None dare call it treason

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

It IS, you know...
---

TREASON
trea·son (trē'zən)

1. Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one's country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies.
2. A betrayal of trust or confidence.

Middle English, from Anglo-Norman treson, from Latin trāditiō, trāditiōn-, a handing over.
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The Presidential Oath of Office, as taken from Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.
---

"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face! It's just a goddamned piece of paper!" -President George W. Bush

~~~~~~

The Congressional Oath of Office, as specified in 1789 by Congress itself:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States.
---

"You're right! Here- please allow us to use this goddamned piece of paper to wipe your ass with!" -The Congressional "Sweet Sixteen"

~~~~~~

Behind Winston’s back the voice from the telescreen was still babbling away about pig-iron and the overfulfilment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized. -George Orwell's '1984' Chapter One

~~~~~~

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government) those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. -Thomas Jefferson

~~~~~~

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. -Benjamin Franklin

[WritersBlock]

1. K&R! I call it treason. And have for a long time.

"by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies." - like starting a war that's only served to increase terrorism and hatred for our country.

Among so many other things.

I call it treason.

[MonkeyFunk]

2. you left out the part

of the constitution that defines Treason.

I wish people would stop throwing the word around. It's overused.

[WritersBlock]

6. Aid & comfort.

"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort."

If the Iraq invasion hasn't given aid & comfort to, and created more, terrorists, I'm a monkey's uncle... er, aunt.

[MonkeyFunk]

8. no one argues

that everything that helps our enemies is treason.

It has to be direct aid to the nation's enemies - not inadvertent foolishness that helps them.

Anyway, as I said, the term is thrown around far too lightly by both the left and the right. both sides should knock it off.

[WritersBlock]

9. I don't say it lightly.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/25/hersh-qaeda/

Hersh: U.S. Funds Being Secretly Funneled To Violent Al Qaeda-Linked Groups
New Yorker columnist Sy Hersh says the “single most explosive” element of his latest article involves an effort by the Bush administration to stem the growth of Shiite influence in the Middle East (specifically the Iranian government and Hezbollah in Lebanon) by funding violent Sunni groups.

Hersh says the U.S. has been “pumping money, a great deal of money, without congressional authority, without any congressional oversight” for covert operations in the Middle East where it wants to “stop the Shiite spread or the Shiite influence.” Hersh says these funds have ended up in the hands of “three Sunni jihadist groups” who are “connected to al Qaeda” but “want to take on Hezbollah.”

Hersh summed up his scoop in stark terms: “We are simply in a situation where this president is really taking his notion of executive privilege to the absolute limit here, running covert operations, using money that was not authorized by Congress, supporting groups indirectly that are involved with the same people that did 9/11.”

[frebrd]

3. K&R

[Breeze54]

4. Pretty well, stated! I agree!

LMAO!! J/K :P

You make much needed points!!

Thank You!

:kick: & Recommended

[Gregorian]

5. "...and by slow operations..."

Man, that Thomas Jefferson guy knew what he was talking about. I find it hard to fathom just how bright these people were. Probably much better at patient observation than we. And obviously much closer to the jaws of dictatorship than we have seen in centuries.


We've just seen thirty years of slow erosion, come to fruition. From seatbelt laws, fireworks laws, helmet laws, drug laws. All in the name of our "safety". Yes master. Like good Daleks, I will obey.


"Be seeing you!"

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

7. The Daleks- I like that!

As a major Whovian I know that the Daleks were engineered to conquer- every possible emotion was bred out of them except one- HATE.

Our Democratic Congress has had every possible emotion bred out of them too- except in their case they seem to have retained FEAR.

[ConsAreLiars]

10. The real treason is turning over control of the US Government to the true enemies of the people -

the Corporate Machine. That machine is not even human, much less loyal. It has no interest in promoting "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." All of those things are inimical to its basic drive, the accumulation of power and profit maximization. Our enemy is not human, and traitors to humanity like the PNAC gang who serve the Monster have lost any claim to being human themselves. They need to be locked away forever.

[Gregorian]

11. It's an interesting phenomenon, the corporation. Run by humans, yet inhuman.

I cannot put my finger on it. It's almost like the Nazis who ran the camps. People. Yet monsters. Is that it? Corporations allow people to separate their human side and become inhuman?

You summed it up quite well. I would disagree with the last sentence. I just don't believe people can't be rehabilitated. Rove just needs to stop obsessing with power. Cheney is almost the richest man on earth. Surely he's trying to obtain something other than money. And even if he thinks it's about power, it's really something else. I don't know. I'm sure there are a lot of psychologists on it as we sit here.

