MAMMA - M+others Aligned for Military & Murder Accountability

Wicked Webs

On our 'Home' page, we promised to take 'pains' at keeping some pretty 'Heavy Stuff' informative yet 'lightly' interesting. In some areas, of MAMMA's site, that promise has been hard to keep! SURPRISE! Because everyone knows that a person who will 'lie' about 'small things', won't hesitate to 'lie' (or seriously mislead others) about much 'greater things'...THIS page wasn't one of them! Just call to mind the 'old' (now, let's not make this an age issue! *smile*) Rhyme that says: "Oh! What Wicked Webs We Weave, When We Practice To Deceive!"

Does anyone doubt that certain individuals, connected with governmental agencies played a role in Enron? Well...passage of The U. S. Patriot Act of 2001 [in the House (357-66) and in the Senate 98-1)], our government's latest 'High Stakes Poker Game', makes Enron look like a 'game' of 'Tidally Winks!' Some have noted that the "act" is unconstitutional, but strangely, Mr. Ashcroft decries such dissenters as "unpatriotic"! Isn't that a 'mighty heavy bat' in the wake of the surge of 'Patriotism' that's followed 9-11?

Apparently, US Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich, from Ohio, thinks so. On Feb. 17, 2002, prior to the disclosure of President Bush's 'Shadow Government', at an event sponsored by the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action, he made the following speech that he offered up as:

"A Prayer for America"

by US Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich

I offer these brief remarks today as a prayer for our country, with love of democracy, as a celebration of our country. With love for our country. With hope for our country. With a belief that the light of freedom cannot be extinguished as long as it is inside of us. With a belief that freedom rings resoundingly in a democracy each time we speak freely. With the understanding that freedom stirs the human heart and fear stills it. With the belief that a free people cannot walk in fear and faith at the same time.

With the understanding that there is a deeper truth expressed in the unity of the United States. That implicit in the union of our country is the union of all people. That all people are essentially one. That the world is interconnected not only on the material level of economics, trade, communication, and transportation, but innerconnected through human consciousness, through the human heart, through the heart of the world, through the simply expressed impulse and yearning to be and to breathe free.

I offer this prayer for America.
Let us pray that our nation will remember that the unfolding of the promise of democracy in our nation paralleled the striving for civil rights. That is why we must challenge the rationale of the Patriot Act. We must ask why should America put aside guarantees of constitutional justice?
How can we justify in effect canceling the First Amendment and the right of free speech, the right to peaceably assemble?
How can we justify in effect canceling the Fourth Amendment, probable cause, the prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure?
How can we justify in effect canceling the Fifth Amendment, nullifying due process, and allowing for indefinite incarceration without a trial?
How can we justify in effect canceling the Sixth Amendment, the right to prompt and public trial?
How can we justify in effect canceling the Eighth Amendment which protects against cruel and unusual punishment?
We cannot justify widespread wiretaps and internet surveillance without judicial supervision, let alone with it.
We cannot justify secret searches without a warrant.
We cannot justify giving the Attorney General the ability to designate domestic terror groups.

We cannot justify giving the FBI total access to any type of data which may exist in any system anywhere such as medical records and financial records.
We cannot justify giving the CIA the ability to target people in this country for intelligence surveillance.
We cannot justify a government which takes from the people our right to privacy and then assumes for its own operations a right to total secrecy.
The Attorney General recently covered up a statue of Lady Justice showing her bosom as if to underscore there is no danger of justice exposing herself at this time, before this administration.

Let us pray that our nation's leaders will not be overcome with fear. Because today there is great fear in our great Capitol. And this must be understood before we can ask about the shortcomings of Congress in the current environment.
The great fear began when we had to evacuate the Capitol on September 11.
It continued when we had to leave the Capitol again when a bomb scare occurred as members were pressing the CIA during a secret briefing.
It continued when we abandoned Washington when anthrax, possibly from a government lab, arrived in the mail.

It continued when the Attorney General declared a nationwide terror alert and then the Administration brought the destructive Patriot Bill to the floor of the House.
It continued in the release of the bin Laden tapes at the same time the President was announcing the withdrawal from the ABM treaty.
It remains present in the cordoning off of the Capitol.
It is present in the camouflaged armed national guardsmen who greet members of Congress each day we enter the Capitol campus.
It is present in the labyrinth of concrete barriers through which we must pass each time we go to vote.

