mean,
and
lots of silence. Government supplies the first six ingredients.
Silence, coupled with a lack of backbone, is supplied by those that
know, but instead become complicit in subverting a government of,
by
and for the people.
Of course, the best example is the current war and occupation against
Iraq. But the same is true about climate change, tax schemes that
benefit the super-rich and the administration's now-discredited
plan
to attack Iran.
In all this, the only opinions that matter are those of 435 members
of
Congress and 100 Senators. Other opinions that matter are those
that
come from the Supreme Court, the heads of the Intelligence services,
the heads of the Armed Forces, federal judges, the editors of the
major newspapers and magazines in the country, the heads of television
and cable, think tanks and other leading opinion makers. Total them
up
and that's how one gets about 999 monkeys.
Yet, as this administration has shown, if it keeps everything
classified and keeps the country in a permanent state of war and
in a
permanent state of fear, all it needs to do is manipulate less than
two handfuls of members of Congress – "the gang of eight"
– to get its
way. In this manner, the well-tested system of checks and balances
comes to a grinding halt… all of this, not surprisingly, under
the
guise of "protecting the homeland."
The gang of eight, incidentally, are the Democratic and Republican
leaders of both the Senate and the House, plus the Democratic and
Republican leaders of the Congressional Intelligence committees.
Under this form of government, all information is tightly held and
when convenient, it is selectively released, not to Congress, but
to
the gang of eight who are sworn to secrecy. Truth and logic aside,
under such a scenario, cherry-picked intelligence is easily fed
to
these eight… and when convenient, to selected members of the
media. It
doesn't have to be scrutinized by Congress or the courts and it
never
has to see the light of day…. unless it is cooked. As we have
seen in
the destruction of the CIA torture tapes, all the administration
needs
to do is inform, not the gang of eight, but the "gang of four,"
to
pull off such a job.
The four are the heads of Congress's Intelligence committees. Not
lost
on anyone is that one of the four at the time was none other than
Nancy Pelosi.
So to govern by deceit and outlaw government and to ensure that
no one
ever has to be held accountable, one needs to simply get the
acquiescence of the gang of four… and if one of those members
ascends
to the position of Speaker of the House… little wonder that
Impeachment comes "off the table."
But the issue is bigger than impeachment, the destruction of CIA
tapes
or obstruction of justice. It is bigger than whether the torture
was
committed on planes over international waters or in secret prisons
on
foreign soil by U.S. allies. It's even bigger than waging illegal
wars; this president has shown us how the most powerful nation on
earth can easily descend from a peoples' democracy into an autocratic
and totalitarian form of government almost overnight. Big Brother
has
come, not disguised as a monster, but as "Protector Man."
And yet, as we've now seen with the cooked Intelligence on Iran,
it
seems like the heads of the nation's 16 intelligence agencies have
escaped their zoo and have staved off another war, affirming and
confirming what the rest of the world has always known… not
simply
that war again is not the answer, but that it is time to put the
main
monkeys behind cages, if not bars. Despite this, the other 983 monkeys
seem content playing in their zoo.
(c) Column of the Americas 2007 |
| |
| 2007.12.04
Mexicans, War and the War on Christmas |
| 2007.11.19
On The Verge of Democracy Collapse Disorder |
| 2007.10.11
Time for the Columbus Mattress Sale Again |
| 2007.09.10
Bush's Undocumented War Without End Surges Forward (Special Iraq
War Column) |
| 2007.08.20
"We Got Her!" (An Open Letter To Tom Tancredo, and other
would-be presidents) |
| 2007.07.30
Taking George The Terrible To The Mat |
| 2007.07.16
Our Undocumented Wars |
| 2007.07.25
Huehuetlahtolli or Ancient Words For The Migrant (tecleo
para la versión española) |
| 2007.06.17
Huehuetlahtolli For The Nation's Leaders |
| 2007.05.28
Them vs Us In The Immigration Debate |
| 2007.05.21
Huehuetlahtolli For 2007 Graduates (Special Graduation Edition) |
| 2007.05.15
The Elusive Bars Of Justice |
| 2007.05.07
Without Amnesty & Without Animosity. Yes!!! |
| 2007.04.15
Bush's Migra: Icemen Gone Wild |
| 2007.04.01
Bush Signs Explosive U.S. / Mexico Secret Pact |
| 2007.03.18
The Degradation of Women As Profit & Sport |
| 2007.02.18
W's Monument to 9-11 |
| 2007.01.15
Freeing The Spirit Of The Americas |
| 2006.12.31
Reading In Red & Brown |
| 2006.12.??