I doubt it was any different in King George's day. Whether it was corporations or large factory owners who used poor children to run the dangerous machinery.


I think I've seen the end of this day. Can you tell? :) Goodnight DU! May tomorrow bring healing and truth.

[EFerrari]

13. The corporation is the business world's wish to avoid mortality.

And, it doesn't really work, does it?

:)

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

14. One thing I don't get about the corporate structure

After they're done outsourcing all their labor and moving their factories to other countries and breaking their home base (so to speak), who here at home will be able to buy their goods?

That's the worst betrayal of all- their abandonment of who they are and where they began. It's meaningless to them. They don't stop to think that once they settle in they'll probably have to begin the whole dance all over again...

[EFerrari]

15. A shrink might call it dissociation.

:shrug:

[ConsAreLiars]

16. The Corporations have stripped about as much as is most profitable out

of the US. The logic driving the machine is to maximize the rate of exploitation. Sure, some still strip us in the US further into poverty (see the "health care" and insurance (see Katrina) and banking scams), but by taking the labor they've confiscated in the form of Capital into China or Korea, the "Return on Investment" is even better. The rust belt in the Midwest, the empty cloth and clothing mills of the Mid-Atlantic states, the abandoned shoe factories of New England -- these are what they have left behind. The do not depend on us here as their market. Maybe today, we are a large part. Tomorrow, it may be India or Europe. The machine has no interest in nationalities.

[ConsAreLiars]

17. The house slaves give up their humanity in service to the Monster,

in exchange for comfort and the promise of a good life. They get what they bargained for. Whether court jester, PR flack, con man, secret agent man, or Lord High Executioner, they get what they want. It works for them.

(edit punctuation)

[EFerrari]

18. Except, they can't shake their mortality.

[ConsAreLiars]

19. Indeed. They are so self-interested as to be blind to that simple fact of life.

Instead of seeing that what they give to others and leave behind is what gives their lives some lasting significance, they think that the more they take and the more they steal and the more they accumulate and the more they consume, the more their life is worth. But they are just useful psychopaths, cogs in a machine they do not even understand. It doesn't make them less evil, and it certainly doesn't make them any less mortal than anyone else.

[Gregorian]

25. Whether you meant mortality or morality, they both work.

I had to reread your title. I was surprised to see the t in there.

I realized last night what makes these people into monsters- Greed. I think hatred is in there as well. Hitler was like a big corporate machine that did the opposite of producing. A giant reducing corporation. There wasn't even profit in it, if I am right. It's too horrible to think of.

I'm trying to hold my own in this world. What we really need is cooperation. This morning I realize that terrorism, murder, wars, are all the result of lack of cooperation. When someone is doing something to someone else, and they don't like it. Stop. I have a gardener next door who has his thumping stereo going. I was livid yesterday. I had being invaded by car exhaust and stereo and airplane noise. Invaded. Argh, I better stop here. I could go on all day. And i'm not writing a book about this right now. :)

[EFerrari]

29. I honestly think they mean to buy themselves into longevity.

I mean, what can Dick Cheney possibly be thinking about the world he's going to leave behind to his grandkids? :shrug:

The corporation give some people the illusion of immortality, and yes, it sure seems to be the polar opposite of cooperation. :)

[wildbilln864]

12. K&R # 13!

great post!

:patriot:

[bonito]

20. K&R n/t

[krispos42]

21. Treason doth never prosper...

Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.

Sir John Harington

[vanboggie]

22. I call it treason, too,. K&R #21

Outstanding post - thank you for saying it.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

23. Self-important morning kick

:hide:

[WritersBlock]

24. .. n/t

[onenote]

26. The one definition that you left out: the one in the Constitution

Article III, Section 3: Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court."

I think chimpy's reign has been despicable, but labelling his actions treason when they don't meet the constitutional standard doesn't advance the case against him.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

28. There's the LETTER of the law, and there's the SPIRIT of the law.

They've long since ceased to give a damn about the letter, so I have too. I'm going for the spirit.

Don't even MENTION the "constitutional standard". As noted above, they've wiped Chimpy's ass with that little thang, and smiled while doing it.

They're traitors. They should be hung in the city square.

[NotGivingUp]

27. TREASON...no doub about it. n/t

[indepat]

30. Does this mean that all who have taken an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution

of the United State but have voted to take away our freedoms in violation of the letter, spirit, and intent of the Constitution are traitors? I vote yes and wish we could get on with the constitutional remedies for such breaches for each and every one of the perpetrators.