The trappings of a state of siege trap us in a state of fear, ill-equipped to deal with the Patriot Games, the Mind Games, the War Games of an unelected President and his unelected Vice President.
Let us pray that our country will stop this war. "To provide for the common defense" is one of the formational principles of America.
Our Congress gave the President the ability to respond to the tragedy of September 11. We licensed a response to those who helped bring the terror of September 11th. But we the people and our elected representatives must reserve the right to measure the response, to proportion the response, to challenge the response, and to correct the response.

Because we did not authorize the invasion of Iraq.
We did not authorize the invasion of Iran.
We did not authorize the invasion of North Korea.
We did not authorize the bombing of civilians in Afghanistan.
We did not authorize permanent detainees in Guantanamo Bay.
We did not authorize the withdrawal from the Geneva Convention.
We did not authorize military tribunals suspending due process and habeas corpus.
We did not authorize assassination squads.
We did not authorize the resurrection of COINTELPRO.
We did not authorize the repeal of the Bill of Rights.
We did not authorize the revocation of the Constitution.
We did not authorize national identity cards.
We did not authorize the eye of Big Brother to peer from cameras throughout our cities.

We did not authorize an eye for an eye.
Nor did we ask that the blood of innocent people, who perished on September 11, be avenged with the blood of innocent villagers in Afghanistan.
We did not authorize the administration to wage war anytime, anywhere,anyhow it pleases.
We did not authorize war without end.
We did not authorize a permanent war economy.
Yet we are upon the threshold of a permanent war economy. The President has requested a $45.6 billion increase in military spending. All defense-related programs will cost close to $400 billion.

Consider that the Department of Defense has never passed an independent audit.
Consider that the Inspector General has notified Congress that the Pentagon cannot properly account for $1.2 trillion in transactions.
Consider that in recent years the Dept. of Defense could not match $22 billion worth of expenditures to the items it purchased, wrote off, as lost, billions of dollars worth of in-transit inventory and stored nearly $30 billion worth of spare parts it did not need.

Yet the defense budget grows with more money for weapons systems to fight a cold war which ended, weapon systems in search of new enemies to create new wars. This has nothing to do with fighting terror.
This has everything to do with fueling a military industrial machine with the treasure of our nation, risking the future of our nation, risking democracy itself with the militarization of thought which follows the militarization of the budget.
Let us pray for our children. Our children deserve a world without end. Not a war without end. Our children deserve a world free of the terror of hunger, free of the terror of poor health care, free of the terror of homelessness, free of the terror of ignorance, free of the terror of hopelessness, free of the terror of policies which are committed to a world view which is not appropriate for the survival of a free people, not appropriate for the survival of democratic values, not appropriate for the survival of our nation, and not appropriate for the survival of the world.
Let us pray that we have the courage and the will as a people and as a nation to shore ourselves up, to reclaim from the ruins of September 11th our democratic traditions.

Let us declare our love for democracy. Let us declare our intent for peace.
Let us work to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our own society.
Let us recommit ourselves to the slow and painstaking work of statecraft, which sees peace, not war as being inevitable.
Let us work for a world where someday war becomes archaic.

That is the vision which the proposal to create a Department of Peace envisions. Forty-three members of Congress are now cosponsoring the legislation.
Let us work for a world where nuclear disarmament is an imperative. That is why we must begin by insisting on the commitments of the ABM treaty. That is why we must be steadfast for nonproliferation.

Let us work for a world where America can lead the day in banning weapons of mass destruction not only from our land and sea and sky but from outer space itself. That is the vision of HR 3616: A universe free of fear. Where we can look up at God's creation in the stars and imagine infinite wisdom, infinite peace, infinite possibilities, not infinite war, because we are taught that the kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven.

Let us pray that we have the courage to replace the images of death which haunt us, the layers of images of September 11th, faded into images of patriotism, spliced into images of military mobilization, jump-cut into images of our secular celebrations of the World Series, New Year's Eve, the Superbowl, the Olympics, the strobic flashes which touch our deepest fears, let us replace those images with the work of human relations, reaching out to people, helping our own citizens here at home, lifting the plight of the poor everywhere.