Mexico: Under The Cover Of Night |
| 2006.11.29
The Blows To The Head? The Blows To My Head? |
| 2006.11.20
Impeachment For Dummies |
| 2006.11.13
It's Not Bush's World After All |
| 2006.10.30
Geographies of Fear, Hate & Resistance (Special Election Column) |
| 2006.10.16
The 15th Characteristic Of Fascism |
| 2006.09.18
Mexico's Latest Insurgent Revolt |
| 2006.09.11
Sept. 16th & Other Indigenous Revolts |
| 2006.08.21
Le Roadmap to Peace and Bush's Permiso Populus |
| 2006.07.17
War, Lies, Immigration & The Scapegoating of Children |
| 2006.06.19
We Have The Right To Be Anywhere On This Continent (tecleo
para la versión española) |
| 2006.05.29
Only Humans Have Human Rights |
| 2006.05.15
What Is It About Illegal You Don't Understand? (tecleo
para la versión española) |
| 2006.04.17
The Border On Our Backs (tecleo
para la versión española) |
| 2006.04.10
I*L*L*E*G*A*L Spells Apartheid |
| 2006.03.27
The Hopi Run Into The Land Of Quetzalcoatl (tecleo
para la versión española) |
| 2006.03.20
A Simple Guide To Anti-Assimilation (tecleo
para la versión española) |
| 2006.02.20
A Runaway Executive Loco-motive |
| 2006.01.30
A Migrant Caravan Of Justice |
| 2006.01.23
The Eagle Soars |
| 2006.01.16
Thirteen Steps To Heaven For Ramona |
| 2006.01.09
The Language of The Heart |
| 2005.12.26
Holiday Illusions & Dillusions |
| 2005.12.19
Answering To A Higher Authority |
| 2005.12.10
A White House Recipe |
| 2005.11.28
Lying Under Oath |
| 2005.11.21
Living Nahuatl-Hopi Treasure |
| 2005.11.14
The History of Rewriting History |
| 2005.11.07
An Homage To The Petroglyphs |
| 2005.10.24
The Quiet Wrath Of The Three Sisters |
| 2005.10.17
An East Side Story |
| 2005.10.10
That Ancient Cornfield |
| 2005.09.26
Trapped In Houston & A Choctaw Miracle |
| 2005.09.19
And The Earth Did Not Swallow Them |
| 2005.09.12
Never In The USA |
| 2005.09.06
Escape From New Orleans and The Minutemen |
| 2005.08.29
Before The War |
| 2005.08.22
Men Who Cook |
| 2005.08.15
The Truth About The Truth |
| 2005.08.08
Nobody's Panic |
| 2005.07.25
The Gonzales Debacle & The Limits Of Nationalism |
| 2005.07.18
The Price Of The Innocents |
| 2005.07.11
Fighting For Justice |
| 2005.06.27
Irony & Laughter In A Time Of War |
| 2005.06.20
What Is A Police State? |
| 2005.06.13
Another Form Of Cultural Genocide |
| 2005.06.06
A Man Of Great Peace |
| 2005.05.30
"They're Taking Our Jobs" |
| 2005.05.23
Mexican and Indian Always? |
| 2005.05.16
The Hate Contagion |
| 2005.05.02
Viva Cinco de Mayo: An Open Letter To The Beer Industry |
| 2005.04.25
Militias: Another Face Of Terrorism |
| 2005.04.18
The Fists of La Raza |
| 2005.04.??
The Culture Of Life Part II or The Impending Cultural Crisis |
| 2005.04.04
The Culture Of Life |
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