That is the America which has the ability to rally the support of the world.
That is the America which stands not in pursuit of an axis of evil, but which is itself at the axis of hope and faith and peace and freedom. America, America. God shed grace on thee. Crown thy good, America.

Not with weapons of mass destruction. Not with invocations of an axis of evil. Not through breaking international treaties. Not through establishing America as king of a unipolar world. Crown thy good America. America, America. Let us pray for our country. Let us love our country. Let us defend our country not only from the threats without but from the threats within.

Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good with brotherhood, and sisterhood. And crown thy good with compassion and restraint and forbearance and a commitment to peace, to democracy, to economic justice here at home and throughout the world.
Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good America. Crown thy good.
Thank you.
***

Doesn't this send up a BIG 'Red Flag', in your mind? Maybe it's time, once again, to drag out that dusty old cap and THINK!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you Celebrate America's Independence on July 4th? Were you aware that, because the 4th fell in the middle of the week, some areas are testing the acceptability of floating the celebrations to the nearest weekend in the same way that Memorial Day has been floated? Wouldn't you agree that reducing our heritage to little more than three day mini vacations is partially responsible for our citizens' lack of appreciation of those, who gave their all to set and keep America free? When appreciation for our freedom is so devalued and diminished, isn't vigilance of our freedoms also weakened?

MAMMA is an outcropping of wounded hurting patriotic citizens. We've stood tall and done our patriotic chore, even sent our sons and daughters off to war. We love America and what she is SUPPOSE to be! We are shocked and dismayed by the level of decay of even the basic founding God-given rights that underlie our republic. Truth...Justice...The American Way? Seeking these, today, is like trying to catch a shadow!

Most likely, you're aware that our country has problems. Can you understand and appreciate the fact that we found out about those problems the hard way? Around here, it's common to hear or say: "This can't be happening...not in AMERICA!" Those, or similar words, literally erupted when MAMMA's Directing CEO was notified by Eugene R. Fidell, President of the National Institute of Military Justice, that they couldn't help us with our attempts to...seek Justice...for deceased military members and their families because, and I quote: "I'm afraid the issue you are working with is outside our core concern, which is the administration of justice under the UCMJ". WHOA!!??

Are you familiar with the quote that is attributed to P. T. Barnum..."There's a sucker born every minute"? Though it cuts to the core to find ourselves and our dead loved ones in the role of the military's suckers...we know that being an American calls for advanced citizenship that doesn't allow for vigilance and efforts to right wrongs to come with a limit and we've started equating our mission, to seek 'accountability' of those who 'govern' this great nation, with the mission of Paul Revere.

There's an old saying:
For want of a nail...the horseshoe was lost.
For want of a horseshoe...the horse was lost.
For want of a horse...the courier was lost.
For want of a courier...the battle was lost.
For want of a battle...the war was lost.
Paul Revere served his fellow countrymen by spreading an alarm with a call to action. What would America be like today if Paul Revere hadn't made his ride to spread the alarm? OR...what would America be like today if Paul had tried to spread the alarm but nobody paid any attention because they were to busy with their own problems?

Can an old house restoration project be effective if the termite problem hasn't been addressed? Our military has already usurped enough power as to be able to decide exactly what they will allow themselves to be held responsible for and to oversee their own accountability. The history of the abuses of that power, abuse of our basic founding principles, continues to grow. We've got some very serious problems that require resolution.

America is known as 'The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave'! It's called that because our Freedoms weren't FREE! It was bought and paid for with the 'blood' of 'good' men and women who fought for it! IF America's 'good' people, of today, become too complacent and take our Freedoms for granted, we will all be left vulnerable to those, who would seek the power that comes with dominance. Have you looked at the US and UN military 'Peace Keeping' activities lately? If the military is allowed to continue usurping power, our concern is that the phrase: "The Land of the Free" may soon be just words to be read in a History book! In the future it would be likened to the glories of Rome and the democracy of Germany, prior to Hitler and the armies that subjugated her people.

2002 is an election year. We are urging all of our visitors to do one simple thing...VOTE!

Presently, our country is not being run by our 'elected officials'. Officials from departments like DoD and the IRS, have taken the reigns. These 'Bureaucratic officials' have been able to usurp 'elected official's powers, because once elected to the "good old boys" club, the "GAMES" begin!